Week 32- Baby Shower #1

Me and Mary! Thanks to her I have tons of maternity clothes!

me with Debbie and Hayden. Debbie has been the sister for me throughout this pregnancy. She checks in on me and the baby all the time. Plus I have Hannah and Hayden who are putting their bids in for babysitting! They can't wait for the arrival of the little one.

Me and Andrea- BFF's since Freshman year in high school!!! She is so excited for the little one! She is so spoiling her soon to be niece or nephew already!

Elizabeth and me at the shower. She is 2 weeks ahead of me in pregnancy! She is carrying my soon to be nephew, Harrison!!!

I am just calling this pic the Riley aunts! Mrs. Peterson, Ms. Hanson, Mrs. Heiderman, Cindy, Gina, Mrs. Witherall, Mrs. Wallace, Ms. Gavin, Aunt Jane, me, mom, Mrs. Finley and Mrs. Coddens!

Me with my BFF Lisa!!! She is super ready to meet the little one and has done so much for us! What would we do without her in our lives!

Us with Jeremy's mom.... Grandma to be!

Us with my parents! Grammie and Gramps!

Me posing with my parents.

Me and my mom... the best mom ever! Such an amazing role model! I hope I do a great job of parenting as she has done. She is always there no matter what!

Me with Aunt Kathy and Aunt Julie. Aunt Kathy is Jeremy's godmother.

Me with Cindy, Aunt Jane and Gina. 3- SMC's in this pic... maybe a 4th if we have a girl!

me with Margie.... I just love it when the belly is touched!!!

My mom, Aunt Joan, me, Aunt Helen, and Gertie. Aunt Helen will be our child's 3rd time aunt... how amazing!!! Aunt Joan will be our little's one Great Great Aunt!

Me with Aunt Joan--she calls me 2-3 times every week checking in on "little mama and the baby" Her and I can tell each other anything. We have an amazing relationship and I hope this little one gets to learn some of Aunt Joan's baking skills!

On Tuesday night I was asked to speak to the Accounting Club at Saint Mary's. So mama and baby were one of the 5 speakers their for the night. We talked about how Saint Mary's prepared me for the working world, what to expect working in the real world and what I do for a living. It was great to be back on campus. The little one visited where mommy went to school.

On Thursday I had another busy day for community service. Every year since I have graduated I have kept up with a class that I took in college which is the tax assistance program. With being a tax profession now, I am considered the expert when I volunteer. I went to the Western branch library and as soon as I walked in I had 4 people that needed to talk to me. Needless to say it was a very interesting evening.

On Friday, Jeremy played in a charity basketball tournament with Adam and we went to watch daddy play at Marion high school. They lost their first game so they were put in the losers bracket. His next game was on Saturday morning at the boys and girls club and they won this game by 30 points so they were to play on Saturday night at Marion high school. Elizabeth was going to watch Adam play for the game so her and I ran and got DQ because I wanted some and she went with me for the ride and got something too! By the time we got back it was half time and the guys were winning! They won their game and were to play on Sunday, which Jeremy couldn't play because we had our first baby shower.

On Sunday, March 1st, we had our baby shower at Ambrosia. This was such an amazing shower that Jeremy and I could have wished for our little one. My mom did a wonderful job of hosting. We had pink and blue napkins on the tables, followed by the centerpieces that were cupcakes. The cupcakes were chocolate with pink frosting and a blue bootie on them or white with blue frosting with a pink bootie on them. Going with the whole pink and blue theme. Andrea made by hand a card thanking everyone for coming and then she had a blue and pink bottle for our guests to write down a girl name and a boy name on them since we haven't decided on a name for our little one yet. We went through the names when we got home and Lillian was very popular for a girl. For boys there really wasn't one consistent name throughout the whole guest list, but it was tons of fun to go through the names and get more ideas. My Aunt Joan put down Jeff Gordon for a boys name because she enjoys Nascar and since Nascar just started she wrote it down... I immediately knew who it was. We had polish food since our little one is going to be polish on both sides, my mom wanted to bring her grand-child in with his/her heritage!

Our little one was so loved at the shower and we are truly blessed because we had about 85 family and friends at the shower. We documented this by having our guests sign a framed matted photo with the maternity pictures that we had taken. We can't wait to hang these in the nursery! The comments that everyone wrote are just so touching and mean so much!

Our Maternity pics were taken by our friend Cheryl. Her website is http://www.photobystudioc.com/ our maternity pics are on her website if you are interested in seeing all the pics. I am so glad that we did these because I think it is so important to document our journey into becoming parents and to have these photos are just priceless. I can't wait for our little one to see these photos as he/she grows up and realizes the he/she was in my belly!

We also had Cheryl at the shower taking photos. I just wanted to capture this special day for our little one and to have these memories. we captured some great memories at the shower and can't wait to post some of these!