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. 

Nana

I have put off writing about my Nana, for the simple reason that I burst into uncontrollable tears whenever I even mention her name. My last post briefly mentioned a loss my family is going through... we lost my Nana. Her name is Linda Mae, but we have always called her Nana. I grew up living next door to her, seeing her every day of my life, having her be a huge part of my life. My baby is her first Great-Grandchild. I love her dearly. I miss her... there are no words to describe the pain of losing a loved one. I am sure many of you can relate. Even though it is a pain that we all must endure, and a pain that we all can relate to... it is still such a lonely pain. No one can truly comfort you except the one you lost.

She died from a disease called Amyloidosis. It is pretty rare and we did not know that was the underlying problem to many of her health issues over the last year until she had passed away. She had a leaky heart valve which resulted in her needing open heart surgery. She did not do well with that and ended up being on life support for a week. Which eventually needed to be turned off due to blood clots and other negative side effects.

I think I have had such a difficult time with losing her because of how YOUNG she was, and how sudden and unexpected her decline was. If any of you have suffered through having a loved one on life support- I know your pain. That is the worst emotional roller coaster to suffer through. I am thankful for the time I spent with her in life and while she was on life support. I will think of her everyday. I will remember everything she has taught me and I will try to be as great of a person as she was.

I am not at home... so I don't have any current pictures with me. This is how I remember her though. She was a very young Grandma and absolutely gorgeous. Her funeral was extremely sad and difficult for me... but it was of course very beautiful. All of us grand kids sang a song for her (because she always loved us to sing). We sang Josh Groban's song "To Where You Are". I couldn't even sing it... his words bring comfort, yet pain all at the same time. The lyrics are:

Who can say for certain, maybe you're still here.

I feel you all around me, your memories so clear.

Deep in the stillness, I can hear you speak.

You're still an inspiration, can it be that you are my forever love?

And you are watching over me from up above?

Fly me up to where you are, beyond the distant star I wish upon tonight to see you smile.

If only for a while to know you're there.

A breath away is not far to where you are.

Are you gently sleeping here inside my dream?

And isn't faith believing all power can't be seen?

As my heart holds you, just one beat away.

I cherish all you gave me, everyday.

And I believe that angels breath.

And that love will live on and never leave.

I know you're there.

A breath away is not far, to where you are.

I love you sweet Nana. I miss your more than I can say. I give William kisses from you every night, just like I promised. I wear my bird necklace almost every day and it makes me think of you. (I bought my Nana and I matching gold necklaces with birds on a wire... we both love birds) I will continue to miss you the rest of my life and I can't wait to see you again. I love you.