Fun, Great Conversation and Being Spoiled!

These 3 things only capture half of the evening I had on Friday night at Tin Angel. I'm so lucky to have a group of fun gals show up to my Baby Shower/Dinner for Baby Hahm. I haven't been in Nashville for all that long and these ladies really have made me feel at home. A super shout out to Meredith for putting it together and coordinating schedules ... and the tasty tasty cupcakes and for my ride there and many many other things she does for me :)

Sybil, Kerry, Meredith, Me, Lauren, Dinah and Anne Marie at Tin Angel

I'll admit I was worried about planning anything after 37 weeks since I never know if I am going to have a good day or bad day with my side pain, but luckily I had a GREAT day and dinner wasn't at all uncomfortable. I do have to sort of lean back in my chair to be comfy, which means any condensation on my drinking glass drips all over my belly. It is a funny thing, I just wipe off the drips. haha. I had the salmon (I guess I tend to order salmon when I go out for dinner since I don't make it at home very often - Kevin doesn't like it). It came with sweet potatoes, wilted arugula, rosemary roll and yummy side salad.

Several of us haven't seen each other in awhile so we spent a lot of time just trying to catch up and I'm pretty sure we barely touched the surface. More of these dinners are definitely needed. It is always hard talking to everyone at a big table so I know I have so much more I'd love to hear about. We barely scratched the surface of Anne Marie's trip to Europe, or Lauren's tennis adventures or exciting social stuff she does, or Dinah's horses, donkey's and summer family adventures, or Sybil's girls whom I can never hear enough about, Kerry's little Max and new house, or any of Meredith's new things she is doing with event planning or crafting, etc. I'm leaving out a million interesting things these girls have to talk about. Regardless, I was surrounded by some great conversation!! Meredith, Dinah and I talked for awhile out in the street even as we were trying to leave. It was great and I really really needed the girl time. There are times I feel homesick and miss my friends and family the most and these last few weeks of pregnancy has left me with lots of different emotions (scared, anxious, alone, nervous) and just having a night out really has given me a spirit lift that I badly needed.

Now I felt spoiled just having them show up for dinner with me, but they also came bearing WONDERFUL gifts for Baby Hahm. Everything from diapers to a white noise machine to super cute clothes, a diaper changing travel kit and so much more... take a look at these pictures.

Yummy Cupcakes that had baby rattles and ducks on them

How cute are these??  The blue striped one feels like a blanket it is sooo comfy and look how preppy that striped onesie is...

This book was from Dinah and it will be so special to read it to Baby Hahm, that bear hat is going to look so adorable in pictures and the dog towel speaks for itself...

Look how spoiled I am ... so many great things, plus a gift card to boot

Thanks again - great memories!

A Pulte Baby Shower

It is so nice that Dad's don't get forgotten in this day in age. Kevin's work group threw him a shower for Baby Hahm. Granted his finance group is all women so that may have something to do with it ;) I think Kevin deserves the spotlight too (at least a tiny bit, haha) since the mom does seem to get the majority of the attention. It wasn't all girls though, some guys from the Ops team were there making it a nice mixture of people. Kevin and I showed up a bit late to the restaurant Wild Iris, but when we got there a nice spread of appetizers were already on the table (crab stuffed shrimp, spring rolls and antipasta salad). They were all yummy. Now I must admit I was jealous of the tasty drinks that were being enjoyed around the table ... oh how I miss a nice glass of wine. I wasn't the only pregnant person there and I'm sure she was a little jealous of the yummy drinks too!

While we ate some appetizers Kevin and I opened the generous gifts brought by everyone. I have posted a few pictures below (please read the captions). It was so thoughtful of them to buy Baby Hahm some great stuff - THANK YOU.

Look at all of these cute clothes - there were a couple of dog themed items  - apparently our love for dogs isn't a secret :)

Look how cute these bibs are - they have a bit of a Nashville theme

This dog hat is just toooooo cute!

One of the gifts that a picture can't quite capture the essence of is the 'Book of Parenting Advice' that was passed around the office. It was fun to read what advice people gave in this book. This was such a cute idea (Thanks Vanessa). It will be fun to reread it in a yr, 3 yrs... 15 just because you have time to actually be a parent and relate (Andy mentioned this and I can see how rereading it will be neat)

All the advice is great - I'll list a few here (paraphrased) just to give you a taste.

- keep a lot of money on hand

- your child will be wiser when introduced to the Saints (I'm pretty sure that is a dig to the Packers)

- make time for each other (lots of variations of this one - it seems pretty important to a continued successful marriage)

- your kids are terrified that you will embarrass them in front of friends - take full advantage of this

- the sweetest sound is the sound of your child laughing - make him laugh

- time flies so enjoy every second (lots of variations of this one)

- Kevin owes me big time for being his designated driver while I've been pregnant :)

- Kevin is officially #3 in the house.... I laughed and said nope he is #5 (the dogs of course)

- you can't swaddle your child tight enough, torque them down

- kids value your time way more than money (until puberty)

- take lots of pictures ..... and buy carpet cleaner and butt cream

- don't drop the baby - I'm pretty sure this is aimed at Kevin! ;)

We finished the night with dinner. The restaurant had a lot of great choices. I ordered a lightly breaded salmon with potato croquettes and veggies. Kevin had the seared tuna (one of his favorite dishes).

It was just a delightful evening with great conversation and very nice people.