Monday, September 20, 2010

Gonna Be 2!

Jaiden is going to be two on the 26th! Because of how crazy September has been, we decided to celebrate a week early. First, here's a few pictures of his cake. I was, initially, going to just frost a cake but when I looked online at some car cakes I just had to go all out. I had so much fun! Here a few pictures to show parts of the process. Yes, it was an all day thing. Surprisingly, I didn't freak out. After five tries, I finally got the fondant to work.


I love how it turned out! I will definitely be using fondant again.

The fire freaked Jaiden out.
Our little birthday boy. He loved his cake and wanted more "tires." It still freaks me out that it has been two years! I miss my little peanut but I love how much fun he is getting.
It was sad to see the car in pieces, but it was yummy!
A few pictures of the fam. I'm sad my camera decided to wig out halfway through. So, sorry to those family members who didn't make it in this post. We still love ya!
The two cutest boys ever! We are excited to soon be close to them. The play dates will be amazing!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The First of Many...

Just to make you aware, there are a couple of graphic pictures. If you get queasy easily, you have been warned. :)

Saturday was supposed to be a fun football day at Mimi and Papa's. Little did we know what we were in for.

About 2:30 Jaiden was playing around with Bootsy(the dog). A combination of clumsiness and rough housing led to the loudest crack and most painful scream we had ever heard. The only thing I really remember is lunging over to Jaiden and pinching his forehead together. Somehow the bloody mess was only on Jaiden and in my hand. It was pretty bad. I looked down and yelled we need to go now. We pressed a rag on it and somehow managed to get a butterfly bandage to stick without him losing too much blood. I guess I took it better than I thought, according to Shirley. We calmed the bubbas down and illegally drove, with him on my lap, to the ER.

That little band-aid was a small miracle. It somehow kept everything tight enough, without bleeding through, to last as we waited and waited.
As we waited Jaiden was as happy as could be. He was laughing as if he didn't have an ouchie. He was fine until he had to get his vitals checked. He screamed and screamed as they tried to take blood pressure, weight, and temperature. He freaked out when they put the hospital bracelet on. I was worried about how in the heck he was going to get stitches.
We waited in the lobby as Dal took Jaiden outside to play on the grass. He was so excited because he got to see a "big firetruck" and smoke.

He had some nice red hair goin'.

After a couple of hours, we were sat in a room. That was a lot of fun. ;) Mimi blew Jaiden a balloon out of a glove, read books, and took him on "walks" as Dal and I sadly watched the BYU game. Jaiden was crazy! He was running around, stumbling, and bending over. He squatted down into start position and then took off around the bed and back yelling, "GO COUGARS!" I was so paranoid he was going to hurt himself even more. We were all getting restless at this point. I swear Jaiden has ADD. He bounced from one thing to the next, to the next, in a matter of seconds. I just wanted him to sit still. We, finally, popped his balloon and his heart was broken. There were a lot of tears in the room.









The funny thing is, he still had no clue he was hurt. All these pictures look like everything was fine. His hair even covered his flesh-colored bandage so that there was no sign of a cut.






Jaiden did alright when the nurse came in and put a numbing cottonball on his head. It seemed to work real quick.





After another hour or so, it was finally time. Everyone came in to let us know what was going to happen. We were warned it might be scary and weird. Jaiden got a little shot of Ketamine and started to get goofy pretty quickly. He only wanted Mimi.






It broke our hearts to see our little guy's helpless
body tied up in the papoose board. We had never seen how Ketamine worked. We just wanted Jaiden to close his eyes and take a nap. The team of three, the doctor, nurse, and respiratory specialist, were great! They answered all of our questions and were so nice.







This is where it gets nasty. His laceration was three levels deep. He needed two, two, and eight stitches to close it up.









Even though he was out, Jaiden gave us the peace sign to tell us that everything was alright.











In minutes he was all stitched up and slowly coming out of the sedation. He was so funny.











We were so wiped out. It was almost 7:00. Jaiden came around pretty well. He was slowly gaining control of his arms and legs. He would mumble some funny words. The first real thing he said was, "GO COUGARS!" He lifted his arm up. We all laughed so hard. He was such a trooper. I never knew how complicated it could be to get a few stitches. I know this won't be our last trip to the ER. I'm just glad it took two years to get there.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Zoo: Part 573

We hadn't been to the zoo for a while. A couple months ago, we were hitting it up weekly. Today was the perfect day. Breezy, sunny, with a few clouds.

Every zoo visit we make seems to get easier and better than the last. I just swing on a backpack and let Jaiden roam free. It's so much nicer now that he is older.

He will even pose for a picture. Cheese!

On the "choo choo." We got an awesome look at the cougar this time.

Jaiden almost had a too-close encounter with a random peacock. He just wouldn't let it be. It's funny, they kind of have the same walk.

Jaiden was really excited to see the nasty bugs and snakes in the reptile house. It was pretty stinky in there.

For some reason, Jaiden is slightly scared of all the bronze sculptures in the zoo. He finally touched this tiger one. We had a blast. It was nice to be just the two of us. We took our time and made it home for naps.

What a Guy!

We love our little helper! Jaiden will be 2 this month and I still can't believe it. He is getting so big and so smart. I'm so proud of this boy even when he's crazy(which is all day, everyday). We are so thankful for the laughter and hapiness he brings our little family. We are truly blessed.






Saturday, August 14, 2010

Pickles and Pizza

Today was an awesome Saturday. It was my first attempt to can. Canning bread and butter pickles has been one of those things that I've been wanting to do since I saw it at a Relief Society enrichment night a year ago. This last week I had the opportunity to go the farmer's market downtown with family. I'm glad I did because they had these little gherkins right out in front calling my name. Other than taking all day, this canning project was easy... something I wasn't expecting. Thanks to my awesome mother-in-law, Shirley, for letting me use another one of her kitchen gadgets! I now have the confidence to can anything. They turned out so good... next project: dill pickles.
I finally discovered a way to manipulate photos through my photo gallery app. It's fun to mess with color and contrast.
Our day ended with, what I think is, the best pizza I've ever made. Margherita. Thanks to my brother-in-law, Travis, for hinting to use fresh mozzarella cheese. I'll never go back to cheap shredded. Jaiden ate about 2 pieces... which is a big deal. He's finally starting to eat again. It's been fun to be home and have the time to try all these things. I love cooking and I'm glad cooking loves me.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Mommy's Little Helper

I found a fun new recipe in hope that I could get Jaiden to eat more veggies. These carrot cookies were too delicious to be healthy. I couldn't put them down, especially the ones we frosted. Jaiden decided to cut out ducks and footballs. Nice combo. He definitely showed me that he's growin' up. Jaiden had a couple and we saved the rest for Dad. He cleaned plate. This green plate. Guess who liked them the most?







Sunday, July 25, 2010

Blueberry Yogurt Scones

I found this recipe on a blog I follow, For the Love of Cooking. I changed the recipe a bit and I love how they turned out. These are a great breakfast treat!
Scones:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/2 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt
1/3 cup milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Fold in yogurt and milk just until combined. Do not over work dough. Grease and flour a baking sheet. Form dough into a rectangle and make horizontal, vertical, and 2 diagonal cuts. Bake 15-20 minutes.
Lemon drizzle:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 lemon, zest finely grated
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
Wisk all ingredients together in a microvawable bowl. Cook in microwave for 30 seconds. Wisk again until smooth and drizzle over each scone. Enjoy!