One Special Day...

On Michael's first Father's Day, he gave our Little Lady a very special Priesthood blessing.

Adelaide wore a very special dress...

And we had a lot of special family and friends there...

(And so many more)

We had some special treats...

Even though we only had our point and shoot so the lighting wasn't that great we had a special photographer... (thanks camilley)

We feel blessed by all the people that came and supported us as we celebrated our Little Lady's big day.  I feel especially blessed that we get this special girl forever!

Next stop...

Brings us to Utah!  After Texas, we flew into Utah by going through Phoenix. That flight was actually cheaper than flying directly to Phoenix (weird, I know) so we decided to head on into Utah. One thing I do not like about traveling home is that it's such a short visit filled with family that I never get to see ALL the people that I want to and traveling with an infant makes it even worse!  Laila is such a sweet baby but by this point of the trip, she was dying to have some kind of normalcy, poor girl.
We had so much fun though!  Laila got to meet Tricia and Keith...

We enjoyed a lovely evening with them.  We had yummy barbecued food and rested as Keith serenaded us with his fancy piano!

Then we enjoyed seeing family.  My dad took us to his elementary school...

Our little Adelaide met Great Grandpa Cook for the first time...

The above is probably my most favorite picture EVER taken.  Little Laila absolutely lit up around her great grandparents. She was so alert and smiley and chatty and my grandma even got her to almost giggle.  Seriously.  The love was so apparent and made forever families that much more real to me.  I just loved every second of it.

Laila also got to meet the handsome, Henry.  You can tell she agrees that he's super cute...

Thank you, Laura for taking that picture, you took the best one.

Laila had a lot of fun catching up with Mom's friends Janna, Kelsy, and, of course, Laura & Henry.

That's a high quality self-timer pic right there, folks.

We also made sure Great-grandpa Ostler was healing well after his knee surgery. Laila again was happy to see him.

It was so nice to be home with family and cool weather! *Ahh, cool weather, I miss you!*  But boy howdy, was Laila VERY glad to be back in her own bed with a semi-regular routine again.  Time keeps flying...

4th Grade Fun Days

I just finished another school year!  Maternity leave made this year go super fast, but the sweet group I had made the year also fly by.  I enjoyed this year.  I came to a lot of realizations this year.  The year before had been ROUGH!  I questioned why I was a teacher.  And I wasn't too excited to start another year.  I also realized that I got really negative and there were a few really negative people that I was talking to.  And when I was negative, I did not like going to work.
I'm glad I realized this, because when I did, I started praying to have the Spirit in my classroom.  I started looking for the positive in my days and in my students.  The change was drastic.  I loved my job again! It was a good year.  And I loved how much these students loved me and my baby.

Everything is bigger in Texas

Even their jelly beans...

One day after we got back from CA, we boarded a plane for TX! We were going to meet up with Michael's family for Josh's graduation from Med School!
Laila was awesome during her first flight! We flew into Austin where the three of us stayed the night.  The next day, we drove to Temple, TX where Josh and Laura live.  Laila liked meeting all her aunts and uncles and she LOVED being held by them...

(We even got Josh to hold babies)

Michael's parents got to have all of their grandkids together.  I love how perfectly the moment was captured...

Graduation was fantastic.  Josh graduated with the Air Force, so we went to his military ceremony first.  I love those.  And I love these two...

You may now call him Uncle Dr. Josh...

Congratulations, Joshua and Laura!

California...Here We Come

To start our traveling adventures, we took a road trip to California.  Michael had meetings with a supplier so we decided to make a weekend out of it.  We drove over on Friday.
Laila did amazing chilling in her car seat.

We went to Huntington Beach, walked the Pier and had gelato.

 Michael did some boogie boarding... (he's out there somewhere)

While I tried to hide the Little Lady in the shade. (That bikini girl had no idea about beach etiquette!)

Adelaide liked her first beach trip...

We made a stop at these beautiful grounds...

Michael hung the camera from a tree for this self timer family portrait..

We then went on some great hikes. Michael handled the sand bag speed bumps gracefully.

It is a gorgeous area...

We also stopped at a darling little cafe that gave out flowers to all the mothers! *Cute!  (I love this picture because it looks like Laila's waving)

Laila also enjoyed her very first boat ride!

We went on a whale watching trip and did not see any whales.  And with the crazy waves near the end, Michael and I were very grateful we were able to not toss our cookies like some other poor, unfortunate souls on board that day.  It still was very picturesque and a fun weekend get away.