Best. Life. Ever.

I started this blog post a long time ago and never got around to finishing it. Until now! (When you're 40 weeks pregnant and have nothing to do but sit around and wait for baby, catching up on your neglected blog is a good thing to do.)

This post will be short and sweet. Mostly because words cannot adequately express how much the past year has meant to me. As you probably know, Christian and I have been living next door to my brother James and his family. And what a year it has been! We've had some crazy adventures, let me tell you. Here are a couple of photos that represent our awesome time together. 

 

Our last picture together in front of the green house before we moved.

Life at the green house was the best. I got to play with my favorite little people every day, Christian and I learned tons about being good parents, and we all became best friends. I can absolutely say (and Christian would totally agree) living at the green house with James, Stephie Lynne, Chase man, and Ashtyn & Blakeley has been the best year of our lives. We loved every second :)

Baby Shower

It's been a while! Like four months since my last post. In my defense, we have been pretty busy around here. Christian started his new internship, we moved to South Jordan, and of course, we've been preparing for baby. 

Speaking of preparing for baby...we were lucky enough to have THREE baby showers. Our family, friends, and ward members have been extremely generous and supportive. We feel so blessed :) Unfortunately, I didn't document all three showers (because I'm huge pregnant and lazy). But, fortunately for me, my sister in law is like a legit photographer and took some great pictures of the family/ward shower my mom organized.

Blakeley, Stephanie (the photographer), Stephie Lynne, Me, and Ashtyn.
Just missing Mom and Steph in this picture! 

The shower was absolutely perfect. We had delicious mini fruit pizza and veggies to snack on as well as a couple of fun guessing games/activities for guests.

We had an "advice tree" where guests could share their baby knowledge and then clip it to the tree with tiny pink clothespins. We also had a calendar and stamps for everyone to guess when baby girl would make her debut. Thanks to everyone who guessed she'd come early! That was nice of you :) Unfortunately as I am writing this, she is two days late...looks like she won't be here until next week...

Aren't these decorations just to die for? My other sister in law, Stephie Lynne, made me this adorable onesie banner. Cute AND practical!

The Purcell women :)

Our cutesie "Thank You" favors. (Seriously the best smelling hand sanitizer ever.)

The loot! I had to take a picture of the gifts from all three showers.
The piles of presents literally filled Ellie's little room :)

I had such a great time at all three showers. Christian and I really have been amazed at how thoughtful everyone has been. A big thank you to all those who planned and/or came to any of our parties. You guys are the best :) Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And the verdict is...

It's a GIRL!!!

Ahhhh! Can you believe it?! Christian and I are ecstatic :) And totally shocked! Well, Christian wasn't....he had a feeling it was a girl. I was 100% positive we were having a boy, right up until the ultrasound tech showed us the proof. We were so excited to tell the fam and my cute sister in law Stephie Lynne threw us an adorable gender reveal party to share the big news. 

She color coordinated everything in blue and pink -- everything from candy, to decorations, to little badges for our guests to wear. Everyone was told to sign in with their thumb print and make a prediction. 

We printed up my answers to a bunch of old wives tales in case anyone was unsure. (I love how only two out of the seven predict girl. :) )

My cute cousins Court and Ariel made a Team Boy/Team Girl poster for the party. Man, I love those girls. 

Chase man and I were both on Team Boy.

 Christian has more motherly intuition than I do, and predicted a little girl. 

And how cute is this? Stephie Lynne thought it would be fun to serve different food items I've been craving. I've really been going for acidic/sour/salty flavors. I also have this really strange and kind of gross craving for frysauce...however, we didn't think that would be very appealing to everyone else at the party :)

After the whole gang had their fill of snacks and couldn't take the suspense any longer, we headed out to the front porch to take one last picture before the big reveal. Team Girl on the left and Team Boy on the right.

Finally, it was show time! But let's take a second to appreciate the paint job on the balloon box! Isn't that amazing? My talented sister Stephanie was in charge of decorating it and it turned out awesome! 

Now for the main event. On your mark...

Get set...

GO!!!

I love Christian's face in those photos :) Of course we already knew the box was filled with pink balloons, but we were still excited to see the looks on our family's faces. Everyone freaked out, haha. It was perfect!

And of course, it wouldn't be a Stephie Lynne and Stacie party without some sort of baked goods. This time around we decided to try cakepops and they were delicious! 

Stephie Lynne and I. She is seriously the sweetest ever. She worked so hard to make everything perfect. And it was! We sure love her :) Thanks again Stephie!

We tied blue and pink ribbons on each one and then when we bit into them -- pink, pink, pink!

It was an absolutely perfect day and Christian and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. And now that everyone knows we're having a little girl, it's time to go shopping!! Lace and ruffles, here we come :)