Saturday, June 25, 2011

Olivia's First Shower

This weekend my amazing little sisters + 2 dear family friends (with a lot of help from my sweet mom!) threw me such a perfect baby shower. The food was delicious, the decorations were precious, we were surrounded by some of our closest family friends and they generously showered Olivia with the cutest clothes, blankets, books, toys and other baby gear. It was such a fun, special time and I feel so lucky that Olivia already has so many people who love her & can't wait to meet her!

The delicious cake + cute decorations + sweet presents:


































A few pics of the some of the guests:

The Andree family


The sweet little Cannon girls


Aunt Yasmin trying to feel Olivia's position



My sisters & I



My dear friend Lisa who was one of my best friends in elementary school!


Camie, Connie and Jan


My wonderful mom & I


Sweet Dad & I



Matt (who suspiciously arrived just as the cake was being served...) & I

Monday, June 20, 2011

Name that Baby + Father's Day special

Before we even got pregnant, we obviously began to think of baby names. Once we announced we were pregnant we got lots of inquiries from friends, family and complete strangers on baby names. So, the pressure was on! Being good, type-A personalities, we made several lists, constructed a pro/con chart and tried to think of any way we could to make fun of the potential names. But, after much deliberation & thought, we've come up with a name we both love.....

Olivia Jane Dean

We hope that baby Olivia loves her name as much as we do & we're excited to call her by her name instead of the random nicknames she's acquired over the past 6 months!

Also we're officially 2/3 of the way through this pregnancy - I started my third trimester today. When I told Matt this, he was able to clearly express our mutual happiness and anxiety about having a baby in three months with a quote from Seinfeld - "you just blew my mind!"

Finally, a special "guest blog" by Matt on his pre-Father's Day:

Hey everyone, dad here...

I was so happy to receive a card from my unborn baby for Father's Day. Olivia let me know in the card that she can't wait to meet me! While I was super excited to hear this news I couldn't help but flash forward 15 years or so when she is screaming at me for not letting her spend the night at a friends house because I haven't met their parents. I am already getting nostalgic about when my daughter was born and she literally hasn't been born yet. Still, I am going to keep this card in case I ever have use it to show her how much she loved her dad.

As for the actual Father's Day, I just sat back in my chair relaxing and watching the U.S. Open. I couldn't help but imagine how much different our lives are going to be just one short year from now! While I enjoyed relaxing and watching golf I somehow felt that I hadn't yet deserved the right to relax on Father's Day. I definitely believe I'll have a different feeling when Father's Day rolls around next year. In addition to my card I also got a pink shirt from Olivia and Persis so that we'll be matching when she get to be about three months old. Here is me awkwardly attempting to show off our matching outfits: