Idaho Vacation

From Utah, we traveled to Idaho. Eric was quite the driver and we made excellent time. Like Utah, we had so much fun with family. Tyler just had the best time running around with cousins who were closer to his age. It was so funny to see Tyler become so comfortable that he really did not need mom and dad to entertain him. In fact, he pretty much wanted us the leave him alone so that he could play with his cousins.
Little Cousins.

They seemed to cling together all the time.

Cousins playing at the water park.

Here Tyler sitting on a fountain, but it looks like he is doing something else.We went the the zoo and let the kids go wild.

This is the most adorable girl even with big ears.

I am glad Tyler did not inherit these big ears! Ha, Ha!4th of July was spent partying with lots of people. We watched fireworks in this huge culdesac with lots of other families. Ty loved the sparklers.

Eric worked hard trying to help keep the boys from running into the street towards the fireworks. By this time is was nearly 10pm and it was way past bedtime.

Utah Vacation

Our next part of our vacation, we stayed with close family in Utah. We had such a great time going to a pancake breakfast, a Rodeo, playing with the slip and slide, and staying up late with the adults. The best part was just spending time with family having Tyler meet his cousins for the first time. Little CousinsAren't these just the cutest little girls?...And Boys?Tyler falling out of the kiddie pool.

From now on our vacations will have to include seeing family because these are the most momentous.

Summer Vacation- Part 1

This year our family was very blessed to take a 12 day vacation and visit family in Utah and Idaho. It was one of the vacations that we never wanted to end and that we would remember for a long time.
Our first day we drop to Elko, NV and stayed at this motel that looked "alright" on the outside, but we were pleasantly surprised when we saw how nice our room was and how comfortable the beds were. We were on a restricted budget so the Hilton was not on our list.When we arrive to our Hotel, we turned on the TV and heard, "Massive Thunderstorm alert in Salt Lake City and Windover and crossing I80; 70 mile/hr winds, Take cover". Next we heard, "Grasshopper invades Lehi, Ut neighborhood."(That was where we were headed.) Then next we heard, "Micheal Jackson passes away at age 50." The first thing I thought was, " This is going to be a very interesting vacation." We were already stressing about traveling with a 2 year old, but thankfully we didn't encounter the massive storm and we saw very few grasshoppers in Lehi. IN Elko we visited a large park and Tyler met some new friends. A 4 year old girl took on the role of Tyler's mother and made sure that he was safe and secure on all the play sets. Tyler took to her too and when it was time for her to leave, he walk after her like he was leaving with her. When he realized that they had to go their separate ways, he was a very unhappy boy and our little park visit was over.

When we arrived in Utah, we visited the Salt Lake City Temple Square. The last time we had been to Utah was when Eric and I were engaged. It was such a beautiful sight. The Salt Lake Temple has always been one of my favorite temples and being in Temple Square was a majestic experience.
We toured the visitor center and tried to see all the exhibits. Tyler was a very active boy and after spending 3 hours in the car, he could not wait to release his energy. Keeping up with him was a little difficult, but he did let us spend at least a couple of seconds in each area.The Christus in the visitors center.


The one time Tyler was actually still was at the water fountain where he just sat and wanted to play with the water. We met a very nice Elder who was serving with is wife at Temple Square. He took our picture and told us some wonderful stories. Afterwards Tyler did not want to leave and getting back into the car for another road trip was hard for us all. Tyler refused to leave so he hung out with the groundskeepers mobile.

So far our vacation was very pleasant.

Our Other Children.

Daisy and Zoe

There is a reason why dogs are called Man's Best Friend. Our dogs are our children also. We carry them, feed them, love them, and play with them. If you knew our dogs, you would see why. Our dogs are spoiled. If we are sitting on the couch, it never failed that we either have a dog or Tyler or all of them in our laps.
As I have been contemplating all the blessings we have received in the last 5 years, I have realized that beside, Tyler our dogs have been one of the biggest blessings. Zoe was such an odd looking puppy that she was adorable. When we first saw her, her sister in the litter was double her size looked nothing like her, and Zoe would hide in between her legs with these huge ears that would stick out underneath. She was all ears.= . As Zoe grew older, her odd looks made her the sweet, shy, and one of a kind dog that she is.
Daisy is the complete opposite dog that Zoe is. Daisy is outgoing, energetic, and times a pain in the butt. When we first brought her home, she was so tiny and cute. Little did we know that she was the Alpha female of her litter. Although she was small, she have very sharp teeth and a mean personality. She thought she was my master and punctured my finger and lip once when she became angry. I was even afraid of this tiny puppy. She eventually calmed down and I found ways to manage her and show her I was her master. Of course, with Eric's help. Daisy has surprised me the most when I look at her today. She is so kind and playful with Tyler. She puts up a lot with his behavior. Its amazing how dogs sense children and how their behavior changes as if they are extra careful with them. Today I look at our other children and I am so glad that they are part of our lives.

Daisy and her first day home.

Sisters.
Cuddle buddies.

A Boy and His Best Friend.

Tyler is at a very fun age where he doesn't need just Mom and Dad to entertain him. His loyal companion and Best Friend, Daisy, has become his greatest entertainment. This morning, I came into the room because I heard Tyler's squeaker laugh and knew that he was up to something. This is what I found:

The funniest part was after taking the video, Tyler wanted to see the video and while watching it, he was telling Daisy, "No, No! Get Down!" and "Go, Go!"

Often I find Tyler curled up in Daisy's bed, rolling all over her, or giving her hugs and kisses. Daisy, who used to be an absolute "Stinker," has calmed down a lot and has become the best dog for children.Daisy was very curious and protective of Ty when he was just a week old.

Daisy never missed the chance to nap when others were napping.

Daisy always made sure Ty was safe.

Tyler always made sure Daisy was safe, too.

Best Friends.

Great Finds.

After working the last 5 nights at the hospital and collapsing from exhaustion, I needed to get out of the house and have some fun. When I met Eric, he had over 100 shirts in his closet and all from thrift stores. I was known as a Thrift Store Queen in high school. Since having Tyler, rarely have we gone to thrift stores. Since we have been on a tighter budget lately, we have been trying to find ways to cut our cost and still find clothes and toys for Tyler.
we finally realized that thrift store shopping would help us. You will be surprised with amount of really nice stuff you can get at a thrift store if you know how to look.

We decided to spend the afternoon and go to a couple of thrift stores we have seen while driving around. I am soooo glad we did!This is what we got:

A desk, a blanket for the dogs, a monkey pillow, a tie, fabric, 7 nice shirts for Eric, and two brand new skirts with original store tags still on all for $30 at the Salvation Army's 60% off sale. Yes, Thrift stores also have sales. All of this stuff would have cost about $80 at the thrift store's regular price which is still pretty cheap compared to getting this amount at a regular store.

My new sewing desk for $16, original thrift store price of $40. It will have an folding extension table and some other custom designs once Eric is done with it. Now I can get my sewing machine off the dinning room table.


A huge Tonka Truck, two other cool trucks with lots of sounds and gadgets, a dress shirt for Ty, memory game, book, fireman hat, baseball bat all for $25 at Goodwill store. Ty had a blast in this store just giddy with happiness and tried to carry all the trucks around by himself. Of course he couldn't, but he was determined to try. Playing outside for him now is going to be even better.

This is all the fabric that I have been buying over the last couple of months. Some are from thrift stores, other discounted with sales and coupons, and a couple full priced, but all very beautiful. I have a lot of sewing projects in mind with this fabric.

Just Me and Mommy.

I have been working a lot of overtime at the hospital lately. You would have thought we delivered everyone in the whole town by now. Though I love my job, I would rather be spending time at home. Poor Tyler has been a little neglected lately with mommy being so tired. Today I decided that we needed to have some special Mommy-Son time and go to the Zoo.

We arrived when it opened and were greeted with hundreds of school kids waiting to have fun and see animals. Tyler joined right in and started following then everywhere. I think he enjoyed the other kids more than looking at the animals. He was a good sport with the large crowd and spent time looking at each animal then waving and saying,"bye" to each one. His favorite animals was the giraffe and the flamingos. He just giggled when he saw them. He also loved the carousel and giggled and waved to the man working every time he passed by. It was a great day even though there were tantrums at times. Hopefully there will be more Mommy and Me days to come.Tyler mesmerized with the Lemurs.

Tyler's favorite animal. He said, "Oooooo!"A little frustrated at still being small and not able to climb up the frog by himself like the other kids. The carousel.

Zoom! Zoom!

Last weekend, Tyler was able to spend some man with little man time with Daddy at a Studebaker Car Show. I had worked the night before so I needed to sleep. Tyler had a great time and Eric had an even better time talking car stuff all day. The hardest part was keeping Tyler from trying to get in the cars. He is just like his dad.Tyler loves getting into Daddy's car and trying to drive off in with Mommy.

1955 Studebaker Speedsters. Eric's car is the Lemon and Lime on the left. It's the original color. Pretty Stylin'!One of the cars on Eric's wish list. Packard Hawk. There are not very many of them out there. I still like Eric's car better.

Happy Mother's Day!

I couldn't ask for a better Mother's Day than spending this weekend with my own mother. I feel this was the best weekend ever. We walked in the Race for the Cure, had a BBQ with our family at my house while the kids all played, took naps, and just spent time having a relaxing time together.My hubby and the BBQ. He had fun.

Grandpa and the grandkids playing piano.

My niece thought she was a great piano player and constantly ran back to play.

Since it was Mother's Day this weekend, I wanted something special for my mother. I really did not have money in my budget to get her what I really wanted so at the last moment I decided to make her something like I was a little kid again. It took me a couple hours and I used what fabric I had. It was probably not a gift that she would use all the time, but I wanted it to be something that I made.
A nice Apron was her gift with some little recipe books. She is holding up my creation thinking that I just wanted a picture of it my archive of my crafts that I made. She did not know that she would be getting this as her gift the next day.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Race for the Cure, Sacramento

This weekend my mom, my sister-in-law, and I walked 3 miles for the Race for the Cure. We had a lot of fun. There were over 25,000 people registered, but about 20,000 people walked. It was really fun to see all these people, men, women, and kids wearing pink. The best part was seeing all the pink survivor shirts for those who survived breast cancer. Mom looked really cute in hers. I know it made here feel really supported. It was also sad at times. On the back of a lot of shirts were signs that said " in memory of" The most recent death was on May 4th,2009 that we saw. One older gentleman had 3 signs clipped down the back of his shirt in memory of his wife and in celebration of his two daughters. One of his daughters was walking with him. It was a very emotional time and being around all these people you could not help but tear up. Mom said once during the day that she felt a little guilty because she was so lucky to not have gone through all the chemo and radiation and suffering that a lot of these women and their families went through. I truly feel that she was blessed and that she had a greater purpose from this experience.

Next year we will make this an entire family event and have our own team. Thanks everyone for their donations and thoughts for my mom. A total of $345 was raised on behalf of my mom. She was the 2nd highest person for our team and she doesn't even work for Sutter Memorial Hospital.Our exercise instructors who helped us warm up for the race.

Mom warming up.

My sister-in-law and mom walking. It was at times really crowded.

Some of the different teams that walked. The finish line!