Miss Payton's Birthday Bash!

Well the big ta-doo was last Saturday and it was quite the event.  Miss Payton was all dressed up in her new Birthday Party dress and was quite the sensation!  The theme for the party was Alice in Wonderland complete with a Cheshire Cat cake, cupcakes displaying the message "Eat Me" on top and plenty of little kids running around to keep Payton amused for the duration.


Although our guest of honor was fresh from her morning nap we had to consider that she is still only a year old and would soon start showing signs of sensory overload so after mingling with her many guests, we went straight to the birthday cake and the Happy Birthday Song. 


Emerson was quick to take care of blowing out the candle for her without batting an eye so the candle was re-lit for Payton to give it her best shot.  


Unfortunately, she surprised us all by quickly reaching for the candle and putting the flame out with her 2 little pincers! Ouch!  Nobody saw that coming but she was soon busily opening her many gifts.

Happy Birthday Sweetie Pie!

Soon after completing the task and having a snack and some delicious cake, it was clear the Birthday Girl was ready for another nap!  Though a relatively short party, we all had a great time celebrating this little sweetheart who came into our lives just a year ago and stole all our hearts away!  Happy Birthday Payton!

Grandma's New iPhone

Any of you who are "friends" with me on Facebook know of the saga of  procuring my iPhone. When it finally did come we had a lot of fun with it.

Everyone loves to take pictures of themselves and their friends with their digital cameras and smart phones which require you to turn the device around and hope you've got yourself focused and centered in the view finder before snapping. With the iPhone there is a feature that allows you flip the view so that you can look into the display and see yourself in the view finder and take a decent picture or video.  That should explain the interest everyone had in it and why everyone--especially Payton, Emerson and Katherine look so enchanted by their own images.  Pretty darn cool!

At last it arrives.  Let the fun begin!

Even Miss Payton is diggin' it!

A couple of hams...

Showing off the new "tatoo"

Dad looks confused...

Look! He's nearly smiling!  I however look like a horse.

I wish I could count how many pictures I had exactly like this one.

This is what happens when you accidentally snap a picture while spinning the phone.

Self portrait by Emerson

As you can see, Katherine played with my phone the most.

Miss Payton turns 1 year old!!!

Today is Miss Payton's first birthday.  Its hard to believe a year has already passed.  How did this happen?  Her big birthday bash will be held next Saturday October 3.  Stay tuned for photos and video.  It promises to be a fun event!

Zach's Eagle Court of Honor

I know its been more than 2 months now since Zach was awarded his Eagle but I can't let the occasion pass without a major post to the blog.  Grandma and Grandpa made another trip down to attend. We were all so glad to have them there.  The Court of Honor was a great success but not without its obstacles...one of them being that we almost had to have it WITHOUT an American flag!  That borders on sacrilege.  Fortunately Jeff has the connections and we were able to round one up.  We had one of Zach's former scout leaders, Mike Ashmore who came up from San Antonio speak, and a letter was read from Sam Roundy, another former leader.  (Incidentally, Sam was also my former piano teacher.)  Then Jared, our first Eagle Scout in the family, did the Eagle Charge having Zach and all the Eagle scouts present stand and recite, and then presented Zach with his award.  He did a great job.

We then served cake (sooooo delicious thanks to Tricia Campbell www.icravecake.blogspot.com) mingled with friends and family, took a lot of pictures and then...it was time to go home.  It was a great evening--hopefully one Zach will always remember.  Many thanks to all who contributed to Zach's scouting success. I think he would agree that he couldn't have done it alone. There are more people than I can count that deserve thanks.

Pictures of the evening are below as well as the slide show I put together that was presented as part of the program.  Please refer to the post from last year with pictures of Zach's Eagle Project: 

http://signsofthelovelandfamilytimes.blogspot.com/2009/11/zachs-eagle-project.html

 

Voice of the Spirit

From The Mormon Channel

"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"