2 Birthdays and a Baby Shower

Well it is officially birthday season in our family. Drew's birthday was January 21st and I was super excited to keep his birthday plans a surprise until just a few days before. It worked out perfectly that Jason Aldean and Eric Church were going to be at Verizon Arena on Drew's actual birthday. So just two days before the big day, I let Drew know we were going to be doing dinner and drinks with Larissa and Chris and then heading to the concert. He was really excited and we had such a wonderful time!

My dad's birthday is January 29th -- He had been itching to go to Oaklawn so my parents, Larissa, and Chris headed to Hot Springs for the horse races and then met up with Drew and I for dinner that evening. I had to work half a day so couldn't make the races :( Not to worry, I have a feeling we will all be seeing Oaklawn soon.

So what do these two birthday's have in common??? German Chocolate cake! My mom's family is German and it is a family tradition for the men in our family to get a homemade German Chocolate cake for their birthday. My mom was sweet enough to come over and help me through my first one and I have to admit I would have definitely messed the icing up without her there! Anyway...here is my first German Chocolate cake I made for Drew.


My good friend, Manal, is having a boy in April -- Brody! Today, Manal had a baby shower and I was so excited to see her and some of the other girls.

Here are my sweet friends Katrina and Vera with their sons. The neat thing about these girls is we all used to work at Dillard's Corp. together. I was working in Treasury with Katrina, Vera was in advertising, and Manal was the Executive Assistant to the Controller. Since then, we have all scattered with our jobs -- Katrina is still at Dillard's, me at my firm, Vera at Windstream, and Manal at One Bank -- but we all are still good friends and make sure to do lunch and some girls nights every now and then.

And yes, now that they all have kids they ask me ALL the time when Drew and I are going to have some of our own --- I quickly respond with, "Good Question" :)