A Baby Flood

I thought I'd be lucky to get one baby shower, but God has truly blessed us by giving us a grand total of 4!  I think I can officially say that all these showers created a flood.  Here are snippets from all 3 of my Savannah showers:

Anne can't wait for Baby McD to come!

My church family at Grace Church of the Islands threw me a huge one.  It was so encouraging to see how so many ladies in our church took care of our expanding family by giving us so many baby items that we will need to welcome our baby girl into this world.

This shower was a brunch and this was some of the spread.  I loved the diaper bouquet as the centerpiece!

I had several younger girls assisting me with the opening of gifts.  They were a big help!

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Next up, I had a shower at my work, Mathnasium.  My co-worker, Rachel, was the one who did most of the work for it.  Look at her yummy baby carriage cake!  It was made of funfetti cake, one of my favorites.

My boss says that our baby will be the first "Mathnasium Baby."  As you can see, they decorated it accordingly.  I'm wearing a little sash that says "Mommy-to-be."  It was a smaller shower, but I had so much fun!  They focused on giving me very practical gifts, which I definitely will need once she makes her appearance.

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Lastly, I had a Paris-themed shower for friends that I've gotten to know in Savannah that aren't a part of my church family or work.  The invitations were super cute and said "Ooh La La," and Laura did a great job of including that into her decorations.  Look at this spread!  It was beautiful!

Once again, I had some helpers - these twin girls helped me determine which gifts to open.  :)

I got a pretty good bump shot at this shower - they gave me a boa to go along with the parisian theme.  I was about 34.5 weeks pregnant in this.

All my showers were so much fun!  I have just been blown away by all of the love and support that I've received from all these sweet ladies that have touched my life over the past 3.5 years in Savannah.  I've now begun the task (with a lot of help from my mom) of putting the nursery together.  It is coming along and I think I am in the middle of nesting! 

Florida Baby Shower

My lovely mother and a few church family friends threw me my first baby shower in Orange Park.  They did a wonderful job!

A nice welcome sign for me and our little girl.  I am about 27.5 weeks here.

The decorations were super cute!  Note: the daisy flower pots were actually part of the decorations for my wedding reception!

These were chocolate cakes with cream cheese icing.  Super yummy! The flags on the top of the cakes say "baby girl."

My mom (and dad) put together a diaper cake with little flower barrettes all over them.  I can't wait to put little barrettes and bows in her hair!

Our little girl is going to be all set!

My sweet cousin, Elle, was my helper and told me which gifts to open first.

I thought this was a sweet candid shot with us talking together.

One of my favorites - my parents gave me her first Florida Gator outfit with matching bows.  You can tell that I'm just delighted. :)  So was Curtis.

This was a huge box of clothes that my parents got me.  All sorts of outfits in varying sizes!

As you can see, I spent most of my time opening gifts.

Here's the audience.  I had a vast assortment of sweet family and friends that I've known throughout my life there with me to celebrate.

My cousin Jane was able to meet our newest cousin, Alan, for the first time.

Jane did so many things behind the scenes for the shower.  She took most of the pictures and helped me organize all my gifts to travel back to Savannah. :)

Here are two of my childhood friends, Carrie and Kimberly.  We used to hang out all the time when we were in elementary/middle/some high school!

Two of my closest friends from high school/community college, Jennifer and Pam, were also able to make it.

I even had three of my closest friends from UF there - Kelly, Catherine & Jenna!  (Jenna's not pictured because she had already left the shower by the time we took this one.)

Here's some of my wedding party - Catherine (bridesmaid), Lacey (flower girl), Mrs. Warren (matron of honor).

This was a fun one - I had 4 other pregnant ladies at my shower.  Robyn, seminary friend; Carrie, neighborhood friend; Lauren, church friend; and Ashlee, high school friend (not pictured).  Lauren actually delivered her baby girl, Violet Rose, on 12/12/12!

I had a great time and I couldn't believe how quickly the shower flew by!  I have been blessed with lots of dear family and friends at this shower - some came very long ways to be there!  Thank you to everyone who was able to come and celebrate this blessing from the Lord with me.  We can't wait for her to arrive!

Turning 28

I celebrated my birthday by traveling to Jacksonville to spend it with family.  My mom threw me a baby shower on the following day so it worked out well to come down for all the celebrations.  It was a pretty low-key birthday.  I had sweet friends and family call and sing "happy birthday" in their best voices.  I think my favorite (although they were all very special) was my 4-year old niece Charlotte sing to me.  It was absolutely precious! :)

My mom made one of my favorite meals for me and I had a delicious chocolate chip cookie cake for dessert.  It was so good!  Not only were my parents there, but also my grandparents and my cousin Jane (who I hadn't seen in almost 2 years).  When I was growing up, Jane was probably the closest thing that I had to a sister since I only had brothers.  It was a real treat to have her fly down from Washington, DC to see me for the celebrations!  We finished off the night with watching the movie Brave.  Great day!

Yes, I'm officially at the age now where you don't get the actual amount of candles for each year of life on your birthday cake.

First Thanksgiving with Curtis' Fam

This was the year we planned to visit Curtis' side of the family for Christmas; however, I will be too far along in my pregnancy to travel at that time so we compromised and spent Thanksgiving with them instead.  It was my first time that I got to experience a McDaniel-style Thanksgiving!  It had been 5 years since Curtis last celebrated with them.

The whole McDaniel family

As a tradition, each adult child brings a dish to the table for the Thanksgiving meal.  I brought green bean casserole and Curtis brought a sea-foam jello salad.  Everyone went around the table and shared something that they were thankful for from the current year.  They write their answer on a paper leaf that is displayed on the table each year.  It was neat to see all the things that his family was thankful for over the years - some big, some small (like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, haha).  

We also got to spend some time with his grandmother ("Nana") while were were there.  It was really nice to see her since we hadn't seen her in almost two years.  She was very excited about her great-granddaughter on the way!

The weather was amazing for a Thanksgiving in the Pittsburgh area.  We even played bocce ball and corn hole outside!  

Curtis was able to bond with Belle, their sweet dog.   She was so desperate for attention!

Thanksgiving night, we headed to the Grove City Outlet Mall to see what kind of deals we could find for Christmas gifts.  This is another one of the annual traditions in the McDaniel family.  I did feel bad for Megan (his sister) who had to work early the next morning.  I'm sure she was exhausted, but I'm glad she was able to join in the fun.

I thought this was such a cool picture of Curtis, his dad, his mom and Heather as they were putting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.

One more thing...in anticipation of my upcoming baby shower (post coming soon), Heather made us this motorcycle diaper display for our baby girl on the way.  She was so creative!  It's hard to see all that went into this, but she used bibs, receiving blankets, washcloths, socks and so much more.  She also made little booties and a cap for her.  Thanks Aunt Heather!

Our time flew by in Pennsylvania.  We had a great time celebrating with them.  It's hard to believe that the next time we see them all we will have a new little addition to the family!

Wedding Número 3

Curtis and I have had the honor of counseling and preparing David and Amanda Brodmann for their upcoming marriage for the past 9 or 10 months.  Finally, the big day arrived on October 13!  Every year since Curtis has been ordained, he has had the opportunity to officiate for one wedding, which makes this wedding #3. :)

The wedding was gorgeous - they had it at the Mackey House in Savannah.

I got a pretty good picture of Amanda and her father walking down the aisle.

You may now kiss the bride!

Amanda & David released doves after the ceremony was complete.  I thought this was a pretty good capture from my phone!

Curtis and I really enjoyed being able to celebrate with David, Amanda and their families.  I'm sure the Brodmanns are feeling relieved that both weddings went smoothly this year - (A Beautiful Beach Wedding in May and this one in October)!

It's a Girl!

We found out on October 8th that we will be having a little girl!  We were happy to hear that she is doing just fine and is healthy.  Praise the Lord!

I love that she looks like a little chicken wing!  I've started to feel her move and kick now, so I'm sure it's because of these awkward positions that she likes to lay in.  It took 30 minutes for the ultrasound tech to figure out if it was a girl or a boy because she was curled up in a little ball sitting Indian-style.  Haha!

Let the celebrating begin...

We had a sweet couple from our small group bring over this chocolate chip cookie cake, balloon and sparkling cider to celebrate!  Thanks for sharing in our joy with us, Laura and Miguel.

Curtis and I went to our new Kohl's store to get our baby girl's very first outfit.  Here's the outfit we decided on:

It says "Daddy's Princess" and it has a little cat on it with little leopard pants to go with it. :)

Rejoicing in the Lord

Last Wednesday (9/12) was a very emotional day in the life of our family.  We were mourning Brooks because it was the one year anniversary since my 4 month appointment where we found out that I had a miscarriage and lost him.  Providentially, my 4 month appointment for our new baby fell on the same day one year later.  Talk about facing your fears!  We were trying not to get too anxious that this appointment could go the same way.  We prayed that we would trust in the Lord and that we would be able to glorify God, regardless of the outcome of that appointment.

With lots and lots of tears of joy, I am happy to announce that this appointment went much differently than the last one!  We rejoice and praise the Lord that He is redeeming our sad memories with happy ones.  Our  baby's heartbeat was found quickly and he/she had a strong heartbeat of 153 beats per minute.  It was so emotional as we went through the same motions that we did last year that I just couldn't help but cry.  Cry as I thought of Brooks, cry as I thought of our new little baby that is squirming around and alive!  The doctor even asked me "What's wrong? Everything looks good!"  

One of the verses that I have been loving is Psalm 100:5 - "For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."  As we prepare for the next generation of McDaniels, we can't help but worship our Creator, knowing that His plans are always good, even if we don't understand them at the time.

We planned a visit with my parents that weekend in the hopes to celebrate with them after a good report.  I didn't realize how much I was waiting to get through that appointment before beginning to get excited about this little one!  It was fun to start planning things with my mom.  We watched the new movie "What To Expect When You're Expecting," we threw out ideas for our nursery, and we looked at baby stuff at Target & Once Upon A Child.  My mom plans to throw a baby shower for me in Jacksonville and we were able to start making a list of people to invite. 

Here we are looking at baby shower invitations.  We can't make a final decision on them until we know if our baby is a boy or a girl.  We will be finding this out on October 8!

We finished the day with eating at one of our favorite places in Savannah, Sweet Potatoes.  We had a great time and I think all four of us were able to relax and enjoy the weekend! :)

Birthday Celebration with Friends

 So, the fun just kept on going right through the weekend.  We had 11 of my closest friends celebrate with me at Jalapeno's!  In the above picture, I'm wearing a lot of my birthday gifts - red shirt (Megan, Curtis' sister), cardigan (Curtis), bracelets (Megan), earrings, not really shown (parents), and shoes, not shown (Curtis).

 Here I am with Jen. :)

 Here's Curtis with Chris (Jen's husband).

 And here is the entire group! Miguel, Laura, Sarah, Curtis, Chris, Allen, Heather, Becca, Jen, Me, Amy, Jim.

 Miguel & Laura

 Amy & Jim

 Sarah acting like she has James with her. (We missed you James!)

 Allen & Heather

 Chris & Jen

 Becca with her "date" :)

 and us!  While we were there - all of the sudden the music changed and the waitresses came out with this HUGE pink sombrero for my birthday and a shot of tequila:

 It really caught me off guard!

 After I learned the appropriate way to take a tequila shot, I attempted!  But apparently, I still didn't take it the right way because I only took a sip of the shot, LOL.  It was too much for me!

We headed back to our house to play games and eat cake after dinner.  My sweet friend, Laura, baked me a chocolate chip cookie cake.  It was delicious!  I had a great birthday and I felt very loved by family and friends.