Super Sauce turns 3!

Sol turned 3! Wahoo! When you ask him how old he is he says "I'm doing good!" So you have to ask him what number he is... "Free". I love it.

He's so much fun now too! He talks A Lot! He told his nursery leader that for his birthday he was getting a Helicopter cake. Hmmm...this was news to me. I thought he might forget - no such luck. So Dave and I had to figure out to make a Helicopter cake that "went round and round and round." In the end this is what we came up with...



We used an airplane cake pan and then chopped the wings off. Then bought a toy helicopter and used it's propeller. I made the white fondant from a recipe I found here. It went surprisingly well. I really had very low expectations for this cake, especially because we were using fondant, but it was surprisingly easy. Maybe it's because I've spent so many hours watching Ace of Cakes... Anyhow, back to the birthday...

We had a birthday party with just dave's family as they were all in town. Sol was thrilled with the cake, the presents (lots of trains and helicopters!), and the people. It was a lot of fun.

I made Sol a superhero cape from this tutorial. It was really easy. Dave's brother even designed a superhero logo for Sol. He's Super Sauce!!! His comment after putting it on and running around the house was, "Wook, I to da wescue!" Pretty awesome.

I'm loving this stage. He's really hard at times, but so often he's so much fun. He's so funny, he cracks us all up all the time. He loves to laugh and play. He's truly our Sol (sunshine).





Ruby looked so pretty, I thought she belonged on top of the cake. My sister in law took several awesome pictures of her. Here's a few:





I'm so lucky. I have such awesome kids. They give me so much love and joy. We have hard days, hard weeks sometimes. They've completely changed my life and I would never go back.

I don't know anyone more genuinely sweet, happy, funny, loving, or caring as my sweet Solomon. He loves everyone. And everyone loves him. :) Happy 3 buddy!

Grumpo

"Are you grumpo?"

Sol currently say's grumpo instead of grumpy. Its pretty awesome. I love it when he says words wrong, is that bad?

Ruby has figured out the head nod just today. She shakes her head up and down kind of like she's bopping it to the beat. Love it. Poor thing has a cold. I just took this yesterday morning...


She's a trooper, as you can see. :)

Just a little update for today... that's all...

Acupunture

So here's the truth about the last 3 months (I say that like I've been telling lies). I got the influenza just after Christmas. It was awful and I thought I was going to die. Well the flu kicked off a 3 month battle with sickness. I got cold after virus after cold from January through part of March. I was on 5 different antibiotics. I was so exhausted that I had to ask my mom to come help take care of me and the kids at one point. I started doing anything I could to get healthy again. This included taking handfuls of vitamins, eating pro-biotic shakes, sleeping in the basements so the kids don't wake me, putting essential oils on my feet, and finally trying acupuncture.

(Insert Hallelujah chorus here)

I heard about this place in SLC that did acupuncture for $15 a session (and yes they use clean needles:). Its a non-profit.
It's called Qiworks Community Acupuncture.
I was somewhat skeptical going in but I was willing to try anything. First off, it didn't hurt. And surprisingly it felt good! I felt relaxed and felt an energy flowing through my body that felt really good. I didn't notice an immediate change, but the acupuncturist talked to me about how more than anything I needed a month of good, uninterrupted sleep. He said I was suffering from "dead battery." My new focus needed to become REST. This shouldn't have been a surprise to me but something he said clicked. I hadn't been focused on rest in a long time. After having Ruby I was ready to get back to LIFE. I wanted to become me again. And in doing so I ran myself into the ground.

A day later I started to feel good. The following day I felt better than I'd felt in months. It works. But the acupuncture alone isn't healing me. A big part of it is my new outlook. I can't become me again overnight. I have to get healthy one step at a time. Right now that means getting rest.

Rest, to me, isn't productive. And being productive fills my love bucket. But feeling like a human fills my love bucket more. And I now know that in order to feel human I need rest. And acupuncture. Its seriously kind of addictive.

Ruby and Sol.

P.S. We don't hate comments.

Dear Sweet Little Miss Ruby Jane,

You are a delight. Six months ago you came to us on a very stormy night. The lightning was incredible. You're dad and I sat and watched it as long as I could stand. Your labor was very short. 3 hours start to finish. Ouch. That's kind of how you are. You decide what you want and you go for it... with intensity.

You're a beautiful little thing. You're stunning in fact. You're eyes are big and blue, and your cheeks are oh so yummy. You love getting kisses and snuggles. And you're pretty great at giving them too.

You are strong. Girl, you have incredible strength! I've received several distinct impressions of this from the time you were just a little embryo. Strong and silent. You watch and learn.

You don't give your sweet little smiles away for nothing. So when we get them it thrills us. You love your brother so much. You watch him and if you could you'd run around with him all day long. He can make you laugh better than anyone else. He's pretty awesome, you've got a great role model.

You LOVE water. Love. You turn into a little fish when you get in the water, a thrashy, splashy, happy little fish.

And you love food! You're new excitement in life. You want to eat and drink whatever we're eating or drinking. And you like to feed yourself. Independent.

You are a darling child. We love you so very much. You are the perfect complement to our family. Happiest six months!


Love,
Mommy

Solomon Skis

"Sometimes we're naughty"

I totally lost it with Sol this morning only because I was stressed and he was being difficult. We were in a hurry and I snapped at him. I immediately had one of those out of body experiences where I was watching myself be this grouchy mean mom and felt terrible.

And then Sol says "I"m sorry mommy," and then immediately tells himself "It's okay." Then I told him I was really sorry and that I would try to be nicer. He said "Its okay mommy, some times we're naughty." Gosh. He's so quick to forgive. I love that little guy. We're not perfect. We do our best. And lucky for us we have such amazing little treasures that love us no matter what.


(Marci, if you read this post and think it sounds familiar, I decided to post this little story after leaving the comment on your blog. Thanks for being so inspiring.)