Allow me a bit of drama here but you do know my struggle with my latest pregnancy. When you thought that you would only have one child in your entire life, your world gets crazy when you learn you are having another one. I was all out with Claud with as much as we can and with as much we can afford so imagine my fears when I learned I was pregnant. I immediately felt so bad for not preparing for this moment. For not being aware that it could happen.  The last thing I wanted was for my second born to feel that we didn't give everything we could for her and what she has were merely hand-me-downs from her big sister.

But God will always provide. My friend, Tiff of TheNestAPH, though younger than I am bears so much wisdom. She told me that whenever God graces you with a child, He will always give you provisions for her. And He did...

When I started to feel better about this pregnancy, we decided to celebrate it through a baby shower. It's an all-in-one celebration since the date of it was merely few weeks away from my date of delivery. I didn't want this pregnancy and my newborn tainted with my struggles and so a Shower was indeed in order to break that negative part of this journey.

And God did not disappoint and He exceeded all my expectations. Not only did He provide me with the best women and men to celebrate this shower, He also showed me that there are still many who believes in me. 

It was a wish for me to hold the shower again at The Linden Suites Ortigas like we did three years ago with Baby Claud. Agoda Philippines and The Linden Suites teamed up to give us the best experience. And guess what, this time around, The Linden Suites offered again one of their fabulous suites as the landmark of this joyous celebration. I felt kilig all over my body when I received their e-mail confirming our booking.

The location was ideal because it was close to our home and with its popularity, everyone I visited knew how to get there. Their new tower also provided us with more space we need. We got the two bedroom suite which was more than what we needed for our intimate gathering. It was equipped with a kitchen that accomodated our food and drinks.  The receiving area or the sofa part is more than enough to accommodate our guests. What I love is the huge round dining table. The rooms were also spacious and you'll love the soft bed covers and sheets. My husband spent most of his time here and finally got therest he needed after days of working.

More photos of the baby shower and our room below.

I would always choose Linden Suites to celebrate occasions like this. And what is great is that is always husband-approved. Hehehe!

Baby shower normally are thrown by a close friend or family to celebrate a woman's transition to becoming a mother, I still was hands on with this one, including the design of the e-vite, time capsule, calendar due date and other things. My FK family (cousins and friends since college) helped so much with the preparation that our short timeline didn't feel so rushed at all.

Besides, I wanted it to be a chill but fun kind of shower. One that I would look back on and think of as starting point in my journey to motherhood the second time around.

I couldn't be more grateful to Skinsicles who created delectable mermaid cupcake soaps for our guests. She does everything on her own and by hand which makes this giveaway all the more special.

Zenzest definitely outdid themselves with the much-raved perfume they created for Baby Steffi. We loooved the scent so much!

Guests and the kids love the Morgan Taylor polishes. This is chemical free!

Avon Philippines extra special with their compact, lipsticks and bras. Some of our guests preferred the bras because they know that AVON makes quality undergarments while the rest wanted the Perfectly Matte Lipsticks! Who wouldn't?

Mustela surprised us with samplers of their best-selling products which were a bit to all my friends. You really know quality brand when even your friends who don't have kids wants Mustela for themselves. 

I'm so blessed to have a party planner/events organizer/host friend in Alma Ramirez. She set up our dessert table, our photobooth and our Time Capsule table. She did the same for baby Claud and now with Baby Steffi! 

With help from friends and family, you can set up your own dessert corner. Borrow containers, take advantage of bulk chips being sold in the market. We roughly spent P1,500 to P1,800 for this set-up and food including the paper plates. the macaroons my cousins got me is sooooo good. I gotta remember to ask them where they got it!

This corner is the "Guess Baby Steffi's Birthday" and I think we have a winner! Again thanks to Alma for coming up with this set-up. I printed out the photobooth props and the designed the calendar. 

Hello, photoshop! I did this! Hahaha!

Japanese Maki for the guests! I miss eating raw fish!

Amber did not disappoint when it comes to the chicken lollipop, lumpiang shanghai and everybody's fave, Pichi-Pichi!

Liezel Z took all these photos as she did with Claud's Baby Shower. She brought her Fujifilm X-A3 and treated the photos with her skills in Lightroom!

Here is my big girl, Claud, she's the self-appointed receptionist greeting everyone who comes in the door. She's adorable!

Told yah the room was big. We even got to play a relay game in it! This game was particularly hard but fun! You'd know who your competitive friends are if they don't give up on this game.

Winners!! 

Shout out to The Nest Attachment Prenting Hub who made is so easy for my Meritas to get the gift they want for Steffi with their Online Gift Registry! I will expound on my experience on a different blog post because this needs a laser focus treatment. Hehehe!

These are my guest, Shar and Tammy of Mustela who both has supported me throughout my motherhood. They even got me and Claud as part of their campaign a few years back. Next to them is Lara, she's my colleagues at Snapworx. She's my Meredith to my Christina Yang. When it comes to career and passion though, she's got Yang on point! Lara is driven and I'm lucky to have her as a friend to motivate me always. Nats is part of SampleRoom. Our relationship has flourished from being Sample Roomies to SampleRoom Mommies. She's a Jane-Of-All-Trades! Beside me of course, needs no introduction! Phoebe of PhoebeAnn.Me. She's one of the reason a lot of us started beauty blogging and our relationship from being Blogger Besties is now soon to be upgraded as Kumares!

Trixie Reyna-Benedicto, freshly married and one of the editors I admire. She gave me my first gig at Cosmo.Ph and I couldn't be prouder to have her a friend! Jirbie is the Midas Girl for me. Her passion and drive always manages her to turn simple things to gold and I'm glad that I have her influence in my life! Karen (the one holding Claud), I've known the shortest but that one meeting formed a friendship. Sharing God's words to each other at a time we both needed them the most. 

Last but certainly not the least is Vee. She's the love of life of one of the most important people in mine. Though she was quiet, her determination is astounding. I'm proud to have her there as her influence is something I would want in my daughters' life. She's admirable in so many ways!

I'm pretty sure this is staged! LOL! That's Heaven on the far left, my niece. My achie Dhal who is always the voice of reason. And then there's Alma! You would know her already from my mentions above about her. She's so important in my life that she's making it again to the list of Ninangs for Baby Steffi. LOL!

Vee is one of my closest friend through my mom. She's going to be a nurse soon! 

I would hope that Steffi becomes as sweet and loving as her tita Vee is.

With Benefit Philippine's Captain Gorgeous, Donna. She'll be walking down the aisle soon and couldn't be happier for me. She's an amazing person and often amazing person goes through a lot of hurdles. And being so amazing at overpowering those hurdles allows her to find the gloriousness of future happily ever after.  I would always treasure our spontaneous tambays we did and hopefully more in the future when our lives starts to slow down a bit. For now, we are surely enjoying this rollercoaster ride of #adulting.

Steffi would be so lucky if she even has half of Donna's tenacity.

 

I loved this part right here where in everyone was excited to play the games.

Love the space!

Prayers, however, always is the start of our every occasion.

My dear family. We may lose people in our lives that mean the world to us but God will always give you people that you could count on. People you would go through fire with. 2017 was wrought with so much pain and suffering for our family. At a certain, I treated this pregnancy as a challenge instead of a blessing. And yet these people held my hands despite them struggling with their own problems. I could only wish I could return the favor to them....

Steffi is blessed to have this much love from her titas and future ninangs. I'm secured that even if something happens to me, she will have these people to take care of her.

Lara, my person. My Grey to my Yang. She never fails to celebrate moments like this with me. She's now managing BeautyPlus and MakeUpP Plus apps here in the Ph!

Jirbie of CouchWasabi.com is a beautyblogger friend, essential oil expert and all-around awesome buddy to me. Love her passion for her projects. I hope Sharkie adapts this from her. 

Shar and Tammy, the ever so passionate, Christ-centered, no-bad-bone in their body. How lucky is Steffi to have such generous titas through them? 

To my best friends, my neighbor, words can't describe how you guys have made this journey beautiful! Steffi will only turn out to be cool baby with these two's influence.

With Princess Velasco, Karen and Teena. All of these ladies are aahhhhmazing! Princess with her talent, her devotion to her family. Karen with her strength, moving so many miles away to ensure her is together. Teena with her pasion with body possitivity and her zest for life. How great that these are the people Steffi will meet and be influenced with.

An unexpected friendship with Princess! I thank Janice of MommyMundo on letting our paths cross. This woman never has a bad bone in her body, her ready smile is so reassuring. I remember you wishing to have another child and here you are already pregnant! God truly listens to us!

There's no words to describe my friendship with Tara. She's like a sister to me. I'm in awe with how well we mesh together though we have conflicting views and energy at times. She's a breath of fresh air with nothing but good things to say to other people. Her passion for health and to lead a purposeful life and lifestyle is an inspiration! All of which I wish Steffi would be someday.

In blogging, notice the treasure more than the possibility of endorsements and earnings. I've been blogging for years and my greatest take away from it are people like these ladies in my life. These are the things I wish Steffi would learn in a world she'll grow up with.

So many more empowering women that I get to surround my children with. This I think is the ultimate gift more than anything I could ask for for my child.

Sheena, she's the entrepreneur behind Skincicles. I remember her just starting out and now part of a huge group of Artisinal Filipino Soapmakers whose mission is to provide the world with chemical-free soaps. I'm surrounded with so many empowering and passionate women! What a wonderful world my children will grow in. Aren't I blessed that they will be surrounded with women like their Tita Sheena?

Family is so important and we are stoked to have Ron's youngest sister and her adorable family with us that evening. As you can see the Cala-or is not wanting when it comes to breeding as Anne also has two beautiful girls! We only wish that we could be complete soona nd reunite with Ate Cathy who is in the States with her whole family, including Lola and Lolo. I'm grateful that Claud and Steffi has a lot of cousins to grow up with. I wish them both the same beautiful childhood that I had with my cousins.

I have to thank Jollibee, Absolute, Zenzest, Avon, Mustela and Stratworks for also sponsoring this event. Also than you to my FK family for the Ambers, Big Guy's Pizza and Sushi.

And of course to The Linden Suite, you have encapsulated this momentous event and will forever be grateful for your help.

Book your special event at The Linden Suite today!