sweet grins

My sister, brother-in-law and niece came to visit us a few weekends ago. From my pictures you would never even know Katy and Cody were here! Hopefully I'll be better about getting some pictures of all of us next time!

Here's some pictures of my precious niece! She was 9 1/2 weeks then. She's started to smile a bit when you make faces at her and I took full advantage of that. :)

We went to the A&M softball game and Brooklynn learned how to play. ;)

We were at Target and I just wanted her pic with the sunglasses but I didn't want to buy them. She did not tolerate that very long!

Oh how I love baby mohawks!

Cutest little Aggie ever!!!

the story of Brooklynn Maycie...

{disclaimer: this is (my) aunt lei's version of brooklynn's birth story. it's kind of long and if you want to skip to the adorable pictures at the end, I'll understand ;) }

Last week I worked Sunday, Monday, Tuesday nights. After going to bed around 9:30am on Tuesday morning, Chris came in and woke me up about 11:30am and told me Katy (my pregnant sister) had been trying to call me because she was in labor!

After only sleeping 2 hours, I was pretty disoriented but I knew I needed to get on the road since she was 3 1/2 hours away! I flew around the house and my sweet husband helped me throw some things in a bag. I was out the door in less than 20 minutes. {side note: I really should have had a bag packed and ready...just like the pregnant lady should. For clothes, I ended up with 2 tshirts and a button up shirt I only wear with an undershirt..and no undershirt! haha}
Katy had gone in to her 39 week appointment that morning thinking it was just a routine check. She actually hadn't been checked internally yet because she'd shown no signs of labor up to this point.

She had voiced NOT wanting a leap day baby, so her doc said he would be careful not to upset Brooklynn and make her come that day. ...so he checked...and said he felt Brooklynn's head! She was already 4-5cm and didn't even know she was in labor! They sent her over to the hospital to get ready to have a leap day baby! ;)

My mom kept me updated on my way and I got there with time to spare! When I arrived Katy was 6cm and had already gotten her epidural. She was tired but in great spirits.

The next couple hours passed quickly. (for me at least!) Katy was getting really uncomfortable because the epidural wasn't working well on her right side. After about an hour, she let the nurse know and she came and checked her. She was at a 9! She was uncomfortable because she went from a 6 to a 9 in an HOUR! Woah!

She started pushing at about 6pm and we had a baby at 6:21pm! She was a ROCK STAR. Seriously. I was honored that she let me be in the room for the delivery. I was so proud of her! :)

The new parents holding their baby girl for the first time!

My parents

(remember: she's the first grandbaby on this side!)

You can see in the picture on the right that it was love at first sight for both of us. ;)

left: sleeping on my chest  right: holding the lovie we got her

my favorite picture of momma and baby

little angel

top right: am I mean for messing with her wrinkles?? i LOVE this :)

mean muggin.

top: my dad (grumps) loving on his grandbaby
bottom: brooklynn watching the a&m softball game (gotta start her young!)

Ahhh it's crazy how this girl has stolen my heart! Look at those pretty brown eyes!

I am soo blessed that I got to be with my family for a whole week and be a part of Brooklynn's first week of life! It's hard living 3.5hrs away, but will just make our time together that much sweeter. My sister is keeping me quiet right now with updated pictures of her every day. :)

Before I left to come back home, I pretended to be a photographer and me and my mom had a photoshoot with Brooklynn. I'll be back with some of those pictures soon!

baby shower - part two

Check out part one if you missed it on Friday.

The second shower we did at my parents' house.

Sign in for the baby book

Front table in entry way.
Isn't that diaper cake AMAZING!?! My mom's cousin made that. Beautiful!
I also made the onesie confetti with my Silhouette.

This is my inspiration for the blessing tree. I emailed Emily at BabyBerry and asked for more details and she was so sweet to write me back and give me lots of details and a few links to look at for examples!
I decided last minute that I actually wanted to do one, so I kind of threw it together. I would usually NEVER have something like that handwritten, mostly because I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to that...but I didn't really have any other option!

Delicious strawberry shortcake cupcakes from Bake Cupcakes!

Delicious mini fruit pizza bar

{Found these on Sarah's blog too. She mentioned how she was partly responsible for finishing these off...oh my. I don't doubt it, they are so so yummy!!}

 Close-up of my labels/tags

Measuring her cute belly :)

Opening presents! 

I know I've said it multiple times...but I'm so ready to meet Brooklynn! Only about a week left!

Have a blessed Monday!

ps. The winner for my 100 followers giveaway is Susan!!
And as an extra bonus, I'm offering 20% off everything in my etsy shop now through the end of tomorrow (2/28). Just use the code TAKE20OFF!

this christmas {2011}

It's so crazy to me that Christmas has come and gone. 

While we were at my parents' house for Christmas festivities, on the 26th I thought to myself that I wanted to go see Christmas lights...but then remembered, woah, Christmas was yesterday!!

I worked the three days leading up to Christmas eve, but was so glad to be off for 4 days to spend time with our families. Here's a quick photo recap of our holiday!

presents under my parents' tree.

//side note//

I am reeeally in to jute twine right now. So for the gifts we gave this Christmas, I wrapped them all in brown paper and jute! Then I made tags with my Silhouette.

sweet sisters.

{once again...can't even tell katy is almost 30 weeks pregnant!}

love my family. :) 

{me, chris, middle sister: katy, mom, katy's husband: cody, dad, little sister: becca}

my dad and his brothers. 

hil.ar.ious.

they are so much alike and SO goofy.

merry christmas from the shepperds!

After we spent a few days with my family, we drove to Dallas to visit Chris' parents for a couple hours.

We drove a waaays this holiday, but it was so great to see family! 

We are planning on having Christmas with the rest of Chris' family next weekend.

Our Christmas tree is still up. Chris says we have to take it down this week. bummer.

This is the only picture I got of our tree this year!

And our stockings from Neapolitankids finally came on Christmas eve eve. I love them!! Now I need to get some stocking hangers and get these babies up next year! 

That's all the Christmas I have for ya until later this year!

sisters

A few weeks ago I mentioned that my sisters and I were getting our pictures taken by AlexMPhotography. You can see the post on his blog here. Here are some of the shots he got. We haven't taken professional pictures together since I was...12 probably. So these are long overdue, but I am so glad we were able to work it around our busy schedules to get some again, 10 years later! I love my sisters very very much.

Becca "borrowed" (STOLE!) these glasses from a 3D movie.

We went to the carnival in the mall parking lot. I honestly don't think I had ever been to a mall parking lot carnival before.

Becca was obviously disappointed her sack was "broken".

You can see how both of them felt about this ride. :)

This was a surf tunnel and it really moved. We had an impossible time all three posing for the picture!

My wonderful family. :)