18 Precious Months

This silly, beautiful, energetic, outrageous, and absolutely lovely girl turned 18 months on Saturday. To celebrate the occasion we took her to her favorite place. Chuck E Cheese's.






Yes, we forced her on this ride. We both had to ride it when we were little, we had to carry on the tradition.

After riding some fun rides we bought her favorite cotton candy, then took her next door to Walmart to pick out a toy. With a little help she picked out this automatic ball machine that shoots out balls. Her friend Sam has one, and she LOVES it.



Once we picked up her toy we met Chad, Sue, and Aunt Marissa for dinner at Panera. Then Chris and I had to go to the Mormon Prom, while Arista had a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa Martin. We had a great time, and Arista had a great time. A woman in my ward and I were in charge of putting together a display of Asia. I made the pagoda with a little help, the pillows, and the rug. My friend Cassandra made over 50 Oragami cranes to hang on the fresh bamboo, they were adorable. It looked amazing! Here is what we came up with...









Arista went to nursery for the first time a week before her half birthday(5/15). She ran right in and started playing with the toys. I peeked in a few times to make sure she was doing well, and after an hour I looked in and she was bawling. I decided to go in there with her and sit with her for a while. After I felt like she was fine, I snuck out. I was later informed that she cried the rest of the time. Her second time at nursery was a complete meltdown, and I ended up bringing her to Primary with me. I am hoping that she adjusts soon.



Arista is growing up like a weed. She loves to eat waffles, fruit snacks, fruit loops, yogurt, M&Ms and ice cream cones. She still loves her troll doll, and has adopted other babies as well. She has a cute little stroller that she puts them in around the house.



Arista love love loves to go grocery shopping, and quite enjoys putting anything and everything into her shopping cart.




More than anything Arista LOVES to be outside. She loves to swing on the swings and play with her friends at the park.






Arista's friends all have binkys so she loves to pretend that she uses one too. She especially loves to ride her unicorn.





Arista enjoys being pretty.



Lately Arista has been watching Grandma and Grandpa Martin and Daddy play tennis. She wants to be a star one day, and has already began taking lessons.





Arista has her first boyfriend Sam. He is exactly one month older than her. Arista showed him who was boss the first time he came over to play, by giving him a love bite. Arista loves playing at the park with him, and riding the animals. She hopes that he won't forget her when she is gone for a month.



Mommy loves Arista more than words, and Arista LOVES Mommy. Separation anxiety has become a real thing for Arista but, secretly I loves it. We have such a great time together during the day, and I am so blessed to be able to spend my days with such a sweet girl.





Arista can't wait for Daddy to come home, and runs to the stairs when she hears the door beep everyday.




A few more facts:

Arista stopped nursing officially around the beginning of last month, and has not had any urges to start up again. It was a miserable week for me, but Arista was a champion.

Arista took her first trip to NYC.(post to come soon)

Arista can sign "Please".

The last of Arista's teeth are coming in.

Arista now sleeps in her big girl and only wakes up once a night.

Stories and Singing are Arista's favorite things to read and do.

We swear Arista speaks her own language. She loves to gab on our cell phones to family members about everything. We can't wait to hear what she has to say.

Arista loves to squeal high pitched to animals.

The stroller is not Arista's friend. She would prefer to walk everywhere.

Tangled is Arista's favorite movie.

Arista bites...everyone. We are working on that. :/

Arista is fascinated with home videos of herself, and can watch them all day everyday.

Arista Miracle, I don't know what we would do without you. You have brought so much joy to our lives. Every day is a new adventure, and each moment is priceless. You have such a zest for life, and your smile is contagious to everyone around you. You are very independent and stubborn, which we love. You mean so much to us, and we love you! Thank you for choosing us to be your parents.

Mommy & Me Birthday Party

For Mother's Day this year Arista and Chris gave me beautiful roses, Glee Karaoke, Micheal Jackson dance revolution, and this beautiful Thomas Kincaid picture of Pinocchio. My Mom also sent me some beautiful Disney signs, and Preslie even sent me something that day as well. Mother's day is such a struggle for me, especially watching all the little primary kids sing to their Mom. I can't wait to hear my daughters sing to me someday.








The following day Chris left on a last minute trip to Indiana with his boss for business. He toured insulation factories, and learned all about how it is made. As an added bonus Chris and his boss drove to visit James Dean grave, and a house that has a bunch of memorabilia. Chris said it was a neat experience. Well, unfortunately while Chris was touring away my birthday arrived. Instead of wallow in self-pity I packed Arista up in the car and took her to the Zoo.







After the Zoo we went to lunch at my favorite restaurant California Pizza Kitchen. After lunch we walked through Borders, and then went to a delicious yogurt place with our good friend Erin. This place is called Yogi berry, and it is a lot like Fro-Zen-Yo. I love those places! I want to open a franchise in Boise.

When we were through with our yogurt we walked around and then called it a night. Arista and I spent the rest of the night reading stories, watching American Idol, and looking at pictures. It was a perfect Mommy/daughter day, I just wish Preslie would have been there to celebrate with us.

My Mom sent me a wonderful gift this year. She made a birthday kit to use for every birthday celebrated. She made a chair cover for the birthday person, table cloth, banner, pillowcase, and birthday bunny. It was such a creative and thoughtful gift. I can't wait to use it for our next birthdays.



We crashed hard after our long birthday adventure.



Chris made up for missing my birthday by taking Arista and I to Texas De Brazil for dinner that weekend. We had delicious meats, and a yummy dessert. It was well worth the wait. Next year however all I want for my birthday is my husband to spend it with me. ;)

Easter Eggstravaganza

For Easter this year we decided to host at our house. The night before around 11:30pm we arrived home from a date night. While walking in the door Arista and I started pressing buttons on our security system, which doesn't work...or so we thought. Before we know it sirens are howling as well as Arista. No matter what we pushed we could not get the alarm to turn off. We frantically searched the house for anything with a telephone number of the security company or password. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes we found the telephone number and called the security line. "We are sorry, we can't turn it off unless you have your password, or secret code name." WHAT?! We are renters we had no clue that the thing even worked, or was on. The proceeded to tell us that the police were on their way and would have to talk to them directly to turn the alarm off, just to make sure the house was secure. 5 minutes later a very large police officer arrived, and explained to us that if he had to come back he would write us a ticket for $500. Chris asked him if he could talk to the security system so we could get the alarm to turn off. The police officer said he needed to get on the streets, and to figure it out before a ticket was to be written. After lots of probing and pleading he finally gave into talk to the security people, only to find out that they still would not turn it off without a password or code name. WHAT THE HECK?! Chris got their customer service on the phone and had to manually dismantle the alarm from the inside of our garage to get it to stop blaring. "Chris looked at me with sweat dripping down his face and said "Don't ever touch those buttons again." We had a great laugh about it afterwards. Man was it an ordeal. The following day we recieved an email from our landlord in England wondering if everything was okay and telling us that we could use the system free of charge. At least we got something out of it.

After staying up WAY too late cleaning and cooking the Easter bunny arrived at our house, leaving Arista a basketfull of goodies. She was so excited to see what the bunny had brought her. She recieved a beautiful Easter dress from Grandma and Grandpa McDonald, we a darling little poodle purse that went along with it. She got a giant baby, candy, and lots of cute clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Martin. Spoiled? Heck yes!





After seeing what we got, we headed off to 8am church. We had a beautiful Easter program, and a wonderful meeting.



I wanted to go all out for dinner this year, and since we were having guests I made the most out of everything I made. I decided to make my very first cheesecake, but not only was it chesecake it was Carrot Cake AND Cheesecake. If you have ever had Cheesecake Factory's Craigs Crazy Carrot Cake, it tasted exactly like that. It was beautiful!



I made an all white chocolate flower bouqet centerpiece, and homemade chocolate covered marshmellow eggs for each place setting. The marshmellow eggs were so delicious, I wish I would have made more.







Arista snuck into our baskets during dinner and started eating the candy with the wrapper on. Silly girl!



We had a wonderful dinner of Honeybaked ham, homemade rolls, Jello, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, funeral potatoes, and carrots. For dessert we had yummy cupcakes, carrot cake cheesecake and better than sex cake. Everything tasted fantasic, and the company was even better. We had Chad and Sue, our dear friends Stan and Leah, and Chris' wonderful boss Angus. Such a wonderful way to celebrate the ressurection of our Savior with friends and family.

Half Birthday

On Earth Day this year to celebrate Preslie's 2 1/2 year birthday, we started off the morning with lunch at McDonald's. Arista LOVES their fish burgers and ate an entire one herself.



After a yummy lunch we took a nice long nap.



I was so sad all day and knew that Preslie would want us to celebrate her, so we decided to take Arista to Chuck E Cheese's. She LOVED it!

I played some ski-ball.

Chris and Arista played A Star Wars game.



Arista rode the merry-go-round a dozen times



Arista loved this slide.


We played the race squirter game twice.



Arista's favorite thing out of the entire night was when she met Bob The Builder. She rode next to Bob probably 30 times, and talks about "Ba" often.



After many hours of fun we walked next door to Walmart to pick up a few things, then called it a night. Arista loved walking in the rain with our giant umbrella.



A few days later Chris and I went to see the Earth Day movie "African Cats". We both loved it, and thought it was the best. Although Preslie wasn't able to spend her half birthday with us, we knew she was near and laughing along with us. We love you "P"!