Monday, January 31, 2011

Rednecks?

Does going on a tractor ride through the neighborhood (with paved streets and almost no dirt to be seen anywhere) with a dog running behind you count as redneck?  Does it still count as redneck even if it's really cute and fun? Just checking.
First ride in a big girl car seat!  She was pretty nervous and didn't move at all, except for moving her eyes back and forth between my Dad and I to see if everything was o.k. and she sang to herself the whole time for comfort.

 You might have noticed these shoes in the car seat picture.  If not, here's a closer look.  They are my old shoes that one of my Mom's co-workers gave me on my 1st birthday.  That makes them almost 24 years old!  Yay for Keds!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Wedding

You can probably tell by the number of posts that I've done in the past few days that I have a lot quicker internet these days that will allow me to upload more than one picture in 3 hours (not to mention a few post worthy events have happened).  I wanted to post some pictures from Maren and Jake's wedding for everyone who's been asking.  There's a bunch of posts in the past few days so if you haven't seen them, be sure to check them out. :)

The happy couple!
 The whole crew at the Temple.
 Mikayla and Jessica looking sexy
 Four generations
Sorry, Dustin-this is the only picture I could find of you. :)

 Loving the poofy dress!
 Surprise call from Seth!  His mission president gave him permission to call for 10 minutes on the day of the wedding and he and I kept it a secret from everyone!
 
 The girls.
And, some fancier pictures of the famous couple.



 
 My personal favorite (above).  Doesn't it look like they are a scene from a fairy tale?

Sunday, January 23, 2011

365 Days

365 days ago I worked my last shift as a nurse.
365 days ago my life was wonderful, but not quite complete.
365 days ago I sat with Dustin and wondered what kind of parents we might be, wondering if we were really ready for all that lie in store for us.
365 days ago I don't think I truly understood unconditional love.
365 days ago I had no idea that my life would be forever changed when I would awake in the morning.

366 days ago I held this little girl in my arms for the first time and fell completely in love with her.

I never knew what a roller coaster the next 365 days would bring and how tough the journey might be at times, but had I known, I wouldn't have changed a thing.  Mikayla has brought me more joy than I knew possible and that joy continues to grow more each day.

Happy birthday, Missy Mae!  We love you!

We celebrated her birthday a day early so Mammy and Pappy could come party with us.  I've said it before, but I am so grateful to be living close to family.  Mikayla loves her grandparents and it makes my heart happy that she gets to be around them so much.

For dinner we had some of Mikayla's favorite foods...homemade mac 'n cheese and bread (and of course, Mikayla had hers on the traditional "You are special today" plate).

She was spoiled with WAY too many presents!
And then there was the CAKE!  I made her a giant cupcake and after I spent WAY too long trying (keyword-trying) to make it look decent Dustin said, "Watch-she'll have the whole cake and she'll spend the whole time going after one little crumb."  He called it pretty good.  She sat there picking off all the sprinkles one by one, putting them in her mouth, sucking the frosting off, then spitting them out.  That's Mikayla for you.  After a while she got brave and licked the cake, but she didn't dive in until I cut her a chunk out of it.  So much fun!


 

Life with Grandad and Nanny Jill

We are back in with my parents again and Dustin starts his new job tomorrow.  Our exciting news is that we are house hunting!  We couldn't be more thrilled (and nervous all at the same time)!  On to new adventures in life! In the meantime, here are some pictures from our fun day hanging out around the house with Grandad and Nanny Jill.



Thursday, January 20, 2011

Why every mom needs a girl...

...because playing dress-up is way too much fun.







Friday, January 7, 2011

The Boys

I am so excited about this picture!  We were trying to take a shot that would be similar to a photo of Dustin's Dad and his brothers out on their ranch and I think ours turned out pretty sweet (click on the picture to see it bigger)!
And, in other VERY exciting news-Dustin got a JOB!!!  He will be working as a landscape designer and the best part is that we get to stay in our old stomping grounds. We are very excited!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Christmas Preview

This is a random sampling of Christmas, but there are so many pictures to post that I don't know if I'll ever get it all done, so here's a start (in no particular order)...
 Christmas Eve PJ's
 Our amazing Christmas Eve nativity, complete with a half naked wiseman and Mikayla as baby Jesus.
 Mikayla's Santa presents...a rocking horse, boots and a cowgirl hat (she was sick on Christmas so this was about as excited as she got)!
 The doll cradle that Dustin made her and I am so in love with it!
 Our sad attempt at pictures in her Christmas dress.  Taking a picture with a headband is a race against time now and I don't win very often.  I just love the headband in motion and her hair flying everywhere.  That's our girl!
Modeling her new boots
Mikayla's awesome present from Grandad and Nanny Jill.  She LOVES to swing (even though her face doesn't show it very well-and if you're starting to think that she really has some awful faces after seeing these pictures and our family picture on the top of the blog, then you'd probably be right).
 The first present she opened at the Wilson Christmas was in this bag and the bag was her favorite thing all night.  Remind me why we buy babies presents when all they need is the wrapping paper or gift bags and they are happy?!
 Helping to build Mammy's backyard on Christmas Eve was fun for all the cousins!
Mammy got all the girls fancy aprons to wear while we made Christmas Eve dinner and they were SO cute.
I wore this nightie on my first Christmas and poor Mikayla was tortured into wearing it, but it makes for fun memories, right?