Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

One year ago yesterday we were blessed with the sweetest, cutest little girl EVER! I am so glad to have this little spirit in my home! I love watching her grow and develop her personality. I'm not sure if I'm going to like it when she gets older, though! :o) Emma is walking, loves to clap, she has 8 teeth (last I checked--she bites!), loves her blankie, brother, kitty (which I SWEAR she says!), and loves to watch the dog do whatever. She still pretty much just says "da-da" and is stubborn to say anything else. This past year has been an adjustment, but we've made some sweet memories along the way and I look forward to the future with my little girl!

It's a......BABY!!

A Bunting Baby! We got a call this morning that Lindsey (Ron's cousin) and David had their first child this morning at 5:30 am. I'm not going to give details, or the gender, because I promised I would let them do the honors, so if you know them and want to know, you're going to have to wait for their post. Here's a picture though, so you decide! Sooooo cute!

A Better Pic of the Cakes

I played with the color on the pictures after I did the slide show, so I thought I'd post the cakes again 'cause they were awfully orange and these are MUCH better!

Emma's 1st Birthday Party #1

We had Emma's 1st Birthday party #1 yesterday. It was a nice turnout & she got a lot of cute stuff! LOTS of clothes! As you can see by the pictures, she LOVED eating the cake! Amanda baked & decorated both of the cakes and did an AMAZING job! Emma's birthday is on Tuesday & we'll be having another party for her next Sunday, so more to come!

Laundry

This is what happens when you do a weeks worth of laundry & don't fold in-between...

Venting!

Okay, I just have to vent because I was flipping through the guide on the TV and saw a program called "Pregnant Man." Now, I've seen this so-called "man" in interviews before and it is so irretating that we are calling "him" a man! S-HE HAS A UTERUS, PEOPLE!!! I'm sorry, but if you still have female parts, you are NOT a man! I don't care how much facial hair you have, it doesn't count!! RIDICULOUS!

What Happened in Vegas, Happened to Us!

A few months ago, Ron was listening to the radio and a promotional trip for Tahiti Village in Vegas came on. You get a 4 day 3 night stay at one of the hotels on the strip, free show tickets, free dinner, $200 slot credits, and a certificate to either get married or renew your vows. So he called them up and we finally were able to go. We left the kids with my parents and were off. We got there Tuesday night to the Stratosphere (where we stayed), went and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe', Wednesday was the Tahiti Village presentation for about 3 hours (great idea, no $$), had lunch at the hotel Roxy's Diner, walked the strip a little, went to our free show American Superstars (celebrity impersonators Elvis, Tim McGraw, Rod Stewart, Christina Aguilera & Michael Jackson), went to Excalibur for their Tournament of Kings dinner show (VERY entertaining!), walked the strip a little more, Thursday we started at Mandalay Bay and worked our way up the strip, stopped at the Casino Royale to use up our slot credit (no jackpots!), had dinner at Hooters (don't worry, the "hooters" weren't all that spectacular!), then went up to the top of the Stratosphere (we were too chicken to go on the rides) Friday we went to the Fashion Mall and then to Caesar's Palace for an AWESOME buffet, and then it was time to come home! We had a great time and it was nice to get away for a couple of days! Here's a bunch of pictures of the trip.

Our Room

New York, New York

Ron hitting on the green M&M

Me talkin' with red M&M

A neon tunnel that spins. It was dark so my shutter stayed open longer, therefore the picture is blurry.

Ron's dream...a Viper

Tim, Rod & Elvis

Ron & I at the Tournament of Kings

Our dinner (no silverware!)

Yum!

The Eiffel Tower

In front of the Bellagio waiting for the water show

The water show

MGM Grand

The lions at the MGM

The Gondola ride at the Venitian

Our Gondola driver singing us an Italian love song

A cool fountain at the Palazzo

The view from the Stratosphere

A spiral escalator at Caesar's Palace

A cool Fountain at Caesars

Our lunch buffet at Caesars

If I could sum up our trip in one word, it would be "walking!" We walked EVERYWHERE!!! It was a lot of fun, though! I'm not going to miss the cigarette smoke, the same sex couples, or the millions of guys that stand next to each other and hand out their "girls, girls girls" cards! They were SOOOO annoying!

Applying for a Job...

I have to post this because it was really funny and should be shared at a later date...Ron and I took Michael to see Madagascar 2 last night. Afterwards, we headed to Target for a couple of items. While daddy was at the register, Michael went over to the computers where you apply for a job and climbed up on the chair and was playing with the keyboard (he's obsessed with computers!). So I asked him "are you applying for a job?" to which he replied "yeah!" Shortly after, daddy got done and we started to head out, but he didn't want to come (NOT unusual). So I waved and told him goodbye and started to walk away. He then screamed "NO" (again, not unusual) so I told him to come on then, so he climed off the chair and started to come our way, the whole while yelling something I didn't understand. When he got closer I finally made out that he was yelling "I wanna apply for a job!! I wanna apply for a job!!" Maybe I should've let him, since he probably wont want to when he's old enough....

Ventura Trip

Last Saturday the kids and I bummed a ride with my parents down to Ventura for Dave Neville's wedding. We left around 10am and got there around 12ish (there was a lot of rain/traffic/accidents). First stop, the Camarillo outlet mall for Terry's cookies. If you're ever there, these cookies are AMAZING! They are like "fresh out of the oven, gooey on the inside" cookies! They're $1.50 a cookie, or 4 for $2.50 (I think) of day old cookies (not as amazing!). Then it was off to the wedding site. They had it outside, right on the beach at a park. It was soo nice! Luckily, the rain had stopped, so we didn't get wet. We couldn't hardley keep the kids with us as there were toys to be played on! Here are some pics of the event:

All packed up & ready to go!

Emma eating sand.

It was a cloudy & a little chilly, but he doesn't care!

There was a cool zip line that Michael went on ALL BY HIMSELF!

On your mark....get set...GO!

Cute pics of Emma!

Where the heck is the wind?!?!

Congratulations to Dave & Alisha!

Happy Halloween!!

Yesterday was Halloween. Ron was off, but I worked. I made a checkerboard cake to take to work the night before (didn't turn out quite as I'd hoped, but it still tasted good) and I also made some "Reese's Quiches" (the little cookies with the Reeses mini cups in the middle) for the ward party. That started around 6 to about 8. It was a lot of fun. We combined with College Heights, so Ron's family came, too, since Lindsey & David are in that ward. It was fun. Brody didn't want to wear his costume as a race car driver, though! Too bad! Michael was Peter Pan & Emma was Tinkerbell (although, people kept thinking that Michael was Robin Hood.) I was a little nervous that they wouldn't wear their costumes because when I tried them on them the for the first time, Michael wouldn't wear the hat and got mad because the elastic for the tie on the shirt snapped him in the face. Then, Emma was mad because she couldn't crawl in the dress, so she would just sit up, grab her skirt and shake it up and down while whinning. Luckily, when we got to the church, we told Michael that he couldn't get any candy unless he wore his hat! And Emma started walking, so she didn't have to worry about trying to crawl in her costume. I got some shiney pipe cleaners and made the bow on her head and shoes. I think it turned out pretty cute. Here are some pics of the event.

Walking

Without shoes...

With shoes...