April and Leonard's Wedding

CONGRATULATIONS to my younger sister, April, on her wedding day! She and Leonard were married on Monday, May 18th in Kauai and I couldn't be happier for her!!! She is such a beautiful bride, I just wish I could have been there!!!

I just want her to know that I am SO excited for her and am so grateful that she found such an amazing guy! I have never seen her so happy and she deserves that! He truly completes her!

April, I am so proud of you and all that you have accomplished! You are a very talented and strong person and I love you! I am blessed to have you for my sister!

Welcome to the family, Leonard!!! I wish you both the very best now and ALWAYS!!!

Tyson's and Mom's Birthday!

Tyson's and my birthday was earlier this week and what a fun day we had. To start things off I decorated the kitchen for him the night before with streamers and balloons. I was so excited to make his day a special one. When he got up that morning he was surprised to see the fun decorations, especially the balloons. For breakfast I made him his favorite, pancakes, and even made a Mickey Mouse one for him. I forgot to put the candle in the first ones he ate and by the time I finally located the matches,(put in a safe place where Tyson and evidently mom couldn't find them), his pancake was cold but he loved blowing out the candle. In fact he asked me to light it several times so he could blow it out.

After Tyson went down for his nap that day, his Grandma Sue and I make his birthday cake. I decided to make a dinosaur cake for him since I already had a pan for it. I baked the cake that morning and with Grandma's help we made the frosting and went to work. I am glad I had Sue's help otherwise it would have taken me twice as long to get it done. I was pleased with how it turned out and Tyson loved it even though I knew he probably wouldn't eat any of it.

For his birthday dinner I made him homemade pizza. I had to choose something I knew he would eat since he is such a picky eater, and he ate everything on his plate. After dinner we had a small birthday party for him with a few family members. He really got into his birthday this year which made it so much more fun for us to watch. He LOVED having Katelyn (his second cousin) here, I think that was the highlight of his day. Thanks Kate for coming and making his day so much more fun!






Tyson was so cute as we were singing "Happy Birthday" and of course getting to blow out more candles was as plus. He took one bite of the cake and didn't seem too thrilled to have it in his mouth. He's not much of a cake eater but he did have some strawberries from the strawberry shortcake I requested for my birthday cake. Thanks again Sue for the yummy cake!


Hot Wheels set


Soft cuddly bear

"McQueen!"

New story book


He really got into opening his presents this year and was excited to see what was in each package. I have to say that I was really worn out by the end of the day but I wouldn't have changed a thing. What I wanted most for my birthday was to make Tyson's day a special one. We even let Tyson stay up until 10:30pm to watch a movie with mom and dad in our bed. It was a memorable day and needless to say, we all slept very well.


These are the beautiful flowers that Ben gave me for my birthday. I absolutely love them and they smell so good. I love to look at them! Thanks, Honey!

Easter Egg Fun

This was the first year we colored eggs with Tyson and he LOVED it! It was so fun to watch his excitement. He and Ben had fun creating while mom took the pictures. Of course Ben had to try making a brown egg but couldn't quite manage to do it, although Tyson somehow did. Honestly, who wants to find a baby poop brown colored egg? It makes me so happy to just watch Tyson try new things. I love this little guy to death, and his daddy too!!!

Easter Egg Hunt

We had a neighborhood Easter Egg hunt last week and Ben had the day off so he had the opportunity to join Tyson and I. Tyson had a good time!



Ben helping Tyson count out his eggs.


Tyson holding hands with his neighbor friend Kasen on our walk home. Too cute!


Discovering the surprises in each egg.

BEST EVER ROLLS!!!

I like to try new recipes quite often and allrecipes.com is one of my favorite sites I visit for this purpose. I love how the recipes are rated, it makes it easier to choose a one. Plus, I can read the reviews to see how others have changed it and make my own changes based off those suggestions. Well, I was looking for a bread machine roll recipe the other night and came across this one:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sweet-Dinner-Rolls/Detail.aspx
(Sorry, I couldn't get the link to work properly).

All I have to say is that they are truly the BEST rolls EVER!!!!!!!!!!! I have been in search of a bread recipe that is light, fluffy and one that tastes great. I will be searching no more. I would recommend these over all the other roll recipes I've tried and there are some good ones, but nothing comes close to these!

On a side note, I have also been trying to use some of my food storage items to get better acquainted with how to use them and determine whether or not we like them. I used all powdered ingredients ie; powdered milk, eggs, and butter (except for the butter that is spread over the dough before baking). You honestly cannot even tell! I also had to add about 1 cup more flour to get the right consistency. I used half the dough for dinner rolls and the other half for cinnamon rolls and they were AMAZING!!! They have the light fluffy texture much like a croissant. The next time I make these I will try using whole wheat flour and maybe even some agave nectar in place of the sugar, to make them more nutritious.

Recipe worth trying!

"Pee-pee the potty!"

I decided to take another stab at potty training Tyson last week and I have to say that we are making progress. I read a friends blog last week about her latest adventures and success in this process and decided to take on her approach of letting Tyson run around without any pants on (Thanks Allison for your post). This was definitely a more effective approach than trying to encourage him and making him sit on the potty every 30 minutes or so. We stayed home all last week to help him get into the groove of things and by day three he was wearing big boy pants...YEAH!!!!

Last week I wasn't sure how to approach nap time so I would lay next to him after our usual stories and singing time so that I could better monitor him. One afternoon I was pretty exhausted and found myself dosing off while Tyson played quietly next to me, when in my dreams I was hearing a soft voice whispering, "Pee-pee the potty...Mom, pee-pee the potty!" I don't know how long he repeated that until my subconscious mind realized what was going on and I was able to wake myself up. His usual approach of lifting my eye lid and telling me, "Mom, wake-up" probably would have been faster, but he was trying so hard to quietly wake me up with his little whispers. Luckily we made it to the bathroom before any unfortunate mishaps occurred!

Now, I am not going to say that everything has been smooth sailing and that he has got it down 100%, but he is doing well! He has had accidents and this week has been full of setbacks to some degree. On Tuesday I honestly thought that I was going to lose it. After having to clean up numerous messes I finally broke down and put him in a pull-up. I didn't want to have to clean up one more mess that day and convinced myself that sometimes it's okay to use disposable. I usually try to stick with cloth underwear during the day and save the disposables for night time, nap time (since he is such a sound sleeper) and some outings, but that day was an exception! Thankfully he has been doing much better these past few days. I just keep telling myself that he is on the road to complete success and finally out of diapers!!!!

Way-to-go Tyson, mommy is so proud of you and your accomplishments!!!



One night after Ben got home from work I had to run to the store. I wasn't gone more than 20 minutes and this is what I came home to. He LOVES this box and plays in it all the time. I guess I tired him out with all the trips to the potty that day. Ben had put a towel at the bottom in case of any accidents and I covered him up for modesty sake, but he reminds me of a cute little puppy curled up in the box.

Beading First

A couple of weeks ago I joined Ben's mom and his cousin Melissa for a girls day out. We went to lunch and then headed to Hobby Lobby to look at all the cool stuff there. Well, we ended up in the bead isle and decided to pick out some beads to create our own piece of jewelry. Sue has been making jewelry for a little while now and has slowly accumulated the tools needed and read many book and magazines to learn some of the techniques of the craft. We were in that bead isle a long time trying to decide on what we wanted then finally headed home to start our masterpieces. I chose mainly black beads to match a black maternity dress I had found a few weeks earlier. I have to say that I think I could really get into the jewelry making hobby, especially if it means doing it a lot cheaper than buying already made! I don't buy jewelry/accessories much due to the cost.

We had a great time visiting and creating! Thanks to Sue for all her help, tips and encouragement! She is a talented jewelry maker!

This is the necklace I made. I decided to think outside the box a little and go asymmetrical. I usually like balance, but I wanted something a bit more fun!