A Mother who's 40!

This week has been a really fun week for me!  It started out with Mother's Day.  My family is so good to me on Mother's Day.  They let me sleep in.  While I was sleeping, they made Kneader's French Toast for breakfast.  Everyone helped.  It was so yummy!  They gave me their cute Mother's Day cards and tried to get along while we got ready for church.  At church, the men gave the Mother's candy bars!!!  It was awesome!  I came home with 3 candy bars!  No silly flowers that I don't know where to plant because there is only one.

The French Toast waiting to be cooked

Daddy and Jadon making the French Toast

Me with my kids.  I love them so much!

 That night we brought dinner into my Mom and Dad.  We had a bar-b-q with Lisa's family.  It was so nice to hang out together in the backyard and laugh! 
     Yesterday I turned 40!!!!!!  Wow!  I can remember when my mom turned 40 and it doesn't seem that long ago.  I had a great day!  I started out the day with exercise, which I love.  Then I volunteered in Kyson's class.  When I got home, I read my book and took a nap.  That night my sweet family went out to dinner at Red Robin.  I have been wanting a good hamburger for a long time.  I enjoyed every bite!

We all LOVE to go out to dinner for birthdays!

Me and my crazy baseball player!

 After dinner, we all went to Jaxon's baseball game.  People thought I should be doing something different than going to a baseball game on my birthday.  I disagree.  I love watching my boys play baseball.  I asked Jaxon to get a great hit for my birthday present.  He delivered!  He played really well but had one awesome play.  We were losing 4 to 2.  He got up with two outs and the bases were loaded.  You can't get more pressure than that!  He swung at the first ball and missed.  He didn't swing at the 2nd ball, it was a strike!  Everyone was cheering him on and pumping him up as he was getting ready for the 3rd try.  He hit it!  He hit a double and brought two boys in, tieing the game.  We ended up losing by one but it was a really exciting game!

When we got home, we had my favorite cake.  Red velvet and chocolate chocolate chip from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Yummmmmmmmy!  My family is so sweet and spoil me on special days.  Kierra gave me some new measuring cups and spoons because she noticed that all the numbers on mine were coming off.  Jake and Kyson made me coupons that I can use for them to do nice things for me.  Jaxon bought me a cinnamon pretzel at his game.  I love cinnamon pretzels and never eat them anymore.  Jadon and Dale gave me a week of service.  They said for the next week, they will do whatever I want them to do, without complaining.  I have already started making my list.  I had a great day!  I don't have a problem turning 40.  I feel better than I have in a really long time and I'm happy.  What more could you ask for?

Race for the Cure 2012

The "Saving 2nd Base" team

Lisa and I trying to show off our shirts

Headed off to the starting line

Lisa caught a picture of me running

Woo hoo!  I finished!



Look how good we look after the race! :) Lisa had to leave so she's not in the picture but she did finish the race.

On Saturday, May 12, 2012, we ran in the Race for the Cure.  Last year a few of us went and I decided I wanted to have a team this year.  So I put it out on Facebook that I was forming a team called "Saving 2nd Base".  It ended up that we had a total of 11 people on our team.  Suzy helped me design our logo and we had some really cute shirts made.  After we got downtown, and everyone used the disgusting porta pottys, we got to the race right as it was starting.  I had decided that I wanted to try and run as much of the race as I could.  A few of us started off jogging right away.  It is such an amazing thing to be out there with thousands of people who are all supporting the same cause.  With the exception of one 10-15 second stop, I ran the whole race.  It felt so good!  I didn't think I would be able to do it.  The coolest thing about it was that I came in 2nd place for our team. It was so much fun to stand at the finish line and watch all my friends come in.  It was such a great way to start the day.  I hope I can get more people to join our team next year.

No more tonsils!



 A little while ago I decided to take Jake to the doctor because he always snores really loud and he's been really tired.  The ENT said that he had very large tonsils and adnoids and recommended that we take them out.  I decided we better do it now because I've heard so many people say that the recovery is worse the older you get.  Jake's only concern with this surgery was how the the doctors would be able to wake him up if they gave him medicine to make him fall asleep.  He had a really hard time waking up after surgery.  I even tickled him and he didn't flinch.  He slept all the way home and then was awake the rest of the day. The doctor told us he would be be pretty groggy for the next day and then on day 3 he would probably be in a lot of pain for a few days. Well that didn't happen.  He acted normal and didn't complain at all.  I explained the pain rating scale and kept asking what his pain level was.  He never said it was above a 2.  He acted completely normal for the first 6 days.  I was excited because I thought he was only going to miss a week of school and we were going to sail through this thing.  Boy was I wrong.  Day 7 hit and he was a completely different kid.  He cried all day because his throught hurt really bad.  The doctors said day 10 would be really bad because the scabs would be falling off.  I'm guessing that his scabs started falling off on day 7 because of the drastic change in his mood.  We had to keep the TV on all day because if he was distracted by the TV, he didn't cry quite as much.  The pain lasted for 3 or 4 days and then he started feeling better.  When I brought up the idea of going back to school, he started crying and saying he was still sick.  Once he made it through the night without asking for any medication and he wasn't asking for any medicataion during the day, I decided it was time to go back.  Exactly two weeks after his surgery, I had to force him to go back to school. He was crying and telling me that he wasn't going. It was a friday so I told him the day won't be as long.  I also told him he wouldn't be able to go swimming at Crystal Hot Springs if he didn't go to school.  That did the trick.  He reluctantly left for the bus stop.  After he made it through the day of school, he was fine.  No more medicine.  No more ice packs.  No more complaining.  Eating all foods.  Back to playing with Kyson.  Jake was back!

One of the first things he ate, was chocolate pudding.  When I saw him, I thought he threw up.  He must have still been a little numb while he was eating it.

Jake and Jaxon playing video games

Poor kid!  The pain finally hit hard on day 7!

Finally some relief!

All better and going back to school

Trek to the temple

Yesterday the youth of our ward went on a "Trek to the temple".  Since our ward is going on trek this summer they wanted to have the kids start walking to get ready for trek.  They started at our church and walked 5.5 miles to the Oquirrah mountain temple.  Even though trek is only for kids 14 and older, our trek to the temple was for the whole youth.




Here are some of the youth on the way to the temple



They are almost there.  I love this picture!

 This is my favorite picture.  The leaders asked families to meet the youth at the temple for a devotional.  I got there early because I wanted to take pictures.  This picture reminds me of the pioneers.  Even though this trek was much much smaller it still represents getting to the much desired destination.

This is everyone right when they got to the temple.  It was such a beautiful day and the temple looked so pretty!

 We sat on the grass while our wonderful bishop gave a short devotional.  He is such an amazing man who always has the right thing to say.  The spirit was very strong there and I sure hope it meant something to our youth.  I hope they always stay on the right path that ends at the temple.

Kierra's 13th Birthday!

I can't believe that I have 2 teenagers in my house now! Kierra turned 13 this week. Wow! She can officially see PG-13 movies now. Funny that she hasn't even asked to see one yet. Now that it's ok, it's not quite as strong of a desire I guess. She chose to go to Panda for her traditional birthday dinner. After that she went to Young Women's for 80's zumba. She said it made her sick to try and exercise right after eating at Panda. After she got home, we had her dessert choice which was ice cream with strawberries and blueberries.

In our house, we don't give our kids a birthday party every year. She had a huge birthday party last year so I told her no birthday party this year. She came up with an idea of how to have a party. She wanted to do an outdoor picture scavengar hunt. I told her it was ok on two conditions. It wouldn't cost any money and she told everyone not to bring presents. She thought that sounded fine. On the invitation, she put "instead of bringing a present, bring a treat to share". It worked out great! I should have taken a picture of the treat table. There was tons of treats on our table. After the scavengar hunt, they all came back to the house to hang out and pig out. She told me a few days before the party that she invited boys. I had no idea that she was doing this. I don't know if I'm ready for her to be friends with boys. It turned out that 3 boys came and 18 girls came. They had a great time! I'm so glad that Kierra has so many good friends. They are all really cute kids. We are so lucky to have such a great daughter. Lately I've heard some stories of problems with teenagers and I am so thankful that we haven't had any with Kierra. She can get in a bad mood sometimes but for the most part she is a happy girl that is so easy to get along with. She is such a wonderful big sister! Katie, Kyson and Jake all love to play with her. I love that she has no problem playing dolls, barbies, pet shops, house,legos, make-up games, crafts and coloring with them. They love it when Kierra is home because they are never bored. Kierra is a great student who get's all A's. She is very independant and rarely requires any help from us with her homework. She is incredibly talented when it comes to drawing and art. I love what a strong testimony she has and how she has set high morals for herself. I am very proud of her! She is a wonderful happy girl and we love her very much!

Kyson the builder

At our elementary, we have what is called a builder program. It relates to Character traits. Each month we focus on a character trait. Kids get builder cards when they do something that has to do with the character trait for the month. The kids in the school are building the name of the school with legos. Each grade is a color of lego. This month the character trait is Honesty and Kyson's teacher picked him to be a builder. Every month they have a builder assembly and the parents come but the kids don't know they are going to be a builder until the assembly. Kyson talks about the builder assembly every month and always wants to get it. The day before the assembly he told me that the builder assembly was going to be tomorrow. I acted like I didn't know what he was talking about. He was very disappointed and said "If you don't know about it, then I must not be getting the builder". We hid at the back of the auditorium so that he wouldn't see us when he came in with his class. I was so excited for him! When the principal called out his name, his whole class cheered for him. I love his class! They are such cute kids! Here he is walking up to get his award.

He's so proud! He's such a good kid. I love to volunteer in his class because I love to see him interact with his classmates. He is friends with everyone and everyone likes him.

I'm so proud of my little builder!

Tiger face

Last Sunday, in sacrament meeting, Katie asked Kierra to draw a tiger face on her face. Kierra pretended to do it with a pen. Katie wasn't pretending. She thought she had a tiger face on. Any time someone tried to kiss her she said "Don't kiss me. You'll ruin my tiger face!" In sharing time she raised her hand and told the chorister that her sister painted a real tiger face on her face. I knew she was going to be pretty disappointed when she got home and found out there was no tiger on her face. I was right. Right when we got home, she went running into the bathroom to see her face. She got sad immediatley. She thought that it came off. So, naturally, Kierra had to draw a tiger on her face. She was so happy and went around growling at everyone.