Big Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

This last weekend we took a girls weekend down to St. George. It was just what the doctor ordered for each and every one of us. We stayed at my dad's house and drug all the mattresses out into the living room just like we did when we were twelve. It was fantastic! We laughed and cried...and cried and laughed some more. We spend hours reading our Vampire books (which are just incredible and none of us can keep from becoming obsessed with these books) Anyway it was such a great weekend. We intend to do it at least twice a year or if it is up to be once a month!

F~R~I~E~N~D~S

Good friends are hard to come by but fabulous friends are sometimes just around the corner! I am so grateful for my sisters Tara and Jenny and those I consider sisters Britta and Leigh-Anne. Sometimes it's hard to recognize the blessings in our lives. The blessing of the people that are placed in my life I have no trouble realizing it was my Heavenly Father and my precious mother who put them there. I believe with everything in me that my mom was taken at this time but she put some amazing people to help me get through these unbearable times and make them more bearable. I will never be able to express my gratitude for these girls in my life. Thank you!

HALLOWEEN

So we held our first annual Halloween party this year. We had a great time. It was so much fun.
Just in case you can't tell what I am dressed up as...I decided to express my inner beauty and be the "queen of dark and dreary"! Ya know let my inner self shine through! :) :) :) And Jason dressed up as "JASON" Aren't we creative.
We had such a fantastic time! What wonderful friends and family we have.

Carter's First Birthday!

Carter did amazing on his birthday! We had such a great day. Lots of family and friends came to our party. He finally got some toys to play with instead of pots and pans and Tupperware that I give him. He is thrilled. Thanks everyone for your gifts!

Eating Cake...and then...

I made Carter his own cake. He loved it! We stripped him down and he dove right in without hesitation!
Mouth Fulls after Mouth Fulls...

And stupid mommy just kept letting him eat and eat...it was his birthday I couldn't take it away from him...

Perhaps we are feeling a little queasy by now....maybe we should have stopped a few bites ago! Carter ate a lot of the cake...and being the wonderful mother that I am...I let him! After the party died down and came to an end we gave our birthday boy a nice bath and got him all cleaned up. We put him to bed and retired to our bed to rest from the big birthday bash. At 12:30 AM I woke up to a crying baby, not an unusual event by the way. I went in to get him, picked him up ready to give him a nice hug and kiss and low and behold he was covered in throw up!!! Every single ounce of his cake was all over him, his bed, his blankets...everywhere! I should have known not to let a one year old eat a cake...(rookie mistake)...We once again threw him in the bath and changed all the sheets. He was happy as could be, with a confused look on his face wondering how he had been from fast asleep in his crib to playing in the bathtub in the middle of the night! All I have to say is Lesson learned.

Party! Party!

More Great Nights

Another picture taken at 3AM. No explanation needed!

DISASTER

So we got a letter in the mail from the UTA transportation people. It stated in the letter that it has been determined that they will need all or some of our property for the trax station they are building. This rumor has been going around ever since we moved into this house and we never paid any attention to it and passed it by as just a rumor. After the letter came Jason still brushed it aside and didn't even call the number it said to call....SO I DID. The lady told me, in so many words, that they needed all of our property and they will be bulldozing our house within the next 6 months and they will be relocating us....which means we are kicking you out find another place to live! I was mortified! This is my house! My memories! How can they do that....well they can and they are. So to say the least we are house hunting which can be somewhat fun and stressful at the same time. Perhaps it is a blessing, you never know how the Lord works. I have definitely come to know in the last couple years of my life He works in mysterious ways to say the least! Good bye House! :)

My newly remodeled kitchen! with my own hands!

So here is my newly remodeled kitchen! We did it all ourselves. We were just about to redo our countertops! I'm glad we didn't. Jason's sister and I painted those dang cupboards!! It was such a pain. They look so beautiful now...and all to get torn down. I think I am going to confiscate them and take them with me when they make us leave! Along with anything else I can run out with! :)

My sick little guy

Carter got his first serious illness this week. It has been awful. Throwing up and all. Poor little dude.

"I won't sleep, I won't sleep!"

This is Carter trying to climb out of his crib. And he is unfortunatley successful at it!

Sleepless in Salt Lake

Well as many of you know Jason and I have officially screwed Carter up. They say no matter what you do you screw your first kid up and we did! He is a special little boy who...DOESN'T SLEEP AT NIGHT! He gets up 3 or 4 times a night and he is 11 months old! Everyone I know who has a baby they sleep through the night at like 4 months or earlier. My sister Jenny just had a baby and she has been sleeping through the night since like 3 weeks old! Curses....curses to you all! Well needless to say I am a tired little momma. I finally got sick of it and decided enough is enough and I started letting him cry. I gave it a couple days and the crying became shorter and shorter. Just as I thought we were making some fabulous progress Carter got sick. His first real sickness by the way. He has been throwing up for 3 days now and blowing out of his diapers! It's bad and he's the saddest sight I've ever seen. So we are back to our terrible nights, sleeping with mom and dad, and nursing 2-3 times during the night! I give up! :) By the way Jason took this picture at 3 AM!

MY GUARDIAN ANGEL

There are not many people that know who their guardian angel is...I do. After my mom left this earthly life and moved on to that place we call heaven, my precious 6 year old nephew said "Wow, cool I never knew anyone in heaven"....I often think of this amazing phrase that came from my little nephew Caden. I often wonder... why can't I have that same simple attitude and understanding. Just last week my other 4 year old nephew was talking to my sister as she was crying and having a hard time. She told her 4 year old son... "Nicky I miss grandma"... and as calm and reassuring as a parent would say to their child this little boy said to his mom ..."It's ok, grandma is happy"... It amazes me the faith, hope, and love these little children possess. I think children know and understand things we do not and have forgotten as this thing we call life has taken its toll on us. It is a blessing to be surrounded by them and to be reminded of how simple this plan here on earth is. I try to remember the big picture and think of that day when I will see my mom's sweet face smiling at me and feel her warmth and arms around me once again. How I truly long and live for that day. My mom is everything I strive to be, everything I hope to be, and everything I am determined to become. Looking back I realize how lucky I was to have her not only in my life but as my mother. She taught me, she molded me. What a great blessing she was to me. I can only hope I was a small fraction to her of what she was to me. I wish I could tell her... I think about her constantly and her example reminates in my mind every second of every day. I am grateful for her and everything she gave me in the short time I had her. My mom gave me, in a brief period of time, what takes others an eternity to give and teach their children. She had become all she needed to become here on this earth and was ready to move on. Although I sometimes wish she could have been less perfect than she was so she could still be here with me but I try to understand the big picture and remember like my little nephew said that she is happy. I have learned so much in the past 2 years. More than I had bargained for that is for sure and am still working on being grateful for the trials that overtook my family the last year. But I learned how much I love my family. I learned how much I love my parents. I learned how much I love my siblings. There is not one day that goes by that I don't tell them how much I love and cherish each one of them. Family is what keeps us going here on this earth and how grateful I am for the eternity of them! I love you mom, with all of my heart and more!

My Family of Three

This is my little family of three. Jason and I just celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. I can't believe I have been married four years and at the same time I can't believe it hasn't been an eternity! It's hard to remember not being married to my wonderful husband that I am so blessed to have in my life. We welcomed our son Carter Jai Kidman into our family on October 25th 2006. He now literally rules the house! We were lucky to move into a beautiful home 3 1/2 years ago in West Jordan and will probably remain for awhile longer. I love my family!

Here I go...!

Well my sister Jenny started a blog and is always telling me how fun and therapeutic it is so she talked me into doing one myself!....SO here I go!