5 Years Ago

January 25 and 26 are days that I will never forget. 5 years ago today, I took a trip to St. George with Gaea, Camille, Gaea's boyfriend and his brother. On the way home, the driver of our car lost control and we rolled 3 and 1/2 times into the median. Gaea suffered severe head and neck trauma. After being sustained on life support for about 18 hours, Gaea passed away about 7:30 pm on the night of January 26, 2003.
As the time goes by I seem to remember less of the sadness and more of the funny times. I am so grateful for the time that we had together and for lessons that I learned both from her and from losing her. I can honestly say I would not be the person that I am today if it were not for the things that I had to go through after she died. In losing her, I learned that I have a Savior who loves me. I know that I can pray to Him and He listens and that He sends the Holy Ghost to comfort us. I know that the Plan of Salvation is real and that we can live with our Heavenly Father and our families again. I know that through our faith we are able to persevere through rough times. I am so grateful for Danny and Wyatt and for the family and friends that I still have in my life.

Picture taken January 25, 2003 at the St. George LDS temple. L-R: Camille, Me, Gaea

Stuffed Shells

I made this the other day, not remembering how good it was! Even Wyatt ate tons of it, and strangely enough, preferred the spinach and cottage cheese over the noodle part. Weird, I know. Anyway, just thought I'd share it with the rest of you. It's super easy and doesn't have too many ingredients. I did make a couple of changes to the ingredients. Instead of using italian seasoning (Danny doesn't allow it in the house...he says it's fake) I use basil and oregano. Also, I like to add an egg so that the mixture sticks together a little better. Enjoy!

Stuffed Shells

Prep Time:10 min
Total Time:50 min
Makes:5 servings, four shells each

1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained
1 container (16 oz.) Fat Free Cottage Cheese
1 cup Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese, divided
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
20 jumbo macaroni shells (for stuffing), cooked, drained
1 jar (13-1/2 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 large tomato, chopped
PREHEAT oven to 400°F.

MIX spinach, cottage cheese, 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese, until well blended. Spoon evenly into pasta shells, using about 1 heaping tablespoonful of the spinach mixture for each shell.

MIX chopped tomato with sauce.

SPOON half of the sauce into 13x9-inch baking dish. Place shells, filled sides up, in baking dish; spoon remaining sauce over shells. Cover with foil.

BAKE 30 min. or until heated through.

REMOVE from oven. Uncover and sprinkle remaining cheese over shells. Bake uncovered an additional 2 to 3 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

Enjoy!

Explaining Wyatt to himself

Yesterday Wyatt and I were looking at some pictures that arrived in the mail and Wyatt kept pointing everyone he knew, except he kept saying a weird word for himself. After about 20 pictures of Wyatt, I figured out that he was saying "you." Seemed weird to me, at first. Then I flipped through a couple more pictures and came across another one of him, and asked him who it was. When he didn't answer me, I said, "It's you." To witch he then replied, "you." So, my question is, how do I explain explain to him that "you" is the same as himself?

Snow, Snow, Snow

We took a trip up Hobble Creek canyon yesterday with Jared, Val and family to go sledding. Only I made the mistake of thinking we wouldn't be that long and didn't bring Wyatt snacks. It took oodles and oodles of time to get all dressed and ready and by the time we got to the hill (term being used loosely, since it wasn't much of a hill), Wyatt went down like 4 times and was done. Plus, the snow wasn't really packed down so it was kind of a pain. The snow was beautiful and very cold. We ended up leaving the group on the hill and went back to the car to watch Monster, Inc. I think for the rest of this winter, at least, we will stick to hills that are within 10 minutes of our house. Much easier to just go home that way. :)

Spring Fever!

I know it's a little early, but I can't help it! Wyatt and I have been going stir crazy, cooped up in our house all day long. And since Danny started school this week, that means even more time with me and Wyatt trapped in the house. Anyway, we spent this morning as usual. We both took a nice long nap and then we were lounging about reading books and such until I opened the blinds and realized that it was sunny outside! Yippee! Yesterday we received, in the mail, the back axle to Wyatt's wagon and since it finally had all it's wheels Wyatt spent time last night and this morning pulling it around the house and getting mad when it would get stuck. So, as I was looking out at the beautiful day, inspiration struck and I decided we needed to go for a walk and break in the new wagon. We got ready as fast as we could, ate lunch and headed outside. It was so nice! We actually ran into 4 other moms taking advantage of the sun as well. We didn't even have to put on coats. We just wore our hoodies. We walked for quite a bit. Wyatt has turned into such a talker and so we spent some of the time naming things we would pass and most of the time talking about cars and "tucks" (trucks). I'm so amazed at how a little outing like that seemed to brighten both our moods! The little things really do help me to be a better mom.

And the baby is...not a puppy

Yes, we had our ultrasound today and just like Danny predicted, we're having a baby GIRL! (The pic is a little blurry because we took a picture using our webcam). Look at the picture like you are looking at the babies bum from underneath a glass table while she sits indian style...if that helps. So exciting and nervous and all that good stuff. Strangely enough at my appointment today the doctor informed me that she is worried about me not having gained weight in the last 2 months. If I don't gain by my next appointment I will have to be put on a high calorie diet until I do gain some. I guess I just can't seem to hit the middle, eh? With Wyatt I was way over the mark and now with this I'm way under! But the baby is healthy and has all her fingers and toes and essential parts. We are so amazed by the miracle of having a baby and are super excited!

Family Pics

Starting to notice a trend? I know, I know...we've mostly posted pics of Wyatt. Back in October Valerie rented a backdrop and lights for work and so we took advantage of that and took some studio shots. It was very interesting actually. Wyatt was so good for his 15 month pics that I thought it would be no problem, but boy was I wrong! We only got one picture where we are all looking at the camera. Every other picture had Wyatt looking forward while Danny and I were trying to make him smile and stay still at the same time. Blah, what a chore!

Tats

Wyatt got what we thought were Cars stickers in his stocking this year. Come to find out all the stickers were backwards, oh wait, they're tattoos. So, here's a little preview of how tough Wyatt is...

Danny's new job

Danny started his new job at Xango the day after Christmas. He really seems to like it, which is very good! I really like the benefits! Anyway, his first day they sent him home with a bottle of Xango, a bright orange Xango shirt and this LARGE bar of chocolate which Wyatt thought was pretty cool.

Christmas Pics

Eating Santa's leftover cookies! You can always count on Wyatt to clean up, eh?

The Cars comfortor...

And Chair...

And the wagon.