Showered with Blessings...and some gifts too!

Hubby & I, but mostly Elyse have been completely showered with blessings by our friends & family throughout this entire pregnancy adventure! We've had two showers and couldn't have been more excited about all the wonderful things we received for our baby girl!

On October 1st, my aunts held a family shower for us and all I can say is WOW! We received most a lot of our big items at the family shower which was wonderful! We received our stroller, carseat & extra base, Mamaroo swing, baby monitor, pack-n-play, lots of cute clothes, toys, & random items from our registry! We are so blessed by our families!

I posted a little bit about it in this post, but here are a few more photos from the fabulous morning!

The stack of presents before I ripped into them!
My momma & sister-in-law! The shower was held in the morning so the menu consisted of yummy strawberry muffins, fruit, mini quiche, mini chocolate eclairs, and veggies...It was delicious!

Check out that wrapping job...from non-other than my mother-in-law!

And then, exactly a month later...my best friends (who are also my small group girls), hosted a fabulous shower at a local cafe'. It's actually a paint-your-own pottery place along with being a cafe & was the perfect location for a shower. We had yummy white chocolate raspberry cake & chocolate mousse cake! Not gonna lie...I definitely had a piece of both!

Instead of playing any crazy games, they passed around notecards and asked all the guests to write a prayer to Elyse. At the end of the shower, they asked everyone to stand and read their prayers. I think there were SEVERAL tears that fell during that precious moment. As each prayer was read, a bead was strung on a piece of suede. This was used to create a keychain that I've hung on the outside of my diaper bag...so that all of my best friends' prayers will follow us as we leave for the hospital and from each day forward. It was seriously a beautiful idea and something that I'll cherish forever!

The yummy desserts & a gift from the cafe'...a pottery plate with everyone's signature that will include Elyse's birth details once she arrives!

Listening intently, and fighting back the tears as my bestie reads her prayers to Elyse.

My momma reading her prayers...she definitely didn't make it through without some tears!

The entire group...man am I blessed by some incredible friends!

And my beautiful hostesses...God really knew what he was doing when he brought these girls into my life! Several of these ladies are already moms & I know their experience & advice will be priceless in the coming months...

And of course my momma...the one whom I hope I can imitate when it comes to being an incredible mother & best friend!

While I would LOVE to be able to say that these showers provided EVERYTHING for Elyse's arrival, that's just not the case. Nick & I have got to sit down and make a list of the must-have purchases we still need to make! These showers were so much more than we could have asked for and I am so grateful for the generosity of our family & friends.