What Will Baby Bee?

As mentioned in my previous post, my mom and I hosted a gender reveal party for my sister, Mary, and her husband, Jeremy.  They are due on October 4.  Mary went to the doctor for the anatomy ultrasound on Friday, and we had the party on Saturday afternoon.  I had fixed an envelope for her to take to her appointment, complete with directions for the sonographer and baker.  The sonographer had to circle the gender and include an ultrasound picture identifying the gender.  The envelope was sealed and taken to the baker, so no one knew except the doctor's office and the bakery.  If they were having a boy, the icing on the inside of the cake should be blue, or pink for a girl.
My mom and I worked on the decorations for the party during the time we were in Taylorsville.  I had already planned everything and had bought supplies....we just needed to put it all together. 

Invitations:  I found the cute bee-themed invitations from the Dimpleprints shop on etsy.  It was a digital file, so all we had to do was send it to Sams Club and have them printed.  I bought envelopes for them at A.C. Moore.  I was so pleased with how they turned out!  The flower arrangement was a pinterest idea, and it was so easy to make.  A grocery store bouquet with some sliced lemons in a mason jar...voila!

Wreath:  We made a mesh wreath for the front door to welcome the guests.  This was my first attempt at making one of these, and I was so pleased with how it turned out.  I bought an unfinished wood plaque at A.C. Moore and painted it with chalkboard paint.  For the party, we wrote, "Welcome to the Hive!" but Mary can change the message easily with a wet rag and some chalk.

Banner:  I found free printables online to make a banner and used mom's cricut machine to make the letters.  We glued it all together and strung it together with ribbon.  It said, "What Will Baby Bee?"  Unfortunately, I failed to get a good picture!  You can kind of see it in the background of this picture.

Wishes for Baby-to-Bee:  This was a pinterest idea that I modified to fit with our theme.  We used scrapbook paper in our party colors to make the cards.  The cards could be filled out with funny or serious answers, and I think this is something they will all cherish for years to come.

Honey Tasting Station:  We had three different flavors of honey and a bowl of crossiants for our appetizers.  This was also a pinterest idea; however, I don't think this one went over very well.  Apparently, a lot of people don't like honey....so we had a lot of honey and crossiants left over.  I still thought it was cute though!

Gender Bet:  We got 2 plain white photo storage boxes and painted black polka dots on them to be used for our "girl" and "boy" boxes.  Guests had to put in $1 in the "honey pot" for each guess they made, either girl or boy.  They wrote their name on a slip of paper and put it in the box.  After the gender was revealed, we drew a name from that box and that person was the winner!

Aunt Mickie won the honey pot!  Poor Connor was a little upset he didn't win it, so she was nice enough to share! 

As decoration on the gender bet table, I had Connor draw a picture of what he thought his little brother or sister would look like.  It was his idea to write a sentence saying, "I hope it will bee a boy."  He was also the mastermind behind using "bee" instead of "be" to go with our theme.  This was a special surprise for Mary and Jeremy.  (On a side note:  I continue to be so amazed at his smarts every time I am with this sweet little boy!  As a previous teacher, I am amazed that he used correct spelling, correct punctuation, correct capitalization, and neat handwriting on his artwork...he's only in kindergarten.  But that's nothing of what this little boy can do!  While we were there, we said we had to start getting Maddie for bed around 7 p.m., but we could play until that time.  He looked at the clock...it was 6:47 p.m.....and without hardly even thinking about it, he said, "We have 13 minutes to play!"  And, my how that boy can read, too!)

Activities: We had a ladder ball game and cornhole game set up outside, along with some bubbles (or bee-bles) and sidewalk chalk for the kids. 

Food:  We made a simple dinner of bar-"bee"-que sandwiches, honey bar-"bee"-que chips, corn-on-the-"comb", honeycomb pineapple, and "bee"-verages.  And of course the cake (more to come later)!  I found some free printables online that I used to make the food signs. 

We used mason jars as a glass, complete with a yellow striped paper straw from etsy and homemade paper flags that said, "What will baby bee?" on one side, and "Sweet as honey!" on the reverse.

Team Pink and Team Blue:  We requested that the guests wear either pink or blue to correspond with their best guess of what they thought the gender would be.  As you can see, pink outnumbered blue!

Maddie even had a special outfit to wear!  She had the cutest little bee dress made from Frida's Closet on Etsy.  Once again, I failed on my photography duties, and I did not get a good shot of her dress...but she's still cute as can bee anyways!

Madelyn and Aunt Suesanne

Reveal cake:  We had a beehive cake to go with our bee theme, complete with a special door that held the sonogram pictures identifying the gender.  They were in a ziploc bag to keep them clean.  After we had eaten dinner and taken pictures of Team Pink and Team Blue, Mary, Jeremy, and Connor excitedly cut into the cake to find out that they were having a GIRL!!!  :)  Mary was thrilled!  Connor soon remembered that he wanted a brother, and he wasn't quite as happy at first!  By the end of the night, I think he had decided it was ok that he was going to have a little sister!  ;)

Pink icing inside = GIRL!

Pulling out the ultrasound pictures

Baby girl parts

We are so excited for Mary, Jeremy, and Connor!  We can't wait to have another sweet niece for Maddie to play with!

What Have We Been Doing?

So I know I've been missing in action on here for the past several weeks....ok, almost a month!  Cody was able to work with one of the Family Medicine offices in Taylorsville for two weeks, so Maddie and I tagged along since all of our family lives there.  We were just too busy having fun to do anything besides just enjoy being around our family!

We are wanting to move back to Taylorsville once Cody finishes his residency, so this was the perfect opportunity to get his foot in the door with one of the FM offices there.  He worked with the Family Care Center and loved it!  He pretty much has a job there if he wants it!  There is one other office in town that he will work with at the end of the year, so we'll just have to wait and see where God is leading him to go.

While we were there, we were able to get in lots of family time!  We had lots of family dinners with both sides of our family, watched our nephew Connor play t-ball, went to eat lunch with Connor and my sister, and I was able to visit with one of my best friends from high school!  Although it was nice to come back to our own house, we really hated to leave.  It was so nice being so close to all of our family again!  We are ready to move back!

Although Madelyn seemed to enjoy being around all of her family, she just could not get into any good sleeping habits while we were there.  I tried to keep her routine as close to normal as possible, but her naps shortened, and she was up multiple times at night, sometimes for hours at a time!  Either she was so excited about being there or just missing her own bed that she just couldn't sleep.  Thank goodness she already seems to be back into her normal sleeping patterns since we returned to Greenville!

Cody came back to Greenville on May 1, but Madelyn and I stayed for a few more days to throw a gender reveal party for my sister and her husband.  It turned out so good!  I'll do another post soon with pictures of the party!

5 Months Yesterday!

We are so blessed to have the sweetest little girl in the world!  We've been having so much fun over the past five months; we can't believe it has been five months already!  She is growing up so fast!  Here's what Madelyn is into now:

• wearing 3-6 month clothing
• wearing size 2 diapers
• She can "tripod" (sitting while using her hands for balance), but we still stay close by because she still tips over pretty easily. 
• Favorite toys:  Lulu in a Tutu, jumperoo, the remote (although we don't give her this to play with, but she still wants to hold it when it is nearby), her Nuby teether, looking at books (and trying to eat them), her lovies, her barking doggie
• She eats about every 3 hours, but she is much more efficient at nursing.  It takes her about 20 minutes to eat.
• She will take a bottle (most of the time) in the nursery at church or for Daddy, but it has to be warmed.  She still has her moments when she just will NOT take a bottle.
• She still goes to sleep while I am rocking and nursing her.  We play the ocean waves on her Sleep Sheep while she is drifting off to sleep.  She wakes up about once a night, sometimes twice.  She usually sleeps about 8 or 9 hours before waking up, then I change her diaper, feed her and put her back to bed.
• She tries to put everything in her mouth, even if it won't fit.  She tries to put her doggie in her mouth, which is a hard, plastic, barking, rolling toy that is way to big for her mouth; she usually ends up getting frustrated that she can't get it in her mouth that I take it away and give her something else to play with.
• Maddie naps in her swing about 3-4 times a day.  Her naps are about 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours long.
• Her favorite song is "Wheels on the Bus."  I'll sing it to her, moving her legs round and round, side to side, or up and down while we sing.  She just smiles and giggles.
• Madelyn is starting to have some stranger anxiety.  It seems a little early for it, but she will stick her little lip out to people she doesn't know when they say hello. 
• She loves Hershey and wants to pet him when he is close by.  Hershey prefers to keep his distance.  :)
• She likes to stand with help.  She will hold our hands and help pull while we pull her up to a standing position.
• Madelyn enjoys bath time and is really kicking in the tub.  I got soaked the other night in one kick!  Somehow she always kicks the water towards Mommy and not Daddy.  Just wait....it's coming, Daddy!!
• She enjoys having lotion rubbed on her legs.
• Sitting in the bumbo seat will usually make her poop.  We're starting to call it the poop seat!
• Madelyn loves looking at the tree in her room.  She can see it while she is getting her diaper changed or while we are rocking in the chair, and she just coos at it.
• She giggles when I tickle or kiss her little neck or blow raspberries on her belly.  Daddy can also get her laughing by making silly faces and noises.  Maddie loves her Daddy!
• Maddie coos, grunts, giggles, laughs, and squeals.  She says, "oooo,"  "uuuhhh," "gooo," "aaahhh-ooo," "whooo."  She's becoming more vocal.  We're trying to work on "Mommy" and "Daddy", but I think it will be a little while. 
• Maddie is definitely noticing food more.  She is still strictly on breastmilk, but she has interest in other food.  She tries to grab at my bowl of cereal in the mornings, wants to hold our cups, and reaches for any thing that is nearby.  We can't wait to see her reaction when she does start eating solid food...we'll probably wait until 6 months to start solids.
• She loves being outside.  We try to go on a walk everyday.  She'll either ride in the stroller, in the Moby wrap with Mommy, or in the carrier with Daddy.
• She is a good car rider.  Mommy is starting to ride in the front seat with Daddy again!
• Maddie has really started to notice her feet.  She loves the pajamas that have characters on the feet, but she also just stares at her bare feet.  I've also noticed that she will look at my feet some too.
• Madelyn was kept by her first babysitter (that wasn't family).  Mommy and Daddy went to talk to the Easter bunny and to grab a bite to eat.  She was asleep when we left, and she woke up crying!  We had to come home a little early....so attached already.
• No doctors appointment this month.

I couldn't pick just one picture....
She was getting tired, so there aren't any big smiles, but lots of cute Maddie faces!

Big Blue Eyes

Maddie and Daddy Beatboxing

Hippity Hoppity...The Easter Bunny Came!

Maddie celebrated her first Easter yesterday!  She was a good girl in the nursery at church; she ate her bottle without a fuss for Miss Nichole and was a happy baby all day!

Cody had to go into work first thing in the morning, but he was able to meet us at church.  Maddie wasn't up before he left, so we waited to see what the Easter Bunny had brought her until after lunch.  We ate lunch with some friends from church.  After we got home and Maddie woke up from her nap, we went to see what the Easter Bunny brought.  He brought her a book about Easter, bubbles, sunscreen, a float for the pool, a "bunny" chick, and a ball popper toy.  She loved everything!  We spent the afternoon reading the book, playing with the ball popper and watching the bubbles.  Oh, how I wish we had the video camera when we were outside with the bubbles.  Madelyn loved watching Hershey chase the bubbles; she just giggled and giggled for the longest time.  We all had a great Easter!

FART award

Congratulations to my wonderful husband for winning the FART award!  No, that's not what it sounds like--although he could probably win that one too!  :)  Last night, he won the FMIG Awesome Resident Teaching (FART) award at the FMIG graduation banquet.  He was nominated and voted to win by the 2012 graduating class of medical students for his wonderful teaching skills when working with these students.  It is a passion of his to work with medical students, and it shows.  He does a wonderful job, and I am so proud of him.  Besides, how could they not love him, anyway?