Baby Shower & Maternity Pics

So I know all my news is baby news these days, but obviously that's a big part of our lives lately. :) It is so weird to think that "our baby will be here NEXT month!" It'll be about 6 weeks, but "next month" sounds a whole lot closer than "6 weeks." :-)
This weekend, I was blessed with yet another and our last baby shower. The first was in Boyd, TX, with Derrick's family and family friends. The second was at work, and this 3rd was at my parents' house hosted by my dear sweet friend, Brittany. It was a busy, busy weekend for a lot of people so now a whole lot of people could come, but I am so eternally grateful for those who were able to come and blessed Derrick and me with their presence and a plethra of wonderful baby gifts.
Special thanks goes to my mom who prepared my childhood home beautifully with a fall themed party...we had potato soup and heart shaped jalapeno beer bread and pumpkin bread and lemon cake and cranberry punch and everything was pretty and orange and homey. It was the perfect setting!

Thanks to the lovely ladies who came and the beautiful gifts & diapers!!

We played a game that included making a baby out of play-dough...Aunt Linda won the best! :)

The beautiful quilt my dear sweet Aunt Laura gave to Baby Ratliff. I know lots of love and lots of hours goes into handmade quilts....Twill be cherished forever!

Thanks Ladies!

Lisa came in from Austin and Brittany came in from College Station...so grateful for these two ladies and lovely friends!

Me and my beautiful mom...I'm feeling a bit whaleish these days, but I know that just goes with the territory! 

The sweet notes of love to our precious boy! The R is nursery bound!

Lastly, Sunday afternoon, Brittany and I had the chance to take some spontaneous maternity photos. She brought her camera and her creative eye and we took some wonderful ones. Thanks B for insisting on this! My parents' home made the perfect photo studio! These are some of my favorites:

Beautiful persimmon tree! 

One of my very favorites 

1, 2, 3 Jump! We only did it twice...promise! :) No labor followed...

Love the fall!

My sweet pumpkin

Heehee...

So fun to be pregnant with B! We got a built in prom date going on here....our lil guy will be < 2 months older than Baby Girl Mader

One of my other very favorites :) Thanks Brit for providing these wonderful memories!

Shower Fun at Work!

Today was a fun day at work as it was baby shower day! My co-workers headed up an amazing shower for me and Derrick that consisted of an incredible chili bar for lunch (including hot dogs, frito pie, nachos, baked potatoes, salad, desserts, cupcakes, and the cutest diaper cake you've ever seen!) Lots of them also all chipped in to buy our stroller/car seat set for us....sooooo wonderful!
I'm not exactly sure who did what today as there were so many people helping, but I know Jill Matula headed up the whole thing and made all the nice details happen...so thank you Jill!!!

I missed the chili bar sign behind the crock pot, but look at that spread!

Such a blessing!!!

LOVE the diaper cake!

My family!

Us & our Gifts

Thank you Dolores and Christine for the bag of goodies...especially the personalized onesie! LOVE it! 

Table decorations made by Jill

Baby photo wall! Lots of people from work brought a baby picture and it was fun looking at them throughout the day trying to guess who was who :) Great idea Jill!

Thank you to everyone involved to make our day special!

This weekend is Derrick's birthday but since I actually have another baby shower and he's headed hunting, we went out for Mexican food last night and he got to open presents.

He got a good lookin Game Guard fishing shirt and a shooting mat for his long range shooting fun

Couple more fun photos from this past weekend include a photo of us 3 at the Aggie Ring at A&M right after A&M BTHO Arkansas Whoop! and a picture with my best friend who is also pregnant! Guaranteed prom date for our lil guy percolating in there! :)

Gig'em Baby!

Me (33 weeks) and B (25 weeks)