Our hometown shower!

Matt and I were blessed with a hometown baby shower Sunday in Arkadelphia! Both of us had been looking forward to this day for quite a while. Matt's dad was the pastor of our church for 27 years before he passed away in 2005 after a battle with leukemia.

Over that period of time, we developed some very close relationships with many people at Third Street Baptist. And even though we haven't seen some of them in a long time, they showed up in big numbers to shower us with generosity.

And they weren't alone either. A lot of our family members and good friends from Arkadelphia also attended the shower. We had a huge turnout and were completely overwhelmed by all the gifts we received!

I guess they know how much I love sweets because there were lots of chocolate treats and some really tasty pink punch!

The diaper cake was too cute!! It was made for a Princess, topped with a tiara! :)

These were the cutest bloomers ever on the back side of the diaper cake!

Cute display of candies!

These cake balls on a stick were pretty much to die for! YUMMY!

I had actually seen this plate before and always thought it was so cute! It's extra special with that baby on top! :)

I thought this "Midnight Messages to Matt" was the cutest idea ever!

All the guests wrote special notes to Matt on Preslee's diapers.

Hopefully, these diaper messages will provide a laugh when Matt is groggy in the middle of the night on diaper duty!

Matt and his pretty momma!

She is so excited about finally getting a girl to spoil after having 2 boys!

I was so excited to see my sweet and long-time friend Kara! She coached me in cheerleading and gymnastics when I was in middle school!

She was also an EEE at Ouachita before I was, and she got Preslee this precious gown!! (The EEE sorority mascot is Mickey)

I'm not sure there are words to say how grateful I am for all these baby gifts! I was completely overwhelmed while opening presents for a full 2 hours! But it was SO much fun!

I mean come on....how could I not have fun opening cute things like this?!

Sweet Blaise was also there and helped me open a few gifts! She's excited about Miss Preslee coming and I can't wait to see Blaise and her brother Cabb with our sweet little girl!

My childhood best friends, Kristin and Tizzie helped host my shower! I love these girls so much and I never could have dreamed about the time we would all be mothers!! Kristin is due Jan. 9th with Miss Elliott and Tizzie is about celebrate Gus' first birthday on December 10th! I might cry when we finally get all our kids together!

After the shower, we packed up and headed home with a car full of goodies!! I was so exhausted but couldn't wait to get everything into the nursery!

I loved reopening all the gifts and reading through all the notes on the diapers!

This one really made me smile! :)

I almost don't want to use these diapers because they are just so funny!

It was the perfect baby shower that I had always wanted and we'll never forget it! Going "home" is always special but after the seeing all the sweet details of the shower and feeling all the love and support from our Arkadelphia friends, I'm really just so grateful for growing up in such a great town!

My 2nd baby shower!

Some of my best friends from college threw me a shower in Little Rock this past Sunday. We all went to college at Ouachita Baptist University. Most of them live in Central Arkansas so it was so fun to get together with everyone I don't get to see near enough!! I seriously had so much fun and loved all these sweet details they thought of to make my day so special!

My good friend, Stefan made this wreath! She has been so crafty lately! This wreath is now hanging on the nursery door and it just looks precious!

My roommate in college, Gracen, was so generous to host the shower at her house and she made this cute diaper cake! We had elephant decor in our dorm room and apartment in college so the gray elephant was such an appropriate decoration at the shower! :)

They know how much I love chocolate! And I just love seeing my little girl's name and initials on so many things!

My cousins, Suzy and Alex came to this shower and I was so excited to see them! They got Preslee her exersaucer which I am sure we'll be using a ton!

Emily and I don't get to see each other enough because she lives in Fort Worth! She is having a sweet baby girl at the end of December! (Luckily for her, my belly is totally covering hers! ha!)

My childhood friend Lauren surprised me with the Nap Nanny, which is SUCH a nice gift!! She said they wanted to do something special because I got stuck in the elevator at her wedding! Ha!

Matt later asked if they make Nap Nanny's in adult sizes because it looked so comfy! :)

Some of my pledge sisters! I wish we got together more often!! I have SO many wonderful memories with these girls!

How cute is this onesie??!!

Love this monogramed bib and bloomers! Our sorority colors were black and red so it was only appropriate for Preslee to get some red and black things along with all her pink stuff! :)

It was so good to see Kimbo and Jessica! I haven't seen either of these girls in over a year!

I am so thankful to have such sweet friends that already love Preslee so much too!! I had the best time putting away all the goodies I got from the shower!

We are blessed with so many friends and family who shower us with love before Preslee arrives! And we even have one more shower in our hometown! I am so grateful for all these sweet gifts for our baby girl!

Shower pics part 2

This is a long post but just wanted to share pics of my friends and the precious gifts we received at our shower!

My best friend Jennifer who worked very hard on planning this shower and making sure it was perfect!

My long time college friend Devin helped host as well! She has two precious girls so she will be one of my go-to people to help with all the raising girls stuff I need to know about! ha!

My precious hometown friend Renee, who I absolutely adore also hosted! I hope Preslee and her daughter Sallie will be good friends!

I was so happy that Kelly and Hollis came down to help celebrate Preslee! Hollis squealed during the time I was opening presents so I think she approved of all the cute things we got! :)

I definitely approved of my first Sheshemade gown!!!! I actually got 2 gowns and an outfit and I just LOVED them all!

Her LiLi got her this precious outfit with a bow and socks to match! She already has many cute summer things to wear!

Matt's aunt Kathy saw these on Pinterest and ordered them immediately! I can't wait to take her pic in them asap!

Honee gave her this sweet suitcase!! This will be great to take to "Grandmas house"!

I am obsessed with gowns! She may live in them the first couple of months!

Cousin Seth got Preslee her first Bible with her name on it! What a wonderful keepsake!

Jill, Melissa and Jennifer watching me open presents! Love these girls!

My sweet friends that hosted the shower got my pump for me! I was super excited about having this for when I go back to work part-time!

My friend Michelle was so sweet to come to my shower! She has been struggling with infertility and has been pretty open about it on her blog! Please pray for this sweet girl and her journey to motherhood!

I was so happy to see Haley and her cute son Porter! My MIL held Porter during the shower and loved him! I think all his hair really reminded her of Matt as a baby! :)

I am truly blessed to have all these friends in NWA and I can't wait for Preslee to meet all of these special people!

Our first baby shower!

Yesterday I had my very own baby shower! It was such a surreal but wonderful feeling knowing that it was finally my turn to have a baby shower! I have always loved to help host and attended so many of my friend's baby showers but I always dreamed of what it would be like when it was MY shower!

I have to say that it was the most perfect shower!! My friends went out of their way to make sure that there was no detail spared! I truly felt so special and loved every minute of the shower!

The front door had a cute little sign welcoming everyone to Julee and Preslee's shower! Also they had my growing belly pics along with some ultrasound pics hanging in the frame for people to see as they walked in!

The invitation along with all the signs had the crib bedding pattern on it! It all matched and looked so cute!

The wonderful hostesses that I am truly blessed to call my friends!

Emily Richardson, Devin Bertram, Jill Shumard, Jennifer Francis, Renee Morris, Leslie Duffield and Rachel Bell.

Just a few weeks until we meet Annabel!! Emily at 36 weeks, me at 30!

I was so happy to have my Mom and Matt's mom at the shower today! They are going to be the best grandmas and Miss Preslee is completely spoiled by them already!

Jennifer made these precious banana pudding cups! She used food dye to make the pudding pink! These were so precious and tasted amazing!

Along with the cake and banana pudding, we had fruit kabobs, veggies with ranch, pita chips with cheesy spinach dip, and a delicious dessert called Death by chocolate!

This set-up was so pretty! The mirror is actually from Preslee's nursery so it really tied the theme together!

Once again, Rick's Bakery out did themselves on the cake! Perfect!!

I have talked about it on the blog before, but I LOVE cotton candy! The favor for all the guest was this yummy pink cotton candy!

The cotton candy table was just too cute! The sign on the table said Thanks for celebrating Sweet Preslee.

The guest had coffee punch, Peach tea punch or water to drink with all the yummy foods!

We received so many sweet things for our baby girl!! I am going to share more pics of those gifts along with more pics of friends that were there to help spoil Preslee this week!