Ellen and my shower

So a lot of my friends have asked me about going on the Ellen's Mother's Day Show so I figured I would write a quick blog about it (a month later....sorry) so that I didn't have to keep explaining it haha

Let me just tell you first, it was a HUGE surprise and HUGE blessing.  I mean seriously, we got so much more than we could have dreamed of and it saved us a lot of dough.

I had heard of Ellen doing this show every year but I was never pregnant haha and I didn't live in California.  Well this year, I was both, hallelujah.  A family friend Stephani Strike, sent me the link to apply for the show in March, which I'm so glad she did because I totally would have forgotten about it.  The application to try to be in the audience was pretty basic.  They wanted to know about your pregnancy, some info about you, a picture of you and your "story". 

 Let me just tell you, I did not think I was going to get chosen for the audience.  I didn't have some heartfelt story or anything.  It's not like we had been trying for 5 years to get pregnant or one of us was in the military.  I basically said that we found out we were pregnant when we were just about to graduate so I didn't have time to look for a job in the broadcast world before the baby was going to be here.  And that I was just living in Irvine, nannying a couple times a week and excited for my little girl to get here.  And apparently they liked it!  I got a phone call about a week and a half after I submitted the application, asking me if I would like to be in the audience.  After I hung up, I looked at Doug and started freaking out! I was jumping up and down and dancing around our living room.  Just so excited to be apart of this fun show.

FINALLY after a month and a half of waiting, it was the day of the show.  They sent me a packet of information a couple weeks before with my ticket in it and it said "bring the biggest car you have" so the entire parking garage was full of SUV's and vans haha

We had to show up a couple hours early to get through security and all that jazz. 

This was the lovely line of women that got there before me.

And btw there were a ton of Mormon chicks there haha it's kind of funny how you can just tell who they are.

They gave us each a number to line up.

Finally like an hour before the show, they brought us into the studio and got us in our seats.  Even though I was sort of towards the back to the left, it was the best place to be because I was right by the exit for when it was time to leave and right next to where the bathroom line began haha

Normally you can't get up and go to the bathroom during her show, but when you have like 300 pregnant women in your audience, that really can't be a rule.  So instead they set up snacks and drinks and fun gifts in the bathroom for all of us and told us to go whenever we wanted.  And let me tell you, as soon as every commercial break began, there was a mad dash of women to the bathrooms haha it was so funny!

They let us take some pictures of the studio before the show taped which was fun because they normally don't do that either. 

Those babies on the screen were babies who were inside their mom's last year at the show.  So cute!

Finally the show started and the energy was so insane.  It felt like Christmas but for pregnant women haha I saw lots of tears and there was lots of screaming.  It would seriously take way too long to list of what I got so here is the abridged version of her show on youtube.  It's a little long but it took her awhile to name off all the stuff she got us!

A lot of the stuff we got was given to us at the end of the show in some pick up spots like our stroller and pack n play and then we were given vouchers for the really big stuff so we could go online and order what we wanted.  So we had to order the crib in the color we wanted and the carseat and all of that fun stuff.  And it's slowly coming in.  We have everything except the crib! It's still on its way. The diapers came about a week ago so we have 6 big cases of diapers just chilling in our living room haha

Anyways it was pretty much one of the most fun days ever.  I seriously hope that all my friends that are pregnant at this time next year apply to be in the audience.  We can't wait for her to get here to try out all her fun stuff!

As if I needed anything else, my sister in laws Wendy, Heather and Michelle just threw a baby shower for me here in Irvine with some close friends.  We had it at the Cheesecake Factory at the Spectrum and even though we were missing some of my girlfriends, it was a really good time.  I seriously got spoiled again by my wonderful friends and family.

Doug's mom surprised all of us and came to the shower from Utah.  She couldn't stay the whole time because she had to get back to Los Angeles but it was so sweet of her to make the trip out!

When we were there, Michelle brought this little game for us to play.  I had to fill out my answers, and so did everyone else.  And then I went through and told everyone my answers to see who got the most right.  It was so fun to think about and hear everyones answers. 

 I quizzed Doug when I got home to see what he thought I said and he only missed one!  He thinks her personality should be more like his, but let's be real here haha

Here's a picture of all of us after lunch.... I have decided no more full frontal pictures anymore.  At least not when I'm wearing vertical stripes.  Just makes me look ginormous.  But everyone else looks cute!

Thanks ladies!!