Ellen's Baby Shower

Ellen's sister, Lexie, threw her a baby shower tonight and she went all out! The decorations were SO cute! It was Halloween themed. They had witch hats hanging from the ceiling, blue lemonade with "eye-balls" in it, darling intricate baby and halloween themed cookies, food served in cauldrons, a huge balloon bouquet and more. They had advice cards, a jar filled with candy corns for guests to guess the number, cards to guess when baby Elsie would arrive, and cards for guests to guess how many inches her belly was. So fun! Great job, Lexie! 

Jenna and I had left St. George at 2:00 (much later than we had planned), and were making a stop in Highland to drop off our food and pick up Grandma Westra. But there were a couple of accidents on the way holding up traffic and then traffic was really bad getting into the area, and so we were running late. We went and picked up my sister, Jen, in West Jordan, and so it was fun to get a chance to visit. I was glad that she and my mom could come! From our side of the family we had me, Jenna, Grandma Westra, Jen Blackham, Janika, Hallie, and Janelle. There were quite a few from Ellen's side too. She received lots of really nice gifts! We are praying that all will go well with Ellen's pregnancy, and that baby Elsie won't come as early as her two brothers did when they were born!! 

This was Jenna's card. She wrote: 

I hope you love: Your Aunt Jenna 

I hope you become: My best friend

I hope you aren't afraid of: Anything

I hope you learn: To walk

I hope you respect: Your Parents 

I hope you never forget: That I am your favorite aunt

I hope you always: Are happy 

With love, Jenna 

Jase showed me the changes they had made to the house (painting the master bedroom, the bathroom, and the boys' room.) They also had a Jensen Family mission statement hanging on their wall with their family goals, which I thought was so cool!! What a great idea!!  

Janika's Baby Shower

We held Janika's baby shower at my mom and dad's since I figured it would be the most central location between the Westra family and Jensen family. It turned out great! We had a good turn out from both sides of the family and Janika felt very loved and supported! She got loads of nice gifts to help her start off in this new journey! Jenna was a huge help with the shower. She put together the balloon arch (we didn't have quite enough of some of the colors, but it still turned out really cute!) Jenna also made rice krispie treats and scotcheroos, both of which were delicious. She also babysat Evan the night before and also on Saturday while we went to Costco to get all of the food. I was grateful for all of her help! 

We set up a little table for the kids to decorate onesies, and they really enjoyed that! It was so fun to have all five babies on the Jensen side that were born in 2021. We tried to get a picture of them all together, but they were NOT having it! Grandma Westra had a big sack filled with soft balls and all of the babies and kids had "a ball" playing with them! Our girls LOVED playing with all of the babies! 

We served chicken salad on croissants, fruit salad, chips, a big fruit platter, brownies, rice krispie treats, scotcheroos, and swig style cookies (made by my sister, Jen. They were a big hit!) Those who attended on the Westra side were Grandma Westra, Wendy, Janika, Ellen, Jaiden, Jenna, Jen, Alicia, Rella, Adria, Danielle, Lorrie Norman, and Nelva Griffiths. Kim was out of town, but she and Chris sent over a sound machine for the new baby. On the Jensen side we had Grandma Jensen, Jodi Venable, Julie Yearsley, and her grandbaby, Vivee. Connie and her daughter, Chantel, and daughters-in-law, Nicole (Cody's wife), Morgan (Chase's wife) and all of their kids. So we had a good group! Jaiden had gone up to Provo on the bus on Friday for the Solo/Ensemble competition on Saturday. Thankfully Alicia was able to go pick her up after her solo and bring her to the baby shower with them. Jaiden and Jenna went home with them after the shower to have some cousin time Saturday night and Sunday. 

Evan's South Jordan Baby Shower!!

Friday afternoon I watched Jaiden and Janelle sing the National Anthem at the Constitution Day ceremony at the Santa Clara City Hall. After that Jenna and I headed up north! We had stopped at the library and picked up some books on CD and ended up listening to The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson) since I had never read it before. Jenna practically has it memorized and so she let me know if the CD ever skipped or messed up! We stopped at Costa Vida in Fillmore on the way and I ran into Craig Johnson -- a former boyfriend from my USU days! So that was fun to visit with him and his wife, Jackie, for a few minutes!  

I dropped Jenna off to stay at her cousin Rella's house and Ani was invited to sleepover too. So they had a fun time! I headed to my mom's and we stayed up and watched a movie called "Gattaca," which was an older movie, but really good! The next morning Mom and I did an exercise swim. Later that evening we headed to the shower in South Jordan. There was a really good turn out! From our side of the family we had me and Jenna, Grandma Westra, Alicia, Adria, and Rella Westra, Danielle and Ani Westra, Kim Westra, and Jen Blackham and Sol Blackham. Gerilyn and Grandma Jensen came down from Ogden. They had more family and friends from their side of the family.

It was fun to visit with everyone and show off baby Evan! Ellen received lots of nice gifts for him! Unfortunately, Evan came down with Covid six days later and we wonder if he picked it up from the shower with everyone holding him and passing him around. But no one was sick that we know of so I guess we will never know for sure if he picked it up there or somewhere else.

Jenna went back to the Westra's house and went to church with them on Sunday and I stayed at my mom and dad's house and went to church with them. I left later than expected and Alicia invited me and Jenna over for a delicious dinner before we headed back to St. George. It was a fun little get away! 

Baby Shower for Ellen (and Evan)!!

Normally at Baby Showers you see an expectant mom looking VERY pregnant -- not thin as a rail cradling a tiny newborn! So this was a little different than the norm, but we were grateful that Evan was able to attend his own shower and that the guests could oooh and aaah over him! I neglected to get pictures of the guests since I was busy visiting, but here are some pictures of everything else! I was grateful to my friend, Allison, for helping with the food. It was delicious! She made mini brownies, mini rice-krispie treats, and swedish cream with berries on top. Janelle made homemade salsa for the chips. We also had watermelon and grapes. Ellen requested blue raspberry lemonade and added a few rubber duckies to float around -- although they flipped upside and so that didn't work very well. It was a cute thought though! 

Ellen had baby pictures of Jase hung up on one side of the fireplace and baby pictures of her on the other side and several pictures of Evan around the house. Ellen received lots of nice gifts including a really nice car seat (group gift), gorgeous home-made quilt from Jase's boss at DFCU, diapers, clothes, shoes, moccasins, socks, and many baby accessories. Grandma Jensen had sent down another beautiful quilt that she had made, along with a darling book that highlighted other family members who were also named "Evan." Those gifts had been opened previous to the shower. Several friends and family members donated money to a group gift or to other things Evan might need. The "decorating onesies" booth was a lot of fun and she got loads of cute decorated onesies for Evan! The kids especially enjoyed decorating the onesies, but we had a few adults do it also! We ended up with about twenty decorated onesies! We didn't have a very big turn out, but I was grateful for those who could come and it looked like everyone enjoyed themselves!