Monday, November 26, 2012

Thankful

First things first, let me get the 21 week photo out of the way...


The belly is growing, and I love it.  I'm still feeling great, despite some restless nights.  But, I chalk it up to preparation for what's to come, if one can ever be prepared for that sort of thing.

We headed down to Jacksonville for Thanksgiving to celebrate with my family.  I expected a pretty low key weekend of food, family, seeing some friends, and football.  Little did I know that some very sneaky people had been planning a SURPRISE baby shower for me.  And surprising it was!  I guess there were many who said there was no way they could pull it off, but I honestly wasn't remotely on the scent.  I had mentioned to my mom that maybe we should have a baby shower when I was home for Thanksgiving, but she shot it down so we started discussing late January/early February.  Then in a moment of pure genius, she changed her mind and decided to make it a surprise.  I am not sure I'll ever have a surprise like that again!

I had lunch plans that day with one of my best friends, Meg (a total set up), and before I left, I was helping my mom clean the house... for my own party!  Haha.  I could write a novel about how I kept trying to mess things up (without knowing, of course), but they pulled it off.  As you can see from the pictures, my face when I walked in the door was priceless.



The favors had Psalm 127:3 on them, and I may or may not have almost ugly cried when I read the verse.  "Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him."


Christine's masterpiece... so cute!



There were a lot of people that helped out to make it a surprise, but the party planner extraordinaires were my mom, sister, and sister-"out"-law, Christine (she and my brother have been together for 9 years and have two kids but aren't married... hence the "out" law status).  I cannot believe what they pulled off with me out of the house for about 2-2.5 hours.  The theme was elephants, and it was really cute (I love elephants and come by it naturally, my grandma was a big fan too... I can say that I loved them before they were trendy!).  It was so fun and we got a lot of fun stuff for our sweet girl, including lots of adorable elephant onesies, blankies, and such.  AND, the Gators kicked the Seminoles' butts!  Icing on the cake!

We headed home early yesterday morning, and I think Matt and I can both say we now know what nesting is.  :)  We got home and cleaned, filed papers, organized, threw a lot of things away, made a donation pile, and made room for baby.  Her room has been sort of used as a catch-all up until now, so it was time to decide what could stay and go.  We are having it painted in a few weeks, including the interior of the closet, so I couldn't put everything away properly in the room.  Instead I used the closet in the bathroom, and I couldn't resist trying to make it a little cute.  :)


About set on blankets... 4 receiving blankets, 2 soft blankets, and 7 Aden & Anais blankets!


I forgot to mention that we also had a small family shower on the Sunday before Thanksgiving with some of Matt's family.  We were completely spoiled there too... everyone chipped in to get us our BOB stroller, carseat adapter, and handlebar accessory!  His aunt also gave me two boppys, a diaper pail, breast pump (a good one), and a few other things.  HUGE!  I'll get new tubes and whatnot for the pump, but I am in awe of the generosity of others.  Not to mention, my BFF is handing down her daughter's wardrobe, gave me her Bjorn, and is giving me several other things besides all the items I know she's been buying too because she's crazy and I love her.

Lastly, we have decided on a name...
Greer Elizabeth

I love it.  Ironically enough, I'm sitting here watching (well, sort of) Pride and Prejudice from 1940 starring Greer Garson.  It's a sign.  ;)

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving and found many blessings to be thankful for.

2 comments:

AEOT said...

Greer is a family name on my husband's side and is my neice's middle name!! Love!

So glad you had such fun with the showers. Looks like you were totally blessed!!

Amy said...

I just wrote a novel and I'm not sure if it posted... so going again :)
This post was just chock full of goodness! What a lovely and awesome surprise to have a shower while you were in town!! I couldn't help but think, "and so it begins", as I looked at the pictures of all your stuff in the closet. They come with SO MUCH STUFF -- but it's also so much fun! Especially girl stuff :). And now that this post is really verging on novel status and I know you know this, but it must be said that I love, love the name Greer. Reese was *this* close to being Greer... sort of a "she's a day old already and we have to name her and we love them both". Your Greer with be perfect!!