Baking for Cheer

This is what we have been doing all afternoon......

Baking, baking, baking! We have made 8 dozen chocolate chip cookies and 6 dozen coconut cupcakes. Sekoya wants to earn some money to help pay for her trip to Cheer Nationals in Anaheim, CA. She has wanted to sell lemonade for the last three weeks. I keep telling her that nobody is going to buy lemonade when it is cold and snowy outside. Not to mention that I won't let her sit out on the side of the road and freeze! So we decided to do one of her favorite things- bake cookies to sell. I also figured I would make some of my highly coveted, super secret recipe coconut bread cupcakes.

So if you would like to put a smile on a little girl's face and help her earn her way to Cheer Nationals let me know! We are selling them $5 for a dozen cookies or 1/2 doz cupcakes! I can mail them also for the cost of mailing.

What do you do with 6 more inches of snow?

build a snow fort!

Roller Skating- again!

We went roller skating as a whole family last night. This time I remembered scooters and my camera. Neither Sekoya or Katera wanted to try skates at all. They just zoomed around on their scooters. Katera was like the little engergizer bunny- just kept going, and going, and going! When one leg would get tired she would stop and trade to the other leg. Either Jason or I would skate behind her so the wild, out of control teenagers wouldn't run her over when she stopped suddenly. She had so much fun! I think she had a perma-grin the whole night! Sekoya.... we couldn't even catch up to her. When she would come around I would try to skate along side of her and she would just take off even faster. Mark, JaLee, Braxton, Parker and Aubrei came and skated too. Grandpa Kirk came and cheered us on from the sidelines. It was a fun night all around! I am thinking Jason and I need to do a date night without kids so we can actually skate.

Cheer Competition

This last weekend we went up north for another cheer competition. This one was at Riverton High. Sekoya just LOVES to be in the spotlight! Their team did pretty good with just a couple little flubs. One girl was wearing a headpiece that fell out and she kept stopping to pick it up. Sekoya's stunt group bumbled a stunt a little bit. So they ended up taking third out of five teams. Sekoya wasn't really happy about that. She told me when they announced them for third she said da** it! She was pretty upset that she said a bad word, but I couldn't stop chuckling! Katera was a good girl through most of it. About 3/4 of the way through she was done though.

After the competition we took the girls ice skating at the the Olympic oval. Sekoya loved it and Katera wouldn't even try. I drug her around half the rink on her knees because she wouldn't stand up. She was so mad at me she wouldn't even look at me. I ended up skating with her on my hip, which ended up with me on my butt. The fall at least popped the ganglion cyst that has been growing on my wrist. Now I don't have to have surgery to take care of it. Yay! After skating we stopped at Costco then home. It was a very busy day and we didn't make it up until 8 PM. Next is nationals in Anaheim, CA.

Heartburn! UUGGHH!!

I know I am not going to get sympathy from many of you who have suffered from heartburn for a long time- including my hubby! I used to have no sympathies for him when he was having a heartburn attack, which happen quite regularly for him. In fact I was pretty much to the point of thinking he was making it a bigger deal than it really was for attention. He is a bit of a baby when it comes to illness or injury. Sorry babe, but you are! I reacted that way because I had NEVER had heartburn and wouldn't even know what it was. I didn't even get it when I was pregnant which most "all knowing" people said I definitely would. Well, I can now say that I know what heartburn is. My first attack was a few months ago. At first I thought I was going to puke, then I thought maybe I was having heart palpitations, then I just wanted to die. I remembered reading an email saying that bananas were supposed to be good to douse a heartburn attack. I split open a banana and ate it slowly as it was difficult to get it past the big lump in my throat. I figured if that took the awful feeling away then it had to be heartburn. Sure enough, about 15 minutes after eating the banana I was fine. Since then I have had three or four more attacks. I am prepared now. I went and bought a big bottle of Rolaids and make sure I am fully stocked on firm, ripe bananas. Last night was the worst! It woke me up out of a deep sleep at 1:00 am! I took some Rolaids and ate a banana. The feeling would NOT go away. I was up for two hours waiting for it to subside so I could go back to sleep. And there is nothing worth watching on TV at that hour! I still have a slight lump in my throat today that won't go away. I just don't understand how I have gone 30 years of life without ever having it. Now it comes on all of a sudden without any reason. I always thought heartburn was from eating something that upset your stomach or being over weight. My attacks never come after eating and I don't think I am over weight. I just wish there was a miracle cure for it. And........ I have MAJOR sympathy for you now sweetie!

Groundhog Day

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning. They said this is the 98th time he has seen his shadow. So according to the little rodent (is a groundhog a rodent?) we have 6 more weeks of winter. I could do without that! I really think all the white stuff should go away with Christmas! Sekoya actually cried this morning when I told her. She is ready for summer too. She keeps asking me to get her bike out so she can ride it. I guess we better get our minds set for a bunch more storms before we'll get the sunshine. I don't know if I'm gonna last!

Roller Skating

I took the girls to the new roller skating rink in Elsinore last night. I forgot to take a scooter for Katera AND a camera. It's nice to have something to do in this small town other than bowling and movies at our crappy movie theater. They could be a little more organized with their operations though. They had one line to pay, get skates, return skates, and buy food. It was a little chaotic, especially when the rush started around 7. Luckily we went early and got to skate/fall before it got crowded. I can not figure out my Sekoya. She is NOT a timid child. But when it comes to something she hasn't done before and she is not good at she is so unsure of herself. She was very upset that she couldn't do it all by herself and kept falling. I told her she better toughen up her butt because that is what happens in skating. I couldn't really help her because I had Katera on skates and had to keep her on her feet. That was quite a challenge- having two kids that can't skate and only me to help them. Kelsey was there on skates and took Sekoya around by the hand a lot. Logan rode a scooter and Aunt/Grandma Cortney watched. When we left they both said they had fun so I guess we will be going back. This time with Daddy!!

Big topics for little minds

This is a message Katera's sunbeam teacher sent me yesterday.....


Ashley,

I just wanted to let you know what on in primary today. Don't worry nothing bad. Our lesson today was how Heavenly father is the father of our spirits so we have 2 Dads and that kind of upset Katera. I tried to explain that concept as best I could. We also talked about baptism and what would happen and she told me that she was not getting baptized because she was not getting in the water. Once again I tried to let her now that it would be such a wonderful day and that her Dad wouldn't let anything happen to her, but she still looked at me like I was telling her the most scary thing in the world. I just wanted to let you know incase she starts saying something that she is not going to get baptized you know where it is coming from.

And this one made me laugh she was saying the closing prayer and I told the class to close her eyes and she looked and me and said if I close my eyes I can't see.

Thanks,
Kristi


What a funny kid!!!

Crazy?

Yes, I am a little bit crazy. I have marked my calendar for four 5K runs and a sprint tiathalon that the city is doing throughout the year. I have NEVER been a runner. The 1 1/2 mile cross country run in middle school used to kill me. I would rather bike 20 miles than run one mile any day! But, I have set my mind that I am going to do at least one of the 5K's and definitely the sprint triathalon. I am starting to "train" right now. That sounds really silly to say I am training for a 3 mile run. A lot of people could do that in their sleep! But it will take some training for me. Who knows, maybe next year I can do a 10K? I don't think I will ever run a marathon or even a half marathon. That doesn't even appeal to me at all. The swim part of the triathalon is going to be a challenge too. I don't like to swim at all. I don't like how much my body soaks up the chlorine and makes me smell like chlorine for days afterward. I can do the breast stroke just fine, but laps are another story. I don't think I have ever done a full lap of the pool. The biking will be a piece of cake! I really, really like to ride my bike. Last summer I did several 15-20 mile rides with friends. I have cunningly convinced Jason to do it with me and possibly my sister and niece. So I have 7 months to be able to swim 1/4 mile, bike 12.5 miles, and run 3 miles!! Wish me luck!!!

If.......

If you could be any age for one week what age would you be?


My friend on facebook keeps posting these hypothetical, thought provoking questions. I thought it would be fun to put them on my blog and put a little more of "ME" into my posts.


So, if I could be any age I would probably choose to be 18- but not married. No offense sweetie! At 18 you are an adult and can make your own decisions without answering to parents. I never got to live the carefree days of being a single adult. I went right from the confines of my parents' house to running my own household. While all my friends were going to clubs, ballgames, hanging out, etc. I was cleaning house, doing laundry, and making dinner for my hardworking husband. Now, don't take this wrong. I would NOT change the fact that I married Jason when I did. I think about it and wonder if I hadn't he probably would have gone his own way and I would not get to spend the rest of my life and eternity with my perfect soul mate. Everything happens the way it does for a reason. But if some genie popped out of a lamp and asked me that question I would quickly take him up on one week of being 18 and living up the single life!

New Year, New Beginnings

Year 2010 started off with a bunch of new events.... Kacey had her third baby boy Teagen (Dec. 28th), Kenzi got married (Dec. 31), and Katera graduated to Sunbeams! Kacey's baby was a scheduled delivery and everything went well. We were able to go down to St. George the day after and see our new nephew and spend some much needed time with Great Grandma Carol. I think Grandma very much enjoyed our visit even if she just didn't understand my two girls misbehavior. She cried when we left and Sekoya was really concerned. We came home to an impromptu wedding for Kenzi and Matt. It was short notice, but it all pulled together nicely. After the wedding we came back to our house and played cards. We actually even made it to midnight to welcome the new year. The next day we went to another wedding of a good friend of mine. That Sunday Katera moved from nursery to Sunbeams. They had made them cute little caps and performed a graduation ceremony for them complete with diplomas! I can't remember what she was so sad about in the first picture, but it's amazing how fast she can change moods! After two + weeks at home Jason finally had to go back to work- duck hunting! He spent four days in northern California taking a client duck hunting on a private duck club. What a play boy! School started back up and I finally got to clean my house and have it stay clean for more than one day! The Rappleye house is officially retired from hosting any and all parties, dinners, game nights, etc.- for at least a couple months anyway!

More snow!

We had a Holly, Jolly Christmas!

Christmas Eve started out early in the day making home made sugar cookies for Santa. The girls love to bake, but usually by the time the ingredients are all measured and cookies cut out they are at the end of their rope. They didn't last long enough to frost them with the two kinds of yummy home made icing I made. They did decorate enough to leave on a plate for the big guy. We put them away for later and went to the early movie - Alvin and the Chipmunks The Squeakual. It was a fun movie that kept Katera's interest the whole time.

After the movie we came to our house for a yummy mexican dinner of tacos, enchiladas, mexican rice, and seven layer dip. After we were all stuffed I got out the cookies and let everyone decorate them. Mark got quite artistic with his snowman. Katera just had attitude like always. It's hard to catch on camera but that is her little diva head shake. After cookies we opened gifts with Grandma Sindy and Grandpa Mike. The girls were so excited and wanted to have a sleepover with all of us in our king size bed. How could I say no to that on Christmas Eve? We let them sleep in our bed and I ended up in the spare bed halfway through the night. I just don't sleep well with kids. They were awake at about 6:30 Christmas morning. Sekoya was so patient waiting on us to let her out in the living room. I had said all along that Christmas was going to be smaller for us this year, but it didn't happen. The girls both got spoiled! So much that it is now the middle of January and they have only played with their new toys a couple of times. They each got a giant coloring book, two outfits, socks, undies, play food, perfume, bracelet, watch, and a pink 22 that Jason won at the NRA banquet. Sekoya's biggest reaction came from the BFC Inc. doll that she had asked for. Sekoya also got a make up kit and EZ bake oven. Katera got Chixo's and magnetic dress up dolls. As soon as our gifts were opened Grandma Maridon and Grandpa Kirk came by with more. Then we got dressed and went to G & G Rappleye's for a big breakfast spread.