Cake Practice

We are going to have a party for Kimi's fourth birthday on Saturday and I wanted to try to make the cake, but the cake is such a big deal to me I really want it to look fantastic. So I thought I should do a couple practice runs before the big day. We are going to do a flower cake on top of a big circle cake and then top it with these cute little bug candles that we got that match the theme of the party. I can't wait, I hope its a really special day for Kimi.

First Try
Second Try (A little better!!)

Taking after his dad

Yesterday morning I got a call from Taylor saying he needed to take Zach to the doctor. Apparently Zach woke up feeling shaky and sick. Taylor being a type one diabetic thought he was possibly experience symptoms of low blood sugar and decided to use his glucose meter to check his blood. His blood sugar level was 35 which is pretty low so I told Taylor to feed him some cereal and juice and see how he felt in a little while. Then Taylor brought him to me and he was really tired and wanted me to hold him. So I was just holding him all morning when all of the sudden he throws up all over me. I freaked out a little cause this has never happened before, but luckily we were at my mom's and she calms me down and we get cleaned up and I have almost recovered from the experience now...almost. Taylor had made a doctor's appointment for him that morning so we took him in to see if they would at least test to see if maybe he could possible also be diabetic. They checked his urine and there was no sugar in it so so far it seems that he is not and he just had a virus and for now no need to worry.

The thing that really makes yesterday more memorable,I guess is a word to use. Is when Taylor was coming into the doctor's building apparently a man came in holding a small infant and was saying he needed help cause his baby was not breathing. When Taylor told me about this it was hard to imagine such a horrible event happening only feet away from where I was. What would anyone do in that situation, if your child was literally dying in your arms. It really is too much for me to even think about, I worry about everything and such thoughts do not leave my head quickly. It has made the last 24 hours seem to be more precious then a typical day may have been. While leaving the office there was a life flight helicopter, a fire truck, and an ambulance. I don't have any idea how things turned out for that family, I hope that things turned out better then they could have.

I am so grateful to have a healthy boy.

What's in a name?

Zach wrote his name by himself for the very first time ever today. I was so excited I called or texted everyone I could think of. I was having a hard time getting him to be able to trace the lines of the letters. Every time he would get mad that he hadn't written exactly on the line and use little scribbles to try and fill in the space between where he wrote and the dotted line. So my mom gave me the idea to rather then have him copy dotted lines to do dots and just let him fill in the lines himself. That way even if his lines are not exactly straight he still can see that he made the letter and is not worried about getting it exactly perfect. It totally worked. I showed him how to do each letter a couple times and then he tried it himself and bam there it was his name. He was pretty excited about it too. Obviously he still needs to learn to do it without the dots but come on, he is three so its pretty good. I am always so proud of him and the way he can learn things so quickly. He is such an amazing kid.

The Rodeo

A bunch of us from my family went to the Days of '47 Rodeo on Monday night. Even after living in Texas for three years I had never been to a rodeo so it was a lot of fun to go experience it. I have to say my favorite event was the wild cow milking contest and I think it is hilarious that that is an actualy contest. I guess when you don't live in the city you have to be creative when thinking about things you want to do with your time. Zach had fun sseeing the cows, but really wanted to be able to pet them.

I made Zach dress up with me. He's too young to disagree yet.

Vannesa's Wedding

My little sister Vannesa got married on July 10th. My sisters Anngela and Amannda were in charge of planning the wedding and really did a great job. I was a little mad that they hadn't asked me to do anything to help. So I asked if maybe I could decorate the car. Of course I didn't even think about it until the day of the wedding and had no clue what to do. We got a car marker and some balloons and saran wrap and just kind of put it together. I also go a box of condoms, a pregnancy test and some baby bottle pops to put on the dash of the car so it would be a little bit funny but not too inappropriate.

The car
Me and Breanna who helped me get all the stuff and decorate.

Of course I need Gordon's help for everything. He came to my aid even though we weren't having the best day ever. I am so grateful he is always there for me no matter what.

Summer 2010

There are so many things that we have planned this summer, but really its the day to day stuff that I love about summer. Being able to spend a lot of time outside and cooking dinner on the grill so cleaning up is so easy and staying up late with the sun still shinning. Zach has a big box full of sidewalk chalk and I have to say this has been one of my favorite things to do this summer because it is fun, outside and can be educational. We write out words and he sounds them out, work on shapes, numbers, and I occasionally try and draw a picture of an animal or something. Sometimes Zach can even recognize what I am trying to draw :-) Also, the sandbox Zach got for his birthday has been so much fun. The kids bake pies, and build sand castles, and find the lost dinosaur bones together so well. I can get the dishes done and read a few pages of a book and they just have a ball. The other great thing about summer is park lunch. Its a government sponsored program where kids that are 1-18 get free bagged lunch served at the city park. Zach gets a healthy lunch including chocolate milk and a chance to play with kids on the playground. This is especially nice when Kimi isn't home and he is depending on me for entertainment all day. Zach is a big boy this summer and does almost everything there is to do at the playground with no help form me.

Eating Park lunch

Sidewalk chalk

Chalk bum

In the sand box

My first 5K and West Fest Fireworks

Yesterday I did my first 5K I am saying first in hopes that there will be a second. I started running to work out about two years ago and usually run about eight or ten times between summer and spring when the weather was warm enough to take Zach out in the stroller and I was starting to worry about summer weather and the wearing of shorts and tank tops. Well that isn't a ton of working out or anything but I have found that I really enjoy running. This made me want to try and see what it would be like to do a real run and I decided even thouth I hadn't really been running often and not in the best shape ever I would try and see how it went. I had such a great time. I finished which to me was a good thing and my time wasn't horible (33:56) . So I figure if I reallly start doing this I could get even better at it and run more, faster, and maybe get in a little bit better shape. We also went to see the fireworks for West Fest, celebrating 30 years of West Valley City. Zach was in wyoming with his grandparents so he wasn't there and I really missed him, but we had a fun time.

After the race, still standing!

Me and my sister Breanna, she also ran the race.

What a hunk

I love Summer Time!!!

Pinata

A couple weeks ago Zach asked me to make a pinata for a party. I wasn't sure why he thought we were having or party or what made him think I could make a pinata but I figured I would try it and see if we could have a fun time making a little project together. I looked up online how to make a pinata and it really didn't seem all that hard so I got a balloon and the grocery ads and thought this would be fun. Turns out it takes a lot longer to make a pinata then Zach or I thought. A week later we had finished putting a few layers of newspaper on and I was pretty much sick of having to clean up the gluey mess and paper after we had let it dry every night. So I said it was done even though it was no where close to my vision of a beautiful paper creation. It was painted plain white so at least the ads weren't super visible. We invited mine and Gordon's family over for a water pater with the kids pool, slip n slide, and water balloons. Grilled up some hot dogs and had a little party. It turned out to be a fun little afternoon. So I guess my hard work paid off. Thanks to Zach the family got to get together for no real reason at all which we don't usually do. Here are a few pics, I didn't get any of them breaking the pinata cause it was a little hectic.

I love being me!

Today I am just happy to be me. I have so many things to be thankful for I don't think I could ever list them all. Mostly my health, the ability to run and see the world around me. I can't imagine my life without my precious baby boy who keeps me smiling during my worst days. And of course, Gordon who is so amazing and takes such good care of me. I don't know what I would do without him. I take so much for granted. I am learning to be happy with myself all the craziness that goes on in my head and sorting out the important things and the things I need to let go of. All the small things that have gotten me to where I am and the people who are here for me anytime I need them. Life is so good, it is perfect. Even though I do not see it that way sometimes. Things are how they are suppose to be. I can only control myself and the way I act and react to things. I choose to be happy, I choose to love myself.

Future MLB MVP

Taylor and I got Zach the same T-ball set for his birthday by coincidence, thus solidifying our dreams of him growing up to become a famous athlete and be able to support his parents sooner rather then later. Hey, one could hope... He really does like hitting and throwing the ball around and I am hoping that this fall he could start playing soccer, or T-ball or something fun at the fitness center. Zach loves to play outside and get dirty. Its always fun to see him try something new.

C.J. (Charles James)

This is my mom's sixteenth grandchild. He is my oldest sister Jannell's newest addition to the family. His name is Charles James and they are callling him C.J. which are his parents initials. He was born on May 13, 2010 7 lbs. 4oz. 20 1/2 inches long. He will have to share a birthday with his aunt Anngela because he didn't wait for the scheduled induction on the 14th. He is such a cutie and is a really good baby. He wasn't too happy when we tried to take pictures of him in just his diaper, but other then that he didn't make a peep the whole time I was there to see him at the hospital.

C.J. and Aunt B.

Mother's day at the zoo

We went to the zoo on mother's day so we could spend time together with the kids. It was lots of fun seeing all the animals, the kids especially liked playing on the playground.

Zach and Kimi in the tunnel

Watching the prairie dogs

On the train

On the carrousel

We got to see the baby elephant and her mom eat popcorn and play in the water

Zach is Three!!

I can't believe my little guy is three. He has brought me more laughter and tears then I could have ever imagined before he was born. He has made me grow up and given me an excuse to act like a kid. He is so smart, funny, and energetic. I enjoy our time reading together and playing outside. I love him when he is being a brat and worry about him constantly. I can't imagine my life without him and am grateful everyday that to have him as my baby, no matter how old he gets.

We had zach's birthday party on Saturday May 1st. Gordon was nice enough to let us have 24 adults and 20 kids over to his house to celebrate. The theme was dinosaurs cause Zach loves them and I found some cute decorations and a really cute cake so it was great. We ate hamburgers and hotdogs, talked and played in the backyard. I set up a few games for the younger kids, a bean bag toss, a spot the dino game (like pin the tail on the donkey) and a dino dig where they looked for dinosaur eggs in the sandbox. Each of the kids won prizes and had a lot of fun playing in the sand. Zach recieved a bunch of great gifts: books, and clothes, a toy golf set, bakugan, me and Taylor both got him the same T-ball stand set (that was so funny and not planned). I think his favorite gift was the giant dinosaur he got from Grandpa Coles he couldn't believe it when he opened it and latter that night he would just walk around it in a circle and say "it has big eyes, big teeth, a big..." So cute. I decorated some tables in the basement incase the weather didn't cooperate since it had been raining all week, but luckily it was sunny and not too cold so most of the time everyone played outside and had plenty of space to eat, throw the balls and frisbees and hang out. The party turned out better then I expected.

A new sandbox. We used for the dino dig.

Big dinosaur from Grandpa Coles, Zach loves it!

Gordon and Grandpa Coles grillin' the hamburgers and hot dogs.

Thanks Babe for all your help with the party.

Decorations down stairs

THE CAKE

All the kids loved playing in the sandbox.

The birthday boy with mom and dad

Mom and Karen (dad's girlfriend) singing happy birthday chipmunk style :)

Look at all those presents.

Happy Birthday Zach!!

Zach's first time to the dentist

We took Zach to see the dentist for the very first time today. We went to Granger Pediatric Dentistry and they were awesome. He played in the jungle in the waiting room until they called him back to the chair...they took two X-rays of Zach's teeth. He sat very good on mom's lap and didn't bite the nurses fingers when she put the film in his mouth. Then he watche Toy Story while he got his teeth cleaned and looked at the fish in the fish tank while we waited for the dentist. The dentist said he had really great teeth and that he was doing a great job brushing them.

Playing in the jungle.

Getting his teeth cleaned.

New tooth brush. Great job Zach!!!