If you haven't received yours yet, well. . .
It might not make it before Christmas, but just know that I really did have the best of intentions in getting them printed and sending them out.
Apparently being a Reindeer is more work than I thought. Busy Busy Busy!
Anyway MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone, now get out there and join in any Reindeer games!
December 21, 2009
Last Week, one of my Young Women came to our activity with the cutest bow in her hair. . .only the bow was actually made out of her hair. So I decided to give it a try on Natalie, and this is what we got.
We went to a family party on Saturday and everyone was all Oohs and Aahs over Natalie's festive hair. I was pretty shocked that she let me do it actually, since she prefers the hair-down ragamuffin look over anything up and fancy. But this shows that my little tom boy can be a girly girl occasionally. *Giggle Giggle*
December 19, 2009
So this Holiday Season I decided that I'd save a little money by "making" Christmas gifts instead of buying them. And what could be better to make, than TREATS?
Okay, so I'm not sure how much money I actually saved, because in the long run, all the Therapy that I'll need from all of this, is going to cost me.
I decided to make White Chocolate Popcorn and Caramels, because really, how hard can THAT be right? Well I've actually learned never to ask that question when it comes to baking because for me, it ALWAYS doesn't seem hard and then it turns into a nightmare! Okay so I wont lie, the popcorn was pretty darn easy. I just threw some white chocolate chips in a handy little microwave dish and nuked them for 30 second increments, stirred 'em up and then mixed 'em in my popcorn (which I also nuked in the microwave).
The Caramels on the other hand didn't go so well. Now the recipe basically says to put all your ingredients into a pot and cook it all together until you reach 250 degrees (which thankfully I have a candy thermometer) but the dilemma I faced was that my poor pot (okay it was a sauce pot), started to boil over onto my stove before I actually reached the 250 degrees. I had to frantically pour the stuff into a bigger pot, while the stuff that had boiled over burned to a crisp onto my stove. YUCK! 
Okay, so after that I was a little impatient and didn't quite let the thermometer get to 250, but what's a few degrees anyway. Well obviously a few degrees can mean the difference between Caramel and SYRUP (which is what mine turned out to be). It's actually a good thing it didn't turn out, because as I was rinsing the cans of evaporated milk that I had used, I noticed that the expiration date on them was in 2007. OH HEAVEN! (If any of you know me, you know that I have a weird thing about expiration dates, I mean who doesn't really). So the first batch didn't work out so good, but I didn't let that get me down OR beat me. I made a second batch with non-expired evaporated milk, I used the big pot, and I was patient enough to wait until the thermometer got to 250. AND voila I got a beautiful yummy batch of caramels and very happy neighbors! WooHoo!
Dec. 8, 2009
November 23, 2009
Well it's that time of year again, to stop and take a moment to think about what we're all Thankful for.
Tonight we had a Family Home Evening lesson about being Thankful and a fun little activity involving a whole lot of leaves!
Our list includes. . .
*Jesus Christ *Family *Friends *Books and School *Love *Talents *Home *Earth *Medicine and Doctors *Jobs *Food *Prophets *Freedom *Furniture and Toys *Church *Tiara
I feel it's an important message to teach your kids about being Thankful, and showing Gratitude for what they have, especially lately.
Our little family certainly has so much to be Thankful for, especially in lieu of the recent trials that have come our way. I'm Thankful for all of the love and support we've been shown by you-our family and friends, I think I could make my own Thankful Tree with all of your names on beautiful autumn leaves. For those of you who know how much I love fall, that's a BIG compliment!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Today was Natalie's First Piano Recital. It was very exciting and she's been practicing a lot for it. The first piece she played was called The Detective, and then she did a duet of The Chicken Dance with her teacher. She didn't seem nervous at all, maybe because she was wearing her Music Note shirt which she REALLY wanted to wear.
I hope this is the first of MANY recitals we will attend, I know that Natalie will be a beautiful pianist if she continues to love it and stick with it.
Last night (or early this morning-depending on how you look at it) I went and saw New Moon!
I went with my Twilight Sisters (TwiTards, as we'll be known from now on), Lisa, Jodee and Marlene. We saw the 12:40 a.m. showing down at The Gateway. There of course were loads of Twilight fans everywhere and a whole lot of screaming and much love between Team Edward fans and Team Jacob fans (No cat fights er-wolf fights).
The movie was awesome! The actors seemed to react much more realistically with each other in this one, and I didn't want to gag as much, since the CHEESE was really toned down compared to Twilight! Oh and did I mention the shirtless Taylor Lautner (Jacob), well he made for some nice eye candy. GRRRR.
All in all it was just a fun night to hang out with the girls and act like a total TwiTard (in the most positive sense of the word)!
I can't wait for Eclipse to come out . . . JUNE 30, 2010 baby-only 7 months away!!!
Natalie and I were at Target looking for a Birthday present for Natalie's friend when I happened to see an Edward Cullen doll in one of the isles.
I picked it up and said "Hey Natalie, how about this?"
She looked at it and replied "EWE, that's weird. Get it away from my eyes!"
What a fun Halloween we had this year. Natalie dressed up as Hermione Granger from Harry Potter-a costume that she'd been planning on for almost a year. She looked so smart and wizardish in her Hogwarts robe and her magic wand.
Sam was still under quarantine (since being in the hospital) and wasn't able to go Trick-or-Treating, but we had a costume for him non-the-less. He was Sir Samuel, Golfer Extraordinaire. He was stinkin' adorable with his plaid knickers, argyle sweater and little hat.
Natalie and I went out Trick-or-Treating in the neighborhood, and I must say, she made out with quite a good haul this year.
I SO love Halloween and I was bummed I didn't get costumes for Brandon and I, but at least I got to dress up for my roaring 20's Birthday and for Josh's Pirate Birthday, so I guess I can't complain too much about not having a costume.
I just wish the initiation wouldn't have been so hard.
OCT 28, 2009
I was thinking today, that only a month ago I was running around dressed up like a crazy flapper celebrating my 30th Birthday, and now remembering it makes it seem like it was years ago. I laugh at how important I thought that day was.
I feel like I've had to grow up so much in just one month of being 30-far more than I ever had in the 29 years before. My body feels it, my head feels it, and of course my heart feels it. I can literally feel every beat my heart makes inside my chest, or at least I'm more aware of it, I guess I should say.
I don't want this blog entry to be sad, because I'm not sad, I'm happy. I'm SO SO happy that Samuel is home, that it's been days without a fever, and that we might actually be able to start getting him healed. I'm SO SO happy that we have the Gospel, the priesthood, and the love and support from so many people on our side. In the quiet moments at the hospital, when I'd let my mind wander to places that are scary, I could feel the gospel, feel the power of the priesthood, and feel the love and support of those who were praying on our behalf. It was those prayers that pulled me out of the scary places, and let the holy ghost comfort me and calm me down.
Being home this time around I knew I had to be calm and rational. I haven't checked Sam's temperature every five minutes, I have hardly checked it at all actually. Each time I get scared and my heart pounds in my chest, I remind myself that I have faith in the priesthood blessings that Sam received, that I have faith in the Fast that we did on Sunday, and that I have Faith that Heavenly Father knows me and has heard not only my prayers, but countless prayers of others.
All this wisdomish talk must be because I'm now an official grown up. I wonder if there is a club? I hope it doesn't include red hats and purple feather boas...I don't think I'm quite there yet.
Anyway this blog entry was more for me to just express the jumble of thoughts floating around in my head, and to have a way to say Thank You to everyone who did, and is still praying for Sam to pull through this, and of course the prayers for our entire family. I feel so humbled to have felt your love and support. Thank You.
Sam walked up to me in the kitchen and when I looked down he was giving this little kitty a love. It was the sweetest thing and of course it made me start to cry...literally. Yes, I even took a picture through my tears. I HAD to.
After seeing him in that hospital bed for a week, strapped to all those monitors, this was a welcomed sight to see my little guy acting like a 20 month old should!
It's actually been a week plus some but it seems to all run together.
Anyway, Sam got a fever on Monday (Oct. 12), now, at 20 months fevers are reoccuring things with each tooth that comes in, but by Wednesday it hadn't gone away AND a rash started forming all over his body. By Thursday I stopped talking myself out of taking him in to see the Dr, and scheduled a time to go in. The Dr. took a swab to check for strep, and other illnesses like scarlet fever ect. but the test came back negative. The Dr. said that Sam's right lymphnode was pretty swollen, and he was unsure about the rash. He sent us home but told me he'd call me, which he did three times that night. The last call was when he had mentioned something called Kawasaki Disease. He told me that if the fever was still there in the morning that we'd have to go up to Primary' Children's. Well, Friday morning the fever and rash were still there so up to Primary's we went. We had to go to the ER and they had to get a urine sample (via Catheter) and place an IV and draw lots of blood. He was very sad and scared and I had to be the strong mom...even though my heart was breaking. Well they were not saying he HAD Kawasaki's but that is what they were going to start treating him for since he had all of the symptoms. They admitted us to the hospital and started a treatment called IVIG which is basically a bunch of other peoples antibodies (kind of like someone getting blood or plasma from someone else). Anyway the IVIG ran throughout most of the night and into the next morning, and it really seemed to help. His fever went down and the rash started going away. On Saturday afternoon they sedated him and did an ECHO (ultrasound) on his heart. Coming out of the sedation was a nightmare, he was literally kicking and screaming (poor guy).
The cardiologists found that his right coronary artery and his left anterior coronary artery both had inflammation in them. They began giving him high doses of aspirin and monitoring him. On Sunday the rash was barely visible and he hadn't had a fever since the IVIG treatment, so they told us we could go home, which was nice-for the 24 hours we were there. His fever came back on Monday night (Oct. 19) so back to the ER we went. It was about 9:00 pm when we went back and the ER was SO busy and there were tons of sick kids all over. We waited in the waiting room for 2 hours before we got a room. Then when we finally did get a room, we had to do everything that we did on Friday again. The second time around was definitely much worse. The blood test came back and said that the inflammation levels in his body had gone up, and so once again we had to be admitted to the hospital...of course we didn't get to our room until 3 in the morning. They started another round if the IVIG at about 5:30 am and it ran most of the day on Tuesday. His fever didn't go down as fast with the second treatment of IVIG but at least this time he didn't have the rash. Wednesday morning he went in for another ECHO and this time they didn't sedate him as much as before so when he came out of it he wasn't as irritable. The second ECHO actually showed that the coronary artery that was smaller was now bigger and the one that was bigger was now smaller, but neither of them were to a point that the doctors were overly concerned, they thought that with the aspirin therapy the inflammation in both will go away.
The second hospital stay went a little better for Sam (maybe because he'd been so used to everything the first time) he actually drank and ate. He was up and alert and wanted to play and talk. So Thursday they told us we could take him home if we felt comfortable, so we decided we wanted to try again, and that we'd just pray REALLY hard that he doesn't have to go back.
So now it's Friday (Oct. 23) and we are home. Sam is doing really well, he's eating, drinking and playing (not too hard) and his temperature is down, so let's all pray that it stays that way. We aren't out of the woods completely, and I have 6 weeks of giving him aspirin and monitoring him and then he'll have another ECHO to see where we stand.
I'm so thankful for all the thoughts and prayers from everyone, it is amazing to feel that love when you are at your lowest. Your prayers really helped us get through this, especially the quiet moments when our minds would wander to not nice places. We will continue to keep you up-to-date on Sam and his condition and the progress he's making.
We love you all!
Over UEA I took the kids to the local pumpkin patch, and it was so fun watching them both run around trying to find "THE" pumpkin to take home. Sam spent a lot of time in the little pull cart letting Natalie pull him around. He kept pointing and saying "Punkeen, Punkeen" in that cute little voice of his. When we found suitable Punkeens I let the kids run and play in a little Haymaze that they have at the Pumpkin Patch. After last years hour of hauling the kids around the large Cornmaze I opted out of that this year, and just let them run wild in the Haymaze for a while...luckily there weren't too many other kids there.
After that we stocked up on Sweet Dumpling Squash (I LOVE THEM), payed for our bounty and headed home, but not before making a stop at McDonald's for Happy Meals...don't you just love days off from school?
This is what I see when I'm standing on the front porch!
As beautiful as that is...Come on Mother Nature, it's not even October yet!
Today is one of those weird days that is all about reflecting. Brandon is working, Natalie is over at a friends and Sam is sleeping and I...well I'm reflecting.
Reflecting on the last 30 years and thinking about so many different things. I didn't think that hitting 30 would be emotional but as I think back on the past and all of the different changes that I've gone through, it's starting to hit me that I'll never have that time back, and in a way it makes me a little sad.
I celebrated turning 30 with a fancy Roaring 20's party last night, and it was such a blast! We had lots of 20's and 30's music playing while everyone had yummy food to eat (especially the delectable cupcakes from Baby Cakes)! There was dancing and mingling and just a swingin' good time, even Lisa-the Community Art Center lady-was dancing.
I was able to reflect, as I looked in the faces of those who were there, different moments or memories of my life (long ago or recent) that have made me who I am. I really missed those who couldn't make it, but as I think about it now, I'm not sure my emotions could've stayed in check if any more people would've come. I really felt so much love and support and I'm so lucky to have so many family, friends and neighbors who are great examples to me, and are so supportive.
I have the coolest parents who totally helped me pull off my big celebration, and who constantly amaze me with their generosity, love and support. They deserve most of the credit for raising me to be a good girl, and letting me choose whatever path I wanted to take in life!
Big thanks to all for making this Birthday one I'll never forget, I'll post more pics of the roaring night soon!
September 15, 2009
There is something so classic about Autumn. Maybe it's the cooling temperature, or that smell of fresh September air, or the way the mountains look like they are on fire with the changing leaves...I don't know exactly what it is, but I LOVE it all!
If it's completely crazy to be obsessed over books...send me to the nut house!
So Stephenie Meyer recommended this book on her site a while back and I thought "Now everyone will want to read it, so I'm not going to." Well I finally decided to check it out from the library and got put on the waiting list. No big deal right? Hmmm how does 87th on the waiting list sound? Augh! 
Aug. 21, 2009
Wednesday July 29-Saturday Aug 1, 2009
After a bag check, we loaded our handcarts and started out on our journey. We made stops here and there for drinks or snack breaks and we wound up pulling the handcarts about 10 miles then came one of the toughest and most spiritual parts of the whole Trek. It was the Women's Pull. The young men were taken off of the handcart and had to walk along side. Everyone had to be silent as we walked and as we pulled the handcart up this hill it started to get tougher and tougher and we were getting tired, but as soon as we made it to the top of the hill we were relieved, but then we looked up ahead and saw that our journey was not quite over and waiting for us was another hill. We were a very strong and determined family of girls and we made it up the hill. We wound up pulling the handcart 1 1/2 miles on our own, and as soon as the boys were allowed to get back on and help, each one of us girls were in tears because you could just feel, not only the strength from these young men, but also the love and respect that they had for us. That night we all pretty much crashed we were so exhausted. We had gone about 15 miles that day.
Thursday morning we got up, ate our oatmeal, and headed back out on the trail. We only went about 5 miles until we reached the Base camp. At base camp we got to find a campsite for our family and set up our sleeping quarters. That afternoon we played fun pioneer games like a 3 legged race, and log toss, and they even let us wash our hair! That night we had a Ho-Down where we learned square dancing. It was a blast.While at base camp we made our own food in dutch ovens. We destroyed bread that we made, and laughed about it for hours, and so did most of the Trek Company. We had a blast just spending time getting to know each of our family members. We had a lot of fun playing a handkerchief game, and a game called signs.
July 26, 2009
It's a crazy thing to imagine being married 35 Years, but my parents have beat the odds, and the statistics, and done it! They have actually been "together" since Jr. High...anyone that can "go steady" that long and still make it all these years is one for the record books. Of course my dad was and is SO COOL, and my mom was and is A BABE, so I guess it was meant to be!
I absolutely adore my parents and I am SOOOOO appreciative for everything they do for me, even though I'm a parent now and often think that I don't need them. I am grateful for the example they have been to me and for their constant support in whatever venture I set out to do!
P.S.
No my dad is not in Pink...it's Salmon!
July 18, 2009
JULY 2, 2009
Yes today is Brandon's Birthday and although he never looks at this blog, I thought I'd wish him a Happy Birthday anyway.
So what kind of gift do you get for the guy who buys and sells for a living? Good question...
Luckily, about a week ago Brandon mentioned that he needed a new pair of golf shoes. SWEET! No guessing at what I was going to buy. AND if I do say so myself I did a really good job in picking out some nice ones for him!
June 27, 2009
Sam's not even two yet and already he looks like a teenage boy!
Maybe it's because he's so skinny! I promise he eats, but he doesn't stop long enough to let it settle anywhere. I wish I had that problem.
Don't you just want to grab em' and yank em' up? Trust me...I tried it! Eventually they just fell off on their own.
Didn't get any pics of that, but it was cute!
Well as it turns out...sometimes June can end up getting what should've come in April! RAIN.
As I planned Natalie's Big 7th Birthday Carnival, I was worried that it was going to be TOO HOT, and NOT if it was going to get rained out.
I was a little frantic trying to figure out how I was going to hold a Carnival in my basement if the 40 percent chance of rain actually came. Thank goodness the weather held up for a couple of hours and we got to have the Carnival outside.
The party was a blast, the kids enjoyed themselves and I got to send them all home hyped-up on Snow Cones, Popcorn, Cotton Candy, Cupcake and Ice Cream. Hee hee.
The 40 percent chance of rain DID finally wind up coming, in the way of a monsoon, about 20 minutes after everyone had gone home. WHEW! Somebody was watching out for us.
Take a look at all the festivities!
June 3, 2009
The big dance recital!
May 30, 2009
I loved a tap dance the older girls did to "Step in Time" from Mary Poppins. The costumes were black and they had chimney sweep brooms. It was awesome.
All in all we had a great time and Natalie did such a good job.
