Showered with Blessings!

Have I ever mentioned that we have the best family and friends? Well if I haven't let me say it now "we have the best family and friends ever!" This past weekend our good friends the Moore's (Kyle and Gabe met the first week of orientation at med school and we've basically been inseparable since then) visited from Pittsburgh were Kyle is doing his podiatry residency. I spent Friday in the city with them (I'll make another post about our city adventures :) and then they drove to our place from Kyle's sister's house in Brooklyn.
 
We had a great night relaxing at our place. I had chili waiting in the crock pot and we had a  low key evening. My cinnamon rolls ended up not rising which was a total bummer but at least the chili was good. I decided I was going to put on comfy clothes to hang out for the rest of the evening and Ashley told Kyle that she forgot a couple of things in their car and so they went out to get that. After a couple of minutes Ash came back in the house and said she needed my help and to come outside. So I put on my shoes and Gabe grabbed his and we went outside. They opened their trunk and there was what I thought a box covered by their beach blanket. Then Ash and Kyle took the blanket off to reveal tons of presents and shouted "Happy Baby Shower!" Needless to say I started crying immediately because I was so overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness and generosity of people (I didn't even know who things were from at that time but that there was a ton of presents) My sweet friend Erica was on the phone as well listening to my response (Erica and James are also wonderful friends from medical school who we spent a ton of time with in Des Moines, they live in Oklahoma now for residency)

So we all carried the presents into our living and I started to notice tags from different people in our lives!

 Here's all the presents, we were so overwhelmed by everyone's generosity!

 Then there was more, Ash and Erica had worked hard to get lots of people on board and Ash put together everyone's sweet video messages and we watched it on tv.

 Feeling so loved!

 Erica and James and their 2 boys. The baby shower idea came from Erica and James and then Ash and Kyle helped make it all happen! We have the best friends ever!

 Watching all the sweet messages (Ash was gracious enough to not take pictures of me when I was crying, I could blame in on the hormones but I would have cried no matter what, it's just such a sweet gesture!)

 Uncle James and Auntie Audrey made the most hilarious video, we couldn't stop laughing!

 Grandma Wall's sweet message, Grandma Great as she will be known to Grape

 

There were a ton of video messages we just don't have pics of everyone, but if you want when you come and visit us I'll show you the video :)

 

 All the presents

 Facetiming with Gabe's folks when we opened their present. Thank goodness for technology! It really does help us feel closer even though we're so far apart.

 Nana and Granddad Johnson (Gabe's folks) found a teether that was a bunch of Grapes, how appropriate for our little guy!

 Gabe trying on Grapes new hat that one of his good friends mom's made

 Skyping with my folks, my Grandma Wall, and my Aunt Larina and Uncle Kent who were there visiting from MN

 The belly shot. He keeps on getting bigger and bigger!



Mommy and Daddy showing off their bellies

 

 Daddy being silly!

 More presents

 Gabe likes to wear Grapes hats!

 Present from my folks, so Grapes Grandma and Grandpa Nervig

 Grandma Nervig sewed this beautiful blanket!

 It's super soft and has a ton of different textures, we wanted to sleep with it but we decided to save it for Grape. It will probably be a play blanket for him that he can lay on the floor and explore all the different textures

 Taggie blanket from Uncle James and Auntie Audrey, so soft and perfect colors!

 This is a super cool car organizer (we had to read the directions, Gabe wanted to wear it :) You hang it on the back of the seat and can then store stuff that you need for the baby, great idea!

 Auntie Ashley made this for Grapey, he is going to love it! So beautiful and the colors match his nursery perfectly!

 I'm planning on keeping this on our rocking chair so Grape and whoever is rocking him can stay warm and feel so loved!

If you didn't know, Gabe loves monkey's so of course he wants his son to love monkeys!

 

The other thing that we got that I don't have a picture of but Erica created a survey for people to fill out and then she put everyone's responses together. Some of the questions were: when do you think Grape will arrive? How much will he way? How long? Advice for the new parents? Bible verse to pray for Grape? What 4 things are a must for the diaper bag? Guesses of what we will name Grape. We promise, he really will get a name, we just aren't planning on sharing it until he arrives (although right now we haven't decided so there's really nothing to share :)

 

It was so fun to read everyone's responses and sweet advice!

 

Thanks for making our shower so special! It was a wonderful surprise! It's tough to be so far away from the people we love and not knowing very many people here to share our excitement with, but it was so great to be showered with love! Thanks again! We love you all!