My Baby Boy is Six

Where has the time gone? It doesn't seem that long ago that I was told I would be delivering that very night. I remember driving to the hospital holding Emma crying, wondering what I had done. Why was I going to be sharing my love? I didn't think that I wanted to have another child. It wasn't fair to her. It was too late at that point. (I will blame a lot of my feelings on pregnancy hormones.) I had my amnio and found out my big boy wasn't ready to be born. His lungs weren't ready. I was then scheduled for a c-section two weeks later. What a roller coaster. To think you are going to have a baby one night and then find out that he will be delivered via c-section two weeks later. Wow!

I will never forget the first time I looked at him (without being under the influence of drugs and pain meds) Heavenly Father flipped a love switch. I knew right away that I liked him. I liked him a lot. That hasn't changed. Even though Andrew has been a huge challenge and has earned his nickname Turd Boy, I have always had a very special bond with him. He still likes to snuggle in the mornings and always has a hug for me. He is very special to me. I am so glad that I have had him in my life for the past six years. I can't wait for all of the years to come.

To celebrate we went to dinner at IHOP with my parents. We then went to David and Nancy's clubhouse for cake and ice cream.......the cake....what can we say about the cake?

Andrew had seen a kitty litter cake on Good Things Utah. They made it for Halloween. He said he wanted one for his birthday. I let it slide. I figured he would forget about it. Boy was I wrong. That is the only cake that he wanted for his birthday. What's a mom to do? I made the cake. His poor dad couldn't even eat a bit. It actually tasted pretty good.

Andrew was given transformers, games and cars for his birthday. He got more than he needed, that's for sure. What can I say. It is fun to spoil my baby.

Easter 2007

Easter Has Come and Gone

The Easter festivities started on Saturday the 7th. We were invited to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. This is the first year that we participated. They had three homes where they hid the eggs. One home was for little kids to four year olds. The second house was for five through seven year olds and the last house was for eight to eleven year olds. It was hard having the kids split up but we managed. I got to run back and forth in my high heeled sandals. I was wishing I had on my flip flops!

Everything was hidden in the back yards. There was candy thrown all over the lawn. Each child was able to get as much candy as they wanted but only 12 eggs. Each house had a large gold egg hidden as well. If you found it you won a prize. Early in the hunt Chandler Anderson found a shinny gold egg. We were all very excited for him. The other kids stopped looking for the gold egg. The host had told a few of the moms where she had hidden the gold egg and then realized that Chandler didn’t have the right egg. She was worried that one of the moms would tell their kid where to find it. At this point Ira Jack, our backdoor neighbor who had gotten to the hunt late, was reduced to tears. He didn’t know where his dad was, there weren’t any eggs left and he was very sad. Bart Coon, the primary president’s husband, started helping Ira find eggs. He had some kids give theirs to him. He still looked so sad. I whispered to Bart the location of the gold egg. He helped Ira find it. It made him so happy.

Of course both of my kids were bummed that they didn’t find the gold egg. They had a good time anyway. After the hunt was over donuts and juice was served. I was able to visit with some adults. I am really glad that we went and participated this year.

Sunday morning we woke up to rain. How is the Easter Bunny supposed to leave baskets in the rain? I didn’t know what to do. Luckily I had made up the baskets the night before. I went to the garage, got the baskets and hid them around the house. As we were getting ready for church the rain stopped. Nobody had found any of the baskets yet so the plan was to leave church and put them around the yard. Well right before we left as Andrew was getting his shoes on, he spotted Emma’s basket. It was all downhill from there. He took off trying to locate his own basket and ended up finding Paul and mine while he was at it. We snapped a couple of photos and then went off to church. We left after Sacrament and took some more pictures at home. We gathered everything up and headed to my mom and dads home.

Once we got there I mixed up the funeral potatoes, made deviled eggs and a fruit salad. I also brought the rolls and a cake. I feel like I spent a good amount of time in the kitchen. We had turkey and stuffing, ham, roast, scalloped potatoes, funeral potatoes, rolls, fruit salad, green salad, pasta salad, corn and roasted carrots. There were also three types of pie for dessert as well as a poppy seed cake and banana pudding. We ate until we thought we would burst. Then we had a spiritual thought from my dad and Paul and I had the kids open the resurrection eggs. After that we did another Easter Egg Hunt. It was CRAZY! I have never seen so many eggs and candies in all of my life. There were so many eggs that we couldn’t find places to put them all. We threw bowls of candy in the lawn. The kids came out smallest to tallest with a five second delay in-between. It was a mad dash for the candy. One egg that Lowell found even had $10 in it. The kids had to get an extra grocery bags to hold everything because their baskets were overflowing. It was all over and done with pretty quickly. The kids went inside and surveyed their goods. They had bubble tape and bubble blow. There were boiled eggs and filled eggs. They had Play-Doh and Tootsie Roll banks. I bet they had more candy than they did after Halloween. It was nuts.

We were glad to have spent the day with so many family members. I think it made it more fun and special. We had 20 people. Renee and Bruce, Becky and Charles, Rodger, Jennifer, Brandon and Talon, Paul, myself, Emma and Andrew, Michael, Jennifer, Abby, Lowell, and Cora and Nick, Angelee and baby Josh.

April 6th 2007 Ben and Andrea Sealed for Time and All Eternity

Friday April 6th was Ben and Andrea’s wedding. It was a beautiful spring day, just gorgeous. Paul and I left Andrew with Grandma Nancy and headed up to Salt Lake. We arrived and the first family we saw was Joanie and Landon. He had gotten so big! Then we got to see baby Josh. He is so cute and has beautiful blue eyes.

We went inside where I got to say hello to my aunt and uncle and grandma and grandpa. We stayed in the lobby for a little while. It was so crowded. There were over 60 weddings happening that day. We then decided it was time for us to go into the temple. After we got into our stockings we waited in a waiting room for what seemed like a long time. Then we went into the sealing room. It was beautiful. We waited again for a while and then Benjamin and his bride entered into the room.

The sealing was very sweet, but seemed to go too quickly. We then went out to the beautiful temple grounds and waited for the bride and groom to emerge. Once they did we took some group pictures on the steps of the temple. It is such an amazing building. By this time we were getting hungry so my dad, Paul, Nick, Angelee and I went across the street to a food court. We got our snack and then went back and waited for Emma and Andrew to arrive.

Nancy was kind enough to check them out of school and drive them all the way up to Salt Lake. Once the kids came we got them dressed up and went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for lunch. The food was so weird. I am very glad that we ate before.

Once we were done eating we stayed in the lobby where we spent time a lot of my mom’s cousins. It was nice to see them and to be able to show off the kids. Paul left to go home and study for a test and the kids and I stayed behind to visit some more. We then all went up to my parents house for some more family time. It was nice to see my grandma. It had been almost a year since I saw her last. I feel sad to think that these visits are going to come to an end one of these days. I got to play with Landon. Andrew decided that he like that baby. It was a great day with really nice, quality family time. I wish we could all be together more often.

Just another example of my obsession for crafts

Well I used to bead in high school. It was fun but as with all the other crafts that I take up I enjoyed buying supllies more than I enjoyed using them! I bought a shell necklace while we were in Puerto Vallarta that Andrew recently broke. I decided I would fix it and it all went down hill from there. I have started making beaded necklaces again. Above are a few examples. I have also been making placemat purses. I will have to post those another time.