Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Yesterday, we had the great opportunity to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. Zuke and I have been looking forward to this for months, and were so excited to be able to share the experience with our kids and with Zuke's mom. I love the design of the temple.....it looks so grand and majestic on the outside. Not to say that the inside doesn't look that way, too! I am always amazed at how much detail work goes into every tiny aspect of a temple, and this one is definitely no exception!

15 Months

Today is Addison's 15-month birthday! She's not going in for her 15-month check-up for a few more weeks, so I'll post her stats then. It's crazy to think about how much she's grown in the past few months since she turned one! Here's a few updates on what she's been up to.

Addison is about to the point where she will eat us out of house and home! This girl will eat almost anything we put in front of her. Her favorites are scrambled eggs, macaroni and cheese, string cheese, chicken nuggets, pizza, pineapple, green beans, watermelon, and marshmallows. She's finally got the hang of sippy cups, and we're still working on getting rid of the bottles completely. She's not a big milk drinker yet, which is frustrating, but we're getting there.


Addison STILL isn't walking yet. She's taken a few steps here and there by herself randomly, but that's about it. She can pull herself up into a standing position all by herself, and walks along anything and everything with ease. She's even learned how to climb onto the couch, and thankfully how to safely get off. Although, once on the couch, she likes to try and get onto the end tables to play with the lamps. She loves playing on the stairs (thanks a lot, Grandma), and gets mad whenever anyone goes down the stairs without her.

Even though the walking is coming a bit slowly, her communication and comprehension are coming along at an astounding rate! She is always jabbering something or other. Her favorite word is still "Daddy", and she's picked up "Ow", "Pinky" (her pink elephant), "Blankie", "Tyler", "Kaiden", "Bye", "Woof", "Baa", and a bunch of other ones. She has learned some nursery rhymes and songs, and loves to look at books and be read to. She FINALLY loves to give hugs and kisses, and will give you one whenever you ask. Her new obsession is standing and looking out the front window, and saying hi to anything and everything that passes. I was pulling out of the driveway the other night, and glanced over at the window to see Addison waving bye to me. It melted my heart!

We are so proud of Addison and how much she has learned and grown! She is such a ray of sunshine in our lives. Tyler and Kaiden adore her, and she completely idolizes them. It's been so much fun watching her grow the past 15 months, and we can't wait to see what a little lady she grows up to be!

The toy basket was in the way of the window, so she decided that instead of moving the basket, she'd just stand in it.

The Gospel According to Tyler

It's always funny to get inside a child's mind.  Sometimes you can't quite understand what it is they're thinking, but when those rare moments come when it's all laid out for you it can be hilarious.  Today, Tyler was "reading" a picture book for Addison.  It was a board book about Jesus Christ (our church bag was still in the car), and it provided Mel and I some laughs.

"This is Jesus and here he is with Heavenly Father making the world.  He made everything, even the town.  Then, somehow, he turned into a baby.  Some shepherds and angels went and saw him.  Then he went fishing with some guys and he told them all about fish.  And it was great!  Then bad guys came and killed the good guys, and it was sad.  Then he came back alive, and there were a lot of birds.  Then he came back with Heavenly Father and appeared before a young man, and talked about everything.  And it was great too!  Then he went up in the clouds with all the children."

At least we know now what points we might need to concentrate on!

May Weddings

The past month has been completely booked with weddings. That's good though, right? Right. No argument from me on that one. But 6 weddings in 22 days?!?! I feel like I barely had time to come up for air this month. Business boomed WAY more than I had expected it to! I don't get much time for a breather, though, as I have a wedding again this weekend, and every weekend but 3 the entire summer. I AM immensely enjoying it, though, so as long as that's still the case, I will keep working. Just so I can show off, here is a summary of the weddings I did this month, pictures included!

MAY 8: MEGHANN & MIKE

Meghann was actually the very first bride to sign a contract with me after the bridal fair in February, and was positively the model bride to work with! Her reception was at Sun River Gardens in Orem, so she wanted an "elegant garden' look. We were originally going to go with white ranunculus and white anemones, but I found out just 5 days before the wedding that there was absolutely no way that we could get the anemones in, due to all of the cold weather we'd been having. So it was a bit of a stress trying to come up with something that would give the same kind of feel, and stay within the budget. We ended up getting some matsumoto asters and some cremons, and I absolutely LOVED the way it all turned out.

Bridal Bouquet


Bridesmaid Bouquet


Boutonniere


Corsage


Cake

MAY 15: SAVANNAH P.

I got a call from Savannah a couple weeks before her wedding, and we basically just had her consultation over the phone! She was getting married in the St. George Temple, and her colors were black and teal. Since no flowers really come in those colors, we opted for white tulips and white asiatic lilies. She only needed a bouquet and a toss bouquet, and I threw in a groom's boutonniere just to be nice.

MAY 16: DEB & NICK

I totally have my best friend, Annalee, to thank for this one! Her friend's best friend was getting married, and looking for someone to do some bouts and corsages, as well as some cake flowers. Thanks to Annalee mentioning my name, I got the job! It was a pretty simple order, actually. Deb's colors were red and black, and she wanted a "minimalistic elegant" look. She didn't want anything big, so we opted to use red spray roses as the flower. I had never worked with spray roses before, but I found that I really enjoy using them! The bouts and corsages looked great, and the flowers they used on the cake looked divine!





MAY 20: EVALYNN & MITCH

Ya know, I think about this wedding, and I start to get stressed out all over again! Let's just say that there seemed to be a major lack of communication between what the mother of the bride wanted, and what the bride wanted. Annalee was doing the decor for this wedding, and unfortunately she got the brunt of the miscommunication issues. EvaLynn had told me she wanted a wildflower look, so Annalee and I put our heads together to coordinate everything and come up with the best floral and decor options possible. We decided on purple daisies, pink matsumoto asters, blue delphinium, yellow alstromeria, and hints of beargrass. For all of the stress we endured before the wedding, the final product was absolutely beautiful, and everyone was happy!

Bride's Bouquet

Bridesmaid Bouquet

Flower Girl Hair Wreath

Boutonniere

Corsage

MAY 23: JENNIFER & CHAD

I met with Jennifer and Chad back in March, and we had written up a really large order for their wedding. I got the sad news that, due to Chad getting laid off, we'd have to drastically cut back on the floral order. I completely felt for them and their situation (what with us dealing with a layoff last year), and reworked her order, with some discounts thrown in, to try and still get them the flowers that they needed. Their colors were blue, white, and champagne, so we went with blue hydrangea and white roses. The end result was so beautiful and elegant! Jennifer was so excited about the flowers, and it made me really happy that I could help make her day special. (BTW, the extra picture at the end is of the sushi roll cakes that they had for their reception. Zuke went nuts!)

Bridal Bouquet

Corsage

Boutonniere

Sushi Cakes

MAY 30: KRISTY & CHAD

Kristy was referred to me by our good friend, Bryan. Kristy's colors were ivory, sage green, and light pink. She wanted a "classic" look, so we decided to go with ivory and light pink roses, which accents of greenery. I got to deliver all of the flowers to the new Draper Temple, and it was the perfect day for a wedding! Kristy looked absolutely stunning in her vintage style ivory dress, and the flowers coordinated perfectly with it. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures, but when I get some from Kristy, I will definitely post them.

Preschool Graduation

Tyler graduated from Olympus High's Titan Tot Preschool on May 20th. To celebrate, the class had a big luau, and all of the parents were invited to participate. The kids were greeted with leis and sunglasses, which was really fun for the kids. They had lots of fun activities for everyone to participate in : painting visors, colored sand pictures, making crepe paper grass skirts, making leis, making fruit loop necklaces, and making fruit kabobs. It was fun to get to do all of these activities with Tyler! After the activities, we all sat down for a snack, and then the kids got to do some of the songs and dances that they'd learned for the parents. They also did the limbo, which was just hilarious! When it was time for the actual graduation, they had each of the high school students who had helped the class out present the children with their diplomas, and say something nice about the kids. The student that presented Tyler with his diploma said that Tyler is "Very enthusiastic, is very friendly, and LOVES the color yellow!" They also gave each of the children a book that had pictures of them in it, as well as some of their artwork. I am so proud of Tyler, and of all the work that he did in preschool this year! Bring on Kindergarten!

All geared up and ready to go!

Playing in the sand with Mommy.

Tyler & Mommy with his colored sand picture.

Zuke carried around all of Tyler's "swag" as he did the different activities.

Doing the Huki Lau dance.

Doing the limbo.

Tyler with his diploma.

Tyler with his teachers: Mrs. Moyle, Miss Karalee, & Miss Nola

Family Dinner

Zuke doesn't have a very large family. He and his brother, his mom, his dad, 2 aunts & uncles, and 2 sets of grandparents. That's just the side that's in the US, and still, that's relatively small compared to most families, even mine. I met most of them either before or after we were married, and have developed good relationships with all of them. There are still a few that I haven't had the chance to meet, but I got the opportunity to do that on Monday.

Zuke's brother, Ryo, has been training with the police force in Australia for almost two years. He left right after Zuke and I started dating, so I had never had the chance to meet him, or even talk to him, until Monday. He is apparently back in Utah for a couple months, waiting for his citizenship to go through so he can finish up his training. Zuke picked him up from his dad's house Monday night, and we all got to go enjoy a delicious dinner at Red Lobster. (Thanks Debra!) Tyler absolutely adored Ryo, and keeps referring to him as "a good guy". We came home, put the kids to bed, and then Zuke took Debra and Ryo to see the new Star Trek movie. (BTW, we saw that on Friday morning, and IT ROCKED!) We stayed up talking insanely late after the movie, and just had an all around good time. It was so nice getting to spend some time with him, and I hope that we'll get to hang out some more before he heads down under again!

Things That Must Go

On the way to work each morning, Zuke listens to the morning show "Radio From Hell" on X96. Being as we only have one car right now, I sometimes take him to work, and have been roped into listening with him. It's not bad, I must admit. Once a week (I think.....don't quote me on it) they do a segment called "Things That Must Go". Each of the DJ's come up with their own list of things that they think should "go", and occasionally read lists from listeners who have emailed them in.

So, keeping in fashion, here is our list of things that must go:

• Adults who can't seem to spell even simple words correctly. Example: the word "Proof" spelled "P-r-u-f-f". Repeatedly. I mean, seriously?! Did you not attend elementary school?
• People who are going crazy about this whole swine flu debacle. It's just like the flu.....which will kill thousands of people every year. Wash your hands, buy some Purell, and take a chill pill.
• Landlords who, after three weeks, still haven't replaced the weather stripping to our basement door. I am so sick of cleaning up dead worms and spiders off of our laundry room floor!
• Neighbors who leave their insanely loud motorcycles idling in the driveway. For 20 minutes. AT SIX O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!!!