life with riley & kira

Sunday Morning

2012-01-22T07:40:00.001-08:00

It's Sunday morning, everyone else in my house is asleep, and I wish I was. Kira was waking up super early all week so now I'm on an early schedule too. It is nice to have a totally silent house and no one asking me to feed them, play something, clean something, find something...the people
I live with are so demanding! Ha!

My dad gave me Season 4 of Mad Men last week so now I am all caught up and ready for Season 5 on March 25! I can't imagine what will happen but I think it's going to be really good. Actors from the show have said S5 is better than the first season! That is some real big talk to my ears because the first season was amazing. The first episode is amazing. I feel like that episode is a mini-movie in itself. The only thing I hope happens next season is something bad happens to Betty or she at least turns into a human being. She is just so mean and hateful to her core. I do like that her new husband calls her on her shit.

Riley's school had snow day this week. I thought they'd have their whole playground covered in snow (that's how they made it sound when they announced it) but it was just a little patch on the side of one of the classrooms. It was enough for 10 munchkins to play in and have fun with though! Riley wanted to wear 2 scarves, gloves, a hat and his jacket. He ended up just wearing a hat and the gloves occasionally. I'm glad he got to play in snow AZ style this winter.

Christmas Fun!

2011-12-30T20:44:00.000-08:00

I've been having fun visiting other blogs looking at Christmas decor, so I figured I might as well do a little post on our decorations too.

Our main tree has been jewel tones for a few years. The tree itself is a hand me down from my mom. Growing up we always had a real tree but once all the kids moved out of the house she got this fake one. I like the real tree smell, but I am a total fake tree girl now. I like being able to bend & twist the branches to fit the ornaments I want to hang.

Something I want to try next year is adding ribbon & garland to our tree. My mom never used it so I never thought to use it on my own tree. After seeing so many pretty beribboned trees the past couple years I really want to do it myself!

This is Kira's pink tree. I got it last year for $5, how could I pass up a deal like that!? It has turquoise bulbs, cupcakes, candies and other girlie stuff . I stuck her fluffiest pink tutu under the turquoise sequin tree skirt...not my idea but I'm so glad I saw it!

Next is my bedroom tree. A couple years ago we were staying at my mom's house while she lived in a different house, and we ended up with an extra tree. So I took all the red & green ornaments off our main tree and put them on the 2nd tree. So ever since then we've had a jewel tone tree and a "traditional" green & red tree. This tree holds my special Mickey Mouse ornaments that I don't want to see smashed into a million pieces.

This post has taken me two days to complete so I'll just leave it off there. If I get a chance to blog our main tree I will...

it's "fall"

2011-09-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

In Phoenix, there isn't much difference between fall, summer, spring and winter. It's usually very sunny and warm no matter what season we're in. In summer it's unGodly hot all day and all night. But in fall, winter & spring, it's actually quite gorgeous all day & all night. Things I miss about a real fall are apple orchards, wearing warm layers & boots, leaves changing colors...that type of thing. It's not like we don't have those things here, you just have to drive up North to see it.

One thing I am super excited about is Halloween is coming, and yes we're havin' a party!!! I loved the Mad Tea Party in June and Vanessa hosts a Halloween shindig too, so we'll be participating in that.

Mr. Riley Scott started Pre School a few weeks ago, and he loves it.

This is his little friend Lara, they seem to end up next to each other more often than not. She is ADORABLE so I don't mind one bit!

I promise

2011-09-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

I was going to promise to update this blog more often, and just now Kira has woken up from her nap. Such is life! Maybe later blog!

Pinnable Me Friday

2011-07-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

I'm joining the party at Stefanie's blog :)

As of this posting I have 53 boards and 1157 pins! Fifty three sounds like an awful lot of boards but it doesn't feel like too many. I just have alot of parties I'd like to throw and I love building boards for all of them...in addition to all the other stuff you can make a board for!

Today I'm showing stuff on my board of all things cute. it's called "awwww" and you're about to see why......

Source: livinginlilly.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: iheartfaces.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: cute-n-tiny.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: chickenshit.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: blackandwtf.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: myrevelment.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: cute-n-tiny.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

just some babblin'

2011-07-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

I am such a fan of all those "Outfit of the Day" blogs. (These are two of my favorites) It boggles my mind that someone can get someone else to take pictures of them every single day. I am jealous of people that get to put together cute little outfits every day. I am stuck in total MOM MODE 24/7. Jeans or capris, some sort of t-shirt and flip flops. Ok I do have a collection of cute little dresses but that requires leg shaving...some days I don't even GET a shower let alone a shower where I can shave both legs!

I'm not mad or anything, I know this time of my life is devoted to chubby little faces and butts and they don't care what I'm wearing. Riley tells me I'm "bee-uti-ful" all the time and that's great for me.

I do miss the days of shopping for an outfit, then shopping for shoes to wear with it, then maybe getting a purse and accessories....but I wouldn't trade my babies for shopping any day!

Pinnable Me Friday

2011-07-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

Since I'm totally in love with Pinterest I am participating in the Pinnable Me thing over at Stefanie's blog.

I have 45 boards with 987 pins, does that qualify as an addiction? ;) Most of my boards have to do with Party Planning so I'm sharing images from a party I would LOVE to throw for one of my girlfriends, a Glam Tinkerbell Party! Wouldn't that be so girly and fun?

Source: cdn.hostessblog.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: None via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: karaspartyideas.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: None via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: howdoyouburncereal.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: aliexpress.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: cocktail.uk.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: cocktailsdrinkrecipes.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: pisforparty.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: urbannestblog.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: a-ladys-findings.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: bakersroyale.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: cache.pixazza.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: None via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: birthdaygirlblog.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: hostessblog.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: whippedstyle.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: carvingfruitintoediblearrangements.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: amazon.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Party! Party!

2011-06-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

So I have been visiting all the tea parties....so much fun! The only problem is my laptop is being fussy and I have to do everything on my iPhone....so it's not that easy to leave comments all the time. If you want to check out all the madness head to vanessa's party at A Fanciful Twist, she's got all the links up this week. Vanessa's party was the best, of course!! She has a beautiful little cottage for us to use, I hope my Mr. builds me one just like it someday! :)

♥our Mad Tea Party ♥

2011-06-25T00:05:00.000-07:00

a very Merry UN Birthday to you! I am so sorry to be late to the party, but that's how things happen in the Arizona desert...we take our time...(do you believe that?)

of course our tea is Iced Tea...when it's over 100° outside you need that ice!

the tables are set for the tea party!

The Mad Hatter was kind enough to set up shop, take whatever hat tickles your fancy.

The Mad Hatter himself!

We have lots and lots of teacups....

....and lots and lots of sweets!

The Red Queen is upset because she wanted white chocolate
covered strawberries, oh dear.

i had a little Cupcake wine with my tea and sweets, why not?

the outdoor bed is the perfect spot for reading a book or taking a nap

we ate and drank and danced all night...

It was such a great party, my dancing shoes slept on the lawn.

of all the days

2011-06-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

The day I picked for our tea party is also the day that everyone else picked for every party ever. I'm still having my party though, I don't care. I don't care if it's just me and Riley and a bunch of cupcakes & tea...the party is going to be fabulous. I'm going to set up a "hat shop" because we have a weird amount of hats and I have a TON of ribbon. Yes I said TON. My goal is to make everything decorations wise using stuff I already have. I have so much craft stuff it's ridiculous so it's not really tough. I've covered alot of things with glue and paper this week :)

paper bag album

2011-06-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to make more books lately...it is really hard to find the time between Riley, Kira and the housework that never ends. But I have completed two Disney vacation themed ones recently...one of which I gave away in Disneyland! It was so cool. In the lounge on Mousewait people give away stuff all the time. Sometimes it's people in the park giving away Fast Passes, or sometimes it's people at home who just like sending Disney stuff to other Disney lovers. So I decided I wanted to give away one of my books and it was so fun. I was afraid no one would be able to find me, but the person who got the book found me within two minutes of me posting my location in the park! Must have been meant to be :)

This book is currently waiting to go to it's new home. It is 6x6 inches and has ten pages, plus three big tags to decorate with your photos and jounaling. There's also two envelopes to hold little extra stuff from your trip like ticket stubs or fortunes from the Penny Arcade.

More pictures can be found on my Facebook page:

Bibbity Bobbity Books

tea party anyone?

2011-05-26T12:16:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking about joining this. I've "attended" Fanciful Twist's tea parties for the last two years. Now I have a place to have a party, and an abundance of party decorations thanks to the past few weeks of birthdays & holidays. And it's not like I won't use any excuse to have a party! AND who doesn't want to have a fancy TEA PARTY? Hmmm....

disneyland

2011-05-19T10:42:00.001-07:00

Our trip was a blast, but I'm still tired! ha! I ended up getting sick on Mother's Day and wasn't feeling 100% when we left for CA on Tuesday, but Disneyland does something to me so I didn't really notice. It wasn't until we got home that my body decided "hey, we're sick!" For some reason this cold just doesn't want to leave me alone and it's getting obnoxious.

ANYWHOO, Disneyland was awesome. There was one bad thing, they closed at 8pm two of the nights we were there. I'm used to it being open until midnight so that was 4 hours lost! Yes I am a Disney addict!

Our first day I ran straight to the train station to see if we could get on the Lilly Belle. We got reservations for later that afternoon and I was so excited! If you don't know what the Lilly Belle is, you should find out. And if you're in Disneyland you should definitely ride it. It is an amazing experience. Walt's wife decorated the car after his death and the first person the ever ride it was the Emperor of Japan. I've ridden in the same car that an EMPEROR rode in, that blows my mind. Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom rode it a few days before us so that was cool too. I may never get into Club33 so this was a good alternative.

Riley liked Toon Town the best in Disneyland. He just wanted to play in the little playground at Goofy's house all day long. He's still too little to want to stand in lines for the attractions, and he's too short to do alot of em anyway. We DID go on that water one in California Adventure and had the best time! It was so cute how he was just laughing the entire time as we're getting splashed and bumped around.

Going to Disney with two little ones means we didn't get to see nearly enough. We never got to see World of Color or Fantasmic, they weren't running any parades. So that just means we need to go back in six months for my birthday and do all the stuff we missed :) I think the Christmas decorations will be up by then and I've always wanted to see it at that time. All the lights!

Here's a ton of pictures!

Yup it's the Dinosaur from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Now a Christian themed attraction!

This is me making a sad face because the line for Minnie was closed. I wore that outfit specifically to get my pic w/her but I never caught her!

Mickey did not let me down!

This is us on the Lilly Belle

Oh one more thing...if you're planning a trip to Disneyland or WDW and have an iPhone, you must get this app immediately: Mousewait. It has all the info you need and more to make your trip easier and more Magical. Wait times for attractions, the closest restroom to wherever you are in the park, tips on where to get free refills of coffee (I don't drink it but many do!), tips on everything really! And it's free!

disney clothes

2011-05-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

I saw these shoes. They reminded me of Minnie Mouse shoes. I have this red dress. I found it last summer for 4th of July and I love it. So for part of one day in Disneyland, I'll be dressed like Minnie Mouse. It is my mission to get a picture with Minnie Mouse dressed like Minnie Mouse!

I did not plan on it, but I found this top that looks reminds me of Donald Duck. This model who is 6 inches taller than me is wearing it as a dress, but I'll wear it with jeans. I do know I'm 33 years old. I'm just dressing for the occasion, which is being in the Happiest Place on Earth! I've been there plenty of times in comfy tourist on vacation clothes, this time I'm going to try and look cute.

ten days and counting

2011-05-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

We will be IN the Happiest Place on Earth in one week and three days. In ten days I'll be walking around in a place where you truly feel like you're in a magical place. The thing that ruins it is how expensive everything is...you're really brought back down to earth when you're being charged $10 for a carmel apple or $4 for a bottle of water. But we know this going in and deal with it. You don't have to buy the $10 carmel apple. You want to, but you don't have to.

I'm going to try and do something different this trip to Dland. I collect "smashed pennies", those pennies you make for $.50 by turning a crank. Disneyland has 50 of these machines in the parks and hotels, and I'm going to try and get all 50. In 3 days. I think I can do it. I know they have a map or a list where all of em are located at City Hall. We're going to go there anyway to get buttons for Scott because it's his first visit and the rest of us because we'll be there for a Family Reunion.

Can'twait!!!!!!

easter

2011-04-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

Easter was so much fun this year! I love our back yard so I was really looking forward to hiding eggs and having Riley look for them. We had dinner (really more like late lunch) at my mom's house then dessert at our house. I did decorate-of course-but most of the stuff was from Riley & Kira's birthday parties. Everything else was from the dollar store. It is amazing how much cute stuff you can find at the dollar store. :)

For desserts we had a TON. I made mini cheesecakes, mini brownie bites (if you ever try to make these use cupcake liners!), chocolate dipped strawberries and pineapple lush. I also had mini lemon cupcakes from the store and my mom made a bunny cake that was strawberry cake w/berry filling. YUM. We had lots of easter candy in addition to all that! So it was a total sugar rush type of party!

We had four kids for the egg hunt and that was the perfect amount. Well, five if you count Kira but she wasn't looking for eggs. She just liked being out in the yard. :) We had a LOT of eggs hidden...I think around 120? They were all plastic and filled with either jelly beans or bubble gum. We had a couple packs of larger size ones that were filled with little toys left over from the bday party pinatas. I did have one egg with a dollar bill in it, and the oldest kid found it so that was appropriate. Next year I'll probably have to put a $5 out there

So the next birthday we have at our house is Daddy's, May 20. I found some cute Scottie dog decorations (for $1 of course) to put up but I don't know if I'll go "all out". {who am i kidding?}

2011-04-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

Kira.

You are ONE.

Plus a few days. :)

You aren't walking on your own yet. If you have something to hang on to you're really fast, but you haven't taken more than one step on your own yet.

You love music. If anyone is even humming a tune you start dancing. Another thing you love to do is dance!

You are the best eater! I don't think I've given you a food yet that you didn't like. This pleases me to no end because your older brother is Mr. Picky and has a very short list of foods he will eat.

You wear size 18-24 month clothes, but the 18 month stuff is starting to get a bit snug. You wear size 5 diapers.

You like to talk all day in your own baby language. I adore your little angel voice!

I am so lucky to have a daughter and a son. You both make my life so wonderful and I hope I can do a great job being your mama!

kira's party

2011-03-30T20:28:00.001-07:00

My sweet baby girl is one year old! I cannot believe it but the calendar says it's so. I have been planning her 1st birthday party since I was about 7 months pregnant with her. I saw the "Look Whoo's Turning One" stuff on celebrateexpress.com and decided that would be the theme. I didn't want it to be too theme-y though so I only got a couple things with the owl printed on it. I did get the pinata because it's so cute and I can hang it in her room now that the party's over.

Grandma got her this adorable pettiskirt...at Costco! You never know what you'll find in that place! Her fairy godmother Jen made the bow to match her shirt.

I used a twin sheet as the backdrop for the cake table. Got it at Target! :) I spray painted a bunch of frames in raspberry and turquoise and had pictures of Kira through the year all over the place. The big picture in the middle is me holding her for the first time. My dad gave it to me that day so it's not painted ;)

a little DIY lollipop thing I made w/the Cricut and a Hobby Lobby k. I had to grab those candies from the $.99 only store because the matched perfectly! love that!

This cabana thing was one of my crazy ideas....but we have this weird structure in our backyard that was perfect for it. We thing the people who lived here before us might have had a bench in there? I found all the drapes in the garage. They were just collecting dust (and lots of it) so I washed em and staple gunned them up. We happened to have an extra twin mattress because Riley just got a new bed with a trundle, so I put that in there with the fitted zebra sheet. My mom spent a couple weeks making the pillows for me using the polka dot fabric and a bunch of Kira's flannel recieving blankets that we don't use anymore. I added some bunting from Target and a tissue paper ball from Polka Dot Market. I wish I had better pictures of it because it came out REALLY cute! I wish I could have it set up all the time but the sprinklers soak that area so it was a one day only happening.

Our adorable birthday princess enjoying her own cake made by Grandma.

I made the little owl banner w/the Cricut. We had pink raspberry lemonade, iced tea and the pop was in a tub from Walmart. It was the perfect shade of turquoise so I had to get it! I got the beverage dispenser from Fry's and it was under $20! I also saw it at Ralph's in CA.

This was the table set up a couple days later on her actual birthday (it's the 28th). I *love* those tissue hanging decorations so I had to have them out again! If it was appropriate to have them out every day of the year I would. I just want to live in a party store, ok?

And one more shot of my birthday girl! This was her real first birthday cake, made by me. I do wish I had spent more time making it pretty, but I'm sure she thought it was fine.

I love you baby girl!!!

so so so CUTE!!!

2011-03-10T13:07:00.000-08:00

I have a friend who is a really good bow-maker. I can make a bow, but they don't come out the way Jen makes them. She's been making them for a long time so she really knows how to get the ribbons packed in there with out looking too stacked, which is how mine turn out. So when Kira has a special occasion coming up, I go to my bow lady! I asked Jen to make something that would match the colors of this bib.
And this is what she came up with:

I mean how PERFECT is that?!?! I didn't even ask her to do the feather part and it's exactly what I wanted. Kira will be wearing a pink pettiskirt that's pretty fluffy so she'll need something big on her head to balance it out. I pray that she actually keeps the bow on for pictures. She is at the point where she usually yanks them right off, but maybe she'll surprise me on her bday. She sure did last year! How can it be a year???

OC is back

2011-03-07T08:21:00.000-08:00

The original "real" housewives are back on Bravo! Actually the only original left is Vickie and her fat face. Sorry, but I really dislike Vickie. I wonder if we're going to see her and Donn break up this season, because we know they are now divorced. In her talking heads last night whenever Vickie said anything about their relationship you could tell by her face that it was all fake and for the show. At one point she says something like "We're really trying to recommit" but then her eyes get all shifty...like a LIAR!

Gretchen, what a bee-yotch! I've never really liked her either. Her first season she used the 'my fiancee has cancer' card every chance she got. She jumped right into a relationship with Slade Slimy after he passed away, so I guess she wasn't all that into her "love" with Jeff. She tried to say there was 9 months in between Jeff passing and her & Slade getting together, but Andy totally busted her on that on the reunion after her 2nd season. I don't have a problem with her having a new relationship, it's the LYING that I don't like. Last night she was obviously not ready to be around Tamra but she went to the party and was a total bitch from the word go. She claims she was not drunk but why would she go so crazy over Alexis saying she was a princess? If that's your girlfriend and you're not in a pissy mood your girlfriends can say whatever they want to you, and you can say stuff to them. But if you're in a bad mood, and drunk...I think we all know that's a recipe for disaster.

This season looks like it's going to go the way of the rest of the "Real Housewives" show have gone....lots of parties for no real reason, lots of drinking and lots of fighting. I will watch because Bravo has a spell on me and I watch all their shows, but it doesn't feel fun like it used to. I would like them to put a cast together that is ACTUALLY REALLY friends before the show ever happened, not thrown together because they're all on the show. That is how the OC show was 1st season. Yes they partied and went out alot that season, but it felt more "real".

What did everyone think of the premier?

Happy Birthday Riley!!!!

2011-03-05T08:44:00.000-08:00

My baby boy Riley turned 4 on Saturday. We had a Toy Story party in the backyard and it was lots of fun. It was lots of work, and knowing we have another birthday party happening in two weeks leads me to the conclusion that this is the first and last time they will both have big parties the same year! Next year we'll just do something small for Kira and a BIG party for Riley because he'll be 5 and his birthday is on the 5th, so that's his Golden Birthday and there's 5 golden rings in the 12 days of Christmas...I just think it's cool that his Golden Bday is his 5th! After that we'll do one party for both of them until they complain about it or we don't feel like having parties anymore. Like that'll happen.

Now for some pics!

I love that a simple sandbox can keep them happy now...if only it was always going to be this easy....

My mom made this amazing Toy Story cake! It was her first time doing anything this fancy and I think it came out soooo cute!

Of course we had to have the Toy Story cupcake tower with cupcakes from the grocery store. For me, it's not a kid's birthday party if there's no fluffy sugary airbrushed icing involved.

Instead of beating the pinata with a stick, they pulled strings out of the bottom until the candy fell out. I was inside looking for the loot bags when they got the right one! :( But we're having another one like this for Kira's party so I'll make sure not to miss it. :)

I didn't mean for the iced tea thing to be in the background like this, but I'm glad it is because I love that thing! I'm thinking of reasons to have parties so I can use it!

This girl was a happy party baby, she turns 1 in just 21 days!!!! Impossible because she is my babydoll but I am excited to make a pretty pink party for her.

Riley and his best bud Ethan...now they're both 4! They discussed this alot that day. :)

i really love Valentine's day but....

2011-03-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

Easter has the best candy! I am a sugar freak so I get excited for the candy that goes with each holiday. Yes I am a big *dork*. My favorite Easter candy is Cadbury Mini Eggs. If I have a bag of those in my reach I will keep eating them and eating them until I'm sick. Like a goldfish kinda.

One candy I am NOT a fan of is the regular Cadbury Eggs. I do think it's cute how the inside looks like a real egg yolk...but it also grosses me out. It's too oozey or something, I don't know. Cadbury Eggs are like Miracle Whip, you either love it or hate it. I also hate Miracle Whip! ha!

can't wait!

2011-02-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

Next month we're going to San Diego! Scott's cousin had some water damage to his wood floors so he's going to repair it and we're tagging along. We have tickets to Sea World AND the San Diego Zoo, I am so excited! I already know what I want to do @ the zoo, see the PANDAS! I could sit and watch the pandas all day long, even if they're just sleeping. I also want to see the polar bears and the hippos. That zoo is gigantic so we're going to have to figure out our route before we get there to minimize the whine-time from Riley. The double stroller will be getting a workout! So will mom & dad pushing it!

We're only going to be there three days but I am so looking forward to it. Being next to the ocean just makes me HAPPY! :)

so much fun!!!

2011-02-12T19:14:00.001-08:00

I come from a big Mexican family and one of the best things about that is...birthday parties! Lots of kids=lots of bdays and lots of parties. Today started a weekly celebrations of kids that could last until the end of June if everyone decides to have a party for their kid(s). The party today was for Melanie, who is the daughter of my cousin's daughter, I guess that makes her my 3rd cousin. She turned 2 and it was a princess party, so cute! There was a bounce house and a pinata and a big castle cake that the kids were fascinated with. A bunch of the little girls arrived in their princess dresses but changed into more comfy bounce house friendly stuff pretty quick.

Kira wasn't having the best time for a little while when we first arrived. She seems to freak out a little when we go to parties in a new place. Even if I'm sitting right there she just cries and looks around like "I don't know this place! What is going on?" I don't remember Riley doing this...he's always been ready to get in there and party! Never met a stranger, that type of thing.

There was a pinata at the party and that was just so much fun. The thing was SUPER heavy and it wasn't easy to break, but that was good because it was so cute watching all the little kids hit it. I took tons of pictures but with my dad's camera so I'll have to add those in later.

The party today made me really excited for Riley's party in a few weeks! He wants a Toy Story theme :)

Spring Awakening

2011-01-28T08:13:00.000-08:00

Last night I had the pleasure of watching the opening of the national tour of Spring Awakening. A nice person I've never met from Facebook gave me the tickets. Thank you nice stranger!

I love plays and musicals but it's been ages since I've had the chance to go to one. I'd heard of Spring Awakening, I know Lea Michelle originated the female lead opposite Jonathan Groff, and I knew it was about teenagers and sex.

I didn't know our seats were going to be in the very first row. I didn't know the band would be onstage so we'd be able to literally touch the actors if we wanted to. I didn't know we'd be able to see every speck of spit that flew from every mouth...I don't mind that passion but it was distracting because some of them spat quite a bit. The songs are really rockin'. I also didn't know there would be partial nudity onstage. I knew there would be implied sex, but there was some actual boob going into an actual mouth up there-wo!! Guess I'm a prude because I think they could have gotten the point across w/out going that far...but that's just me. I would still go back and see it again if I could! It is a really great show and each performer is awesome. They all have amazing voices.

beverly hills friday

2011-01-07T10:02:00.001-08:00

here's some random thoughts about the show last night....

No idea how people put up with Camille and her constant weird-flirty-sexual-innuendo crap she does with any male. She kisses another woman's husband on the lips...while the wife is right there? It's just too weird.

Paul is very brave to push Adrienne in the pool like that. I would not want to be on Adrienne's bad side, that's for sure! She seems like she'd take her time getting you back and she'd be really good at it.

Like alot of people I don't buy Cedric's sad childhood story. Something just doesn't add up there...could be why he is now no longer on speaking terms with Lisa?

Taylor-how SAD was that shot of her standing there with her cake waiting for the car???? I have a hard time feeling bad for her because she chose who to marry...but it's not like people can't make mistakes. I know I've made more than my share-so maybe she thought Russell would warm up after a few years of marriage and now she's seeing that's not gonna happen. She seems to have her own sh*t together so I hope she's not staying with him so she can keep throwing $60k bday parties.

Kyle's party looked so fun. Her family is so gorgeous. When they were all taking pictures in front of that damask backdrop-beautiful. I want to steal that idea btw.

I really like the dresses Adrienne wore to each party. The purple was pretty and the white & gold was hot! She definitely has her own style in clothing and I just love that.

I did not know you could have Fatburger at your house! Taylor can eat a double with no problem...Russell needs to mind what he's got a little better.

Loved seeing everyone boogie. Adrienne's a good dancer. Kim and Kyle both swing their ponytails when they dance...I wonder if that's how you can tell their drunk? For instance I start calling everyone "baby" when I get drunk. If I call you that, you should take away my keys.

Happy New Year

2011-01-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

It's 2011! Of course I just typed 2010, for some reason when I go to type 2011 my fingers are trained to do 2010. 2011 sounds so futuristic. I think I probably said that last year too. I'll probably say it next year. Next year is the dreaded 2012 (just typed 2010 again). People think 2012 is the end of the world. Or some big spiritual awakening is going to happen in 2012. Twelve is my lucky number so I think it'll be a great year :)

2011 is going to be pretty good too, I think. I have two birthday parties to plan for my March babies. I get to see what it's like to have kids with birthdays at the beginning and end of the same month. Should be interesting to say the least.

As far as resolutions I never really make any. Some things I would like to make happen this year are increasing my scrapbooking biz and meeting friends I've known since 2006 but have never met in person. PW ladies I'm talking about you!

Oh yeah, on New Year's Eve we had a little party at the house. There were two guests besides us and that was just dandy. Here are some pics :) Happy New Year!

Crazy Christmas Lady

2010-12-30T17:29:00.000-08:00

Someday I might be one of those people with every room in their house completely crammed to the gills with decorations from November to mid-January. At this point I have stuff for every room, but it's not wall to ceiling anywhere.

Yesterday I stepped one foot closer into the Christmas insanity and redecorated both my trees. I took all the ornaments off each and swapped them. I got us new stockings that are in a red/green/white color scheme and our main tree was in the jewel toned scheme...so rather than waiting an entire year to see how they all look together I spent almost all day yesterday redoing each tree.

What I originally wanted to do was change our main tree to some sort of "New Year" color scheme but I didn't have enough gold, silver & white decorations to pull that off. I've never been a fan of any of those colors for Christmas...but I'm getting there. :)

I was tempted to get Kira a lavender tree today at walmart since they're only $10, but I resisted. I don't know if lavender will fit in her room next year because everything she has now is pink, green and brown. The zany thing is I absolutely love the color purple on her. I spent all this time waiting for a pink princess and now I like her in purple better! That's the kind of problem I have no problem with.

dreaming of white christmas trees

2010-12-27T20:25:00.000-08:00

Some people think white trees are tacky...I used to be one of those people. Now I think they are so pretty. I don't want to stop using the ornaments I have but I am getting kind of bored with them, so next year having them on a white tree will make them seem all new again. Can't wait!

All pictures were found on Google images

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2010-12-25T20:10:00.000-08:00

Three more hours left of Christmas and I am beat! Last night was a late one, and today was a long one. Riley got so many great presents, and I got a Cricut! I am pretty excited about that. It is way more complicated than I thought, but I will figure it out. Riley and Kira's bdays are just three months away so I have lots to plan for! :)

We had dinner at my mom's and it was soooo good. I'm so lucky to have a mom that's a great cook. On Christmas we have ham and I love it! Tomorrow is my favorite part of Christmas, going shopping for ornaments half off! I am always on the lookout for tree skirts and stockings. Now that our family is complete, I can finally get "nice" stockings that all match. This year I'm also wanting a white tree. Full size. Not sure where it will go next year (my bedroom) but I'll find a spot! :)

write that down

2010-12-23T14:43:00.000-08:00

I'm a secretary! My boss is three feet tall and uses a sippy cup. Ever since I wrote down that little story for Riley he's been walking in my room with a pen and a piece of paper saying "write this down mom".

A mother's work is never done.

If you've seen Van Wilder you get the 'write that down' reference. If not, here's another one of Mr. Van Wilder just for fun. He's single again :) Does anyone else remember when he was on that show 15?

three more days...

2010-12-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

till Christmas! I really can't wait for Christmas morning. But before that, we have two family parties to go to on Christmas Eve, and I get to see my bff since 3rd grade who lives in Colorado on the day after Christmas...lots of things to be excited about!

Riley doesn't have a 'gotta have it' toy in particular, he just wants ABCs and 123s. What does that mean? You got me! He's got a jillion (I counted) sets of letters already, but he always wants more. He will be getting a Big Wheel, and I'm pretty geeked for that. I had a Big Wheel when I was little and I thought it was just about the coolest thing ever.

I am feeling pretty lucky to have two sweet babies to celebrate this holiday with!

a story by riley

2010-12-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

Riley was typing on his computer today, asking me how to spell a word every couple of minutes. Finally I just asked him to tell me the whole story so I could write it down, and he could read off my paper to type it.

So here is my son Riley Scott's first story. I copied down exactly what he said and didn't correct his made up words. I did tell him that it should be 'went' instead of 'goed' but I want to remember how cute he is right now.

Mom woke up to get Riley some milk.
Mama goed back to sleep.
She woke up and was working on her scrapbooking stuff.
Then Riley goed potty. He got his underwears on by himself.

He just started putting his underwear on all by himself in the last couple weeks, so that's a big deal right now.

argh, inception!

2010-12-20T08:53:00.000-08:00

***If you don't want to know details of this movie, don't read this!!!***

I watched Inception for the first time last week and I just cannot stop thinking about that ending! There are so many theories about what actually happened in the movie and what the ending means. The director himself says that there is a definite answer, but he's not telling. THAT bugs me. If he wanted it to be completely ambiguous he needs to say "It's supposed to be up to your own interpretation". But he doesn't say that, he says there is a yes or no but he wants everyone to be burning up the internet talking about what they think happened. Other than the open ending, I really love the movie. But not knowing what it all really was feels like a big F You from Mr. Nolan.

So what do you think? Was the entire thing just a dream that Cobb had on the plane? Was he still dreaming at the end? Was it straightforward and they completed the job and Cobb was in the 'real world' with his kids at the end?

one of those days!

2010-12-16T14:50:00.001-08:00

When the first thing your son says to you in the morning is "Mom, can you wash my hands?" that's a clue to bury your head under your pillow and go back to sleep. Yesterday I caught Riley just as he was about to make a big ol mess with FOOD COLORS. But he hadn't opened anything yet so it was ok. I put them way high up where I thought they'd be safe. Here's another clue:when you're hiding things from your mischevious boy, don't let him watch you do it. This morning he got his little chair and some boxes and climbed right up to where they were hidden and got them down. He squeezed out the entire bottle of green and some of the yellow on his floor and was finger painting in his water color coloring book. Needless to say his hands are completely green, his legs are pretty green, and he's got splotches on his face where he was probably scratching or whatever. Luckily I was able to clean all of it off the floor but the grout will have to be redone.

Of course today I was planning on having the kid's picture taken with santa. I decided to try and get that done even though I have half a green kid. We get to the mall and Riley refuses to go in the Santa area. He would stand outside and wave at him, and say hi, but he would not go in. The mall is run by money hungry bastards who won't even let you take pictures AROUND the Santa area. You can't even be in the chairs around Santa and have his seating area in the background...you HAVE TO PAY for that privalege! Is that not the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard in your life? It really irks me that the Santa Picture people are so greedy. Ugh.

So after that I tried to have my dad take some pictures of the kids just sitting on a bench w/some poinsettias behind them...neither one of them were having it. Kira was totally sleepy and Riley just wanted to get to the play area. Finally I just gave up and got him to the playground and let him play. He loves going to the play area but he's alot bigger than the other kids, and he plays rough. Every single time I tell him he needs to play nice, and not touch other kids, etc, and every single time he does it anyway. Today was no exception. I'm watching him play and he cut in front of some little kids to go down a slide so I go over and tell him he needs to play nice and all that. Two minutes later I see him on a different slide, pulling another kid down by his collar, and the kid is crying. So that was the end of playground time! I think he lasted 5 minutes total on the playground. I feel really bad because he loves playing with other kids but he will not get it into his head that he can't play so rough with them! I do not know what to do about this problem. After the holidays he will be starting preschool and I pray that he's not sent home after his first day with a note that says 'riley can't come back'. This was one of my fears, having 'the bad kid' in the classroom!

oh christmas tree(s)!

2010-12-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

It's time for Thrifty Decor Chick's Tree Party! I absolutely love having a tree at Christmas time. When I'm in the room with one I just sit there and stare at it...I can't help myself!

Our main tree. It's 8 feet tall and used to be mom's, thanks mama! It is fake...growing up we'd always get a real tree but I'm a fake tree convert now. I like being able to bend the branches the way i want them to go. I don't feel like I'm done decorating this tree yet; I need to go to Hobby Lobby but haven't had the chance! The colors are not traditional Christmas, it's kind of rainbow-y. This one has all our special family ornaments and will have the ones the kids make when they start doing that. I need to find something to make with Riley for this year...

Lennox angels with the boys' names on them from my mom

I used to have two Jimi Hendrix ornaments and one broke this year, so this one is extra special! ha

A new one for Riley this year :)

good old Chewie

i was pretty happy to put this one up this year!

My mom got me the A R & K so I decided they needed their own tree. Riley decided he wanted his picture taken too!

This tree is in my bedroom! It's our old tree, and since I have enough ornaments for it and there was a space for it, of course i had to put it up. The color scheme on this one is red, lime green and turquoise. All my santa ornaments are on this one, mixed with a couple Mickeys and snowmen.

This one and the next one were given to my mom by my grandma on my dad's side, and she gave them to me this year. When I was 19 we had a fire in our attic and all our Christmas ornament burned up so these are so very special to me.

this Mickey looks antique but he's not

there are hundreds of pretty trees to look at, and add your own! get to the party!

Kira's Christmas Room

2010-12-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

It only took six months but I'm finally done decorating Kira's room! She has her Christmas decorations all ready for Santa's visit...hope he likes PINK!

Still not happy with the higher shelf but I wanted to take pictures today!

Is it wrong to have pictures of yourself in your own room? I don't think it is when you're an adorable baby...

I wish the dress was my size!

Yaaaay!!! Kira has a closet!!! This is the awesome computer desk that we got for FREE...thank you Daddy for hauling it home all by yourself!

Ta-DAAAAHHHH!! Too bad you can't hear me singing that, which I do everytime I open the doors. I've always been fascinated by wardrobes (I blame the Narnia books) but I've never actually seen one in person. So this thing is really fun for me. Easily amused? Maybe! Great work again Daddy on taking all the computer shelves out of the inside and turning it into a CLOSET!! !!

Kira's "main"Christmas tree

I've had the K ornament for a long time...in case I ever had a Kira

The tiara ornament is from Grandma...well most of the ornaments on this tree are from Grandma actually!

Ok her dresser usually does not look like this, usually it has baskets and laundry and little shoes and who knows what else on it. But it looks nice for pictures!

Happy PINK Holidays to all!

time to celebrate!

2010-12-05T17:17:00.001-08:00

Kira has a closet!!!! It's not Carrie's closet from Sex & The City, but her clothes are out of my closet and that makes me very happy!!! We haven't painted the thing yet. While I was taking a nap this afternoon (first one in ages it was awesome) Scott dragged it in and put it in her room. I wasn't going to have him take it back out and wait for him to paint it, who knows when that could have happened! I'm actually thinking about not painting it and getting a new crib to match it. I do love her pink crib so very much, but it's really squeaky. We're thinking of getting her a new crib that will convert to a toddler bed. And if she's going to have dark wood furniture, I think I'm gonna "have to" paint her walls pink!

Yes it is excessive to redo a baby's bedroom but she's my only girl and my last baby...life's too short to worry about being excessive for your little girl!

I've been decorating for Christmas all week. We have the big tree in the living room of course, then Riley has a mini one in his room. Kira has two white ones in her room. And we have a full size one in our bedroom...we had an extra full size tree and there was a space for it so I put it up!

The thing I haven't done is take pictures of any of em. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow.

winter fat mama

2010-11-30T22:11:00.000-08:00

I must be putting on my winter fat because I have been eating like a pig lately. Not just because it was Thanksgiving last week...I've just been ravenous! I'm the kind of person who could go all day without eating usually. This probably isn't a great thing but that's just how I am.

Kira has started to say Mama! Right now she goes "mamamamamamamamama" so I don't know if she's calling me or just making a sound...but I love to hear her say it. She also makes a sound that sounds like "dada" of course. That sounds like "kitty" sometimes so who knows what she's saying!

I am so excited, tonight we got a closet for Kira! It was free. It's this really big computer desk that looks like an armoire. It has a cherry laminate finish so I get to figure out the best way to paint it. Scott has to take the shelves out of the top part and add a rod for hangers and then my baby girl will FINALLY have a closet and I can FINALLY finish her bedroom! This makes my heart super happy!

3 kids

2010-11-27T21:38:00.001-08:00

I still never know what to say when people ask me if I have kids. I guess I should figure it out and just stick to that story for the rest of my life. I have three, but only 2 of em are with me. So I should probably just say two...but I really feel guilty if I ever do that. I know it just makes things easier for the other person but Aiden is my son and I won't ever forget him...it's kind of crazy. It's 5 years and I still don't really know how to approach talking about him with people who don't know me.
I've really been missing him alot lately. Seems to be hitting me harder this year than the past couple. I'm going to decorate the house for Christmas tomorrow so hopefully that will help get me out of this funk :)

happy thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T21:10:00.001-08:00

Fun day. We woke up and watched the parade. I made green bean casserole and sweet potatoes w/marshmallows, those are "my" 2 dishes I make for every holiday meal. Kira wore a pillowcase dress my mom sewed for her, it was soooo cute! She sewed it all by hand. I asked her to make it and she said she would, but then her sewing machine ended up having to get fixed. She was an awesome grandma and sewed it all herself so Kira would have something adorable for Thanksgiving. I hope I can convince her to make another for Chrismas, ha!

After dinner we saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I was pleasantly surprised at how closely it followed the book. In most of the movies I'm sitting there going "that's not how it went" and this time I was not. Things were not changed around too much, they just cut things out all together. And they didn't make stuff up that never happened in the book. The bit with Harry & Hermoine kissing was nuts!!! I don't remember them being described as naked in the book but I suppose they could have been.

I do wish that JKR would write the story of what's happening at Hogwarts while Harry Ron & Hermoine are out looking for horcruxes. It could be about Neville Longbottom since he's kind of like Harry's twin.

a riley quiz

2010-11-23T11:27:00.000-08:00

I asked Riley these questions, here are his answers as a 3 year old.....he also told me what colors to change each line to!

Riley's Favorites
color: blue
Movie: Mickey Mouse
thing to do: ABCs, sing, play on the computer, color, go to the park, scooter
food: Chicken Nuggets
book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
friend: Ethan
place to go: the mall
person to hang out with: Mommy (I swear this was his answer!)
Superhero: SuperWhy
snack: popcorn
Favorite friend to come over: Ethan
thing to sleep with: white blanket, blue nigh nigh & heart pillow
babysitter: Gramma
thing play with Kira: toys!
Daddy's favorite thing to do: working
Mommy's favorite thing to do: type on the computer
Kira's favorite thing to do: cry & play with Riley

rhbh

2010-11-18T23:02:00.000-08:00

Not like anyone needs to know, but here's what I thought about this week's show...

camille creates a sh&tstorm at dinner then walks away- the ladies looked shell shocked. you could tell it probably would have been a fun trip if Camille wasn't there.
let me hold up my iphone-Camille played Kyle's (very nice) vm for her two "real friends" who are being paid by Frasier while they were doing her hair & makeup. Not really sure why she felt the need to do that. Other than she's a complete lunatic.
fish lip irony-taylor used the phrase "blown out of proportion". i just think that's really funny.
pretty presents-Kim gives the ladies a really pretty bracelet at brunch the next day, but you can tell she doesn't really know how to express what she wants them to mean. Taylor takes it but has this stink face on and TH's that Kim didn't give it to her with an apology. I don't get what her problem is with Kim but it's not pretty on her. (neither are her lips)
ever met this kid?-Russell trying to make a meal for his daughter was painful. It was pretty obvious that he never spends time with her. At four years old she's already figured him out and dismissed him. Russell will be hearing the phrase "just leave the walllet" come out of her mouth soon enough.
oooh girfriend-Mauricio swimming with his girls was totally cute. When he was asking the older one about boys and he goes "ooooh, girlfriend", that was so adorable!
underlining issue- the genius Camille says the "underLINING" issue with Kyle is that she's jealous. In the history of time, has anyone ever said "you're just jealous of me!" and it sounded okay?
did she really just do that?-when the ladies arrived at the show it looked like Camille smiled and said "Hi Kyle", then immediately scowled at her and turned her back. It was so weird I had rewind and see if it really just happened.
frasier didn't want cami company-after the show when Camille goes backstage, could that have been any more awkward? She shoves her way into that little room, and he basically says "thanks for showing up but you can get out now".
lisa's purple dress-she wears a purple dress with the flowers across the top for one of her talking heads...love it!
in the club-camille comments how good kim's drink is, even though in Vegas she claimed she doesn't drink (in the next episode she is drinking lots o wine with her "friends" at dinner) WTF
kim trying to put it out there-in the limo ride when the ladies are talking about how they miss their hubbies Kim was trying to share how she felt in Las Vegas, but she's so nervous she forgot to mention she was talking about Vegas. i really feel for her...I would be very intimidated by that group of women too.
big gates-does anyone else find it so strange that lisa and adrienne live in a regular neighborhood....it's just that they have giant houses? to me those big a$$ houses should be out in the country or something, not on a regular street next door to other giant a$$ houses. watching adrienne walk up to those giant gates, in her giant heels...i wonder what it would be like to have that life. i'd like to try it for a day or so :)
tea time-did anyone else think it was cute how Cedric was in on the gossip session with Adrienne? does anyone else find him totally yummy in those cardigans? he's like a hot hobbit...i have a thing for hobbits
weekEND-i like the way Lisa pronounces weekend like "weekEND"
pecking order? -Camille comes out with some crap about there being a "pecking order", and her husband is higher on it than Kyle's husband. I thought Camille was all about coming "out of Frasier's shadow", but she's trying to argue that she's better than someone because of her husband's work? If there WAS a pecking order Kyle would be above Camille because Kyle is an actual working actress, has a beautiful family that she actually takes care of, a husband who actually loves her and friends who actually like her and aren't there just to kiss her ass. Camille is an ex-prostitute who danced on Club Mtv. She also got to be on Frasier once. Now that her marriage is over...I would so love to hear about her pecking order theory now!

bad day

2010-11-16T18:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the 5 year anniversary of Aiden's death. As if that day doesn't already have a black cloud over it...we got a call around 10am that one of Scott's grandmas passed away Sunday night. Scott will be flying to Michigan tomorrow to attend the funeral on Friday. We were thinking that Scott would take Riley, but it's just too expensive. So I will have a three year old and a 7 month old all by myself from tomorrow afternoon until Sunday evening. YIKES. I'm already alone with them every day until 7-8pm, so it's not going to be THAT much different, but I'm still wondering how it's all gonna go. I guess we'll see.

real housewives of BH

2010-11-13T12:03:00.001-08:00

So, this week was like two shows. The Real Housewives, and the Camille Show. I would love it if the Camille Show went to the Camille network and that was only beamed into Camille's house, because Camille only cares about Camille so why does anyone else need to bother w/her?

Adrienne & Kim and Taylor & Kyle went shopping. Adrienne had to leave because her uncle died, so she didn't go to NYC either. Kyle & Lisa had a session with a hypnotherapist to help them feel safer flying. The guy brought some funky machine that shows your brain waves and put it on Kyle, Lisa was dead on when she said she looked like Pocahontas in the headseat! ha

Camille arrived in NYC w/her kids and paid companions/staff/"friends". She walked around her 3,500 square foot apartment saying it was nice but small. Every other word was about how small the place is. Well, it's New York City! People have bathtubs in their living rooms there! I think she was really just saying how small it is because she knew she wasn't staying there because she knew her & Frasier were on the outs. So she was just laying the groundwork for when she hightails it back to CA.

Camille is SO BUSY that she had to get a manicure and visit her cancer stricken mother at the same time. She asks her mom how she's feeling, mom starts to answer, then Camille cuts her off with a 5 minute diatribe on how exhausted she is from having tests to see if SHE has the cancer gene. She's so tired you see, because she has 4 nannies for two kids and people to do everything for her, so she's just extra frazzled at all her extra work. Uh huh.

The other ladies arrive in NYC and Kyle takes Camille aside to squash the Vegas crap that went on. Camille still insists that Kyle said "why would anyone want you there if Kelsey's not there". Kyle denies saying this, and I believe Kyle. From everything we've seen of Camille, she craves attention and sympathy, and this is her way of getting it. She has no idea how to have an actual relationship or conversation with another human so she has to make up drama. She was totally baiting Kyle at the dinner, continually poking at her until she blew up. That does not mean you "win" Camille, that means you're a sociopath.

Next week Taylor threatens Kim with "going out back and going Oklahoma" on her ass, whatever that mean. Are we supposed to think girls from Oklahoma know how to fight or something???

my bday

2010-11-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday. I am 33 years old! For some reason I feel like 33 is going to be an amazing year.

I was trying to remember all the birthdays I've had up to this one, and I can't really recall much of any of them! Growing up we didn't really have big parties or get huge gifts...we'd have cake and ice cream at home after dinner, maybe some friends over...that was pretty much it! And it was FINE. I do not feel "jipped" because kids nowadays get these extravagant soirees from their first birthday on. In fact, I feel sorry for those kids because it's nice to be happy with simple things. If you have to keep chasing that next big thrill, keep having fancier parties...that's just not fun. I don't know what it's like to have thousands of dollars to spend on a party but truthfully, I'd probably stress the heck out if I did!

So now I'm in the 33 Club, and if you are too, YOU ROCK!!!

thankful

2010-11-09T19:45:00.000-08:00

Since today is a day where I'm thinking about what I've lost, I have been trying to concentrate on what I do have that makes me happy...

i'm thankful for....

the 26 weeks i got to spend with Aiden in my tummy
the six days I got to spend with my Aiden outside my tummy
my beautiful little boy and girl
my family is all (relatively) healthy
i get to be a SAHM and see my kids 24/7
the internet
wonderful weather in Arizona-no snow!!!
i live in a country where i'm allowed to do whatever i want, think what i want and worship the God I want
a roof over my head, food to eat
Glee
cupcakes

I know there's lots more but right now I'm drawing a blank. It's been a day and my brain is frazzled, and Kira is crying again....seems like just when I start to relax one of em needs me again!

five years

2010-11-08T10:04:00.000-08:00

Five years ago today I was pregnant with a little boy named Aiden. I didn't know his name was Aiden yet, but I did know he was a little boy. I didn't think I would be meeting him until February 14 of the next year so we hadn't settled on a name yet.

The next day, he decided to arrive.

The next week, he was gone.

I think about him all the time. I wonder what he'd look like and what he'd be like and of course I am always wanting to know what color his eyes are and what his laugh sounds like. I still wonder why God chose to take my baby and why He does it to so many people...why is there so much suffering at all?

Show Us Your Life: What Do You Make?

2010-11-04T20:42:00.001-07:00

Kelly's Korner's Show Us Your Life is "What Do You Make?" today. I so wish I had more time to make stuff these days! I don't really have a craft area here in the house, so that's one thing. When I have to pull all my supplies out and then put em all away when I'm done...that makes me just not wanna do it. I have to see all my "stuff" when I'm working or I'll never use it. It's hard for me to craft when Riley is here or awake because he wants to "help" me. Or go through my stuff for stuff he wants. He's always looking for letter stickers. It'd be fine if some of my supplies weren't really expensive. He doesn't understand that that felt embelishment cost $4.99 and it's not for playing catch with the dog.

But ANYWHOO, this is supposed to be about what I make...and I make paper bag albums! These are little scrapbooks made from paper bags. I started making them years ago and I still find it very fun to create each one. I do have a "style", but I try to make each one different and unique. I like using lots of odds & ends in them, and lots of stuff on each page. My favorite thing to do is a frilly, frou frou girlie girl book. Good thing, because there is SO MUCH more girl stuff in the scrap world than boy stuff! There is alot more boy stuff now and they keep coming out with more, so that's great. But it's definitely a girl's world for the most part :)

Here's an example of a few of my kind of recent books. I keep telling myself I'm going to get busy and get some more books finished to get in my etsy shop but we'll see when/if that actually happens. I have a baby and a little boy, and I don't want to miss a second of my precious time with them while they're little! I watched a bit of Toy Story 3 today and it gave me empty nest anxiety for when these guys go to college!

the next two pics are of a Superman book I did for a friend who is a photographer...I wish she could photograph all my books!! she's in Florida if any of you are lucky enough to live there she takes AWESOME kid pics!!!

This last one is an example of what they look like with the pictures IN...the ones I make are usually "blank". But making them with the pics is my favorite way to do it because then I can really finish off each page.

Happiness Project

2010-11-02T11:37:00.001-07:00

"real" housewives of BeverlyHills

2010-11-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have been sucked into this franchise as well! I wasn't sure if the Beverly Hills ladies would be interesting, but they have been pretty entertaining so far! The wives are:

Taylor-She openly admits she married her husband for the things he can give her not the love he bestows upon her. On the latest episode they go on a "fun, couples getaway" and the guy can't even stay with her for an entire day. She also has ginormous lips. She looks like she was pretty before she had those horrible things sewn on to her face. I felt really bad for her when she was hanging with the girls in Vegas and he comes over and basically poops on the party. He couldn't say "Have fun I'm going to bed?" SHE couldn't say "I'll be up later?" I guess all those expensive shopping sprees in her bedroom are worth it.

Adrienne-I love this lady, probably because she has all brothers, and I have all brothers. She wears some kind of shiny plastic extension thingies in her hair. Her husband is a plastic surgeon. They appear to have a real relationship, and that makes me like them. She's not all "Oh my husband is the greatest man on earth and we are so in LUUUUVVVV", she's like "My husband is a pain in the ass but so am I and I love him". I like that in the opening credits she says "Money is what I have, not what I am". With her kind of $$$ she could be saying "You can't take it with you" like Jeana or "I want money and I want power" like Vicki or "I don't keep up wuth the Joneses, I AM the Joneses" like Nene. All three of those examples are also divorced now! Huh...

Kim-When I first saw the commercial with her saying "I was quite famous" I was like "no you weren't because I don't recognize you". Then I saw the old clips of her, and she WAS in everything when I was little! She was in so many Disney movies, after school specials, TV shows...she was everywhere. I feel pretty bad for her. Not having a man doesn't mean she has to be lonely, but it seems like she thinks it does. It would be nice to see her make some true friends, but I don't think that's going to happen on this TV show. The other ladies seem too high maintenence or busy or self involved to take the time to get to know someone like Kim who is not "in your face" with her personality.

Kyle-Kyle has long hair, she's sassy, she has 4 lovely daughters and a pretty handsome hubby. I absolutely loved when they were dancing in Vegas and she scootched herself in between Camille and her husband like "uh uh honey, that's not gonna happen". Then in her talking head when she goes "If anyone gets near my husband I'll" then made claws and a hissing sound. I do think she's a bit fed up with her sister Kyle, but I don't know what it's like to have a sister so...I can only watch I guess. I also loved how one of her daughter's eyes got glazed over when that giant chocolate Easter bunny showed up at brunch.

Lisa-How gorgeous is this woman? I love that she is so stinking rich but still dresses like a normal person around the house. But always looks totally glamourous at the same time of course! She has a personal Chocolatier (I am so far away from that I had to google the word to make sure I spelled it correctly) and some cute gay guy living with her. Seems like her house is so big a couple people could hide out and she'd never know it! She has just the right amount of snark to her, but she's not bitchy. She's funny. I really liked the pink dress she wore to the Jay-Z concert.

Camille-Before this show all I knew about her was she was married to Kelsey Grammer and has Irritable Bowel Syndrome. On the first episode when the women were talking about their kids, she says she used a surrogate to have her two, but doesn't explain why. I guess it's nobodie's business why, but it was odd that she didn't give the reason since she was sharing info. It makes me think she just didn't want to carry them,which I guess is fine...but now they have two nannies each and she has time to play tennis with cute dudes. Every five seconds she's talking about Kelsey, but every ten seconds she's talking about how she wants to be known as herself, not "Kelsey Grammer's wife". I think it's totally hilarious how she still dances like it's 1993. I guess my moves will look old when I'm old, so whatever...but I won't be on TV show! The latest episode ended with her picking some ridiculous fight with Kyle, so I don't like her. Her coy act is really getting old and it's only episode 3.

So that's my take on the "ladies"! For the most part I like them all and find it very entertaining to watch. Thank you Andy Cohen!

busy busy busy

2010-10-29T21:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel like such a failure as a woman because I can't ever manage to get the house as clean as I want, there's always laundry to be done, I have so many craft projects & scrap projects that are "works in progress"...there's just never enough hours in the day! I'm hoping in a few years when my kids are in school I'll feel like I have a better handle on it all. Right now, they both require almost all my attention....actually they could take 100% of my attention if I let them! Riley would love it if I just played with him all day and Kira would love it if I held her constantly and never put her down. But there's so much stuff that needs to be done to keep a house going. Cleaning cleaning cleaning and then there's "deep cleaning".

It's a big job and can be overwhelming but I do feel so lucky to have the life I do. I am unbelievably blessed with two children. After I lost Aiden I never thought I'd have a baby. A healthy baby, that is. Then I got my Riley. After him, I didn't dare dream for another. I had a miscarriage, then my beautiful Kira came along. If I was guaranteed a smooth pregnancy and delivery and money were no object I'd love to have one more, but I honestly am so happy and grateful to have the two that I do. There are many ladies out there who want to be moms and are waiting and my heart just breaks for them. I wish everyone who really truly wanted to be a parent would have the chance. It would also be nice if people who have no business having kids could be prevented from doing so. Amber from Teen Mom comes to mind here.

riley roo

2010-10-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

Riley Scott age 3 and 7 months

This young man is growing up way too fast.
At three years old he is reading, just little words now but he actually READS THEM, it freaks me out! Wherever we go he reads signs and asks me "what does that mean"? He's at the stage where you have to watch what words you use...not meaning profanity, I mean synonyms! The other day I said I was writing a letter, and he said "Like ABCs are letters?" That type of thing.
He has a little keyboard that used to belong to my little brother. I showed him how to play "Keep Trying" from the Yo Gabba Gabba show. I only had to show him 2 or 3 times before he remembered what keys to play. I know they say kids are sponges but holy mackeral it's TRUE! I love that he's so smart but I was not ready for him to be so smart so soon. It seems like he went from infant to preschooler, there was no "toddler" phase!

Beatles vs Glee

2010-10-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

I do love me some Glee. This season hasn't been as good as the first one, but it's still early. The Britney/Brittney episode was a big ol waste of time, I know that! Anyways, the other day I read that Glee has broken the Beatle's record for having the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100. This makes me sad. As much as I do love Glee, they're not the Beatles! They're not a band, they don't sing original music, they're not on the radio. A musical tv show should not be allowed on the same chart as bands or individual artists. When Billboard first started, they didn't know there was going to be such a thing as an iPod where you can buy any song you want anytime you want. So they need to make a new chart for shows & movies like Glee and High School Musical and Camp Rock...those guys can compete against each other and the Beatles can have their place back. Everyone's happy! And singin!

love you guys....

but these guys were here first ♥♥♥

halloween past

2010-10-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

Halloween '09 Captain America (i like how he adjusted the mask)

2008 my little lion cub

i went as Dorothy so we could match

2007 he was Mickey Mouse and this is the only picture I can find of him...

This year will bee a family effort!

{almost} wordless wednesday

2010-10-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

Riley and "his baby"

Kira got her hands on a fry at McDonald's and was not giving it back for anything!

Kelly Osbourne

2010-10-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

I think the first time I ever saw her on Mtv was when they did "Cribs", and she had pink hair and a room I would have loved. I think. Anyways I have been loving her style lately! She has always been a big risk taker when it comes to fashion but it seems since she was on Dancing with the Stars she's gone on a GLAMOROUS kick, and I can't get enough.

image via socialite life

her Emmy dress was gorge

image via socialite life

costume choices

2010-10-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

For the last few years we have wanted to do a family theme costume thing for Halloween but it hasn't worked out for one reason or another. This year I think we're finally going to make it happen. The idea is for Riley and me to be Bees, Kira will be a Flower and Scott is the Beekeeper. So now I'm trying to figure out if I want Kira to have a bunting type costume or a tutu type costume or try to come up with something totally different. Here's what I'm looking at...

the bunting one

tutu type

from etsy

this one's cute too, i like the red petals

from amazon

back!

2010-09-29T20:02:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Michigan was lots of fun! The first day was a little tense for me but after that it was all ok. I never did get to eat at Panera Bread, darnit! There is so much family to see that if we're there for a week, 7 days are booked up. Of course, we did spend one day doing absolutely nothing while Scott slept off the night before. We went out drinking & dancing on Thursday and it was a blast, but we did indulge way more than either of us have in a long time. Since having Riley I've drank maybe two times? So I was feeling very ew on Friday too but someone has to get up with the babies...why is it the men feel like they don't have to take care of the kids if there's anyone else there to do it? Or is that just my situation?

We did go to Klackle Orchards, and that was alot of fun. The place is so big and has so much to do, I would love a place like that around here because I'd take Riley every week! They had these pedal bike/car things that were so fun. We went on a Monday so it wasn't crowded at all, it was awesome. And it was a gorgeous day. The sky was brilliant blue, which is not every day in Michigan! Most of the time it's a depressing gray.

We're back now and things are getting back to normal. I never got used to the time change while we were there (it's 3 hours ahead) but now I feel weird too.

Time to do laundry!

Great Grandma's Garden

Pickeral Lake

Klackle Orchards

going to fall

2010-09-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

We're going to Michigan this week! As much as I'm dreading being there, I am looking forward to

introducing Kira to her Michigan family
cooler temperatures
pretty leaves on the trees
going to a pumpkin patch with the kids
seeing friends that i love that i can only see if i go to MI
eating at places we don't have in AZ
possibly getting to wear cute fall clothes like boots with jeans and maybe a scarf? it never gets cold enough to wear those things here, even though people do
definitely dressing Kira up in her cute little sweaters and coats...she's got tons!

baptism

2010-09-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

I am sort of confused about baptism and what it means. I was baptized when I was an infant because my parents were Catholic. Now that I'm going to a Bible church and trying to figure out what it really means to be "Christian" I feel like I need to be baptized again. BUT I'm scared of it. I feel like such a dork for saying that, but I'm scared to be dunked into a tub. In front of a whole bunch of people. I don't think that's the way you're supposed to feel about it, I think you're supposed to be happy, joyful, excited at the idea of being "reborn". Is that what it is? I'll be taking a class beginning at the end of this month that will hopefully answer my questions. It's at church, it's for people who have never gone to church or are coming back or are just wanting to learn more, I guess.

A few of the blogs I read have mentioned an event called DNOW (Discipleship Now) that happened over the weekend, and they talk about kids being baptized at the end of it. Is being baptized something you do after just attending a weekend thing about church? To me it seems like it is something you do after really thinking and praying on it...but maybe I'm wrong? It just seems like it's not something you do on a whim or when you're excited because you're with a group of friends. Like "they're doing it, i want to too!" type of thing.

Another crazy wrench to throw in there is I want to have the kids dedicated. My church does it in groups so I don't really know when it'll happen, but if they wanted me to do it next weekend that'd be fine. BUT...should I be baptized again first? Am I not a true member of the church until I've been baptized, and is it hypocritical for me to have the kids dedicated if I'm not baptized again first?

going back to GR

2010-09-12T22:21:00.000-07:00

My last post was about feeling blue about Aiden, and now we're about to go to the place where it all happened, Grand Rapids. The first time we went there after moving away I had a full on panic attack as we drove into the city. We have visited one more time since then, and that was for Scott's father's funeral. So my feelings associated with this city at this point are not great! I never liked Grand Rapids from the first day I moved in. When I moved there it was just something I decided to do because it sounded fun. I'd lived in Phoenix, AZ my whole life, I was 22, so I thought "hey, see what a different city is like". Boy, was I in for it! I arrived in GR on November 3, it started snowing on November 4. Of course that winter was one of the coldest and snowiest in a long time. I never adjusted to the cold, the lack of sun or lifestyle in GR. To me it's a very strange city. It's a big city population wise, but it feels very small town. Things don't change that much there. There aren't many restaurants, bars, clubs, places to go or things to see. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE who is from there will say "Yeah, but it's such a great place in the summer!". Ok, I grew up in a place that looks like summer vacation 364 days a year so having a couple months of nice weather is just not going to cut it for me.

SO ANYWAY, the point of this is we are going there on the 22nd of this month, and I'm already feeling anxiety about it. Being there makes me feel like I'm back in time, I just buried Aiden and I'm overcome with greif. Things never change there so it never feels like NOW, it feels like November 2005 when Aiden was born.

I have already started a to-do list of all the stuff I want to do in GR that we can't do here. As much as I don't like Michigan or Grand Rapids, I will admit there are a few things to recommend it. I'm not totally anti-MI. Some of these things include eating at Panera Bread (we don't have em in AZ!), eating at San Chez, and eating at Rosie's Diner. I'm basically going to be stuffing my face the whole time...food makes me happy ok? I know you're not supposed to eat your feelings away but when it comes to Aiden and handling my feelings about him, I don't follow any "rules". There are no rules for a mother who misses her baby.

feeling sad

2010-09-04T10:02:00.001-07:00

When it starts feeling "fallish", I start getting sad. It was fall when I lost Aiden so my body & mind just seem to get into this sadness mode. Today I'm feeling it. There's this story going around about a mother who held her baby for two hours after he passed away, and he came back to life. Of course this makes me think, "Why didn't that happen to me when I was holding Aiden". It's really hard to not get sucked into that bottomless pit of questions. I feel like I'm standing on the edge deciding if I want to jump in or not. Saying it like that makes me go "of course not". If anything I have my babes here to keep me busy and my mind occupied. It's not like there's ever a shortage of things that need to be done when you have two under 4!

I do miss my Aiden. It would be his 5th birthday this year and I just wonder what he would look like. I am always curious to know if he had blue eyes or brown eyes or something different.

rough day

2010-08-29T22:09:00.001-07:00

Today I had to Kira and Riley to church, and it was not all that successful. I woke up late but managed to get myself and Riley ready, and Kira all dressed, and we were on the road in time...but about halfway there I realized I left the diaper bag @ home. When you have a six month old, you kind of can't be "out there" without your essentials-diapers, wipes & bottles. Especially if said six month old is teething and really hates having a wet dipe. So I kept going and hoped for the best. The last time I brought her to church she was perfect and fell asleep as soon as the service started. This time I didn't get so lucky. I only got to stay for a bit of the service because she really started fussing and crying. She was wet and hungry, what can ya do. Stuff like this has to happen so you learn what to do in the future. Or what NOT to do.

peas please

2010-08-26T23:07:00.001-07:00

Today Riley said something to me I was hoping he wouldn't say until he was about 15..."I'm bored mom". So we called Grandma and took a trip to the mall. The mall we went to has a Costco attached to it so we ate lunch there. Well, I ate pizza, Riley had yogurt and Grandma had ice cream. Kira tasted the yogurt and ice cream and was delighted! I am so happy she seems to already love food. Riley has always been a totally picky eater and I'm hoping his sister is the opposite. Riley played and played and played in the kid's area until he got thirsty, then we went to the food court for some drinks. They have a carousel there and it has been free this week, so we took a spin. Grandma held Kira on one of the benches and Riley and I rode horses. Well, he chose the Zebra, his favorite one to ride. I haven't ridden a horse on a carousel in a LONG time so it was interesting.

Later on Kira was fussing so I decided to give her some cereal, but she was totally not into it. I could tell she was saying "this is too boring mom". So we tried some peas, and she liked em! She ate a good amount and I was very proud. She got peas everywhere around where she was eating, which happened to be on my bed...I guess I should have thought about a better location for our first peas but oh well. I don't own anything that can't go into a washing machine :)

growing fast

2010-08-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

Kira moved to size 4 diapers yesterday. Size FOUR!!!! This morning she sat up by herself. Just for a few seconds, but she did it. My widdle baby is just growing up too fast.

Another great big milestone in our house is RILEY IS POTTY TRAINED!!!! We used his last diaper last night and there will be NO MORE-WWOOOO HHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I just have to make sure he is always using the potty. If he's outside, he thinks it's great fun to whiz in the bushes. I guess it probably is fun for a boy, I wouldn't know...

We've been trying to find a PreSchool for Riley to get in to. We have Sunrise & Tutor Time close to us, but they are very expensive. They want you to pay for "full time" hours even though I only want him to go maybe 3 hours a day, 3 days a week. They'll let you bring your kid in however little you want to, but you're paying for 40 hours no matter what. I tried to get him into some of the programs at the public schools around us, but of course I was way too late. So if anything, I'll be first on the list for next year! ha

Kira-4 Months

2010-08-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have not done a Kira monthly thing since she was what-one month old? But it's really hard to keep a blog up to date when you also have a Riley. Right now I hear something that sounds like newspaper crumpling in another room, and I'm scared to go see what it is. Kira is sleeping soundly like a little angel next to me, at least! When they're both needing attention at the same time, that's when you really feel like a mom!

So Kira, here you are at Four Months Old!

you weigh 14 pounds, 11 ounces
you suck on your fingers all the time. you're very drooly and I keep thinking you're teething but so far I haven't felt any little bumps on your gums.
your eyes are looking bluer or greener all the time.
you're starting to laugh, or make a sound that might be a laugh...so far Grampa Rick is the one who can make you do it best!
we're going to start eating cereal & baby food this week. you've already tried the Frosty and you really loved it. i only gave you little tastes but you figured out to stick your toungue out for more real quick :)
you're a good sleeper, but still only about 4 hours at a time at night.
you roll over really good. you also creep on your tummy.
you have your talkative times where it seems like you're really telling us important news. you go on and on and on, and i just wish i knew exactly what you are saying!

kira's room, in progress

2010-07-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

Kira's room will probably be the first one to look "complete". I've been waiting to do this room for so long!! :)

added 7/29/10-I originally wrote this post on the 23rd. I just found Amanda's blog party and decided to link up!

jeez

2010-07-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

It's been almost 2 months since I blogged here! I've been super busy with orders, still. That's pretty much what I'm doing when the kids aren't needing me for something, which is 80% of the time!

We are also MOVING! We're renting a house around the corner from my mom. So that will be great! It's actually a duplex, and has not really been renovated since the 80's so that's not the most attractive but...it has a reall big back yard and a garage for Scott's tools which are two big things we wanted in a house. The way it's situated on the street makes the backyard kind of curve around, so that's cool. It has a big covered patio, another plus. There's a big round cement slab where they used to have a hot tub or something, so I guess we'll stick a little pool for Riley there. It needs major gardening & watering, but I'm excited to do that.

The inside is all FLAT white paint. So needless to say we will be painting the entire place. Riley wants a blue room, of course, and we're going to do a letter wall. Kira has her pink crib so I'm thinking about leaving her room white, or maybe doing a cinnamon type color. Her room is really small so I think it might be nice with a slightly darker color. Our room is going to be white, yellow & gray.

First thing I'm doing is having a yard sale because we have so much JUNK...and I need to buy new junk!

busy day!

2010-06-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Scott was actually off work for the day so I took full advantage. I got up and dressed and everything then took Kira for her first trip to Hobby Lobby. They have the scrapbooking stuff on sale 40% off this week so I had to go! I got a ton of cute stuff and spent under $30, woo hoo!

I came home and switched kids-took Riley to lunch at Burger King. They have one of those giant jungle gyms that he loves to climb in. We looked for some new shoes for him at Ross after that but that was a total bust. It's really frustrating how hard it is to find boy's shoes! AFFORDABLE boys shoes, I should say. There were tons of girls shoes but very few pairs of boys and nothing even close to his size. So he got a set of blocks instead. Of course he already has a set of letter blocks and thousands of letter flashcards...but he really really wanted more blocks! These are smaller than the ones he already has and came in a little tray on wheels so I figured what the heck. Now it's like he has uppercase and lowercase blocks. :)

When we got home he was ready for a nap. While he was sleeping I cleaned up and then worked on scrapbooks until he woke up. Scott suggested we go to Chuck E Cheese for dinner so off we went. This was the first time I've had the pizza there and it was not great. I think frozen pizza is better than that stuff, unfortunately! Riley had a great time playing the games and just playing with the kids in general. Someone was having a birthday party and the "real" Chuck E. Cheese came out (aka a guy in a suit). It was all exciting, ha!

We stayed there too late and it was a task getting Riley out of there and then into bed at home. So it was a long day, but a fun one.

Today, Riley is sick :(. He just wanted to lay on his bed and watch TV all morning. That is how I know when he's sick, because he's usually just go go going all day long. He fell asleep at about 5:30, that's another thing that just never happens!

2010-05-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

I ordered some scrapbooking paper SIX DAYS ago and I think they just sent it out yesterday. There aren't very many scrapbooking stores in Phoenix. The closest one to me is about 30 minutes away, and it's not the greatest. So I have to order most of my supplies online. I love being able to look for hours in my comfy clothes, but hate having to pay for and wait for shipping. I've ordered from this place a couple times in the past and this is the longest it's ever taken.

I'm extra antsy to get this order because I have a TON of custom books to work on! :) Right now I'm finishing up two books for a pair of sisters, then I have four baby books and a vintage carnival theme to work on. Lots of books, lots of paper, lots of scrapping going on!

Kira has been sleeping better at night. She still gets UP most nights but every few days she'll go until 5am and I consider those nights 'sleepin in'. Isn't that crazy!? The other night I had to take Kira for a walk in the stroller to get her to calm down. It was about 11pm by the time I was coming back, and I saw two girls walking to their car in the parking lot, all dressed up to go out. That used to be me-my nights used to start at 11pm lol! Now if I had a night with no kids I'd probably be fighting to stay awake till 11pm, ha!

2 annoying things

2010-05-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

Ok I know the blog world is supposed to be all positive & happy & stuff but sometimes stuff bugs me. So I decided to put it out there for all the world to see. Like anyone gives a hoot anyway, right? ;)

The first thing is blogs that have music on them. Sometimes I'm sitting right next to a sleeping baby when I'm online. Having a classic 80's tune suddenly blast out of my computer is not the best way to keep baby asleep! Since people can put their players wherever they want I have to scroll all over the place to find it and shut it off. I usually keep my speakers on mute for this reason. It's also annoying if I happen to be listening to something at the time, it's like "trainwreck!" If you weren't a raver in the 90's you might not know that 'trainwreck' is what it's called when a DJ has one song on then he tries to mix in another one but it doesn't match up...and it sounds awful...that's a TRAINWRECK.

The other thing that irks me is when people post lots of pictures but they're all just people posed and smiling at the camera. Like "Me with my friend" "Me with my husband" "My husband & his dad" "My mom & the kids" Maybe it's interesting if you actually know the author in real life, but aren't blogs usually read by people that don't really know each other?

It's not like I'm going to stop reading blogs because of any of this. I love blogging and I think this is only the beginning of the whole blogging universe...but sometimes you just gotta vent. Right now I have to go hold a little Princess who is having a bit of a freak out. She gets mighty loud when she's not happy!

too big too fast

2010-05-16T11:14:00.000-07:00

Kira rolled over today! I think she's done it a couple times already but can't be sure. I've put her down, walked away, then come back and I swear she's flipped over...but maybe I just put her down that way and I forgot. But this time she did it right in front of Riley and me. She was on her back, she rolled over on her side and plop! she was on her tummy. For some reason I got all excited...it's exciting when babies do things even though they all do the same stuff! But then I realized this means she'll probably crawl earlier, walk earlier, and learn how to say "just go away mama" faster! I feel like she's on hyperdrive she's growing so fast.

"real" "housewives" of NYC

2010-05-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

I quoted "real" and "housewives" because there's nothing REAL about these shows and none of the women are actual housewives...but I watch the stupid thing anyway! ha! The OC version of this show is the only one I have watched from the beginning and watched every season. NYC I watched most of the first season but got bored pretty quickly with the second, same with Atlanta. I haven't watched any of the New Jersey show. I'm kind of sick of all this New Jersey crap being flung everywhere these days. The best show about New Jersey was The Sopranos and that is done forever. ANYWHOO, this was supposed to be about the "real" "housewives" of NYC's latest episode.

This show has turned into a 45 minute cat fight. Every week the "ladies" are at different parties, restaurants or bars either talking about each other or fighting with each other. This week was pretty much the same except for two things that made it so much more enjoyable: Jill Zarin was not featured much and they were fabulously DRUNK for most of the fights. It's probably terrible of me to get such a kick out of watching these chicks get wasted together, but they were damn entertaining! The best part of the episode is when they make it to a Hooters Yacht, or some dude who works for Hooters owns it, not really sure what the deal was with it...but since it had something to do with Hooters Sonja is randomly blurting out "Can I see some HOOTERS please?" "Where are the HOOTERS?" to no one in particular. I really like the new "housewives" Sonja & Jennifer, but that's another story.

The rest of the episode had Countess Luann working on her song and avoiding kissing her "friend" Court. All I can say about that is money can't buy you cla-hass (thats how it showed up on my closed captioning!).

Not sure what planet Kelly is from. I guess she must have been super hot when she was younger to get away with saying all the weird ass shit she says. Saying "Bethany likes to make people feel bad so she can feel good" or something to that effect while Bethany was sitting RIGHT THERE was so crazy! Saying Bethany is a cook and not a chef, then saying "I don't know if she's a cook or a chef" 30 seconds later...she's just too much.

And finally, I think every episode should end with the girls dancing to 1960's Laugh In type music. Dancing like maniacs. Bring on the pinot grigio!

sassy pants

2010-05-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, Riley has been too much lately! He's going to be spending all his time in time out the way he's going. He's three so I guess this is what they're like. He also just went from being the only star in the show to sharing everything with his little sister who is very cute. I feel like I just have to take it all one day, one hour, one minute at a time!

My dad is supposed to be taking him to the park this afternoon, so hopefully he will come home tired and worn out. He's been staying up WAAAY too late the past couple weeks and I just cannot do it anymore. Scott works long ass days too, so when he comes home he basically gets into bed. It's not like when he comes home I get to relax while he takes on the kids. *sigh* I love being a mother but it would be nice to get paid for it in money and not just kisses.

baby powder

2010-05-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

I am cleaning baby powder and it's not fun. Last night Riley used his little desk chair to climb up on top of his dresser to get this thing of baby powder and two tubes of balmex and had a great time in his closet for an hour while we thought he was asleep. He comes into our room at about 10:30pm and was all "Hi mama! Hi daddy!" I could see that his arm had something on it, it looked like chalk. But then I could smell baby powder...it was a fun night.

Today Kira is one month, one week and one day old. When she wakes up we're doing some pictures! We're going to dinner with my dad tonight so that should be an adventure. Going out with a three year old is always an adventure!

2010-05-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

I've been a bad blogger, but that's because not a whole lotta has been going on around here. Life is pretty much what I can do between feeding Kira. I did get a paper bag album finished last week, that was an accomplishment! I'm working on two custom books right now that are both going to be super girly.

Kira is getting big way too fast. I feel like she's not even a newborn anymore! The fact that she's my last baby ever is always on my radar. I want her to stay tiny but I guess babies just don't work that way. She loves to sleep on her tummy which freaks me out. They've made such a big deal about tummy sleeping and sids it makes me think she can't lay like that for very long and I have to stare at her while she's doing it to make sure nothing happens. She's wearing a 3-6 month size onesie right now and it's not even that big on her.

babies

2010-04-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

Today was a busy day! Riley went over to swim with his Grandma Nancy & Aunt Cheryl around lunchtime. I worked on scrapbooks for a couple hours then it was time to take Kira to her one month appointment. She did great until she had to get a shot...that was not good! I haven't heard her scream like that in a long time! :( I'm wondering if she'll sleep longer tonight because of it~wouldn't that be nice?

Tonight my mom went with the kids and me to a screening of "Babies". I thought it was about baby animals. It is about baby humans! ha It's about 4 different babies from birth til probably 1 year. I still haven't looked it up and I should have before we went, because Riley was not great in it. It was his first movie but it was a documentary with really no dialogue so of course he lost interest after about 45 minutes. Next time we'll see something more his style like Toy Story 3. We left after an hour. Riley didn't have a nap today and it was after 8pm so we didn't really expect him to last the whole time.

The movie is actually very sweet. There are a couple scenes that are just hilarious. The baby in Mongolia somehow gets ahold of a roll of printer paper (like for a cash register, and these people do not look like they own any type of electronics so it's so odd that they even have this in their home which is a round hut type thing) and of course he unwinds it and unwinds it and unwinds it...when he finally gets the actual roll of paper he starts eating it, and he's just so proud of himself. It's so funny and cute.

Speaking of funny & cute!

busy bee

2010-04-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

I have just been go go going the past few days! Saturday I went to a baby shower for one of my cousins, and I had Riley and Kira with me. Most baby showers in my family are just family parties where we bring presents for the baby :) Kira kept me up most of Friday night so I was totally dragging ass on Saturday. The shower wasn't until 3 and I stayed until after 5...once I got home I was busy doing stuff for Kira's party the next day.

The party was a great time! The only thing I would have changed was the time...I was still doing lots of stuff and of course people started showing up a half hour early! But other than that, it was lots of fun. I took very few pics, I am kicking myself for that too. If I wasn't doing something food related I was trying to talk to everyone, so taking pics just wasn't on my brain. I had a couple friends from high school that I haven't seen in ages there, so it was really fun catching up. I wish I could throw a party like that every month!

feeling inadequate!

2010-04-18T10:36:00.001-07:00

Not really, but just a little. Reading other people's blogs can be hazardous to your self esteem. There are so many moms out there who are better @ stuff, keep a cleaner house, know how to decorate so cute, make homemade things that I would much rather just buy @ the store...but I should be making it myself!

This week is Kira's party. Well, in one week exactly I guess I should say. I have an idea of the food I want to make, but for decorations I'm kind of stuck. I have tons of ideas but that little things called money...not so much. I think I'm going to "shop" my mom's house and see what we can come up with. Luckily she has lots of random things stashed everywhere! lol

Right now I'm listening to Riley sing to himself, and it's just about the cutest thing ever. He's just making up little songs...just now he went "I will eat it!" and made a chomping noise. He has such a crazy imagination, I love it!

My friend Jenifer sent us a box of ADORABLE stuff for Kira. She makes bows and she sent us four...I can't wait to get them on this little girl! I'm really lucky to have such wonderful girlfriends. You can see some of Jen's bows here, at her etsy shop!

what a weekend

2010-04-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

I am glad it is Sunday night! Well I'm glad it's bedtime. When you're a SAHM you don't really have "weekends" and it being Sunday night doesn't really mean anything for us yet. Daddy will have to go to work tomorrow but it's not like I have to get lunches made or homework checked or anything like that yet.

So this weekend was a doozy anyway. On Friday my mom let us keep this tiny little chihuahua she found wandering the neighborhood of one of her rental properties. He was soooo cute! We kept him for the weekend to see if we wanted to be his new family. Scott and Riley were really falling in love with him, but today the owner called my mom and he is now home again. He was a super adorable little thing, but I have a super adorable little daughter to take care of now as well as a super adorable and RAMBUNCTIOUS 3 year old...and I wasn't really feeling up to taking on one more thing to care for. Love dogs, but not right now! lol

Yesterday I was all over the place. I dropped Riley off @ my mom's so he could play over there for a few hours. I came home and cleaned although it totally doesn't look like it right now...strange how that happens. Then I went back to pick him up. Then I realized I didn't have my phone w/me so I went BACK over there...but it turns out I had left my phone @ Michael's earlier in the day! So I had to go to the lady's house that found my phone to get it. Then grocery shopping. Then home again. I was BEAT!

Kira's doing that baby thing of waking up about 2am and wanting to have party time for an hour or so...not good! I'm hoping she starts realizing daytime is for partying and night time is for sleeping like THIS WEEK. If I could sleep in as long as I wanted to (or even just a little) it might be ok, but Riley gets up at 7 most days and if I've gone to bed @ 11, up again @ 2, asleep again around 3:30....that's not good sleep. Eventually I'll get used to the wonky schedule but right now I'm in that "adjustment period" so I'm SLEEPY most of the time.

BUT this is my last baby so I'm enjoying every second of her being teeny tiny and all that newborn goodness. She is so beautiful and I'm still just totally entranced by her.

sheesh!

2010-04-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

Well nobody mentioned that having a preschooler and an infant would be so much work! Just kidding. I knew it would be work but I think we're adjusting. I am feeling the guilt of not being able to pay as much attention to Riley, but what can ya do. If you want to have kidS, that's just part of the deal. He was always a pretty independent kid so not having 100% of mom's attention has never been a huge issue. He does tell me that I'm never allowed to go to the hospital again, like overnight. He says "You just hafta stay here". So it makes me feel good to know that he missed me.

Kira is just the perfect baby. She hasn't cried since that time on Sunday night. She'll give a little yelp in the night when she's hungry or if she's wet, but she doesn't full on wail. Oh, I take that back. When she gets a bath, she is not happy. She really doesn't like to be cold, just like her parents!

I'm having a Sip & See for her on the 25th. Seeing all these beautiful parties all over blogland, I have been DYING to do one myself! There are so many great ideas out there I'm not sure which ones to use. I don't want it to get all out of hand w/the DIY projects because I realize I need time to sleep!

one week old

2010-04-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

Kira is one week old today. Feels like she's been here alot longer! But I also can't believe that she is here. After we lost Aiden I thought I'd never get pregnant again. Then Riley came along :) Then I got pregnant again, and I was so happy...but that ended in a miscarriage. So again, I thought I'm never going to have another healthy pregnancy much less baby. But now we made it, we have our little girl. She's here, and she's awesome. I just stare at her and stare at her and wonder how I got to be so lucky. I already felt like a super lucky mom to have Riley. He's such a great kid. Now I have my little princess and life just seems too sweet.

Tonight Kira cried really bad for the first time ever, and it just about broke my heart. She was really gassy and looked like she was in such pain...of course once she pooped she was perfectly content again. Sorry if this is TMI but this is my life now, ha! I have young kids so poop is just part of the deal.

Riley and Kira were both showered with gifts today. Everyone brought little adorable outfits for Kira and fun toys for Riley, it was so nice. He thinks the Easter Bunny and Santa both live @ the North Pole.

I just remembered we brought ham & potato salad home from mom's, and I am hungry. Hope you had a great Easter too!

Riley @ South Mountain Park. The flowers are blooming and it's SOOO pretty!

One of my mom's *three dogs*...this one's Skipper and although he looks like a Shnauzer, he's a Yorkie! And he's always MOVING!

I just love colored eggs. :)

yawn

2010-04-03T06:05:00.000-07:00

I am up WAY too early, once again. I can't seem to get back to sleep after Kira's 4:30 feeding. It is nice to have some quiet time, but I know I'm going to be yawning all day if I don't get my shut eye.

Tomorrow is Easter :) We'll be @ my mom's house for ham & potato salad, one of my favorite meals ever. I've tried to find something super frilly for Kira to wear but haven't had any luck. She's so tiny that even newborn stuff is still pretty big on her. Walmart & Target apparently don't carry Preemie size anymore or they get snatched up real quick because I didn't find ANYTHING in that size. And I'm not going to Babies R Us and pay way too much for something she's going to wear a few hours and probably spit up on :P It's not like you can dress a newborn to NOT look cute anyway! They're so cute!

life with R & K

2010-04-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

So I've been a mom with two kids for 5 days now, and it's going great! lol The night we brought Kira home she slept all through the night, but Riley woke me up at 1:30am saying "mama, can you clean me up?" I smelled something really gross so I knew it was not going to be pretty. He had thrown up (milk) all over himself, his bed, & the floor next to his bed. So that was an interesting night. He was sick all the next day & most of yesterday. I don't know what it is but every so often he gets this sour stomach thing where milk will not stay in his body. And he LOVES milk. All he drinks is milk & water. He doesn't like juice at all, isn't that weird? Most kids are all about juice! But not my Riley. He's back to his old self today, thank goodness. I steam cleaned his carpet once but it still smells so I need to do that again today.

Kira, my princess, is just perfect. She had her first Dr. visit yesterday and that went great. She did lose a little weight, but that's normal for a newborn. I don't see HOW that happened, because she eats like a little piglet. :) Especially when Daddy feeds her, she makes these noises like a little piggie, it's so cute.

Today I'm taking a bunch of stuff to the Goodwill...I love getting rid of crap! It's amazing how much STUFF we accumulate over time. While I'm there I'm going to see if they have a pretty basket to set Kira in for an Easter photo shoot. Nothing cuter than a baby in a basket...or a bucket...or just sitting there looking adorable! ha

she's here! she's here! she's here!

2010-03-30T19:15:00.001-07:00

My beautiful Princess decided to arrive in a hurry on Sunday morning. I went to bed feeling crampy Saturday night, but I figured I would go to my weekly appointment Monday and be sent to Labor & Delivery from there. WRONG! I woke up at around 5am Sunday and contractions were already less than 5 minutes apart. I woke Scott and Riley up, we got in the truck, and I told Scott we needed to go to the ER closest to our house, which is not the hospital I was registered to deliver at. But I was IN PAIN and I just knew I couldn't make it to our hospital because it is a good 20 minutes away. Scott has already delivered one of our children, I don't need him to do it again on the side of the road in a Jeep Cherokee!

The ER is only a few minutes down the road from us. I walk in and tell them I'm in labor. A nurse comes to get me and says "You're in the wrong place girl". I tell her I know, but the baby is coming NOW. She says they don't deliver babies there, they don't have an OB dept. WELL EXCUSE ME FOR LIVING!! I thought an EMERGENCY ROOM was a place for medical emergencies, like HAVING A BABY????? I honestly couldn't believe she was being so weird about me being there. They have a sign right next to the entrance that says "We accept newborn infants". So they're fine if you want to drop one off but not really into the idea of letting you give birth there.

So I get into the room and on the bed and I am experiencing some serious pain. I asked for medication and they said no, because they don't really "do" babies there. Again, I have no idea what kind of ER doesn't have pain meds...but whatever. Tons of people were scrambling everywhere trying to get all the baby stuff ready. Some nurse is telling me to think of the pain like climbing a mountain. They're telling me to pant, breathe deep, whatever. Oh, this whole time Scott had to be in the waiting room with Riley. I was still asking for drugs and they just kept saying no, they had to wait for my Dr. to get there because they couldn't have the baby sedated.

My water broke. I thought I had the baby because it felt like something big came out...but that wasn't her. My Dr. arrived right after that and we started pushing. Well, I thought I was pushing but since I was SCREAMING in pain too Doc tells me I'm yelling, not pushing. So I gave it one good push and she was out. I am surprised I didn't pass out from the pain, it was excruciating. I'm not going to lie and say "Oh, you forget as soon as they hand you your baby". Yes it is worth it but do I not remember it? No way jose! This whole pregnancy I've been planning on having an epidural so I was not prepared to go natural AT ALL. I had no idea she would want to come out so dang fast!! I should have gone to the hospital on Saturday night instead of going to bed, but nothing I can do about that now, ha!

So once Kira was born we were both taken by ambulance to the hospital I was supposed to deliver at. They took us to a room in Labor & Delivery, even though I had already done that part :) When the ambulance guys wheeled me in to the room Kira was already there with Scott, Riley & my mom. Kira had to stay under the warmer for a little while. Then I finally got to hold my little princess! She is just perfect and precious and I love her so much already. She's already given me a few smiles...I know they're just involuntary facial movements but she makes a smiley face quite a bit! More than Riley did. I think she's going to be a sunny little girl.

The second hospital was SOOOOO much better than where I delivered. All the nurses, aides, even the cafeteria lady was so nice! They were constantly asking if they could get me anything. Everyone was just awesome there. I was tempted to stay the full two days just to get waited on a little bit longer but it's really boring being in there. I guess it wasn't too bad, since I had TV, my laptop, WiFi, my phone and family visiting...but it still feels boring. Plus my nesting really starts as soon as I actually HAVE the baby. Since I've been home I've cleaned tons of stuff that I've been meaning to clean this whole time, and I'm ready to do more today. I have a big to do list so I better get started!

not tonight

2010-03-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

Ok so that was not it! I do think she'll be here within the week though. :)

this could be it

2010-03-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I woke up feeling a little crampy. But it went away pretty soon. Today was the same thing. This afternoon I went to Hobby Lobby and since I've been home, I've definitely been feeling SOMETHING happening. I don't know if I'll have her tonight but I do think she's coming sooner than later. I'm trying to clean the house, of course! I know it won't get done while I'm gone and I hate coming home to a dirty house.

So...to be continued!

yawn

2010-03-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't been much of a blogger lately. I'm in the home stretch of this pregnancy and I'm just TIRED! Every free moment I get I've been scrapping custom orders. Right now I'm finishing up a superhero-ish book then I get to make two girly books for a set of really cute sisters. So I have plenty to keep me busy :)

I've been trying to raise $1,200 for the March of Dimes. It is an organization that is very near and dear to my heart! A couple weeks ago Riley, my mom and I went to a kick-off event at the Phoenix Zoo. It was a fun time but I really don't recommend going to the zoo with a three year old when you're eight months preggo. Unless you have a really energetic person there to do the wrangling for you! My mom has some issues with her back so she can't run after him much better than I can.

Here are some pics from that day!

dream a little dream

2010-03-10T13:52:00.000-08:00

Rest In Peace Corey Haim

sent off a baby

2010-03-09T15:36:00.000-08:00

No not a real child, one of my books. Well I guess it's my client's book now, until she gives it to the birthday girl on Saturday. I'm always nervous when I send out a book because I don't know if the person is going to like it. When I do custom orders I ask for color choices or themes, but I've never had anyone say "You HAVE to do this on the front and you HAVE to do that on page three". Usually they give me a general idea but say "Just do what you do". This is awesome because I get to be totally creative and flattering that people trust me to make something nice...but at the same time I'm always wondering if what I come up with lives up to what the person had in their mind when they made the order.

I'm extra nervous about the book I sent today because it doesn't match the theme of the birthday party. The deadline for this one was pretty short so I wasn't able to search for enough paper & accents to make a whole book that would match the party. I really liked the colors too, I would have loved to make a book specifically for the party...but it didn't happen. So I'm wondering if the one I did will be good enough.

My next project is already underway, it's a semi-superman theme! Lots of red & blue and boy stuff. Very cool. :)

Birthday Fun

2010-03-06T08:09:00.000-08:00

We had a great day yesterday. Things got started a little later than we expected but that was ok. It was just us plus my mom and Uncle Danny so we could be flexible with the times. We wanted his cousins to come and celebrate with us but one was sick and the other two are in Palm Desert, CA for the weekend. Next year he'll have a proper party but I think he was just fine with being the star of the day!

We started at Smeeks in downtown Phx. This store is just SO CUTE. It's kind of like walking into a gingerbread house. It has tons of different candies and lots of fun novelty stuff. It was hard to watch Riley and look at everything at the same time. It's the kind of place you want to have time to just hang out in, because there's so much stuff!

Next we had lunch at this really fancy place, COSTCO. :) My original plan was to have Scott take Riley to the park while I went to Costco and got a pizza to bring to the park...but we were all pretty hungry by then so we just ate there. I've been craving that pizza since then so thank you Costco! Apparently Kira loves your pizza because I never thought it was that great before.

After lunch we headed to Encanto Park. Riley & Uncle Danny like to fish so they did that for a bit. Then we took Riley to the little rides area of the park, called Enchanted Island. He only ended up going on one ride, the bumper boats. He wanted to ride the roller coaster, but was too impatient to wait in line. Then he got on the little airplane ride, but when the guy was going around making sure the seatbelts were done right he asked to get down. I guess he was nervous to be on it by himself? Maybe next time he'll be up for it. After that he played pinball and video games while I had nachos & an icee. I swear I am the cheapest date because nachos w/that totally fake orange cheese product and an icee make me so happy! Sure I'll take a filet mignon but if you offer me nachos, I'm yours.

We did cupcakes and presents then played until we were ready to go home. It was a long and tiring day but it was really fun! I'm sure I would have been more energetic if I wasn't carrying this baby girl around my midsection.

here's some pics!

i have a 3 year old!

2010-03-05T07:09:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to my Riley Scott!!!
Today you are THREE YEARS OLD

It's hard to believe you started out like this
so tiny, not even 5 pounds when you were born! preemie diapers were too big and we fed you from the tiniest little bottle that looked like a beaker from chemistry class. you had to stay in the NICU for seven days before we could take you home.

Soon enough you were home and growing like a weed!

This little bunny was your first favorite toy. For some reason you would just grin and giggle at him...you thought he was the best!

Your first Halloween costume...you were most interested in trying to get that strap in your mouth

Second Halloween, that head piece was too floppy for your liking!

And third Halloween, you looked SO CUTE as Captain America!

You're a big kid now and one of your favorite things to do is have chicken nuggets at McDonald's...you LOVE to play with other kids!

Other things you are up to....

you LOVE the alphabet and letters. i hear you singing the alphabet about 10 million times a day, possibly more. you can sing it to match any tempo or beat.
you love playing in water. when you go to grandma's house the first thing you have to do is go in her backyard and water all her plants
you are getting the hang of potty training. we're not there yet, but we're making progress!
you are a chatterbox. whenever we go anywhere you are usually jibber jabbering away and people think it's hilarious.
you are very good at sharing. you always let other kids play with your toys...I think you're just happy to be playing with other little people!
you're really big and tall. no one ever believes you are the age you are. i can hardly believe it myself
i have a feeling you are going to be an excellent big brother.
just like mama, you love CANDY
you love to sing. when you're not concentrating on the alphabet i hear you humming little tunes to yourself as you play.
your favorite "celebrities" are Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny, Dora, the Imagination Movers and everyone from Yo Gabba Gabba
your memory is ASTOUNDING. you were talking about Fireworks from the 4th of July until after Halloween. if I need to remember something, I can tell you to remind me and you'll actually do it...this makes me proud of you and sad for my poor mommy brain.
you are a great kitchen helper. you like to "read" the recipes and get me each ingredient. this works best when there are pictures of each item, like when we make cupcakes :)

All in all, you are the best three year old a mama could ask for!

potty time

2010-03-04T07:29:00.000-08:00

Riley will be THREE tomorrow! He's starting to get the hang of potty training :) Yesterday he woke up w/a dry diaper and immediately wanted to go peepee on the potty, and boy did he! I was sooo proud. He went a couple more times yesterday, then wanted to go again first thing today. Very happy mama here. I keep telling him when his baby sister gets here he won't be "allowed" to wear diapers because only one kid per house can be in them. When I say this he completely ignores me but I know he hears it! He has a way of totally ignoring what he doesn't want to hear, it's going to be really obnoxious when he gets older if he keeps it up!

Today we're going to a cake supply store. I've heard nothing but good things so I'm totally geeked. I want to find something fun for Riley's bday cupcakes. Two things that my kids will have every birthday no matter what is balloons and cupcakes!

Happy Birthdays

2010-03-02T07:12:00.001-08:00

March is chock full of birthdays in my family! Today is my dad's (and Dr. Suess), Riley and Scott's Aunt Cheryl's (his other mother) is on Friday, my Grandma on my mom's side is next week, and my Uncle Danny's is also in there somewhere! And I happen to be 34 weeks pregnant, and I have a feeling this girl would like to be a March baby too. So I'm sure eventually there will be one big "March Birthdays" party for everyone because this is just crazy! I guess people in my family get more amorous in the summertime...I know this baby was the result of lots of swimming! ha! Ladies out there who want to get preggo that is my advice, go swimming with your man.

Speaking of Riley's bday being Friday, it's going to be a fun day! We're taking him to a vintage candy store in downtown Phoenix called Smeeks. I've never been there but everything I've read about it has been ravingly positive...plus it matches the crown I won for him!

After that we're going to Enchanted Island at Encanto Park. It's a little spot at the park where they have kiddie rides like those little cars that just go in a circle...little boats that go in a circle...a merry go round...nothing too exciting! Perfect for three year olds. This place has been around since before I was born. I guess I should feel old bringing my own kid to celebrate his birthday but I'm just excited for it! Seeing my nieces and nephews grow up...that makes me feel old. Weird huh?

easter dreaming

2010-02-24T14:02:00.001-08:00

I am looking forward to Easter because Kira will be here by then and I'll be able to wear something in my OWN SIZE! Also Easter is just a fun time. I love ham & deviled eggs & potato salad. Easter egg hunts. Chocolate rabbits!

Here's a few things I've thought would be cute for Easter Sunday...

I wore rompers when I was in 4th grade so I feel a little funny about them now...but I think this is really cute! (and I may be the only one) Scott has already given it a NO vote because it's "ugly and too 80's". We'll see!

This looks like an easter egg :)

I love this one from Old Navy...it needs a belt but it is so cute & retro!

Sorry the pic is so small, but isn't this adorable? It's from WALMART, of all places! The website there isn't a store within 50 miles of me that carries it, and the only size & color available on the website is an XS Indigo. So I'm going to keep my eye on this one because I looove it in the color pictured and it's only $18!

I don't do strapless but I really like the plaid on this one. It's also a little too fancy for my family gathering, but what the heck. I will be celebrating having a new daughter and my body back so why not, right?? :P

scary scary stuff!!

2010-02-21T20:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've been watching too much Intervention. I am so scared for when my kids start Jr High and High School, because what if they start taking drugs? Lots of these shows are about people who started smoking pot at age 12 or drinking at 14 and I just don't know how they can do that. Can you imagine being drunk when you're 12???? The one that scares me the most is meth. That drug seems to grab people the instant they try it and it never lets go. And it eats away at a person so fast...I'm terrified of Riley or Kira ever even trying it. I guess one thing I'm learning from all this Intervention is you have to be up your kid's a** and know where they're going, what they're doing and who they're with. And somehow make sure they're really telling you the truth---parents of teens help me out on how you accomplish that one!

I also watch Supernanny so I can *hopefully* make sure I don't end up with a houseful of screaming hooligans. I do try and channel Nanny Jo when Riley's giving me trouble. The problem on that show seems to be they keep the kids cooped up in the house all day, but that might just be from editing. You never really know if what you're seeing on these shows is "real".

Might as well fess up that I watch Hoarders when I want to be motivated to clean! Seeing those piles and piles of "hoarder lasagna" always makes me itchy to get my house sparkling. I do feel bad for the people on the show though, because it seems like the show doesn't really help them with their disease. They come in, clean up, then take off. I know it always says the people are using their 'aftercare funds' (whatever that means) to seek counseling, but who knows if they really do.

target clearance!!!

2010-02-21T10:39:00.001-08:00

The Valentine stuff is pretty picked over at my closest target, but they did have some really cute t-shirts 90% off! I got one for .90 and one for .45, I don't think I've ever paid less for an item of clothing. This is the only one that I could find a picture of, and the one I got is short sleeves, but this was the .45 one. I've been seeing all these cute dresses made from repurposed shirts so I might just save it for something like that! I also got the tiniest little white shoes for Kira to wear when she comes home. I've been wanting some patent mary janes but haven't been able to find them. I guess I should get those in a larger size anyway so she can wear them a little bit longer. I have 46 days or less to go until she's here!

gurgle....

2010-02-20T20:52:00.000-08:00

that's the sound my stomach is making right now. I had chicken wings for dinner and I'm not sure if it was the greatest idea. I didn't make em tooo spicy, but I guess maybe they were a bit much for my delicate constitution these days.

Today our basinette arrived, a gift from Grandma (my mom)! We're kind of bummed because she had the basinette she used for me and my brothers saved at HER mom's house, but over the years one of her sisters either sold it or gave it away or trashed it...you know how it is with families! So we've been kind of sad that we don't have it for our new little princess, but oh well. The basinette she got is not the most expensive, but it'll serve it's purpose and it's cute. I want to get it all set up but I know the cats are going to think it's a new place for them to hang out and that just doesn't sit well with me. Yes, the cats are all over everything when we're asleep (who know WHAT those cats get up to in the living room at night!) but that's beside the point. I probably will get it all set up just so I can see how cute it is then take everything down and put it back in the box until I go to deliver.

Oh! I bought a circle cutter today off ebay so I'm excited to get that and try it out. I'm going to make stuff for Riley's birthday with it-woo hoo!

baby shower!

2010-02-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

This past weekend my cousin Brandi gave me a baby shower. Hosted a shower for me? I'm not sure how to say that properly. Kira is my third baby but I've never had a shower before. I had Aiden too early and then with Riley I was just freaked out by being pregnant...I was really scared of losing Riley too of course, so I wasn't really in the party mood.

This time around, as soon as I announced that I was having a girl Brandi was on it. She did everything herself and it was all so cute! We had it at my dad's house because that's where we have all family gatherings for some reason. Since Valentine's day was the next day that was the theme-my favorite! It was so much fun that I think I'm going to make it a tradition for us to have a girly Valentine party every year. And next year I won't be knocked up so we can have some fruity cocktails-woo hoo! You can tell I'm 33 weeks pregnant because I keep fantasizing about drinking. On a normal basis I don't drink hardly ever, but once something has been taken off the menu for 8 months you start wanting it. So I am looking forward to a girls night out post-delivery.

Anyway, here are some pics of the party...

The cute cake and cupcakes!

Mmmmmmm There was more food but we didn't get a pic

This was that game where you have to take the clothespins in one hand while saying a baby item. My cousin Christina has bionic hands and got like 20!!!
My dad got me Mad Men Season 2! Woo hoo!! I know it's a baby shower but I am doing all the work in this situation...;)
After the party we watched the kids play. This is Riley's cousin Malaki in a little Escalade that is WAY TOO FAST for a 4 year old to be operating! Riley thought it was the greatest thing ever to be riding around in a little car with another kid, and Malakai was super excited to have a passenger in there with him. It was so cute that it almost made up for...

Seeing them do stuff like this! It is amazing how close they can get to a car or mailbox without actually hitting it.Riley got to take his cousin Dionna for a spin! Next it was Dionna's turn behind the wheel and I'm sorry to say she crashed right into the front end of my dad's truck. That was the end of Escalade time and I hope not foreshadowing for when she turns 16!