We had a family party for Maddi's birthday this year.
I am so lucky to have Maddi in our family. She is a special girl. She looks so much like I did when I was her age. She even loves to be with adults like I did when I was young. She has blessed and touched all of our lives. Her smile is infectious and she is always happy.
Our tradition is to let our kids have their own birthday cake to dig into when they turn 1. The expectation is that the child will just go wild and start stuffing their face. That has yet to happen at our house. I remember with Ali I had made a chocolate cake and she thought it was dirt. Anyone who knew Ali at that age, knew that she did not like to get dirty. She started to scream and tried to shake off the cake. So, one of the children in attendance (Brooklyn Benson) ate the cake for her. 
This time I made the mistake of covering Lily's cake with sprinkles. So, she spent about 10 minutes just trying to pick off and eat every sprinkle.
Her brother and sisters were more than happy to help her eat her cake.
I am letting you all know that after a year and a half break, I am back on the workout wagon. Hip, Hip Hooray! Nothing is going to stop me now. I had to include these two pictures because they are the only ones that show the smallest I have ever been. I know that size doesn't matter, but feeling good does. I was on top of the world in these pictures. I was working out 3-4 times a week and I felt great.
I have been meaning to start working out since I had Lilia (she is a year old now). I just kept having excuse after excuse as to why I couldn't do it.
Then, came my inspiration..........
Many family and friends of my sister-in-law Ginger are going to run "The Great Race" in her honor. This is the same race that Ginger ran in last year. Most of the family are running the 5K portion. I decided that I couldn't very well run a 5K without any training. So, I started last Tuesday at 4:30 AM. That's right, you read it right, AM. The time that I have to workout might give you all some perspective as to why I have been dreading getting back to it.
I thought that the first day after not working out for a year and a half would be pretty grueling, but I made it through. There was one point where I thought "Why am I doing this to myself? I can just stop right now and no one will know." Then I pictured Ginger cheering me on and I knew that I could go on. I am grateful for Ginger's cheering on in so many instances in all of our lives. I will run this 5K race and when I feel like I can run no more, I will remember who it is that I am running for and her strength will pull me through.
This morning was the 4th time that I have worked out and I ran two miles and walked one and I am still alive to blog about it. In an excerpt from Ginger's blog about her great race time she said, "I knew I could do it." Those words will continue to ring through my head as I train for this race. "I can do it!"
So, just when I was ready to quit, throw in the towel and just go to bed and leave the kids to fend for themselves while Trevor and Ali are at Mutual, I hear Kandrea answering some interview questions that my girls had prepared for her.
Heidi: "Why are the things you love about your Mom?"
Kandrea: "I love it when she cleans up my Barbies."
It's amazing how one sweet, heartfelt statement can turn my night around. I continued to listen to the interview and here are some of the highlights:
Heidi: What are your goals?
Kandrea: Red, blue and pink.
Heidi: How many kids do you want?
Kandrea: 5 daughters and 2 brothers
Maddi: When are your parents most proud of you?
Kandrea: When I clean up my Polly Dolls. When I first started singing.
Heidi: What is your least favorite part about school?
Kandrea: Recess
Heidi: What are your favorite days of the week?
Kandrea: Red, blue and pink.
Heidi: What is your favorite summer activity?
Kandrea: The Temple
Heidi: What is your favorite summer food?
Kandrea: Carrots and ranch, strawberries.
It has always been a tradition in my family to get to open one present on Christmas Eve and it is always our new pajamas. This year the kids requested robes instead of jammies. You will notice Reid and Lily are missing from the photo. Reid refuses to wear jammies and Lily was already in bed. Everyone loved their robes, except little miss Kandrea. As soon as she opened the present she ran away screaming and crying. I always love that reaction when you give someone a gift you thought they would love.
This is Lilia's first taste of her mommy's ribs. She loved them. It is always funny to me to see my babies chewing on a big bone.
Every year we take the kids to Haggin Oaks here in Bakersfield. It is a really nice community that has their homes decorated to the hilt. One of the houses always has the Disney princesses and Mickey and Minnie to entertain the public. The Disney princesses and princes sing for everyone. Their house is always a favorite to visit. I just found out this year that they are members of the church. One of the young men from our ward played Mickey this year.
In case you can't read the signs, they say "We did these all by ourselves". They sure did. For those of you who know me, that is a big deal. I am somewhat of a control freak. I think I am turning over a new leaf.
Don't I look pretty. I ended up getting the flu the night before Thanksgiving. I was up all night throwing up. It was one of the shortest, but worst flus I have ever had. Making Thanksgiving dinner the next day was the last thing I wanted to do. Luckily, Trevor and I had done most of the prep work the day before. Trevor did most of the dealing with the raw bird on Thanksgiving morning. I basically ate two to three bites of our Thanksgiving dinner.
I still don't know why I even bothered making a huge dinner. At 2:00 PM when we called all of the kids to the table for our Thanksgiving feast, let's just say they were less than grateful. Every single one of them was griping about having to eat. Hilarious. Here I thought I couldn't let my family not have a special Thanksgiving dinner and they could have cared less. At least I know Trevor enjoyed it.
So, is Kandrea a ballerina or a burger flipper? I never know what ensemble my children are going to put together when they go through our dress up box. It is fun to see all of the combinations and sizes that they come up with.
I love that even my BIG girls still love to dress up. Maybe cleaning would be more fun for us Moms if we dressed up too.
We were really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. We had big plans to spend four to five days in Moorpark with our family. I was suppose to do a bunch of mylar bagging with Kandy (Trevor's Mom) and WEndy and I were looking forward to showing everyone what we learned at our Energy Medicine conference. Two days before Thanksgiving our family came down with the flu. Can I just say I HATE the flu. I am sorry for the inappropriate language, but this situation warrants strong expletives. The worst part of it all is that Lily got really sick. Here she is with her Daddy, notice the towel to keep him clean. Poor baby Lily.
Trevor and I were out cleaning the garage on Saturday and out comes Kandrea in her bathing suit. Yes, it is cold here, but Maddi, Reid and Kandrea had decided they were going to go swimming. Anyway, Kandrea plopped herself right down on this Rubbermaid bin and said "Mommy take a picture of me". So, here she is in all her glory.
The other day, I left the kids at home with Heidi while I went to pick up the babysitter. Trevor arrived home before I did and this is what he found. Reid is an amazing big brother. He always makes time for Lily. She is the first one that he greets when he gets home from school. I think she has taken a liking to him too.
