Book Baby Shower

Of course there is no where I'd rather be on my birthday, than my home town Dallas Texas. So I was fortunate this year to have a baby shower the weekend of my birthday. It was hosted by my 5th grade teacher who is now my mom's new BFF. She just renovated her house, you'll catch glimpses in the photos. She really opened it up, it looks great!

It was a 'Book' themed shower. All guests were asked to bring a gift and a book. I wasn't expecting the menu to be book themed as well! Too cute!

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs - served along side meatballs!

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss with Green Deviled eggs
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish with goldfish crackers and home made crackers

The Book of Virtues with bumble bee cupcakes
featuring virtues such as "Bee Honest", "Bee Friendly" etc.

The Hungry Little Caterpillar next to the veggie tray. 

Oh, the Places You'll Go with sugar cookies shaped like feet!

And I could not get enough of the cheese and crackers.
Maybe that means the baby will love this book!

I registered at Buy Buy Baby. I love that they offer a free wrapping station. Some guests did wrap their presents there. That is a diaper cake back there! yay!

A Texas onesie from my mom with a baseball hat.
My hubby wears baseball hats all the time and my mom swears she's going to buy a matching Texas shirt too.
She's loving this grandmother thing.

This beautiful piece of art was created by our family friend.
It is a collage featuring our last names and stamps from areas significant to our family.
Such a great personal piece!
I need to tap into my creative side when it comes to gift giving!

Baby's first tie!

The largest gift award goes to my two best friends (and bridesmaids)
This 3-in-1 walker Ally and Shaena.
Shaena swore she only bought off the registry, but she didn't on this one!
It is a black car that looks like a bat-mobile, Hubs loves it.
I said it'll be great for when it's wine night and I don't want to chase the baby around. 

Good Night Moon book and stuffed bunny from little sister Theresa/MOH

Baby got lots of stripes!

I had a lot of fun. Didn't get emotional at all! No tears from this hormonal mama!

The highlight of the event was the new BumGenius cloth diapers.
I registered for the One-Size diapers so guests were figuring out how the snaps and folds worked.
After looking at them when I got home I'll need a crash course also!

All recorded by my mom in the baby book we received at Christmas!

My younger sister, Jessica, (she's 3 years younger than me) and my mom.

Jessica was the photographer throughout the afternoon and did a great job! 

I think I'm standing on my tiptoes since Jessica is like 5 inches taller than me. No fair!

A pleasant surprise was seeing my friend from college who is also pregnant!

I missed out on a belly bump with my Sister in Law, but Danielle was the next best girl!

Wedding Season 2014

Forget the baby talk, Wedding Season has begun! My best friend for the past 23 years (I'm 28 years old) so my lifelong friend - is getting married. She is a savvy sexy successful woman who is way to cool to call me her friend but for some reason she does. (Thanks!) Her #1 no-no is most social situations is children. She'd just "rather not". Rather not deal with the crying, rather not deal with the distraction and just "rather not". So at her upcoming wedding at the end of February she has a strict NO CHILDREN rule. Five of her nine bridesmaids are married and three of the five have children. More like toddlers, not children. Either way, they are not invited to the wedding.

I was so anxious for her reaction when I announced my pregnancy. I expected her initial reaction would be one of the following Pinterest comments:



    

YIKES!! Not so nice...
 Style Unveiled.com

God Bless this bride with THREE pregnant BMs
source

Ack! Even hubby recalls the bride-to-be saying "You better not knock her up!" ayayay

When the day came I missed my chance to tell her face to face. However, she knew something was up and asked me a few days later. She is happy for me and hasn't banned me from her wedding.

Let's face it, this pregnancy hasn't change me much. I'm a pretty lame friend anyways. I'm definitely not the one you call for a crazy night out. A crazy night IN? I'm all over that! lol

For all other pregnant bridesmaids out here: I found this website with pregnant bridesmaid advice. 

1. Be honest with the bride With this being my first baby I have no clue what to expect! But she is my BFF so she pretty much knows everything about me anyway.
3. Order a bigger dress Done!

       

This is the dress straight from the boutique. Yes I said boutique, not store because it came with a boutique price tag, we're not talking David's Bridal here!

 I took this picture in my 17 year old sister's bedroom so the color doesn't do it justice. It's a really pretty dress I will ABSOLUTELY wear again, believe it or not. Also I had extra spark that day (notice the static cling). 

This is before alterations. Can't wait to see how big I get by the end of Feb!

More advice....
7. BYOB: Bring snacks and water to stay hydrated. Fainting bride, cute. Fainting preggo, "TIMBER!!"
8. Comfortable shoes! Flats for sure!
9. Laugh at yourself Hormones = emotional. But tears at a wedding are OK!


I'm signing off with Grits on this. Being pregnant is hard enough, add in supporting your BFF on the most important day of her life and it's hard to remember to take care of yourself. So a definite Grit post.

Grits,

It's not like I can wear high heels right now anyways.

We have no wine!

Sr. Lale sent me a link to this blog the other day.  The blog Canterbury Tales is written by Dr. Taylor Marshall.

Source: CatholicGag

I thought Sr. Lale was sending me this link because I'm a bride-to-be and this blog has to do with the Bible wedding.  Remember the wedding at Cana?  Jesus' first miracle? 

The wedding runs out of wine and Jesus' mother, Mary, tells the servants to "Do whatever He tells you" and Jesus tells the servants to serve from the water barrels, water that has been turned into wine. 

In his blog, Dr. Marshall tells us to remember this story when "life throws curve balls into your marriage".  He says "Of course, marriage is a great gift and full of joy. But what happens when the wine runs out and all you have is water?  Sometimes, you just have to turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary and say,

 "We have no wine. The joy has run out. All we have here is water. Please transform it!"

And guess what?  Jesus and Mary will do just that.  Catholics know Mary doesn't preform miracles, only Jesus can do that.  But when we pray to Mary she uses her motherly role in guiding us to the solution and challenging us to listen to Jesus. 

 

In the story Jesus turns barrels full of water into wine.  We must have the fullness of heart in order for Jesus to work within us.  If we are running on empty, spiritually, emotionally and mentally then Jesus can only change what we have.  We need to nourish ourselves so that He can completely nourish our souls.

As Dr. Marshall says: "The more water in the jugs, the more they can transform into wine."

 

Thank you Sr. Lale!

 

High Heels!

Sr. LaLe's Wedding Advice

I had a special visitor in my office today.  She's no stranger to me, I eat lunch with her most days.  Sr. Lala Pelikan is a nun in our Christian Formation office here at the Diocese.  Along with being my lunch buddy she's also knitting me a Virgin Mary prayer shawl for my wedding day.  It will be my something blue!  So after our lunch in the break room she stopped by my office to look at my bridal portraits (which I can't wait to show you!).  Then she passes along this marriage advice:

1) Never keep score.  Don't say "well I did it last time" or "I did this so you do that"
2) Never give up on your children.  Never say "I've done all I can do", because when you do - that's when the communication stops
3) Never stop praying for your marriage and your children.  Because if you don't, who will?  God gave you those responsibilities because He knew you could take care of them. So keep praying for them!

I thought this was great advice for this Bride-to-be!

High Heels!

TGIF: Thank Goodness for Instagram!! (and Fridays)

I am totally in love with Instagram.  You can find me as RachelKellar on Instagram.  When Twitter first came out I thought it would turn into something like Instagram with all the tweets containing photos....but then Instagram came along and twitter remains mainly text and links.

Anyways, every Friday I want to share with you some syncronizing photos from Instagram.  I don't know about you, but I find it thrilling when a friend from NYC is having a snowcone and another friend from Texas is having one too!!  It's so fun when worlds syncronize like that.

Enjoy, follow me on Instagram and enjoy your Friday!!

Beverage Anyone?

@crabbyvegan

@stevenybarra

  

   Maybe a Salad?

@neimanmarcus



@parkersteph

Two Birthday Celebrations yesterday:

@nanpalmero

@kyleeki

OK, enough of the food... How about Thursday's #photoaday

HEART

@claytnev

@krystheilen

Finally, Group Shot from two local celebrities

@Boggsey23
Prophets and Outlaws

@ohsocynthia
OhSoCynthia Blog

Leave your instagram ID in my comments so we can share photos!

p.s. I was able to view these photos on my computer thanks to: ink361.com

Why do I love Social Media?

Sure it is distracting.
It can be addicting.
Some people choose to share hate not love.

But sometimes, and I'm honored to say in the crowd I roll with from San Antonio there is a community.  A community of moms, dads, young adults, millionaires and poor college kids who come together.  I met this group at BMPR The Business Media Public Relations Meet up.  (Did that link work for you? It didn't work for me). 

And one member of this organization reached out to other organization members and did an amazing act in response to Jessica Ghawi's death in Aurora.  Jessica is a San Antonio local who deserves to be surrounded by friends and family as she is buried this weekend.

Read this moving blog post by a wonderful writer @lettergirl here.

-HIGH Heels!!

Barn Brand

We're trying to figure out what our barn brand should be.  Our initials are J and R. 

I came up with the top two.  He wants to incorporate a religious symbol and came up with the bottom one. 

Thankfully, I had a roommate in college who is still a dear friend.  She is a graphic designer and can easily create what we are looking for.  She's working on it right now!

I'll keep you posted!

so many to choose from!!