A Christmas catch up post!

Warning, long post but lots of pictures!

Let me just start off with a little story; here goes. On Saturday, I wanted to get a picture of Ayla and my nephew, Lane, on Santa's lap just like last year. Well, we went to the Valley Fair Mall and I couldn't believe their set up. It was Grizzly Hockey. Santa was sitting in an Ice Rink in front of a goaly and had a Grizzly Bear, in a Grizzly Jersey, holding a hockey stick. I hated it. It looked so commercialized. I am sorry, Grizzly Hockey is not Christmas. No offense to any Grizzly fans. I just didn't like that it wasn't a Christmas set up. 

So we decided to go to Fashion Place mall. I loved the set up there. The only problem was we got there just as they cut off the line to see Santa. They told us he will be back at 3:30 p.m. It was 1:30 p.m. So we decided to bag it and go on Monday to see him then. Plus we where having our ward Christmas party that night, so my parents and my nephew decided to join us. We thought maybe we'd get our picture then.

Here is Kurt, Ayla and I at the party.

My mom.

Notice Kurt in the background with a mop? Ya, Ayla dumped a whole glass of water.

My nephew, Lane and my dad.

For the entertainment they had each auxiliary sing a Christmas song. Here is Kurt with the Young Men and Young Women.  He is in Young Men's. I was so proud of him for getting up there.

Well back to the Santa story: Notice in the picture that Lane is the only one on his lap? What happened was: There was a sister directing, who sat on Santa's lap. Ayla was excited in the line to see Santa. She even pointed at him. Right when it was our turn, Ayla started to walk towards Santa and the sister stopped us and said it wasn't our turn. She then let a girl who was two families behind us go. I guess she didn't know we were next. Anyway Ayla wouldn't go near him after that. Strike number 3. I was like, "Are you kidding me!" Lane still looks cute on his lap.

This was the closest I could get her to him.

On Monday, we went back to Fashion Place Mall and saw Santa.

She wasn't having it then either. 

At least I got her to sit on his lap for 2 seconds to get a picture.

Close up. Look at her sad face. :(

He was an awesome looking Santa.

He was very nice and talked to me about the "Stranger, Danger, Thing." He said the best way to get a kid warmed up to Santa is to bring them to the mall a few times to meet him and then get your picture. I thought that was a good tip.

That night, we had our traditional, look at the Christmas lights, with the nieces and nephew night. You can see last year here.

We had sugar cookies and hot chocolate.

Here is my niece, Brooke.

This is Marion's boyfriend, Monty's nieces, Alissa and J.D. Such cute girls!

 

And of course my nephew, Lane.

My friend Melissa joined us.

Melissa took this picture of Marion getting Ayla ready to go out that night. I stole this picture from her Facebook pictures. We were going to Temple Square to look at the lights. So we needed to dress her warm.

Marion got her dressed half way and then she decided to sweep the floor.

Here she is in all her snow gear. 

I scored the snow pants from the D.I. for $3. Her moon boots were more. I bought those new. They were hard to find so I ended up paying $34. I guess the D.I. helped us out again by balancing the money. Thanks D.I.!

Cute girl!!

This was Ayla's first time facing forward in the car. We turned her around so she could see the lights. She quite enjoyed it. She wasn't happy when I had to put her back to facing rear. They say that you shouldn't face your kid forward until they are 30 pounds but that is being really protective. And I am very protective. She only weighs 23 pounds. They said I could probably put her forward regularly but I think I will at least wait until she is 2 and weighs at least 25 pounds.

I love the Christus!

Like I said, we went to Temple Square. My niece, Brooke took this picture. I thought it turned out beautiful.

I guess the snow gear paid off. Ayla feel asleep.

Part of the gang, with the temple in the back ground.

Cute picture of the kiddos! 

Notice how Brooke poses in each picture. She is so funny and cute. I love her!

Melissa's boyfriend, Aaron joined up with us at the Temple. I love this picture of them. Feel free to steal it Melissa.

Most of the gang in front of the temple.

Kiddos once more.

We had a good time.

There you have it. I am caught up. If you lasted through this post. Thanks for sticking with me! 

Merry Christmas to all of you!!!!!

Our Christmas Decor!

If you are someone who reads my blog all the time, you know that every year and every holiday I get one new decoration. It usually comes from the dollar store. It is good to be frugal. 

Anyways, I decided this Christmas to do a craft. I wanted to do a big sign that reads, "The Stockings Were Hung..." with nails in it to hold our stocking. I had seen these signs before and I love them. I wanted to do this because we no longer have our mantel to hang our stockings from. I started to look around and estimate prices to make the sign. The vinyl alone was $20, so all in all the sign would cost a good $30. We don't have that kind of money right now. As I was pulling out our Christmas decor, I realized we needed a shelf for some of the stuff. Then I decided to buy a shelf and get a frame and make a sign. So I went to the D.I. I love the D.I.

Got this cute shelf for $3.

And this frame for a $1.

Then  I painted them white with some paint I already had.

 I need to paint the dresser I got Ayla from the D.I. but that is another project for a later post.

I then took twine and tied a bow around the berry wreath I got for a dollar at the dollar store and then I glued it to the frame. I put some red scrapbook paper inside the frame.

I then went to a scrapbook store and bought the letters for $6. I was quite happy with it. It cost a total of $11 thanks to the D.I. and having things laying around the house. I think I actually prefer the shelf and sign to the sign I was going to make. I love how everything looks on the shelf with the sign hanging above and the stockings hanging from the shelf. I love it! I am very proud of myself.

Now I will share some of our other decor.

This is the kitchen window. 

I love the windows in this house, they are good to put decorations on. One of my favorite things to use to decorate for Christmas is red bows. I love them!

 

Our tree is red and silver with red bows all over it. 

It matches all the garland on top of all the windows. Notice that our tree is behind the gate? Ya, I had the tree outside the gate and, after taking an hour to put it up,  Ayla tore it down and it fell on the floor. It was a mess. I thought of taking a picture of the mess but I was too flustered and I didn't want Ayla to play with the pile of mess. It didn't even look like a Christmas tree. I had to glue a couple of ornaments that broke. It is quite funny to think about it now. I am grateful for gates. We have not had any tree fatalities since. 

This is what I like to do with our Christmas cards we have received over the years. I save all of them and decorate with them. I love them! I like to read them as I put them out. I like to think of the people who love us to send them to us.  Do you like how I made my dad stand in the picture? He looks like an angel with his glowing shirt. He is such a sport. He will usually do anything I ask him to. He was over for lunch this day. He stops by at least twice a week for lunch. I love my dad. We are very close.

This is what is on top of our computer. I love silver decor.

Notice the little egg? It is a little Nativity. I love Nativities!

And of course our Little People Nativity is out again this year. Ayla loves this Nativity. This one will stay out for a while after the New Year. I have a hard time putting it away because Ayla and I love it. Grandma and Grandpa Perry gave it to us last year.

Well there you have it. I hope you enjoyed our Christmas decor. 

I can't believe Brooke is 9!

Just like the title of this post, I can't believe our niece, Brooke is 9! I met Kurt's family when she had just turned 4. It was on Christmas Eve when I met the family. Brooke was such a small little girl. She was so sweet that night. She cuddled with me. Now is she 9 years old. Where has the time gone?

She had asked for a Mickey and Minnie cake and so that is what I made her.

Here is the Birthday Girl.

We had it at Kurt's parent's this last Sunday. We had dinner and then we had cake.

Here is Brooke with her cake.

Ayla had a lot of fun rocking on the rocking dog.

Notice the sweater she is wearing? Everyone loved this sweater. She looked so cute in it. Guess, what? It was another hand-me-down from Katie to Ann to me. Thanks again Katie and Ann. I love hand-me-downs.

And of course she couldn't get enough of the bouncing horse.

 She is getting good at it. She can now climb up on it by herself. She road it earlier this year, you can see it here. 

I also took a picture of my honey at the party. 

We all had a great time. I love spending time with family.

Ayla turned 21 months!

This post is long over due. Ayla turned 21 months a week and a half ago. I have a lot of catching up to do with blogging. Oh well, here goes Ayla's 21 month post:

I took some pictures of Ayla 4 days after she turned 21 months on her slide. Kurt brought the slide in from outside. Like I have said before, Kurt is a fun dad. Anyway, I got some cute pictures of her on the slide and I couldn't choose which one to share. So I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. These are her 21 month old pictures.

My sweet little cutie is now 22 pounds and 33 inches tall. She has gained a pound and grown an inch taller. She is just growing up too fast. 

I want to share some of the things she started doing in her 20th month.

She has this book called "Good Night Gorilla." All through the book the characters are saying good night. It is really a cute book and Ayla loves it.

Well, what she started to do was flip through the book and points to the quotes and says, "Night, Night." It is so cute. She is so smart.

She likes to help us out with the dishes. She likes to even dry them.

Then she hands them to us. She loves to help in any way she can. She is quite the little helper.

Other things she has done in her 20th month:

She started to go to Nursery at church all on her own. She doesn't even cry. I just had to get her used to the leaders. She does great. She also tries to clean the whole time she is in Nursery. Like I said, she is quite the little helper.

She is really picking up on talking. My favorite things she has learned to say is her Aunt Marions name. She says, "May, may." So cute and my sister loves it.

She will scream, "Grandpa" when ever the door bell rings. My dad comes over for lunch a lot on his lunch breaks. So now when anyone comes to our door, Ayla thinks it is Grandpa.

One of the sweetest things she did last month was, I was on the floor in pain from a cramp in my leg and arm. Ayla could tell that I was in pain and so she came up, stood beside me, started

 rubbing my back and then kept asking, "You alright?" It was so cute, it almost took the pain away. I had to take Alieve for that. Now every time I'm in pain, she asks me if I'm alright.

She is at such a fun age right now. I'm lovin' every minute!