Dalia's 3rd Birthday!

Our baby girl Dalia turned 3 years old today!
April 29, 2009

Dad, Dalia, & Mom
She woke up this morning talking about her "My Blues Clue Birthday Party!!"

We had a surprise party for her! Papa A. watched her all day while the rest of us got ready for the party! It was a "Blue's Clues" birthday party because Dalia loves Blue's Clues. So we had everything BLUE. We all wore blue, we had blue treats, juice, cake, even our rice for dinner was blue (we had hawaiian haystacks). We had her party in Grandma & Grandpa Ho.'s social room in their apartment building. When the birthday girl arrived we all waited patiently in the room for her to walk in the door. See the picture of her walking in the door. She was a little scared i think at first. Well when she walked in we all yelled Happy Birthday and she was defiantly surprised. She wasn't sure what to think and then she saw her mama and ran and gave her a big hug and then she smiled.

The girls enjoyed wearing thier party hats and being chased by the scary party hat monster (dalia's daddy). Here they are hiding under the table from the scary monster.

Then Dalia had to play "Blue's Clues" to find out what we were going to do next at her party. She got out her "Handy Dandy Notebook" and she was ready to find her clues. She had to find 3 blue paw prints (blue's clues). First she found some striped paper, then a bow, and then a square. She had to sit in her thinking chair and "think, think, thiiiiink." Until she figured out that the striped paper, a bow, and a square were a present all wrapped up. It was Present Time!! "Present Time Present Time open a present and see what's inside." Dalia had fun opening her presents and Ava really enjoyed helping too!
Dalia got some awesome things: my Little Pony notebook with twist crayons, tinkerbelle P.J.'s, match card games, a orange juice carton wallet, a capri sun purse, some books, Mulan the movie, a My Little Pony, polly pocket Belle, Beast, and carriage, and polly pocket Cinderella!! She was in heaven! When she opened the Cinderella she was so excited that she hugged the package! (She has been looking at the cinderella at the store ever since february and asking for it). Thank you for Dalia wonderful gifts!

Next it was time for cake! (we had blue cupcakes with blue frosting and blue candels!)
Dalia got the biggest smile on her face when everyone started to sing her Happy Birthday! She was so silly blowing out her candles. She blew each of them out one at a time. The last candle wouldn't seem to go out when she blew on it and she thought it was so funny. Here is a video, she is so cute...
Video:

Our guests at the party.
Uncle Jerry, Aunt Jami, Uncle Rayson, Aunt Callie, Dad
Aunt Erin, Cousin Ava, Papa, Dalia, Mom, Tesila
And here we all are with Grandma Ho. Grandpa Ho. was there for awhile too, but he had to leave early.

Thank you all for coming! We really enjoyed celebrating Dalia's birthday with all of you!

Cafe Rio

We love it here in Washington, but there is one thing we really miss about Utah...

College Friends

Brian,Dalia,Britni,Tes,Crissy,Aaron,Lindsay,Wells,Bo,Elly,Kurt,&Emily

Tonight was so fun! We got together with some of our old friends for college! Wells and Aaron were some of Brian's roommates. We hadn't seen them in quite some time. We got together for dinner and Aaron and Lindsay's new house in South Jordan. They live right on the hill where the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple is. It is so pretty up there. The neighborhood hood is so nice and peaceful and so pretty. It it almost perfect, so much that it reminds me of the neighborhood on the movie The Truman Show.
After dinner we went to one of the cool parks with these spider web like playgrounds! So cool. However, it was really windy which made is super cold so we didn't stay long. We went back to Aaron and Lindsay's to talk and let our kids run around.
Dalia and Elly became good friends really fast! Elly kept calling dalia, 'a-Dalia.' They liked to play the piano and dance. Dalia seemed to like Bo too. However, it was more of a love hate relationship. Bo is ALL boy and actually thinks he is batman and acts accordingly. They say he usually wears his batman costume most everywhere, but that it was too dirty to wear today. So Bo likes to fight and all i would hear would be Dalia saying, "Bo lets fight." Then the next thing would be Dalia crying and Elly sayind, "Bo hurt a-Dalia." Then we would have to kiss Dalia's owie's better and tell Bo to stop hitting and they would go back to playing and it would start all over with Dalia saying, "Bo lets fight." But overall they seemed to have fun.

The little babies: Crissy, Kurt, and Tes just crawled around playing, with not much interaction with each other except for maybe taking each others toys now and then. We sure had fun seeing our friends, lots of laughing and reminising. We wish we all lived closer so that we could hang out all the time! Come visit us!

Video:
The boys at the park...

Gigi's House

We went to Duchesne to visit Gigi!

It was fun to be back at Gigi's house. We hadn't been there since Dalia was 14 months old. We played in the backyard and had a little fun climbing in the trees. Dalia would try to catch me and Brian when we jumped out of the tree. She is such a sweet girl. Dalia had so much fun with her Gigi. They read lots of stories, make Jello, played with side walk chalk, saw lots of farm animals, and ate italian ice cream. She would always ask for, "My Gigi," and say, "Gigi I love you."

Don, Jill, Jessica, and Erica came over for dinner the first night we were there. It was fun to see them and watch Don play with Dalia. They were such best friends as they took turns playing with the rubber duck and combing its feathers. When we first got to Gigi's house she had two little purses full of goodies. A big pink one for Dalia and a little purple one for Tesila. There were stickers, hair bows, tutus, magnifying glasses, combs, rubber duck, and sidewalk chalk in the purses. The girls just loved them, thank you Gigi!
Jessica and Erica played me a duet on the piano that they had just learned that morning. I am still so impressed by their piano skills! They did a great job and it was so fun to watch them play and watch their fingers go all over the keys.

Gigi also took us to the grave of one William H. Long; who they suspect was the Sundance Kid. They exumped his body awhile back to take some DNA samples or whatever they needed to see if it was him. You can see all the dirt that has been put back since the recent reburial.

And finally here is a video of Tesila of her taking a few steps... She gets upset if we try to make her walk or try to trick her into taking a few steps. She will walk someday i guess when she decides that she is ready. Because right now she has great balance and lots of leg strength. I think she is mostly scared because she seems to want to follow Dalia around and just seems to watch intently.
Video:

Tesila likes to stand and does so very well. So well that brian tossed a pillow at her the other day and she didn't even fall over. She swayed a little bit but caught her balance and kept standing. So we know she has good balance. Someday.

Callie & Rayson's wedding! - April 25, 2009

Callie & Rayson - April 25, 2009
Callie & Rayson got married on April 25, 2009 at Wheeler Farm in Utah!
It was a very very rainy day! The rain let up just before the wedding in time for some pictures!! Callie looked gorgeous and Rayson looked studly in his tux!! They both had permanent smiles on their face from ear to ear! They are a great couple and both make each other so happy! I am so grateful that Callie found Rayson! I couldn't ask for a better match for Callie. Happy Wedding!!

The Wedding Party!
Dalia, Tes, Ava, & Alex were Callie's "Butterfly Girls" (Flower girls with wings! and they tossed our tissue paper butterfly's down the isle). Erin, Jami, & Britni were bridesmaids!

The butterfly girls! Dalia & Ava! Best cousins!! Tesila wasn't walking and so she didn't get to walk down the isle. I also got to walk down the isle as Callie's Maid of Honor! It was my first time walking down the isle! I think i did a great job! Then of course the other bridesmaids and groomsman walked down the isle! Then the butterfly girls! and then Bride Callie!!! I got to hold Callie's bouquet during the ceremony which was beautiful! I was glad i had such a good place to watch (standing right next to Callie!)

Right after the wedding their wedding reception started!! There was yummy food to eat! Dancing! Which the little butterfly girls LOVED!! and of course mingling! I love to mingle! and it was so fun to see so many family members and old friends!! But it is sad because you don't really get a chance to visit with anyone all that long because I'm always busy wanting to talk to everyone. I had so much fun at Callie & Rayson's Wedding. I'm sure they did too!! Callie did a great job choosing all the decorations, the colors, the food! My mom and others did a great job putting it together! We have a great big family who were all willing to help out! I sure love my family!!

Our friends from high school Monica & Jessica made it to the reception with their husbands!! And my friend Heather and her family came too! It was so good to see them all!

Callie's Big Day - April 25, 2009

The morning of Callie's big day! She is getting married today and we are so excited!! Dalia had fun trying on Callie's veil this morning! Tes enjoyed eating breakfast! Callie headed off to get her hair done! We can't wait to see her all dressed up in her beautiful wedding gown later today!!

Callie & Rayson's wedding

COMING SOON (hopefully)

Cousin Ava.Rehearsal Dinner

Today we got to play with Cousin Ava!! so fun!!

We played at Grandma & Grandpa Ho.'s house. Ava and Dalia loved each other from the start. First Ava took her shoes and socks right off and showed Dalia her "stinky feet." Ava thought it was so funny! Then they danced, colored, jumped on the bed, chased each other and even had a picnic with Grandma!

The girls loved going out on the balcony with Grandpa to watch all the car, trucks, and buses driving on the streets below. The especially loved to see buses and would get SOOOO excited!
Ava likes her 'Uncle Brian' and enjoyed helping him try to build this ridiculously hard M&M puzzle.

Tonight was the rehearsal dinner for Callie and Rayson's wedding tomorrow!! We all got to practice walking down the aisle (well the wedding party that is). Alex, Dalia, & Ava are going to be "butterfly girls" (instead of flower girls since they will be wearing butterfly wings and tossing tissue paper butterfly's instead of flower pedals). It was fun watching them try over and over to toss the butterfly's and still walk down the aisle. They are so cute! P.S. Callie had me give a toast at the dinner since i'm her maid of honor, well of course i cried and hopefully i made some kind of sense. I love you Callie, you mean so much to me! Thank you for being my little sister!

That night Callie slept over at my mom's place and we had a girls late night doing last minute wedding things. Here we are poofing up the cute tissue paper pom-poms that callie made. They were sure tricky to poof up. Callie could finish about 5 by the time that i finished one and her's looked beautiful while mine looked crappy. It was fun staying up just talking and laughing.

Airplane.Utah.Callie'sNight

To Utah for Callie's wedding!!!!

The girls loved riding on a "blue airplane" and looking out the window. Dalia got so excited whenever she saw her luggage and really enjoyed being able to pull it around.

First stop Grandma & Grandpa C.'s house!
I had to get my bridesmaid dress fitted (grandma made all the bridesmaid dresses). The girls played all afternoon in the backyard, playing in the fountain, on the rope swing, watering grandma's flowers and of course helping grandpa and daddy unload wood that grandpa bought to redo his deck. Grandma worked on my dress and i got my hair done by Niki and got to visit with her and Cheyenne! P.S. It is spring! I loved the purple flowers in grandma's yard and the beautiful white blossoms from the cherry tree.

Tonight was Callie's Bachelorette Party!
We had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory with the sisters and some of callie's friends. Then a few of us went to the dollar theater and saw "Bride Wars." It was sure fun to celebrate Callie's single days. Love you Callie!

Our Backyard

It is spring in full bloom here in Washington! We can't get enough of playing outside in our backyard! The girls love their little swing set and to play with bubbles! Brian has been working hard to clear away some blackberry bushes and make us a little fire pit! And Tesila is learing how to eat with a fork!

Family Egg Hunt

We had our family Easter Egg hunt today. On Easter it was too rainy so we just waited. Dalia enjoyed runnying around the yard finding eggs. Tesila just crawled around until we put eggs in her basket, then she just wanted to play with the eggs. Tes loved shaking the eggs and hearing the candy shake around. But i think she liked it a lot better once Dalia opened up an egg and they began to eat jelly beans! We like candy!

Bubbles

• Dalia continues to be my helper in the kitchen and enjoyed playing with my cooking 'mittens'.
• We love bubbles and like to play with our tiger that blows bubbles.
• The high school was performing the play "Beauty and the Beast" so Brian and i took Dalia on a date to see the play. We left Tesila with a babysitter and Dalia got her mommy and daddy all to herself. She got dressed up in her "belle dress" complete with sparkly shoes and white gloves and was so excited to go on a "date with daddy." One of the young men in our ward named Josh was Gaston in the play, so Dalia got her picture with him after the play (she was kind of scared to see him, because Gaston and the Beast were fighting in the play).
• Tesila loves spaghetti!
  

Easter Sunday

We had a great Easter Sunday despite it being rainy. I think we have the cutest girls, especially in their Easter/flower girls dresses!! Tesila picked an egg out of her basket right away and shook it. It opened up and out feel "jelly beans!" Tesila began eating them up, she was so happy. Dalia played with her new 'rella' (umbrella) and was excited to find a chocolate bunny.
We enjoyed Easter dinner at Lincoln & Carrie's with there family! Thank you!

Easter Egg Hunt & Coloring

This year we had an Easter Egg hunt at playgroup at at the church for the primary kids. Dalia enjoyed putting eggs in her basket with no hesitation this year!
We also colored eggs as a family with Eric & Emily. Eric seemed to enjoy teaching Dalia how to color the eggs. I had a hard time stepping back and letting Eric teach her. Dalia sure had fun Dunking the eggs in the different colors and bringing them out of the cups all by herself.

The Backyard

We found a blue kid bike frame with no tires in the blackberry bushes in our backyard and Dalia loved to go sit on it and calls it "my bike". So we moved it up to the yard so that she can ride it more often. She really enjoys her bike.
Since it is starting to get nice we have been spending more time in our backyard! Tesila really loves our little swing set! So far she likes to just stand at the top of the slide and squeal with laughter!

April 3-5

Dalia wearing pirate bandana with her 'i wanna be a cowgirl' - awesome!
Dalia standing by the car - She loves to help carry in the groceries from the car into the house!
It has been nice outside lately, so we have started to play outside! Since Tesila hasn't been out on the grass since last summer she didn't know what to think of it. She would just sit there in one place and sometimes she would touch the grass with her fingers really quickly, but she didn't seem to like it, since she didn't try crawling anywhere.
This year we noticed lots of moss in our yard. Brian had fun pulling it out and throwing it at us girls.
I love tesila's cute curls in her hair that she gets after her bath, she also loves to clap.
Lately after we put the girls to bed Dalia has been sneaking out of her room and climbing into our bed to go to sleep. Because that is where we find her when Brian and i are ready to go to bed at night.