Cactus & Botanicals

We had Marley's one year pictures taken by a photographer named Laurie (per my wonderful mother-in-law) and she really like the tutu Marley was wearing (thanks, Mandi). She said that if I made her a couple of tutus, she would trade me free pictures. So, of course, I was all over it!
Pictured above are the tutus I made...they were supposed to have a fairy-type feel. I thought they turned out pretty cute, especially the blue one with the little butterfly (again, thanks, Mandi). So I guess this post is a thank you to Mandi, the Tutu Guru, for showing me all there is to making tutus!

Laurie was taking pictures of little kids dressed as fairies at this really awesome greenhouse, Cactus & Botanicals. Marley was a little apprehensive about standing in the middle of the flowers, but we managed to ease her into them by slowly arranging the flowers around her while she was standing. Ack! What you end up doing to get a decent picture! But it worked out perfect for Mother's Day gifts!


Marley was supposed to wear a crown of flowers...as you can see, it didn't quite work out that way! She was fine, until I attempted to place it on her head, and that's when the tears started. Even when she noticed me moving the crown of flowers out of the way, she started to cry because she thought I was putting them back on her head!


Marley played with the wand for about 10 seconds before trying to give it back. I was really surprised because Sadie has a princess wand that she really liked.



I really like the ones where she is touching her little chin!

The Nightmare we call Swimming Lessons!

It started as a normal Saturday. Things were calm and nice...she even smiled after she donned her swim suit....


As we entered the water Marley started to turn...she pretty much cried through out the 45 minute lesson! It was kind of embarrassing because all the other parent's children were model swimmers: no crying and willing to playing in the water! The instructor asked me if she was tired and I'm like, 'no, she hates the water!' The instructor suggested I just hold her and get her used to the water and not do all the activities. So we powered through it (I mean we have 5 more lessons left and I want her to get comfortable with the water!) even though I got the evil eye from some of the parents. I'm sure they thought I should just give up!



During the back float (which was the last 5 minutes of the class) she actually calmed down and stopped fussing! Maybe next Saturday will be better!

Cross Stitch

So lately I have been doing cross stitching (and some of you are the recipients of these cross stitch projects, which you may or may not have liked). Forever ago I got this really cute pattern for a helicopter from the Early Bird Special Blog. I have a friend who recently had a baby boy and so I used this pattern for her. Cross stitch is something I really like doing...but sometimes they don't turn out as cute as I imagine them to be! Anyway, I'm going to keep at it and hopefully get better!!

Nap Time

While at Grandma Ruth's, Marley had a great time playing around and spending time with her grandma...then she decided it was nap time! She stopped playing, came over to her grandma and just feel asleep in her lap!! I thought it was so cute!

Flaming Gorge with J&M

Since we love going to the cabin in Flaming Gorge, there will probably be a lot of posts regarding our trips up there. This time we had the lucky opportunity to go with our good friends Justin & Mandi, and their two cute little girls, Sadie and Kinley. Even though the weather was supposed to be warmer with "light showers", it turned out to be cold and snowy! But we managed to have a great time anyway. Kevin and I now can call ourselves the Phase 10 & LRC ChAmPiOnS as we dominated Justin & Mandi in both games! YE-AH! (he he he!) It was so fun and we are going to have to plan to go up again sometime soon when the weather is actually, nice (if it's possible; it seems every time we go, the weather is uncooperative)!

Sadie just loved the go-carts...it's too bad it wasn't warmer
because we didn't stay outside for long!


Here come Mandi and Sadie!

Sadie brought her little princess scooter up, and Marley

was absolutely enthralled with that scooter. She would

stand and hold on to it just perfectly and let you push

her around. She tried to scoot herself around, but she's

just a bit too small to do it herself. It looks like we are

going to make a trip to Target some time soon so Marley

can have a scooter of her own!

I love these pictures of Sadie and Marley with the scooter.

Sadie was such a sweetheart share her most precious

toy with Marley!

When going through the pictures, I realized I had very

few of Miss Kinley! But the one on the top left is a good

picture of her! Can I just say she's a wonder baby? Her

crying must be a myth because I never heard it and she

is ALWAYS giggling, smiling, and in a good mood! What

a gem! I also love the picture of Marley and Sadie standing

at the foot of the stairs! Too cute!

There's rocking moose that I just couldn't resist getting

a picture of Sadie and Marley on!

These little recliners are awesome. Sadie's just kicked back

and lounging...Marley, however, had a case of the wiggles.

sAn DiEgO

We took a fabulous little trip to beautiful San Diego (so fabulous, in fact, that I posted A LOT of pictures!) I hadn't been there since I was in high school, so it was really nice to go back for a visit. We rented a bay house and stayed with our good friends, Karl & Chantae, and their adorable daughter, Charlie. We went to Sea Port Village, Old Town San Diego, Balboa Park, a Padres Game, surfing/boogie boarding, and the San Diego Wildlife Preserve. We had a wonderful week and wished it was longer!!


The view from the bay house was beautiful and it was such
a cute little town home!

More great views...if you look at the bottom right, you can
see the San Diego temple.

This is Marley's first time wearing sunglasses and she'd
smile every time we put them on! Charlie was already
a sunglasses-wearing pro!

I love the picture of Charlie on the top right where she
is trying to touch the bubbles.

This is Marley's first Easter! We managed to pack their
Easter baskets without crushing them or have the candy
melt!

We took in a Padres game...

We stopped at a hat store...

I really love these photos of Charlie and Marley eating

powdered donuts!! They look so adorable!

Charlie and Marley got along really well. I really like

the picture of them giving each other a kiss and the ones

where Charlie is feeding Marley Kix.

The San Diego Wild Animal Preserve was actually really

great for the kids because they really liked all the animals

and we didn't have to wait in line (that extra $20 was worth

skipping the hour-long line at the safari ride!). The loriket

encounter was awesome! We fed then nectar which made

the birds flock to us like mad!

These are some pictures we took while on the safari ride.

This is Marley's first time on the carousel, which she

absolutely loved. Charlie, on the other hand, thought

differently. She couldn't wait to get off!

This is in a covered wagon at Old Town San Diego. The

girls had so much fun running around screaming their

lungs out!

Can I just say that the San Diego Temple has to be one

of the most gorgeous temples? It is absolutely stunning!!

It would have been nice to have enough time and someone

to watch the kids so we could do a session.

First Year Pictures

Grandma Ruth wanted Marley's year pictures done by a photographer that also does
2-dimensional cut-outs of the pictures taken. And, of course, I broke the tutu out again
(thanks Mandi!) because I think it's completely adorable!! There are TONS of pictures
because I have this problem with making decisions...so I ended up getting the CD with
all the pictures!

I love the first picture in this series because of her sad looking
face and that you can see her crocodile tears!



I loves these pictures as well...especially the one wear she
is attempting to read the book!



I love the top middle and right pictures. The top middle
is so cute because she looks like a little ballerina and the
top right because it looks likes she's doing the hula.



My favorite of these pictures is the first one...JUDO
CHOP!!

Is Grandma Ruth off her rocker?!

Marley's wonderful Grandma Ruth watches her every Tuesday because that is the day I work. Usually, we will have dinner together when everyone gets home from work. One day we had a really special dinner....it was very, um, interesting!! Ruth had made chicken pot pies and colorful looking cup cakes (or so we thought!!) We started to become frightened when we realized the chicken pot pies were cold (I mean, who wants to eat that cold?!) and wondered why she was serving dessert right in the middle of dinner. She encouraged us to eat our food, and as we did, our taste buds became confused! The "chicken pot pie" was actually dessert made of pudding, start bursts, bananas, apples, and skittles, and the colorful "cupcakes" were actually little meatloaf cakes with mashed potatoes as frosting! I think the hardest thing for us to get over was the mashed potatoes because we expected it to taste sweet!! I thought that this was such a great and creative way to play an April Fool's joke!

When Ruth showed me these pictures, I realized how she's able to watch Marley all day on Tuesdays and not go crazy....

Marley loves to crawl in to Ruth's dog's kennel to check out the water bottle or to try and eat the dog food (yuck!)...the only thing is, she can't seem to figure out how to get herself back out!!

Flaming Gorge Cabin Fever

Over the weekend, we went to Flaming Gorge with my siblings. We absolutely love going to the cabin because it's so relaxing. When we're at home, even with time off, we tend to get caught up in doing stuff around the house and running errands. When we go up to the cabin, you can't do any around-the-house things, so you are force to just take it easy. We watch movies, go for walks, and play games! Sometimes just hanging out and doing nothing is the best thing in the world!! We do bring our own food, but we also eat dinner at the lodge, which, considering it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, isn't too bad!!



Storing your kids toys, Flaming Gorge style



Marley has such a good time milling about the cabin



We saw geese and wild turkeys!



Cabin pics! The picture in the top left hand corner
is stain glass that my mother-in-law MADE!! So
impressive!

Pay it forward

{The Rules}
1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me~something crafty or yummy, who knows?!
2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will 'Pay It Forward,' creating a handmade gift~anything, for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on their post about this giveaway!
3. The gift that you send to your friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts.
♥ ♥ ♥
I found this on Mandi's blog so I figured I better get it on my blog so don't feel so guilt about getting a treat and then not giving something to someone else (because, Mandi, giving tights to Sadie really doesn't count! ) I have some things in mind on what it will be, but feel free to leave a request! Have Fun!

Marley it's your birthday! Happy birthday, Marley!

Marley it's your birthday! Happy birthday, Marley!

Marley's birthday party was so much fun! We had a bunch of family and friends come over to celebrate with a monkey cake, pink & brown frosted cupcakes & ice cream! Thanks to everyone who came and gave such wonderful, thoughtful gifts. A big thanks to my sister-in-law, Tina, who made all the delicious desserts possible!! She even made and decorated the monkey cake and did a fabulous job even though she'd never done it before!!!
We are so excited, yet still in utter disbelief, that our little baby girl is now actually a whole year old!! As with everyone who's a mom or a dad, we have had an immensely wonderful time being able to observe Marley change, evolve, and develop her own little personality. Marley is a fantastic blessing in our home and we strive hard every day to enjoy every single moment of her life with her because the time we are granted slips away so rapidly! The post below shows a slide show of Marley during her first year and it's a tad long because I had a hard time (as usual) deciding what pictures to use...so I had to trim it somewhat to make it a bit shorter!!
Here are a few things that she is able to do now:
*She is now able to walk and walk well (except she did a ‘banana-peel’ type slip on a slippery spot on the floor the other day!).
*She can climb up stairs but has not mastered climbing down as of yet.
*She uses a ‘reach’ with her arm as a gesture for asking for things she wants.
*She’s horribly addicted to her Binky (thanks to mom!)
*She loves books.
*She loves to open & close anything that will open & close.
*She can say ‘Mama’ & ‘Dada’ & a plethora of jibber-jabber.
*She loves little kids.
*She attempts to eat everything—even though she still has no teeth!!
*She gives beautiful hugs & kisses.
*She loves to dance, especially when we turn on music.
*She smiles at herself every time she looks in the mirror.
*She loves her family!
*She's a wonderfully sweet and good-natured child!
*There is so much more….but there’s not enough room!!

A year of Marley