....Finally!

I got my computer back and I had a lot of stuff to catch up on, so I'm just putting a bunch of pictures so it's not such a long, boring post! (With a little commentary here and there.) :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family, and Sierra discovered the love of olives!


This is all the nieces and nephews together, it was wonderful to have everyone together for Thanksgiving!

Sierra turned 2 and I love doing surprises, so we totally decorated the hall outside her room after she went to bed. I wish I would have had more streamers, I wanted to make a full streamer curtain across her door, but this is all we had. It worked.

Of course, I had the camera ready for when she came out and she was a little mystified!

...but she loved it!

Here we are in the frigid cold waiting for Santa to come on the firetruck...
...and there he is! Sierra loved it!

Juan and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on December 22nd - I can't believe 4 years have gone by, I hope we have 104+ more! Love you babe!

Our family Christmas party was on Christmas Eve, it was fun to get together! I love holidays!

All the kids got pillow pets (those were popular this year!!) and Sierra loves her little lady bug! Thanks grandma!

^^Waiting for Santa...vv Santa has come!

I think she likes her new bike, she couldn't wait to try it out!

Here she is opening her "spread!" We were so blessed this last Christmas. Someone knocked on our door and when we opened it, we found a bag full of gifts on our porch, I was so touched by the gesture! Thank you very much, whoever did that, it really made our Christmas! That's one special reason I love the holidays - the spirit of giving is so strong! We usually like to be the ones to do that sort of thing, so thank you, 'Santa and Elves.' :)

Sierra's opening the big one....

And she loves that doll so much!

Here's Sierra's "spread". She was so spoiled this year!

She got a new outfit and I just love it, so stinkin' cute!!

And I got ^^ this lovely item for Christmas! I HAVE been using it too! I love it! Thank you, honey! I kind of pooped out on it for a little while, dang it, but I'm back up and running! I'm not gonna give up!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas as well!

We had a lovely birthday dinner with family and friends at Orem Sizzler for my b-day! It's always fun to get together and PARTY!! Let's do it again sometime! Thanks everyone for coming, it was a great birthday!

PHEW, I think that's it for now! I hope to not get behind again! It's been a wonderful last couple of months!

I'm still here!

Well, folks, it's official, I haven't blogged since last year. hehe My laptop's adaptor cable [wire] snapped apart inside the plastic casing and so my computer has been out of commission. It's annoying. I have to use Juan's and I don't like his as much as my own. But one of these times I'll get it up and running, I can't wait. I suppose I could upload some pictures to Juan's computer so I can do a blog update, I just haven't done it. I really need to, there's lots to catch up on. Soon, I promise! Just wanted to keep you all 'abreast' of the situation, hahaha.

Trick-or-Treat!

Halloween was fun this year, we dressed Sierra up as Dora the Explorer:

And Juan was a Redneck Mullet Man, my costume ended up being "Oops, I celebrated the wrong holiday." lol I had an Easter t-shirt on that says "Happy Freakin' Easter", some Easter earrings, pin, and lovely ears. haha

Here's the T-o-T'ers - Melaiya, Sierra, Blake

After Sierra got into it, she LOVED knocking on doors!

~~~
The funny faces of Sierra

I do this funny face at Sierra sometimes and she copies it now, lol:

She's so nice to her baby...hahaha

Aww, there's a nice hug!

Love my girl!

Fall is here!

Ah yes, Fall is here. The time when leaves change into brilliant colors and drop to the ground for kids to gather up and jump in. The air gets cooler. And HALLOWEEN is near!! Yay!
I got this ad yesterday in the mail and something funny caught my eye, can you tell what it is? Look it over carefully, then I'll zoom in.



Can't tell what's funny? Here's a closer look:

That just struck me as funny, I don't know why. No wonder the kid has a frown on his face. LOL
~~~

Why is it that kids just won't cooperate when you need them to? I'm talking specifically about MY kid! I had her all dressed up and ready for pictures of her Halloween costume but she's such a strong-willed stinker/child and she wouldn't cooperate in the least! Finally, I let her flop to the floor, arranged everything and snapped a picture! So, here she is....Dora the Explorer. Except for the tears, everything was perfect. Even the map - I made it.

We are all ready for Halloween, hooray! My favorite time of year!

Labor Day, Zoo, Concert

Boy, have I got some catching up to do! There's been lots going on, so I'll start with three segments; Labor Day weekend, our zoo trip and an exciting concert!

Labor Day Weekend
We decided for Labor Day weekend to go up to the Heritage Festival in Heber City and then ride the Heber Valley Railroad over to Swiss Days. None of us have ever ridden the railroad before, so it was an adventure!

This is the mini train ride at the Heritage festival. (As you can see, there weren't m(any) people at the Heritage Festival.) (But then again, that was Friday afternoon, maybe there were more on Saturday.)


Here is Sierra jumping in the bounce house - she's never done that before so she wasn't quite sure what to do. At least she had the bounce house all to herself.

Here we are at the train depot!

Sierra looking cool on the train!

It was a fun ride!

When we got to the other end, we had to board a bus to get to Swiss Days. Sierra wanted to drive the bus. Um...cute, but I don't think so. Yet. hehe

Swiss Days

Where we saw a yodeller - Yoda-lay-he-hooooo!!!

The Zoo

We had a great time at the zoo with my friend, Cherish, and saw many things, including:

Baby Zuri - sooo cute!

the giraffes

and a gaggle of bats in the "Nature's Nightmares" exhibit! (Are they called a gaggle?) hehe To me, they look like a bunch of chihuahuas hanging upside down - look at their faces! LOL

And we rode the train, what fun! (Sierra's face could use a good scrubbing! We had a treat too, as you can tell!)

Here she is at the playground sitting on a giant caterpillar,

a spider, (sorry, for those who don't like to look at such things)

and a crocodile!! Don't get any closer to those giant jaws, baby!

And here she's sitting on the trunk of a giant Elephant that spits water at you and makes funny sounds. It was a great day! Thanks for taking us up, Cherish!

The Concert

My cousin, Porter, was in a band called "Ask For the Future" before he passed away last March. They got together and played a concert in my Aunt and Uncle's backyard for his birthday on September 13th. It was a wonderful concert filled with nice music, friends, family, and a yummy cake and goodies too! Thanks Uncle Mark and Aunt Susette for hosting this concert in your backyard, it was very enjoyable!

Sierra just wandered on over to some stranger's lap and crawled in! (Sorry, I don't know your names, but thank you for entertaining Sierra all evening, she loved it!)

Photo session giveaway!

My beautiful cousin, Kali, is a wonderful photographer and she's having a giveaway, so check out her site and enter! http://kalipoulsenphotography.blogspot.com

Owie!

This thing:

is the cause of this:

She loves to rock on her horse so fast and high, and I watched (in seemingly slow motion, as it always seems when something is about to happen, you know) as the horse went too far forward and she went down and hit her face smack-dab on the tv table. Her lip would not stop bleeding forever and she didn't want me to hold anything on it. She looks miserable, doesn't she? My poor baby! Her first serious OWIE!