Here come the shameless baby pictures

Wow, what a week we had last week. In just one week we:
Got a nephew. Refinanced our house. Built a new patio and vegetable garden. Spent two evenings at the hospital with the baby. Spent a third evening in the emergency room with another loved one. I did a 9-hour television commercial shoot that involved me leaving my house at 5:30 in the morning. We celebrated two Fathers' Days. We hosted a dinner party at our home. We went to a wedding for Mr. Right's old roommate. We cheated on our Paleo diet for the first time.

And we took one of the longest, best Sunday afternoon naps we've taken in years.

Thankfully today begins a new, somewhat less exciting week, and I'm finally organized enough to post BABY PICTURES!

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit smitten with my nephew. He's just about the most precious thing you've ever seen, and I'm happy to report that my sister is recovering amazingly. I hope it runs in the family, because she made having a baby look easy.

So without further delay, I hope you enjoy a few shameless baby pictures of our sweet nephew Luke James, born June 11, 2012, a full week overdo, to my sister and brother-in-law. He's our first nephew (we already have a niece, Ella, who's almost three, and another nephew coming in October to Mr. Right's brother and his wife) and first child on my side of the family.

On his birthday - June 11, 2012

Those tiny fingers, and even tinier finger nails!

My husband, the baby whisperer

Oh that little face just melts my heart. He is such a sweet, laid-back baby. Little Luke, I know God has big plans for you, and your family loves you dearly!

Brain dead evening

I have hit my wall, slid down that wall, and ended up a wet puddle on the floor. To say I've had an intense 24 hours is an understatement - between an unexpected and very stressful trip to the ER (and a phone call that made my heart stop - thankfully all is now fine), an all-day commercial shoot that involved a huge crew of people in multiple locations, and about 4 hours of sleep between those two... I'm pretty darn useless.

So instead I'll just post a picture of my dear nephew Luke. As tired as I was, I couldn't help but swing by his house to hold him for a little while. Holding a sleeping baby just slows your heart beat a little, calms your nerves, and makes your stress melt away. Thanks Luke for the pick-me-up. You are so dear to my heart, little man.

PS--It's a small travesty that after paying a professional make-up artist a small fortune to work on our commercial today... one who happens to specialize in air brushing and who has worked with the Cowboy Cheerleaders... that I would look like this at the end of the day. I really should have asked her to give me the once-over with that make-up of hers.

(Also - I made that quilt in the background.)

He's here!

I am proud to introduce my new nephew Luke! He made his big debut Monday morning at a whopping 8 pounds, 20 ounces and 20 inches long. I know I'm biased, but he's the cutest baby in the whole world, and our whole family has fallen head over heels in love with him. 

I have many more pictures to post, but obviously I've been a bit, well, distracted this week with hospital visits and gazing into big blue baby eyes. Stay tuned for many more baby pictures.

And, in the meantime, head on over to the McGowan Images blog this morning to see photos of my recent gala. It was a labor of love and I'm so glad to see some bright, shiny pictures of our work on there. Enjoy!

A little poop and an open letter to Baby Luke

My day began with stepping in a giant pile of dog poop in the backyard, and then tracking it throughout my house before realizing it was stuck to the bottom of my flip flop. And all over my feet.

How did your day start?

Luckily my day quickly improved, and I didn't get any poop on our carpet. These are big wins, people.

And now to something much more important: an open letter to my sweet nephew Luke.

Dear Luke,

Your Aunt B can't wait to meet you, and I'm afraid you may already take after me, for I, too, tend to run a little behind schedule, trying to fit too many fun things in, always forgetting how long it takes to do my hair, and habitually underestimating the length of my commute. Not to mention all of the traffic from road construction.

So I totally understand that it's easy to be a few minutes late. But sweet Baby Luke, you're already a day late. A whole day. I would never be that late to something. It's just not good manners, my child.

Plus your dear mama (my sister) is so anxious to meet you, and hold you, and love on you for the first time. She's waited so patiently for the past 40 weeks, and now every day seems like an eternity. Plus it's awfully hot outside - I don't blame you for not wanting to make your grand entrance in this blazing Texas heat, but trust me, it won't get any cooler. And your mama is hot - help a girl out.

Please, please come out to play. I promise when you do, you'll be greeted with so many people who have loved you before you were even, well, you.

Sweet Baby Luke, I prayed for you years ago, before your mama even married your dad. I prayed back when the doctors told your mama that she might never be able to have a baby. We knew that our God was bigger than that, and so we started praying immediately that you would prove those doctors wrong. And we never stopped praying, and you DID prove those doctors wrong! You're almost here!

Your aunts and uncles and grandparents promise to keep on praying for you after you're born. So let's hurry this thing up and get your birthday party started. I'm free tonight, if you are. Please, oh please, don't make us wait any longer.

From your favorite aunt,
Bethe

PS- I promise to end this crazy Paleo diet before your first birthday so I can indulge in a little birthday cake. Not that I'm craving sugar or anything. No, not at all.

The baby shower and the quilt debut!

We threw my sister an "April Showers" baby shower last weekend, and I must say it was adorable. But then again, Sarah is a shower-giving pro, so it was fitting that her own shower be extra special.

Most of the credit for this shower goes to my other sister Lindsay, who graciously hosted it at her house and did most of the decorating. My mom and I provided most of the food, and Sarah, even though she was the guest of honor, even helped with some party favors (because she can't stand to pass up on a good craft project). She also gave us the world's greatest hostess gifts, I might add.

Lindsay came up with the genius idea of serving drinks in mason jars, because (a) they're adorable, and (b) they have a lid, which means no spills on her carpet! She just punched a hole in the top of each jar and inserted a straw. She also tied a name card to each drink so guests could label their drink and avoid mix-ups. I may use this idea at every party at my house for the rest of my life, especially once children are involved. Do they make plastic mason jars?

Oh wait, those are called sippy cups.

Since the shower was in the evening, we served a full dinner of chicken salad sandwiches, miniature ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit-kabobs, tomatoes with basalmic, pecans and peaches, various dips, and several desserts for our 30+ guests. Thankfully it was a team effort. 

Here are my sisters: Sarah, the interior designer (and baby Luke), and Lindsay, the Neuro ICU nurse. Unfortunately we're covering up the adorable burlap bunting that said Luke with rain clouds.

I was lucky enough to have two of my favorite girlfriends (and former bridesmaids) help us celebrate - Andrea and Katie. (Katie's the one getting my next quilt project, in celebration of her August wedding. And, well, Andrea is pretty much a member of our family.)



Here's most of our family: Philip (Luke's baby daddy... and Sarah's husband), Sarah, me, Lindsay, my mom and dad. It was an all girls' shower so Mr. Right and Lindsay's husband Dallas didn't get to come. Philip and dad came at the end to help load the cars, which we definitely appreciated.

By the way - my sister got a ton of loot at the shower (such sweet friends), but I must admit that I don't know what most of it is for. Baby things are like foreign objects for me right now... someday I'm going to need a crash course in baby gear.

And finally... drumroll please... here's my latest project, Luke's baby quilt! Ta dah! (imagine me using my best attempt at spirit sprinkles or jazz hands)

It was my first attempt at triangles, and I LOVED the process. My current project is another triangle quilt (I think I mentioned my 526 triangles?), but what I love about triangles is the next quilt will look NOTHING like this one - there are so many fun ways to use them.

I also must brag that this is the straightest quilt I've ever done - thanks in part to my fancy Janome machine. It's so much easier, and I'm learning secrets that help me keep things straighter (although if you look closely, you will definitely see mistakes). Instead of sewing this in rows, I patched it together in squares, then bigger squares, and eventually had four big squares that I sewed together. This helped me so that if one part got off, it didn't affect the rest of the quilt.

This quilt was made using vintage reproduction fabrics from my local quilting specialty shop - they cost a lot more than JoAnn's, but they were also cute enough to justify the difference. Because of all the reds and whites I chose to prewash all of my fabrics, so this one probably won't crinkle up as much as my regular quilts. I just couldn't chance any bleeding colors. Oh... and I did a combination of machine- and hand-stitching on the binding. Sometime soon I'll experiment with all machine-binding, but I'm still a bit worried about ruining an almost-finished quilt.

Here's another view of Mr. Right "modeling" the finished product - what a sweet husband:

And the back... my favorite part... it features vintage bicycles and scooters. ***Sigh***

I can't wait to see Baby Luke use his quilt! I hope that someday he drags it around the house, leaving it a dirty, tattered, well-loved blanket. Because that's exactly how all quilts should be used... they should be enjoyed and loved.

Baek-il

Last Saturday night Mr. Right and I went to our very first Baek-il - a 100-day birthday celebration for our dear friends' son Joseph. It's a Korean tradition that started many years ago, back when babies had a high mortality rate, so making it to 100 days was a sign that your baby was going to live to see adulthood. Which, was worth celebrating!

I just love learning about other cultures - and honestly, I am always looking for an excuse to throw another party - so this was my kind of night. I tried my first Korean food (yum - sushi and egg rolls and glass noodles) and enjoyed seeing some of the authentic Korean costumes and learning about their traditions. I also discovered that Asian pears are ginormous and SO GOOD! I have a mild pear addiction, so this made my whole night.

My favorite part of the party (besides the pears) was the tradition where the baby predicts his future job. Guests were encouraged to bring an item that symbolizes a future career. We brought a bottle of store-brand Benadryl because (a) I bought several on sale recently had an extra bottle sitting in my medicine cabinet, and (b) his mama is a doctor and it would be fitting if he became one too. So, our Benadryl was put out next to a Bible (preacher), a spool of thread (signifies a long life), a $20 bill (wealth or banker), a calculator (mathematician), and a hammer (architect?), and we waited for 3-month-old Joseph to reach for an item that would signify his future career.

However, there was one small problem. 100-day-old babies don't really perform on command. So we all stood around in a circle, anxiously waiting while he stared blankly at the items, probably thinking that we were a strange group indeed.

Finally, after trying several different positions and a lot of coaxing, he grabbed our Benadryl.

WHICH MEANS WE'RE THE WINNER. WE ARE AWESOME!! (Oh yeah, and he's going to be a doctor. Probably.)

One other funny story - I was sitting at the dinner table, enjoying my first taste of Korean food, when one of the guests leaned over and asked me, "How does it feel to be the only white people at the party?"

Gotta love blunt people. I told him I hadn't even noticed. And secretly I have to admit that being a fish out of water is one of my favorite parts of traveling... and teaching ESL... so this was right up my alley. Especially when they're feeding me.

Don't be surprised if someday Mr. Right and I adopt this tradition with our own babies. Which, for the record, we're not expecting anytime soon, even though I got asked AGAIN by a coworker last week if I was pregnant. This time I responded with "Feel how flat my stomach is - I'm doing Crossfit!" I'm done feeling bad when someone asks... I've been doing some crazy crunches and I feel good. I know it's the flowy shirts, but some of them are just too cute to give up (and are in style). 

Speaking of babies, stay tuned for my next post when I reveal my sister's uber cute baby shower and debut the baby quilt! I'm so excited I could spit.