With our baby on the way, Selena and Jason offered to throw us a baby shower. In the interest of keeping it a small and more intimate affair, we chose to have a girls only shower at their home instead of a co-ed shower that would have had to be held at a restaurant.
The shower was on April 9th, and many of Amy's closest friends and family were able to attend. Fun was had by all and Amy was literally showered with gifts for baby.
We want to give a special thank you to Selena for all of her work in putting the shower together. Also to Maureen Hoffman for taking photos of the event for us with our new camera. And of course to everyone else who was able to come - thanks for being there to share in the fun!
Below are some photos documenting the affair:
This is part of the beautiful spread that Selena and Jason provided.
Above you can see Nana, Lana, Laura, Grandma Sandy and Sommer waiting for the party to start...
Sommer, Lynn, Carla, Maureen, Melissa and Lynnette also waiting for the party to begin!
We started with introductions, then played the "would you rather" game, this is Amy explaining one of her answers...
Debbie, Nana and Lana getting into the game...
Julie, mystery girl and Ellen getting in on the game too... Note about baby showers, please don't bring your friends if they aren't invited... that's why I don't know the name of the person in the middle of this photo, she wasn't invited...
After the game we got straight into gift opening. There was a ton of loot and it's impossible to show it all, so here are some of the highlights... this is the quilt that Samara made for us... it's adorable! And her first quilt too! She took a class just for this reason - what a touching gift!
No shower is complete without some baby socks and shoes! Thanks Lynnette! She got us a ton of other stuff too, but the shoes are just too cute to leave out!
Sommer is practically a professional quilter, so this is her latest masterpiece. What a shock! She'd shown us the fabrics and tried to explain her vision, but we couldn't have imagined something quite this cool! Wow!
As if the quilt wasn't enough, Sommer and her mom also made this uber cool, gigantic diaper/travel bag. Giraffe print and everything! This must have taken them forever and cost a small fortune! Again, what a shock and an amazing gift! This bag was also full of other goodies, Sommer and her family really went all out for us!
And where there is one quilt, there's more! Sommer had started this quilt years ago and when Amy saw it sitting at her house and joked that she could save it for us once it was finished... as it turned out she didn't get around to finishing it until we were due, so she ended up making the quilt for us after all!! YAY!!
Laura and Wil had gone the personalized route. The picked out some cute onesies and clothes and had them embroidered to say, "lil' neezy". Wil, one of Anth's best and longest friendships, has had many nicknames for Anth over the years, so it only makes sense that he would nick name our little one before he even arrives!
Here's everyone being partially bored with all the present opening... Debbie, Nana, Lana, Laura, Sandy, Sommer, Lynn, Carla....
Selena, Libbye, Julie, Mystery and Ellen...
The biggest surprise of the day for Amy was when Selena handed her a package from the Acosta family. As she opened it she immediately recognized Jack's handy work... Jackers had used his easel to draw many pictures and then Heather used them as packing paper for the gifts! Then the card attached had a key that corresponded to the gifts so Amy could follow along with what gift was what and why Heather and Jason had picked them out. Very awesome! It was the closest thing to Heather actually being there, so Amy really appreciated the extra effort!
And now, a photo catalogue of guests...
Maureen Hoffman... a dear friend who's known Anthony for years, works with him and his family at Buffalo and has been a huge help to us personally throughout our relationship...
Nana Benezra... Anthony's Grandma on his Dad's side...
Lana Thomason... friend of Anthony's since high school (and maybe before then too) and wife of Anth's dear friend Drew...
Sommer Ueda... a dear friend of Amy's through work who happened to know Anthony before Amy did, of course, cuz who doesn't know Anthony...
Laura Emerson... soon to be Laura Lavaris! Laura and Wil recently got engaged and we couldn't be happier for the two of them!! They are such a perfect match and we love them both!
Samara Owen... Aunty Samara, Jeremy's long time girlfriend who we absolutely adore!
Debbie Benezra... and Grandma to be!
Julie Fisk... good friend of Amy's who was brought into our lives through JCC Basketball and the rekindled friendship between Matt Fisk and Anthony who met up in their 20's again after not seeing each other since swim classes as little kids...
Libbye Wyrick... Family friend who we simply love as family :)
Carla Watkins... family friend of Amy's family since we used to live in Arizona. Carla has known Amy since she was just a little girl and even though Amy doesn't get to see her very often, Amy loves spending time talking with Carla because she is just an awesome soul to be around!
Sandy Friedman... Great Grandma to be, Anthony's Grandma on his Mom's side...
Lynnette Palmer... One of Amy's best friends since college at UW... we are so happy she is living in the Seattle area these days and we've had time to spend with her and her daughter while she is here!
Ellen Benezra... cousin of Anthony on his Dad's side...
Lynette McEuen... Mother of Heather Acosta and practically family since Amy used to spend time at her home all the time growing up!
Maureen Stewart... One of Amy's two best friends from high school, the closest thing Amy has to a real sister...
Melissa McGraw... Sister of Maureen Stewart, and also practically family what with all the time we spent together at her house growing up :)
Selena Famularo... Anthony's sister and party hostess! Thanks again Selena!!
Lynn Brelsford... Amy's Mom and Xander's Grandma to be!!
And of course, Jason Famularo... the dude who helped with the whole affair even with his busy schedule including his full time baller job at Amazon and full time graduate program at the UW.
Thanks again to everyone for coming and being a part of this awesome event!
