Busy, Wonderful Saturday!

I had a busy but wonderful Saturday. I started the morning out going out to my parents and making waffles for them. We decided to start having breakfasts at our homes due to my dad getting a different position at his work. He was getting too tired driving his garbage truck all around and pushing garbage containers out to dump them. He has been doing this hard work for as long as I can remember. Well, his work gave him an easier position where he fixes cans and delivers them to places. He gets paid the same but he has less hours but he doesn't have to get up at 2:30 am anymore. He gets up around 5 am. It is like sleeping in for him. It has been a blessing to see him relax for once in his life. Anyway, because he doesn't make as much, we take turns making breakfast at our places. Marion requested me to make waffles out at our parents so that is what I did.

Marion, Dad and uncle Ernie

I make the waffles from scratch. I am getting pretty good at them. Kurt loves it when I make them. He eats all the left-overs for breakfast all week. He just puts them in the toaster.

Lane was there too.

He enjoyed the waffles too. I love Lane. 

Ayla enjoyed them as well.

After breakfast, Ayla and I went home and got ready for Sunday. I gave her a bath and got her clothes out. I ironed Kurt's shirts he wears to church. Then I had to hurry and go grocery shopping. 

After, shopping, I left Ayla with Kurt because she was napping and I didn't want to wake her. I had a baptism I was going to and then I had Young Women's conference right after. So I thought I would just leave Kurt and Ayla home to make it easier on myself and it was. I missed them terribly but I made it to both events and enjoyed them both.

The baptism I went to was for my friend, Ann's daughter, Tenney. Tenney had just turned 8 this month and decided to be baptised. I am so proud of her. 

Tenney with her dad, Chad.

Chad had the honor of baptising and confirming Tenney a member of the church. What an honor that was for my friend, Ann to watch her husband perform such a sacred thing with his daughter.

I really enjoyed the baptism. The spirit was so strong there. I really enjoyed the talks that Ann's father and sister gave on baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have known Ann for 10 years and have gotten to know her whole family pretty well. They are all so nice to me and mean a lot to me. Her parents raised a wonderful daughter and have been examples to me and they have always welcomed me with open arms.

 

After the services were over, we all left the Stake center and went to Ann's church where we got to have some soup and dessert.

I got this handsome picture of Ann's son, Christian in his suite, right as we were all leaving.

Here is Tenney in her pretty white dress at the luncheon.

Here is her little sister, Mary. Darling.

Right after, I had a couple bowls of yummy taco soup, I had to head out for the Young Women's general conference. I had a ticket to go downtown to the actual conference itself. I hurried and parked at Trax and rode that to the conference. As I was walking to the conference building from Trax, I decided to cut through Temple Square.

The Temple looked so beautiful from that angle. I had to take a picture.

I also had to take a picture of the conference center coming out of Temple Square. I loved that they had the Young Women's values hanging up in the door ways. 

The conference was wonderful but my favorite part was:

Hearing from our prophet, Thomas S. Monson. 

It was the most amazing experience to hear a prophet's voice live. I have heard him live before but at that time he was not the prophet yet. It was totally different this time. I could feel the spirit so strong witness to me that he is the prophet of the church. There is no doubt in my mind that this man is our beloved prophet. I am so grateful for him and his love that he has for us. I love him dearly and he means a lot to me. I loved how he addressed the young women, as if he was their father.  I will never forget that moment, my first time hearing a prophet's voice live. I will always cherish it. 

I love you president Monson!

I can see!

So I have been needing glasses for a while. Let's just say the past 3 years I have needed them badly. I just haven't gone in to get my eyes checked. When I changed my last name to my married name on my drivers license, I almost didn't pass the eye exam. It actually is quite a funny story but I am not going to go into that right now. 

Anyway, during yesterday's rain storms, I had a hard time seeing and so I decided it was time. So my mom came out this evening and went with me to Walmart so she could watch Ayla. I got an eye exam and I now have contacts and I ordered a pair of glasses. I had a hard time picking them out because I only had my mom there and of course your mom thinks you are cute in anything. Although she was honest about what frames she didn't like. 

I found a pair and I couldn't decide and then one of our friends from our ward, Scott Moses, walked into Walmart and I asked him for his opinion. He told me he thought they looked fine. I thought that too. I just needed a second opinion and not my mother's. No offense mom. I love you!

And here they are.

I didn't have my camera with me at that moment. So I took this with my phone. That is why the picture is so small.

I have to wait a week before I actually get them and then I will take a better picture.

What do you think?

Happy Birthday Suz!

Today is my sister-in-law, Suzanne's birthday. I just wanted her to know how much I love her and appreciate her. Below are the 5 top reasons why I love her.

This was taken at our wedding 3 and a half years ago. I think Suz looks really pretty in it.

#5- I love the conversations we have. We can talk for hours. She is a really good listener.

#4-I love that she likes to hang out with me. We both like movies and she always invites me and my family over for a movie. Also, Suz and I went to Twilight together.

#3-I love how much she loves her little girl. She always expressing to me on how much she loves Brooke. Brooke, your mom really loves you! I am sure you hear that a lot but it will never grow old.

#2-I love that she would do anything for her family. She loves to do things for her littler brother (my husband, Kurt). She is the one that always does our laundry because we don't have a washer and dryer. So we drop off our laundry, she washes it, folds it and then calls us to come and pick it up. Sometime she even drops it off. She loves to serve her family.

The #1 reason why I love Suz, is that she just plan loves me and Kurt. She loves and just adores Ayla. She always lights up when she sees her. She loves being an aunt.

Happy Birthday Suz!

I love you! I hope you have a good day!

Our St. Patricks day!

I know that St. Patrick's day was a week ago but I am always a week behind in my posts. So today you get our St. Patrick's day post.

Here is Ayla and me in our green getup. 

I thought it was the perfect day for Ayla to wear her Kermit shirt (I made for her, for her birthday) again that day.

We started our day meeting some of my family for breakfast at Denney's.

 

Ayla with my mom.

I know this picture is like the one above it but I wanted to show both because my mom is looking at the camera in this one.

Aunt Marion was there.

Here is a picture of everyone minus me. I'm the one taking the picture, in case you didn't know.

Going around the table starting with Carolyn (she is holding Ayla) my sister-in-law, my brother, Robert, my sister, Marion, my grandma, Marion (that is who my sister was named after), my grandpa Paul, and my mom. 

They are not my real grandparents because my mother's parents died when she was 4 years old. It is truly a sad story. Maybe I will post about it someday. They're family though, they're my mom's aunt and uncle and they have always acted as my grandparents.  My mom lived with them a little bit while she was a teenager and Marion is the closest thing to a mother my mom has ever known. That is why my sister was named after her.

Close up of Ayla with Carolyn.

I love this picture because grandma Marion is talking to Ayla.

Our waiter was pretty awesome.

We had a great time spending the morning with my family. I am glad we went. We almost didn't go because I couldn't get to sleep until 1 am the night before and Ayla had me up at 4 am. And she kept me up until 9 am. We had a short nap and then met the family at 11 am. I was exhausted. So after Denney's, Ayla and I headed home for a nap.

In the evening, we went to Young Women's, like we do on Tuesdays. We had a lot of fun.

We watched a movie and ate green popcorn. 

So we had some green food too. I loved how on other blogs I read about everyone's green food. I am totally going to do green food for Ayla and her siblings on St. Patrick's day. What a fun new tradition that will be.

Ayla sat on my lap for about a half an hour.

And then she wanted down.

And of course she was on the go.

Needless to say, we didn't see all the movie but we saw most of it. We kept going in and out of the room. We still had a great time though.

I love holidays! Even if it is a simple wear green so you don't get pinched and eat green food holiday.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ayla Dancing!

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to show how Ayla has been, what I call, "Struttin' her stuff."

She has been dancing as she is walking and it looks like she is struttin' her stuff. Now she will dance to her musical toy tree. She always goes and turns it on and dances to it. It is so cute. Below is a clip of her doing it. Notice how she will go back and turn the music back on once it stops. I love this little video but I wish I could have filmed it from our video camera but I didn't have time. She started to do it right after I got her out of her high-chair and so she was in just her diaper. So I hurried and put her onesie on her and grab our regular camera. You can see in the video that her onesie isn't even done up. So cute!

I hope you enjoy!

Happy Birthday Ann!

Today is my really good friend, Ann's birthday. I met her at the airport when I worked there. We have been good friends ever since. She is one of my closest friends I received from working at the airport. I have known her now for 10 years and we only worked the first 2 years of that together before she left to be a mommy. That means we have kept close over the last 8 years without working together. I have to say, I was blessed working there to receive such a friend. I want to list the top 5 reasons why I love her.

Here we are on Twilight night, when the movie first opened. We are touching a replica of Dr. Cullen's car. We had so much fun that night.

5# I love how talented she is. She has talent in decorating. You should see her beautiful home. Especially during a holiday. She always has decorations up for every holiday. It makes you feel so welcome in her home. She is very organized and shares that talent with others by teaching others to be organized.

#4- I love that she is not afraid to have slumber parties still with the gals. I have gone to 2 parties that she has thrown and spent the night over at her house. I love how she gets into the parties she throws too. The picture above was from one of those parties. It was a Twilight sleep over party and it was so fun. I posted about it. Check it out. Twilight party.

#3- I love that she is full of love for others. She loves to lift other people's burdens. She loves to do service for others and leave them happier than when she found them.

#2- I love that she has always been such an example to me. For example, she is a wonderful mother to her children. Her and her husband have been examples to me of how a marriage should be—happy. She has always been a great example of how we should share our testimonies of the gospel. She helped me so much by doing this while I was an inactive member of the church.

The #1 reason I love her is that she is truly my other big sister. She has always loved me no matter what stupid thing I was doing in my life at the time. She has always been there to listen to me and give me counsel. I can't even tell you how much she has helped me with Ayla.

Happy Birthday Ann!

I hope you have a wonderful day because you are so wonderful. I am so happy in my life right now and I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you! I love you!

Flash Back Friday! #6

My friend, Emily commented that she wanted to see a picture of me pregnant. So that is what this Flash Back Friday is about. 

I wish I would have kept track of what month it was when we took these pictures but we didn't. However, the pictures are in order from early pregnancy to the end of my pregnancy.

Early weeks of pregnancy.

I think I was around 2 months here. 

I don't look so big in this picture but look at the one below this one.

This was from my view. 

I thought I was bigger than what the picture above this picture shows me to be.

I loved eating pickles and so my Mother-in-law bought me this huge jar of pickles. I was so thankful for her for doing that for me because it was about the only thing I could hold down. Notice the bands around my wrists? They are the bands that are called "Sea Bands" they are for motion sickness. They put pressure on a certain pressure point on your wrists and it cuts off the signal to your brain that you are nauseated. They actually helped me quite a bit. I wore these babies for about 7 months of it. That was when the nausea started to wear off more. But I had nausea off and on through the whole pregnancy. I had to take the drug Zofran to help me out.

I loved my baby bump.

I think this sweater covers it up a little too much. Maybe I shouldn't have chosen this picture but oh well.

Getting bigger. I think this was October but not sure.

Even bigger.

I was 7 months in this picture. It was in December. 

I know that because we bought this ball for our niece, Morganne for Christmas that year. I thought it was awesome that I was as round as the ball.

Pretty much the same size, maybe bigger.

I was 8 months here because this is what I wore to my shower. The shirt says "Mother Nature 2007." I loved wearing things that showed off my belly. My sister bought me this one. Super cute.

Getting closer. Not sure how pregnant I am in this one. 

And bigger.

I loved this sweater, it showed my belly off really well. 

And this one did too. I loved how it split right above my belly.

I loved my round belly.

I think this was two weeks before. Not sure.

And here is the last one. 

I know this was really close. I think it was the week before.

Well there you have it. I had Kurt take quite a few pictures of me being pregnant because I felt beautiful. I think pregnant women are one of the most beautiful things on Earth. I discovered this when I was a teenager. My mother showed me a picture of her pregnant with me and she looked like she was glowing. I thought she looked so beautiful and from that point on, I started to notice how beautiful pregnant women are.

Here is the picture.

I decided to put it on the blog too, to add to the Flash Back Friday. This was taken in 1979. Doesn't my mom look beautiful? She hates this picture but I love it. My Dad looks awesome in it too. I love my parents.

What Ayla got for her birthday!

As I promised, here is the post on what Ayla got for her birthday. She got quite a bit and was very loved by everyone at her party.

This is what her Aunt Suz and her family gave Ayla.

It was perfect because Ayla loves dogs and now she has her very own 1st birthday dog with a little note from everyone who came to her party. Thanks Suz, Chris and Brooke. That was such a thoughtful present.

Next, these are the cute clothes she got.

Grandma and Grandpa Perry bought her the 2 outfits on the far left. Jolene got her the yellow set in the middle. Amy and John got her the cute flower dress. And Cori got her the other cute pink dress. Love the clothes everyone, thanks.

Here is Ayla modeling her clothes.

Melissa got Ayla a Baby Einstein book with a CD and a Baby Einstein DVD which is about Noah's ark animals. Perfect, Melissa. Noah is her best friend's name.

Amy and John also gave her this cute teddy bear that has a blanket rolled up in it's arms. I love that the blanket has a place to be put and a cute place at that. Thanks Amy and John.

Grandma and Grandpa Perry got Ayla this nice Mega Bloks set. She loves it and I love it. She can even take a bath with these puppies.

Grandma and Grandpa Perry also got her these Alphabet wooden blocks. Ayla and Kurt love these. Kurt loves to build towers with the blocks and Ayla loves to knock them down. In the picture, Ayla is trying to build a tower of her own. Smart girl! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

This is what Mommy and Daddy got her. This is what was in the green wrapping paper on the last post. I got her this steering wheel because whenever I took her somewhere where they had a toy steering wheel, Ayla always wanted to play with it. The only problem is when you honk the horn, it honks but then it says "OUT OF THE WAY!" I not so sure I like that because I hate horns for that exact reason. People use them to tell you that you are doing something stupid. Anyway, Ayla loves it and I guess I do too.

Aunty Marion and her boyfriend, Monty got her this Elmo Up Up. It is really cute. Elmo will ask you to pick him up and then he will sing a cute song. He says a lot of things but I think what I love about it the most is that he laughs and that makes Ayla laugh. Thanks Marion and Monty.

Uncle Robert and Aunt Carolyne and Lane got her this frog puppet.

Of course it makes her laugh. Thanks you guys!

And last but not least, my parents got her this trike.

Doesn't she look so cute on it? We are trying to work with her with it. That is why it looks like she is riding it herself. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Wiechert!

Also Leah, notice the shirt she is wearing? It is the onesie that you guys gave her that says, Tennessee. Yes, she still fits in it. I think it is a 6 month. She is a small gal.

We have a lot of fun playing with her toys with her. I built this T-Rex out of her Mega Bloks. Can you tell it is a T-Rex?

Oh no! Here comes Ayla! AHHH!

Dead dinosaur!

Notice Kurt is playing with her with her Alpha blocks?

One more thanks to everyone for being so giving and loving our sweet little girl!

Also below, I wanted to share some funny things that Ayla has been doing lately.

I always find thing inside her boppy ball machine. It is usually these farm animals. I guess she wants to see other things besides balls come boppy out.

She did this last night. 

She stood inside her train for a while. She cracks me up.

I love this one. LOL!!

She has been smashing her face against the pack and play. We keep her toys in there, so there isn't a huge mess around the living room all the time. She loves to look inside at her toys. I actually started to cover it because Kurt requested I should because he felt bad that she could see her toys but not get to them. What a great Dad!

Another thing she has been doing is what I call strutting her stuff. She will walk and try to dance at the same time. I couldn't get a picture of it but maybe later or, even better, a clip of it.