Blog Slackin Puzzle

Ok,so I've been working on trying to put some memories together of the last year and a half or so. Wherever I left off. :| Just trying to hit some important times. It's hard searching through all my photos because I take so many on just a random, daily basis. I've tried to at least just narrow down highlights from the end of '09 and ALL of '10! WOW! How times just flies! Well..within doing that I've totally confused myself apparently. I thought I could post them in somewhat chronological order, but I screwed up. I'm sure you all can catch on with the dates on there, but with some of my OCD-ness it bugs me. I have been trying to figure out how to remove them and put them in order without having to delete them altogether and redo them. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

I will be working more on the rest of 2010 so keep on the lookout. If nothing more this helps me keep a journal of good times with everyone, watching as the kiddos grow.

Camping with Dad

NOVEMBER 2009

We took a trip to Willow Beach with dad and went camping. On our way we had to cross the Hoover Dam. Snapped some pics of the work in progess of the new overpass. We had fun around the fire making smores, hiking up to the hot springs and hanging out..and hiding firewood around for my dad's return visit later. ;)

Day 2 of our camping experience. Caught my sisters snoozing. They LOVE me! :D Mike took a  morning hike. I zoomed in on his pic, but he's really much farther away than he appears. The cutest of all was Kaiden taking a hike around with my dad. Little buddies..oh and the amusement was Alaina cutting firewood. Great times! On the way home the traffic was backed up SO far to cross the Dam. I believe it was an accident that held us up. We were traveling in two trucks and since it was slow movin we hopped from truck to truck swopping snacks and leftover food. I remember pie..?.. haha It was fun. I got out of the truck and Heather and I decided to take a walk and see what all the fuss was about..aand she had a full bladder as well.  We happened upon a gentleman that needed a battery jump. We couldn't figure out why no one else would help him being that we were STUCK on the highway and not going anywhere. We were quite a few trucks down and told him that Mike would help him as we got closer to him. He offered money and we declined, but he still managed to throw a $20 bill in Mike's truck. The pic of me is on the side of the road waiting ever so patiently for traffic to flow.

29th Birthday

My 29th birthday spent with coworkers for a great lunch at PF Changs, New Moon movie release date with my BFF Candice. It came out ON my birthday! I was so excited about that! Kaiden was with his dad in Arizona until the 21st and was able to make it home in time for our family celebration! I love my family and friends that help make my birthday awesome year after year!

Hangin with Singles

I actually got out and got some adult time with some new friends! It was a really good time. My friend Karissa, that has since left us here and lives in California, introduced me to her really cool friends. Megann is so incredibly sweet and awesome! Danielle is very outgoing, sweet and spunky. Sorry, Wayne, we didn't get any pics with you. :(  Thanks for also making it a great time! During the dinner and talent show there was some texting going on..even between members at the SAME table..had to laugh and take a picture of Megann and her phone!
One of the best parts of the conference weekend was going to the temple thursday, 10.14  for a fireside and then doing a session! There were so many of us. SO awesome to see and experience!


The fireside, dinner, dance and hang out Friday, 10.15 was fun but of course, awkward for me at the same time. I don't do well in those kinds of social settings. The fireside motivaional speech was the best one ever! It has been so long his name has slipped my mind. He coached at BYU and was the coach of the Single's Ward Bishop, which is how we got him I guess. The speed dating was that of an experience that I may not want to experience again, but it was amusing I must say! All in all..a GREAT weekend, great experiences!

Truman Team Appreciation 10.6.2010

We had the slider truck come to our office team appreciation luncheon..and supply us lunch! It was so good!

Last Days with Grandpa

We went and visited Grandma for her birthday,7.16.09. It was great to see both of them. Little did we know, but I believe Grandpa did, that these would be some of our last memories to make with him. I'm so glad we got these photos!

These were in Grandpa's final days. These were taken 10.1.09. Heavenly Father called him home on 10.29.09. Such precious times and I'm glad we got them! Heather and Krishelle worked really hard at getting all of his memories and stories into a book for him to see, and they made it just in time! It is an amazing book and I know he was proud! We love you Grandpa and will keep your memory alive!

Kaiden Taking Flight

Kaiden going to visit his dad in Arizona. He started to fly back and forth all by himself! I think this was one of the first times, if not the first, without his dad accompanying him. August 12, 2009. He first flew home on his own in June. He LOVE to fly, just like his mom. His dad HATES to fly, but sacrificed a few times to get him home. :) I had to use my old film camera because my digital camera had to be sent in for repairs after our work swimming party. I HAD to have SOMEthing to capture these first time and special events!

Here he is leaving again November 9,2009 to go to Arizona. He was on twelve month school track systems then and when he had a track break he would go visit his dad. It was cute to catch the pilots getting on when he did and their little interaction. He gets to be the first one on the plane! He just loves it! Makes me feel better too! He tells me of all the people he sits next to, who talks to him, who helps him, what he eats and does for that WHOLE..LONG..HOUR plane ride. haha

Fam Photo Shoot 7/09

My sister's childhood friend that moved to Arizona came into town. She was just getting into photography and took our family photos for us! Needless to say, this was in July and we took these pics around straight up noon..HOT! It was fun and I'm so glad I have these! I need some more done! She did a good job, thanks Jenna!

Fourth Fun '09

Had dinner and swimming at moms and went to the park to watch the fireworks off of the Green Valley Ranch Casino.

Mother's Day 2009

We all hung out at my mom's to celebrate Mother's Day. Grandma and Grandpa came to celebrate with us too! Fun day of good food and fun in the sun! I'll admit it did get a little chilly in the pool.

My TooTh!

This was the face I got once he discovered his tooth was missing in the morning! LOL It was hil.larious! See, the night of Sept 23, 2009 at about 8pm his mommy pulled it out. Poor guy was barely hanging on! Kaiden fell asleep in my lap in the chair and well, call it an occupational hazard, I was curious and DETERMINED to get this thing out! Didn't take much. He didn't realize it was gone right away. I had to lead him to the tooth on his shelf and then it clicked! He RAAANN to the bathroom and was all upset that I pulled it out! haha What was funny was when he first discovered it was loose I was kidding with him about doing the floss and door trick.. he didn't quite catch on too quickly. I enjoyed every moment of watching him figure it out! We had it all set up and everything.. then he quickly said that HE wanted to be the one to close the door! haha.. yeah, he walked with the door. Yeah, bud, that's REALLY going to work! It was cute and quite hilarious for the mom! I didn't think he would ACTUALLY fall for it! Needless to say, it didn't come out that way. I was upset that my pic didn't turn out. It's all grainy, but it was THE best shot of him being upset that his tooth was gone! Then, of course he thought it was cool that it was out and couldn't wait to put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy.

~sOcCeR tIme~

Kaiden played soccer in the fall again, of course. We haven't switched it up much since he was three! Baseball in the spring and soccer in the fall.. well.. except for this year! We didn't do any sport this spring! :( Kinda sad, but a good break. Been trying to get the behaviorals in order..AND I was in the middle of looking for and purchasing a NEW HOME! We were busy! He didn't seem to miss it. I don't want to burn him out on sports before he's 10! ;) So, I figured if he really bugged me about it, we would do it. I wasn't thinking that would be the case where he usually ends up complaining at one point or another. :\ I was planning on going back to the regs come fall, so I guess I need to hurry up and figure out WHAT we're doing. Some friends are doing flag football..hmm.. I wanted to put the name of his team on the pic too, but, being that I'm getting old, I've seem to have forgotten at the moment. I will have to update later, probably after someone clues me in. HA For this year we changed from NYS(which is really unorganized) to Henderson United soccer. I MUST say, the organizational skills of this league is so much better! I liked the coach and the whole process. We will probably be looking into them again for the fall, if we don't do flag football. Decisions. I will have to discuss it with K.

BaSkIn with the BaRkErS

We don't get as many days with these wonderful people as I would like, but we do cherish our times. These are my bestie, Candice's kids! Kaiden just loves hanging with them! We went to a park close to their house, which JUST so happens to be on the opposite end of the world from us! :( We couldn't possibly get any further apart and live in the same town! I miss seeing them! I miss how me and Candi would spend loads of time together! Growing up stinks sometimes! I'm just glad we still live in the same town, at least! We HAVE had to overcome some out of state times over the years! We've been friends since we were about 17! These parks are wonderful for Vegas summers!

aUgUsT 2009

Ok, this blog stuff is only going to get further behind if I don't start SOMEWHERE!

Here's some more of August 2009! haha compiled some highlights. Kaiden had his last days at Childtime before starting first grade! We loved Ms Shaunte (right) and Ms Becky (left) Ms Shaunte actually started as one of his classroom teachers and then got promoted to assistant director! She was awesome! They were so good to him!

Did some black and whites of Kaiden and Maddie out celebrating Grandma Tama's bday.

Took a self portrait (like we usually do) at Kaiden's ice cream party at the end of Kindergarten! I was so glad I got to go!

First DaY of ScHoOl tradition..ChUcK e ChEeSe'S

I started the tradition of going to Chuck E. Cheese's after the first day of school. We have gone the last two years, Kindergarten and now first grade and I am actually hoping that it follows through for the next few years. It's a special time that he can look forward to, just me and him. We can celebrate the new school year together. Since he begs for Chuck E. Cheese's all year round and we don't go much I figure it's a nice treat. He loves it!

and then with all the tickets-here's what he picked out!

First day of FiRsT grade

Summer came and went. Kaiden started FIRST grade on August 24, 2009. I can't believe my lil boy is so grown up! I've been waiting quite a while for this day in a way.. hah Paying three arms and two legs for daycare was getting to be a bit much. He was so excited to be going to school all day. Now had you asked him even a few weeks before he would have told you how much he loathed it, and I quote,"you just sit there all day".. aww kids.. they catch on so fast;no putting anything past them! But then, it came, the moment of truth and excitement, that brings a smile to every mom's face and warms her heart..in the car, on the way to school on the first day," I'm excited for school". wow. Now, he's great in school academically, but is such a social butterfly that the teachers seem to be hindering his social time when he's at school, so he hasn't liked it all that much, but he tolerates it. So to hear him say he was excited, I got excited. :) My little man. All grown up.

Well, I got half of his teacher. lol She was 8 months pregnant when he started. The baby was born the first week of October so since Oct 1st he had a permanent sub, which I liked and got to meet at Open House, Sept. 30th. She subbed until they went on track break right before Halloween. His teacher was supposed to be back right after track break, but wasn't and he had a new sub. I was a little worried when I found out his teacher was pregnant, that she wouldn't come back and he would be stuck with subs the whole year. I was really hoping that she would be back, but understand totally on the new baby thing. :) She is supposed to be returning after the holidays, so next week. They put off our classes parent teacher conferences until she returns in January, so I'm assuming she will be coming back. The last sub he had I wasn't too thrilled about. She wasn't as organized and with it as the last sub, and quite frankly she didn't have much of a personality either. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. At least it seemed like the kids were continuing on with their regular schedule as if the actual teacher was there. She was working with the subs when she could while on maternity leave, so we were told. Kaiden's progress hasn't seemed to suffer, so I can't complain. I really liked his teacher though and hope that she IS coming back.

Slackin

So, it's been awhile. I'd like to say that I've been vacationing and have been out of the country for the last 5 months, but we all know how likely THAT is for me. I think I just got overwhelmed being that I started a list of everything I needed to "blog" and it seemed like a lot, so I never sat down to get it started thinking, wow, I'm going to need a lot of time, so it gets pushed back. Well, here we are 5 months later and NONE of it got done. To be honest,I threw out the list. hah I can try to give a recap of what's happened the last 5 months, if I can remember back that far. ;)

Ok, so it's been awhile.. yeah, I know.. I think because I had so much to get caught up on I got overwhelmed, especially with everything else going on in our fast moving crazy life, it seems sometimes. I WILL get those blogs I'd planned on blogging.. UP.. but for now I write while I'm at work on lunch because my computer is being fixed. Yeah, fun.. got some viruses and have been without a computer for about a week. It's not been as bad as I thought, going without. haha I've been doing everything I need to at work on lunch or after work. Had I have to go 100% without I'm not so sure what would happen.. haha naw, I've been ok.. So the month of June just FLEW by..

• had the first 7 days all to myself as my son was still with his dad and family in Arizona. That was a MUCH needed ME time! I love that he can spend time with his family and I can live the single free life from time to time. Doesn't happen often so I've learned to really appreciate the time and enjoy it.. this was a record breaker for the amount of time he's been away from me.. 2 weeks and 2 days..the usual is a week a couple times a year.. so this was nice!.. It was great to have him back though.. just wish I got more ME time sometimes.. but most times I don't want to be without my boy.. catch 22's.. gotta love em.


• Finished up our third spring season of baseball.. on to soccer in the fall with a new league.. kinda nervous, but it should be fun!


• One year has passed since my grandpa passed away.. I love and miss him more than ever and can't wait to see him again!


• Had father's days..without my father..haha.. he doesn't like all the fuss and was down on the river.. oh well.. he's a funny guy.. we try not to take it personal.. ha
• Went out to our cabin at the lake to see my grandma and aunt. It was a day trip and was hot, but was so fun and worth it. We don't get to see them very much! We didn't exactly get out there in a timely manner, but I'm glad we actually made it! That too was a long night!

wow.. now it's the middle of July.. I'm suckin at this blog thing anymore these days.. I'm not at home or I'd just start posting everything and all the pics that I have to show. I'm at my sister's boyfriends house babysitting a friend from Arizona's,baby while they all go out. I'm stuck in a house that I don't know, with my boy and am kinda bored. Granted I DO have the internet AND cable, I guess I could watch some more tv.. blah.. seems like today, oddly, that's all we've done. We have been at my mom's all day. She had surgery on her knee and we were helping her today and hanging out. Well, Kaiden turned on the cartoons after we got out of the pool and it seemed we watched a lot of tv already today. I have the week off of work, as the Dr is on vacation so I just take Kaiden to school and pick him up and we hang out. Only problem being that his school is 10 miles or so from our house since it's around where I work so I have to seriously plan out my days before leaving the house incase I want to do anything or go anywhere along the way. I really want to move closer to my work, family and K's school.. working on that, hopefully.. so we haven't been home all day! Kinda sucks sometimes.. so we're just at Matt's now, playin and hangin out some more. I am going to have to get home to finish the blogging so I can update the last few months and add pics of everything. July has gone as follows:

• Celebrated the 4th with the family at my mom's house. We had a bbq and swam. It was fun! We went and watched the fireworks at the park on Paseo Verde that were from the Green Valley Ranch. We had a pretty good view and they were awesome! Maddie wasn't scared at all! She was pretty scared at the ones going off by my mom's house though. Some guy was shooting some LOOOUUDD ones off right across the street.. my mom's bf gave him a talking to.. yeah, they were SO illegal! So, we weren't sure how Maddie would do with fireworks after that, but all was well, and she watched them all. We had a blast and took a lot of pics while we were at the park. I'll have to post those later. It was a really fun night! We didn't get home until almost midnight I believe! Awesome day! I made a fruit salad that was so yummy too... :)
• Spoiled my boy last week and not only did he get McDonald's, that he always begs for and doesn't get.. haha.., he wanted to go bowling, so we went. It was fun.. then as we were leaving, the movie theater was right next door so I thought I would check it out. I've been wanting to see the new Ice Age and Transformers.. so I went in there expecting there to not be one starting anytime soon, and lo and behold they DID..so we went and saw Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs. It was cute, but nothing compared to the first two.. that was a great day, busy and fun!
• This week we visited our friends in town, went to the Lied Children's discovery museum.. some mixed feelings there.. went with the sis and niece and our friends in town and their little boy.. some drama, but it was fun. ;) Just don't ask my sis! ha that was monday, the 13th, yesterday after I picked K up from school we went to my sisters house to watch my niece as my sister was taking my mom to the surgery center for her surgery. We had fun even though I was wiped out and not feeling good.Once my bro in law got home I had to go to scouts and then we went home and watched a movie. We did homework at my sisters so we didn't have to do that once we got home. We watched She's the Man.I Love that movie.It had been awhile. I started not feeling well a few days ago and don't think it's a cold, not so sure on the allergies but may possibly be sinus stuff. I'm sneezing and my nose is always stuffed up. I was really tired on saturday and sunday and haven't really been able to find much energy.. yeah,I'm thinking more sinus stuff. Pretty sure it's not a cold or I'd be worse.. I'm hoping that gets under control so I can continue to enjoy my vacation. So here we are day three of vacation which included helping and visiting my mom and babysitting now for our friends.. I'll update later and hopefully I can get some pics up of what's been going on around here the last few months. I feel like I've left so much out.. yeah, can you believe it? After all this typing how could I possibly DO that??haha.. I'll just mainly post some pics!.. but until then..

Car ride to Carson

The journey began May 1,2009 after I picked up my boy from kindergarten.. and what an adventure it was! We were headed to see my sister that is working in Carson during the Legislative session for six months. I was the designated MOM aka servant in the back seat. ha My mom didn't want to change me seats because she said,"I see how hard that person works". lol.. yeah, so the passenger seat in the front was apparently the best seat. HOWEVER.. I was having fun with my camera with the kids. As you can tell, at the time that I was snapping all the shots they were watching a movie and Kaiden wouldn't let me in his face too much. ha That AND Maddie was inbetween us, so it made it hard.. but the photos continued.. :) and the pics are all in random order because at midnight I don't have the brain power to concentrate on how to upload them in order anymore. haha but you can get an idea of the start of our Carson trip.

We had to pull over before Tonopah because little miss just wasn't happy.. and NOW look at that face..
We also got to see a little excitement on the road.. yeah, a trooper following some runners... IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! lol.. man, rough job there Trooper.. Being that K's dad is one and I've heard all kindsa stories.. I get to make fun! :)

Here he is - still working hard.. just don't run em over, buddy!

We were PACKED to the TOP!!

Something random that my sis wanted me to figure out what it was.. had my zoom and got a couple shots, but WHO knows.. yeah, the "scenic" view on the way, isn't so scenic, that's for sure!

One of the movies that kept her happy, ELMO! :) Thanks, Kaiden!

The mom

The driver.. but naaawwwt on the waayyy hommmee.. :) Being the driver was pretty cool too while she was in the back handling them on the way home..hehehehe

This was one of the first shots at the beginning of the ride.. happy kids with full bellys.. awww.. nothing better!

More to come on the rest of the trip, the destination, the sis, the fun and seeing her work.. oh yeah, I got sooo many pics from that trip. Are you kidding, I took so many pics JUST in the car. I couldn't decide which ones to put up.. therefore I posted more than a "few". :)

Making chicken enchiladas with my boy..

April 25, 2009

So, I decided to make chicken enchiladas.. a first.. so I had my lil chef help me. He tells me he wants to be a chef when he grows up, so here's a good start,right? :)

Have to get lots of pics at any opportunity, so of course we have to get a mom n lil chef shot!..or two..
He cracks me up!

Had to put an apron on him, of course. ;)
Made sure he washed up
He wanted to help with EVERYTHING, it was so cute!

Chicken goes in.. And here's the final product! Funny thing being that I had my "cousins dinner" that night at PF Changs. I just had the urge to make chicken enchiladas. My mom watched Kaiden and Maddie at my sisters house, so my mom, her bf and Kaiden got to eat them first... but I got them the next day and they were JUST as delicious as they told me they were! SCORE! YEA! It was fun and great to hang with my boy and have him help!