1st Birthday Party

 
 My, how time flies by like a blink of an eye. I truly felt like this moment was just yesterday. We are now approaching exactly one year to date from that miraculous day. I am grateful every single day for the beautiful blessing my Heavenly Father has given me to have a literal angel as my daughter. Just look at her:

My almost 1 year old. She somehow gets more and more beautiful every time I look at her!

 She has been the joy in my life since I first found out I was pregnant with her. Such joy I truly did not know existed until I held her in my arms for the first time. Memories like this one are ones to never forget. 

Although Emery does not officially turn 1 until December 14th, 2011 -at 6:54pm PST-,  we had a little celebration in her honor this past Saturday, December 10th. (Grandpa's birthday!) We are so grateful for those who were able to come and celebrate with us. Both sides of our family (with exception of one of T's brother's) live long distance and were unable to come. We felt so much love as some of our military friends  family joined us that day. 

 What is a celebration without some yummy treats to enjoy? Exactly. It isn't one. So we were sure to share some of our favorite foods. With 7 layer dip, taco meat, and chips to go with it, you can't go wrong there! I was sure to make everything pink in honor of my little girly-girl. Delicious chocolate and  yellow cake cupcakes with vanilla frosting, peanut butter zebra pink cookies, and homemade Lofthouse Sugar Cookies. Mmmm. Now I'm all hungry. 

With some pink decorations it definitely put us in the party mood. 

Some of my favorite photos of the special girl. She sure had a lot of fun! 

She was so smiley and happy seeing everyone enjoy themselves. She just loves people! 

In my family we have been doing a Chinese tradition since my first niece turned 1. This Chinese tradition (in my own words)  is that on the child's first birthday, you place in a row a few different items of choice (each item representing something that the child could grow up to be). The child is then placed a few feet away from the items and they are to crawl/walk towards one item. Do this 3 times. It's just really fun! So we did this with Emery and I have the first two times but was unable to record the third final round.

The items that we placed and what they represented to us:
1. Scriptures - Spiritually knowledgable
2. Book - Educationally knowledgable
3. Egg - Homemaker
4. Cash- Wealth

First round:

       

 Egg!

 Second round:

Egg!

And her final round, she also went right for the egg! Too funny! We will be sure to do it again on her actual birthday.

She loved seeing some of her favorite people! 

Sadly we didn't get to take pictures with all of her favorite people who joined us that day. I'm still kicking myself for that one!    

 Look at her gorgeous cake! My friend Katie was so helpful and made it for Emery's party. I truly could not have asked for a more perfect cake! 

Then came the scary exciting part of smashing that cake! Emery was not sure how to take the pressure of everyone standing around her watching intensely with the cameras to see how she would react. Let's just say at first, she was unsure and a little intimidated.

She slowly became more and more interested and would place her cute little pointer finger in the frosting, and would shy away for a moment, then build the courage once again to place that little finger in there! 

We thought to try some utensils. Maybe she didn't want to get all messy? 

With little interest on Emery's part, I decided to give her a taste so she would know just exactly how delicious this big beautiful cake was! We were sure she would then dig in.

Haha! Nope! Not a chance. 

  Daddy decided she needed extra encouragement to get things going. 

No way. She obviously did not agree. 

  But with consistant effort, Daddy was sure to get her to try it!

              Alas! She caved in and tried that sweet frosting and realized, "I like it!"!

 So she agreed to try some more!

Yes, those cheeks are just as fun to kiss as you would imagine them to be.

    And more!

        

  And some more!!

                         Even Daddy agreed that it was some pretty delicious cake! 

Pretty sure he ate more than Emery did. 

  Emery liked it so much she began to realize it was all worth the mess. 

Haha, see Daddy's hand sneaking some more of that cake?!

   Emery is such a sweetheart, she even asked if anyone wanted to try some of   her cake! That's my girl. 

We realized we should have opened the gifts before the cake smashing, but we decided it wasn't so bad. Mommy went upstairs to clean Emery up and Daddy cleaned up the mess (was sure to save the cake for later enjoyment) and set out the wonderfully thought-out gifts from those who love her.

     Once again, Emery was unsure of the situation. I mean, she had never really had her own birthday before. I would be a little worried too if the pressure was on me to entertain all of my friends without knowing what the heck was going on.  

   Once she realized there were some pretty fun things hidden beneath all of that  paper, she became a little more excited. 

This card that Melle got her has a Peek-A-Boo baby bear that really entertained her! 

 Molly was sure to help Emery open her gifts. She is a professional you know. She just turned 2 back in October and knew exactly what was going on. She was so helpful and loved seeing the new toys! 

Oma (Grandma in German. AKA T's Mom)  sent some adorable new clothes for Emery to wear. We can't wait to dress her up! 

   

Emery loves putting things on her head, and was having a ball trying on her new headband from Oma. She also enjoyed the little piano set from Jen and started dancing to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

   

  She was rocking out and Molly thought it would be fun to join in. Obviously, Emery wanted it all for herself and once she realized Molly was taking over, she knew she had to cut in.

  

 So she slowly walked knee-walked on over and cut in front of Molly.

  

And got her little piano back.

      Thank you again for all who came, gave/sent a gift! We are also so grateful for all the loving and wonderful people who have made this past year a wonderful success and given us so many beautiful memories. Emery is so lucky to have such people in her lives. 

Honeymoon

Awwww, the long awaited trip almost every newlywed couple awaits. The Honeymoon! The morning after our wedding I was absolutely exhausted. When people say that weddings take everything out of ya, they weren't kidding. I didn't want the time to arrive to catch our flight. But alas, the time came. So I quickly pinned my bangs back and put a little mascara on and was ready to leave.


Our lovely hotel that we stayed at.


On our flight home to Las Vegas.

When T asked me where I wanted to go on our Honeymoon, it didn't take me long to decide. In fact, I could have picked anywhere in the world. Though I love the beach, deserted beautiful islands, big cities, etc...I did not hesitate one second with the infamous response....



"The Happiest Place On Earth! "DUH! :)

I mean, where else would the happiest couple on earth go?

After flying home on Sunday, we decided to spend the night in our new apartment and see T's parents as they made their drive back to LA.
Monday morning, bright and early we headed out the door and drove on our way to the happy ol' place!

Our hotel room. There awaited for us was a long stem red rose, an autographed photo of Mr. & Mrs. Mickey Mouse, ballons and of course, chocolates on our pillows! They upgraded us to a bigger room and handed us each a big ol' pin that said "Celebrating our honeymoon".


After unloading our things we couldn't wait any longer, so we strolled right on in to the park and rode some of our favorite rides.


We made sure to eat some yummy breakfast the next morning. I love my hot cocoa!


I must be a kid at heart because I was so amazed at the Lego Store! A life-size Giraffe, Darth Vader and other such things made completely out of Legos just blew my mind!



Before heading into the park we decided to do some shopping in the stores at Downtown Disney. We made sure to buy lots of treats, like their Carmel Apples! YUM! We bought some toys for the kiddos (nieces and nephews) and I was able to get a Mickey Sweatshirt. Love it!



Also that night we had made a painting that had our initials and the date with "Disneyland Honeymoon" in the corner. Our initials were created with Disney characters. Mine was made with Tinkerbell and T's was of Jack Sparrow. It turned out so cute!



During our trip we were sure to get a few of the "famous" picture taken in front of the castle. Funny, I swear the castle was a lot bigger back in the day...


We didn't take many other pictures during Disneyland. But here we are over at California Adventure in line for California Soaring. That was an amazing ride! Definitely worth the 3 hour wait.


The perfect ending picture to our trip at the Magical Kingdom.

After a few days at Disneyland we made our way over to T's parents house where we met them, and my parents and we had an open house/reception for those that knew T's family. Afterwards, all of us flew to Austin, Tx for the same reason. I will blog about that soon.




When we arrived back home to Las Vegas we treated ourselves to The Melting Pot.


Just goofing off as always!


Dinner was great, and we would have stayed for dessert but we were stuffed! So we went back a few days later. I mean, those coconut covered marshmallows were just screaming for me to dip them in some hot melted chocolate!


We just made sure to make ourselves homemade ice cream sandwiches!


Our Honeymoon truly was the happiest!