Happy, Happy Birthday Jakob Dear...

I can't believe that my baby is 7 years old!! We had a really wonderful day that included a phone call to Grammy, a visit to Chucky Cheese, a stop at the Lego Store and Jamba Juice for his very own "BIG" Jamba, cousins, Grammy and Grampy Moon, a birthday card from Utah, lots of birthday money, white cake with cream cheese frosting, vanilla icecream, presents, and a new bike. The bike was his big gift and I sent him on a scavenger hunt to find it. When he found it he kept saying excitedly, "This is the one I wanted!!" Love this kid more then I can say. It was quite wonderful to spend a whole day celebrating my favorite 7 year old boy!

What do my kids do in their spare time?? Well, here is a new passtime that has become quite popular at our house. They just drop. No fear. No hesitation.

I mentioned earlier the scrapbook retreat I went to this last weekend. We made a few projects that I wanted to share with you this week. I was determined to get them done at the retreat, I didn't want to bring them home and have more half finished projects that just sat around and added stress to my life. Well, there was no way I could do it, there just wasn't enough time! I did stay late and worked on the projects. The Sunday after I was inspired to get up early and finish a couple of the projects. I also stayed up late Sunday night (I took a late afternoon nap) and finished a couple more. I just have one more to finish and I'm excited to have completed projects and not to have these hanging over my head!

Below is a cute house that we made. This was probably my favorite project of the retreat.

A Conversation

On the way to the bus today Jakob and I had an interesting conversation. It went something like this.

Jakob: Mom, I think I have a slug in my shoe.
Me: Gross!

Jakob: (About 30 seconds later, in a very calm voice.) Yeah, I really think I have a slug in my shoe.
Me: That is so gross. Come take off your shoe. No, not back there, do it up here by the sliding door. Here, take this napkin to get it out.
Jakob: There is just something up there in my shoe. Oh yeah, there it is. (He throws it out of the car and hands me the napkin.)

Jakob: (About 30 seconds later, again in this calm voice.) That was totally gross.

His new thing when I pull the camera out is to make faces/do funky poses for the photos. Crazy kid! Gotta love it.

Reporting Week 6

Am I really only on week 6?? It feels like I have been doing this forever!! I feel like this is a really boring thing to post on the blog and that I should be done with it already. The good thing is that it has kept me on track and I have done better then I would have done without the accountability to you! BUT, I will keep it short and sweet.

This last week was good until Saturday. I know I went over my calories for that day. I was at a scrapbook convention this last weekend (more to come on that later) and they fed us snacks and I ate out a few times. I stayed on track Thursday and Friday, refused the cake and cookie bar things (they looked so good.) I also made good choices when I ate out. My only problem was trying to count calories. I know I had to have gone over on Saturday, eating out adds so many more calories. I did get most of my exercise in. I came up 1/2 short (it was so hard to get it in with the convention) but I will make that up this next week. And, that is all folks. Hope this isn't getting too boring, I promise I will be done sharing this part of my world soon.

A Baby Shower

This last month I have been working on this baby shower for Marie's sweet baby girl. It was very therapeutic for me to be working on this while Marie was getting ready/having her baby. It was so hard to be away! I just wanted to jump in my car and drive to Utah. I literally had to hold myself back from heading in that direction. It is so hard to be away from family!

This cake!!! Crystal made this cake for the shower! It was fabulous and oh so pretty. She is seriously talented and it was such a treat to have this addition to the shower.

The Hero and the Crown

Could this book cover photo be any smaller? Sorry if you have to squint to read it. I just finished this book this last week and I really enjoyed it. It won the 1984 Newbery Award. I love the fact that the "Hero" was a girl. I thought it would be a fun read for a young women. She is determined to serve her country, to prove herself. She works hard to learn and improve herself. She is brave. She is courageous. She is a warrior.

All these fantasy books that I have been reading have given me a sense of why people love these types of books. I think that these types of books that are written well show us a world that is full of magic, dragons, immortality, etc. but the characters, the things that they are dealing with, the trials they have to go through, all apply to life. We get lost in the fun of the story, the fantasy aspect of it, but what we really love is the real life lessons that are taught through these stories.