A Fabulous Weekend

Last weekend was pretty great. Glen and I drove down to San Antonio Friday night, and stopped halfway in a city named Gruene (pronounced "Green") to eat at our favorite restaurant, the Gristmill. When I hit 30 weeks Glen and I made a list of at least 10 things we wanted to do before we have the baby, and eating here was on the list.

Gruene is a cute little country town--the kind where everyone wears cowboy boots. There is always country dancing going on and lots of cute little shops. Anyway, the Gristmill is a delicious restaurant overlooking the Guadalupe river. And we LOVE the food. We have a lovely evening and then finished the trip to down to San Antonio.

Saturday morning Glen and I went to the San Antonio LDS Temple. It was EARLY for us but it was so nice getting to the temple bright and early, everything seemed so peaceful. A lot of people were surprised that I was there, being 34 weeks pregnant and all, but it really wasn't too bad. They always keep the San Antonio temple SUPER cold, so it was perfect for me. Plus, we knew we wouldn't be able to come back for a while after the baby comes. We had a great time.

Afterwards, we grabbed breakfast at a cute nearby cafe and then headed out to 4 different baby consignment stores.

I have a REALLY hard time paying full price for anything, and there were still several items on our list of things to get before baby comes. I had been checking craigslist like a crazy person for the past 3 months or so but never had any success. So we went to these 4 consignment stores and found just about everything we needed! It was such a rush--I seriously get a high when I save 50-75% on items I need. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and we are a lot more prepared for baby to come. And he is due exactly 4 weeks from today!

Well that's about all I have to say for now, I'll update again soon!

Mango Salsa Recipe

Last week we had a Relief Society activity called "Favorite Things." It was so fun. Basically everyone came with 4 of one of their favorite things (book, craft item, jewelry piece), then 4 women got your favorite thing and you got 4 things from other women. As I was making lists of my favorite things I quickly realized most of those things were food items, surprise, surprise.

So after I decided I wanted to share a recipe and a food sample, it wasn't hard to decide what to do.

Salsa.

I love salsa so much, all different kinds. In fact, when Glen and I got married and had an open house in San Antonio, my mother-in-law arranged to have several different salsas served with different chips as the food. It was probably the greatest idea of all time.

Anyway, I ran to the store and bought mason jars to fill with two of my favorite salsas. I posted one of them on Instagram and Facebook and had a lot of requests for the recipe, so I decided I would post it here on my blog. The recipe actually comes from my awesome mother-in-law Cindy, and I'm not sure where she got it from. Regardless, it is amazing, tasty, and healthy. AND it's so easy to make. Our local farmer's market was having a sale on both mangoes and pineapples, so it worked out perfectly! So, here is the recipe:

Mango Pineapple Salsa
2 mangoes, peeled and chopped
1 pineapple, cored and chopped
1 large red bell pepper
1 red onion
2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
¼ cup lime juice

Mix all together and serve with chips.

As with most recipes I make, I rarely add everything without looking at the portions and I adjust accordingly. For example, the red onion I bought was rather large, and I knew I wouldn't want a full red onion, so I didn't put the whole thing in. Same with the pineapple, I didn't use the whole thing. I just ate it instead :). And if you don't like a lot of spice, cut back on the jalapeno. But this is so delicious. Just try to look at these photos without your mouth watering!

Baby Shower Weekend in Austin

Last weekend I felt incredibly blessed. My amazing friends here in Austin threw me a baby shower! I was so happy to spend time with so many of my friends, old and new. The whole time I was there I kept thinking how grateful I was to have met so many great girls in the shortish time we have lived in Austin. I will be so sad when we have to move at the end of the summer.

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law also came, which was so sweet of them. Both of them had quite a drive to be there (from San Antonio and from Dallas) but I was grateful they were able to come.

It's already been pointed out to me how chubby my face looks in these pictures, but I'm over it, and I'm going to post the pictures anyway. #1 it was a hot day, #2 I was pretty sweaty and a bit swollen, and #3 the weight has to go somewhere, right? For me it's just on my face!

And this is Katie, my friend who threw me the shower. She did an amazing job!

Mindy, one of my best friends here!

My lovely in-laws, Glen's mom and sister!

After all the baby shower festivities, Glen and Breck showed up to help us gather gifts.

The Ellsworth family spent the rest of the day together. We did a little shopping at Ikea, got donuts at our favorite place--Round Rock Donuts, and then later on had dinner at the Iguana Grill. Iguana Grill is a really great restaurant that sits overlooking Lake Travis. It was beautiful weather so we ate outside and enjoyed the view. We couldn't believe that we were eating on the patio on February 2. Gotta love Texas!

The next day was the super bowl, and somehow we convinced Breck and Brielle to stay an extra day (hooray!!) and have a party with us since neither of us had any super bowl plans. We did our best to pull together some yummy snacks and treats and we had a fun time. We were so glad they stayed, but even more glad that they made it back home safely that night when they left at 10 pm with a 3.5 hour drive ahead!

After Breck and Brielle left, Glen had a genius idea to stack the air mattress on our bed for fun. Glen calls it "mega-bed." We laid up there for a bit, but realized if either of us sat up we were dangerously close to our ceiling fan, which is always on. But it made for some good laughs, especially when trying to hoist an 8-month pregnant woman up that high.

Overall, it was such a wonderful weekend.