Baby Shower #1

I seem to want to start out every single blog with...."Can you believe I'm really having a baby?"...but I can see that would get old. I had my first baby shower this Saturday. Showers can be touchy situations - who to invite, who not to invite. Do you send people at home courtesy invitations even though you know they can't come? This was my Woodstock shower, so since I'd been gone for 4 months from Woodstock, I was nervous about that, too - who to send invitations to - would someone think I was inviting them just to get a gift? I worry about these things. I ended up inviting everyone I wanted to - people who have been special to me in the 4 years we've been at Woodstock. Then, I just tried to let it go. So...the shower was at Michelle Foster's house, and several of my sweet special friends helped with it. Kelli made this AWESOME diaper cake - and look how stuff from our registry is stuck on the cake - is that sweet or what????!! Then, Michelle made the James cakes - each cake has a different letter. I knew because of the girls who helped with the shower that it would be fabulous - no matter what they did. Can you believe how cute this is???
Alright, I have many pictures, but one of my favorites is taking this picture with Brooke. She made these things for me! She is crazy talented and has an etsy store :) You know, we decided on James Landon, and I was excited because I thought his monogram would look good, but this is the first time I actually saw it - I LOVE IT! I've got to start thinking about a diaper bag....what kind I want, what I want monogramed on it, etc. Anyway, homemade gifts are always special to me (although so are the gifts I registered for since those are things I REALLY NEED!). I was so excited to see lots of people I hadn't seen in months - Brooks was one of those people!

These are some of my very favorite ladies. Candy, Linda, and Nancy - some of my orchestra friends. I think of anyone I saw, I felt the most emotional seeing them because I think I miss playing for the orchestra more than anything else. It was so great to see these ladies - I am so, so thankful they came by!

This is the gift my mom sent for me UPS since she couldn't be at the shower. Gator bib and Gator overalls - we've already been playing all the Gator songs for James - Landon suggested we play one of them while he comes out of the "tunnel" - ha. Is that too gross to say? I thought it was funny - and I'm so glad Landon and I are equally yoked in that way. I tried to tell him though that I needed to sit this season out and not go to any real games and he was like, "Excuse me, are you a real gator or what? I thought you were a true fan." So...we'll see...apparently I'm going to be fitting a real live gator game into learning about motherhood this fall :) BTW, this is Michelle's sweet girl, Kate - she helped me with my presents and was a great helper, in general, at the shower!

I was so excited that since I didn't have any other family at the shower, Amy and Christy were able to come! Amy had to drive over two hours to get there, and I know it took Christy a while too. I was so happy to see both of them! Amy wrote down my gifts for me - I love my cousins!

Just a picture of some of us chatting...

This is me and Lara Hughes. Lara and David become great friends to us pretty quickly after we moved to Woodstock. We haven't been nearly as close in the last year or so, but they helped us through some tough stuff and helped us see what being in a care group is all about - and, she's a neurotic momma like I will be (I mean this is a VERY COMPLIMENTARY WAY)....so she's the one who bought our digital monitor for us - haha, that makes me super happy.

Okay, these ladies are some of my very best friends from Woodstock. They've been through thick and thin with me - we've heard lots of "Junk" about each other's lives and been through a lot together. These are seriously some of the greatest and strongest ladies I know - I have learned so much from them.

Okay, I know I'm acting like I have lots of friends - I really don't think I have that many friends, but the ones I have are just really special to me. These ladies below are also REALLY SPECIAL to me. They were in our Intimate Encounters care group the first time we really taught it with James. Michelle is on the end, then Kelli, then me, then Kristy. These ladies did a ton for the shower, and it was great. Kelli and Eric are our best friends from Woodstock - they are crazy talented and are looking now to go to a church. I serious business love these girls (okay, I won't say again how special people are or how much I love them - is it getting annoying??).

The shower was a great success. We had a really good weekend in general. Landon's parents had been in Helen, GA all week on vacation, so they stopped by and spent the night with us Friday night. Saturday morning Landon and his dad started hanging up the never ending saga project of the curtains in the living room. Landon's mom helped me put the big sticker on James' wall. Ya'll, I want to wait to show you the nursery - as the finished product - but I'm just telling you the sticker makes me want to cry. I LOVE IT. And I am so glad I ordered it. It has the James verse on it - right above his crib. It was a little complicated to figure out, but with L's mom and Landon on the hard parts of it...we got it taken care of! So, I have the sticker on the wall...but still quite a bit to do in there. And now, I have some gifts from my shower to figure out where to put stuff. Exciting. Yesterday was a great day. We had a special Mother's Day breakfast at our church for mothers and ladies - and I got to come! It was wonderful (not a surprise to me since everything I've been to there has been amazing). Bonnie came to church with us yesterday, went to lunch, and went home to check out our house. She gave me the cutest gator pacifier and clip! Last night Landon finished hanging the curtains. He set up the ironing board for me really low so I could sit on the couch and iron the curtains - it took a while - I had to iron four 108" panels - yikes. They look great though now that they are up - no crazy crisis, Landon did awesome and didn't even seem frustrated with anything, and now we have more privacy and more loveliness :) I know he was exhausted and didn't want to get that done, but I am so happy he did! That was a great gift to me yesterday!

Tonight we are taking the couples nursing class at the hospital - it's 3 hours, ya'll. I hope we learn something - and I hope we get out early (that's really awful to say since we are the ones who chose to take the class and paid for it). It's from 6:30-9:30pm - late.

This week is pretty ordinary, but just busy like usual. I have my Bethabra shower this weekend -on Sunday afternoon. I am so excited about celebrating with our new church family!! They have been so good to us....and so loving...I feel bad for them to love on us more, but I am so thankful!

I have many things on a to do list - check on Guidestone insurance (which we'll switch to after James is born so that we can pay our of our rear ends for it...), think about what I want to pack in my bag (I know it's a little early to pack my bag, but I'm a planner, and I want to be ready), I want to pick out some birth announcements, I have numerous thank you notes to write, check on a pediatrician - because it's time to do that, for sure, continue hanging stuff up in the house, and keep working on James' room... That's stuff in my spare time :)