Two Showers & a Sprinkle

We've been so spoiled in the baby shower department!  Last Saturday morning my ward threw me my baby shower.  One girl hosted everyone at her townhouse, while another one planned the food and games.  It was a small group with several people out of town for the holidays, but we still had a great time and had a lot of baby talk!

We ate a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls, yogurt, and fruit salad--

I received such nice presents.  It was so fun to open them and pull out such cute girl clothes!  I especially love seeing all the pretty dresses hanging in her closet! 

We played a game of "facts."  We were asked 21 factual questions and had to guess the right answer from choices given.  Examples include: "How old was the oldest woman to give birth?" and "How big was the biggest baby born?"  It was interesting to hear all the different answers, and of course most of them were pretty astonishing!

I'm really grateful for such nice and supportive friends in my ward.  And as one of the younger and "newer" moms, it's so helpful to have so many "experienced" moms to get advice from!

During the week David's work threw him an impromptu baby sprinkle!  They sent out this email to his department:

They had cake and ice cream, and gifted David with two outfits and a $140 gift card to Buy Buy Baby!  It was so kind and generous of his bosses and co-workers, and I know David felt special and very appreciative.

(Some of the leftover cake that David brought home.)  : )

Yesterday I was able to enjoy my family baby shower, hosted by my sister, Rebecca, at my mom's house.  Both my mom and my sister worked hard preparing quite a lovely shower for me.  The decorations were just perfect, the food was quite tasty, the games were fun and induced much laughter, and the company couldn't have been better!  

My mom laid out the baby's quilt as a tabletop decoration, along with beautiful freshly cut hydrangeas from her garden.  There were diapers and markers laid out for guests to write messages for me to enjoy reading while I change those many new diapers.

Mom and Becky made a really pretty banner of flower pictures that said "A new rose for our garden."

Quite the spread!

Everyone could tell I looked about ready to pop!

We played two really fun games.  For the first one we were handed out paper that had two columns with the alphabet listed vertically.  We had to come up with a name and a thing for each letter that was the same word (but didn't have to be the same spelling).  An example would be Jim and gym, or Viola and viola.  There were several wordsmiths in the group, and it was really fun hearing the creative answers!

For the second game, Rebecca had several bowls of different baby foods lined out on the counter.  We were given a list of all the different names of them and had to match them correctly.  Guests could smell and taste the baby foods if they so wished.  It was a fairly easy game for me, except it got a little tricky differentiating between "applesauce"/"apples &cherries" and "pears"/"pears & raspberries."

The group in concentration.  So sad we didn't get a whole-group smiling photo!  Or of anything with my sister, the hostess!  Darn.

I felt so special at my shower and really did receive the nicest presents.  This baby is going to be one well-dressed little cookie!

It was fun having a mostly family shower, as all of the family stayed after it was over and just had fun chatting.  My aunt and three cousins were able to be there, so during the shower my dad and all their husbands took my cousin's two boys and Eli to play at a park and go get ice cream.  They all had a blast, and it was really nice knowing Eli was out doing something fun and not being bored or in the way at the house.

David also had some "guy" time during the shower, as he went out with his brother and dad to the driving range and guitar store.  : )  I think he also enjoyed the no-wife/no-kid time, too.  : )  

We are so, so grateful for the abundance of love and celebration we've felt from our friends and family in preparing for this sweet new baby.  She will be much-loved by everyone!