Allie Has a Big Girl Bed!

Allie figured out how to jump out of her crib, so we traded it in for a big girl bed! We are all still adjusting though. She did so well at falling asleep in her crib until she starting crawling out. Now it is really hard to get her to stay in her bed and fall asleep. After one night of her jumping out before I could even walk out of her room (like 20 times!) I thought we'd better trade it in before she broke her neck! Any suggestions at keeping her in bed?? I can't belive how big she is getting! She will be 2 next month! Where did the time go?!





BEFORE:

AFTER:

Oh my goodness

I love this little

girl!!

This is the cake I

am going to attempt

to make for her

birthday. I planned

ahead this year and

bought the pan well

in advance. We will

not have a repeat of

last years cake pan

not arriving in time!

She loves Cinderella,

but Ariel is also one

of her favorites. So

I splurged and bought

this cake pan too!

Maybe this one can be

for next year!

I'm Back in School!

School started again! (Here's the "first-day-back-to-school picture you wanted Mom!) I can't believe I am already through the first 3 weeks of my third semester of Nursing School. So far so good! I am really enjoying this semester so far. Fingers are crossed that I will continue to love it. I have the best group of girls. We, unlike a lot of people in our class, just roll with the punches and don't stress the little things. We know when to take things seriously and when to not stress out and laugh. And you know what? It is working fabulously! We are doing really well in our classes and loving our time in nursing school. Some days we are sad it is going by so fast! I'm doing my clinicals at Banner Baywood on the medical/surgical floor for the first half of the semester and am reminded why I don't want to work med/surg. Thankgoodness there are people out there that want to do it, because we definitely need them, but I am so not one of them. It is Labor and Delivery all the way for me. I have been in L&D department almost 4 years now and I absolutely love it! My externship at Banner Gateway is going really well. I am learning a lot and have to fight off tears everytime one of my patients has a baby. So cheesy I know, but until you are in a room where new life is brought into the world you have no idea the emotions that go into it. I feel so blessed to be a part of it all. I will graduate in May of 2009, so I keep telling myself that I have less than a year left of school before I will have my RN. Woo-hoo!! I am so grateful to my aunt Emily, my grandma, and my amazing sister-in-law Kristi for watching Allie. It is hard enough to leave her, but it makes me feel better knowing she is playing with cousins and being spoiled by grandparents. Thank you so much ladies! I owe you big time!

I love these girls!

I keep saying we have

way too much fun to

be nursing students.

As you can see it was

a little windy this day.

But never fear, Sharla

is a master at ratting

her hair and spraying it

stiff. The wind blew it

up and then it would fall

back perfectly untouched.

I had a Birthday!

I turned the big 2-3 on the 5th of this month! It was an all out birthday weekend. Friday was my actual birthday and my amazing husband treated me to a breakfast in bed of gluten-free waffles, eggs, bacon, lil' smokies, and of course, my favorite, a cold glass of milk. Nice job honey! He also gave me a Sarah McLauchlin CD I've been wanting and $$ for clothes. He could not have done a better job this year! I love you Nick!! My nursing girls treated me and Shaela (who had a birthday the week before) to Applebee's and then we went back to Jaime's for a party. Allie absolutely loved the princess theme. All the party favors had princesses on them! Can I just say that I love the fact that I am married with a child and going to college, and that we can still have parties where we wear crowns, watch Enchanted, and eat cake with pink frosting and sprinkles. Please tell me I will never be too old for these things. I felt like I was in junior high again at a birthday laughing with my friends and trying on my birthday outfits! They gave me some really cute clothes! Why has it taken me this long to figure out that it's ok to dress girly...and that it can be fun?! I know this sounds ridiculous to a lot of you, but those who have known me for a long time can atest to the jean and T-shirt phase that I have been in for...my whole life! Saturday we had a birthday BBQ at my in-laws and played wiffleball in the backyard. We always have a fun time when we're all together! Also, my sister-in-law Kristi announced she is pregnant!! This will be their third and we are really excited for them! Congrats Kristi and Tyler! Congrats to the big sisters Emma and Hailey, too! Sunday we celebrated with my family. My mom bought my sinfully delicious birthday cake at the Cheesecake Factory. They have a Godiva gluten free cheesecake and it is to die for! How on earth is it gluten-free and amazingly good?! (Even the family who don't have to eat gluten-free agreed it was to die for. That is how you really know it's good.) It is the richest cheesecake I have ever had and therefore impossible to eat a slice in one sitting. Thanks Mom for the perfect cake and shopping $$!

Allie got lots

of love from

Grandma and

Rick.

I love it when

all the family

gets together!

Here's just a

small group

of them.

I'm sure poor

Snowball hates

it when we all

get together.

She is so good with

the kids, so she is

always surrounded

by them.

I'm telling you this

cheesecake is heaven

sent! We all looked

like we were in

diabetic comas after

eating it though.

My cute friend

Jess made this

way good gluten-

free cake and it

was inhaled.

Thanks Jess!

Anytime Cami walked

away Allie would yell

for her to come back

and sit by her. They

are so fun to watch!

All tuckered out

after entertaining

so many people!

We cleaned the office...finally!!

Ok, after this I think you will all be up to speed on what we've been up to since our last post...like four weeks ago. After a year and a half of living in our house we finally cleaned out the office...well, at least we organized the office. Nick and I both worked on it together and it didn't take long at all. Why on earth did we wait this long to do it?! It is sooo much easier to see what we have in food storage and to actually get to it.


BEFORE:



















AFTER:

This is an example of what happens when we don't

use our exercise equipment...Allie uses it as a slide.

Leave it to her to make the best of things!

Wedding Part Two

Well, I did it again, I'm posting out of order. Oh well, read the one below this first and then read this one to understand. Saturday we spent the day at my dad's parents house in Cordes Junction. A way little town about 30 minutes south of Prescott. I was reminded that I don't like small towns. #1: They are super dark at night. #2: At night the only thing I can think of is some crazed lunatic sweeping through the town and killing everyone. No one would find out for days because small town people keep to themselves. (Have I heard of too many scary movies??) #3: I always feel like I need to take a shower. #4: There are always children running around dirty. Haha, that one sounds really petty. I love the idea of my kids playing with the neighbor kids outside in the country, but the fact is, them being dirty all the time would drive me insane. Appparently I need to loosen up. #5: I always think of the houses in small towns being really tiny, cluttered, and only half finished. This too would drive me insane. Now I know that not every small town is like this, and not every house in a small town is like this, but for some reason when I think of small towns these are the things that come to mind! Even though I never thought I was a "city girl", holy cow I am totally a city girl. Poor Nick, he loves small towns, so as you can guess this creates quite the dilemma. Luckily, he doesn't want to raise our kids in a small town, so maybe when we retire I will feel better about the whole small town thing. Back to being with family! We got to hang out and talk for the day while the kids played. It was weird seeing Allie play with my younger siblings! She absolutely loved them! We also got to get pictures of all of us kids minus the youngest one, Sammy. I'm really glad it worked out for us to go this weekend.

Our happy travelers!

Ben, Allie, and Chris

Allie had never seen

a real cat before

(weird I know), so she

was amazed by the

two cats there.

Miranda and Allie.

They got along

really well. Allie

followed her around

a lot.

She finally let my

dad hold her! He'd

been wanting a

picture with her

since Friday, but

she kept being a

punk. I'm glad this

one turned out.

My siblings:

Levi - 7

Miranda - 10

Sierra - 12
Sammy (not there),

but he's 2.

My dad said he

couldn't have it

any better: 3 boys

and 3 girls.

Levi and Chris kept

begging my dad's

dad to take them for

a ride in the jeep. It

belongs to one of my

uncle's who passed

away and Chris has

been obsessed with it

for years. Levi kept

saying: "Grandpa, my brother and I are just lookin'

over that jeep and are really wanting a ride in it."

They finally got their ride and I'm sure both of them

will talk about it for years. I think it's so cute how proud

they are to call us brother and sister. I'm still getting

used to it I think :)

I like this picture because, like Nick said, it is my dad in his element. He's been changing tires his whole life and said he can probably do it in his sleep. I think it's fun seeing someone do something they are good at.

Wedding

Last Friday one of my dad's brothers got married. Nick, Allie, and I, along with my brother and one of my cousins drove up to Prescott for the wedding. I hadn't seen my dad in a little over a year so it was really good to see him. He brought my two sisters and one of my brothers. The youngest one, Sammy, is only 2 so he stayed home with his mom. I haven't seen the oldest sister in 3 years and I haven't seen the other two kids in over 6 years so I'm really glad my dad brought them. Holy cow they changed a lot! Obviously, but still it was amazing to see how different they were. We had fun getting to know them at the wedding dinner. It was actually fun seeing my dad too. It's harder for me to stay mad at him lately. I'm trying to remember to enjoy myself when I'm actually with him, because I never know when he'll come around again. I don't know how, but Allie started calling my dad "Grandpa" and his parents "Grandma and Grandpa". It was so weird hearing her call them by those names. Obviously that's what they are to her, but I had never called them that before around her. I'm guessing she must have heard some of the other kids saying it. I don't know if I liked it or not. I guess it's not fair to Allie for me to keep her from that side of the family, but sometimes I think it would be easier for me if I could. We stayed in a ghetto motel in Prescott. Seriously, super ghetto. If we would have stayed more than one night we definitely would have found a different hotel. I'm so glad Allie isn't crawling anymore or I would have been way more paranoid. Random story about my cousin who went with us: Ben, my cousin, is friends with my other cousin Lynsey (they are not related). They go to the same school and run track together. He was over at her house one night with some other friends and was looking at a family picture on her wall. He said, "I think that girl is my cousin! What's her name?!" Lynsey said, "What?! That's my cousin. Her name is Mindy." To which Ben replied, "Holy crap! She's my cousin!" Now mind you, I hadn't seen Ben in over 10 years. My brother really wanted to get in touch with Ben and his siblings, but we didn't know where they lived or what they were doing in life. Come to find out, they live about 2 miles north of us and we now meet in the same ward building. What are the odds after all these years?!! We ended up being able to go to his older brother's, Justin's, mission farewell and last weekend we got to drive up to the wedding with Ben. It truly must be a small world.

Allie clunked around

in my shoes for a

while. She was the life

of the party. People

kept taking pictures

of her and she was

hammin' it up for

the camera!

Me, my dad,

and Chris.

Allie loved the

dancing! She

kept asking people

to take her back

out on the dance

floor.

Nick put Allie on his feet and danced with

her. So cute! Yes, Nick is wearing Wranglers. He was

more than excited it was a small town wedding and

knew he could get away with it.

Hairspray and Breaking Dawn Party!

I'm a little behind on my blogging! Two Fridays ago my friends and I had a Hairspray/Breaking Dawn party! We watched the new Hairspray movie (well kinda, we mostly talked and ate) at Jaime's house. She had headbands and cans of hairspray for each of us...along with twinkies, suckers, and chocolate. We had a blast taking pictures and dancing, and Jaime showed us all how to truely "rat pack" our hair. (My hair has never had so much volume. She has a gift.) After the movie we went to Barnes and Noble to get our reserved copy of Breaking Dawn! (No we are not crazy insane fans, but it was a really fun excuse for a sleepover! Another plus: since my birthday is the beginning of Sep. I told my mom she could give me money for the book and that could be an early birthday present, so I didn't even have to pay for it!) Luckily Jaime's friends were standing in line for us so really we didn't wait long at all. We got there about 10:30 and were in the store by 11. We browsed the nursing section and people watched. Ok, I thought I was obsessed...not even close. There were people dressed up like vampires and other characters in the book, people with fang marks on their neck, people in prom dresses with fancy updos...holy cow. I couldn't believe how many people were there either! Barnes and Noble did an awesome job with crowd control, so when our numbers were called it wasn't crazy at all. We got out of there around 1 and planned on going back to Jaime's to read. Instead we ended up talking until 5 and decided maybe we'd better sleep for an hour or so. It was totally a high school sleepover. We talked about "past loves", jerk boyfriends, and embarrassing stories. Nick was changing out my grandparents A/C on Saturday, so I didn't get very much sleep that day...but it was worth it! I haven't had a sleepover in years! Thanks for being such an awesome husband, Nick!! (I was telling my friends some story about Nick the other day and Jaime made the comment that Nick was an Edward because he would do anything to make me happy. I told Nick and even though he knew it was quite the compliment, I don't think he'll ever know big of a compliment it actually was...) What's really sad about this whole Edward thing, is that he's not even real!! It's not like he's some hot celebrity that maybe someday somehow someone will have a chance with him...he doesn't exist! And yet...somehow...it doesn't matter :) . I still think he's amazing. I absolutely loved the 4th book and even though right at first I wasn't depressed like I was after the other ones it only took a couple of days for it to sink in. I'm sad the series is over, but it sounds like Stephenie is not done with the characters yet! I'm amazed at how her writing made millions of people fall in love with fictional characters. There's definitely a difference between a good writer and a brilliant one. My vote is that Stephenie Meyer is brilliant.

Party favors!

HAIRSPRAY!

We had way too

much fun taking

this picture!

Do you remember

lining up like this

in elementary

school and doing

each other's hair?!

Jess and I waiting

for our number

to be called!

They were handing

our these stickers

at the door.