Sadie's Shower: A Lil Pumpkin is On Her Way!

I seriously have the greatest friends in the world. 

Yesterday morning, Sadie and I were BLOWN AWAY by the most adorable shower. The decor and details were phenomenal, the people were the sweetest, the baby gifts overwhelming, and the overall sense of joy and love for this upcoming little bundle was SO beyond apparent. My cup over-floweth. Big time. 

Okay cool. I just started tearing up. Hi there, hormones.

The theme of the shower was 'a little pumpkin is on her way' - which if you know me at all, you know is all kinds of right up my alley. Give me all the pumpkins. 

I meeeeean, YES. She is such the little pumpkin!

Also, huge shout out to my hostesses - who not only made the cutest shower ever, but did so only a year after participating in all my wedding festivities. I guaranteed them that next fall there will be no life changing events happening on my account. GUARANTEED, I TELL YOU. 

Lauren - Kristie - Me - Melissa - Emily - Kelsey

When you walked in, you were greeted by the cutest little entry way table!

Like - there were even pink pumpkins in the basket-o-pumpkins under the table...

They also were brilliant and picked an invite that came with matching signs/banners. I will now be doing this for all future showers I throw. It just tied everything together so perfectly!

And yes - that's a baby scrapbook. Four months ago I over-committed to doing a baby SCRAPBOOK in lieu of a baby book that had prompts/blanks to fill in. I'm honestly having a lot of fun doing it, but it's so dang time consuming. I told Jeff the other day that it's really unfortunate only our firstborn will have a scrapbook like this :) 

Cute lil drink station!

Adorable mantle decor and nine million presents: this little one is so spoiled already! And I legitimately worked up a sweat opening these bad boys. SO beyond thankful.

The shower was at 10:30a so it coincided with brunch - which is my favorite meal of the day. The ladies put out quite a spread! We had mini chicken-n-waffles, egg casserole, potato casserole, sausage balls, fruit salad, pumpkin bread (my personal request!), and a DONUT HOLE TOWER. 

Like the donut hole tower just gives me great joy in life.

As do....

A platter of themed Sadie cookies! 

These are actually made by the same girl who did my gender reveal cookies and I can't recommend her enough. Her name is @tinykitchencakery on instagram and she is amazing! The onesie says "lil pumpkin" and the blocks say "FALLing in love with Sadie" - like, are you serious? Obsessed. 

And still nibbling on my obsession because they sent me home with my own box. They also sent me home with a plate of donut holes and a loaf of pumpkin bread. I can't wait to weigh in at my doctor's appointment on Tuesday.... :)

I also have to call out Kristie for texting me multiple times telling me to have low expectations for the flowers at this party, how she's not a flower person, yada yada yada... and then I get there and there's flowers sitting in pumpkin vases.

Yeah - OKAY. I don't even know how to gut a pumpkin much less use it for a vase. My interaction with pumpkin comes in the form of a can of puree that goes into a baked good. 

AND last, but not least, the DIAPER CAKE. 

My nursery is pink/white/gray/lamb themed, so Lauren and Emily outdid themselves with this little masterpiece. I know I'll need the diapers, but it makes me sad to disassemble! It's too pretty!

We mingled, we ate, we played a fun game, we wrote well wishes for Sadie, and we opened gifts. Aaaaand I know I've said this once already but this shindig put so much happy in my heart I'm still smiling about it! 

My sweet friend Megan was super smart and thoughtful and took pictures while I was opening gifts! I didn't get a picture with everyone but here's what I do have - I LOVE THESE PEOPLE SO MUCH!

The lineage of the Reeves women. Can't wait to add one more to the bunch!

My Baylor girls and one of our future Baylor bears. We can't wait for them all to be roommates :) 

My favorite niece and the best little cousin-in-training for Miss Sadie Kate!

My work besties!! We all started at the same firm 7 years ago, and even if we all quit and work at other companies, these three will always be my 'work besties.' Also, one went to OU and one married into a UT family and my shower was during OU/TX. So my work besties are pretty dedicated, too :)

I "married into" these ladies and I couldn't be happier (or luckier) to marry into such a fantastic group! These women and their men take great care of our little family!

My MIL and two of my AILs (aunts-in law...is that a thing?). One aunt flew in from Florida and the other flew in from Pennsylvania - just for this shower! Have I mentioned how loved Sadie and I feel?!

Because hooded towels are both practical AND fun. 

My "big sisters" - who both have zero willpower when it comes to buying for my child :) 

My BRH (Baylor Choir) besties - one of whom flew up from Houston for like 6 hours to attend this thing. GUYS. I HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS. 

My pretty cousin in law! We married into the Smith crew and are so glad we did! 

And last but not least - THIS WOMAN. Who is going to teach me everything I know about being a mama. Because she knows all the things. And it's quite shocking how little I know. It also has hit me recently that we're basically twins, so I'm curious to see if Sadie looks like us too. Key indicator: a smile that shows every single one of your teeth and all your gums. 

And if they hadn't outdone themselves already... they had another matching sign and pumpkin favors when everyone left the party. So. Stinking. Adorable.

Like - I know I sound like a broken record, but I am just so thankful for the people in my life. Not only for showering (ha!) us with love and goodies, but because I know how hard these people have been/are praying for the health of both myself and Sadie. These people are good people, and I don't know how I got so lucky to have them all in my life! 

Also - while the girls were taking care of me, all of Jeff's buddies got together to 'honor' him with a diaper shower. It's a little tradition among the men, and while you may think it's super sweet and thoughtful, don't be too fooled - it's also an excuse for them to get together and watch sports. :) 

BUT thanks to both showers yesterday, we officially have 1,430 diapers and 1,288 wipes. 

So... what? That should last us around a month? :) 

THANK YOU times TEN MILLION to everyone who had a part in making Jeff and I feel so special yesterday. I will be smiling from ear to ear for the remaining nine weeks! Well - and part of that smile is attributable to the fact that I also get to organize the poo out of my nursery now. Which seriously gives me great joy. Like, Monica Gellar joy. 

So I'm going to go do that. Right now. 

Until next time,

Katy

Pregnancy Progression: The Second Trimester

Alrighty - so I am a couple weeks into the third (and final!) leg of this pregnancy journey, so I thought I'd jot down my thoughts on what the second trimester was like. People told me that the middle trimester is definitely the best of the three - and I can already tell that's going to ring true for me, as well. 

The second trimester kicked off with our ice-cream themed Gender Reveal! We found out our little one was a little Miss, so mama here started seeing in shades of pink. What's comical is that the whole first trimester I told myself that if it was a girl, I wasn't doing pink. 

Yeah, I totally drank the pink kool-aid. Not to mention, if you don't drink the pink kool-aid, it will be extremely hard to find decor for your nursery. Society has come a long way on things like technology, women in the workplace, and hairstyles, but when it comes to nurseries...girls are still pink and boys are still blue.

Anywho - so naturally after the gender reveal was the naming process. Fun fact: our boy names are set. Jeff and I have discussed, we have two names (both first and middle!) lined up for any male offspring we produce. But we weren't quite as prepared for a girl. Years ago I had always said I wanted a Kennedy Kate, but when we found out we were pregnant (and therefore you're attaching a once theoretical name to a real live human), it didn't give me all the feels. I loved Kennedy Kate because I love alliteration, so I started to think of S names that would go with Smith. And alas, we ended up with little miss Sadie Smith. Step one: CHECK. 

Side note: in the interest of full disclosure, it really bothers me that Katy and Sadie rhyme. I feel like we're some sort of girl band. But alas, some things you just have to accept and move on.

So we were down to a middle name, had three to four options, and just couldn't decide. SO, I decided to ask all my friends and family their thoughts - and from this process I learned a very important lesson: don't ask all your friends and family their thoughts. 

The likelihood of everyone I love agreeing on the same name was slim to none, but for the people-pleaser in me it was really hard to choose a name that I knew some of the people close to me didn't prefer. We got out our letterboard, set it up in the kitchen (where we were frequently passing through), and then would change out her middle name every few days to see how they all "felt." Eventually, we kept changing out the middle name back to the same one. And that's how we ended up with Sadie Kathryn. Sweet girl will share a middle name (and the same initials!) with her mama. 

Let's see - what else? Morning sickness tapered off in the early weeks of the second trimester. Which is a good thing, because we did a LOT of traveling. Right after I hit 14 weeks, we went to New York, then two weeks later went to Myrtle Beach for a family reunion/vacation, and then two weeks later went to Mississippi for another family reunion. Not only were the vacations super fun and relaxing, but they also made the second trimester seem like it was flying by. If you remember, the first trimester felt like it was 836 weeks long - but I'm honestly a bit shocked I'm in the third trimester already.

Around 18 weeks, I started to feel Sadie move. At first it just felt like muscle spasms, and then one night I was falling asleep on my stomach and JOLTED out of bed. Jeff looked at me like I was insane. I started laughing (which in turn made me look more insane) and told him I had just been officially kicked. 

The next couple of weeks I was in shock with how much I felt her move, especially since it was considered pretty early to feel that kind of movement. She moved so frequently/fiercely that I actually was afraid she was in distress or something. My doctor assured me she was just an active little one, and my sweet friend Lauren told me it was just another constant reminder from the Lord that she was alive and well. Kind of like morning sickness - but much more pleasant :)

During the second trimester we also saw a high risk specialist a couple of times - but NOT for reasons such as cancer. I actually was considered a low risk pregnancy (I can't tell you how long it's been since I've been considered "low risk" for something!), until we told the doctor about Jeff's craniosynostosis. And no that's not the fun song in Mary Poppins. 

In short, craniosynostosis means Jeff was born without a soft spot. When he was six months old he had surgery to cut his head open (no exaggeration - he has a scar from ear to ear) and 'create' one. He was fortunate to have a mild case that could be fixed with one surgery, as our doctor told us most cases require 10-15 surgeries. Oh my mama heart. 

All that to say, Sadie's head looks perfect and round, and last week we were told we didn't need to continue high risk monitoring. So that's a definite praise! It was also nice to be able to get a few more sonograms than the average joe and see how she's growing. To reiterate my point on her mobility, in the sonogram last week, Sadie was literally swinging her legs back and forth - causing so much bumping that the doctor couldn't hold the device to my stomach. She kept kicking it off! He actually started laughing and said "wow, your kid is crazy."

Thanks, bro. 

Let's see - what else? I definitely went through a period of significant hunger and thirst (and the bathroom breaks - good LAWD those bathroom breaks). There was actually a week where I would wake up at 4 a.m. STARVING. Jeff woke up once and I was just sitting in bed eating crackers and watching TV. I said 'oh hey!' (thinking he might want to join me) and he just looked at me and rolled over. I guess some people just aren't up for a picnic in bed in the wee hours of the morning.. 

We also discovered the wonder that is the pregnancy pillow. One of us thinks it's the best pregnant invention ever. One of us is counting down the days until it is removed from our bed. 

I think one of the harder things of the second trimester was the significant body changes and body image aspect. And you can judge me all you want - but it's weird not being in control of your body. And if you've ever been pregnant, you know some WEIRD stuff happens to your body. Plus, the phrase "closet full of nothing to wear" has never been more true. I feel like I have about 7 good preggo outfits and I just rotate between them all. Not to mention, all my summer maternity dresses are getting a tad snug, so I'm really ready for some cooler temps where I can do the oversized sweater thing like a champ.

The only other big negative I had going on were the eye bleeds. What's that you ask? Ah, well, that's just a symptom most people don't have to deal with. Nose bleeds are actually pretty common in pregnancy: the dehydration, increased blood volume, and tiny blood vessels in your nose cause a lot of people to have frequent nose bleeds. So take all of that and apply it to my little left eye socket. It's been through a lot, and no longer produces as many tears as the average eye should. So out of no where - it just bleeds. The best part? It doesn't hurt. So I often don't know unless someone tells me. That's fun. Meetings, dinners - all of it. People just look at me and say "ummm......" and I just nod and excuse myself. It's cool. I'm basically a walking Halloween exhibit. 

But in all seriousness - praying HARD that it all goes back to normal after she's born. Not sure I can deal with a bleeding eye for the rest of my life.

Okay, okay - moving on: 

We made a lot of nursery progress in the second trimester, but I still feel like we have a good way to go before she's here. And because Jeff likes to tell people this whenever I talk about the nursery, I guess I'll go ahead and share here as well: 

Our guest room (which is now our nursery) was initially a gray color. I wanted three gray walls and an accent wall (pink). So Jeff thought he only had to paint one wall, right? Hah. Men are so funny. The guest room gray was a little too 'taupey' to be a nursery gray. SO, he repainted three gray walls....gray. THEN I was between six (6) shades of pink for the accent wall. I finally picked one, Jeff painted the whole wall, and I hated it. So I picked a different pink and he repainted the pink wall....pink. 

Whenever people ask us if we painted the nursery, he is quick to chime in with "oh DID we paint the nursery...." Le sigh. Men are so dramatic. :)

I will say I feel the urgency to do a lot of "mom" things. Along with cleaning and organizing every inch of this house, I feel like I need to take a photography class and a cookie/cake decorating class. And a bow making class. I just feel like I really could sharpen up on some mom skills. Notice these skills have nothing to do with true parenting (I guess I'll wing that part), but I guess I feel like I really need to brush up on my June Cleaver. 

I think my very favorite thing about the second trimester is what I fondly call 'my mornings with Sadie.' I love waking up early - before anyone else in the house is awake - making me a cup of coffee, sitting down with my Bible/devotional, and just having some me time. But now during that time, I love the addition of feeling her wake up each morning. Something about just sitting on the couch, feeling her move, and praying over this little bundle has really sweetened those early mornings. Which is a good thing - cause I have a feeling I have quite a few early mornings with my girl up ahead :)

All in all, the second trimester was pretty nice! And I need to remember these niceties because, like clockwork, my third trimester was met with none other than heartburn and sciatica. 

10 weeks and counting :) 

Until next time,
Katy

NYC 2018: Part Two (And Game 10!)

So last time we talked, we recapped Part 1 of our NYC trip, which means today we're recapping Part 2! And yes, an entire week occurred between the two because the nesting phase has kicked in which means I'm organizing ALL.THE.THINGS.

What's funny is my dad texted me after reading part one to tell me that he's eager to hear what happened in part two. Silly man. :)

Like I mentioned last time, I made a full blown itinerary for this trip, and after the first day and a half, we were completely zonked. These Texans are just not used to the amount of walking New York requires. We tend to sit on our rearends and drive. 

That being said, Saturday morning was a (much needed) slow morning. It also happened to be the morning of my 30th birthday! I didn't have breakfast planned since I didn't know what we would feel like doing, but as it turns out, while mom and I were at Frozen, the men went and got supplies. So when I woke up Saturday morning, I woke up to breakfast in bed and a big bouquet of birthday flowers!

And by breakfast in bed I mean a garden omelet and fresh watermelon :)

We all ate, relaxed, got ready, and then donned our Yankees gear and headed out to the stadium for Game TEN!

By this point, you all know what this means, but juuuuust in case we have a newcomer...

My dad and I decided back in 2015 that we would go to 10 out of state stadium games as part of my bucket list before I turned thirty. And on my thirtieth birthday, we hit all ten! And we factually checked the birth certificate and actually had a couple hours to spare! (An afternoon game and the time change were in our favor!)

Hi there Yankee Stadium. 

And as you can see from the bottom of the picture, we attended with half of New York City. Seriously, I was FLOORED at how many people were in attendance at this game. It was unlike anything I'd seen before. 

Mom and I got to walk in the stadium behind none other than Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth. We considered ourselves some pretty lucky women!

We finally made it in to the stadium a little after the game started. I'm telling you - SO many people. 

I know this isn't the old Yankee stadium, but something about being here made me all nostalgic for history. And I don't do history. 

Across the outfield they had a line-up of all the retired Yankees numbers. We quizzed my dad and he was able to name the players for the majority of them without any help! It's like he grew up a baseball fan or something...

Now - here's the part of the story where I'm kicking myself. Behind all those retired numbers was a historical monument to all the greats (such as Mantle and Ruth). What I didn't know is that the monument closes 45 minutes before the game starts. So unfortunately we weren't able to see this, and I know my dad would have loved it, so I'm still kicking myself for it. ULTIMATE TOUR GUIDE FAIL. 

But we still managed to eat hot dogs and have a good time nonetheless!

Even Susie's smile looks kinda genuine! She was a good sport that afternoon :)

7th inning selfie -- I can't believe it was our LAST game of this lil journey!

Game 10 - Tampa Bay Rays vs New York Yankees - June 16, 2018

We didn't stay for the whole game since we 1) had to get home and get changed for our next event, and 2) knew if we left the stadium with the same amount of people we entered the stadium with, it would have taken us three hours. 

So we took one last look at Yank Stadium, high-fived at a completed challenge, and headed back to the apartment. Only after stopping at the store for some gelato. You know, to have at the freezer in the apartment... just in case.

So, if any evening of this trip had to be a "fail," I would definitely say it was Saturday night. And I'm allowed to say that since I planned everything :) 

After freshening up, we went to Southern Hospitality for dinner. I thought, hey - birthday girl could use some fried chicken for dinner, and my mom/sister and I went there back in 2013 when we visited NYC. Here's the deal: it has definitely gone down hill since we were there 5 years ago. I get that it's 'JT's restaurant' and everything, but you cannot claim to be a southern restaurant and serve fried chicken that is painfully dry. I mean none of our meals were that good, honestly. So, I hate to say it, but if you are headed to NY anytime soon, I would not recommend you eat at Southern Hospitality. Too many other yummy options to choose from!

All smiles! ...before they brought out the food :)

After dinner, we headed to see Aladdin. We had high hopes for this show because, well, it was Disney after all, but also because Jeff and I actually saw Aladdin in Australia and LOVED it.

See? All smiles ... before we went in...

Y'all. It was NOT good. We considered leaving at intermission. 

Granted, we are a tough bunch of critics. My whole family is musical and I grew up in a dance studio. But even Jeff (who is not so much on the musically inclined) was less than impressed. (PS - you should see how cut throat we get when we watch DWTS on Monday nights.) The acting was bad, the dancing was not together, and I honestly wanted to take a bathroom break every time Aladdin had a solo. It also very much lacked that 'Disney magic' that you see in every other Disney show. I don't know - it just made me sad.

And you know what else was sad?

After leaving that lackluster performance, the exit we took from the theater put us out on a different street, and when I looked up I realized I was standing in front of the Nederlander. 

What is the Nederlander you ask? 

Oh - just the theatre where I saw the greatest Disney broadway show to ever see a stage. 

That's where we saw Newsies back in 2013, and I had tears in my eyes the whole time simply because it was SO. GOOD. 

So remembering that glimpse of goodness after leaving Aladdin just twisted the knife a bit. 

But alas, we headed back to the apartment, finished off the gelato, and called it a day!

Sunday morning was a bit of a wild card. Jeff and I had a birthday brunch that started at noon, and mom really wanted to see Ground Zero, so the couples split ways mid-morning. However, we split only after I made a run to Dunkin Donuts because it was Father's Day and my dad's blood type is DD+ and Jeff could eat donuts every day of his life. So, we had another quiet morning before another busy day!

Jeff and I decided to take the long, scenic route to the birthday shindig by taking another stroll through Central Park. We grabbed coffee, people watched, and (being as this trip was one week after the gender reveal) talked about what we wanted to name our little girl :)

We got to Ryan's party - in a really fancy old speakeasy by the way - and had a blast. We ate good food, had good cake, jammed to an incredible playlist (I'm looking at you Now Hits of 2000), and played with a photobooth! Plus, I invited two of my work friends from Dallas who now live in NYC - so it was a little reunion too :)

After the party, we headed back to the apartment to meet up with my parents and get refreshed for our last big evening in the city. And after Saturday night being a fail, I am happy to report that Sunday night was a huge success.

We kicked off our evening with an early dinner at Carmines. Y'all - best Italian food I've ever put in my mouth. And I've been to Italy! 

Okay, so it was probably comparable to Italy, but seriously - I will never make another trip to NY without going to Carmines. The whole menu is family style, so between the four of us we split spaghetti bolognese and chicken parmesan, and we had enough food to feed a small army. I'm not kidding when I say that Carmines' spaghetti bolognese was the best I've ever had. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I went to take a picture of the portion size and Jeff made a sneak attack at the last minute :)

After we ate as much as we could (and cried a little when they took away our leftovers), we took a 5-minute walk to the Stephen Sondheim Theatre to see Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

Alright, here's the deal: when I was first researching/inquiring about what shows to see, a few people told me about this one. And my response was very much "but I have no idea who Carole King is." However, I listened to the album on spotify and was SHOCKED with how many of her songs I knew! That girl must have written like half of the 'oldies!' 

So when I told my dad about the musical he, of course, knew who Carole King was, but when I played some of the album, he got SO excited! And I knew then and there that I wanted to take him to see that show for Father's Day. 

We 'splurged' and got seats on the front row of the balcony, but it also was a much smaller theatre than Aladdin/Frozen, so everything just felt more intimate. 

Eeks! It was go-time! 

Y'ALL. It was SO. GOOD. Seriously - if you are looking for a feel-good, family-friendly musical -- this is it. And if you're going to NYC and you're above the age of 50? It's a must-do. I mean we didn't want it to end! Plus just watching dad beam and snap his way through the performance gave me all the feels. (Cause let me tell you - none of us were beaming and snapping during Aladdin!).

I seriously can't say enough good things about this show. No, there was no "Disney magic" (it wasn't even a Disney show) - but it really didn't need any. It was good acting, a good story, and some fantastic music/vocals. In fact, I just decided I will be listening to the soundtrack at work today.

So, Saturday may have been a huge fail in the food/show department, but Sunday DEFINITELY made up for it!

On Monday morning, Jeff had to hop a 6a flight to Florida for work, but the parentals and I didn't fly out until Tuesday morning, so we had a whole extra day! We kicked off Monday with something I've been wanting to do for FOREVER...

We did brunch at the Plaza. ;)

The ceiling of the Palm Court. Not a bad view at all! 

This trip had many highlights, but this right here was definitely top three for me. We spent almost two hours just drinking coffee, feeling fancy, and talking about life. We had a really great time. And let me tell you - we ate like we hadn't seen carbs in years. Pancakes, french toast - all of it. 

I mean - look. It's kind of starting to melt, but my chocolate chip pancakes had a chocolate made "Plaza" emblem on top. Not too shabby for Katy!

After brunch, we had time to kill before heading to our hotel. (We also had a super early flight out on Tuesday morning, so we decided to stay in a hotel right by the airport Monday night to eliminate the travel from the city on a weekday.)

We were throwing out random options of things to do, but we knew mom REALLY wanted to go to the Museum of Natural History. So that's what we did. And I'm pretty sure we were there for nineteen hours. My mom is obsessed with history, so she reads any and every plaque there is. So that combined with the monstrosity that is that museum meant Dad and I had to kick into survival mode. 

This was the one picture I took at the museum:

I thought it might resemble what I look/feel like at the end of this pregnancy. And because I'm documenting this 14 weeks after I actually took the picture, I can confirm that I'm well on my way :)

After surviving the museum (and again, feeling like my feet were about to fall from my body), we grabbed a quick lunch which just HAPPENED to be right by our gelato place. 

So we indulged one last time and then headed to the airport hotel, where we all curled up on the bed and watched Newsies (the broadway show version) on Netflix. The perfect way to end a trip to New York City. :)

And that's a wrap! Seriously one of the greatest trips I've been on and one I'll remember forever :) Thanks for hanging in there with me! Have a wonderful Monday, everyone!

Until next time,

Katy