Baseball season is here.....

I've probably said it before, but I LOVE baseball season. I'm not sure if it is the warm weather or the excitement at the ballpark, but I love watching Kaiden and the rest of our boys play baseball. Last week, Kaiden was given the game ball by his coaches for pitching in his first REAL game of the season. I was SO nervous for him. I think it is so much pressure on the pitcher that I worry for Kaiden when he is the one pitching. He did really well for his first time.... He walked a few of the boys, struck out two of them and didn't hit any of them (he had hit a few during practice games so this was a big thing) Every year he gets so much better so it is even more fun to watch.

Happy Mother's Day!!

I know I am late on this but I can't skip a Mother's day post. I had a REALLY good Mother's Day, (even though Paul and I had to speak in sacrament.) I was a nervous wreck before church because I didn't think that my talk had come together like I wanted it to ( You would think that with a topic like "Mothers," I would have had an easy time but I really had soooo much I could talk about, that I didn't know what I wanted to say.) There was one point, right before sacrament started, that Paul had to grab my hand so I would stop shaking. (That just shows you how bad I hate talking in front of people but I'm so glad that my cute husband was there to hold my hand) My mom, dad, brother, his girlfriend, my grandma and Paul's mom and dad came to support us. I'm so glad they were there, even if at first I was hoping no one would show up (not even anyone in my ward) We made it through our talks though, and I think they turned out pretty good.......I don't know if mine and Paul's personal stories showed just how imperfect we really are, but we had a lot of people come up to us and tell us that they enjoyed our talks and that they didn't make them feel bad or guilty or like they were being preached to. I guess that's a good thing, right?

After church, Paul, Kaiden and I went to dinner, over to my mom's and dad's and then to Paul's mom's and dad's. It was a really nice day and what a better thing to celebrate than being a mom and having the best mom and mother-in-law. I LOVE being a mom!! I think that it is one of the greatest blessings I have been given. Sometimes I think that being a single mom was even a great blessing for me. Instead of having to focus on a husband and other kids, I was able to focus all my energies on being Kaiden's mom. I'm not saying that it was easy and I don't ever want to go back to being single but I think it was a blessing in disguise and a growing experience that I am thankful for. I am so grateful to be Kaiden's mom and a step mom to Brayden, Akoy and Kove. I am so grateful to have the mom that I have and to have her as my best friend. She has been through A LOT with me, I don't know what I would do without her. I have a great mother-in-law too. Paul's mom is so sweet and such a great example to me. Happy Mother's day to all the great Mother's I know!!

I love Paul because.......

I have decided that I need to be more appreciative of my husband, who he is and all that he does for me and our boys. I hate to admit it but sometimes I have days that I am grumpy with him. Most of the time he hasn't even done anything, it's more of me stressing out about how hard it is blending our family, having to deal with an ex or just plain "being in a bad mood." Paul has been such a blessing in mine and Kaiden's lives and I want to have something to remind me of all that he does for us. So, every once in a while I am going to blog about the reasons I love him. Then, if I am having "one of those days," or just want to look back on all the great things he has done, I have my blog to look back on. I'm sorry if I get mushy or even cheesy but I need to do this.......

So today I have to say that I am SO grateful that he always tells me that he loves me. Sometimes he sends me cute texts during the day or tells me at night or when he is kissing me goodbye in the morning but I don't think there have been very many days that have gone by that he hasn't told me. (I never realized how great it was to have someone love you so much until I now have that someone) AND he always makes sure he kisses me goodbye ,every morning before he goes to work.(even when he is mad at me :) Oh and one more! He loves the Gospel and tries to live it every day. He is ALWAYS willing to serve wherever he is asked to. He is the cute 6 and 7 year old kid's teacher in Primary and he doesn't complain about "just being in Primary" ever. He was even ok with giving a talk on Mother's Day (not that I am too mad that I have to, also) He has been through a lot of crazy things in his life and made a HUGE commitment to the church a few years back and is strengthening his testimony every day. I love that Kaiden has a great example in our home of someone who honors their priesthood and who is so willing to serve in the church.

I love Paul for so many reasons, sometimes I forget how much I love him....It's good to think about this so I don't focus on how crazy our life is...just how great it is.

EASTER

I started my Easter blog a few days after Easter but haven't finished it yet. I thought I would hurry and post what I had and then add to it later. So here you go....

April Fools and our Backwards Dinner

The first of April came WAY to soon!! I didn't even have the chance to figure out any neat pranks to play or fibs to tell. Kaiden was going to be with his dad so he had a great one planned but the timing didn't really work out so he still has it for next year....

I wanted to come up with something funny for Paul but by the time I had really thought about it, I was already at work. It would have been funny to do something to his truck but it would have been really hard. I would have had to run home, get his truck keys, drive to his work and then all the way back home, plus get everything done before Bunko that night. I decided that I would have to wait until next year to pull a fun joke on Paul, so I have something for next year too...

Akoy and Kove were going to be with us so I wanted to come up with something fun for them....After racking my brain all day at work, I decided on doing a backwards dinner where we would have dessert first and the real dinner last. I knew the boys would think this was pretty funny. As I was getting everything ready I thought it would be even better if we had to eat with something different than the normal fork and spoon. I started grabbing a bunch of random utensils and other cooking items out of my kitchen drawers. I came up with a BBQ fork, an oven mitt, a big spoon and a few other random things.

When I told the boys we were going to have a special April Fools dinner, with dessert first, they all started laughing and Kove said, "April Fools! Right Kristen?"

I told him that we really were going to eat dessert first, he was SO excited. He got a funny look on his face, laughed and said, "We really get to eat dessert first? Really?"

When Paul noticed that there were no silverware on the the table he started getting on the boys for not setting it right. When I told him that I had taken all the silverware and that everyone had to draw out of a hat the type of utensils they were going to use, Akoy and Kove thought that was even more funny. Kove kept saying, "This is April Fools huh Kristen? We get an April Fools dinner."

Kove drew out the knife and Mexican sombrero (which was one of the harder ones) Akoy got the huge spoon (and then we added on a cute little red cowboy hat and the Cat-in-the-Hat hat for Brayden because Kove didn't want to keep his hat on by himself) Brayden got the HUGE BBQ fork (which turned out to be pretty hard too) and Paul got the fork and oven mitts (which wasn't too hard at all) I was lucky because I didn't have time to find any other utensils and was rushing around making sure all the food was out and had to hurry and eat to get to Bunko, so I got to eat with a regular fork.

Each new food that the boys had to eat was so funny. Akoy did fine with his spoon and dessert but had a really hard time with his salad. Kove ended up resorting to a fork because he couldn't eat anything with his knife and Brayden figured out that it was easier to stab each corn kernel because his fork was too wide. I think that our backwards dinner was a big hit so I think that we will make it an April Fools tradition. I feel sad that Kaiden missed out but hopefully next year both of us will be able to pull some big pranks and have him home for dinner...

Basketball and Baseball

Here are Kaiden's basketball pictures as promised.....I remember when Kaiden was almost eight and in his second year of "real" Junior Jazz basketball. He had fun the first year he played, he wasn't as aggressive as the other boys but he had fun. The second year he still wasn't as aggressive and didn't really hustle but seemed to still like it, until we were half way through. He started complaining that he hated basketball and wanted to quit. I told him that he had committed to play that season and I had paid for him to play, so he had to at least finish out that season then he could choose not to play anymore.

The crazy thing was, after we talked and he agreed to keep playing until the end of the season, he actually had to miss 2 games because he had to go up to Primary Childrens and have sugery. He was there for a week and then he had to recuperate for another week. During that time, he started missing playing basketball and couldn't wait until he could play again. He was a little timid when he came back for his first game, because he had stitches and bandages on his stomache, but he did great the rest of the season. He became a little more aggressive and hustled a lot more.

The next year he was excited to play again. He did so much better than the years before and was even one of the better players on their team. He was running up and down the court instead of just moseying a long at his own pace. It was so neat to see become more agressive and really hustle to get the ball and make the plays.

Cramming it all in, to get Caught up......

WOW! I am such a slacker. It's been over a month since I posted last. I think I might have been a little busy lately. Doing what, I don't know. You would think that with being released from my calling that I would have a lot of extra time but I have just found other things that take up my time. I wish I could say that I have completed all the many projects that have been left unfinished, caught all the way up on my scrapbook pages or got all of the Spring cleaning done but I haven't done one of these things.

I have been buys with the everyday things like work, cleaning, laundry, cooking-(just the boring daily things) Kaiden finished basketball a few weeks ago, so our Saturday mornings have been spent at the junior high. I love watching him play, I think this will be the sport he excels at. (I will have basketball pictures up soon...)I've gone to a few baby showers and bridal showers, and even started watching tv more. I know this sounds funny but I NEVER used to watch tv. I think when I was single, I was trying so hard to keep up on everything that I was always going, going, going and never stopped to relax. I don't think Paul likes the idea of me taking over the tv because there have been some nights where I will sit on our bed and watch tv for a few hours. This has only happened a few times, so don't worry I'm not turning into a lazy couch potato. I think I just need a day, once in a while, where I can just veg.

One thing that I have done that I am SO proud of (I have to brag a little) is that I made HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY JAM!!!! I know this doesn't mean that I am Little Miss Domestic or anything but it's something that I have never done and never thought I could do and I did it!!!! The other day, my friend Marci was going to the store to get .99 strawberries to make some jam. On a whim I asked her if it was that hard and she said no. Marci is so good at everything, I still wasn't sure but asked her if she would pick up a bunch for me and I would give it a try.

I put it off for a couple days but then got the motivation (or courage) to start working on the strawberries. I had a bunch of different recipes that I was following because I had forgotten to get one from my mom or Marci and at that point, I wanted to see if I could do it ALL BY MYSELF. (that might have been pretty stupid on my part, if the jam wouldn't have turned out-luckily, it did) I finally settled on just following the one in the pectine box because I kept mixing up measurements and ingredients from the different recipes.

I don't know if Paul thought I was going to burn the kitchen down or felt sorry for me because I looked like a chicken with my head cut off, running back and forth in the kitchen, because he stood by and watched me the whole time. He kept asking me if I wanted him to call his mom. I told him he could if he wanted to but I would eventually figure it out. He called but she wasn't home, so I was on my own...He helped me smash the strawberries and when I almost overflowed one of the jars I was filling with hot jam, he thought he would take over that job because "I was in too big of a hurry" as he put it. I busted out laughing when he did the exact same thing as I did and jam overflowed to the top of the funnel we were using. I said, " I told you that it wasn't just me in a hurry, it just comes out fast and you can't tell if it is full." (I was glad that it wasn't just me being a spaz)

When my mother-in-law called back, Paul told her that I was making jam and that he wasn't really sure if I was doing it right. He told her that I had put 4 strawberries in a jar, added some sugar, lemon juice and water and sealed them. He said, "No she just put all of them in the jar, no she didn't mix them up first, just the whole strawberries." Anyone that knows Paul, knows that you can never tell when he is being serious or not. I think my mother-in-law believed him, not knowing if I was really that dumb. He hung up after saying "Well, she is already done so we'll see how they turn out."

It's a good thing that I can be teased because Paul is always doing stuff like that to me. Our boys think it is SOOO funny when out of nowhere, Paul says, "No Kristen I can't kiss you right now, in front of everyone." Or he is always making up things that I have done that make me look like a bigger ditz than I really am. It's things like this that keeps everyone laughing, even when my in-laws really believed that I couldn't follow a recipe.

So, the strawberry jam turned out pretty good and I couldn't stop telling everyone what I had done (I really didn't think I could do anything like that) It wasn't as scary or as hard as I thought it would be. I am already planning on canning our peaches when they are ready to be picked and Marci has even got me excited about canning tomatoes...Who knows, I might just turn into a Miss Domestic...

Valentines Day

On Thursday night, after the wax museum, Kaiden and I (once again) rushed around looking for supplies. We needed to get Valentines for his class and come up with a Valentines box. I really don't like doing things at the last minute, even though this is what usually happens at our house. We made Kaiden a cool "colored chicken" valentines box (as the cute little neighbor girl calls it) in record time and got all his class valentine's labeled before it was time for bed. Whew!!! we did it!!

For Valentines day, Paul and I stayed up in Park City at this great Westgate condo, FOR FREE!! The BIG catch was that we had to sit through over 2 hours !!!! of this pressure-filled sales presentation for a Westgate timeshare. I can't believe that we got out of there without buying the stupid timeshare. I think they make it so unbearable that people buy them just so they can go home. I had actually been to one before so I kind of knew what to expect. Paul had NO idea, so he was ticked off by the time we got out of there. It was really nice to be able to check into our room right after instead of driving all the way home. Paul said that the stupid presentation was worth it because the room was soooo nice and we were able to have dinner at this fancy little restaurant right there in the complex. It was a great Valentines getaway (and I had the hottest Valentine's date!! ;)

Neil Armstrong and the Wax Museum

SORRY, REALLY LONG POST*****The fifth graders (and the sixth graders in Kaiden's class) did the coolest thing two weeks ago. They had a "live" Wax Museum at the school on the 12th. (I know, I should have posted sooner but I am still being a slacker) They had to choose an American hero, do a written and oral report on them, then bring a display and dress up like that hero for the Wax Museum that was presented to students and parents. Kaiden chose to do his report on Neil Armstrong so I had been searching the internet and different stores for ideas on things we could use to make a neat astronaut costume.

At the last minute, Kaiden told me that he had his oral report in 2 days and needed the costume then. The timing wasn't the greatest because I was having Bunko at our house that same day. I needed to make and frost cookies, make this punch that took more than just dumping in a packet and sugar, figure out an appetizer, shop for plates napkins, etc., clean the house REALLY good, set up tables, have one of Kaiden's friends over, help him finish his written report, find Neil Armstrong pictures on the internet, write up cards for his oral report, plus figure out something for his Valentine box and valentines. I might have been able to pull it all off but I still had to go to work and try to fit it all in.......I was frantically trying to figure something out for the costume but nothing was coming together.

My mom is the GREATEST at coming up with neat ideas at the last minute, so I called her (she works really well under pressure, this is where I get my strategy of putting things off until the last minute and being able to pull it off quite nicely-but this time it wasn't working for me) I LOVE helping Kaiden with his big school projects and I don't like doing them half way, we have to do them differently than everyone else'. That's how my mom did things when we were growing up, the more creative the better, so that's what I try to do with Kaiden. (I love it more than he does but maybe one day he will look back and appreciate the "cool" things we came up with)

Just like I thought, my mom had the best ideas.....Paint Suit Space Suit anf Paper mache helmet. I thought this was going to be the best astronaut helmet ever. I had the whole thing figured out in my head and it was going to look like the real thing. So, on Monday night we rushed out to the store and picked up our supplies. I'm pretty sure that Paul thought I was making things more complicated. He didn't think it would matter if Kaiden had a helmet or not because he probably wouldn't even wear it (Kaiden didn't care either)He gave me some great (easy) suggestions like just spray painting half of a basketball but I was set on the paper mache helmet.

While everyone else watched the Jazz game, Kaiden and I slapped gluey strips of newspaper all over this huge punch balloon. I wish I would have had my camera because Kaiden and I were a HUGE MESS by the end of the night.) Kaiden wasn't too thrilled with the whole thing and wandered off a bunch of times to watch the Jazz game but I was determined to get this thing done. At one point in our messy activity, I told Kaiden that he would be so excited when it was done, that he would be glad that we took the extra time to do this and one day he would have great memories of doing things like this. He just laughed at me but I'm pretty sure it isn't something he will forget (because it took us FOREVER and was a HUGE, FUNNY mess) Paul was great to help us smooth out the bumps (and there were tons, until I figured out how to make a smooth gooey glue paste) By the time we were on our fourth layer we were just slapping the strips on to get it done. We got the whole balloon covered and it looked pretty good.

The next day before work, I went in search of a white paint suit. (This is NOT the technical term, as I was reminded several times at each store I went to.) Come to find out, there aren't a lot of tiny painters out there. I had to run all over Utah County, in the huge snow storm that fell that Tuesday, searching for a size Medium or Small suit. I figured that my life wasn't worth losing over a paint suit, so I bought a large suit and decided to alter it with my scissors.

Tuesday night was CRAZY!!! I was trying to clean, bake and frost cookies, altar a space suit, make dinner, help Kaiden write his oral report and dry out a huge, wet paper mache balloon. Paul tried to help but he has a hard time when I run from one thing to the next, before I finish with anything. He thought it would be fine if I bought the sugar cookies at the store and was sure that no one would care if I just mixed up a packet of Kool Aid. I had my plan and I wanted to follow it... He volunteered to pick some things up at the store for me, so I sent him off while I continued to run around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Sorry this is getting TOOOOO long. So to make my long story short..... I was in such a hurry to dry the wet paper mache that I brought a space heater home from work and locked them in the bathroom together. I was doing good running back and forth from baking, altering the "spacesuit" and gluing patches on, writing a report, mopping the kitchen and checking on the progress of the helmet. Except, I waited a little too long between check-ins of the bathroom, that the last time I went to check on the balloon, it had expanded into this HUGE balloon and cracked the drying plaster stuff. OOPS

Needless to say, I tried everything I could to fix that stupid helmet but I just kept making it worse. Kaiden was so cute and told me that he wouldn't have worn it anyway so we bagged the helmet (oh it would have been so great, IF it would have turned out like the idea in my head)

Kaiden gave a great oral report on Wednesday. I was told this by several of my neighbors, since I wasn't able to go. This was the VERY first time I hadn't gone to ANY of Kaiden's school functions (I even made it to the monthly assembly where Kaiden's third grade class sang ONE Christmas song) I was sooo sad but I had taken off earlier the day before so Kaiden's friend could come home from school with him and had to go in a little late because of chasing around for the paint suit. Once again my cute little boy made it ok for me. He told me that he would probably be too nervous with me there that it was probably better that I didn't come (I don't know if that's a good thing or not) He got great reviews from his friends and told me that he knew that he did good. I wasn't surprised, he blew me away when he was reading to me off his index cards, the night before. I thought I would have to have him read them and reread them but he did it like a pro. I forget what a great reader he is and how grown up he has become. I almost started crying when he was "giving me his oral report." I know it's silly but he is just getting so big.

The Wax Museum on Thursday was AMAZING. I didn't know it was going to be as great as it turned out or I wouldn't have sent Kaiden with some dinky table clothe we had lying around. (All of the kids had to have a table cloth to put on their desk to display all their props) They had all of the lights dimmed in the library and each kid had their own little lamp lighting their desk. (luckily, Brayden came through with a cool lamp that looked great) I couldn't believe how life-like yet waxish the kids looked. It was just like going through a real wax museum. Or how I would imagine it, if I had ever been to one. Kaiden started laughing when Paul, my mom and I walked by him, and couldn't stop. It was pretty funny

All in all, everything turned out really great!!! I think Bunko turned out good too. It was fun to have most of my friends together and meet new ones too. I think my "Special" punch went over well. (thanks to Jen) I even whipped up a spinache dip at the last minute because I couldnt find a store that carried it. We had a fun busy week but I was glad to have it over with.

Stay tuned for our great Valentines box and Valentines fun.....

Traditions

Even though it's over a month late, I'm going to do a Christmas post. I got so busy and never got back to it, so here are all the fun things we did for the holidays.....My mom has had a tradition the last two years, this will be the third year, that she takes all the grandkids to Build-A-Bear. Each of them get to make a new stuffed animal for that year. They are always so excited and look forward to making a new stuffed animal. A week before Christmas Brayden, Kaiden, Mandi, Maci, Mckay, Avery, my mom, and I headed up to Salt Lake to eat at the restaurant above the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (not the Roof) see the temple lights and go to Build-A-Bear at the Gateway.