Happy birthday Little Man!

First attempt-Not bad except the food coloring sucked, that was a whole tube of green gel coloring.

The final version. Mom made the dragon body-gluten free for Erin's girls. That is why the two cakes are not connected or touching. We couldn't contaminate the gluten free one.

Michael and I celebrated Little Man's Birthday with just the three of us and our niece who was staying with us over her spring break. We saved the presents for his birthday party with all the family. We got him a cake which he didn't even try to eat. He just smeared it all over everything and threw it on the floor.

We planned on celebrating his birthday over conference weekend but due to a husband with bronchitis that turned into pmeuonia and a son who was fighting off sickness and dealing with one year old shots we postponed it another week. So last Saturday we finally had his birthday party at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's. Most of Mike's family was able to make it and My mom and dad and Erin and her kids came as well. We had a fun time and I think all the other kids enjoyed opening Little Man's presents more than he did. It was a great time and I am grateful for all who were able to come. It was a good day for Little Man! He officially started walking that day too!

Here are some pictures from his special days!

A long time coming!

Well, I finally did it here is a post dedicated straight to little man! Look how he has grown! I can't believe it's been a year! It has gone by fast, but has also been the best year ever! I love my little man to pieces! These are my favorite pictures of him! Sorry some of them are blurry, I am not the greatest photographer! I also arranged them backwards, so he goes from old to younger! Oops! Some day I will get the hang of this!

My Happy Boy!

Why can't I play in here mom?

Me and my buddy Uncle Shane

Santa brought me presents!

This trick or treating is not for the faint!

All ready to go trunk or treating!

Give it Back!

She took my ball!

We haven't mastered sharing yet.

My Favorite toy!

Yum! my second favorite toy!

5 months old and sitting by myself!

It was this big! (first taste of cereal)

I love bath time!

I hate tummy time! learning to push up!

This is it.....

The day you have all been patiently waiting for! I am finally going to post some pictures of little man! These are of his birthday and his cake! Enjoy, I hope to get more up shortly!

Update-no pictures SORRY :(

Well, we are only 3 months into the year and I am already failing at my goals. But I am not giving up! Something broke on my camera or computer, so I am not able to upload pictures. I am working on it, but not having any luck. That is why no one has seen any updated pictures of our Little Man. On a quick update, Mike didn't get accepted anywhere so we are staying in Twin Falls another year. I am hoping to be able to take more time off and not work full time. We got a very nice tax return and will be pretty much debt free after it comes in, so that will help a lot going into the application process for Mike next year. We are not giving up and have plans for him to retake a couple classes to help his GPA. My friend Jen has offered to help by giving me some of her husbands essays he used and we have a very smart lady in our ward who went to harvard and studied English, so she is going to help him rewrite his essays and help him study for the GRE. Hopefully next year is the year!

Little Man is growing like a weed! I can't believe he will be a year old in three weeks! Where does the time go! He isn't quite walking on his own, but it won't be long. He is into everything as it is, so I don't know if I am too excited for him to be more mobile! We love him to pieces though!

We got a new camera that didn't work, so had to take that back and get another one, but I am hoping I will be able to download pictures with the new camera. It is a video camera that is small, rugged and waterproof. Perfect for us! It also takes still shots, so lets cross our fingers its my camera that is screwed up and the new one will be compatible with my computer!

We went to St. George last week to visit Mike's family. He has an aunt and three cousins that live there with all their kids. We blessed a baby Sunday, went to a birthday part Sunday night, and then spent the next two days snowboarding courtesy of his other cousin who works at Brianhead. Her husband is a lift manager there and he took us on a special private tour of all the secret powder spots. I was sick once again, and it literally almost killed me to keep up, but I did it. I never remember to wear sunscreen when I go snowboarding and I fried my face like no other from the cheeks down. My nose has peeled before, but I have never had my cheeks and chin peel before. It was nasty. I felt like I had leprosy. (yes I have a picture of the nastiness only time will tell if I will be able to post it or not) We had a blast and a much needed get away from work and school. It's about that time we get busy again, so we won't have a chance to get away for a while now.

I went to the doctor again when I got back. Something about having a cough for 2 weeks that keeps everyone up all night is no fun! I had another sinus infection and the doctor thinks maybe I had bronchitis, but since there was no drainage or mucusy stuff he wasn't sure. So I got another round of medicine which was stronger than the last and has helped a lot faster than the amoxicillin. So lets hope that sickness is finally over in our family!

Sickness is in the house

Well the new year has not brought health and happiness to my house, it has brought sickness and misery. It all started with Michael just before Thanksgiving. He was sick for a couple of weeks. Just in time for him to drive to Logan to take his GRE. Not a good time for him. Then after Thankgsiving I got extremely sick. I wanted to die. I missed 4 days of work. That never happens! Then when I got over that I came down with what I thought was just a cold with a persistant cough. I started to feel better a couple of weeks ago so I thought yay we are over the sickness! Then Micah wakes up in the middle of the night screaming his head off. I went in there and he was burning up! His fever came and went for a few days and he was still pretty happy and eating pretty well so we attributed it to teething. (which he was also doing) Well New Years Eve we broke down and went to the doctor. The verdict: an ear infection in not 1 but 2 ears. Poor little guy. So we got medicine for that. He seemed to be doing better for a few days then he had a relapse. At the same time I was too. So we took him back to the doctor and they had to give him a higher dose of medicine because his ear infection was still going strong in one ear. A couple of days later I finally went in. The verdict:Sinus infection! So I got medicine for my ailments as well. I am happy to report that I am feeling much better and Micah's ear infections are gone, however his reflux is back. So we have to start with the medication AGAIN!
Needless to see we didn't ring in the New Year on a good note, but we are making the best of things. That's all you can do.
Michael starts his last semester of college as an undergrad tomorrow. That is super exciting! He has applied to severl PT Schools and we hope he gets accepted somewhere. He really doesn't have a preference as long as he gets as in somewhere. For me there are benefits to everywhere he has applied. ISU-instate tuition of course (not to mention it is the cheapest of all the programs) Washington-My best friend and my second family lives there and it would be great to be so much closer to her. I miss her dearly! New Mexico-Michael is Navajo and therefore gets instate tuition. So instead of being 100,000 in debt we'll only be 50,000. Holy Cow right! That school is expensive! We only found out about the navajo thing after he applied to the school, so that was like a huge burden off me! New Mexico has a pretty great climate and I think there would be lots of super fun stuff to do. So now we are just waiting. We won't know until February. I found out the other day he has to interview at the schools if he makes it that far. So lets be praying we get calls for interviews! I don't know who is more nervous about him getting into schools, me or him.
Our Little Man continues to grow despite is lack of eating and taking a bottle. He isn't growing at near the rate he once was. His last stats and 9 months were Head:75%, Height: 50% and Weight:25% He used to be in the 75% for weight. The doctor says it is nothing to worry about, but I still worry. Last week he did start eating more. He finally ate a whole bottle of baby food last week. He loves loves loves meat. He is like my little tiger when you feed him his meat. He growls out you if you don't feed him enough. It is hilarious! We need to get it on video. We also need to take more pictures. We aren't very good at that. That should be another one of my goals.
Because he hates being on his stomach he has yet to crawl...Normally. For the last month he sits on his bum and scoots himself across the floor. He can go anywhere he wants and he's gotten quite proficient at it. We have been coaching him and trying to get him to crawl in the traditional way. He goes about 4 crawls then rolls over and sits up. He is now more interested in pulling up on anything he can and standing. I have a feeling as soon as he figures out he can do it on his own, there will be no stopping him. For the most part when he is feeling good he is a happy good little boy for us. We wouldn't train him for anything!
I Hope everyone is enjoying their New Year! I know I am starting too, now that I feel better.
Oh Celiac I can combine running with my YW. I was going thru the book and for one of the projects it is coming up with a fitness plan! SCORE! The projects are the tough ones. They have to be a min. of 10 hours and there is one for every value instead of the 2 big projects when you are a laurel like when I was in it. So anyway. A lot of my goals can be used towards YW which is nice! I want to finish by June. So far I am off to a good start!
Stay tuned for a picture post next time!

2011

Well, 2011 is here. I have sat down and come up with my goals for the year. I tried to keep them simple and achievable, so we will see how I do. I will share them with you so you can help keep me going. I need all the encouragement and motivation possible! So here they are:

1. Attend temple monthly

2. Run (this is broad I know, but I just want to run again, I don't care how far or how fast)

3. Update blog at least 2x a month. (I used to think I couldn't post anything if I didn't have pics, but a lot of you don't always have pics. and the updates are still nice, so I shall do this too. After all what is the point of a blog if you don't update it?)

4. Finish personal progress (I am in the Young Women's and the new program is totally awesome, it was good when I was in YW, but is much better now, a lot more work, but it's worth it!)

5. and of course there is always eat better, be more healthy. I might also add self control- I can eat healthy until you put something unhealthy in front of me, then I just can't seem to stop!

Anyway, those are my goals for the year. I decided to call them goals, not resolutions because goals seem easier to achieve. I set goals all the time and I can achieve them, but rarely do I master the resolutions I set for myself at the beginning of each year. So here is to a new year! I wish everyone the best!

P.S. my next post will be a photo fest of my little man! I know you can't wait to see the updates since the last pics. I posted of him he was like 3 months old!

Biggest Apology Ever

So in my last post I was struggling with keeping balance from work to home to being a mom. I can't say that it's gotten easier, but I have been doing a little better. I thought I was doing really great, getting some much needed cleaning done in my bedroom, until I moved our filing cabinet to get some things I knocked back there. Well I found more than just the bills that I knocked down there. I found a bunch of thank you's from by baby shower that had also fallen back there at least 4 months ago. That was one thing I was feeling pretty good about. I had them all written, addressed and sent by the time Little Man was 4 months old. I didn't think that was too bad seeing I didn't have my shower till after he was a month old. So too all of you who think I am selfish and unthankful, my deepest apologies! You will be receiving them shortly. I feel rather silly sending them after so much time, but I am sooo thankful for everything that was given to me, so I will send them anyway. Please accept my apologies if you have not received a thank you from me!