My rocker boy

So Aaron might end up in a rock band someday because he has been showing us some of his talent lately. About a year ago we taped him dancing to some Metallica songs. In this videos he is holding the microphone and singing really loud and the other video shows him playing with the guitar. He looks really cute.

First one to get up, last one to go to bed

So today has been one of those days when you just work and work and work and still seems like you didn't do anything and things don't go as you plan. I got up so early today and got the kids ready for school, walked all the way there and back (is not really that far, but when you just wake up it seems like miles). I didn't have a good night sleep so I thought we could take a nap in the morning and it didn't work. Tristan and Aaron climbing all over me is not the greatest thing in the world when you are trying to rest. My mom sent me to my room :) but I didn't go because then I feel like a lazy mom, go figure. So I gave up the idea of napping and started to work on a bunch of phone calls trying to get a bunch of bills to finally get to my new address because the post office keeps messing it up and since I don't want my brother in law's mail to get messed up again I had to call a bunch of people. Security questions are so hard sometimes and frustrating. I was able to fix everything and by the time I was done I realized the cleaning had to be done still. So I get the laundry ready, put clothes away, and organized the winter clothes for the boys so I know what I need to buy for them. Turns out Tristan and Aaron are set but Victor needs a couple of pants and maybe shoes. Yes I know he is the lucky one that gets all the new clothes and the rest of the boys get hand me downs, but that is how I grew up and that is how it has been done at my house. I do buy them new outfits for Birthdays and Christmas and New Year and maybe if there is a good sale :)
I was so busy getting all this things done with the help of my Mom that it got really late or the kids got out of school early and they ended up coming home by themselves. They were OK, but it is kind of scary to think that some one might take them if they come home alone.
The cleaning continued after the kids got back and surprisingly Shayna did a great job, Victor on the other hand went to sleep instead. Just before we went on a walk I found him on his bed, he was such a grouch and did not want to help clean. The cleaning got done, we went to the park and the kids played for a while, my mom and I walked a few laps around the park and came home. I took a shower, fixed dinner, had Family Home Evening and then watched some shows. Why am I still awake after 11:54 pm, well... I decided today would be a great day for spraying the house against bugs and so I did. Everybody is happily sleeping and resting and I will go in a few minutes and join them, but I just needed to write this down and see why I feel so stressed out. Life is good, sometimes you just do too much in one day, that is why we have 7 days in a week so we can do a little bit each day and then rest on the 7th. I will try to remember that next Monday :)

Bread and Life

You might be wondering what this tittle means and I hope everybody gets what I am trying to say here. The day IKE was on its way to Houston I prepared myself with some bread. My brother in-law Steven invited us over to hang out while waiting for the storm. I had decided I was going to bake that day and so I brought all my stuff over to their house and got to work. I made 4 loaves of bread and 24 rolls. I knew we were not going to find bread at the store so home made bread would be a great idea. The bread came out perfect and Dan took pictures of it. As I was baking the bread I couldn't help but to think about the one person that taught me how to make bread. One of my dear sisters in law Laurel Brown, when I met her I thought she was the perfect Mormon Wife. She knew how to do everything, she was a very good mom, housewife, friend, daughter, she was everything I wanted to be as I was starting my new life. After a year of marriage we ended up living with them for a while and that is when she taught me how to make bread from scratch and she told me stories about how her mother had taught her and the whole experience was very special to me. Sadly my sister-in-law is not part of the family anymore on paper maybe, but in my heart she still is and I consider her more than a friend, she is like the older sister I never had. I appreciate her friendship and even when we don't talk all time we still keep in touch and I hope she knows that I love her a lot. She is gone through so much in such a short period of time. To me she is still the same person I met 10 years ago but stronger than ever and I still look up to her. I wish her all the best and pray for her so things will get easier and that she can have the guidance she needs as a single Mom.
Isn't it amazing what you think about when you are simply baking bread?

Tristan's Birthday, my Mom and Power

I am back!!! After a whole week of not having power we are finally enjoying the greatest invention in the world "ELECTRICITY". We got it back Yesterday afternoon and it felt sooo god. I was trying to keep myself and the kids entertained outside because we were bored out of our minds. All is well now :)
Yesterday we celebrated Tristan's 4th birthday at my brother in law's house, since they had power (they are so lucky they got it back the next day after the storm) they said we could come and bake the cake and celebrate there. I made Tristan a Thomas the Train cake, it didn't turn out the way I wanted it but everybody else thought it looked good. I carved the shape of the train on the cake and then spray painted it. It was fun to make it until it started to fall apart, I know exactly what I did wrong and next time it will look better. Anyway, we had cake, opened presents and then went home. In the evening we took Tristan to Denny's since it is our tradition to take them there for their Birthday and also to celebrate the arrival of my Mom. We are so blessed to have her with us again. My kids absolutely love her to death and were waiting for her to come back for months.
The day before she came we went to IKEA to buy a dresser for her room so she can put her clothes in it. We cleaned up the room and put her belongings in the closet and had all ready for her. She came late at night to a dark house but still had a great time talking and feeding her. Tristan got up in the middle of the night to come say hi to her and even cried when he saw her, then the rest of the kids followed and we all stayed up for a while longer.
I know many of you were worried about us and prayed for us and we are grateful for it. The storm didn't even scratch our home. We had gas and water and were able to feed the kids the entire week with no problems, we went over to Steven's house to recharge the DVD player and computer and used their internet connection to post stuff on the blog a little bit. Gas stations are back to normal now, stores are open and we have power, we made it through the storm and next time we will be more prepared. Just so you know... WE STILL LIKE HOUSTON!!!

Update

Yes my friends and family we are still here and alive and happy to be :)
It was a horrible storm and I can tell you that I thought we were going to die. I don't know why I thought that :) the winds were too strong and I could not fall asleep so I stayed awake until 4:30 am. When I woke an hour later it was calm outside and I thought it was over. The winds came back and the rain, but after all we made it OK. Our house is fine. We lost power and still don't have any. We have water and gas and enough food to survive. My kids were asleep the entire time and I am happy they did. We drove around Yesterday and Today to take pictures of the aftermath. So no worries everything is fine.

We are still here

IKE

I know some of you might be thinking we are in trouble because of Ike, so I wanted to post something in case I die... just kidding :) I found a website that shows what is going on so far concerning the evacuation. We are not in the list yet. I think we will be getting lots of rain and winds but we will be fine. Here is the link to that website Hurricane Stuff

I just needed to post a couple of pictures of the kids playing and entertaining themselves. We had a little dancing contest between the kids and me the other day after school and it was kind of fun to see Tristan and Aaron working as a team to get the points, obviously Aaron has no clue of what he is doing but still trying to join the party. Notice how he is still sucking on his thumb while dancing :)

Today we had made a deal with Shayna that after school they could go in the back yard and play in the little pool and play with our home made slip and slide. They are having fun and I get to relax a little bit.

I don't have pictures, but for FHE Dan had a great idea for the lesson. He got all the Playmobile little people and let kids choose who they wanted to be to interpret the story of Nephi and his family coming out of Jerusalem. I thought it was fun and entertaining and the kids really had fun. I like it when we get to do something different, but still teach a lesson.

New blog

So I have this great idea about how to make my cake business finally grow. I have tried for years to let people know that I decorate cakes in hope of getting lots of orders and earn some extra money. There is this desire in me to be known as a great cake decorator and who knows some day I will be famous enough to have cake stores all over the country :) But I am going to start with a simple blog and post it on craig list locally to see if I get any attention. Some of you have seen most of this pictures before but maybe there is something new you haven't seen. Wish me luck.

Nice day at the park

I really like having the park so close to the house and to have the entire family join me on bike rides. I have been having lots of headaches lately and usually I just lay down on the couch until it goes away. But also that takes away time from my family :( So today I told Dan to go to the park and maybe the fresh air would help me. It did and I had so much fun. We were just sitting there watching them play and then racing each other on the bikes and suddenly Tristan decided to run around pretending he was at the Olympics, Aaron of course had to follow and both of them did several laps around the playground, they just kept going and going. Tristan decided to run all the way back home instead of getting in the trailer, he made it home and felt very proud of himself. By the time we got home my headache was gone. We worked on the yard and then went inside to finish homework and have dinner. It was a fun day.

Weeding, worring to much about Gustav and INS frustration

It has been really nice to go outside today, we went to the park earlier in the day and had a fun time playing Baseball, running around and playing with a Frisbee. We had been watching all the info about the storm on line and on TV and were expecting something more exciting around here, but still no rain or anything. I went out for a bike ride again and had a great time just by myself in this nice weather. I also noticed all the houses with their nice looking yards and when I came back and put myself to work. The flower bed in the front yard was full of weeds and grass but I didn't feel like working on it, but with this nice weather I decided it was time to do it. I spent a good hour out there and made it look all nice. I still need to get some mulch to make it look better. Dan made Root Beer Floats for the kids for Family Home Evening and we saw a video about the Stripling Warriors. We love that story.
On Friday I received a letter from the INS telling me that I have my Oath Ceremony on September the 24th at 1 pm, I was so excited until we found out that the ceremony is going to be in downtown Salt Lake. They were supposed to transfer all the documentation to Texas and have the ceremony here but I don't know what is going on. So I need to call them and straight things out with them... fun fun fun.