It Just Got Real

Nine months of pregnancy, a little fella that won't stop dancing around in my belly, baby showers with lots of gifts to ooh and ahh over, taking a completely empty room and turning it into a nursery -- all of these things should have made me realize "Hey, there's going to be a baby here soon."  None of them did.

What has made the biggest difference?  This:

There's something about a large baby thing being in my living room that makes it all seem real.  There's going to be a baby.  At my house.  Any day now.  I'm going to be a mom.  With a baby.  Whoa.

It just got real, folks.  It just got real.

YM1 Shower

Last Sunday, my friend Jenelle and other members of my Sunday School class threw us a shower.  My mom came into town for the shower as well.  Thanks to Brandi for taking pictures during the shower and to Jeannie for letting us use her lovely home.

Food and Games
We feasted on all kinds of yummy food, including an absolutely delicious chocolate cake (I loved the message on the cake, too!).  We alternated eating and opening gifts with playing games, like guessing how many baby items were in a jar (see below), completing nursery rhymes, and answering pop culture baby questions (like naming the Huxtable children from "The Cosby Show").

Opening Gifts:
Since nearly every lady there has had a child in the past year or is currently pregnant, I got lots of very practical gifts.  I also got some beautiful homemade gifts.  They're quite the talented bunch!

Leaiana showing me the pictures she had drawn in her card.

My amazing diaper cake

The Guests:
The middle of July is a hard time to have a shower because so many people are out of town/on vacation.  We were a small group, but I had a good time being able to talk to each of those ladies (they have lots of advice to give!).

Caitlin and Liz

Liz's son, Graham

The fellow "preggies," Shannon, Megan, and Kristen

Mom, me, Jenelle, Leiana, Shannon

Belly shot: Megan (due in August), Kristen (due in October), Shannon (due in December), and Megan (due in February)

Jamesville Shower

Last weekend, Lilhimself and I traveled east for our Jamesville baby shower.  Thanks to my aunt Tammy for taking pictures of the event for me.

Decorations and Food:
They went with a rubber duck theme.  I've talked for years about having a duck-themed bathroom, so I'm guessing this is what inspired Mom to suggest it.

The centerpieces

The food was AWESOME!  I couldn't stop going back for seconds (and thirds...).  I can't remember it all, but there were cheese puffs, fudge, salted pecans, haystacks, veggies and chips and their respective dips, meatballs, cocktail wienies, pimento cheese sandwiches, etc.  In other words, all things yummy!

Is this not the cutest cake ever?  A lady in Jamesville (Vicky McCombs) makes cakes as a hobby, and she does a fantastic job!  It was so pretty, no one wanted to cut into it.  Bonus: that meant that cake came home with us!

Opening Gifts:

The Guests:

Since I don't actually live in Jamesville anymore, we kept the guest list really small, mostly just church ladies, neighbors, and a few high school friends.  Nothing compared to Kara's baby shower where 3/4 of the town showed up!  

High school friends Micah and Jessica and their little girls

Family photo: Aunt Tammy, Mama, me, Aunt Carol, Addison, and Kara

Nebo Shower

Yes, this shower was over a month ago, but better late than never, right?  Thanks to Jason's cousin Katherine for sending these pictures to me.

Food:  Things were pretty simple for this shower, with cake, peanuts, a fruit platter, and some punch.  I thought the cake was really cute.  The balloons were done so well, I really thought they were real at first!

Gifts:
We got all kinds of cute stuff, and lots of gift cards which have already come in handy.  It was also nice to have Jason there to open some presents while I sat back and watched!

Jason's aunt Nancy pointing out that she DIDN'T use Carolina blue on the blanket

a present from Jason's parents "since he's such a smarty pants"

Robot Shower, Guests

This is the third and final post about the robot shower.  To see parts 1 and 2, click here and here.

My favorite part of the day was getting to spend it with close friends and family.  I haven't seen some of these ladies in a long time, and I still didn't get to spend enough time catching up with them.  Y'all, call me for pre-baby girl dates!  

Here are some shots from the day:

Rebecca, Amy, Melody, Shannon, and Amanda

Carol, Sandra, Jodi (my neighbor), and Jodi

Kristen (and Amanda)

Group shot

I even got a chance to take pictures with most everyone at the end of the shower:

No idea why they're scratching my belly...

Yes, I'm talking, but it was the best shot of the three of us

Rubbing our "baby bellies"

Robot Shower, Games and Gifts

To read about part one about my robot shower, click here.

Kara was in charge of games.  I didn't get a lot of pictures of them because I was playing most of the time.

List of Games:
Pictionary (with maternity and baby-related words... some quite graphic!)
Name Lilhimself (who could come up with the best/worst Self-related name... winner was "Keith Tooyo Self")
Guess the baby food flavors (I won that one, getting 7/8 correct... guess I'm ready for the baby food stage when Lilhimself is!)
Estimate the belly bump (each person used ribbon to estimate how large my bump is)
Baby gift bingo (guests wrote down guesses for gifts and put a sticker on them when I opened that type of gift)

Jodi guessing the bump... she was WAY off.  I'm not THAT BIG, Jodi!

Amanda started by wrapping the ribbon around her own waist.  I questioned her methods (something like, "Seriously, you're going to compare my belly to yours?"). Then, she wrapped the ribbon around her spread-out arms instead.

Playing Bingo

The winner!

Gifts:
I got a ton of awesome gifts, and Jodi documented nearly every one of them.  Unfortunately, I make really weird faces when opening gifts.  Here's the not-so-weird ones...

Jill tying my hair up with an orange ribbon

Getting my hand "stuck" in a kid-friendly bowl

Jodi started getting a bit creative with pictures, including posing some of the gifts on me!

Our Loot:

We're so thankful for everyone who came (tomorrow's post) and for all the wonderful stuff they gave us!