Showering me with love

Hello my Lovelies!  How are you doing?  We've had quite the exciting weekend!!

First off, Sunday was the beginning of my third trimester.  I'm amazed!  I swear, and I'm not just saying this, that every day I still can't believe I have a baby girl in my belly.  I also am starting to get a little bit more scared at the thought that in just about 12 weeks I will be somebody's mother!!!  I'm very much looking forward to our Childbirth classes with the hopes that they'll give us enough info to get us over the hump!

Now for the events of the past week...

Thursday - my Grandma (soon to be Great-Grandma) came over (she is in town from Iowa visiting my parents for a month) since my parents were at a convention.  She hadn't ever seen our house before and fell in love with it just like we did.  We had a nice dinner and got some rest in preparation for the busy weekend ahead.

Friday - Grandma and I got up early and went to the gym to work out - she's very active!  She walked on the treadmill and I did my normal routine.  We came home, I worked for a while while she prepped some of the food for J's diaper party on Saturday.  She also vacuumed my house and cleaned up a bit (THANKS GRANDMA!!)  Ran an errand early on and hit the grocery store on the way home for flour and canned beans - two items I had missed on the day before's big shopping trip.  Back home to work on creating potato salad and 60 (yes, 60!) deviled eggs only to discover we didn't have enough mayo or mustard.  So back to the store again (and J would go back the next day for bottled water!) and finally home to finish our prep work.  Grandma and I made a huge bowl of potato salad, 60 deviled eggs, 35 cornbread muffins, pulled chicken and beans!  That evening my cousin was flying in from Cali for the following day's shower...and there was yucky weather so instead of being here at 5 pm, she ended up here at 7:30 pm.  Long day for all of us.  Picked her up, grabbed some Eegee's on our way home and finally made it home for some down time.  Big day the next day!!


Saturday - A lot to do!  Up early to get final things ready.  J threw the ribs in the smoker and we made final preparations.  We (Grandma, Cousin, and I) left the house about 10:30 am to go to Mom and Dad's house for my shower, while my Dad made his way to my house for J's Diaper Party.  All the food came out (I assume) at my house and nine-tenths of it was eaten up...boys eat A LOT!  J smoked 8 racks of ribs in addition to all the stuff listed above and when we got back from my shower the only things left was one-third of the bowl of potato salad, 4 (out of 60) deviled eggs, and a few ribs.  Everything else was obliterated!!!  It looked like the guys had a great time and J had a stack of diapers and wipes to prove it.  I'd also asked the guys to sign a page for the scrapbook around the invite for our keeping and possibly give a bit of advice.  MBM's bro-in-law (who has 2 very young daughters of his own and is a cop) had the best advice of the day, "It's a girl, keep the guns loaded!"  So very sweet?

Back to my shower.... Mom had already set up most of the house with little outfits hung here and there, balloons, etc. and it looked great.  People started arriving about noon and in came the presents!  Mom had also arranged a little craft for everyone to do.  My aunt (my visiting cousin's mom) is a quilter.  So Mom and Grandma had cut out a variety of squares for shower guests to decorate, which my aunt will then make into a quilt.  Isn't that a great idea?!  So one more present on the way!

We had Eeegee's again (but not the same thing we'd picked up from the airport) for lunch and as always, it was yummy!  Then the present opening began....and continued...and continued.  Here's a few of my favorites.

This is a homemade knitted blanket from my pediatrician's wife (no I still don't go to him as my doc, but they are clients and good friends of the family).  She also made a hat and booties! So sweet.

This is a homemade quilt from J's Mom's best friend. Totally a shocker to me since I've only met her at our wedding, but so gorgeous!  He was blown away too!

A little U of A hat and outfit made by my Mom's BFF (seen in the pic as well as she was taking notes for me).  So cute!

A purple, girly piggy bank from surrogate Aunts and friends and clients of ours!  So very cute! Gotta start baby girl's college fund sometime!

And a onesie from my cousin that says "Miss April!"  How adorable is that?!

We also played a game where all my guests wrote down advice for me and I had to guess whose advice it was.  I failed miserably at guessing, but the advice was great!  I had made a page for safe keeping in my scrapbook with the invite and everyone signed around it so I remembered who was there.  All in all, a very fun party and so much appreciated for all the stuff!  We've still got a lot to get, but at least I feel a little better about all we got.

And here's a 4 generation picture of the family that was at the shower.  Grandma is far left, I'm next (with baby girl in my belly), then cousin Gail, then Mom.

So after all was said and done, presents somewhat put away and relaxed a bit, we headed to J's best friend's house for his birthday party celebration.  Three parties in one day.  I was spent and apparently so was J, because he came to find me for once at the party and wanted to go home...usually I have to drag him out, but he was beat!  Great day with so many people we love very dearly!

28 week update to come soon....hopefully before we hit 29 weeks!