She's Arrived!

Baby Serena (the baby bump in the bridal party) arrived in the wee hours on the 23rd. She was 8 pounds and 7 ounces, and 20.5 inches long. Mom Allison was very happy to be done with her pregnancy. Michael and I took our first lunch date as a married couple and went to meet Serena at lunch time today. Serena is precious! Lots of dark hair. She never opened her eyes during our visit, but she made a lot of interesting faces as we passed her around. I am excited because now I can show off the baby leg warmers I made for Serena. I haven't been able to blog about them before because Allison reads my blog. I didn't want to spoil the surprise. I've heard leg warmers are trying to make a come back, so Baby Serena will be ahead of the fashion curve wearing her hand knit leg warmers. I can't wait for Allison to take a photo of the leg warmers in action. Allison looked so happy to be a Mom again. She seemed calm, and as if she had everything under control. She made pregnant look good and makes being the mother of an infant look effortless so far.

I'm Truly Blessed!

I went to Nancy's beautiful home on Saturday afternoon so I could attend my bridesmaid Allison's baby shower. It turned out to be my bridal shower! Nancy's whole house was filled with my friends and family members, all there just to spoil me rotten. I felt truly blessed to have that many of the special people in my life all in one room. Check out the gorgeous chocolate cake from Frederick's that was adorned with cherry blossoms. And Shaelyn was proud to show off that not only was she wearing a dress to the shower, but she got her ears pierced too! She seems prepared to take on her junior bridesmaid duties. I don't think I have ever opened so many presents so quickly. I got many beautiful things, including a lovely hand knit that I don't think can actually post a photo of here and still have a "family" blog. I got to wear a cute little bride to be veil with flashing red lights on it. I am skimming very quickly over all the details of the shower. The roads were getting slick, and several people had traveled a long way, so they needed to get back on the road quickly.

And that was just half of the adventure! Michael had slipped a change of clothes and a pair of pajamas out of the house and to Allison on Friday. So I changed into a "going out" outfit, got to adorn a bachelorette sash and a glow in the dark "Last Night Out" button. A limo showed up in the snow storm and (after our driver got the limo out of the snow bank) Alison, Jacinda, Allison, Nancy, Sherry, and I went to Plymouth. We had dinner and drinks at Foster's Boiler Room at the Common Man Inn. And then the limo driver slowly brought us back to Nancy's house for a girls' slumber party. We watched a few old wedding videos and laughed at how much the styles and people had changed.

Wedding Planning

Lots of fun wedding stuff happened today!

On the way home from work tonight, I beat the Halloween Howl crowd to Main Street in Concord and I went to Apollo Travel Services. I spoke with Carmen Martin, a travel consultant, and set Michael and I up with a wedding registry for our honeymoon trip. I remember when Allison and Jay were married, they registered for their honeymoon trip to Barbados and I thought it was a great idea. Michael and I are still thinking we might like to go to Costa Rica, but we still have plenty of time to decide on the exact destination and what resort we'd like to stay at.

I definitely need to start the process for getting my passport. I hear that the passports are not taking near as long as before, but I still need to leave enough time for processing.

Nancy brought me several tuxedo rental pamphlets from the Laconia area today, and Allison told me how she and Jay were happy when they used Mr. Tux in Concord for their wedding rentals. Michael still needs to decide on what attire he would like for himself and the groomsmen, but if rentals are involved, it might be easier to rent them in Laconia since it will be closer to Lake Opechee Inn.

And then for dinner tonight, Michael and I met with Rick and Carolyn Bowie, and Nancy and Dale at The Weathervane in Chichester. It was really nice to meet Rick, as he is going to be our wedding DJ. Both Michael and I are excited since he's got a great personality and seems like he will be able to get people moving on the dance floor. We look forward to our meeting with Rick in February when we will go through lists of music for the wedding.

And then after dinner, Michael and I went to Jared's (The Galleria) to look at wedding bands for Michael. He found a few things he liked, so we took model numbers and will stop in there again to see if he still likes the same styles, as well as check a few other stores.