Trip to Idaho! (birthday party and rafting)

The pictures from the rafting were taken off of my facebook so they are a little small. If you want to see them bigger you can look at facebook. . . if you are my friend. HA! LOL We went rafting on Saturday evening. . . it was soooooo much fun.

Monika is in front of the babies. SHe is sooo cute. . . I LOVE those curls!

Kayla loved Boston. She would pat his head 2 times and rub and then repeat. She was so funny!

Such a raga a muffin. We got up on Saturday and lazed around after the party the night before. SO Kayla's hair is looking a little crazy!

Blowing out the candles!

TIa and I being sang at!

Tia and Rebecca dancing and being silly!

More silliness!

Tyosn and Jared singing "i'm too sexy" Jared is Tia's hubby. Tyson is his friend. We went to school with Tyson. . .and he and I ended up serving in the same mission. Cool guy!

A bunch of us sang "ain't no mountain high enough"

Matt and Wendy! (Matt is my brother and wendy is his Fiance)

Misty and Me. Misty and I were room mates in college.

Me and Rebecca. (little sister)

Tia and Chris singing Karoke. Seth is on the left side he is my nephew. Chris is my older, oldest brother!

So here is my week in a nut shell. I flew in on Thursday and flew out on Tuesday. I played Volleyball everyday but Sunday, we went river rafting. Rebecca threw us a huge party with Karoke and dancing. The party was planned before I got there so it was planned mostly for Tia. I didnt mind it being something she would enjoy more then me. I had a lot of fun visiting with friends and family while they danced and sang. I did sing a few Karoke songs though.. . . I know , SHOCKER! My Aunt had a BBQ on sunday afternoon and there were a lot of relatives there. It was so fun to go home and visit everyone. I can't wait for next time!

ZOO! We LOVE the ZOO!

BFF's at the zoo. This is Kayla and Ava hanging out at the zoo. Ava was adopted by one of my best friends about 7 weeks after Kayla! They are so dang cute!
They are looking at the fish swimming around in the grizzly bears water.

Fascinating!

At the zoo there is a little fountain area where the kids play in the water. Everyone brings their suits and gets soaked. It is perfect for those really hot days. I rarely go to the zoo in the summer so I didn't even think to bring Alex's suit. Well when I told him he could go play in the water, I helped him take his shirt off. When I turned my back he started taking off the rest of his clothes. I was dying. . . .laughing! I made him put his shorts back on!

This was Kayla right when we got to the zoo! She is such a happy girl!

Posing/ Indian outfit!

I asked Alex to take a picture of me in my out fit from India. My parents sent me a cool outfit from India a couple of months ago. They wanted pictures of me in it. Well I decided to put it on and since Erik was gone. . .Alex was my photgrapher. After he was done taking my picture he said "my turn mom" I guess I was doing a lot of posing because he tried to copy what I did. So here is Alex posing at our little photo shoot!

By the way, there is a boquet of flowers right behind my head. . .that is not my hair. My hair is pulled back into a bun. Everyone keeps asking if that is my hair!

Happy 1st Birthday Kayla!

Kayla was just a few days old here! It is hard to believe she was ever this small! Her preemie clothes are too big! She is so precious! (This was a year ago. . . so crazy)

Today is Kayla's 1st birthday! Can you believe it has been a year already? I can't! We had a party for her on Sunday so that our cousin Whitney could be there. She flew back to Idaho on Monday. She came out last year when Kayla was born to help me with Alex. Whitney is my guardian Angel! I don't know what I would do with out her. A year ago yesterday we got a phone call letting us know that Angela's (Kayla's birth mom's ) water broke. I was so excited but I began to pray that Kayla would be all right. She wasn't due for another 6 weeks. I also knew that she would most likely have to stay in the hospital for a little while if she was born that early. So I called Whit to come out and help with Alex so I could be with Kayla at the hospital. She was on the next plane out! Anyway, early the next morning Angela called us to tell us our angel had been born. 4lbs 9 oz. So small and so perfect. . . her lungs and everything were perfectly developed. We went to the hospital as soon as we could to meet our precious daughter. She was as perfect as Angela said. I remember wondering when they would tell me "never mind, you can go home now. . . you can not have her" I had that feeling for most of the week. And then I put her in my car after the week and drove home. She was really mine! She is a miracle and we are blessed to have her in our lives. Her personality is amazing. . .people are drawn to Kayla! Everyone thinks she is adorable and cute. . . and she loves people too. She will go to almost anyone that will just talk to her and play with her. I love my baby and I am so grateful she is in our lives! Happy Birthday miss Kayla. . . Thank you for coming to our family! We love you!

This was at the end of her party. Kayla was snuggling her dolly and her mommy. . .she got the doll for her birthday. . .from mom and dad. I love that her favorite present was from us!

This was her bath after the cake. . . sorry all the pictures are out of order. I don't know why it does that!

Almost done eating the cake!

Starting to dig in!

At first she didn't know what to think of the cake. She was spitting it out here!

She kept trying to grab the flame! Silly girl!

Riding on her new sit and spin zebra! I saw her playing with this at the gym's child center and she LOVED it, so I had to go get it for her!

Alex was helping Kayla open her presents. She got this cute tea set and princess book from our good friends Dean and Christy.

After Kayla opened her baby doll, she didn't care about the other presents. She loves her new dolly!

She kept loving her and holding her. They matched and no...., that was not planned!

Crawling to her unopened gifts!

The cake! I knew I wanted to make her cake but I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I got some ideas on line and then my cousin Whitney and I went to Michael's to get some inspiration!

We looked at a lot of ideas but one that I wanted to do was one I saw on line. Butterfly's and flowers. I told Whit my idea and she said"wait here" When she came back she had a package of butterflies. Then we came up with the idea of a flower on top of the cake. And then we saw ribbon to go around the cake! It turned out perfect! We ended up baking the cakes all on Saturday and staying up all night decorating it. Thanks Whit for all of your help! Without you it would not have turned out the same.

DINOSAUR!

Erik figured out that Kayla is afraid of this toy Dinosaur! It is so funny to watch so we had to record it. Watch all 3 as if you are watching 1. She cracks me up.