Autumns 5th Birthday Party

Back on May 12th, we celebrated Autumn turning 5. That was a busy weekend! Autumn has always had family parties, so this was a new experience for all of us to have friends from school and church come. She got to pick who was invited, which even included some of her brothers friends. But I am glad we went with a friends party. None of Drews family made it to her party- so all her little friends filled that void! It also made us grateful that my Mom, my sister, her husband and 2 kids were able to come and help us celebrate.

I didn't realize how stressful parties were, now i know why all the other kids in Autumn's preschool class had parties elsewhere at like Chuck E. Cheese or gymnastic studios. But turning 5 is big in my book so I loved doing this for her. We kept it fairly simple, I made cupcakes and rice crispy treats, had a cooler full of Capri Sun and water bottles, and rented a bounce house.

Here's the treat table:

 I loved the centerpiece. I used an old gold frame and painted it, and added scrapbook paper behind the glass, then with vinyl added Happy Birthday, glued on a painted clothes pin, and attached a recent picture of her holding up her hand showing she's 5. I can use this for all my kids birthdays. :)

 We set up a canopy to provide shade for the food/people. I really didn't think about the temperature when I set the time of the party to be from 1-3. It really wasn't bad, but shade makes all the difference. It was 95 degrees that day, and some of the icing melted off my cupcakes. :)

We had so much fun getting ready for it. She talked about this party for so long, and to her it probably felt like it was never going to come. The bounce house rental company actually came out on Fri. night to set it up, so we got a lot of use out of it.

The kids played in the bounce house, and on our swing set/slide for about 45 min. then we sang to Autumn.

It was a mad rush to those cupcakes as soon as she blew out the candle.

My mom enjoying her cupcake.

Autumn in the bounce house...love her shirt. She wore it to school on her birthday day as well. A mom from her class, knowing I am crafty, asked if I had made it. I wish I had talent to make shirts. :)

Then we opened presents. She was truely very spoiled by everyone. We couldn't believe all the amazing gifts she recieved. I set up a small table for gifts and as people came or dropped off gifts we had to put them on Drews grill as well. She loved everything she got, and what surprised me was she didn't get anything she already owned. Notice that most of the guests were boys? The moms all said how much fun they had buying girly stuff since they never get to. They did great.

I am in love with this picture. This is Autumn's cousin Parker. They're a year apart and little buddies. She was very grateful for the swim suit that she got from them. She can't wait to wear it to swim lessons.

My handome nephew Ben was there too.

Autumn and Grandma.

Once presents were opened the party was pretty much over. So I was finally able to sit. I love this girl and can't believe she is 5. 5 is a big deal at our home- a big party, this summer she gets to take swim lessons and dance lessons, Kindergarten in the fall, and she has started recieving a allowance.

My little man, he was such a trooper, he's so used to doing what Autumn does and doesn't always realize that he's almost 2 years younger than her. It was nice for him to get to see that this was Autumns day and see her celebrated on her own.

Thanks to my sister for climbing in the bounce house to get action shots from inside. I am glad after the presents were opened that people hung around to enjoy it. I am also hoping that it wore the kids out enough to give their parents a break that afternoon. :)

Where was Bailey? She slept through the whole thing. It was nice not having to worry about her climbing in the bounce house with all the kids, or having her forgotten because I was busy with other stuff. It worked out perfectly.

This was my most favorite part of the whole party set up. I wrote on a piece of paper "thank you for coming" and asked Autumn to write it onto pink cardstock. She can read and when she got to "for" she decided it would be easier to just draw the number four, which she did backwards. Totally adds personality and I love it.

I had boy themed grab bags and girly ones. I wanted this party to be as gender nuetral as possible, most of who we invited were boys, but it was a girl party and I think we pulled it off.

Thanks to all of those who helped celebrate Autumn turning 5. It felt like the celebration lasted weeks afterwards, and she is still enjoying all the gifts she recieved. She loves telling people she is 5. And I can't believe my oldest is 5! Hoping 5 treats us just as good, if not better than 4. :) 

5th Birthday Questionnaire

The day before Autumn's birthday party I sat down with her to ask her a few questions. I love this idea and hope to remember to keep it up with all the kids on their birthday. There were some times I wanted to steer her answers in a different direction, but really- her little 4/5 year old mind came up with some good answers on her own. I especially like the last one.

How old are you? Five
What makes you happy? Madeline
What is your favorite animal? Dog & Cats
What is your favorite thing to eat? Sandwiches
What is your least favorite thing to eat? Peanut Butter
What is your favorite thing to do? Play Angry Birds
What is your favorite tv show? Dora & Diego
What are you really good at? Coloring
What is your favorite movie? Care Bears
What is your favorite color? Purple & Pink
What is your favorite song? Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam
Who is your best friend? Madeline & Hazen
What do you and your mom do together? Bake & Cook
What do you and your Dad do together? Help Dad
What is your favorite sport? Running
Where is your favorite place to go? The Zoo
What is your favorite book? Monster at the end of this book.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A grown-up like Mom.

Autumn's turning 5

Autumn will be 5 in a couple of weeks. I always get teary eyed when I talk about Autumn. I don't know what it is. Even if I am talking to Drew I get emotional. He says it's because I love her so much, and while that's true- I still wonder why water works begin when I converse about her. She made me a mother. She bears the name that I always dreamed my child would have. She is beautiful, talented, smart, and kind. And she's mine.

When Autumn was an infant she was so incredibly difficult, I cried a lot those first 4 months. :) Then she was fine, and was a normal developing child- hitting milestones and I was enjoying being a mom on a different level. Then the terrible 2's hit, which were very very hard, and I cried a lot. Then came the 3's and there was a beautiful intervention- her preschool. Her coping skills became stronger, her communication barrier was diminishing and our relationship was getting better. Then came turning 4 and it was like a whole new child. :) Now she's almost 5 and it keeps getting better. She has truly gotten better with age!

I think I cry and get emotional when I talk about Autumn because those first few years all I did was cry, I was so confused and worried about what she needed and she was always so demanding of my time and emotions- and I cried a lot. So I still cry- I get teary eyed when I have a wonderful meeting with Autumn's teacher, I get misty eyed when I relay the information to my family. And shockingly enough- I cry when I really sit down and think about her going to Kindergarten next year. I have been so anxious for Autumn to go to school all day- but now my baby girl has really grown up, and I know I will miss her.

She's what I wanted so badly for so long. When I wrote papers in school about what I wanted to be when I grew up I talked about her. We were only married 3 months and I was telling Drew I wanted a baby...and she came 3 days after our anniversary. She has helped shape and mold me into who I am today. She took me from being "April" and turned me into "mommy", "mom", & "momma." All these tears, are exactly why Drew says they're there...because I love her so much, and can't imagine our family without her.

A Proud Mom

I have been meeting with Autumn's preschool teacher a lot these last few months as we prepare for her to enter Kindergarten. Today was the best meeting we have had in the last 2 years.


Her speech therapist did a 1 hour screening test with her yesterday to see where she is at and what info to pass onto Autumn's future elementary school. She was amazed and so pleased with how far Autumn has come. 2 years ago Autumn was testing in the 1% range for her speech in most areas, which is way below average. Now she is up to 24% in some areas putting her at average ranges. What she still struggles with is expressive communication and language structure. And those scores are just a little lower than the speech therapist would've liked, just slightly below the average range.  Autumn will still qualify for speech services next year. But! She has made amazing progress and Mrs. Heather will hand deliver Autumns I.E.P. to her elementary school and explain/justify why she thinks Autumn still needs the services when the testing shows she doesn't. I was so proud and happy for Autumn. Mrs. Heather (the speech therapist) is certain that Autumn won't need speech for very much longer. And is sure that she will be dropped from I.E.P.'s before the end of her Kindergarten year.

If it weren't for the speech she'd have been dropped from the special ed services all together. The 2 area's that originally qualified Autumn for the program, which were Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, she is no longer qualifying for. And her scores on the speech tests show she is average, but her therapist knowing how far she has comes still wants her to recieve some therapy next year. It's made me grateful to have a daughter who has obviously worked hard, been patient with herself and her therapists, no longer needs services for 2 delays and is so close to be finished with speech therapy. I know she's smart, talented, and beautiful- and I have seen her grow in so many ways from attending this preschool program. I have watched her confidence grow, and communication skills become stronger.

At the meeting all the teachers kept complimenting Autumn and I couldn't help but thank them because with out them, she wouldn't have come as far as she has. I am so proud of her.

Pinterest Inspirations

What I do appreciate most about Pinterest is having all the sites and things I like in one place, as opposed to having tons of blogs in my favorite folder on the computer. But at night when Drew and I are watching King of Queens I do browse Pinterest for craft and food ideas mostly. It's been a lot of fun.

My cousin, her mom, and her cousin all have a blog that they contribute to and they post strictly things they have done from ideas found on pinterest. She was here this last weekend and talking to her about her blog I thought I could do a simple post about things I found on that site too and she said she would link it. :)

These are in no particular order. I am not going to do it chronologically or by catergory. It's just going to be by how they load. :)

DONUTS
My cousin originally had plans Sat. morning and when they got cancelled I said "Oh good. We do a fancy breakfast on Sat." Fancy wasn't the right word, but we do breakfast outside of cereal and oatmeal on Saturdays so that's "fancy" to us I guess. We always do Eggs, Hashbrowns and either bacon or sausage. I had cans of biscuits and said I could make biscuits or doughnuts as well. My cousin said making donuts out of biscuits is something her dad does, I had just seen it on Pinterest and together we created the most delicious breakfast treat ever. And so inexpensive. 16 donuts cost me $1. :)
Pulled them out of the container. Used a measuring scoop (broke off the handle) to cut out the center.

 Fried them in oil.

 Kaycee glazed them for me. Donut holes were the kids favorites. We are anxious to experiment with different frostings next time.

 I'm not kidding. The easiest and most delicious donuts I've had in awhile.

REINDEER CHRISTMAS GIFT BAGS
With 2 kids I knew I had a lot of teachers to cover for Christmas gifts. (Autumn has 4 alone at preschool) I decided to make turtle pretzels, which are my go to treat for activities, gifts, anything, I saw these on Pinterest and knew I had everything already at home, even better.

 I used my Cricut Expression and cut out all the shapes. We got a lot of compliments on them. A friend saw them and ordered a kit for her kids teachers.

SHREDDED CHICKEN
We eat a lot of chicken at my house. For the last 30 years I have assumed chicken was shredded manually with 2 forks. I have never thought to do it a different way. It was always particularly painful when I would make chicken salad for 50+ people at a church function. And then Pinterest had a pin for shredding chicken in a KitchenAid mixer. My life has suddenly become much easier. :)

BACON WRAPPED CHICKEN
I had just ordered 15 lbs of bacon and 10 lbs of chicken and desperately needed new recipes because all the sudden my deep freeze was almost completely full and I needed to use foods I had. These looked sooo good. All wrapped, covered in brown sugar and ready for the oven.

 And they were delicious, .

DUCT TAPE WREATH
I never actually saw this pin on Pinterest. I am apart of a craft group page on FB for women in the city I live in. We exchange craft ideas, some sell kits, others ask for advice. Well one of the women posted a red rose duct tape wreath they had made, from a pin on Pinterest. It was really easy. Just super time consuming. Autumn has asked for one for her room, but I am waiting till I move her into Baileys room so I can make them matching ones to hang above their beds.
I originally planned to make an all pink one but when Drew went to Target for more duct tape they were out and got white, so I thought 2 colors would be okay, but then it was too light, red gave it the right amount of balance.

 All done. I have since shortened the ribbon since taking this pic but this was right when I had finished and I was so proud. It took 4 days. I don't usually do projects that take that long.

TURKEY HANDS
Around Thanksgiving I was looking for a crafts or something to do with the kids. I really liked this one. I love anything that can totally shed light on the child's size at the time of the project. And I had everything already at the house. Autumns is on the left and Weston's on the right. Autumn didn't spread her fingers quite as wide as I would've liked so she got an extra hand print.

TEMPLE BLOCKS
I work with a committee to plan and prepare activities for the women at my church. Leaders had asked us to have an activity centered around Temples for the March activity. I got the permission to make it a craft night as well, and we are using a temple block from a pin I had pinned months ago. These are the displays I made. Everyone has shown a lot of excitement over making them.

BAKING SODA TOILET CLEANER
All last week we potty trained Weston and between him and his 4 year old sister I noticed the toilet wasn't getting flushed as often as it needed to. Resulting in this. (Sorry Kaycee that I didn't notice it until the day after you left...I am embarassed!)

 So I saw on Pinterest 1 c. of baking soda left to soak for an hour would leave your toilet sparkling white. So I added a cup and waited...so skeptical the whole time too.

 And wouldn't you know it...it came a long way.

DREWS VALENTINE
I needed something simple and fun for Drew for Valentines, and he enjoyed recieving this, except for the Good and Plenty, they're still unopened in our panty.

PARENTS CHRISTMAS GIFTS

I had seen on Pinterest vinyl and tile being put together. When I saw this particular song quote I knew I had to make it for Drews mom. She sang this to them as kids, she sings it to my kids, and Drew sings it as well. She has found the perfect spot for it at her house. It sits on a easel on a shelf surrounded by pictures of all her kids and grandkids in silver frames.



 I just loved this quote when I saw it on Pinterest. Now I wish I had done different colors and font...but live and learn. This one was for my mom.

NAME BLOCKS
I needed a craft idea for a friends bridal shower. I had already etched her name onto a baking dish, but wanted something a little fun. I knew her decor was black and white and the kitchen was red- so I implemented the colors in the name block. Thank you Pinterest pinners.

VALENTINE CRAFT
The week of Valentine's I had Westons preschool group. We made these for the parents. The weekend before we made these for the grandparents as well, but used one of Autumns handprints, one of Westons hand prints and Baileys foot print. It was really cute and the perfect Valentine for them.

What's funny is seeing all of these I realize how much inspiration I've gotten from Pinterest but there's lots of other crafts and things I have done but since this is a Pinterest only post they won't be on this post. The best part, is aside from the duct tape, everything I have done I already had on hand.

3 Year and 1 Year Well Checks

My little man turned 3 Jan 13th. We had such a great time celebrating him that weekend. Bailey turned one back in Dec. but I decided to wait and do her well check when I did Westons because our pediatrician is 35 min. away.

Westons stats:

Weight- 37.8 lbs. 90th%
Height- 40 in. 95%

When the doctor looked at him she said, "He's the size of an average 4 year old." I knew he was a big kid, but that really put it into perspective. And it's true, he wears the same size clothes and shoes as his 4 1/2 year old sister.  Love this kid. He is funny, talkative, sensitive, affectionate and my favorite son. :) He loves his dad and is always asking, "Where's my best friend dad?" when he is at work.

Baileys stats:

Weight- 19 lbs. 13 oz. 20th%
Length- 30 in. 55%
Head Circ. 45 1/2 cm 75th

Bailey is on the smaller size but she has remained consistent on the growth curve and so we don't need to worry. :) She is smart, loves digging in the trash, plays really well with Autumn, and is very funny. Being the baby this girl holds a special place in our heart.

I am glad we have break from birthdays until May. Between Baileys birthday, Christmas, New Years, and Westons birthday I am exhausted by the middle of Jan.

I Trained. I Ran. I Conquered.

Most people know by now, but yesterday I ran in the P.F. Chang's Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon. It is something I have been training for since June. I lost 55 lbs. while training for it, and was only 4 lbs from my goal come race day. I can't think of a better way to celebrate loosing all that weight then by really challenging yourself and doing something of this magnitude. It has given me a new appreciation of how truly amazing the human body is. How hard you can push yourself if you want something bad enough and that it really is mind over matter. When I wanted to walk (during the training and race) I told myself I could do it. Being 75 lbs over weight I didn't tell many people about my plans to do the race because I didn't want negative comments made or anyone to question my abilities- I limited it to a couple of close friends and mine and Drew's family. Thankfully my cousin committed to coming out and running it with me. What a blessing that was. Knowing she was supporting me in my weekly communications with her (she acted as my coach/trainer) telling her how hard upping my speed on the treadmill had been or when I had hit a serious wall about a month ago and found little motivation to run everyday she knew what to say and what answers I needed.
I realized how important the support was and I started talking about the race more. I realized the more I talked about it the more people started expecting things from me, and the more excited I was because others were bringing it up and wanting to know how the training was going. It started to feel more real. At Thanksgiving I remember thinking it was mean of them to plan a race 2 weeks after the new year because it was right after the holidays, but it really helped keep me in check. Now I am grateful- I am sure I would've gained weight during that period had it not been for what was coming up.
My cousin flew in Fri. for the race-. We went to the expo to pick up our race packets and gear, sampled energy foods, drinks, got free stuff, and enjoyed the experience. Which we also saw Dan from The Biggest Loser. Honestly I would've loved a picture with him, but didn't want to seem like some geeky teenage fan. So I took a pic from a distance. :)

I kept expecting myself to be nervous and anxious that whole weekend but I was surprisingly calm. Sunday morning we got up super early we left my house at 5:40 a.m. and drove to Mesa to take the lightrail to ASU's SunDevil Stadium where the race began and ended. We got on the light rail at 6:35 and were at the race in 15 min. It gave us time to check my cousins bag, go to the bathroom and find our corral. We were in corral 10 and had planned to do the race in 2 hours and 30 minutes. The race started late because of a train accident, but when you're standing out in the cold seeing the huge mass of people you're going to be running with, the starting time really doesn't matter, it was exciting and fun to take it all in.
Before the race:

The first 3 miles we made excellent time and were ahead of our projected time we set for ourselves and were feeling really good. We were passing people and drink stations, we passed Dan from the Biggest Loser during mile 3 and I started to realize I had 2 more hours left of running. During training the longest run I had done was 8 miles. I knew I could run 8 miles so I told myself get to the 8 mile mark, then all you have left is 5 miles. :) The half way mark was fun to cross and it was especially nice having someone running beside me the whole time that we could occasionally converse and keep pace with. She actually was helping me pace myself faster than I would've alone. During mile 8 my cousin started having some pain and had to go to the bathroom. When you sign up to do something together you want to start and finish together, and I always figured I would be too slow for her and if we separated it would be because she wanted to go faster. :) But we did separate at this point and I can tell my pace slowed way down. I did great until mile 10, mile 10 was really long for me, I think that was my longest mile. But that was the mile I passed the dragon! (If you passed the Chinese dragon in the race you got a certificate for free lettuce wraps from P.F. Changs) Once I got to mile 11 I realized I was now only passing people who were walking and more people were passing me than in miles before. (Including Biggest Loser Dan, who we passed in mile 3) I felt discouraged and during those last 2 miles I wanted to stop and walk so bad but I kept reminding myself that I was passing the walkers! It was better to be running and my goal from the get go was to never stop, Even if I finished the race in 4 hours doing 20 min miles because of a super slow jog I wasn't going to walk. So I didn't. After passing the 12 mile marker I assumed some giant burst of adrenaline would kick in and I would have mad amounts of energy to quicken my pace and help me finish that last 1.1 mile really strong. I tried, I tried my hardest to quicken my pace and shoot for an amazing finish time, but I didn't go for very long before I went back to my previous pace and figured I would rather finish than pass out during the last mile because I was pushing myself too hard.
Crossing that finish line is like nothing else. I almost didn't want to stop because I had been in constant motion for so long! My finish time? 2 hours and 28 min. I was 2 minutes quicker than the goal my cousin had set for us. After the race I took advantage of all the sponsors tents and grabbed all the food and drinks I could get my hands on. My cousin finished 5 minutes after me. I was so excited to get my medal. I love looking at it. When I went to the grocery store this morning I started wishing it was socially acceptable to walk around wearing medals- I wanted to talk about it and let people know "Look at what I did! Me! I still can't believe it!" :)
After the race:

During the race I thought that there was no way I could ever do this again. Now that it's over- I know this is something that I will do again. That it's possible and obtainable. I trained. I ran. I conquered the half marathon.
(Stats from the website: My pace: 11 minute miles, my time: 2 hours 28 min, Overall: 9232 out of 15663  Division (30-34 yr olds): 896 out of 1570  Gender: 4838 out of 9505)