Lots of changes

Um, can someone please tell me where the crap the month of August went??? It's like I blinked and it was over! I can't believe summer is gone. I really just don't know where the time went.

Lots of new things happening in the Lakin household, but I won't write about them all at once. :) My birthday party was FREAKING. AWESOME. Pics of that to come very soon. I'm pretty excited about being 30...I think its going to be a great year for me. Definitely one I won't ever forget.

First day of preschool

My baby girl started preschool last week. HOLY CRAP! But I am so excited for her. So far she is loving it and her teacher, Miss Ashley, is such a sweet girl and is so great with all the kids. I love how excited Sasha gets about new things, and preschool is no exception!

Some random stuff

Here's just some random things that I don't think I've posted before now . . .
Sorry if there are any repeats
Chris and Sasha hanging out in St. George

We redecorated Sasha's room a little and she's upgraded to a toddler bed . . . not sure if I did it too soon, but oh well. :)

Getting ready for the neighborhood Easter egg hunt around the circle. We love doing this every year with our neighbors, it is such a fun tradition!

Then Sunday we went up to Snowbird for Easter and some family ski time. It was a lot of fun and Sasha loves to ski! Her daddy couldn't be prouder!

This has not been my week . . .

It all started on Monday when Josh and I were on our way home from work. We had just picked up Sasha from the sitter and were headed home when I got pulled over for speeding on Legacy Highway. I am still so mad at myself! The last ticket I got was almost a year ago and after that fiasco I swore to myself that I would be more cautious when driving- and I have been. However I wasn't focused on the road like I should have been and was going too fast and got busted. Okay fine, so I have a ticket. Big deal right? Well it is when the cop comes back to your car and tells you that your license has been denied! I had some issues with that ticket last year and my license ended up being suspended. I got the ticket taken care of, but didn't realize that I had to go to the DMV to have my license reinstated. So it had been denied! Fortunately Josh was in the car with me and was able to drive home . . . . otherwise who knows what could have happened to me. So I went first thing Tuesday morning, paid the fine and got my license squared away.

Work has been crazy busy so the week absolutely flew by. Plus I had Keltsey's shower to work on so I was stressed about that as well. My awesome, beautiful, wonderful sister agreed to help me out Friday night and Saturday with the shower. So I was on my way to get her on Friday after work and accidentally hit a guy on a motorcycle. Ah! Fortunately we were at a stop, no one was hurt and there was just minor damage to his bike and even less to the Jeep. But still! I was so shaken up! Josh just got his motorcycle license so of course we've been more aware of bikers and biker safety at our house . . . until I haul off and run into one! Mandi was able to get a ride to meet me, calm me down, take me to get some food and help me finish the shopping for the shower. Oh and thanks to my friend Shaun who was so conveniently at his computer to help me look up the number to my insurance agent!

It sucks when you get into situations like this, but it does give you the opportunity to recognize the great people that you have in your life to help you out no matter where you are, what happens or what you need. I'm a very lucky person to have such wonderful friends and family to help me out at a moments notice. Oh, I also need to give a shout out to Clint who rescued Mandi and I as we were frantically getting everything ready for the shower and realized we needed a few things (like a shower gift!) and didn't have time to go to the store. Josh was also a huge help in getting the yard looking super pretty for the party.

Keltsey's Shower

Yesterday I threw a shower for my cute cousin Keltsey. I love this girl to death! She is so happy and full of life and always so much fun to be around. Her fiance Bryan is super cute and such a nice guy. I was very honored and happy to throw this party for her.

 Nancy, Keltsey and Bryan. (Kelts was wearing the cutest Bride to be shirt!)

 These little fruit tarts turned out amazing and were so simple!

 We played a fun game, making wedding dresses out of toilet paper. . . these girls got pretty creative!

 The two moms did pretty good . . .

 and the moms (Kelt's and Bryan's) for the best dress. It was pretty fun playing dress up with my cousins . . . I don't think we've done that in ages girls!

 ShaDee, Kylee and Sasha

 Kathy, Alyssa, DeEtte and JoDee

It was a really fun shower for a really fun couple! I couldn't have pulled it off without my sister Mandi. She was seriously a life saver (as always)!

Still alive and kickin'!

Hello blogland! We're still here, I promise. What's been happening since my last post . . . hmmmm. . . . well a lot I guess but not all necessarily note worthy.

We'll start with the biggest accomplishment. Josh is FINALLY a CPA!!! The paperwork just showed up.All tests are done and he is registered. It's all done!!! It's so refreshing to have that burden off his shoulders. He keeps talking about letting me throw him a party but he won't commit to a date (dorkfish!) which is probably okay because I have plenty to keep me busy this summer.

Oh wait! Summer is half over! NOOOOOOO!!! There's still so much I want to do!!! Crap!

Next weekend I am throwing a bridal shower for my cousin Keltsey. I am so excited for this! Well, I am excited for every party I throw, but I think I have some really cool ideas for this one and I'm hoping to step it up a notch. I usually throw the showers for my dads side of the family so they are subjected to all my schemes and ideas. Hopefully they like them? Well no one has taken my title as official shower-thrower for the family so I guess that's a good sign. :)

After that my next party will probably be the biggest party of my life. The best bash I have ever thrown. No detail will be overlooked. No expense spared. This will be the Best. Party. Ever. Who is this grand bash for, you ask?


ME!!!! :D

I turn 30 next month and I am EXCITED FOR IT!!!! 30 doesn't scare me for some reason. I'm excited for my 30's. 29 has been a rocky year but as I get closer to 30 things just keep getting better. So why the heck shouldn't I celebrate with a huge party? Okay, some might think I'm strange and wonder why I'm throwing myself a big party. Well I'm the party planner, right? And I think birthday's are a big deal. Everyone should feel special on their birthday. It's the day you were born. The day you came into this world and changed it forever so celebrate it for heaven's sake!

Okay enough about me, now on to the star of this blog. Sasha is so much fun! She jabbers constantly, loves to dance and watch Tangled. Her favorite song is "I Have a Dream" One of these days I will catch it on video but every time I pull it out she won't dance. So lame! But I'm sure she'll warm up to the spotlight soon enough. She's a lot like me when I was a kid- dancing in front of the mirror, always wanting to look pretty, loves to play outside in the sun. We're definitely signing her up for some dance classes here soon and I think she's going to love it.

So there's the update for now . . . . :)

Vacay Part 2

Since I'm a dorkfish and forgot to take my camera to Disney one of the days, this post will be missing some pictures.

Sasha. Loves. Disneyland. Her favorite ride? The teacups. (Look to the bottom left of the picture to see the look of pure joy on her face).

I discovered why it's worth it to shell out $36 per person for breakfast or lunch to meet the princesses. You get to see more of them, your kid gets more time with them, and MOM doesn't have to stand in line for 90 minutes waiting for them. Although, I really can't blame anyone but myself. I really, really wanted her to meet the princesses!

There is a reason you don't leave my husband in charge of the camera. It makes you almost willing to pay for the shots the Disney employee takes for you. Or want to pay a professional to follow you around and take pictures so that, oh I don't know, maybe Mom can be in a shot or two and it won't be obvious that Dad doesn't know that camera's have zoom features now. Love you Josh, but you suck with a camera.
Sadly we didn't get to see the World of Color show. I was so bummed!!! Our first day at Disney the girls were too exhausted to stick around for two more hours since we had gotten to the park when it opened. The second day at Disney we didn't get over to California Adventure in time and had no idea you either had to be there before the park closed or had to have a Fast Pass. This would have been good to know. The final night at Disney we got over to the park with plenty of time to spare, did some fun rides, picked out a spot and took the girls on King Triton's carousel to kill some time

We got about three minutes into the show then it stops. Nothing. No water, no lights, no sound. Then a voice stating that they were experiencing technical difficulties and would not be able to continue with the show. WTF??? Are you kidding me? No trip to Disneyland is complete without a wonderful, magical show full of all the lights, sounds and amazing pyrotechnics produced by the Disney staff! I can't leave and not see SOMETHING!

Needless to say I was completely bummed and the long, slow walk out of the park was not a fun one. Definitely not the feeling I like to have when leaving the happiest place on earth. This feeling was only made worse by the fact that I kept getting cut off (I was pushing the stroller) and separated from the rest of our group. Hey guess what people, people with strollers are people too and we want to get the heck out of the park just like you do! I know you see that open space in front of me as prime real estate for moving two feet ahead of the rest of the pack but do you realize why I leave that little bit of space in front of me? Well in my attempts to be polite I have left that space open to avoid ramming into your ankles when the crowd in front of us stops or changes direction. After the 5th time I was cut off I was through being nice. You want to cut in front of me then stop suddenly with no warning? Fine by me, just wipe that crusty off your face when I slam into your ankles and cause your flip flops to fall off.

See what I mean? One is NOT supposed to leave Disneyland feeling this way!

Sasha and her cousin had a great time. Since both are currently the only child I think the realities of a constant companion for a week began to ware on them just a bit.  But Sasha was still sad when Mcartny got out of the car at the airport to fly home with her mom instead of riding in the car with us. Or maybe it was just the thought of being stuck in the car for the next 5 hours with her boring parents. Who knows.

Oh yeah, she would not take the Minnie Mouse ears off the entire time we were at Disney. Can't get her to put them on any other time, but she freaked if we tried to take them off at the park. Too funny.

Vacay part 1

Finally a vacation that was just long enough! You know how you take a 4 day weekend and you get back to work on Monday and wish the weekend could have been just one day longer? Or when you go out of town for 5 days or so and wish you could stay just one or two more? Well I can honestly say that this 10 day trip was just long enough. By the time we left our hotel in Cali for Vegas we were ready to be home. And arriving home on a Saturday instead of a Sunday is a fabulous idea because it gives you that extra day to unpack, do laundry and settle into being back home before you have to go back to work (or to the dentist to get a permanent crown put in, in my case).

Our trip to California was great! Not without its bumps and meltdowns (I think we all had at least one each) but overall it was great!

Thursday night we stopped in Vegas. Friday morning we got breakfast then went to the Lieds Discovery Children's Museum. I highly recommend this and here is why- it's a fun little museum (similar to the Discovery Gateway museum here in SLC) and Sasha played hard for about 2 1/2 hours. Within 5 minutes of getting in the car she was dead asleep and stayed that way for over half the drive to Cali. It made that leg of the trip very peaceful. So if you have kids and you're stopping in Vegas for whatever reason, go spend a couple of hours there to tire them out before you get on the road again. It was less than $10 per person to get in and I thought it was well worth it. Here's a few pics . . . .

A 'scary' cave . . .

 Flying a plane with daddy . . .

 Playing with Papa and power tools. . .

 Check out the hunk I found playing with the blocks . . .

Ah the bubbles! She loved the bubble stations! They even had this cool platform you could stand on and make a bubble that you were inside! It was so cool!!!

Inside the wind machine

Holding on to Papa's hat while he was in the wind machine . . .

We planned on staying at the Marriott Vacation Club in Newport Beach and we did . . . for one night anyway. We got the week from one of Josh's wonderful and generous clients, who has given us weeks at her condos before, but never this particular one. When she booked the week for us she neglected to put our names as the guests checking in to use the week. Apparently at this resort they have had far too many owners sell their week online to multiple parties and they get 2, sometimes 3 families showing up for the same unit. So they didn't want to let us check in until we got confirmation from the owner that it was okay. Well unfortunately this client of Josh's is a very busy woman and travels out of the country a lot and we weren't able to get a hold of her. :( So rather than pay the rate to stay the week at that hotel (about $350 per night . . . eek! A bit out of our price range) we ended up spending the first Saturday of our trip trying to find a suitable hotel for our party of 7 close to the beach and/or Disney. Fortunately we did! (Thank goodness for those Hilton Honors points!) And from then on out the trip was pretty smooth.

We spend Sunday at the Newport Farmer's Market then headed to the beach down in Laguna. B.E.A.utiful!

Part two coming soon . . .

Day 29

A picture that can always make you smile

Pretty much any picture of Sasha learning something new . . . . or just any picture of Sasha period. But I love watching her grow and learn new things. It's totally awesome.

Day 28

Day 28- A picture of something you're afraid of.

Basically snakes, spiders, anything creepy and crawly!

Day 27

Day 27- A picture of yourself and a family member
Hmmmm .  . . .. so many to choose from . . .. .

I think this is one of my most recent favorites. . . .

Day 26

Day 26- A picture of something that means a lot to you

{For some reason I can't find a pic of Joni on my computer. :( }

My family means so much to me. I couldn't make it through a day without any of them!

Happy Thoughts

Just a few things that have made me smile lately . . .

I love bedding. I usually want to change my bedding every 6 months or so. Maybe it's the change of the seasons, or maybe I just can't commit. But with so many gorgeous colors and designs out there how can a girl choose just ONE?

This little diddy is just too bright not to love! Though I don't know what I would do with all those little drawers, I still want one!

This would be so much fun to transform into a little jewelry box for Sasha. Heaven knows I have enough crap to give it a new makeover every week!

I am loving the color yellow lately!!! And I love scarves so this is the perfect combination for me.

Day 25

Day 25- A picture of your day.

Well this technically should have been last Wednesday but I can barely remember yesterday, let alone last Wednesday! So I'll show you a picture of my day today.

Getting on one of these-

To fly here-

Then pick up one of these

Even though I'd rather be driving one of these-

Yup today starts a loooooong week for work in California. I can't complain I'd rather be working in California than, say, the Dakota's or anywhere tornado's are happening. But I'll miss my two favorite people. :(