We’re in the final stretch of my pregnancy now, with less than 9 days until we get to meet baby Emilia (or Emi, as we always call her). Although I started working on her nursery months ago (I was so anxious for a new decorating project!), I only put the finishing touch on the room this past Monday. I’m excited to share the photos on the blog today!
Yesterday, I threw one of my best friends, Destiny, a baby sprinkle to celebrate the impending arrival of her sweet baby girl (and also her 25th birthday!). The shower was at Sweet Paris’ CityCentre location, and despite the weather outside being frightful, the atmosphere inside was seriously delightful (ode to one of my favorite Christmas carols). Destiny’s mom flew in from Las Vegas for the shower, and it was so nice getting to celebrate with Baby Thompson’s Nana there too!
We ate crêpes, decorated cupcakes, guessed Baby T’s arrival date, took photos in front of the sprinkle backdrop, watched as Destiny opened one adorable baby item after another, and had wonderful conversations amongst old and new friends. I love baby showers!
Destiny and I met last summer and quickly became good friends. We both have 2.5 year olds, Truman and Isla, who are also best friends, and I love seeing them together, as Isla always lights up when she sees her pal. Destiny is one of the most sweet, considerate, and thoughtful people I’ve ever met, and we wanted to show her how loved and appreciated she is. The group of ladies at the shower definitely filled the room up!
There were a lot of talented ladies who helped me pull off the sprinkle, and I’ll start with the invitations, which were created by Papellerie (the same gals who did our wedding suite and Isla’s birthday invitations). I am thrilled with how they turned out – they have sprinkles in them (see video on my Instagram here).
The gorgeous wedding cake was made by Lisa of Maple & Love, whom gave me all of our incredible travel suggestions when we went to Melbourne. It was a lemon and strawberry cake, and although I don’t eat eggs, I did totally get a bite of the icing – glad I did!
My Cricut got a good workout, as I used it to create the bottle shapes for the Eos party favors, the ‘Guess Baby Thompson’s Birth Date’ activity and the vinyl shapes for the mylar balloons. I left the heavy duty laser cutting to Monica of Paper Flour Ink, who made wooden boards reading Oh Baby Girl that she covered in sprinkle paper. She is the best!
At a recent party I co-hosted, one of the other gals suggested we order thank you cards and pre-address/stamp the envelopes to help the mama-to-be, and I thought this was such a great idea, so I ordered pretty pink and gold thank you cards from Tiny Prints. I also ordered customized mug from Tiny Prints that read, “Sugar, spice, all things nice – that’s what Baby Thompson is made of” for the tea and coffee. Side note: I’m also obsessing over their gorgeous Holiday cards. We’ve gotten a few in the mail that are Tiny Prints, and I love them!!
My amazing friend Amanda baked cupcakes that were at each place setting, surrounded by colorful sprinkles from Layer Cake Shop. Guests got to decorate them as they wanted, then take them home (because crêpes and cakes made for fully tummies!) in boxes, which had customized birthday stickers, also from Tiny Prints.
Meredith, the queen of creativity (hello invitation stylist!), helped me to blow up and stick all of the confetti-shaped balloons to the backdrop, which my wonderful mom sewed (Sasha DIYed the PVC pipe stand and Amanda sanded it down! Talk about a team effort!).
I am seriously so excited to meet sweet baby Thompson. Our oldest babes are already best friends and I know that she and Emi will follow in their siblings/mom’s footsteps. It was such a joyful shower, and I would love to re-live it all over again. She deserves all of the love and attention, as she is one of the most selfless people I know. February cannot come soon enough!
We are so very excited to share the news that we’re expecting another baby girl, due February 3 (her Aunt/’Tetka’ Ivana’s birthday!). Isla already talks about her little sister all of the time and likes to put her head on my stomach to try to hear her. We’re looking forward to watching her in the role of big sis’ (although we’re aware it’s not always a walk in the park!). Little one already has a name, which we plan on sharing later this week!
I’m 13 weeks and 2 days and finally starting to feel less nauseous, which I am pretty happy about! Before we left Texas, we took some family photos with my sweet and insanely talented friend, Courtney Brown (website // IG), near her house. Despite it being 99 degrees outside, it was the perfect evening, and I’m thrilled with how the photos came out.
I am so, so grateful for the wonderful people involved in these photos, including Courtney Leigh‘s photography // Hair and makeup by Britt Lais of Butter Artistry // Floral crowns and garlands from Maggie of Bramble & Bee // Chairs from Aztec // Isla’s dress from Gap Kids // Isla’s bow from Willow Crowns // My dress from Copper Theory // Monica at Paper Flour Ink for her name announcement! Can’t wait to share that!
Two whole years have gone by since Little Miss Isla was born. Part of me feels like it was ages ago, and then I have moments where it feels like I was in labor just yesterday. I had to re-read her birth story (here) to remember details I thought I would never forget. And then what feels like yesterday, we celebrated her first birthday (party and first birthday post). Looking back at the photos, she looks so little!
We had a tea party for her second birthday celebration, and held it at our house. Much to my dismay, it was pouring rain outside, so we had to cancel the moonwalk last minute as well as a few other outdoor games. Despite the bad weather, the party went off without a hitch (eh, except don’t put a sparkler on a 2 year old’s cupcake!), and Isla had a great time mingling with friends and family. I’m sharing more photos below, as well as sourcing for most of the goods. If I missed something, please leave me a comment and I’ll let you know where I got it!
A little two year update:
Isla’s favorite animals are flamingos, bubas (Serbian for bugs), dogs (especially Belle), and elephants. She loves to make all animal noises and now thinks she’s an expert at naming them as well. Every night, we read 4-5 books, then sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Kumbaya, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. We try to vary the books as often as possible, but Each Peach Pear Plum, A Squash and a Squeeze, I Love You Through and Through, My First Read and Learn Bible, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Room on the Broom, 1, 2, 3, Peas, Toot and One Ted Falls out of Bed are some of the ones she picks out the most.
Preface: This is by far the most nervous I have ever been to hit ‘Publish’ on a post before. As someone who never even wears two piece swimsuits, shooting and posting these photographs is definitely out of my comfort zone (serious understatement). I am not sharing these so that you compliment my progress, but instead to help motivate you to try this incredible workout (plus, I promised to get more personal here). Also, I want to quickly thank my dream team who made me feel confident during these photos – my photographer, Paige of Awake Photography, and hair and makeup expert, Britt Lais Williams of Butter Artistry.
So, let’s begin.
A few months ago, my best friend mentioned this “bikini body guide” she was doing and told me to look up @Kayla_Itsines on Instagram to better understand the reasons why. Well, it took about 45 seconds on Kayla’s account to know that I also wanted to try this seemingly miraculous workout. Photo after photo of before vs. after shots of women going from being regularly sized to becoming what-look-liked trim, toned fitness models had me convinced that it was worth a shot.
I started the guide (most commonly referred to as BBG) before we headed to Europe, which wasn’t ideal as I didn’t really want to take a multi-week break just 2 weeks into the 12 week program. Therefore, I started it again when we returned and have been working out using the PDF guide ever since. I just finished the first round of the program last week, and I am proud of this accomplishment (it’s not for the faint of heart, but you can do it too!). It’s now time for BBG 2.0.
In short, BBG is a 12-week training program that involves three resistant training workouts a week (plus three days of interval training). Each workout is 28 minutes long (which may sound easy, but you definitely work up quite a sweat during that time!), and includes two circuits that you repeat twice (sample below). The guide (a document that I reference on my iPhone on iBooks during workouts) shows step-by-step images on how to complete each of the exercises in the resistance training circuits.