Ward Shower

It is a complete understatement when I say that I grew up in the most supportive ward there is! And now Josh and I are blessed to be able to live here again.

My wonderful friend from the ward, Dawn, threw me an amazing baby shower on December 1st. Dawn and I taught in primary together, were on the girls' camp committee together for two years, and I worked for her for the past year. She is such an incredible woman and I look up to her and love her so much!! (And of course...I don't have a picture with her. How dumb.)

She put together a delicious hot chocolate bar (one of my favorite things!) with all of the fixin's you could possibly dream of, along with hot cider from Kim and sweet breads from Michelle and Brayli.

I mean seriously....is that not the most amazing thing ever?! It was such a perfect night and they all put so much work into making it that way for me and everyone who came.

Let me say again how supportive this ward is.... Seriously, look at all those presents! And that was just at the beginning before I started opening them. This shower was an open house, so people were coming in and out. I literally never stopped opening presents.

Thanks to all of the wonderful people who came to this shower, Stella's closet is now stocked full of clothes, shoes, hats, and bows!! I really don't know if she will ever wear the same outfit twice!

And of course my sister had to get Stella this adorable outfit. Her auntie definitely does love her, and she loves her auntie just as much!

Here are some women from the ward. Kim on the very left helped throw this shower with Dawn.

Lynette and Heather (the two on the left) have lived across the street for somewhere around 17 years. They are like a mother and sister to me! Brayli and Michelle (the two on the right) also helped. Brayli and I have been friends since we were 5. I love her to pieces!

I really can't believe how blessed we were at this shower. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed that night at all of the love the people in this neighborhood showed to our family. I appreciate all of you so much and could not be more grateful!

Friend Shower

First of all, I know this post is almost two months overdue!! But I seriously need to get caught up before it gets even more overdue and before I get way too busy. Better late than never right?

On November 19th, my long-time friend Courtney threw me such a wonderful baby shower! Courtney and I have been good friends since middle school and she has always been such a great friend!! She did such a great job with all the food and decorating.

Stella got some great gifts at this shower! My friend Allyssa made this adorable bib. I wish I even had a clue how to do this. Its so cute!

My great friends Jayna and Aubree gave us this adorable hooded towel, personalized just for baby Stella! They also gave us a book and some bathtime things!
She was also spoiled with tons of clothes, bibs, burpers, toys, lotions and body washes, and so much more!!

I wish I had a picture of all of the girls together, but I don't because once again, I'm terrible with taking pictures!!! But at least I got pictures of most of the girls who came.

Allyssa (who is pregnant and due in May with little boy Finn) and Brooke

Courtney (who threw this amazing shower!), Whitney (who is also pregnant, but none of us knew yet at this shower! So excited for her!), and Ashley

Nikki (who has now had her beautiful baby girl Rilee-she and Stella will be the best of friends!), Aubree, and Jayna

Heidi (who helped bring food and punch to this shower - delicious! Thanks Heidi!)

And of course my mom and sister who have been to ALL of my showers and have been so supportive!

My friend Ali also came, but had to leave early before I could get a picture.

Courtney and Heidi -thank you so much for all of your hard work you put into making this shower so special. And thank you to everyone who came - Stella was totally spoiled! I really do have the best friends in the WHOLE world and can't thank them all enough for being so supportive! I love you all!

23 Years

I had a birthday. And luckily, I have a wonderful husband who made it so memorable.
(Let me apologize ahead of time for having so few pictures of my day. I am horrible with taking photos - something I really need to work on!)

My day actually started the night before when I was able to see Breaking Dawn at midnight! It was so much fun and such a great way to start off my birthday. Honestly, it was kind of hard being 7 months pregnant and staying up until 3:00 in the morning - but well worth it!

Then, when I got home, Josh had balloons waiting for me. Isn't he adorable?

The next morning I woke up to this...

And this...

A few of my favorite treats. Yes, that card says "Mommy" on it. So weird to think that someone is going to be calling me that soon! Josh wrote me such a sweet note from both him and Stella. He really is the most thoughtful, romantic guy!

See that little present in the middle of that pile? Well, inside was this picture...

Yep! I got a pair of these bad boys. He gave me the picture because they were being shipped and hadn't arrived yet. I got them a few days later and wear them ALL THE TIME. He even picked them out himself - perfect size and all. I was impressed to say the least!

Later that day, my mom treated me to a massage. I told my mom all I wanted was a maternity massage. Of the course the massage was incredible, but to be honest, I really just wanted to be able to lie on my stomach for a while. I was never really even a stomach sleeper, but being deprived of it while being pregnant has been SO hard for some reason. I guess its the whole "wanting something you can't have" thing. So being able to lie on my stomach for almost an hour was such a treat! My mom also gave me a new set of scriptures with my Madsen name on them (about time I got a set of these right?) and a gift card to my favorite store.

Later that night, Scott and Kerri had us over for dinner and to celebrate with the family. It was such a wonderful night and I always enjoy Kerri's delicious cooking!

22 was a great year. The most exciting event was finding out I was pregnant with our little girl! But I know 23 is going to bring so many great things, including the arrival of our little one, and I seriously can't wait to see what's in store!

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. I was completely spoiled by my family. Josh went out of his way all day to make sure my day was perfect. But being able to just relax with him all day was honestly the best gift of all. He is such a thoughtful and sweet man and I feel so lucky that he is all mine! I love him so much! How could I not? I mean seriously...just look at him!! ;)

Madsen/Cox Family Shower

A few weeks ago, Kerri and Heidi threw me such a wonderful shower in Manti at Grandma Cox's house. The Madsen and Cox families are truly some of the most supportive people I know! Almost everyone in the family was there and I couldn't be more grateful! Here are a few photos of the fun evening.

A few pictures of Kerri's decor. That woman sure does know how to throw a party!

And some of the gifts we received.

A swing (which I am SOOO excited about!)

A bathtub

My mom gave me this beautiful blessing dress. I know you can't see it well here, but it is seriously the most precious thing I have ever seen! I will be sure to post more detailed pictures on Stella's blessing day.

Along with this dress, she also gave me the shoes, tights, and accessories to go along with it. (I'll be honest...I helped pick out the dress, so it wasn't a huge surprise!) But my mom did surprise me with a beautiful blanket for Stella to use on her blessing day. One of my mom's best friends has a daughter who was studying abroad in Bethlehem. She brought home a blanket from Bethlehem. I wish I had a picture of it, but it is truly something we will cherish.

Josh's sweet grandma made us this quilt. She is not in the greatest of health, but still puts so much work into making a quilt for every new baby that comes into the family. She is truly amazing!! And this of course is another gift we will always treasure!

Those were only a few of the gifts we received. We were also completely spoiled with blankets, toys, a baby monitor, books, a play mat, bath time goods, and lots of cute clothes! We really got so much stuff that it would take A LOT of photos to show it all :)

The Greenwell girls who made the road trip down with me just for my shower!

And the Madsen ladies who put together this whole party! They are incredible!

Ps...isn't baby Josie so sweet? She is three months old now...and Stella is sure lucky to have a cousin so close to her age! I know they are going to be the best of friends.

Josh and I really appreciate everyone who showed their love to us and baby Stella. I feel so blessed to have married into such a wonderful, supportive family! And thank you so much mom Madsen and Heidi for putting so much effort into such a wonderful shower. I love you both more than you know!!

Build-A-Bear Birthday

Today is our adorable niece Sadie's 3rd birthday! She is getting so big!!
Her mom needed a babysitter for a few hours the other day while she did some birthday shopping, so Josh and I decided that, as our gift to her, we would take her to Build-A-Bear!

When her mom dropped her off at our house, she didn't know where we were going or what we were doing. She just knew that we had a birthday surprise for her!
When we got there, the man helping us gave Sadie a sticker so that everyone would know it was her birthday.

Of course she picked a Pink Bear! Here it is before getting stuffed...
In front of the stuffing machine...

For the first little while, Sadie was really shy and had to have either me or Josh holding her at ALL times!! She wasn't really interested in all the fun things they do while making your bear. But once it was finished, she was happy as can be!



Here we are giving her bear a bath...

And choosing an outfit. She picked the cutest little white fur coat!
Here she is squeezing her bear so tight that she was literally shaking and red in the face!

She also chose to put a little sound effect in her bear's hand. Every time you squeeze it, it sings a fun Happy Birthday song. It was stuck in my head for the rest of the day! Hopefully her parents aren't too sick of it yet ;)

We then went to give her bear a birth certificate. Guess what she chose as her bear's name? Stella!! Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever heard? It made my heart melt.

And here she is leaving the store with a new bear in its little home!

We sure hope Sadie had as much fun as we did! This makes us excited to take our own little one there when she is old enough :) We love you Sadie Mae!! Happy Birthday!

Halloween 2011

This year's Halloween was pretty laid back for us. Josh and I have never been big on celebrating Halloween...Maybe that will change next year when we have a little one! In fact, Josh and I have NEVER dressed up together for Halloween in the 5 years we have spent together. I still don't know if I would count this as dressing up, but at least we did something extra this year! I found these iron-on decals online and bough some black shirts for us. Pretty easy costumes!

Cradling my skeleton baby :)

Every year, my family carves pumpkins. Its a tradition we have done ever since I can remember, and I plan to keep it going!

Josh's grim reaper:
My witch's hat and spider:

And here are everyone's pumpkins on display for the trick-or-treaters:

Halloween night was pretty much spent eating junk food and watching movies. Pretty exciting huh? Hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday!

25 weeks

Getting Bigger!!

My belly is definitely growing quickly! Which means Stella is growing!!! We love being able to feel her move every day. I am to the point now where I am feeling movement pretty much all the time and its so much fun! Its a feeling you really cannot describe. Sometimes I look at my stomach and only the right side is poking out, or only the left haha! I feel deformed sometimes...but it makes it that much more fun!

We only have 15 more weeks to go. She is coming fast and I don't feel like I am prepared to be a mom...so those 15 weeks are needed. But at the same time, I just want to meet her already! We are so excited to have our little munchkin here.

Some of you know that I had to find a new doctor. Talk about STRESSFUL!!! We found out that my original doctor is having a baby about two weeks before me, so she wouldn't be delivering me, or even really following me much anymore. I was pretty bummed because I loved her. But I wanted the doctor who delivers me to know my history and not be some stranger! So we started asking around and doing some research. I was a total stress case! Just ask Josh haha...I think he thought I was going crazy! So many people recommended Dr. Terry. He actually delivered both Josh and I so that would have been fun to go to him! But unfortunately, he is at the end of the career, and I don't want to have to find ANOTHER doctor when our next baby comes. So we ended up going with someone else in his office...Dr. Thackeray. And let me tell you, having to switch doctors was a blessing in disguise! I cannot describe how much I love this doctor! And I have only met him once so far! He is so caring and loving (not to mention LDS which is just an added bonus). He asked me questions about my personal life and told me some things that I never would have even thought of asking. Josh didn't even have a huge opinion on our first doctor, but he loves Dr. Thackeray which means a lot! We love him way more than we even loved our first doctor...so I guess it was meant to be! :)

I am trying to be better about posting pictures more often of my growing bump...so stay tuned!