Last weekend was my daughter Ashley’s baby shower.  Her first child is due in 6 weeks.  I’ve been busy this winter preparing surprises for the baby shower. I gave Ashley the baby cup and silverware she used when she was a toddler. Twenty nine years ago my mother gave me a card to celebrate the birth of Ashley.  I kept that card and read it often.  I bought a new frame for the card and gave it to Ashley.  The card now sits on the baby’s bookshelf.  I gave Ashley the rocking chair that my mother bought for me so Ashley can rock her sweet babies to sleep the same way I rocked Ashley to sleep.  

My favorite gift that I gave to Ashley was Baby Miller’s genealogy book. It includes photographs of Ashley and of her husband Matt from the time they were babies through college.  There are also photos of Ashley and Matt from their wedding and Ashley’s pregnancy.  Pages are ready for photos of the baby shower, the baby’s arrival, and the baby’s baptism.  And of course the album includes photos of Ashley and Matt’s ancestors. 

The photo above is on the second page of the baby’s album.  This is a clever idea that I got from one of the genealogy blog posts that I follow.  I exported a report from Ancestry.com of the baby’s family surnames.  Then I copied and pasted the names over and over in a word document.  I printed the document and Don took a pencil and shaded in the tree.  Back on the computer I changed the color of the tree to brown in the word document.  I saved the file as a jpg and printed it!  

“The Newest Twig On The Family Tree”

Now for a little down time as we wait out the next six weeks.  We don’t know if the baby will be a girl or a boy.  Our little bundle of joy is already showered with love and we can’t wait to meet her (or him)!