THE INVITE:
Although things were a tad bit on the stressful and emotional side with Paxey being in the NICU, Jeff and I both felt it would be good for me to have my baby shower for him still. I knew being around close family and friends would definitely boost my exhausted spirit.
Joc had become quite the designer so I definitely wanted her to create my invite. I knew she would come up with something original. The 2 red lines on the invite reminded us of suspenders. One night Joc had come to the Schaub's house and she was working on the invite and then we actually had Debbie draw a little top hat for it! I loved the colors, fonts, and all the little details Joc put into it. Thank you again to my amazingly talented little sis!
Thankfully Nicki was more than willing to plan my sprinkle spectacular! I'm so happy and thankful that she did too, because it was everything that I wanted it to be and was just perfect. She put so much detail and thought into all the decor and food, it was exactly what I needed to brighten my life up a bit.
She had asked me if I wanted any particular theme and I just told her that with this pregnancy I had been craving waffles again, so if she wanted to serve that as food it would be fun. She came up with the idea to serve chicken on these miniature waffles with syrup on top. She also had potato chips and mac and cheese on the side. She made the most adorable lemonade party favors for everyone to take home. Joc had also designed a perfectly matched card to go with the favors.
When I first got to her house I was a bit emotional just because I was so thankful for someone like Nicki who had put so much of her time and effort into making me feel special. I had felt drained emotionally and physically from trying to keep up with going to the NICU on a daily basis that having something to celebrate made me feel so much better. I love how she combined the red colors with yellow flowers and used mason jars for decorations. She also made the cutest stamped name tags for all the food, had special little banners made out of coffee liners for me and Paxton, and beautiful white kitchenware to serve all the food on. I even took the banner she made for Paxey and put it on his doors at the hospital so that everyone would know it was his room...#119
My mom was in town and of course become the hero and assisted Nicki with everything. I will always admire that my Mom doesn't hesitate for a second to lend a helping hand. I knew her and Nicki had been up late the night before and woke up early to get started on everything and I just appreciated all the hard work that went into make my sprinkle such a fun event.
I wanted to have some pics of Pax at the shower so people could see him since he wasn't able to be there with me. I printed some images at Debbie's house and they came out small, but ended up working out just fine. I was rushing around that morning trying to get myself and Annabelle ready…I didn't want to be late to my own shower. I was getting stressed because I had wanted somehow to create a little string of his pictures with some ribbon and clothes pins, but knew I wouldn't have time to do it. Debbie was such an angel and offered to do it for me and anything she touches just turns out beautiful! She even made little blue bows to put on the clothes pins to hang the pics from. I can't even count the number of times where Debbie has stepped in just to help with something and the result of her creations are always flawless!
The weather was so nice that day and Nicki actually had everything set up in her backyard. Her and Phil keep the yard so nice and landscaped, makes me happy when anyone has green grass you can walk around bare foot in.
Funny side story:
The night before the shower Nicki and I went to Jeff's aunts house to borrow come chairs and tables. We were able to use her Dad's truck to load everything and it went pretty smoothly when we had Jeff and his Dad helping us. The tables didn't fold in half and were a bit old and large so it was difficult to get them all to fit. But of course with Jeff and his Dad's engineer minds they figured something out and it worked.
I had assured Jeff that the next day after the shower Nicki and I could totally handle taking the tables back to his Aunt Jan's house and he didn't have to worry about helping us. The shower ended and we recruited my Dad and Peter to help us load them back on the truck to return. Well it turned into quite the dilemma where at one point we even had to stop the truck to try and rearrange the table to fit better so that they wouldn't crack the back window in his truck. The funniest part was that my poor old Dad offered to sit in the back of the truck to help hold the tables, I told him no way and that he would hurt himself. It was just hilarious and such a typical "Shaver Moment" of us not being able to calmly return everything.
We ended up completing the stressful task, but it took us like 3 hours vs the 1 hour it took with the Schaub's. Nicki and I couldn't stop laughing about everything, now looking back it's such a great memory for us to talk about. Haha! Nicki is hands down one of the most entertaining people to be around, she is so witty and I love that she is part of the family.
Little Moll Doll was all ready to party in her cute outfit and hat!
Debbie was so thoughtful and had gotten Annabelle a present so that she wouldn't feel left out. It was this stuffed animal named Scout where you could go online and enter her favorite things and it would talk and sing to her about them. She LOVED him!
It's no secret that I love to dress my little Annabear up! The day before I had found this outfit at Old Navy for pretty cheap. She looked so cute in her coral jean jacket. The dress reminded me of something a sister missionary would wear. I also took her to Emilee to get her hair cut the day before so she was all pampered and ready for the shower!
FRIENDS & FAMILY WHO CAME:
I was thrilled to see all my friends and family who made time to come. Jeff's aunts are so sweet, supportive and generous when it comes to showers or any family event. I have to say though when I saw my friend Kristi Adams walk in I got a little emotional. I hadn't seen her in so long and always think about her and how she is doing. She just brings back so many happy memories from when we lived together. She's one of those friends who I can relate with on all levels and when we are together it's just constant laughs. It was just so great to have all the people I love and admire in one place at the same time!
TIME FOR PRESENTS:
Paxey definitely got spoiled with all the thoughtful presents we received that day. Everyone was so kind to think of us and to get us something. At that point I hadn't been able to put him in any clothes at the NICU because they always just swaddled him in blankets, so I was excited to get some preemie clothes for him. It was so nice to get sprinkled with baby boy stuff!
I was able to enjoy myself that day and forget about some of my NICU worries and just soak up the new memories that had been made. It was a comfort to be able to focus on other things than stressing about Paxton in the NICU. It warmed my heart to be around loved ones and I'm thankful a million times over for all the hard work Nicki and my mom put into my sprinkle to make it such an unforgettable day!
