Mmmmmm...

Yesterday I made strawberry freezer jam! Sooooo yummy! My friend Katie inspired me. She gave me a jar of hers and it was SOOOOOO good! I'd never had freezer jam before. It's very different than regular jam. Because you don't cook it, it tastes like fresh strawberries! So I bought 12 (yes, twelve) pounds of strawberries and nine boxes of pectin and almost 15 pounds of sugar. I spent all afternoon making strawberry freezer jam! What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment. I tend to get these crazy hairbrained ideas, and instead of starting off small, I think I need to jump in feet first, gung-ho! Mine didn't turn out quite as good as Katie's, but I still think it's pretty good. I did it all in one batch, and next time I think I'll do it in smaller batches. That will be much easier! But now we have a freezer full of yummy fresh freezer jam! Mmmmm!

Kate's one year pictures (at 14 months) :)

I'm not real crazy about any of these pictures. I don't think the photographer did a very good job. He hardly ever caught her smiling. Anyway, here goes!

Latest happenings

This weekend, I went up to Eagar for my business. It was so much fun to see my family, including Heidi and Devin. I'm so glad they're back in AZ. I sure missed then while they were in Idaho for two years! And of course, Kaden had lots of fun playing with Dante and Michael, who are my parent's foster kids. On Sunday, Brent and I and the kids went down to Mesa to visit Brent's family. Brent's brother's wife Shanna had baby girl number three on Friday. Her name is Evee Beth Blanch, 7 lb 15 oz. She is SOOO CUTE!!! It was so much fun to hold a tiny baby again. It almost made me baby hungry again. Almost! :)

Kate is walking a lot more now. She walks about 1/2 of the time. She's still faster at crawling so that's her preferred method of transportation when she's in a hurry. Also, she got her first hair cut today! I trimmed her bangs because they were getting in her eyes, and I trimmed the hair at the back of her neck. It had grown in longer on the sides and shorter in the middle, so I just evened it out a little. It looks like a little bob now, it's so cute! And, she's talking a lot more now too. She says "cheese", "thank you", "mama", "dada", "yeah", "no". It amazes me every day how fast she's changing. She's such a sweet little girl, and we are so blessed to have her and Kaden in our lives.

Easter

We had a fun easter at Grandma Blanch's house. Although it took us three hours to get home on Sunday night because there was a landslide on Highway 87 (Beeline) so we had to go up I17 through Camp Verde instead. Here's a pic of the kids dressed up for Easter before church.

Redneck Tank Top

My cousin emailed this to me and I thought it was to funny not to share. Thanks for the laugh Misty! :)

Kate walked yesterday!!!

I was at Enrichment lastnight and Brent was home with the kids. When I got home Kate was already in bed. This morning while Brent was eating breakfast, he said "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you... Kate took like nine steps lastnight!" I can't believe he forgot to tell me that! I guess she was standing at the coffee table and Brent was over by the tv putting a dvd in. He turned around and Kate was walking to him. She got all the way to him and fell down. The most steps she's ever taken before was only three. She's doing all sorts of new things these days.

Also, I've had four different people in the last week tell me she looks like the Olsen twins when they were babies on Full House. I guess she does show a slight resemblence. Little cutie! :)

The Latest- my really rotten day!!!

Wow, I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted. We've had a busy few weeks. All last week Kaden was sick with a nasty cold. It turns out he had an ear infection too. He just finished his antibiotics a few days ago. Also last week I met my Mom and Megan in Show Low for lunch. My sister Megan is going to college in Safford and I hadn't seen her since Christmas. She was home for spring break. I've really missed her! Then I found out yesterday that Kate has Pink Eye. Fun, fun! Luckily Kaden hasn't shown any signs of it, and her Dr said it's not contagious anymore after she's been on the antibiotic drops for over 24 hours. I've also been really busy with the business I took over from my mom back in January. I'm just glad I can do most of the work from home, with the exception of having to travel to my mom's house every few months.

Anyway, yesterday was one of the worst days of my entire life! I feel like such a terrible mother. And I'm dumb enough to confess to you all just how bad of a mother I feel like. It's really humiliating, especially because I consider myself a very overprotective mom, after everything that Kaden's been through. Yesterday Kaden was in the bath. I left him for just a few seconds and Kate managed to CLIMB IN TO THE BATHTUB all by herself! The bath tub comes up to her shoulders, so I dont' know how she got in. When I got back in there just a bit later she was sitting in the tub, fully clothed and soaking wet. She was having a blast (she LOVES the bath), but it scared the bejeebers out of me! She's never climbed on top of the couch or the bed or the coffee table or anything else before, but she climbed into the bathtub all by herself. I'm just so glad that I got back in there when I did, and that she wasn't even a tiny bit hurt by it. I immediately said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for keeping her safe and watching over her in my moment of extreme stupidity. So a balled my eyes out all day, just thinking about what could have happened to my sweet baby girl. I can't believe how dumb I was!!! Lesson learned. Never ever again will I leave the bathroom when one of the kids is in the bath. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
So, yesterday Kate could have drowned, and she got Pink Eye, and to top it off she hit her mouth on the coffee table yesterday and it bled a lot. She cut her gums and wouldn't hardly eat or drink anything for the rest of the day because it still hurt. Thank goodness kids have such unconditional love, and I'm really glad she won't remember any of it. She had a pretty rotten day yesterday too.