Ashley & Baby Jackson

I posted about this before, but my dearest friend Ashley and I were due just one day apart from each other. It certainly wasn't planned that way (how could you even plan something like that? - that's what I want to ask anyone who asks us if we planned it, ha.) but it's been great. 

Actually, it's really hard in a lot of ways to be pregnant at the same time as your best friend because then you can help each other out in the same way that you could otherwise. You can commiserate together, but you can't go mop the other person's floor, clean their baseboards, or make them dinner because they are feeling too nauseous to do those things if you're feeling too nauseous to do those things, too! 

But do you know what is great? Being able to be there for each other when you most need it. 

Ashley was struggling with high blood pressure and ended up delivering baby Jackson three weeks early via early induction due to possible pre-eclampsia. (I'm just glad our babies birthdays will still be in the same month!) Her mom was out of town, and she graciously allowed me to come and be with her for the labor and delivery. I acted as a support to her and was there to take pictures as well. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I cried through the entire delivery because it was just so amazing. Ashley was strong, powerful, beautiful, and amazing. I snapped a few pictures on my phone of the picture that I took of her and everytime I look at them I just want to sob. 

I'm so grateful that Ashley let me be a part of this special time. It has made me so excited to meet our little girl in just a couple of weeks. In the past, I've been fearful of the labor process - but watching Ashley did nothing but make me confident and excited for the whole process. It's a bit mind-blowing. Our babies are literally days apart as far as their development in utero, but now she has a tiny little baby-human that she is holding in her arms. I can hardly believe that I have one of those, too - she's just still growing and living inside of my body. (Pregnancy is beautiful but crazy at the same time.) 

The only problem is that now I feel like I want a birth photographer in the hospital with us. It's always been just David and I, but having a record of those special moments between David and I - a way to capture the feelings and emotion of the whole experience would be amazing. 

Now excuse me while I go and work on packing our hospital bags because this whole baby thing just got to a new level of real! 

Fall Festivities

This month has been full of fun events, most of which we've hosted - which is a little out of our normal routine. I really like playing host, but so metimes I'm a little intimidated and so even though I say that I want to have a party or whatever I never follow through with it. But for some reason, lately we've been making things happen and it has been SO fun. The following are a few things that we've been up to. 

Book Club

I hosted this month's book club meeting at our house. We read the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. 

I read the book in college and loved it, and loved it just as much as I read it again in preparation for book club. I didn't get any great pictures of the meeting (I felt like that would be taking my blogging/documenting a bit too far), but I did get a picture of this yummy Triple Chocolate Bunt Cake that I made. (I made this chocolate bunt cake and some rice crispies as a subtle nod to the black and white/good and evil theme of the book.) The recipe is up on our food blog now - if you are looking for a yummy cake to make - this is so easy and SOOO good. 

Grandma's House Yard Sale

David's grandma was recently moved into a Memory Care Facility due to her Alzheimer's (as I mentioned in the post about our new piano) and so her house is being sold. It needs to be done - as she doesn't need the space anymore, but it's kind of a bittersweet thing. I've been helping Sue to go through things in the house and get them organized and sometimes I was just overwhelmed with amazement at the little things that had been collected through all their years of life. Everything in that house meant something to them and I felt like we had the responsibility of handling everything with care and love. Many of the things were given to family and the rest of them were organized for a massive estate/yard sale. David and I woke up early and headed to WJ to help run the yard sale and were pretty much swamped for the rest of the day (although during one of the slower times in the afternoon David went out back and helped his dad fix the covered porch). It was a busy day, but definitely worth it as we made $500 for his grandma. Overall, we feel blessed to have been able to take home some really nice things from his Grandma's house. The piano - of course, a freezer for our garage, his grandma's sewing machine and sewing table, and lots of other miscellaneous items - including some very pretty glassware and some beautiful china. I really love things like pretty goblets and plates as you'll see in the below photos that we've already put them to good use. Here are some pictures of our new pretty glassware/dishware. 

(This one is one of my favorites - it's like an appetizer plate. We used it for our Murder Mystery dinner and had chips, spinach artichoke dip, fruit, and a vegetable tray and it was SO fun to use these little plates before dinner.) 

Murder Mystery Dinner Party

So i've been wanting to host a Murder Mystery Dinner party for SO long. Finally this year David and I decided that we were just going to make it happen. We invited my sister Melissa and Blake, our good friends Ashley and Scott Cooper, and some friends from our ward that we want to be better friends with Karli and Garret Shields. Unfortunately Blake got sick that day and so he and Melissa weren't able to come, but we had SO much fun! The scene was the Underwood Wine Estates in California and even though we didn't do much in the way of decorating, the fun little grape glassware that we got from David's grandma seemed to make the perfect centerpiece. 

It was a really fun time of playing whodunnit and getting to know each other better. We loved it and are already planning our next Murder Mystery dinner. So fun. Also, the next day when Lydia came down in the morning, she loved playing with the booklets and little grape glasses. She was being so darling I couldn't help but take pictures. She wanted us to fill the little grape glasses with water so she could drink out of them - it was super cute. 

Pumpkin Carving

Our last fun festivity before Halloween was a Halloween Dinner/FHE/Pumpkin carving with the Coopers and the Griffins. Ashley provided the yummiest White Chicken Chili and then after dinner we carved pumpkins. We love getting together with these guys and are glad that it worked out. This was Lydia's first time carving pumpkins (she's always been asleep when we've done it before) and she thought that it was so fun. 

I'd say that our pumpkins were a smashing success! (If you look closely at our pumpkin, the little part inside of the P is a little pumpkin - carved by David. It's so cute.) 

   

Carson gave Lydia a hug and they both ended up on the ground. 

 

It was double nice to be able to spend time with the Griffins. We don't see them as often but it's fun to think that these two went to high school together. (Actually Scott went to the same high school - isn't that crazy? He was just a little bit older than them.) I love that they have kept in touch. 

JCW's 

As we were preparing meal plans for the week before Halloween, we decided that we wanted to go out to eat for FHE that Monday. We hadn't tried JCW's yet and so we put it on our calendar and were super excited. That day I saw that the Outlet Mall across I-15 at Traverse Mountain was having a little Halloween Storytelling Time so we decided to hit that up first and then grab something to eat. The storytelling was fun although Lydia wasn't super interested and she just cuddled up on David's lap the whole time. I got really into the story and was afraid that I was going to have nightmares about the Who-by-yas, but enjoyed it nonetheless. Dinner was wonderful and we got yummy burgers, fries, onion rings, and some ice cream (we decided to splurge because we have been so good on our restaurant budget for the last couple of months). We didn't snag any pictures until we got home, but I really love it and thought it would be the perfect end to this post.

Our Halloween was packed with fun things - it was such a fun month! I'm so glad that we were able to do so much. We certainly are blessed to have such a happy life. Now we are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas and all of the festivities that go along with those holidays. 

Wedding time!

I seriously love weddings. Remember this bride hunting adventure? Yeah, something about weddings just makes me giddy! Especially when it is the wedding of someone that I know and love. My sweet friend Cassie got married to Colin Delahunty on May 10, 2013 and she invited David and I to her sealing ceremony and luncheon. It was a beautiful day. 

  The temple ceremony was beautiful. Ashley watched Lydia so David and I could both attend the ceremony, and then she was kind enough to drive Lydia all the way up to the Draper Temple so that David and I could drive right to the luncheon instead of having to go back to Lehi to pick her up. What I ever did to deserve a friend like Ashley, I don't know... but I am SO grateful for her. Also, Cassie looked so beautiful at the wedding I was practically in tears at how happy I was for her. In all my emotion of the day - I totally spaced getting a picture with her. Not a one. However, her photographer took one of the two of us and I'm hoping to be able to snag a copy of it and insert it {here}. The luncheon was very nice and full of Delahunty energy. David and I have eaten at several catered events in the last year (including events at the Little America and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building) and I would say that the meal was the best that we've eaten! It was really fantastic.

Not only we were able to be with Cassie and Colin on their special day... but Cass asked me to help out by being in charge of setting up the reception. We met up a couple of times before the wedding for her to get me all of the stuff and to make sure we were on the same page as far as what needed to be done. The day of the wedding I came armed with boxes and boxes of glass centerpieces filled with beautiful flowers, a giant bag of coral tulle,  a set of cake knives, cards for the dessert/drink tables, over 50 small candles, and much more. I was amazed at how organized Cassie and her mom were.  

As soon as the luncheon was over we headed to their reception center and set things up in a whirlwind. Originally David wasn't going to be able to be there - but I am so glad that he was. He watched Lydia while I frantically tried to keep up with the team of people Cassie has assigned to help me set things up. Part of me wishes that I could have just done it all myself because sometimes they did things differently than I would have done them, but realistically there wasn't time for that. And in the end everything turned out beautifully. 

Originally Cassie asked me if I would also be available to help take everything down. Knowing that Lydia was going to have a really long day, I told Cassie that I could help set up but that I wasn't going to be able to take everything down. But once I was there I decided after putting so much energy into the day that it would probably be worth it to stay for the whole reception, watch them cut the cake, and help clean up. Lydia was a little champ - she loved watching all the people and walking around through the tables. (David and I took turns walking around behind her.) 

We also realized that Lydia is quite the little climber girl. I mean - we already knew that she loves to climb on boxes, but while sitting on a bench on the side she started climbing up the slats of the bench. If we had let her she would have climbed all the way over the edge. Ay yi yi. 

 The line was almost immediately around the corner and out the door. It stayed that way for the full three hours. It was so long that David and I never actually made it into the line because it was too intimidating and we kept thinking that we would jump in when it slowed down. This faulty decision resulted in again NO PICTURES of Cassie and I. I'm a little upset about it, but I have no one to blame but myself and there is nothing that I can do to change things now. (This is as close as I could get.)

It hit eight o'clock (Lydia's bedtime) and she started loosing it. It had been such a long day for all of us and she was ready for bed. The line was still out the door, and they had probably another 45 minutes at least before they could even cut the cake/throw the bouquet. So we decided that we should probably revert back to the original plan and head home. I tried to make sure that several key people knew all of the things that needed to happen to get everything cleaned up and then we headed home. I was tired, Lydia was exhausted, and even though he was incredibly happy and supportive - David was ready to be home as well. In retrospect, I should have driven home with David and Lydia soon after the reception started and then I should have come back around seven for the end of the reception and to help clean up. I feel really bad that I didn't stick around. Sometimes I feel so guilty about things that I can't change.  It's hard to shake it. But I did the best that I could at the time, even if I would have done things differently if I had a re-do. *sigh* I just hope that everything went well with the cleanup and that Cassie and her mom don't hate me for leaving early. (Remember, I wasn't ever planning to stay - it's just my guilt complex telling me that I should have done more.) Sorry. Tangent. It was a great evening.

I'm so happy for Cassie and Colin. For all that society tells us that marriage is a "ball and chain", the reality is that marriage is the best thing that could happen to a person. My marriage to David brings me joy every single day and I am excited for Cassie to be able to experience that. I'm glad that I was able to be a part of this special day and wish Cassie and Colin the very best in the world!