Our Forever Family

Cloth Diapering

2012-01-23T08:16:00.007-07:00

For those of you who haven't already heard, we're planning on using cloth diapers with baby Bate #2. And I've been getting a LOT of questions about it from friends and family lately. I thought I'd post all the reasons why, what I did to make it possible and all that jazz. So for those of you who want to know more about cloth diapers or just want to have a good laugh at my craziness, here is a ridiculously long post for your enjoyment.

Micah's cousin first introduced us to cloth diapers when I was pregnant with McKenzie. I'm not gonna lie, at first I was totally grossed out by the idea of washing and reusing diapers. But after a while we used them (along with a few my sister gave me because she also does cloth diapering) on McKenzie for overnight use when she had a super bad diaper rash. By morning it would be gone, and so I felt I was helping her little bum somewhat. It was also nice for those nights when we realized we were out of diapers and had these on hand until we could get to the store.

After many long discussions with my sister about the pros and cons of using cloth over disposable and also visiting her for 2 weeks and watching the whole process of using and washing them, I said to myself, "This doesn't seem too bad. I think I can do this!"

Here's why I ultimately decided on trying cloth:

1- Nothing bothers me more than spending money on stuff over and over again that I just throw in the trash. I would get SO annoyed every time we had to buy diapers. I kept seeing diapers as literal money that Kenzie was pooping on and I was throwing away. (Nice visual, I know haha)

2- When McKenzie was little, she had blowouts pretty often. What is the difference between washing onesies and pjs with poop from a blowout and a diaper? Not much. Cloth diapers have a good reputation for preventing blowouts- mostly because they have elastic in the back of the diaper that hugs the baby's back and holds the poop in.

3- Kenzie had a very sensitive bum and we could only use Pampers. Everything else she either leaked out of or got severe rashes from. Not fun...

4- I've been making my own laundry detergent for about a year and a half and it has saved us quite a bit of money. I don't feel that washing and drying these diapers will be too expensive since I've already found a way to save money in that area.

So when we decided we were going to try for another baby I really started to do some research on what diapers I wanted to use. I knew I liked the style my sister uses (bumGenius) but I didn't like how pricey they were. I knew that it'd be around $300 all at once to buy as many as we'd need and I wasn't sure how long it'd take for me to save up that much. It is still MUCH cheaper than diapering a child until 2 (or 3 in McKenzie's case) which you end up spending around $2,000. But you get the idea of why I didn't want to spend that big of a chunk of money "all at once," right?

Plus, even though the idea of a one-size diaper was awesome (not having to buy that many in each size and whatnot) I didn't like the idea of a smaller baby having a HUGE diaper on and not being able to fit in most of their cute little outfits.

I started feeling a little discouraged... and then like an answer to prayer, Micah's cousin (who started this whole thing haha) talked with me about making my own diapers. At this point I had started to feel comfortable enough with my sewing skills to think this was actually a possibility. She had made a bunch for her kids (and the 2 she gave me when Kenzie was born) and they were super cute and fitted in size so they weren't super bulky. A few months ago she was approached on a cloth diaper forum to be a tester for some patterns and new materials of an up-and-coming company called, "Babyville Boutique." After showing me their instruction book and how unbelievably adorable their materials were, I was SOLD.

So I started saving my pennies and bought the book and a few packs of the PUL (polyurethane laminated fabric that is waterproof but somewhat breathable. You use that as the outside of the diaper so it doesn't get other things wet.) She showed me where to buy velcro, elastic and material to absorb the mess. With a lot of help from a wonderful family who donated some money for the cause and my Christmas money, I was able to get all the things I needed.

I've kept all my receipts for anything I've bought that is diaper related and so far I've spent $150.03. It may sound like a lot, but here's what I've made with it so far-
17 newborn diapers
15 small diapers
1 medium diaper
1 wetbag (I'll explain in a minute)

My plan is to have about 20 in each size so I won't have to do laundry every day. We have 4 guys renting our basement so we have a laundry schedule to keep. Right now I'm washing on Mondays and Thursdays. Once baby comes I plan on switching to Monday (all day) and Wed and Fri until 3 pm. (That way I'm not hogging the washer and dryer all day, plus most of them aren't home during the day anyway) My cousin-in-law was kind enough to sell me some of her used diapers to add to my stash, and was also willing to trade me 4 diapers if I would make her a doll. Done and done!! So my newborn stash is complete, and I'm getting super close to finishing up my smalls. Once I finish making the mediums I should be completely done. Unless this baby is a major chunk, medium should be just fine. (I tried one one Kenzie the other day and although it was a bit snug, she technically could have been fine with it).

So here is what I purchased to make this possible-

-LOTS of PUL (1 yd white, 1 yd pink, 1/2 yd blue, 1/2 yd black, and 3 of the 3 pks of Babyville prints in gender neutral colors)
-Flannel to line the newborn size and make "soakers" (I had quite a bit on hand and bought random remnant pieces at JoAnns)
-14 yds of 1/4" elastic
-about 10 yds velcro (a 1:3 ratio of hook and loop)
-2 yds micro terry (absorbant material)
-2 yds suede cloth (to line the smalls and mediums)
-60 pk of snaps (to snap soakers to diaper)
-snap pliers
-instruction book with patterns
-fun labels to decorate them (not necessary, but fun)

I bought everything at JoAnns or Hobby Lobby with coupons and sales except for the micro terry, velcro and elastic. Those were purchased from verybaby.com (I actually bought half of the velcro and elastic from my cousin-in-law because I ran out and she had a ton on hand)

If you've done any kind of research on cloth diapers you'll find that a lot of people prefer to use snaps over the velcro. I am not one of those people. I made a pantie cover for McKenzie and used snaps on it and I don't like how difficult it is to get a perfect fit. Plus I figured if I can make this as easy as possible (and most like disposables) for Micah and anyone else who might happen to change this baby's bum, then I'll do that. The velcro is just like the normal tabs you'd see on a regular diaper and gets the perfect fit every time.

Some other essentials you need when cloth diapering are a wetbag and a diaper sprayer.

A wetbag is basically a bag you keep in your diaper bag to put the dirty diapers in until you can get home. You use the PUL so it is waterproof and you can either close it with a drawstring, velcro or zipper. I chose to make mine with a zipper- and I actually am going to try to take it apart and do it again because to be honest, I suck at sewing zippers. You can also make a big one to keep all your dirty diapers in until wash day, or just use a garbage can with a lid and be sure to hose it out every once in a while.

A diaper sprayer is like a mini-shower head that attaches to your toilet and you can use to spray off the excess mess.

source

Not only is it really helpful for diapers, but for cleaning up messes while potty-training as well. Even though we had been using a few cloth diapers here and there for McKenzie, we haven't bought one yet. I had just been using the spray bottle the hospital gives you after you have a baby. I would fill it up a few times and spray excess poop into the toilet and then take the diaper out to the laundry room to wait for laundry day. It was ok for us since it was only every once in a while, but I will be buying a sprayer to attach to the toilet for this one since I'll be doing cloth full-time.

Another question people have asked me is if we will use cloth wipes. I know we won't do it all the time (and I really don't expect Micah to use them) but when I'm at home I plan on using a spray bottle with a wipes solution my cousin gave me and I'm cutting up all of McKenzie's old flannel receiving blankets and sewing them into little square wipes. (I have my eye on some other baby blankets that are WAY better than those, so it isn't a huge loss to cut them up.) I figure it'll help a little with not having to buy as many, but it obviously won't be something I can do all the time. I can only ask so much of my hubby and babysitters ;)

If you're like me and don't mind all the extra hours of making them yourself to save some money, I say go that route. There are so many different styles and patterns you can find online or go buy the Babyville book like I did. It was a great resource for me and walked me step by step through making them.

I honestly don't know how many hours it took me to make all these diapers, but I do know that it was a LOT and that it went much faster to do an assembly line. When Micah and I were watching a movie after Kenzie was in bed I would lay out my fabric on the floor and cut out a ton of diapers. Then another day I would do the first sewing step, then another day I'd sew all the elastic on, then another day I'd flip them out and topstitch, and then another day I'd do all the velcro. It was quite a process. I did have fun though having sewing days/nights with my cousin-in-law and other friends too. I suggest doing that ;)

Here are a ton of links to sites that sell diaper making materials. I've only ever bought from verybaby.com, Hobby Lobby and JoAnns. But I got all this info from my cousin in law and she knows her stuff. (Her notes are written with each one, not mine)You'll have to copy and paste the links into your browser.

This one often has coupons if you sign up for their newsletter. They also have free shipping on $35+ orders, so I always wait until there are a few fabrics I want to order and then order all at once. :) A lot of times they have Babyville stuff, but it might be cheaper to get that from JoAnns with a coupon?
http://fabric.com/

I've ordered Loop tape, hook and loop, elastic, and PUL from this shop before and they were nice to work with. If you sign up on their Yahoo group and then set up an account with the yahoo info, you always get a 10% discount:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kidsinthegarden/
Occasionally they send out coupon codes as well that can be used in conjunction with the Yahoo group discount:
http://kidsinthegarden.com/shop/

These sites are fairly reputable for supplies like PUL, inner and soaker materials, elastic, aplix (velcro), etc.:
http://verybaby.com/ecom-splash/COREseo.html

http://www.celticclothswholesale.com/fabric_2/PUL-Fabric-brDiaper-Making-Supplies.htm

http://neptunefabrics.com/

http://www.wahmsupply.com/PUL-Fabric_c14.htm

http://www.diapersewingsupplies.com/pul-fabric-prints/

This site started carrying Babyville PUL recently:
http://www.fabricdepot.com/index.php?page=CatalogPage&pageid=187042

These guys have some unique inner fabrics (zorb) and their customer service is good but sometimes the shipping is slow. They're in Canada I believe:
http://wazoodle.com/index.php/

You can also search for PUL fabric on Hyena Cart and Etsy:
http://hyenacart.com/
http://www.etsy.com/

Sewing supplies:
http://ctsusa.com/

If that sounds like too much of a hassle for you (which I totally understand) or if you don't feel confident enough in your sewing skills, buying them is always a great option too. My sister wrote an excellent Q&A post about how to buy them online and what kind of deals to look for. I highly suggest if you plan on buying some, you read it. Click here to read that.

I sure hope that was helpful. I feel like I wrote my whole life story... whew! If you still have any questions or if I forgot to explain something, let me know by leaving a comment.

I feel like I need to add this-

I don't think less of anyone who chooses to use disposables. Obviously we did with McKenzie. I know there are tons of people out there who do the cloth diaper thing who stick their nose up at people who are "destroying the environment" or whatever. Believe me when I say, I am only doing this because I feel it is what is best for our family. I don't ever want anyone to feel like I'm judging them.

(And in case you were wondering, I have the same issue with breastfeeding... It drives me crazy when moms attack other moms who don't breastfeed for whatever reason. Some people can't or it just doesn't work for their family, and that is fine by me. You do whatever is best for your family, and I'll do what works for mine and no one needs to get on anyone else's case about it. Ok?)- *sigh* ok I feel much better now :)

Carpe Kairos

2012-01-18T18:09:00.007-07:00

I've been having a rough couple of days. McKenzie has been extremely moody (ups and downs that would put most roller coasters to shame...) And it has me kind of down.

So when I read an article that my friend Mindy shared on her blog, I felt it captured exactly how I feel most of the time. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a mom, and I am truly grateful for the chance I've been given to be one, but there are days I just want to rip my hair out... and the lady who wrote this article captured those feelings so perfectly. So for your enjoyment- here it is:

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Every time I'm out with my kids -- this seems to happen:
An older woman stops us, puts her hand over her heart and says something like, "Oh, Enjoy every moment. This time goes by so fast."
Everywhere I go, someone is telling me to seize the moment, raise my awareness, be happy, enjoy every second, etc, etc, etc.

I know that this message is right and good. But, I have finally allowed myself to admit that it just doesn't work for me. It bugs me. This CARPE DIEM message makes me paranoid and panicky. Especially during this phase of my life - while I'm raising young kids. Being told, in a million different ways to CARPE DIEM makes me worry that if I'm not in a constant state of intense gratitude and ecstasy, I'm doing something wrong.

I think parenting young children (and old ones, I've heard) is a little like climbing Mount Everest. Brave, adventurous souls try it because they've heard there's magic in the climb. They try because they believe that finishing, or even attempting the climb are impressive accomplishments. They try because during the climb, if they allow themselves to pause and lift their eyes and minds from the pain and drudgery, the views are breathtaking. They try because even though it hurts and it's hard, there are moments that make it worth the hard. These moments are so intense and unique that many people who reach the top start planning, almost immediately, to climb again. Even though any climber will tell you that most of the climb is treacherous, exhausting, killer. That they literally cried most of the way up.

And so I think that if there were people stationed, say, every thirty feet along Mount Everest yelling to the climbers -- "ARE YOU ENJOYING YOURSELF!? IF NOT, YOU SHOULD BE! ONE DAY YOU'LL BE SORRY YOU DIDN'T!" TRUST US!! IT'LL BE OVER TOO SOON! CARPE DIEM!" -- those well-meaning, nostalgic cheerleaders might be physically thrown from the mountain.

Now. I'm not suggesting that the sweet old ladies who tell me to ENJOY MYSELF be thrown from a mountain. These are wonderful ladies. Monkees, probably. But last week, a woman approached me in the Target line and said the following: "Sugar, I hope you are enjoying this. I loved every single second of parenting my two girls. Every single moment. These days go by so fast."

At that particular moment, Amma had arranged one of the new bras I was buying on top of her sweater and was sucking a lollipop that she must have found on the ground. She also had three shop-lifted clip-on neon feathers stuck in her hair. She looked exactly like a contestant from Toddlers and Tiaras. I couldn't find Chase anywhere, and Tish was grabbing the pen on the credit card swiper thing WHILE the woman in front of me was trying to use it. And so I just looked at the woman, smiled and said, "Thank you. Yes. Me too. I am enjoying every single moment. Especially this one. Yes. Thank you."

That's not exactly what I wanted to say, though.
There was a famous writer who, when asked if he loved writing, replied, "No. but I love having written." What I wanted to say to this sweet woman was, "Are you sure? Are you sure you don't mean you love having parented?"
I love having written. And I love having parented. My favorite part of each day is when the kids are put to sleep (to bed) and Craig and I sink into the couch to watch some quality TV, like Celebrity Wife Swap, and congratulate each other on a job well done. Or a job done, at least.

Every time I write a post like this, I get emails suggesting that I'm being negative. I have received this particular message four or five times -- G, if you can't handle the three you have, why do you want a fourth?

That one always stings, and I don't think it's quite fair. Parenting is hard. Just like lots of important jobs are hard. Why is it that the second a mother admits that it's hard, people feel the need to suggest that maybe she's not doing it right? Or that she certainly shouldn't add more to her load. Maybe the fact that it's so hard means she IS doing it right...in her own way...and she happens to be honest.

Craig is a software salesman. It's a hard job in this economy. And he comes home each day and talks a little bit about how hard it is. And I don't ever feel the need to suggest that he's not doing it right, or that he's negative for noticing that it's hard, or that maybe he shouldn't even consider taking on more responsibility. And I doubt anybody comes by his office to make sure he's ENJOYING HIMSELF. I doubt his boss peeks in his office and says: "This career stuff...it goes by so fast...ARE YOU ENJOYING EVERY MOMENT IN THERE, CRAIG???? CARPE DIEM, CRAIG!"

My point is this. I used to worry that not only was I failing to do a good enough job at parenting, but that I wasn't enjoying it enough. Double failure. I felt guilty because I wasn't in parental ecstasy every hour of every day and I wasn't MAKING THE MOST OF EVERY MOMENT like the mamas in the parenting magazines seemed to be doing. I felt guilty because honestly, I was tired and cranky and ready for the day to be over quite often. And because I knew that one day, I'd wake up and the kids would be gone, and I'd be the old lady in the grocery store with my hand over my heart. Would I be able to say I enjoyed every moment? No.

But the fact remains that I will be that nostalgic lady. I just hope to be one with a clear memory. And here's what I hope to say to the younger mama gritting her teeth in line:

"It's helluva hard, isn't it? You're a good mom, I can tell. And I like your kids, especially that one peeing in the corner. She's my favorite. Carry on, warrior. Six hours till bedtime." And hopefully, every once in a while, I'll add -- "Let me pick up that grocery bill for ya, sister. Go put those kids in the van and pull on up -- I'll have them bring your groceries out."

Anyway. Clearly, Carpe Diem doesn't work for me. I can't even carpe fifteen minutes in a row, so a whole diem is out of the question.

Here's what does work for me:

There are two different types of time. Chronos time is what we live in. It's regular time, it's one minute at a time, it's staring down the clock till bedtime time, it's ten excruciating minutes in the Target line time, it's four screaming minutes in time out time, it's two hours till daddy gets home time. Chronos is the hard, slow passing time we parents often live in.

Then there's Kairos time. Kairos is God's time. It's time outside of time. It's metaphysical time. It's those magical moments in which time stands still. I have a few of those moments each day. And I cherish them.

Like when I actually stop what I'm doing and really look at Tish. I notice how perfectly smooth and brownish her skin is. I notice the perfect curves of her teeny elf mouth and her asianish brown eyes, and I breathe in her soft Tishy smell. In these moments, I see that her mouth is moving but I can't hear her because all I can think is -- This is the first time I've really seen Tish all day, and my God -- she is so beautiful.Kairos.

Like when I'm stuck in chronos time in the grocery line and I'm haggard and annoyed and angry at the slow check-out clerk. And then I look at my cart and I'm transported out of chronos. And suddenly I notice the piles and piles of healthy food I'll feed my children to grow their bodies and minds and I remember that most of the world's mamas would kill for this opportunity. This chance to stand in a grocery line with enough money to pay. And I just stare at my cart. At the abundance. The bounty. Thank you, God. Kairos.

Or when I curl up in my cozy bed with Theo asleep at my feet and Craig asleep by my side and I listen to them both breathing. And for a moment, I think- how did a girl like me get so lucky? To go to bed each night surrounded by this breath, this love, this peace, this warmth? Kairos.

These kairos moments leave as fast as they come- but I mark them. I say the word kairos in my head each time I leave chronos. And at the end of the day, I don't remember exactly what my kairos moments were, but I remember I had them. And that makes the pain of the daily parenting climb worth it.

If I had a couple Kairos moments during the day, I call it a success.
Carpe a couple of Kairoses a day.
Good enough for me.
-Glennon Melton

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So yes, there are times (more than I'd like to admit) that I grit my teeth, roll my eyes, mutter under my breath, raise my voice, cry, and count down the minutes until bedtime so I can have some peace and quiet to myself. But what I need to remember is that for all of these moments:

There are at least twice as many of these:

And those are the moments I look forward to remembering when McKenzie is all grown up.

An Interview with McKenzie

2012-01-16T17:07:00.003-07:00

I found a print-out called "Mommy and Me" that is basically an interview with your child that you can do every year and put in their memory book (I liked this one because it has a place for them to write their name) So here is McKenzie's interview from today- Jan 16, 2012.

What is your whole name: McKenzie Lynne Bate

How old are you: 3

What is your favorite color: pink

Who is your best friend: Yia Yia (my mom)

What is your favorite animal: um a snake!

What do you want to be when you're all grown up: an elephant

What is your favorite movie: the ice age one with the dinosaurs

What are some of your favorite books: "All by Myself" "Just me and my puppy" and "Just me and my mom" (All critter books by Mercer Mayer)

What makes you happy: Heavenly Father. He tells me about coloring!

What makes you sad: That Yia Yia doesn't go to school.

What is your favorite food to eat: carrots and apples

What is your favorite song to sing: Ring around the rosie

What game(s) do you like to play: Daddy's car one and the ABCs on the computer.

She was very quick with her answers. But then again, she tells me most of these things all the time :)

Little Sister

2011-12-31T13:39:00.001-07:00

I went in on the 27th and had another ultrasound done so the doctor could get a better look at Strawberry Shortcake's heart and face. She was very cooperative and held still long enough for us to get a great profile pic.

Everything looks great and she is healthy! We can't wait to meet her :)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

We hope you all had a great Christmas spent with family and friends. We had a beautiful holiday season reflecting on the birth of our Savior.

We started out Christmas Eve at my grandparent's home with my mom, aunt and uncle and the cousins. We had an early turkey and ham dinner and exchanged gifts. My mom had to work later that night and couldn't sleep over, and we weren't staying over either since we had church early the next morning.

Kenzie has been sporting a super-cheesy smile lately, which you will get to enjoy several times as you read through this post :)

My mom bought the kids some super soft blankets and she had me embroider their names on them. It was a fun project and definitely helped fine-tune some of my sewing skills ;)

Meme had a painting project for the kids and Kenzie was very proud of her reindeer. (She had me paint the brown part, but the rest she did all by herself.)

Then it came time to read the nativity story and act it out. Kenzie started out wanting to be a shepherd, then an angel, then she didn't want anything to do with being involved, and then she ended up being a wise man at the last minute. She just couldn't make up her mind haha!

After acting out the nativity and talking about why we celebrate Christmas, we went home. Papa (my dad) came down first thing in the morning and shared the magic of Christmas morning with us.

I was inspired to make this after I saw something similar on Pinterest. It is a way for me to let my honey know why I love him for different reasons every day. I just use a dry erase board on the glass :)

This was our gift for the grandparents. Kenzie was pretty excited about them. This was also inspired by Pinterest ;)

Kenzie was pretty happy with her gifts. We had a pretty small Christmas this year due to Micah having been unemployed for a few months. But because of this, I think this was one of the best Christmases we've had. I'm determined to make Christmas small from now on because I want our children to understand the true meaning of Christmas, not "Santa brought me all this awesome stuff!" Kenzie did end up getting a lot of fun stuff from everyone else too, but I'm glad it was spread out during the day and not all at once in a heaping pile under the tree.

One of the wonderful things about Christmas being on a Sunday is that we were able to go to church. It was a beautiful reminder of why we celebrate Christmas- the birth of our Savior. He is the best gift any of us could ever receive.

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of the day- I love that they are both laughing :) These two are pretty funny to watch when they are together. Kenzie sure loves her silly Papa!

Next we went to my mom's house. We didn't get to stay too long, but we had spent a lot of time on Christmas Eve during the day together which was really nice. Mom spoiled us pretty good as well. Kenzie was pretty excited about the Strawberry Shortcake stuff she got. And along with some great gifts for me and Micah, my mom got me a gift card to JoAnns fabrics (which is pretty dangerous haha) and I've already bought a bunch of stuff for baby sewing projects for little sister. Thanks Mom!

Then we went up to Ogden and spent the rest of the day with Micah's family. We had a great time laughing and being silly- evidence of the silliness just below... haha. However, we didn't really get that many good pics from them, so I need pics from Mom and Dad's camera as well as everyone else's, ok? :)

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!

Early Christmas

2011-12-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

About 2 years ago the support beam in our couch snapped and the cushions sank to the floor. We were sad because we loved that couch and it was really comfy. It had lived a long life through my grandparents, my mom and then was passed on to us when we were married. We knew we couldn't afford a new couch for a while, so we stored all our extra blankets and pillows under the cushions to hold them up. Doing that was such an easy fix and it worked so well that most people never knew that the couch was even broken ;)

A few months ago my dad called and said he and his brother were getting rid of some furniture and wanted to know if we were interested. Free furniture? Of course!! So at the beginning of December my uncle rented a Uhaul and we were able to get a couch, chair and ottoman from my dad, and 2 dressers and a mirror from my Uncle Tim and Aunt Alisa. We are so grateful for these beautiful pieces of furniture and can't thank you all enough! We sure do love them!

We're hoping that someday when we're in a different home we can use these dressers as our bedroom furniture. Until then, they will look beautiful in the living room. The wood matches perfectly with my glass curio cabinet so it works out :) The mirror that is supposed to hang over the long dresser is actually hanging over our bed. It looks great (although I'll spare you the pics of our room haha)

So once again, thank you daddy, Uncle Tim and Aunt Alisa for the wonderful early Christmas gifts. We will take great care of them!

It's a....... GIRL!

2011-11-29T09:41:00.006-07:00

We went to the doctor yesterday to get the big ultrasound and found out that our baby is going to be Kenzie's little sister. And Kenzie is very happy :) She got what she wanted haha!

It was fun to see our sweet baby from head to toe. She was actually being kind of shy and was face down so we didn't get a look at her profile, or a really good look at her heart, so we rescheduled another ultrasound in 4 weeks. We did get to hear her heartbeat, so I was relieved to hear everything sounded great, but they still want to get a good look at her valves to make sure. I actually laughed out loud because this is exactly what happened when we had Kenzie's 20 week ultrasound. Baby is already showing us that she is just like her big sister ;)

The other funny thing is, this baby moves A LOT (just like Kenzie, who was nicknamed "baby dance dance" and "Elasti-girl" in-utero) she just likes to move more in the afternoon and evening and when I'm sitting up. The ultrasound tech told me to "drink a Coke or something sugary before you come in so we can get that baby to wiggle around some more." I don't think it'll be a problem finding something sugary to eat or drink seeing as how my ultrasound is scheduled 2 days after Christmas... haha

My mom came down and recorded some video of Kenzie's reaction (we were really wondering what her reaction would have been if baby had been a boy... She had told us many times that she would be sad, so I wanted to capture the moment haha)

Waiting to find out

The big moment!

Yes, you heard right. McKenzie wants to name her sister "Strawberry Shortcake." haha!

Unfortunately, the only picture that turned out really well was one of her little feet (pictured above). I'll be sure to post some better ones when we have our next ultrasound.

Halloween!

2011-11-28T20:06:00.000-07:00

I know I'm way behind in posting Halloween pictures, but here are some from the festivities this fall-

Kenzie didn't want to cut up her pumpkin, so we let her use Sharpies to decorate it.

Micah was totally excited to be scooping out the guts haha!

We got invited to go to Jason, Colie and Nathan's house to make a pumpkin patch treat. Kenzie thought it was yummy (even if Mommy ended up eating most of the candy haha)

Nathan showed me his spidey powers.

In Micah's family, the Halloween party always has a theme. This year was old school cartoon characters. We went as the Flintstones :)

Kenzie interviewed Batman.

Here's a picture of all the family-

Here's a list of who you can find:
Tweety Bird, Elmer Fudd, Granny, Popeye, Olive Oyl, Chipmunks and Chipettes, Spiderman, Yosemite Sam, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Waldo, G.I.Joe, Strawberry Shortcake, Ironman, Batman, Robin, Fred, Wilma and Pebbles Flintstone, Wonder Woman, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Carmen Sandiego, Inspector Gadget, and the Cat in the hat.

Then it was time to trick or treat. Kenzie told me for about 4 months that she wanted to be a witch for Halloween. Luckily my friend Nickie had a witch costume that was her daughter's that she let us borrow. Kenzie loved it! (And she has already picked out her costume for next year. She wants to be a mummy... we'll see if she remembers when Halloween comes around again.)

We had a great Halloween this year and we're looking forward to next year!

Go Uncle Aj!

2011-10-19T16:03:00.009-06:00

McKenzie and I had a chance to ride up with Meme and Grampy to see one of my brother's last softball games of the season. He plays on a co-ed team and they were pretty awesome! (Just to give you an idea, they won 22-7!!!)

Here's some pictures and videos from the fun.

Before we left Yia-yia's house, Kenzie had some fun with bubbles.

Here's Kenzie giving Uncle Aj some advice ;)

No, Grampy wasn't the only one with a blanket. We had some on our laps and under our bums, but he forgot to bring a jacket. Silly Grampy!

She was mad at the umpire because she wanted to throw her ball over the fence to Uncle Aj, but we said the umpire wouldn't let her because only one ball can be out there at a time.

Kenzie made a friend (of course!) and they had fun dancing on their "pirate ship."

After the dancing was over, Kenzie was walking over to say bye to her new friend and fell on the cement. Poor baby scratched up her nose. Then while I was cleaning her off, the friend left and stole her ball that Aj had given her (which made her even more upset.) Jordyn was prepared to calm her down with some games on her phone, and then Uncle Aj gave her another ball after the game. What a great uncle!

We had a great time cheering on Uncle Aj and Kenzie got all the other fans to cheer for him too. ;) That girl knows no stranger... which we know we really need to work on "stranger danger" hahaha. But everyone at the game told us she was, "the cutest thing ever!"

Family Pictures

2011-09-24T09:55:00.013-06:00

I know this is a few months later, but back in July while my sister and her family were in town we had family pictures taken. Here are some from both sides of the family.

First up, the Fullmer side:

I thought I'd start off with the most "real" photo of the day.

(Can you tell the great-grandkids weren't so thrilled? haha)

The whole Fullmer clan. This was the first time in I think 17 years that all of us were together at the same time. Pretty awesome!!

The crazy siblings. I love you Aunt Pat! Hahaha!

My Dad, sister and our families.

And of course, our little family :)

Then we had a chance to get pictures taken with the Thompson side the next day. I'm pretty excited with how these ones turned out. There were enough good group ones and individual shots of everyone that I can finally fill up the beautiful picture frame my aunt and uncle gave me for my birthday :)

My mom, brother, sister and our families.

April, Tyler and the kiddos.

Just Mom and the siblings :)

I love this one of Meme and Grampy. Aren't they adorable?

And now a bunch of just us :)

My handsome man. He's all mine!

This is Kenzie's "I have an idea!" face.

I'm pretty sure this last one will replace the 11x14 we have on our mantel. (The current one is from when Kenzie was 14 months old. Still adorable, but I'd like a more current one)

I'm super excited that I have updated family pictures of both sides of my family. I've already ordered a bunch of prints and I'm anxiously awaiting their arrival so I can update all my frames.

Now we just need to get some updated family pics from the Bate side... *hint hint!* ;)

Growing

2011-09-13T09:54:00.004-06:00

The Bate family is growing :)

Baby #2 due to arrive around April 21, 2012

A New Calling and Comfort From the Lord

2011-08-22T10:39:00.003-06:00

(This was written 3 weeks ago, but I didn't want to post it until my calling was "official." This is my journal entry about my reaction to getting a new calling in my church.)

Last night the Bishop came over to our house. I was pretty sure Micah was going to be getting a new calling (even though he had just been put in as secretary in Elder's Quorum a few weeks ago...)

As we sat down to talk the Bishop turned to Micah and said, "How would you feel about us giving your wife a new calling? It'd be more responsibility for her so she'd need your support, especially with McKenzie." Micah said he was fine with that, so the Bishop turned to me and said, "We're working on doing some reorganizing..." (at this point my thoughts were, "Oh, they're putting me in Young Womens or Primary") and he continued, "and I've had a very strong feeling that you should be called to be the Relief Society President."

*crickets chirping*

Huh?!

Did I hear him right?

I felt like the next 15 seconds lasted an hour or more as my mind tried to wrap itself around what he had just said. I looked over at Micah who was smiling, but I believe he was also in shock. I looked back at the Bishop and said, "Sure. If you feel that's where I need to be, I'll do it." We talked for a few minutes about what my new calling would entail and he reassured me that I could do it. I felt ok about it, but I still wasn't "sold" on the idea. He said not to worry and that as long as I could find some good counselors to help support me and I needed to learn how to delegate responsibilities, I would be just fine.

After he left Micah and I sat around for a few minutes. I'm pretty sure we each said, "Wow.... that was unexpected" about a hundred times. I decided I needed to go pray about it because I was still feeling so uneasy. I kept thinking, "Why me? There are so many other women who are better leaders, have more experience and I'm so young! How can I lead this group of women?" I went to my room and knelt down to pray. I thanked Heavenly Father for trusting me with such a big responsibility and asked for His guidance and comfort so that I would know that this is the right path for me and who to call as my counselors. When I was finished praying I pulled out my scriptures and just stared at them for a minute. I had no idea what I wanted to read for comfort, so I just closed my eyes and let the book fall open. I started reading in Doctrine and Covenants, Section 11. And I started to cry when I read verses 8, 10, 12-14:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you desire of me so it shall be done unto you; and, if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation...Behold, thou hast a gift, or thou shalt have a gift if thou wilt desire of me in faith, with an honest heart, believing in the power of Jesus Christ... And now, verily, verily, I say unto thee, put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good- yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously; and this is my Spirit. Verily, verily, I say unto you, I will impart unto you of my Spirit, which shall enlighten your mind, which shall fill your soul with joy; And then shall ye know, or by this shall you know, all things whatsoever you desire of me, which are pertaining unto things of righteousness, in faith believing in me that you shall receive."

Truly the Lord was sending me the comfort I so desperately needed. I felt a sense of strength that I could in fact do this. How often have I heard at church that (in most cases) the Lord doesn't call those who are already well-equipped for the job at hand. He calls those who have need to learn and grow. I have gotten a small sense of how to delegate with my current calling (Coordinator for the weekday Relief Society activities) but this new calling will test me even further. I need to put my faith and trust in the strong and beautiful women around me that we can accomplish great things and bring our sisters closer to Christ.

I know that God will send his Spirit to me when I need it as long as I have faith.

*For more information about my church, click here and for more information about the role of the Relief Society, click here.

Magnet Makeup Board

2011-08-10T12:48:00.007-06:00

Ok ok... I know the posts you all really want to see are about Kenzie and the rest of our summer craziness, but sadly our camera battery died and we can't find the charger. So the only pics I have from July are on my phone and I'm waiting to get copies of the festivities from family members. (You know who you are! ;)

In the meantime, I wanted to post this fabulous project I just finished up today. I was inspired by this picture that my friend Kayla had posted on Facebook:

How awesome is that!?! I immediately had to have one. I knew I was limited on wall space in the bathroom, but since I don't have too many things of makeup I knew I could get it all to fit on an 11x14 frame for sure. (8x10 would have been a little too crowded I think)

So I bought a thin sheet of metal at Lowes for around $4 and a frame at DI for $2. While I was at DI, I saw another frame that already had a magnet board in it, but it wasn't installed very well (which is why I'm assuming it was at DI) so I bought that too and figured I'd find a use for it somewhere. I then went to JoAnns and found some adorable fabric that would match the bathroom and some spunky bright colored fabric in the remnant section for 50 cents that I knew would be awesome in Kenzie's room.

As an added bonus, I didn't realize until much later that the fabric I chose matched these candles I had in the bathroom already!

I didn't have any tools to cut the metal so I took a little walk over to my neighbor's house (because he has every tool known to mankind...Thanks Brother Sanford!) and used some metal sheers to trim them to the perfect size. (and I saved two pieces to maybe make 2 4x6 magnet boards later for recipe cards while I cook or something... haven't quite figured it out yet.)

Then a little hot glue around the back.

And I needed a cup to put my brushes in so I used an empty glass candle jar I had laying around. (*I usually have a few on hand since I recycle my candles)

After wrapping a small piece of fabric around and putting a large magnet on the back, I tested the strength of it. It couldn't hold all the weight of the brushes so I peeled off the fabric and tried again. This time I wrapped the entire jar with fabric, tied some cute ribbon around it and put 2 large magnets on the back. Worked like a charm :)

Now to figure out how to arrange everything on the wall... I wanted it to be horizontal,

but with the large mirror and then having to hang my necklace holder, it just didn't look right. So vertical it is! I hot glued little magnets to the back of all my makeup. Don't worry, when one runs out I can just pop off the magnet and put it onto the new makeup. Easy as pie :)

Then it was time to hang it up.

Wall before:

Wall after:

Isn't that so much fun?! I love that it helps some of the drawers have less ~~junk~~ makeup and that it looks kind of like artwork. Form and function people!!

What do you think?

"Flower gleam and glow..."

2011-07-31T23:18:00.002-06:00

Tonight as we were getting Kenzie ready for bed I brushed her hair since it had been in a messy ponytail today (and the tangles would be a million times worse in the morning if I didn't) She said she needed to brush baby Rapunzel's hair too. (Her baby that cousin Jacob gave her for her birthday because he said she looked just like Kenzie. How sweet is he?!)

So while I brushed my baby's hair, she brushed hers... And of course she had to sing ;)

Micah recorded it with his phone and she was kind of quiet, so turn your volume up. Don't mind me holding back my laughter hahaha! It was just so cute the way she got all serious about the hairbrushing.

Happy 3rd Birthday McKenzie!

2011-07-30T02:46:00.001-06:00

Dear McKenzie,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! The big day has finally arrived. I can barely believe that 3 years have gone by since Heavenly Father sent you to our family. Every day has been a new adventure and I'm so glad that I get to be your mommy.

This year you finally caught on to what it means to celebrate a birthday. When anyone asks you how old you are or how you're doing, you so matter-of-factly respond, "I'll be 3 (*free) in July." Once it was July we taught you that your birthday is on the 30th so you changed your response to, "I'll be 3(*free) on the 30th (*firtee-if)." It always brings a smile to my face.

This year has brought so much more excitement to our lives. You really found your voice this year and have shown us (on many occasions) that nothing escapes your attention. You're a little parrot and love to say "grown-up" things. Sometimes you think you're the parent and try to boss us around by saying things like, "Don't you talk to me that way!" when something isn't going your way. Mommy started writing down every funny thing you say and has been able to share your "Kenzie-isms" with all of our family and friends thanks to the wonders of technology. It is so fun to get a glimpse of how you view the world through the funny observations you make. (For example: Kenzie: “What’s this on my elephant?” Mommy: “It’s a tusk.” Kenzie: “No, I think it’s a mustache.”)

You've continued to develop your love for music- both in singing and dancing. Mommy knew even before you were born that you were going to be quite the entertainer. When you were still in my tummy you would wiggle and dance to music you liked, and have violent outbursts to music that you didn't approve of. It made me smile then and makes me smile even more now as I see your love of music grow everyday. If you hear a song with a good beat you always get up and start dancing. You've shown me what it means to live in the moment and just have fun. Mommy and Daddy have talked about enrolling you in dance lessons sometime in the future to hopefully encourage your love for music and dance even further. "The Phantom of the Opera" is without a doubt your favorite of any music. You know all the words and will perform the song almost anytime you are asked to.

You've definitely also learned how to push my buttons this year...

Mommy has had many lessons on patience. Everyone says your attitude is just like me when I was a little girl, so I know that God has a sense of humor, but I know He is also wise. He knew I needed to learn how to improve myself, and how better to learn than by having a child who is just like me?! You are so quick to apologize when you've made a mistake and you are so quick to forgive me when I've raised my voice to you. Thank you for being such a good example. I look up to you because even though you are such a little girl, you are a spritual giant. Your tender heart has pierced me to my soul and lifted me up so many times when I have felt down.

You are my greatest treasure and I am eternally grateful that Heavenly Father sent you to teach me so much about the wonders of life and to have greater faith that God is really working in my life every day.

Happy Birthday Sweetie. I hope you have a wonderful day and that you know how much Mommy and Daddy love you.

Love, Mommy

Happy Birthday Micah!!!

2011-07-02T07:46:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday to my hubby who turns the big 3-1 today!! I love you so much and am so glad to have you by my side!

"Little Critter" Books

2011-07-01T14:21:00.002-06:00

I'm sure all of you have read at least one "little critter" book in your lifetime. They are McKenzie's absolute favorite books. Every time we go to the library we leave with at least 5 or 6 of them (and sometimes they're all we get!)

I can see why she likes them- they're short, easy to understand stories, they always have some sort of "teaching" idea behind them (getting a new sibling, neighbor, how to handle not being invited to a party, explaining thunderstorms, getting lost at the mall, etc.) and she loves to try and find the little mouse or bug on each page.

I enjoy them because they have so much sarcasm for the parents. Usually the pictures are telling a somewhat different story than what Critter is actually doing... obviously because it is written from his point of view. In one book he talks about eating his breakfast and hardly making a mess on his new baseball uniform (while the picture shows he practically dumped his cereal all over himself haha!) The one about having good manners makes me laugh because he says, "It's not good manners to interrupt someone. I guess that's why mom gets so annoyed when I try to talk to her while she's on the phone." (cause that happens to me with pretty much every phone call...)

But I'm pretty sure McKenzie's favorite one by far is "All By Myself" She has it practically memorized and loves to read it...all by herself haha. I finally got a video of her reading it (she misses a few, but she gets almost all the words exactly right)

In case you can't understand what she's saying, here's what she reads (minus her little sidetracks)

"I can get out of bed all by myself. I button my overalls. I brush my fur. I put on my socks and tie my shoes. I pour some juice for my little sister. I help her eat breakfast. I pound my hammer. I kick a ball. I roll on the ground and sail my boat. I look after my little sister. I can help dad trim a bush or ice a cake for my mom. I draw a picture. I put my toys away. I brush my teeth. But I can't sleep without a story!"

Tubby Hair

2011-06-16T15:22:00.003-06:00

Today I was going through my computer and backing up some pictures. I thought I'd post two of them here just because they make me laugh.

(16 months and 32 months old)

It's amazing we can still do the "spike" do anymore! haha

My Little Helper

2011-06-13T13:35:00.003-06:00

McKenzie is always happy to help me vacuum. And how could I ever turn her down? She's just too adorable!

Daddy-O

2011-06-13T09:42:00.003-06:00

If you've never heard the song "Daddy-O" by Frances England, you should go check it out. It is totally adorable and Kenzie loves to sing it. Here's a video of her singing the chorus (check out her awesome finger snapping haha!)

The Monkey Story

2011-05-18T12:37:00.002-06:00

Kenzie started telling this story about a monkey a few days ago and it is pretty much the same every time you ask her to tell it. (Except of course when I pull out the camera...) So here's the video and I wrote the story below in case you can't quite follow what is happening ;)

"Once upon a time a baby monkey was born. Then a storm came and there was bad guys. And his horse gave him a rock and he cried *baby crying sounds* Then he was with his family. The end!"

A Few Thrifty Finds and Projects

2011-05-17T15:14:00.008-06:00

If you've read my blog for 10 seconds you know that I love me some thrifty shopping ;) I've been finishing up a few projects lately and I thought I'd post some befores and afters for you to see that pretty much anything can be transformed/repurposed/reused in some way (most of the time with some help from my BFF spraypaint hehehe)

First project- shelves. I had wanted some fancy shelves to hang by my dining room table for a LONG time. It is such a huge wall and it looked pretty bare for a while. (see what I mean?)

Then last year my mom came down and helped me add a few things, and it looked a whole lot better, but I still wanted some shelves.

If you can't tell, those little things are candle sconces- here's a close-up. $5 from Family Dollar for a two-pack. (I later filled them with maroon wax from a cranberry candle I had)

While shopping at my local goodwill store I found 3 shelves that the style I liked, but not so much the color for $5 total.

The longer shelf has a bit more of an angle than the other two, but I figured once they were painted it wouldn't be a big deal. Yes, I did paint over that nice cherry wood... I needed it black to match the other two. Sorry if anyone sheds a tear.

To save my walls from having a million holes in them, I moved the sconces to another wall and put the shelves where they were. I think they turned out quite nicely.

Then of course I needed to fill them up with stuff so I found a few small frames and put some artwork in them. And by "artwork" I mean that I looked through some ads from Deseret Book and cut them out...

I'm still working on what will be on the shelves permanently, but for now, these knick knacks will do.

And the last project I just finished was something I had seen in the Disney Family Fun magazine a few months ago called the "leafy letter topiary" but because I have a black thumb when it comes to plants, I decided to make one out of fake ivy instead.

I started out with floral wire, moss, a styrofoam block, ivy a dowel and a pot I purchased at goodwill a long time ago.

Then I made my letter B.

I realized the dowel was going to be seen through the ivy so I used some black craft paint and let it dry before I started wrapping the ivy around. (I removed it from the styrofoam block while I wrapped the ivy to avoid a huge green powder mess)

It took a while to get the first chunk of ivy on, but it was looking pretty good.

I decided to add some extra ivy to the sides and back to make it seem more full. After a few chunks of hot glue to hold the foam in place and some on the top, I added the moss.

It is nice to have some greenery in the house (even if it is fake ;)

What do you think?

Tangled

2011-05-11T13:45:00.001-06:00

A week or so ago I shared on Facebook that I had heard Kenzie singing the "Flower gleam and glow" song from Tangled and snuck into her room to see her also brushing her doll's hair while singing it. McKenzie really likes Rapunzel and it has become one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. Seriously! It is so adorable.

Well anyway, yesterday while I was making dinner she was watching it and all of a sudden I heard her singing SO loud. It almost made me cry to hear her singing my favorite song (from the lantern scene). I mean, I choke up just from watching it, but hearing my sweet little girl singing along to it was just too much. So I ran and grabbed the camera and got this for you. She got kind of distracted (obviously) but it is still pretty adorable. I hope you enjoy it :)

Halle-FREAKIN'-lujah!!! (A bathroom remodel story)

2011-05-03T11:42:00.012-06:00

I don't even know where to start. This bathroom remodel has been the most anticipated blog post I've ever done!

There are many reasons why it took so long, and I really don't feel like getting into that here, so let me just say that this has been a ~~machete~~ thorn in my side for FAR too long and that this has been the biggest trial and lesson of patience I think I could ever experience. This remodel was 16 months in the making, and techinically it still isn't finished. (Baseboards and crown moulding are all that is left) But since those are minor details, I figured I could go ahead and show it off.

So brace yourselves, these befores are gonna make you laugh.

When we bought this house I loved and hated this bathroom. It is very easy to see why I hated it (hahaha) but what I loved was the little makeup vanity area.

(yes, that is a microwave on the counter... I took these pics a few days after we had moved in and the outlet in the kitchen was not grounded so this is where we kept our microwave for a while. Don't judge ;)

This bathroom had it all- orange and yellow velvet flower wallpaper, mustard yellow toilet, tub and sink, teal carpet (don't even get me started on my pet peeve of carpet in a bathroom) and cheesey crystal chandeliers that weren't even crystal.

There's no question- we had the grooviest bathroom around ;)

So, after 2 years of living here we finally started the demolition process. I have to admit that it was pretty fun taking a sledgehammer to the tiles on the wall. But it was also a nightmare trying to keep the rest of my house clean when all that dust was flying around. Bleh! Here are a few of the "during" pictures... trust me, you don't want to see too many so I only did a few.

When it came time to take out the old tub we realized it was super heavy (it was cast iron) and that it wasn't going to fit as we took it down the hall to go outside, so my FIL used his circular saw to cut it in half. Needless to say Micah and I purchased a new saw for him because his gave up the ghost ;) And before anyone says, "You should have sold that cast iron tub on Craigslist!" We had to cut it to get it out of the house, and it was in NO condition to sell to anyone. I wouldn't have even asked $10 for it. Nasty...

Then when we ripped up the carpet to lay the tile we discovered this:

Micah did all the tiling with some help from his dad. We got a super sweet deal on them from my friend Jeanette, whose landlord at the time had 13 boxes of tile he wasn't using and sold to us for 50 cents a tile :) it saved us LOADS since we had to tile the floor and shower area.

Micah also did all the sheetrocking with a little help from David, Robbie and yours truly ;) I did most of the putty work to patch up the seams and I painted it all by myself in a 2 day span. (one day for primer and the other for the main color) Before I painted over the sheetrock I had to take a picture of the "Have a great summer!" signature from David. :)

All primed and ready for the delicious chocolate brown I picked out :) It really makes the bathroom feel more warm and cozy. Didn't Micah do a GREAT job on the tiling? It is specatcular!!

And here's the finished product. I wrote down some of the things I added and the cost. I'm a thrifty chick ya know!

The cabinets and countertops were purchased thru my mom's work and we got an amazing deal on those as well. We didn't realize that the drawerbanks for the makeup area were the same height as the half tile wall and that they needed to be cut down by an inch so that the countertop wouldn't sit above the wall. I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty proud of myself. I cut and installed the cabinets all by myself! (well, Jeanette came over and held them for me so they wouldn't slide as I used the saw). The countertop also had to be trimmed by an inch so while I was cutting the cabinets, Micah and David trimmed that.

So once again for your satisfaction (and mine!) The befores and afters:

So, what do you think?!

Cheese Dome to Elegant Cloche

2011-04-29T13:42:00.003-06:00

Hehehe! I'm SO excited to finally have this project done! It has been sitting in my closet all winter waiting for warm enough weather so that I could spraypaint it :)

If you've read any of my other "decor" posts you know that I'm a HUGE fan of Thrifty Decor Chick (check out my links on the sidebar). I love pretty much everything she makes. This project was something that I had seen on her blog a long time ago and knew I'd do it someday.

After MANY trips to our local goodwill store I finally found a cheese dome that was worthy of a redo :) I also found a small wooden goblet that I wanted to use.

The goblet was too tall so I used a small power saw and cut it down to the size I needed.

And after a few coats of paint, it was looking excellent!! I used a long screw to hold the two pieces together.

I went and bought some stuff to put inside and I think it fits in quite nicely on my mantel.

All together it cost me about $7.50 to do this project. (and $6 of that was the filler! hehehe!)

Don't worry, I'm still on the lookout for a larger one to paint white and put fruit in for my kitchen ;)

Happy Easter!

2011-04-29T12:39:00.009-06:00

(I thought I'd share some pics of our beautiful tulips before I get started. Sorry they're kinda blurry... they're phone pics hahaha)

We started out our Easter festivities with making an Easter basket for Kenzie. My mom had made us some fun egg shaped baskets when we were kids and I thought Kenzie would enjoy one as well.

So we went to the store and Kenzie picked out the color she wanted (pink, of course!) and we went home and got started. All you need is crochet thread, a balloon, elmers glue, a dixie cup, and a push pin. (oh and lace and hot glue if you want the opening to be fancier...)

Take the push pin and poke a hole on each side of the cup (near the bottom) and put your thread thru the holes. Pour glue into the cup until it covers the string.

Blow up your balloon and start pulling the string thru the glue and wrapping it around the balloon until it looks the way you want it to.

Then hang it up and let it dry overnight. (Please ignore my nasty ceiling...)

Pop the balloon and listen to the crackle as it pulls away. The balloon will be so fluffy with dried up glue when it is done (I thought it looked pretty neat) Cut a hole in the front where you'll put your goodies in and then cut the balloon off.

I decided to give it a little extra girly flair and added some lace to the opening with hot glue.

And you're done! I intended this to be a project Kenzie could help make, but she only cared about the balloon and didn't want to touch the string. So I blew up an extra balloon and she goofed off with that while I made this :P Oh well...

Then of course we had to make easter eggs :)

Check out Micah's face!! Hahaha!!

Then onto an egg hunt :)

She somehow manages to fall down every year when she leans over to pick up the eggs haha!

And Easter morning-

(yes, she looks like an orphan every morning when she wakes up)

All dressed up :) She loved her pretty dress and hat!

We hope you all had a great Easter! We certainly did :)

Cinderelly Cinderelly!

2011-04-20T13:28:00.003-06:00

If you've ever been around McKenzie you know that she loves to sing. Here's the latest number I was able to catch on camera to share with all of you. Enjoy!

What to do about the dolls

2011-04-19T15:11:00.006-06:00

Should I start selling them? It's kind of a tricky situation...

The original idea of these dolls came from Martha Stewart, but I've never used the pattern from her site. I drew up my own pattern and have made several adjustments as well. So technically that makes them mine, right?

If I did sell them, it wouldn't be something on Etsy or whatever. It takes way too long to make each one to make it a profitable business. (Unless I sold them for like $40 which is totally not going to happen!) However, I was thinking that "word of mouth" sales would be fine. If you or someone you know would want to buy one, you/they could send me an email with hair color and a general color scheme for the dress/leggings and I could whip one up in a few days.

So I guess the big question is, would anyone out there buy something like this and what do you think is a reasonable price? I'm a believer in affordable gifts, and I enjoy making these. So for me it wouldn't really be about making a huge profit, just enough to cover the supplies needed and if I happen to have extra spending money that's just a bonus.

Lots of comments PLEASE! :)

My life lately...

2011-04-14T14:49:00.004-06:00

I don't know about the rest of you, but finding time to actually get on the computer to get things done is pretty stinkin' hard. I'm lucky enough to be able to do most of my email and facebooking from my phone, but there is a lot I still need to do on the actual computer.

So when I do manage to get a moment to myself to actually use the computer, I start out by saying, "Ok, just gotta check my email and then I'm done." And before I know it, this is happening:

Anyone else have this problem? ;)

OOPS!! I forgot to tell ya...

2011-04-08T13:31:00.005-06:00

I feel so silly- I completely forgot to include the BIGGEST news in our last big family update in March. (I know I claimed Kenzie being potty trained as the "biggest" news, and that is very true in its own way, but this is even better!)

Kenzie does NOT need to have the eye surgery!!!!!!! She had her follow-up appointment on March 18th and her doctor gave her the all clear :D The new lenses in her glasses are doing exactly what we wanted and keeping her eyes straight (as long as she's wearing them) so he feels that there is no urgent need to do the surgery. Here's the run down of what the future has in store:

-She now only has to see him every 6 months instead of every 3 like we had been doing for the last year.

-If she starts to complain about her glasses before her next appt (pulling them off, crying, headaches, etc) then we will need to go in to get a new rx because that likely is an indication her vision has changed.

-Eventually she will need the surgery. The reason he is putting it off as long as possible is because she is still so little and her eyes are continuing to change. If we were to do the surgery now there is a pretty big chance that she'd need another surgery before she's 18. So since glasses are helping we'll continue to use them until she absolutely needs it.

-Even after a surgery she would still need to wear glasses because her vision is so bad. (the surgery only fixes the muscle problem that causes the crossing) Micah and I have decided that if we start saving now, we could give Kenzie money towards lasik as a graduation present (or whatever the procedure would be in the future). :)

I'm SOOOOOOOOOO happy! Switching doctors for my daughter has been easily one of the best decisions I have EVER made. I don't have that same anxiety I felt with Kenzie's previous doctor. In fact, I feel completely at peace when I talk with the new guy. He is AMAZING!!!

I'll be sure to keep you all updated if anything changes in the future :) Thank you all for your continued support for our family. It means so much to us. We love you all!

Nickel City

2011-04-08T13:02:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago we decided to take Kenzie out for a family date night to our local arcade. She had a BLAST!

She got to play skee ball, a few driving games, rode a little pony and even played air hockey. I'm really sad I didn't get a video of her playing air hockey with Micah. It was hysterical. Of course she kept saying "by MYSELF!" when I tried to help her, so I pulled over a stool so she could sit and still reach it. I went to record a video and take pictures and the stool started sliding backwards so I had to hold it the whole time she played. Needless to say, it was fun to watch ;) But here's a few videos of her doing skee ball with Micah:

Although she had fun playing all the games with her Daddy, she actually had the most fun just putting the nickels into the "slot machine" style game. You know, the one where all you do is put a nickel in and the machine pushes it against a bunch of other nickels and then sometimes more fall down?

She was pretty good at it and got the 100 ticket bonus! We ended up getting about 500 tickets just out of that machine haha!

And here are the prizes she picked out (minus the football- Micah claims that one as his hahaha!) We also got a few pieces of candy, but they didn't even last the 5 minute drive home ;)

We'll definitely be going there again!

Disney On Ice

2011-03-22T13:53:00.005-06:00

A few weeks ago Grandma Fullmer bought us tickets to "Disney On Ice!" and we all had so much fun!

Kenzie was wearing all her princess best :) I felt bad though that we saw so many girls in princess dresses (little cousin Sarah was all dressed up like Cinderella) but Kenzie doesn't have a princess dress. Looks like we'll be getting one sometime in the future I think!

Before we left Micah said, "I've managed to avoid Disney On Ice for 30 years, and the only reason I'm going now is because Kenzie will like it." But that same man had a grin on his face almost the whole time. And sure it was because he was happy that Kenzie was happy, but I think he enjoyed it for himself (even if only a tiny bit) as well ;) Love you honey!

And I'm apologizing now for the blurry pics. Our little point and shoot can only handle so much with a large dark room and people skating pretty fast ;)
(I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty impressed that I got this shot of Ariel and Prince Eric!)

Waving to her friends :)

There was one part where Mickey was using a computer to travel to different parts of the world and he and Minnie got separated. Kenzie was pretty upset that they couldn't find eachother. She has such a big heart and always wants everyone to be happy. Once they were reunited she was very happy.

Kenzie was SO into the music (of course!) so I got a video of her dancing like crazy to "Kiss the Girl"

Thank you, Grandma Fullmer for the tickets! We had a blast!!

Hardware Ranch

2011-03-22T13:41:00.006-06:00

In February we took a trip up to Hardware Ranch in Logan with Mom, Dad, Michelle and Curtis, Savannah and the kidlets. It is really awesome to see all these beautiful elk so close. If you've never been, I recommend it!

Can you see the debris on his antlers? The guide told us he must have gotten caught in a fence and it's still there haha!

Kenzie was keeping everyone laughing when she said things like, "I need to get out of here! I need to ride the elk!" but sadly, once I started recording she wouldn't say much. Oh well... enjoy it anyway!

A quick glance into the last 2 months...

2011-03-22T12:46:00.008-06:00

First of all, let me apologize for not posting stuff for the last few months. I feel like everyday has blown past me like a hurricane and I haven't had time to sit down and breathe, let alone blog about some of the cool stuff we've been doing lately.

So, while I have a spare moment to myself, I'll fill you in on what's been going on at our place.

We had a few more chances to go play in the snow. Kenzie actually tried to build a snowman and learned how to throw a snowball this time. We still haven't made it sledding yet, and since it looks like we won't be getting a lot of snow anytime soon, it may have to wait until next year :(

My Aunt Judy sent this little outfit to Kenzie quite a while back, but she is just now big enough to wear it.

She loves dressing up in her "fancy clothes" (as she calls them haha) so I thought I'd post her cute smile while she wears it :)

And the BIGGEST news of the last while- Kenzie is potty trained!! (Well, somewhat)

In February we started the full on training process and we used all the usual tricks to teach her. Stickers, fruit snacks as her treat and even dancing/hugs/kisses/phone calls to grandparents as rewards to get her excited. We bought some books and rented some movies about using the potty (Bear in the Big Blue House "Potty Time" is a GREAT one!) and everything was going great. By the third day she was accident free and she was so excited to be using the potty.

Just doing a bit of light reading hahaha (and yes, our bathroom is coming along, and I'm hoping to have before and after pics up in the next week or two, so for now, there's a little preview for you ;)

The reason I said "somewhat" trained earlier is that she hasn't quite gotten the hang of #2. She has a toy that she picked out as a reward for her first poop success sitting on the counter in the bathroom. (That girl LOVES "little people")

I'm not sure how long it will sit there before she can have it, but she is honestly trying. She wears diapers to bed and a pullup during naptime and occasionally she is dry when she wakes up.

A few people have asked what worked when training Kenzie and of course I'm no expert, and every child is completely different... but what worked for us was giving her a ton of water and juice all day long and taking her to sit on her potty every 30 minutes. Once she peed in the potty and saw how excited I was, it was like a little light bulb turned on in her head and she knew what was expected. (I think before that it was some abstract idea that she couldn't quite grasp)

All in all we are very proud to have a big girl in our house!!

Be on the lookout for a few more posts from our adventures these last 2 months. They'll be coming soon!

4 years down...

2011-03-15T07:54:00.000-06:00

...and eternity to go.

I love you Micah, with all my heart.

India- Preserving My Memories

2011-02-03T13:23:00.009-07:00

This week I've been thinking a lot about the past. More specifically, my trip to India 7 years ago this month. (Was it really that long ago?)

As I started thinking about it, I realized I hadn't shared my story with very many people. I wrote in my journal while I was there, but I wanted to share more than that. And one of the saddest parts of my trip was that it wasn't until I got home that I realized my camera had been broken the entire time and that all 8 rolls of film I had taken did not turn out. Luckilly I had used my grandma's digital camera one of the days I was there and she had taken film photos with her regular camera, but most of my memories are stored only in my mind and not something physical I can share with anyone... Obviously I can't share all of what happened over there, but I will share the most meaningful moments to me. If you want to hear more about the culture and day-to-day things I experienced, let me know.

I'm sure most of you are wondering how in the world this even came about. My grandma's friend Becky started a non-profit organization called "Rising Star Outreach" and after my grandma had travelled there a few times, I expressed interest in going over to help for a few weeks. So after the hastle of getting a visa and all the immunizations, I got on the plane and flew literally halfway around the world to Chennai, India with my grandma.

When I first stepped off the plane I was hit with a big wave of anxiety as I took in my surroundings. There were people everywhere- it seemed as though no matter where I moved I'd be touching another human being. I stood several inches above everyone (it was very rare that I ran into someone who was as tall as I am) and people were staring at me. Blond hair and super-pale skin will do that over there, ya know. Several people while I was there wanted to touch my hair because they said it was like silk. :)

Two wonderful people I met while I was there- Mani, our driver who is a very softspoken and humble man. He was Hindu when I met him, but has since converted to Christianity and not only that, but is now a member of the LDS Church :)

and Gopi, who runs the orphanage while Becky or my grandma aren't there. He can brighten the darkest of days with his beautiful smile. I love him so much! He and his wife want to be sealed in the temple, but cannot afford it. My grandma has been trying for years to pay for him to come out here to Salt Lake, but there have been many complications with visas, etc.

The majority of my trip was spent playing with and teaching the children at an orphanage Rising Star was helping sponsor (this trip was mainly for Becky and Meme to find property to start their own orphanage which was later completed in April 2004 and what you will see if you click on the link above to see their website). So while Becky and Meme were off looking at properties, I would head over to the orphanage with the other volunteers and work with the kids. Each one of them brought a smile to my face. They were such beautiful children and their little voices yelling, "Cassie Auntie! Cassie Auntie!" every time I came into the room was music to my ears.

These children were so humble and extremely grateful for anything they received. I had brought a large bag of Dum-Dum suckers to give out and they all sat and patiently waited their turn for me to hand them one. (Although there was a lot of squirming because they were just SO excited!) They taught me to be grateful for the little things in life.

Here is one of the little girls who had mumps. (I am a strong believer in vaccines in case you want to know)

Taking a nap- lice is a big problem, so that's why the kids all have short hair, even the girls.

And these kids LOVED to get their picture taken :)

This picture was taken while we were trying to get a cab back to our apartment one night. :(

Two of the days were not spent in the orphanage, but rather at a leper colony way on the outskirts of town. This by far is one of the most humbling and sacred experiences I have ever had. We brought bandages, glasses and other items that they needed and we all sat around under a tiny tree that was providing the only shade in the main gathering area of their little colony. In the 114 degree weather and what seemed like 85% humidity we talked and handed out the much-needed items to all the people.

While I was handing out glasses to some people, I turned and saw a man struggling to try on a pair he had received. I saw his hands and realized he had no fingers and could not open them. So I sat down on the ground and put them on his face for him. He expressed that they did not help his sight so I spent a few minutes testing out several different pairs until we found a pair that was able to improve his vision, even if only a little. I immediately felt the Savior's love for this man. I felt as if I had stepped back in time and had been there with the Savior as He helped the blind man to see.

Later we drove over to a local hospital- and I use the term "hospital" loosly... Let's just say if we had gotten in a car accident I would have prayed to Heavenly Father to let me die right there rather than go to the hospital. Anyway, we were going there to help one of the men with leprosy who was having extreme stomach pain. When we arrived we walked through the hallways and asked around to where we could find the man and doctor we were looking for. We were shown to another building set apart from the rest. This building had no windows, just open air and dingy floors with little lighting other than the sunlight that came through the openings in the walls. In the corner of the room that the man and his wife were staying in, a pile of disgusting mildewy mattresses were piled up about 8 feet high.

The doctor wasn't very helpful. He would barely go near his patient and basically said there was nothing he could do to help. The man's wife was sitting on a different bed, quietly crying to herself. My grandma and I sat down next to her and I felt a strong feeling that I should hold her hand. I placed my hand on hers, looked in her eyes and tried to convey a feeling of friendship, love and strength that I knew she hadn't felt in a very long time. I looked up at the doctor and saw bewilderment on his face. I knew what he was thinking- "Why are you touching her? She is unclean!" In India, having leprosy is the worst thing that can happen to someone. You are cast off from society and because they believe that you must have done something to deserve this. In fact, most people with leprosy don't even die from the disease itself, but from starvation because they beg for food and hardly anyone gives them any.

When we left the hospital I was overwhelmed with feelings of love and sadness. I wanted so much to help all the people who were struggling with a disease that can easily be cured. And as I was on the flight home I was thinking of all the things I take for granted... clean air, water and a roof over my head. Access to hospitals where they can fix me if something goes wrong. My sight, fingers and toes. Family who would do anything for me (and I would do anything for them!) I truly am blessed.

Going to India was easily one of the best highlights of my life so far. But I say that because I had a purpose to being there. I wouldn't go there as a tourist, but I would go again in a heartbeat to help the beautiful people I grew to love.

Jared and Jenna's Wedding

2011-02-02T13:52:00.007-07:00

Hello Everyone! Sorry I've been such a slacker on posting things the last few months. Winter has me in a slump... let's just say I can't wait for Spring!! But this particular winter has had some great moments- the best of which was Jared and Jenna getting married :)

The ladies

The gentlemen

The whole day Kenzie kept asking to be with Jenna and Jared. She LOVES them and she was talking about them "getting mahweed in the temple" for months! (And she has been pretending all her toys have been getting married as well- Sharp Tooth and Little Foot are apparently husband and wife now...)

There was a whole lot of this going on... hehehe. (And Kenzie liked to point it out too that they can kiss because now they are married)

We figured while we were all dressed up so fancy, we'd take a few family pictures of just us at the temple.

(I love the grouchy face!)

She really was a happy little girl almost the entire day! What a cutie!

A few from the reception:

Kenzie kept calling the fake fountain "the sparkle."

Dancing with Daddy :)

It was a beautiful day. We're so happy to have Jenna join our wonderful family. Love you and congrats to you both on your new adventure together!

*for family who wants it, I have posted all our photos from the wedding to our photo site that you can download them from. The link is on the sidebar and if you don't have the password, email me and I'll give it to you :)

whew! Catching up on December...

2010-12-29T12:42:00.009-07:00

Did December fly by for the rest of you? It sure felt like a hurricane around here!

So here's a quick rundown of our month:

First we decorated our house and our tree :)

Then we had a little bit of snow to play in. Kenzie had a pretty good time, but there wasn't much out there.

Sadly, we got about a foot of snow dumped at our house overnight a few days before Christmas, but then it rained and melted it all before we got a chance to take McKenzie sledding for the first time. (I guess it was for the best seeing as how Kenzie's snowpants were already wrapped and under the tree and she would've frozen to death without them.) We're patiently waiting the next snowstorm that gives us enough to go :)

On the eve of Christmas Eve we went to Temple Square with my dad, aunt and uncle. Kenzie liked all the lights and she told us, "They are so beautiful!"

And of course I had to look back on the last 2 years of family pictures too... look how much she's grown!

2009

2008
(Yes, Micah and I are wearing the same coat and beanie in all of these pictures haha)

Then for Christmas Eve my dad and Micah's family came and had dinner and slept over. Everything was yummy! For dessert I attempted to make a yule log. It turned out pretty good, but now I know what to adjust next year.

(It looks like a giant hoho inside, doesn't it?! haha)

My mom and brother came down early in the morning to open gifts with the rest of us. And the opening of gifts went a little something like this:

Kenzie pulled the first thing out of her stocking (a set of 2 "little people") and she didn't want to open anything else. I guess we could've taken all the rest of the gifts back and she wouldn't have cared ;) but after some persuasion she started opening more.

I made her this little doll. She likes it ok and calls her "sister." The first two dolls I made a few years back are named, "Mommy" and "Little McKenzie" which makes me laugh. (Probably because one is huge and the other is super tiny...) But I managed to finally make a pattern that was just the right size, so this was the final result.

a little later we found another winner: A "little people" house from Papa (my dad). She was SO happy!

...until we said she couldn't open it yet and had to open more gifts...hahaha look at that sad face...

Finally she was done and could do what she wanted most- play with the house :) And actually, it has saved me a LOT of stress. Usually Kenzie begs to watch tv all day long because she gets so bored, but now that she has this she plays and talks to herself (and doesn't need me to entertain her!) for HOURS. It is heavenly!!!! So thanks Papa for getting her that. I think I love it almost as much as she does! ;)

When she's not playing with her little people house, she's playing with a plush teddy bear playhouse my mom got her or the wooden zebra my dad made.

(Sorry the pic is blurry, it's the only one I've got so far)

There were some pretty great gifts for Micah and I too. Mom and Dad got us a pressure cooker (which I've been DYING to have for a long time!) And my dad got us an ice cream maker that we plan on using very frequently. hehehe...

But something I will cherish the most was a letter from my mom. She is such a hard worker and has always tried to support us as best as she can. When she found out about Kenzie's possible surgery she secretly picked up extra shifts at work just to earn more money to help us out. Then about 2 weeks before Christmas her car broke down and she thought she would have to use the money for McKenzie. But through a series of what can only be called miracles, some friends and neighbors donated some money to my mom (not knowing beforehand why she/we needed it) and they came up with the exact amount to get my mom's car fixed so she wouldn't have to use the money she had set aside for McKenzie. She worked so hard to help out our family and while I read the letter that explained all of this, I broke down into tears (which for me is a big deal...) Because the surgery has been postponed until further notice, we're able to use the money now to get McKenzie's new lenses for her glasses without having to use our credit card. Thank you, Mom, for sharing such a beautiful blessing with me and my family. I have the letter in my journal so it can be a constant reminder of the tender mercies our Heavenly Father blesses us with.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas Season. Thanks to everyone who has made our lives more complete just by being there for us. We love you all!

* I just realized that there isn't a family picture of us on Christmas, nor one of me at all from our camera. So if you have any from that day I really would like copies from you!

Our Adventure at Primary Children's

2010-12-16T14:28:00.002-07:00

No, we weren't there for an emergency. Yesterday was McKenzie's appointment with her new pediatric ophtalmologist and his office is at Primary Children's Hospital in SLC.

If you haven't read the initial story, click here. I'll wait.............. :)

Ok, so the 2nd opinion doctor referred us to this new guy, Dr. Hoffman, and our appointment was yesterday.

We got to the hospital right on time, found his office and started filling out all the paperwork while Kenzie ran off to play with the toys. As I was writing down all the insurance info and medical history they needed, I looked around the room and my heart immediately felt heavy. Out of the 15 other kids that were in the room, I'd say only one or two of them besides McKenzie didn't have some form of mental or physical handicap. I looked around at the mothers who were struggling to keep their kids entertained while they waited and I felt so blessed. My daughter's only problem is her eyes. In fact, she blows my mind with how smart she is. I can't imagine what it would be like to raise a special needs child, but I do know that the mothers and fathers who are given those special spirits are truly wonderful and amazing people.

We waited a good half hour before getting called to the exam room. The nurse did a few simple tests and Kenzie did great. We explained to the nurse why we were there and she said we could go back to the waiting room and wait for the doctor to see us personally.

So another 45 went by and the doctor called us back. What I assumed was going to happen was that he would tell us when we were going to do the surgery, and if he himself was going to do it, or if he wanted Dr. Jerkhead to do the surgery and once Kenzie was recovered, Dr. Hoffman would pick up with Kenzie's normal appointments. That isn't what happened at all. He did a few eye tests with Kenzie and said he wanted to put some drops in to dilate her eyes and double check everything before he made a decision. (Which of course made me happy since he was being cautious). So after they put the drops in we had to wait another half hour before he could look at her again.

Once we got back in the exam room and he looked at her eyes again, he told me something I wasn't expecting to hear... "I'm not comfortable putting her under the knife yet. It seems that her last doctor didn't get her lens Rx quite right and she needs some stronger lenses. That might be why her eye is still drifting."

Of course I'm yelling in my head, "But she just got her new glasses in August! How could he have missed that? I guess when Dr. Jerkhead only spends 5 minutes looking at McKenzie's eyes, he's bound to make a mistake in her prescription..."

So here's the plan, even if she had the surgery, she would still need a new pair of lenses because the Rx isn't right, so Dr. Hoffman wants to get the new lenses first, see if that solves the eye drift problem, and then we'll see him again in 3 months to determine if she needs surgery or not. He assured me that her eye drift isn't so bad right now to panic and get the surgery right away. He feels that testing the new lenses first will give him a better idea if McKenzie really needs it or not.

After my second complaint to Dr. Jerkhead that her eyes were still drifting a lot he did write her a new Rx and we got the new glasses in August. She needed new frames too cause the others were too small, but apparently that still wasn't the correct Rx since her eyes were still drifting (not nearly as much as before the switch, but still.) And that gives me hope that getting her a new set of lenses might solve the problem. Of course if after the 3 months she still has drifting and needs the surgery that'll be fine too, but at least I'll know that we tried everything possible to prevent it.

So even though Kenzie and I spent 3 hours at his office, it was more than worth it because we have found a doctor that is willing to look out for our daughter's well being instead of trying to line his pockets with our money.

Go Utes!!

2010-11-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

This video is from a few months back, but today is the big game and I had to share this :)

Reusable Candles

2010-11-22T13:05:00.006-07:00

A few years ago we bought a 5 pk Pumpkin Spice candle set from Walmart. It had 2 of the huge size and 3 little fancy ones. They smelled great at first, but then they had a funky smell (that's the only way to describe it- and I guess I shouldn't be that surprised, they were Walmart brand afterall...) and so we haven't used them since. So when I was trying to find a great smelling "fall" candle the other day in my closet, I stumbled on the three small funky pumpkin ones. I'd been holding onto them to use for decor but pumpkin orange doesn't really go with my style, ya know? And then it hit me, why don't I just put a new color in here? So I dug thru the rest of my candles and found one that I wasn't too fond of the smell, but the wax was white.

I went to a craft store and bought some wicks. There's an entire aisle just for candle making projects and I bought a 10 pk 3" wick set for about $2.

There's a few ways you can make your new candles- One is freezing them and popping the wax out all at once, cutting out the chunks of wax while the candle is at room temperature, or melting the entire candle and pouring the wax into your new container. I've used all three methods.

My favorite method is melting them. I usually use my candle warmer and just let it melt the candle and I pour the wax into the new container, but sometimes the container doesn't fit on it.

If the glass container you need to remove the wax from isn't tapered at the top, you can stick the entire candle in the freezer and then pop out all the wax at once using a knife or something. Let the wax get to room temp and then cut away the wick. If the container tapers at the top (like most of mine)just use a spoon or a knife and cut out all the wax into chunks while it is at room temp.

For my pumpkin-turning-white-decor-candle project, the base of the white candle was square so it wouldn't fit on my warmer. But lucky for me, the wax was very soft and easy to scoop out with a spoon.

With any method of removing the wax, be sure to do it over a sheet of wax paper for easier cleanup.

Clean out the container you'll be putting the new candle into with hot soapy water and let it dry completely. Fill up the candles as much as you can, keeping the extra wax on hand.

Then put the candles on your candle warmer or in the crockpot on high. Check on it every 20 minutes and once most of the wax was melted, put the wicks in. After the wax melts there is usually room for more, so now you can put a few more chunks of your extra wax into each candle until the wax is as high as you want it.

Turn off your crockpot/candle warmer and let the candles cool in it for a few hours, or put them on a pot holder on the counter. Do not put them in the fridge or freezer or you will get cracks and bubbles in it. Once the wax is completely solid again, trim the wick and you've got a brand new candle!

This is actually not the first time I've done this. I've been reusing candles for about a year, mostly by taking the candles I love that the wicks are too short to burn and either putting the wax into a smaller container to be a "full" candle again, or in some cases I've even combined scents that are similar (a cranberry plum from Kmart and "Welcome Home" by Salt City) and created an entirely new wonderful smell.

This has definitely gotten our money's worth out of our candles. And since the holidays are coming up quickly, this is also a great gift idea for friends and family! Enjoy!

Phantom: Now with Lyrics!

2010-11-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

I've had a few requests for a video of Kenzie singing the words to Phantom now that she knows them, so here it is!

My favorite is: "The Phantom mamamamama is there... inside my mind." haha! What a goof.

Jumpin' Jacks

2010-11-21T12:23:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago Kenzie and I were invited to go to Jumpin' Jacks with my friend Sheana and her two boys, Aiden and Axton. It's one of those bouncing/slide places like that Kangaroo Zoo place we went to last year.

Because I was jumping around with her most of the time, I only got a few pictures (and most of them turned out blurry because they were "action shots" haha) And man, was I tired by the time we left! I hadn't jumped around that much since I was a kid. Kenzie had so much fun. At first she and Axton started out in the "under 5" play area.

Then we moved on to a little bit bigger one and Kenzie LOVED it. She was sad that she couldn't climb to the top by herself, but with a little help from me, she was at the top and racing to the bottom of the slide :) Here's the end result. She's loving it! haha!

But after a while, that slide wasn't enough. She had seen Aiden going down the biggest slide there and she had to try it. Sheana was kind enough to help her up the stairs so I could stay at the bottom and watch. I just love her smooth landing ;)

After that, I took her up a few more times and we went down together. I just love Kenzie's squeals of laughter.

Thanks Sheana, for inviting us! We had a great time!

"Leaves are falling all around..."

2010-11-20T11:11:00.004-07:00

Since we have two giant chestnut trees in our yard, we have the chance to rake up the leaves in the fall into monstrous piles- which of course have to be jumped in ;)

And Kenzie LOVES it. I think we played in the leaves for almost 40 minutes straight one day.

Even though she had a pile the size of a car, she still didn't feel it was big enough. She kept telling me she wanted the leaves that were still left in the tree as well. (There were like 10 left haha!)

Mother's Intuition: Dealing with Doctors...

2010-11-12T12:11:00.008-07:00

Just about a year ago, we took McKenzie to an pediatric opthalmologist to see about getting her left eye problem fixed.

At our first appointment everything went well and the doctor said she just needed glasses and that the problem would be solved. He did inform us at that time, however, that sometimes surgery is required to fix any lingering problems if the glasses aren't fixing everything. We had regular appointments every 3 months so that he'd have a good indication if anything was getting worse so that we would have time to correct the problem before she looses any vision in her left eye.

So after about 6 months I started noticing that Kenzie's eye was starting to drift while she was wearing her glasses. I brought it up at her next 2 appointments and that I felt she needed a patch or prism for her glasses to help strengthen her eye instead of just letting the glasses "ease" the tension. The doctor simply told me, "No she doesn't need a patch. A little crossing is expected. She's fine." No joke, that's all he would tell me...

So yesterday she had another appointment. I had stewed about the patch idea for a few weeks and had decided that I would just tell him straight out that if he wasn't going to do something about it, then I was. ("Momma Bear" was ready to come out and fight ;) Not only did he tell me sternly that a patch was not the answer, he had the nerve to tell me (after having only looked at her for less than 30 seconds) that, "She needs surgery. And I'm going to schedule it for next week."

WHAT?!?!!! You mean to tell me that everything was "fine" over the last 6 months and now she needs surgery within the week? Immediately I had a sick feeling of distrust wave over me. I had been patient with this doctor for almost a year and put up with his "I'm the one with the diploma and you don't know jack" attitude, because hey, he's the doctor. But I realized that every time I had asked a question over the last 6 times we'd been to his office, he hadn't even really explained to me what the specifics of her diagnosis and treatment were. When I asked him about the surgery, the most I could get out of him was that, "it takes less than an hour and the recovery time is 24 hours. It's a very simple precedure." And then he told me to go to the front desk to schedule it, and walked out of the room.

I left the office with some brochures about the facilities and how to prepare your child for surgery (wondering if they have one for the parents too...) got into the car and called Micah. It was so hard not to cry. I felt like I had been betrayed, and that this doctor had neglected my daughter the proper treatment early on, so that he could make a quick buck later. We decided it would be best to get a second opinion and within a half hour, Micah had found a doctor who had high ratings online and who accepted our insurance. I called them and explained the situation and we had an appointment scheduled for this morning.

When I got home I looked up a bunch of information up online about McKenzie's diagnosis. I found some literature that said patching does work in some cases (which gave me a little hope) but I knew that surgery may be a reality in the future depending on what the second doctor told us. I also looked up ratings of our current doctor and wasn't really shocked to see that of the 8 ratings I found, not a single person had given him higher than 1 out of 4 stars. Here's some examples:

"[He] didn't listen to my concerns at all and promptly recommended surgery for a Chalazion. I'm going to another Dr. for a second opinion before putting my child under the knife. This Dr. treated us like cattle and seemed to just want to make our visit 'worth' his time by prescribing surgery."

"The following conclusions are drawn from my interactions with [him] during his exams of my two-year-old daughter. He's a pediatric doctor who apparently doesn't like kids. He's not patient - especially if other children are along for the ride. He doesn't seem to care about his patients."

"At the time there were no other pediatric ophthalmologists in our county, we now wish we would've gone up to SLC. [He] has little bedside manner and gives vague answers to questions I asked. For example: I asked if my daughter would need surgery again and he responded 'I dropped my crystal ball on the freeway.' He's a good surgeon, just doesn't have good communication skills."
*(Here's where I have to point out that he said the EXACT same thing to me about the crystal ball when I asked him about surgery on Kenzie 6 months ago)

So this morning we had an ENTIRELY different experience. The doctor we saw is not a pediatric ophtalmologist, but he could've fooled me! He was so kind and patient with Kenzie (who did very well by the way- she liked going to the "docker") He actually took the time to listen to my concerns and spent about 40 minutes explaining McKenzie's diagnosis with us. He answered ALL of my questions to my satisfaction and I finally got an answer for why a patch won't help McKenzie's situation. She has what is called "Accomodative Esotropia" and a candidate for a patch has to have a problem between 10-15%. McKenzie's is 20%, and so the verdict is yes, she will in fact need the surgery. But this doctor doesn't feel that it is so urgent as to warrant a surgery within the week. We discussed how Micah and I felt it would be better financially if we could postpone the surgery until January, but that obviously if it needed to be done sooner we would do it. Our daughter's well being is the most important factor, after all...

The surgery is fairly simple. It is called Bilateral Medial Rectis surgery(BMR) Basically they'll detach the muscles that hold onto the eye and relax the one pulling too hard on her left by cutting and reattaching. They have to do it to both eyes (even though only the left eye has the problem) because if they straighten the left, the right will then over compensate and cross. It's amazing how the eyes work together, huh? He also informed us that even though this will very much improve McKenzie's problem, she may still have to have another surgery like this a few years down the road. She will also still need her glasses, but we figured that would be the case since her actual vision is so bad, so no suprises there.

He asked us how our relationship was with the other doctor, and as soon as I mentioned his name this doctor got a slight smirk on his face. (Not a rude or competitive "Ha!-I've-just-won-over-my-competition's-patient" kind of smirk) It was a "I've-heard-this-story-a-million-times-before" kind of look. He did confirm that he gets called a LOT about second surgical opinions from patients of this other guy, and that he often ends up referring them to a different pediatric group up in Salt Lake when the parents don't feel they can handle any more of Dr. ThinksSoHighlyOfHimself.

So here's where we are as of right now- We're going to see if McKenzie can become a new patient of one of the three pediatric opthalmologists at the Moran Eye Center in SLC. (these 3 plus our current doc are the only 4 peidatric ops within 100 miles of Provo- and I'm more than willing to drive to SLC if it means being treated with kindness and respect) Until then, I've called the current doc and cancelled the surgery "until further notice." The doc we saw today said his office would work on getting all of Kenzie's records transferred for us so we won't have to deal with the awkward "breakup." I still plan on writing our current doctor and letting him have a piece of my mind as to why he is losing our business...hehehehe.... And we're hoping that a new pediatric op will be able to see McKenzie within the next 2 months and schedule the surgery.

Even though the outcome of the appointment this morning was basically the same as yesterday's (the only change being the date of the surgery) I feel a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I realized that I should have listened to the nagging voice of doubt 6 months ago and started looking for a different doctor who would treat me and my child like human beings instead of just a paycheck. So to all you mothers who are reading this, please learn from me and listen to that intuition that I know God has given us. We know deep down what is best, and even a good doctor should recognize that gift.

Just for fun...

2010-11-07T19:17:00.002-07:00

We bought Toy Story 3 last week and have enjoyed it very much :) (None of us had seen it before we bought it, but we figured you can't go wrong with Pixar!) So I thought I'd share this video again of Kenzie dancing to "You've Got a Friend In Me" from last year.

It makes me smile.

We can't wait to put her in dance lessons. She's been dancing since she was in my belly and she has a definite love for music!

My New Candlesticks

2010-11-03T14:17:00.003-06:00

Because I was dressing up as Miss Scarlet for our family Halloween party, I needed a candlestick for my "weapon."

But- I didn't have one. So I went to D.I. in hopes to find a decent sized candlestick, but all they had were little wooden ones (about 8" tall) that had a pretty ugly paint job on them. But for $1.50 I got 2 (because I knew I'd be "fixing them" anyway and needed a pair)

And because Friday and Saturday were crazy busy, I didn't get them painted in time for the party. Thankfully, Aunt Cynthia let me borrow one (which in hindsight maybe I should've just asked to borrow one in the first place, instead of buying them, but oh well ;)

So today I went to work and got them painted for some fancy schmancy party I'm sure we'll have someday in the future haha.

here's the before:

And after using Krylon "Oil Rubbed Bronze Satin" spraypaint:

Yes, I know they look black, but it does have gold-ish flecks in there and the camera didn't do it justice.

Now I just need to buy the tall skinny candles to use with them ;)

So what do you think?

Grandmother and Grandad

2010-11-03T13:23:00.006-06:00

My great-grandparents recently sold their home in West Virginia and are relocating to North Carolina to be closer to their daughter, my great-aunt Nicka, and her husband Tom.

I'm happy for them to be moving so they can take life easier in a condo instead of worrying about all the maintenance that is involved when you own a home with gorgeous gardens and the like, but I'm also extrememly sad that they sold their home. :'(

For one, growing up I was always amazed with their house. Every room at Grandmother and Grandad's seemed magical in its own way- especially the upstairs hallway. It had red carpet and April and I always used to say it was like an airline jetway. At the end of the hall was a playroom that we would spend hours playing in. I can still remember the smell of the room as you open the door... And for some reason I always liked to pretend that opening the door to that room was like entering the wardrobe to Narnia.

I remember sleeping in the room with the double twin beds with April and we would always get scared from the tree branches that were right by the window.

April and I would always sit at the table and play with the bowl of fake fruit. There were some that were glass (or alabaster?) and we would just touch them ever-so-gently, but my favorite were the plastic grapes. I loved to squeeze them and watch them pop back into their original shape.

Grandad kept a glass paperweight on his desk that I loved to look at. It had a mushroom, some wildflowers and a ladybug inside. It was beautiful.

Their patio and yard were immaculate. There was a beautiful pond with lilypads and wonderful flowers all over.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I can find of me at their house. *hint hint Mom and Meme, I need pictures! ;)* I love the bricks and the pretty flowers that grew all along that wall.

But the other reason I'm sad they sold their house is that Micah hasn't ever had a chance to see it. I haven't been back to their home since 2003 (3 years before I even met Micah) so I'm a little disappointed at myself that we haven't made the trip out there before they sold it. I guess I was secretly (or perhaps not so secretly) hoping that they wouldn't ever sell it. haha! I've told Micah that we need to go visit them very soon since Grandmother's health hasn't been so well lately, and so that they can meet him and McKenzie. And now that they'll be close to Aunt Nicka and Uncle Tom, we'll get to see them too :)

(I also said we could still go by their old house and ask the new owners if we can look around for a little while. I'm sure they'll think we're nuts, but maybe they'll be nice and let us in anyway ;)

But one good thing to come from the move that affects us directly is that Grandmother and Grandad gave me a small desk from their home. It is beautiful! I'm so happy to have something of theirs in my home. It makes me feel closer to them and I'm so happy that I have something to show McKenzie that has been in my family for generations and that someday I'll be able to pass down to my grandchildren as well.

Thank you Grandmother and Grandad for all the wonderful memories of your beautiful home. I hope you enjoy your new adventures in North Carolina. I love you and miss you so much!

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-02T13:02:00.009-06:00

I hope everyone had a spooktacular Halloween. I know we sure did!

Our festivities started out on Friday when we took McKenzie trick-or-treating at Micah's work. Everyone there loved her costume and she was very good about saying, "Please!" and "Thank you!"

She got to hang out with her friend David and they were so cute in their matching costumes! (And that was not planned, by the way :)

Simba and Nala ;)

Then on Saturday we had our annual Bate Family Halloween party. Unfortunately, Mom, Dad and Alyson weren't able to make it this year because Allie had a color guard competition that day. We sure missed you guys!

The theme this year was "toys." There were some pretty great costumes, but I didn't get very many pics so send them my way if you've got them!

McKenzie went as Minnie Mouse. Here's some from home before the party:

(She was doing a little jig in the doorway at the time haha)

Here's her singing "You've Got a Friend In Me" but she didn't want me to sing with her this time...

Here's Grandma and Grandpa Bate with all their great-grandkids. Isaac and Carly were the sheep from Toy Story (their mom and dad went as Bo Peep and Woody) Keith was Obi-Wan Kenobi, Adam was Batman, Nathan was a penguin (Wheezy from Toy Story 2 perhaps?) and Grandma and Grandpa were Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls :)

I just love the huge cheesey grin on Kenzie's face haha!

Micah and I dressed up with some of the cousins and Uncle Craig as the characters from Clue. I was Miss Scarlet, David was Professor Plum, Natalie was Ms. White, Tanya was Mrs. Peacock, Craig was Mr. Green and Micah was Col. Mustard. (he even grew out his beard to have the "chops" look haha!)

And of course we each had our weapon ;)

Michelle was a Sky Dancer, remember those?

Jared and Jenna went as Princess Lolly and Mr. Mint from "Candyland."

And the best news of all: They're ENGAGED!!!

We're SO excited for Jenna to become part of the family. McKenzie keeps saying, "They gonna get maehweed in the tiiiiimple with a pretty dress!" Jenna has been a favorite of Kenzie's since we went to the fish farm back in June.

Then of course we went trick-or-treating that night in our neighborhood. We almost didn't go at all because it was raining SO hard, and we figured she had gotten enough candy from Micah's work the other day. But as luck would have it, the rain stopped about 7:00 so we hurried and went down the block and back.

While walking up the sidewalk to the very first house, Kenzie kept saying "trick-or-treat!" but she got nervous as soon as Ann answered the door. She did say thank you though, so that was fine. At least she's polite! ;)

Ann gave out cans of soda and Kenzie was having a hard time carrying it, but wouldn't let Micah take it out of her bucket. "No it's MINE! MY JUICE!" hahaha. Eventually we distracted her long enough with someone's ghost hanging on the porch that Micah took it out and put it in his pocket for later. She didn't even notice haha!

By the time we'd gone to a few more houses Kenzie was warming up to this idea of random people giving her candy. In fact, at one house I started chatting with the mom and while we were talking, Kenzie kept taking handfuls and candy from the basket while she and I were distracted and saying, "Thank you!" each time. It was pretty funny. At a few houses (where she recognized the people at the door) she would roar when they asked if she was a lion. haha!

Oh- and Jessica, if you're reading this, all day Sunday and Monday Kenzie kept looking out the window to try and see "the phantom" again because she was SO excited to see Nate in his costume. She has a crazy obsession with the Phantom of the Opera...

McKenzie definitely had a great time. She's constantly asking us for candy and she doesn't understand why she can't have any at 9 in the morning. (We never buy candy or treats besides cookies so she's not used to having so much temptation in the house haha) But usually after lunch or dinner I'll give her a dum-dum sucker (those are her favorites) and she's satisfied. I'm sure we'll have to go through the same thing once Christmas comes around!

Happy!

2010-10-24T21:59:00.002-06:00

I just love this sweet little girl. She always makes me laugh and her smile brightens my day.

Hooded Towels

2010-10-11T12:45:00.001-06:00

Isn't my niece Ali so adorable? Just had to say that before I start... :)

When McKenzie was a baby I ~~wasn't happy with~~ hated the tiny hooded towels we had. They were so thin and they didn't really pull the water away from her body. It was more like wrapping her up in a soaking wet blanket and she would shiver.

About 2 months after Kenzie was born I went to a friend's baby shower where she received a homemade hooded towel from a girl who I didn't know. After the gifts were all opened and we were sitting around eating I walked up to the girl and asked her how she made it. It sounded fairly simple, so I set out to make Kenzie some for Christmas that year. I ended up making two up at my grandma's house (I didn't have my own sewing machine at the time) and Meme helped me figure out how to get the ribbon to fit just right. (Thanks, Meme!)

Since then I've made about 6 or 7 more for friends and family and I've gotta say, they are my absolute favorite gift to give! They're simple to make, a lot better than the tiny baby ones, and it will be well used since they're big enough that I'm pretty sure a 5 year old could still use them.

Get a regular towel and a matching hand towel. I buy mine at Kmart. They have a particular style that makes it so I can get two hoods out of one hand towel and it is much easier for measuring and cutting as well.

(Sorry this pic was taken with one of my kitchen dish towels because I keep forgetting to take one...) Basically you fold your hand towel diagonally until the long edge is sitting right above the fancy design part. Make sure it is lined up in the same spot on both ends (you'll know what I'm talking about when you start folding it) Then cut a straight line right down the middle (where the ruler is on the pic) You should then have two pieces that look like this:

You'll only need one of these sections per towel, so you can either save the other half for another time (to make a gift for a friend!) or, just buy two full size towels and make a second one for your baby :)

Pin the cut side and then you'll want to cut a straight line about 1 cm down onto the fancy part. (Click on this pic to see it larger if you want.)

Take a permanent marker and mark a rounded edge at the point. Using the presser-foot as a guide (1/4" seam) sew along the cut edge, following the marker line you just drew and down the folded side. (leave the side with the fancy edge open so that it looks like a pocket) Cut the extra fabric above the marker corner and flip the hood right side out.

Then find the center of your towel and hood and pin the fancy edge to it, making sure on the other side that none of the fancy part is showing. (the cm of fancy line should be overlapping the towel) Flip it over so that you now see the normal towel edge and use a zigzag seam to attach the towel to the hood. (Click this pic to enlarge it)

Now you're ready to attach your ribbon. Flip the towel over so you can see the fancy edge side and pin your ribbon over it. Make sure it covers all the unfinished edge. (I use a ribbon that is at least 7/8") Pin and sew as close to the edges of the ribbon as you can, going around all 4 sides.

You're done!!

Wasn't that easy?! Here's a few pics of the different ribbons I've used.

This last one was a towel I signed up to make for a service auction our Relief Society did. The girl who "bought" my service wanted me to use a ribbon she already had, so I put that on there. She also gave me some light purple ribbon and wasn't sure if I could use that as well, so I bought a purple washcloth and by folding the ribbon in half, I sewed it around the edge. It didn't turn out as perfect as I'd wanted (mainly on the corners...) but I figure with practice I can get those to look nice as well.

What do you think?

Afternoon Snack/Art

2010-10-01T15:26:00.000-06:00

After McKenzie gets up from her nap she usually eats a cup of yogurt while I put away dishes and tidy up the kitchen. This is what happened the other day:

First of all, this face tipped me off that she was up to no good. ;)

I looked at her face and the table and asked, "Kenzie, are you done eating your yogurt? You're making a mess."

"I'm not make a mess. I'm painting the table."

"Oh... what are you painting?"

"An elephant!"

She definitely has a very active imagination!

A Wonderful Day

2010-09-30T14:48:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday our family got to attend the baptism of one of my best friend's husband, James. It was truly a wonderful experience and I'm so grateful to Nickie for inviting us to share in James' special day.

I've known Nickie for 6 years now and over those years we have become best friends. She is such a wonderful woman and she has shown me what it really means to be strong, patient, charitable and loving to everyone. Nickie is a great mother to 3 beautiful children and she recently married a wonderful man who I know brings so much joy to her life. James is very tender-hearted (just like Nickie) and he treats Nickie like the queen she is :)

Being at James' baptism was so special. I've been to baptisms of little children before, and those are wonderful in their own way, but seeing this man come unto Christ at this point in his life made my heart sing with joy. The Spirit was so strong and I felt a renewed sense of gratitude for the Savior's love for me and my family and friends.

It was a great teaching opportunity for McKenzie as Micah and I explained to her what was going on. She knew that James loved Jesus and wanted to be like Him. She was very excited about the "special tubby" that washed away all his sins. She was pretty reverent the whole time (minus a few toddler wiggles she needed to get out of her system).

Thank you again Nickie and James for inviting us to share your special day. I'm so happy for you and your family. I know that the true gospel of Jesus Christ is here on the earth today and that through Him we can return to our father in heaven someday.

Visit with Grandma Fullmer

2010-09-20T19:06:00.003-06:00

Last Wednesday McKenzie and I spent the entire day with Grandma Fullmer (McKenzie's great-grandma). Kenzie had a great time having tea parties with some teddy bears and Grandma sure had fun chasing Kenzie around :)

My grandma is the queen of fabric. I know I mentioned in some past posts about how a lot of the fabric I have is from her. Well this year she decided she wanted to get rid of all the ~~bazillion~~ 25 or so boxes she had in one of her spare bedrooms. So she decided to let me go through all of them before she gave them away so that I could take all that I wanted (and then some! ;) In going through all the different boxes I could just feel the love she has for me and my sister. I can't tell you how many cutesy girly projects there were and especially the all the different kinds of Care Bears fabric! (April and I were WAY into Care Bears in case you didn't know) There was also some Rainbow Brite stuff that made me smile. I know it was hard for her to live so far away from us when we were younger and that she didn't get to teach us how to make all the things she had bought. But now, her great-grandkids can enjoy these things as April and I expand our sewing skills :)

I wasn't really expecting to find too much that I'd want to use (seeing as how most of it was ca. 1979), but a lot of what she had wasn't just plain fabric, but super-easy-just-cut-out-and-sew-this-into-a-cute-project kind of stuff. I found some really cute Christmas placemat patterns, Christmas countdown wall hangings, a bunch of different quiet books to make, and even patterns for little kids Halloween costumes.

I ended up leaving with 3 (very full) large boxes, and 2 grocery sacks of fabric, cut-and-sew patterns, clothing patterns, tons of thread and 2 bags of stuffing. I also made sure to set aside about 3 or 4 boxes worth for my sister that Grandma will ship out to her since she lives in Georgia and couldn't go through it all with me.

I was so excited to start making some projects that I made this Care Bears bag the very next day :) McKenzie is SO excited to use it as her library bag and fill it with books.

Thank you, Grandma for everything. I definitely had a great time and McKenzie can't stop talking about how much fun she had. We're going to have to come and spend another full day up there again soon! Love you!

(A More Real) Love Story

2010-09-10T13:04:00.004-06:00

I saw this on my friend's Facebook page and about died laughing...

Micah, you'll always be my Prince. Love you honey!

Homemade Laundry Soap 3 Months Later...

2010-09-07T13:10:00.002-06:00

3 months ago I wrote a post about how I was making my own laundry detergent to save money. I thought now would be a good time to give a better review of how everything has been working out so that if you're interested in trying it yourself you'd know what you're getting yourself into ;)

PROS:
-I've only spent on average $3/month on detergent as opposed to the $20 I was spending before. (This cost is from buying 1 bar each of laundry soap and Dove)
-I'm still using the original boxes of washing soda and borax (I have enough to do 1 more batch with the washing soda, and at least 4 more batches with the borax before having to buy more)
-I use 1-2 scoops of Oxi Clean with every load of laundry I do and I've only used half of the 15 lb tub I got at Costco 3 months ago.

CONS:
-I actually use 3 Tbsp of detergent with large/super loads so I'm going thru the detergent a little faster than I originally planned. However, I still only have to make a batch once a month.
-My 6 month projected price before I started was $11.65, but because I've been using more than I thought the price will now be around $16. (Not too bad)
-I've noticed in this last month that some of our dark colored shirts are looking more faded than they were before. (Mostly reds, navy blues, browns and blacks)

My final conclusion:

I'll continue making my own detergent because, for the most part, I am pleased with the results. However, we will be supplimenting our homemade detergent with Tide to use just on our colored clothes. I'll be using the homemade detergent to wash all of our whites, denim, sheets and towels. Yes, we'll be spending more than I wanted to, but the cost of Tide will in fact be cheaper than replacing our wardrobe ;) I figure using Tide for 2 loads/week out of the 7 or 8 I usually do shouldn't be too big of an impact on our wallet.

Has anyone else tried using homemade detergent? How has it worked for you?

Clean Up!

2010-09-01T13:13:00.002-06:00

I told Kenzie she needed to clean her room. So she put on her apron and started vacuuming. Hahaha!

Stay Awake

2010-09-01T13:09:00.003-06:00

Singing "Stay Awake" from Marry Poppins. She didn't want to sing for the camera, so I recorded her while her back was turned ;)

Iron Chef Provo!

2010-08-30T13:21:00.004-06:00

On Saturday we hosted an "Iron Chef" competition at our house with some of Micah's friends from work.

The rules were you had to cook an entree in 30 minutes using pork chops, zuchinni/yellow squash and strawberries.

Sadly I was so occupied with getting our dish done in time that I didn't take any pics of the fun we were having. So here's the pics of the finished plates:

Grilled pork chop with mashed yams, fried zuchinni and a strawberry/balsamic reduction sauce.

Pan-seared pork chop with zuchinni "potato" cake, straweberry glaze and creme brulee.

Pork chop soup with mushrooms, peppers and onions, with a zuchinni rice and strawberry mango lemonade (not pictured)

Our fabulous judges, Kris and Kalenn

The winners were Chris and Becky with their pan-seared pork chop dish. Congrats guys!

We had a wonderful time with our friends! We'll definitely need to do it again soon. :)

Little Pool

2010-08-30T12:24:00.004-06:00

My dad got Kenzie a little pool for her birthday. It's perfect for her to relax in on those hot summer days. And since we have a pretty big porch, we are in the shade the whole time! It does get pretty noisy since we live on a busy street, but Kenzie doesn't seem to mind. She loves telling me about the buses, motorcycles and firetrucks that go by :)

The funny thing is, she doesn't splash around like a crazy person. She mostly just likes to sit and quietly play with her toys. She's such a sweet little girl.

Sleeping Beauty

2010-08-29T12:17:00.000-06:00

That is one tired little girl...

Then and Now...

2010-08-27T14:25:00.004-06:00

My parents are always telling me just how quickly I've grown up... and they're right. I never really understood until I became a mom. I feel like it was yesterday that we were bringing home our bundle of joy from the hospital and feeling overwhelmed, nervous, excited and elated all at the same time. Now my sweet baby is 2 and I can't believe how quickly time has passed. I'm trying to treasure every moment with her because I'm afraid I'll go to bed tonight and wake up tomorow to her asking me to help do her hair for her senior prom.

If only she would stay this little forever... I love you McKenzie.

Shopping For a Toddler From My Own Closet

2010-08-20T13:53:00.006-06:00

What should you do when a really cute shirt/skirt you love doesn't fit? Instead of giving it away I decided I would make clothes for McKenzie instead!

The first project was a shirt dress:

I apologize for only taking one step-by-step picture to show you what I did... I completely forgot to keep taking pics!

I started out unstitching the sleeves:

I unstitched the front piece from the back. I cut the front so that it would fit across, folded and made a seam. Then I lined up the bottom seams of the two pieces (keep in mind that the back piece is now WAY too high because I've already adjusted the front to fit her.) I measured out where I wanted the back to be and cut a straight line across, folded and made a seam. Then I put the pieces together right sides facing and made a seam down the sides.

I finished it off with some ribbon I bought to match for the sleeves.

I still think it needs some buttons or ribbon on the front, but it turned out pretty cute!

The second project was a skirt:

My aunt gave me this skirt last year but it was too short due to my freakishly long legs. I couldn't part with it though because I loved the material and decided I would make a skirt for McKenzie with it instead. Thanks Aunt Stephanie for the adorable skirt! (And sorry I cut it up into pieces... but I'm sure you won't mind that you provided Kenzie with some cute clothes ;)

I started out by unstitching the back where the zipper is. I was able to salvage the zipper so I'll be saving that for a future project I'm sure.

Because it has pleats in the skirt and I didn't want to mess with those, I went against my natural tendencies to start from the edge of the fabric so as not to waste so much, and cut out the fabric I needed from the middle. (I still think I have enough to make an even smaller skirt for my little niece Eliza though)

I finished the bottom with a 1/4" seam.

And as luck would have it, there was already a lovely fold inside the skirt for me to put the elastic I bought :D So I sewed along the very edge to make it a "pocket" and pulled the elastic through by attaching a safety pin to the end. Once it was in, I cut the elastic a little shorter than I needed, stretched it and sewed it to each end of the waistband.

Then I folded the ends together (right sides facing eachother) and sewed them together. Flipped it right side out and.... Ta-Da!! A brand new skirt for McKenzie

Isn't it cute!?!

To make both outfits cost me a total of $2.62 (for the ribbon and elastic) Not bad, eh?

A Cute Little Apron

2010-08-20T12:25:00.008-06:00

A while back I got a stack of fabric from my grandma who is an amazing seamstress. There was one small piece of fabric that I thought was super cute and girly but it wasn't enough fabric for any of the projects I had set out to do. I loved the little flower trim on the end and knew that whatver I made had to keep that. But I wasn't sure what I'd be able to make that could keep that trim and also use the big flowers on the other end as well... I almost made a pillowcase out of it, but something told me to just wait. So I held onto it, hoping I'd eventually find something to use it for.

After I had my heart set on getting McKenzie a play kitchen for her birthday I knew I wanted her to have a little apron as well. So I pulled out all my fabric and layed a few out to see what would be cute "apron" material. The small purple piece caught my eye, and what do you know? It was the perfect size for a little apron!

The last time I had used a pattern for something was in 7th grade when I learned how to make shorts. Since then I've pretty much made up my own patterns (or used one that wasn't difficult at all, as in, you only cut out one piece and don't have to attach it to anything...haha!) So since I pretty much knew what an apron should look like, I just pulled out one of Kenzie's sundresses and used it as a sizing guide:

I cut out the fabric:

Folded over the edges, ironed and sewed:

I used the remaining purple parts to make the ties for the waist and neck. For her neck I decided velcro would be easiest for her to use so I sewed the one side directly to the apron and put a small piece of velcro on the inside of the apron and a longer piece on the strap so that as she grows she can still wear it comfortably.

And I used the big flower part of the fabric to make a pocket for the front:

It is a little long on her, but that just means she has room to grow and she'll have it for a long time. She loves to wear it (especially if I'm wearing mine :)

All in all this project cost me a total of: $0.00. I was given the fabric, already had thread, and the velcro was left over from when I altered her velcro bumper to fit the crib.

If you'd like to make one like this (and I'm sure it would fit up to a 4 year old) I think 1 yard of fabric would be plenty. Or if you want, come on over to my house and check out my fabric selection and see if you like any of it :)

The Phantom of the Opera

2010-08-13T08:07:00.000-06:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this girl LOVES Phantom of the Opera!!

The Birthday Party!

2010-08-12T14:23:00.005-06:00

McKenzie's birthday party was a lot of fun! We had it at a park that isn't too far from our house so that we could all enjoy the nice weather and let the kids run around on the playground. It was a great day. :)

When I was little my mom always made our birthday cakes, and so I told myself that when I had kids I would make theirs as well. So far, so good! Last year I made a ladybug cake, and this year I decided to make the characters from Kenzie's favorite show, "Chuggington." And in case you don't know who they are, (which I'm sure most of you don't haha) here's a pic of Koko, Wilson and Brewster:

I think the cakes turned out alright, but I think they could've been better had I used bread loaf pans instead of dividing a 13x9 cake into thirds. I'll just say this, doing the main icing wasn't easy due to the cake flaking away all over the place... But anyway, here's the finished product:

Kenzie had a blast playing on the swings while we waited for some family to arrive.

She loves singing the birthday song. And when it is over, she knows what to do! haha!

She LOVED her princess crown and veil and wears it around the house all the time. She was constantly telling everyone, "I'm a princess!!" :)

She also loved dancing to Uncle Jared's musical card.

All in all, we had a great time. She is no longer a baby- she's definitely a little girl now! Thanks to everyone who came. We love you!!

Cute Little Table

2010-08-04T13:12:00.004-06:00

McKenzie is a very imaginative little girl and loves to play anything that would be categorized under "house." So for her birthday we decided to get her a little table so she could have tea parties as often as she'd like. (Not that not having one stopped her before, but this would make it more official)

My grandma had promised to give Kenzie the entire set of playroom furniture (table, chairs, toychest and vanity) if/when they sell their home if there isn't room in the home they would move to, and I know Kenzie would LOVE that. (She spends 90% of her time at Meme's house up in the playroom haha!) The only problem is that we wouldn't have enough room to set it up if we were to get it anytime soon. So we decided to go ahead and look for a smaller table that would fit more comfortably in her room now and then one day if we do get the other set we'll just have an extra play table as well :)

As I was walking around our local thrift store I saw a little plain dark brown coffee table (or at least that's what I'm assuming it was) and it was the perfect size. And only $10!! So I bought it, took it home and spraypainted it to match Kenzie's room.

Isn't it so cute and the perfect size?! Kenzie loves it and even wants to eat lunch in her room sometimes. :)

I'm hoping to get some time soon that I can repaint that corner cabinet. It needs a fresh coat anyway, and it definitely needs a lighter shade of pink (Barbie pink is way too much...) And I'll redo the stripes as well. I found some extra of the stripe paper that I used and all I'll need is more mod podge to finish it. Yay for thrifty decorating!

Happy 2nd Birthday McKenzie!

2010-07-30T08:26:00.001-06:00

Dear McKenzie,

Mommy and Daddy can hardly believe how much you have grown grown in the last year...

You are so good at saying your prayers and being reverent when we are at church. You are showing us everyday that you know who your Savior is and we hope that you can feel His love for you.

You have a very special place in Daddy's heart that only a daughter's love can fill. It is fun for Mommy to watch you two play together and see the wonderful relationship you have together and that I pray will always be that way.

You are Mommy's little shadow. You love to do whatever Mommy is doing and it makes us laugh at some of the "mommy" things you do- like singing to your babies and toys, putting them down for naps and comforting them with they "cry." It makes Mommy feel like she's doing something right :)

In March we took apart your crib and put you in a regular bed. We're so proud of you for staying in bed (most of the time ;) when we put you down for a nap or bed at night. You are always so excited to get into your "big girl bed."

One of the biggest changes for you this year has been you getting glasses. You are very good with them and everyone (even complete strangers!) comment on how cute you are with them. They make your big blue eyes even bigger.

In April you took your first plane ride out to Georgia to see your cousins. You had such a great time and were a wonderful little traveler.

You certainly had fun up at the cabin this past Spring. You've always been an explorer and Mommy and Daddy are always trying to keep up with you and your never-ending curiosity.

You're quite the ham and will always perform for an audience.

You've grown up so much and it is amazing to see how much you've learned and continue to learn on a daily basis. You're so smart and suprise us everyday with new words, sounds and talents. You already know how to count to 10, can recognize about 10 individual letters and know the sounds they make, and can sing the ABC song. Mommy's favorite part is at the end when you sing, "...W X Y and Z. Now I know my ABCs... now I know my ABCs!" :)

Mommy and Daddy love you so much. You fill our lives with so much happiness. Have a wonderful birthday sweetie and always remember how much you are loved!

Last Minute Trip!

2010-07-28T09:46:00.001-06:00

We had a last minute trip to Sacramento this weekend for Micah's cousin Steven's wedding. Of course we knew about the wedding for a few weeks, but we didn't think we'd make it because Micah wasn't allowed to take off anymore work. But just a few days before the wedding Micah was told that everyone was getting Friday the 23rd (the day of the wedding!) off in observance of Pioneer Day. So he worked some extra hours on Mon-Wed so that we could take off a little earlier on Thursday and drive straight through to California in time for the wedding.

The wedding wasn't until 4 pm so we had time to kill Friday morning and decided to go see the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. It was pretty cool- and completely free! :)

How cool is that? President Reagan's face made entirely out of Jelly Bellies.

We got to wear some pretty sweet hats. Kenzie's lasted about 5 minutes...

And unfortunately that is where the pics end for the Jelly Belly factory. They don't allow picture taking once the tour starts... But if you're ever in that part of California and are looking for something cool (and cheap!) to do, head on over. It was pretty cool.

So onto the real reason we drove out there...

The Sacramento Temple was so beautiful.

And can you believe this family picture?!?! I about died- I was so impressed that we were all smiling (and in the right direction) and Kenzie doesn't have her hands in her mouth or by her face. Thanks David for taking this picture. It really made my day!

The flowers weren't safe at all... and yes I do feel bad that I was taking a picture of her picking the flowers instead of stopping her. (But she was eventually stopped.)

Kenzie and her cousin Sam. Isn't he so adorable?

And of course we need a super cheesy grin

The happy couple. Steven and Kelly Gale!

The reception was beautiful and a lot of fun. This made me laugh so hard:

(Steven is 6'7", and I'm pretty sure Kelly is at least 2 inches taller than me)

And because Kenzie didn't get a nap at all and the evening was filled with a whole lot of this...

...she zonked right out in Daddy's arms.

We had a wonderful time and are so grateful we were able to go and see all our extended family from California. Congrats Steven and Kelly! We love you and are so happy for you!

Fish Farm

2010-07-28T09:11:00.002-06:00

Last month we took a trip up to Ogden and went to the fish farm. Micah had told me about when he went as a kid for field trips and had fun so we figured Kenzie would like it. I have to admit though, when I heard "fish farm" I was totally expecting a big building with long troughs with fish in them. But this was such a nice place! It had a very open country feel to it and I was very impressed. Kenzie had a great time. She was so interested in the fish and of course she always loves hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, Michelle, Alyson and Jared.

While we waited for everyone else to get there Kenzie wanted to sit down and look at the fish.

That is a TON of fish. This wasn't the place where you'd catch them cause these were still pretty small. I just couldn't get over how many were in there!

"Come on, Grandpa!"

We still were waiting on Jared and his girlfriend, Jenna, so Micah kept her entertained a little longer by tossing her in the air. It's not so hard to toss her super high since she barely weighs anything! ;)

Here's Micah showing off his catch. The sun was right in his eyes.

So curious

Jenna kept an eye on Kenzie while I took my turn to fish. Kenzie had so much fun playing with Jenna that now she always asks for her. And if Jared comes into the room Kenzie always says, "Hi Jared! Hi Jenna!" (Even if Jenna isn't there! haha!)

I actually caught one! I hadn't been fishing in YEARS so it was pretty big deal. Of course it isn't all that hard to catch one at the fish farm since you just stick your pole in the water and sprinkle food around until one snags your line. Those fish go nuts for the food!

One of the best parts was going back to Mom and Dad's to cook them and eat them. There's nothing like extremely fresh fish :) Yum!!

We had a great time and I know we'll be going again :) It is way cheap and you can pay the people to clean and fillet them for you. I highly recommend taking your family (especially if you have little kids). They'll have a blast!

**UPDATE** For anyone interested in going, here is their website to get more information on the address and hours: Cold Springs Trout Farm

Cute New Decor

2010-07-27T20:36:00.007-06:00

A while back I saw a post on Thrifty Decor Chick's blog that made me want a new centerpiece for our dining room table. I new I wanted something very similar to what she had done, but I new I didn't have the time to make it like she had and I wanted to be even more thrify by not even spending any money on it at all. (Laugh at me all you want)

Right around Christmas it just so happened that my mom was showing off some super cute cabinet doors she got from her work that weren't wanted anymore and I snagged one for myself :)

It was the perfect length and color for my table. And as luck would have it, my grandparents gave Micah and I a set of 3 battery operated candles for Christmas. I wanted some twigs or something to set around the candles, but I couldn't find any I liked so I just used some extra pebbles I had. It looked fabulous, but didn't last long...

I actually think she may have eaten a few of the pebbles so it was time to say goodbye to my centerpiece :(

I found another place for them though, and I love it even more than the centerpiece so it all worked out nicely.

So then I was left with this beautiful wooden door and wasn't sure what to do with it. After a while I decided it'd be perfect for some vinyl wording that everyone has in their houses. I LOVE the idea of vinyl on our walls, but sadly because we have textured walls I can't find a flat enough surface for it to look nice, and if I'm going to spend the money on the vinyl, I want to be able to keep it. As in, forever instead of just until we move or I decide I don't like where it is.

My friend Amanda and I had talked about taking a trip to Quilted Bear so we went last week and I wandered around the store with my door and found one I really liked:

And I hung it over all our family pics :)

What do you think?

Newport Beach

2010-07-14T09:07:00.002-06:00

My grandparents have a timeshare with Marriott Resorts and this year they booked a stay at Newport Beach. We actually stayed at the same resort 5 years ago, about 3 months before I met Micah.

So in the middle of June we drove down to California. It was as beautiful as I remembered it, only this time it was a lot more fun because I had McKenzie with me and she got to experience the beach for the first time :) Unfortunately Micah couldn't get work off to go so I spent the week taking pictures and videos with my phone to give him play-by-play details of Kenzie's excitement with this new adventure. I also took pics and videos with our real camera too so here they are for you to enjoy:

My poor little girl couldn't figure out why the sand kept sticking to her face. Each time she tried to wipe it off, more got stuck. hahaha. She sure was cute though!

Here's 2 videos of her reaction to the water. At first we couldn't tell if the shrieking was from fear or sheer delight. Turns out it was a little of both. Haha

I know my skin (especially my legs) are freakishly white. And yes, the sun reflects off them and almost blinds innocent passersby. So just in case you wanted to see what happens when I stay out in the sun too long, here is a before and after of my shoulders. No coloration has been altered...

This was taken a few days after I got home. By this point the blisters on my shoulders had already semi-healed so you can't really see them poking out as much. But believe me- it was extremely painful... And don't worry. Kenzie was well protected with sunblock so she did not get any burn at all. Serves me right for only trusting spf 30 for myself instead of 50 like I had put on my baby.

Mormon Battalion Visitors Center

2010-07-14T02:00:00.000-06:00

On Sunday during our trip we drove down to San Diego after church and went to the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center. It was really neat the way they taught us about the history of these wonderful men and women.

They had some activities for the kids to try out which Kenzie loved.

Pumping water to wash clothes

Making bricks

Hyrum and Jacob got to try on some of the equipment that was used by the Mormon Battalion. Look how huge that gun is!

Searching for gold

Peeking out the window

Me and my mom :)

They took our picture to show that we were honorary members :) It was really a cool place to learn about some history. If you're ever in the San Diego area I highly suggest going and seeing it. It's awesome!

San Diego Zoo

2010-07-14T00:04:00.007-06:00

While we stayed in Newport Beach, my grandparents took us all to the San Diego Zoo. Let's just say that it was way better than our local zoo...haha

The pandas were probably the biggest deal seeing as how not many zoos in the world have them. They had a sign at the entrance to the Panda exhibit that said we were supposed to be quiet so as not to disturb them. When my grandpa read the sign he said, "Oh that must be their names! Silenko and Por Favron." (butchering of course the Spanish sign telling us to be quiet. "Silencio, Por favor.") I love Grampy. He's such a funny guy!

And then Grampy told us where we could see some "Gazebos." HAHAHA! I was totally freaked out by the way it was standing straight up. I guess he wanted the leaves at the top of the tree. Then he so nicely looked over for a photo op. :)

One of my favorites was this little guy. All the other meerkats were running around like crazy, but not this guy. He was totally relaxed. :)

A few of my cousins really enjoyed the seal play area. It was funny to watch them poke their heads up and down :)

Kenzie spent most of the day in the stroller, cause holy cow is that zoo HUGE!! But they did have a kids area where they could pet some goats. And seeing as how she is totally a pro at petting goats I let her have some fun :)

This goat looked pretty lonely so she decided to sit down and have a little chat. She always makes everyone feel so loved, even goats.

She fed this one some straw she found in the dirt. Haha!

A zookeeper brought out a giant porcupine for everyone to see. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture because there were so many people crowded around that Kenzie and I didn't really get a chance to see it. But they did pass around a quil to feel. It was pretty neat.

And of course we had to take a picture with one of the statues. McKenzie was in heaven!

Of course being out and about with tons of excitement made for a rough afternoon because Kenzie hadn't had her nap. So after about a half hour of screaming like a banshee, she totally zonked out.

We finished our day on the far side of the zoo and decided to take the sky buckets back to the front. It's a good thing Kenzie was asleep or I would've felt really bad taking her up so high and hearing, "Want down! Want down!"

We had a great time and I'm so glad Kenzie got to see so many different animals. Thanks Meme and Grampy for a great time!

Cassidy's Birthday and Fireworks

2010-07-13T13:32:00.006-06:00

Every year between the 4th and 24th of July (a holiday in Utah celebrating the day the Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847) there is a fireworks show put on at Weber State. This year, it just happened to be on my birthday. Wasn't that nice of them to give me such an awesome party?! So we headed up to Mom and Dad's for a fun day of family, food, games and fireworks.

Kenzie decided to play a few lawn games including a ring toss and badminton.

She even helped Uncle Jared serve the ball in ping pong.

She wanted to take a nap on the lawn, but instead decided to read stories with Grandma :)

Then we had some yummy cake and pie.

I attempted to make an american flag cake (not the usual blueberry/strawberry kind) and it turned out ok. A bit too sloppy for me, but it was my first try.

I have a few things I'll change when I make it again another time, but click here for the instructions on how to make it.

After giving McKenzie a good hose-down in the tub we put her in her jammies and we waited for the fireworks.

They have an orchestra that plays songs until it gets dark and then the last song before the fireworks start is always Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (with actual cannons). It's always a lot of fun to hear. Because we weren't sure if she'd like the fireworks or not, we decided to stay at Mom and Dad's to watch the fireworks (seeing as how they live just across the street and we can see them from the yard) And Kenzie was so excited about the fireworks that when they were over she was pretty upset that there weren't anymore "Bangs!"... Unfortunately our camera didn't get any great pictures of the fireworks, but they were definitely awesome. I think next year we'll walk over so she can see them a little better and hear the music better as well. We had a great time with all the family that came.

Last night Micah made me an excellent birthday dinner and for my cake I chose brownies. Kenzie has loved singing the Happy Birthday song lately so we thought we'd get a video of her singing it.

What a cutie!

Happy Birthday Micah!

2010-07-02T08:44:00.004-06:00

Today is Micah's birthday and my sweet hubby turns 30! He is so wonderful and I'm so happy to have him for all eternity.

We celebrated last night with a birthday dinner and dessert because tonight we're going to the Real Salt Lake game with his family.

Dinner was delicious! He said he wanted red potatoes and asparagus but said to suprise him with whatever meat I felt like serving. I found a great recipe online and altered it a bit. It turned out pretty fantastic! You can click here to read all about it.

He opened up my gift...

Lame, I know. But I seriously went to 5 different stores looking for it and nobody had it... GRR! So looks like I'll be buying it on Amazon :)

And then we had cake. This year he chose Angel Food Cake with whipped cream and strawberries. YUM!

And just so you can get an idea of why I chose this as the picture to post of him with his cake (other than the fact it is the only picture without him hiding his face behind the cake)

He's always been cheesy. Yep. And you can't have him. He's all mine!

Kenzie was pretty excited about getting to eat cake. And she made sure to tell Micah "Happy Birthday" by saying, "Happy Daddy to you!" Her version is much cuter than the real one, I think ;)

Until she realized that the cake was kind of dry and isn't even remotely as good as homemade angel food cake. She decided she'd eat all the strawberries and cream and leave the cake behind. What a silly girl!

I hope you have a wonderful birthday honey. I love you so much!

Mini Vacation

2010-06-21T21:53:00.010-06:00

A few months ago we sat down with Micah's family and started planning out a family vacation. When, where and what were all decided until.... Mom got summoned for jury duty for that same week. *Doh!* So because we wouldn't know if Mom actually had to be on the jury or not until the day before our planned vacation, we decided to just do a mini vacation at home and see some of the "local" attractions that we hadn't ever done before. So the first weekend in June we got together and had a great time!

Saturday morning we went to "This is the Place" and Kenzie was very excited to ride the big train around the park to see all the historic buildings. (she's WAY into trains lately).

However, when the train stopped and people got off we decided to go to the very front and ride in the engine car (thinking she'd love it, right?) For some reason she was EXTREMELY distraut over this. I think she thought she wasn't riding in the train anymore because she couldn't see the trail of cars, so we moved to the back of the train again and she was just fine.

They also had a mini train you could ride so the girls took a turn and then the guys took a turn. (Kenzie of course rode both times ;) and she was pretty upset when we walked away from it...

I don't know why I think this picture is so funny. Maybe because I see three full-grown men riding a tiny little train. Haha!

She also got to ride a horse and pet some goats. She loved it!

Then on Monday we went to Park City and rode the Alpine Slide.

Shortly after this picture was taken we discovered that McKenzie is scared of heights. Our poor little girl kept begging us, "Want Down! Want Down!" And now she is terrified to be thrown in the air, to lay on her back in an elevated position (changing diapers in public restrooms has become quite the traumatizing event and she needs someone to hold her hand while I change her. And even with someone else holding her she still says, "Mommy, I fall! I fall!" Poor thing!) So I don't think we'll be doing anything involving heights with her anytime soon.

As far as the slide goes, she LOVED it. She yelled, "Wee!!" the entire way down and was pretty mad when the ride was over. haha

On Tuesday we went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy and Kenzie loved seeing all the fish and "Ooo-bits" :D

Sadly, the frog did not turn into a prince...

I just love how her little head barely reaches the tank. She didn't want any help most of the time even though I tried to explain that she'd get a better view if I held her up higher. She's such an independant little girl!

I think her favorite part though was petting the sting rays. I think we spent a half hour just watching them and trying to pet them. She did get to touch them a few times.

We definitely had a great time seeing some cool places we live close to but hadn't ever been. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great time!!

Time flies!

2010-06-20T21:28:00.002-06:00

For memorial day we went up to Micah's Grandma's cabin. Micah and I always like to go for walks while we're up there and just enjoy the scenery. As I took some pictures of McKenzie I couldn't help thinking how quickly this last year has gone by...

McKenzie and Daddy 2009:

McKenzie and Daddy 2010:

My little girl is growing up way too fast!!

Picture Party

2010-06-02T16:43:00.003-06:00

{Rules} Pull up your picture folder, open up the first folder, find the 10th picture in the folder and post about that picture on your blog. Then tag others! I tag- April, Mindy, Carolyn, Jessica, Ashley, Katrina, Savannah and anyone else who wants to do it :)

This is my cousin Sarah, who was born on Feb 8, 2007. She wasn't due to arrive until late April but because of some major complications that put her and my Aunt Jen in danger, they did an emergency C-section. Because of the wonderful medical advancements we've made over the years (and many priesthood blessings and miracles from God) this little 1 lb 5 oz baby was able to survive. You can see my uncle's wedding ring next to her arm just to compare her size. I remember her little foot was only as big as the end of my thumb.

I know the rules are to just post one picture, but because of the picture I've posted I thought I'd post a more recent picture of Sarah just so you can see how much she has grown. This was Halloween last year.

She is such a smart and happy little girl and we can't imagine life without her. Love you Sarah!!