Playdate

Baby Cheeks and I had our first play date on Friday! I was so excited as you can see :) I met the BEST woman at our baby yoga class (Sharon), I seriously have a girl crush on her and her baby girl Ayden. They have just moved here from Chicago and they too are having a hard time meeting people. Match made in heaven! So on Friday Sharon and I decided to hit up a mommy yoga class at Northpark with another friend from yoga, Jessica and her baby girl Avery. Jessica is equally as awesome, but unfortunately she will be going back to work in a few weeks so we won't be able to hang out much. The yoga class kicked our butts then we enjoyed some yummy lunch with sleeping munchkins in tow. We ended up losing track of time and shopping for hours. I guess we were all in desperate need of a day out and some adult conversation. I had the best time and we are already planning our next get together for early next week :) yay!

Eventually little Avery needed to nurse so we had to stop at the Nordstrom lounge...it turned out to be a fun little play session for the older girls. Here are some cute pictures of Ayden and Samantha discovering each other for the first time...I just know they are going to be great friends :)

(Avery 8 weeks, Ayden 4 months, Samantha 6 months)

Pitty Party

I'm sorry to do this to all of you but I just must have a small pity party for myself real quick...

I thought I was holding it together pretty well considering the level of stress that planning a wedding creates. However last night I sort of lost it, it's not my fault tho, really. Ya see Matt and I were in the bathroom whitening our teeth and I leaned over to inspect my sparklies when suddenly I noticed a HUGE chunk of my front tooth missing!!!!!! Ok it's not that huge, but pretty noticeable none the less. My first statement was, "how the hell did that happen?" then I proceeded to cry, and possibly yell profanities. As if chipping a tooth weren't bad enough I somehow managed to do this 2 freakin weeks before my wedding?! NOT COOL. Now I have to decided if it's noticeable enough to pay a million dollars to get it fixed pre-wedding.

I know there are far worse things that can happen to a person, but I can't help but feel a little bad for myself today...don't judge me.

baby it's cold outside

So for those of you who haven't heard, Texas is having a crazy cold winter. I mean record breaking cold, snow and such. Normally Houston doesn't see a flurry and the temperature is up to the 60s and 70's by the first week of March. Of course this year that is NOT the case. I'm sure it's because I have decided to have an outdoor wedding in March...conspiracy I tell you! As of right now weather.com is predicting a high of 42 degrees on March 12th. I will let you guess how this makes me feel because the words I want to say just aren't lady like. Things could change but I doubt we will be looking at a temperature over 50 degrees. So...ladies and gents should I move the wedding inside or just tell everyone to bring a jacket? All advice is welcome!

Oh and can I just say.......GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR (that's for you mother nature)

RSVP

I have a few huge fears for my wedding day, just a few ;)

First I am afraid that no one will show up, even those who RSVPed, or those who do show up will bring a friend that I was not aware they were bringing. We are having a sit down meal with escort cards and the whole to-do, so if people don't show up or they bring uninvited guests it will be super obvious...this makes me nervous. I have already had several people ask me if they could bring a friend or new boyfriend etc., I don't mind at all of course, but I can tell you that I really appreciate the thought it takes to ask. It has been so helpful, now their guests are guaranteed an escort card, seat of their own and a meal, not to mention it's just plain courteous of them to ask. Thank you friends :)

My second fear is that I will have no idea how many people to list at our final meeting with the venue. Like I said it is a sit down dinner and an open bar, this means that we must pay per person for food and drink. As of right now we only have about half of our RSVP cards returned to us and the listed deadline is Friday! Starting Monday I will be calling all of the people who still haven't responded. I am deathly afraid that there will be tons of people I just can't get a hold of and I will have no idea what to list as our head count. By the way our final head count is due February 26th :/

Can I just add that sending in a guest card could NOT be any easier? The stamp is on and paid for, there is a fill in the blank for your name, and it's already addressed. Not to mention the wedding is 23 days away, come on people, you know if you're free or not, just send in the card! ;)

Ok I'm done worrying. Moral of the story is..if you were invited to my wedding and haven't sent in your RSVP yet, please do so ASAP!

More wedding fun

Here is our super fun personalized monogram

Here are the table numbers which match our menus.

I had originally wanted to use the monogram EVERYWHERE. Luckily I came to my senses and decided to just use it in a few key places. Our aisle runner and menu being two of the places. Here is picture of our BEAUTIFUL menus (yes, this is our actual food...yum!). I cannot end this post without giving some major credit to my bestie Kristen, as she is the fabulous woman who created both the table numbers and amazing menus for us. Obviously she has some mad computer skills ha-ha

All I have to say is yummmmmmmmmmmm

Mini Vent

Don't you hate when someone that is supposed to remember your birthday doesn't? There were two very specific people in my life who did not think to contact me on my birthday. Not a facebook message, not a text and especially not a phone call. One I'm pretty sure just forgot because she can be a bit "waify" if you will. Which is weird though because my birthday is on a holiday, not easy to forget ya know? The other did not forget, she was simply being passive aggressive and down right rude which really hurt my feelings. On the other hand this is a person who is not in my life by choice (if I had I choice...well you get the point) so I must take it on the cheek and move on, but I will not forget it that's for sure. Just thought a little bit of venting would help....

Nope didn't help, but here's to wishful thinking ;)

25

I turned 25 today...not sure how I feel about that yet....TBA

Wedding to do list

I CANNOT believe that my wedding is just 29 days away?! The time has simply flown by. Since I only have a month left to post about the wedding I figure I better get at it. Just for "scrap booking" purposes here is what is left to do on my wedding "to-do" list:

1. Call all unconfirmed guests

2. Make seating arrangement

3. Assemble escort card boards

4. Get Matt fitted for his tux

5. Touch base with Florist, cake baker and Pastor (already confirmed and set with the others)

6. Package pecan favors

7. Force Matt to write his attendant thank you notes

8. Drop shower thank you's in the mail (thank god I have already written them)

9. Set reception agenda with Band

10. Make cocktail hour play list

11. Pick band must play list

12. Pick up my dress from seamstress (day before)

13. Get marriage certificate (we can officially do that now that we are less than 30 days away)

14. Assemble out of town guest bags (Jones soda, cook

ie and info packet)

15. Pay final balances to the courtyard, string trio and

videographer (all the rest are paid)

16. Get buckets from Susie for the sparklers.

17. Last but not least....

Have final meeting with Christiana at the Courtyard. This includes:

Picking final linens

Giving final head count

Making a reception room set up plan

Going over ceremony and reception agendas

Finalizing the menu

Making a vendor contact sheet

Planning vendor meals

Making a ceremony set up plan

Picking our signature cocktail

That's actually not too bad for being 29 days away...I

'm pretty proud of my self. My OCD organization has really paid off ha-ha.

And because no post in complete without a photo, Here are a few pictures of some of the fun wedding extras I have:

This is the antique broach that will go on the stem of my bouquet...it's so beautiful in person, my camera skills just suck ;) Ignore the white string obviously, it's the tag

Again my camera skills suck, but this is the antique broach that will go on the middle of the ring bearer pillow. My mom has hand made the pillow, it is sooo beautiful. Pictures of that to come.

My parasol, that we will be using in some of our photos, then using one of the photos of us with it to have thank you cards printed.

Our favor boxes, that will have Texas candied pecans in them. Alot of our guest are from out of town so we thought a traditional Texas treat would be fun. The little silver charm says "Thank You"

This is what my cake will look like, but with 3 tiers, no polka dots and the ribbon will be black not purple. The flowers will be the same. If you can't tell my colors are black and white with a hint of purple.

This is a really crappy picture of my hair piece, it is super sparkly and has an antique feel like all of jewelry and broaches. Oh and that is NOT how I will have my hair done, I just threw it up to show the barrette.

This is what Matt's cake will look like, can you tell he picked it out? He plays guitar, I think it's pretty cool ;)

Baby Cheeks in Pictures

So after last nights post it has occurred to me that I haven't posted any pictures of the adorable Ms Samantha lately. Her life (and mine) have been so busy lately that I haven't had a chance to catch up. Here are some photos of the sweet girl to get everyone up to speed.

Taking a bath at almost 4 months old

I love baths!

My first trip to Ohio to see family, all bundled up

My 4 month old check up

Healthy!

Christmas time

Me and Santa

My first trip to Colorado!

It was cold, brrrrr

Fist trip to the rodeo in Fort Worth

Rodeo again

This is how I sleep

My first time in my new exersaucer

My first curl..just popped up over night

Me almost 6 months old, with my new monkey

As you can see these photos are from 4 months till now. Man she grows fast. I will be posting pictures from our fabulous Palm Beach trip very soon.

Baby Food

Just a quick after work post:
I have now successfully mastered the art of baby food making :) I am quite proud of myself if you can't tell. Today I went shopping for way to long, and spent a million dollars to buy all organic fruits and veggies then went back home to have at it. I got out my steamer, baking dish, strainer and food processor...and away we went. Just today I made and froze (in cute little covered ice cube tray thingies) baby friendly, sweet potatoes, green beans, butternut squash and carrots. I ran out of trays so tomorrow I plan to make, acorn squash, peas, apples, avocado, bananas and if I have room some cantaloupe for good measure ;) So far Cheeks has only tried rice cereal, oatmeal, green beans and sweet potatoes. Since we are only introducing two a week (every 3 days) it may take a while to get all the way to cantaloupe. Never the less I am excited. Ya see in all my years as a nanny I have never been able to take the lead on homemade baby food, mainly b/c most people just buy store bought and also b/c some of my kiddos were a little older when I got ahold of em. I feel like I conquered a fun new skill today, one that will help me should I ever decide to have my own baby ;)

Yay me!

This is Samantha eating rice cereal for the first time!

The first picture is of Samantha in her new high chair for the first time!

Bridal Shower and Tea

Last weekend I went to Houston for my long awaited bridal shower! My lovely bestie Kristen and my sweet sister Laura threw me the most amazing Tea Party! The day was perfect, with feathers, hats, tea, mimosas and all. I had a fabulous time, thank you to everyone who came to "shower" me, I love you all. Of course a special special thanks to the wonderful hostesses! Here are some of my favorite photos from the day.


The pretty in pink tables.


The cute signing frame.


The beautiful table Kristen set up so perfectly


Me with my tea hat and a mimosa of course


Me and the lovely Stephanie


Me again, hey it was my bridal shower, it's all about me right? lol


With the amazing Waterford toasting flutes from Kristen and her Mom <3


All the lovely women in my life


Me and my best friend in the whole world

Me and my sister being silly


Me with the wonderful hostesses


Open gifts


The teapot my Daddy got me in London, so thoughtful


Me and my sweet bridesmaids


Two of the most important people in my life, my Mom and Sister, Laura


Me and my Mommy <3

Cheers!