Baby Shower #1

This past weekend, my wonderful cousins Martha and Sarah hosted Matney's first baby shower. They did such a wonderful job (as they always do)! Everything looked so pretty and they made everyone feel so welcome, not to mention the yummy food they made.

Martha opened up her house to a large group of women (and a few guys) so that we could celebrate the upcoming birth of our little girl. We received so many wonderful gifts that I am still in awe of all the goodies in Matney's room. I must admit, I have been in there several times in the last few days to check everything out or just hold it up and look at it. A special thanks goes out to Kelby who got on his little tractor and plowed the driveway so everyone could make it. I think I even heard there was a little clean-up on the garage!

Here are a few pictures of the exciting event. Thank you to everyone who came to share in this special day for Matney and for all the wonderful gifts!

Gratitude

Merriam Webster defines gratitude as the following:

Main Entry: grat·i·tude
Pronunciation: \ˈgra-tə-ˌtüd, -ˌtyüd\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Medieval Latin; Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin gratitudo, from Latin gratus grateful Date: 1523
: the state of being grateful : thankfulness

The last several days I have been remind of all the things I have to be grateful for and have sent up several prayers, thanking God for all of my blessings in life. Here are just a few of the things I am grateful/thankful for.

• A wonderful, loving husband who laughs at my jokes, always listens even when I ramble on (or according to him, start to mumble and make no sense), and supports me in everything I do. I know it sounds cliche to say that we don't often fight, but we don't and that makes me love him even more. I cannot express how grateful I am that we lead a mostly uncomplicate, simple life that is for the most part free of drama.
• My job that I go to every day to help support my family. Even though I often grumble about it, there are days like today that I come home feeling good about what I accomplished for the day--or maybe it is feeling good about finally putting the screws to someone who is trying to pull the wool over our eyes?
• My family and friends who have been more than supportive in all ways over the last 30+ weeks as we have progressed through our first pregnancy. The weeks have gone by so quickly and I cannot believe we are down to 8 weeks until our little girl arrives.
• For a healthy, morning sickness free, uneventful pregnancy. I believe it is a fear of any first time mother that something will go wrong while you are caring your precious gift from God and I am thankful that He has sent us on this journey and made it a great experience to this point, all the while protecting me and my little girl.