I have so many posts that involve Miss June in the queue! Posts about her birth, her nursery, books I read while pregnant, the first six weeks, and her newborn photos are all in various stages of completion… but today, since I’m definitely not going in chronological order, I wanted to share the photos from my North Carolina baby shower!

Before I do, however, I have to mention that I also had a wonderful baby shower in Connecticut, hosted by my sisters-in-law, Natalie and Marget. This one was much larger – maybe 40 guests, including extended family, childhood friends, high school friends, college friends, and my Mom’s friends :) It was in a cozy room with a fireplace at the Norwich Inn & Spa, and the favors were the adorable sugar cookies below! Even though I don’t have too many photos from it, I treasured this day, and the chance to see so many New England loved ones, SO much. The thoughtful details by my two main Thomas squeezes were just the icing on the cake!

My second shower, in North Carolina, I DO have photos from – mainly because a talented photographer was the co-hostess. You may recall that I co-hosted a woodland-themed baby shower for sweet Nancy back in the spring, and I was tickled that she volunteered to team up with my sisters and return the favor a few months later!

My younger sister Kim and Nancy took the lead on organizing everything, and they did an amazing job. They decided on a “blueberry” theme, a nod to our nickname for June while I was pregnant. There were SO many sweet details – here’s a peek!

My older sister Kate unleashed all of her pent up miniature food recipes on this gathering, and it was glorious. Treats included mini Caesar salads in parmesan cups, mini pulled pork tacos, mini cups of mac and cheese, mini stuffed peppers, and cucumber tea sandwiches. Ashley Cakes contributed adorable sweets, including mini cupcakes and hand-painted cookies!

Finally, the gals thought up the cutest shower activity. Since June’s nursery has a light horse theme, they provided a little plastic horse for each guest to paint. I know she (or at the very least, I) will love playing with them in a few years!!

For more photos from the shower and for Nancy’s perspective, take a peek at our feature on The Little Umbrella! Big hugs again to these ladies for arranging this special day for me!

P.S. My little niece below – ha!!

Photography: Nancy Ray | Invitations: Minted | Bonjour Blueberry print: Maison Everett | Flowers: English Garden Raleigh | Sweets: Ashley Cakes

One downside of having a child is that it opens up a whole new section of Target by which to be tempted. Have you seen their new spring line for little girls?? I would happily dress June in pretty much every piece – they killed it! (Mostly by adding pom poms to everything!) There’s cuteness for little ladies almost everywhere I’m looking these days. I’ve rounded up a few of my favorites, and since June doesn’t actually own that many items of her own clothing (since we’re lucky to have such generous hand-me-downs from cousins!) I might just have to splurge on one or two :)

A. Woven green lawn dress ($18)
B. Pink stripe romper ($25)
C. Floral banded pants ($17)
D. Floral romper ($11)
E. Chambray dress with pom sleeves ($14 – also this one)
F. Flutter sleeve bubble ($16)
G. Clipspot green dress ($18)
H. Chambray romper with pom poms ($36)
I. Eyelet flutter dress ($45)
J. Plaid bubble ($17 – perfect for the Fourth!)
K. Metallic sneakers ($50)
L. Floral dress ($36)
M. Green knit dress ($12)
N. Ruffle bubble shorts ($15)
O. Chambray shorts with pom poms ($26)
P. Reversible chambray sun hat ($17)

Which is your favorite? Any wish were available in your size? :)

P.S. As ridiculously adorable as all of these pieces are, there’s a reason most of June’s clothing comes from consignment sales – I just posted a few of the 18 pieces I got for $37 here!! A few of my sale shopping tips here.

Simplicity is the name of the game around here right now. The more I have on my to do list, the more I attempt to tackle during my little pockets of nap time throughout the day, and the more easily I get frustrated when those pockets don’t feel long enough. Right now my priority is to take care of June, and I want to do that well. That means weeding out what I’m not passionate about, what doesn’t matter, what adds clutters, and what sucks time, and adding things that tend to myself and my family. I tried to reflect that in this month’s goals, and hopefully I’ll notice the fruit over the next few weeks!

With my girl on Valentine’s Day!

Revisiting my goals for February:
Take two classes on Skillshare
Find a new rhythm once John returns to work (I guess? This has been more challenging than I expected.)
Begin our will
Resume our monthly tennis dates with Sam + Graham (A last-minute change bumped this to March!)
Go to Ash Wednesday service
Read “His Needs Her Needs” for NR book club (just a few pages left so I am calling this good!)
Hang art in June’s nursery (still nothing hung, but we did make progress!)
Invite friends to dinner to celebrate my birthday!

March goals:
— Bring a thank you gift to the post-partum nurses’ station at the hospital where I delivered
— Read “Practicing the Presence of God” for NR Book Club
— Work push-ups and sit-ups back into my daily routine
— Start running again
— Print a 2016 downtown restaurant bucket list (more on this to come!)
— Read “Jesus Calling” every day
— Clean up “that corner” of our bedroom that has been taken over by June stuff
— Hang art and shelving in June’s nursery (hope springs eternal…)

As a reminder, here are my 2016 guideposts. If you’ve posted your goals somewhere, I’d love to see – or just drop them in the comments!

At the end of the day yesterday, I turned to John and said, “that was the best birthday I’ve had in a while!” We didn’t do anything particularly fancy, as you’ll see, but over and over I was reminded of a current favorite Zac Brown song: “I got everything I need and nothing that I don’t.” Each text that rolled in from a loved one reminded me of the amazing people I have in my life and how lucky I am to have their love. I’m the type with a small group of close friends, and boy am I grateful for each one of them (and, of course, for my beautiful family).

We kicked off the weekend with dinner for eight (plus three littles) at our house on Friday. I made a favorite meal – beef ragu with papparadelle, salad, cheesy bread, pink lemonade, prosecco, and chocolate raspberry cake for dessert complete with homemade batter, filling, and frosting. It wasn’t exactly easy to pull off the preparations with June in tow – getting everything ready was pretty much all I did during the day on Thursday and Friday, aside from feeding her – but it was so worth it to have great friends sitting around our table. An extra special treat was having our Alabama friends Mattye and Woody in attendance, since they just so happened to be in North Carolina on the right weekend!!

I went with my favorite color on the table, and the Whole Foods fairies were smiling on me – they had two beautiful varieties of pink garden roses in stock last week! Aren’t they beautiful??

On Sunday, my actual birthday, John played with June all morning while I slept in. Then we picked up lunch from a favorite Mediterranean restaurant and ate it on the banks of a local lake, basking in the 65 degree sunshine. Next, at John’s suggestion, we loaded June into her stroller and walked a beautiful Raleigh neighborhood with picturesque houses – always one of my favorite activities, and this was a neighborhood we had never been to before. That man knows me well :) We finished the evening off with fruit smoothies, a bath for June, a new episode of The Walking Dead, and delicious leftovers from Friday.

In the past, I have unfortunately thwarted my own birthdays with unrealistic expectations. In this new season where I am trying (and, thankfully, mostly succeeding!) to let go of expectations entirely, a simple and extremely satisfying birthday was the happy byproduct. My wish for my 29th year is that I would continue to delight in the simple luxuries all around me, and to remember every day how very lucky I am – and I wish the same for you!