Whirlwind

I feel like I have been caught up in a whirlwind the last few weeks... Life has been flying by and I am trying to keep up with it.  This fall was a lot of fun with William. Halloween was a blast- Thanksgiving was delicious and happy- and getting ready for Christmas has been fun. The best thing about this fall was William playing in the leaves. We have to rake our yard at least a couple of times due to our neighbors tree as well as our own tree. William LOVED playing in the leaves and having his Grandma Halladay pull him in the neighbors red wagon (which he is getting one of his own for Christmas!)

 We went out and got a couple family photos as well as William's 18 month pictures done! I can't believe how much he has grown up. It makes me so sad... where is my baby!!?? I love the stage he is in now though. He talks all the time and eats everything and runs and plays. He is a blast.

Since it is now winter... William still loves going outside and the snow does NOT stop him. He LOVES to shovel the snow with his dad. (We have since received a mini red shovel for William and he is so excited to use it)

I have been going through a rough period in my life since I lost my Nana... I am going through a loss right now as well. Life just sucks sometimes. I am thankful for all the good things in my life though! They help me and make me happy. But for the hard things... this is my prayer for now:

Halloween Town

We went on our annual Halloween Disneyland trip and we had a blast! My parents and Will's "Aunt Dee" joined us too! We flew this time, which turned out to be pretty nice. We stayed at our usual spot at a nice hotel just kiddy corner to the park entrance.

He's not happy to be there at all, is he!? This was during one of the firework shows at night. He thought they were pretty cool.

We happened to pass a Mickey line that was super short, so we stopped and struck a pose. Kind of blurry, but we never get pictures with Mickey and we go all the time. So we just had to do it!

We were pretty horrible at taking group photos. But my parents did go with us and I think they had a good time. They lasted longer at the park than any of the rest of us. They were late night partiers! Here they are in front of the new Radiator Springs Race at Carsland in California Adventure. It is a pretty fun ride, but the wait is 2+ hours!

I took this picture on the Jungle Cruise... how stinkin cute are my boys? Disneyland should pay me for good advertising ;)

And William loved to hang out with his Aunt Dee. Here they are on the new(ish) Ariel ride. He looks so grown up- I can't even take it! His Aunt Dee is very good with him and they are good buddys. 

The park has done "Mickey's Halloween Party" for the last couple of years now, and we are fans. Everyone gets dressed up, the park closes early unless you have party tickets and you get to trick or treat all over the park, meet the Villains, have a special firework show and parade... it lots of fun. Here is Aunt Dee as a Cheetah, Will as Iron Man and Mommy- being lame and not dressing up.

Tony Stark and Iron Man... at the same time! I am one lucky girl!!!

 I am so glad that my family went with us this trip. I had a lot of fun and we all created some great memories. I am sad that our annual pass just expired... maybe we will renew in March. Oh Disneyland... how I will miss you.

PS- We newly discovered the Mint Julep bar at the French Market in New Orleans Square... can I say holy cow!? I've had mint juleps at Cafe Orleans before...but the bar blew those out of the park! And the beignets???? Delish!! I am sad that we didn't discover this place earlier. 

Baptism & Blessing

We are so blessed to have the sweetest, most beautiful girls EVER in our family!! And we are lucky enough to always tell William that he is the favorite grandson- which is true for BOTH sides of the family. First- I'm not sure if I mentioned that our new niece Vivian has arrived!! I am so excited for Mike and Shanelle. They will be such good parents- and 'Baby Viv' is so dang cute. 

Last week our nieces from my husbands side of the family had a BIG day. Autumn has turned 8 and was baptized!! And her baby sister Ava was blessed. Look at how gorgeous these girls are all in white:

Such a cute family!! I seriously love them. Look at Shawn and all his girls. What a lucky guy! ;)

Our family from Idaho drove down for the big occasion. We miss them and don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like. I can't believe how fast they are growing up and how beautiful they all are!! 

We are so proud of Autumn and the choices she makes in her life. She is such a sweet, kind and intelligent girl and the BEST older sister. Congratulations Autumn, we love you!

Best Husband Ever

We did a lot of celebrating this year for our Anniversary. Scott is constantly spoiling me and doing EVERYTHING that I want to do. Our Anniversary was in the middle of the week this year- so that night we went out to dinner while the Dubs was playing at the park with his "Aunt Dee" and Gammy. It was a great night out, and we got to enjoy adult food aka Indian Food.

That weekend however, Scott took me for a fun night away! We stayed at the Anniversary Inn in Salt Lake. They have the cutest rooms and they are all themed. I LOVE this style of old houses:

We went out to dinner at Gourmandise (a super cute cafe in downtown) and then we went back to the room that supplied us dessert and yummy drinks. Then Scott whips out this blue box that every woman WISHES to see...

I knew immediately what it was because I wanted this when I went to Vegas with the girls in my family- but I didn't buy it. I told him all about it though and boy does he listen! I am seriously so spoiled you guys. I LOVE birds. My Nana also loved birds. We shared this love and I adore birds even more now that she is gone. William even loves birds and points them out in the sky whenever he sees them. (WithOUT my prompting) So when I saw this silver necklace at Tiffany's I fell in love. I have the BEST husband. He is so sweet and thoughtful. Thank you love!!

Fried Green Jello!?

Aw, the State Fair... we went last year and had such a good time that we went again this year. It was such a blast! We ate lots of food, looked at lots of animals, watched "Aunt Dee" ride the bull and much more. 

Right after our foot long corn-dog meal: (NOT the best corn dog ever. Sadly.)

William loved tromping all over the grounds with his Aunt and Grandma. I can't believe how BIG he is. He is only 16 months old (barely) and look!! He looks like a 3 year old. Man, they grow up too fast.

Have I mentioned that Will loves food??? Right now corn on the cob is his favorite. Look at him get after it! We also ate a ton of treats at the fried food stand. We even tried the fried green jello. Scott and William liked it... I didn't. It basically tasted like a lime flavored funnel cake.  

William even went down this big slide!! He was laughing and screaming at everyone riding down. So we took him on it and he LOVED it. Can't wait for next year!

Lately...

We have been keeping busy lately with lots of family stuff (we now have 2 new nieces and I will mix their names up ALL the time: little Ava and little Aeda. They are such beautiful girls!) lots of random activities and lots of celebrating. 

Scott loves his Mustangs. Last year we went to a Mustang Car Show in Park City and had so much fun that we went again this year. Not the most flattering picture, but here I am with little Will. He looks so happy for how hot and miserable we were :) But all the cars were really neat and we were lucky to see Bri and her boyfriend Kaden too!!

There is a new LDS temple in Brigham City- which is a little over an hour away from us- so we went up to the Open House. It is such a GORGEOUS temple. I absolutely loved the colors and all the artwork. I can't believe how much thought and work goes into these temples. They are seriously breathtaking. I love the peace and beauty that the temple brings. William liked roaming around the grounds too.

I like how William is waving in this picture... you can barely see his little arm!

As for celebrating... we just celebrated our Wedding Anniversary! I can't believe it has been 4 years. I remember dating felt like an ETERNITY and we only dated for 2 years. Our marriage has flown by! I love my man SO much. He is the best!! Happy Anniversary love!! 

I found this picture of us when we were dating... I can't get over how thin and young we look!! Oh man... gotta love it. 

The Broken Chain

We little knew that morning

that God would call your name.

In life we loved you dearly;

in death we do the same.

It broke our hearts to lose you,

You did not go alone;

For part of us went with you

The day God called you home.

You left us peaceful memories,

Your love is still our guide.

And though we cannot see you,

You are always at our side.

Our family chain is broken

And nothing seems the same,

But as God calls us one by one,

The chain will link again.

I think this poem says all the things that I can't seem to say. And I hope we will all be together again. I miss you Nana. There is a hole in my heart that still aches daily. I wish you were here. 

Vegas

A couple of weeks ago we went on a girls trip to Vegas. My mom, my sister and my Aunt all went together. My Aunt goes to Vegas every year for her birthday- and she normally goes with my Nana. So this year we decided to take her! We only stayed a couple of nights but we had a lot of fun.

Here are all the girls dressed up and ready for a night of shopping, eating out and going to see Celine Dion:

I love the shops at Caesar's... this was by FAR my favorite store. Same with Boots. We LOVE H&M and this location was new and huge. It was so much fun:

Most of you know that I love the t.v. show, The Office... so while we did all our shopping and had many, MANY bags we kept quoting Kevin by saying, "Women be shoppin'!!"

And NO.... these are not our bags. We were helping out our Aunt by taking her stuff back to the hotel. That woman has style!!

Our hotel- on our way out. It was so great. We also saw The Phantom at the last minute. We hadn't planned on that, but I am so glad we did it- that was my favorite part of the trip! I have never seen the play, and I LOVED it. Bri and I also hung out at the pools for a little bit and walked to different shops and the mall.. we kind of walked everywhere. We had a blast and a big Thanks to Jennie for letting us go with her!! And a big thanks to my Mom who spoiled us all!

1 year

I can't believe that my baby is 1 year old... where does the time go!??? Honestly! I have been planning and preparing for this party for a few months now and I am glad I did! There were so many cute details and good food! I better get all the Special THANKS out there right now because I couldn't have done this party without all the help I received! Thanks Aunt Bri and Kylee!! You girls always help me so much and I don't know what I would do without you. I love you!! Thanks to my Mom and Mother-in-Law for bringing so much food and tables and chairs and EVERYTHING. Thank you Kim for decorating William's smash cake. It was perfect!! Thanks to my man for letting me go a little crazy on everything and for helping out with all the grilling, setting up, and watching the baby while we do it all! Thank you to everyone who showed up and brought gifts!! You are all seriously the BEST!

My Best Friends:

Without further adieu... the Birthday BOY!!! MY Sock Monkey!! :)

I made him lots of decorations for the festivities. Here is his Sock Monkey wreath. I found this online and copied a blog (that I have failed to find the link to since I did this so long ago.... whoops). And thanks to Aunt Colleen for the PERFECT Sock Monkey to complete the wreath. He is holding a sign that says "William".

I wish I could take credit for this adorable sign... but alas I can not. I found this on Etsy. And how adorable is it??? Added the perfect touch to our party.

The girls and I put this together for everyone to see how much William has changed over the last year. We did one picture from the day he was born and one picture for every month until his 12 month pictures. We put little sock monkeys and the month on each picture. Everyone loved to see all his pictures!

We also made these center pieces for the tables. I bought some tall red cups, filled them with rocks, and used skewer sticks to tie the balloons to. I had to search every Target in the area to find matching baby Sock Monkeys for this. But it was worth it.

Here is his gift table... he is not spoiled at all!! ;) Again- thank you to everyone who brought him a gift. He is SO loved!!

Here is the smash cake. My sister-in-law Kim is SUPER talented at decorating cakes. So she was nice enough to drive down from Idaho to join us at the party and to decorate Will's cake. I think it turned out just perfect!!

Here are the cupcakes that we made as well! I saw these on Pinterest (of course!! I see EVERYTHING on Pinterest). How stinkin' cute are they!? I know they are not sock monkey... but they were still super cute and soooo yummy. I did NOT follow the recipe from Pinterest... we made our own cupcakes and I used my Sister-in-Laws recipe for the chocolate frosting. We just borrowed the instructions for decorating them on Pinterest. One word of advice if you ever want to make these for a party or gathering: Make them the night BEFORE. That way the vanilla wafers are soft. They were SOOOO much better the day after the party, cause we made them the morning of the party. I wish I would have known that!

He was so excited to see his cake and he was all smiles while everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. He really likes being the center of attention :)

He knew to dig right in!! He seriously ate tons of his cake. I should have stopped him sooner because he had a tummy ache that night. I just felt bad spoiling his fun. Look at how much he enjoyed that cake!

We had a big BBQ that included:
Hot Dogs &  Hamburgers from Snyder's in Salt Lake (The BEST!!)
Lots of Salads, Jello, Fruit, Chips and Lemon Water that the family all brought (Thanks Guys!!)


For Dessert we had:
Monkey Cupcakes (Shown Above)
Tres Leches Cake (that I made. I found a recipe online and it is to DIE for)
Strawberry Dream Cake (found on AllRecipes.com)
Banana Flavored Creamies
Chocolate Dipped Frozen Bananas (from Target)


Here are my favorite 12 month pictures of him (We went to the University Mall again. I really like that place).

He is the best baby I could ever ask for. He is so sweet, smart and fun! Thanks again to everyone who helped out and attended William's First Birthday! Love you Will!! Happy Birthday!!!

The 4th

Here are the best boys in the WHOLE world.... Aren't they so handsome in their matching Captain America gear??? Love it!!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Independence Day! I love this country and the people who sacrifice so much to protect us. We are so blessed to live in this beautiful land. 

D-Land

We went to Disneyland a while ago... I am just playing catch up. We drove with our- at the time- 10 month old baby and my sister. He did very well with the drive down and only fussed for about 10 minutes. The drive back was a different story. He had just started walking before we left, so he was "walking" a lot this trip, which was actually pretty nice! 


We stayed at a hotel just across the street from the entrance to Disneyland which was fabulous. We would take William back to the hotel for naps during the day and any time we needed to. I will definitely stay at that hotel again.


We were at the park for three days and rode lots of rides- ate lots of good food- and did lots of shopping. William was a little nervous by some rides, but overall I think he had a good time. Here he is riding Dumbo with dada!

The whole group: Aunt Bree, Dada, Mama and Willzabub. We were so glad that Bree came along with us. It was so fun to have her and she even bought herself a season pass! So now she can go back with us whenever we go :) Which will be in just a couple months... LOL

Can I just say that I LOVE this wrap??? Especially for the rides, it was awesome. It just made me feel like Will was safe and secure and he doesn't mind it at all. The only thing he didn't like was the fact that he couldn't reach up and take his hat or glasses off. Perfect.

The gang getting ready to ride the teacups!

Bree and I were soaked to the bone... the Grizzly Mountain ride really got us. This is us in front of the new Ariel ride. It's pretty cool!

I love going to Disneyland. I love the atmosphere, the rides, the food and most of all- spending time with my family. I love them all so much. This trip will be one that I will always remember. For the good times of course, but also because Nana had her open heart surgery the day we left. So we visited her right before we took off for Cali and got to have a really great conversation with her.