Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Watch Ayla Grow! #4

Every 4 months, I do a Watch Ayla Grow post and it is that time again. She just turned 16 months last week on the 25th. Where did the last month go? I can't believe it is July already tomorrow. 

Are you ready to watch Ayla grow?

Here goes:

Ayla at 12 months.
Just being silly. She cracks me up! LOL!!
Look at how tiny her feet were.


Ayla at 13 months.
She is looking up at me because this is when she started to try and get the camera when I would take a picture. It is such a challenge to get pictures now because I always have to run ahead of her and by the time I turn around, this is what I get. I still think she is so cute though.


Ayla at 14 months.
I could get this picture because she was in her car seat. She can't come after me! Ha Ha!!


Ayla at 15 months.
This was when we went to Marion's boyfriend, Monty's father's, wedding. She had a lot of fun running, so I was able to get a lot of cute pictures of her.


Here she is at 16 months. This was taken today.
I don't think she was too happy in it. And notice that she is close to the camera? Ya, she was trying to get it again. LOL!!


She now weighs 20 lbs. and is 31 inches long. So, she has grown a 1/2 of an inch and gained 2 pounds. She is growing. She also looks like she is losing her baby fat. She is thinning in the face. She doesn't look like a baby anymore. She is defiantly a toddler now. 
 
Her hair is getting really curly too! I love it!!


In this last month she learned how to say, "Hi" and now she waves and says, "Hi" to everyone. Yesterday, she was waving and saying, "Hi" to everyone in Subway. It was so cute. 

She got another tooth and now she has 12 total. She's getting really good at eating. At least the food she likes. She is getting better at liking other foods. I just have to keep trying and it seems to be working. She is now eating canned pears. So there is progress. Yay!!

She has started to let me know when she is thirsty or hungry. She will go to the fridge or the cupboard. I love that she is finding ways to communicate. She is so smart.

She is still doing all the things that she was doing last month but she is getting really good at them. She now says, "Wee" every time she sees a swing. She will even walk up and push the swing, while saying, "Wee." She is so cute! 

She has been able to go down kid slides a lot this past month because she has been going to the park a lot and going over to Grandma's and Grandpa's houses and both sets of grandparents have slides and swings. She has had a lot of fun and has been a lot of fun this past month.

Slow down Ayla! You are growing too fast but I am loving every minute of it!

I love you!!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

A lot to blog about!

We had a very busy week, last week. 

It all started on Tuesday. My mom and I decided to invite my friend, Melissa (who does hair) over to my sister, Marion's house to cut our hair. We played beauty salon. Thanks Melissa!

Here are some before pictures:

Front


Back


I dyed my mom's hair before Melissa came over.


Don't you think her hair matches the Eiffel Tower in the background! LOL!!


Ayla watching TV.
Marion kept Ayla entertained while we dyed my mom's hair.


Then Melissa came and cut my hair.


Then she walked me through cutting my mom's hair. 
This was my second time cutting my mom's hair. I did a lot better this time, Melissa only had to blend it for me and that was because I didn't have the time. Next time I will blend it and then I will be able to cut my mom's hair without help. Ya!


I didn't get "after" pictures until the next day at our family dinner. 

And here they are:

Front


Back
My hair has hardly any blond left in it. This is my natural color. I decided to go natural because it saves money. I like it but I do prefer to be blond. Oh well!

We celebrated Father's Day that night at the family dinner. Mom made a delicious roast dinner.

My dad is so cute. He got on the floor so that Ayla would not be on the floor eating alone.


I made a simple cake for the occasion.


Here is Dad with his cake.

After dinner, we went to a viewing. We had a family friend pass away. We all called her "Mom Barker."  I didn't even know the first name of her and her husband until this past week. I have always known them as Mom and Dad Barker. 


My mom has know Mom and Dad Barker since she was 13 years old. My mom's older sister, Kathy married one of the Barkers. So the Barkers are pretty much our family too. 

I wanted to get a picture of my mom and her sister, Kathy at the funeral the next day.
Yes, I went to the funeral on Thursday.

It was a sad but peaceful funeral. Mom Barker had a hard time this past year and now she is reunited with Dad Barker.

On Saturday, we went to breakfast at IHOP with my dad to celebrate Father's Day and then afterwards we went to visit uncle Charlie's grave to put a flower on it. 

Here is his grave.
You can't tell in the picture but his headstone has trains on it. He worked for the railroad and had retired about 3 years before he passed. 

We had all gone to the viewing on Wednesday at the cemetery where Charlie was buried so we went to visit his grave. The reason we went again was because we wanted to go back with some flowers. I could tell it was hard on my dad, which breaks my heart. He was really close to Charlie. At Charlie's funeral my dad broke down in tears and it killed me because I had never seen my dad that sad.


And of course Ayla found some balloons at a grave and wanted to play with them.
Notice the stuffed animal cat she is holding? Well, while we were at IHOP earlier, I showed Ayla this cat which was a bad idea. She got excited and didn't want to put it back. I was going to put it back once she got bored of it but then she goobered on it, so I had to buy it. I have learned my lesson about those stuffed animals in the front of IHOP; They know what they are doing. It is a SCAM, I tell you! A SCAM!


Well, maybe it wasn't a bad idea after all. 
Ayla has been carrying that cat all over. She loves it!


Here is a picture of Ayla on Sunday, after church. 
She is wearing an adorable hand-me-down dress and shoes. Do you recognize it Katie and Ann? Katie gave it to Ann and then Ann gave it to us. Thank you Katie and Ann, I love that dress!

After church we went and spent some time with Kurt's parents. Ayla got to swing on their swing set there and got to play on a kid slide. I didn't get picture because I was just lazy. It was adorable though. We plan on going over there this next Sunday, so maybe then I will get some pictures.

It was such a busy week and, on top of it, I have been getting things ready for girl's camp for the Young Women. That has been a lot of work but I love the girls; They are worth it.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Tour de Cure!

I have mentioned in posts before, that my husband, Kurt films things for his work. Well, on Saturday he got up around 5:00 a.m. to go to Brigham City to film the Tour de Cure. His work has a team that rides in it. Kurt rode last year. This year he didn't ride because his work asked him to film it.

After he came home he loaded it onto the computer and starting editing it so he could have it ready by Monday. We were up until 2:00 a.m. so we were pretty tried for church the next day.

After church, I stayed and talked to Michelle about Young Women's camp and stuff and, when I went to go find Kurt and Ayla, this is what I found:


Them tuckered out! LOL!!
Side note: they didn't fall asleep in church. They fell asleep after church, well at least Kurt fell asleep after church was over.



So sweet!


Here is the Tour de Cure video he did. The music on it was composed by one of his friends / coworkers, Luke. I think it turned out excellent!

Note: Notice on the first clip of the cyclist riding by, they say "UUUURT" it is because they were saying "KUUUURT" I think it is funny! Enjoy!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

I can drink milk again!

Warning this post is about breastfeeding!

So if you don't want to read, I suggest skipping this post.

Well where do I begin? I guess I could start by saying Ayla is finally weaned. I am relieved in some ways but really sad in others. Breastfeeding has been a major challenge for me. I have had trial after trial. 

It all started in the hospital right after I had Ayla. The staff all left and I had no idea how to get a baby latched. I knew that within the first hour of being born the baby needs to start latching. I am grateful that my sister was there. She works in the baby unit at the U hospital. She doesn't know a whole lot about the breastfeeding thing but she new enough to help us get Ayla latched. It was tough the whole time we where at the hospital. Kurt and I would be up all night trying to get Ayla latched. It was a nightmare and anytime anyone came to help, they did it for me instead of explaining it. I cried a lot and had to stand up to some of the nurses who where trying to give Ayla a bottle. By the last day, the last lactation nurse came in and I thought, "Oh just someone else who is just going to do it for me!" I was pretty annoyed by that time. But that time was different. She really explained things to me and had me do it myself. I really learned from her. After that, I really didn't have a hard time getting her latched. I was so grateful for her. I even remember her name; it was Jeanie.

After, we went home from the hospital and my milk came in. It burned. It felt like my breasts where on fire and it killed to breastfeed. I saw 2 different doctors about it and they said I looked okay but that they would treat me for a yeast infection. So I was treated for that but nothing happened. It turned out that I have discomfort when the milk comes in and when it lets down. I'll tell you it hurt and I mean bad. It felt like little pieces of glass shooting through my breast. Why didn't I quit, you ask? I was asked that a lot. I didn't because I wanted to do it for Ayla and I had worked too hard up until that point to just quit. I am too stubborn when I put a lot of work into something. Anyway, it took some time, about 6 months, before I got used to the burning and even then it still hurt. 

Three months into it, I found out that Ayla had a milk allergy. I had found blood in her stool and found out it was from me drinking milk. So I had to give up dairy, which I never thought I would do for anything. I love dairy, especially milk. I can drink 3 gallons a week by myself and I am not exaggerating. So I have almost gone a whole year without dairy. I tried to introduce it back into my diet when Ayla turned one but she still had the allergy.

I went through many times where my milk supply would get low and I thought I would dry up. It's amazing that it didn't. 

When Ayla started to get teeth, she bit me a few times but she stopped. 

There was one point when Ayla did get thrush in her month, so there was yeast at one point  but it cleared up. 

I feel like I went through so much with breastfeeding and I thought I would be so happy when it was over. I have been looking forward to it for a long time. It was one of the hardest things I have had to do but I would do it again. It was so worth it for Ayla to get the nourishment she needed. She is so healthy and hasn't gotten sick much. 

I was so worried about weaning her because it was so hard to get her drinking some kind of other milk. She finally liked Soy Silk Vanilla. I was just going to wean her right after her first birthday but then I read a really good article on weaning naturally. So that is what I did. I slowly took the breast away a little at a time and Ayla did fine. She finally was okay not having the breast last Tuesday. So she has been weaned for a week now. I thought it would have taken her longer to wean, like a year or so, but it didn't.

I thought I would start drinking milk right away because I looked so forward to it. I had a hard time bringing myself to doing it because I was so sad that, if I drank the milk, it would be final and I felt guilty that my daughter might not ever be able to drink it. That breaks my heart. She might not ever be able to have ice cream, cheese, yogurt, pizza or anything else with dairy in it. I really hope she grows out of it. I finally started drinking milk on Sunday. It was nice but not as glorious as I thought it would be because I was sad. I didn't know how hard weaning would be for me. I only thought it would be hard for Ayla. I was wrong. I am not depressed about it. I am starting to get used to it. I'm just sad that I just shut a door in a stage of Ayla's life and Ayla is growing up.

I want to thank 6 very important people who helped me get through this challenging task. First, my husband, Kurt for all his support. My little girl, Ayla for seeing the benefits from breastfeeding. My close friend, Ann for always helping me every time I called her with a problem with breastfeeding and I called her a lot. My sister, Marion. I called her all the time too. And last but not least, my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I could not of done it with out them. I could not have done it without any of these people.  Thank you all so very much and I love you!

For some people, breastfeeding comes naturally but for me it didn't. I shed many tears over it.  I hear it is different with every kid. We will see when we have another. I think after Ayla, I can try to work through anything with breastfeeding. 




Monday, June 8, 2009

My friend is doing a giveaway!

One of my blog friends is doing a giveaway. You can check it out by going to my sidebar and clicking on the Sunflower picture. Good Luck!

Cake = Swing!

As you can see from the last 2 previous posts, Ayla really likes swings. So I have been wanting to get one for her to put on the swing set at Grandma and Grandpa Wiechert's. And then when we get a house and a swing set, we can put it on that one.  By then Ayla might be too big but her younger sibling will be able to use it. At least she will get to use it at Grandma's and Grandpa's every week when we go to do our laundry. 

Anyway, I was thinking about how I wanted to pay for it. I didn't want to go and splurge. I had been doing that too often lately. I was thinking it would be nice to get paid for making a cake. Well on Friday, my sister called me and asked me a favor. It was to decorate a cake. A wedding cake might I add. The great thing was that the bride had already baked the cake and made the frosting. I just had to decorate it. So I got to do the fun part.  The sad thing was the bride was so stressed because the person who was making her cake had told her the cake she baked had crumbled and she didn't have time to make her a new cake. So Melissa (the Bride) naturally felt hopeless so she baked it herself along with one of her friends.  She just needed someone to frost it and decorate it. So she called her husband to be, crying and her husband to be, called his son,  Monty (who happens to be my sister's boyfriend) and Monty told him that I was a cake decorator. So Melissa called Marion and Marion called me and the rest is history. 

Marion came over that evening with my mother to help with the cake. 

Marion had put one of the pieces of cardboard we had cut off for the cake board around Ayla's waist as a tutu. It was so cute. It was such a tiny hole and Ayla's little waist fit into it. LOL!!


Ayla and I got to go to the wedding the next day on Saturday. Here is Marion with Ayla. The 2 men in cowboy hats are Monty and his dad Greg (the groom).  It was a beautiful old home where they had the ceremony.


This is where the bride walked down the isle. Isn't it beautiful?


Behind me and Ayla is where the ceremony took place.


The groom.


The bride.


The ceremony.


These two beautiful little girls are Monty's nieces, JD and Alissa. 
They both loved holding Ayla


Here is a close up of Marion. Zac, Monty's nephew put this huge rose in her hair. We thought it looked pretty funny! It is almost the size of her head! LOL!!


She then gave it to Ayla.



Ayla carried that rose the rest of the time we were at the old house until we got in the car to go to the Golden Coral luncheon where I was to set up the cake.


I thought it was so cute that Alissa just kept picking Ayla up and carrying her all over.


Her she is again. Ayla almost was in the family photo! LOL!!


Here is Monty and his dad. Monty is in the black.


And here is the cake. 
I think it turned out beautiful. I love to do butter cream cakes more than fondant. They are just easier to work with. This frosting was a chocolate butter cream and the best thing was that I didn't have to make it, thanks to the poor bride that did.


Here is a picture after they cut it.
I took this picture to show the detail on each layer that I did.

That evening, after the wedding, Ayla and I headed out to my parents to get my dad and go and get Ayla a swing. 


Here is my dad pushing Ayla on the swing.


She loves it!


I wished that all the pictures weren't blurry but you can kind of tell how much she loves it.

I feel that we were blessed because I wanted a way to pay for her swing without splurging and the opportunity came quicker than expected and just how I wanted it to be!! Heavenly Father wants us all to be happy even if it is something as simple as me watching my daughter enjoy swinging in her swing!

I love you Heavenly Father!!!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Monday, Tuesday!

On Monday evening, my sister and I had a girls night. We went and ate at Subway and then went to a play. The theater was in Magna

The theater was across from the pharmacy /diner /store our family used to eat at when we were younger. A man named Tom Dyke was the pharmacist that owned the place. We ate breakfast there a lot and got our prescriptions there a lot. 

When I was in high school, Tom had retired and a man named Henry owned the place. We would still go there and eat. The pharmacy part of it was closed. I have a lot of memories of running through the store, buying candy, looking at movies I wanted and looking at merchandise that was from the 50's. They had a lot of old things they sold. It was a cute mom and pop place. 

Here is Marion in front of our old hang out.


And of course we didn't have anyone to take a picture of us!


This is the sad thing— 
this is what it looked like inside. I had eaten here about 10 years ago and now look at it. It made us sad to see our childhood memories disappear.


Look at the once beautiful ceiling, now collapsed. I don't know what happened there.

The irony of it is that this is what the theater used to look like when we were young. We only got to go inside the theater once when some people were thinking of refurbishing it. 


And here is the theater after someone did refurbished it.


We were excited to go in to see what they did to the place. 


And of course, our picture of us!


We got a picture with our friend, Keri after the show. 
She was one of the leads in the play. That is why we went to see the show, to see her.
The Play was called See how they Run. They did a great job. It was pretty funny. 

It was a wonderful night and later that night, I went to the airport to pick up my in-laws. They were just getting back from a trip to Nauvoo.


This is what my mother-in-law brought back for me. 
She had spotted it and thought it had my name all over it. She had to buy it. 
I love our nation's flag and with me doing cakes an apron is perfect. She really loves me and knows me. She also gave me a pink T-shirt. She is so sweet.


She brought back a bonnet for Ayla. Cute, huh?
I wanted to buy a bonnet for Ayla when we went to This is the Place but they didn't have any kid ones. I am glad I didn't buy one now. I love it.

On Tuesday, My mother-in-law took Kurt and I and his sisters and some of her grand kids out to lunch at Sizzler. 


I can't believe how big Baby Kurt has gotten. 
We haven't seen him since Mother's Day. It's is amazing how fast a kid can grow in a month and a half.


Our little pioneers!
Grandma Perry bought bonnets for all her grand-daughters. 
She requested that they wear them for the occasion. Sad to say but our little niece, Brooke was not there to be in the bonnet picture.


Just chilling!
I love this picture of Baby Kurt. I think he looks like Grandpa Perry in it!


Isn't Morganne so cute?
We found out that Morganne is not only allergic to peanut butter but she is also allergic to dogs and wheat. Yes, I said wheat. Wheat is in almost everything. Notice that she has all fruit on her plate? Poor girl. She was so sad she couldn't have the bread. We feel for you Morganne. We love you!!


Ayla wanted the bread too but she was denied too because of the cheese. I hope she will be able to have dairy sometime in her life. 

We had a great lunch and it was nice to have Kurt and Suzanne join us on their lunch breaks. Thanks again to my sweet mother-in-law, Carolanne for lunch and the cute gifts!