A Very Special Baby Shower - A Shout Out to My Louisville Girls!

So, of course Westport Road strikes again!!! Marc and I were a part of this AMAZING church family for about 4 years when we lived in Louisville, KY for Marc's med school and my grad school. I worked in the church office as secretary and bookkeeper to pay our way through school until we moved back to Nashville in June 2005. We grew so close to just about the entire church and made friends there we will never forget. Who would have ever thought I would end up being a church secretary just out of the blue like that, but it was definitely a God-led job. I learned more info than I ever wanted to know in a church office! Ha ha! Marc and I were in a Share Group there for 3 years with the SAME group of people. So, you can only imagine how close we got to these people. Mike & Myrna McGimsey led this group so selflessly the entire time and became our "second parents"... to everyone in the group! While in Louisville, Marc and I became best friends with a wonderful couple, Billy & Danyelle Robinson. Everytime we go back to visit now, we stay with them and they spoil us rotten! :) We love them so much and are so blessed by their friendship.

So, to get back to this post... WRCC has been there for us every step of the way since we first stepped foot in their doors... our dating, engagement, wedding-planning, stresses of grad school, job changes, move to Nashville, our miscarriages, and now in the celebration of Mason Thomas. They threw us a WONDERFUL baby shower on September 21st that we had been trying to plan since the Spring, but it just never worked out until now. It was so much more fun this way, though! All of the ladies got to love on Mason while I opened gifts that I never realized I knew WHILE I was pregnant. They gave us some items to complete pretty much what all we need now for Mason, so this shower came at just the right time! We got TONS of diapers, gift cards, a Bumbo seat, our high chair, and lots of other things we were needing so much. Mike & Myrna opened up their home to us this visit since Billy & Danyelle were a little tied up this time (more on that later!) :) Thank you so much, "Mom" and "Dad"!! Every time Marc and I go back and visit, we are surrounded by sooooo much love and support from these people we call our second family. Mason has been to Louisville twice all ready and on the entire drives there, my tummy was filled with butterflies so anxiously awaiting seeing those people love on my baby boy!

This last visit we were in Louisville for some other reasons, too, but I'll blog about that a little later. For now, here are some fun pictures from our baby shower! What a WONDERFUL day that was!!
In the church foyer after that morning's church service... Heather & Maddy Colquett... some of our wonderful friends who were in our Share Group - PRE-Maddy days! :) We love them!!!

Oh my gosh.. the cake was absolutely perfect!! Thank you, Cheri Patrick, for making this from scratch!! You are sooo talented!!

Diane Ellison having her "Mason time"... She and Denise Marceaux, two of my very dear friends, were the "master minds" of this shower! I've always wanted to use that phrase! :) Diane is the one who trained me to be the bookkeeper in the church office. There was no way I could have ever truly filled her shoes, though!
Present-opening time! Thank you, Denise, for writing down my gifts! I LOVE this girl!! She trained me to be the secretary and we have been so close ever since! :) She is so silly, just like me, and we have so much fun every time we're together! She's also the one who started me on loving Southern Living At Home and getting all of my friends involved!

Okay, see the little monkey thang in this picture? That's a leash that I WILL put my son on as soon as he tries to run away from me someday!! Ha ha! What a GREAT gift!! Thank you, Cheri!! :)
A super cute Halloween bib & hat that Mason has been wearing about every other day for 2 weeks now! :)
Okay, LOVE this outfit and the little cute jogging outfit that was in this gift bag, but there wasn't a card or anything so I have NO IDEA who this is from! I feel so bad cuz now I don't know who to thank! So, if you're a WRCC-er and are reading this, could you please try to find out? I don't know how you could do that, but I just need some help finding out who this mysterious gift-giver was!!

Love my buckets from Babies R Us!! Thank you, Patti Williams! Girls, if you're needing some storage thangs for your nursery, these are sooo cute! They look just like Pottery Barn, but you will not be left completely broke after purchasing them! I have this white one and two lime green ones in Mason's room and I LOVE them! They look sooo cute with his decor!

Okay, Danyelle, I TOLD you to not buy me any more gifts!! You have already done WAY too much for us by coming all the way to Nashville for my first Baby Shower and getting me my super cute brown & green polka dotted diaper bag!! And NOW you're buying Mason his Bumbo seat and helping with some shower??

See, I was getting onto her in this picture! :) You do so much for me all the time! I love you so much! I was in complete disbelief in this picture because I was not expecting them to get us our high chair at all!! All of the shower hostesses went in together and bought it. I just love it! And what perfect timing.. We had just started Mason on rice cereal that week and have since started him on baby food, so we were really needing a high chair!!

Linnie Parrish and me... the church custodian who entertained me 3 days a week while I was a work!! It definitely would not have been the same without Linnie. We shared LOTS of stories!! Before this shower I had not seen her in 3 1/2 years!!

The Lovely Shower Hostesses... Diane, Cheri & her kiddos, Denise, Danyelle, & Heather

Lori Summers & Gina Miller being their cute little selves!!

Hot Mommas Cheri & Denise

Raegan made Mason a very special blanket! I love gifts like this! Thank you soooo much, girl! He LOVES it! It is the perfect dressy church blanket, especially now that it's Fall! Raegan is the wife of Doug Lalli, who was the Youth Minister while I worked in the church office. I got to know them really well and love them so much!!

Gina Miller... Gina was in charge of the MOMS program (Mothers of Miracles) at church, so I communicated with her a lot in the office. We seemed to just be getting close when we had to move. :( I hope to get together with her every time we go back and visit!

Paulette Summers with Mason and me.. She did NOT want to have her picture taken at all, but Gina and I made her!! She is one of the most God-loving women you will ever meet. I just love watching her worship. She is such an inspiration to me! I will never, ever forget her sending my mom a card several years ago when my mom needed a little bit of encouragement. Paulette is just so sweet and kind-hearted!!

With some of the ladies in the Wednesday morning Ladies Bible Study... They would come to the church every single week and some weeks I would accompany them to the wonderful Chinese Buffet restaurant after their Bible Study. They were always in the church office paying us little visits! What special ladies!

Jo, Nell, and Helen

One of my favorites from the weekend... Nell and Helen being so sweet to my baby boy!

Myrna & me

And the last one to sum up fun times with my Louisville girls...

Danyelle, Heather, and me... Heather is expecting her second little girl in December so we had to take our traditional belly picture... We did this exact same pose 3 years ago in my living room when she was pregnant with Maddy!

Mason Learns to Swim at 4 1/2 Months!! Hee hee! :)

I have lots more to share from Mason's first beach trip!! Yes, my heart is still in Destin even though it's been 3 weeks since we were there. :) I don't really have much time to post anymore since my hands seem to be tied all day long when it's just Mason and me hanging out at home. He has been teething since August and his worst time is during the day. Poor little thang seems to be in so much pain and there is nothing I can really do to help. He shoves his entire fist into his mouth and that seems to soothe him temporarily. I try to nurse him as much as I can to help a little bit. So, I end up not getting much done around the house (and I'm STILL working on thank-you notes!!), but that's okay because being Mason's mommy is my number one priority right now. When Marc gets home from work and on the weekends I would rather spend time with him than be on the computer, so that's why my blog posts have been slacking lately. I'm sure you all understand!!

Anyway, a huge smile still comes to my face every time I think of Mason perched up in that float in the swimming pool! Thank you Hudson Roller and your mommy, Melia, for letting Mason borrow your very fun float! :) Marc was a little hesitant about putting Mason in the pool but I was ready and willing to try anything on this trip since I knew Mason's first beach trip wasn't something we could experience all the time. We waited until the sun went down to take Mason out to the pool and thankfully the pool was heated so that the somewhat chilly evening beach weather wouldn't get to him. The second we put him in the pool his eyes got so huge and were looking all around... typical Mason for ya! He did not seem scared at all, like his Grandy C who was overlooking this whole situation from the sidelines! :) The best part of all was when we put in in the float. He acted like he just wanted us to leave him alone so that he could play all by himself! So, we got so brave and stepped back to let him sit in it WITHOUT us even holding on to him!! ALL his Daddy's idea!! Not even kidding! I was shocked that Marc would let him do it. I'm usually the big risk-taker in this family! Mason did great though! He sits up so nice and tall which really helped him keep his balance in the float. He was smiling so big and just seemed so content. I never wanted it to end!!

We did some major preparation for this 15 minute-swimming event. We put the 55 sunscreen all over his entire body (like there was even any sun out!) and put TWO diapers on him! Last summer when I was on a girls' beach trip, they had to empty the pool at our hotel because some baby had pooped in it! Thank you. I didn't want to be THAT parent, so we put a swim diaper on him and then a regular diaper on top of it. Mason doesn't even poop, but we were just being extra careful. Daddy did a great job getting Mason all ready for his first swim! :)

Getting him all situated in the float

He was swimming lke a little fish!! It really looked like he was in swim lessons or something and Marc and me were his coaches. He was learning the breast stroke in this picture! Ha ha! :)

Okay, sweet boy, the fun is over!! We gotta go in now and get ready to go sing some Karioke!! He did NOT want to go in at all!!

Poor little thang was freezing his bottom off when we took him out, so we wrapped him all up!

Happy Halloween from a sweet little lion named Mason!

So, after ordering the cutest Halloween frame ever from one of my best friends, Carrie, (who has a new awesome frame business!) I was inspired to perch Mason up in our front yard and do a photoshoot. I needed a picture to put in it and I just couldn't wait until Trunk or Treat at church to put Mason in his sweet little costume! It took me a while to get in the Fall spirit since we were getting ready for our family trip to Destin, but now that we're back and the weather is chillier and the pumpkins are in people's front yards, I'm all ready for it! I went straight to Michael's to buy these little items to set up shop in our front yard! Mason loved being in his costume and did not even seem traumatized by his chocolate brown tights! Only his daddy was! :)

Oopsie! The roly poly lion fell right on over!

Worn out after an afternoon of being a lion! Now he's dressed in his ice skater outfit. Hee hee!

Just a couple more I had to throw in! Mason has been getting the most use out of these sweet little Halloween outfits friends have been buying him!