Our Forever Family

I did it!  I finished my first goal of the year.  It was hard (going with out sugar).  It was easy (cooking light meals).  It was such a great thing for me to do.  It was an even better thing for David and I to do together!  We have grown so much closer this month.  Whenever you are working towards a goal, especially something hard, you draw closer because of it.  We went to a class that our trainer at the gym taught about nutrition, especially talking about eating whole30.  It was very informative.  Whole30 is meant to heal your gut and reset your body.  I walked away learning a lot about what is healthy and what is not and why.  One thing I learned was that cows milk has a hormone in it that makes you crave more.  It is supposed to be there obviously so the baby wants to eat more and will grow.  Not so good for humans.  I also know that dairy hurts my stomach.  So that was not hard for me to give up.  David said he missed cheese and that was it.  Also while on the whole30 you don’t

This year was Melanie’s year for a friends birthday party.  Our kids get a friends party every other year and a family party the other years.  I actually like this tradition we have!  Melanie invited 8 girls and 7 of them came!  We planned a baking party.  Pinterest gave us this idea!  It was a lot of fun planning and preparing for it.  The girls made their own chef hats when they got here.  They each picked out their own letters and colors of their flowers to put on their hats.  Then they were ready to get to work!  They dipped strawberries in chocolate and they each got to decorate 2 cupcakes.  The girls were in sugar heaven!  They dipped 6 lbs of strawberries!! Then we did the cupcake walk.  When the music stopped I drew a number.  The one standing on that number got to pick a prize.  They all walked away with something.  I had nail polish, lotion, body wash, travel hair brushes, sanitizer, body scrub (all $1).  It was a hit!  Then Melanie opened her presents.  She got a script

Melanie was flying high on her birthday!  She got coffee cake, sausage and eggs for breakfast, I went to school and ate lunch with her and her friends in the lunch room, she handed out donuts to her class, she had a basketball game and got to give her team cupcakes after the game, Jason had a Chinese New Year Program at the school for the family and then we came home and ate croissant sandwiches, strawberry pretzel salad, opened presents and had ice cream sundaes.  The food was everything she requested.  And when it’s your birthday you get what you want to eat!  That night they all went to bed with tummy aches She got $25 from each of her grandparents and roller blades and a new big bike from us!  Jenna spilled the beans on the way home from school after I bought the presents Monday.  We dropped off the presents at home and I covered them up in the garage and left to pick up the kids at school.  On the way home Jenna said “We bought you a bike!”  I just laughed and so did Melanie! M

Cameron had the Pinewood Derby the end of January.  It is a lot of fun to see the really creative cars that are brought in!  Cameron’s car was definitely not as fast as last year.  I think it had something to do with it being a crazy busy week, only 3-4 hours of sleep each night for David.  Procrastination is not good when work really gets busy!  But Cameron had fun and it is his last year to do it.  Jason will be in it next year so hopefully the car gets done before the morning of the race  

Melanie started basketball!  She is loving it!  They had practices in November and December and now they have games January and February.  She is getting more aggressive and she has made a couple of baskets too.  She has 2 friends that are in our ward so that makes it fun to play with friends!  This is also the first time I have sat in the stands and had other parents to talk to that I know.  So of course that makes it fun for me too!  She also gets compliments on her pink neon shoes that Uncle Tony bought her!

Last month Jason lost his 3rd tooth, first top one.  Jason is so excited to be sporting a new smile!  He worked so hard to get this tooth out.  He did not want any help at all.  The night before he lost it he was wiggling it and then stopped.  He told me he wanted to wait and get it out at school because they give you a little treasure box to put your tooth in.  Sure enough the next day he walked in the door with a blue treasure box and his tooth was inside!  Have I mentioned before this boy is determined to get what he wants all on his own?  It is a good attribute!  Jason lost his 2nd top one today.  It was really loose also.  Cameron and Jason were messing around before school and Cameron elbowed Jason in the mouth and knocked it out.  He was mad at Cameron for doing it because it hurt and bled pretty good.  He is also glad because he ate his breakfast this morning with out that tooth hurting him!