One of the many things that brings me the greatest joy is entertaining in my home. Special moments like weddings, baby showers, Christmas, egg hunts for Easter, holidays, etc. are opportunities to bring our home to life.

When our son and daughter-in-love shared with us that they were expecting, we wanted to host a shower for her. My daughter Brooke, my dearest friend Karen and Carol, a dear friend of Lee’s, were my co-hosts. 

I wanted to create a shower that the ladies could make gifts with their hands and give them to Lee as a gift at the end of the shower. That would also create fun and excitement for the attendees. I loved seeing their creativity come to life and even laughing at their happy mistakes. It was all about the fun and making friends while honoring Lee and celebrating the upcoming arrival of Neff (named after my dad!).

I was determined to make all of the food from scratch and not use a caterer. It is more of a labor of love cooking and preparing for events like this. I am grateful to have a husband who loves cleaning the kitchen. My love of cooking and his love of cleaning have been such a blessing. 

Carol Martin hand made all of the flower arrangements as well as the flower wreaths for the front door. It was a beautiful Spring Saturday and we started around 10 am. We invited the ladies into the kitchen to start their crafts and making their onesie. Janet flew all the way in from North Carolina to be a part. She has such a gift of serving others. You can see it on her face that it brings her immense joy. She was sharing with the ladies and showing them how to use the inks, stencils and tools. It was so cute to hear them squeal, being a little scared of messing up and then being so happy and proud at their creations. Everyone was having so much fun creating that I had to stop them to move on to get their food. We had lots of fresh fruit with yogurt, veggies, a sausage egg casserole, onion dip, a beautiful cake from Frost, chicken and biscuits etc.. I tried to keep everything somewhat brunch finger food. 

We proceeded to go into the family room and I shared with the ladies that love giving a blessing over a mom-to-be; to give her a pearl of wisdom/advice on something you wish someone had shared with you with your first child. I always cry with these. It is such a sweet thing to speak into a young momma’s life about how to raise her children and not make your same mistakes.   

Karen had so many cute games that we enjoyed while Lee was opening her gifts. I loved that she had gotten these adorable children’s books as gifts, that we were to write words of encouragement, words of wisdom or a favorite verse. Such a sweet idea. We also all filled out cards of advice to put together in a book for her. 

All of the guests were so generous in their giving and Lee was thrilled and excited. We all lined up in the entry to get photos and loved on her. My heart was so full. What a beautiful day it was. The excitement of the baby to come and celebrating the gift of life was such a blessing. 

Hugs,

Amy