We like to party! ;)

We've been so blessed to have so many kind people want to throw us baby showers. :) 

Truly we haven't had to buy very many things for this baby, because of how good everyone has been to us. :) (I've even had some patients give us gifts for Jaden. There are so many kind people out there!)

The way it turned out with the baby showers, was that we had all three of them one weekend after the other. The first one was the Cedar baby shower on January 25th. I have such awesome aunts that helped pull it together, and my mom and sisters did a lot of planning too. :) Meg took pictures (thank heavens because guess who forgot their camera again?) It was jungle themed, like all the showers, and it was so darling how they had everything decorated! We had it at the Seminary, and so they brought in all the trees and plants, Aunt Cherene got someone to do balloon animals that were absolutely adorable! We had cute Chinese lanterns hanging along the ceiling, and diaper cakes with little jungle stuffed animals as toppers on each table. 

The food was so yummy too! We had chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, a fruit salad, some cute veggie cups, tarts from Kneaders, and a delicious cherry limeade drink. 

We played the baby name game (you try to write down a baby name for each letter in the alphabet in 1 minute, and then we all read through them. If someone else wrote down the same name you both had to cross it off; whoever had the most names left at the end won a prize.) and then the candy bar game (like what's the candy that represents the epidural? Lifesavers (of course), or what candy represents what you have to change diapers from? Milk duds. :p) 

The little girl I used to baby sit came with her mom, so she helped me out with opening gifts. :) I was actually really grateful for that because I don't like being the center of attention. I really hate opening presents with everyone watching, I just feel super awkward. :p So it helped to have a cute present-bringer who took some of the attention off me. ;)

The second baby shower was the Cedar friends one that my cute neighbors, Megan and Nikki, threw for me. Mckenzi and Natalie helped out with this one too, and they did such a great job! 

We had this one at Nikki's house (which is in Northfield so I got to just walk over. :) Kind of fun!) and they had it decorated so cute! Streamers from the ceiling, cute paper pom poms, and signs Megan made with her (whatever it's called... it's like a crickit, but it's cooler!). For our refreshment they did banana boats. You cut open the banana lengthwise, and put chocolate chips, peanutbutter chips, marshmallows...etc in it and then wrap it in tin foil- peel and all- and bake it so it's all melted and gooey and delicious!

This one was an open house, so we got to just hang out and visit as people came and went. :) I kind of opened gifts half way through, and we got some super cute outfits from this one! (I mean I guess we did from every one because how do you find a not precious baby outfit? Impossible, right?)

I forgot my camera again on this one, and I left my phone in my jacket pocket so I didn't even take any with it. For someone who says they love photography I sure stink at actually taking pictures! :p But it was darling! I kept the little banner they made of his name with some zebras, and I'm going to hang it in the nursery so you'll at least get to see that part of the shower! It really was so nice to be able to hang out with all the cute friends I've made through our ward and living in these apartments and just visit for the afternoon. :) Megan, Nikki, Natalie and Kenzi did such a great job! 

The last baby shower was the 'Northern baby shower' which ended up being more like Matt's side of the family shower. :) I did have a couple of my friends who live up North that were able to make it to this one, Chelsi and Tara. (Roommate Chelsi, and Tara that I went to high school with in Piute.)

We had this one at Steven and Laura's house (Jen's brother and sister in law) and my sister in law Mallorie, my mother in law Vicki, Aunt Laura and Aunt Heather threw this one. It really turned out so fun! It was the perfect size, we all just sat in the living room in a circle and it was great to be able to visit with family that we haven't seen for such a long time! Oh my, and the food. I've been wanting fruit lately (really, anything sweet, but I've been dying for some fresh fruit tastes) and so when I saw the fruit tray I was so excited! (Haha, it's maybe sad how excited I get for food these days...) We had a veggie tray too, and then a chinese chicken salad that was really good, and some heavenly cream cheese brownies, lemon bars (yum!), and cookies. It was all so delicious, I probably would have been happy sitting in the kitchen alone with all the food. ;)

My favorite baby shower game ever was done at this one, Mallorie had everyone do a mad lib and the story was about me going into labor and all that fun stuff. The different stories were so funny! Heather's killed me, I should post a few of them so you can read them. :p 

We did a 'Guess the Features' game, where everyone guessed which features I want Jaden to have of mine and which I want him to have of Matt's. :) One of Vicki's friends won that one, she was pretty close to getting them all! This game was kind of fun because I haven't really thought about which parts of Matt and I that I want Jaden to have. I just want to snuggle our cute baby! :p And I'm sure no matter which things he inherits he'll be a handsome little guy. I mean... we're pretty cute parents aren't we? ;)
After the games I opened gifts, and this time I didn't have cute little kids helping me out and taking the attention away from me. :p Luckily I have really awesome in laws so it wasn't as mortifying as I worried it'd be to be the center of attention. ;) Like at the first two showers, we got so many awesome gifts! We have amazing and generous family and friends and we're so grateful for that. One of my favorite parts about opening gifts at this one was Laura's youngest son, Declan. He's 2(?ish?) and he sat on his mom's lap and would nod and comment on how cute the outfits were every once in a while. So funny! I was glad we got his stamp of approval on Jaden's style. ;)
(Oh. And did you know you can buy wipes at 900 count?? I've never seen a box of wipes that big haha. We're set for... oh maybe a week? ;) )

(Pictures stolen from Mallorie :) )

All the showers really were so much fun and I've been so overwhelmed thinking about how sweet everyone is to us. We're so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives to love and support us through all this!

(Also... the nursery is pretty much done so here's some pictures. :p I still need to get a little chest of drawers, and I think we'll do that this weekend.)