A Great Day Three Years In The Making!

Today after much hard work and sacrifice on behalf of Brett and Colene, Brett was awarded his Doctor of Chiropractic Degree from Parker College! What a huge relief for them to be done and one their way home to Arizona! So proud of both of you and so happy we were here to celebrate this huge milestone with you! We love you guys!

The ceremony was 2 hours long, so Azlyn had to find ways to stay occupied. One way was to take everything out of her diaper bag and put it on the floor!

"Mom is it done yet?"

Brett A. Butler, D.C.!!!!!!!!!

Colene, Brett and Colene's Parents, Deone and Pete

We wanted to take pictures of the back of his gown/hood. He wasn't quite seeing the point of it!

Strike a pose there's nothing to it VOGUE!

Azlyn wanted Uncle Brett and his cool hat!

"Look Mom this will be me in ??? years!"

The President of Parker College, Dr. Mancini

"I'm outta here!"

How else can you celebrate such an achievement, but with great food! We went to a great Italian restaurant and had a feast.

Miss Azlyn continued to be the good girl she always is through lunch.

After lunch we came back to the hotel and had a yummy German chocolate cake and opened gifts and cards!

Cheers!

Then our last event for the day was to go to the North Pole on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad. As you will see Azlyn didn't make it through much of the adventure, so she missed Santa Clause and all the Railroad fun!

At least she got to see Rudolph.

Don't ask me what is going on with this picture, but it made us laugh. We were trying to get our picture taken with Santa.

Such a fun, exciting and exhausting day all in one....so happy we came this week. We truly have the best and most supportive family. Tomorrow we are going to help Brett and Colene pack up the moving truck, so they can head back to Arizona on Monday. Azlyn and I fly home tomorrow night and let's hope the trip home is much smoother than the trip here :) We miss Jim and can't wait to see him!

So Glad To Be With Family!

Today we just got to enjoy being together! Colene's parents flew into Dallas tonight, so more people to celebrate with!

So Glad Today Is Not Yesterday!

We didn't have our luggage delivered until 3:30 p.m. So today was spent hanging out in the hotel room since we had no change of clothes and we weren't looking too hot! It was still fun to visit with Brett and Colene all day!

Tonight was Brett's Graduation Banquet. Colene and Brett were all dressed up, so we couldn't help taking advantage of a photo op!

Will This Day Never End?

Today we headed off to Dallas Texas to celebrate with my brother, Brett, and sister in law, Colene. Brett is graduating from Parker Chiropractic College after 3 years of graduate school! I booked my ticket several months ago. I knew that Azlyn would be almost a year old and perhaps not as easy to travel with so I booked a direct flight from Salt Lake to Dallas. We were supposed to leave Salt Lake at 10 a.m. and arrive in Dallas at 1:40 p.m. Azlyn had slept well the night before, so I was hoping for her to take a bottle at take off and then sleep a majority of the flight. Well we made it through security no problem and were sitting at the gate waiting to board and then they announced that our flight was delayed 2 hours. The flight had originated in Denver and had made it to Salt Lake, but then had some mechanical issues and they were looking at it in a hanger. At noon they said we were delayed another 2 hours, so our departure time would be 2 p.m. Well at 2 p.m. they told us that they were unable to fix the plane and that they were going to cancel our flight and our only options were to fly out first thing the next morning. I was kind of irritated because getting up and through the airport is quite a task with a little one, but at least I was at home and Jim could come get me. Azlyn had been good all day long, but I didn't know if she could last another day in the airport. Minutes later they announced that they actually could get us to Dallas tonight, but it would be with a connecting flight in Denver. I decided to chance it, so we left Salt Lake headed to Denver at 3 p.m. Ten minutes before landing we all heard loud noises almost like luggage was falling out of the plane and then the captain announced that we had lost our left engine and he was going to have the fire department meet us on the tarmac. So clearly when we landed safely we were all relieved! Our flight from Denver to Dallas was great and Azlyn slept most of the way. We arrived in Dallas at 8:30 p.m. almost 7 hours later than expected, but we made it! However our luggage was not as lucky...we had no luggage! So with my purse and Azlyn's diaper bag we hung out for 24 hours with the clothes on our back. It was not an experience that I care to repeat, but we made it safe and sound! Now it is time to celebrate...after we get our luggage and a shower of course!Saying bye to Daddy...we are going to miss you!

Azlyn loved looking out the window as we were landing!

Mommy's Little Traveler!

We made it!

So glad to finally be with Aunt Colene and Uncle Brett!

Miss Mischief!

While I was in the kitchen making breakfast this morning, Azlyn thought it would be fun to make a mess in the bathroom! Don't worry Azlyn you will have plenty of time to learn all about tampons!

"Uh oh I've been spotted...I'm outta here!"

Helping Mommy Decorate For Christmas!

Good-bye Thanksgiving...hello Christmas! I wrapped lite garland around our stair case and at first Azlyn was hesitant to touch it because it was poky, but she just couldn't resist the lights. She loves lights!

For years I have been collecting Nativity scenes as part of my Christmas decorations. My mom started giving me parts of the Fisher Price Nativity and boy has it been a hit with Azlyn. Every night I put all the pieces back in their places and in the morning Azlyn gets to do what she will with all the little characters. As you can see below some of the parts even become edible! :)I purposely put any decorations that Azlyn is allowed to play with at the base of our fireplace, so that hopefully she will leave all the others alone. Another thing that I collected for a few years were the Hallmark singing snowmen. We put new batteries in them and Azlyn was enthralled. As you will see the snowman and dog are her favorite, but the snowman and penguins are a close 2nd!

I got 3 different angles of her with the snowman and dog because she was just absolutely hilarious and I didn't want her to notice me videoing her. It may be hard to tell by the videos, but at various times during the song the snowman and dog vibrate and shake. She tries to grab them when they do. When she grabs them while they are actually shaking she just gets so excited!

It was nice having Jim home for a 4 day weekend. We had lots of good family time and Azlyn and Daddy got to play a ton!

May Be Time For A New Carseat!

Azlyn is almost to the max weight this car seat will allow and I think she knows it because she uses her seat more like a toy. She was crawling in and out of it and just thought it was hilarious. It would have been a different story if I had strapped her in to go somewhere...not her favorite moment!