My Third Shower/Maternity Pictures

My last baby shower was given by my mother-in-law, Sandra.  We decided to have the shower at Kevin's Memaw's house in Lexington/Denton, because most of the guests invited would have to drive up from there anyways.  It was a beautiful day, and I got SO many nice gifts and things for baby Brooks!  I didn't take many pictures at this shower, but I was so blessed by each and every person there! 

After the shower, I had asked Kevin's cousin Meagan to take a few maternity shots of me.  I knew I would regret if I didn't have any taken, although I MUCH prefer to be on the other side of the camera!  As always, Meagan did a WONDERFUL job making me look the best that I could in my pregnant state, and here are a few of the pictures she captured.  Anyone that lives in her "neck of the woods" should check out "Happenstance Photography" - she's wonderful!
 

 

Thank you Meagan for the wonderful pictures. 
They really captured the best "parts" of me and baby Brooks!

Brooks' First Baby Shower

My first shower was given by a few wonderful ladies I work with: Angela Totty, MaryBeth Hennessee, Rebecca Stewart, and Britney Miller.  Here are a few pictures from the shower, where I received LOTS of gifts and was showered with many blessings!

Angela T., me and Lesleigh C.

Zachary and me - one of my students this year.  I have watched this one grow up, as I was also his teacher in Kindergarten.  He is very special to me, and brought Brooks some very special gifts!

Me and Tamarah H. - the lady I worked with most closely two years ago - she provided the "venue" for my shower!

Britney and Mary Beth, two of the hosts of my shower.  Britney is my "grad school buddy" and made the gorgeous cake for my shower, and MaryBeth is a 3rd grade teammate of mine who helped put the shower all together!

Beth Blair, the parent of one of my students.  She is so sweet and I was really glad that she decided to come to the shower!  I have been blessed with wonderful parents this year at school!

This is Sophia T., the daughter of one of our social workers at school.  Isn't she gorgeous, and she is such a happy baby!

 
This is one of my assistants from school, Nicole C.  She is a great person to work with and I am so glad she showed up with her son for my shower!

Opening gifts!

Vicki and her beautiful little girl!!

Lisa M. and I - love her and so glad she came to celebrate with us!

More gifts!!

Diaper Cake from Nicole C. - how cute!

This was a very special shirt from Angela T. - she found it for Brooks!

Another beautiful diaper cake from Tamarah H. and some of the "goodies" from my shower!


My GORGEOUS cake made by Britney M. - I love the little footprint!

This shower was very special and I am so glad so many people came out to celebrate baby Brooks and his arrival!  Thank you all!

My Creation Come To Life - Brooks' Nursery!

As a reading teacher, one of my VERY favorite books is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.  I love almost all of the books by this author, and it only seemed a natural choice for a beautiful nursery! 
I also wanted something gender neutral, just in case in the future the Good Lord blesses us with another "little" !
Although this nursery took a lot of time, and a lot of contribution from others, I am SO happy with the way it turned out!  I love it, and I am sure "baby Brooks" as he has affectionately been named, will too!

 Caterpillar Wall Hanging made by Dawn at Bada's Boutique in Conover

 Beautiful Crib and bedding - I stood in line on Black Friday to get a GREAT deal on the crib and furniture, then had the bedding hand-made by Dawn at Bada's Boutique in Conover!

 Cute curtains made by Dawn at Bada's Boutique, a lampshade I ordered from Etsy, and a few other accessories!

 The chair Kevin drove me all the way to Charlotte to pick up - it is so comfy and was a GREAT deal!

 Just a few of the "supplies" and storage we needed!

 I crocheted this cocoon and hat set for little man to take his newborn pictures in - LOVE it!

 My attempt at "Pinterest" Art!  Took a while, but I love the outcome!

 Of course I've already started his "library"!!

 Beautiful bedding - pillows made by Brooks' great-aunt Sandy and bedding/bumper made by Dawn at Bada's Boutique in Conover!

 Brooks' VERY special blankie made just for him by his great-aunt Sandy!

 Just a portion of the BEAUTIFUL quilt made by great-aunt Sandy!

 Quilt dedication - just for our baby boy!

 Isn't it just FANTASTIC?!!

 A very special friend gave us this doggie for Brooks.  Our veterinarian for our little angel, Lily, brought this as her gift to Brooks.  The inscription on the card made tears come to my eyes, and I will always remember the symbolism with this little doggie.  I know it will become one of his favorite toys someday!

 THE caterpillar.  My sister used Chinese lanterns to make this for my baby shower (which was AMAZING!) and I asked it I could use it for his room - it really looks great in there and I love it - so creative and original!

 Changing table area - all ready to go!

 The beautiful quilt on display until Brooks is old enough to use it!

Cutie little diaper bag made by Dawn at Bada's Boutique!

And the last creation I "ordered" from Dawn/Bada's Boutique.  This door hanger will hang on the door at the hospital, where we will be able to fill in the chalk board with his date of birth, time of birth, weight and length.  Once we have settled in at home, I am going to take it back to Bada's to get Dawn to embroider this information on the bottom, so he always has it as a keepsake!

I absolutely LOVE his room and can't believe how well it turned out.  Hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures of all the hard work done by everyone involved!

Ultrasound Pictures and Segments

We decided (well, more I decided) to hire Deidra with Watch Me Grow Ultrasound in Statesville, NC to do some 3d/4d ultrasounds of our little one.  On November 8, we went to the first one, and boy was the baby stubborn.  We DID, however, definitely find out that the baby was a BOY.  He was NOT shy about this at all, showing us the "goods" immediately!  Otherwise, he was very stubborn.  He was head down in my tummy, and turned with his face toward my spine, so we got a lot of back/hiney pictures that day!  Here are a few pictures, including the "gender reveal"!

 Here is the ONLY profile shot we got that evening!

 Lying upside down, feet in the air, but you can see his little toes!

 This is actually the first shot she took of the evening ... needless to say, we were not held in suspense for long!

 Here, Deidra showed us the headFULL of hair this little man already had!  So exciting!

Here is a picture of his arms outstretched. 
My Daddy said "I think I already see a wrench in that hand!"

Although he was stubborn, we did get these shots out of the experience, which was wonderful.  I will definitely go back to Deidra in the future when more babies come our way!

Deidra was so nice and allowed us to come back 10 days later and try to get some better pictures of him.  On the way to her office, I drank a 20-oz Mountain Dew, which definitely got him going, since I had had NO caffeine whatsoever since finding out I was pregnant!

Here are some pictures from this visit, where we got better 3d pictures this time:

Little man's best profile shot the entire pregnancy - I love this picture!


Here, as with MANY other pictures of him throughout the pregnancy, he has his hands AND feet up to his face!  He loves sucking on hands and feet, or so we've found out!


LONG legs, which I have felt all over my tummy!

He LOVES to suck on his hands and fingers!


Here, I love how you can count his fingers as he reached for his foot to grab it!

This is also one of my very favorite shots - I love those big feet-  can't wait to kiss 'em!

At the end of this ultrasound, Deidra was showing us a "heat map" in my belly of where the umbilical cord was laying.  It was kind of underneath Brooks, but then wrapped up around his body near his face.  Right as she was showing us this, he took his hand and batted it out of the way!  SO NEAT!  Here's the clip:

After many months of waiting and preparing for Mr. Brooks, we were supposed to go back to Deidra for our "watch me grow" session.  Both Kevin and I got really sick right before we were supposed to go with a nasty stomach bug, so we had to postpone this appointment.  We were supposed to go February 3rd, but had to reschedule to February 9th.  I was disappointed, but it was worth the wait!
When we arrived and got settled in, the little one proved his stubborn streak again!  We had to wrestle him, turn me around every which way, and basically make me stand on my head (not really!) to get him to cooperate.  It was AMAZING how much he had changed!  We did get some awesome shots though - check them out:

My favorite one!
So chubby and cute - with all that HAIR!!!

Love the smile on his face in this shot!


Here, you can see hands up by his face (as usual) and those LONG eyelashes!

Here's that BIG foot again!  So neat how you can see all the parts!


And here we are, with our foot/toes in our mouth!  Flexible little boy, I'd say!


Here, he just got completely stubborn and put his whole hand up to his face! 

Funny little boy!


And ... we are definitely still a boy - it was at this point Deidra said "Paint all the BLUE you want to dear, this one's a boy and PROUD OF IT!"

Deidra was wonderful and we REALLY enjoyed getting to know her along with seeing our baby boy in his cozy environment!  I would recommend her to ANYONE!