Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Can't wait 'til May!!!

I just can't wait until May. You want to know why?

I will tell you why!

First my sister, Marion will be graduating from nursing school!!!

She has always wanted to be a Nurse, ever since we were kids. This will be a huge accomplishment for her. It has taken her a long time to get this because she has had to go through a lot. She started nursing school up in Washington State. She finished 2 years and then she went through a divorce. She moved back to Utah to be with family, so she quit. She lived here for 2 years before being able to get back in the nursing program. This is something that most people don't do, usually if you quit nursing school you won't finish. Now she has finished her last 2 years of school. Having to retake some classes over because they didn't transfer. She has had to work full time to pay her bills and has gone to school full time. Needless to say, she hasn't had much time to herself and you wouldn't believe how much nursing school expects you to do in such a short amount of time. I just can't wait until the stress of nursing school is lifted from her. She won't be so stressed and she will have time to herself.

Then I am going to ask her, "Marion you just graduated nursing school, what are you going to do next?"

Then she will say, "I'm going to Disneyland!"

And I am going with her!
Yes, you heard that right! I am going to Disneyland! We are only going for one whole day but it will be fun. We are going to fly in on a Monday, spend the night, go to Disneyland all day Tuesday, go most of the day Wednesday, then fly home that night.

My sister has never been there so I'm going to use some of our skymiles to pay for the way down there. Our dad is going to be joining us. I couldn't leave him behind. You see the picture above? My dad is the man in the center. That was taken over 2 years ago. It was his, my uncle, Ernie's, my mother's and my nephew, Lane's first time going there. Ever since we went, my dad has wanted to go back so bad and I'm not sure when I will be going there again. I don't want to take Ayla until she is old enough to remember because it costs so much. And when I do, it will probably just be Kurt, Ayla and I and hopefully another child. So that won't be for at least another 3 years. So my dad is coming with us. It will be a short trip but a lot of fun. Besides I can't handle being away from Kurt and Ayla that long.


Next it will be Mother's day and my mother's birthday. I love my mother!
This picture was taken at her party last year. I usually make these T-shirts for her. She loves them.


Then my best friend, Leah and her husband Evan will be celebrating their 3rd anniversary. I am so glad they found each other and that is something to celebrate. They came here last year to celebrate. They live in Tennessee. The picture above was at the Conference Center during their visit. I was so proud of Evan. It was his first time flying. Happy Anniversary! (Even though I am a little early saying this.) I love you guys!!


Then my friend Tierra from Tennessee will be visiting Utah for her first time. Can't wait to see you!
Yes, that is Leah's and Evan's little boy she is holding. This was taken when Ayla and I went to visit them back in November of 2008. It has been a while. We need to go back!

And last but not least, Kurt and I can start to try to have another baby. We have to wait until May for insurance purposes. Way excited though! Like I said, can't wait until May!!

Other things that have made me happy or just have made me laugh,

Kurt bought me a new laptop. Ours crashed about a month ago and now I can blog again. Plus the laptop was not expensive. It only cost $350 which is a great deal. He bought it at Best Buy. It is not a brand name but it is good enough to do what I want, which is blog. That is why he got it for me. My husband is truly the best husband!! I love you honey!


Ayla has made me giggle at the stuff she does!! She did this all on her own.


The other day she made me put this sweater on her and then she put on her poka-dot bloomers. It was quit the outfit! LOL!! I guess she wanted to try out some of the new clothes Grandma Perry got her.


This is a cake I made the other day. It was for the Relief Society's birthday. At least that is what I thought it was for. We had an enrichment on Saturday over at the church and they asked people to sign up to bring cakes. I though it was for the Relief Society's birthday because March is when the Relief Society birthday is. Well, I am always late to Relief Society because I get Ayla settled into nursery and I always miss the announcements. So I went on Saturday, thinking it was a birthday party thing and I went in jeans. Well, when I got there I found out it was a production of the 10 virgins and it was in the chapel and you were supposed to wear your Sunday best. I just had to laugh!! At least the cake turned out right! I also enjoyed the production and had fun!


One more thing that makes me happy is, tax returns. We will be able to pay off our doctor bills with it. You know all the wellness checks your kid goes to. I had a cyst in my hand and now Kurt's back has been giving him issues. He has been going to a chiropractor. Let's just say we don't have the best insurance but at least we have it. Plus now we have to pay for a new computer. Yes, you heard me, a new computer. Kurt's crashed the other day and he uses it to work from home sometimes. First the laptop and then the computer. Oh well, we have been blessed!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ayla's and Kurt's Party!

Two weeks ago from today, we had Ayla's and Kurt's birthday party. Kurt's birthday is the day after Ayla's so we celebrated them together.

Grandma Perry brought this awesome Mylar balloon.
I don't really like latex balloons right now with Ayla. She tries to bite them and I am scared it is going to pop in her mouth and choke her. So we do Mylar balloons in our house right now.


Here is Kurt's cake that I made him.
I finally got to use the cute cake stand my friend Ann gave me for my birthday.


Here is Ayla's cake.
She is into Snow White right now and I tried to recreate a cake I had when I was little. It had the mining cave and the seven dwarfs. I couldn't get all the seven dwarfs so I just used Grumpy and Dopey. I think it turned out cute. It doesn't look exactly like the cake I had when I was little but pretty close. I wish I had a picture of that cake to compare them. I loved that cake so much that I picked it out twice when I was little.


Here is Ayla with her cake.
I put her in the PJ's Marion got her so she could see her in them. They are so cute on her!


We had both sides of the family there. It filled up the living room.


Here is my dad!

We ate hot dogs and had cake and ice cream.

Ayla with her cake!


Kurt with his!


Here is Ayla blowing out her candles half way through the birthday song! LOL!!
We had to relight them before the song was over. I guess after teaching her to blow her candles out on her birthday, she knew exactly what to do with those candles or she is just a smart girl and was getting 2 birthday wishes in.


She tried to eat the cake right after before we could cut it.


Another view.

We also did gifts.

Here is Brooke giving Ayla their family gift to her.


They gave her a couple of outfits and this cute set of baby stuff. I love this gift because it totally goes with the main gift Kurt and I gave her which was the doll high-chair and bed.


Here she is opening the rest of the dollar gifts Kurt and I got her.
We all had a fun time watching her open her gifts and her reaction to them.


This one was fun to watch her open. It was so big! This one is from Grandma and Grandpa Perry.

What was it, you ask?

It was a roller coaster.
You can see the poster Krista and I made for the Blue and Gold dinner in the background. Yeah, I used it for their party too. It was a bit big and it covered the whole wall but that was what I loved about it.


Here is Ayla riding her roller coaster!


Baby Kurt had a try.
Morganne tried it too but I only got video of her riding it.


The best thing about the roller coaster is Ayla knows how to reload it without any help. Great toy!


The last present she opened was this car. She got this from Grandma and Grandpa Wiechert.
I love how Morganne got into this picture. She is so cute! I love that my parents got this for Ayla because she has been wanting one. She saw one once and I couldn't get her out of it. I took some video of her and she always wants to watch that video. She likes to see herself in the little car. Now she has her own. I would say Ayla made off like a bandit. I can't believe all that she got. It was like Christmas. I guess people just love Ayla and that is what I loved most about the party was the love everyone showed to her.

Kurt didn't open much because he had already got a big present which was a big HDTV. I will have to show that baby some time. His sister did get him a Blu-ray Dvd. It was one of his favorites, The Truman Show.

Below are some pictures of Ayla enjoying her new birthday toys.

Like I said, I love the set of baby stuff she got. It goes with her doll high-chair and bed we gave her.


Here she is sitting on her doll bed feeding her baby.


And here is Elmo as a passenger in her new car.


She didn't want Elmo to miss out on the fun of the roller coaster. She is too cute!

I am glad she had such a wonderful birthday! Thanks to everyone who made it so special!! I love you!!!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Ayla's Birthday!

This post is long over due. Ayla's birthday was 2 weeks ago. We were supposed to have a party that night for her and Kurt but we had lots of reasons to postpone it. I am glad we did. I think things turned out better that way because I was able to focus on her on her birthday instead of the party. I tired to make it a special day. First I took her to see some of her favorite people. We started the morning off with going to IHOP with my sister, Marion and my mother.

Marion brought one of the gifts that she got her so she could open it.


Ayla loves to open gifts.
Marion wrapped her gift in 3 different presents to open.


It was this adorable monkey PJ set.

I had a picture of me and my mom at IHOP too but somehow I lost the photo and I have deleted if off my camera. I'm not too happy about that but I will get over it.

We had a great time at IHOP. After that, I took Ayla to go see her cousin, Morganne. She so loves Morganne and she wants to be her. I didn't get any pictures of them that day. I wished I would have because I would have put it right

HERE.

I then took her home for a nap and when she woke up, daddy got home from work. We had her favorite dinner, Salisbury steak and potatoes.

We then let her open 3 of the gifts we bought her at the dollar store. We know she loves opening gifts and so we bought 10 gifts for her so she could have a lot of fun ripping them open at her party.


I made cupcakes so we could sing to her on her birthday and we taught her to blow out her candles. It took a while but she did it. I caught it all on video.


She so enjoyed the cupcake.


Yummy!


In heaven!

Also during the day I tried to take Ayla to Hollywood Connection because they have a carousel and Ayla loves the one at the zoo. I wanted to take her on it a few times for her birthday but when we got there, they were closed. I found out that they didn't open until 4 p.m. during the winter. Which makes sense because they're teenagers that run the rides and they are in school during the day.

So I decided to take her on that following Monday evening because they have special on Monday's. It is $6.95 for an all day wrist band when it is normally $19.95. Quite the deal, huh? So if you live in Utah and you want to do something inexpensive and fun with the kids on a Monday evening. I suggest Hollywood Connection.

Here is Ayla on the carousel.
She has real bunny ears instead of two fingers!


I took her on the Balloon ride for her first time and she loved it!


She even got to ride her first roller coaster.
Notice how she is crying in the picture? She is crying because she can't see Morganne, who is sitting behind her. Yes, the cousins joined us. And Ayla had to see Morganne and be by her or she would get upset because she loves Morganne. She did enjoy the roller coaster once it started though. She loved it! She is a rider like her mother!


Here they all are on the Crazy Bus. I loved how Brooke was making it fun for all of them.
The Crazy Bus is a ride that is a bus and it goes around like a ferris wheel and it changes directions. It is pretty fun! It turned out to be Ayla's favorite ride there. We rode it a lot.


Here is one of Kurt and Ayla on the bus. I love Kurt's expression!


And Ayla and Kurt on the carousel.

We had a lot of fun there. I want to go back. I love that you can ride all the rides with your kids. It makes it safer. I hope Hollywood Connection sticks around for a long time because I used to go to a little inside amusement park called the 49th Street Galleria. Then they changed the name to The Fun Dome. And now it doesn't exist anymore. They went out of business. It always makes me sad when I see the empty building that once was the 49th Street Galleria. It is a unique building too. Maybe I will have to do a post on it someday, like a Flash Back Friday. We'll see.

Anyway, down below are two video's of Ayla.

The first one is of her blowing her candles out and the second one is of her on the Balloon ride for her first time.

Enjoy!



Monday, March 8, 2010

The Blue and Gold dinner!

I have been so busy. Want to know what has kept me so busy? Even if you don't want to know, I am going to tell you.

I am in Cub Scouts and the Saturday before this past Saturday, we had our Blue and Gold dinner. It took a lot of preparation. I was in charge of organizing and getting all the food. We were preparing for 300 people. So I had to do the shopping and separate the food. My friend Karla helped me with this one. She went shopping with me and separated some of the ingredients. We had Hobo Stew. It was yummy. I didn't take a picture of it but I do have the recipe. But I am not going to put the recipe on this post., Maybe later. It was an easy and yummy recipe. Well not only was I in charge of the food but I made 2 cakes to auction and 2 batches of the stew.

I also made 2 banners:

This one says, "Happy Birthday!"

We were celebrating 100 years of scouting. I actually kept this banner and used it for Ayla's and Kurt's party. Plus my wonderful sister-in-law, Krista helped me paint this one. So I thought it was appropriate to hang it at Ayla's and Kurt's party.


Here is the other banner. It says, "100 Years of Scouting!"


I also had to go and exchange the decorations because they were not the right colors. By the time I got there to help set up. Everything was set up except for the balloons and crepe paper that I had to exchange. I think it turned out darling!


Here are some of the boys getting ready for Flag Ceremony.

Not all of them were there yet. Some came late but these boys did a great job!

I didn't get pictures of how many people showed up because I was busy helping with serving the food. But we had a good turn out I think.

I also didn't get pictures of the cakes I made because they are ones I have made in the past and showed before. Plus they were pretty boring compared to what these boy's cakes turned out to be. I was so impressed.

Here are some of them:

I thought this monkey cake was so cute. I don't think you can tell from the picture but it's ears were made from 2 little chocolate doughnuts on both sides.


They got pretty creative. This one is a foos ball table and the foos players are gummy bears.


I was amazed at this dragon cake!
I loved the flames coming out of the mouth. This kid has talent!


Another boy made a bed.


I loved this one. It was a Sea Serpent.


This one was so cute!

I am pretty sure they used a mold for this one.


These are the cupcakes I bought.

The cupcakes weren't selling like the cakes so I thought I would buy them. They were yummy.


This was our auctioneer and his wife and baby. I loved how they dressed up to go with the theme, Hobo Stew. He reminded me of Joe Dirt. They were hilarious and did a great job!

All in all, the night was a lot of work, but fun. I was so tired after it was over. I am so glad that we had postponed Ayla's and Kurt's party until the following week. I will blog about that later.