Invites and Thank Yous

I'm still collecting pictures of our Dr. Seuss themed adoption shower from a few different people, but until I have them all in order and ready to post, I thought I'd share the invites and thank you cards I made. I'm fairly impressed with myself. Humble much? But really, they turned out better than I think store bought would have been and they were ridiculously easy to make. I did both as a postcard to save on postage and envelopes. Here are the invites: (The white boxes are covering private info. like address, phone number, etc.)

I loved the idea of doing books instead of cards (thank you Pinterest for the cute poem). Now Squeaks has a well established library and each book has a sweet note from the loved one who gave it to her.

We received so many beautiful and thoughtful gifts from SO MANY people! I would have loved to write personal and lengthy thank you cards to each individual person, but if I did that I'd be writing them until Squeaks' first birthday. I decided a pre-written note (thought up by yours truly), still very heartfelt and appreciative, accompanied by a sweet picture of our girl for everyone's fridge would be perfect.

 The white box on the front of the card is covering Squeaks' name. The little pink kiss above it and the pose in the photo reminds me of a picture of a 50's starlet autographing a picture for her love. So sweet!

Again, the little white box at the bottom covers Squeaks' name. Each card is "signed" with love from our girl in the same font as her "signature" on the front. I can't wait to tell her how generous everyone has been and teach her to write thank you notes.

I designed both the invite and thank you card using PicMonkey. They have basic free design features or you can purchase a membership for even more editing and design doodads (I used the free version). I love it! Except for the picture of Squeaks and the Cat In The Hat images (found on Google images), I used PicMonkey for everything. After designing the images I uploaded them to a blank postcard template on Vistaprint, added the messages on the backs, and added our return address. Vistaprint is super easy and well priced (plus you can usually find coupons online). The only thing I didn't like were the set quantities. You could order 20, 50, 100, or 250 postcards and nothing in between. Even with the set quantities though, I think the invites cost me about $11.00 to make (not including postage) and I got 100 of them. I ordered way more of the thank you cards so they cost more, but still very reasonable. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

First Date

Josh goes back to work on Monday! We've been blessed to have him home for six weeks. It's been so nice to have him home for so long. He's been a huge help. I think I might have had to do the dishes only once in the past six weeks. He's done laundry, mopped, taken care of me and Squeaks. I have a good man. 

That being said, I'm looking forward to beginning our normal routine. I'd love it if he could be home all the time but it's just not gonna happen. Getting used to my daily activities without his help is going to be a challenge and I'm eager to get started. I've waited a long time to be a REAL stay at home mom. I'm very excited. 

Anywho, last night we decided to have our first date night as parents before he goes back to work. We had Grandma (Josh's mom) and Grammy (my mom) share the first official baby sitting job, which they loved. We decided the only movie out right now worth seeing was the Lego movie. Yes, we were the only people in the theater without our child but who cares! It was pretty cute. Not fantastic, but okay. We enjoyed it. Then we went out to dinner at a local burger place. I had some fried chicken sliders and buttermilk biscuits with coleslaw. *drool. Our dinner conversation has definitely been altered but was deep and meaningful to us. We swapped favorite-part-of-being-a-parent stories. Both of us agreed watching her personality develop is mind blowing and both of us expressed amazement at our capacity to love her SO much. The conversation turned to her bowel movements at one point and we laughed at our ability to discuss such things while eating. Receiving a text from Grandma describing an epic fart (by Squeaks, not Grandma. Haha!) made for some great laugher too. All wonderful conversation. I'll admit, it was difficult to leave her, but it was lovely to spend time with my husband. Seeing him as our daughter's father has added a whole new level to my love for him. 

Enjoying dinner together after the movie.

Home again! Had a great time but I was very happy to have her back in my arms.

BSF Shower and 1 Month Pictures

I've waited a LONG time to have a baby shower!!! And now I'm gonna have two!! Thanks to the lovely ladies in my BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) leaders group, my wonderful mom, and mother-in-law, we will be showered with love twice.

When my fellow BSF leaders informed me they were going to throw me a shower I thought "a few gifts, some punch..." but they really surprised me! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised though cause they are all so sweet and generous.

The shower (Dr. Seuss themed!) that my mom and mother-in-law are giving me isn't until this coming Saturday, so I'll share pictures from that one later. For now, I'll share pictures from the lovely shower thrown by my fellow BSF leaders. They really went all out.

  They got me the cutest cake and balloons! Squeaks slept through the whole thing in her wrap.

 

Loved the decorations!

The balloons floated into our skylight and Squeaks enjoyed looking up at them from her bassinet.

A few days later, and a few days before Squeaks turned one month, our talented friend Becca (same friend who took our adoption "maternity" pictures) came over and took some beautiful pictures of our girl. I'm having a really hard time deciding which ones to frame! 

She's growing so fast and eating like crazy! She officially finished the last of the milk I pumped and we are now relying completely on donations. Thank you God for generous mothers! 

We still haven't started cloth diapering but as soon as she gets a little bigger and needs to be changed a little less often, I'll take the first stab at it. 

I did find the first down side to the wrap. I kept noticing little bits of sparkle in her hair but didn't know where they were coming from. Her head was always sparkly! Then I realized its the makeup bronzer I wear! I can't help but kiss and snuggle her perfectly round little head when she's all snugly wrapped on my chest.