Pretty girl

Some Birthdays and a Baptism

 

So to add to the craziness of our Christmas break, Mya had a very special birthday! After getting home from New Orleans, I had basically two days to unpack, do laundry, and put away Christmas before Mya's big #8. And I had to get the house ready for visitors and write a talk for her baptism and go to a Primary activity and plan a lesson and celebrate a birthday and host a little girl sleepover and find baptism shoes. By Saturday night I was exhausted!

 

 

Even though the timing of everything made things a little hectic with her birthday being 10 days after Christmas, I am really grateful that she was able to get baptized so close to her birthday. It made the weekend really special.

 

 

 

So Friday was her birthday. She had gone to a sleepover the night before and then we shopped Party City for birthday balloons, etc. on her actual birthday. We had spaghetti for dinner for the second year in a row and then opened gifts. My friend Ashley made the awesome balloon banner.

 

 

Fun presents- jewelry box, necklace, CTR ring, baptism dress, etc. Loved the cake idea- so simple and cute!

 

 

After she went to bed, I did some redecorating to get ready for the baptism the next day while Jake picked up my parents at the airport.

 

 

 

Saturday was the big day! She wore my baptism dress to be baptized in just like Elle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were so glad to have both of our parents be able to come and support Mya, as well as many of our friends. It really was a great day! Mya looked beautiful in her dress- so glad that after 4 orders I finally had a dress that would work! After we had some yummy pizza, opened gifts, and had cake.

 

 

 

 

 

I am so proud of Mya and have noticed changes in her behavior ever since her baptism. She is such a great kid and trying so much harder to do what is right. She came home and wanted to write things down about her baptism and started working on her talk for the Baptism Preview at the end of the month all by herself. She wrote the whole talk with little help. Such a good example!

 

 

A couple pics from the little girl sleepover before the weekend...

 

 

My mom stayed with me for a week after Mya's baptism. It was so fun to have her here! We went to the zoo, Bouncin Bears, out to lunch more than once, out to breakfast and dinner, shopped, got dessert, and went to the movies. A sad day when she has to go back home! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love visits from my mom because she is such a big help around the house with projects and redecorating. My house is always cuter after her visits. Cole was happy to help her with building these cubes for the boys room, and I am really happy with how it all turned out. Random pic from Oak Alley... 

 

 

And then it was Elle's birthday! She turned 10 today!!! How did that happen! Crazy to think that 10 years ago tonight I was in a hospital in Utah, unable to really sleep very well, with my first little baby girl. My how things changed on this day 10 years ago. Such a wonderful change- can't say life has been always easy because parenthood is anything but. However, I wouldn't trade it for anything and am so grateful this little one came into our lives and made us really grow up and become parents. Such a special day to remember. And the weekend became even more wonderful by the birth of Esther's cute little baby girl Harper yesterday!

 

 

Ten years old is the magic age where we let Elle get her ears pierced. She was definitely nervous but did such a good job and it came out really great! I think she is happy with it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we celebrated with presents, flowers, salmon for dinner, and ice cream cake for dessert. I love my ten year old!

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

New Years in NOLA

 

Our Christmas break was a busy two weeks. Started off with Christmas right at the beginning, and then we had two days to move beyond it and get ready for our trip to New Orleans. I had great intentions of getting Christmas all put away before our trip... silly me. That didn't even come close to happening. I did, however, get the laundry done and 6 of us packed and shopped for Mya's birthday and saw Les Miserables and even made some muddy buddies. With all that going on, Christmas stayed put and we headed out to enjoy a trip to the swamp with some friends.

 

 

Jake's parents were out of town but were kind enough to let us and two other families use their home as a hotel for four nights. The trip started out a little rough with a drive that took a good 2+ hours longer than it should thanks to some poor weather, poor road choices, and poor traffic. I did discover on this little excursion that IPhones have a "walk" or "public transportation" mode on Google maps and if you accidentally push it, you may just think you are headed to a dead end where you will have to walk in the dark for 11 or so hours. It was a fun drive.

 

 

 



And really what's a trip to New Orleans without some really good food! Our first full day was spent freezing it up at Parkway Bakery as we waited for delicious po-boys and sweet potato and cheesy fries. It was really, really cold and it took a really, really long time but it was really, really good so I would say it was really, really worth it.

 

 

After lunch we headed down to the French Quarter. It was a super crowded weekend, being New Years and all so we had to park and hike through the crowds to get to Jackson Square. Dragon Masters didn't disappoint although their routine might be a bit too risky for the 14 and under crowd.

 

 

 

 

We were freezing. So cold. I had luckily packed enough warm stuff for us to be okay but it was still super cold and some of our friends weren't quite as prepared. We didn't get to do everything we wanted to in the French Quarter but that is okay. There is always next time.

 

 

 

 

On Sunday we about doubled the branch attendance at church and then spent the afternoon hiking in the swamp. No gators this time and the path was actually closed off a ways in due to construction but it was still fun to get outside and walk around.

 

 

 

And, for the record, Elle is still terrified of the swamp. Hence the reason that she is missing from this picture below. The idea for this trip was born when my best buddy Heidi told me that she and her husband would be in New Orleans after Christmas. Dave served his mission in Louisiana and actually knew Jake's grandma. Small little world! Anyways, because she would be in town we recruited our other Mardi Gras-going friends and made a mini vacation out of it. We had such a good time with Heidi and Dave and were so glad they spent the whole day with us. I appreciated the help because Sunday was my dinner night- Cajun feast of jambalaya and red beans. The extra hands in the kitchen was much appreciated!

  

 

And now seems like an appropriate time to offer up a moment of silence (or a song from Les Mis) for Jake's parents' birds that both died on this day.......... Ok moment over. It really was quite sad. The poor little things couldn't handle the cold and we are apparently uneducated, insensitive pet killing house guests so beware if we ever come for a visit!

 

 

Monday morning the boys golfed and stopped by the house mid-game to let the kids take the carts for a spin. And considering Elle is pretty conservative by nature, I was shocked by her fearlessness in driving the golf cart. She was a little too daring in my book, even causing Mya to bail ship at one point, but luckily everyone made it out okay.

 

 

 

And with the boys getting some free time to golf, it only seemed fair that the girls got to go on an outing also. We used our free time dining and touring Oak Alley plantation and taking the long way home along the river. We may have stayed out longer than our allotted time but we enjoyed ourselves immensely and didn't really feel guilty one bit.

 

 

 

 

 

On New Year's Eve we were lucky to find an open beignet shop for our last outing of the trip. Loads of powder sugar equals instant entertainment!

 

 

 

 

And that night we celebrated in true Texas style with some fireworks. Illegal, I might add, but I didn't tell you that.

  

 

 

 

We had such a good time on this trip! It was a little too cold on Saturday for my liking and the dying birds were definitely a low point, but overall I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The kids played so well together and had so much fun. I loved having extra hands around the kitchen and everywhere else as we cooked and cleaned together. We stayed up way too late every night, leaving us tired in the morning but it was worth every second. Can't wait until the next trip!