Time for a little personal announcement (and a better introduction of my family)! I am going to be an aunt again!

This week, my family threw a baby shower for my older sister, who is expecting her firstborn in early December. Annnnnd it’s a girl!!

My whole family was together again to celebrate. I am the third of four Schneider kids. My brother David is the oldest, with his wife Ashley and two kids, Brooke (12) and Nathan (8). They live in northern New Jersey, close to where I grew up. You may also remember me mentioning that Ashley is the one who sold me her camera when I first started showing interest in photography.

Jessica, the mom-to-be, is the second oldest. She lives in Arizona with her husband Mike, preparing their desert home for their little girl.

I’m the middle child, having arrived into the family nine years after Jess, 13 after Dave. Then came Erik, our youngest brother, with not even 2 years between us.

With the geographical distance between the four of us, it’s becoming more difficult to have visits where we’re all present. But this week was special. Not only were we all together again, but we were celebrating a new addition to our family.

Jessica’s baby shower involved a lot of planning between my mom and I. Since I’m in NoVa, I wasn’t able to do much in person with her. But I helped plan the theme, games, and decorations. Mom did all the physical labor and put a lot of time into planning food and decorating too.

We planned a travel theme baby shower, since my sister has always been the wanderlust of the family. We had everything from globe cake pops to a fruit medley in an airplane-cut watermelon. We also created an assortment of travel-themed onesies with vinyl iron-ons! The invitations were designed to look like a postcard, and in lieu of a guestbook, guests filled out little messages and rolled them to put in a bottle (“Message in a Bottle”), with predictions of baby Beamish’s birthdate, size, weight, hair color, etc.

And, of course, we took family photos afterward.

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We are all so excited for your arrival, my little niece!! Looking forward to spending your first Christmas with you and meeting you in person soon.

I love you already!

Love,

your Aunt Emmy