Category Archives: Friends

Party planning

Posted on by
Reply

Last week was a busy week for me, on Saturday I co-hosted a baby shower for a good friend of mine who is expecting a little girl in August.  So there was lots of shopping, cooking, decorating and crafting. I love planning parties, before our group of friends started having kids and tripled in numbers, Justin and I used to host parties all the time at our house.  Justin comes by it naturally since his parents are pros at the party throwing business.  He was even voted “life of the party” in high school (hmmm is that a good thing or bad thing??)  I love the planning, decorating and preparing part of it.  I’ve had several people tell me I should have gone into the event planing business, but I enjoy doing it and didn’t want to turn it into work.  In this age of Pinterest, party planning has reached a whole different level!  Pinterest is such a great way to get ideas and a lot of it is DIY, as long as you are armed with a glue gun, scissors, and a Michael’s Craft store nearby you can do some pretty creative things.  I have not had a chance to plan a party since I discovered Pinterest, so this was fun!  But it is also hard work when you have a 5 month old!  There were many late night dates with my glue gun and lots of help from my awesome husband, and it was all worth it.  We were able to shower her little girl with all kinds of cute girly things and I can’t wait to meet her in August!

IMG_9686In Jacob news…Saturday morning we were all on the floor while Jacob was doing tummy time and he rolled over onto his back!  He has not done it again yet, but I have a feeling this is the beginning of a new phase, we will keep you posted!  Here’s our 22 week old who is starting to wrestle around with the giraffe.

IMG_9706ed

Birthday celebrations

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve had a busy but fun few days!  Saturday was my birthday.  Justin’s parents and grandma came for the day and we had a nice lunch at Pacific Coast Grill with a beautiful view of the ocean! And they got their Jacob fix.

IMG_8582IMG_8585That night Jacob went to bed pretty early (and slept 9.5 hrs that night!) Justin and I stayed up, shared a bottle of wine and played cards (I won 🙂 ), just like we used to do all the time before we were parents.  On Sunday, we met up with a friend from work and her husband at a small local winery with another gorgeous view for lunch and of course a glass of wine.

Then today, a group of my girlfriends (and kiddos) all got together to celebrate the 3 of us whose birthdays are in April.  It was a pretty ambitious idea, we had 7 moms and 10 kids altogether.  But all in all, it went well, no major meltdowns, nobody got their eyes poked with a fork, no glasses were broken, we definitely were the loudest table in the restaurant (even though they sat us in the very back) and our poor waiter probably quit after we left!  As always I had my camera with me at all these events but only got it out after lunch to hand to a stranger to take a picture of us. Again, an ambitious idea to try and corral all these kids for a photo, but we did it.  It’s an imperfect photo, but I love it just as much.

407125_4924944401778_792925619_nThen I stole my friend’s photo from Facebook since it was better??

IMG_8630And in the middle of all this Jacob turned 15 weeks old, here’s our wild child!

IMG_8620Hope you have a wonderful week!

The 3 of us became 6

Posted on by
3
Remember my two girlfriends who were pregnant the same time I was?  We took belly shots at Jaime’s shower, Julia’s shower and my shower.  We have had so much fun with the babies since they’ve arrived!  On Sunday we watched the Aztec game with a group of our college friends and we finally got it together to take a picture of the three of us and the babies.
IMG_7892edJaime’s little girl has mastered the art of thumb sucking and she makes it look absolutely adorable! Julia’s little girl has the most captivating eyes, the kind of eyes that grab your attention from a mile away.  Her daddy will be carrying a shotgun around when she’s older I’m sure!  And then there’s Jacob the boy, we are surrounded by baby girls, even ones who have not been born yet.  He sure is going to have his ladies to choose from!
It is going to be so much fun watching these three grow up over the years!

Showers of love

Posted on by
2

We always talk about how blessed we are to have such an amazing support group of family and friends.  We both come from big families that truly enjoy being together and celebrating together.  We have some fantastic friends from college and church who have become our San Diego family.  We both also work with some pretty awesome people which is great since we spend all day with them during the week.  Plus our childhood friends, clients turned friends and others who we have created friendships with along the way.  When we announced that we were pregnant I knew there would be plenty of people who would be so happy for us, but I never imagined the outpouring of love that came from everyone or all the people who wanted to celebrate with us.  It has really been special.  These people came together and gave baby Frisco 4 baby showers, they’ve sent gifts from all over and they can’t wait to meet him and welcome him into our circle of family and friends.  I intended to get a group photo at each of my showers and take lots of pictures along the way…but that didn’t really happen.  I’ve learned there are times when I am in the photography mode and want to document everything, but there are also times when I just want to kick back and enjoy it all.  Thankfully there were others who took on the job of photographer so I do have a few pictures to share.

First up was Justin’s office.  It is not very common that an office that consists of mostly men would get together for a baby shower, but with the wonderful planning of the (female) office administrative assistant they gave us a fun shower!  We played baby Pictionary, where everyone agreed that hopefully baby Frisco will not inherit our drawing skills, although I have to say that Justin does have a pretty good artistic side to him, but he wasn’t showing it off that day.  We had lots of snacks and yummy cupcakes.  We opened gifts and received lots of well wishes and a personalized poem for baby Frisco. pics2Then it was time for family.  My aunt hosted both sides of our family at her house.  Most of our family lives in Southern California so almost everyone was able to come.  We played some games, including one where we all had the name of some famous baby, group of kids, real or cartoon on our backs and we had to ask people yes or no questions to try and figure out who we were.  It was a great way to get the party started.  Lunch and lots of yummy treats were served.  While opening gifts we had the person whose gift I was opening tell a funny story about Justin or I when we were a baby, which brought on some laughs!  Everyone brought books along with their gifts to build a library for baby Frisco and I had them all write a note to him on the inside of the books so we can think of them as we read along.  I am so excited about the library he has now!  Since it was November and we are having a little man, we had a moustache theme in honor of Movember.
IMG_7291IMG_7292IMG_7293

Next we celebrated with my girlfriends.  One of my San Diego girlfriends paired up with my best childhood friend and threw us another shower.  I love all these women and the fact that they are all currently moms to one or two little ones makes for a wonderful resource/support group.  This is the group where I soak up the stories and advice and am so thankful that I have them to turn to and lean on when needed. The day was filled with lots of personal touches and crafty Pinterest ideas.  The girls who threw the shower are some pretty serious San Diego Charger fans and they did have a little bit of Charger touches here and there…but as hard as it was for them, they did respect Justin’s team and decorated with the Pittsburg Steelers in mind.
IMG_6599This was the one shower that I did get a group shot

IMG_6591And remember these girls…they now have their little girls cradled in their arms!
IMG_6594 Last but not least was my office.  Opposite of Justin my office consists of mostly women, and with women a baby is definitely a cause for celebration! Two of the girls got together and threw a shower filled with lots of yummy food and champagne cocktails (virgin for me of course)!  It is so great to work with people who enjoy being together even after we have worked together all day long.  Almost everyone in the office was able to come and baby Frisco got so many fantastic gifts.  Sadly we didn’t take any pictures at that shower, but we did get a picture of the adorable Little Prince cake!

Little Prince Cake

Outside of the showers, we’ve had friends take us out to dinner or brunch to celebrate, we get phone calls, emails and texts from people asking if there is anything we need and we are getting gifts from our parents friends. It really has been overwhelming how awesome people are.  The bottom line is, it’s really not about the parties and gifts but all the love that everyone has for this little boy.  Who knew he would be so popular before he was even born, he is a pretty lucky guy!

Thank you everyone for all your support, we can’t wait for you to meet our little boy!

Talk to your girls

Posted on by
1

Remember the post I did about my Girlfriends back in July…it’s hard to believe that the 3 of us are in our 3rd trimesters now!  The other girls only have 4 weeks to go, and we’ve already had their baby showers.  I feel like time is flying by!  I had a great time at their showers.  It was so nice to get together with friends and family and share stories, play games and celebrate their upcoming arrivals.  I am so excited to meet their little girls in 4 weeks 🙂

First up was Jaime, here’s our preggo picture at her shower.
Next it was Julia’s turn. At her shower there was a photo booth set up where we added a second line to the nursery rhyme “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star…” and take a picture with our rhyme.  It was a creative, fun idea! Our rhyme says “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star look how big our bellies are”
On the subject of women getting together, enjoying each others company, sharing stories and celebrating babies…I wanted to share a post from one of my favorite bloggers Karen Russell you can read it here.  As important as it is to have a strong relationship with your spouse, it is also important to have girlfriends to share life with.  There are many different kinds of friends, some are closer than others, some you can pick up right where you left off if you haven’t seen each other for a while, some are casual, some friends you talk to every day, some know more about you than others, some are just like you or complete opposites.  No matter what kind of friendship you have I think the most important thing is that we support each other, encourage each other, lift each other up and take care of each other.  Unfortunately there are other kinds of women who are very gossipy, degrading, competitive and frankly are not really all that fun to be around.   After a night out with some girlfriends Karen had a conversation with her little girls about what kind of women they wanted to grow up to be and I just love how kids are so perceptive and observant of their surroundings, and how Karen took this opportunity to talk to them and encourage them to be those special kinds of women.  Although I am having a boy…I plan to teach him to be compassionate and caring and supportive of his friends.  And he will have a wonderful example from his father on how to treat women! As important as it is to talk to your kids about these things, I think it is also important to evaluate what kind of friend you are to the people who surround you.

I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again.  I am so thankful for all my girlfriends, near/far, no matter how close we are, how often we see each other or talk, or if we are complete opposites. God places people in your lives for a reason and I am so blessed to have my girls.

Chili Cook-Off

Posted on by
1

Last Sunday was the 1 year anniversary since our church “launched” to the public!  To celebrate the occasion we had a good old fashioned Chili Cook-Off.  Justin was able to let his creative juices flow and make the 1st and 2nd place trophies.
We had a great turnout, Pastor Jason did a fantastic job with his message, and we had 20 crock pots filled with different “top secret” types of chili.  After the service was over we all went out to the park to start tasting and the kids tackled the bounce house.
We asked the local fire department to be the judges, however, they got a call and were not able to come at that time.  That’s okay, we appreciate all the hard work they do (especially in this awful heat wave we’ve been having!) So new judges were appointed and they went right to work, tasting and taking notes on each one.
After the judges had their samples of each, we let the masses loose
Halfway through the fire department showed up!
They were happy to be a part of the cook off and dove right in tasting the chili.
After everyone had their taste of the goods the winner was announced!
Then the firemen invited all the kids to come tour their firetruck.  We technically do not have kids yet, but didn’t want to miss out on the fun, so here’s the babies to be on the truckNot to be outdone by the preggo’s the boys had their fun too 🙂
We are truly blessed to be a part of such an incredible church and love all the special friendships we’ve acquired there.  I can’t wait for our little boy to join in on the fun!

Praise the Lord.  Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people. ~ Psalm 149:1

Girlfriends

Posted on by
3

We have a pretty wonderful & crazy group of friends.  Each and every one of us is so unique in our own way but we all “mesh” together perfectly.  It all started in college, actually the guys were all in the same fraternity, and most of the wives were in different sororities or attended SDSU as well.  Even the wives who didn’t attend SDSU that married into our group fit us like a glove and it feels like we’ve known them for just as long.  So our memories start in the college years, after graduating most of us stayed in San Diego and got started in our careers and establishing the foundation for our future.  Some were roommates and we continued to stay close celebrating achievements, milestones, birthdays, holidays, taking trips together or just getting together for some plain old fashioned fun which was often.  Then the engagements started and we were throwing engagement parties left and right, then came all the bachelor parties, bachelorette parties, bridal showers and of course the weddings.  By the way, one time I sat down and made a list of all the weddings Justin and I have been to and the total came to a whopping 33 weddings (including our own of course)!  Some of those were family, other friends and co-workers, but the vast majority of them were our college friends. Those wedding years were a blast, full of fun, celebration and lots of dancing!  Then we started buying homes and settling in which meant housewarming parties.  Then the babies started coming and the baby showers and the 1 year old birthday parties, then baby #2.  The point I am trying to get across is these friends mean so much to us, they are our San Diego family.  Over the years a few have moved away from San Diego, but continue to stay close and we still see them often.  We’ve all been through so much in life together and have been there to support each other, celebrate each other and I don’t know what we would do without them.

That leads me to the topic of this post, girlfriends!  I love my group of girlfriends and I look forward to our girls night whether it is book club, movies, happy hour or just getting together and talking for hours on end.  At this moment in life I am realizing even more how much my girlfriends mean to me.

There are 3 of us in our group who do not yet have kids and all 3 of us are pregnant for the first time together!  How cool is that!  We are sharing this journey to motherhood and have each other to talk to, compare notes, freak out, and marvel at the little beings growing in us.  The other two girls are 5 weeks ahead of me and have the same due date 🙂

And the other cool thing is we have the rest of our group of girlfriends who are already moms to one or two kids of their own to support us and cheer us on along the way, here we are (minus a few).
We are truly blessed!  One of my biggest hopes for our child is that they find a great group of friends to share life with when they grow up, it makes all the difference in the world!