Happy Birthday PawPaw

...and Esther...and Aunt Jeanne....and Uncle Bill

Today is my PawPaw Whitney's 93rd birthday!! I can't believe it! And he is doing so well and healthy..it's amazing. Here is a man who still can get on his tractor and plant a garden....who when the last time I talked to him was making baby cribs ("for whoever might need one")...who has been in a Sean Penn movie....goes to the gym to do water aerobics!.who works at the Baton Rouge Temple once a week with the Furr's..and was in a senior olympics last summer and had to be catergorized with the 70 years old because there wasn't anyone older than that for him to compete against!!
I love the memories I have of my PawPaw and MawMaw Whitney's house. MawMaw left us way too soon. Having grandparents within 5 minutes from your own house was great and I am so grateful that I was able to have all the great times I did with them. I'm sad that we live so far from PawPaw now. I'm sad Elodie won't know PawPaw Whitney like I do....I just hope that even though we are far from home, I can still give Elodie the relationship she deserves with my parents. I know how important that relationship is.
I love my PawPaw. I'm happy Chris has a great relationship with him too.
Happy Birthday PawPaw! Love, Chris, Alacey, and Elodie

Photo taken in 1985...I was 5 years old....now I'm almost 26!! Love this picture!

It belongs to us...

Our Civic!!! We finally paid our last payment a few weeks ago!! The car is all ours! It feels so good to own something...there are a few things we own...our computer, our video camera, our washer and dryer. But this is huge!! We have had this car since before we got married. We bought it a couple of weeks before we got engaged. The first big purchase we made as a couple and my first new car. Well, I made the purchase and Chris was my co-signer. I always tell him he owes me $3000! Some might think this was a risky purchase but we knew we were getting married. And here we are 5 years later with one official owned vehicle to our names! It's going to be great not having to fork out $356 a month....we are planning on trying to save that money for the house. We will see. I love that slowly we are getting out of debt. It's as if we were meant to purchase this home at this time because of the fact that all of our bills are slowly being paid off. Everything happens for a reason. Lets just hope we can stay on track.
It's been crazy living here in Mesa...most of it relying souly on student loans and Chris' work money. It's been really nice to see us progress each semester and do better each semester. Each year we can look back and see how much better we did than the year before. We have grown spiritually as a family and financially as well! It's nice to be saving more of our scholarship and student loan money, as opposed to spending it! I'm so proud of us and the progress we have made in the last 2 years since we have lived here. It can only get better, especially as Chris and I work together!

The only annoying thing...

Everyone talks about the "terrible twos"....I haven't felt that way about Elodie being 2. She talks well with us, is very happy and energetic, and overall I love to have her around! The only annoying thing I have discovered about 2 is picture taking. All of a sudden, Elodie has become too cool for pictures. Everything around her is so much more entertaining than getting her picture taken. She will not look at the camera at all no matter how silly you are acting to get her attention. And when she does look at the camera, she looks at you for a split second, with no smile, and then promptly looks away. If your not ready for that split second (which my camera isn't because it takes forever to take a picture) then you have lost the shot and have to settle for one where she isn't looking at you.
The reason I bring this us is because last year when we took Elodie to the pumpkin patch her pictures turned out GORGEOUS!! Every picture was the perfect lighting with Elodie smiling so sweetly right at the camera! My expectations were too high to begin with....that was my first problem. Then you tack on the fact that Elodie wouldn't look at the camera!! All you end up with are 20 cute pictures of a sweet little girl who thinks she is too busy looking at everything else and ignores you when you are trying to take her picture! I'm really nervous for our family pictures coming up this Wednesday. I'm paying $100 for these pictures so she better get her act straight! Doesn't she understand that this is important to me!! :) GOSH!
I have attached a few pics from our outing to the pumpkin patch....I get a kick out of them!! She is such a prissy pants!






This one really sais it best..."There are better things for me to be looking at!! The ceiling of this tarp is more interesting to look at than you Mom!"

Sad News...

Yesterday my mom called to let me know that Doye and Esther went in for their 20 week check up to find out the sex of their baby...the doctor couldn't find a heartbeat. My heart is so sad for them right now. They had to do invetro to get pregnant and that in itself was a hard time for them..and now this. I can't even imagine. How nieve we as humans can be sometimes. I think Chris and I were telling people we were pregnant only a couple of weeks after my missed period. We never thought about complications or the thought of miscarriage. It definitely makes you appreciate the health of you and your own baby. How blessed we are to be healthy and have the things we need to be healthy!

Because the baby is 20 weeks, Doye and Esther went in today to be induced. I can't imagine delivering a baby that has passed on. I talked to my dad this morning and no one has heard anything. I asked him how Doye was doing yesterday when they talked to him and my dad said he sounded fine but you know how men are. Chris and I were talking this morning and I said that I think it's harder for the man because he has to be so strong for his wife. He has to stay together so he can be there for his wife and I know that that is super hard. Poor Doye will definitely need support of his own. Esther's family lives in Mexico...I hope they can come and be with Esther. I know I would definitely need my own mother in a time like that.

It just seems so unfair for a couple who wants a child so much to have so many difficulties getting pregnant. Chris and I know of a handful of people just in our ward that are struggling with the same problem. It doesn't seem fair when you know these people are going to make the best parents. I know this is where the gospel has to play a huge role. I am praying that Doye and Esther can stick together and support each other. I can't even imagine how hurt they are right now. I am also praying that our family can support them...I hate that we live so far away and can't be at the hospital with them. Maybe that is better for them right now, I don't know but it is hard to be on the outside with no way to help except sending a card or a phone call.

I talked to Alexis this morning and she was getting ready to purchase a grieving basket for Doye and Esther..we will definitely be contributing to that.

I hate that things like this make you appreciate your family's health much more. I hate that it takes something tragic to want to stay in better contact. Alexis made the comment that she had wished that she had called Esther more often. I feel the same way. Esther's birthday is Monday and I had made plans to give her a call. How sad to be grieving when you should be celebrating. And here I am worried about my own birthday in a couple of weeks. How wordly we can all be when things are going well.

I love my family...I pray that Chris and I can support Doye and Esther and let them know how much we love them even though we are far away. I don't know if Doye and Esther will have a funeral....what they will name the baby or anything. All to be decided and found out later.
Until then...thanking Heavenly Father for everything I am blessed with...
Lacey

House Pictures and such...

So here are some new pictures of our house from over the weekend....


The windows got put in....


The electrical and plumbing has been completed....


Elodie's Bathroom


Our Bathroom....my tub is HUGE!! I am super excited about this!! Nothing like having 2 people in a bathtub made for 1.....referring to me and Chris!


This is the sliding glass door in our kitchen that leads to the backyard....which isn't 9 acres like my parents back yard, but for the 4 of us...it's just enough!! Elodie and Ginger are really going to love having their own space!


And finally, Elodie in her bedroom!!
Until this weekend!
-Alacey

More updates

Hello! Hello! Haven't posted anything in a few days and just felt the need to sit down and relive my thoughts and the last couple of days! I have been working like crazy..the last couple of weeks have been crazy so I've had alot of days off...lately since Audrey's shower and my big wedding cake, things have slowed down and I'm working alot more hours. 18 last week and 22 this week....I had initially asked for no more than 25 hours a week and I appreciate that Kohl's has respected my wishes! :) It's just a huge juggling act. I will love it when my paycheck comes in and we can have a little fun money..especially with my birthday coming up in 2 weeks..Big 26!! I'm getting so old! YIKES! On the flip side I am so proud of myself. I feel like I am contributing in a different way and I love that I can feel like I am providing for my family outside of the home. Don't get me wrong..I know my SAHM job is more than contributing to the wellbeing of my family but I also feel a sense of accomplishment when I can produce some money for our family.
I love that Chris and I are working together for something we both want. It feels like the reward will be so much more than the sacrafice. And I know that if we do all we can and work hard together that we can accomplish this huge hill of buying a house. I hate all the uncertainty...I hate not knowing for sure if we can afford this house....I hate that we can't fully be excited about this house because of money. I do know that Heavenly Father will bless our efforts and I do know that we feel good about this decision..It just stinks that the house isn't fully ours just yet. Patience is a virtue that will forever be my downfall!
We went and looked at the house this weekend...A lot has been in done in the last week...all the plumbing and electrical. My tub is in!! WooHoo! It's much bigger than I remember and you know I took a picture so I will post those later.
In other news....Elodie got some sparkly pink dress shoes for her Princess costume...she loves them so much she put them on this morning after we got them and wouldn't take them off when it was time for her nap..I have learned early to pick my battles and this was one I was willing to lose. She is still asleep after 2 hours so maybe they were worth it! :)
Christopher is doing well in school..like always....registration for next semester is soon....Engineering job fair at the end of the month. Even though we love working with the Schneider's, Chris is going to submit his resume to get some feelers for what else is available. We will keep our options open for sure!
No cake orders....
That is all for now..until my posted pictures! Alacey

More pictures...

Feeding the ducks...it was so funny to see all these ducks swimming around us! You could tell they were use to being around people and they knew exactly why you were around! FOOD! The other funny thing was when we were all out of bread and we were walking away, the ducks started to swim after us. Crazy ducks...no dummies though! :)


We had a great time as a family and hopefully these little trips won't come so far in between. It's crazy how fast this semester is going! Chris is already ready to register for next semester! CRAZY! I'm enjoying the ride. I love our family, I'm content with where we are right now, I'm happy we are saving money for our house and working together to accomplish something we both want. I love the gospel, I'm so grateful that we are all healthy, the weather outside is great! What more could you possibly ask for! The grass is green right where we are standing!!

In other news...we got Elodie her Halloween costume. I wanted her to be an LSU Tiger and that was what we had planned on. I was going to order the costume....and then Elodie and I went to Old Navy and she saw the Princess costume. And I made the mistake of letting her hold it. I wasn't up for the battle and I don't really mind the idea of her being a Princess. I guess once in every little girl's life she needs to be a princess. Next year though, she will definitely be a LSU Tiger!!

Hello Again!

I love Sunday afternoons.....everyone is sleeping right now, the house is super quiet, and I have the computer all to myself!! Later today we are going to Audrey and Derek's for dinner, I need to make a dessert but for now I thought I would do a little updating. I promised pictures from our night out at the park and here they are!

Elodie was so funny on the swing...Chris was pushing her really high and she looked paralized! Her whole body was so stiff the entire time and she had this look on her face like she was trying to have fun!!

On the slide....



More to come later...blogger timed me out and I can't post anymore pictures!
Audrey's shower was a success this weekend.....she is such a great friend and I love that we were able to do this for her. She scored some great stuff and I'll post pictures of the cake and the shower later.
No more cakes for a while......I'm a little burned out this month. I can't believe in July I did 5 cakes! It was crazy....lots of money but crazy! :)
All for now..everyone is waking up from their naps. We are off to Derek and Audrey's for dinner. Elodie loves to play with Ryanna and we enjoy the company too! :)

Life Lesson Learned Again...

Wednesday night, Elodie and I had a great idea. We packed dinner into an ice chest (chicken salad sandwiches on costco rolls, strawberries, leftover Barro's pizza from lunch (hee hee), and blonde blombshells) and went and kidnapped Chris from work. He had no idea what was going on so he was going crazy with questions....if you don't know, Christopher likes to be in control and this was not up his alley. It was fun for me because I don't think I have ever done this and it was nice to drive Chris alittle nuts! He figured it out about halfway to Freestone Park....Oh well, it was still fun to surprise him!
It's so nice here in Arizona right now so being at the park with Elodie was so great. She loves the playground and is at the point where you just have to keep a close eye on her. Other than that, she can go up the whole playground by herself and slide down the tallest slide by herself too! We are still working on the swings..they are still alittle too big for her. We enjoyed that until some big kids (which this playground was meant for 5 and under and they were way over 5!- Stupid parents for not caring and letting their kids spoil it for everyone else!) came along and overwhelmed Elodie a bit....she holds her own but I don't like her way up high with all those big kids running around. Anyway, we took a walk around the whole park, fed the ducks some bread, and just enjoyed being together. It was really nice and I know we all enjoyed ourselves.....Chris enjoyed himself much more after my batteries in my camera died and he didn't have to worry about "posing" for pictures. I'm just getting him ready for our family pictures in November, which we are taking at Freestone Park!
After the park, we decided to stop and rent a movie...This movie called "Click" with Adam Sandler was out and we both had been waiting to see...
Here comes the lesson learned....
The movie is about this man who has a stressful job as an architect, has a great family and house, but is constantly having to choose between work and family...and usually work wins....sound familiar to anyone?
Anyway, he is super stressed....goes for a drive to Bed,Bath, and Beyond to find a Universal remote for his television and ends up with this "life universal remote" that controls his future...he can fast forward through the bad parts (fights, dinners with the inlaws, sex), pause certain parts, etc....anyway, at first it's a great idea...then the remote takes a life of it's own and starts fastforwarding on it's own (kinda like tivo where you watch it once and it automatically records for you the next time..or you record something and tivo records something else that is similar). The remote starts doing that.....and ends up fastforwarding through like 10years of his life!! He misses alot. His kids growing up, his dad died, he and his wife divorce! It was crazy and a really eye opener to what is important in life. Alot of times we are so anxious to fastforward through a certain part of our life to get to something that we think is better that we end up missing some really great parts along the way! I think this is when we find true happiness, when we can be excited about the future but content and happy with where we are rigth now. I'm trying to find that. And I'm reminded how fast life passes because I have a 2 year old!!

Having her in my life definitely is a constant reminder how fast time flies by and how I can't take this moment for granite. It's hard with your first baby because you are excited for all the "first" they will do.....it's easy to get caught up in the "I can't until she does..." that you forget to just be excited about what she is doing today. It's a daily battle!
The movie was a bit sad but of course had a happy ending....he was dreaming the whole time and of course woke up with a better perspective of what is really important in life. I just hope that as Chris and I enter the "working world" when he graduates that we can keep our feet on the ground and remember what is really important. Not money....but family! And there is definitely a balance between wanting to give your family a great life with money and wanting to give your family and a great life through time spent together. I hope we can find that balance and I know the gospel will help us do that!
Well, that's my spill for the day! I will post pictures of our park adventures later!

Pictures...

Forgot to post some pictures from our weekend. ENJOY!










Pictures of the house..it seems so much smaller without all the inside walls up..it's crazy how that works!





Elodie watching "Little Mermaid". It was a good thing that I didn't want her to look at the camera...she wouldn't peel her eyes off the television!!




And finally the wedding cake!! It really did turn out so pretty and outside at night with all the twinkley lights...it's was bautiful and I am really proud of it! Here's to more cake orders!

Alacey

Weekend Update

We had a crazy but fabulous weekend!! I spent all of last week preparing for my wedding on Saturday. If I wasn't baking cakes, I was off buying ribbon or EGGS! I went through 3 cartons of eggs....54 eggs to be exact! Isn't that crazy....it was a lot of cake!
The weekend started out with a trip to our new house. They have made so much progress. It's crazy the difference a week makes! All of the walls are up and the roof is up too! Woo Hoo...crazy how fast they can do things. No one was joking when they said that we would start seeing weekly changes!! I'm excited to head back out there next weekend!
After the house we went to On the Border for dinner. Great food and the company was great..just me, Chris, and Elodie. And we scored a booth in the back of the restaurant! Don't know how that happened but we weren't complaining! It was great!
We spent the rest of the evening trying to find me a nice apron for the next night. I was going to be serving the sheet cakes at the reception so I wanted to look super professional! Found a really nice one at World Market.
And finally, we found ourselves at Target. I have been wanting to get Elodie "The Little Mermaid" for a while now....it just barely came out on a 2-disc dvd set with lots of special features and such. It was my favorite Disney movie growing up and since they are only out for a limited time, I wanted to make sure we got her the dvd. And we did. She was so excited even though she had no idea what the movie was. She kept saying what we thought was "Remember" but later found out she was trying to say "Little Mermaid". So cute!! Movies are still a little long for a 2 year olds attention span but Elodie LOVES this movie!! She sat through the whole thing and loved every minute of it! I wish I would have caught some pictures of her the first night she watched it but the lighting was dark so I waited until Saturday (Shhh...no one needs to know that the pics were taken on her second time watching the movie). I also picked up one more reason why it is fabulous being a parent! I don't really remember when Little Mermaid came out for the first time...I don't remember how old I was or if I got it as a Christmas gift or Birthday present...but I do remember loving the movie and wanting to watch it all the time. The best thing now that I am able to share this with Elodie..is I can catch a glimpse of maybe how I reacted when I saw "The Little Mermaid" for the first time! It's really sweet and Chris and I sat with Elodie and mostly watched her reactions instead of watching the movie. It's great to experience all of Elodie's first...to be able to record them and keep them fresh in our minds through journals and scrapbooks! Can't wait to scrapbook about her first time watching "The Little Mermaid"...one of mommy's favorites! I spent the rest of the night working on my wedding cake and got all of it put together except the placement of the pearls. I feel really good about where I am with the cakes and will finish them up tomorrow...the reception wasn't until 7pm and I didn't have to be there until 6pm.
Saturday was a crazy day...Chris played ball that morning with the Elder's Quorum and Elodie and I went to Target for a couple of last minute things we forgot to buy the night before. We came home, Elodie wanted to watch "The Little Mermaid" and I started back in the kitchen with my cakes. i finished my wedding cake completely by 11am so I was feeing really good and calm about only have to ice the sheets and do a bit of decorations on them. After Chris got home we headed out for lunch and stopped by the party store for some trays for me to carry my cake slices on....my first wedding cake I did, I didn't think about needing trays and ended up having to us my cookie sheet that I just happened to have brought....kinda tacky but no one really noticed except me...atleast I hope no one noticed! :) We came home, put Elodie down for a nap and I started on my sheet cakes....I didn't think they would take me that long, and none of them gave me any problems but it still took me about 3 hours to fill, ice, and decorate all 3 sheet cakes! BLAH! I seriously don't charge enough for my time at home working on these cakes!!
The reception ran smoothly. My cake held up outside and everyone had nice things to say about it! The bride loved it and I'm so pleased for that. I have been so blessed with great customers...everyone always has nice things to say about my cakes and no one has complained yet...lets keep it that way! The reception was crazy...I seriously walked 5 miles back and forth to the cake table trying to keep it full of cake....some people were taking cake off of my trays before I could get them to the table! Mad house! It was alot of fun and once the cakes are delivered, the stress of it all goes out the window and I really enjoy everything else. Who wouldn't enjoy a good wedding!!
I was pooped by the time I got home and relieved that it all went well.
Sunday we went to church...week four with no calling and I'm really starting to enjoy myself. No need to rush from room to room at church and nothing but Elodie's stuff to worry about! It's great...I even got a chance to sneek a peek in Elodie's nursery class...I haven't ever done that because of Relief Society. It was really fun watching her through the little window in the door...she couldn't see us so it was fun to see her interact (bully) with the other kids. We use to be a little worried about her because of her size but she really holds her own!! Sunday afternoon we lazied around the house and took a walk through the subdivison...the weather is so nice right now and it's really great to be outside!
And that was our weekend....great great great!
This week is going to be another crazy one. Tuesday night is the RS scrapbooking group at my house (we are altering Halloween Buckets) and I am trying to get everything settled for Audrey's baby shower on Saturday. I am making the cake so I have to get started on that too. Besides school, work, and Elodie life is great and I feel so blessed!
Did I mention that Chris got an extra $700 in grant money....ASU had a mix up at the beginning of the semester and owed us some grant money we didn't know about...$700 to be exact. They stuck it into our checking account over the weekend...it was a nice surprise when Chris looked at our account on Saturday! Can we say tithing!!! It's so great when you are doing what you are suppose to!! There is no doubt that we are being blessed for our efforts!

Our New House!!

Here are the pictures we took on Sunday in between conference sessions. All the wood just waiting to turn into our beautiful house! Now that the wood is here we will start seeing weekly changes and it will start taking shape! This is such an exciting time for us...we are super happy to be getting this house and it's so fun to watch the progression. I'm tracking the progress of the house to make a super cute mini scrapbook!!

October!!!

I love that it is October!! Finally the weather will start cooling down...HALLOWEEN!! I pulled out all of my Fall/Halloween decorations today and started making the house feel a little more festive. Would love to be decorating my new house, but you can't have everything!!
This past weekend was fabulous! I can't believe last weekend went by so fast. It seemed like I was just writing about the RS Broadcast and now the General Conference Broadcast has come and gone!!
So conference was an upper. I could really feel the spirit in our home and I loved all of the talks. I especially loved Elder David Bednar's (he was my Ricks College President while I was there- it's cool too because we had a few FHE's in his home wit his family-really an awesome family!) talk about holding grudges and being offended. No one is perfect!
My favorite part of the whole conference was at the end when the congregation stood and sang "We Thank Thee Oh' God for a Prophet"....it was soooooo neat!! The tv showed the Prophet the whole time the congregation was singing!! I just loved it and I could really feel the spirit! How blessed we are to have a living Prophet to give us counsel and guide us!! President Hinckley is 96 and is going strong!! I hope he lives forever!
On to other news....We went and looked at our house between conference sessions yesterday. The wood has come and we took some pictures of Elodie sitting on top of the wood pile....the 2 houses next to ours have already been framed...one week ago they were all empty lots....now we have 2 houses standing on either side of us. I can't wait to see ours going up!! We are planning to go out every weekend until the house is done. Will definitely make for an excellent mini scrapbook! I will post pictures once I get them downloaded on to the computer. Jerry (the KB Rep) told us we would be able to see changes weekly so it is starting to get really exciting! Even if I have to get through Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas stuck on the ASU east campus! That's why we have Sarah and Mike...we stopped by their house too to give them a Housewarming gift...a gift card to the Quilted Bear...love that place! I am so excited that we get to be their neighbors. They are such a great couple and it will be so fun to have them near by still! Right now they are giving us all the inside scoop on our new ward and such. We are very excited.
Their house is coming together so nicely. It is really starting to look like a home and they are doing a great job of making it their own! Sarah had all of her fall decorations up and they looked so nice it that new house! Makes me SO excited to decorate my own house. The house is going to be BEAUTIFUL come Christmas!! I'll have to help Sarah decorate until I our house is done! :)
Other than that, things are normal...just the way we like it...Chris is busy with school and work...Elodie is keeping me on my toes....she is so happy and healthy and we are so grateful for that! Such a light in our family. She is talking so well and saying words in complete sentences...some only we can understand! She sings all the time and LOVES Signing Time still...for that I am grateful...don't mind her watching it!
I'm doing my 3rd wedding cake this weekend...really excited. I have 2 under my belt so I'm more excited than nervous. Plus the cake I am doing I have done before so it should be fun!! Getting paid a bit for and that makes me feel good. I don't want to get too big but I sure do love cake decorating and hope business continues for me!
Until I post some pictures!