Did Any Of That Make It In Your Mouth

Hals devoured those caterpillar cupcakes I made for Chloee's school. She ate one of them behind my back and this is what I found.

Did any of that make it in her mouth?.... I'm going to go with a big, fat NO!!!

Special Kid of the Week

Chloee got to be the "Special Kid" in her preschool. She got to be the line leader, the weather girl, the one with the cool poster up all week and her mom got to come read her favorite book to the class.

Chloee really wanted a picture of Micheal on her poster. I asked her what she wanted it to say and she said, "This is my uncle Micheal. He died." I said how about we say, "This is my uncle Micheal. He died for my freedom and I love him very much." She said, "Yeah, that sounds much better. Good job mom!"

One of the little sheets she filled out about herself. It reads:

My favorite color is red.

My favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

My favorite television program is Sesame Street.

My favorite sport is soccer.

When I grow up, I want to be a mom.

I'm special because I have big, brown eyes.

The place I'd most like to visit is Disneyland.

My favorite food is sandwiches.

One thing I really want to learn is how to play baseball.

The best thing about me is I like everyone and I be kind to others.

The people in my family are mom, dad, Halle and me.

I have a pet I used to have a dog named Koda.

My best friend is Taylor.

The person I most admire is Grandma Renae.

My favorite subject in school is Reading.

My favorites (some of these are doubles from above)
Number: 19
Toy: My little whale
Game: Wii Sports
Holiday: Christmas
Color: Red
Day of the Week: Sunday
Season: Summer
Food: Sandwiches
Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
TV Show: Sesame Street

Her favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This was the book she wanted me to read to the class. We decided to make a treat to take for the class. Yep, these adorable little caterpillar cupcakes. She had so much fun making them.

The whole little school of caterpillars. Yeah, some turned out better than others but the kids LOVED them and Chloee had so much fun making them and that's all that matters.

Micheal's Birthday

Today is Micheal's birthday. He would have been 33 this year. We had a get together the Sunday before his birthday in honor of him. We ate all of his favorite foods, with spoons might I add, Micheal rarely ate with a fork.

The Top 5 Reasons I Love Micheal:

1. For marrying my sister. It's honestly the happiest I've EVER seen her in my entire life. This one is two-fold because I also got to meet my second family because of him. The Allemans have been extremely accepting and loving of our entire family. It makes me sad that it took such a tragedy, like Micheal's death, for me to really get to know such a remarkable family and for the chance to be a part of it.

2. He is one amazing dad. He loves those boys more than anything. He loved children, which was evident by all of the pictures of him with the Iraqi kids. Also the fact that he'd have Amy send him stuff over there for him to give the kids.

3. For paying the ultimate price for OUR freedom. Micheal is and will always be a remarkable man who has and will continue to touch the lives of others for years to come.

4. For being my husbands best friend. People look at pictures of the 4 of us together and I have had multiple people say, "Did brothers marry sisters?" Pretty much!

5. His sense of humor, his wit, his sarcasm... I miss it all.

Just to give you a look into his sense of humor. Oh and he hated having his picture taken so these are even more funny to me. I know I'm in trouble for putting these up but since you're not here to stop me Micheal, too darn bad!

Happy Birthday! I love you!

Late Is What I Live By

This conversation went as follows this morning as I was trying to get Chloee ready for school.

Me: "Chloee, stop messing around. You are already going to be late for school as is. Get out of the shower."

Chloee: "I won't be late. I don't want to get out of the shower, it's so warm in here."

Me: "Get out Chloee. You are going to be late for school."

Chloee: "It seems like you say that we are going to be late every day. Every single day I go to school, you tell me that we are going to be late and to hurry."

Me: "Yeah, so???"

Chloee: "Well, it would seem to be, Mom, that we are late every day. So why should I care that I'm going to be late today when I'm late every other day?"

Me: (Looking at her like, I'm not in the mood for your jokes today)

Chloee: "What? I'm just saying!"

Meet Ojis and Cookie Flower

These 2 adorable caterpillars are the ones from my favorite book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. They had them at Kohl's and I had to have one. When we got there, both the girls wanted one and I just couldn't say no. As we were leaving the store, I asked the girls what they named their caterpillars. They gave me specific names and they both have stuck and never changed. Chloee named hers Cookie Flower. Halle named hers Ojis. I have no idea where those came from, especially the one Halle chose.

New Year Resolutions / Goals

I do not like New Year's resolutions or goals. I feel like all I am doing is setting myself up for failure. My therapist once told me that the reason we hate these goals is because we make them so unattainable. We want to all of a sudden change and be this different person by the first of the year, because we already want to feel like we're accomplishing our goals.

I've learned through sad experience to keep them simple and most importantly, attainable.

1. I want to be a more forgiving person. I have a lot of bad feelings that I have been harboring for quite some time and I seem to hold onto them for dear life. I have been done wrong plenty of times and it seems stupid to forgive things that are just going to continue to happen. I need to let go of these feelings, they are only pulling me down. That is much easier said than done. The only person it is hurting is me but I almost feel like I am being vulnerable by forgiving and I need to let that go. It will take time, for sure, but I am now willing to work on it.

2. I want to be a fun mom. I am an extremely anxiety ridden person, no if, and or buts about that. It is just part of who I am, part of my personality. I want to be a less up-tight mom, one who can actually get down on her hands and knees and play around with her kids. I want to be the mom who lets the little things go and can smile when things may not go the way I planned and just roll with the punches. I want my girls to remember me as a fun mom, who always took the time to be with them and truly get to know all about them. I want my kids to look back when they are older and feel the way I feel about my mom when I was growing up. She is a great person for me to want to pattern my life after.

3. I want to become more spiritual. This is a huge fight for me. I struggle with this a lot. I struggle with prayer and scripture reading, on a personal level. I want to just start with saying my prayers every night. Not even multiple times a day, baby steps for me, attainable. I want to start reading more and for right now, I think I will start with reading my scriptures 3 days a week. I really want to finish the Book of Mormon I started when I was pregnant with Halle but I'm not going to make that a goal. I want to feel the spirit more prevalently in my life and it all starts with my personal relationship with Heavenly Father and my savior, Jesus Christ.

4. I want to run the Freedom Run this July. That is a 15k, 9.3 miles. I used to run it back in high school. I really wanted to run it when my dad did his 20th year of running it, same as when they ran it for Micheal back in 2009 but due to health and personal issues, I was not able to. Last year I signed up to do the TOU marathon and due to health reasons I had to back out. This year, I do it for my dad's 20th race and for my sweet brother, Micheal. I was not able to do this 2 years ago and this year, it's my turn to make up for what I missed. I'm not trying for a certain time, I'm not going for not being dead last, because I very well may be the last. My goal is just to finish it. I know that is something I CAN do.

5. I want to do more service. The big thing I want to do is visit the elderly in nursing homes. On Christmas Eve, I went and visited my uncle who is in a nursing home. It was the best thing I had done in a while. Although at first he didn't know me, we had a great time as we talked, both cried and laughed. At least once a month, I want to make/take something and take it to a nursing home and ask the nurses who never gets visitors and go take them something and just simply take the time to get to know them and be a friend.

There you have it. A lot of these were inspired to me as I wrote my things to give Micheal for Christmas, and I put it in the box. Next thing to do is to buy my tokens, do them and fill up the jar at Micheal's grave. (I know this doesn't make sense to most of you. A post to come.)

BRING ON 2011!