Showered With Love

I realize I have already had the baby, but there are a couple posts I need to catch up on before blogging about Brooklynn. First, is the incredible baby shower that Joe's Family threw for me, and the following post will be the nursery reveal. 

On March 23, 2013 Serena, Sharon, and Julie threw the cutest little Easter Themed Baby Shower at our place.  Sharon hung all the cute pom poms and lanterns the night before, and everything looked so cute.  She set up the tables with the cute tablecloths and pretty pink flowers too, and it was just beautiful! When Serena and Julie arrived on Saturday, I was just blown away by how much thought and creativity had gone into planning the shower.  Serena planted wheat grass in egg shells and other cute containers weeks before the shower so they would grow and fill the shells and containers for the shower.  They were so adorable!!!  I would have never thought to do something like that!  She also made the most incredible ombre cake!  Seriously, I am still in awe just looking at these pics again!  The layers and frosting went from light to dark pink, and on top of how beautiful it was it was just as delicious!! I can't even imagine how many hours it took her!  She made a cute sign for the front door welcoming Brooklynn to the family, and made some cute banners to hang for decoration. She had a cute little thing to hang pics of Joe and me on from when we were babies, and people also hung little advice cards that Sharon had made.   Julie brought the cutest bowl of pink colored eggs, some super yummy pink and white popcorn, pink candies, a cute little Brooklynn Print that was framed, cute pink bunny cookies, and a yummy fruit platter.  Everyone brought the most yummy foods, and we all had so much fun just visiting.  

I'll let the pics do the talking for themselves.  

Joe's Aunt Susan had this cute little buggy made.  There was a cute Aggie blanket, burp cloths, wipes, diapers, and more.  So adorable!

Ann, Joe's Grandma (Norma), Sharon's mom (Caroline), and Sharon

We haven't decorated our formal dining room yet, so there was plenty of room to put some tables and chairs together.

The cute sign Serena put on the front door.

Serena (Joe's sister) and me

Caroline and Norma

Everyone hanging out and visiting.

Joe's cousin Troy, and Ann

The sweet lovelies that threw the shower for me!!  Love them!

We had some of the boys show up to celebrate with us too!

Ha ha Julie and I were joking about how awesome we always look in the pics Bob takes when we're eating.  Sure enough, here we are looking like goofs again!=)  Sharon and Shelby look great though!=)

Joe's Sweet Aunt Debbie and Julie's Mom (Vickie) who lives in our ward and has pretty much adopted us.  Love her and the rest of her family!

Joe's Grandma, and Sharon's Dad

The cute little gals that got to come and be part of the fun day!  Love Maggie and Addie!

"Born to Shop".......Joe is in for a real treat with two of us!=)  

We got so many things we were in need of, and we're so grateful for everyone's generosity.

My cute little helpers!

                                     

Serena cutting the cake!=)

                                                

AMAZING!!!

Grandpa and Zoey

 Love these girls!

The cute print from Julie.  LOVE IT!!!

Sharon made these cute little Easter Basket party favors, complete with a little chick!  So cute!!

The cute bunny cookies Julie made

The wheat grass grown in egg shells!  Is that not the cutest thing ever?!

I LOVE this too, with the cute burlap and ribbon around it!  Completely says Spring!

The cute girlies working on their craft project

Cute colored eggs!  Such a cute idea!

Here's the table all put together!

I forgot to take pics of all the yummy food we ate!  Trust me when I say it was delish!  

I will always cherish that day!  I was blown away by the love and support that I felt from everyone.  I can't even begin to express my gratitude to everyone that traveled to be here with us, and for all of the time and energy that went into preparing all of the food, decorations, and gifts. It truly was such a special day, and I am so grateful that I married into such a wonderful family.  They made being away from my own immediate family a little more bearable.  Thank you SOOO much to everyone that was there or had any part in throwing the shower.  You sure know how to make a girl feel loved! 

All I'd Ever Dreamed Of

I am so blessed to have such incredible friends and family here in Texas! I was blessed to get to have two baby showers.  One with friends from our ward (Serena was so sweet and came too), and one thrown by Joe's side of the family here in Texas.  I have always been the one going to other people's baby showers and dreamt of the day that I would get to have my own.  Kind of like "always the bridesmaid, never the bride."  Well, that day finally came and it was so special and incredibly fun, and it was everything I dreamed of!  My sweet friend, Haley, offered to throw a shower for me at her beautiful home. We did it on Thursday February 28th, 2013 at 7pm. Three of my other incredible friends wanted to help, and together they did such a wonderful job and made it such a memorable evening for me.   I went around before everyone got there to take some pictures of all they had done!  There were so many people that came to show their love and support, and I can't express my gratitude enough!! 

Haley made all of the cute decorations

This little wreath is made out of diapers!  It's hanging on Brooklynn's closet door now.  So cute! 

The food was so yummy! Rachel brought a yummy pasta salad
that I loved, but forgot to get a picture of.  Everything was so good!

Haley made all different kinds of cupcakes, and had a cupcake bar.  Everyone loved getting to frost and decorate their own cupcakes.  Such a cute idea!

Jillian put fruit in the water dispenser to make it look so pretty, and had the delicious Izze drinks too.

Melissa made these cute little advice cards, and all the ladies filled in a bingo card for when I opened presents.   We also played "guess the babyfood", and I was terrible at it!=)  

There are so many pregnant ladies in our ward right now!  I think there are about 10!  These are two of my friends that have also had a hard time having a baby, and now we're all pregnant together.  Such a miracle, and so fun to experience it at the same time.  Chelle is 3 weeks ahead of me, and Stephanie is due in the summer.

Opening presents was so much fun!!  I have the sweetest friends, and they got some seriously cute things for this baby! I can't wait to play dress up with her!=) Thank you so much everyone!

These are the sweet friends that threw the shower for me!  I'm so blessed to have them in my life! Thank you for making it such a special night!  Love you guys!! (Left to Right: Rachel, Haley, Me, Melissa, Jillian)

(After seeing these pictures I have never worn this shirt again!   Stripes make me look HUGE!!=)  )

Another one of my cute pregger friends!  There must be something in the water!=)  ha ha!  

 After the shower I kind of started to freak out a little bit.  I think seeing all the baby stuff in our house just made it seem more real.  I started to question if I was really ready for this!  I mean, I'm going to have someone else's life in my hands.  The thought of that huge responsibility overwhelmed me for a few days.  Joe was so sweet about reassuring me that I would be a wonderful mother, and reminding me how long we have waited for this baby.  At this point I feel really excited and ready for her to be born.  Back in February though, I had a small melt down.  That's normal, right?=)

Unforgettable Moments

Ok, so I realize these posts are kind of dragging on and some of you may be getting tired of every single post being about my pregnancy.  Plus, I really don't have that many more weeks until this sweet baby girl gets here, so I need to get crackin' and just finish blogging about the pivotal moments during this pregnancy. So, I'm going to try and knock out a couple of them with this post.

November 29th, 2012:  I am almost 20 weeks and up until today I have just been able to feel little "flutters" of the baby moving.This morning, however, I was sitting in the recliner, and I started to feel the baby moving but this time it was very distinct.  I pulled my shirt up off of my belly, and just sat there and watched it.  All of the sudden my stomach was moving!!  It was the coolest, most weird, and beautiful thing all at the same time.  I kind of starting tripping out a little bit!  When your stomach starts moving from the inside out, it's kinda crazy!  It made me feel like an alien or something, not gonna lie! Feeling flutters is one thing, but actually watching my stomach move was so different!  I had never felt anything like it before.

Over the next weeks and months, I really grew to love being able to feel her move. It became comforting to know she was still alive in there and that things were going okay.  I love this part of pregnancy.

I'm trying to remember the exact time frame of when Joe first felt her move.  I think it was just a couple weeks later.  He had been able to watch my belly moving around several times.  One evening I was lying on the couch and he came over and knelt down on the floor next to me and was talking to the baby.  Then he rested his head on my belly.  All of the sudden she kicked him right in the head!  He popped his head up and excitedly and kind of shockingly said "I felt her!!" He laid his head down again, and she kicked again. Then one more time.  He was so excited, and I was so happy that he had gotten to experience it for himself!  

On December 7th, we had our 20 week ultrasound and were planning to find out the gender.  We were both so excited and so anxious!

                                                                                   

In the waiting room right before we went back!!  So excited!!!

After the tech did some measuring, she asked if we were wanting to know the gender.  Our answer was YES!!  Joe has been saying it was a girl from the beginning, and since he was right about the last baby being a boy I was leaning that same way.  We had both said it didn't matter if it was a boy or a girl, we just wanted a baby.  The tech said "It's a girl!!!" I started laughing and said "What?!" and Joe said "I told you!"

   

That night we went to dinner with Joe's family to celebrate his dad's birthday.  We had told everyone that we would give him a present to open that would reveal the gender.  I think by the time we got to that everyone was tired of waiting to know, but we wanted to try and make it fun.  

That night and over the next few days, Joe and I experienced emotions we were not at all expecting.  We both had said that we just wanted a healthy baby, but we discovered that deep down both of us were thinking about the baby boy we had lost and secretly hoping this baby was a boy. I think we thought that if this baby was a boy it would kind of help us heal a little more.  That night and the next day I cried thinking about our son, and missing him.  Then I would feel guilty that this baby would think we didn't want her, which totally wasn't the case.  We were SO thrilled to be having a baby.  I think it was just another step we needed to take in the mourning process.  It only took a couple of days for it to sink in, and we were thrilled about the idea of having a baby girl.  

That Sunday we had planned to Ichat with my family to share the gender with them!  My sister did the sweetest thing, and threw a "Guess The Gender Party" for everyone at my parent's house!  She wanted to surprise me, and wanted to make it a really fun thing for everyone.  Talk about the most amazing sister ever!  I don't know anyone with a kinder heart than her!  She made all sorts of treats, and had everyone chose a bow tie or a tiara to put on depending on what their guess was.  

These are the only pics of my family I can find, but I think most of them guessed it was a boy.

The time came for us to reveal the gender, and this was the idea I had come up with.  We set the computer up on the counter, and I put my haircutting smock on to cover up my outift.  It has snaps so I could easily rip it off.  I told them whatever color shirt I was wearing underneath would tell them the gender.  So, they put the ipad up on the mantle and everyone gathered around.  

It just so happens that I have a blue shirt with snaps too, so Joe and I thought it would be funny to play a little joke on them=) So, everyone thought it was a boy and then.......

They found out we're having a sweet baby girl!!! 

We are so excited to meet this little angel.  I'm 33 weeks now, and I think it's just starting to feel real.