Baby Shower

It's been since November since I did a blog update, holy cow! Most of you have kept up with me through Facebook, so my blog has kind of taken a hit (moreso than usual, I mean). You all know the struggles I've had through the pregnancy...I've never been one to suffer quietly, hahaha. It's been really hard with the continued nausea, the high blood pressure/stress, the painful kicks and jabs to everything in my abdominal cavity. Pregnancy is just absolutely NOTHING like what I thought it would be. As much as I don't really like it (I borderline hate being pregnant), I still am so happy. I cannot WAIT to meet the little stinker that makes me wince multiple times daily from his powerful kicks! I keep hoping and praying he looks just like his daddy, I would LOVE a little clone of Andrew running around. And he WILL be running, if his activity in my belly is any indication. Gonna have a busy one!  =)

The only thing I've really found I love about being pregnant? The fact that my cat FINALLY gives me as much attention as I give him, hahaha. Dewey's always been a daddy's kitty, but ever since I got pregnant he has been "all up in my groceries" (love that expression from my friend Beth). And I LOVE IT!!!! I shower him with love and praise 24/7, and he can't get enough. After any stressful day at work, I come home and sit to relax, and he jumps up on the arm of the chair to forcefully get as much lovin' as I can dish out, and it truly does help relieve the stress of the day. I love my kitty!!!!

Harley's become so much easier in 2013!! He turned 1 on March 5th, and while there are times he still drives us bonkers, we are so relieved that we were right in sticking with him. He was a tough puppy with all that energy from being a puppy AND a Border Collie, but we knew he was smart and sweet and that once he grew up some he'd be so much better. Toughing it out was really hard, hahaha. That dog was on my last nerve daily for months, I think. But he's so much better! He's more than a little obsessed with Andrew, though. Those two SERIOUSLY are so cute when they play/snuggle. Harley liiiiiiiiiiiives for any time he gets with Andrew. Harley and Dewey are still working on becoming friends. The funny thing is that you can tell they love each other and want to play all the time, but they just are still at different levels of play. Harley still goes really rough right off the bat, and Dewey's more of a "let me hide and jump out at you" kind of playful. They'll figure it out eventually, haha.

So last weekend we had two baby showers: one at Andrew's office, and one here at the house for family and friends. Andrew's coworkers gave us such a sweet shower, and soooooo many people chipped in to get us some precious gifts and lots of gift cards to Buy Buy Baby for other things on our registry. We were very grateful, it was all so generous!

Then the next day we had a TON of people over to our house for a shower! We were pleasantly shocked at how many people were able to make it, some driving from pretty far to get here. Our wonderful home group ladies Laurel and Lauren came over early to bring flowers and food and help us set everything up. They were absolutely fabulous, they took so much off of our plate and were on the same page the whole time with everything, we were so grateful for their help. Look at this beautiful setup:

Now some of you might be going "Is that a baby in fruit on the right?" YES, haha. My mom has become more than a little addicted to Pinterest, and found this ridiculously adorable baby in a carriage thing made entirely of fruit (plus a pacifier). She asked if I would mind if she attempted it, and I was like "Sure!" She did AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's a close up:

Thanks, Mom! You really did an awesome job, everyone commented on it and asked about it. Really, really great! We also got a cake from our favorite bakery, Romano's Bakery.

We were incredibly overwhelmed at everything Mattie got. Tons of cute clothes (including some cute monkey stuff, which I'm so relieved at after some of the scary monkey stuff we've been seeing in the stores), practical gifts of diapers and bottles and ointments (I love those gifts!!), stuff for the nursery...I had to fight back emotional hormone tears, haha. So much more than we could've dreamed of. Thank you SO MUCH to each and every one of you. "Thank You" cards are coming soon, and I have plenty of time being on partial bed rest, haha. We love you all SO MUCH!!!!

There were lots more present-opening pictures, but I think that's enough, haha! It was such a great day, and our hyper puppy was SO GOOD for the time he was out with us (we kenneled him for food and presents). Dewey made a small child cry and then sulked in his room for the rest of the party, haha. It breaks my heart that Andrew and I are the only ones that see his lovey-dovey and hilarious sides. We've just never had many people visit in the nearly 4 years we've had Dewey, so when people walk in he gets very territorial. We know he's a wonderful kitty, everyone else just has to take our word for it.  ;)

Well that's all I have on the camera, and I've got two furballs fighting for my attention right now, so I'm going to wrap this up! I'll try not to let 5 months go by before the next blog post.