Thanksgiving Day (2010)

This year was Aaron's year to spend Thanksgiving with his side of the family.  It was the first year in a really long time that everyone was able to be together.  We all met up at Aaron's mom's house to enjoy the food and each others company.  She always does a great job decorating and making it a special day.  We all wrote down what we were thankful for on cards that will be put into a binder so we can look back each year and read what we were thankful for that year.  We enjoyed all the yummy food and I ate way to much as always.
  

Aaron's step dad Ed had a cute and funny story that he shared with us as we all sat down to eat and "Airplane" Grandpa started the dinner off with the opening prayer. 

         
 

                                                    All the cousins!

 

After dinner we were able to get all the grand kids together for a picture.  Everyone just hung out and the girls sat back why some of the boys ended up finishing up the dishes.  We waited for our tummies to not be so full and we finished the day off with some pies.  Grandpa Stewart was in charge of the pies so we had a mint chocolate, a German chocolate, and a  raspberry pie from Marie Calendars.  And Grandma Stewart had made an apple and pumpkin pie.  I think we had plenty of pies to last a while!  The kids also were excited to finally eat their turkey cake pops.

Later on that night we went to Grandma and Grandpa Herrick's.  I am only writing this for good times sake but on the way there  Aaron decided to inform me that he was not ready to leave his moms and wanted more time to spend with his brother Doug who lives in Colorado.  I instantly got a little mad and figured since some of his other siblings had left his moms and the fact that we had spent 5 hours there already that it would be okay to leave.  I guess not!  We always go to visit the other spouses family later on if it is the "off" year anyway so I figured there wasn't a problem.  Plus there would be other days that Aaron could hang out with his brother Doug since they would be here for a few more days.  It was kind of silly & In the future I guess we both need to communicate better.  So much for a perfect happy thanksgiving....ha ha.

Anyway with my bad attitude I still looked forward to sitting down to go through the black Friday ads....yay!  I look forward to it every year.  It's just fun to go through them with my mom, sister, and sister-in-law, and figure out what time and where we are going to start our black Friday shopping spree.  It was a good day, minus our little moment we had in the car to Grandma Herrick's :) 

I love this time of year to make me reflect on the things that I should always be thankful for.  I need to be better about reflecting on them more throughout the year.  Some of the things I am grateful for this year are:

• My family (always)
• A husband who puts his family first and wants and loves to spend time with us
• I'm so grateful that my kids have a dad who gives them the attention that they each need and that he loves to be with them.
• My kids & knowing what unconditional love is
• Aaron's job (especially with the economy) and that he works so hard to make it so he can provide for us and that I am able to stay at home with the kids
• My parents and my in-laws who always show love and support in all we do
• The gospel and my savior- I can always have the guidance I need in times of struggles.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

CAKE POPS

So I found out about a cute and fun idea that I thought my kids would enjoy making and eating. There is a book out that is called cake pops.  All you do is bake a cake and let it cool and then crumble it up in small pieces and mix it with cream cheese frosting.  You then roll them into 1-2in. balls and then decorate them. There are lots of different ideas on how to decorate them for specific holidays and birthdays.  They are really moist and yummy!  So my sister-in-laws & I got together and made some Turkey's for thanksgiving.  Here is how they turned out.

The kids thought they were chickens but who cares.  I thought they turned out pretty well for our first attempt at making them.

They were a little time consuming to decorate so I'm glad I had the help of my sister-in-laws to make it a lot easier and quicker.  Oh and cute little baby Ryan! 

Blizzard & Dinner

Last night was the first major snow storm for the winter.  All of Aaron's siblings are in town for Thanksgiving so we thought it would be nice to all go out to dinner without the kids.  Businesses were closing down, the freeway was closing, but we didn't let it stop us from going out to dinner. It's not very often that we are all together.  We did miss Aaron's oldest brother Casey and his wife Krisa.  They live in Sandy and were not able to come due to the weather.  It would of been really great to have them there.  Atleast we will all be together for Thanksgiving dinner though!  We went to my favorite place ever.....Olive Garden, and the best part about it was there was no 45 minute wait to be seated.  The meals were all yummy as always and we all had a great night enjoying each others company.

 

 

  

Kennady's Thanksgiving Feast at Preschool

Today was Kennady's Thanksgiving Feast at her Preschool.  Miss Jill asked all the kids to bring food found at the First Thanksgiving:  Beef Jerky, nuts, veggies, etc.,  Kennady chose to bring craisins.  The last couple of days she has learned a few thanksgiving songs and has been singing them around the house.  It has been really cute and fun to hear her sing them.  If I can figure out how to post it, I'm going to try to get a video of her singing them.  I asked her what she is thankful for and she said her puppies.  I should of known:)

I was able to arrive a few minutes early before the feast began and got this picture of her during reading time.

                       

The kids were then asked to sit on the mat and wait for their names to be called out.  When their names were called they got to put on their Indian vests that they made earlier and then find a seat at the table to begin their feast.  Wyatt of course was with me so he got to join the party as well and they had an extra vest for him to wear.  He thought it was pretty cool. 

 

 

Here they are enjoying their yummy Thanksgiving feast.  They had apple juice to drink and lots of yummy food.  They had corn bread, rolls, corn nuts, craisins, raisins, apple sauce, and even pumpkin pie.  Miss Stacey let them choose what they wanted to eat and they had a lot of fun with it.

Derby car (boat)

So I decided  I wanted a close up of his derby boat so I'm adding these pictures.  Logan loves to play Halo with his dad and loves army stuff so they decided to paint it army style.  Aaron helped him a little bit but Logan painted it mostly himself. 

Logan's 1st Pinewood Derby

Last week Logan had his first Pinewood Derby.  The day he received his car (well boat) he immediately wanted to start working on it.  He was really excited about doing this and loves to do things and be with his dad so this was perfect.  They finally finished up the boat the night before and Logan was pretty excited of how it turned out.  I am happy to say that Aaron let Logan do as much of it as possible and didn't do all the work for him.  It was a good experience for Logan and I'm glad Aaron gave him the opportunity.  I was a little sad that I was not able to be there that night.  I had to do a presentation at my mom's ward on how to prepare and plan freezer meals...it went okay.  So thanks to my good friend Laura she was able to get some pictures of Logan that night.  According to his dad, Logan loved every minute of it. 

His boat ended up weighing 4.6 oz. and it did very well.  It was really fast out of the hole but slowed down pretty good towards the finish and the other cars would pass his.  He took 7th out of 23 and he was really happy about it.  Way to go Logan!

        Logan's friends that were there:  Kohl, Carston, Max, Cooper, and Seth.

                       Logan received an award for "most likely to set sail." 
                         PINEWOOD DERBY-NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Other "joys" of motherhood

Do you ever have those days that motherhood has taken it’s tulle on you and you realize that you are grumpy more than you are happy?  That’s me!

Today I started thinking about what joys motherhood brings.  There are many great things that popped into my head but then I decided to reflect more on the things that makes motherhood chaotic and how I can fix it, or can I?  (This is the start of me fixing my bad attitudeJ)  I racked my brain and came up with some “other joys” of motherhood.  Or at least the joys that us mothers “get” to experience.

What are your joys of being a mother?  Here are a few “other joys” I have found of being a mother.

·         The kid’s finger prints on walls, doors, mirrors, house windows, car windows, and the stainless steel fridge.  You wipe them off and 2 minutes later they are back.

·         The kids could be totally focused on a cartoon, book, or just playing with toys when the next thing you know as soon as you sit down to go potty they walk in on you.  It happens all the freaking time and the question is “what are you doing”?

·         You know you can’t take a shower without being interrupted

·         The constant word MOM ringing in my ears all day

·         The kids have to tell you every time they have to go to the bathroom.

·         When I clean the kid’s bathroom and once again I turn around and somehow Wyatt still has not found the inside of the toilet.

·         Endless laundry, dishes, cooking, and the cleaning that never seems to stay clean for more than a half an hour.

·         The fighting, teasing, and yelling (the yelling is more on my part but I am trying to fix itJ)

·         The dings and holes in the walls, a new found stain on the carpet which makes it more than you can count on your fingers now

·         The many, many, many, candy wrappers, cut up paper, goldfish crackers, pretzels and whatever else the kids feel like leaving on the floor or under, behind and in the cushions of the couch.

·         Don’t get me started on where they leave gum.  What gum? I didn’t buy or say they could have gum.  Oh the gum they happened to rummage through my purse for and now I have none.  Maybe that’s why all my lip glosses end up missing too- Kennady!!!!

·         Why is the kitchen floor all sticky?  We usually have some sort of new spill

·         The minute I say it’s time to do your homework we have a melt down and the word “but” along with the reason why we shouldn’t do homework follows it.

·         You tell them to clean their rooms as part of their chores and well- at least they tried.  Cleaning to them is taking everything off the floor and putting it either on the dresser or bed.

·         You tell them no and they keep doing it

·         Then nothing is worse when I realize my kids have learned a few of my bad habits.  I will only mention a few because I am not perfect.  First:  they have picked up a 4 letter “H” or “S” word that occasionally slips out when I am beyond my limit.  Second: they seem to yell too.    I am not proud admitting these!

These are some of the things that make it one of those days where I would like a little less chaos and just a few minutes of peace and quiet.  How great will that day be when you sit down and have a quiet home all to yourself….will it be great?  I am pretty sure when that day comes that these “other joys” are going to be what I will be missing the most.  Today I feel as if I should have some gratitude in my heart that I get to experience motherhood.  Whether it’s the good joys or the “other joys”, I need to sit back and be grateful for my 3 little kiddos who bring out my grumpiness. :)  I love them dearly!!! 

AYSO-FALL 2010

LOGAN:  This year we weren't sure if we were going to have Logan play ayso.  He has been playing on a comp soccer team for the past year and has really enjoyed it.  I took the safe route and signed him up for ayso just in case he didn't make the comp team again.   He has really become a good little player this past year and has started to be more aggressive.  He prefers his comp team more and says that the ayso team doesn't know what their doing.  This tells me he is done with ayso and needs that fast pace and more structured games.  I just tell him it's good practice and it's only going to make him better. 
  

 Logan loves to be a defender.  If the coach puts him up at forward he is still running back to defend.

This year their age group bumped up to the big field.  I think it is still to big of a field for them....why?  This is only half time and Logan is pooped.  By the end of the game everyone is yelling at their kids to go to the ball but they are to tired to care.  (Age 8)

WYATT:  So this was Wyatt's first year playing soccer.  He was so excited for his first game and loved his yellow uniform he got.  I love watching this age group just run around in a little pack fighting for the ball.  As soon as Wyatt got bumped by a kid he gave him a scowl and tried telling him not to push him.  Most of the games he could care less about the ball and was more interested in talking to all the players as well as doing his transformer saying "transformers be meet be eye".  The picture below is his little stance he does when he says the saying.  He is so funny and I loved watching him just having fun out there on the field.  His team name was the bumble bees from transformers.  

                                              Don't let this picture fool ya!

He is so funny!  He acts all tough but then dances around the field. LOL!  He was able to make 1 goal this season and he was estactic about it.  (Age 5)

KENNADY:  This was Kennady's first year also playing soccer.  She was just as happy as Wyatt when she saw that she got her own purple uniform.  She is usually really shy when there are alot of people around or the attention goes to her and I wan't sure how she would do. There were a few times she was a little timid but she got out there and gave it her all.  She caught on really quick and became a good little player.  Most of the games she was able to score atleast 1 goal and sometimes up to 3 goals.  I hope this is the start of me and her going to lots of soccer tournaments when she's older.  I have alot of great memories going on tons of soccer tournaments with my mom and hope that I can make those fun memories with Kennady also. Their team name was the purple flowers. (Age 5)
 

I really enjoy going to all the kids game and watching them.  I'm glad however to have our saturdays back.    

Wyatt's Tonsil surgery

About 2 months ago Wyatt ended up getting tonsilitis.  He was put on an antibiotic and went back 4 weeks later for his check up.  The Dr. said that his tonsils were still big but that we could just keep an eye on him for a while.  Well about a week ago he became a snoring fool.  He was snoring so loud we could hear him across the hallway in our room.  He had a hard time breathing.  Come to find out Logan said he has always snored, but not that loud.  Poor Logan probably hasn't been getting much sleep himself.  After calling and talking to the Dr. we decided it was probably best to have the tonsils taken out.  We pushed to get them done as soon as possible and lucky for us they set it up for the following week.  We pushed to have it done soon because we are taking the kids to Disneyland in 3 weeks (they don't know yet) and mostly so he can breath again and we can all get our sleep. Plus it's all done before the holidays.

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE SURGERY:  Wyatt knew what was going to happen the following morning and wasn't to worried about it yet.  We explained what Dr. Barlow was going to do and that he would feel alot better having them taken out.  As parents there is always that worry and concern with any surgery and we felt like we needed to give him a blessing to bring a little comfort to all of us.  Aaron ended up giving him a father's blessing and did an amazing job.  I won't write the whole prayer but these are just a couple important things that he had expressed.  He blessed him that he would have the strength during the surgery and be able to recover well.  That the Doctors would be fully focused knowing his needs and have steady hands.  I am so thankful to have the priesthood in the home.  It is such a strength and comfort to me.

THE DAY OF THE SURGERY:  As I woke up that morning I had some ease and just knew that we were doing the right thing and that everything was going to be okay.  As we were getting ready Wyatt started getting worried, and maybe he was nervous and a little scared too.  As I was putting his shoes on he started crying and telling me he didn't want the doctor to cut his throat.  I told him how he would be asleep and that the doctor just uses a "tool" to get those big bumps out of his throat.  He kept crying and so I asked him if we should say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help him.  His response as he is still crying was:  "but Heavenly Father is dead".  I had some explaining to do.  It was so cute though!  Here are the pics of that day.

The nurse took us back to the room to get him ready for the surgery.  They took his weight, blood pressure, temperature, etc.  He was liking the arm contraption.

 He thought it was pretty neat that he got to strip down to his undies to wear a tiger gown.

Then comes those great hospital socks.  He LOVED them!  I told him he could just wear his regular socks but heck no...he was diggin those red socks.

The day just kept on getting better and better as he kept on getting all these great things.  He was happy to get this teddy bear.  He has a spider man build a bear that used to be Logan's that he has taken over.  I told him he could bring 1 thing to the hospital with him and he wanted to bring that.  Unfortunately we were searching franticly for the spider man clothes to put on it and couldn't find it.  He ended up bringing a zuzu pet instead but that was set aside when the nurse gave him the bear.

The nurse showed Wyatt the cool mask that he gets to breath into and she even let him pick out some batman stickers to put on it.  He was finally ready to go back to surgery.  We gave him some hugs & kisses and it was off to the waiting room for us.  The waiting is the worst part.  That's when I start worrying but I brought my great book (catching fire) and the next thing I knew Dr. Barlow was done with the surgery.  He said it was a really good thing we took them out.  He had a little infection again and said that his tonsils were really big.  It was good to hear and comforting to know we made the right decision.
 

 This is right after the surgery when they bring ya to the recovery room.  He wasn't a happy boy!

All he wanted was his daddy.  The nurses said he just kept wanting his daddy as they were wheeling him to the room.  Such a good moment for Aaron.  When Kennady had her tonsils out all she wanted was me so I wasn't the least bit sad and let Aaron enjoy the moment.

So after Aaron and Wyatt had their moment the nurses had to make sure the I.V. was working and strap a cuff to his leg.  Everytime the nurses looked at Wyatt or vise versa he would pout his lips and start crying.  It was really cute and the nurses fell in love with him.  Who wouldn't right?  He kept on asking us to wipe his endless tears and boogies.  If we didn't do it right he would grab the tissue himself and wipe away the tears and say all better.  He is such a lovable kid.  He finally was able to catch some sleep.

He slept for about an hour and a half which was good.  He was able to keep his liquids down and recover a bit.  I did alot of reading and waiting.  We finally woke him up so the nurse could give him some pain meds and make sure he kept everything down for another 30 minutes.

The pain meds kicked in and he was back to the same old Wyatt I love.  He enjoyed his popcycle but really wanted a green one.  He'll have to enjoy the green jello I have waiting for him at home.  It's his favorite color.  He watched some cartoons and when the nurse went over the instructions and said we could go home Wyatt said he would just stay there and keep watching cartoons.  You know he is feeling pretty good when he wants to stay at the hospital.

Yay we finally get to go home.  We arrived at the hospital at 10am and it was 3:30pm when we were finally released.  It was a long day of just waiting but I am just grateful that we had no complications and everything went well.  The nurse had to walk us out so Wyatt got to enjoy the ride in a wagon.

LATER THAT NIGHT:  For the most part Wyatt was doing pretty good.  As long as we kept the pain meds in him he was wanting to play with friends and eat bread.  We were getting ready to take Wyatt up to bed when Aaron asked him if he was okay.  He said yes and went on to tell us a few things about the surgery.  How he liked the socks, how he woke up in a different room, etc.  This however took both Aaron & I back when he said that Jesus Christ held his hand.  Aaron and I looked at each other and both couldn't seem to say anything and our eyes filled up with tears.  Needless to say it will be something I will never forget.  I am thankful for the blessings the gospel brings and being able to rely and trust the spirit.