Man we sure do miss Houston! Well it is about time I write about mine and Aurora's trip to the motherland.
It all began on a Thursday morning Aurora and I headed off to the airport only to find out our flight had been delayed! Well I kept Aurora entertained as long as I could thankfully the good people at the SLC airport are smart enough to have a playground in the airport it was very close to our gate too. I tried to give her benadryl but she was too excited even thought she was exhausted (I even tried it out the day before to see if she would sleep) and didn't sleep at all. The time passed quickly (probably not for the guy next to us). When there were 20 minutes left on the flight Aurora screamed her little head off and I was getting very claustrophobic by the end. My dad was waiting for us and Aurora fell asleep on the drive to my parents house. We spent the night hanging out with my mom, dad, and Maureen and catching up I got to meet Bria and see Connor and Jen. It was great.
The next morning my dad took Aurora and I to Fry's and bought us a little webcam so we see everyone more often. We then met my mama at work and went to lunch at Jakes grill I had an amazing hamburger. My dad then took us to target where he bought Aurora a little Elmo toy that she picked out and loves and my dad being the proud irish-american that he is bought me an Ireland shirt so I could celebrate Saint Patties properly. We then played outside with our old cat Hiss and some bubbles. Aurora loved it we haven't been able to go outside and play in a long time.
Look at the Blonde hair
Aurora and Hiss (that is our cats name)
Friday evening Diana, David , Liam and little Violet dropped by to visit with us! I was so excited to meet Violet, but she was not as excited as I was but at the end of the visit I was feeding her a bottle and she is so adorable. Later I drove out to Granny Smith's house to see Aurora's Grandpa Randy and Grandma Kathryn, Aunt Valerie and Uncle Kevin of course Granny and Barbara and to our surprise Keith and Ginger were there too and so was Logan(aurora's 2nd cousin). We had fried chicken and salad and potatoes so great. Aurora was a little shy but by the end of the night she was fist bumping it with everyone.
Saturday: We got ready in the morning to meet up with Grandma Dawn and Grandpa Stan, Valerie and Kevin, Mama Sharon and Mama 'Dean and Heidi(Gerald's Aunt). We went to a park in Pearland and Aurora warmed right up to Heidi. Grandma and Grandpa spoiled Aurora thoroughly with stuffed animals and good food and Bubbles! Then it started raining (kinda expected for Texas) but the temperatures cooled and it was still great for us to be able to get together with family. Aurora went down for a nap very quickly that afternoon and my Mom took me shopping and I got the cutest gray dress and a brown skirt. I wore the gray dress to our friend Lories wedding reception that night. The food was amazing but it is hard to eat while chasing Aurora so we got some Jack in the Box tacos on the way home. I had been craving since we moved. Where we live in Utah doesn't believe in the goodness of Jack in the Box! and my brother Ryan and his expecting wife Amber came over. Ry had forgotten that I was coming to town. After a nice visit we called it a night.
Sunday: at about 8 am Lorraine, Gene and all her kids came to my parents we all got ready for church and got to see Connor's little baby get blessed it was really nice and I got to see a lot of people that I hadn't seen in a while. We went home and soon we were enjoying brisket and so many other great foods. I love not having to plan meals or cook for myself and everything tasted great. We hung out all night and I tried to get our stuff ready to leave the next day.
Monday: we made lunch/tea plans with Diana She really wanted me to see her house it is lovely even with all the sharpie and crayon art by Liam on the wall. The food was great, I talk about food a lot! It was hard to leave but we had to finish packing. I almost took an extra suitcase home but I managed to get almost everything into the suitcase. It was even harder leaving and saying goodbye after that. My flight was delayed again but Aurora was super tired and screamed the entire time before we boarded our plane we had a very kind stranger (turns out to be a BYU Law professor) help us as best she could and then we had to sit and wait on the plan for 20 minutes while we waited our turn on the runway. Meanwhile Aurora is screaming (but this time we had the seat next to us free) then falls asleep before we even take off. She woke up and did really well the rest of the flight she even fell asleep during the landing. Then Kathryn the Law professor helped us all the way to passenger pick up. It was so great to see Gerald and to be home, we were both really missing him. Next time we go to Texas it will be with gerald and I think travel will be much much easier.
Violet right before we left to go pack and leave. she is so smily!
little Lucian he was so sweet all weekend chilling with is mom. He is a little dreamboat.
adorable Bria she is a great calm baby Connor brought her over everyday I was so happy to see her and Aurora had fun with her.
It was a wonderful trip and it was hard to leave I am so ready to be back there! But the weather was great so maybe I wont be saying that in the summer. Aurora seemed to just grow up this trip she was so funny. I can't wait to get back, there was so much that I wanted to do and people to see but there is just no time. My mom seemed great it was right after a treatment and she was feeling better than normal so we came at a great time. We will be back in June hopefully for a longer visit.
I ordered this advent calendar I really like it it is simple and elegant and I can put anything in there scriptures, figurines, or candy I am excited to start a new tradition in our family.
This is friday morning when my Parents left to go back to Texas. They were out here dropping my sister mo off to college. It was so great to see them even thought it was for only two days and I always get emotional when they leave. So I was upset for the most of the morning and later in the afternoon we got plane tickets to come home for a week durning Christmas. I am so excited although we are not excited to fly with Aurora again.
We are kinda going in a countdown order of the way things happened this month. I gave Aurora a hair cut earlier this month. She wiggles so much but I am getting better and the moving haircut I cut her bangs pretty short *(visible in picture with my parents). But they grow fast and were in her eyes and she doesn't let me clip it out of the way very often so they had to go.
One of my very best friends graduated and walked this August and afterward we had a girls day with Ali, Kathi(ali's mother-in-law and my former seminary teacher and good friend) and Ali's other bestie Jess. I was so much fun we went out to eat, got pedicures, saw the Time traveler's Wife, and met up with the boys for dinner. I was so fun to just hang out with girls and be pampered and kathi was amazing and paid for everything. Many thanks to Kathi!
And A few weeks ago I got together with some friends, Heather and Kim, from Texas and we went out to dinner one last time. Kim (Picture above right) has moved to California with her brilliant husband who will be attending Stanford law school. She has been great we were in the ward together here and for a while she was the only reason we went to church, Aurora would behave better when she was with Kim and Sam. She will be missed and hopefully we cross paths again soon.
Gerald sends Aurora with little baking mixes to me...a lot. SO tonight I let Aurora help she is such a big girl now. She poured all the ingredients in (not the eggs) and stirred it was so cute.
It has been a good summer, we made it back to Texas and had a hard time with Aurora adjusting back to our Utah life. She has been difficult for the past month but we are making progress on her behavior. She's in a toddler bed now and she only naps about one day out of the week. It been really hard on Gerald since he is with her the most, while I've been working on grounds during the weekdays this summer. The picture above is from a friend who took a ton of pictures of Aurora at the park I love them. I have a little summer project to scrap a little book for the grandparents with these pictures.
Today is our 4 year anniversary! It's gone by pretty fast. We have lived in 4 different apartments. We have our little girl Aurora who is so freaking crazy right now. but we love her still.
We went to the redlands Temple on Sunday and had an amazing mexican dinner that night.
This is a King Protea (i'm pretty sure) there are so many varieties of the protea and this one was about the size of my head. We were able to visit the L.A. Floral Market and it is an amazing place with so many beautiful flowers at great prices. 
The next morning my dad took Aurora and I to Fry's and bought us a little webcam so we see everyone more often. We then met my mama at work and went to lunch at Jakes grill I had an amazing hamburger. My dad then took us to target where he bought Aurora a little Elmo toy that she picked out and loves and my dad being the proud irish-american that he is bought me an Ireland shirt so I could celebrate Saint Patties properly. We then played outside with our old cat Hiss and some bubbles. Aurora loved it we haven't been able to go outside and play in a long time.
Aurora is so much fun these days. She is hilarious, she sings theme songs of tv shows like Handy Manny it sounds something like "man, man, man, man, man, man" and Mighty B she tries really hard to say "bee, bee, bee, bee" in the same tune. Some of the words that she uses other than mom and dad are "spongebob, more, please, thank you, light, no, bath, bye, jump, 'welcome, done, and amen (she also shouts YAY and claps after prayers), and phrases like "see you later" and "here you go" I love it, she is really starting to mimic our actions. little scary.
Christmas morning Aurora noticing the presents she was so cute that morning and so sweet she woke up and ate then we tried very hard to get daddy up but he just kept sleeping. I was set on starting without him but then my parents called to tell us Merry Christmas and to talk to us on a webcam my mom got one for Christmas and my dad thought we had one(even though I clearly said we were going to get one and that we did NOT have one yet the last time I spoke to him I ordered one on line the day after Christmas and we should get it tomorrow) and once I got off the phone we were all ready to get started. 
Aurora didn't know what to do so we started to help her open her gifts. Gerald wanted to do stockings before he opened any of his gifts so we did that and that was so much fun. Stockings are my favorite part of Christmas morning. We had a Christmas Elmo dvd in Aurora's stocking along with yogurt melts, Jacob's ladder, a harmonica, and a frog magnifying glass she had a good time with those. Well Aurora was being so cute playing with each gift for a while we kinda started rushing to open her gifts and then we slowed it down. She was playing with them right away there was no need to rush we didn't finish opening her gifts until after lunch and her nap. 
A new shirt! We also got him Sword and the Stone, Iron man, Batman The Dark Knight, a How To Draw Comics book. 20 Q's sports edition, Arby's gift card, a G.I. Joe. And we got Rock Band 2 as a family gift and it is wonderful. Our parents gave monetary gifts to us which is always appreciated and extremely helpful at the beginning of a new semester. Gerald was so cute and happy with his gifts and the entire day. He said he had one of the best Christmas's ever. 
