Andrea's dresses

My darling cousin Andrea is getting married in Oct. so she has been shopping around for wedding dresses and she so kindly invited me and some of the other female family members to go with her. What a blast we have had shopping with her! I took pictures of her in the three favorites and since there is no way of Ang to see them as she makes her decisions I decided to post them on my blog so that she could have access to them. So JORDAN (the groom) if you are reading this STOP NOW!!!!
Let me just say that the pictures really don't do any of these dresses justice....you just have to see them in person to fully appreciate them!

Dress #1
This dress is so elegant! Andrea was EXTREMELY uncomfortable in it at first because it is pretty immodest. But the gal helping us brought out some things that they would add to the dress to make it 'temple appropriate', then Ang was MUCH happier. A view from behind...this didn't have the added material in it to raise the back up. I wish that we had fluffed out the train before taking this....it kind of looks sloppy. Oh well, it was beautiful!

This is what the dress looks like without the alterations. So they would add sleeves to it and raise the neckline.

I think that she really likes this dress, but she is nervous about buying it, making the alterations and then not having it turn out the way she was hoping and being stuck with a dress that she was not in love with.

DRESS #2
You can't tell, but this dress was stunning on her figure.

We LOVED the back 'bum' area. :-)

With the veil on.

DRESS #3

This dress just took our breath away when she walked out. Again, the pics don't do it justice. It was so unique, not a style that I have ever seen before.

The back

I just loved the train on this one.You could tell that she felt just like a princess in it.

She has a pretty tough decision in front of her. Whatever dress she chooses though, I know she will look just beautiful in it!

GIRLS CAMP!

Can you believe that I have a child old enough to attend girls camp?!!! Yep, it is true. Sienna spent all last week at girls camp in our new ward. I was crossing my fingers that this would be a positive experience for her and that she would make friendships and guess what? SHE DID! This ward has welcomed her with open arms and she says that the girls in this ward are MUCH nicer than our last ward....thank heavens! I really missed her while she was gone, it just isn't the same without her in our home. I have to admit I was a bit jealous that she got to go...I LOVE going to girls camp! A group shot of our ward

I asked Sienna about this pic and she said that they had just been 'snipe' hunting. LOL remember doing that your first year at camp? They told the girls that they had to put toothpaste on their faces cause snipes hated the minty taste. LOL so funny!

They got to camp up at Heber Valley, IN CABINS! Lucky ducks!!!

The first week of summer break

Today we returned home from a five day trip down to St. George. We went down there because my cousin got married and because they asked me to make their wedding cake. I was excited but nervous to make my first wedding cake. The design that they wanted was easy enough and fun to do, they challenging part was keeping it from melting! The reception was outside in 102* weather! The bride and groom cutting the cake

The final product.... the wedding colors were bright pink, green, orange, turquoise and yellow. A ton of colors, but so fun. Definitely not your traditional wedding cake!

The worst part of the trip was that Chris wasn't able to come with us...he had a business trip that same weekend so I had to make the trip alone with the kids. We spent a few days at my Aunt's house and then went to a hotel, which had a great pool for us to cool off in. Another downer was on the first night we took the kids to a really fun park that was located next to some water....which brought on the mosquitoes! My legs were ATTACKED, I counted eight bites. So the rest of the trip I was scratchin something fierce!!

The girls had fun taking pictures of themselves at the wedding reception.

Look at how red her face is...it was so hot!

Such a cutie!

After returning home with a car full of fighting, crying and screaming kids I need a VACATION! Just me, my hubby, a beach and a book!

A much needed break with my girls

I just love good friends! A few years ago me, Amy and Kristen started doing overnighters where we could stay up all night laughing and playing games. This year was no different, we booked a hotel and spent the night up in Salt Lake. First we ate at one of our favorite restaurants-Cheescake Factory! Then we went to the movie and got the BEST MOST BUTTERIEST POPCORN ever!!! Next we went back to the hotel and played games, laughed and just relaxed. Oh how I love these times with my friends!

Yah, we get a little crazy with a camera in our hand! LOL

Fireman's Breakfast

For memorial day weekend we went to the annual Fireman's Breakfast with my parents. It was a yummy breakfast and the kids LOVED looking at the fire engine's afterwards.

Me and my Pa

The girls with Smokey the Bear

Not the best family shot, but oh well. Sienna didn't come with us because she was at an end of school sleepover party.

Faze went crazy with the fire engines, it was so cute.

The art project and a yearbook award

One of Sienna's last ceramic projects was to make something out of paper mache'. She was pretty creative and decided to make a ginormous hamburger. I just loved how realistic it looked, minus the size. It was awesome! Great job Sienna bug!

Since last week was the last week of school that meant yearbook signing! Sienna was so excited to be in middle school this year because that meant that she could get a yearbook. There were two surprises that I found as I was looking through it. I got to the pages were it did the student votes, you know the ones....most likely to succeed, smartest student, class clown etc. Well guess what 'award' my sweet little innocent daughter got? Most Popular AND Biggest Flirt..... aaagghhhh. FOR REALS??? I would have been great with class clown or smartest student, but biggest flirt? I don't know where she gets that from!

The 'F' word...

Today I made a decision to eliminate the 'F' word from my vocabulary....Yep no more Facebook for me. I have had many issues with it over the past few months, mostly with other people on Facebook, not the site itself. I actually really love that I have been able to re-connect with some old friends. For that, Facebook is a great tool. But lately I have felt like it is a poison that I don't want in my life anymore. More often than not I found myself reading other peoples posts/comments that were hurtful, annoying and just plain upsetting. I was sick of biting my tongue when someone posted something that I STRONGLY disagreed with and got under my skin....oh how badly I wanted to comment about how lame, selfish, stupid and ridiculous they were being.
I have seen firsthand how this 'tool' can be used in dangerous ways....for example...
Spending hours on FB each day
Bullying
Online affairs,
and yes even counting their conversations on FB as their monthly Visiting Teaching/Home Teaching. (WHAT?!)
I even know people that can't post certain events/pictures on their wall because of the wrath that others will give them for not including them. (Really are we still in JR. High?)

My mom told me that in her ward her bishop announced, from the pulpit, how dangerous social networks are and that they should think twice about creating accounts with them.
Besides the above reasons I also worry about privacy issues that I have been reading about. The last thing that I want is to have some stranger know personal information about me.
Since 99% of the population have a facebook account, I'm sure that many of you are upset or disagree with everything that I have just typed, and that is your right to disagree with me... It won't change how I feel about it. I guess my sweet friend Jenn had it right all along.
Isn't it amazing how Satan can use tools like this against us? Sad really.

Soap box over, you may now return to your regularly scheduled program (or go post something on your FB wall, LOL).

The pre-school graduate

Tonight Mr. Faisal graduated from his 3-year-old preschool class! Oh how proud we are of this little guy! In his cap and gown...I mean suit.

He is the second from the Left. We really had to bribe him to get him to stay in front of everyone and then he really wouldn't sing the songs....just too bashful!

Momma and the graduate!

Miss Liza (Swiza, as Faze calls her) and Faze

Afterwards we took the graduate out for ice cream at Cold Stone

What a ham

My little man turns FOUR!

Earlier this week my baby turned four! Where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday that he was born. Oh how I just adore this little guy... he is such a fun, spunky child. He just brings so much joy into our home. We love you Crazy Fazy! So this pic was taken the day after his birthday but he was wearing his new birthday clothes so I had to take a pic of it...he has gotten so bashful lately whenever I try to take a picture of him.

For his birthday breakfast his daddy made him strawberries, apples and cream...his most favorite thing ever!

I made him some cupcakes that he took to his pre-school class. He was so excited to take these to his friends.

For dinner we went to MiMi's Cafe and had some yummy food.

I was trying to take a pic of the two of them and instead he decided to try and lick his dad.

My two favorite men!

After dinner we decided to try something different so we went to Momentum Climbing Gym and the kids got to try and climb up these HUGE walls. It was surprisingly so fun! Tae and Ana did amazing, Faze and Sienna were a little more nervous, which shocked us because normally Faze is such a daredevil. It was a great idea and I can't wait to take them back there again. (Angie, you would have been so proud of them!)

Kinda blurry but so cute!

Present time!!!! He got a T-ball set, Soccer game set, Toy Story DVD, clothes, shoes, hats, and a few kiddie games for us to play as a family. I have to say that I had a great time shopping for his gifts, this has been the first year that I could really buy older boy toys and it was a blast!!! Having a little boy is such a fun thing. Happy birthday little man...your momma loves you!