May continued... Memorial Day Weekend

Well I celebrated Memorial Day Weekend a little different this year... entertaining three children or I guess I should say them entertaining me is more like it! :-) Dr. Blake and his wife Misty had a wedding to go to that weekend in California so they asked me to come stay with the kids which was super fun but holy cow was I tired come Monday evening! So here's a little shout out to all you Mothers out there...you are AMAZING! I mean I knew you all were already but well doing something like this really puts it in perspective. I think what was hard was going from being single one day to being mother of three the next...even if it was just for a weekend! :-)

Love this kid! He makes me laugh so much...within the first few hours I was there I came into the kitchen to find Dylan sitting on the counter and when I was asked him what he was doing this was his reply, "me dipping me trackers in me nemonade"

We did lots of fun things that weekend first being we went to see Night At The Museum, which was good until the last half an hour when both Whitney and Dylan wanted to sit on my lap but not at the same time so they kept both climbing up and both pushing each other off...ya that was a long half an hour and don't ask me how the movie ended cause I have absolutely no idea :-)

After the movie we went to McDonalds for dinner, a little playtime on the playground and yes ice cream cones, which I discovered Dylan likes to eat with his hands. My Aunt Sherrie took my cousins Sam and Brandon to the movie too so we all just hung out together. The kids all had such a good time playing together, which was super nice!

I so love the look on his face! He is doing some serious contemplating while eating this cone!


Looks like they forgot to put the ice cream in your cone Court, too bad :-)

We then went over to Sam and Brandon's house and played outside on their swing set til almost dark. The kids were super good for me that first night (I was a little worried they'd be missing their mom and dad too much) I think I wore them out though cause they all fell asleep watching a movie and I just carried them straight to bed.

The next day was Sunday and well I just have to say that getting three other people ready for church besides yourself and making it to 9:00 church on time is quite the adventure when your not used to it. We made it though and the kids had a fun time going to primary with me. It was really cute when we were leaving and driving home Whitney said to me, "Tami did you know you do the exact same things at your church as we do at ours, we sing all those songs too"


So Memorial day itself I took the kids over to Thanksgiving Point Gardens (again putting my season pass to good use) where we met up with Caroline, my friend and fellow co-worker, and her husband Dan. We all had such a great time walking around the gardens, taking pictures and rolling down hills :-)

I love how Dylan scrunches up his face when he says "cheese". Feeding the fish was the biggest hit...they were so excited to do that. I think Dylan could have stayed and did that all afternoon and been perfectly happy!



These next three pictures turned out super cute of the kids... I made them climb in between all the tulips to get a really good picture for their mom and dad. They were good sports for me and put up with all the picture taking. I later surprised Misty by printing out 8x10's of them and put them in frames, which are now proudly displayed in their home. It gives me a little smile every time I see them and think to myself I took those cute pictures :-)

COURTNEY

So yes the sun was in her eyes but she totally smiled like this on purpose...we took several shots but well as I'm coming to learn more and more these days, "sometimes ya just got to go with it" a truth that I'm sure all you mothers out there already know :-)


WHITNEY



Ya absolutely adorable!

DYLAN

There is that classic "cheese" face again

Caroline and the girls taking a break while I was taking Dylan's picture... it was really warm that day and we did a lot of walking!



We posed by the fountain in the Secret Garden but again the sun shining in our eyeballs well all but me that is... at the end of our walk Caroline was a super good sport and rolled down the huge hill with the kids not once but three times...she is my hero! Dan and I just sat at the top laughing at all of them! Good times!




After we left the gardens I took the kids to my family barbecue at my Grandma's, which they had such a great time, eating good food, playing with my cousins and my brother's dog Izzy, and then playing a good ole' game of baseball.

So that was my memorable memorial day weekend... I had a wonderful time although like I said I was a little wiped out that Tuesday morning at work the next day, sorry Dr. Blake :-)

A Little More Catch Up...

Now let's see where was I on my little rewind blogging posts? Oh yes I remember now... the Month of MAY! Well as they say April showers bring May flowers and that is definitely the truth! :-)

I decided that I would make great use of my Thanksgiving Point season pass that I purchased and took another trip to the gardens that first week in May, with my friend Toni and her little boy James


So I took this picture of myself with my cast on which turned out surprisingly well considering and yes for those of you that didn't hear about that story, that was another event of May this year. I broke my right wrist by falling on it while doing pushups (who does that, seriously?) I thought that after breaking a bone it was suppose to grow back stronger not weaker but ya I fractured it right next to where I broke it nine years ago... crazy!

Toni and James

We also took James to the animal farm at Thanksgiving Point too... it was a super fun HOT HOT DAY in MAY. One of the few since it rained rained rained most of the time, we were beginning to think we lived in Seattle this summer!

A Good Month for a Wedding... my cousin Anthony (Britanie's brother for those of you who don't know) got married May 1st to a beautiful girl who we are happy to have as part of our family. They had their reception at a greenhouse in Orem called the Sun River Garderns which I thought was such a great place...

Anthony and his wife

Cindi and her nephew Tavin. My cousin David and his wife Nicole flew out from Chicago for the wedding

I had to take a picture of this cause I thought it was so cool. They had these on the refreshment tables, it was a block of ice that they made into a vase and had the flowers in and all lit up... so pretty!

And last but not least a picture of my brother...sporting his kilt for the occasion!

A present for myself...

Well its official... after much hoping and wishing for years and years, my dream of having a reduction is finally coming true! I went and scheduled the surgery date today for September 16th, just a little over five weeks away and I cannot even begin to express how excited I am (well not for the surgery itself, that sounds a little weird but you know for the end results) and how grateful that my insurance is going to pay almost half of it. I know it's not going to be pleasant for a little while after ( but I figure if I survived kidney stones I can do this) and I feel bad missing work for a week or so but I know already that this will be one of the best decisions that I've ever made in my life. Most of you that know me well, whether you've known me for years and years or just a little while, you know how self-conscious I am and always have been about this...so like I said this is a huge present for myself. I can hardly imagine what it will be like to not have my back, neck and shoulders hurting constantly, to not have permanent indentions and sores where my bra straps rub trying to hold up the weight (speaking of weight its got to make a difference there too...I swear these things weigh ten pounds each :-) to not have to buy bigger sizes of shirts because they are too tight there and to not have to pin the button down shirts where it gaps open there, to not have people make comments or stare at them while I'm working (yes this has had happened several times) to be able to stand up straight instead of purposely hunching over all the time, and well basically to be able to look in the mirror and not be absolutely disgusted! It's funny how we always want we don't have...I've had several people tell me how lucky I am to be so well endowed and in turn I have always been so jealous of everyone who goes bra shopping in the "B" department :-) So ya I am super excited at this point, not so much nervous, but I'm sure that will change closer to time...I have to say it will be weird for me after all the surgeries I've had to actually be going in their willingly and not in pain- ha ha. I may need to be reminded of this and all I said here come say Sept 17th when I'm laying in the recliner at home wondering why I wanted to go through the pain of it all? :-) Well anyway I just want to say thanks to everyone for their encouragment and support and for all the pep talks that have been given and will need to be given in the next few months... til I'm a new happy confident woman!

Birthday Celebration...

I had such a good birthday this year...celebrating with family and friends. I had a lot of people come over for dinner and cupcakes and a lot of friends and loved ones that I know wish they could have come but weren't able to make it. I am very blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life who have influenced me in so many ways! Thank you to all of you for your friendship, for caring about me and making me feel so loved!

Here are just a few pictures of the big day, my friend Rach and I

My brother, Mike and sister-in-law Alicia and no I didn't call them and tell them they had to wear black :-)

My dear friend and old roommate Emily

My friend and coworker at Dr. Blake's office, Caroline

My friend Vickie (whom I used to work with at my old office) and Sarah and her kids, Darryanne, Jesalynne, Mckenanne and Porter Clasby. They are all growing up so fast! Darryanne and Jesalynne used to come over and play with me and my roommates at our apartment when they were just little girls and now they are almost taller than me... CRAZY!

Birthday Cupcakes

Ok so clear back for Christmas I got this cupcake book which has all sorts of fun cupcakes in it for all kinds of occasions but they are not the type that you just make everyday due to the hours of work it takes to make them...well I decided my birthday was special occasion enough so I picked three of my favorites and found recruits to help me accomplish this daunting task :-)

I think they turned out pretty dang cute considering the five hours we spent making them. I learned a lot of what to do and what not to do as far as spreading frosting on cupcakes. Believe it or not the starburst present ones were the easiest and the pig ones were the hardest, which is deceiving cause I thought it would have been the panda bears. Anyway all in all it was fun to do and they were a big hit with everyone that came over!

We definitely made a mess in the kitchen but the bigger the mess the better the product, right? Thanks to my mom, grandma, brother and sister-in-law, and cousin Cindi for all their help, I couldn't have done it without them!

Cindi loved the job of putting on the pigs eyes, that was her favorite since she has an obession with pigs :-)

Ya so the pigs turned out super cute but man were they a pain to frost their snouts which were a mini cupcake and the ears were gumdrops that we rolled out and cut into triangles. Which I was later told I should have just used a fruit roll up instead, that would have been much easier than the gumdrop sticking to the rolling pin...oh well I'll know for next time!

All the finished masterpieces, I only had just a few leftover so it worked out well :-)

The Tulip Festival

We went to the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point on April 27th...we decided that we would get season passes this year, which has definitely been worth the money. We have made several trips to the Gardens this summer. And I myself have taken several friends their as well, any guest that we bring can get into any place on the grounds for half price. I love the gardens the best, its so peaceful to walk around there and such a great place to take pictures :-)

Aren't my parents so great to humor me and my picture taking obesssion?
I so love them!

The tulips were so pretty this year!

Such a cute couple

Still Alive...

Well here it is the beginning of August and I have not posted anything since May...I decided that I should get back to it and fast since I just keep taking more and more pictures of things I want to post. It's trouble really cause I am so far behind... ah the dilema if only there were more time in a day and longer weekends Ha Ha! So I am going to rewind now for a little while...clear back to the end of April... and then move forward to all the happenings this summer!