A fun night of bowling!

 When we were in Utah, Easton and Daysha came over for dinner.  It was so much fun to have almost the whole family together (we were missing Tannon, who is on a mission, and Rick, who was still in Chicago).  Daysha and Easton have been living apart since they got married.  Easton has a football scholarship at SUU and Daysha is an MDT major at BYU until the end of April.  They live 3.5 hours apart, and only see each other on occasional weekends.  I was so glad Easton was able to come up for one of the weekends that we were there.  Anyway, they weren't going to be able to make it to Daci's birthday party the next weekend, so they gave her their birthday present a week early.  She was SOOOO excited to be getting a present!  She kept throwing her hands in the air and saying, "Hooray!!" (see picture above).  They gave her the movie Shark Tale, stickers, and some candy.  She was in HEAVEN!  Anyway, after dinner, Easton and Daysha were going to go on a date bowling.  They decided to invite all of us along!  I'm so glad they were unselfish and asked us to go because we all had a BLAST!!!! It was Daci's first time bowling and it is definitely something we will do again and again with her.  She just loved it!

I just loved Daci's cute little bowling shoes!

So excited to be there!

Picking out her ball

Daysha and Daci showing off their stylish bowling shoes

Don't I have incredible form? :-P

We got Daci the little ramp thingy and she just loved pushing the ball off of it. Then she would just wait in anticipation to see if the pins knocked over.

She had a hard time understanding that she had to wait her turn to go again.  After her turn I would take her back to my dad because she kept trying to run out to the lane again.  While he held her she would say, "My turn, Papa!"

pushing the ball down the ramp

Watching as the ball rolled down the lane

clapping when the balls hit the pins. She would say "Knocked over!", just like Gru does in Despicable Me :)

Grandma helping Daci carry the ball

Dawson, giving us a goofy pose before his turn

My mom

Daysha

Easton, my Dad, and Daci watching the fun

Daysha giving the "loser" sign, she came in last :) Thats okay Daysh, we still love you!

Daci playing with her aunt and uncle.  She just adores these two!

The gang, watching Mom and I bowl

In other news....I have to give a shout-out to Daysha.  She auditioned for the productions Grease and Little Mermaid down at Tuacahn in St. George.  They went to many major cities like Los Angeles, New York and Vegas to find talented performers for the roles and over a thousand people auditioned. Daysha was offered the role of Cha-Cha in Grease and one of the sister princess/mermaids in Little Mermaid! Two huge roles! I am so proud of her! Not too shabby for her first post-college audition, eh? Congrats Daysh!

Happy Birthday to my Doodle-Bug!!

 My Sweet Daci-Lou turns two today!! I can't believe it.  I know saying "time flies" is so cliche but I don't know how else I can express how I am feeling today.  My baby is a big girl and I am getting teary-eyed just writing this.  She has brought so much joy to our lives the last two years.  She completes this family perfectly, and I don't know what we would do without her.  I was looking at her nakie little body yesterday as she got out of the bath and realized she no longer has that chubby baby body.  It is turning into a little girl body.  She is growing up so fast and I just wish I could freeze time.  She is my little buddy and I'm so grateful I get to spend every second of every day with her.  I am so lucky!

When we were in Utah last week we had a birthday party for her so that she could spend her special day with her family, even though it was about 11 days early :)  We had a farm themed party, and it turned out so cute (if I do say so myself!).

 I spent about three whole days making these invitations.  I know, some may say that I am crazy when I was only giving them to her grandparents and aunts and uncles but I just couldn't resist making some cute farm themed party invitations, for the scrapbook if nothing else :)

 I also made a cute banner to hang at the party.  If anyone is interested in these (they are SOOOOO easy to make!), Close to My Heart sells them and all the paper and embellishments I used are also Close to My Heart.

 I found this adorable Barn Cake (with the help of my sister-in-law Carly) on Betty Crocker's Website and this is how I decided I wanted a farm theme.  I just loved the cake and knew I had to do it!  It is really easy to do but it is really time consuming.  It took me about 5 1/2 hours to do the whole thing.  Granted, I did do a whole extra batch of gluten free cupcakes so my brother and I could eat some cake :)

 Close up on the chick (covered in food colored coconut)

 The lamb (covered in marshmallows)

 The pig (the ears are fruit roll-ups)

Half of the cupcakes were gluten free

The complete decor

 

For dinner we served Cheesy Vegetable Soup, Salad de Maison, and breadsticks

 

I got the party favors at Peppermint Place

 Daci in her cute farm girl outfit complete with a jean vest, a flower skirt, cowboy boots and pigtails!

She was so excited to see all the people she loves in one place that she got pretty hyper and was showing off.  She performed on top of the table for a little bit :)

 

 Daci and her uncle Dawson

 Uncle Dawson and Grandma

Cousin Eleni

 Daci and her daddy.  She was clapping when she saw all the yummy food on the table!

 Daci with her Papou, who she now calls "Fred!"

Daci with her Papa. They saw a big buck in the backyard.  My dad is a big hunter and they watch hunting shows together all day.  Daci knows all the big game and especially loves "big bucks"

 

Aunt Carly, Yia Yia, and Mommy

 Daci while we sang Happy Birthday to her

 

 She ended up loving the whole singing and blowing out the candles process that we had to do it three times for her!

  

Grandma showing Daci how to tell people she is two now, instead of one

 

Present Opening. I got her big girl panties.  We are going to start potty-training.  Wish us luck!

Opening presents is hard work!  She got some clothes, a book, and an apron from Grandma and Grandpa.  Two really nice classic books from Yia Yia, Papou, Carly and Micah. And we got her Panties, a Winnie the Pooh, and the movie Hercules.  Which she calls "Percules" and is currently obsessed with :)

Daci had a great party with all her family and friends (Easton and Daysha couldn't make it, Daysha was trying out for Tuacahn; Tannon and Sam were on their missions; and Sophie was at the Sweetheart's dance). We are grateful that she got to see everyone so close to her 2nd birthday! 

Happy Birthday my little Doodle!  You are my everything!