Melody's Baptism Photos

Melody loved having her pictures taken in her baptism dress and pretty pink shoes that she picked out. Our sweet friend, Shelley, took Melody to Mesa Arts Center and did a little photo shoot with Melody. Mel loved it! She had one smile after another. Shelley designed 3 invitations for Melody to choose from and Melody chose the last one to send to her family and friends to invite them to her special day. Thanks to Shelley for doing this...I would have sent out an email if it hadn't have been for your amazing talent!

Temple Ground Breaking 2010

In November 2010, Mel and I got to go to the ground breaking ceremony for the new Gilbert temple. We are so excited to have a temple so close to us and it was such a great experience to bring Melody to the site and know that she was going to to get to watch the whole process, from beginning to end. Melody got to walk up to the front and touch the dirt where the digging would start and we talked about temples and Mel said she wants to get married in this temple when she is older. I told her I thought that was a great plan :)

Soccer 2010

In the fall of 2010, Mel played in the old neighborhood soccer games and had a blast. After this year, Mel would be too old to play but it was a great few years of soccer in the greenbelt. This year, Jason and Nick both helped coach too and Mel and Erik loved having such cool coaches.

Melody is 8

For Melody's 8th birthday, in November 2010, we didn't have a birthday party because she was getting baptized later in the month and we were moving 2 days later. But, turning 8 was still great and Mel had a great day. She was so excited to get a beautiful pearl necklace from the Gardner's, a glow in the dark CTR ring from Leslie and a special baptism towel from the Quinn's. We went to dinner at Joe's Farm Grill and met the boys for dinner and then the Quinn's came over with cupcakes for Mel since I had packed most of my kitchen up already and packed the cupcake tins. Mel was a good sport about the chaos and was such a great, grown up helper for the move. I sure love this girl!

Halloween 2010

Halloween 2010 was pretty low key. Melody decided to be a witch this year (but the dress had a cat on it...we are branching out, kinda :) The kids had fun walking around and got WAY too much candy. Melody doesn't really eat too much of the candy but she still likes to get a whole bunch.

2011 Favorite Things Bday Party

In 2011, I was surprised by my favorite things for my birthday. I am a big fan of Oprah and love her favorite things show. Tanisha's kitchen was transformed into a backdrop for my favorite things and I got to have dinner with most of my favorite people. Donelle took pictures of all my bday presents and you can see I was spoiled, again! Orange crush, lip gloss, movie tickets, bahama bucks gift cards (that is the present Mel is SO excited about, it is her favorite!), $$ for a pedicure, tickets to the beauty and beast play (so I could take Mel) and ticket to Keith Urban concert (it was a bummer the concert ended up getting cancelled later). After dinner and presents, we had some cheesecake and then piled into the car to to go to Scottsdale to see Jane Eyre that I was so excited to see! We ended up missing the movie but I got to see it later and loved it. Thank you for a wonderful birthday. It was fun to celebrate and laugh and be with such great friends!