He's a Tenderfoot!

I just had to share how excited I was for our oldest to have reached Tenderfoot rank in Boy Scouts. Having autism makes it that much harder to get things done for his rank requirements, but he stuck with it and we are very grateful for leaders that were willing to be patient and help where needed at Scout Camp! Here's a few photos, he also earned several merit badges this summer that he was awarded that night. It is a reminder to me to never sell our kids short. With enough love and patience, miracles can happen.
*hugs to you all*

Trick or Treating at CA Adventure 2009

Last weekend we went trick or treating at Disney's CA Adventure, and so since it's been soooo long since I posted, I thought I'd start small and share a few pictures with you. Sorry the pictures are so blurry, I'm working on finding a new camera....
The photos are of my boys, 9 and 13 years old now, along with my Sister and her 2 kids, my folks, and our friend N.J. I hope you enjoy them.....

Special-needs students compete at Stanford Middle School

Today my oldest ran in a Track Meet at his school. The Press Telegram wrote about it! He is in 2 photos, he is next to JJ on the right in the cover photo and in the photo gallery he is shown a second time. It was a really neat day and I'll post more photos about it later, but I'm excited to share that he is in the online newspaper. I don't know it it'll be in print or not, but I'm still excited. *grin*

If you want to see the article, it's at http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_12522536
Sorry you have to cut and paste it, it seems to be encoded so I can't list it as a link or post the photo. *sigh*

Newest School Photo

I've been wanting to write and tell you about us, and yeesh, the days fly by. Today I found this in my son's backpack, so I wanted to share! He's 12 now, and just growing so fast. This is his newest school picture and for once I bought the picture cd so I can actually claim it as my own!

We're getting ready for the last days of school. It's funny, time refused to go by at the beginning of the year, and now it won't stay still for anything! It's hard to believe I will soon have a 3rd grader and a 8th grader. Wow, I remember 8th grade. I was on the drill team and was making choices that would affect my future. Fortunately, I think that overall I made good choices, if I do say so myself! *grin*

I think somehow my brain recognizes that more free time is coming, because I am finding the desire to be creative again. I want to sew, scrapbook, and craft stuff up! I can't wait for summer when we can do things based more on our itinerary rather than on how much time we have after homework.

I hope you are all doing well, and that you may be blessed with good health and loved ones nearby.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is that special day that we honor womanhood and mothers. I just wanted to wish the women of the world a "Happy Mother's Day." There are so many women with and without children that do so much for others, I wish I could personally thank them.

I am grateful for my wonderful mother who taught me how much fun it is to be a mom, to my dear mother-in-law for raising my husband soooooo well, and for all of my youth leaders, teachers, and friends that have directed my path to today. I especially want to thank my Father in Heaven for blessing me with such wonderful children, even if they drive me crazy most of the time. *grin* I feel very blessed today to have my husband and children with me, and I am just loving this peaceful May day.

Friday night we went to the Seal Beach Pier and enjoyed all the repair work done on it. Then we had treats at Ruby's and sat outside while the chilly wind blew around us and people fished off the pier. We saw 3 different fishermen catch something, one caught a fish, one a crab, and one a ray. It was funny because Mike had to almost rescue them from the crab and the ray. The fishermen didn't know how to get 'em back in the ocean. Good thing Mike speaks Spanish! We spent Saturday at my folks place with Mike helping them replace the wood on their patio cover. It was about 10 hours worth of work, but when they were done lots had been accomplished. Today, Mother's day, we went to church after Mike made us apple cinnamon pancakes and it's just been a very restful day. Mike made a Mother's day cake for me (Lemon and Chocolate - YUMMY!) and we've been watching the Pirates of the Carribean 1, 2, and 3 all afternoon. Well, we're on #2 as I speak, but I wanted to take a quiet moment and blog.

I feel so very grateful to have had this day to remember how much fun it is to be a mom. I hope all you moms out there are having a nice day too!

PS: Can you believe how tall my boys are? At 12 and 8 they are just so....tall! Woo! photos taken in our backyard after church by my sweetheart. Thanks hon!

Jay Leslie Stickley and Ivy Bulkley Stickley Buckley

I have been scanning, (very slowly), photos from my Great Grandmother Ivy's photo album. This is one of the fun ones that I wanted to share. This is a photo of my great grandparents on my Mom's Father's side, Jay and Ivy. (I wish I knew the dog's name too!)

Jay Leslie Stickley was born on 4 March 1890 in Minneapolis, Ottawa Co, Kansas. He married Ivy Bulkley (daughter of Samuel Bulkley and Louisa Ann Giles) on 3 Dec 1910 in Provo, Utah Co, Utah. Ivy was born 9 Mar 1892 in Springville, Utah Co, Utah. Their only son, my Grandpa, Howard Bulkley Stickley Buckley (Married Marjorie Lindsey Stickely Buckley) was born 12 May 1918 in Nampa, Ada Co, Idaho. Jay passed on 30 Oct 1918 when his son was only 3 months old. It is understood that he died from the flu. What an awful time for Ivy, to have a new son and to have lost her husband. Jay was buried the next day on 31 Oct 1918 in Nampa, Kohlerlawn Cem, in Ada Co, Idaho. Ivy remarried 17 Aug 1920 to William Summers Bulkley, and they changed their name to "Buckley." Yes, he was her 1st cousin, and no, there were no children to this marriage. (I'm not saying I approve but I wasn't there and I don't know what life was like then without a husband.) Ivy lived until 30 May 1947 when she died in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Co, Utah. She was buried in Wasatch lawn Cemetary in Salt Lake City, Utah. This information is from the personal knowledge of my mom, and from visiting the cemetaries personally by either myself or my folks.

I am sharing this information on the off chance that one of my cousins is out there, perhaps "googling" great grandpa or great grandma, and wanting to see a photo or learn more.

Huntin' Easter Eggs

Last Sunday we had a family Easter dinner at my folks place. We were hoping Wen & her family would be there, but her son was sick so they stayed home. We had a delicious turkey dinner and then the boys very excited told us it was time to hide the eggs for the egg hunt. My guess is that we hid about 75 eggs, and this time we tried to make it a little harder....there were many hidden in the lemon tree and places that were higher than they were used to looking. For the first time they followed each other around, trying to grab each other's finds. At one point Squish ran past Mr. W not really paying attention and the older brother grabbed a large egg out of Squish's basket. Fortunately Grandma "Mayme" was watching and the egg was quickly returned. It was a really fun afternoon, sorting eggs in the backyard, divvying up the contents (one for me, one for Pop, two for me, one two for Pop.) Not really, but it was cute watching Mr. W give Pop all the candies he didn't want. It seems like we are almost always out of town for Easter and end up doing egg hunts in our hotel rooms. This year will be no exception, but it was nice to visit at my folks place too!

Happy Easter everyone!

Coloring Eggs

We're going to be gone for Spring Break, so I thought I would be really smart and color Easter Eggs early this year on last Sunday. It ended up being one of those experiences where you want it to be all fun but the kids fight over the eggs and which colors they can use and whose eggs are whose and .....yeah. Most of my pictures were out of focus, but these were a few that survived. Can we have a do-over? *grin* The final result are some very pretty eggs, mostly all green. I don't know why mostly all green, but they had "a really fun time Mom!" so that's all that matters.

School Carnival

Friday, April 3rd was our local elementary schools carnival. It had a pirate theme and as usual, we volunteered to work our class booth. This year I was able to get the first time slot so I was there before it opened to help set up. We had a great time "practicing" the "Bowler Coaster" booth and Mike worked some wood under the tracks to make it more fair....the blacktop tilted at an angle making it harder to win....no stacking the decks against our students! The room moms took pictures of the kids wearing pirate hats and then cut the heads out and stuck them on these bowling shirts that were on a bowling ball garland. It looked so cute! I've tried to upload the photo twice, and each time it comes out sideways so I guess you'll have to imagine it right side up. Sorry.

So, during my shift Mike ran around with the boys letting them play the games and go on rides, whatever they wanted. It's funny, the school sells an "unlimited wristband" for $40 that gets the kids as many rides and unlimited gaming all night. But the thing I've learned is, there is something magical about holding tickets in your hand....the power to decide if I only have "x" many, what will I use them on? The kids with the wristbands almost seem a little bored, because there is no "I only have so many chances" mentality. So our boys held a few of their tickets, while Mike safeguarded the ones that would buy our dinners. (Pizza slices for the kids, and churros,, and Mike and I had the "Mexican plate" which was 2 tacos, a quesadilla, nachos, beans and rice. My point is that we were all well fed!)

At one point Squish's friend George put their teacher, Mrs. Peirog in "Jail" . The kids loved it and she was such a good sport. (The booth worker announces over the louspeaker "Mrs. Pierog, you've been arrested! Please report to the jail!" And then who ever was arrested stands in the jail made of black pvc pipes and acts outraged. ) I am so impressed with his teacher, she's one of those teachers you wish you could keep year after year! (Although I wouldn't do that to her! hee hee) Mr. W really enjoyed riding the train ride, and we all just had a great time seeing friends and enjoying the dj's.

We had to leave early so we could go to musical presentation with my folks about Jesus and his life, at their Stake Center which was a very spiritual experience for us all. And, we got Golden Spoon afterwards, so it was a very excellent night!

Easter Bunny Cake - an update

Okay, I know you are all dying to see how the cake turned out. First off, it was easy to make the ears and bow tie once I could picture it in my head. The frosting went a little better. I made a homemade cream cheese frosting that is called "the last cream cheese frosting recipe you'll need."
Wow, it was really, really, good. Then I just for speed used a chocolate frosting from a container. I was going to use some edible Easter candy grass that I'd bought at Target to go under the bunny, but you know how there's that oily residue from a cake on aluminum foil? I didn't want to run the chance of that showing and I was too cheap to replace the foil, so everyone got it in their goodie bags instead. It worked. Mike frosted the face on for me, and did the piping around the edges. My folks and the boys, well, the boys especially, thought it was a really cool cake. And really, isn't much of what a Mom does just so her kids can think she's cool? *grin*

Next year maybe I'll let the boys frost this. They really wanted to help, but I wasn't sure how hard it was gonna be. Let me know if anyone out there tries it! I'd love to hear how it went!

Easter Bunny Cake

I was thinking about making this for Easter....anyone made one before? I've never tried it but we're doing Easter dinner this Sunday (yes, early) and I'm looking for ideas...

Easter Bunny Cake
easy way to make a bunny cake

You don't have to spend a lot of money on a fancy cake pan to make a cute Easter Bunny Cake - try this easy way to make a bunny cake that your family will love!

2 round cakes white frosting 1 large pkg coconut food coloring

sprinkles assorted candies & jelly beans colored icing in a tube small bowl cool whip

1. You will need 2 round cakes - your choice on flavor. You can use the packaged kind or our recipe for white cake if you want to make it from scratch.

2. Cover a large piece of cardboard or flat cake pan with foil.

3. Cut one cake into the bunny shapes as shown above.

4. Arrange the cake pieces onto your cardboard or flat cake pan.

5. Frost the bunny cake.

Reserve a small amount of frosting for the bowtie and color it with food coloring of your choice. I usually make mine blue but you can have any color of bowtie you like!

6. Sprinkle white coconut on everything but the bowtie and middle of ears. Color a small amount of coconut pink for middle of ears. Sprinkle pink coconut into center of ears.

7. Now comes the fun part! Decorate your bunny cake to make the eyes, nose and mouth.

You can use just about anything - from drawing out the face with tube frosting to licorice for whiskers, jellybeans for eyes and nose, etc. Just have fun and remember, there is always next year to make a new bunny in different colors.

I usually use colored sprinkles on the bowtie.

8. Now take your coolwhip and spread a small layer around the sides of your bunny. Take the rest of the coconut and color it green with food coloring. Then sprinkle it around the bunny to make Easter grass. (the coolwhip helps the green coconut to stick) To put the finishing touch on your bunny cake, sprinkle some jelly beans in the "Easter grass" coconut.

* I make this every year for my kids and they love it!!

Digging on Dinos at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles

Squish's teacher invited me to go with his 2nd grade class on a field trip to the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Personally, I think his teacher is amazing. She is just the nicest woman who loves her students enough to work them to their potential and doesn't let them get away with stuff. As a kid, I wouldn't have liked her. As a parent, I loooove her and really wish I could do some incredibly generous thing for her. But, since I really don't have any money, I try to do anything I can to help. Plus, I love field trips, so today was truly a win-win.

We went to see the dinosaurs at the museum, but they were still being re-arranged or dusted or something, so we didn't get to see the big exhibits that I was expecting. But, the kids don't know they missed anything. We went into a discovery room where the kids dug for fossils, touched fossils and rocks, looked at bugs and snakes, and then ended the time (for our group) by petting a few "animals." Why the quote marks? Because the "animals" were a hissing cockroach and a spiny stick bug. C'mon kids, who wants to pet the roach? Yes folks, they lined up for this privilege. Not my kid though, he stayed in his seat. But sweet girly-girls eagerly reached out and touched Mr. Roach and his pal Sticky. The boys did too, but it sounds like a boy thing. After that we saw a T-rex all assembled in in the pose of attacking a 4 legged dino. That was neat. We finished the tour with "mammals" and looking at people actually digging bones out of dirt, which was cool.

While we were in this hallway looking at the scientists, I was at one end of the line of kids, and Mrs. P, Squish's teacher was at the other end. I looked to my left (the class was on my right) and I see a DINOSAUR walking towards me. A woman calmly annouced that it was a puppet, someone was wearing the puppet, and to please not touch the very, very expensive puppet. My first thought was "great....it actually looks real and is going to eat me first then go to work on the kids..." I looked at the kids and they had the same nervous looks in their eyes. As it walked towards us, you could see the person's legs beneath the puppet, but I am telling you it LOOKED REAL. It moved like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. It "walked" up to me and was right in my face. I actually felt a shiver down my spine. I was telling myself "It's not real" but I could imagine if it was, how dead I would have been. Then, as fast as it appeared, it moved down the line and was gone. I remember a couple of kids trying to hide behind me, but we all agreed it was really neat.

For lunch we ate at a nearby park and the kids got to play on the playground equipment. They had about 40 min of solid, heart pumping, smile inducing playtime before we had to get back on the bus. I appreciated that Squish's teacher strongly endorsed having the kids have some time to run around. All in all, a fun day. We returned with the same kids we left with (a big plus) and are ready to go again!

Twi-Addicts Alert! Fan-Pires gather....

To watch Twilight! Last night Liz and I threw a Twilight Dvd release party!

It was so much fun! We (Mike, Me, and Kiddos) spent Saturday cleaning up the backyard. Then we tried to turn it into a cool movie spot. We had the "Welcome to Forks sign, a poster, and chalk on the driveway (courtesy of Squish.)

Then Mike spent all day building this amazing tarped pavilion. He hung the speakers up inside and put up some white lights.

We spent about 30 min all talking and watching our friends bring the most amazing desserts. There were beautiful cheese bread dishes, huge chocolate dipped strawberries, two - BITE brownies, 7 layer dip, lots of Cullen Chips, fruit, Emmet's favorite rice crispy treats, Alice Oreo Balls, Blueberry muffins, candy, munchies, toffee, and PAPER CUT cakes (they were amazing - layers of chocolate, red velvet, and chocolate again - Angie is amazing!) I know I am forgetting something, I apologize. I wish I had taken more photos!!! The food was incredible! Wendy brought Fire and Ice roses for the tables and Liz displayed her Borders collectible dvd set. There were posters around and a full size popcorn maker (on loan from friends) that added to the movie feel. (Thanks Wendy for making all that popcorn!)

We got our chairs set up and started a trivia game. We separated into two teams, "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob". (Most of Team Jacob complained, but well, we couldn't have two team Edwards!!) We gave those that came on time Twilight necklaces and the friends that answered the most questions in the game won these amazing bracelets that Liz and I got from everyone's newest best friend, Tammy. She sells them on Ebay under the name "*lady arwen*". If you click on her name it will take you to a completed listing of one of her bracelets and then you can click "view sellers other items" to see if she has any bracelets for sale, or contact her directly, tell her you know Barbara and ask her if she's selling any right now. She is just one of the nicest sellers on Ebay and she made all the jewelery we gave out at the party. She might even custom make something for you - but I highly, highly recommend her for Twilight saga related jewelry! (If the link doesn't work, search "Twilight Inspired Charm bracelet" and keep looking until you find *lady arwen* as the seller.

I just started uploading the photos and I'm realizing all the people I didn't get pictures of. Dang. Ashley took some fantastic photos, and I took some okay ones too, but I hope there are a few more pictures out there. (I know Liz has some...anyone else?)

There was somewhere between 27-30 people at the party, depending on what time you counted, but it was so fun! It was cold, but it was fun! Thank you to everyone that came and made it so fun, and thank you to the my honey for setting everything up! We had wanted to do this at midnight on Friday, when the dvd was first released, and I was so impressed that our numbers didn't change that much when we decided to not do it at o'dark thirty and have it at a less zombish time. Thanks everyone for coming!