Baby Shower

During my trip to Minnesota my mom & sister hosted a baby shower for me! It was pretty surreal to be at MY own baby shower! I was very excited to get together with some very special ladies in my life to celebrate our baby girl. The baby shower was hosted at a park in my mom's neighborhood under a cute gazebo. 

My sister know's exactly my style & did such a cute job with all the details at the shower! She ended up having a lot of pieces at the shower that I would be able to use again in the nursery and I absolutely loved that!!

It was a nice August summer day, but man oh man was it windy!

From the pink bow paper straws...

beautiful pink roses...

all the precious baby clothes & goodies on the clothes line...

to the adorable baby rattle cupcakes I was overjoyed with all the cuteness!

Eek! I had been trying to order one of these precious piggies for SO long and I was so surprised to see one hanging on the clothes line!! I just have a feeling our little girl is going to love pigs as much as I do! :)

Now my mom & sister definitely know me because they had Chipotle catered for the food at the shower and oh my goodness was this preggo a happy gal!

It was so yummy! And what a great idea right?!

After chowing down on Chipotle we played a cute game of "Mommy or Daddy." Everyone was given 2 popsicle sticks which had a pair of lips on one representing me and another that had a firefighter hat representing Sean. My sister asked questions and everyone had to hold up their answer with either the lips or firefighter hat. I was pretty impressed with how many ladies knew all the answers! I guess that's a good thing with how well they know me ;) It was a really cute game. She also planned a cute game with little babies frozen inside ice cubes. Everyone got a baby ice cube in their punch and once the ice cube melted and the little baby was floating inside their cup they had to yell "My water broke!" first to win! I then opened all the lovely baby gifts and wow did baby girl and I get spoiled! 

My sister had asked guests to bring a baby book instead of a card and I really loved that idea! Now I will have all these adorable baby books in the nursery & will be able to read the sweet notes from who purchased it for us every time we read their book! 

I am so grateful for each and everyone one of these ladies that are in my life...

(sorry missing a few!)

 

(Sean stopped by at the end just to say hello!)

I had such a great time at the baby shower and felt so blessed and thankful. It's moments like these that are a huge reminder to just how lucky I am to have these close friends in my life. I do not get to see or stay in touch as often as I would like to with everyone with being so far away, but they are always there to support me and for that I am so grateful. I can't wait for everyone to meet our baby girl!

Oh and I had a lot of fun with the fabulous giant confetti filled balloons...

 '

Thank you mommy & Did for a wonderful baby shower and thank you again to everyone who came to celebrate our baby girl!

xoxo Ashley

Blue or Pink...What do you think?!

We had our 20 week ultrasound and it was absolutely amazing to see our baby moving around like crazy in there! His/Her arms were moving around, putting it's fingers in it's mouth and kicking. The ultrasound tech laughed a few times and said he couldn't believe how much the little bugger was moving and was having a hard time taking good pictures! We left the appointment feeling so blessed and even more anxious & excited to find out if we we're having a boy or girl!!

We had our doctor write the gender of baby inside an envelope for us and then we were going to decide exactly what we wanted to do with it! We held on to the envelope for about a month and MAN was it killing me haha! We were hoping to be able to get both of our families together to meet at the cabin and to do a gender reveal party, but unfortunately it was not able to happen. With having our families living so far away and in different countries it sure makes it difficult being able to get everyone together. Either way, we were very excited to share the news with our families!

We headed down to the Murphy family cabin and Sean and I had the first night to ourselves. We had decided that we were going to open the envelope together, just the two of us. After unpacking and getting settled in at the cabin Sean had set up a game of cribbage for us at the kitchen table to play. I sat down and was like "Okay, I can't stop thinking about the envelope. Are we going to open it tonight?!" He then lifted the crib board up and the envelope was sitting under it! We both smiled and got so excited! 

Sean ripped open the first envelope and then I opened the little envelope that was inside...

(I'll never forget how anxious/excited/nervous I felt! We were about to find out if our first baby was a boy or a girl! Is this really happening?!)

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

I believe the words "Oh my God! It's a GIRL!" came out of my mouth while tears filled my eyes! We hugged and just felt so overwhelmed with happiness. It honestly took a few minutes for us to realize we just found out we're having a baby girl haha It was such an amazing feeling and moment to share together. We laughed and said we didn't want to play crib anymore cause we just wouldn't be able to focus! We pulled out Dominos and played that instead haha 

The next morning I was awoken by text messages from my mom and sister saying "WAKE UP! We are ready to Skype!" They knew Sean and I opened the envelope the night before and they were SO excited for us to tell them the news!! We hoped out of bed feeling on cloud 9, made coffee and got the laptop ready to sign onto Skype. I wrote a little sign to hold up to show them with Lilly that said "I'm getting a... SISTER!" 

My mom was shaking she was so anxious for us to tell her and once I said "Okay, Lilly wants to tell you both something..." they both got so intense and froze staring at the screen. Once they read the sign they flew out of their seats with arms thrown into the air yelling "Oh my God!!!" haha it was hilarious. We are adding another girl to the Etchebarren side!! :)

The next night we planned a little way to reveal the gender to the Murphy side at the cabin after dinner.  (I am lacking photos from this night) Sean and I stuffed a box with helium pink balloons and wrapped it with baby wrapping paper.

Everyone wore a party hat either pink or blue for their guess! Lilly was thinking a sister...

We all gathered in the living room for the reveal and it's funny because I started feeling anxious/nervous/excited all over again! Everyone counted 1..2..3..! and Sean & I pulled the strings on the box and the pink balloons floated out! It was so fun with everyone cheering and congratulating us! Now we can shout it from the rooftops!!

We then posted a photo on Facebook to share the news for all our other family members and friends. 

"Lilly has a big announcement to make..."

So now that we know we are having a girl... let the shopping begin!! :)

xoxo Ashley

Just a Girl & Her Little Dog

Well this post is going to be all about miss Lilly!

She turned 4 years old this month (can't believe it!) and I wanted to do a little walk down memory lane about this little girl! I think it's pretty clear to everyone who knows me just how much this fur baby means to me! I never knew I could love a dog so much! 

Lilly is a teacup Maltese and is from Korea. She is honestly the sweetest lil pooch ever. I remember before we got Lilly I begged and begged my husband for a dog! I sat online and searched for a teacup maltese for over a year. I always wanted one since I was a little girl. A little white puff ball. FINALLY we purchased our first home and Sean agreed to getting a dog! We flew to Vancouver to pick up Lilly and I couldn't have been more excited. We were sent this photo from the breeder before seeing her for the first time...

Oh. My. Goodness!! It was love at first sight! 

I will never forget seeing Lilly for the first time. She was the quiet one out of all the dogs, just wagging her little tail and standing up on the glass of her little fish tank she was in. 

She was SO tiny! She was 8oz and fit in the palm of my hand. 

I remember getting into the car with her for the first time and being like "Woah. We just get to drive away with her and keep her now?!" 

During our drive back to Fort St John we debated what to name her for pretty much the whole drive home.. Lilly just fit perfectly. Even though we seem to rarely even call her by Lilly anymore haha I mean how many nicknames can one dog have?! 

Lil, Lillian, Lilly Diva Murphy (that's her full name), Lillybug, Fluff, Fluff n' Stuff, McMuff, Muffin, Muff, Scruff, Duff, Little Butt, Squirrel, Moof n' Doof, Pooch... the list goes on and on!

Once we were home Sean had told me she was NOT allowed to sleep in our bed.. but that quickly changed once he was on night shift and I would sneak her into bed with me ;)

Lilly has become quite the traveling pooch! She goes everywhere with us. She LOVES long car rides and sleeps the whole time during plane rides.

First time staying the night at a pet hotel in Vancouver!

First time at the cabin!

Summer trip to Minnesota!

Walking in Jasper!

Christmas trip at Lake Louise!

Christmas trip at Lake Louise!

Lilly may be a teeny little dog, but she sure loves all the same things big dogs do!

Loves sitting on the couch looking out the window & barking at people who walk by..

Going for walks until she is tired. She then comes to a complete halt & waits to be picked up and carried for the rest of the walk..

Playing with her toys..

Visiting dad at work...

Bathtime... 

Hanging out at the beach...

Going for car rides...

Winning contests...

Oh and dressing up...

Lilly is my sidekick & I just love all the memories that have been made these past 4 years! 

I do have to say I am a little nervous for when the baby arrives in November with how she is going to act. She is so used to being my center of attention and I just hope she can get used to sharing me with the baby! I've been reading up on some ideas with how to introduce your dog to the new baby and hopefully she will be just fine! 

Lilly will always be my first baby.. I just love her with all my heart!

xo Ashley