Baby Shower!

On January 12th, the Liljenquists were kind enough to throw me an amazing baby shower!

Mauri made the cutest invitations:

Everything looked (and tasted!) incredible. The cake and fruit were beyond adorable:

It was so fun to spend the afternoon with friends and family. Everyone was too generous with their gifts; Josh and I were so spoiled!

One of the best parts was that Allison flew all the way from Utah just to be here! She got through the horrible Utah blizzards only to get stuck in Charlotte because of fog! In spite of it all, she was able to make it for the last little bit of the shower and then she and Ashley helped us get our new supplies into the nursery. Talk about a great friend!

Thank you Lynda, Mauri, Ashley, and Allison, for the best baby shower a girl could ever ask for!

Utah Christmas

After about 18 months of being away, Josh and I were finally able to make it back to Utah for a visit! The day before we left for Utah, we were wearing short sleeves and had the air conditioning on in the car. While we were there, it looked like this most of the time:

The Benson's found a fantastic way to kick off our trip: an evening at Hang Time! This is a building filled with giant trampolines, foam pits and a dodgeball arena. I wasn't able to participate in the jumping, but it was so fun to watch everybody else!

Not only was my sister-in-law Amy's family kind enough to let us stay with them, but she even threw a baby shower for me and Josh's cousin, Brenda. We had a fantastic time and are beyond grateful for the adorable baby gifts we received! The only downer was that Josh came down with chills, a headache, sore throat, and a 104 degree fever a few hours before the shower. He was only able to put in a brief appearance.

Josh's sickness didn't let up the next day, so he spent most of Christmas Eve in bed. In the evening, we managed to get over to Josh's parents for a little while and spend time with them and a few of his siblings watching Home Alone.

On Christmas morning we got up to watch David and Amy's kids open their presents. During the festivities, I began to feel nauseous. I thought it might be because I needed to eat, so Josh made me some Breakfast Chocolate Milk. Not long after I was throwing up. I spent the rest of Christmas day in bed with some sort of terrible stomach bug. As it turns out, half of the guests at the baby shower had the exact same thing! Josh was well enough to go to the Benson family Christmas Day celebration that evening, but I was out of commission until the next day.

Through out the trip, we were able to play lots of games, go see Les Miserables, see the new City Creek shopping center, admire the lights at Temple Square, and more! (I realize my over-size coat over my huge pregnant belly makes me look like an oompa loompa...but at least it kept me warm!)

We had a great time...hopefully it won't take another 18 months for us to make it back!

South Carolina Christmas Celebrations

Because Myrtle Beach is a tourist town, the area has tons of fun Christmas shows and events all throughout December. Between those events and our regular holiday traditions, my family was able to have lots of Christmas fun together before Josh and I went to spend the actual holidays in Utah with the Bensons!

Despite the fact that we weren't going to be here over Christmas, we couldn't resist putting up our tree and decorations to enjoy for a few weeks.

We had a great time at the ward Christmas party (I guess Halston was too cool to sit with us)...

Dad was able to get the family tickets to the Christmas shows at the Alabama Theatre and Carolina Opry. The Opry is one of our favorite events to go to each year!

Laurann and Catherine came into town for Christmas, which meant we got to spend some time catching up and meet Catherine's adorable new baby girl!

Every Christmas, Brookgreen Gardens hosts a "Night of a Thousand Candles" where they decorate their incredible property with thousands of candles floating in fountains and hanging from trees and draped with Christmas lights. I've been wanting to go for years, but have never been able to make it. This year, my best friend, Allison, got me some tickets for my birthday! My family decided to come along, too, and we had a fantastic time! They had heated tents with all kinds of performers, catering from a local restaurant, and the decorations were incredible.

The Great Pecan Harvest

Growing up, my Grandma had several large pecan trees next to her house. Each fall, we would help her harvest the pecans which she would then cook into fabulous cakes and pies. This year, my dad had the idea that we collect them and try to use them in recipes of our own. They made for some delicious Thanksgiving desserts!