Over Due Post #2: Maddie Day

I'm sure most of you have caught on, however, we are planning on naming her Maddilyn.  A few weeks after the shower, Adam and I decided that we were going to have one Sunday be "Maddie Day."  We had received her crib and changing table from my parents and the rocking chair/glider from the Zajic's (we are beyond blessed for these 4 people, because we'd be lost without them!), so we had all the furniture we needed for her room :).  Looking back we I obviously was oblivious to how much work this would really be. Adam warned me it would be a lot to do, but I didn't realize just how much "a lot" meant..LOL.

Luckily, again, we have amazing family that loves to help and in this case, also build/assemble.  With the help of Julee, Aleena and Daleena we were able to get all of the furniture, pack-and-play, monkey swing, bouncer and gadgets that needed to be put together assembled, in ONLY (hehe) a couple of hours.  But if you've ever been around us for more than 30 minutes, you know that we don't need anything else but each other for some good ole' dumb entertainment.  So at least we had a good time while building it and enough stupid songs and comments to still laugh about now.

We also baked some of Maddie's cookies that people received as favors from her August 17th shower, so I also fed them - I didn't just put them to work for nothing ;)  Thank you loves!

Over Due Post #1: Showered with Love

To say Bean is spoiled would be an understatement.  We were lucky enough to have two showers thrown for her and are now all ready for her arrival. :)

The first shower was on July 28th, thrown by my younger cousins, Aleena and Debbie (the day would have never been able to be successful without them!) and my mom.  We called this shower "The Laotian One."  

I grew up being raised by not only amazing parents, but also by an amazing community of their friends, as well as my mother's family. Quiet a few of these ladies had never been to a "traditional" baby shower before, so it made for an absolutely hilarious day.  

We played games and watched as they duked it out for prizes. Originally the fear was that these women weren't going to be very competitive about the games and prize, but boy were we wrong.  We had so many laughs that my stomach hurt by the end of the day.

Our second shower was thrown for us by my older cousins: Sara, Maniwan and Julee on August 17th - I know this post is SO LATE!  It was everything I could have asked for and more, the day was perfect.  

We had friends and family come from all over the place to help us celebrate.  Adam and I laid down on Sunday night after the festivities were all over and couldn't believe just how much love we felt from everyone.  We honestly have the most supportive, loyal and loving group of family and friends.  However, the conversation this evening about everyone was different than past conversations we've had on how lucky we were to have the people we do in our lives.  

This evening's conversation was more about how excited and happy we were to know that these people would be in our daughter's life.  We laughed as we talked about how she was going to learn this from so-and-so or what she would say when so-and-so said/did this to her.  Even thinking back to it again now, I can't help but smile and feel a small squeeze to the heart, I'm a sap, I know.

True to form of how my family does things, they did it big with the food, games and decorations :) The spread was huge and it all tasted phenomenal.  Everyone had a good laugh and enjoyed all the games we played, not because it was mandatory to have fun ;)  But because we really did have fun. LOL, we even had to "pause" the fun, for a bit, to recuperate and eat some Cafe Latte cakes.  

Like I said earlier, Bean was spoiled!  With the help of all of our overnight guests (thank you: Kim, Richie, Putty, Codi, Lauren and Tiff) it only took us a couple trips to get everything up to her room.  Hotel Kirksey puts you to work when you stay ;)  Also, lucky for us, Lauren flew out later in the day on Sunday and Whitcher spent an extra night with us, because if it weren't for their help we wouldn't have been able to get through sorting all the gifts in 3 1/2 hours.  It would have taken Adam and I days.  

I don't know what we'd do without you all!

Love, Christina