baby shower #1 {friends}

When Russ and I first got pregnant, we told immediate family almost right away -- at 6 weeks -- and then we told only a few friends in the meantime before we publicly announced around 13 weeks. Two of those friends were Sarah and Caroline, and when I told Caroline, she said (after a bunch of sweet things about how I'll be a great mama), "Sarah and I are going to throw you a baby shower! I can't wait to tell Sarah!" Haha that girl :)

So this last weekend, Caroline and Sarah did indeed throw my first baby shower, and it was just wonderful :) It included friends from a few different parts of my life -- jr. high, high school, college, my first married student ward, and work. It was so fun to see so many people that I just think are great in one room, especially since I don't see them all nearly enough.

katie, carly, me, marcela (& elijah), lindsay, caroline
ashlee, eryn, kari, maddie, sarah

The shower was held at The Chocolate, which is really a perfect location for me because, if you know me at all, you know that I love sweets :) We munched on mini cupcakes and pink sugar cookies as people trickled in at the beginning. We chatted and people asked me questions about my pregnancy and Ada :)

We then played two games. In the first, we all had to try baby food and guess the flavors. It wasn't like I was going to gag or die because of the taste, but most of them sure weren't tasty and I found myself wondering how babies eat that stuff! My palate is obviously not very refined, because I only guessed 2 or 3 (out of 6) correctly. For the record, pear and mango are good flavors, chicken and gravy and green beans are not :) (we also tried sweet potato and sweet carrots). Eryn was the winner with 5/6 correct! (But I think Carly was the only one to get mangoes correct -- the rest of us thought it was peaches.)

In the second game, we had two or three minutes to come up with as many songs as we could that had the word "baby." Although I'm pretty sure there are a million songs that have the word "baby," it became so hard to come up with anything on the spot! I only got like five, and I'm pretty sure no one got more than ten. Then, we played like scattergories and had to cross off any duplicates. Since I was the mama-to-be, I had to go first, and we were supposed to sing the lines from our songs! I always say I don't embarrass easily, but I gotta say -- I was a little embarrassed to sing the lines haha :) After singing five songs, I was left with only one viable candidate haha. The winner of that game was Lindsay, with six unmatched songs!

Next it was time for presents, and I was definitely excited for this part! I've actually done a pretty stellar job of not buying things for Ada throughout this pregnancy -- although baby girl clothes are pretty much the cutest ever, I have exercised self-control and only bought two outfits! We've really only bought big things, like her crib and dresser, and we've just been planning on waiting til after showers to fill in any necessary blanks.

For that reason, it was definitely fun to finally receive some things for our baby girl! She got a bunch of cute books, bath time toys and a hooded towel(!), diapers, an adorable floral swaddling blanket, her first hairbows, and some really cute clothes :) I am SO excited to use all of Ada's wonderful gifts!

katie even chose the perfect wrapping paper for me!

I have some truly amazing friends, and I'm really grateful to all who came to share in the joy of our little Ada. I'm also really grateful to Sarah and Caroline for putting the whole thing together, because like I said, it was wonderful. I just feel so happy and blessed to have such good friends :)

friends from my first married student ward -- katie, carly, and eryn

best friend from 7th grade and beyond -- kari 

work friend -- maddie & baby ezra

high school and college best friend -- ashlee

college besties and best hostesses ever -- caroline and sarah :)

As we were leaving, Caroline said the lighting was perfect for photos! So I'll leave you with just two more haha :)

**ashleynicole