TeN...DouBle DiGitS…A DecAdE.

Ten years ago, right at this exact moment…at 8:48pm I became a mom. My sweet Maya Papaya entered this world and changed me forever. My mind cannot grasp that ten years worth of moments have passed. I still remember so vividly the night she was born. After all the hoopla was over, I stayed up most of the night holding her in my arms, smelling her hair, counting her fingers and toes, caressing her soft baby skin, staring at her precious little features. I sang to her, I talked to her, I prayed for her. I imagined what she would be like.

I remember her first smiles and her first giggle but I barely remember her tiny little voice. Gone are the Dora and Elmo days. The board books and leap frogs are also long gone. Baby dolls, princess dress ups and barbies all have been given away.

 

Now we watch Design Star and So You Think You Can Dance. We have DS games, chapter books and scrapbooks.

The past ten years have gone by so fast it is really scaring me. I have only eight summers left with my girl before she goes to college….how is this possible!? How am I old enough to be the mother of a ten year old?…I could go on but this isn’t about me.

So here is how Maya wanted to celebrate her ten years of life…

Breakfast in Bed…

Swimming with Friends…

“Monkey” themed party without little sister around…

 

Dinner at Ding How…

(Her favorite…miso soup and sesame chicken)

Presents galore…

(She got a book light, the book Ramona’s World, yellow fingernail polish, a DS game, some polly’s and a giraffe from Ede’s.)

Her wishes came true and I was more than happy to grant them to her.

Becoming a mom was the best thing that ever happened to me. I love being a full time mom, even with all it’s challenges I wouldn’t change a thing. I get to see all the milestones and all the million moments in between that create a strong loving, eternal bond.

Happy Birthday Maya! Mommy loves you so….

Things worth blogging about...

Earlier this week my friend Randi, who is an amazing photographer, called me and asked if she could do a photo shoot with Camden so she could try out some new equipment. I, of course, was thrilled and I rushed to her house with Camo. Well he decided to freak out and cried inconsolably for 10 minutes then he fell asleep. I felt horrible and thought it was a total waste of time until Randi posted three pictures that actually turned out. This is my favorite...

go here to see more of her work...she's got the skillz and equipment that I wished I had.

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Eden has had a loose tooth for weeks. If I had a penny for every time she had me wiggle it to see if it would come out, I could pay off Camden's adoption! She woke up last Sunday morning just positive it was ready to come out, she said..."I think it's going to be another bloody Sunday..." because it was a Sunday when I pulled her last tooth out.

Well that darn thing wouldn't come out. By this Sunday it was seriously gray because it was barely attached to her gum. Her old primary teacher sat behind us in sacrament meeting and saw how Eden kept wanting me to touch her tooth, so she offered to pull it out for Eden after sacrament meeting. I never thought Eden would let her do it, but I was wrong. We went into the bathroom right before primary and it took all of two seconds and that darn thing was out....thanks Melissa!

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Friday I was a hair model at a presentation my hair dresser was speaking at. It was my first time as a hair model and it went pretty well, all I did was sit there and have a bunch of strangers look at me while my stylist talked about my hair issues and face shape. A little awkward but she needed my hair so I was there for her.

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Saturday we rocked the garage sale like nobody's business!

We made over four hundred dollars selling the kids clothes that they have grown out of, a bunch of toys (mostly baby dolls and baby doll accessories...I'm still so sad that my girls are out of that stage **sniff, sniff**) and A's discontinued carpet samples. So even though we didn't get to celebrate our anniversary we were able to make enough money to almost cover last months attorney's fees...so clearly worth the effort and sacrifice.

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Saturday night we were invited to an Asian themed dinner. We were assigned a dessert. Since there are no Asian desserts that sound appealing to me I made this cake...it's all frosting, thank you very much.

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Oh and I saved the best for last...A and I made a deal right after we were married that we wouldn't get each other gifts for special occasions, instead we would save that money and use it for vacations. Well A never, EVER, remembers the deal. He always surprises me with something and I never get him anything. This year I was actually expecting him to stick to the deal because Camden is our present to each other for the next...oh...ten years!!!! But nope, he was sneaky and cashed in some points from his company's incentive program and got me a new ipod!!!

I was so shocked and so happy! And now my gift to him is my old ipod since he doesn't have one. Too bad he has to share it with the girls so he has lots of Taylor Swift, Jonas Brothers and High School Musical to rock out to.

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So that about does it for this post. There is so much more to blog but I have to take the next two days to get my house together, it has been neglected for almost two weeks!!!! YIKES! And come Wednesday, summer vacation is on so I will officially have no free time. I am actually excited about it. I am looking forward to having my girls around. Even though they drive me mostly crazy, I realize how fast time is flying by and I want to enjoy them as much as possible. After all, I only have nine more summers with Maya until she goes to college...okay that thought is making me depressed, plus it's twenty two minutes passed my bedtime....I'm out.

Last week...

...I decided to try and get back in the game. Which means....

No more avoiding Camden's two month doctor appointment.

I HATE taking the kids to the doctor. Seriously...I HATE it. I make Aric go but he had an unexpected meeting come up the morning of the appointment...so I had to go by myself. After researching the subject thoroughly we only got two of the shots.

He weighs in at a whopping 12 1/2 pounds and is 24 inches long. So basically he is perfect.

No more being unproductive.

So I decided to take on a reupholstering project for Jessica. This is a before picture of one of the chairs. She is actually paying me so I have to do a really good job and do it in a timely manner.

So here are the chairs, I forgot to take pictures of the ottoman...but trust me it was HUGE and STRIPED...which means it involved some skills.

No more being anti-social.

I'm not sure why I have retreated these days. Maybe it's having a newborn (two months old is still newborn right?)...maybe it's the weather....maybe it's my husband who can't stay healthy...maybe it's LOST, 24, American Idol and The Biggest Loser... in any case it was good to get out for a girls night.

No more being "lame mom".

I decided that this year I was going let go of my controlling ways and let my kids pick out what they wear. I give a little guidance, but really I have totally let go. So Eden loves this silver sparkly number. She wears it EVERY week. And this week I decided to embrace my "Sparkly Eden" and we went all out with the sparkly-ness. Does anyone remember "Sparkle Josh" from Design Star?

No more being too tired to help out in the classroom.

Maya's class just finished their Native American unit. These are some fun projects she did:

To celebrate the end of the unit, the teacher had a Potlach (Native America feast). She needed some food items brought in for the celebration...

Guess who got roped into making the flat bread....

And we all know how much I love cooking...especially really messy things. My house smelled like fry bread for three days but it was worth it when a couple of the kids told Maya that her mom made the best Indian Fry Bread ever!

Besides feasting on jerky, smoked oysters, berries, salmon and fry bread, the kids danced:

They got to look at Native American artifacts:

And they played their homemade instruments:

Maya loved having me there...even though I was unshowered and still in my sweats. And the best part was that Camden slept through all of the chaos!

No more being mean to Mike...

Poor Mike had surgery on his foot so I decided to be kind to the cripple....I made him a cake:

His favorite is white cake with vanilla frosting and a raspberry filling middle. I didn't do the raspberry but I made up for it by personalizing it.

We watched a movie with the Samps but no sooner was it over and Aric was doubled over in the front yard....I'll spare you the details, just know that it was another weekend of single parenthood while Aric was quarantined off in our bedroom. I slept on the couch. So far he has kept his sick germs to himself and the rest of us have stayed healthy...I'm knocking on wood as I type this.

This week is as busy as ever, but sometimes I'd rather have it that way. I like feeling like I'm alive and not going through the motions of life. So look forward to next weeks summary...