Grandparent Dinner & Gifts

First, head over to A Girl in Pearls & A Boy with Toys to see me as the featured "Monday Mamas-To-Be."  Jen has a cute blog and an even cuter baby boy who is just over a month old.  Plus, there might be some sneak peek photos of our nursery there.  (One day, it will be finished... Right now, the gallery wall will probably be the death of me - and my sweet dad.  FYI.)

Moving on...

On Friday night, Jeff and I hosted our parents for a little "Grandparent Dinner" before Baby C's much-anticipated arrival.  Although I'm sure we'll be spending more time together than ever once he is here, we figured this might be our last opportunity for a quiet night without bottles and baths and bouncers for a while...

In addition to just celebrating together, we also wanted to talk about some of our "plans" for the labor/delivery part of this process as well as the weeks following the birth.  We are SO blessed to have both of our families in town and available to help us in every step of this journey... That said, we figured it might take some balancing too (i.e. Who will run the vacuum at our house when we are in labor? My mom.  And, who will take care of the grand-dog while we are at the hospital? Jeff's parents. Haha!).

It was nice to sit down and share some of our expectations and hopes, AND - most importantly - just tell our parents how thankful we are for them, how grateful we are for their love and support these last nine months, and how much we genuinely want them to be a part of our baby's life from DAY ONE.  (He is going to be SO spoiled!!)

We also wanted to give them little "Grandma Gifts" that I made up this last week so that they would be fully stocked when Baby C is visiting. :)  This was a super fun project for me to put together, and they LOVED it!

Each gift consisted of:

- A car seat base for their car.  (Purchased on Amazon)

- Diapers in size Newborn & 1

- Wipes

- Diaper rash cream

- Baby lotion & bath

- A hooded towel & two wash cloths

- A bath toy

- A receiving blanket

- Two burp cloths

- A bib

- Pajamas

- Two onesies

- Socks

- A hat

- Grooming & safety kit

- A bottle and formula (just in case)

- Pacifiers

- A toy

- A stuffed animal

(The best part?  We really only bought the car seat bases... Everything else was "extra" from showers etc. I'm so glad they will be put to good use at Grandma's house.)

While my hope is that these little "kits" will bless the grandparents; selfishly, they are also nice for me because it's just less stuff we'll have to lug around when we visit.  (We are, clearly, counting on many home cooked meals in the first few months! Haha!)

The night was a huge success; and, I hope, that our parents felt as loved and honored as they are.

Here are a few more pictures:

The table with diaper place cards.

Hat? Koozie?  It might have been a good idea to have a lesson in proper diaper usage. ;)

Dear Grandma, Grand Marshall, Bear, & Granny:

What a gift it is for Baby C to grow up with all four of his grandparents right here!!  Since the day we told you we were expecting, the four of you have been nothing but wonderful - supportive, generous, and genuinely happy for us.  THANK YOU!  More importantly, thank you for showing us what parenting looks like and preparing us for this role... We could not have had better examples.  We love you and are excited for this new season of ALL of our lives!

Love,

J & E

P.S.  I'm going to be answering some of your questions from my two year anniversary post later this week... It kind-of got lost in the "Bachelor of the Week" madness, so if you have a question for me and didn't get to post it... Head here today to leave it in the comments.  Thanks! :)