Hogle Zoo

I found out that the Zoo in Utah has a few free admission days during the year, how awesome is that?

So I made sure to plan a trip to it with my best friend and her kids since Bentley had never been to the one in Utah.

We went and had so much fun but can I just say I am so glad that it was free because we got to see all of 4 animals and that was it.

My intentions were to at least see that polar bear which were a huge thing last year when they first came in to the zoo so it was a must. I was pleasantly surprised as to how "friendly" and active the bear was. He moved constantly and would go swimming then get out and rub his back in the snow then go inside and scratch his back then did the whole cycle over and over. Pretty entertaining for the kiddos for sure.

We also saw eagles which Bentley loves, he is always talking about eagles so I was glad we got to see them. Then we saw some seals that were fun to watch. Now Bentley keeps saying he wants a seal as a pet, when I told him that they need tons of water to keep alive he said they can live in our bath tub, funny kid. We then went and got to se the giraffes which are my favorite animal. We only got to see then for 5 minutes before they closed down.

We closed the zoo down, they even had to come and kick us out.

After the zoo we all went out to dinner including Jon who we picked up from school. Dinner was fun but I am sure we traumatized a few people with how crazy our children were but thats life and I try not to care what people think and my friend is the same way so we let them be crazy and enjoy life.

Sleepovers

Since I know these are the last months we will probably be spending in Utah for a long time I am trying to make sure I hang out and visit with the most important people in my life and make sure Bentley makes good memories with family and friends.

We have had a few sleepovers at my best friends house. She has a little boy who is 6 and him and Bentley get along amazingly. Really they are best friends which just makes my heart happy. I love that these 2 love each other so much.

We have been seeing each other just about once a week.

I love going to her house cause the boys just go to the basement and play for hours without any problems. Or we send them outside to play in the snow. I wish we lived closer cause I would be there every day as I think every child should be able to grow up playing in back yards and enjoying the outdoors like I got to.

Other than playing for hours I have caught Jackson reading stories to Bentley and Bentley playing with baby Joe. We have a blast every time we go. Last time there was even a run to the urgent care to get some stitches on the bravest little boy I know. He cried for all of one minute and then continued to say he was ok while I almost past out from just looking at the cut.

Scheels

A new sporting goods store opened up in Utah.

I had heard everyone raving about it and finally decided to go.

It is a blast to go there even if you aren't buying anything.

They have a playground for kids in the kid clothing section. Smart people I tell you. They have a ferris wheel in the middle of the store and a huge fish tank and tons more.

We were there for over 3 hours and not once were the kids bored at all.

Jon took Bentley to the upstairs part and they have fishing stuff for kids and a shooting area for kids to play around.

All in all it is a must see in Utah. I will be going back pretty soon to check out the upstairs myself.

Valentine's Day Party

I had planned to have a little Valentine's Day party for Jon, Bentley and I. I had made decorations and bought some things to decorate with and I had a menu in mind and everything was going to be perfect.

Ha.

Who am I kidding?

My life is never such even if I plan for it to be. Something always goes wrong and then I am left to make the best of it with a smile on my face.

Breakfast went smoothly. I made some really yummy Strawberry pancakes with nutella syrup. It was a hit with both Jon and I but Bentley wanted nothing to do with them, even if they had chocolate syrup on them. Weird, I am sure had he tried them he would have loved them.

So of course Jon woke up sick. My sister who was supposed to be here at 11am to help me with decorating cooking and Bentley didn't show up till 2pm. While waiting for her to get here I had Bentley get started with making necklaces out of fruit loops but by the time I got out of the shower he had eaten them all.

Once my sister got here I had some shopping to still do for food so off we went. It took forever since everyone was out trying to get their last minute things.

Off topic, I went to Harmon's to get a specialty cheese and can I just say that they were robbing people. Honestly, they were charging absurd amounts of money for roses. I witness a girl buy 2 cards, one bouquet of flowers which had 3 roses and a bunch of babies breath, one vase with a dozen roses and 8 chocolate covered strawberries she paid $80.97. I almost had a heart attack and am truly glad I let Jon know a very long time ago that I better never get roses or flowers for Valentine's Day. He can get them for me a week in advance or the day after.

So back to how my day went....we got back and I started making my heart shaped raviolis I had planned for dinner. I got a work out just sheeting the dough out by hand. They looked fabulous and the filling tasted even better. It took me 2 hours and a half to get it all done and by then I had no time to decorate as I was starving. However when I went to cook the raviolis I am not sure what happened but no matter how long I cooked them for they were still hard. I was so bummed but by this point I didn't care and just ate them. they weren't too bad but I think the dough needed to be thinner or made out of just flour and not semolina flour.

I then tried to convince my husband to watch a romantic movie with me and he would have none of it. I then decided to just have a movie night with  myself and watch Message in a Bottle which was really good but I wasn't able to finish it off since a lot of cleaning needed to happen.

We weren't even able to have the dessert I had planned which was chocolate fondue. Thank goodness there is always next year to perfect this, right?

Having my movie night by myself

Dentist follow-up

Monday morning I got a call from the dentist office letting me know that they had had a cancellation for Tuesday and wanted to know if we could bring Bentley in instead of waiting 2 more weeks. I of course said yes before those cavities got any worse.

So Tuesday morning we woke up late since he wasn't allowed to eat anything before the appointment and headed out to the dentist office. As usual I am a mess and am always thinking of the worse case scenario. We got there and Bentley was actually pretty calm so I calmed down to not make him freak out. 

They came and got him and he started screaming bloody murder. Poor thing. Jon and I were not allowed in the back so we just had to sit in the waiting room and wait for them to finish. Pretty hard thing to do, I tell you. They put 2 shots in his cheeks to sedate him and I heard him scream but they take effect pretty quick so we didn't hear anything else. The dentist assistants kept on coming out and letting us know what the dentist had done and how everything was going and how Bentley was behaving.

All in all it took about 2 hours from the time they took him back till the time I got to see him. By the time I went to see him he was coming out of sleep and I guess he told the nurse he had just taken a little nap and that he wanted his "mama". Made me happy to hear the first thing he wanted was me.

He didn't get any teeth pulled as I was fearing might be happening but the dentist said it wasn't as bad. That was great news. He had 2 crowns put in place and 8 fillings. Poor kid. The dentist did prescribe some fluoride for him because he said in this area its very common to see teeth that bad in kids this young since kids are not getting the fluoride they need.

Now we battle to make sure we floss daily (which is a battle every night) and brush his teeth (which is not a problem until I try to make sure we do it for 2 minutes). Bentley has even started asking to brush his teeth after lunch which I let him do all by himself and not time it.

I swear children should come with instructions, I am serious cause this whole parenting thing is way harder than I could have ever imagined.

I am now determined to make sure he gets no more cavities so let see how it goes.

Laura in a nutshell

20 interesting facts about me:

1. I love to bake and am the one who is always making the birthday cakes in my family.
2. I love planning and decorating for parties.
3. When I fly I am a mess and don't stop praying from the moment I get on the plane to the moment the         plane lands.
4. Most of my childhood memories are from when I lived in Costa Rica and they all involve me using my imagination.
5. One year as an early Christmas gift I took my father on a vacation to the Dominican Republic which is probably one of my all time favorite places.
6. I didn't know a word of English when I moved to the United States at the age of 9.
7. I love nothing more than having breakfast food, I seriously could eat breakfast food all day every day and not get tired of it which kinda sucks since my husband hates breakfast food.
8. I have no patience whatsoever and I am 100% sure the only way my child and I have survived the last almost 4 years is because I pray just about every single day and ask God to please help me out.
9. I don't really like drinking juice anymore and I love drinking water however soda is my one guilty pleasure that I only allow myself to have maybe 2 times a month.
10. I hate all exercise except for biking, I could bike for hours with no problem and I actually truly enjoy it.
11. 2 things that give me the most anxiety are going to banks/dealing with money and going to the dentist, could very well live without those 2 things if it was possible.
12. My son is my most priced possession, love him more than anything in the world.
13. I like change in my life, I get bored easily with things so I am constantly moving my furniture around, this has come in handy living with my husband as we haven't been constant too much since being married.
14. I go through crazy mood where I throw out tons of stuff, it happens maybe 6 times a year and when it happens there is no stopping me just grab what's important to you and get out of my way cause anything is game. I have thrown/given away tons of clothes, shoes and toys my biggest thing as of late was my dinning room table.
15. I have a horrible body image and no matter how skinny I am I still see room for improvement not a very healthy thing and wish I could get to a point where I could be happy with it but I have just realize I never will be happy.
16. I had a boyfriend right after high school who I thought I was for sure going to marry.
17. Growing up I always had a feeling I would be a single mother to a little boy, kinda weird, it turned out to be true with the little boy part I just got one extra plus, my husband.
18. I never dreamt of my wedding like most girls say they do, so I was able to let my husbands aunt just plan it and was more than I could ever have even dreamt of.
19. I am fiercely loyal to the people I love.
20. I have a pretty spicy personality and anyone that truly knows me will agree with that.

Green smoothie

Since being back on weight watchers I have started making green smoothies in the morning for breakfast.

A lot of mornings I simply don't want to cook, making a smoothie is the best thing for me on those mornings. I had to find a recipe that would be low on points and hold me over till my morning snack. I have found it and it's so versatile.

Here is the recipe:

1/2 a frozen banana
1 cup frozen fruit
1/2-3/4 cup skim milk
1/2 cup non-fat yogurt
1 tbsp peanut butter
2 cups spinach

Put it all in you blender and mix for as long as needed for your type of blender. For my Ninja I blend it for 2-4 minutes.

Now for the frozen fruit I have done extra banana, papaya, mango, strawberries, cherries and pineapple and have loved each one. Jon however only liked it with banana so it depends on how picky you are.

On weight watchers it's only 6 points which for me it's an awesome breakfast. Not only that but it tastes pretty amazing, I was skeptical about green smoothie but after having a few good ones I figured I just needed to find the right recipe and this is it for me.

Valentine's day lunch

Bentley wanted a Valentine's day lunch with my sisters step-kids. He told me this at last minute so I grabbed whatever I had around.

He had so much fun playing with them. They played nonstop for almost 4 hours. By the time they left my house looked like a tornado had gone through. Of course that was after I had spend all day cleaning, boooo.

To eat I made the kids some heart shaped pizzas, some fruit kabobs and a valentine float.

Then I made heart crayons for his cousins to take home which they loved.

My best idea ever

Having a picky eater is really challenging. Most people just don't understand unless they themselves have a truly picky eater.

We have gone through phases where there was only a total of 10 things that my child would eat. That's hard as a mother who wants nothing more than to be able to feed her child good healthy food.

Throughout the last 3 years of feeding my child he has gone through being super picky and barely eating anything to just being somewhat picky. However the one thing that he has always liked has been pancake or waffles which has really been my saving grace. I always puree some type of fruit or vegetable and mix it into the batch I am making and he has always eaten them no problems.

I have a hard time figuring out what to give Bentley for lunch and dinner and not just giving him another breakfast meal. The other day I heard about waffle sandwiches and I tried it, well we are hooked and can't get enough of them apparently.

He will ask for a waffle sandwich every single day for every single meal only difference is that each time we put something different in them. Sometimes they will have cream cheese, nutella, peanut butter or nutella with strawberries, peanut butter with banana. Then on the side he will ask for broccoli with ranch or some type of fruit depending on what we have.

This one thing has made me feel so at ease with what I am feeding him because I know he is getting some healthy food since I put all the healthy stuff in the waffle mix itself.

Favorite quote

My favorite quoted right now is this:

Love it and it has been and continues to be so true in my life.

My best friend Jen and I are just like this. No matter where we move to or go we have managed in the last 6 years to keep in touch and continue to see each other. From the get go I just felt this bond with her that was unreal, like I had always known her. I feel like I knew her before I came to earth and we were good friends up in Heaven because it's just really weird how close we feel. Not only that but we have so much in common it freaks me out. It's funny because people will ask if we are sister or related since we look alike.

Dentist

So let me start by saying that I am beyond scared of the dentist.

This fear started around the age of 4 when I was taken to a dentist who I am more than sure was not qualified to be seeing children because he was a monster and had no idea how to handle a 4 year old. My mother, I am sure out of her own fear of the dentist, send me with my cousin to the dentist. All I remember is me trying for the life of me to get away. I scratched my cousins face, chest, exposed her breast to everyone in sight and screamed as loud as I could but none of that work and they were somehow still able to get me on that chair. I don't remember if they strapped me down or how they were able to keep me in the chair maybe a sedative was given, who knows. I do know that by the time they were done with me I was bleeding from my cheeks pretty bad. I still have holes on the inside of my cheeks if you were to look from what they did to me. I think they might have taken me back a few more times but I am sure I was given meds at that point but I refused to go to a dentist after about 6 until I was 12 out of fear. I would hide in bathrooms or under my bed or do just about anything to get out of going.

Now fast forward to my child. I suck. Simply said.

This child is so independent when it comes to some things and tooth brushing is one of them. He wants to do it himself and not let anyone else help. So he has been doing it twice a day and he lets me floss about twice a month which I now know is clearly not enough.

Long story short I finally took Bentley to the dentist only to find out the boy needs 8 fillings, one crown and probably have one pulled out since it was chipped pretty bad. How does that even happen to a 3 year old is beyond me but it does. Come to find out there is no fluoride in the water in Utah which makes thing worse.Why wouldn't my child's doctor tell me this or prescribe a supplement? Not that the doctor is to blame I surely am but Lord.

Now my poor child is scheduled to have all that work done on the 26th if they are able to sedate him if not then he will have surgery and be put down completely.

I am thinking I myself will need a sedative too to be able to not have a panic attack at the dentist office as they will not allow me or Jon to go back with him which I do not like but rules and rules. My poor baby. I swear from now on I am brushing his teeth 3 times a day and flossing twice plus I will be asking his doctor for a fluoride supplement.

Frozen yogurt pops

Over the weekend I wanted to make a snack for Bentley that he hadn't had before but something that I thought he would be willing eat or try at least. I came up with the idea of freezing a banana covered in yogurt since I had seen one similar but covered in chocolate. 

I went online immediately and looked for ideas and I found a bunch but my favorite were the ones covered in cereal. I knew Bentley would not only try them but like them. 

As Bentley was playing with some clay I started making them and making a big deal about the popsicles I was making for him to have later on in the day. I wasn't even finish making them when Bentley was already asking if he could have one. He patiently waited for them to be frozen but once they were he went to town. He had 4 of them in one sitting and the best part was I didn't feel bad letting him have them since they were nutritional enough to be a meal.

All I did was cut the banana's into 4 pieces then I dipped the banana into vanilla flavored yogurt and lastly rolled them in some fruity pebbles cereal. I then let them freeze for 3 hours before giving them to Bentley. 

I am always happy when I make something for Bentley that is new and he actually likes it. Makes life a little bit easier because it gives me more options on what I can feed him.

Weekend

My weekend was filled with tons of family time.

Starting with Jon and I having our little getaway, then picking Bentley up and taking him along with his cousins to Chuckie Cheese. We must have been there for over 3 hours. Fun times!

Then Saturday we headed down to Park City to meet up with Jon's cousin who is in town for a cardiovascular conference, he's a surgeon. We went to main street in Park City which was my first time in the 6 years I have been in Utah. It was such a cute street with tons of colors and pretty views. Looks just like a Christmas card. We had lunch with him and had some good food and conversation as always.

After that we headed farther down to my best friends house who is more like a sister to me. I love that woman with all my heart. Jon watched all the kids while her and I went out and had some girl time, which was pretty awesome.  We went to Tepanyaki and shared dinner then we even encountered our first drunk person in Utah in the bathroom. Jen was worried about her being able to get out of the bathroom, really she was that wasted, I didn't care much. She got herself in that situation but really she made us laugh so hard. Then we headed to Cold Stone and had some ice cream.

My husband rocks for doing that for us with no complaints and all the children survived.

Sunday we just hung out at home since the night before Bentley had had a fever and we wanted to make sure if he was sick we weren't getting anyone else sick but it appears that he is totally fine. Maybe he had some growing pains that came with a fever who knows. Got to watch the Super Bowl but shortly after the halftime show I was ready for bed.

I am getting old.

Relaxing bath time

For whatever reason I felt like going to bed early today. So I figured I'd take a nice relaxing bath in order to get ready for an early bedtime.

I poured honey into the bath as it was feeling up. Then I sipped in hot water a few chamomile tea bag and the dumped it into my bath. I lit up some candles and got some Enya going on the background. Super relaxing and really worked towards making me sleepy.

Before I actually was able to have my relaxing bath Bentley tried to join me but when he saw I was turning the lights off and told him no talking he was out of there and went and told his papa I was doing something weird. Funny kid. Jon came in to check on me laughing.

I got a good 30 minutes of complete bliss and then Bentley came and jumped in the tub and started farting. Silly me for thinking I was actually going to have an uninterrupted bath. This is my new normal taking baths with my child farting in the water and probably peeing in it too, I don't dare ask.

I love my life, farts and all.

Bright and early getting yogurt. My buddy always joins me when I go out.

Our tradition

Jon and I started a new tradition last year and I love that we have some traditions that we can keep forever.

I for the most part don't like Valentine's Day, just seems like a silly day to me. Having a child has softened me though cause he loves Valentine's Day. The older he gets the more I have to do for this day.

Anyways, last year Jon took me for a mini getaway to a hotel in Salt Lake City. It's a bed and breakfast and the rooms are all decorated in different themes. It's really fun, cute and cozy.

This year money is tight so I was not even thinking about getting away but Jon surprised me. Tuesday night he told me not to make plans for Thursday and Friday because he already had plans.

He had booked a night at this bed and breakfast, planned dinner and had a babysitter in place for Bentley.

He got the same room we had last year, which I loved. Had them sprinkle flower pedals all over the floor. Very sweet and romantic. We went out to dinner to a Brazilian steakhouse which is always yummy food if you are in Salt Lake City. Then we walked around the Gateway mall for a while. Last year we did the same exact thing and I had him take me to Barnes and Nobles to get me a book. This year I again went into Barnes and Nobles and was able to score a book for Bentley on sale for $2 that I had had my eye on since before Christmas but couldn't bring myself to spend $15 on. We kept walking around and finally ended up getting some Chocolate, caramel covered apples that were really good.

It's always good to get away with my husband and have some alone time so we can remind each other why we fell in love with one another. I love that my husband is so romantic and loves planning dates. He makes me happy.