Hump Day, Bump Day!

bV is the size of a pineapple!
She's about 15.2 to 16.7 inches long and weighs about 2.5 to 3.8 pounds this month. She's getting so big, she's probably crowding your lungs. Understatement of the world.

bV at 31 weeks:
- She's going through major brain and nerve development.
- Eye development, too. Her irises now react to light! All five of her senses are in working order.
via thebump.com

In a super dee duper fun turn of events, Harper was absolutely blessed with a surprise sprinkle (a smaller, more intimate baby "shower" after your first baby...sprinkle/shower....get it?!?) on Saturday. Mom, Jill, Kelli, the boys and I came home from a yummy lunch at Qdoba to find my driveway full of my closest friends and family. My bestie, Caitlin, FLEW here all the way from DC and we were able to Facetime with Lindsay who's on preggo house arrest with twins! And yes, I cried.

The girls absolutely nailed the theme, as you can see here by the invitations:

I was overwhelmed at the amount of planning and thought put into every last detail (they took a giant margarita machine INTO 7-11 and filled it with REAL Slurpee!), and I am so thankful to everyone who came and especially to Mom, Kelli, Jill and Keliann for thinking of me and Harper and pulling off such a GREAT surprise. To say this little girl is spoiled is the understatement of a LIFETIME.

Showered With Love.

Mom, Jill and I hosted Kelli and David's baby shower the weekend of Thanksgiving. And for a girl that loves themed events, this might have been one of my best yet.

K & D had a bird theme at their wedding, so I took the graphic from their invitations (created by the incredibly talented Jackie at blue soleil design) and added a little nest to it. INSTANT THEME.

"The Turners are expanding their nest!"

Mom took the rest and ran with it to create the perfect "shabby chic" look we were going for. We lined the tables with brown paper and cute green and white polka dot wrapping paper and placed crayons around so our guests could doodle on the paper.

We also placed "tweet" bags at each place setting filled with birdseed for guests to take home for the birdies in their neck of the woods. The menu was soup in bread bowls, so the spoons were placed in a glass canning jar at each table.

Some of the tables had canning jars filled with birdseed with twig branches coming out of them. On the branches we hung small glass bird ornaments, also for the guests to take home.

On the appetizer and dessert table we had some yummy snacks and cuppycakes with toasted coconut and M&Ms on top to look like little bird nests. Oh, and look closely at the plates - can you BELIEVE we found those to match everything? Hobby Lobby rules.

We also placed white onesies at each table in varying sizes with fabric markers. Each table got artistic and created special and unique onesies for lil' niephew. It turned out to be a lovely day and niephew got LOADS of new stuff. (S)he is very loved!

And if you ever needed a reason to not hire Joe and me to bake the desserts for your next function...

Como Say Whaaa?

Yesterday, I heard the following words/phrases uttered from some of the most brilliant minds in the industry:

• Reduplicate.
• Over redundant.

For real. And no, I don't work in the Department of Redundancy Department. But I do think it's fun to reduplicate some over redundancies on le blog. It makes me feel smart, if nothing else.

In unrelated news, today is the day Kelli and David COULD find out le sex of my niephew. But they are electing not to, which is absolutely going to be the death of me. I do not understand how anyone could possibly NOT find out. I'm a planner. A know-er. A do-er. A re-duplicater.

Oh, and their baby shower? I'm attempting to top the greatest wedding shower/bachelorette party of all time, but I'm not sure if it will be possible. Mostly because I can't obsess over all things blue or pink for an over-the-top theme. This gender neutral stuff is really for the birds. A hint, perhaps?

Showered With Love.

The shower on Saturday was an absolute blast. It was thrown with lots of love by Grandma Joette (my mom) and Grandma Susan (Joey's mom). The men were our servers for the afternoon - so not only did we have some nice eye candy, they worked hard, too! :)

As only my luck would have it, Mother Nature also decided to drop a big, fat snowstorm on most of Southern Michigan that same day between the hours of noon and 3 p.m. Please note that the shower was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m., so the worst of the snow dumping was during prime guest driving time. Honestly, there wasn't a FLECK of snow on the ground at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Friday was quite possibly the most gorgeous day we'd had in a long, long time. Le sigh.

Come to think of it, it just might be my karma. I graduated from college in April of 2005 and the same thing happened that day...and it was APRIL!

Despite the snow, we still had a great turnout. Only about a dozen people couldn't make it because of the storm - and to the people that braved the weather and STILL came, THANK YOU!! It was so fun to have you there to celebrate our little WIP.

The decorations were perfect. The food was delish. The dessert was scrumptious. Have a look for yourself (click on any image to make it larger):



PROOF! I snapped this one at about 11 am - 2 hours before the shower was slated to start. And it just kept snowing and snowing and snowing and snowing...



The "baby Kristi" picture board. I was even a diva back then.



The "baby Joey" board. You cannot look at his board and my board and tell me I'm not going to birth the hairiest little monkey you've ever seen. Poor kid will be shaving at 6.



The tables! It was so perfect that the church had blue table settings already!



The food table - blue and fabulous. (It was even more fabulous once the delicious food was on it.)



Pinning Joey's "boutonniere" on him. It was a picture of WIP's 3D ultrasound. Totally staged.



Proud Mommy and Daddy.



Joey and I with my parents. Note the polka-dot theme.



Joey and I with his mom, Susan. (Wow...I look enormous.)



Joey (hilariously) demonstrating his favorite Daddy accessory - the Bjorn. I'm relatively certain he will NEVER take it off once WIP is born. Well, at least until the kid no longer fits in it. Haha - can you imagine him carrying the little dude into preschool in that? Or maybe even to 8th grade basketball tryouts? :) Or auditions for the school musical...we'll be encouraging parents.



Me showing off a HAND MADE freakin' awesome diaper bag from my cousin, Lauren. She's so talented it's unreal. She also makes purses and other crafty, fabulous things. If you want her info, leave a comment or shoot me an email! She can custom make something to match your taste and style! (Isn't it cool how she made this to match WIP's room? I LOVE IT!!!)

Joey showing off one of the gifts I bought him - it's a onesie that says "Weepublican." Despite your political affiliation, it's totally cute.

Joey proudly showing off one of his favorite gifts. It's a bib that says "Future Pike." It was a gift from his fraternity brother and best friend, Mike. There was also the cutest little polo shirt with their Greek letters embroidered in it. Can you picture little WIP wearing it, popped collar and spiked hair? P-I-M-P!

Yippie skippie! Our stroller/carseat travel system!!!

Dessert! Petit fours with little baby booties on them and sherbet...with a baby! :)

A big thank you, again, to everyone that was able to make it and for all of the lovely gifts. We are so, so blessed to have such an amazing support system of family and friends as we bring a little life into this world. We can't wait until he's here to share with everyone!! Like they say, it takes a village. :)