family pictures

today's the day...

Bryan is taking his first of four CPA exams right now! He stayed up studying all night last night! It brought back memories from all those late nights at school. I do not envy him right now. But soon it will be over and he will have his Certified Public Accounting license! Good luck hun! You will do great!

Just some random projects

It started with the need for a dark shade to cover Aiden's window. There's a bright light outside his window that stays on all night. If he wakes up at all he has a hard time going back to sleep unless it's pitch dark. So I made this shade which would fit better if the blinds weren't in the window. After that I did a couple other projects to go in his room as well.

I used ribbon, buttons, felt, and fabric I had, and then bought some Dollar Store frames and spray painted them white. I think I might redo the letter i, but I like how the rest of the letters turned out.

The other project was a memory board which has several pictures in it now.

I had some left over fabric so I decided to make Aiden some jeans! I love how they turned out!

Apple

Aiden said "apple" tonight. He was in his high chair and then pointed to the bowl with the apples in it and said, "apple" "apple" it actually sounded more like, "a bowl" "a bowl" but he was definitely trying and he knew what he was saying. This kid loves apples! Especially the green sour kind. He must get that from his mom. I love the Granny Smiths as well! Here's a video of him enjoying one!

Aidens birthday

Aiden had a super fun birthday! Not only did he get to celebrate with his Grandma and Grandpa and cousin Jadley while we were in Indiana, he also had a fun birthday party with family and friends when we got home. I probably over did it, but I love parties and having people over! We had a "Lion" themed party. Here's what we did...


The Invitations...
on the inside of the card it read.. No "lion" our little cub is turning 1! Come have a "roaring" good time as we celebrate his first birthday.















The Decorations...

I wanted it to look like the jungle. We used green streamers, homemade vines out of paper bags, green leafs out of cardstock, jungle animals from the Dollar store which the kids got to take home afterwards, and Lion King music playing in the background.

















The Food


We had lion pizzas, actually I only ended up making one of the pizzas look like a lion face, bugs on a log(celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins), crocodile teeth (apple slices) , snake eggs (grapes), Monkey pudding (yummy banana pudding), and jungle foilage (big green leafy salad).















The Games

We played pin the tail on the lion. I just made a lion out of a card board box and painted his mane yellow.











The Cake

Of course I had to make a lion cake. This proved to be more difficult than I expected. I used to round cakes for the face and then cut up a rectangular cake for the mane. It kept falling apart and crumbing as I was making it, but I think he turned out pretty cute. Aiden liked his cake a lot more this time!

The first time and the second time...

















The Kids










Friends and Family











The gifts
Aiden loves all of his presents! He plays with all of them! thank you everyone!




















Fun taking down the streamers

Thanks to everyone for coming and making this such a special day for us!

Trunk or Treat and package!

Before our trip to Indiana we went to the ward trunck or treat in Modesto with Bryan's family. I dressed up as the Queen Bee and Aiden was my baby bee. Bryan was going to dress up like a Bee Keeper but we didn't get his costume put together in time. Aiden and his cousin Jack had a great time walking around and getting candy for their parents! :)



Right before we left on our trip Aiden got a Halloween package in the mail from Aunt Jen! She's such a spoiler! Thanks Jen!

Yummy Whole Wheat Bread!

There's nothing like homemade bread right out of the oven! I was craving it the other day so I decided to make some! I tried a new recipe that I really like. This bread is delicious, plus it holds together really well. Here's the recipe...

INGREDIENTS
3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1/3 cup honey
5 cups bread flour
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon salt
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 1/3 cup honey. Add 5 cups white bread flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1/3 cup honey, and salt. Stir in 2 cups whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 2 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.
Punch down, and divide into 3 loaves. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not overbake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely

Finally the run down of our trip

We had a wonderful time in Indiana visiting my parents with my sister Denae and her son Jadley. We arrived at the Indianapolis Airport at 12:30am on Wednesday. My parents were there waiting. They looked great! They have that missionary glow! Aiden warmed up to them really quick. He was smiling and laughing at Grandma right away. Denae and Jadley arrived soon after that. We then took the 2 hour drive home to Rensellear, IN which went really fast because there was so much to talk about. When we got home we realized that we had left my bag in the parking garage at the airport! So I spent all night calling the airport trying to find my bag. Finally I got ahold of someone who was helpful and went and checked in the baggage holding area and found it! Thank you for honest people! Someone had turned it in! Yea!

So after sleeping a few hours we all made the trip back to the airport and then spent most of the day in Indianapolis. We did some shopping and ate some dinner then headed back to Rensellear. We spent a lot of time in the car the first day.

On Thursday we went see Roberta and Lendall Bowman. Roberta is a non-member and Lendall has been active for about a year or so. He is the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency. They are the nicest people. Roberta had gifts for the boys and a ton of food for us to take home. They had all kinds of tractors and toys outside that the boys loved. Aiden loved the swing they had in the back yard. Jadley had a great time climbing on all the tractors. Unfortunately my battery died so I didn't get any pictures on the tractors. After visiting with them we headed to the Train museum. This place was really fun! They had a train caboose that we could go in. A great place for pictures! I was so sad my battery was dead!! After that we went home ate some lunch and gave the boys a nap. Then we headed to dinner at the Fritz. This was a lot of fun. My parents

taught Cheyanne and the boys the discussions and helped them get baptized. Cheyanne is so strong and a great example to her family.

The boys all love the Elders. Cheyanne's family will be moving soon to their new Habitat for Humanity home. Mom and dad have gone and helped them build their home a few times.
On Friday we went to lunch at the Royce's. They are the nicest couple! She had lots of toys and things for the boys to do. We ate some yummy lunch, played with the dog, roamed around their huge backyard, Jadley had a great time kicking the soccer ball around, visited and enjoyed a short lesson given by my dad. Sis. Royce is the young women president in the branch. She is the only person in young womens so she has to teach, organize the activities... do everything on her own. Denae volunteered to teach her class for her on Sunday. So her and I were going to teach the lesson. We got everything ready, discussed what to teach, made handouts, made a wedding cake for an object lesson, prepared a song to sing... we were so excited! Unfortunately none of the girls showed up on Sunday. We were so sad! So Mom is going to teach the lesson this sunday. She will do a great job and it will probably be more meaningful because she know the girls a lot better than we do.

After having an enjoyable lunch we went to my cousin Christy and Dave's house in Elburn, IL right outside of Chicago. Christy had this wonderful dinner for us! Yum yum! It was so good! After dinner we took the kids out to go trick or treating. Jadley was so cute.. after finally convincing him to get a costume on, while walking to the first house he asks, "What we doin, what we doin mom?" Once he discovered he was getting candy he was so excited and was running to each house along with the others. Aiden didn't really understand but he was still pretty cute walking around in his bee costume. That night Christy's kids gave us a great show. They sang and played their violins. They are all so talented! We had so much fun with all of them! They have this great dog that Aiden just loved. He is really good with kids. We stayed the night at Christy and Daves. Thanks for letting us come. We had a great time! We love your family!

On Saturday after breakfast we headed back to Rensellear. We were trying to make it back in time to go to the Potluck luncheon and scavengure hunt where they collected food for the Community Charity Center, but unfortunately we got stuck in a traffic jam on the way and didn't make it in time. So we went home, had some lunch, gave the boys a nap and enjoyed the swings and slide outside my parents apartment. Grandpa was great at playing with the boys. They loved the swing! Denae, dad and I then went to the library to use the computers to get some more ideas and to find this song for the lesson on sunday. We then headed to the store to find picture frames and paper to make our handouts. Mom was great to stay home with these two energetic boys. She had her handsful. We spent the night making handouts, the wedding cake, and preparing the lesson.

On Sunday we went to church, came home had some lunch, went around the neighborhood and visited with several people that my parents have come to know, and celebrated Aiden's birthday a day early. My mom made him a yummy chocolate cake, and he got to open his present. He was hilarious with his cake! This kid usually eats anything, but he wanted nothing to do with his cake.

Monday we headed back to the airport in Indianapolis. Aiden and I said our goodbyes and headed on our way home. Denae and Jadley stayed until Tuesday morning. Aiden did really well on the airplane. Our first flight was really short and not very full. We read lots of stories and played games. He loved all the people and looking out the window. Once we got to Chicago I put him in the stroller and he fell right asleep. I was able to find our next gate and get some lunch while he slept. He didn't sleep too long though and then he was up and wondering all around. He thought this place was great fun! The next flight was almost 5 hours long! Thankfully Aiden slept for almost the first 2 hours! After that I had two nice ladies sitting next to me who loved to entertain and hold him. I was shocked at how well he did. I know it was an answer to lots of prayers. Denae and Jadley had quite the time getting home the next day, but they made it as well.

Thanks mom and dad for the fun time! You are great missionaries! You are changing so many lives and helping so many people! We love you!