it's a...

BOY!!

We are absolutely thrilled and really could not be any more excited about adding a second precious boy to our family. Grey Kassner will be making his appearance in June!

first trimester recap: baby #2

Being pregnant this time around is already so different than when I was pregnant with Crew. Having a toddler to chase around all day definitely distracts me from counting as each week slowly rolls by. It's not slow...and somehow I'm already in the second trimester. 

If you haven't noticed, this blog has taken a backseat since Crew has been born and I'm totally ok with that. Between working outside of the home, spending time with Crew and Will after work, and then focusing on my business after Crew's bedtime, that barely leaves time for anything else. Regardless, I still want to document this pregnancy as much as possible. I love going back to Crew's pregnancy and remembering how I was feeling at each point because so many details have already slipped my mind. With #1, I would focus/worry/dwell on every little ache and pain I felt because it was all so new. With #2, half the time I don't even have time to notice how I'm feeling!

Early on, I had some heartburn which got me wondering if this baby was a girl. I didn't have heartburn with Crew until 30+ weeks. I bought some Tums...and then never had heartburn again! So strange. I never even opened them. Besides that one tiny difference, this pregnancy has been very similar to the first. I had nausea off and on, but haven't felt sick in several weeks now. With Crew, the only time I actually threw up was when I was in labor. Hopefully I can hold out that long again with this one!

I thought the exhaustion was rough the first time around...add a busy little one year old to the mix and it's a whole new level! I've had several days of feeling like I wasn't able to keep my eyes open at work. Waiting for the second trimester to bring back my energy!

I have no feeling anymore of whether the baby is a boy or girl. Will thinks boy and a lot of our friends think girl. I've been almost leaning towards boy again because the pregnancies have been so similar so I guess we'll find out VERY soon! Baby's heart rate was 168 at our first ultrasound, but I'm not believing in the heart rate gender estimate because I have friend's whose babies have proven that to be very wrong!

I don't know if I've really been craving anything lately, but there are definitely things that always sound good and I could eat them at any time of the day. Mashed potatoes. Spaghetti. Pickles (but specifically the ones from Firehouse Subs - so weird).

The bump has for sure grown faster than it did with #1, but that's probably also because I wasn't as small as I was before this pregnancy than I was before the first.

We have an appointment tomorrow and I'm looking forward to hearing the heartbeat!

coming in june...

We are so excited to share that we will be expecting a second precious baby next June! Crew is so excited to be a BIG BROTHER!

crew's county fair: smash cake

I was so sure that Crew would just dive right into his cake and it would be a hilarious mess. Well, I was wrong. I think a combo of him being sleepy and having about 20 people staring at him just made him uninterested and confused! He was still just as cute as ever though!

Again, thanks so much to Madi Noelle Photography for capturing these moments!

crew's county fair: friends + family

Our family and friends who just love our little boy were all guests at his party. We are so lucky that most of Crew's family lives here in Memphis. It means that Crew gets to spend time with both of our families..and free babysitters! I do get bummed that the family and friends who don't live close by do not get to experience the immense joy that Crew shares with everyone. He really is just the happiest and is the answer to any difficult or sad day.

This photo is so special to me. My grandfather passed away just one short week after this party. I'm so glad he was able to come to Crew's birthday and we all got to spend time together and as a family one more time.

This is Crew's best buddy, Will. He's just 8 days younger than Crew and this perfectly describes their relationship!

The ball pit was a hit and we kept it in the house at least a month after the party. We're still finding those balls all over the place!

To check out the decorations and food of the county fair, click here!

crew's county fair: decorations + food

Finally getting around to blogging Crew's amazing first birthday party. It went so great and I'm so thankful I have these images. I have a few friend's who are photographers and I knew I wanted one of them to be there so I could focus on Crew and the party and not have to worry about getting pictures of everything. I strongly recommend doing that! My good friend Madi of Madi Noelle Photography was able to come since it was an a.m. party and she didn't have a wedding until later that afternoon. Thank you, Madi!

Since I started dreaming up Crew's party way back when I knew I wanted to avoid any kind of character theme for as long as possible! Since his birthday is in October, I thought a perfect theme would be a county fair and so we went with that! It was perfect!

Since I have my own calligraphy and design business, I had big expectations for myself in designing his party invitations. No store-bought invite would do. Here's what I came up with:

I tried to pull in a few county fair elements - the pie, popcorn and goldfish (RIP) made the cut. This was my very first homemade pie crust too!

Of course, the envelopes had to have my touch on them as well!

Now to the party!

Birthday boy faces was inspired by Parents Magazine

This garland actually fooled one of my brothers. He thought it was real! Find a tutorial here

I saw this tutorial on A Beautiful Mess about a week before the party and knew it would be perfect. Luckily I have a handy dad who thought so too. Thanks, Dad! I didn't have time to paint them fun colors, but I'm glad we didn't because the washers left marks and knicks in the wood anyway.

This is Crew's cake. It was made to look like a pie!

I asked a few family members to bake some pies too and they were delish!

 I just used fabric scraps I already had for the rag tie garland

 Party favors were cotton candy and candy apples

We asked all the guests to sign this book for Crew just like we had a book in the hospital when he was born.

Because these photo files are so large, it took me all day to upload just these...so I decided to just break up the party into different categories! Stay tuned!