Savannah and Beckham's 2nd Birthday Party

Savannah's birthday is on January 13th, 2009 born at 8:40 am. My cousin's youngest son Beckham was born on January 13th, 2009 at about 2 pm. They share the same birthday and since my cousin is living in Brea to help care for my Aunt we thought it would be a super idea to have a joint birthday party. What better theme for a boy and girl turning TWO than a Mickey and Minnie Mouse theme.

It's not too hard to believe that I got totally overboard for everything, but especially for holidays and birthdays. I like that homemade feeling so I spent a couple weeks getting this all together. However, since Brian was in a car accident just 5-days before I lost a lot of time for crafting. A couple of my friends from work helped with the last minute stuff and a couple others helped with the food. Thank goodness Bekka, Erica, Mom and Dad came a couple hours early since Brian could barely move. In order to get the party in the condo, I had to move our entire bedroom (that is currently in the dining room) out to the garage. After that I was able to start getting everything set up- needless to say I was literally running to get it all done.

When everyone arrived they got to wear their own set of Mickey ears that we made. Savannah had the cutest clip-on Minnie Ears and still asks to wear them almost every day. I also had special shirts made for Savannah and Beckham and the Mom's and Dads.

This is Lisa and her son Beckham. We are each other's only girl cousins and have grown very close- like sisters. She is a professional photographer and did double duty at the party as Mom/Photographer and took all the pictures.

The kids table was one of my favorite parts. I glued the plates to make a Mickey head, put juice and special Mickey straw on one ear and the cupcake on the other. The goody bags were a lot of fun to make and were filled with Mickey stickers, Mickey toys, and candy. All the tables in the house had Mickey Confetti (with the number 2 punched in them) that looked great against the yellow, black and red linens.

Bekka (my separated-at-birth friend) made the red velvet cupcakes and frosted them with cream cheese frosting. Erica (my for-always-and-ever friend) helped dress them up with a decorative cupcake wrapper I made and then topped them over with Mickey and Minnies.

My Aunt Caroline was able to come and Savvy was SO happy. She loves her Auntie Grandma, and loves to say her name "AUNTIE GRANDMA!" just as much.

All of Savannah's friend from nursery came and a couple of their older siblings were their too (including Lisa's older children). We ate costco pizza, cesar salad, snack foods and the red velvet cupcakes.

I was SO happy that my friends were able to come. I am so grateful to have amazing friends that support and love me so much.

Savannah is shy and gets worried when crowds of people sing. So, she cried when we sang Happy Birthday, but was excited to blow out her candle. Of course she LOVED the frosting!

I love this happy birthday sign. I ran out of yellow ribbon but it was supposed to match everything else.

I strung ribbon for streamers and made these really cute hanging ribbon decorations tied to the curtain rods.

This is my special shelf that I decorate differenly each month. For January I put up all the Mickey stuff. I made the red Mickey head with foam balls and red tissue paper.

The pinata was such a fun activity. My Cousin Lisa and her husband made it the night before. They are such crafty people. I can't beleive it was just something they threw together. It was amazing!

Lots of Presents!

Savannah Loves her GAMMY!

I love these pictures of Lisa and Beckham. So cute!

When Brian and I first saw the photos of Beckham and Savannah we laughed. They looked like an old married couple... kind of annoyed with each other.

The Daddy's.

Savannah was terrified by this giant blown up Mickey. She would get so nervous when it would get any where near her and freak out. Beckham loved him and tossed him all over the house.

Letter To Auntie

My family has been writing letter/posts to my Aunt Caroline and included them on her blog, My ALS Journey, to share with everyone. They are full of love, faith and memories. Now that the reality that the end is very near I wrote a post for her blog. Below is my letter, but you can read more from everyone on her ALS blog http://myalsjourney.blogspot.com/.


Letters for Aunt Caroline: From Kelly

About a month ago while I was sitting in Sacrament meeting, I opened my scriptures, but stopped to see a hand-written note in the front cover.

For Lovely Kelly,
As you read and ponder these Holy Scriptures, open your mind and heart so that our heavenly Father can guide and direct you in the way you should go. As I have watched you grow into a beautiful young woman, and choose the Right most of the time, it doesn’t surprise me that you are making this choice now. Remember that the church of Jesus Christ is not just a “Sunday Church”- It is a whole new way to live each day. As you do that you will grow wisdom and other ways you never imagined you could. I love you and I’ll always be here for you.

Love Eternally,
Aunt Caroline

As I read the words my Aunt Caroline wrote for me when I was baptized at 19-years old, I cried. I thought back to all the memories I have had with her and short amount of time we have to still make new ones. I thought about her love and support she has shown me as I have grown a testimony in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She supported me when I was baptized, when I had a civil marriage and when Brian and I were later sealed in the temple. Although she is not my mom, Auntie would be the stand it when I needed it. She was at my Girl Scout events, went on field trips with my class for school, came to listen to me speak at church and was my temple escort while taking out my endowments.

When I got home after church I went to my bookcase and started pulling out every church book we owned. I found numerous books that she gave to me with personalized messages. They were filled with Auntie’s strong testimony of the gospel and her love for me. When I opened The Holy Temple, by Boyd K. Packer, It read:

To Brian and Kelly,
Congratulations on being a forever family now. Uncle Larry and I pray for your eternal happiness. Vow from this day forth that you will never-ever be without a worth Temple Recommend and that you will go to the Temple faithfully every month, at the very least for the rest of your marital life. The Temple has made Uncle Larry and I the people we are today. There is no other light like in the temple to guild you through your lives.

My Eternal Love,
Aunt Caroline

Watching her struggle with this debilitating disease and see her strength through everything will be with me forever. Her life has been a great example to me about living the gospel, serving and loving.

I am at that point in my life when I am critically evaluating who I am and who I want to be. As I am identifying the gaps in my life I am filling them with character strengths from many strong, independent women I have known. The list is endless of the ways I will incorporate Auntie into the rest of my life as woman, wife and mother.

Happy 2nd Birthday Savannah!

Today Savannah turned 2, and I can hardly believe it. She is growing up so fast, but I enjoy every minute of this time. Everything she does and every new thing she learns makes me so happy. I could be having the worst day at work and exhausted but when I pick her up from school I am re-energized. I love her personality. She is sweet, shy, quiet, funny, smart and kind. I couldn't imagine our family without her, and am so grateful for her sweet spirit.

Today, we went to Luann's Dress Shop and went crazy buying all her Church Dresses for 2011. It was the annual sale day when everything is on sale and then you take an additional 50% off. By the time my Mom and I walked out of there we 22 dresses, 1 full slip, frilly socks, matching hair bow and jewelry. She is going to be one stylish girl in nursery. Of course we got the extra-full slip to make the dresses even fuller (it just isn't the same without layers and layers of lace). After that we went to Johnny Rebs for lunch, back home for a quick nap and off to Disneyland. Brian couldn't really participate much in todays activities since his car accident, but Savvy and I went and had fun on the rides. We wore our Minnie Mouse shirts that I had made for her party and she wore her Minnie Ear clips. We went to Goofy's Kitchen and saw a bunch of Disney Characters, but Savannah would become very nervous as they approached us. Then she would cry her eyes out and shout "Bye, Bye Pluto!". Basically telling him to leave in her own way. Then, "Bye, Bye Chip" all while sobbing. After they walked to the next table she would wave and blow kisses. She's so funny like that.

The end of the night ended with a BIG lolly pop stuck her to sweatshirt, out like a light in her car seat.

Happy Birthday Savannah.

Aunties' Christmas Gift

For my Auntie's Christmas gift this year I used Facebook to track down members of the El Dorado Vocal Ensemble. This was the High School I went to and I remembered (from when Peter was on Vocal) that this group of excellent singers would sing at special private events. I was able to get them to come and sing Christmas Carols to my Aunt Caroline on Christmas Eve as a big surprise.

I had her open a gift that had a set of Jingle Bells in it. I told her that she needed to shake them for the bells to work. She had limited movement in her arm and wrist but was able to give it a couple good shakes. As the bells jingled, the choir came down the stairs into the family room singing Jingle Bells. The room was full of the entire family and group of singers. As they sang we cried- even the singers teared up. It was such a beautiful moment. My cousin Lisa captured the moment perfectly.

I couldn't keep the tears back as the Choir Sang, "Sleep in Heavenly Peace, Sleep in Heavenly Peace"