Baby Showers and moving

My sister Sarah had a baby shower in California before she moved to Colorado. It was the most wonderful baby shower I have ever attended. Beautiful food, beautiful home, beautiful presents and beautiful company. Sarah is one lucky lady to call these women friends. Everyone was extremely generous and I felt lucky getting to know some of them.

That same weekend Sarah and Bryce were loading up their van to head off to Colorado. We were able to be there to help them load the truck. Did you know that 1 man, 1 pregnant women, and 3 ladies could load a two bedroom apartment into a truck?

Even though Sarah lives further from me now, I think it was a good move. I would have hated her to have a brand new baby in an apartment that left your bare skin black, YUCK!

Laila's 1st Brithday!

My computer is fixed, I have unpacked all the boxes from the move, look out I am ready to blog!
I have so much to blog about I am a little overwhelmed and I don't quite know where to begin.

The most important event that has happened was Laila's first birthday. She was the luckiest lady and got to celebrate for a few days (mostly because her dad was going to be out of town for her birthday). The first celebration was a party at the pool.

all of Laila's friends that came to celebrate with her.

Laila's first cupcake was thoroughly enjoyed!

She wants more cupcake.

Laila's only birthday picture with her dad in it.

On Sunday we had a birthday dinner for Laila so she could open presents and do the customary "eating of the cake"

After dinner Laila was ready for her cake.

Could it get any better then diving into her very own chocolate cake?!?!

PRESENTS!!

It was so fun to see Laila finally old enough to open and get excited for presents. It was a rude awakening for Aria that she was no longer able to open and play with Laila's gifts. The present that was cause of a lot of sibling contention was a baby doll from Grandma Ruthie. As soon as the doll was released from her box all HECK broke loose. You can see the look of pure TERROR in Laila's face.
After quite a spectacle from my children, Laila cuddled, kissed and fed her baby.
My baby is getting so big!

lack of posts

Hello! My name is Aleena and I am addicted to blogs. 

My computer has been broken for over a week now and feel like I have no idea what is going on in the world.   I have no idea what anyone is doing, everyone is growing up without me.  I got my hands on a computer this morning and got my fix by visiting everyones blogs as fast as I could.  

One the flip side, this last week has been a shocking revelation to how much time I spend on the computer I am stymied by how much more I am accomplishing in the day.  

My name is Aleena and I am a recovering blog addict.  See you when I get my computer. 

ADIOS!

Today is a very happy and a very sad day. My little brother Douglas left for the MTC. I have had such mixed emotions about him leaving because I am so proud of his decision to spread the happy news of the gospel but it will be a full 4 years until our family is together again (I have another little brother that will overlap with Doug).

Doug will never read this but I want the world to know how awesome my little brother is. He has always been such a wonderful example to me in his words and actions, he has ALWAYS wanted to do what is right. I often feel so blessed that he is my little brother I have really enjoyed watching him and Russell grow up into really good men. I am so excited for this chapter of his life, I know that he will be an exceptional missionary!


This is the waterfall that my dad and brothers built in the backyard. This waterfall has been a work in progress for 10 years. After Doug received his mission call he said that all he wanted before he left on his mission was to complete the waterfall. The goal was set for the day he gave his farewell talk in church. When I arrived at my parents house on Thursday, 3 days before the goal, the waterfall was still not very close to being completed.


We like to call this story the miracle of the waterfall, because the whole family got involved in making sure that the waterfall was completed by the farewell. The boys worked on it from 7:00am to midnight on Saturday. Sunday morning an hour before church started we turned it on for the first time. It was interesting how emotional it was. It must have been the fact that my dad and Doug have been working on it for 10 years and it was finally done.

Last family picture for a while.