Making Muffins!

One of my favorite things to do as a child was to help my mom bake. I loved pouring, mixing and of course tasting! I couldn't wait to have Ariyah help me in the kitchen. So, we have been making muffins! She loves to put the paper muffin cups in the muffin tins. She loves to help me measure the ingredients and pour them into the bowl. She especially loves to stir! Last night we made blueberry muffins with fresh blueberries. Yum! I love teaching Ariyah how to bake and hope that we can continue to bake together throughout our lives.

Ready for the oven!

One last taste before we put them in...

Look at my creation! (So they weren't the prettiest muffins ever, but they did taste good!)

Yum! Let's eat!

So grateful...

About two weeks ago we had a little tiny addition to our family! Chris' cousin Kristin had a sweet little baby boy 10 weeks early. He is so very tiny at 3 lbs. But, he is doing great. Every other day or so she posts pictures and thoughts about her little man. He is still in the hospital of course and will be until he gains more weight. They go and visit him everyday. I have appreciated seeing pictures of him and hearing about the entire experience. They are still limited on the amount of time they can hold him, but they go every day and hold him a little, read to him or just touch him. Everything she has posted has been so positive. I am amazed by her and her attitude. She is so grateful for every little gram that he gains and every little milestone that he passes. I am so grateful to have a healthy little girl who I can touch and hold whenever I want. What a blessing it is!

This experience has reminded me that I have so much to be thankful for. My problems seem so little compared to what Kristin's little family is facing, yet I don't think she sees her situation as a trial. Instead she is just so grateful for every second she has with her sweet baby boy. What a great example she is! And, what a great reminder of how precious life is. Every second with our loved ones is a gift that should be cherished. So today I will try to look past the messes, tantrums and runny noses and remember to hold every moment I have with Ariyah dear.

"Fold Arms"

About a month ago, Ariyah started actually saying prayers with me when we bless her food. At first she just would repeat the last word or so of each sentence, but this week she has started to say whole phrases. I absolutely love hearing her pray in her little two-year-old voice. It is a little piece of heaven here on earth! She loves to pray and reminds me to "fold arms" if I am in a rush and forget. No wonder we are told we are supposed to be like a little child...

Happy New Year!

OK, I did it! The blog is updated. I feel better about myself. Now I just need to keep up with it along with the oodles and oodles of other things I want to tackle this year.

Here's to a bright and successful New Year!

Christmas Day

This year all that Ariyah wanted Santa to bring her was "pink presents." Since the beginning of December, I talked to Ariyah about Santa and who he is and what happens on Christmas Eve and all that, hoping that she was catch just a little bit of the excitement of Christmas. Whenever I asked her what she wanted Santa to bring she ALWAYS said "pink presents." So, of course Santa obliged...

Here is Grandma and Ariyah opening just one of the many of her "pink presents"!
Santa also brought Ariyah a little table and chairs, a ton of play food and dishes, and...
a little pink kitchen of course! (Thanks Grandma and Babong, aka Grandpa, for helping Santa with that one! ;-)

Not a day goes by that she doesn't play in her kitchen. She LOVES "cooking" and "washing" the dishes too! (She has a little pink scrub brush, of course!)

We had a great, relaxing, fun Christmas Day with our family. The best part of it for me was seeing Ariyah get so excited about her pink presents. Second best thing was all the delicious food! I love all of our traditional family favorites that we cook each Christmas. We always have a Honey-Baked Ham and green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, sea foam salad (you have to try it before you knock it!), and rolls. I made a LOAD of sweet potatoes for my brothers. We had oodles of leftovers too. Yum! It makes me look forward to next Christmas just thinking about it...maybe I'll have to "celebrate" a little bit throughout the year...

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Family Pictures

This year we had our friend Kacee take our family pictures. I wanted some in the snow, so we bundled up and headed up on the mountain in Bountiful. We actually had fun taking these pictures! Kacee did a wonderful job of capturing who we really are as a family. It was a great experience!

Here are some of our favorites!



This one was our Christmas card! Loved it!

Thanks again Kacee for capturing these precious moments.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Ariyah turned TWO on December 21st. I cannot believe I have a two-year-old. Time goes by so very quickly, and before I could even catch my breath my baby turned into a toddler.

We had a wonderful day! We did all of Ariyah's favorites to celebrate her special day. We started out at Kangaroo Zoo, jumping, jumping, jumping! She loves to jump!

Check out this action shot!
After she had some fries for lunch (another of her faves as of late), she took a short nap and then it was on to Chuck E. Cheese! She loves "Cheeses"! She loves to ride all the little rides and likes to play the games for tickets too. She especially loves to cash them in for her little treasures. This time she chose a little bracelet, ring, stickers and a tootsie pop. What more could a little girl want?
After Chuck E. Cheese, we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Ariyah loves pancakes. She calls them "hotcakes" and asks for them all the time. She got her own little order of "hotcakes" and devoured them!

After dinner, we headed home for presents and cupcakes. It was fun to see her open her presents. I don't know when she learned this, but she knew to rip off the paper to reveal something fun inside! She loves the Little People, so we got her a couple of Little People DVDs and the Zoo Train. She loved it all!

Here she is picking at her cupcake. Daddy got her a special one with chocolate frosting and pink sprinkles from a little cupcake shop downtown. We all loved the cupcakes. Yum! I didn't get a picture of it(we were videoing it), but she blew out her candles all by herself! No help needed!
Ariyah loved being the center of attention and loved her special day. I loved it too. She is so precious to me. I absolutely adore her...even all the things that being two brings! Not a day goes by that I don't thank my Heavenly Father for allowing me to be her mother. It is a gift and a privilege that I will never be able to repay Him for. I'm so grateful for her and for all the things she has taught me in the two years she has been on this earth. I love you sweet girl! No matter how old you get, you will always be my baby.

December...

So much happens in December! Of course there is Christmas (my favorite holiday), but we also have Ariyah's birthday and my birthday too! December is a busy and fun month. This year I wanted to make sure that we did lots of things to celebrate Christmas. I love all the fun things there are to do at Christmastime. Here are some of the highlights:

Children's Christmas Concert at Abbravenel Hall:

Here is Daddy and Ariyah before the concert

Mommy and Ariyah while we were waiting for the concert to start

The concert was so much fun! Before it started we made a little tambourine out of paper plates and jingle bells. During the concert there were times where we could "play" along. Ariyah loved shaking her bells to the music! Santa was there and we got to sing some Christmas songs too. I think we are going to make this event an annual Christmas tradition in our home.

Later in the month we went to see the lights at Temple Square with our dear friends the Gonzalez family. Seeing the beautiful lights on Temple Square always brings the Christmas spirit. What a great tradition. We rode the "train" downtown and had a great, cold!, night.
Here is Ariyah with her crazy hat hair on the train on the way home from seeing the lights.

We also were lucky enough to get tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert this year. The concert featured Natalie Cole. Going to the Mo-Tab concert is my most favorite thing to do at Christmastime. The Spirit that is present always touches my heart and reminds me why we really celebrate Christmas. We had a great time sharing that experience with our friends, the Howard's, this year. (It was their first time!)

Mom got us tickets to the Nutcracker this year too. Ashley, me and Mom went and had a wonderful time. I had never been to the Nutcracker before, so it was a real treat. We had great seats, right in front, and I was literally transported into a magical world. I loved every second of it. I cannot wait to take Ariyah one day.

On Christmas Eve we had a little family party. Ashley and Scott finally made it into town after flights were canceled from the "Blizzard of 2009." Garrett and Gavin were here too. It was wonderful to have most of my family here for Christmas. We had a delicious lunch at Archibald's and then played our gift game. Everyone had a great time.

Archibald's for lunch. If you have never had their fried avocados, you are missing something!
Back to our house for the gift game. Mom did a great job picking out "prizes" for us this year. We all had a great time and left very happy with our loot!
Gavin had to stand in the snow barefoot for 30 seconds to pick his picking order. It was fun to see this Cali boy freeze!

I love my family and love hangin' with my brothers and sisters. Oh how I wish they all lived closer! It was so great to have them all here (except for Em-we missed you!)! Celebrating with family is what Christmas is all about.

Don't Mess With Texas!

In November, I took Ariyah to Texas to visit Emily and the boys. Marc was directing an opera in Corpus Christie, so Em was alone for two weeks! I couldn't let that happen, so off Ariyah and I went! We had a lot of fun hanging out, eating down-home Texas food, and playing with the kiddos at some of the many fun parks they have. Em also took our pictures in this little town called Buda. They have this funky little Main Street with some really old colorful buildings. Very quaint and very cute. Two weeks was a bit long to be away from home, but I'm so glad we did it!


Thanks Em! We love you all and can't wait to see you again soon!

Halloween!

For Halloween Ariyah was a giraffe. Not just any giraffe, but a GIRL giraffe! She had to have some pink on her so everyone knew she was a girl in there. This year she wasn't sure she wanted to wear her costume, but once we told her she gets candy for wearing it, she was fine with it. We had a blast trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. In fact, we were out for nearly two hours! Luckily, it was a pretty warm night. I loved watching her march up to the doors and knock as hard as she could. It was so much fun to see her get so excited for any little piece of candy she got. What fun it is to be a kid again!

Catching up!

So much has happened in the last few months! I promised myself I would keep up on this thing, and by golly, I'm doing it! So here goes my attempt to get all caught up and start off right this new year. Stay tuned...