My second baby shower

My family and friends back home threw me a baby shower on July 24, 2010. It was wonderful getting to visit with all the ladies that attended. I enjoyed myself so much. Chloe was sure blessed with some wonderful things.

Every dress hung on the clothesline was mine when I was little. I am so blessed to have a mom that does the kind of things she does. I can't believe she kept them all for 29 years. And, they all still look brand new! I am beyond excited for Chloe to wear each one of them. I've already picked out which one she is coming home in.
This was my cradle and was also used by my sister & brothers.
I can't wait for Chloe to use it now 29 years later.

Of course the food was amazing!

My mom, MeMaw, Sister and I.
Eric & I with his sister Stephanie, Mom,
nieces Kilee and Paeton & Granny.

My wonderful hostesses. I love them all dearly.
They did an amazing job putting this shower together. It was perfect!
Meredith, my Mom, MeMaw, Rose, Me, Krystal, Sarah, Sabrina, Courtnee and Maria.

(Stephanie & Mandy left before we took this pic.)

I was 35 weeks pregnant here.
Chloe was about the size of a large cantaloupe.
I didn't know you could find cantaloupes that large. ha!

My cousin Mandy made this precious blankie, along with the pillow & tutu on my sisters lap.
The other side of the blankie is the sweetest, softest Nursery Rhyme material.

Eric's Granny made this blanket for Chloe.
She has made one for every grandchild and great-grandchild.
Eric still has his after all these years.

So, my brother Jonathan (Uncle Bubba) picked this out for Chloe. According to Courtnee (my sis-in-law) he spent 30 minutes trying to pick out the perfect hat & flower combo. I can see him doing this! Needless to say, it's packed in Chloe's bag for the hospital. It's a must wear! :)

I love this flower towel & dragonfly bib.
The tail of the dragonfly is a teether.

38 weeks pregnant...and counting!

Last Thursday, August 12th, I was 38 weeks.
At this point she is the size of a watermelon. 19"-22" and 7-1/2lbs.

What a fun journey this pregnancy has been. I cannot believe that within the next 10 days our baby girl will be here. We are ready for her! Her things are all set up, her clothes & blankets are washed, our bags are packed for the hospital, Chloe's bag is packed too (with several outfits & bows to choose from, of course!), pregnancy pictures have been taken, the house is spotless, the car has been detailed, daddy had new tires put on the car too, I have organized the entire house, made several Goodwill trips, organized some more and now, we are patiently waiting...and waiting...and waiting.

Being that I'm due in 10 days, I think to myself everyday, will today be the day? How will it happen? Will I just begin to have contractions every 10 minutes? Will my water break? Will my labor begin in the middle of the night? Will it begin while I'm out running errands? Questions, questions, questions!

According to my Doctor, on the 28th of July, Chloe weighed 5lb 14oz...which means that right now she weighs close to 7lb 14oz, being that baby gains about 1/2 pound a week the last month. Really? An 8lb baby. I would have never guessed it. I do realize though that the Dr.'s can be off on the weight estimation.

Speaking of weight, my Dr. told me at my appointment last week that he is so pleased because I am all baby. All baby, huh? I don't feel like all baby! Especially being 9-1/2 months pregnant, in August, in Texas. Can you say HOT? Wow! I never thought I would be sleeping at night with the air on 70 degrees, two fans blowing and no blankets. Who does that?! I have to say though, it is so worth it. We were so excited when we found out we were pregnant because we tried for a year. I would do it all over again, even in the Texas heat, and we haven't even held her yet!

Our baby girl!

On July 14th we went for a 3D/4D sonogram. We were hesitant because I turned 34 weeks that day and were told we might not get very good pictures being that far along. I think we got some great pictures even though Chloe is squished! She did have an arm or hand by her face the entire time.

She is so precious!

Can't you already imagine a bow on her?!

Our doll baby!

This one is our favorite!
She smiled A LOT during the 20 minute sonogram.
She is so happy. :) And we are so happy to be her mommy & daddy!

My First Baby Shower

I am quite late on this post. I am still trying to figure out this whole blogging thing. :) This baby shower was Sunday, June 27th and was so much fun. Enjoy...

My first baby shower was wonderful! We have such a precious group of friends where we live now that we truly consider family. Our prayer when we moved 2 years ago was that God would surround us with life-long friends that love the Lord like we do. Boy did He answer that prayer! We are so blessed to have each and every one of them. They all made my shower super special.

The food was so good!

Katie & Betsy worked so hard on the delicious cupcakes.

I love me some Red Velvet! Here is a pic of some of the cupcakes...

All of my guests wrote a message on a picture frame matte that will hang in Chloe's room.

This diaper cake was made by Betsy. She out-did herself!

Here I am. I was 30 weeks pregnant here.


My amazing hostesses!
They made this day more memorable than I could have ever imagined.
MeMaw, Amy, Betsy, Sarah, Me, Rose, Katie, Ashlee,

Maria (my mother-in-law) & my Mom

The gifts were unbelievable. I have to admit, I had so much fun opening them. :) Little girl things are so stinkin' precious! Here are just a few pics of the many gifts we were blessed with. (It was sure hard to just pick out a few to post!)

This is a beautiful nap mat that was made for Chloe by Donna.

This adorable bin now holds all of her diaper changing items in her room.



Nichola made this quilt and nursing cover.

Nursing cover.

Amanda had several onesies personalized for Chloe. Here are two of them.

This one says 'Prayed For'.

Boy was this baby girl prayed for!


This one says 'Baby Smith'.

This one is from Grandma Maria. It says Imported from Heaven. :)

Of course there were many hair bows. Chloe will be wearing a hair bow every single day.

And...the bigger the bow, the better! ha!

How cute are these bloomers?!

Aunt Ashlee made them.

Look at this tutu! I just know Chloe is going to love it!

Grandma Brenda got this for her.

I wish I had the room to post pictures of everything Chloe got. Each gift is so special to us and we cannot wait to put them all to use. We are SO thankful to everyone. Chloe is one loved baby girl!

Recap of my SC Vacation

I am forever grateful to Katie who blessed me with a trip to see my best friend and her family. I haven't seen them in 2 years. Samur and I have been best friends since 8th grade. That's 16 years! While there however, I learned I'm allergic to SC. I was really sick my first 4 days there. (a great reason to get them back to TX!) I wasn't going to let that stop me from having fun though.

Matt & Samur are amazing parents. I know there are a lot of amazing parents out there but they are two that I highly admire. We will apply many of their parenting skills to our own when Chloe gets here. Their kids are absolutely the most precious ever. I cannot express how much I love them. I am honored to be their Aunt Lala. Every day Mason would walk up to me, pat my belly 3-4 times and say, 'So, hows baby Chloe doing?' It melted my heart each time he did it. They all three asked me every day, 'How many more weeks till baby Chloe gets here?' It's so special to me how much they love her even though she's not here yet.


Now on to some of the fun we had...

Of course we did some shopping. Actually, I had to mail back everything we got for Chloe while there. It is so hard to resist baby girl items.

These bibs were too cute...especially after her name was put on them!
If it were up to me, everything this baby girl owns would be monogrammed.

Of course she needed the matching burp cloths to go with the bibs.
Or, was that me that needed them? ha!

I was taken to eat Japanese food at Wasabi. It was excellent. The steak was mouth-watering and I am not the biggest steak fan.

Aunt Lala, Hudson, Aubree, Mason and Samur

Our Chef

Mason & Hudson using their chop-sticks. They were quite good at it.

We had fun at the beach. The air is not near as salty as it is on the TX coast. You feel like you have just left the lake when you leave the beach there. Absolutely no sticky feeling at all.

Aubree Lilah

Hudson & Mason jumping the waves

We went to see Toy Story 3 and for the most shocking news of all...I watched all three Twilight movies. Can you believe it!? I was anti-Twilight for the longest time. Not real sure why. I just thought it was a vampire movie and I have absolutely no desire to waste my time watching a vampire movie. I was somewhat wrong. It truly is a love story and the three movies were no different from some of the other action/drama movies I've seen before. I also compared it to Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. Girl falls in love with someone she can't be with and in the end it all turns out great. It's just an adult version of those.

We had so much fun. I already miss them like crazy. I'm just going to keep praying every day that God transfers Matt's job back to TX!

Our 4th of July Celebration

We had a wonderful day! Our morning was nice and relaxing. After lunch we packed up and headed to the pool. One of my favorite things to do since I've been in my third trimester is be in the water. Ahh, the pressure is relieved immediately. For dinner I got to experience '5 Guys Burgers'. It was scrumptious! Then is was off to the Battle Ship in Charleston for fireworks.

The firework show was by far one of the best I have ever seen.

This is the Battle Ship the fireworks were set off from.

Shown here is a fraction of the crowd we endured.

Oh, but it was so worth it! We had a wonderful time.

The beautiful bridge in Charleston SC.

These kiddos are amazing.

I cannot begin to explain just how much I LOVE them.

I think they may be more excited for baby Chloe to arrive than I am. ;)
Aunt Lala, Hudson, Mason & Aubree

Me & Samur

(and baby Chloe, I'm 32-1/2 weeks pregnant here!)

I hope you all had a beautiful, blessed 4th of July!

I finally did it...

I got a Blog! So many of my friends have been asking me to and I just never got around to it. It took my best friend sitting me down and setting it up for me to get it done. :) I'll be doing my best to post several times a week so you all know what's going on in the lives of The Smith's. Here goes...

Me and Samur (Best Friends since 8th grade!)

Here we are at Samur's Church 4th of July Picnic in Charleston SC.