My baby is 7!

 Happy birthday Dylan! We love you so much and can not believe you are 7! You are truly an amazing kid so much and kind and loving! Hope you had a wonderful day! Dylan woke up to a room full of balloons breakfast in bed and cupcakes to bring to school! His family party is Friday night and he is so excited! And finally he got what he has been asking for since Christmas an nintendo DSI!

Easter 2010

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter on a little family vacation to Glenwood Springs and then off to the Mugleston's for a wonderful dinner!

My Head...

I NEVER stop thinking and lately I have been thinking a lot of the same things and can not turn my brain off so I thought it might help if I write a few things down. I wonder constantly how I can get everything done that I want to and that I need to, to create a balance in my home raising a healthy and happy family. My thoughts:

1. Nutrition and Exercise- For years I have had different influences in my life that have made me want to make what goes into our bodies a higher priority. Lately Stacie has been working at Dylan's school to have a garden and now she wants to help turn the school lunches around. It inspires me because her daughter always brings a sack lunch but she is concerned about the whole community, so I really want to try and do better with my family.

Has anyone been watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? Find it and watch it! He is truly amazing! I have a dinner group with two of my friends where we cook for each other once a week to help us cut back on the time we have to spend in the kitchen. My goal is to make truly healthy good meals. My night is Tuesday nights and I want to share what I make on my blog with the recipe and picture. Maybe Laura and Mindy can be food critics for me???

Along with eating healthy I need to be better at my EXERCISING!!!! Every week I swear I come up with a new plan that I think I can follow and continue. This week I only ran once! My goal would be to go 4 times a week to do 15 minutes of yoga every day, and do weights on the days I run.

2. Housekeeping/Laundry- Why why do I stress about this so much? It should be so easy and I struggle! I keep hoping if and when we move into a bigger house I won't feel like the walls are closing in and every time I turn around there is crap everywhere!!!

3. Friends and Family relationships- I love all my friends and family so much and it frustrates me that it is so hard sometimes to keep in touch! I get so bummed that I can't keep up on my blog and when I check other people's blogs I find out things like my sweet amazing cousin is pregnant!?!? I had no idea! Blogs are so good to keep people connected but I miss talking and getting phone calls when exciting things happen in my loved ones lives! I am always wanting to do things and show my love and I can not keep up!

4. Teaching my kids- I am always thinking up things that I would love to do with my kids to open their minds and learn from me and not just what they learn from school and from their church teachers. It seems though whenever we are home we are taking care of picking up, bathing doing our thing and they need to be able to play!

5. Creating- I love my crafts, hobbies or whatever you want to call it but sometimes it is hard to find the time to partake of the things that make me tick. I also have a hard time drawing the line at all the things I would love to do! I love my crafting friends who feel like I do and for our wonderful husbands who let us craft to our hearts content almost every Thursday night!

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, background or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty."

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf
I Love this!

For now I guess thats all folks!

Cool

My Little Dylan is growing up way too fast! I was at his school on Wednesday to help him with a project. I did not know what to expect and when I got there the kids had picked a partner and had to build a house together. Dylan's partner was a girl and they were the only boy girl partners in the class. That night in bed we were talking and I asked him if he picked Grace or how they became partners. He said that he wanted to work with Grace because she is a very creative person and thought she was cool... It was also St. Patrick's Day and their teacher had given all of them green beads and he said that Grace was so creative because she had wrapped her bracelet around her wrist and the teacher made a comment on how creative Grace is and Dylan said all the "cool" boys copied her!

I have a picture to add but this freaking computer is not letting me! I really dislike technology sometimes!

Sewing Machine

I am in the market for a new machine. I think I would love a Bernina but the cheapest is about $700, so I have gone to a few shops and found a Elna in my price range that I like and a Viking 1800. Does anyone have any opinions? It is so hard to compare the two when they are at different shops and people are so opinionated on the ones they have to sell...AM I making sense? Please tell me anything you know I would appreciate it!

Happy Valentines Day!

We had a very busy Valentine's Day Weekend! On Thursday I was at work when Audrey received a phone call from the school informing us that Dylan was not feeling well. I raced over and sure enough he was very pale but also very sad he could not attend his Valentines Day class party. We got home and had him snuggle on the couch with a movie, I ran at 3 to collect his valentines and shortly after I got home he threw up all over the couch! I am not so prepared at this throw up thing since I have only done it myself twice that I can remember! So after a lecture from Marc and a good scrubbing of the sofa Dylan was back on it with a bucket right next to him. In the meantime I was feeling very frazzled I was suppose to leave in the morning to go to Utah to visit Tracie for the weekend. As you can imagine I was worried that we would be up all night, Kate or Marc would get it or I could get it and having to travel that would suck.

Dylan was in bed by 9 after having only two more barfs and slept all through the night! Audrey kindly came over and spent the night so we would not have to drag the kids to the airport at 7am- (and to be on standby in case others got sick)! I made it to Utah just barely on the second flight-I was starting to think my trip would be canceled :(

Friday night we went to dinner with Tracie's parents and off to the Gymnastics meet, then rode the Trax to see Valentines Day (Loved it) than found out Trax quits running at 11:15 (only in Utah)! so called a cab to get back to our car. Saturday was spent shopping shopping shopping! It is so nice to go without our rugrats and Utah has some sweet fabric stores! Sunday (Valentine's Day) Tracie made us heart shaped pancakes and her parents came by with homemade turtles packed up so cute with a lip gloss tied to it! We spent the day trying to get a little more organized for when her house sells but I think I left her in a bigger mess! Derek and Carly along with Tracie's parents came over for a wonderful dinner of chicken chili and a yummy spinach salad. Monday we did a little more shopping before heading to the airport (which I got on the first flight but it was a little delayed). Thank you Tracie you are a wonderful host and I loved seeing you and Duncan!

Marc and the kids had a great weekend as well. Kate had dance Sat. morning they went to Chuck E Cheese and on Sunday to Marc's parents house for dinner and Talladgea (no idea how to spell that)! I was happy to be home and I think I was missed a tiny bit...

Today

I had to work today and nothing much happened except banging my head so hard on cabinets I almost passed out (I have a shooting pain down my neck and into my left shoulder), then having to go to the dentist to have my first EVER filling and I am not a wuss but that pretty much sucked! I was so numb (which I am grateful for) from my left ear over my nose and across the middle of my face to the other side. I walked back over to work where I got laughed at because I was so noticeably numb it looked like I had had a stroke:( Then I had to go re certify for CPR which is very hard to do when half your face is numb!

My 2 cents for the day is 2:30. Always remember if you have to give CPR 2 breaths for every 30 compressions! I hope I never have to do this but I am so grateful I could if I needed to. Look into taking it if you never have!

I have to add a picture of course! A favorite lately they always want to sleep together and they spoofed their babysitters that it was ok so when we came home I had to capture my perfect angels who love each other so much!

Happy Birthday My Sweet Kate!

Kate is 3! My tiny girl is growing up so fast I can hardly believe it! She is constantly making me smile even when she is being naughty! Kate LOVES her big brother and is always sad to see him go to school! She is constantly telling us she loves us sooo much and always willing to pass out hugs and kisses. She is very independent, has a strong opinion about her clothes and her hair, loves all her friends and talks about them all the time. Kate is very much a girl and loves playing dress up (I can't get her to leave her clothes on and put the dress up clothes over the top, so I am finding various articles of clothing all over the house), she has the whole pretend thing down and always wants to be the mommy and make everyone else join in, Barbies are something she enjoys especially the movies. She also loves The Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stitch, and Thumbelina. Kate LOVES to dance and listen to music. She started a ballet tap class on Saturdays and Loves it! Her favorite song right now is Uncle Crackers You Make Me Smile! When she hears it on the radio she yells turn it up I can't hear my song and then she sings right along. We are so incredibly blessed to have our princess in our lives! We love her so much and hope she has an amazing birthday! Kate-YOU Make Me Smile!

Big Day!

The Pettiskirt!

Well the big day has arrived! I think everyone had a ton of fun! When Kate was not on a horse you could find her brushing the miniature horses.

Thank you to everyone that came to be with Kate on her big day! She received so many wonderful gifts and had so much fun! Just a side note one of the ponies is pregnant can you tell? One of the miniatures is as well but I did not get a good picture! We got to see the baby pony moving around it was so cool! Thank you again we love you so much!

Hello Cupcake

I bought Hello Cupcake around Dylan's birthday and absolutely love the cupcakes! They are so fun and it is hard not to plan your party just because you want to make certain cupcakes! In September I helped Dr. Rollert (my boss) make the shark cupcakes for his son's birthday party and he really wanted to help me make mine so tonight Audrey, Rollert and his Friend Paige came over and we whipped this out so fast! The book wanted you to use white circus peanuts and make white and brown horses (way cuter)! I found some on line and they were like $4.00 for one pound but they wanted to charge $11.00 for shipping! So once again I had to draw the line somewhere! I went with the My Little Pony look and we did orange, brown and pink. Still cute.

I already had the cupcakes made so we just had to decorate them. I used a Devil's food recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book and they were yummy! That is a great book for yummy tasting cupcakes and much prettier!

Pettiskirt

I have been looking and thinking about pettiskirts since shortly after Kate was born-wanting one sooo bad! My dear friend Lindsay's wonderful amazing mom heard about them from Lindsay and whipped one up for Edy, which Kate is wearing in our Christmas card picture. I decided I wanted to tackle making one but I needed to know that I would have help if needed! So I searched the Internet for free tutorials sent everything I found to Debbie and eventually bought directions from a lady on ETSY. I talked about it all the time and my very talented friend Jaime decided she would make one with me! (of course the first time I mentioned it to her she wrinkled her nose and told me no) Anyway we decided on colors and ordered our fabric.
It showed up on a Tuesday and by Friday our skirts were finished! They both look awesome except Kate's is huge it fits Dylan better than Kate! I was not going to start over she I wrapped it up with a matching headband and gave it to her about 30minutes before her big party! She loves it and I am definitely planning on making more!

Stick Horses

If anyone knows me at all I love throwing my kids their birthday parties! We have been talking about Kate's party since probably the beginning of December and she keeps saying she wants a pony party. She has been in love with ponies ever since we went to Utah and got to ride Tracie's dads Papa's ponies.

I was telling this to my aunt Debbie and she started talking about My Little Ponies when I jumped in and said no real ponies...Debbie said she should of known :) Also Marc has put up with all my crazy ideas one night in bed before Christmas I was babbling away when I said, "you know I cant stop once Christmas is over I have to go right to Kate's birthday party" he just responded don't be too crazy! Too late!

I wanted something unique and hopefully homemade that wasn't junk for the party favors and decided I would make stick horses for all the girls and boys under 4. We have so many people who love us and I have a hard time leaving anyone out but what 10 year old boy needs a stick horse right?! I had to draw the line somewhere! So my search started deciding how I was going to pull this off. I found a ton a really cute stick horses and made up my own. Hopefully they will stay together and get played with! It took me about 3 evenings to finish them and they were done a week before the party. I have never been so organized!