A MOMMY & BRODY WEEKEND

Rick left early Thursday morning to fly to Portland for our friend's wedding. Brody and I were lucky enough to have an awesome weekend just the two of us. We began a little early on Wednesday night making some freezer jam and then some Citrus Sugar Cookies. I got the recipe from another blog and thought it sounded good so we tried it. The intent was to make them for my visiting teaching ladies, but too much goodness and they got eaten up. Whoops. Brody was a big help measuring and tasting. He loves to scoot the barstool up to the island and be my helper. I hope that never goes away.

One of my treasures from growing up was a green backpack filled with Strawberry Shortcake dolls and Star Wars figurines. Now, these aren't your dolls or figurines from the second go round of these items coming out in the stores, these are the original ones from the early 80s. I wasn't a big doll girl when I was little so my Strawberry Shortcake dolls, for the most part, are in pretty good condition. Most of the dolls still have that plastic thing around their head and the little tag that holds the hat on. I mostly played with the Star Wars toys. Well, they've been hidden for a while and Brody found them. I am totally secure with Brody's masculinity -- if you have such a thing at two -- so I indulged him and he played with them for a while.

(Brody is trying to ride the little bike ;)

Friday I didn't have to work and I just had few errands to run, so we headed into Prescott. I was driving by Peter Piper and decided what the heck. Brody was so funny. I'm not sure who came up with the idea of having arcade games and tokens with prizes at a place where kids are supposed to eat. After a little bribery, Brody ate a couple bites of cheese bread and some salad(This kid will not eat pizza) and so we headed to the games.

Brody indulged me with the skee-ball. Must be from my Show Biz days or something. I decided he is a little too young for it because after a couple times of him rolling the ball up and it coming back, he decided he was going to climb up and huck it in.

(Brody's loot)

We ended our day with a little Sonic ice cream run and Brody's favorite movie, "Bee Movie." He never has been a big tv watcher, but for some reason he is infactuated with this movie. He's is getting to the point where he says the lines. "Breakfast is ready." I think my favorite is "Lookin' Sharp." He is really turning into a little boy.

Saturday was just as busy as the rest of the weekend. The summer library program came to an end and they had a big party at the park where if you read 15 minutes a day or read to your child 15 minutes a day, they would receive free books. They had a band and a magician, hot dogs, chips and soda. Brody was so excited and kind of methodical about choosing his books. Three of the five were about dogs.

Kristi and her kids were there and they love to play with Brody. They always get him all wound up.

I think this was Brody's favorite part of the day. He loves babies.

Today in church -- I survived by myself -- I had a lot of thoughts running through my head. It didn't help when we sang Come Come Ye Saints. Since the trek last summer, everytime I sing that song or hear it, my emotions just get the best of me. Brody has been talking a lot about a baby sister. Sometimes adoption is hard. I feel so very blessed to have adopted Brody. I'm so grateful that his birth mom had the courage to place him with us and I love being his mother. I do wish sometimes that I didn't have to wait for people to choose us so that we can be parents. It's a little hard. Tonight, as I put Brody in bed and we were reading stories, he picked one up called Jesus and the children. Our conversation went as follows:

Me: Who is that? Brody: Jesus. Me: Do you know Jesus? Brody: Yeah. Hold me. Jesus hold me. Too tight. Me: Jesus held you too tight? Brody: Yeah. Hug. Me: He hugged you? Brody: Me. Baby sister.

I tried to get a little more information but by that time he was ready to move onto Goodnight Moon. I know that the Lord is aware of my desires and my aches. I'm grateful for this little boy and the wonderful time we have spent one-on-one this weekend. I know he is a special spirit and he is such a great kid. I really feel blessed. I look at my life and know that the Lord loves me and wants me to be happy. I'm grateful for the gospel. I don't even want to think of what my life would be without it. I know in due time we will be able to adopt another child. Sometimes you just want something now instead of later.

GETTING CAUGHT UP

Well, I've neglected my little blog for a time, so this is my "getting caught up" blog. Hang on, it's going to be long.....

A couple weeks ago, I had a deposition in Yarnell, which is about an hour from Prescott. Rick decided to come with me, so we made it a family affair and he and Brody walked around the rainy little town and took pictures while I worked and then we headed to Wickenburg to visit our old bishop. We had a great visit and a wonderful day.

I have a little addiction that I succumb to occasionally. Okay. It's a little more than occasionally, but it's really fun. I love to play radio contest games. You know, call in if you know the answer to this trivia question, be the fifth caller, et cetera. Well, over the years I've won tickets to concerts, free dinners, cds. money, board games. It's fun. Well, a little while ago I won tickets to the circus and so a couple weekends ago, we headed to see "The Greatest Show On Earth." It really was a great show and it was fun to watch Brody watch the animals. We went last year, but he had a hard time sitting still. This year was completely different. He loved the elephants and the dogs. He was mesmerized by the tight rope walkers, but he mostly loved the sno-cone that his dad bought him. He was squealing so loud when they were heading back to our seats. He couldn't wait to eat it and it got everywhere. He is a crack up.

I don't know about you, but I am the queen of starting projects. I was talking to my sister the other day and I was telling her of this list that I started of projects that I want to finish for Christmas. She said, "It's July and you already know what you're doing?" Yes, it's true. I love projects. I wish I was faster at them, though. I started painting Brody's room the weekend of Thanksgiving, last year. The painting only took me the weekend, but to finish the quilt and the curtains and the deco -- well, let's just say I'm slow. I just finished everything about a month ago. I should have taken sewing from Mrs. Patten, but I didn't. So, here is the finished product. (This is mostly for my dad ;)

If you look close, my little princess Tug is making herself at home and would not move for the picture.

Brody loves Curious George. If you ever watch this cartoon, Brody is George's double. Into trouble in a second.

Another little project I've been doing in my house is turning our under the stair storage into a little playhouse for Brody. We originally built it to store Halloween decorations and Christmas decorations, but it soon became too small because I'm an addict for Holiday decorations. It's kind of fun because you open our hallway coat closet and behind the coats there is a door and then you walk back and around to this little area. Anyway, I had a little helper and we soon accomplished our goal. Brody kept saying "stinks here", meaning the paint fumes. It probably wasn't very safe to have him in this little closet painting. Oops.

While we were in there painting, Tug and Oberon were barking like crazy. I was a little annoyed because I had just let them out and didn't want to get out of the closet until we were finished painting because I knew letting Brody help would not be a clean process, as I'm sure you can tell from the pictures. Well, after about ten minutes I found out why she was barking. A huge tarantula!! Brody's words exactly were "Cooooooool." That's my Brodster!!

Well, here's the playhouse. (Again, this is for my dad ;)

Hope you all had a Happy Pioneer Day!!

Eight Years & Counting!!

What a great hubby I have. It has been eight wonderful years since Rick and I were married. I feel so blessed that I have such a great husband. It's amazing that it has already been eight years. I truly am blessed to be married to my best friend. He is the best "Boy Toy" a girl could ask for.
On their anniversary, Rick's dad gives his mom one rose for every year that they have been married. So, since we have been married, Rick has given me one rose for every year that we have been married. At first I was like, hmm, just one rose? Just two roses? Well, we have worked our way up to eight roses and I just love this arrangement. Rick is the best gift giver and he has such great taste in flowers. 143 BOY TOY!!

Happy 4th of July

What a busy and awesome weekend. We had so much fun celebrating the 4th of July with family and friends this year. My sister Andrea and her family came up from Queen Creek and my other sister Amber came up from Mesa and we had a great time. We woke up Friday morning and headed to the 4th of July Fun Run/10K. Amber, Rick, Brody, Brett, Noelle and Dick did the Fun Run and Rustin and I did the 10K. I can honestly say that this 10K was harder than the Whiskey Row 10K. Maybe it was because I hadn't really trained that much since I ran the St. George Marathon in October, but it pushed me. I was sweating it up. Little over an hour, not bad for a crazy trail course.


We headed back to our house to get ready for the World's Oldest Rodeo. When I was a kid, we would go to the Cedar Fort Rodeo over the 24th of July. Kids rode sheep, kids caught a greased pig, et cetera, et cetera. Eat a greasy hamburger from the concessions. There weren't even bleachers to sit on. Just pull your car or truck up onto the terrace and sit in the back and watch. I'm not a big rodeo person, but I really had a great time this year. It was really fun to watch Brody get excited about all the horseys. It rained on us last year and it also rained this year, but it was fun.

We headed back to my house and everyone came over for a BBQ. Well, it wasn't really a BBQ because I decided against hamburgers and hot dogs and with everyone's help we had Cafe Rio salad. Yummmm!! There isn't a Cafe Rio in Arizona, at least not that I know of, but a friend of mine gave me the recipe, so if you want it, let me know. Delicious.

Nic smuggled some sparklers over the Arizona border from her trip to the Motherland. So while we waited for the fireworks to start, we let the kids do sparklers. Nic and I were talking about when we were kids our dads would light them up and we would run around like crazy people, writing our names and chasing each other and nobody was concerned. We were all hovered around our kids like we were vultures. LOL.

We live right down the road from where our town sets off the fireworks, so we can just stay home and not fight the crowds. It's nothing like the Stadium of Fire, but we enjoyed it.

The next day was just as action-packed as the previous one. We headed off to the parade. Now, I really love living here, but I do have to complain that the parade here is soooooooo long, 160-something entries. It's not like the Lehi Round Up Parade, floats with flowers, all the cheerleaders, bands marching, royalty et cetera, et cetera. Here it is like a huge commercial with lots of horses and lots of Congressmen asking for your vote. Oh, and lots of pooper-scoopers. I love Utah parades. Brody loved it. He was pointing and oohing and aahing at all the animals and even though he isn't a big candy eater, he collected quite a bit.
Next we headed over to the courthouse square and walked around all the booths and then headed to the "Treat Store" to get some popcorn. Amber always gets carmel and I get white cheddar. Scrumptious. We then went to Rick's folks' house for the traditional artery clogging LOL fry bread. Oh so delicious. You make them with taco toppings and then for dessert --- butter and honey. YUMMMMMMM!!

Amber and I then headed to Fashion Bug for a little shopping and then we all went home.

We sat outside for a while on the swing and were visiting. Now, I have this really bad habit of playing with my gum. I don't know why I do it. It's really kind of gross, but I do. Andrea and I were sitting on our porch swing and for some reason, I can't remember, she had her arm up. Reverting back to my instigating days of my childhood, I stuck my gum to her armpit. Oh, can I laugh any harder. The gum was so sticky, I had to get a baby wipe to get it off. I did the best I could, but her arm kept getting stuck to her shirt. Andrea was not impressed but she was laughing until she cried, in true Balle fashion. It was a great weekend and I love it when my family visits. Happy Birthday America!!