DISNEYLAND

My mom has been talking about taking to Karlee to Disneyland. Karlee has loved Mickey and Minnie for a long time, and she has really gotten into the princesses this year. We had such a great time as you can tell from the tons of pictures.


Karlee in front of the castle

Ashley had these cute shirts made for the kids

Karlee's dream of meeting Minnie coming true

We got really lucky and ended up in the front of the line to see Minnie and Mickey

Karlee got to meet her favorite princess Ariel and several others including Pocahontas

Karson was so good the whole time and actually got some good naps. Karlee LOVED the teacups

Dumbo was another favorite

As was the carousel

Karlee was excited for another carousel in California Adventure

She loved rides so much, but this was a little much. Jake and Ashley bought this cookie, and I'm pretty sure Karlee ate most of it. She was pretty excited to eat a Mickey cookie.

Grandma and Karlee. Me with the kids

All the girls in front of the castle. The whole fam (mom, Jake, Karlee, Ashley, Chelsea, Jeff, Karson, me)
Disneyland/California Adventure was so much fun with kids. Thanks mom for taking us!

Matchy Matchy

I did a lot of sewing over spring break this year. I started out with plans to make a couple skirts and ended up making a little more. I had tons of extra material so I made a skirt for Karlee. Here we are posing in our matchy matchy skirts.

Spanish Night

Once a month some people from work get together to practice Spanish. The first time I went I was completely terrified. My Spanish has gone way downhill over the past several years, and I was so scared. Spanish night turns out to be the best thing for me. There are varying degrees of fluency, and it's a great time for us all to practice. We usually have dinner, play some games, and speak as much Spanish as possible.

Christina, Ana Maria, and Charmaine in the kitchen

delicious meal

Salt Lake Running Co. 5k

When I found out this FREE 5k was the same weekend Jeff and Chelsea would be in town, I signed us up (even though I should have run a heckuvalot more miles that day). We woke up to a ton of snow but got lucky with beautiful running weather. It was Jeff's first race, and he did great. Way to go Jeff!

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Happy Birthday Chelsea

Chelsea, Jeff, and the kids came to town for the weekend. Jeff's brother blessed his new baby today so the real reason for the trip was to see the Vocana family. They stayed at my house so I got to spend lots of time with them.

The trip happened to be the same weekend as Chelsea's birthday so I hosted a birthday brunch for her and her friends. It's so hard to see everyone when she is in town so this worked perfectly. A lot of her friends came, and it was a lot of fun.

i finally used my cupcake pops book i got for Christmas. i love how they turned out and will definitely make them again.

karlee was dying to eat one all morning

karlee loves taking pictures so we let her take some pictures of us after the party

nick, lindsi, and baby, vocanas, melissa, sheryl, carrie

It was so fun having them here this weekend. Jeff and I ran a 5k (more to come later). Chelsea and I went shopping. We went to dinner with the Vocanas for birthday dinners, and they spent time with family. Such a fun weekend!

I'm Blue..

But not in a sad kind of way...in a light it up blue for Autism Awareness month kind of way. I wore blue every workday and surprised myself with how much blue I actually do have, and it was nice having that daily reminder all month.

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giveaway winner

The winner of the snack bag giveaway is Laurann. Email me to get your prize. Thanks for playing and happy earth day!

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Earth Day Giveaway

Remember these?!?

Do you want one?!?

In honor of earth day and my attempt to persuade everyone to be a little greener, I'm giving away a re useable snack bag here and my craft blog. Usual rules apply.

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enter on both blogs (extra entry)

Enter by Sunday, April 24 at 2:00pm

gumdrop wreath hung

It's finally on the door. I'm pretty scared it will be on the ground when I get home tomorrow. It's so cute, but I'm not too sure I would recommend making it.

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Bye Bye Birdies

Tragic story...violent winds must have knocked the baby birdie eggs out of their nest...all of them. Is it weird that I'm really sad about it?

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Much Needed Lessons

The blog world is full of all kinds of great things...funny pictures and videos, craft projects, fashion ideas, friends,and even a lot of lessons.

If you're in the mood for a few of life's lessons, check out these links

http://www.carolinecollie.com/2011/04/gods-second-string/ (Caroline is from my home town and currently lives with her darling little family in South Africa as Christian missionaries)

http://ambersarea.blogspot.com/2011/04/is-runner.html (Amber is a friend of a friend and now my friend. I think she did this post just for me...seriously)

Birdie Update

Craziest thing ever. We're up to 5 baby birdie eggs.

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Seasons

Spring might not be in the air but it is on the front door...in the wreath. Not sure what we're supposed to do about this.

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Light it up BLUE

Autism has touched my life in so many ways personally and professionally. April is Autism Awareness Month. The Light It Up Blue campaign is part of spreading awareness. Prominent places like the Empire State Building were lit up blue over the weekend and people are encouraged to wear blue and other things to participate.

i got this amazing shot of the empire state building all lit up blue from a random blog i read. you can check it out here and here and read the funny story of this photo

My work is lighting it up blue with balloons, blueberry muffins, and a few other things. We all wore blue yesterday. One day isn't enough for me. In honor and celebration of Autism Awareness month I'm wearing blue to work every workday this month. I don't have tons of blue so this could get interesting.

AWEtism

It's spelled wrong!!!! A mistake has been made.

The word doctors and neurologist use to diagnose our children is autism.

But it should be AWEtism!!! Just think...

AWE at my child's progress. AWE at each accomplishment.

AWE that we've been blessed to be part of a miracle.

AWE to see God's hand at work in my child's life.

AWE to meet such wonderful people.

AWE for each little step in the right direction.

AWE for the love I never knew I had.

It's not autism...It's AWEtism!!

--Donna Copper

don't you just love that?!?

One of the Little Tykes

I LOVE my job. I work with the cutest little tykes and their families.

Cole is one of those little tykes. He started having seizures at 10 months and was diagnosed with epilepsy. He recently went out of state for testing. The doctors determined the cause of his seizures. They started him on new medication and discussed the probability of brain surgery. If everything goes according to plan, Cole will have brain surgery soon. You can read all about his story here and also read about opportunities to help (silent auction, 5k, concert). The cost of the surgery, travel, etc. is pretty high. The blog world is full of so many sad stories, but this one has a potential for a happy ending. Head on over to his blog and help out if you can.