Mama's Holiday Wish List

Mama’s Holiday Wish List MemeTodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
As this is a WISH list here you go:
- Cricut Expression
-Letterpress Combo Kit
-A Mac so I can see what I am designing more clearer and because they are the best!
-Wristlet/Clutch to fit my phone, keys, credit cards and for it to fit in my diaper bag
-Camera for my car so that I can see behind me when I am backing out (there are a lot of kids in my neighborhood and I could never forgive myself if I hit one of them)

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
-A beautiful poem written by my husband for Valentine's Day

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
-a large painting

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
-All the gifts my parents got me because I knew it was a sacrifice on their part

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
-laptop, vacuum

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
-Turkey...oh yum

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
-An advent calendar and small gifts for it

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
-The Nativity Story (we must not forget the real meaning of Christmas :))

9. Favorite holiday song?
-Jingle Bell Rock, Christmas Song by Dave, O Holy Night

10. Favorite holiday pastime?
-Spending the holidays with family as we don't get to see most of them more than twice a year!

peru

My family took us to Peru 1.5 yrs ago (I was 6.5 months pregnant I think). We had such a wonderful time! We went to Lima, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Arequipa and Lorin, my dad and brothers went to Puno, Lake Titicaca and Colcha Canyon. My mom stayed with me because it was the altitude was too high :(

In Lima we stayed in Miraflores which is super close to tons of shopping, restaurants and nightlife....although Lorin and I went to bed at like 11pm after watching movies. We aren't party people but for those that are there is tons to do.

What made it so nice was that we rented a sweet apartment in a safe part of town where most tourists stay...ok we aren't tourists but the locals totally know we are from the States. We had 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, washer/dryer, cable, internet and the most important: HOT WATER! It was sweet and made our stay that more comfortable. We could have stayed with family but none were equiped to house 8 of us :(

So why am I blogging about this you may be asking yourself...
Well my parents have an apartment in Miraflores that they are renting out and asked me to tell my friends who love to travel about this. They've rented it out numerous times but since times are tough now they needed an extra helping hand from me and my blogging friends.

Here is the link for those that are interested or know of people that may be interested. All I know is that traveling to Peru is much easier now that we know that we are going to be staying in a safe place with all that we are used to having here in the US. So for those that are planning to go to Peru (which is totally awewsome by the way......especially the food....oh my gosh don't even get me started!!!) here it is:

www.mirarentalperu.com

it really is sweet and super nicely furnished....let me know if you have questions or whatever :)

sadness

I felt like this. All day yesterday. It was a terrible feeling. One I couldn't shake off. I did try but nothing helped. I fell asleep feeling miserable and woke up and immediately thought of these:

Sweet son with sweet smile.

my loves

my joy

i don't know why i felt the way i did. i didn't like it. i tried so hard to feel happy. i should have prayed. humbled myself and asked for help. i didn't. i slept and the Lord blessed me this morning for he knew what was in my heart. i wanted to feel joy and He helped me find it.

baby shower

October 17, 2009 we held a surprise baby shower for my mom (due Nov 26) and my aunt (Dec 23). Two boys!!! Let me tell you it was very hard to keep this secret from my mom as we talk almost every day. I just told her I was sending Ashton to visit and would fly to CT with my brother. She bought it and was totally excited to see her favorite grand child....

The turnout was huge and my inlaws were so great to come, too!

We already have sooo many boys but I guess we just keep breeding them!

The boys playing.....

celebrating my mom's 45th birthday! she doesn't look a day over 30 :)

and there will be dancing!

my aunt had a baby boy in september and just had surgery...man she looks awesome!








my aunt looks awesome and so happy!

the games to embarass the husbands....muhahaah

the decorations and glorious fooooooood

SURPRISE!!!

the big uno

ok these are out of order but blogger makes it impossible to move these around easily.

On

my little baby Ashton turned 1!!!! I know it went by so so fast! We celebrated this wonderful occassion on 9/26/09 because the whole Bird family would be in Utah. We had such a wonderful time and Ashton loved seeing all his aunts, uncles and cousins.

This pic is upside down...I made an Ashton nutrition label and but it around water bottles.

The birthday plate I made at Color Me Mine for the rest of the kids on their birthdays. Except I forgot to put his cake on it!!! It was right next to the cake...I'm getting old.

Decorations (all of Ashton's firsts documented)

ooo first haircut done by auntie mike

mike teaching ashton how to ride

lucas taking a turn riding....ahahaha pantless of course. that is how it is done at the bird's

(above) and we played ashtivia which was a hit! trivia about ashton....who won? i can't remember. it was close though!

the gang

ashton loving the cell phone auntie val gave him.

i made this banner..........yeah i went a little overboard

all clean! look below for the messy shots

after cake....thanks auntie lisha and shannon for bathing me
oh yeah he ate ALL of it

mmm i love it so much. you hate it compared to how much i love it. (madagascar...anyone??)

my nieces are so awesome

the cake (i got it at the lehi bakery...mmm mmm)

"thank you for coming to my party!"

i attempted to make cakepops by bakerella.....they were rough but anything for my baby

happy birthday my little one

i love you more than you can imagine.

my baby is now a toddler. a running blabber mouth. an opinionated, fist-clenching drama queen (king?). a little squirmer with a bottomless pit for a stomach. a hugger, kisser and comforter when mommy is sad (i pretend to be so he'll give me hugs). i love him more than anything. he is the reason i wake up happy every morning, the reason i want to be better. i love you, ashton.

Boo at the Zoo

We went to the Hogle Zoo for their Halloween activity: Boo at the Zoo! It was really fun and Ashton was loving the fact that we let him walk around on his own. He is too cool for his parents....

These are the tiger cubs....so cute!

Lorin trying to measure up to the big ape

Ashton looking at the baby elephant

Ashton is saying something...probably yo leave me alone you old farts....

my little peter pan

he just wants to be free

mmm where'd the candy go?

needless to say we were tired of halloween by the time halloween actually came! starting the week before halloween we had a grown up halloween party at the bikman's, boo at the zoo, trick or treat at KLAS, lehi city halloween party and then halloween.....ah i am exhausted just thinking about it. ashton was a wonderful peter pan/robin hood (they look the same). he liked trick or treating only because he could walk around on the street...ah this boy is going to drive me crazy i just know it but i love him more than i can even say.

le diner d'halloween

October 25: Halloween Dinner (we were supposed to carve pumpkins that we were supposed to get on saturday....)

This is Ashtivia showing off his "guns" while riding sideways on the quad. That little daredevil.


Tivia stealing the treats (haha ok I don't actually call him that. That one is for you ShanBird)

Decorating the popcorn balls Debra sent us as an activity.

This is Carly (Alisha's roommate)

This one is Alisha's. Most of the popcorn ball has been eaten....as well as the decorations.

Bryan's creation: a cornrowed vampire

closeup of leon's 5 eyed monser. He copied me....hmm so unoriginal. just joking

bffs

leon and his only friend :)

mine was deliciously vampiristic (i don't know...i am bored)

j's george washington look a like (the marshmallows look like the old school white wigs)

natalia's mohawked dude/rooster

dallin's frosted y? shannon's is a plain popcorn ball. she says "so you can use your imagination"

working hard

logan's masterpiece. that tootsie roll on the side is a black eye in case some were wondering.

till tomorrow.....as time moves backwards as i post important events...backwards

jailbirds

once upon a time the bird clan wanted to go pumpkin picking.......3 weeks later we finally got together to go to the pumpkin patch....and it was closed! so we took 4 pumpkins and left money in the basket. will we go to jail? no one knows. BUT we finally got our pumpkins after several failed attempts to go to the pumpkin patch. now let's see if we finally get to carve our pumpkins. i hope these pics don't incriminate us since we were there after hours.....ashton was the only innocent one as he sat in the warm car. just kidding. we paid for the pumpkins people!

we then went to a restaurant to get a treat (which is why we didn't carve the pumpkins tonight). ashton can suck out of a straw now so he loved sucking the melted ice from the wendy's we had an hour earlier. yeah....we eat a lot.

hopefully i will have some pics of the finished product.... or just a pumpkin outside my door.

Genius

I just need to keep this blog up for posterity's sake! I am awful at journaling but so-so at blogging so I'll update this more frequently.

Ashton:
He picks up the phone and puts it on his ear because he's seen us do it so many times! Except the earpiece sticks out instead of in by his ear. He's getting there. Also, since I've brushed his hair with a comb for a while he started putting the brush on his hair (wrong way of course hahah) and moving it up and down. (He did this the beginning of August so I am behind a bit). He has also been signing "naptime" for a month or so along with "eat" and most recently "finished". He has been able to wave "bye bye" and sometime "hi." He is no longer afraid of the stairs and charges them like no other! This is bad. He can go down the stairs crawling backward but he chooses to hold on to the railing and walk down, like an adult. We don't let him of course and he'll hold his arms up so we can hold him and carry him downstairs. Sometimes I won't hold him so he'll reluctantly go down the stairs the way a baby should. He also eats mostly everything except honey (obviously), egg whites, milk...I think that's it. I always feel bad so I'll just give him some of my food off my plate...even when he's already eaten. This kid's tummy has no end. He's been drinking 7-9 oz of milk every 5 hours. He also has gotten a lot more loving. He doesn't like being constrained but if he initiates it, he'll give hugs and kisses. Like today, I slept in this morning and when I came down he jumped up and down and came over with his hands outstretched and gave me a hug and kiss. Oh how I llooooovvve him!

My mom came out to visit mid August with my brother, Leon and help him get set up for his first year at UVU. He is all grown up and so responsible! Yes, I am surprised! Ashton got a terrible rash that lasted like 8-9 days. My mom washed his little bum so that the wipes wouldn't irritate him even more.....and this is how he thanks her! 6 months pregnant nonetheless!
Do you see the pee mark?

Can you see his first tooth? Yes that is a BBQ potato chip. It was the only way I could get him to open his mouth for longer than 2 seconds. I needed to capture it for my posterity!! Please don't judge me. I don't usually feed him junk :)

i love to see the temple

courtesy of...a website i found on google (sorry can't remember)

i remember singing "i love to see the temple" in primary. ever since then, i've always loved seeing temples. not only are they beautiful on the outside, but inside it is spectacular. only the best is used for the temple. the temple, for me, has always been a place of refuge- of solace. my sophmore year of college was the year that i attended the temple the most- at least once a week. i loved the peace that would come from sitting, pondering and waiting my turn to go into the font. i thought of the people whose names were being read- what were they like? how were they feeling right now? i didn't want to leave because i was on this spiritual high. unfortunately, i have gotten worse at going to the temple. is it because we have a baby and don't have much time? all the excuses i make up in my head aren't really valid. we are so lucky to have all these temples nearby. the draper temple, mt. timpanogos, south jordan, provo, salt lake and now the oquirrh temple are within 50 minutes of where we live.

we were priviledged enough to see the oquirrh mountain temple dedication. i didn't enter spiritually high (i was rushed) but as the meeting progressed my heart was softened and humbled. i've heard many stories of families sacrificing to go to the temples hundreds of miles away from their homes-but this one stuck out. sorry i don't remember specific details but this group of members from ecuador planned to go to the lima, peru temple which was like 3 days drive. if y'all have been in south america you know the roads aren't all paved and people are crammed into little vans they call buses. they were supposed to arrive on tuesday night but were stopped at the border because they didn't have some paper they needed. the temple president was notified on friday in the middle of the night that this group was arriving soon (3 days after their supposed arrival). the temple president asked the janitors to turn all the lights on at the temple (which are usually shut off at night) and to get ready for their arrival. as the bus pulled up to the gate the temple was shining in all its glory and the angel moroni stood proudly on the steeple. could you imagine traveling all these days, crammed in a little van arriving in the middle of the night and seeing this majestic building- shining brightly against the dark sky....one man exclaimed "we've arrived! we've arrived!" i wonder if that is what we'll feel when we return to our Heavenly Father, to our home after the journey of life. i think this story stuck out to me because it was the lima peru temple. that is where i was sealed to my parents. where we became eternally bound. lorin and i visited the temple on our trip to peru last year. it was closed so we took a picture outside of the gates. we were in front of this beautiful temple, thousands of miles away from where lorin and i were married, but it was for the same purpose. to be bound eternally. how often do i take for granted having all these temples right near my home while thousands of faithful latter day saints plan months in advance, take work days off, hire babysitters, sacrifice other things to be able to have the finances to travel,e tc. all i have to do is call up a willing member of my family to babysit for a couple of hours while we drive 10 minutes to the temple. not only do i need to go to the temple for my own spirituality to progress but those people who have passed NEED us to do their work. When I think about the people I am doing the work for, I can feel their presence and pure joy as they choose to accept the gospel. it is a miraculous feeling, one that i need again in my life. i have never felt so close to the lord as i have when i went every week to the temple. never have i felt so much pure love for my husband as when i am in the celestial room with him while holding his hand. this dedication holds a special place in my heart- it has reminded me of what is important and i wanted to share that with you so that we can all make it a goal to go to the temple :)