Hey, Baby Girl

You'll see from my previous post that Hank and I found out the gender of #BabySaye on a sweet little date night at one of our favorite spots. I would recommend that to anyone. I'm always down for hosting a party though so we of course wanted to tell our family in a fun get together kind of way. 

Throughout the week I had my coworkers cast their vote in the office, noted social comments and texts and all that jazz. The majority thought what we thought... boy... FOR SURE. I decorated and ordered everything before we knew so no party decor or eats swayed a certain way.

I loved these balloons from All She Wrote Notes (mint best day ever), Oh Shiny! Paper Co. (confetti) and Thimblepress (pink hooray heart). The pink one popped shortly after this photo so it was obviously bursting with excitement to tell the world. Oh, and I took these mostly Etsy balloons to my local grocery, Harris Teeter, and they helium-ed them up at only 50 cents a pop. 

When you walked in you donned a 'definitely a girl' or 'totally a boy' sticker. I had fun custom making these pretty in pink and mint wearables. Everyone, except one (Brandon!), wore boy. 

I had the Oh Joy for Target party animals on each of the tables with flowers I arranged from my local grocery. I love this gold tablecloth (and a lace VINYL one!) I got on Amazon so much.

These fun gold balloons and tassels were also by Oh Shiny! Paper Co. on Etsy.

Of course Happy Little Prints koozies made an appearance next to the not-for-me beers. 

But, what I could drink I love so much. The mocktail of all mocktails. Mint-to-Party Punch: one can concentrated frozen lemonade, one 2-liter Sprite Zero, three cups pineapple juice and three berry blue Kool-Aid Bursts. Mix together and all the yums ensue. We also served up Hank's delicious guac and cookies & cream popcorn from local shop The Mad Popper. 

Everyone wanted to do the reveal before the pizza party so dessert was happily served first. We had the crew bite into their pretty in pink cupcake from The Cupcake Shoppe in Raleigh on the count of three. What color were these tinted with inside - totally blue or definitely pink!? Everyone bit in, and they were really looking - once the confusion struck - we let them know, "why would we color the inside when the outside color nailed it." Pretty in pink it was!! That was Hank's brilliant idea, and well, it was hilarious. So yes, girl it was! 

No clue what we're looking at in the above photo but there it reads, it's a girl. We had so much fun, but the real star of the show was Bentley in his new party wear from Charleston's Crew La La.

Hi, guys! I'm going to be a big bowl of wrinkles brother. He's confetti all over the place excited. We think. Happy day, and enjoy the week.

Pregnancy Survey: 18 Weeks

1. How far along are you? 18 Weeks

2. What fruit/veggie is your baby? Sweet Potato

3. Symptoms: I'll go from full to absolutely starved in point five seconds. It's craziness. Other than that, I'm feeling like the old me.

4. Total weight gain/loss: Nine pounds.

5. Sleep: I've been sleeping really great lately. Although, I think that's all about to change because at 20 weeks you shouldn't be sleeping on your back so in comes sleeping with my Snoogle.

6. Cravings: BLTs. Last Friday I had to make a lunch stop at favorite Merritt's in Chapel Hill.

7. Aversions: Vegetables. I try.

8. Best Moment of the Week: Taking the gender envelope home from our doctor's appointment without peeking. The 18-week appointment is so exciting in itself because you get to see all the anatomy and how everything is progressing. When it got to the gender arena, we were asked to close our eyes. We took the envelope home and had the excitement all day of getting to look that night. That evening, we went on a date to our favorite local Italian spot Daniel's in Apex. After we ordered our entrees, we opened up the envelope, just us. It was amazing and fun to finally know just the two of us. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone.



9. Gender: It's a girl!! We're so excited but honestly we were both shocked. We thought boy for the last four months. When we opened the envelope and saw "it's a girl" we were both like hold on, what!? There are few true surprises in life, and this was certainly one of them.

10. Belly Button In or Out? In.

11. What I Miss: A medium rare steak from a really nice restaurant.

12. What I am Looking Forward to: Deciding on a name with Hank.

13. Milestones: Taking to the baby stores this past Saturday. We started (and I mean started) getting a handle on the 23872348723489724 things you need.

14. Exercise: ... Okay, seriously... March 1 is the goal.

15. Maternity clothes: Still rocking my Dylans. 

Love Day Happs

Valentine's Day is one of my favorites. I love all things pink and heart. I kicked off the week mailing valentines to friends and family - Rifle Paper Co. always makes a goodie. This year I sent their 'boatload of love' postcards I found in one of my favorite shops in Charleston, Dandy Boutique. Then on Friday, I found out I won this Boho Beads beauty (!!!) from Monkee's in Chapel Hill. I was so pumped as I love their jewels so much. Valentines was off to a sweet start.


Here's a little office selfie. I sprinted over to pick up this hot pink treat during lunch I was so excited. Boho Beads are by two girls out of Raleigh, and they're a seriously talented duo.


Saturday morning Hank and I were off to downtown Raleigh. We had breakfast at Morning Times.


Then we hopped over to Yellow Dog Bread Co. Everything they do is drool worthy on Instagram, and in real life, it did not disappoint.


I was blush crushing on Saturday as these new Happy Little Prints koozies came in - blush and gold now available in the shoppity shop.


By night, Hank and I had Mexican at La Rancherita in downtown Apex. This is the guac that rocks I mentioned in my previous post (it's seriously giant).


For valentines, I snacked on Sugarfina's baby champagne bears from my sweet friend Maura.


I had no love for the Valentine's mailboxes at Target this year whatsoever. But really, new tradition is that we fill these pink and teal mailboxes up with goodies. They're super tiny so it's a fun challenge. Then up goes the red flag on Valentine's Day once Cupid has made the delivery. As for flowers, Hank treated and I arranged. I took a flower arranging class at The English Garden in Raleigh once, and it was a blast (highly recommend), so it's a fun little treat every time I get the chance to use my skills.


We love eating out but love cooking in on Valentine's Day. We picked up scallops, sautéed mushrooms and different beef tips from The Butcher's Market in Cary. Then paired those with twice-baked potatoes, and it was delicious. As for dessert, this baby cake from Yellow Dog gets all the yums.


Wrapping up with post-valentine snuggles with Bentley. He got new collars for Valentine's Day from Crew La La - a stylishly Southern dog brand spotted in Charleston.

Pregnancy Survey: 17 Weeks

For those of you who read this blog and aren't following along with me on the social front... Surprise! I'm pregnant. Happily, unbelievably, gratefully pregnant.

1. How far along are you? 17 Weeks (and one day! Or four out of nine months.)

2. What fruit/veggie is your baby? Onion (P.S. I use to eat onions like apples when I was little - totally bizarre, I know - but my love for caramelized onions soars so maybe that's why).

3. Symptoms: People ask me this all the time, and I feel normal. Totally, totally normal. I told my doctor this, and he assured me that feeling normal is normal and that I was just really lucky - and to not tell my friends because they'd be mad. It's crazy to say I haven't gotten a case of the voms once - what in the world!? My mom had it with me for three months straight. I have a cold right now that's lasted longer than normal for me so there's that.

4. Total weight gain/loss: Four pounds. I told my doctor I started out fluffy so I think we're all good there.

5. Sleep: Usually I am out cold from the moment my head hits the pillow. I'm a back sleeper, and I've had to start practicing sleeping on my sides and well, I don't think that's for me but I don't have a choice really. So that's been taking some getting use to. I can stay up almost to my normal weeknight bedtime, 11 p.m. During the first trimester, I'd be out cold in the 8s / 9s - it was crazy.

6. Cravings: Not really... I would say salty over sweet (except for froyo the other night - I had to have that). Guacamole would be it I think. There's a local Mexican spot in cutest Downtown Apex, La Rancherita, where they serve up a giant bowl of guac for $8.99. I would say that's my happy place.

7. Aversions: Carrots or sweet potatoes. In their normal form or pureed or anything like that. Just the thought of eating carrot or sweet potato or butternut squash - anything in that family - soup is just blah. So I'm not down with the roots. I think sweet potato fries are okay though, but I've never met a fry I didn't like.

8. Best Moment of the Week: Coming home to the most amazing mom-to-be box from my best neighbor ever, Elle. It was like baby Christmas!! Check it out.

9. Gender: We find out next week! On Wednesday at 9:20 a.m. Well we don't really, we're taking the envelope to go and will look while on a sweet little date that night.

10. Belly Button In or Out? In.

11. What I Miss: Sushi. Queso. Margaritas.

12. What I am Looking Forward to: Finding out the gender and deciding on a name with Hank.

13. Milestones: Writing this post. I want to journal all about these next few months, and this serves as as great start.

14. Exercise: Huh? Yep, I need to get back on that stat.

15. Maternity clothes: Nope. I mean, the entire line of Dylan leggings by Mud Pie are pretty stretchy.

Loving my Lucy Darling 'Growing Garden' stickers and 'Preggers' shirt by All She Wrote Notes.