Showered - Part #1

Back in September, I had my first baby shower for Baby Snider (who hopefully will be making his arrival any day now!).  My amazing sister hosted at Forty Five Ten T Room in Dallas.  Ever since she planned her own wedding in 2012, she has just had a knack for all of the little special details.  To top it off, she's an incredibly talented photographer.  She gave me such a gift in that she photographed, edited and sent me all of the below pictures which I'll cherish forever!!

It was such a neat experience to celebrate Tim and I's first child with all of my childhood friends.  Almost everyone at the shower I've known for at least 15+ years and most of them watched me grow up!  I'm normally not super emotional, but even I couldn't help tearing up when I looked around the table.  I'm blessed to have such life long friends in my life and this was an event I'll never forget!

Thanks to everyone for also conveniently wearing blue!  :)  Love everyone in this pic!!

Arrivals!  Cameron even drove in from San Antonio!

You can see what I mean about Pam being great at all the details - I had zero input into the shower (just how I like it) and Pam came up with some extremely personal touches.  She knows I love to read and Tim loves to hunt plus our nursery colors are grey, white and blue.  Pam's best friend Laura drew the above picture of the books and each of the guests signed with their own "title."  I just had this framed and will have to put a finishing pic up from the nursery.  Everyone filled out their wishes for Baby Snider which I had fun reading later.  My lovely mother misread a bit and thought it was wishes for me, so she hopes that baby (boy) Snider is the best mom ever!  :)  Everyone got to take home a bookmark which said "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents."

A gathering without desserts is just a meeting!  Super cute desserts - mini cupcakes, cake with deer and "cute as a button" cookies

Some of the decor - the hanging items are vintage books!!!

Love getting to see everyone!

Me & my mom

Friends since kindergarten!  Cameron & I

Obligatory awkward selfie

Writing wishes

Wonderful friends

Feeling him kick

Bouje girls!

Family - L to R - Sarah (my brother's FIANCE...yay!), me, Mom & Pam (oops...missing my sis-in-law Mary Beth!)

AMAZING Hostess - Love you, Sambo!

Thanks so much to everyone who came and helped make this day so special!!!  Baby Snider is very loved!

Summer of Weekend Getaways

Last year was a year of really big trips for us.  Between my sister's wedding, Tim's sister's wedding, Vegas for a friend's bachelorette, Santa Ynez for my sister's bachelorette, Mexico for our 5th wedding anniversary and a New York Mother's day trip with my mom it was a little crazy!  We made some incredible memories, but didn't really plan anything major for this year as a result.  It's ended up being kind of nice in that we've taken several small getaways instead of one long beach trip.  Here's a quick recap of our summer:

MAY

Fort Worth, TX

I ended up having to travel to Fort Worth for a work training in May and my Dad & Renee, plus my brother Rhett, his girlfriend Sarah and my brother Will drove over to have dinner with me the night I was there.  Renee's sister and her family also came.  This was especially fun timing - I got to tell them in person that I was pregnant!

Renee, me, Rhett, Sarah & Will at my hotel

Dad's turn for a pic

Destin, Florida

As usual, we had to make our annual trek to Destin (this past weekend was just an added bonus).  We rented a place in Sandestin with our friends Justin and Nichole and a had a great time.  I wasn't feeling super hot this trip (still in 1st trimester - lots of sleeping and nauseau...yuck), but the beautiful weather and fun company made up for it!

Love this beach!

Tim sat in our beach chair and BROKE it! :(

Sand Angel!

Atlanta, GA

Tim's birthday is in May and I surprised him with a trip to Atlanta to see the Braves play.  He grew up a Braves fan, but had never been to a game.  I think I finally thought of something good that he would like!  The game was great - Braves ended up winning on back to back home runs in the 8th inning.  I looked over at Tim when everyone was doing the tomahawk and I swear, his eyes were glistening...well, he at least had goosebumps!

Tim walking down memory lane

Go Braves!

They won!

JUNE

Birmingham Barons game

Tim's company took the sales team on an annual outing to see the Barons play.  This was the first time either Tim or I had been in the new stadium which was VERY nice.  There was a "pre-game" gathering at Good People brewery across the street and I even rallied to go out for a little bit after the game.  

Barons Game

New Regions Field

Lake Martin, AL

Our friends Will & Blaire were kind enough to invite us up to Lake Martin for the weekend where we had a great time relaxing, getting some sun and going on the boat.  Tim even took his first jump off of Chimney Rock!

Practicing tubing skills with Will & Blaire's children, Bill Louis & Caroline

Staycation at Ross Bridge Resort

For our 6th anniversary, it was Tim's turn to do the surprising - he booked us a staycation at Ross Bridge - complete with massages, nice dinner and poolside lounging - my kind of vacation!  We LOVED having a 5 minute drive home!!!  It was such a great surprised and I really enjoyed spending the one-on-one time with him.

View from our room

Anniversary dinner

For Tim's gift, I put together 6 different presents that told him something I liked about him and put together a picture from each year of our marriage on the front that he got to open throughout the weekend.

He definitely knows the way to my heart - sweets!

Cupcakes from Dreamcakes

JULY

Lincoln/Palmyra, Nebraska

Tim's cousin got married on the 4th of July - it was such a cute wedding that Lisa did mostly herself, Tim's mom and sis took most of the pictures, so sadly I've got nothing - I'll have to beg them to send me a few!!!  We made a long weekend over the 4th of July and got in some good family and friend time.

Dinner with the Weatherls (Brandt & Amy) - two preggers!

Hanging out at the Hatchers

Amy & their daughter, Chloe

Our godson, Landon

Me & Crew chilling!

Roasting s'mores

One of Tim's very good friends had twins the week before and they were nice to let us come by and visit (even though I'm sure they were mostly just needing a nap!)  The Lang babies were so tiny and cute - was good practice for Tim & I!

AUGUST

Mom comes to visit

My mom came in town to attend our 20 week ultrasound with us and we had a full-on baby weekend!  She helped us go start the process of registering (whew...overwhelming) and we did some other shopping and prep.

Mom & I at lunch

My cousins met us for lunch

The Keathley granddaughters

Love you mom!

Mom bought Baby Snider his first outfit!

We ended out August with one last Destin trip and are looking forward to Tim's mom coming in town for Labor Day - this weekend will be project:  Nursery!

Baby Snider Gender Reveal!

Since all of our family is mostly out of state and it's hard to do something in person, Tim & I decided to do something a little different to reveal Baby Snider's gender to our family.  I found a tutorial on Pinterest for scratch off cards that I followed to make cards.  I did the print itself in Photoshop.  If you want some basic lessons on how to create a chevron pattern in Pinterest, I followed this one - How to make a chevron pattern in Photoshop.  It took me a little bit of trial and error, but I ended up with a design I really liked!

        

For the scratch off part, I think I had a bit of pregnancy brain.  I originally bought white adhesive paper which duh, doesn't work because it needs to be clear to see through what you've typed underneath once you scratch off the dishsoap/paint combo.  You want clear contact paper!  I also didn't have a circle cutter, so I just meticulously traced circles on the back side and cut with a pair of good old fashioned scissors which wasn't TOO bad since we weren't making that many.

We had everything all set up the night before (except for printing out the cards since we didn't know what to place under each circle) - but envelopes were addressed, card was ready to be printed.  We ended up doing 1/2 the envelopes in pink and 1/2 in blue, which on second thought probably wasn't a good idea because a lot of our family thought that was the reveal!  Once we had our appointment, my mom (who came in town just for the occasion and was sworn to secrecy), Tim & I rushed home, did a quick assembly line and dropped them in the mail that afternoon.  Sadly, because our appointment was on a Thursday, most everyone didn't end up getting their cards until Monday.  We were dying over the weekend!  My grandmother and aunt were together and tried to trick us into telling several different creative ways (my favorite being they called and said they had gotten the card when they hadn't!)

Once everyone finally did get their cards, we were able to be on the phone or on FaceTime with a lot of people when they did the scratch off which was neat and we were so excited to reveal..........

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We're having a BOY!!!

The full print

We're both over the moon excited - Tim said he's happy it will be the first time he's ever lived in a house with more boys than girls and I'm really comfortable with boys since I grew up with brothers.  Plus, I know there's a reason they call them "momma's boys"  :)  It was an incredible moment to finally be able to picture us having a SON!  We were extremely grateful that everything looked good on the ultrasound (he was measuring a little bit ahead....that's our boy, already advanced!  :))  We've now been more in baby mode, although still no word on a name.  It's a little overwhelming and seems like such a big decision!  We love him already!

Last Beach Trip - Snider Party of 2

Tim & I got back last night from a very last minute beach trip down to Destin, FL.  We got married down on that beach and LOVE going back whenever we can, so when we got a call from a timeshare company doing a promotion (we think they got our info from the Mexico trip we took last year), we decided to take them up on it!  Nothing like a close to free 3 night vacation!!  We're really trying to soak up the time with just the two of us and figured it may be the last time we get down to the beach as just a family of 2.  

We drove down late Thursday night and checked in our hotel.  Friday morning, we ate at the hotel and headed over to the 2 hour timeshare presentation that was required as part of our stay.  We got there a few minutes early and went for a walk on the beach and stopped for drinks (virgin for me!) at Whale's Tale right on the beach.  The presentation ended up being perfect timing because it rained most of Friday afternoon.  We didn't buy a timeshare, but we did go ahead and buy some points for our next beach trip after baby!  We both want to make sure we continue to get away and enjoy fun family time.  Friday night, we went to one of our favorite restaurants - Louisiana Lagniappe which was wonderful as usual.  It was nice because our hotel was a little further west than we're used to staying, so we were close to the restaurant and got to enjoy a few different spots.

Tim & I at dinner on Friday night

Saturday morning, we decided since we weren't really paying much for lodging that we'd do something different.  We woke up SUPER early and booked a fishing excursion with the two of us and a guide from 6-10am.  I really have very little fishing experience (honestly...the bait we were using was larger than either of the 2 fish I can remember catching in my "career").  It was a lot of fun!  When we first hit the spot, the guide baited the hook and cast for me and the minute he handed the pole to me, I got a bite!!!  It was a huge redfish and let me tell you, reeling those things in is NO JOKE.  Luckily, since I was pregnant and couldn't get a lot of leverage holding the pole against my body, the guide had thought to bring a "gut belt" which is so attractively pictured below.  This helped me reel in (you put the rod in the hole so it has something to press against).

Me with the first catch of the day

You're only allowed to keep fish within a certain slot limit and the fish above was actually too large to keep, so we let him go.  After this fish, I caught the next three as well!!!  (Don't worry, I didn't rub it in to Tim at all....)  We caught two really nice trout and another redfish that was just within the slot limit to keep!

Tim's 1st saltwater fishing experience

After the initial activity, things slowed down quite a bit and we moved to a few different spots.  Just when things were looking bleak, we returned to our original spot and Tim reeled in this baby:

Even Tim's arms were tired/sore after reeling him in!!

It was a great experience and something we'd love to do again.

Baby's 1st Fishing Trip!

Cleaning our 3 keepers - we get have these to cook later!

Filleting the fish 

After the fishing trip, we took a small detour at the Donut Hole (our first time ever going there) so Tim could get a tummy ache from his Apple Fritter which was massive.  We hit the beach that entire afternoon and got a lot more sun than we were expecting since it was so nice and even a little bit cloudy.  Friday evening, we tried out a new (to us) spot for dinner - The Back Porch.

Sadly, this was a quick trip and we had to head back on Sunday, but made two quick pit stops - first at the spot where we said our vows 6 years and some change ago.  It was a little sad because the beach had grown over in the exact spot we got married (looks like maybe it's not currently owned/maintained), but he and I had a special moment reliving our wedding and reflecting over where we've come from there.

Lastly, we hit up the outlet malls.  Stops were a little different this time - Destination Maternity (gross...I HATE shopping for maternity clothes and have held out as long as I can!!!) and a few cute things from Carter's that I couldn't resist.

Random instagram pic from Whale's Tale