Nicole Enjoli Blog

So my baby shower was on February 20th a Sunday…  Of course I had to be involved in all of the preparations- don’t judge me.  So the theme was forest friends- forest animals and the outdoors/ camping feel.  I really enjoy planning parties and getting all the little details together.  The hostess’ were my mother who held the party at her house and my sister who helped me pull it all together.  I also had help from my girlfriend who made a lot of the decor happen with her cricut machine, my cousin who made a lot of cupcakes for me, and various family members cooked different dishes, thank you to all of these wonderful women for helping and making my baby shower so amazing!  Also to my sisters boyfriend who hand painted me a backdrop of my invite for us to take pictures in front of and to my husband who did a lot of the dirty work and heavy lifting- he’s the best!

The Goody Table…. 

Let me just say Saturday night as my sister and I are making chocolate dipped pretzels and I went to meet my mom at costco for last minute shopping, we got a call that my dad had been rushed to the hospital with a serious head injury!!! OMG we were freaking out! We rushed to UC Irvine crying all the way, in the rain, not knowing what we were about to walk into.  To make a long story short… we left the hospital about 5 hours later after we were able to see and talk to my dad, he fell and hit the back of his head, he cracked his skull and had some bleeding inside his head, 3 staples,  but he was going to be okay.  Wow- this was one of the scariest things I had ever been through!  I was still upset going to sleep that night- the last thing I wanted to do was have a baby shower.  Needless to say the next morning we got up and made things happen even though we didn’t do a lot of things we planned to, because we didn’t have the time or energy for.  I was pretty stressed out that morning, very frustrated, and drained emotionally and physically…

Here I am with my big belly and the backdrop….

My two grandmas

I ended up showing up a little late, a lot of the guests were there already, once I was there I was happy and ready to celebrate my baby, and I was happy that my dad was okay.  I was so overwhelmed with all of the emotions from being busy, to frantic, to scared, to sad, to relieved, to stressed out, to rushed, to happy, to exhausted…. what a weekend!! Thank God I had my family with me through it all!

Here are some of my forest friends….

The invitation….

These were the centerpieces, I wanted to get photos of the tables set up before anyone got there but like I said we were crunched for time and that didn’t happen but you get the idea.  I took these shots at the end of the night when the party was over…  Every table had a different Forest animal, we had them in mason jars filled with birdseed to hold them up, we also put pine cones and little wild flowers in mason jars, along with everyones little favor boxes at each seat.

These were favors we sent everyone home with, little smores treats to take home and make, they had marshmallows, mini hersheys bars, graham crackers, and skewers.  The little sticker says Thanks for coming, take home s’more fun….

These were also favors, we had these little boxes at everyones seat, they were filled with jelly beans…

These were the cupcakes and the three different toppers we made with the cricut, a labor of love… it took time to make them but they were soooo cute!

This was a banner we made also with the cricut, I love the way it turned out…

What a great day it turned out to be, everyone we love was there, we had around 50-60 women there, the food was great, the sky was clear, we got soooo many gifts, it took me like 2 hours to open all of them!  I can’t express my gratitude enough, we are very lucky and our baby is coming into a lot of love!

We are lucky to have so many people that love us and are there for us no matter what… that is what family is and that is what the baby shower was really about- us starting our own little family, adding on to the big family… I want to instill the importance of family to my son and keep us all close the way we are now.

These photos were taken when I was around 7 months along… they were taken by the wonderful Kristin Rogers… who I found randomly and am so glad that I did!  The idea for the shoot was to make it a sort of camping/ outdoor theme since we love to camp.  I started to brainstorm and came up with using some vintage ice chests, old blanket, camping mugs with flowers in them…. and some extra little accessories.  The sun was about to set and Kristin captured a lot of lovely sun flare- I was really happy with the way they came out, it was well worth the hike to the spot these were taken.

This one below is one of my favorites because it includes the whole set up… all the items we lugged to that spot- our little picnic shot…

I love this crispy black and white shot… Jason asked why she didn’t have him look at the camera…. sorry!

This was a cool shot taken through my old vintage camera…

This theme ties into the theme for the baby shower, which was “Forest Friends”  and also the nursery… which is also themed with forest animals.  I am hoping to post about both before the baby comes!

As I post this I am exactly 37 weeks along- baby is full term and ready to come out if he chooses… I wouldn’t be mad if he did  I am now pretty uncomfortable, super itchy, swollen, not sleeping as well as I was… and hoping that he doesn’t get toooo big! If you know what I mean  My baby moves sooo much every night, it sometimes almost hurts, it’s unreal how low and high I feel his little parts inside of me- it’s so crazy to think that any day now he will come out and I will be holding him- what an amazing process… I am mentally trying to prepare myself for labor- expect the worst hope for the best is my attitude going in…. I am already visualizing how it will go down, you know so I don’t have any surprises Anything could happen, of course I know this- I am praying for a smooth and safe delivery of a healthy and strong baby… what more could I ask for…. Let the countdown begin!!!