Minnesota Baby Shower!

In honor of my Arizona baby shower, I guess I could finally post about the shower I had this past July in Minnesota/Wisconsin. It was technically in Wisconsin, but along the bordering St. Croix River in Hudson. We had a beautiful room at a great restaurant reserved, and had 17 wonderful women from many different aspects of my life attend. My old neighbors were there, including my piano teacher and our neighbor whose pool we used to crash in elementary school; my aunts and great aunts; my sisters, including the soon-to-be new Jensen, Irina; my life-long hair dresser; and of course my friend Jill from college!

It was great to be able to work with my sisters and mom to help organize and plan this shower. We got to be really crafty and use our Etsy know-how and some Pinterest inspiration to decorate and I think things turned out great! The theme was "Ahoy! It's a Boy!" in honor of my Delta Gamma anchor. Although this is not the direction we will be going with the baby's room, it would not be out of the question for a nautical nursery!

I got some amazing gifts that will be much appreciated, from bath time necessities to handmade booties, and our humidifier (an Arizona MUST) as well as my squeeze station to make our own fruit squeezies instead of spending $2 a pop on them! (I know solid foods are far down the road, but it is best to be prepared).

I absolutely loved having the opportunity to visit with some amazing women and feel so much love and support for the arrival of this little man.

I know what you REALLY wanted was pictures, so here you go!

Our dessert table- with chocolate favors and a due date guessing game for baby's college fund!

A view of the decor we put together. We made pom poms, those fans on the mirror, and bought the banner.

The gifts and scrapbook signing sheet for all our guests to welcome Baby Blueberry!

Our cute banner!

Cupcakes from the Food Channel Cupcake Wars winner- "Cupcake"

A Delta Gamma shout out- Creme roses and anchors

The guests arrive and mingle- the noise level of that room was unbelievable!

My udder cover!

The only appropriate gift when in Wisconsin!

So grateful for all the gifts for baby!

The family! Aunts Sue and Marcia, Irina (newly engaged to Brian!), sisters Amanda and Cassie, and mom

The park along the river across the street. Sister pic!

One more family pic on the bridge by the river

My 24- week baby bump

My friend Jill!

Blueberry's Texas Adventure!

This past June, to escape the Arizona heat, we escaped to the Texas beach. Yep, Texas. Nope, not cooler than Phoenix once you factor in 90% humidity.

We traveled to South Padre Island, a place that is near and dear to Kyle's childhood, as his grandma lived there in winters and he visited often. Having never been there, I was excited to get to share in his nostalgia. We filled the weekend with family fun. Blueberry got to take a dip in the Gulf of Mexico, met some sea turtles, and took a sandcastle building class. We even went snorkeling! That is one busy kid!

My favorite part of the trip was the food! We ate so much great sea food and had a fabulous breakfast buffet to start my day. And I got a Fanta Pineapple and Peach?! Only on the Mexican border :)

Here are some pictures (one you may recognize as my current Facebook profile picture).

We're on a boat! On our snorkel trip

This bench is carved like our wedding bench! At the turtle sanctuary.

Hello turtle! It's Crush in real life!

Blueberry, your parents are so weird! These are our turtle faces.

The sandcastle class. Yours truly may have knocked over the tower...

Taking my profile pic shot!

The sandcastle extravaganza! Ours became a pirate fort.

Blueberry's First Concerts

Each week (well, the ones that are left) I will share one of Blueberry's Adventures with you through pictures and stories! I have been recording these same adventures in a pregnancy journal called "From Pea to Pumpkin". It is pretty simple to keep up with and provides prompts so that I have many memories of pregnancy after it is long gone.

Blueberry has already been to three concerts! This kid is going to be as knowledgeable about music as its parents and grandpa Jensen! Here are some pictures:


First concert- Flogging Molly at Tempe Beach Park. St. Patrick's Day, 2013 (5 weeks)

Our friends Katie and Sarah did not know Blueberry existed yet!

You may recognize this as one of the times I practiced beer sniffing

Second concert- Fleetwood Mac at US Airways Center. May 30, 2013 (17 weeks)

Look how much dad's beard has grown (there is an entire post dedicated to this topic coming...)

The bump just started to show!!! That is Stevie Nicks in the background

Third concert- Mumford and Sons at Desert Sky (Ak-Chin) Pavilion. June 5, 2013 (18 weeks)

With our friends Bev and Robyn (also expecting a little one)

Papa wanted to show off his baby belly, too.

Our car after the show (hence the dust in the air)- I was "drunk bus" driver. Jared and Bev Ross, Casey and Karen Davis

I just hope that the decibels didn't permanently damage baby's hearing.
Blueberry does seem to move around a lot and get down when there are some great tunes playing! (or just when I am sitting down for a long period of time, like on a road trip, and music happens to be playing!)

Here we go again

A new adventure is about to begin.

I know what you are thinking: "Oh no, here she goes again, writing about all the crazy experiences of her life and publishing them for the whole world to see."

Yes, here I go again. You know you like it!

This newest adventure comes just under 2 years from my very first post on "Confessions of an Amateur Bride". On that blog, I documented the adventure to my wedding for my friends and family who were near and far. I do so to find an outlet to share my stories and experiences, and I have always been a writer by nature, so I think that it is both healthy and humorous to write my experiences in the most honest way I can. Then, I can only hope to inspire those that I know who read my posts, and perhaps even those who I don't know, but who are experiencing similar situations and don't have the courage to write about them.

I can already tell this adventure is going to be a much crazier ride than the last.

PARENTHOOD!

What are we thinking?!

So, to answer your final question, why is this blog titled "The Adventures of Blueberry"? The answer is simple, not only are these my and my husband's adventures, but our unborn little one's adventures as well! I have to take baby with me everywhere we go. It didn't feel right calling baby "it", so we nicknamed our fetus "Blueberry" after we had read the description of its size early in the pregnancy as "the size of a blueberry". From that point on, it has been "Blueberry wants..." or "Blueberry, stop making your mom vomit so much", or "Kyle, Blueberry wants you to..." So, now you get to follow Blueberry on all our adventures!

Welcome to the nuthouse.

Enjoy!

One of our pregnancy announcement pictures