Unbelievable News

So something very unbelievable is going to happen to me......I will be sitting in Oprah's audience Friday, Nov. 13. Let's all scream and take a breath! My wonderful sister in law, Elizabeth has extended one of her four "golden" Oprah tickets to me! Bless her heart she has been trying and trying to get into Oprah's audience for years. In fact she has been known to call when they use to give out ticket through phone call over 300 times in one single day trying to get tickets. We've talked about going to Oprah before and how awesome it would be but it always seemed so hypothetical, out of reach and not something that would happen to us Vernal gals. Well not anymore!

You know how sometimes you fill out those getting to know you questionnaires and you come across questions like if you could do anything what would you like to do---I always put go to Oprah or if you could met anyone who would you like to meet---I always put Oprah. Well I'm going to get to live out my dream next Friday. I've been trying not to actually think too much about it because if I do I get so excited and wound. I'm getting goosebumps just writing this. I'll for sure post pictures and blog all the details! I'm thinking since we are the first taping (she does two tapings on Friday) that we'll be the Friday Live show so if that's the case watch for me on Friday if you watch Lady O. We have no idea what topic we are going to so we'll just have to wait and see.

Oprah Here I Come!

Halloween Night

This year Jaxson was a Zebra. We picked a Zebra because Jaxson just loves them. The costume came with a head piece but I knew there was no way he was going to wear it and Brett came up with the idea to spray paint his hair in stripes. He sat so still for it and was so incredible good when I panted his nose black. It was such a fun night to take him to our family and friends trick or treating. He loved caring his Halloween bucket and having people put something inside of it. Everyone was so thoughtful and had found stuff or called and double check with me on candy that would be healthy and something that Jaxson could eat. I found myself having so much fun watching him have so much fun. One thing I loved about his costume was watching him walk because his tail would wiggle back and forth it was so adorable.

Brett's cousin Candace had a Halloween party that night so we went to her house after trick or treating. It was a costume party so Brett and I got to dress up too. I went as a fortune teller (wearing a dress my mom use to wear) and Brett was Kramer from Seinfeld. I wish I had a full body shot of Brett he looked hilarious. His pants were so tight and high water.

Brett, our brother in law Jeff and Brett's brother Leif as Noco Lebra

Jaxson munching while talking with his cousin Kylen who was Gus Gus from Cinderella his sister Kaysia was Cinderella--so cute!

The little Zebra couldn't help his animal instincts to ruff house a little bit with cousin Kylen.

Our Cousin Halloween Party

We had a blast on Halloween. Hands down one of my favorite Halloween's I've ever had. I've probably added more pictures on this post then maybe I should have but we had such a fun time I wanted to post what I had taken.

So the party started with an invitation:

We invited Jaxson's cousins which was a total of 15 kids:

We had the majority of the party in our 3rd bedroom which we had decked out with Halloween decor while Halloween music played---so much fun wish I would have taken a full room picture of it. We had Halloween playdough with Halloween cookie cutters, Oobleck, slime with Halloween things mixed in it and a Halloween puzzle out for everyone to enjoy while we waited for everyone to arrive.

We then played Halloween games. The winners of the games got to pick out wrapped Halloween gifts and we also had a table set up with other prizes for those that participated and weren't "tricked" during the games. Our first game was pin the nose on the Jack O' Lantern.

We then played trick or treat. The kids had to pull out a paper from a pumpkin. If it said treat they got to go over to the prize table and get a prize if it said trick it then told them something that they had to do. Our next games were outside (what a blessing it was such a wonderful day) we played Musical Bats and then broke into 2 teams and did a pumpkin relay where they could only use their chins to move the pumpkin from person to person.

We came back inside for our Halloween craft. We made skeleton candy necklaces.

Brett and I then sent the kids on a treasure hunt around the farm we live on to find their Halloween gift from us. They were Halloween mugs. We drew out their names and they got to pick which mug they wanted to use at lunch and then take home.

It was then time for our hunted kitchen to cook up some lunch for them. I had told them on their invitation that our hunted kitchen would be brewing up:

Graveyard tombstones-nuggets

Blood-Ketchup

Rotten Guts-Ranch

Mummy Fingers-homemade French fries that my amazing brothers Greg and Eric cooked

Eyeballs-Grapes

Vampire Fangs-Apple slices

Frankenstein Toes-pickles

Haunted Trees-Broccoli and Cauliflower

Scarecrow noses-Carrots

Ghost Drool-Water

Witches Brew-Root Beer with Dry Ice

Spider Webs-cupcakes with frosted spider webs and candy spiders on them

We had them all sitting and then brought out the food and we each asked them individual if they would like graveyard tombstones, mummy fingers, etc.

We ended the party by playing a Spider ring toss game and eating our Spider Web cupcakes. I had so much fun planning this party as you can read and then doing it for those that I love so much. What a wonderful day we had all together. The kids were having a ball and it went so smoothly and was such a fun time.

Friday, Oct 30

Every October I make a special meal we call, Meal in a Pumpkin. It's a soup that you cook in a pumpkin. This year I made it the night we were carving pumpkins. While we were at the Young's picking out our 3 pumpkins for our dinner I spotted this tiny pumpkin and got it for Jaxson. He had so much fun with it he must have played with it for a good hour. Jaxson was so fascinated with pumpkins this year and this tiny one really took his interest.


Carving pumpkins at my mom and dad's. Brett and I thought Jaxson needed a sheep carved in his since he is so in love with sheep right now.
Jaxson with his pumpkin. He called it his " baa" and then started calling every pumpkin he saw "baa".

Halloween Lunch

Yesterday Jaxson and I had over his Erickson cousins, Aunts and Grandma for a Halloween lunch. I made the kids mini mummy pizza, they turned out so adorable. If you look at their plates you can see them. Jaxson and I had also made low protein pumpkin cookies for everyone. Grandma, Aunt Nicki, Aunt Roxanna and Aunt Heidi had also brought other delicious food. It was a fun lunch. We ate, let the kids play for a bit and then took everyone up to the cemetery to decorate MarShel grave with some Halloween things. We had a good laugh over a balloon getting away and Carolee chasing after it and then the three kids chasing it till they couldn't see it in the sky anymore. I'm sure MarShel got a kick of our visit as well. She's still making us laugh.

Lunch, Witches and Reagan

On Saturday we got to do something extra special and really fun. Feed Jaxson at an Italian restaurant, Buca di Beppo. We travel out to SLC and went to a PKU celebration meal. A company that sales PKU formula sponsored the event. They had low protein spaghetti, low pro rolls, salad, low protein cookies (3 kinds), fruit and low protein chocolate for fondue. They also served regular spaghetti, bread and dessert for us non PKUers. Jaxson ate 2 plates of spaghetti so I think he gave it 2 thumbs up. Words can't explain how wonderful it was to walk into a restaurant and give Jaxson an actual meal and not have to bring out any food I had packed in my purse nor did I have to figure out any protein values for the food he was eating because they were handed to me when we checked in. I don't know if we'll ever experience this kind of thing again but we soaked in the experience and enjoyed every moment. Had to have a picture of my son eating in an Italian restaurant and having a full plate of low protein food in front of him that I didn't cook or have to calculate.

We sat by the Reeder family. They were going to the U of U game after lunch so they were all decked out. Andrea, the mom was the first PKU mom that our dietitian introduced to me. She talked to Brett and I for over an hour and helped us gain faith and hope that Jaxson would live a "normal" life and started giving us knowledge on how we would provide that for him. So Brett and I have a really special place in our heart for her and her family. She has 3 boys two with PKU and one without. Isn't it wonderful that with me just telling you that info you really don't know who in this picture has PKU and who doesn't. Love that about PKU. In this picture there is actually 4 people with PKU and 4 without PKU.

Jaxson was very fascinated with Jonah. He loved his hat and liked to drink his water when Jonah was drinking his drink.

After the lunch we took Jaxson to Gardner Village to see the witches, so darn cute. I had never seen them myself and I couldn't get over how adorable it was.

Coming back to Vernal we stopped at the Park City Outlets. I was at our car when I heard this voice that sounded so familiar I looked over and there was Reagan Leadbetter from Good Things Utah getting out of her car and talking to her son as they headed towards the Nike store. I flipped out! I love GTU. I have watched it for 5 years Mon-Fri so so I was a little "Star Struck" when I saw her. She is my FAVORITE host of the show. So I dragged Brett and Jaxson back into Nike (we had already been there and spent a good 30-45 minutes--it's Brett's favorite outlet store) so that I could get another look and then I got the courage to walk over, talk to her and ask for a picture. She was so nice and super friendly. All the way home I couldn't get over that I met Reagan and had a picture with her.

Kylen

Happy 2nd Birthday Kylen!

Today our nephew and one of Jaxson best buddies turns 2. Kylen is such a sweetie and can give out the best hugs. He is talking so much right now I love hearing what he has to say. Kylen and Jaxson are starting to interact and play with each other and it's so fun to watch. I just know these two are going to have so much fun growing up together. Happy Birthday Kylen we love you so much!