Somebody had a birthday! {or two}

So crazy to think that my baby has just turned two.....

Flashback from one year ago today:

Love ya little buddy!

One Year Ago today.......

I was woken suddenly by my husband in a panic.  I had worked the night before and had only layed down about an hour and a half earlier. He explained to me that Eli had gotten hurt and needed to go to the hospital.  I quickly pulled myself out of the sleep fog I was in and went to examine my sweet little boy.  Sure enough....he needed stitches.  At the time, with everything going on in our lives, I was so upset I couldn't even allow myself to blog about this.  But as time has gone by and old scars are healing it doesn't hurt so much to document this part of our lives.

***

 That day, the kids had headed over to the in-laws house while I layed down to sleep.  I was in my last little stretch of nights until after Christmas with just two more to go.  Nona pulled out her old tin cookie cutters and playdough for Maddie and Robby to play with (one of their favorite things to do).  Eli of course wanted to join in on the fun and toddled over to the table to play.  He managed to pull down a gingerbread man cookie cutter and while diving down to retrieve it, he landing face first.  He literally stamped the picture of a gingerbread man on his face.  My poor mother-in-law was beside herself and even said that she was going to throw away all of her tin cookie cutters. 
***
When I looked at it I knew it was time to pack up and head to the hospital.  We bee-lined for Banner Gateway and luckily got in rather quickly.  Three hours later we walked away with six stitches, dermabond glue, $125 copay, a sleeping little boy and an exhausted Mommy.  Although Jesse felt bad for waking me up, I was glad I could at least be with my little guy through this.  I think that next night of work I was more tired than I have ever been in my life.....

Poor little E continued to smile through all this :)

They put Lat-Gel on his lacerations to help numb them up....I don't think it really a big difference.  Either way he screamed like crazy when we had to hold him down so the doctor could stitch him up.  They were able to use dermabond glue on the lacerations above his left eyebrow and between his nose and mouth; and only had to do six stitches on his left cheek with a little glue on the side. 

***

Poor little guy was exhausted and fell asleep sometime in the middle of the sutures.  He slept the entire way home as well. 

***

I always knew at some point one of my kids would end up with stitches.  The crazy thing was that I would have thought that Maddie or Robby would have been my first to have this happen.  They are much more adventuresome and wild than Eli.

Fast forward one year and Eli is happy as can be and there is only a slight trace of the sutures from the "gingerbread man."  How I love this little baby of mine!

{I am in total denial that he will be TWO next week}



Phoenix Zoo

Last month, my sister and I headed over the Phoenix Zoo one morning when the kids were out of school.  We had a great time together and the kids especially enjoyed climbing the rocks on one of the exhibits......

Miss M is a crack up these days and like to tell me that I'm "ruining her life".  Oh I can't wait until she's a teenager and I really do in fact ruin her life :)

 Zack (18 months)

Robby climbing

This is basically what little E did the whole time at the zoo....mmmmm we sure do like those Cookies!

 Maddie with her cousin Kaylin

My one sad attempt at a picture of all three of the kids

life is sooo good.

feeling saddened by how many sick, cruel, wicked people there are in the world that do horrendous things to precious, innocent children.

*

feeling thankful to have such a kind babysitter and wonderful families that help out so much with my own children.

*

feeling tired due to not enough sleep the last few days.

*

feeling lonely without the kids at home this morning when I got off of work.

*

feeling joyful that my kids could have a "slumber party" at their Nona and Papa's house, including attending a Christmas party last night and seeing Santa Claus! {Maddie proudly informed me that she asked Santa for make up, nail polish, and a pillow pal. She also told me that Robby asked for a new train track set that has lots of bridges}

*

feeling grateful that the Lord has given me stewardship over three precious little Spirits with a LARGE amount of personality and spunk.

*

feeling loved by a sweet little girl that wrote me the loveliest letter a five-year old can write:

I don't want to ever forget how precious and innocent my little children are.  I don't want to ever take for granted the time I have with them. 

 I love my kids.

  They are my life, light and soul.

I would truly be nothing without them.



Thanksgiving 2010

 This year, Thanksgiving morning we got up early and headed out to East Mesa for the Annual 10K Turkey Trot run.  My hubby graciously agreed to run with me after my sister-in-law was sidelined with shin splints.  Although we barely saw each other during the run, it was still nice to do something like this together.  {and just for the record, Jesse totally smoked me~ by lets say about 5 minutes?}  My in-laws also came and entertained the children during the run= our saving grace!  Lessons learned: definitely stop at the first water stop...I always need water; prepare for the run by, well, running; run outside more, not just on the treadmill; work on running different speeds: fast and slow; and finally sign up for another one to keep self motivated!

After getting washed up and ready, we headed over for the Sheffield Thanksgiving dinner. So yummy that I didn't even stop to take a single picture, darn it.  After stuffing face, we headed to the movie theater and saw the new Disney movie "Tangled".  And finally we capped off the night at the Toronto's where we gorged once again on like 10 different kinds of pie. Seriously good stuff. My faves this year would have to be the Banana Cream Pie and the Coconut Cream Pie {did I mention I like cream?!}  Eli's fave was the Chocolate Cream and the Coconut Cream Pie.  He was hilarious.  He sat on Papa's lap and would loudly proclaim: "more more more pease".  Poor Maddie was so sick she just layed on the couch most of the day and never even had a single bit of pie :(

Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, we are full force into the Christmas Spirit, with Christmas music to be heard at all hours of the day, lights & decorations put up, cards ordered and expected any day in the mail, Xmas lists all prepared by the kids, and preparations underway for neighbor Goody plates; now all we need is a beautiful fresh Christmas tree to be purchased and decorated :)

 a couple tag-a-long pics just cuz....

#1 Eli cracks me up, he is in LOVE with this fireman hat and wears it 24/7

#2 Pretty picture of Miss M one morning when she asked me to snap one "because I look fancy"

Tid Bits

 1. Miss M is quite proud of the fact that she can now climb to the top of the rope at gymnastics.  She learned how to do it without feet and instead grips the rope between her legs in an L position.  We now owe her a trip Ice Skating for this feat.

2. Maddie has made Christmas lists for herself and both brothers.  The top picks for her include "Princess Ipod" (yeah right), Horse Pillow Pal, Makeup and Nailpolish. Robby's top picks are "Action Canyon Thomas Train Set", Skateboard, Diesel 10 train, and a new Mack tow truck. 

3. I just spend one of the best days at the park today with my boys, listening to "Winter Serenade" piano songs on my Ipod, while my boys played in the sand, threw around a beach ball, and Robby rode his bike on the sidewalk surrouding the park = HEAVEN.

4. We are all so happy to officially be done with the yucky Flu bugs at our house :)

5. On Thanksgiving day we all went and saw the new movie "Tangled".  It was super cute and such a fun family experience.  Jesse and I also went and saw the new "Harry Potter" movie last Saturday for date night.  I have to admit, I love the Harry Potter series and have read all the books so it was a fun night, not to mention WONDERFUL to go on a date with my Honey.

6.  I am super excited to be switching to a new shift at work come January.  For the past 20 months I have been working nights as a nurse three days a week from 7pm to 7:30am.  I am beyond excited to be changing and working 1pm to 1:30am instead!!!!

7.  Robby learned how to ride his bike without training wheels.  Unfortunately the training wheels are once again back on his bike.  He has an 18 inch wheeled bike that he just isn't quite tall enough for.  When the training wheels are off he cannot climb on and pedal by himself and he pretty much always crashes when he wants to stop. 

8. I have been working on sight words with Maddie almost every night for school.  When we get to a word she doesn't know I will tell it to her and then use it in a sentence. Such as, "Mean; mommy doesn't like it when the kids are mean". Today for the sight word "follow", Maddie excitedly told me that it was like "I'll follow you until you love me, Pa Pa Paparazzi".  {ie: Lady Gaga}  She literally is in LOVE with several Lady Gaga songs and knows almost all the words.  And yes, her Daddy isn't jumping on the cuteness wagon with this one and thinks it is wrong that our child knows so much about Lady Gaga.  In my defense, the only reason I have any of her songs in my Ipod is for when I run.  Somehow Maddie must have gotten her hands on my Ipod and now has a love affair with her.

Luvs to all!!!

Arizona State Fair

Last month I decided to take my kids to the Arizona State Fair.  I almost didn't, but in the end was soo glad that we went.  I had worked the night before (Tuesday), and by the time 3pm rolled around I felt like I was going to die from being so tired.  I have several of those days each week, where I literally watch that darn clock like a hawk until 7pm rolls around and I can tuck kids in bed for the night and fall asleep on the couch, bed, floor, pretty much wherever I see first.  That day was no exception and I had already been plotting ways to get them to go to bed even earlier than normal. Then my sweet Mother in Law called and invited me to come to the State Fair that evening for "Free admission and $1 rides Wednesday."  I have to admit that when she suggested this, I immediately wanted to just say no.  But then as always guilt got the best of me.  I began to think about how EVERY single year we talk about taking the kids to the fair, and EVERY single year we never end up going.  I knew that if we didn't go that day we would probably end up missing out once again.  So I pulled on my big girl panties (as my dear friend at work used to say) and got us all ready to go.  We picked up Miss M from school and off we went :)

We carpooled with my In-Laws and made it to the fair by about 5:30pm for a night of fun!  I have to admit that it was a little white trash around those parts, but that's what you get going to the state fair right?!  The first thing Maddie pointed out and was insistent that she ride on was the Ferris Wheel. Robby was rooting for the choo choo train.  The only one not super excited for rides was Mr E and he was instead perfectly content to either hang in the stroller or be held by Papa.   All in all, we rode way too many rides to count, were rained on during our yummy Bean and Cheese Indian Fry Bread dinner, didn't hear any complaints about not buying any extra treats or toys, visited the petting zoo, met up with Aunt Abby and her cute friends, and overall had a fabulous night out!  Thank heavens my Father-in-law drove us home afterwards....I think I may have even drooled while dozing off in the car on the way back home :)

I hope Maddie never forgets what I've told her: Size does not determine age

{it cracks me up seeing just how much taller Robby is than Maddie now}

**just don't point it out to Miss M**

funny/sad story:  One of the rides they had was this bouncing machine where you sit in a seat and the ride starts up high and then rapidly drops you downward.  Maddie rode a ride similar to this a couple of years ago at Amazing Jakes and wanted to ride it again at the state fair.  Apparently there is a different height requirement though so Miss M was not quite tall enough to go on it.  So who went on it instead? Why the three year old of course.  Maddie was so sad that her younger brother was taller than her, and thus could go on the ride.  She told the man "but I'm the older sister in the family."  I felt so bad for her and could totally empathize about being the small one.  I remember being told I wasn't tall enough for certain rides when I was growing up as well :(

Mr E in his seat

Robby and Nona rode in the bucket in front of Maddie and I on the Ferris Wheel.  Nona said he was so scared that he put his head down on the safety handle bar and closed his eyes.  What did Maddie do?  Why she screamed with joy and was busy pointing out all the things she could see from "so high away"

{Miss M on the Ferris Wheel}

They even had this cute little roller coaster. Once again Robby was so scared that he was almost crying by the end of the ride.  With Robby being so big/tall we seem to forget that he is only three years old and apparently took him on way too many rides he wasn't quite ready for emotionally...

Miss M liked strolling down all the rows of horses/pigs, etc

The one of my/our favorite parts about the petting zoo was the adorable kangaroo in the pouch as in the picture above: cute, cute, cute!  Eli also loved the ducks and kept saying "Momma, quack quack?!"

Eli is especially attached to his Papa right now and always wants to be held by him.  Whenever we go over to my in-laws the first thing Eli does is wander around their house yelling "Papa, R U?"

This ride Maddie was in, actually looked like a ton of fun.  It bounced each car up and down as they went in a circle.  Nona was soo worried that the kids would fall out of the cars.  As you can see, Maddie thoroughly enjoyed it.

Robby and Maddie on the train.  This is one of the few rides that Eli was super bummed to not be quite tall enough to ride.  I had to take him on a stroller walk away for awhile, because he was so upset. 

Our very last ride of the night were these cute little tug boats.  Afterwards, Maddie and Robby both announced that they were there "favorites".  What you don't see in these pictures, is the kid that was manning the booth by wading waist deep in water making sure none of the children tipped over.

Yeah for the State Fair; we promise to come back again!!

Halloween 2010

This year, with Halloween being on Sunday, was kind of an odd year to celebrate this Holiday.  Although Maddie was tad bit bummed that she didn't get to fall on trick or treat from door to door, we all had a great time and did several things to celebrate this madness, such as:

*Preschool and Kindergarten class parties--although sadly Maddie's school didn't allow the kids to dress up and called the party their "Fall Festival"*

*Visit to the State Fair with Nona and Papa--at some point I will blog about this*

*Cortina Neighborhood Fall Festival*

*190th Dr. Block Party on the 30th*

*Trunk or Treatin' at 2nd Wards Party*

*Visit with Nona & Papa on Halloween night*

*Taking care of all the crazies on Halloween night for me :)*

Robby was pretty excited to find out that he could wear his "Iron Man" costume to preschool on the Thursday before Halloween. Miss M, however, was not too thrilled to find out that at Cortina she was not allowed to dress up. :(

The other two kids decided to line up for pictures as well and I couldn't resist :)

Eli as Superman...I kept trying to get a better picture with camera phone, but he kept moving around so much that all the picture were blurry.

And finally a picture with Aleisa Inglish at our block party.  Maddie was especially proud of the details to her costume: light up Ariel shoes and Red Spray paint hair dye.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN