birmingham baby shower

On our pit stop in Birmingham we had the most beautiful baby shower, hosted by wonderful friends and family at my Aunt Gail's house. The decorations were amazing (thanks to the oh so talented mary liz ingram and her tiny clone, MC) - the food spread was every bit of my FAVORITE foods - I mean these people didn't mess around. S'mores (yes...tee-tiny delicious s'mores), yummy watermelon salad, cucumber dip, chick fil a nuggets, sausage cheese pinwheels, bruschetta made by chef Stebie, brownies with symphony bars in them...the list goes on and on...

and yellow cake with chocolate frosting

you may think this came from some fab bakery in birmingham - well it did - it's called my sister's house! :)

all of the top edge looked like little bees with wings and stripes - I am always amazed at the things she can think up...

Guests were greeted by the tiny hostess, Mary Clare. She perfectly directed each person on the 'what to do's' - a guessing game on what Baby B will be? - a well wishes jar for Baby - and a place for each person to make a bee finger print and sign the painting to hang in the baby room (of course, once again created by my thoughtful sister)

 

and what's a real party without a head injury??? Leave it to little Patty to smash his head into something. Good thing there was a Pediatrician and multiple Ped's ER nurses around for it! No worries, he recovered in no time with zero stitches needed

me and my sissy

and I was so happy to see BB!

mama and her side kick

a fully recovered Patrick

and a big thanks to Aunt Gail for letting us all bombard her house!

 Yoder came!!!! 

high school friends photo - I can't find the one with Brad and Jeffrey proposing to each other?? It would've been a good one to post

We had such a good time and were so thankful for all of the time and effort everyone put into the party. Thanks to them we can now get the baby home from the hospital in a car seat!! We were planning on leaving the baby to grow up in the L&D unit since we were infant seat-less. Oh well, guess we gotta bring it home now....

leaving st louis

 I was looking through a photo album I made that had pictures from Pat and my first trip to St. Louis - the zoo, the arch, the brewery, forest park....and here we are 3 years later - fellowship is complete!

It's amazing how quickly time goes by. I remember wishing those 3 years away when I first left friends and family in Birmingham. Then we started the countdown of the last months and weeks in STL and I was wishing for time to stop!

We made so many wonderful friends and memories during Patrick's Fellowship. The last days were spent partying, saying 'see ya later' and doing some of our favorite St. Louis things.

goodbye at SLCH ER

Goodbye at Craig's - complete with a Dora pinata and amazing dress up stuff

Goodbye and 'you survived fellowship' at Dr. Johnson's house

as Seth (right) put it:

the Puerto Rican, Irish Whitey, and Texan Jew

butterscotch pudding at Atlas - just a short walk down the street from our condo - delicious

And then the movers came - just like that our house was all boxed up, loaded onto a truck and our time in our perfect little home was over!! Bittersweet is the only word that comes to mind!

Sanmit was so kind as to bring coffee and bagels on the morning of the move after being on call all night - we made such amazing friends!

Empty house!! 

I think this face summed up how I felt pulling out of our parking lot - only a few tears were shed :)

Off we went!! With a late start -- 4:00 pm -- and an 8 hour drive ahead of us to get to Birmingham

Eye spy......   a sophie mophie!

Alabama!!! Always nice to see the sign and know you're getting close!

Patrick kept saying "hope you don't have the baby in Bowling Green Kentucky!!!" Well - we made it all the way, baby-less. Phew! You better believe the MD and the RN did have a full copy of my OB medical records handy....you just never know :)