Sperring Stories: Thankful for Great Friends....and Great Presents, too! (smile)

Another week has passed ridiculously quickly! Everyone told me that as our due date grew closer that time would drag out slower and slower...especially as I'm now more than 9 months pregnant in the hottest of part of the summer. But time has only gone faster now! I absolutely cannot believe that we are only 3 weeks away from our baby girl's due date, that her nursery is all finished and ready for her, blankies are washed and folded, and everything is ready to pack my bag! Not sure why I haven't actually packed it yet, but I'll get around to it. The most fabulous and fun part that has now come and gone: baby shower!

Kristin, Tanisha, me, Becky & Hope

I've always known I'm very blessed to have the friends I have in my life, but never so much as last Saturday when some of the bestest friends a girl can have gathered to host/attend our baby shower! Hope (college roommate, general BFF, the Rachel to my Monica, or vice versa, depending on the day!), Kristin (another fabulous Belmont bestie), Tanisha (fantastic, dependable, great to have on your side, takes incredible care of those she loves) Becky (one of my preceptors when I became a nurse, polar opposite to me in the best way) and Kimmie (friend, yep, step-daughter but more like sisters because we are SO freakishly alike sometimes) all came together to host the most fabulous baby shower a girl could ever hope to have! The party took place at our house, which I must say is the BEST idea ever as it was soooo nice to just take everything up the stairs to the nursery rather than load a car, unload a car, etc! Plus, this pretty much forced Steve to be there for parts of it (which I know he enjoyed whether he'll actually admit it or not) and even Annabelle's brother in law, Clay, joined in on the fun (not sure he actually had the absolute greatest time ever, but there was food and it was extremely thoughtful of him to come). It was really fantastic to have family friends I've known literally my whole life, high school friends, college friends, friends I met through Steve, family and even my CMC friends whom I truly miss seeing all come together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our little Annabelle. It's a wonderful feeling in itself to be so excited about our baby girl, but to see so many others excited about her, too, really warms our hearts and brings tears to my eyes sometimes. I know that we are truly blessed to have these people in our lives, and for Annabelle to grow up having them in her life, too.

Great-Granny, Mommy & Nana (to be)

Adorable gift from Kimmie & Clay

That's all the sentiment for now, my screen is going blurry on me, so I'll skip the rest of what I'm thinking, go with a big THANK YOU to everyone and move on to the photos!