'Nightmare Before Wedding' Bridal Shower

My sister in law Crystal is getting married and I threw her a Nightmare Before Christmas themed bridal shower. For those of you who don't know what that movie is about (I had to watch it again myself, I had only seen it once) it's about Jack the pumpkin king lives in Halloween Land and he is very good at being the pumpkin king. But then he discovers a door to Christmas Land and loves Christmas. He loves it so much that he wants to do Santa's job. But Sally is kind of like a female Frankenstein and she thinks Jacks idea is not so great. She tries to tell him (like all good women do) but he doesn't listen until its too late and Christmas is ruined...almost. Then they fix it and fall in love. So since Crystal loves that movie I wanted to theme the party towards that. The pictures I took of the guest kept coming out blurry so I only post a couple.

I invited the guests to wear their favorite black and white outfit and a lot of them did! Here is the bride, looking fabulous in her black and white.

Crystal, Janeen, Aryann and Darci. Aryann is a bridesmaid and she is the mom to the kids I watch. And Darci is her mom.

A picture of the cake. I couldn't decide if they made the cake to lean on purpose or if they just did a bad job.

I kind of think they just got away with having a crooked cake because it was NBC themed and they could.

The present table. I got a bunch of the decorations at a garage sale.

I love this. In the movie when Jack is telling everyone back in Halloween land about Christmas he sings a song and says, This is a thing called a present. I found that picture holder and spray painted it black.

Ok here is the food...Don't these jalapeno poppers look so good? They were SUPER HOT though. I mean I felt terrible because I thought a little bit if spicy was good, I know Crystal likes spicy, but they were pretty much unbearable. Although I took the rest home and froze them but we have added one here and there to different things we have cooked. A little bacon and cream cheese and jalapeno to our fresh spinach was yummy.

These sausage wraps were yummy. They tasted like biscuits and gravy in a hot pocket. Yum!

Black and White everything. I got tiny little antibacterial hand sanitizers for like .60 each and gave them little aprons with some lace I got at the garage sale. I thought they were cute.

The punch bowl, with the bride and grooms initials. I downloaded the NBC font online for free and found some shiny white metallic paper that was super fun.

Oh I got these floral pieces at Michaels and added some glossy black spray paint and black glitter. They turned out awesome!

Another garage sale find. They had music notes attached to them. Didn't need those, but the metallic were perfect!

Another phrase from the movie. That flower was like almost practically the same flower that Sally pics the petals off of in the movie.

I wished I had gotten some more close up pics of everything, but I was running around kind of crazy. It turned out way fun.

As for today, we had a good day but very busy. Last night Aaron had a bad night. He was awake at midnight, 3am, and 5am. Turns out that his little whizzer has an infection and I am sure he woke up when he went potty in his diaper because it was sore and it stung. My poor boy. So we went to the doc this afternoon and he told us to keep putting an antibiotic cream on it and clean it every night in the bath. I just feel so bad for letting that happen. But on a side note he is cruising with his crawling. After we got groceries this afternoon I went and got a snow cone for all of us to share. And Aaron loved it! At one point Grace put the cup down and I had never seen that boy crawl so fast and so well! All in one day! So he is on the move these days.

Grace is cruising along with her potty training as well. We were out and about all day and she didn't have an accident. Of course we are still going tinkle a bunch of times per store, but she is just doing great. It amazes me how she learns so quick. Like how she hops up on the toilet just fine. She is so smart. Oh and I have to write this down. I love how she says McDonalds. She has been all about the McDonalds toys lately because Annabel will bring hers over sometimes. So she says, "I want my Micka Donalds toys."

My sweet Grace-don't grow up.

Love Mommy

Father's Day Car Show 2011

Every year we go out to Wendover, NV to celebrate Father's Day at a classic car show. K's grandparents bring out a bunch along with some of their friends and we have a big group of people. Here is our "campsite" and this picture is about half of it. My sweet little Aaron.

Crystal and her fiance Devin with Grace.

Crystal's car and her grandmother Lynn blew up one of her engagement pictures with the car and put it in the window.

It's hard to see with the glare but I tried for a closer picture.

Grace telling the people who were revving their hot rod's engine really loud, "No! Be quiet!"

Grace and Mommy doing our "cheese" cheek to cheek smile.

Grace helping to push the Aaron in the stroller.

Zoey and Grace. Grace loved riding on the scooter with Zoey and she did so well!

Some pics of other people's cars in the shows. I love this one, they painted it Metamucil orange and can you see the license plate and whats sitting in the dash behind the windshield wiper? A can of Metamucil!

I love the blinker on this car, it looks like a crystal from superman!

Doesn't this truck remind you of Mater from Cars??

Cool old car with lantern headlights.

And my favorite a Corvette Sting Ray, although I would get it in a different color..maybe red?

Zoey and Grace in the Daddy's car before the Poker Run.

Toby and Luke in their daddy's car before the Poker Run.

Grace and Aaron in Grace's bed in the hotel room.

Grace at the buffet in the morning for breakfast.

Grace and Jason (Zoey's dad) checking out the mirrored ceiling.

Toby showing me his missing teeth.

Hi Daddy! Happy Father's Day to the best dad ever!

Aaron having himself some sausage for breakfast.

We had a great weekend like always and now I just have to get the bridal party pics up! Then that can be checked off my list. Finally starting to get in the groove of things back here at home!

The Pink Box

You know what I was thinking about last night? A pink box. Well actually not just a pink box but more importantly the pink box. Do you know what I am talking about? If I had a picture I would show you but I don't. The pink box I am referring to is the pink box that donuts come in. A dozen donuts to be exact. A dozen delicious donuts from my childhood.
One of my favorite childhood memories was waking up on Saturday mornings and coming out into the kitchen and finding out Yay! Mom got donuts! My favorite donuts are chocolate bars, and then cake donuts with rainbow sprinkles. I know a lot of people prefer the glazed and Krispy Cremes to be more precise, but I prefer the generic chocolate bar.
I think it must be a San Diego thing too, because in San Diego its like you can find a donut shop everywhere or on every corner, but not really here in Utah. Last night I thought about going this morning to go get donuts, because I think I know where a donut shop is, but then I was too tired to this morning.

Today we tried to have a relaxing day, although it was only a little bit. Aaron has slept through the night till 6am the last two nights, however I have gone to bed so late that I haven't gotten up with him. Just nursed him and snuck him back into his crib for another hour and a half. Although I still felt wiped. I am glad that all of our craziness has slowed way down. I managed to get some laundry done with K's help this morning and did watch How to Marry a Millionaire with Marilyn Monroe while the kids were napping. I also got most of the leg bands on the cloth diapers adjusted with K's help as well. Have I mentioned lately that I still love my cloth diapers. I was telling K just last week that I am so glad I decided to go with cloth. It is more work and some days I do just grab a disposable when I cant get the diapers washed right that instant. But really Aaron does well with them. In fact with all of our traveling and him using the disposables I noticed that he can get like a dry skin rash on his legs. And he has had like 2 diaper rashes in his almost 9 months of life and that was when he was on antibiotics for his ear infections.
The cloth diapers have been a great investment and soon we won't have to buy diapers but rarely because Grace will be potty trained soon. At least I hope!
She is doing great, we have accidents but really it seems only at home when she is busy playing outside or downstairs.
Today we took a walk to the elementary school after dinner and right after we left to come back home she told us she had to go potty. Well there is not potty except at home so she had to hold it and hold it she did! She did great!
K and I are planning on running a 5k in July for our church. I have always wanted to run a 5k and have never done it. Well this one is sponsored by the church and the money goes to funding the new church building. I am excited, and I think some of my playgroup families will be joining in as well!
I am beat got to go to bed. Wendover and Bridal Shower pics to come this week!

Hogle Zoo

I knew I had another field trip/event to post pictures of and it was when we went to Utah's Hogle Zoo! This face is priceless. I promise promise promise that I will get K's baby picture up soon and you all can see how identical Aaron and Daddy are. Grace and her friend Aiden, he just turned 2! Sweet boy.

Mommy and Grace at the elephants.

Aaron, Grace and the kids looking at the baby lemurs playing. Nothing cuter than a baby lemur.

We played stroller swap halfway through. Ransom (Grace's other buddy who turns 3 in September) wanted to ride with Grace and the seat was open because Ransom's grandmother was holding Aaron. Then she put him down in Ransom's stroller. He was happy to be sitting up and getting graham cracker crumbs all over.

Grace and Ransom holding hands! Ransom is so tall and even though he is only 4 months older than Grace he is a lot taller!

I had pumped that morning because I think Aaron had slept straight through the night so he got a bottle that morning and was holding it himself. He liked it cold too.

Lunchtime!

Waiting in line for the little train.

Mommy, Grace and Aaron riding the train.

Well tomorrow is the bridal shower and all the planning and preparing I have been doing will finally come to fruition. I can't wait. It should be a lot of fun. I also can't wait to see the cake I ordered. K helped me tonight with a sign I needed printed and it was so sweet of him to run out and take care of it after dinner. (I think he is ready to have his house back to normal and to not be in the midst of planning something or going somewhere.)

We got our vacuum back last night and K vacuumed today while I finished up shower decorations and it works great. It was nice to not have dog hair everywhere. With both dogs blowing their coats it was an insane time to not have a vacuum.

I think that Aaron must be going through a growth spurt because all this week he has been waking up at between 4 or 5am. And let me tell you I am beat when he does because I have been going to bed so late. He is crawling pretty good now. Its not a cordinated hands and knees crawl, but more of a kick with a leg crawl. Or sometimes he inches on his stomach, then sits back up, then pivots then trys again. Also today I watched him try to stand straight up without putting his hands down for balance. If I grab his hands when he is standing then he tries to take steps. My favorite time with him is in the morning. He always wakes up so happy. This morning we were commenting how he is an early bird, like his great grandfather. I think that is so funny. He has been hayfevering a lot though poor kid. Which is a bummer because I can't really treat him for allergies.

Grace is doing super well with her potty training. We had to run errands this morning and I must have taken her to the bathroom twice in the 3 stores we were in! But we didn't have any accidents (I was doubly worried about that because she had musecli (oatmeal) for breakfast this morning and than can give her a bad diaper rash)

I can't believe my sweet little girl is growing up! Tonight she had the rest of her chocolate and peanut butter ice cream and she was sharing it with Aaron. He loved it too was more mad when it was all gone than she was! Grace kept kissing Aaron's head and then after the ice cream was all gone I looked and Aaron had all of these chocolate kisses all over his head!

On a side note our garden is doing mostly well. The seeds I planted a couple weeks ago are growing. Grace helped with that, so maybe thats why! Although she also "helped" un plant my blackberries and raspberries too! The tomatoes are struggling a bit it looks like the bugs are getting them and the pepper plants are struggling a lot. So we will see.

Time to get in bed, I have a busy day tomorrow!

I sure do hope you all are having as wonderful of a summer as we are!