"My Turn"

As my two kiddos are growing older and bigger, we are all learning a lot about sharing and taking turns. It is a hard lesson to begin learning when you are only 22 months old, but I suppose any second child is the same way.

It has become apparent from Robby's current vocabulary that he is both learning and also firmly rejecting some principles associated with sharing. Some of his favorite words to use now include "my turn", "mine", "no no no" (when asked to share a toy or wait for his turn), and "I sorry". He even has learned where the time out couch is and when told he needs to sit in time out, he will walk right over and plop himself down in that location.

Thus brings me to the reason for this post. For the past year or so, Maddie has sort of been my side kick during baking or cooking time in the kitchen. Normally Robby is either sleeping, playing independantly, or eating a snack at the table during those times. Recently however, he wants to have a turn at helping mommy in the kitchen as well. So this post is for Robby and all the help he was in the kitchen for me a few weeks back when we were making some goody plates for some friends and neighbors. Thanks for all the help buddy!!

{side note--- he is not directly eating out of the bowl that produced the goody plates. It is an extra spatula I gave him after the bowl was nearly empty}

Christmas Tree

The beginning of this month we went to a Christmas tree lot and picked out a humongous, ginormous, overwhelming tree. Jesse had to have the BIGGEST tree in the entire lot of course :)

It has been fun to hang all our ornaments on it and enjoy such a beautiful tree in our front room. I keep telling myself someday I will be able to hang my ornaments on the tree without one of the kids constantly tearing them off. Right now Robby's favorite things involving the tree include throwing any ball at the tree, pulling down the lights off the bottom section and then watching the tree sway back and forth as he plays tug of war, and taking any ornaments within his reach and pulling them off and throwing them all over the front room. Of course all of these things are done with a BIG smile on his face. Maddie is continually trying to redecorate the tree by moving ornaments to different spots on the tree. :)
The kids favorite things involving the Christmas tree lot included chasing each other all around the trees and the free hot chocolate and cookies being served.

Christmas Lights at the Temple

It is a tradition in our family to go visit the beautiful Mesa Temple Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. This year we changed it up a little bit. We ended up going and walking around the Temple the Sunday after Thanksgiving instead. It was wonderful because it gave us a chance to see the lights this year AND we were able to go before Uncle Adam left to go back to Boston!!Robby with his Uncle Adam Maddie and "Papa"

Thanksgiving Dinner

This year, we had a fairly relaxing Thanksgiving day. We took some dinner to an elderly lady, ate our big "dinner" at my parents house, visited the Toronto family and ended the evening with pie night at my Aunt and Uncles. Maddie has the cheesiest smile these days complete with squinted eyes!
Robby chowing down on his traditional Thanksgiving dinner

Aunt Lori and Uncle Tyler at the table

Do we live in a zoo, or are we going to the zoo?

I suppose the answer is both on a day like this. :)

In mid-November (I am attempting to get my life updated on my blog from the past few months before baby #3 makes his way into our home), my mom was so sweet and came to the Phoenix Zoo with the kids and I. We arrived in the morning just after it opened and walked all around the zoo in search of our favorite animals. It truly was a perfect morning: perfect weather, perfect company, perfect sack lunch food, etc...

--- although the Phoenix zoo is known for it's environmentally friendly habitats for the animals, it also makes it hard for two tiny little kids to be interested in animals that are nowhere to be found---

Some of our favorite animals were: rhinos, elephants, giraffes, large fish in the pond, birds snacking on food on the walkways, etc.

As I have said before in the past, getting both kids to sit with me AND take a picture is an impossibility. This is the closest thing I get :)Miss M sitting in her stroller at the beginning of the day.

Grandma Sheffield, Maddie and Robby looking in on the elephants.

Maddie loved being able to put her face right next to the chimpanzees and informed me that they had "owies" on their bums.

Robby's favorite animal of the day. When Grandma lifted him up to have a clear look at the Rhinos he loudly said "Whoaa" and then kept making roaring noises as he looked at it

Thanks mOm for all the help you are constantly giving me with my kids. They recognize your doting and love you so much. They are always talking about their Grandma and asking when they are going to see her!

Every once in a great while I can coax one of these beautiful smiles out of her AND capture it on film.

Right before we left, we found the big fish pond near the front entrance. Maddie was ready to hop right in and swim with them.

I always get this grumpy face when he doesn't want to look at me for a picture.

-the only downer to the whole day was when a lady came up and asked sympathetically when I was due. After I announced to her I had 7 weeks to go and felt pretty good she replied "your kidding, you poor thing. You just look so big" I wish people felt less comfortable offering remarks like that.

Sun Devil Fans

Anyone who knows Jesse and I, would know that we are BIG ASU fans. We both graduated from Arizona State and have been season ticket holders for about nine years now. We have stuck with them through all kinds of ups and downs.

This year has been a particularly down year for the football program, especially with such a promising outlook before the season began. The lowest point was just recently when we lost the rivalry game to U of A (we WILL get you next year!!), thus no bowl game :(

Nevertheless, we still attended many of the games decked out in our ASU gear and rooted for the home team. We even brought BOTH kids along to several games this year. I have to admit, I was pretty worried before the first game with our tribe along, but they made me proud. For the most part they stayed in their seats and watched the airplanes go by, pointed out Sparky and the "football game players" as Maddie says, ate snacks, and in general had a blast! After the first game we realized it was actually pretty fun and so we took them along another time as well.

Well...good try Sun Devils and better luck next year!

{pictures from a game in September that we attended with tribe Toronto...}

Birthday Dinner

November: My big sister turned 28 last month and we had a fun Sunday birthday dinner for her on November 9th (actual b-day is the 8th).Lori, Mom, and Pregoville USA
Lori holding Kaylin with Maddie getting ready to "help" blow out the candles. She absolutely loves singing Happy Birthday to anyone. She did not disappoint this time around. She was the first person to break into song and had a big grin on her face the entire time :)

Robby COULD NOT wait for his cupcake and looked quite pleased with himself once he got one!

Another fabulous preggie picture of myself......

Addresses PLEASE!

Hello All!

If you haven't already sent me your current mailing address, and/or it has changed from last year....PLEASE either leave a note with your address or you can e-mail me your address at tiffanyltoronto@yahoo.com for privacy :) I would love to send you a Christmas card; I am hoping to be done with them by early next week and moving on to the rest of my Christmas things!

What Have We Been Up To????

Jesse- work, work, and more work. Has got his wife on his back constantly (sorry honey) about finishing up all the projects before baby number 3.

Tiffany- in the full swing of pregnancy and all the fun details that go along with it. Tired all the time and yet when it is time to sleep is up all night with back aches. Sick of people asking when that baby is due... and giving sympathetic looks when they hear another 4 weeks. Has completely 100% hit the nesting instinct and is constantly worrying about finishing everything, including Christmas, before baby.

Madison- growing up WAY too quickly, no longer taking naps (part of why mommy is soo tired), constantly talking to her imaginary friends, LOVES her fish tank compliments of Uncle Adam, and continues to add new things to her wish list for Santa (pink lipstick, chapstick, white jacket "like Kaylee", and most recently fishy candy from Home Depot).

Robby- also growing up too quick, but thank heavens still takes 3 hour naps and sleeps in until 9am!! Favorite phrases now include "what's that noise?" and "where daddy go?" STILL going through a massive hitting and throwing phase (does that ever end with boys??). His latest victim was his cutest ever cousin Kaylin, who now has a blue goose egg on her forehead and a fear of going anywhere near her cousin.

Family Life- Went to the zoo with Grandma Sheffield and thoroughly enjoyed seeing different animals, eating a sack lunch, playing by the fish pond, and eating cotton candy together. Had a fabulous Thanksgiving, that included me sleeping in with the kids while daddy had fun playing mud football, cooking our VERY FIRST turkey EVER, dinner at my parents house, visit with the Toronto's-- with Uncle Adam included!!, and pie night at my Aunt and Uncle's house. Fun, fun, fun! Day after Thanksgiving had me up at 3:20am for shopping madness with my mom. I am not quite sure I have yet recovered from the lack of sleep, but it is a fun tradition we do every year.

.....perhaps at some point, some pictures will follow as well!

Maddie Loves....

Makeup.

In fact she seems to enjoy it a little too much. When I am not working, she will sit in the bathroom while I get ready and beg to put her makeup on. Today, while I was trying to rush to get ready and make it to church on time, this was her newest "do". She was really upset when I cleaned it off her face and proceeded to tell me in the middle of a sobbing session that "I need lips on to look like a princess. I won't look pretty like a princess without makeup." I finally convinced her that the "lipgloss" (chapstick) I had in the church bag would make her look very pretty. :)