Field of Heather

My sister, Marion's engagement pictures, I took!

2012-01-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

This is another then post.

Last year around this time, I was announcing my sister, Marion's engagement! In July, we went to a guy named, Gary's property in Grantsville to take Marion's and Monty's engagement pictures. Gary is a friend to my Dad's best friend, Gary. Got it? Two different Garys. This guy's property is amazing, he has a barn, horses, horse property fenced in, ponds that he dug out himself, a house and a guest house all on his property. People have held their weddings there, it is so pretty. Anyway, it was so nice of him to let us come and take pictures on his property.

We first started in the barn.

The horse was trying to eat Marion's hair! LOL!

Gary even let us get into his antique canoe!
These pictures were hilarious to take! We were all laughing because I had to sit in the canoe too with my camera and we had the hardest time keeping the canoe from capsizing. I didn't want my camera to fall with me into the pond. We pulled it off though.

Then we took pictures on the outside of the barn.

Having too much fun!

They climbed out on a tree that was over one of the ponds. Notice the canoe behind them? That was the canoe we were in.

I took picture of them on one of the fences to one of the horse properties.

Then we went on the steps that went to the house and guest house.

And of course we had to take pictures with the canopy that was over the other pond.

And one in front of the shed that looked like a small barn.

Then we stopped at the Great Salt Lake on the way back home.

It was the prefect time of day. The lighting was perfect!

We got just what we wanted!

And here is the invitation I created with Photoshop! I am pretty proud of it!

We had a blast taking the pictures! Good times!

And I have to say that my camera rocks because all it is a Cannon Powershot! It is not a professional camera but it took really good pictures. At Marion's wedding we put their engagement pictures on all the tables and her photographers were amazed at the pictures I took with my small simple camera.

Lagoon this last July!

2012-01-25T12:10:00.001-08:00

Here is another then post!

We went to our local theme park, Lagoon this past July with my side of the family. We do this every year as a family.

Ayla was quite the little dare devil. She went on a lot of big rides.

In this picture you can see that her hair is wet. That is because she rode the "Rattle Snake Rapids."

Here she is getting ready to ride "BomBora." The new roller coaster they had that year.
You can see my Dad and my nephew, Lane sitting behind Ayla and Marion.

Lane and Dad!

Ayla and Marion!

They were on the ride "OdySea." I love this ride! It is exactly like "Dumbo" at "Disneyland" except you get wet!

Ayla with Grandma and Grandpa on the "Tilt-A-Whirl!"

Marion rode "The Bat" with Lane because he asked her to. He was panicking a little before they took off. You can see in the picture he has his hand on his heart. Marion couldn't help but laugh. Land is so cute!

I got this picture of them as the came around the corner! Lane really had a good time!

Marion and Dad on the "Rocket", my favorite ride at "Lagoon."

Ayla of course rode a lot of the kiddy rides too.

She is so cute!

The biggest ride she rode was the "Tidal Wave!" She was so excited to ride that ride. She wanted to ride it last year but was too little, she cried. This is a picture of them all waiting in line.

Ayla and Marion giving a thumbs up before the ride! I love Ayla's thumb, too cute!

Can you find Ayla? It is kind of hard because the picture is so small.

Here she is!
Marion said she laughed the whole time! I know it had to have been her favorite ride.

She rode "Puff," the kiddy roller coaster!

Here we are on the train!

Yes, I took the picture.

Such a cutie!

Here I am with Ayla!
The train was the only ride I rode because I had just found out a couple of weeks before we went that I was pregnant. I can't believe it now, I only have 5 to 6 weeks left and our new little girl will be here! We are so excited!

Marion and Ayla on the "Dinosaur Drop."

Ayla giggled the whole time!

I think after going on so many big rides the kiddy rides didn't seem as appealing.

She love the "Jumping Dragon!" She rode it twice. This time was with Grandpa!

And of course she had to ride the boats!

She had to drive her own car!

By the time she rode the "Helicopters," she was getting tired.

This was her final ride. I know that when she starts to suck on those 2 fingers, she is done!

We had such a great time at Lagoon! It was so much fun to live through Ayla! I wish I could have gone on some rides with her but I am glad to be having another baby. I look forward to this summer and ridding rides with Ayla!

Our Christmas 2011!

2012-01-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to post this post all week. I loaded the pictures like 4 days ago.

Here is how our Christmas was.

On Christmas Eve, my side of the family came over to celebrate Christmas. My mom and my sister, Marion came over real early so we could get all the food prepared.

Ayla had a good time playing with the potatoes, Grandma was peeling. She was having them talk to each other. It is the simple things in life that make us happy! :)

My uncle, Ruel and his wife Denise came.

I was so grateful to have gotten a table cloth finally for our fold up table. You can see the goodies I made on the table in this picture.

My sister, Marion and her husband had an "Ugly Sweater Party," later that night. This was my sister's sweater. I sewed on her Christmas stocking and some ornaments on her sweater vest. We cracked up as I was doing it.

Marion ended up borrowing Ayla's aunt Marion doll, so she could have a twin in her stocking! LOL!

My cousin, Harriett came with her family. Her daughter, Samantha is the one with her head turned.

But I got a cute picture with her!

We all ate the yummy food!

Here is the food!

We had another turkey dinner.

My Daddy!
I love my Dad! His birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday Dad!

Such a great picture of Marion and Harriett!

One of me and my handsome hubby!
Kurt is raising his lemonade for toast, I guess.

After we ate, we exchanged gifts.

Ayla was so excited to get her "Barbie" luggage. Marion and Monty got her it so she could pack it whenever she goes over to their house. It is an overnight bag.

They also got her these cupcake pj's, so she could pack them in the luggage. Ayla loves cupcakes!

Everyone was gone around 4 PM.
Kurt, Ayla and I went and took a 2 hour nap. We then got up ate some leftovers and then had our own little Christmas as a family. We opened all our gifts from each other.

Ayla with her toy cupcakes we got her!

We got her "Hungry, Hungry Hippos!"

Kurt got me some cute clothes and he wrapped some in this cute box! This box is from his childhood. He drew on it when he was a kid. I love it!

After we opened presents Kurt and I played some "Band Hero." It was so much fun! We hadn't played the Playstation together in a long time.

Ayla was so cute that night! It was so fun to see her excitement! She was so excited for Santa to come! It was the first time I had ever seen her get so excited to go to bed. She even went and put on her new pj's she got from Marion and Monty.

I took a picture of her in her pj's holding her cupcakes, standing next to her cupcake bedding. Like I said, she loves cupcakes right now. I know it is because I have been making them a lot lately and she loves "My Little Pony." On that show there is a pony named, "Pinkie Pie," who is always throwing parties for everyone and she always has cupcakes. For Ayla's birthday this year I am having it "My Little Pony" themed and on the invitations it says, "Pinkie Pie is throwing Ayla a birthday party!" It has been fun planning it! I will blog it next month.

That night Santa came!
Notice the teddy bear under the tree? That is what she had been asking for. Ya, and she got a bike!

Here is Ayla on her bike outside for the first time!
This was the best picture I got of her. I filmed her most of the time.

That afternoon we went and spent Christmas with Kurt's side of the family.

Little Kurt and Morganne got this awesome teeter tater from Santa. Ayla loved riding it with Little Kurt.

We then ate dinner together.

My hubby told the Christmas Story to the kids with the "Little People" Nativity. It was so cute! He had done it the night before for Ayla too.

Then we opened gifts.

Here is Kurt holding Ayla's "Hello Kitty" she got. I so love her "Hello Kitty!"

Ayla got this beautiful dress that night!

One of the best things I got for Christmas was this letter from my Mom! I asked her for it and on Christmas Eve when they came over she brought it with her. I love it! It is all about my birth and how much she loves me. The envelope says, "To my favorite Little One Heather. Always remember how much I love you. Love mom." My Mom has always called, my brother her favorite son and my sister, her favorite middle child and me her favorite little one. I will cherish this letter forever!

Below are some videos of Christmas morning.

This first one is how Ayla had to wait to see what Santa brought and her reaction to her teddy bear.

This one is so cute! She got a "My Little Pony," toy and one of the toys is a little dragon named, Spike. Ayla had been wanting Spike for a long time!

Here is one of her riding her bike in the house for the first time. This one is a little long but if you watch the first part of her ridding down the hall you will see how much she loves her bike.

We had a wonderful Christmas! It was my favorite so far with Ayla and my little family!

Our Christmas Decorations and Goodies I made this Christmas Season!

2012-01-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

I wanted to document our Christmas decorations and some goodies I made this Christmas season.

I am first going to start with our decorations.

Starting with the kitchen.

The picture that is framed on the table, is the picture of Ayla with Santa from the Festival of Trees this year.

I love to use old Christmas card to decorate.

Our kitchen has these frames and so I used the old cards in each of them.

I loved my Christmas plates hanging on the wall.

I won those plates, the JOY tiles and a little silver Christmas tree from my friend, Ann's blog 2 Christmas's ago.

This is what our cupboards looked like.

And this is what our fridge looked like. It still looks like this! I love all the Christmas picture cards we got this year!

Now I will move onto our living room.

This was our railing.

I did the card wreath on our front door this year.

This was our front window.

The cards in this picture our the ones we got this year! I love getting Christmas cards in the mail! It is like getting a little present every day!

My favorite decorations were the ones on the mantel and the tree itself! On the left end of the mantel is the little silver tree I won from Ann's blog.

I took this picture on Christmas Eve when we had my side of the family Christmas party. Everyone brought their presents and added them to ours under the tree. I loved seeing all the gifts poring out of the tree, so much love.

And this is what it looked like at night with the lights on. I loved it!
This was taken Christmas night after all the parties were over.

I am so in love with my fireplace and mantel. It is so fun to decorate. When I took Christmas all down our house looked like we were moving again. I need to start hanging pictures and decorating our home. I did put some Valentines decorations out though and I love them! I will blog those later.

Well that is the end of our decorations.

Now I want to share the goodies I made this Christmas season.

First thing I made were some cupcakes for my sister, Marion's coworker's fund raiser.

I topped the cupcakes with these yummy Andes peppermints.

I made chocolate cupcakes. I found these adorable boxes at Walmart, to put them in.

I did 24 cupcakes which filled 4 boxes. I was very proud how they turned out!

I ended up making more cupcakes for my Christmas Eve party. I also made some more sugar cookies. Notice the green frosting on the cookies? I was able to dye the frosting this time.

And last but not least...

I made these yummy Oreo Pops! I got the recipe from my friend, Amanda.

You have to try these! They are easy and taste like Oreo cake.

Here is how you make them...

You will need...

1-bag of regular Oreos (not the double stuff)

1-8 oz. block of cream cheese

Candy melts or white chocolate to melt.

24 sticks

Let the cream cheese become soft.

Take the Oreos (you use the whole cookie) and and blend them in the blender.

Mix the cream cheese and the blended Oreos together with your hands. Then roll the mix into little balls. Put the sticks in them and then chill them for 3 hours or more.

Melt the candy melts or the white chocolate and then take the chilled Oreo pops and dip them into the candy melts or white chocolate. Stick them back into the fridge to harden.

They are super yummy!

Zoolights 2011!

2012-01-06T18:58:00.000-08:00

One of our Christmas traditions is to have nieces and nephews over to have sugar cookies and hot chocolate and then go to look at lights. Last year we went to the Zoolights. We really like it so that is our new place to go and see lights.

The Saturday before we went to the Zoolights, Ayla and I got some new boots for Christmas!

Her are Ayla's!
I hope you can see them because they are so darling! The night we went to the Zoolights is the night Ayla got to try out her boots for the first time.

The Morning of the Zoolights, I baked 62 sugar cookies. It is a family recipe. I grew up on these cookies. It is a pretty simple recipe.

1 Cup of Shortneing

1 Cup of Sugar

3 eggs

3 1/2 Cups of Flour

2 TSP. Baking Powder

1 1/2 TSP. Vanilla

Cream shortening and sugar, add the eggs and vanilla. Blend in shifted dry ingredient. Chill dough for 3 hours or overnight. Roll out on counter with flour and cut into shapes. Bake at 400', 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 24 or more cookies.

This time we had pizza before the cookies!

Lane came!

Brooke came!

Suzanne came too, she is standing behind Ayla in this picture but you can't see her.

Now you can see her!

See the cookie in front of Ayla? Ya, the frosting is still white. I had a very busy day that day and I didn't have time to dye the frosting. I always dye it green because that was always the color my mom dyed the frosting that she made for our cookies growing up. We may not of had green cookies that night but I dyed the rest of the frosting, so the rest of the cookies were green.

And of course, Ayla only ate the frosting!

Here is Lane with his hot chocolate!

Ayla had Chocolate milk instead of hot chocolate. Ayla doesn't like hot chocolate. Ayla doesn't like a lot of things.

Here is the Christmas shirt I bought Ayla. It says, "Mommy's lil' Present."

After all the fun at our house, we went to the Zoolights!

This was when we first got there.
They had some ice sculptures when you first walked in.

We went into the gift shop and Ayla sat down and started to pet the mechanical weasel. I ended up buying her one because every time we go to the zoo in the gift shop, she runs right to the weasels. She actually gave this one a kiss when she had to put it back. It was too cute but a little gross!

Suzanne bought Lane this alligator because Ayla and Brooke both got something from the gift shop and Suz didn't want Lane to feel left out. I thought that was sweet of her!

We then went to see some of Santa's reindeer. Comet and Vixen were the 2 deer that were there.

Then we went all over the zoo.

The cool thing about the Zoolights is you get to go inside a lot and look at animals.

In the monkey exhibit they had a craft for the kids to do. It was a scratch paper ornament. This was Lane's, he did an elephant.

Ayla insisted on sitting on the metal elephant. She does it every time we go to the zoo.

Here is one of Ayla and me.

Lane was so funny with that alligator that night. Here he is posing it for the picture! LOL! He cracks me up!

Ayla and me in front of the gingerbread house.

One of Suzanne and Brooke!

Suzanne was so nice to carry every thing that night. I couldn't have done it without her.

We then rode the carousel. Ayla decided to sit on the bench next to Lane halfway through the ride. I guess the bar you hold onto was too cold for her hands.

Here is Lane air guitaring it to the music! I love him!

Here we are at the tiger's cage. I am not quite sure if you can even see the tigers in the picture. You can see Lane blowing up his alligator though! LOL!

And last but not least, Ayla really wanted a picture with the dragon. She loves dragons because of "How to Train Your Dragon."

We had such a great time at the Zoolights!

I think I only have 2 more Christmas posts and then I will be caught up with the Christmas stuff. Then I can move onto what we did during the summer. By the end of this month I should be caught up on my blog!!

Took Ayla and Lane to the mall to see Santa!

2012-01-03T11:01:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of posts to catch up on. My goal is to get most of them done in January because I know that a lot is going to be going on in February. One thing, the baby will probably be born at the end of the month. I don't know if I said anything but we are having another girl!

Anyway, on the second Thursday in December my sister, Marion and I took Ayla and Lane to the Valley Fair Mall to see Santa.

We started the night off at Red Robin. I love Red Robin!

Then we went in the mall and went to see Santa right off. We had a lot of fun trying to get a picture. We were laughing so hard because it is so hard to get a picture of Lane looking at the camera. The kid just has so much energy and Ayla looked like she was not in the mood. Even the photographers were laughing. It was a good time! We got 2 pictures, one we were all cracking up at. I only bought the one but the photographer insisted on giving me the second one that made us all laugh.

This was the best one we got. Lane looks so good in it! Ayla looks so bored!

And this is the one we were all cracking up at. Lane looks like he is being a Super Hero, Ayla looks so annoyed and Santa's face is priceless! It kind of reminds me of an awkward family photo!

After, Santa we all rode the train.

The kids got the awesome glasses from Santa!

The kids were in a goofy mood! It was so much fun! Lots of laughs!

Ayla and Lane on the train!

Here's one of me with Ayla!

Marion rode in a car all by herself. :(

Here we are outside and it was safe for the kids to stick their heads out, so Marion took a picture.

After the train, we had to get a picture of the kids in front of the big tree. Just like last year.

After the tree, we went to the yogurt place that is right in front of the tree. I don't remember the name of the place. I wish I did. I would recommend it. I really liked that place because you filled up your cup as much as you liked. You only had to pay for what you took because they charge you on how much your weighs. It was totally cheap because Ayla and I shared and we didn't eat that much.

Marion and Ayla!

And last but not least, one of Lane!

We had such a great time that night! I love all the traditions we have during the month of December to celebrate Christmas!

Festival of Trees 2011.

2011-12-30T16:05:00.002-08:00

This post is mainly pictures. I love the Festival of Trees and I take a million pictures while I am there. I then have a hard time picking out which ones to share.

First off, before I get to the Festival of trees, for the first time I got some Christmas clothing for Ayla this year. I usually only do this for Halloween but I couldn't resist some of the cute Christmas stuff.

Here is the first thing I bought. This cute snowflake outfit! I will show her 2 Christmas shirts that me and my sister, Marion got her in later posts. I just wanted to show this one because Ayla wore the shirt to Festival of Trees.

Before we went to the Festival of Trees we ate at Arctic Circle.

Here is Ayla eating some of my Egg Nog shake.

She had a lot of fun playing on the playground while we were there.

Fun!!

Now for the Festival of Trees.

The first tree we ever saw was, Marion's friend, Brynn's tree. Brynn died earlier this year while riding her bike. She was hit by a car. She was a nurse in the same unite as my sister at the U of U hospital. I loved how they had quotes on the presents that Brynn lived by. I couldn't believe when I went to her funeral, how much this girl did in her short life. The cool thing was we had just gotten to the Festival of Trees and were heading to the restrooms when Marion suddenly stop and said, "Brynn has a tree!" We were not expecting it but it caught Marion's eye right off. She didn't even know Brynn had a tree.

I love red, sliver and white trees! Our tree is red and sliver. It has red bows all over it.

Here are some of the red, sliver and white trees I liked.

I thought this snowman one was adorable!

I loved this one!

I really liked the top of this one!

Now for the other trees I liked.

This tree belonged to the two younger sisters of a girl that my friend, Amanda watches.

This tree was just so beautiful! I really loved the tree skirt!

This one reminded me and my sister, Marion of her wedding we did in August (something I still have to post.) It had some of the exact material we used for her wedding.

I really liked how they hung the ornaments off the frame.

Marion and Ayla as we were walking around.

I thought this one was different. It was the "Eiffel Tower" made into a tree.

I like this one because it had all 4 seasons on it.

I loved the "Up" tree! I loved how Kevin was sticking out of it! So cute! It even had the mailbox off to the side.

This one was a "Tangled" tree.

The painting was my favorite thing about that tree!

They had "A Christmas Story" tree! Hilarious!

Now for the trees I thought were the most amazing.

This one was my favorite!

I thought the bed was unbelievable! Someone had to have made it by hand. Not to mention it was a Mickey and Minnie tree! I so love Disney!

I loved how this one had a tower of presents leaning into the tree!

This one was just huge! The dog house was giant! This one actually had a ski lift with it. I liked this one because I love "The Peanuts!"

I couldn't believe this one had a piano with it!

This one was just gorgeous! It had a beautiful chandelier hanging from the arch but you can't see it because of the flash of the camera is reflecting off of it.

I loved this white set up! It was beautiful! It reminded me of my friend, Ann. She loves things white.

Now for some of the smaller trees.

An "Oreo" tree!

I love Oreo's! They are my favorite! I have a friend who used to pay me with Oreo's to watch her little girl because she couldn't afford much at the time.

This "Rudolph" tree was adorable!

A "Nightmare Before Christmas" tree!

I love "The Nightmare Before Christmas!"

This one was interesting. It was upside down!

That's all the trees I am going to share.

Now onto the gingerbread houses. I love to see the gingerbread houses because it is a little like decorating cakes and I am a cake decorator.

Here is a "Nightmare Before Christmas" gingerbread house.

They had a "Tangled" one.

This one was amazing! It was our capital building.

This "Madagascar" one was well done! It was so cute!

I loved "The Peanuts" one!

This cabin one was well done.

This one made me laugh!

And last but not least, the "Up" house! Too cute!

While we were there Ayla got to see Santa.

Here is the picture I took.

Here is the pictures we paid for.

I love these two pictures of Ayla with Santa!

The funny thing was, I asked Ayla what she was going to ask Santa for and she said, "A teddy bear." As she said this, she was pointing at this huge teddy bear that had to of cost $300. I was mortified but then she added, "but I want a small one." I was relived!

We had a great time at the Festival of Trees!

We actually went to this at the beginning of the month but as usual I am behind. I do have 2 or more posts on Christmas.

Our Thanksgiving!

2011-12-08T23:30:00.000-08:00

I want to share our Thanksgiving!

First, I am going to share our decor. It is not much but I am starting to get more Thanksgiving decorations. Usually I get one decoration for each holiday but I got a few things this year. They were all on sale and I couldn't resist.

The first thing I bought, is the wreath. It was originally a $40 wreath, I got it for $16. I then bought the garland, which was originally $24, I got it for $8.

Then I got this pumpkin for $6 and it was originally $12.

I got this turkey for free from my sister, Marion for my late birthday present!

She got it for 50% off. I think it was originally $40.

I then hung my little scare crow broom where the witch was for Halloween.

I then purchased this cute "Give Thanks" pillow, from my friend, Leah. I so love it!

I hung our "Harvest" sign where the "Bat Motel" sign was.

I got out our turkey Ty.

Now I am going to share what I made for Thanksgiving!

I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. They turned out awesome! A lot better than the first time I tried to make them. I was so impressed!

Here they are not bake.
I was crossing my fingers that they would turn out.

Then they came out like this!
I was pleased!

Here is the plate of them. They were really good and easy!

Here is the recipe:

1 spice cake mix

1 15 oz can of pumpkin

1 12 oz package of chocolate chips

Preheat oven at 350. Mix all ingredients together. Spoon cookies onto creased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes.

And that is all folks! That easy! You don't even need eggs!

And of course I made Oreo pie!
I make it every year.

And I made the candy yams and corn.

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house. I loved it! My family came and some of Kurt's came. It made it very easy for us. We didn't have to squeeze in two family dinners this year.

The food! Yummy!

My sister-in-law, Carolyn. She is my brother, Robert's wife.

My daddy!

You can see behind him that we set up 2 tables in our kitchen.

At the first table we have:

Lane, my mom, my sister, Marion, my uncle, Ruel and his wife Denise.

At the other table we had my brother, Robert and my uncle, Ernie.

Ayla just kept running all over the place eating from my plate and her aunt, Marion's plate.

We had some people in the living room with trays.
This Aaron and my friend, Melissa.

Here I am with my sister-in-law, Krista. She is Kurt's sister.

Then me with my other mom!
This is Kurt's mom.

One with my daddy!

The desserts! Yummy!

One with my sister, Marion.

Ayla with her Oreo she had been wanting all day! Happy girl!

One with my hubby, Kurt!

We had a great time with our family and friends and after everyone left we read from...

our Thankful Jar.

As we read them I was surprised how much I repeated myself.
Some of the main things I was thankful for were...

Spending time with family

Time spent playing with Ayla.

Getting rest that I needed.

The most crazy one was, I was thankful my sister, Marion wasn't killed on Thanksgiving. While she was on her way to work, she was driving on a on ramp and a car was heading the wrong direction. The car tried to have a head on with her and I mean he ment too. He must have been wanting to commit susicde or something. Marion called the cops. Later, Marion talked to her coworker (who drives the same direction) to see if she saw a car pulled over. She told Marion, "Yes and they had him hand cuffed." We were very lucky that day and we all felt thankful nothing serious happened to Marion or anyone else.

It was a great Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be thankful for!

The second Breaking Dawn party I went to!

2011-12-01T18:03:00.000-08:00

This post is late just like every post I do but oh well!

On November 18th, I went to my friend, Ann's Breaking Dawn party. She has a Twilight party every time the movies come out. They are super fun and I look forward to all of them.

I made a cake for the occasion.
This is the only other cake I have planed to do while I am pregnant. The first cake was my sisters, Marion's wedding cake. I will show that in my other catch up posts from the summer. I had planned to do this cake for 4 years now and I wasn't going to not do it. I tried to make it a little wedding cake in honor of Bella and Edward getting married.

Ann's cousin, Megan brought these awesome Breaking Dawn cupcakes for Ann!

Before the movie some of us girls went to dinner at the Olive Garden.

After the movie we took are picture in front of the cardboard display.

This one has all of us who were there.

Top: Me, Heather, Megan, Ann, Monica and Shauna

Bottom: Marion (my super awesome sister), Brenda, Amber and Melanie.

I had to laugh when I saw this picture for the first time. It totally looks like one of the wolves is going to bite Heather's head off and Shauna looks like she is going to get her shoulder bitten off.

After the movie, we went back to Ann's for cake and some light snacks.

Ann's 2 sisters, every year bring some kind of surprise gift that goes along with the movie. They are hilarious!

This year they brought Bella and Edward as Bride and Groom. They placed them on top of the cake. I thought it was perfect! They crack me up! You can see all the other gifts they have brought over the years in this photo. The first gift is the male barbie doll in the yellow shirt. He actually is one of the New Kids on the Block Barbies named Jordan, they painted him in glitter to look like Edward for the first Twilight movie. The wolf and Edward doll behind the painted barbie doll, is what they brought for the second movie, New Moon. The awesome hand drawn picture on the very back of the table is what they brought for the third movie, Eclipse. It is always so fun to see what they bring the next time.

Here is a close up of Bella and Edward! LOL!

I found out they bought the little Cinderella doll with Prince Charming and put clay over them. They did a fabulous job!

And this is what the room looked liked! I loved how Ann had puff balls hanging from the ceiling!

I had such a great time! I always have such a great time with these awesome ladies!

As for the movie, I really liked it. I liked it so much, me and my sister went and saw it again that following Monday. We both agree that we loved it!!! I thought it was well done! I wouldn't suggest it to anyone, unless they have read the book and know what they are getting into. The book was pretty graphic and so was the movie but I think they did a good job on keeping it rated PG-13. I don't think people under 18 should see it because of this.

I can't wait until the next party!!!

Breaking Dawn Party/Concert With Some Of The Cast!

2011-11-15T15:40:00.000-08:00

Friday night, I had the lucky privilege to attend a Breaking Dawn party/concert and some of the cast was there!

My friend, Tonya called me up last weekend and asked if I wanted to go. She had tickets and her husband's grandmother works at The Rail (where the event was at) and she was able to get us in before the party started.

They had this cardboard set up and posters all over the place.

This is what it looked like inside before the event started.

Here is a picture of the stage.

Me with one of the posters!

We were able to go on a balcony to see the cast as they arrived.

This was the view I had. I loved that they had the red carpet!

I am pretty sure that the people on the front row had been waiting in line for hours. We were there an hour before it started and this is what it looked like.

Me on the balcony!

I was grateful we were able to be on the balcony because we got to see everyone. I might not have bee able to shake hands with the cast or get pictures with them but I did get to say hi to them and get their pictures.

Later, inside during the concert we were talking to a couple of girls who said they were down there and because they were not in the front row, they didn't get to see any of the cast. They also said there was a lot of pushing going on.

Carole Mikita was there! She is the blond reporter in this picture.
She has been a reporter for channel 5 news for years. I like her a lot! I have met her a couple of times and she is really a sweet person.

This is a picture of the bands that were there!

And now I will show the pictures of the cast that I got!

This is Peter Facinelli (Carlisle Cullen) he is in the brown leather jacket and he is standing with Jackson Rathbone (Jasper Cullen) who is in the nice suite.

I am going to list their real names once but in the rest of the post I am going to refer to them as their character's names.

I got a lot of pictures of them signing things for people.

Here is cute little Nikki Reed (Rosalie Cullen) looking up at us. She gave us a wave as well. She is even more beautiful in person!

I loved how Rosalie took off her jacket and totally did the red carpet thing!
In the right hand lower corner you can see Charlie Bowley (Demetri) talking to the press.

Rosalie!

Jasper and Carlisle talking to the press!

Another one of Rosalie!

Now the dark haired, cute girl who is standing next to the blond signing autographs is Ashely Greene (Alice Cullen).

Jasper and Carlisle again!

Demetri!

One of Alice and Jasper!

You could tell there is a closeness between them. It was really sweet!

This was the best picture I got of Carlisle!
He was hard to get a picture of because he would only talk to the press for a couple of minutes and then he would got straight back to the fans. I really thought that was cool! You could see he really cares for his fans!

Here is the best picture I got of Alice!
Jasper is also in the picture!

One of Jasper and Demetri!
This one is my favorite picture of all the pictures I got! They were saying hi to us and Jasper is looking straight at my camera!

Ashley (Alice) was really sweet! She kept hugging everyone!

After the red carpet, we all went in for the concert and after the bands played, they had the cast come on stage and answer questions.

I had the option to have front row because we were already inside before everyone else but I didn't have a good feeling about it. I am pregnant and I didn't want to be pushed into a rail, so we went on the balcony again so we could see them.

They were all really nice and they expressed their love for us, as fans!

Jasper, Carlisle and Demetri did most of the talking.

At one point Jasper started to play the keyboard!

I did go down to the floor to try and get a closer picture. This was the best one I got!

I really had a good time and I should have gotten a picture with my friend, Tonya but I don't know why I didn't. I am grateful she invited me! I was really surprised that the place wasn't packed because I know a lot of people would have loved to have been there. I don't think they advertised it very well! Everyone I have talked to about it didn't have any idea it was going on, not to mention it was FREE! I would love to go to the next one and that time I won't be pregnant and then I can be able to be in the front row.

Thanks Tonya, for taking me!

Our Halloween Part #3 Trick Or Treating!

2011-11-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

After our little Halloween party we had, we went Trick Or Treating around our nieghborhood!

Amanda the Ringmaster, Ella the Tiger, Jared the Fish Tank and Milee the Fish!

Me the Whatever and Melissa as Leena from Futurama!

The kids Trick Or Treating!

Lane as Batman, Brooke as Perry the Platypus, Ayla as Ariel and Ella as a Tiger!

Ayla getting candy!

I tried to get a picture of the kids with the decorations in this yard!

At one point, Ayla and Ella started to hold hands and wouldn't let go!

I had to help them turn around on this porch because they wouldn't let go of each other's hands! It was so cute!

Another cute thing was, Ayla kept introducing Ella to everyone who opened the door at the houses we went to! She would say, "This is Ella!"

Here is one of all the kiddos!

We went around for quite a while. The kids filled up their buckets!

Then we went back to our house and made...

Ding Dong Spiders!
I got the idea from my friend, Monica's blog!

Here is Jared helping Ella with her spider!

Amanda made one too!

Jared and Amanda showing the 3 spiders their family made!

A cute picture of Milee with the caterpillar she got that night from the Fishing game! I guess she really likes this toy!

Melissa made her some Mummy Pizza's since she was late to the party!

(If you want to know how to make these, check the post below.)

Notice, the apples and caramel dip in the picture? Ya, Jared and Amanda brought those and they were super yummy! The apples were fresh from an orchard and they made the caramel dip!

Melissa made a spider too!

After the party was over and everyone went home, Ayla crashed in her Daddy's arms!
She must have been worn out that night because she didn't wake up the next day until 10:30 am. I think that is the longest she has ever slept.

Our Halloween was so much fun! I loved it and I think Ayla loved it too! And that is what it is all about!

Our Halloween Part #2 The Party!

2011-11-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

First off, I want to show Ayla in her Halloween outfit she wore during the day on Halloween!

Here she is!

Little Miss!

That night I had a little Halloween !

Me and my sister, Marion!

Lane and Marion!

Ayla as Ariel with her cousin Brooke as Perry the Platypus!

We started the night making Mummy Pizzas!
I got the idea from my friend, Althea last year at a party I went to.

Jared and Amanda with their girls, Milee and Ella, making their pizzas!

Here are 2 I made!
All you use is a bagel, pizza sauce, string cheese and olives. You bake them at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes. Ours were good after 10 minutes.

Here is what they look like after they are baked!

We had spider juice to drink!
Coolaid and spiders.

After dinner, the kids played some games that I made.

Here are the kiddos waiting to play the games!

The first game they played was...

Pin the nose on the witch!
I made this game last year, you may remember it.

Ella went first!

Then Ayla!

Then Lane!

Then Brooke!

Ella won the game!
She got a gumball machine with gumballs as her prize!

The next game they played was...

the Fishing game!
I just drew some fish and taped them to a sheet and the sheet hung over our railing.

I thought it would be fun for the kids to bate there hook for the game, so I made worms with their names on them. Then I would know who was fishing at the time and give them the right item.

Brooke went first!

I love how Lane was kickin back as he was fishing!

Ayla's turn!

Ayla and Ella got glow sticks for Trick Or Treating that night!

Ella's turn!

Even Milee got to do this game!

She got a little caterpillar!

A cute picture of Milee with her caterpillar!

The last game they played was...

Ski Balling Ghost!
I drew and colored the picture and cut out the holes in the board. I think it turned out really cute!

Here is Lane playing the game!

Ayla went first but we didn't get a picture!:(

Brookes turn!

Ella's turn!

Brooke won the game and won her own gumball machine! She put the gumballs inside the machine!

My friend, Melissa joined us right before we were done playing games and ready to go Trick Or Treating! She was dressed as, Leela from Futurama!

I had to get a picture of Amanda the Ringmaster with Ella her Tiger before we left for Trick Or Treating!

And Jared got suited up as a Fish Tank with his Fish, Milee before we took off Trick Or Treating!

Next post will be Trick Or Treating!

Our Halloween Post #1 Trunk Or Treat and Carving Pumpkins!

2011-11-04T12:30:00.000-07:00

I always love to do a lot for Halloween! I have a total of 3 posts of Halloween, that will post within a week. They are going to be mostly pictures and not much reading because I had too many pictures I wanted to share. I hope you enjoy!

First off on the Friday before Halloween, we thought we were going to a Halloween party at our last ward but it turned out to be a Trunk Or Treat. I was sad because last years ward party was the bomb! Oh well, it was still good to see people and we still had fun.

Lane and Ayla before we left!
Lane as Batman and Ayla as Ariel!

Here I am with the 2 of them!
I called myself, a whatever you wanted me to be, a pregnant witch, Mortisha or anything else anyone could come up with. I did love my long wig!

Then we went to the Trunk Or Treat!

I had to get a picture of my friend's little girl, Madalynn. She is just too cute!

Barny and Betty Rubble were there!

Lane!

One of our friends had a pumpkin on the back of their vehicle! I thought it was very creative!

It was hilarious when Joe acted like he was handing out pumpkin cuts for the treat! Ayla almost put one of her pieces of candy in the bowl! LOL! And of course Ayla and Lane got a real treat from Joe.

Janette and me!
Just dressed up as a couple of witches!

My friend, Christine and her family had this set up in the back of their vehicle! I thought it was awesome!

I had to get a picture of Jared, Amanda and their 2 girls, Ella and Milee! Milee was the fish in the tank. I thought their costumes were so clever! They also thought it was going to be a party not a Trunk Or Treat, so I invited them over to our house on Halloween to join us!

I had to get a picture with my boys! These boys used to be some of my Cub Scouts and I usually take Spencer and Matt to the zoo with me and Ayla a lot during the summer.
Matt is the ninja, Spencer is Harry Potter and Ian was dressed in Star Wars!

On Sunday, my mom, Lane and my sister, Marion came over for dinner and to carve pumpkins!

I made chili and corn bread!

Just barely starting!

Messing around!

Lane was a great help at getting the cuts out!

Marion carving!

Here is how hers turned out!
She had bought and carved this pumpkin for Ayla!

Marion and Lane with the pumpkin!

It took me a while to do mine!

Ayla with her pumpkin Marion gave her!

I tried to do Jack Skeleton!

Here are the pumpkins together!

With the lights off!

The Trunk Or Treat and Carving pumpkins was a lot of fun!

Two more Halloween post to come!

Our Halloween Decor and Things I have made for Halloween!

2011-10-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is a Now post!

Halloween, oh how I love Halloween!

Every year, I usually dress Ayla in Halloween outfits throughout the month but this year I didn't have very many. I did have a pair of PJ's and about one outfit. I do plan on putting Ayla in the outfit during the day on Halloween.

Here is my cute little girl in her Halloween PJ's!

Now onto the other part of this post, our decor and things I have made this month.

First off, I did these very simple cupcakes for my sister, Marion's and my brother, Robert's birthday party we had this month. I am not doing cakes right now except ones that I have had plans to do for over a year. I have found I don't mind making cupcakes, they are easy!

Usually, I only get one decoration for each holiday a year but I couldn't help it this year with Halloween. My ward was having a Super Thursday and they had 2 Halloween crafts that I couldn't resist. If you are wondering what Super Thursday is, it is usually called Super Saturday and us women of the church get together and make crafts for a few hours. It is a lot of fun and we get to know each other better as sisters. My friend, Ann's ward did a Super Service Saturday, where they did service instead of crafts. I thought that was awesome!

Anyway, the first craft I did was...

This cute witches hat!
I can't really say I made this all by myself. I had my friend, Amber Wade come with me to help me with my 2 crafts. She did most of this hat. I added just a few things to it the next day, I used a sharpie and a paper towel to dab on the black around the edges, to give it the dirty look. I added a ribbon around the brim and a bow right above the spider. I also made the star dirty and added a button. The funny thing is, the button wasn't even black, it was a white button. I just used the sharpie on it too. I love this hat! I think it is so cute!

The second craft I chose to do, that Amber helped me with too are...

These super cute bats!
Oh, how I love these bats!! I did add ribbon to them to help them stand out more.

So this is what my mantle looks like right now!
I also bought a black feather boa and the 4 lanterns that are hanging. I hung the lanterns with matching yarn, that matched my Boo sign, that is hanging from the mirror. My friend, Monica made the Boo sign, with her Stampin' Up skills. She gave it too me last year at our blog retreat.

Here is a some more of our Halloween decor.
This is just on a chair I put in our living room. We need some tables or something in the living room but for right now this chair is doing the job! I also bought the plug in Jack O' Lantern, this year. I think I went over my one decoration a year for Halloween! Oh, well I love my new decorations!

Here is the coffee table in the living room.
It pretty much looks like it does every year.

I hung our witch on the lamp this year!

I added some of the yarn that I hung the lanterns with to our Bat Motel sign! I think it looks much better now!

This is a pot of napkins my uncle, Ernie won at Bingo at the senior citizen center he goes to. He gave it to me! Isn't he sweet?! I then just put one of our TY beanies inside it.

For Family Home Evening this last Monday, Kurt, Ayla and I made...

these Styrofoam ghosts!
I learned about these from my friend's, Moncia and Ann's blogs. You draw on a Styrofoam cup and put it in the oven at 350 for about a minute or two and the melt to look like ghosts. Monica and Ann said that kids loved doing this. I learned for myself when I did this with my Achievement Girls, on the first Tuesday of this month. The girls loved it and so did Ayla!

Also during Family Home Evening that night, Kurt, Ayla and I also made...

these ghost lanterns!
All you do is draw on a milk carton and put Christmas lights inside them. I got the idea from Family Fun. I drew the 2 on the left, Ayla did the one that looks like spiders are on it and Kurt did the one on the right end. These were fun and I plan on putting them out on our porch with our Jack O' Lanterns we carve, on Halloween!

Here is a whole view of what our living room looks like right now!

I also went to my last ward's Super Saturday this month and made...

this advent calender!

I did it all with Stampin' Up stuff. It took forever! I actually ended up joining a few women over at one of their houses to finish this thing. It took me a whole 6 hours to do. I now have a real appreciation for Stampin' Up girls! Monica and DeeDee, I am talking about you!

Last but not least, the last thing I have made this month and the thing I am most proud of is, Ayla's Halloween costume.

Ayla has been into The Little Mirmaid lately. I thought what a perfect idea for a costume for Ayla, Ariel. Ayla already had the red hair for it. I didn't do the mermaid outfit, I did the Kiss the Girl dress.

You know, the one she wears on the Tour of the Kingdom?

Well here it is!

I made the skirt, the corset and the bow in her hair. I just bought a white long sleeve shirt for the top.

The thing I am most proud of is the corset!

Such a cute little Ariel!

I took pictures of Ayla spinning around in it!

So cute!

I took picture along the way, while I made the costume. I plan on posting how I made it. I am so proud of myself because I had to make the patterns myself. I youtube how to make skirts and corsets. I love youtube! This was also my first time making a skirt and corset. It makes you feel so excited when you see what you are capable of making!

We there you have it! I should have one or two more Halloween posts, but until then...

Happy Halloween!

A Tour of Our New Home!

2011-10-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

This post is a Then and Now post. It is the tour of our new home!

Since you have seen the front of our house already, I am going to start off with the backyard.

This is what the backyard looks like, coming through the side gate on the side of our house.

The patio!

Kurt likes to have breakfast with Ayla out on the patio but pretty soon it is going to be too cold.

View from the other side of the yard.

The front of the house, that you have seen already.

When you go through the front door...

you come in the living room!
I have a lot of plans for this house but things are just going to have to take some time to do them and I am not evening hanging pictures right now. I might hang a few here and there but I don't think things will really have a place until after the baby is born. I just don't have the energy. I do want to get couch covers for these couches though some time soon. The nice lady who lived here before us, left them. They are nice but I am not a plaid couch kind of person.

Here is another view of the living room right before you enter the kitchen.

Here is the view when you first come into the kitchen.

And here is the view from where Ayla was standing in the picture above.

Then you go out the doorway on your right, right back into the...

living room.
Now we are going to go down the hallway.

The first door on the left is our main bathroom!

Then you keep walking down the hall straight into...

The Master bedroom.

And if you keep walking to your left you will see...

The Master bathroom!

You go back out into the hallway and it turns into another little hallway.

The first door you see with the light on is...

Ayla's room!

The room right next to Ayla's is the...

our third bedroom!
Obviously it is a mess and a storage right now, that will change after the baby is born. This will probably be Ayla's new room and her old room will be the nursery.

Now I take you back to the living room because...

we are going downstairs!

When you reach the bottom you will see this door and a hallway.

This door is the door to...

our laundry room!
I wish our laundry was upstairs but you can't have everything.

Across from the laundry room there is a open door way that leads too...

our other living room!

It is nice to be able to watch movies in here.

When you go back out into the hall you walk by our...

third bathroom!
This is Kurt's bathroom. He gets ready downstairs in the morning so he doesn't disturb me.

And at the end of the hall is...

the fourth bedroom, which is Kurt's office!

This is the view coming out of his office.

The bathroom is to the right and the other living room is on the left at the end of the all on the right is...

Ayla's toy room!

This room doesn't have a window so it is not considered a bedroom. And the door you see in the picture leads to a small food storage.

Well there you have it!

I hope you enjoyed this tour and I hope I wasn't too confusing!

Way Back Wednesday, 4th of July!

2011-10-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

I gonna mix it up a bit, I gonna do Now and Then posts for a while. I am going to try and do current things as a Now post and past things as a Then post. This is oviously a Then post.

This was Ayla's swim suite I bought just before the 4th of July. We always go swimming on the 4th of July.

We started our day at the Magna parade!

Dad, Ayla, me, Lane and Ernie waiting for the parade to start.

Ayla and Lane, so cute!

Ayla kept clinging onto Lane and driving him crazy! This reminded me and my sister, Marion of me when I was little, I used to hang on Marion a lot and drive her crazy. It would give me a good laugh the more irritated my sister would become. Notice Ayla's smile? Ya, she was laughing at Lane going crazy!

Lane with his hand over his heart as the flag went by!

And Ayla with her hand over her heart!

I liked this float!

This one was cute!

My cousin, Jasmine was in the parade! She is the cute girl, in the center!

Marion of course helped with Ayla! Thanks Marion!

Notice, Ayla is wearing the top I bought her last year? It still fit her! I buy her something to wear on the 4th of July every year. This year I bought her a T-shirt with the flag on it but she wore it later that night! I love the 4th of July!

It was a very cloudy day but me, Marion and Ayla still went swimming at our favorite pool, Taylorsville pool! Everyone else chickened out on us, lame! We had a great time! It didn't even rain on us once. Actually the sun was out most of the time we were there, plus the pool is heated, so we didn't freeze.

Ayla and her Aunt, Marion!

I love this picture!

One with me in it!

Our good friend, Melissa joined us, she didn't wimp out! Go Meliss!

After swimming we had a BBQ at Marion's.

My mom gave Ayla and Lane some fireworks to take home. Ayla's was the smaller one of course, she doesn't need a lot.

After the BBQ we went to Magna park to ride, rides and watch fireworks!

See me and Ayla on the very back?

Ya, 2 days later, I found out I was pregnant! I am glad it didn't jerk me around too much!

Ayla rode many other rides!

Her favorite was the big slide of course! (I didn't post the picture of it because it was too blurry.)

This one was sad because her ship wouldn't work, it didn't go up. She was crying because it wouldn't.

After spending all our tickets, we sat down to watch the fireworks!

Here is our group of family we sat with!

My mom was there too!
The T-shirt Ayla is wearing, is the shirt I mentioned earlier in this post that I bought her this year. Doesn't she look cute in it?

Cute picture!

And one of me and Ayla!

We had a wonderful 4th of July!

More, Then posts to come! A lot more!

I am so behind but I want to document it all!

Ayla got a new bed!

2011-10-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Our dear friend, Suzanne Wade gave us a twin mattress with a box spring. Then I went on KSL and found a frame for the bed. We bought Ayla some new bedding and now Ayla has a whole new bed.

Here is Ayla's last time on her toddler bed, of course she is jumping on it!

Are

you

ready

see

the

new

bed?

Here it is!
I got the bed frame for $150. I love it!

And Ayla loves it!

She has been sleeping on it for 2 weeks now and she is sleeping better than she ever has her whole life. She actually even sleeps until 9:30 am. It is so nice! We should have gotten her this bed a long time ago! I am finally getting more sleep but that will end soon with the new baby, oh well, it will be worth it!

New House, New Car, New Baby!

2011-09-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have a lot to blog about and I miss reading other's blogs!

Here is a list of why I have been away so long.

1. In June we started looking for a house to buy. We found one in 3 weeks. I couldn't believe it!

2. We had a great 4th of July. I plan on blogging about it.

Here is Ayla with her hand over her heart while the flag, in the 4th of July parade, goes by, so cute!

3. I went to Scout camp with my Cub Scouts.

4. I walked in the CureSearch walkathon. CureSearch is a program to find a cure for children's cancer.

I walked for my friend's little girl, Lizzy. She is the one in the front row with the pink shirt and the pink flower headband.

5. I was camp director and due to the bad weather we had last winter, our camp site was flooded, so Stake girls camp was canceled, 2 and a half weeks before camp. We had to start from scratch. We even had to find a camp site.

We pulled it off though.

We had a great time! A special thanks to all the Leader's and Youth Leader's who made it possible!

6. We moved into our house the weekend that I got back from girls camp.

Here is the front part of our new home.

Here is a better view.

I love the yard!

I will give you a tour on another post.

7. We went to Lagoon, mid July. I will do a post on this later.

8. We bought a new car at he end of July. The car of my dreams....

a white Toyota Camry!!!!
I think I was more excited about the car than the house.

9. In the mist of all this, me and my sister had to do her wedding and I mean everything for the wedding. I have quite a few posts for this. We did pull it off though on August 27th. It was beautiful!

10. And last but not least.....

I am pregnant!

This was taken last week at 16 weeks.

I tell you what, we could not be more happy because we tried for over a year to get pregnant. I don't want to be a complainer but I forgot how hard pregnancy is for me. I am pretty much sick the entire time. This is the main reason I have been away from the blog. I spend most of my time in bed and you would think I would have a ton of time for blogging but I just don't feel good. It is like having the flu for 9 months. I am so sensitive to so many things, of course smells, temperatures, light, reading, yes reading makes me nauseous and these are just a few.

We found out we were pregnant on the 6th of July. I actually had scheduled an appointment 3 months in advance with the doctor to talk about fertility. Two days before the appointment I started suspecting we were pregnant. The doctor and I had a good laugh!

There you have it! I will try and blog a little bit more now but I don't know how I will be feeling. I do feel a little bit better though but I still have hard days.

Ayla playing at the park.

2011-09-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted anything in a long time. I have so much to catch up on. I have missed blogging. Lots to come!!!

Anyway, my husband, Kurt has been filming and editing a lot. I had to share the cute video he did of Ayla tonight. I just love it!

My Kid Could Paint That!

2011-06-20T20:51:00.001-07:00

Life has been crazy lately but in the mist of all the craziness, I notice that Ayla has become a little artist. I want to share some of her masterpieces!

First, I started to notice her drawing patterns on paper.

Lines

Squiggly lines

Circles

I really liked this one!
It reminds me of abstract art.

Have you ever seen the documentary called, "My Kid Could Paint That?"
Well Ayla's chalk art work reminds me of that movie.

I know Ayla is just scribbling but it looks amazing to me!

Close up

Then tonight she drew a few pictures.

She told me this one was me.

And this one was a minion from "Despicable Me."

Here is a minion.

At last but not least, we have been making rose balls for my sister, Marion's wedding and Ayla tried to make one of the roses.

Here are the rose balls.

And here is the rose she made!
I was amazed at her capability to make one.

I am so proud of my daughter's sudden art talent!
All she wants to do now is draw and color things. She amazes me!

Zoorassic Park!

2011-05-23T17:34:00.001-07:00

Not this past Friday but the Friday before it, Ayla and I went to the zoo. We met up with some of our friends from our ward.

The zoo this year has dinosaurs through out the park. They have decided to call it Zoorassic Park. Love it!!

Ayla and I had gone to the zoo a week before this time and they had all the dinosaurs covered. This time they had them uncovered! I was so excited!!

This is my friend's daughter, Elyse! She is such a sweet little girl!

Ayla loves dinosaurs and wanted to get close but was a little scared at first!

They look real and the move and roar. They are pretty neat!

When Ayla saw this one she yelled, "Look, Mom a three horn!"

It had a baby with it.

Ayla was really excited about the baby. She is telling me about it in this picture.

I loved this picture of Ayla!

This one was pretty cool!

It had a baby too!

The cool thing about these two was...

They spit water!
All the kids loved it and couldn't get enough!

Here is Ayla with the big one after it spit the water. She is trying to catch the water.

This one kind of creeped me out!

Isn't it freaky?!
It looks like it is going to come and eat us!

Ayla had a lot of fun with Elyse!
At first she kept calling her different names. Once she called her Kim and another time she called her Megan. I have no clue where she heard those name before. I corrected her a couple of times and told her Elyse's nick name is Lysee. After that she has always called her Lysee. She cracks me up when she makes up names for people!! Lol!!

Ayla with the T-rex!
Man he was big!!! He really creeps me out because I used to have nightmares about him as a kid.

I liked that they had one the kids could sit on to get their pictures taken!

We rode the train last!
I tried to get a picture of every one but you can't see Ayla. Our party took up 4 rows.

First row: Elyse, Ayla and me.

Second row: Nathan and Doug.

Third row: Christine holding Edward.
Forth row: Bretta

We had a great time at the zoo and plan on going a lot with Christine, Doug and their 3 kids because we both have zoo passes.

Now if the weather would cooperate!

Things I wanted to post!

2011-05-15T08:26:00.000-07:00

I have been extremely busy this week, I helped a friend with a Daddy Daughter Dance for her daughter's 7th birthday party. I helped her plan, make and set up decorations. I also made a cake for the occasion. I also made 60 cupcake for it. The dance was Saturday and it was amazing! I also worked on things for my sister's wedding, took Ayla to get her pictures taken, went to the Zoo and went to the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby. Some of these things I plan on posting but before I get too far ahead of things I have been wanting to post (this happens a lot to me), I want to post just a few things.

First thing I want to blog is what Kurt got me for Mother's Day!

These flowers are actually from Valentine's day (something I never got to post either). Notice the Oreo's? Ya, those are my favorite cookie! Kurt gave them to me instead of chocolates. They meant more to me than the flowers because they were a thoughtful gift! I love my husband!

Now this is what he gave me for Mother's Day! He gave me avocados and kiwis, some of my other favorite things. He also made me a card. If you have read my blog in the past, you know that Kurt makes me cards and they mean more to me than any store bought card. Anyway, Kurt and I have been eating more healthier lately. The card read, "The treats have changed this time around but I hope you never do!" Sweet huh?! This made me feel so special! Like I said, I love my husband!

Next thing I wanted to blog are a couple of cakes I made last month.

I made a Miami Heat cake for my friend, Katie's son, Treaden.

Here he is with his cake.

I love that he came in a Miami Heat jersey, when they came to pick up the cake! I also love that Ayla saw me taking a picture and she jump into the background! Isn't she the cutest?!

The next cake I made was a...

GUITAR!

I am pretty proud of this cake!! I made it for my cousin, Corin's son, Jake! This was definitely one of my favorite cakes I have done!

It was pretty much the actual size of a guitar.

Next something that made me smile!

Right after I made the Miami Heat cake, I came into the living room and saw...

this!

Ayla had set up her 2 hamsters and her FurReal kitten, each eating their own cake. I love that the kitten got the big cake!

Last thing I wanted to post is how Kurt is so creative!

He has been making eggs for breakfast for Ayla. Not only has he been making them, he has been cutting them into things.

He made a cat for Ayla the first time he did it!

Ayla loves the book, "There is a Mouse About the House." And so he made her a cat and a mouse out of eggs. He has done this one a couple of times.

Today, he told her a story about 3 hamsters while he was making her eggs. When the eggs were done there were 3 hamster eggs on the plate. I didn't get a picture because I was right in the middle of getting ready for church. I wish I would have though, they were cute! Kurt is such a fun Dad! I love the things he comes up with to have fun with Ayla!

There you have it! I got some things posted!

I still have some other things I have been wanting to post, maybe someday, I hope! Even though, I was extremely busy this week, I tried to blog and I was having problems with blogger. Did any of you have problems with blogger this week?

Once There Was a Snowman!

2011-05-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I went to a baptism at 10 am. I couldn't believe we woke up to...

This!!!!!
Here it is May today and we still got snow yesterday, on the 30th of April! Can you believe it?!

This is Matt and his dad, Cory.
We have become really good friends with this family! They are in our ward. They really mean a lot to me! I am so grateful I was able to attend Matt's baptism and I am so proud of him!

After the baptism, I couldn't believe what I came home to! I came home to...

This!!!
I about died! I thought it one of the cutest things I have ever seen! Kurt and Ayla built a snowman together! I swear Kurt always does something so fun with Ayla when he his home with her. He is such a great dad!

Ayla kept collecting snow to add to the snowman.

Don't you love the mouth? Ya, it is dandy lions! It is supposed to be spring and we are still getting snow!

As Ayla was still building the snowman, she was singing the Primary song, "Once There Was a Snowman." It melted my heart!

She is just so cute!

Then she decided to give the snowman a hug!!

I had to get a picture of the snowman a little later in the day. I thought it looked so bizarre standing on the grass with barely any snow on the ground!

I was feeling pretty down about the snow in the morning but coming home to the snowman really softened my feelings!

Our Easter!

2011-04-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

This post has a lot of pictures, so I will try and keep the wording short.

We had a fabulous Easter!

It all started on Friday, when we went to Kurt's, parent's house for an Easter egg/candy hunt.

The kids had a great time!

Ayla happy to find an egg!

Morganne and Ayla!

Brooke was helping Ayla fill her basket. What a good cousin!

Love this picture of Kurt!

Kurt and Kurt on the swing together!

Morganne with her basket after the hunt was over!

Morganne and Ayla.

It was hard to get a picture of them both looking at the camera at the same time. This one Ayla is looking...

and this one Morganne is looking!

Brooke with her basket.

Later that day, I was at the mall with Ayla and decided to take her to see the Easter Bunny.

Here she is waiting patiently.

Here is the picture that I got with my camera.
They only let you take pictures if you bought one of theirs, so of course I bought one.

The Easter Bunny gave her an egg and a coloring book.

I ended up framing the picture I bought from them. It became part of our decor.

Saturday night, Ayla and I died eggs. Ayla loved it!

She died almost all the eggs herself. I was so proud of her! She even didn't spill the green die until we were almost finished! She now always asks to die eggs.

That night Ayla put out our baskets so the Easter Bunny could come. Don't you love her mismatched PJ's?!! I adore her!

In the morning we saw this!

Ayla loved her "Bambi" movie!

She got some dress up shoes and jewelry.
She loves to put them on and say she is her aunt, Marion. I guess it is because Marion has been putting jewelry on a lot because we are doing things for her wedding.

She got a grown too!

Then we got ready for church!

Here is Ayla in her Easter dress that I got her from JC Penny's that was half off!

The headband she is wearing, was made by my best friend, Leah. Leah started her own little business with sewing. You can see her creations on her blog Southern Blossom. Ayla is also holding a little yellow chick and bunny in this picture that she got in her Easter basket.

We let her eat some of her chocolate bunny after she had lunch.

She loves riding the bouncy ball that she got!

That night we had my side of the family over for some enchilada's and an Easter egg hunt.

Here is my daddy!

Lane Brain!

Uncle Ernie!

Some more of the family!

My bro, Robert!

I even had my friend, Melissa and her boyfriend, Aaron come!

After dinner it was time for the hunt!

Here is Ayla waiting to go out the door to start the hunt!

Love this picture!

Running for an egg!

Finding her Peeps!

Ayla showing her Peeps!

Here is Ayla with all her eggs!

And here is Lane with his!

At last but not least, I did a project for Ayla as an Easter present from her Dad and Mom. I decided to put up a picture of the temple in her room. President Monson had mentioned this past conference, how each child should have a picture of the temple in their room. Ayla didn't have one so I decided to follow the prophet.

I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on the picture because we don't have that kind of money, so I bought a frame at the D.I. and painted it and put a picture inside.

Here is the before picture of the frame I bought for $3.

I painted it white and put a white matt inside the frame.

Then I ordered a picture online but it didn't work out. So I asked my friend, Keely if I could print out one of her amazing pictures she took of the Salt Lake Temple while she was here on a trip. She said yes and this made me very happy, not only was Ayla getting a picture of the temple but it was a picture taken from one of my friends.

This is the amazing picture she took! Isn't the sunlight coming through the trees amazing?!

And this is how it turned out!
It cost a total of $20 but if you count the $20 I spent on the picture I ordered online (that didn't work out) then it cost $40.

I hung it where you can see it the minute you walk into Ayla's room!

I tried to get a close up. It was kind of hard but I love it!!

We had a wonderful Easter!!! How was yours?

A special thanks to Keely!

Sea World at Kurt's work again!

2011-04-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago, Sea World came to Kurt's work again. It had been a long time since the last time they came.

Sea World brings animals that they have saved and shows them to everyone at Kurt's work and their families.

Here is Ayla waiting for the show to start.

Back in 1998 Sea World saved a grey whale who they named J.J. They brought a inflatable replica of the size J.J. was when they released her back into the wild. Cool thing is I saw this whale back in 1998. It was my first time at Sea World. I just remember how big she was and thought she looked like a giant fish in a small tank. I guess that is why they only had her for a short time. She grew at a rapid rate.

They brought the armadillo again. Recognize this guy from the last time?

Sorry the pictures are so dark. We were a lot further back this time.

They brought out a toucan.

Did you know this bird's beak practically weighs nothing? They said if you closed your eyes and held your hand out and they put just the beak in your hand, you wouldn't even be able to tell you were holding it. Amazing huh? Their beaks are so big. They said scientists have been trying to figure how it is possible to be so light but it can crush things. It just goes to show, it is just another amazing creation that Heavenly Father created.

Here is a spider monkey. I think they said she was 18 years old.

I liked how they walked around with each animal for us to get a closer look!

I love baby crocodiles and alligators!

I think they are so cute!

I think this is the same one we saw last time.

The last animal they brought out was an African penguin.

I didn't know there were African penguins, did you? I thought they all lived in cold climates. I always felt bad for the penguin at the zoo here because I felt they should be in a colder climate but come to find out those penguins were the same kind as this penguin. I don't feel bad any more.

They let people come up and get their pictures with the penguin.

They told us not to touch the penguin but sure enough when I sat Ayla down next to it, she petted it's wing. I was a little mortified but I think it is cool that Ayla touched a penguin!

It is a lot of fun when Sea World comes to visit!

Cake catch up!

2011-04-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to put some cakes on my blog that I have done within the past year. One dates clear back to July 2010. These are cakes that haven't been on my blog yet. I did other cakes in between these but they are already on my blog.

The first one is this horse cake!

This is the one I did in July. I tried to have the horse standing up but I realized (after I had been working with the cake for 2 hours) that I needed curtain supports for it to stand. I don't know what I was thinking. Anyway, I ended up with the horse lying down. It took me 6 hours just to decorated! I was so done with this cake!

I was quite embarrassed when I found out that while it was on it's way home, it split! I was worried that it would do that! I was having issues with it on that side. It was one of my bad cake days! I ended up doing a cake for them for free, to make up for it.

Here is the cake I made for them for free.
It was for their daughter. Sad thing was, the toys that were supposed to go on the cake didn't arrive in time because I only had a week to order them, so I had to do a cut out. I still really liked how it turned out! The Emerald City was made out of rice crispy treats. I loved the Emerald City! I made this cake in November.

I made this cake at the beginning of September. It was a "Hello Dolly" cake. I loved doing this cake because I love "Hello Dolly!" I grew up to that movie. The cake even said "Happy Birthday Dolly!" The cake was made in honor of my brother-in-law's, mother, Pat. She had been in the play "Hello Dolly." This was her 80th birthday and they themed the party around "Hello Dolly." I was very happy with the way it turned out! I even made the headdress and fan!

Here is a picture of Pat dressed as "Hello Dolly." I based the cake off of this picture.

Here is a second picture of her in a different dress. I took the color from this dress, so I kind of combined the two dresses.

I did an Oreo cake for my brother, Robert in September!

I did this princess cake for my friend, Katie's daughter. I think it was in January.

And I think I did this MJ "Beat It" cake the first week of February! I liked doing this cake because I am a MJ fan! I also thought about my friend, Ann and how she would love this cake because she loves MJ too!

Well there you have it! I am finally caught up with all my cakes on my blog!

Now I just need to label my blog.

Our St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

I love holidays! I love traditions! And now that I have my own little family to enjoy making traditions with! I have never really had very many traditions for St. Patrick's day other than to wear green and spend some time with family. This year I decided to look into what St. Patrick's day is really about and make some traditions with my little family.

First, I want to share a little summery of what I found out about the meaning of St. Patrick's day. I never knew that St. Patrick was a person, until last year when I read about him on some one's blog. All I knew growing up about St. Patrick's day was, you wear green so you don't get pinched, the clover was a symbol, that leprechauns had something to do with it and it had something to do with Ireland.

Anyways this is what I found out with the help of google.

St. Patrick was a person who's name wasn't Patrick when he was born. He was born in Britain, was kidnapped and taken to Ireland at he age of 16. He was made a slave and his job was a sheep herder. He was there for 6 years and returned to Britain. He then started to have visions that he needed to go back to Ireland and be a missionary to the people, to bring Christianity to the Irish. He took on his priesthood vowels and became a priest. He took on the name Saint Patrick and brought Christianity to the Irish. He died on March 17th, that is why we celebrate it on March 17th. My reason now to celebrate St. Patrick's day is that he brought Christianity to the Irish!

Why the color green and the clover. It is a myth but could be true that St. Patrick taught the holy trinity with a clover. Green comes from the land in Ireland. It is covered in hills of green.

Leprechauns and how St. Patrick's day made it to the U.S. There was a potato famine in Ireland and the people left Ireland to take care of their families. A lot of them came to New York. They celebrated St. Patrick's day and it caught on in America. As for the leprechauns, people came up with this by the way the people were dressed when they came from Ireland.

There you have a short version of what St. Patrick's day is about.

Anyway, this what we did on St. Patrick's day.

I noticed last year from people's blogs that one of their traditions was to dye food green. I decided to take on this tradition. I made green waffles for our breakfast!

Ayla enjoying her green waffle!

I enjoyed mine with the usual strawberries and whip cream! Yummy!

Then we got dressed in our St. Patrick's day shirts!

We headed out the door to go shopping with my mom that day!

My Mom and I took Ayla to McDonald's so she could play!

I think I will make this a tradition, to take my kids to eat somewhere, where there is an inside play ground! Ayla had so much fun!

I also made some green chocolate chip cookies! We had them after dinner of course!

Ayla enjoying her cookie!

For an activity, I came up with a tradition, to have a pot of gold hunt!

I had these fake coins that I hid in certain parts of the house. Each coin had a new location of the house written on the back that Ayla knew. She had to find the coin in that location and have her daddy read the next one, until she found the pot of gold.

Here was the pot of gold.

I just bought some simple things from the dollar store and wrapped them in yellow tissue paper. I couldn't find any yellow wrapping paper, so the tissue paper had to do.

I recorded the whole pot of gold hunt on video and so the pictures down below of the hunt were taken from the video.

Ayla at the computer desk!

Handing it to Daddy!

I hid one on Kermit!

She found the one by the sink!

One in the apples!

One in her room on her doll house!

One in Mrs. Potts, that she loves to bathe with!

She had to find one in "Toy Story 2!"

She found the pot of gold in her closet!

And opened her gold!

This was a little fishing rod with fish.

At the end she was asking, where the gold was!

I guess she was wanting a whole pot of those gold coins! I guess she had more fun with those than opening the gifts! LOL!! It is the simple things in life that make us happy!

Then we played with the bubbles that she got from her pot of gold!

I love this picture!

We had a fabulous St. Patrick's day! It has a whole new meaning to me now!

Disneyland trip! Part 3

2011-03-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Our last day at Disneyland and our day at the beach!

I can't believe it has taken this long to get to this post done! I have been busy!

We started our last day at Disneyland at "California Adventure." We wanted to take Ayla on the "Monsters Inc." ride because she has loved that movie lately. She really liked it! I liked that it was a 10 min wait!

After the ride, we came out and saw Sulley! We went up and got in line but right when we were next in line a guy came up and said it was time for Sulley to leave. I was not happy about that! I really feel they should come a little bit earlier before the character goes on break and cut of the line at the back of the line. Instead of having people wait in line for nothing. Luckily, Ayla did get to go up and hug him, so she did meet him.

Here is a video of Ayla meeting Sully!

Here is a picture of the hug!
I got this picture from the video.

After Sulley, we went and rode the "Francis" lady bug ride in "A Bugs Life Land."

Then we headed over to the "Toy Story Mania" ride.

We waited in line for a hour and a half!! Can you believe that? An hour and a half!! This was definitely the busiest day while we were there! Notice, Ayla's new hat? Ya, this is what we had her wear instead of sunblock. It worked great!!!!

Here is Ayla in her 3D glasses getting ready to ride!
We really enjoyed the ride! It was awesome!

After we rode "Toy Story Mania," we went over to Disneyland and rode the train around. Ayla really loves the train because of the dinosaurs.

After the train Ayla feel asleep and I went and rode a couple of rides by myself, "Thunder mountain railroad" and "Pirates of the Caribbean." It was so much fun riding, "Thunder mountain railroad! " It was my second time ever riding that ride! I rode it on our honeymoon but the next time I was there, I was pregnant and the 3rd time I had been to Disneyland they had it closed.

After I rode those rides, we were getting kind of discouraged because the shortest lines were 30 to 45 minute waits. We almost through in the towel but then 7:00 pm hit and Fantsyland was thinning out of people, so we were able to ride a whole bunch of rides within the last 2 and a half hours that the park was opened.

We rode....

*Dumbo twice, once because Kurt rode it with Ayla without me and the second time because I wanted to ride it. It was my first time on Dumbo.*

Here is a video of us riding Dumbo

We also rode...

*Peter Pan's Flight*

* Pinocchio's Daring Journey,twice, no line*

*Casey Jr. Circus Train*

In Toontown we rode...

*Gadget's Go Coaster, 3 times, no line*

*Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin*

So by the end of the night I rode a total of 15 rides and Kurt and Ayla rode a total of 14 rides. Most of those ride were ridden between 7:00 pm and 9:30 pm. I am so glad we didn't throw in the towel!!! Another lesson learned, go to Fantsyland and Toontown during the evening.

And right before we left for the night Ayla got this large lolly pop which she dropped and broke of course.

She also got a plush "Sulley" (he is holding Mike Wazowski) and a plush "Boo" that day. I would say she made out like a bandit!

The next day was the day we were leaving California, so we went to the beach for a little while.

This looks totally insane, we have our coast on and we are in the water. It really wasn't that cold. The wind was though when it blew.

Here is a video of Kurt and Ayla!

I wrote this in the sand because it was Ayla's actual birthday that day.

Ayla liked writing in the sand too!

And she loved covering my feet in the sand!

I love this picture! I think it is so awesome!

We had a great time at the beach!

That night when we got to our hotel in Las Vegas, we gave Ayla a cupcake with candles and we sang " Happy Birthday" to her. She also got a couple of small gifts.

Well that's it! That was our trip! It was a fun!

The things I learned...

*Everything doesn't go as planned*

*Do better research on the busiest times of the year at Disneyland*

*Pack medicine for you kids including Binadryl*

*Even under the some of the worst circumstances, you can still have a fun time at Disneyland with your family because Disneyland is the best!*

*It doesn't matter what happens, I will still have a great time spending time with my little family because we have no distractions of our normal busy day to day life when we are on vacation.*