Sugar Cookies!!

I have two new blogs to show off my sugar cookies. I would love for you to take a look.
www.tastiecookies.blogspot.com
or
www.bestsugarcookies.blogspot.com

I first started www.bestsugarcookies.blogspot.com and posted pictures that I had taken for my own reference. I wasn't thinking about backgrounds and lighting.

I hope to make lots of cookies soon so I can have more pictures taken for www.tastiecookies.blogspot.com

Please let me know what you think!

The Past 6 Months

It has been way too long since I've posted anything. I don't know if anyone still checks this, but if so, here is a quick recap on the past 6 months. No pics yet, but at least this is something :-)

Kylie is in preschool everyday Mon-Fri and LOVES it. She really enjoys her teachers, friends, and all the fun activities. She loves to have playdates with friends and cousins and visit Grandma and Granddad. She is really into coloring and drawing and gets very creative. Her imagination is very active and she is always playing something different (store, party, etc).
The preschoolers put on a play called Stone Soup . She sang all the songs great and did so well speaking into the microphone when it was her turn to say her line.
She is a sweet child and we have many nice conversations and she gives great loves. On the other hand, she is very stubborn and we have lots of backtalking/punishments, etc. I was told girls were hard to raise, I just thought it started in their teen years, not at age 4 :-)
Kylie also got the swine flu at the beginning of November. I took her to the doctor because she had a fever, but nothing else like sniffles, cough, vomit, etc. I heard that was when you should worry. The doctor swabbed her for the flu and it came back positive. Her fever got pretty high, but she never had the other miserable things that come with being sick. She was better in three-four days, but stayed at home for a week so she didn't spread it. None of us in the family got it from her, which was pretty amazing. I could tell my body was fighting it pretty hard though because two nights in a row I got chills and my body ached, but I didn't get a fever. All this hype about the swine flu had me so scared, but it was just a normal sickness, actually not as bad as some she's had before.

Gavin had his 2nd birthday in September. He is getting much better at telling us what he wants, unless he is frustrated and then he just whines. He copies pretty much everything Kylie does and always wants to play with her. He also asks to go to Grandma's house and to Disneyland pretty much everyday, multiple times per day.
He has had a cough since June of last year. We are going on 7 months now. We've tried all sorts of things. We've done a few different antibiotics thinking maybe an infection. We've tried an inhaler for asthma. Nothing has worked.
I took him to my brother-in-law's uncle a few weeks ago. He is a chiropracter who believes in healing with vitamins and so forth, I think holistic is the right word. He tested Gavin and said he has environmental toxins in his lungs, specifically chlorine. He body is trying to cough it out, but hasn't been successful. I also had him check some marks that have been appearing on his skin in the past 6-7 months also, and same thing; environmental toxins. We have him taking some natural vitamins everyday and I am very hopeful that it will work.
In addition to his cough he seems to get a runny/stuffy nose every other week. He's on his second cold this month already.

For Halloween Gavin was a monkey and Kylie was a witch. They had a lot of fun trick-or-treating this year. For a few weeks after that, Gavin would say trick-or-treat to me when he wanted a treat from me. He learned that those few words got him candy:-)

We spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family. We had a very nice day being together. The kids put on a little program. Kylie and her cousin Brian sang "I want a hippopatomas for Christmas" and Gavin sang the "ABC's".

We had a nice Christmas too. One evening, we spent time with my side of the family doing our traditional things: dinner, decorating gingerbread houses, re-enacting the nativity with all the kids dressed up, and enjoying a visit from Santa Clause.

Another night, Kylie and I went caroling with my sister and her family. Kylie loved it. She got right up there at the front door and received lots of attention from the families we caroled to.

Christmas morning was really nice. We spent the morning here at home opening presents and playing with the kids new toys. In the afternoon we went to my parents house and spent the remainder of the day/evening there as we all exchanged presents with the whole family.

We are back to normal life now the holidays are over and Ty and I are trying to shed some weight. We have planned a trip to Hawaii with our friends Jared & Jenny and want to be bathing suit ready! We are very excited!!

P.S. If anyone wants to babysit our kids while we're gone, let us know! We have someone for 3 days, but still need to finalize the other 5 days.

Kylie's 4th Birthday

Kylie had a Tinkerbell Birthday Party. It was her first birthday where she invited friends. We kept it small. She had 4 friends and 5 cousins who came. Two of her older cousins came and helped out too. That was really great. Here are some pics of the festivities and everyone dressed up as Tinkerbell, fairies, pixies, peter pans, or pirates.




I made this cake! I was really proud of myself!




Kylie & Chloe



Kylie & Whitney



Kylie, Nathan, & Jessica (great helper)



Jeffrey, Kylie, & Rachel



Tyler, Lily, Brian, Kylie, Kristal



Pin the Star on Tinkerbell's wand - Brian won!


Gavin & Katelynne (great helper)


I made sugar cookies in the shape of stars and baked them on sticks so they were like Tinkerbell wands. The kids loved decorating their cookies with colored frosting!

Lily busy at work

Nathan showing his finished wand

Gavin & Katelynne (great helper)

Kylie & Chloe

Gavin is HAPPY

Gavin was giving lots of great hugs. He gave his cousin Brian about 10 hugs in 10 minutes.

Gavin giving Chloe hugs.

Kylie was SO excited to blow out her candles!

It was a fun party!! Happy Birthday Kylie!!

Sugar Cookies

Here are a few of my most recent sugar cookies. Tyrus jokingly tried to nickname me "cookie" because I am always making them for some occassion. No thanks on that nickname, I like Jules just fine :-)

Birthday Basket with extra cookies in bags in front of basket (45 cookies total)


Flower Pots (insane craziness = 8 pots with 7 flowers each, one basket with 17 cookies, two bags with 5 cookies : 83 total, it was an exhausting 2 days)


Baseball & Bat


Patriotic Basket with 6 cookies

Dress Up

Gavin loves to play with Kylie, including dress up.

Papa Reunion

We recently went to N. Cali for a Papa reunion. We had a really fun time. We went up a few days early to give our water equipment a test run on the lake before our big lake day and to have extra time to spend with the family. We stayed in a hotel the first few days and the kids loved it. Here is Kylie using the bathroom when in walks Gavin to give her a hug. It was such a long hug that we had time to get the camera and take a picture. Gavin usually only gives hugs when it's his idea so you gotta take 'em when you can get 'em.



Our second day on the lake, Gavin walked around with the sand bucket on his head. He loves hats and anything else that fits on his head. I liked this picture of him taking the bucket off to peek out before putting it back on.


Here is a 7 second video of him walking around with the bucket completely covering his head.

Birthday Party Ideas

I am not very creative and need some help with birthday party ideas please!!

Kylie is turning 4 in a few weeks and I'm trying to plan a party for her. She has told me that she wants the theme to be Tinkerbell.

I need some ideas of fun games and activities to keep it inexpensive, yet fun.

Catching Up

I found out that you can make a book of your blog so figured I'd better get better at documenting things. I don't have any pics on this post, but am going to catch up on a few things.

Kylie:
You know how most people say "Holy Cow!" - well, a few weeks ago Kylie said "Holy Ghost!" - She said it with such power and enthusiasm just like one would say Holy Cow with excitement. It was pretty funny.

Last Sunday in Primary I was doing opening exercises so I was up on the stand. The kids were singing God Gave us Families and I was trying so hard not to laugh at Kylie. She has such a raspy voice and was so loud. Then she started shouting the song. I had to try extra hard because I didn't want to encourage it, but I thought it was hilarious. Emily told her "no shouting" thankfully so she toned it down a bit. She is quite a character and loves the attention of being silly. I'm just glad she isn't deathly shy like I was as a child.

Kylie's latest thing is that there are ghosts in the bathroom so I always have to go open the door for her. You might ask, why not keep the doors open? Well, Gavin likes playing in there and I don't want him to. The other day he put the trash can on his head - thankfully I had just emptied it earlier.

Kylie comes home from preschool with sand in her hair at least twice a week. She has so much fun though every day. She loves to draw, use stickers, and plan parties. She draws on larger paper and writes a family members name and that becomes their placemat for the party. She colors in a coloring book and then tears out the page and we make it into a cone shaped party hat and attach a hair ribbon with tape as the chin strap.

She is always thinking up new imaginative games and activities.

Gavin:
My little boy can outscream me. Granted, I haven't screamed in a really long time (can't remember the last time), but I'm sure he is louder. He thinks it is funny to scream as loud as he can. It is ear pearcing and deafening. He was born with an amazingly loud set of vocal chords.

He is also a mimicker. If another kid is crying, Gavin will cry. If someone else is screaming, yup, the screamer will scream even louder. If someone is laughing, Gavin will laugh too. I think it's pretty cute when he copies laughter, but not screaming or crying.

He LOVES to play with Kylie. Loves to rough house, climb, throw, and get tickeled. He also likes to dive first into plants, bushes, and dirt. I have to keep him out of the backyard until I can figure out how to keep him from pulling bark of the sappy tree and diving head first into a ground of dirt. He is all boy and I'm not used to this! He is definitely keeping me on my toes.

Mother's Day
Gavin and I had a memorable Mother's Day. We ended up at Choc due to dehydration. I took him to an urgent care on Saturday night to get a supository because I was concerned he MIGHT dehydrate since he had thrown up 5 times that day and wasn't keeping anything down. Well, the doctor said it wouldn't help because he was already dehydrated and to take him to the E.R. right away. Gavin and I drove to the E.R. and as we walked in I told them that the doctor had called ahead. They got us into the little checkin room immediately and Gavin hated every minute of it. He ripped of his i.d. bracelet from his wrist - it wasn't on tight enough. They taped something to his toe that would read his pulse and he screamed until he pulled that off by himself about 3 minutes later. Once we got checked in, they sent us out to wait in the waiting room. They called us within about 1-2 minutes. We went infront of the others waiting, but I'm sure they didn't mind since they wouln't have to listen to anymore sad crying and screaming.

They put an i.v. in him but it took three tries. He was so strong and faught so hard that 4 people had to hold him down. It was very sad to watch but I was really strong because I knew he would feel better after he got fluids. He would put up a huge fight and then all of a sudden fall asleep and kept up that routine anytime a nurse or doctor touched him. The lab results came back and Gavin was a "14" and most kids that are dehydrated are between 20-25. I'm not sure what the numbers stand for. Anyway, he said they wanted to admit him. We had checked into the hospital at 9:30pm and the ambulance picked us up from the ER at 3am. Since the hospital doesn't admit children, they send them to Choc. Anyway, we got to Choc and the two nurses there were awesome. They gave Gavin some pajamas to wear and clean diapers. We were finally done checking in there and were able to fall asleep at 5am. Gavin woke up at 6:30. Ugh - I was exhausted. I didn't sleep a wink at the ER, but thankfully he slept in my arms so he had some rest. I got him out of the crib at 6:30 am on Mother's Day and we just layed around all day. We were on contact isolation so couldn't leave the room and go next door to the play room. They wanted to check if Gavin had the rotovirus, but needed a stool sample. Of course, he didn't poop all day, but had plenty the day before and day after!

At 4pm Gavin was still not feeling well so we thought we were going to spend the night there. Mind you, I was just going to get a supository, so had nothing with us. I survived all day off a protein bar in my purse and a cookie I had gotten at the ER and decided to save. Gavin was given meals, but I couldn't eat them with him because they had to know how much he was eating. Well, he was not eating very much so it was a complete waste.

I had asked Tyrus to bring my toothbrush, change of clothes, a book, and some of Gavin's favorite items. He showed up around 8pm with my goods, brought me lasagna, and hung out for awhile. As of 7pm that night, Gavin's personality started coming back and he was feeling much better. Ty left around 9:30 and then about 2 minutes later a nurse came in and said we could go home. I was beyond excited. I called Ty and he came back up - thank goodness for cell phones. It took about 2 hours to check us out, but it was worth the wait.

Gavin HATED the crib at Choc. He would fall asleep in my arms so I'd try to lay him in the crib and he would wake up immediately screaming. I'd pick him back up and he'd fall back to sleep. It was torture for to even go pee because he would scream while he was in the crib waiting for me. I knew we were going to have a tough night because he wouldn't sleep in the crib.

I was glad to come home and put him in his own crib for a much needed sleep.

So, even though my Mother's day was not what I would have asked for, in a way it was special to me. I was able to be with Gavin and hold him for 24 hours straight and take care of him. He wanted his mom and I was able to be there for him. It was just him and I (except for the nurses) and I loved being the one he needed and wanted. He had my full attention and it was nice to be able to give it to him.

That is our update for now.

Kylie's Prayer

Kylie said a prayer the other night that I thought was pretty cute. Two of her lines included this:

Thankful that I read my scriptures
Thankful that the gospel serves out bread

Happy Easter

I tried to get some pics of Kylie and Gavin before church. I'm surprised I got them to look at the camera at the same time.


Here is what I'm used to; Kylie NOT looking at the camera. I think she was curious what the guys were doing around the corner.


The guys around the corner. Sitting on the bottom step to put on shoes.

Gavin's Easter basket doubles as a hat. We are getting ready to head out back with all the cousins to hunt for eggs.

Kylie showing her loot, but still looking for other eggs so can't take her eyes off the ground to look at the camera.

Gavin had no desire to hunt for eggs. He picked up two through out the whole hunt. He liked to carry these toys around and just run back and forth across the yard.

We had a fun day celebrating with our family.

New Drinking Style

Gavin has been doing some funny things lately. One of them is that he puts his sippee cup in another cup and holds that cup to drink.
You know those cups from restuarants? The plastic ones. Well, I keep them so Gavin can play with them and I don't care if they get ruined. They are in a drawer that I let him play in. Lately, when I give him his sippee cup, he will go to the drawer and get out a restaurant cup. He puts his sippee cup in the restaurant cup and holds that cup to drink from his sippee. I don't know what made him start to do this, but I find it really funny and clever.
This day I had a big tupperware on the counter. He was reaching for it so I handed it to him, not knowing what he would do. Turns out he needed something to put his sippee cup in so he could drink.

T-Ball

Kylie is learning T-Ball at school. This is her first game.

They are pitched 2 balls and if they don't make contact, they hit off the stand.

Kylie standing on 2nd base.

Field Trip to Santa Ana Zoo

Kylie was able to go on her second field trip with her preschool class. She had a fun time. Gavin and I were able to go also, along with her friend's mom & little brother. The girls had a great time. The boys both did well in their strollers. They got to stretch their legs a couple times, but not for long.

Disneyland Pics

Our Family with Pooh 1/22


Kylie & Brian having fun with the camera 2/3


Gavin likes to grab Kylie's headbands and play with them. Tonight he got to wear her ears just long enough for a pic

I am crazy with the clippers

Tyrus has always asked me to try cutting his hair and I always refused because I have never cut guys hair before. After many years, I finally decided to try it. Thank goodness he is a good sport. It didn't turn out bad after he touched it up for me, but I definitely wouldn't call it great.


Today I decided it was time to try the clippers on Gavin. I have cut his hair 5 times already in the past 9 months. It grows pretty fast. I usually just use my hair cutting scissors on him, however it can get a little tricky around the ears and neck because he moves a lot. It was never perfect, but it worked.


Lately though his hair has been seeming long and shaggy. I will make it look really handsome and then by the time it dries, it is all falling forward again.

I thought I would use the clippers and make it about an inch long. Well...as you can see, that didn't happen. I kept trying to fix one side to make it match the other and before I knew it, he had a buzz cut. He had a really small mohawk and I thought I would make sure all the hairs were even so decided to go over it again. Well, I used the wrong size guard and made it even shorter. The mohawk would've only stayed for a few days (per Tyrus's request) before I made it all even anyway.

Gavin laughed when we showed him his new hair (or lack of it) in the mirror, however I think he didn't recognize himself later. We were in the family room and he kept looking at the glass sliding door. It showed his reflection because it was dark outside. He kept running over to me like he was afraid of something. I realized he was seeing himself and maybe didn't recognize his new look.


Personally, I think he looks adorable, but I am his mother :-)

I Do All My Own Stunts

I took K & G over to my parents house so I could say hi to Mom and Dad and they could play with Jacob. He and Gavin happened to be wearing the same shirt. I took about 20 pics to get one where they were both looking at the camera and shirts were visable. Kylie loved being in the pics also with her dress up dress on.

Say Cheese!

This pic is awesome because the kids are all looking at the camera and smiling. That doesn't happen very often.