Baby Showers Galore!

After several weeks, I am FINALLY finding the time to re-cap not one, but two baby showers that were thrown in our honor.  You may have seen a few photos here and there on Instagram or Facebook, but I'll give you the details behind it all!

Shower #1:  Sunday, September 22nd

Our first shower was hosted by my beautiful mother.  It was held at one of the train stations in my hometown.  I really loved the setting, because the train station has a brand new lobby that they rent out for events, and the room was just gorgeous.  From the food to the favors and yes, the GAMES (I love games!), it was a perfect day!

Mike and I at the start of our shower.  Dress is from ASOS Maternity.  I'm pretty sure it was only $35!  Here, we are at 34 weeks!

My best friend Danielle and her newborn baby boy, Evan!  I just adore this little man!  I can tell he's very excited to meet his future girlfriend!  :)

Sigh.  I love him:)  Is he not the most precious thing you've ever seen?  Also, I happen to love my thick pregnancy hair in this photo.

This is the only non-awkward shot of me opening gifts.  And, it's still pretty awkward!

My favorite ladies!

I have to admit that I felt very overwhelmed by everyone's love and generosity.  Plus, I HATE to have all eyes on me, so the gift-opening part of the day made me sweat a bit:)  But, it's insane how many adorable things we have for our little baby lady.  I can't wait until our floors are finished so we can get rolling on her room.

Shower #2: Saturday, October 12th

Our second shower was hosted by my mother-in-law, whom I am absolutely adore.   I feel pretty lucky that we have such a wonderful relationship.  The guests were primarily my husband's side of the family, whom I love.  They are seriously such a riot!  She truly outdid herself with the details, too!  The shower was held in my husband's hometown in Indiana, which coincidentally, is also where I went to school!

 

Umm, cupcakes AND owls on the bag?  I die!

I really loved the flowers!

Yep.  Same dress.   Why reinvent the wheel this close to the end???  Except this time, I look MUCH more pregnant and tired.  37 weeks!

The fam!  My sister Molly (seriously, she got ALL of the looks!), my mother Judy, my father-in-law Mike, my mother-in-law Vickie and the soon-to-be-parents!

Once again, the day was wonderfully overwhelming:)  It's just so crazy to imagine every baby item and every outfit with a baby actually IN them.   We had such a great time, though.  The food was excellent, and I love spending time at my in-laws' house.  I always feel so relaxed and they never mind when I fall asleep early:)

I may or may not write a post about everything we registered for.  I suppose I'll see what actually works first:)  However, I will say a few things about the process:

* We registered at Buy, Buy, Baby because to me, it felt far more organized than Babies 'R Us.  Also, I love that they accept not only BRU coupons, but ones from Bed, Bath and Beyond as well.

* We also gladly accepted Target gift cards.  We put all of them towards the nursery furniture (crib, changing table, dresser and glider), and we were fortunate that we didn't have to spend a dime of our own money.

* I started the process by asking current moms what items they considered to be a waste of time.  I omitted those first, and then used a combination of research and advice to create the rest of our registry.

Overall, I think we approached the process in a pretty logical manner.  I am also anticipating that we may find that we DO need some items we did not receive, and we may never use some of the items we did register for.  Just like anything else, parenthood is going to consist of a lot of trial & error and we're ok with that:) 

Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us!  We can't wait to put everything to good use once the baby lady is here!