Busy bees we've been...now just relaxing and waiting!

So I have to post some pictures of my wonderful baby showers I've had!
Number One was hosted by my best friends, Kelly and Carly. About 14 friends, and 3 babies, were there! We played Bingo, had a Play-Doh "Make a Baby" contest, ate ice cream & cake sundaes (great job on cake Carly), and I opened gifts that were so cute and creative! Afterward, we had everyone come over to our house for a cookout. Some of the guys and kids were already there, swimming and playing. All in all I think everyone had a great time.

The night before, Kelly, Carly, and I celebrated our 30th birthdays at a nice dinner at Circles, a place on a marina in Apollo Beach. Cheers!

We had such a fun weekend getting to spend some time with Kelly a bit. The next weekend was a blast too. My sister and cousin Tobi cohosted a shower #2 for me at my sister's house in Dunedin. The guests were all women in my family: Mom, grandma, aunts, cousins, and cousin's kids! Jennifer and Tobi did a wonderful job hosting. We ate great food and cake and got to see family we haven't seen in a while. I'm so proud to be a part of two great families (McMullens and McCarthys) whose women are just so admirable.

Jenn, Mom, me

Aunt Sherry (one of my Dad's sisters) & Mom

L to R top: Tobi, Aunt Missy, Anna, me, Jenn

L to R bottom: Heather, Mom, Mamaw, Amery

Cousins Tobi & Windy

Brother & sis, Tully & Amery, playing in dog kennel, so cute & funny!

Cousin Alisa & Jenn chatting it up

J & 'Nick (awwww)


And here's a few more random pics:

Baby's Room

J practicing guitar (headphones so that amp doesn't wake baby...cause if that doesn't, his newest toy, a motorcycle in the garage will, haha)

Our awesome kid's chair painted by my friend Susan, thank you Suz, so cute!

Well, I might not be updating the blog as much as usual, I'll try to do once a month. But you can always contact me thru email (gmail, yahoo, facebook) or phone, and we'll catch up! And I'll send pics too, either thru email or Snapfish! Did I mention John's family threw me a shower in P.C. too? So technically that was 3 showers, whew! No wonder Meredith's closet and clothes drawers are packed!! Now that the end of this pregnancy is near, and beginning of a new adventure for us... I just wanted to say thank you to all family and friends for your love and support. And to John, I love you!! I know I've been pretty moody and man-hating lately, but you're such a great husband and friend, I really can't complain (except the motorcycle issue). We're excited about the next few months, with our baby, Jenn & Phil's new arrival, our niece's wedding, and the holidays!! Oh, and of course, football season...

Celebrations

Many things to celebrate and be thankful for!

After returning from P.C., we relaxed for a few days, John getting back to the work routine. On Saturday, June 27, I attended a nice baby shower for my friend Brooke. Here's a pic of my group of friends whose husbands work at MacDill (and most I've known since Bragg).
L to R: Susan, Brooke, Linda (and brand new lil Evelyn), me, Angella

So, Brooke was due August 11, 5 days before me. However, baby Abby had another plan in mind...she came the next day, 7 weeks early! After an emergency C-section, Mom and baby are good...except little Abby's lungs were a little underdeveloped and could not eat on her own. She's still in the NICU, but should be leaving there soon. Although very scary, we could not be happier for them. Congrats to the Childs family! She's beautiful!

Last week, we worked hard on getting the house ready for visitors and baby. We finished the armoire, I washed baby clothes and blankets and put them away, we put together the stroller (and will install the car seat soon), and I even packed most of my hospital bag.

We took an evening to have a date night. Went to see "Public Enemies" with Johnny Depp, entertaining but of course violent gangster movie (J.D. as usual awesome acting), then on to Maggiano's for dinner. I was proud that I had a free popcorn coupon, and had a $25 gift card for the dinner, haha! We both got desserts that were really made for 4 people, so we had them again the next night, yummy!

We were pretty busy on the 4th, visiting with lots of folks. We visited my cousin Windy and her family in their new home in Safety Harbor, then went to the McMullen family reunion and had a great lunch and got to see Mamaw and Papaw, Uncle Moe, Aunt Missy, cousin Tobi and her kids, and Jennifer and Phillip! After that, to our friend Julia's house and John got to swim in the pool and shoot off fireworks with his buds. We finally ended up that night near our house, at Clay and Angella's house. More fireworks and good friends!

John slam dunk

John & Dave contemplating best way to shoot off this rocket

Suz & Dave
Hi Julia!

Yesterday I went with Carly and Megan to Bok Tower Gardens, a national historic landmark in Lake Wales, about hour and a half drive from here. From a brochure, haha: "During the early 1920s, Dutch immigrant, humanitarian, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward W. Bok first witnessed the beauty and tranquility of Iron Mountain. He commissioned world-renowned masters to create a stunning landscape garden, a majestic Singing Tower sculpted of pink marble with 60 tuned bronze bells and a haven for birds and wildlife." It was hot, but we had a good time seeing the sights! Would be an awesome road trip in the spring for a nice walk and picnic!

Carly & Austin

The Tower

P.S. Check out our niece Kelly's website: http://justwrightphotos.com/#

my belly is on the "babies and bellies" gallery a few times ;)