Our Life

Keeping busy!

2012-02-10T16:21:00.000-08:00

I had heard that Pinterest was extremely addicting so I tried to stay away from it as long as I could. :) But, really, I have found some awesome ways to entertain and teach our kids. A lot of ideas on that site are just obvious things that make we think, "Hmmmm, that is so simple. I can definitely do that!" But I would never think of it on my own. Like this day - I found a posting on how to make homemade bath paint with Dollar Tree shave cream and food coloring. The kids had fun mixing colors and Maya was even teaching Josh about what colors make new ones. Then they spent about an hour in the tub painting on the walls. I have found in the past that the store bought paint stains very easily and so I was pleasantly surprised when the tinted shave cream washed right off.

All of my pictures of M turned out blurry. Bummer.

I'm so happy that I have a little more energy now! There are still days where I feel so exhausted, but for the most part I am feeling a lot better. I have been trying to organize the house as much as possible so that when the baby comes we know where everything is. We have a list of things we want to do around the house as well so that we won't have as much to do this summer. Life is good!!

Here are the kids having fun with pipe cleaners....

We've been attempting to potty train J. He is so stubborn! Hates to use the potty and laughs when he goes in his diaper. I haven't been very consistent and am not ready to fully commit so part of it is my fault, but what a butthead! The poop smell is one smell that still bothers me so I usually end up gagging while I change him, but he just laughs about it. I told him all of his friends like to use the potty and his response was, "Not me mom, I like to go in my diapa'." What a weirdo, at least he's cute!

This picture is especially for my mom. She loves Josh's chubby bum and legs, put him in undies and, oh boy! What a cutie.

Chores

2012-02-03T05:49:00.000-08:00

We have really been struggling to get Maya to complete her chores each week. She did well with her chore chart a few months back when we'd pay her an allowance on Friday, but that wore off after awhile. We decided to let her work for something she's been wanting for a long time instead. She worked for two weeks and did awesome! She cleaned toilets, sinks, her room, helped with dinner, and did a good deed every day. Here is what she earned....

Her ears are pierced! She chose Hello Kitty earrings of course. I was surprised by how well she did when they did the piercing. My mom told me I screamed for a really long time and they had to carry me out of the mall. Maya didn't shed ONE tear! She just said, "Owwwwie" - then it was done. She's a tough girl.

We went to Coldstone Creamery after to continue our mother-daughter date. Maya chose cotton candy ice cream with chocolate chips. (Yuck!) We had so much fun! It's nice to get out and spend one on one time together. We were so proud of her to work so hard for 2 weeks. Now she is working for a date with dad.

My gorgeous girl!

Sledding

2012-01-26T06:55:00.000-08:00

This winter hasn't been so bad this far. There have been a few days that were really cold, but we haven't had very much snow. It's funny because Nick decided to finally splurge and purchase a snow blower. After nearly 7 years of living in this house and shoveling our long driveway, he decided it was time. Then December and January barely bring in a snowflake! Oh well. I'm definitely not complaining, I hate winters here. However, we did get a few inches on Friday night last week so Nick got to try his new 'toy' out and the kids played outside. I stayed in the house and got caught up on cleaning. About an hour later Nick stuck his head in the back door and excitedly said, "Let's blow up the kids' new tubes and go sledding!" I swear, he is like a little kid sometimes. His nose and cheeks were all red from being outside, too cute. I was less than thrilled thinking about being out in the cold, but decided to be a good sport and go see the kids have fun.

We went to a hill behind the recreation center that was just perfect. At first we put Josh down the smaller hill and he looked at us like, "Seriously? That's it?" So Nick pushed him down the bigger hill and he had so much fun! Our little dare devil!

Maya is at an age now where she can get on the tube by herself, go down, and bring it back to the top. It was an awesome! After the kids had their fun for about 45 minutes I decided to try it out. I forgot how exhilarating it is to go speeding down a hill really fast. (Yeah, I know, I need to get out more.) It was a really, really fun day and I'm so glad I went. By the end of the day we were all going down the hill on these tiny kid tubes - thankfully they didn't pop. We'll have to buy an adult one soon. Maya and Josh kept talking about it all day after we got home. Fun times with my cute family!

Big boy bed and Dinosaurs

2012-01-26T06:34:00.000-08:00

We have a big boy on our hands! A couple of weeks ago Nick and I were talking about how we needed to move Josh to a big boy bed. Luckily his crib turns into a toddler bed pretty easily so we decided to do that on Saturday morning. We woke up, I took Josh to get some new sheets ("seats"), which he was extremely excited about, and Nick and Maya stayed home to put the bed together. We really don't have a plan for his room since it's kind of just going to be a temporary set up until we decide where everyone is going when the new baby gets here, but we still wanted to get him some sheets and a blanket that he could be excited about. So we went to Babies "R" Us and, of course, he found the cheesiest Cars 2 sheet set with a comforter....ugh. Oh well, we can decorate his room another time. After the bed was all set up we decided to go check out a mueseum in Ann Arbor, so J missed his nap that day. We thought maybe it would be better anyway because then he'd be exhausted for bed that night. So far, he is sleeping great in his new bed! He is even napping better than before and loves to be able to get in and out of his bed "all by maself!" He doesn't like to be rocked in the rocking chair as much which is hard for me, he is growing up so fast.

The museum we went to was really cool. Maya is very interested in dinosaurs right now so she was stoked to see real bones and learn more about them. We had a good time!

These pictures didn't turn out very well. I'm saving my pennies for a new SLR camera. This trip ended up landing perfectly with the school's schedule to have a dinosaur week, Maya has spent all of this past week talking about them in her class. On Tuesday she decided to create her very own dinosaur museum at home. She assembled all of her pamphlets, papers, crafts, Dinosaur egg/fossil craft they did at school, a flashlight to see the fossils, and a homemade dinosaur memory game on the coffee table. At only 1 penny per person, addmission was extremely affordable! And isn't our expert adorable?

On a side note, I love listening to my kids talk to each other. There have been a few times this week where I will be in the kitchen doing something and can hear them playing in the living room. Yesterday Maya was being mean to Josh and wouldn't let him see some videos she took on her camera. Finally he walked away and said, "you rude a me, Maya..." About 5 minutes later she comes back over to him and says, "JOSH! You have to see this video on my camera, it's so hilarious." He looked at her, shocked, and said, "Maya? You nice-a me now? You not rude now?" It was so funny. Then, we were driving in the car yesterday and he said, "OH. MY. HECK! A 'cool bus, mom!" (School bus) Yeah, he was pretty amazed by that! I just love this age when they are starting to talk and have conversations, it's so exciting.

Announcing...

2012-01-11T06:58:00.000-08:00

Yup, we are having another baby! I am currently in my 13th week which means I will be out of the first trimester soon. This pregnancy has been awful, much worse than my previous two, so hitting the second trimester will feel really good. Much of my November and December was spent in bed or in the bathroom, not fun! On top of the normal nausea, throwing up and body aches, this time around I have been getting terrible head aches, extra saliva production, and smell aversions, (J's poopy diapers, smelly hand sanitizers, onions, ANYTHING smelly - even if I normally find it to be a good smell, like laundry soap. I also had this weird thing which Webmd called Dysgeusia, basically from about 8 weeks to 12 weeks my mouth tasted like metal no matter what I ate or drank, brushing my teeth and using mouth wash even made it worse. I found out that if I gargled salt water multiple times a day it would make the taste a little better. (Thank you internet!) It didn't help that I had so much extra saliva in my mouth to deal with at the same time. THANKFULLY this has stopped for the most part! I still get a little sick at night, have headaches, and now some insomnia, but I'm feeling much better than I did a few weeks ago. I'm hoping to gain some more energy soon so that Maya will stop asking me, "What!? Do you just like to lay around the house ALL day?" My poor kids and Nick. I was practically living in my bathrobe for all of Christmas break, one day Nick said, "Soooooo, think we'll get you out of that robe sometime in the next few days?" Haha, he was such a huge help. I'm thankful it worked out to be over a time period when he was home so the kids weren't totally neglected. He is the best and took good care of me.

My first appointment was last week, it made all of these yucky side effects worth it to see our little baby doing somersaults, kicking, and just being crazy inside of me. For some reason I have been really worried about this pregnancy and I was so happy and humbled to hear the heart beating. Even with the third baby, I can't help but be so amazed with this whole process. I can't wait to find out what the gender is so we can start planning things out a little more. I'm excited to hold on to my little guy or girl and snuggle, but for now we are enjoying life as the four of us because I know things are going to get a lot more complicated and hectic once July hits!

Christmas morning

2012-01-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

Maya and I were up a little after 7am to see if Santa came or not. She was so happy to see a note on the table from him. All of the treats/milk had been gobbled up! I love how she looks when she gets up in the morning. So sweet.

Josh didn't get up until closer to 8am so we snuck downstairs(Nick joined us) to see what our Christmas looked like! We let her pick one little gift out of her stocking before we had to get ready for church. She chose a little box that had a princess necklace in it.

After that we got ready for Sacrament meeting. What I loved most about that morning was that neither of the kids complained one time that we had to leave the house to go to church. I was expecting that because they are kids after all! The meeting was very nice and the spirit was strong. The Primary kids closed out the meeting by singing "Silent Night" and I tried not to, but ended up crying. I'm so grateful for our Savior, that He loves us so much and that we have this wonderful time to remember Him and focus on his life. Maya came back to our pew after singing and kept saying, "What is it mommy? Why are you crying?" Then Josh was concerned, so I tried to quickly explain what I was feeling before the closing prayer, that they weren't sad tears but happy ones because I'm thankful for Christ. What sweet kids!

We got home and Nick and I slowly changed into something more comfortable while the kids opted to keep their Sunday clothes on. It was fun to tease them and take forever because they were dying to open their gifts.

(This was taken Christmas night) Josh got a train table for his big gift. It is so awesome! He was playing non-stop with that thing for 3 days straight. Right when he'd wake up in the morning he'd say, "Wanu play trains?" It's worn off a little now, and I think mostly because it's in the basement and we haven't been down there much lately. I'd like to make some room in his bedroom so he can play with it more.

Maya is our little crafty girl. She is always creating something.

I found these cool hats for Maya and Nick. My D-town cuties!

Josh loves playdough and the Cars movie...so to combine the two!?! Unreal!

I convinced Nick that Maya would just love this Doodle Bear that you can use washable markers on. She made one tiny drawing on it and wanted us to machine wash it immediately because she didn't like how it turned out. Then I had to explain to her that she has to do a lot of drawings on it before we can wash it all off, which just frustrated her even more. Oh girls are so much fun!

Her 'big' present was a new pink digital camera. Last year when I got my new camera I gave her my old one which she used all year long. She loves taking pictures and is really quite careful with the camera. She has been taking tons of videos and pictures with it over the past few weeks. She just loves it - even though when she first opened it she said, "Well, it's not a Hello Kitty camera but it's pink so I still like it." What a stinker!

My favorite gift was from Nick. He got me a Kindle Fire and it is amazing! I had previously asked for a Kindle or some type of reader tablet, but he decided to get the one that has web, video streaming, games, etc. on it. I was completely surprised! I have been using it a lot more than I thought I would. I check and reply to emails, listen to music, read books, look up recipes for dinner, and so much more. I very rarely sit down at the computer anymore. I feel bad I just got him a bike pump :(

I forgot to include some pictures of events that took place BEFORE Christmas. We made sugar cookies and decorated them one night. Thank you Pillsbury for making dough and frosting without any milk products!!! Josh was happy to take part in this fun activity.

We went to visit Santa at the mall. Maya told him she wanted a Barbie doll this year (news to us), and Josh asked for trains.

We also decorated the tree. Last year the kids were really into the decorating but this year it was hard to get them involved. Not sure why? But they did each put up a few ornaments.

The month of December

2012-01-04T17:10:00.001-08:00

I swear, these months are just flying by! We had a very nice December. It got a little hectic at times with parties and different activities but overall it was good. Maya had a little program for school where they sang a few holiday songs and then we got to have a cookie reception after. I felt so frustrated with the program because I got there early like they asked us to but because Maya was in the front row (little shorty), I couldn't see her the entire time! Oh well, there will be a lot of this programs in the future to look forward to.

Maya and her BFF's Kara and Lauren

Nick put the Christmas lights up early in the month when it was still decent weather. The kids had fun "helping".

The kids got cool new ornaments from Grandma V and Granny Moe. Josh was thrilled with his Cars ornaments!

We went and hung out with friends on Christmas Eve. I got a new triple barrel curling iron and tried it out on Maya. Too bad I turned it up too high and her hair smelled burnt for a day or two - even after washing it! It looks pretty though.

Milk, a whoopie pie, and carrots. Treats for the reindeer and Santa!

California

2011-12-23T15:18:00.001-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving we decided to head out west to California to visit with Nick's side of the family. It was the first time in a few years that we didn't have to cook a turkey and that was awesome! It was nice to visit and catch up with everyone and spend some time with Nick's grandparents, they are so special to us. We mostly just hung out at the house but one day we did get to go to the Santa Monica Pier. The kids loved the big Ferris wheel, even Josh!

As you can see, Grandma Pat likes to go all out with buying stuff for the kids to play with while we are in town. They definitely had enough to keep them busy for the week.

One of first nights there we had s'mores. Maya was all about it and remembered doing it this past summer, but Josh was such a wimp about getting messy. He said he didn't want to cook his marshmallows.

Grandma Pat and Maya

Nick made some awesome creations with the K'nex he had as a kid. Here is Josh with the "munster" truck that daddy made. Maya got a butterfly but I didn't snap a picture of that one or the bulldozer that he made. They were so cool! Yes, my husband has many talents.

Maya and Josh with Aunt Jenna. The kids were both excited to see her and play.

This picture makes my heart so happy! I love the look on Papa's face. He loves our kids so much, and they love him.

Maya absolutely adores exploring on the beach. It is always a highlight of our trips to California. She found a bag of seashells, poked starfish and anemones, and ran all over the place looking for treasures. We were lucky enough to go on a day that was low tide so we could see all of the creatures that are normally covered with water.

Nick and I were worried that Josh would freak out about the sand on his feet again like he did last year, but he loved it! Funny what a year can do to change a kid.

After our day at the beach we all got dressed up and headed out to dinner in Malibu. I was really nervous about how the kids would behave after a long day, especially Josh because he didn't nap that day. We went to one of Gramma and Papa's favorite Italian restaurants called Guido's. They set us up in a private room because we had a good sized group, which was nice but it was also where they stored all of the wine bottles for the restaurant. I was a little anxious that my kids would destroy the place, but they did awesome! I was very impressed with them. It was a long dinner service but they didn't complain one time. Glad they did so well and we could enjoy ourselves!

Gramma Dotty and Maya - two sweet ladies

The next couple of days we spent time at Nick's dad's house. The kids played with the bubbles, did cartwheels and cheer leading on the grass, and just hung out.

Then it was out to Malibu one last time to see Gramma and Papa before heading back to Michigan.

Maya had too much fun with the binoculars!

The view from G & P's back deck! Amazing. I would love to wake up to this every morning.

The binocular pictures were just too cute.

Playing cars with Papa Tony

It was hard to say goodbye, as usual. I'm so thankful for email, phones, etc. to keep in touch. I hope one day we can move closer to all of these family members who mean so much to us.

Next we went to the Pier to go on a few rides.

I love this sweet face! I have to admit, my kids are awesome travelers. They both did great on the plane, and slept through the night every single night. They are the best!!

View from the top of the Ferris wheel.

We had a great visit! Thanks to Papa Scott and Grandma Pat for taking our whole family in for Thanksgiving. Can't wait to go back again!

November

2011-12-12T18:04:00.000-08:00

My dad was able to come out the day before my birthday this year. It was awesome to spend so much time with them! They are seriously the best parents. We went out to breakfast/lunch at Leo's Coney Island...(a tradition for a few years now)My dad always gets the weirdest things there. Last time he got spaghetti noodles with chili on it. I guess it's a famous dish in Ohio or somewhere, but it looked so gross to me. That night we hung out at home, had a nice dinner, and played Rock Band. The kids helped to decorate my cake and we caught Joshy sneaking most of the frosting. I had a great birthday spending time with my favorite people in the world! The rest of the week we did some activities around here. We went to a movie, bowling, Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum, and spent lots of time sitting on the floor playing with the kids. It was so nice!

Josh was famous for saying, "You wanu play cars...with me...in ma room?" whenever my mom or dad came into the room. He probably asked this question a hundred times and was never turned down!

Two peas in a pod!

My Birthday dinner

Working hard decorating the cake

You just got caught, Mister!

Blanket rides with Papa

Playing barber shop with Papa. My dad is a great sport!

Reading books with Grandma before bed

Maya had a little book where she would keep all of her drawings that she did. When my dad tried to put his drawings into her book she said, "Oh...Papa? Your pictures are really special to me. Maybe you could take them home and keep them safe there?" Basically she didn't want to have his pictures in HER notebook, but didn't want to hurt his feelings. Well, my dad is a huge tease so he kept trying to put them in her book until she finally made it clear she didn't want them. Haha!

Thanks for coming out mom and dad. We had so much fun with you!

Halloween, 2011

2011-12-12T17:40:00.000-08:00

I feel so ashamed that I haven't posted for so long! We have definitely been keeping busy, but I should have kept up with my blog because now I am so far behind.

Halloween was so much fun this year - but a little overkill because Maya had 4 different events to dress up for. We got great use out of the Cinderella costume we got her! Josh was a Monkey, but if you were to ask him he'd say he was an "OOOH OOH AAAH AAH!" He really got the hang of trick or treating this year. It was a lot of fun! Our friends brought their little girl along with us to a few houses as well. We had a great night! The best part was we could take our time because my mom was at home passing out candy for us. Thanks, mom!

With our neighbor friends.

Baby Molly!

Getting candy from Grandma

Dancing with her Prince

Mom's visit - part 1

2011-11-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

We had a great time with my mom and dad in town. I may need to break it up because I have a lot to post between her visit, Halloween, Birthdays, etc.

The kids counted down for a whole month to the day my mom came. Maya, especially, was so excited! We kept an eye on her flight on the computer all day. It was fun to see the anticipation in the kids' eyes as they watched the picture of the plane move across the screen. On the way to the airport we stopped and got some flowers, and a miniature pumpkin to give Grandma. Maya and I had also worked on a poster board for her a few days prior.

The next day we had a Halloween party for Josh at his library story time. Having my mom there was the best! Josh was a monkey, but if you were to ask him he'd say, "I'm a 'OOH OOH AHHH AHHH'."

It was great to be able to celebrate mom's birthday in person with her this year. Nick took the day off on Friday, October 28th (her bday), so we went shopping at Kohl's, and to lunch at Panera Bread! It was so nice to get away, just the two of us. That night we had pizza, carved 2 pumpkins (Just Maya and I were into it this year) and rented "Hocus Pocus" to get in the Halloween spirit. We forgot how scary it can be for little kids, I don't think Maya and Josh liked it too much. It was SO great to celebrate with my mom though!

Middle of October already!?!

2011-10-12T17:12:00.001-07:00

Since school started this fall, time has been flying by! I think it's because Maya goes to school every day versus every other day. Anyway, things are great, but really busy. I am taking 2 classes (English 102 and Nutrition), which keeps my brain going but I struggle with making time for homework. When the kids go to bed I want to have "my time" but it usually ends up being "essay writing time".

So, Maya's class schedule kinda stinks. She goes from 8:15am until 11:15am, we are so not a morning family! I hate having to wake up both of the kids to get through the door by 8:05am every morning. Some mornings Nick is able to take Maya to school for me, which has been wonderful. I love having so much one on one time with my little man, Josh! We do story time at the library on Thursdays, and the rest of the week is wide open to do whatever we want. He usually wants to play cars or wrestle, so that's what we do. It's nice that he gets to make a choice instead of his bossy big sister! One nice thing about Maya's schedule is that she gets out early enough that we can still do fun things right after school. One day we went to the Detroit zoo. Seriously the best investment we make each year! It's close enough that we can go for the morning or afternoon and be back home at a reasonable time. We really liked the new lion area that was recently built. Josh was so excited to see them from a distance, but then as they got closer, he started taking steps back. He ended up clinging on to my leg for the longest time and started saying, "No yike yions mom! No yike those guys!" So sad.

Checking out the lions

Sweet face

We had a great day at the zoo. Only thing missing was Nick!

I bought Josh some new church clothes and winter stuff recently. I found a really cute little outfit that had a tie included, his first tie! He was so excited, he wore it 3 days straight with any type of shirt. I had to draw the line at sleeping in it. He kept talking about how he was the same as daddy. Cute little guy.

I love this little boy so much!

A few weeks ago we went to the cider mill for family night. We've been wanting to try a new one but didn't have enough time to make the longer drive. We had fun anyway!

Pretty Michigan

Funny Josh. He kept posing like this, cheesy smile and hands in his lap, even before I would decide to take his picture. I just had to look down at him to see that he was ready to have his picture taken!

Saturday - Party

2011-09-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

Maya decided she wanted a Hello Kitty party this year. When I was searching online to find some games I found some pretty cute ideas for the party. We had a "Kitty Adoption Center", each girl got to choose one kitty, one cat carrier to decorate, and a blanket. Then they went to the table to decorate their boxes with stickers, markers, and other embellishments. Fun and simple.

Before the party started, Maya and one of her BF's Laura were playing together. I told Maya I wanted to get a picture of her by the balloons and the next thing I knew Laura was posing too. They are so cute together. Glad she has such good friends.

Laura also played photographer for us while we waited for the guests to arrive.

We bought Maya some of those scented markers that smell like different foods. It totally took me back to when I was younger. The girls loved them too, and some had different colors on their noses to prove it! It was so cute.

Nick was in charge of the pinata. Each of the girls, and Josh, got two turns, then when it wouldn't break, they each got to pull a string to get the candy and toys out. We had them fill up their cat carriers with their treats.

After eating cake and ice cream, we opened presents and played some games outside...thank goodness for the nice weather! They really liked playing Mr. Fox with Nick, and we also played Red Rover, Red Rover.

It was a great party! Her parties seems to be getting smaller and smaller each year. I was exhausted after everyone left! Maybe next year she can pick 2 friends...

That night we went to an early dinner at Macaroni Grill. The kids really do well in restaurants, so we had a nice time out.

Josh didn't have a nap all day and was still so sweet and content all day. He is such a good kid!

Me and my girl

On Sunday the Primary did their program in Sacrament meeting. Maya refused to do her part the last few weeks when they'd practice, but was in a very good mood on Sunday and decided to get up there to say her lines. I was so happy! After church we all had a rest (minus Maya, she never rests), then we went outside to play a little. Maya was running in the front yard while holding on to her balloons. After about 20 minutes she let go on accident and they flew up to the sky. You would have thought she witnessed someone getting hit by a car, her scream was so loud and dramatic. I felt terrible though because she was genuinely SO sad and upset. She cheered up a few minutes later.

We had a great weekend celebrating! Birthdays are so fun.

Officially FIVE

2011-09-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Maya had a great birthday this weekend. She had school on Friday where they sang to her and she got to choose what type of treat to bring in. She decided on chocolate chip cookies, I'm sure the parents all loved their kids eating those at 9am! After school we came home and ate lunch. She chose a turkey and cheese sandwich, applesauce, and chips. I put some blue sprinkles in her applesauce and candles in her sandwich and she got so excited! I love that she still appreciates little things like that. We waited for Nick to get home to open her gifts, she was so patient and sweet, even though she was dying to open those gifts! She enjoyed opening everything, she sure got spoiled. That night we watched her new movie (Cinderella) downstairs and stayed up too late.

Lunch time

With all of her presents from our family members.

She got Hello Kitty EVERYTHING! She was so excited. This was from Gaga Debbie and Papa Stan.

Grandma Vickie sent her a watch that Nick got when he was her age. It is a classic Mickey Mouse watch, his arms move to tell you what time it is. It's a very cute watch and extra special because it used to be Nick's. Thanks V!

This was her present from us. It's a dog that you can make walk, turn around, turn left, etc. She loves it! Josh does too.

Lucky girl!

Happy Birthday Maya!

2011-09-23T06:18:00.000-07:00

Maya was born on September 23, 2006 at 9:12 pm. She was perfect with dark skin, lots of black hair, chubby cheeks, and her daddy's lips. I can't believe she is 5 years old...I really can't. I am sad that she is growing up, but proud of the little girl that she is today. She is getting so smart and is really improving in class. She loves to hang out with "the girls" at school and play Super Kitties with them, they like to run from the boys who are the bad kitties. She is always pretending and trying to involve everyone in her make-believe games. Josh is finally starting to play more with her so I don't have to be the puppy, kitty, baby sister, or teacher as much as I used to. She loves her dad and runs out to the driveway every night when he gets home to smother him with hugs and kisses. She is becoming a very good big sister and takes great care of her little brother when she feels like it. She has been more willing to play boy games to get Josh to play with her. She loves her family, cousins, grandparents, friends, aunts, and uncles and talks about them all the time. She is really excited to see Grandma and Papa Miller next month! She says grandma will be busy playing ponies, barbies, dolls, etc. with her all day but she might give her a break around lunchtime. She loves to eat - ALL day long, but is still so petite. She knows the difference between a healthy snack and an unhealthy snack, so when she meets her quota of not so healthy things she'll ask for carrots or broccoli. She loves doing crafts and having family movie night. She likes to dress her stuffed animals up in her old baby clothes but she doesn't really dress up herself like she used to. She rarely wears dresses anymore, now she prefers capris, jeans, or shorts. (YES!!!) These are the things Maya loves, now here is what we love about her:

1. Her sleepy face and crazy hair in the morning.
2. Her hugs and kisses (with her stinky morning breath) in the morning when I have to wake her up for school.
3. I love how she has an opinion on what she wants to wear to school, but it drives me crazy, too. One morning we were going over what she had in her closet to wear, she could sense my frustration and blurted out, "Mom! We need to pick out what I wear the night BEFORE school!" So, now that's what we do for stress-free mornings! She has wonderful ideas.
4. I love that she loves being home. Sometimes it's hard to get her out of the house but that just means she feels comfortable here. I'm sure this will change one day, so I am enjoying it while it lasts.
5. I love that she always says, "When I'm a big mom I will (do this or that)" and "When I go to college I will still be your little girl." I'm glad she is already thinking about making goals for herself and that we have the opportunity to help her come up with ideas of what she'd like to be someday.
6. I love how excited she is about growing up. This morning I went in to wake her and to tell her Happy Birthday and she said, "Am I really 5 now, mom? For real life?" I said "yes" and she said, "Did my legs grow even more last night than ever?"
7. I love that she is so easy to tease. When she catches on to my jokes she'll say, "Are you joking me, mom?" or "For real life mom?"
8. I love her more than anything and feel so honored to be her mom.

(I wanted to include Nick in on this too, so he took a few minutes at work to write about what he loves the most about Maya.)

1. Her singing
2. When she runs out to greet me when I come home
3. Her hugs
4. Her imagination
5. Her love for crafty things

We love you sweet girl! Hope you have a great Birthday Weekend!

1st day of school

2011-09-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

Maya started school on Tuesday and has been doing great so far. Up until the Friday before her first day she was not excited at all! She was really dreading it. I am so happy that she likes her teacher and looks forward to school every day. I hope she doesn't get burnt out too fast. Her teachers are wonderful and we love the school that she attends, we are so fortunate that she can go there. The only downside is that school starts so early...no more sleeping in for us! We have to be out of bed by 7:30 to get there by 8:15am. This morning (Sat.) we all slept until 8:30. I guess we needed to catch up on rest.

I can't believe Maya will be 5 in a few weeks! It will be so strange to say that we have a FIVE YEAR OLD! She already seems more mature and has grown up so much in the last week with school starting. Midway through a temper tantrum the other day she she said, "Oh. I guess I can't cry like that because I am in the five year old class now." That's right! We are in the midst of planning a super pink, super girly Hello Kitty birthday party. We love this girl!

Last few days of summer

2011-09-06T08:29:00.001-07:00

I can't believe the summer is over! I guess I will have to recap the last few weeks before it gets too far into the school year:

Maya has been so funny this summer. Every day I would try and plan something fun to do, but she was content on having a playdate, or just hanging out at home. We did go do a couple of fun things, but it was definitely a low-key summer! She played with our neighbor friends Laura and Leah at least once a day. Josh had fun playing with them too, even though he was slightly outnumbered. They played in the water, caught frogs, made "ant restaurants", built huge forts in the basement, and just had fun together.

Maya wanted to keep the frog as a pet. She was so sad when he jumped out of his cage as they were trying to clean it out.

I don't know what we will do without these girls to play with! Maya is done with school every day at 11:30am but Laura and Leah don't get out until 4pm, then they go to dance 3 nights a week. They had a lot of fun this summer.

We went to the farm at Kensington one week day. There were a lot of summer camp kids there on "tours" so we just tagged along with their groups. We got to learn a lot about their horses and Maya got to pet one for a long time. As I was holding her up to pet the horse he sneezed on me, twice. It was disgusting! But at least he didn't do it on Maya because she would have been hysterical. That's why I will always carry baby wipes with me! Josh is my little wimp. He was so scared when this big pig covered in mud kept trying to get him through the fence. Josh was trying to pretend that he wasn't scared at first but then he started shaking every time the pig would snort at him. It was kinda funny.

Pretending to like the stinky goats

Maya went to her friend's birthday party and was so excited that she got to wear her "fancy clothes".

Josh has been CRAZY about puzzles lately. He will sit and work on these all day long. Maya usually joins in as well.

On Friday we had some very hot weather. My friend Tiffany called to see if we wanted to go the park and play at the splash pad, of course we went and had a great time! Our last official play date of the summer!

Tiff found a frog and Maya was so happpy! She didn't want to let him go.

Josh was a little wild man in the water! Usually when we go he just sits on the blanket and eats snacks, but this time he was all over the place! I was so proud of him. Here he is after pouring water over his head.

Spencer and Josh are about a month apart. Sometimes they get along, sometimes they don't! That day they were really cute together, and Josh was so excited because "S'encer has my same shoe-ons!!" He always calls his shoes "shoe ons" because we usually tell him, "go get your shoes on!"

Cute baby Andrew. My kids love him.

On Saturday morning we woke up and decided to take the kids to ride go-carts. It was a lot of fun! Nick rode with Maya and poor Josh had to go with me. I drove so slow that Nick passed me up twice. The one time I did try to speed up and go fast I was too distracted to notice Josh had slipped down under the seatbelt and was nearly on the floor of the car. So that is my excuse for why I drove like a grandma! Maya played on a trampoline for awhile, and then we also played some arcade games. The kids were into more than I thought they would be.

PAY DAY!

2011-08-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

Here is M after pay day today. She saved up for 2 weeks, and had a few dollars that grandma and papa had sent her awhile back.

Good job M girl!

Detroit Science Center and ballet

2011-08-03T15:25:00.001-07:00

The kids and I went to the Detroit Science Center today. The kids had a blast! We saw a cute movie on the solar system and Maya learned a lot, she's been asking so many questions today.

Yesterday was the last day of Maya's summer ballet class. She liked her class but wants to 'take a break' from ballet for awhile. Oh well, we tried. Maybe gymnastics? After class we went to dinner at "old McDonald's house" with M's friend Zoe, and her mom and baby sister, Ruby. Josh and Ruby play really cute together, and Maya and Zoe have been best friends for almost a year now, so it was a lot of fun.

Cute girls!

A zoo night and Maya's chores

2011-08-03T14:53:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday we had some drizzly weather with very little of humidity so we decided to take the kids up to the zoo after Nick got home from work. I was pleasantly surprised to have found out that the zoo is open until 8pm on Wednesdays. It was a perfect night! No mosquitoes, comfortable weather, and my sweet family surrounding me. Couldn't have gone better.

Picture courtesy of our little photographer, Maya.

I noticed a few weeks ago that Maya seems to have no concept of consequences. She will come into a room like a tornado and tear it all up then expect me to clean up after her. We decided it was time for her to start doing some chores on a daily basis. For the first week she had the same chores every day; tidy her bedroom and make her bed, sweep under the dining room table, and help fold the dishtowels after I did laundry. She became very excited about marking her completed chores off of her list and started asking for more things to do! It was great! The next week she got bored with the same chores and became disinterested in helping again. So this week I came up with 3-4 different things to do every day. I think she's finally understanding that SOMEBODY has to clean up after her when she makes a mess, and it shouldn't always be me. She gets a little allowance every Friday, so we are teaching her about money management as well. We have to ask her each week, "do you really want to buy 3 cheap toys at the dollar store, or save up for a few weeks and get a cool toy at Target?" Currently she is saving up for a mini Dalmatian puppy Furreal pet which costs $8 bucks. She is doing great!

One day during quiet time I told her she could fold some of her dishtowels in her room and she said, "no thank you mama". Then she came out about 15 minutes later with her laundry basket and her folded towels! She was so proud of herself and I was too, it really does help me! It's cute because she doesn't fold them all the same size, she folds them to fit the open areas in the bottom of the basket. So some are long and skinny, and some are extra small. Whenever I pull them out of the drawer I can't help but get a huge smile on my face. Cute girl. We hope she makes her goal this Friday so she can get her Furreal pet. (Because this girl really needs more stuffed animals!)

Working hard!

Movie day, ballet, and the lake

2011-07-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

I'm really trying to catch up on all that we've been up to! I'm almost there...

We took the kids to see Cars 2 a few weekends ago. As most of you know, Josh loves anything that moves, but he especially loves cars. He is always so good to sit and watch the whole movie. We got there pretty early to get good seats and to get our yummy snacks. We found out that Josh can have the popcorn minus the butter you put on after purchasing it. So we gave him a cup full before Nick dumped the good stuff on top. Josh was extremely happy!

It was a really cute movie. We all liked it a lot.

Maya started her ballet class and is enjoying it so far. She is taking the class with her best friend Zoe.

I have to admit, she makes a beautiful ballerina with that dark hair and skin. She could use a little work in the whole "being graceful" area - she usually ends up falling to the floor, but that will come with time.

This past weekend we decided to take the kids canoeing. Nick is determined to make our kids enjoy the outdoors and to not be wimps, like me. So far, Josh and Maya are very scared of any type of bug (even fruit flies), hate to get dirty, and freak out if the weather is too hot or too cold. He's got his work cut out for him! I was on board with the canoeing trip though, and want our kids to experience different things, so we were off. Right when we place Josh in the canoe he completely goes ballistic, is afraid that he's going to fall in the water and wants Nick to hold him and paddle us at the same time. It was going to be an interesting morning! Finally, Josh calms down and Maya is content too. We paddle out a few hundred feet when Maya starts asking when are we going to go back to the beach and play with the other kids? Wow. Classic. We told her to pretend she was Rapunzel from Tangled and that we were looking for the lanterns in the sky. That helped a little. She also saw a dead fish floating on top of the water which kept her interest for a bit. She had a lot of questions about it.

Maya loved the water! She also enjoyed looking for "lake shells".

Joshy got a little burnt out so he sat under a tree with me for awhile. I love this sweet face!

After the canoe trip we let the kids play in the water for awhile. I wish we would have been more prepared with, you know, food, more water, hats, etc. (the essentials!) so we could have spent more time there, but it will definitely be something we'll do again in the future. We really are so fortunate to have so many lakes around us!

July 4th and Nick's B-day

2011-07-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

We had a few friends over for a BBQ on the 4th. Nothing like inviting people over to get your hubby to do a lot of work around the house! Me and the kids helped a little too, but Nick was awesome in the yard all weekend. He decided that for an early bday present he'd get a new gas grill. Well, we went to Lowe's and were sickened by the prices! So he settled for a charcoal grill, which he's been wanting for awhile anyway. We have been cooking so much on the grill and actually like the end result better than gas! Imagine that.

Ava and Josh wanted their daddies to sit by them at the kid's picnic table. Too cute!

Maya LOVES Hailey. She is so sweet and will do whatever Maya wants to do.

All of the kids had fun pelting Nick with water balloons. Josh just liked stomping on them.

Our sweet girl. I was telling her earlier in the day what Independence Day is all about and when she saw Nick in the backyard working she ran out and said, "DAD!?! Did you know we live in a free country!?!?!"

The older kids were excited to light the fireworks so all the parents got to sit back and relax. It was a fun night! Thanks for coming guys.

Three days later was Nick's birthday! He had to work but we tried to make it special when he got home. Maya and I decorated the living room with crepe paper and balloons, and we went to Costco to pick up a yummy carrot cake. They have the best cakes! For dinner I was going to make him some grilled chicken on the gas grill (not sure how to do the charcoal yet) but when I tried to start the BBQ it flamed up and burnt all of the hair off my arm! I was so freaked out that I made him cook the chicken when he got home from work. Then we just opened presents and hung out.

Getting birthday loves from the kids.

Playing with his present from Josh.

A few days before Nick's birthday I took the kids in the backyard to get some new pictures of them. I had this really plain looking black frame for their picture...so Maya decorated it with bright foam glitter stars and it ended up looking so nice. Here are some of my favorite pictures from our little photo shoot:

Josh being Josh, refusing to smile and folding his arms in protest.

The Winner! It's a miracle that I got one of them both looking at me and smiling.

July has been so fun!

Spree

2011-07-18T16:01:00.001-07:00

The last week of June we always go to this little "Spree" that the city puts on. This year the weather was crazy! We decided to go Friday night and it ended up being perfect. The kids went on a lot of rides and we ran into friends from church and school. We bought two wristbands from a friend so that the kids could ride on whatever they wanted to but found out when we got there that Josh was too short to use the wristband. The employees were happy to take his very expensive tickets we had to buy instead though. It ended up working out fine because Nick used the wristband and went on a bunch of rides with Maya.

Ready to go!

We saw Maya's school friend, Noah and his little sister Lila. They decided to ride the boat ride together. So adorable!

You'd think they would have the rides at the carnival down to a science, but most of them start with such a jolt that the younger kids end up crying throughout the entire ride! That was the case on this ride. Josh got so scared that he ended up crying until Maya, the brave big sister, put her arm around him and kept it there the ENTIRE ride. What sweet kids. I ended up getting a little teary eyed.

Daddy joined in on the fun later on. He talked Maya into going on the caterpillar rollercoaster! I was very proud of her. She also loved this big slide.

This was by far my favorite part of the night! Josh went on this little car ride and was so happy and excited, he thought he was really driving the car. He wouldn't look at us and wave because he was concentrating so hard. Loved that!

Later on we met up with my friend Tiffany and her kids. They all had fun going on different rides together.

This is Maya with another friend from school, Lauren. They will be in the same class next year. Such beautiful and fun girls!

J wasn't too bummed about missing out on the rides because he had full reign of the cotton candy. Little monster, I think he ate about 3/4 of the bag!

We had a great time! The Spree always lands on our anniversary, so that's basically how we celebrated. The next night we had a very fancy dinner at Leo's Coney Island with the kids. :) It has been a great 8 years with my man! I can't believe it's been that long. I guess we're getting old.

What an amazing surprise!

2011-06-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

We started off the day yesterday by heading to Josh's allergist appointment. I wasn't feeling positive that there would be a change in his milk/egg allergy because at his last appointment the doctor said we could expect him to be about 5 before he outgrows them. I think Josh remembered our last visit. After we got into the office he immediately said, "go bye bye mommy? Go bye bye?" Poor little guy. Thankfully, we only needed them to do the scratch test on 2 different spots of his back. If you aren't familiar with the scratch/prick test, they prick the skin and then place a few drops of the allergen there. I noticed right away that the egg sample was not showing up and the milk sample was very small. The doctor decided to try some fresh milk (I guess they used some type of manufactured stuff) and that kind showed a reaction on his back. So, the final result was his egg allergy is GONE, and his milk allergy is still present but has reduced by 50% from his last appointment! I need to slowly introduce eggs and make sure he's okay with them. We meet with the allergist again in a year and hopefully we'll be done with the milk allergy too!

Maya was surprisingly excited and happy with Josh's progress. She kept asking about what different things we could make now that he can have eggs. Muffins, french toast, waffles, pancakes....made with eggs!?!? Amazing. This morning we tried waffles. He wolfed them down and has been fine all day - no reaction at all. This is truly such a blessing and answer to our prayers.

The Zoo, Father's Day, and other stuff

2011-06-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

This summer has been exhausting already! I guess I'm ready for Maya to go back to school. Not really, but it is nice to have those few hours a week to get errands done. She sure enjoys putting up a fight whenever I need to run to the store, or do anything she doesn't want to do. Fun stuff!

We took our first zoo trip on Friday and it was perfect! It was nice and breezy and the kids were so excited to go. The whole way there Josh kept saying, "see nanimals mommy? See nanimals?" He was so much more interested in everything this year. We splurged and took a train ride and, wow, Josh was in Heaven! I loved seeing him so excited. Maya was scared to get on it at first because she thought it was going to go really fast. We stayed for about 4 hours then headed home.

While we were at the zoo, Nick was en route to Tennessee for his big bike race that he has been training for. He ended up riding his bike for about 9.5 hours on Saturday (around 120 miles, I think). When he and his buddy Shane finished the race they showered, ate some dinner, and started their 9 hour drive home! He got home at 4:45am Sunday morning and was up with the rest of us at 7:45am to get ready for church. He definitely crashed when we got home and was out for a few hours. I'm so proud of him, but glad he's done! That same day was Father's Day and we had a nice time together. I made a pot of Nick's favorite pasta sauce and Italian sausages, a recipe passed down from his grandma. We had some cheesecake and cupcakes for dessert. As for presents, he had been wanting these sunglasses for his race so he ordered his own gift and got it a few days early. Easy for me! We also got him a new family game, Jenga, and the kids went crazy making all sorts of art projects for him. We had a great day! He is a great dad and cares so much about his kids, and works so hard for the family.

All of the artwork from the kids.

It was sad to be away from my dad again on another Father's Day. I only got to speak with him for a few minutes because he was at work. I'm very thankful for him and for all that he sacrificed so that us kids could have such a good life. I miss him so much!

I wanted to share a cute story about Josh. On Saturday we were outside hanging out, Josh was sitting on my lap and being really snuggly, he looked up at me, put his chubby hands on my cheeks and said, "Mommy? You happy mommy? You happy?" I told him yes and he gave me a huge hug. He's such a sweet boy. Now he asks everybody if they're happy too. I was listening to him playing with his little Mickey Mouse figurine and he was asking Mickey if he was happy. Love that little guy.

Yesterday we had one of our trees removed from the front yard. It was constantly dropping dead branches and has been horrible for our grass. It was a pretty cool process to watch and the kids were entertained all day - so thank you for that tree company!

Preschool Graduation

2011-06-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's June! It seems like it went from winter to summer overnight, with no spring in-between. I am taking one class now and was planning on doing four over the summer but decided the timing just isn't working out. so nursing will have to wait. My kids are only going to be this little for a short period of time and I don't want to miss out on anything. On top of that, I cannot find the time to study, which is basically how I spend every night of the week, and it still doesn't seem to be enough. I'm just tired of it! I'll continue knocking one class down at a time and hopefully I will be finished with school by the time my kids are in high school!

Speaking of school, Maya's last day of preschool was today. I think she has mixed feelings about it because she has really started liking class over the past few months, but she is excited for the summer to be here as well. She has made a lot of really good friends this year and seems to think that every day she gets to have a playdate with a different friend. She is no longer satisfied with me as a friend...kinda sad, kinda nice. She continues to keep us on our toes with her gazillion questions a day and has also been quite sweet lately. She is definitely starting to grow up. I can't believe she is going to be 5 in September! The other day I told her she needed to stay little forever and her reply was, "MOM! I can't be little forever! I have to go to college soon." At least I have 13 more years with her as my "baby"...only 13??? Here are pictures of her 'graduation' today. It was really special because Nick was able to take a few hours off to spend time with us. The kids sang a few songs, had an ice cream sundae (at 10:45am!!!!), and then the teachers passed out little certificates for each of them. After her class ended we went to "Old McDonald's House" for lunch (Maya's pick) and she played for a little while. This little girl at the play area kept following Maya around, talking to her and trying to play with her. Maya finally came up to me and said, "Mom? That girl keeps saying my name is beautiful, but it's not!" She is definitely beautiful!

With her awesome preschool teachers.

Maya and her best friend, Zoe.

Before we left the school Nick and I gave Maya some flowers. Her face went all red and she got so excited! She kept thanking us for them. She loves flowers right now.

Lunch

Congrats my little graduate! Only one more year in pre-K and she will be off to a real 'big girl' school. We love you Maya!

Josh is doing really well. He is all over the place and has been talking a lot lately. I've shared this with a few of you already but I wanted to put it on our blog too :) We are constantly telling Josh that he needs to stop being mean and that he should be nice. Well, the other day in the car he did something naughty and I said, "Josh be nice!" He glared at me and said, "I mean, not nice. HA HA HA!" The laughing part sounded like an evil laugh! I think he picked that up from Maya, she does that when she is doing something sneaky. He is so funny but can definitely be "mean". I know it's hard to believe because most of the time he is so mellow and calm, but at home he can be a stinker.

Waiting for Maya's class to finish.

Easter in Utah, 2011

2011-05-18T12:25:00.001-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Utah trip

2011-05-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

(I will get some pictures up soon)

Our trip to Utah was great! I miss everyone already. The kids and I left about 4 days before Nick was able to leave work. It was nice to spend those extra days with the family and to get settled in. The kids are really turning into wonderful little travelers. Maya only woke up once in the middle of the night and Josh slept through the night the entire trip! My parents were so sweet and gave us the entire upstairs, including their master bedroom/bath. It was so convenient. Most of those early days were spent visiting, eating a lot, and letting the cousins hang out. One day we were able to take Maya to my sister Missy’s preschool because they were having a little Easter egg hunt. Josh was able to participate too. My niece Ellie helped him a lot because he was shy. That night we went back to Miss' house to decorate Easter eggs with my niece and nephew, Carson and Ellie. It was such a simple activity but it meant so much to me. We have missed out on so many holidays and it just felt so nice to be there with them.

When Nick got into town we were able to go and visit his mom, brother, and grandma. Uncle Michael had just finished up with surgery so it was nice to see him and catch up. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera. We also visited with Nick's family the next day because his little brother Alex was over and we haven't seen him for 4 years or so. I wish we could have spent more time with them but Michael ended up getting sick so we couldn't visit very much.

Easter was so much fun. I loved seeing all of the cousins together. Josh got along really well with my niece, Claire. They are only one month apart and are quite opposite. Claire is all over the place and has a more outgoing/adventurous personality while Josh usually sticks close to mom and dad, and is really reserved. They are both so sweet! Their personalities came out during the Easter egg hunt. Claire ran everywhere and got as many eggs as possible, while Josh strolled along and chose a few eggs here and there. Maya absolutely loved being with her cousins. We had lots of play dates and tried to fit in as much as possible. Maya was so sad as we pulled out of my parent's driveway. She said, "I'm really going to miss Grandma. We just had a great time together." Then as we got out of the car at the airport she said, "I'm going to miss Papa too. We didn't even get to wrestle very much." We're so grateful for all of our family members in Utah. We miss you and wish we lived closer so we could make more special memories.

Last day of classes

2011-04-14T12:09:00.001-07:00

I'm reconsidering this private blog thing but will decide soon.

Today was Maya's last swim class at the rec. center. I dread every Thursday morning because I know she will fight me on taking her to class. You never know what her reaction will be. So, after encouraging her for awhile, she finally agreed to go since it was her last class. She has grown SO much as a swimmer, I just don't understand why she doesn't want to go to class because once she's there she does great. I think she loves being home and has a hard time leaving. Anyway, she can float on her back and kick all the way across the pool, jump in from the side and go under, and she's doing really well with kicking off the side and swimming under water. She says she would like to take the summer off from swimming.

J was a great supporter each week. This is kind of a crazy picture of him but I love how long his eyelashes are!

Good Job Maya! We are proud of you.

Josh also finished his class at the rec. center. We went each Monday while Maya was in school and learned about different sports and played with other 2 year olds. It was fun to spend time with just Josh. He is a fun kid and constantly makes me laugh. His favorite week was when the teacher brought in big wheel tricycles for them. He would get so excited when one would become available, but would only use it for a minute if other kids were waiting.

We love having the rec. center in our neighborhood!

Going Private

2011-04-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

We decided to go private on our blog. Please let me know in the comments if you'd like an invite.

Thanks!

An update!

2011-04-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

It's been a really busy month with school for me, so all of my free time has been spent studying and doing homework, and obviously NOT blogging. We decided to book a trip to Utah at the end of the month! I'm excited we'll be there for Easter, but boy I have been going crazy trying to get everything done with my classes. Nick is going crazy too because he's had to step in more. Thanks dude!

I have also not blogged because I can't find my camera battery charger. It's been MIA since our Florida trip and I'm hoping we didn't leave it behind. I may just have to pick up a new one from Amazon or somethin'. So I don't have any recent pictures to add, and we've done a lot of fun things too. A few weeks ago Nick took Maya to see Rango and said it was okay but had a few parts that weren't great. I stayed home while Josh napped and got some things done. The next weekend I had to visit an art museum for class and planned on going out alone so I could quickly get the requirement done, but someone (Nick) suggested I take Maya with me and we go on a girly date. I was sure that M would start whining the second we got in the car but she was great! We had a lot of fun and made great memories. We looked at some art, (her face went red when she saw the "nakey" ones) had lunch at Subway, and walked around downtown Plymouth before stopping into a little candy shop where she got to choose a candy. She was so sweet. I told her to pick one thing and she kept asking if Josh could have this or that, and she chose something that they could share that didn't have milk or eggs in it. I love her! Later that night we took a family trip to the rec center to go swimming. I cannot believe how much Maya has improved over the past few months because of swim lessons. She kept going under the water like it was not a big deal, and then she said, "watch this guys" and SWAM under water for a few feet. I was so proud of her! Nick and I were so happy to see her progress. She went under so much that her eyes were red from the chlorine. She said something pretty cute awhile back that I wanted to share. We were getting the kids ready for bed and Maya was trying to decide who would put her to bed. She looked at Nick and said,"It would be my pleasure if you put me to bed." What!?! Don't know where she picks up this stuff. Pretty cute though.

I took Josh to his 2 year appointment and he is 26 1/2 pounds and, uhhh, some length..don't remember 38 inches, does that sound about right? Not sure. But he is healthy and his lungs sounded great, which was a huge relief since we're in the middle of ashma season. Keep your fingers crossed that he continues to do well! The doctor does want us to go back to the physical therapist to get fitted for some awesome ankle braces. Poor kid. Who wants to wear ankle braces in the summer time? Oh well, hopefully they will help his ankles straighten out a bit so he can be even more confident on his feet. He has been doing great with his special shoe inserts, but without them he is pretty unstable. He continues to bring joy into our lives and always has a kiss and hug waiting for you. He is also very funny and likes to jibber jabber. Did I mention he's sneaky? Yesterday Maya was helping me up at the countertop and she left her cup of pretzels unattended for a few minutes. I looked down and the pretzels were gone, Josh's bowl was mysteriously full again, and he was running out of the kitchen as if he was being chased by a monster. I didn't bring Maya's attention to it or else he would have had a monster chasing after him! Later on, I asked him if he took Maya's pretzels and he got a guilty look on his face and said, "Yeah." I asked him why, and he said, " 'cause."

Life is good!

2011-03-08T04:59:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Josh!

Born on March 8, 2009 at 4:09am

I can't believe 2 years ago you joined our family, it seems like it was just yesterday that we were in the hospital meeting you. You have brought so much happiness and laughter into our home, and we can't imagine life without you! You have had a lot of health problems and struggles but you have never been difficult to deal with through it all. Even when we have to make you sit and have a breathing treatment, you will just sit and be sweet and patient. You have always been a laid-back little guy, but recently you decided that you wouldn't take the backseat to your older sister anymore! You love to tease her and you know just the right buttons to push. I want you to know how perfect you are - thanks for being you and for being my boy!

Here are a few of your favorite things at 2 years old:

Sayings: Uh-oh, NO, tease,(please) fank you, help me, there go, (for "there you go") car, truck, kitty, doggy, gink (drink), mommy, daddy, sissy, ya-ya, (Maya) book, night night, no go night night, ni-ni, (binky), huh?, okay...and some others. You have really started talking over the last few months! It's been exciting.
Toys: CARS! Any type of ball or sport.
Food: Umm, not much lately. Chicken nuggets, fries, you do love steamed broccoli and carrots, blueberry muffins, PB&J.
Drink: Chocolate Soy Milk, apple juice, orange juice.
Other activities: You love to dance, but you get shy when others watch you. You always come into the kitchen when I have the radio on and dance away! Riding bikes, family Rock Band, wrestling with dad, watching shows. You are not into painting or coloring yet, but you like playdough. You also love to read books with mom or dad.

Love you buddy! Happy Birthday!

It's March!

2011-03-03T09:18:00.001-08:00

I was so happy to say goodbye to February, and move on to March. This cold weather is really getting to me this year. I can't wait for warm days at the park, or just going for a walk around the block. Regardless of the weather, we are still keeping busy. Maya has preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and swimming lessons on Thursday mornings. She just moved up from the "Water Basics" group to the "Red" group, mainly because she finally put her head under the water. She fought her teacher on this for the first 5 weeks last session, and finally decided to do it on the final day of class. It had a lot to do with the ice cream I bribed her with. :) Whatever works! Today was the first day of her new class and she seems to be the most timid student in the class. She went under without any bribery though!

Josh gets pretty bored while we wait for Maya to finish class. Today he was crawling all over the nasty floor pretending to be a dog. It was pretty cute. We got him into a little class too, it is on Monday mornings while Maya is in school. This past week they focused on baseball and all of the kids got to hit baseballs off of a tee. So fun to watch him get excited about it!

Being a puppy.

Nothing else too exciting to share. I'm thankful I get to stay home with my sweet babies and I treasure every day with them. I can't keep track of all the cute/clever things that Maya comes up with. The other day we were playing at an indoor play area, all of the kids left so we had the place to ourselves. Maya said, "Oh wow mom, everyone left so now it's fresh for me!" Another day I was helping her with something and she said, "Mom, thanks for your help. It really appreciates me." Cute girl. She is CONSTANTLY asking questions, and is very inquisitive. She doesn't usually let anybody else have a chance to talk. We have been working with her on that though, and always explain that if two people are talking you can't cut in and say what you want to say. She is getting better. Funny because she is still pretty shy outside of our house.

Josh is equally entertaining with his little personality. Some days he has so much attitude, other days he is the sweetest baby boy ever. He can't stand it when we are upset with him for hitting, yelling, etc. so he will rub your face with his hand and give kisses to make things all better. We went to Toys "R" Us on Tuesday to look at toys for his birthday and he was hysterical! He'd find something interesting and drag me over to take a look. Then he'd walk around the next aisle with his hands in his pockets like a big boy. I can't believe he turns 2 in a few days! Where did the last year go?

Our new ride

2011-02-13T18:29:00.001-08:00

The lease was up on our cute Ford Fusion this month so we had a big decision to make. Nick is a major "car guy" - I am starting to think we will always have a car payment because he likes to get new cars every few years. Good thing he works at Ford so we get a nice discount! Anyway, we were going back and forth between the new Explorer with 3 rows, and the Edge. We decided to go with the Edge because we don't really need the space yet, and it was less money. :) Always a good thing! I LOVE this car and have been trying to find excuses just to drive it. The kids like it too, although, don't call it a car or SUV because Maya insists it's a van!

Disneyworld

2011-02-09T12:22:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Orlando on Sunday, January 16th around 12pm, got our luggage, and headed toward the rental car place. Because my parents would be meeting us there we decided to rent a van and, surprisingly, we LOVED it! There was so much space and everyone was comfortable, Nick even enjoyed driving it. If we had more kids I think we'd consider one. Anyway, my parents didn't get in until around 4pm so we drove to a nearby Babies R Us to pick up some things we needed for the kids, then headed back to the airport to pick them up. After stopping at a Disney discount ticket business to get our tickets we were off to find our condo. The next time we go on a vacation we will definitely look into renting a condo again. You just can't beat having 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a full kitchen to utilize. Every morning we made our own breakfast and packed up snacks, then headed for the parks. A few times we made dinners at the unit as well which saved a bunch of money! One of the bedrooms was decorated with Mickey paraphernalia, and had two twin beds so we thought why not let the kids sleep together in the same room? Big mistake! Josh was so scared and woke up every few hours until finally he and Nick swapped places. Even then, J would not sleep next to me. Needless to say, we were exhausted the next day!

On Monday morning we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom, even though there was a 90% chance of rain...really, what were we thinking?? We got there and tried to get on a kids' ride but were told that we couldn't ride because of the lightning. At that point it started to sprinkle so we took cover in a gift shop for 45 minutes, hoping it would stop. It didn't, it just got worse, so we decided to leave. On the way out Nick decided to ask about receiving a rain check. The customer service lady said, "it's raining but the park is still open" DUH! We are all drenched (including our small, cranky children), does it look like we want to hang out and get rained on!? Nick kept pushing it and we got some day passes for free. We ran to our van and went back to the condo where we all just relaxed and watched TV. That night, when the weather cleared up, we went to Downtown Disney and looked at some of the shops then ate at Rainforest Cafe, afterward we went to Ghiradelis Chocolate shop and got hot chocolate and sundaes! Yum!!!!

Trying on hats in the gift shop with Papa Stan

Tuesday we went to Disneyworld!!! It wasn't very crowded and the weather wasn't bad. We decided to stick it out as long as possible since the park closed at 6pm. I had two favorite moments that day; one was watching the "Dreams Come True" show with Mickey and friends, and most of the princesses, then watching the Monsters Inc. comedy show. The Mickey show was cool because Maya looked so happy and excited as she watched the characters...it was just how I remembered experiencing Disney at a young age. The Monsters Inc. show was awesome because there are real comedians backstage who play the characters in the show, and they improvise as the audience plays along. It was very entertaining! We headed home around 4pm for a swim while my parents took a break from us :) . Poor Josh was so tired, but he slept great that night! Thankfully, the condo owner had a porta-crib and a large walk-in closet, Josh was so happy to see a baby crib and hugged it after Nick set it up for him in his new "room".

Sweet little face watching the Mickey show.

Wednesday we attempted the Animal Kingdom again, along with every travel group visiting from Brazil. It was crazy BUSY!!! We waited the longest for any ride at that park, the safari ride was an hour and a half wait, and BRUTAL with kids. Maya was all over the place and probably driving the people around us crazy. My parents took the kids to watch a parade while Nick and I went on the Everest ride. So fun and scary! We found an awesome jalapeno-cheese filled pretzel, which was by far my favorite park snack! It was like going on a mini-date with my man. When we met up with the rest of the family, the parade was still going on and we watched our sweet kids giving fives to all of the characters in the parade. That's what it's all about! I'm sure a lot of people question why we'd take such young kids to Disneyworld, but seriously, they loved it and all of the hard work/money was worth it! Maya still talks about our last trip to Disneyworld last year when she was almost three so I'm hoping she'll remember this trip for a long time as well, especially since we won't be going again for awhile!

I love this picture...well, except for the fact that I cut Nick's face in half. The kids both have cute faces. This was on the Safari Ride.

Taking a break. Notice J is trying to put his arm around me. LOVE HIM!

The kids with my cute mom, Debbie

Playing at the condo with my dad. Maya and Papa have a funny relationship. He loves to tease her and she dishes it right back to him. The night before we left they were cuddling/wrestling and all of a sudden Maya stops and says, "Papa, I love you but you are stinky." She is a freak about smells right now! If your breath isn't minty fresh, she'll tell you all about it.

Thursday we went to Hollywood Studios which has a few rides, but mostly you spend your time going to various shows and tours. Nick and I went on the Aerosmith Rockin' Rollercoaster and had a blast. Then my mom, dad, and Nick got fast passes to the Tower of Terror. I refuse to ride this one because I hate being dropped from the sky. While they went on the ride I took the kids to see The Little Mermaid musical. It was a great show...Maya has been obsessed with Ariel for some time now. Before leaving we decided to watch a car show - Josh was in Heaven! (& Nick too) They had 4-5 racecar drivers doing different stunts and scenes. Josh's face was priceless! When the cars went behind the large building props he'd say, "Where go??" and shrug his shoulders and put his chubby hands up. Then when they'd come speeding around the corner he'd say, "WoW!!!" He absolutely loved it. Maya, on the other hand, was bored after a few minutes. She did have a ton of questions about everything going on though. After naptime and a swim we headed to Giordano's Pizza! We first found out about this place when Nick and I visited Chicago over Thanksgiving, 2005. There is no relation so we didn't get a discount :( Awesome deep dish pizza, we also tried a thin crust which was just as good!

Josh loving the car show

Josh playing with Nick in the pool. Of all things to forget at home, I left his swimming suit! So we just used some jammie bottoms.

Giordano's Pizza

On Friday and Saturday we spent half days at Disneyworld. We were able to go on everything that we wanted to without waiting in the morning, then we saw the Monsters Inc. show again since they are always different with new material. My dad even got put up on a large jumbotron before the show started..underneath his picture they put something about how he will buy churros for everyone after the show. It was funny.

Our last monorail ride. Don't you just love Josh's 'coon skin cap? My mom had to get him one!

My mom came home with us on Sunday, January 23 to FREEZING temps and lots of snow. We were sad to say goodbye to my dad who had to get back to work. We had a great time in Florida!!! We originally planned on going on a romantic getaway, just Nick and me, to celebrate his graduation but decided the kids had sacrificed too by not having a dad around for awhile. :) Hopefully we will get away on that romantic trip this summer or fall.

Break - Part 2

2011-01-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

A few days after Christmas we attempted to go see the movie, "Tangled" but since we were a little late the theater was too full. Maya cried a little, in a disappointed way, not a spoiled brat way - she has grown up so much lately. By the time we got to the car she was fine and was excited when we told her we'd catch the first movie available in the morning.

That night we went home and played a game that Gramma Debbie and Papa Stan sent called Elephun. It's fun to have a game that both of the kids can play with. The next morning we got out of bed at 9am, seriously these kids have been awesome with sleeping lately, and ate breakfast then got ready for the show. We got there nice and early so we had really good seats. The movie was cute - Nick was even laughing throughout the whole thing. Josh did good considering we had to sit for a really long time. About 45 minutes into the movie he got bored and tired and kept snuggling with me. I love doing things with my family!

That evening we decided to run to the mall so Nick could exchange sizes on a cool jacket he received from his dad and step-mom, and the kids each got to pick a new friend from Build-a-Bear. Maya chose a bunny and Josh picked out a cute puppy with some help from dad. Last year when we took Maya we went overboard and let her pick shoes and two outfits for her pet, so we were a little worried that she'd throw a fit when we told her she could only pick a shirt, but she was surprisingly sweet and okay with it. This is such a cute store - especially if your kids love stuffed animals like ours do. Maya has about 30 and J loves his little Eeyore baby that he sleeps with every night.

For New Years Eve we just stayed home and spent time together. Nick grilled some steaks for us and they were really yummy and HUGE! The kids went to bed at regular time but we had a "party" downstairs with balloons and blow horn toys. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I promised Maya on one of her vacation days that we'd go outside and play in the snow. I'm really bad about this because I hate being cold. We went out one afternoon and tried to build a snowman and have a snowball fight but the snow was too icy and as hard as a rock, so we resorted to making snow angels. Josh was happy sitting in the snow and didn't make a peep while I played with M girl. We found some little ice balls and threw those at each other which was a lot of fun until Maya decided to bring Josh into the action and threw one at his eye. Poor kid. Turns out my kids are wimps in the snow too so we only lasted about 20 minutes!

Right before being pelted in the face with an ice ball!

Nick is back to work, Maya to school 3 days a week, and swim one day, and Josh and I are busy at home and enjoying my time off before school starts up again tomorrow. I'm taking three class so, uh, it's been nice knowing all of you. :)Anyway, I have been trying some new dairy-free recipes for Josh from a few new cookbooks I got off of Amazon. Yesterday I made homemade granola bars and today I made some crackers. I was a little scared and hesitant to do them but they both turned out tasty. Josh was so cute waiting at the oven for the crackers to finish baking. Glad he likes them and my efforts weren't wasted!

"Cheese" crackers

I took a picture of the granola too but Nick said it looks like a baking dish full of barf so I won't post it. It is SOOOO good though.

Might be awhile until I post again so enjoy this ridiculously long update of our life! I'll post again when we get back from our family vacay to FLORIDA!!!!

Christmas Break - Part 1

2011-01-02T17:41:00.000-08:00

Nick picked out a beautiful tree this year! We had fun decorating it with the kids. Josh was really into it at first but got bored after awhile. It was cute because he'd come get an ornament from me, put it on the tree, then raise his hands in the air and say, "YEAH!" Then he'd toddle back over to me and say "Mow" and do the sign for more. Maya wouldn't let Josh hold the glass ones and would say, "Sorry bud, this one is glass buddy" when I'd hand her one. She is a sweet big sister. (Most of the time.)

I love how our tree turned out! I especially love that our kiddos decorated the entire bottom half, and that Maya did most of the ribbons. They are such sweet kids.

On December 17th Maya had her last day of preschool, and her Christmas program. The parents all came back for the last 20 minutes of class to list to the kids sing their Christmas carols. Maya did a great job and sang her little heart out.

We saw Santa on December 22nd. Josh was not a fan but was super cute waiting in the long line to see him. He just stood there with his hands in his pockets like a big boy.

Maya, on the other hand, was a pro and had waited a long time for that moment. She asked for a Baby Alive doll for her, and a new baseball hat for her brother.

Because Nick still had 2 vacation days left he decided to take them at the beginning of his Christmas break, so he has been off since December 22nd! We love having him home! He is a great help with the kids, and since we both love naps we take turns sleeping when he's home. We found a lot of things to do with all of the vacation time. We painted nails, decorated a gingerbread house, and just hung out. It was great, and Maya was in Heaven since we were all home a lot and she got so much attention!

On the 24th we spent the day getting ready for Santa by cleaning the house, making chocolate chip cookies, and putting reindeer food out on the lawn to ensure that Rudolph would find our place. We also opened our traditional PJ and a new Christmas book from Gramma Dotty and Papa Tony.

Feeding the Reindeer!

Afterwards we went to dinner at our friend's house and boy did they spoil us! They made steak, chicken, baked potatoes, and some other yummy things. We didn't get home until 10 pm, which is just about 3 hours past our kids' bed time so they were super tired and ready to sleep. They did, however, sleep in until about 8am. Maya was so excited and kept yelling, "Santa came guys! This is the best Christmas ever!"

We tried not to overdo it this year because we are taking a family trip to Disneyworld in January, but between our gifts and those sent from family members they got so spoiled! Josh was much more into it this Christmas, he received about 15 new cars/trucks and loved each of them! Every time he would open one up he would say, "OH WOW!" and would bring the package to either Nick or me to have it taken out. Maya was a speed demon opening her presents, even when we persisted that she slow down, and didn't quite understand why she was done before everyone else! They both loved all of their presents...thanks everybody!

Baby Alive...haven't seen much of her since Christmas morning!

There are a few things you should know about Josh. He loves baseball hats, pretend phones, and cars. He is one happy camper with these gifts!

Nick's sister works for Mattel so she sends the kids some pretty awesome gifts. This year she sent J a matchbox car that has his name and picture on it! Pretty sweet!

HOLY FETCH! LIP GLOSS! How did Santa know!?! But seriously, I have never seen anybody so excited about lip gloss.

J loves life right about now.

Hope you all had a great Christmas!!!

A message from Santa to Maya

2010-12-13T07:47:00.001-08:00

A friend on Facebook did this for her daughter and I just had to do it for Maya! It is so cute and she thought Santa was really talking to her personally. I tried to record it with our digital camera but I only had enough memory for the first minute or two. Too bad because her reactions were so cute.

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/guest/JgrOChqluIkqMGcC-62ZTQ

Haircut, Thanksgiving and more walking

2010-12-10T05:12:00.001-08:00

We started off our Thanksgiving weekend with Maya cutting her own hair on Wednesday night. I was so disappointed because I want her hair to be long again, but she actually did a pretty good job. She was quite thoughtful too because she put all of the hair in the garbage can for us!

Her haircut...really, it's not that bad.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with some friends. We ate, looked at Black Friday ads, played Rockband, and just hung out. Nick did most of the cooking, which was awesome! He did a great job. Maya and I made some little place mats for all of our guests, and cleaned up the house. It's always hard being away from our family members during the holidays, I miss them all so much, but it was nice to spend time with good friends. We gave Maya the camera and she had fun taking pictures before everybody came over.

Maya was a huge help in the kitchen this year. Here she is helping Nick get the turkey ready.

Helping mom make some mini cherry pies.

The bird

This picture just makes me laugh. There are about 20 of these on my camera. She decided to set the camera up on the table to see how many pictures she could take of herself.

On Friday Nick unexpectedly got called in to work, which meant I had to change my Black Friday shopping plans. I wasn't planning on going really early but I like to head out around 8am or so. I ended up getting a babysitter for Maya while Josh and I ran to Target and Toys R Us. Josh was hilarious! Everytime I'd put a boy item in the cart he'd say, "OH WOW!!!" I also got a few good deals on Walmart's website. The next day I hit up Old Navy to get the kids some clothes. They are officially done now!

This past Saturday we finally got our front bay window replaced. The large center window has had a broken seal for over 6 years which has caused condensation to fill the inside of the two window panes. It constantly looked dirty and there was no way to clean it because it was on the inside. Anyway, it looks great!! Nick, Maya, and Josh all watched in amazement (for 2 hours straight) as the worker guys took out the old window and replaced it with the new one. Now we just need to stain the surrounding wood and get some new blinds. Merry Christmas to us! It was really cute to watch Josh walk up and stare at the guys as they worked outside on the window, he would just stand there and watch then give a little wave.

Speaking of Josh walking...oh man, he is EVERYWHERE! He constantly brings me little treasures from the different rooms he's been in, and has the biggest and proudest smile on his face as he hands it to me. I went to the portrait studio last week to get their pictures taken and went alone because Nick had class that night. (Only 2 more Monday nights to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Josh was walking everywhere and at one point got out of my sight and walked into one families' photo shoot. Whoops! It makes me laugh now though and the other family was really nice about it. Afterwards Maya was laughing so hard when we were talking about it and she said, "Did Joshy think that was his new family or what, mom?" This kid is so much happier now that he can walk! He is also picking up more words which has been exciting. He can say book, show, two,(and hold 1 finger up, haha) cheese, tease (for please), night-night, mow (for more), shoes, eyes, ears, and a couple more, but his favorite is NO! Not fun for all of us...

I love this time of year. I love remembering all of the blessings I have in my life and taking time to reflect on the year we've had. I love my beautiful children so much. They mean everything to me!! No matter how hard it can is to be a mom sometimes, I wouldn't want to do anything else with my life. I'm also very grateful for my husband. He is so amazing and perfect for me. I love that we can laugh and have a good time together but deal with serious issues too. I love watching him with the kids and seeing how much they truly love him. On Sunday we were trying to get everything ready for church and were waiting for Josh to get up from his nap so we could get him ready. Nick was filling up a water bottle so he could do J's hair and when I went to grab it so I could do Maya's hair I noticed the water was warm. Simple enough thing to do, but it just shows what a good and thoughtful daddy he is! It made me cry....I know, I'm a weirdo.

This weekend should be fun. Nick took the day off today so we put up the Christmas lights, and finally bought our Christmas tree.

I'll end this post with one final picture. This is Josh when he got up from his nap the other day. I have to say, he has amazing hair - I'll make sure Maya keeps the scissors away from it.

Josh is an official walker!

2010-12-02T19:44:00.001-08:00

Josh is NOW officially walking at just under 21 months! Our little stubborn boy has been walking all over the house for two days now. It has put a constant smile on our faces! No more specialists or doctors to worry about. He can do it now!!! He'll even walk into different rooms all by himself!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My Bday/Weekend

2010-11-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

My birthday was this past Tuesday but Nick and the kids helped me celebrate all weekend! It was great! I got Rock Band from them, so obviously we spent all weekend ROCKING OUT! Maya and I both like the drums, so we have to take turns, and Nick kicks butt on the guitar. This has been a fun family activity for us! I see lots more rockin' in our future....

Thanks, guys!

My actual birthday was a different story. It started off just fine with breakfast, and Maya even offered to wash the dishes for me. It was cute because there were still bubbles on the plates and cups but she decided to dry them off and put them away anyway. At least she is trying!

This is where the day took a turn for the worse - my kids were soooooo cranky, and were literally fighting ALL DAY LONG. I finally called Nick at 4pm to complain and gripe. He felt bad and asked me to hold on a little bit longer because he only had one more hour to go. I gave the kids a bath and all of a sudden I heard a knock on the door...

I love my husband! He hasn't sent me flowers in a long time so these were greatly appreciated on such a stressful day!!

That night we went to a goodbye dinner for a good friend who is moving away this weekend. It was sad to say goodbye! Nick offered to watch the kids for me afterwards and I enjoyed an hour and a half of shopping and silence at Kohl's.

I really did have a nice day...I am a mom, and I understand that some days are really quite good, but other days just plain stink! I love J and M so much though and I love being their mommy.

Thanks everyone for the calls, emails, cards, presents, etc. I felt sooo loved!

Leaves, leaves, and more leaves!

2010-11-11T11:15:00.000-08:00

We have 3 huge trees in our yard and every Fall we have to spend hours raking up all the leaves. Maya thought we were raking them all up in a pile for the sole purpose that she could jump in them and would get mad at us when we put them out for pick up...she sure is beautiful though!

Halloween Weekend

2010-11-11T10:47:00.001-08:00

Wow, it seems like Halloween was so long ago. On Friday night we carved a pumpkin...Maya was so excited all day, but when it came to carving or cleaning the pumpkin, she wanted nothing to do with it. She liked putting the candle inside!

This was after I asked her to help clean out the pumpkin.

On Saturday night we went to our church's Trunk or Treat party. Josh wouldn't wear all of his costume so he didn't look much like Dracula, but that's okay. I did get a couple of pictures beforehand.

J starting to meltdown a little bit.

"Thanks for taking off the cape mom! I'm much happier now!"

At least I got one picture of him smiling!

Nick looked really hot for the party :) A lot of people didn't even recognize him!

It was fun to see Nick get into the spirit of Halloween this year. Normally he doesn't even like to pass out candy! He passed out all of the candy at the trunk or treat and I took the kids around to get their treats.

We were talking with some friends after the party and all of a sudden I realized Maya wasn't around. I looked behind me and she was sitting in her car seat with a few candies. The look on her face was pure happiness! She doesn't get candy that often...and she NEVER has it late at night. Good thing this only happens once a year!

On Halloween we went to a few houses and Maya loved it. Last year she still needed some help, but this year she was a pro! When we got home she put all of her treats on the carpet and started categorizing everything into little piles. I wasn't paying much attention to what she was saying while she organized but then I noticed a pile of non-chocolate items and heard her say, "there's another one Joshy can have." (we didn't have him go trick or treating.) Just thinking about this sweet moment makes me tear up. I was so proud of her to think of Josh as he struggles with his milk allergy. She is always concerned that he will get sick, and even got mad at the Costco lady when she told us there was no milk/egg product in their churros but then J had a reaction to one. She is a great sister and I know she loves her brother!!

October happenings in Michigan

2010-10-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

We absolutely loooooove October in Michigan. The weather is beautiful, the leaves on all the trees are changing, and the cider mills are open. We took a family trip to one recently and enjoyed yummy apple cider and fresh cinnamon sugar/powdered sugar doughnuts! Poor Josh couldn't eat the doughnuts so we brought him animal crackers instead. I hate this milk allergy!

One weekend we went to the zoo - the weather was PERFECT!!

They had a few bands playing music. Maya was being such a stinker this day! I love Nick's face here because it pretty much sums up how our trip to the zoo was! At least Josh was a sweetie.

Last weekend we picked up some pumpkins and I think tonight we will carve and decorate them. I love Halloween! Maya had her party at school today and got to dress up. She was going to be Ariel but decided to be a fairy instead, fine with us because we had everything for that costume too. Her teacher, Mrs. McCarthy, was dressed up as Cruela Deville...awesome costume!

Have I mentioned how much Josh LOVES airplanes? He was much more interested in spotting them in the sky than picking out a pumpkin. We've discovered that he also loves pushing cars on the floor, putting his shoes and jacket on, and wearing any type of hat. I love this boy so much!

My sweet girl. I swear, ever since she turned four, her temper tantrums have improved drastically! Maybe I shouldn't jink myself....regardless, we've really been enjoying her!

This was taken on Wednesday before school. Josh heard me telling Maya to smile and came crawling in as fast as he could because he wanted to be in the picture too.

Random picture, but J looks really cute here.

Here is Maya all ready for her party! She was excited because I "creeped" (crimped) her hair, and put a little pink eye shadow and blush on her.

So happy to be a fairy! Notice Josh trying to weasel his way into the picture...

Tomorrow we have another Halloween party and then I can take pictures of Josh in his scary Dracula costume!!

Just cute...

2010-10-24T16:23:00.001-07:00

Maya participated in her very first Primary Program today. The kids at church present the different themes they covered throughout the year to the parents and other ward members. We didn't think Maya would dare get up in front of everybody, but she did it! Her part was, "I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me because they gave me my family." I was told that she came up with her own part, which made it even more special. It was so cute to see her up in the front row with the other Sunbeams(3 year olds)"singing" the songs, but mostly she was waving, making binoculars out of her hands, giving me the thumbs up sign, winking at us, and putting her necklace on top of her nose. I loved hearing her voice through the microphone - I cried and everything. Josh saw her about halfway through the program and waved a few times. He was proud too.

Since school started last month, Maya has been very interested in drawing. She constantly has her little black notebook and is practicing writing her letters, her name, or drawing pictures. She is getting sooo good, too! She has never had much patience for learning letters and retaining anything I tried to teach her, but she seems to be more interested in it now. I love seeing what she comes up with in her drawings. I hope my mom doesn't see this post because here is the gift Maya sent for her upcoming birthday. She calls them her "colorful cats." They are realy creative and cute. Grandmas, aunts, etc. you better order yours soon! :)

Josh taking more steps!

2010-10-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

Josh hasn't walked at all since his first attempt on September 7th. I KNEW he could do it but he was too scared and wasn't willing to give it a try. He was in a good mood yesterday so we tried to practice with him and guess what!? He progressed to 10 whole steps. He still prefers to crawl and scoot everywhere but that's okay. At least he knows what he's capable of doing now.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

P.S. My husband is a hottie!

Maya's Birthday Party

2010-10-02T07:52:00.001-07:00

This year Maya really wanted a "big-girl" birthday party. So she came up with the theme, list of friends, some of the games, and helped pick out the food for lunch. She decided to be Ariel from The Little Mermaid and she looked so cute! We decorated the basement with blue streamers, paper fish, and white balloons. For lunch the kids had pirate pizza, ocean blue parfaits, pineapple kabobs, and chips and dip. A big thanks to Costco for making the greatest and most reasonably-priced cakes ever!!

2010-09-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

My baby girl is 4 today!!! FOUR! I can't believe it, and neither can she. She keeps walking around the house saying, "can you believe I am 4 years old today? I can't."

I remember when she was born thinking she looked like a chubby Cabbage Patch Doll. She has grown up into a beautiful and sweet little girl with lots of personality.

Maya, we love you so much. You are sweet, silly, fun, smart, sensitive, loving, shy, inquisitive (like your dad), and you make my life better each and every day! She is so shy and doesn't like any attention on her when in a big group. At church on Sunday they were going to sing Happy Birthday to her but she refused to come up in front. I hope that changes eventually...I sure hated being shy growing up.

For Maya's big day we went to McDonalds for lunch, and made a cake. When Nick gets home we'll have dinner, cake, and present time! She is doing so good waiting patiently but I have noticed that she is sure excited for dad to come home for some reason! Cute girl.

Here are some of her favorite things at age 4:

Color: PINK!
Song: Ariel....see video below :)
Food: Macaroni and Cheese
Drink: Chocolate milk
Favorite Movie: The Little Mermaid
Favorite thing to do at school: Play with the floam
Favorite Book: Angelina Ballerina
Favorite saying: "Do you bamember?" (remember)"Why?" "What the HECK!?"
Favorite TV show: Max and Ruby
Favorite outside activity: Ride bikes with dad, mom, and Joshy
Favorite inside activity: Play dress up, paints, dance (she wanted me to write, "But not dance CLASS."

Saturday she will have her friend party! We are really excited!

Love you Maya Lynn....

2010-09-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

#1 - Josh taking a few steps!! He did it! (and hasn't really done it since, LOL)
#2 - The kids at the park
#3 - Maya making Josh laugh so hard that he starts coughing. (Also at the park)
#4 - M is going to be Ariel for Halloween and her Birthday party. Here she is debuting her new look.
#5 - Not only does she look like Ariel, she sings like her too...even if it is a little flat.

I LOVE my kids!!!

Goodbye Pippen and Penelope

2010-09-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

When we got back from California we decided it was time to make a serious effort in finding a home for the cats. With winter just around the corner, and cat dander being one of Josh's main asthma triggers, it just couldn't wait any longer. I put another ad on Craigslist and actually received an email the following morning. An older woman who was an empty-nester, and had no other animals contacted me about the cats, and requested a time to meet them. She came the following Wednesday and immediately fell in love with them! Meeting her made me feel much better about the whole situation, and I told her we could could go through with the adoption. The next few days were hard. I kept seeing them around the house and I knew they wouldn't be around much longer. Their new owner picked them up on Tuesday night. I was hoping Nick would be home early so Maya and I could be away from the house when the pick up happened, but that didn't work out. We were all there to say goodbye and put them in her car. I was a complete mess! It was really embarrassing actually - I didn't think I would be that emotional. It was a very sad day. Maya didn't really cry, she just moaned a lot. It was kind of bizarre, maybe she wasn't sure how to deal with the situation.

It's been over a week now and each day has gotten easier. Their owner is awesome and sends me updates every couple of days and we even got pictures of them on Sunday.

M and Pippen. I didn't get any final pictures of Penelope because she avoided us for the most part! I think she is probably pretty happy with the change of pace...no more kids chasing her.

CALIFORNIA

2010-09-10T06:55:00.001-07:00

I guess I should start with our California trip. (There has been a lot of stuff going on.) We had a great time! We stayed with Nick's dad and step-mom, Pat, and a lot of our other family members made the trip out to see visit with us at the house. We got in on Saturday afternoon and spent some time catching up, eating, and letting the kids loose on their nice house. :)

On Sunday There was a huge BBQ with all of our extended family members. It was nice to have one night to get together with everyone, and see those people we haven't seen since our wedding reception. On Monday we spent a few hours at the beach. Maya was cautious at first but that didn't last too long! I stepped on a bee and got my first bee sting ever, ouch! Josh sat under a big umbrella with Papa Scott and ate PB&J and chips while trying to keep all grains of sand off of his body. Tuesday was a relaxing day for me, Pat, and the kids. Nick and his dad played 18 holes of golf and were gone for most of the day. Wednesday we went to Malibu to visit Gramma Dotty and Papa Tony. We had a great dinner and went down to the beach with the kids. Lots of good memories! Thursday we went to Knott's Berry Farm! It was fun, but really hot! The kids did great though and were really patient while the adults went on some of the scary rides. Thanks to Gramma Pat and Papa Scott for watching them! Friday - um....I think the boys went golfing again and we just hung out. Saturday we had a nice dinner at the house with close relatives. And Sunday we came home! We had a wonderful time and we were so happy that the kids did so well with adjusting quickly.

My Montage 8/19/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-08-20T09:51:00.001-07:00

Here are a few videos. Sorry if they are long and boring, I don't edit them anymore!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Progress already!

2010-08-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

We met with the Physical Therapist and a representative from a medical supply company called Wright and Fillipis last Monday. We found out that J wouldn't need ankle braces and arch supports would be sufficient at this point. So after a week of waiting for our appointment, we were able to pick up the inserts on Tuesday. That night Josh actually used ones of his walker toys, something that he has never done before. He has been able to stand up to furniture for awhile and he will practice walking with one of us, but the push toys always went too fast for him. His upper body is ready to move quickly but his legs aren't so he never felt comfortable playing with those toys. Today he has been playing more with the push toys and pulling himself up on EVERYTHING, even Maya. This morning we were standing in the hallway and he was looking through the closet, he turned around and let go of the shelf and stood there for 2 seconds!! I was so excited and had to text Nick about his progress!

While speaking with the doctor on Tuesday I asked how long he expected to see results with Josh and he said Josh should be walking within 30 days. I was VERY skeptical when I left but, really, we have seen so much progress in 2 days, I guess anything is possible! I would be thrilled if he was just standing with less support in 30 days.

While physically he is a little slower, he has been talking up a storm and getting tons of teeth. I think he's up to 13 teeth now, which means he's a booger at night time! Last night I got fed up and just brought him into bed with me. This morning he was sitting on top of me, "talking" and using his little hands as he would converse with me. Then he'd start laughing at whatever he was saying! It was a fun way to get up, then I remembered how he was all night.

Well, that's it for now. We are getting ready for out trip to CA next week! I can't wait to get to the beach and hang out with our family. I'll try and get a video of Josh walking with his toy soon.

This is the face you get when you tell J to say 'cheese'. Great, now I have two kids who won't smile normal for a picture!

My little buddy

Playing together!

2010-08-05T16:58:00.001-07:00

It's official! Maya and Josh now play together! I love it. This morning they were sharing Maya's rocking horse and snuggling together.

Then Josh went down for his nap and Maya had fun taking pictures. We were bored waiting for him to wake up. When J woke up she took a bunch of pictures of him.

Love my kids so much. Maya has been such a doll lately. I am soaking it up as much as possible because every 3 weeks or so she turns pure evil! She has been so polite and just pleasant. I love it! Yesterday she said "thanks for dinner daddy, that was really good." And today after we went out and did a few things she said, "mom, I had a really good day, thanks for everything." It's so nice to be appreciated and to not argue all day! We went to the library this afternoon and she got her very own library card. You should have seen the look on her face! It was as if she just won the lottery or met a Disney princess! So cute and sweet.

Josh has been very sweet too. He has been trying really hard to stand up and he practices on his bike every day. He is seeing a physical therapist once a week and she has helped answer a lot of the questions we've had. The reason why he hasn't started walking is because his joints and ligaments are really loose, he has low muscle tone, and his right ankle bows in - making it hard to put any weight on it. Triple whammy! So...it's going to be a lot of hard work, strengthening exercises, and he'll have to wear braces on his ankles but if it'll help then we are all for it. We're hoping and praying that the braces will help him get the stability he needs to gain muscle.

Well, that's all for now!

My Montage 7/15/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-07-30T16:58:00.001-07:00

Josh riding his bike, car, and doing other stuff.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fun week

2010-07-25T04:26:00.000-07:00

We had a great week with everyone being healthy (knock on wood) and happy. It really does make a difference when Josh is feeling well. He is a good boy either way but when he feels good he is so happy and fun. There is always one sure sign that he is 100%, he loves to bug Maya. She is such a girl though, sometimes she encourages Josh to play with her and the next day she can't believe he would even touch her things or come close to her. They were both so sweet this week though and I had a great time with each of them.

On Monday we went to Kensington to see the farm animals. Maya was jumping up and down and was thrilled to be there, while Josh was content to sit in his stroller and point at the animals. He did make his way out a few times.

Maya got an ice cream and Josh had some (Dairy Free) Muddy Buddy's for a treat afterwards.

A few days later we went to a fun park that usually has ducks to feed. Maya decided to eat the bread when we couldn't find any lucky ducks.

We made caterpillars out of egg cartons while Josh took a long nap.

On Thursday we went to the zoo with our friends. What I love about having a zoo membership is that you don't have to rush and see all of the animals and exhibits when you go. We only saw a handful of animals this time because the kids were having so much fun in the frog water fountain and at the playground. It was a perfect day to go, the weather was awesome and not muggy at all! The drive home was horrible because it started to rain all of a sudden (crazy Michigan) and it was rush-hour but we still had a good day!

After dinner I got the kids bathed and they relaxed for a bit before bed. Love my babies!

Yesterday was a great day too. We woke up, cleaned out and organized the laundry room, Josh napped, then we went bowling, swimming at the rec center, and dinner at TGIF! (Thanks Chad and Lindsey) It was a perfect day and nice to just focus on our family on a Saturday, and not worry about what needs to get done. Didn't bring my camera for any of it though!

I have been trying to write down funny things that Maya says and does but I never seem to do it in the same notebook or piece of paper. There are scraps of paper that are all over the house with funny sayings on them. A few from yesterday:

"Guys! I was 'avle' to swim in the big part of the pool all by 'myselth'!"

She was using the half bath and talking to me in the kitchen while doing her business, she started getting silly and kept using the phrases, "Poopy Head" or "Poopy Monster", etc. and I finally lost it and told her to use better words. She replied, "Well, I like saying those words, they are funny. And besides, it's not such a big deal!"

Swimming - Nick's bday

2010-07-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

I just captured a very sweet moment that I wanted to share. Josh got sick again yesterday and has a high fever with vomitting off and on. He hasn't been able to keep anything down since last night so I've been trying to get sips of liquid in here and there. Anyway, I put him on the couch with a book and a toy so I could run downstairs and wash some of his yucky throw up clothes and I came back to this.

Maya gave him a bunch of her toys and was reading a book to him. Josh is sick a lot and Maya is anything but compassionate when this happens. She is generally annoyed that plans need to be changed or that Josh needs to be cuddled with all day, so this was a real tender moment.

We had a great experience with M's swimming class this summer. It lasted every day for two weeks. Maya learned a lot and is now able to blow bubbles, put her face under, doggy paddle with help from a floaty device, and with a little help she can float on her back. By the end of the week she was usually ready for a break from class and one day she said it was too hot outside to go swimming. Another time she said the water was too cold and made her "shigger". Luckily she had some cute kids in her class that loved her and made a big fuss every time she did anything. One little girl wanted to hold her the entire time they were in the pool. I asked her why she was being held the whole time and she said, "I don't know. Kimmy must like me or something."

This was the first day of classes and M was beyond thrilled to be there! Too bad they didn't get to swim that day because the bottom of the pool was too foggy.

This was the same day - they practiced pool safety instead of getting in. Maya was jumping up and down because she got to throw a floating device into the pool to save someone. Funny how the smallest things excite her so much.

Good job Maya!

Nick's birthday was on the 7th and we had a great night! Too bad it was on a weeknight but at least he was at home and not at school. That day we did some shopping, baking, and decorating in anticipation of daddy's arrival. Maya helped bake a cake and unfortunately I wasn't thinking straight and didn't have her eat lunch first. I told her she needed to eat some turkey slices before she could have a taste of the cake batter and she decided to spread the batter on the turkey while my back was turned.

Maya picked out some water guns for Nick and was so ecstatic she could hardly stand it! All day long she wanted to call and tell him what her present was. I'm surprised she made it through dinner and cake without spilling the beans. Nick acted like it was the best present in the world and they played outside with them before bed.

Socks...pretty exciting stuff.

Thanks to everyone for sending cards and calling my man on his bday!

Father's Day - Josh's Neurology Appointment - other stuff

2010-06-28T12:52:00.000-07:00

When the pediatrician was checking out Josh's legs one day she was a little concerned that he wasn't putting any weight on it so she recommended we see a neurologist. We went to the appointment and after an hour long lesson on neurology disorders the doctor requested we send Josh to physical therapy so we can learn some exercises that will help his legs gain more muscle. No joke, the exact DAY we took him to the doctor he started pulling himself up to furniture and letting me walk around with him. Before that day he would just have "noodle legs" and wouldn't even try to hold his weight up. I know he'll walk when he's ready and that's completely fine with me, I'm just happy there isn't anything else going on with him.

We have been spending a lot of time outside and the kids are actually starting to play together.

This is with no encouragement from me. Yikes!

Building forts with the couch cushions

Maya and her crazy pose, Josh being sweet.

For Father's Day and Mother's Day we get to choose either a nap or to sleep in that day. Nick slept in until 9am but Maya couldn't take it anymore so she woke him up. Nick picked out some new running shoes for his "big" gift and then me and the kids got him an outfit and some Propel waters. Nick is a wonderful dad and loves his kids so much. He is very invloved in every aspect of raising our kids and is so supportive when it comes to his babies. I know he would do anything for them.

Maya painted a little birdhouse for him.

Summa Summa Summa TIME

2010-06-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

I love Summer! We took the kids to the annual city carnival on Thursday and had such a blast. Maya grew a whole 3 or so inches since last year so she went on most rides by herself. She got so excited for each one but I think her favorite was the big slide with dad. Josh was so good to sit in his stroller to do a little people watching the whole night. When we left, Nick saw the ball-tossing game where you can win goldfish. We played and ended up winning 3 fish...YUCK. I don't life fish. They smell and you can't cuddle with them. Maya was stoked though and she named them, Sally, Sally, and Sally Boy. She is really creative with stuff like that. :) One already died but hopefully the other ones will last a little longer.

I love that we live close enough to walk each year.

Nick and Maya on their first ride. A spinning apple with a silent, single-rider teenager inside. Nick's facial expressions were hilarious every time they came by me...you could tell it was pretty uncomfortable.

Josh practicing his standing while Maya was going on a train ride. Every time she went by he would yell, ' AYA!" So cute.

The next night was our 7 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Can't believe we've been married that long. It was such a stressful day so we didn't really celebrate until Saturday night. Nick went and rented some movies (Twilight, LOL) for us and picked up some dinner. It was so nice to just sit in the basement like we were away for the night. Love that boy so much!

On our honeymoon in the Bahamas. We'd like to go back again next year - or somewhere nice after Nick graduates!

Rejuvenation

2010-06-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

Maya has really been a challenge since we returned home from our trip. Every day I wake up wondering how I can distract her from having arguments with me all day. As I previously posted, Josh was sick all of last week and the beginning of this week - he is finally returning to himself. You could say that as a mother, I am completely burnt out. I find myself just going with the motions and not really enjoying my children.

Well, today I had a few minutes and so I checked my Facebook account. I noticed some friends were fans of a page called, "Prayers for Bronson". I clicked on the link to see what it was and the tears came flooding out. ( http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35820985/ns/today-today_people/ ) The family is an LDS family in Utah who experienced an amazing miracle. Reading this article has completely rejuvenated me as a mother. I love my babies so much and I never want them to feel like they are a burden to me or that I am annoyed by them. This was such a touching story and it shows how fragile life really is and how the power of prayer can help.

Go kiss and hug your babies or loved ones!

Maya's Haircut

2010-06-16T10:34:00.000-07:00

We just returned from Utah last week and since I took over 300 pictures and it feels too overwhelming to start a "Utah Post", I thought I'd just add a few pictures from this week. Hopefully I will be able to post about our trip soon.

Maya mentioned on Saturday that she wanted to get her haircut and I was all for it because I am tired of brushing her tangles. We went to a cute little kid's salon and I think she liked the attention she received. After the haircut she got to put a piece of her hair and a special plastic card in a machine and a toy popped out for her.

Before

After

She loves it and so do we!

Josh has been sick on and off for the past week since we got home. The doctor's seem to think it's a viral infection and, even though he had a fever of 103.7 last night, couldn't really do anything for him. So we went home and he was just glued to me on the bed for a few hours. Nick played with Maya and when we checked his temperature again before bed it was up to 104.2! I felt so bad for the little guy. I called my friend from church who is a nurse (& always super helpful!) and she talked me through what we should do for the night. Nick and his friend, Travis, gave him a blessing and I know it helped him. He slept from 10pm - 6am and woke up feeling only slightly hot. After about an hour he started sweating really bad and finally he broke his fever. He hasn't had a fever all day but has been cranky, clingy, and slobbery - more teeth must be on the way!

Today I gave him a bowl of yogurt (dairy-free) and a spoon and he went crazy! He got quite a few bites into his mouth and was so happy to be eating on his own.

End of school year

2010-05-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for my trip home tomorrow but wanted to post a few things.

We got Maya a bike awhile back and for the longest time she would just sit and ring the bell but wouldn't try and push the pedals. One night she was extra determined to ride her bike and she finally got it! It's been fun to see how excited she is about learning something new. So far, only one minor accident but she was right back up on it after she got a bandaid.

Peace, baby

I got a video of her riding but not still pictures. I will add it later.

We went on a zoo fieldtrip with her preschool class and had a great time despite the HOT weather!

Thursday was Maya's preschool graduation. I cried a little bit, of course. We have had a wonderful class this year and great teachers. We will miss all of them! I can't believe the year is already over.

Receiving her certificate

Josh will miss playing with the toys too.

Saying goodbye

"I DID IT!"

Random Pictures from May:

Love Josh's face here.

We got a ton of rain this month...

Two of my favorite people!

He couldn't have ice cream like the rest of us but he was okay with his popsicle!

Um....they look the same size here. Maya is still my little peanut.

Later!

2010-05-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight as we were planting some flowers and plants in our front yard I thought, "my life is good." There are a few things I wanted to post so I will remember them when things aren't quite as good.

The kids are growing up so fast, it makes me sad but thankful that I get to be their mom and watch them advance in their little lives. Maya is constantly saying something that makes us laugh OR pull our hair out! Here are a few gems:

"Gramma? (When Gramma Pat was visiting) Emily (another girl at school) said that I am not the fairest of them all! And I AM the fairest of them all."

She was supposed to be in the backyard with Nick but she snuck to the front. I was feeding Josh in the dining room and happened to glance out the front window to see M playing on the grass. I poked my head out to talk with her and this was the conversation we had:
T - Maya you aren't supposed to be in the front yard by yourself. It's too dangerous.
M - Why?
T - Someone might drive by and snatch you up! Why don't you go in the back with dad?
M - Well, it's okay mama. I will be just fine in the front. Why don't you go inside and shut the door. Maybe make us a little dinner and don't look outside anymore? How about that?

My sister has been really sick and was in the hospital for quite a few weeks. I would try and call every few days to check in and see how she was doing. One day I asked Maya if she wanted to talk to Aunt Missy because she was sick and in the hospital. I explained that she might help her aunt feel better if she would just talk to her. Maya's response was pretty typical Maya, she thought deeply for a few seconds then said, "Well, I can't help her because I'm not a doctor." Always over-analyzing things!

The cutest thing she did this week was sing a Lady Gaga song we heard on the radio. I know, real great mom, only quality music around these parts. Regardless, it was so funny! She was playing in the living room and all of a sudden I hear this tiny voice, "Sorry I did not call you...I'm kinda busy. I'm kinda busy. Sorry I did not call you...I'm kinda busy." Hilarous.

Preschool is almost out for the year and I haven't broken the news to her yet. Not sure how she will accept that she's going to have new teachers and a new classroom next year. She has loved class this year! It has been a great experience for all of us. She had an ice cream social at the park today and will have a zoo day on Thursday.

Josh is doing great and hasn't been sick for close to a month! (Knock on wood) Now that he is feeling better he seems to be a little more excited and interested in progressing physically and keeping up with his sister. He's pulling himself up and will stand for a few minutes but doesn't understand how to get down. The other day he surprised me by climbing up half of the stairs before I realized he was doing it. It was wonderful!

He loves to babble and is already "talking" my ear off. His favorite words are: Daddy, Dada, Hi Dad, Mama, 'aya (for Maya), M'ow (for meow), sinsu(thank you), bye bye, uh-oh, and did I mention dad? He LOVES his dad! There are a few more but I can't remember now. He also loves to growl at you and will laugh sporatically. He is usually on the floor playing with something or trying to figure a toy out and will break out in laughter. It's really funny. The other day I went to find him and he was in his room trying to get his feet in his shoes. He is a little smarty.

I survived my first week of class. I am taking Sociology and am learning a ton already. The biggest challenge has been to find the time to read all of the required text, studies, essays, etc. and to actually soak it in. I am convinced that my brain has turned into mush these past few years so it's been nice to use it again :) I am really enjoying it.

What's been going on....

2010-04-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in awhile. Thought I would take a minute to write about what we've been up to.

**Nick has been on break from school and we've been having fun spending time together and not worrying about his schedule, grades, etc. He decided I deserved an early Mother's Day gift, a new bike. It is awesome! We went on our first ride yesterday with the kids and had a blast.

**We've had Nick's dad and step-mom, Pat, in town since Wednesday. It's always fun to have guests! Thursday we just hung out, took Maya to school, had a nice dinner, (Pat is an AMAZING cook!) and then after the kids went to bed we watched Avatar. Yesterday we went to the zoo and got there right when it opened, it was awesome to have the place practically to ourselves. Then we got home and ate fish tacos from Taco Del Mar. Pat and I went shopping today, she likes to spoil me and the kids when she's in town. We had so much fun! Nick and his dad are out golfing 18 holes now.

Pat is a wonderful grandma and does especially well with Maya. She doesn't take crap from her or let her get away with much.

My kids are 3.5 years old and 14 months. Seems like the 14 month old would require more attention, patience, etc. but this little boy is just so sweet. He sat in his stroller for most of our zoo trip and was happy as can be. Maya was whiny, demanding, and just plain obnoxious! Funny how different they are.

The Polar bears were very active...they are my favorite to watch.

**I just registered for my first college class in, oh, 7 years! Now that Nick is almost done with his MBA, I got excited about going back to school. I am just doing on-line courses to start out with and then we'll see what happens later on. Once I amd done with my core classes from Schoolcraft, I'd like to get into a dental program to become a dental hygienist. I'm really looking forward to it!

**Josh has been healthy since his last hospital stay. What a huge blessing. It makes such a difference when your babies are healthy and happy. I can't believe the difference in him. He just scoots around all day with a huge grin on his face. Love that little boy so much.

Our weekend and getting crafty!

2010-04-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

Josh got a cold again last week and by Thursday night was really breathing hard, even while just resting and not moving a muscle. So that night while Nick was at school I gave him a few breathing treatments and tried to get him to bed. He was still retracting but fell asleep so we tried to get some rest too. He woke up twice through the night and couldn't breath very well so we gave him 2 more treatments. He woke up again at 5:30 sounding worse than ever so I took off for the emergency room. Nick was able to stay home from work that day to take care of Maya. JB and I were in the ER from 6-11:30am trying to get his breathing back on track but nothing was working for him so the doctor on-call decided he would be admitted until he was doing better. Luckily his chest Xray was clear and the RSV swab came back negative.

Josh was super tired but couldn't sleep for long stretches of time because the medical people kept coming in to check on him. Poor guy was so sleepy. Finally our room was ready in the peds department of the hospital so this guy came in our room to tell us he was going to move us over. I thought I'd just need to pick up J and take him there but we had to transfer him in the ER bed. LOL, it was the cutest/saddest thing I have ever seen! Such a tiny guy sitting in a huge ER bed with the side rails up and this little sad face looking around. All of the nurses made a big deal out of him as we walked by, which he liked a lot. Here he is in his new hospital crib and gown:

We were there for just under 2 days but it seemed like an eternity! The nurses and doctors were great but it was just so uncomfortable there. I just wanted to be home with my baby, I think this is when I hit an all time low. I am grateful to have such an awesome husband! He is very supportive and was so willing to do whatever I needed him to do. I love him so much.

Josh is home and sleeping pretty good at night - something he desperately needed. We actually have to wake him up at night to make sure he gets at least one breathing treatment in. He still has an awful cough but that may last a few more weeks. He has been diagnosed with pre-asthma/Bronchiolitis and now we just need to really make sure to keep him away from the things that trigger his asthma. He has been bugging Maya lately and knows exactly how to push her buttons (which, really, isn't that hard to do) so that seems to be a good sign that he's on the road to recovery.

Sorry if this is really long! I want to record it for our own personal reasons.

MOVING ON....

As mentioned in the post title, I am still enjoying craft time! I have made a few more changing pads for friends. This one is for you, Chandra:

Maya got some polka-dot capris and another pair of purple paisley ones.

A cute sundress....It was supposed to be a "60 minute" dress but after all of the mistakes I made and repaired, Nick called it a 60 hour dress.

And, finally, we made a few little flower bows. They were really easy, thanks to my glue gun.

Easter and other fun times

2010-04-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

We had a very nice Easter last weekend. The kids got spoiled rotten. It was fun to see their excitement (well, Maya's excitement) as the Easter egg clues were read and we'd get closer to finding out where the baskets were hidden.

Maya's favorite gift by far was the 2nd Chipmunk's movie. We've watched it at least once every day and I actually like it too :)

Josh's favorite gift ... probably the Twizzlers or Fruit Loops!

We had a roast, vegetables, potatoes and gravy, & french bread for dinner. It was really yummy! Oh yeah, we did Easter egg dye too, I forgot.

Nick's family sent some Easter gifts for the kids. Thank you! They loved them.

Oh, boy! She hit the jackpot. This girl has such a sweet-tooth!

This was J's first reaction when he picked up the new baby duck. He is such a sweet boy.

We've had some really nice weather over the past week or so (except today, which was FREEZING!) which means we've been spending lots of time outside. Mostly to the park with friends or going on walks. Maya decided she really likes to push Josh in the swing so she's been doing that for me a lot lately. Josh doesn't look to thrilled about it but he did enjoy it. His hair is getting out of control and he needs a haircut desperately!

I wanted to share this picture just because it makes me laugh.

We were out running errands the other day and stopped at Petco to buy some food for the cats. Maya was getting worn out so I told her she could pick out a treat for being such a good girl on all of our stops. She picked out some nasty sour string stuff and tried to convince me that she liked it. She ended up putting it in my diaper bag and I forgot that the package was even in there. Later on I was putting some laundry away and the kids were playing in the living room, so I thought. Josh had crawled into the kitchen and pulled out the sour candy and was eating it. He actually liked it but Maya was NOT willing to give up the candy, that she didn't like in the first place, to her kid brother! She came in and said, "Oh, sorry buds. That's my candy, buds. This will give you a tummy ache." Here he is before getting caught red-handed by Maya.

This is his 'sour' face.

We went to the Ann Arbor Hand's On Museum today with some friends and I want to post pictures but I think it'll have to wait until next time!

Sewing Projects

2010-03-28T04:19:00.000-07:00

I have been having so much fun with my new sewing machine! Never, ever, thought I'd say that. In high school I took a sewing class and my teacher finally had to ask me to not use the machine unless she was sitting next to me because I kept breaking them. I've never had much patience for "crafting" but while my mom was in town she taught me a good lesson, when you get flustered or annoyed with your project just walk away. So I have been doing that and also taking my time. I've had some pretty good results!

Maya's pj bottoms was my first project:

After a wash they turned into capris. It's okay, it's almost summer.

My mom wanted to show me how to do a shirt while she was here so we decided to work on a little nightgown for Maya. The arms were difficult but I really struggled with the neckline...as you can see! There is also a little pocket in the front.

My first project 'on my own'...a pair of pj bottoms for me. I was able to cut the pattern and sew it all in one day! I was very proud of myself :)

Finally, this is my favorite so far, a changing pad with a pocket for diapers and wipes, and velcro sewn on to keep it shut. It was pretty easy and I think it looks cute.

(Sorry, can't turn this picture right side up for some reason)

Love those chubby fingers on the side!

TADA!!! This has been a fun little hobby for me, I just wish there was a Joann's closer to my house...

2010-03-23T17:50:00.000-07:00

I keep starting new posts but I end up deleting them because they are so depressing so that's why I haven't written anything lately. We've had a rough few months with Josh's health - 1 trip to the ER, 2 trips to Urgent Care, and about 6 trips to the doctor's office. Usually the wheezing stops and he is better for about a week, then he gets sick, starts wheezing, and doesn't get better for another week or two. On top of the wheezing he is on ear infection number 4.

It has been so frustrating and discouraging. There is nothing scarier than watching as your son is trying so hard to catch his breath. At his 1 year check up the doctor agreed to getting his blood tested for allergies and a few days later we got the results - high level milk allergy, (we already knew this one) egg whites, and cats. No wonder he has been having such a hard time getting healthy! We have two cats - and most of the time they would sleep in his room on the rocking chair. We found all of this out when my mom was visiting so she went to work cleaning his room and she also bought a little air purifier so he has clean air in his area at least.

I guess the hardest part is that we just can't seem to get this under control. We decided that we'd need to find a new home for the kitties. This has been so hard. Every time I look at them or think about what will happen to them I just cry. We are hopeful that something will work out, though, and in the meantime I am researching HEPA filter vacuums, steam cleaners, cat wipes, and air purifiers for the house! We did have a great appointment with the doctor today and she seems to think that putting him on a preventative inhalant morning and night and another breathing treatment every 6 hours will help stop the wheezing. She also referred us to an allergist so it will be good to get his asthma and allergies under control.

So, even though things have been super stressful around here I am still grateful for the life that I have. Tonight as I was putting Josh to bed I had a thought come to my mind....'the past 3 months have been very discouraging but his health could be so much worse'. For now I am going to focus on that while I spend most of my time cleaning, disinfecting, administering breathing treatments, and also taking care of Maya!

Josh turns one on March 8th!

2010-03-09T16:44:00.001-08:00

What a joy it has been to be the parents of this little man. We have loved every minute of it. He has been crawling and scooting all over the place and loves getting into everything from my diaper bag to the garbage can in the bathroom (ew!). He also loves to be a little pest to Maya and whenever she is playing with something he will make his way over to try and get a peek or share it with her. We celebrated on Sunday night because we were home all day and had some pizza leftovers from the night before...PARTAY ANIMALS! Poor Josh couldn't eat any because of his milk allergy. Then we had a carrot cake with dairy free frosting and some coconut milk ice cream. Josh loved the dessert but ended his birthday dinner in another allergic reaction. Maybe from the coconut? We are having him tested tomorrow at his 1 year checkup to see what else he is allergic to. It will be nice to know.

That night we also let him open his presents, he wasn't very excited but Maya sure was! She kept saying, "do you think Josh will share with me?" She was a great helper in unwrapping the gifts but had to reminded that it was Josh's birthday, not hers. Thanks to everyone for your birthday wishes and the presents that were sent for our little guy. Can't believe he is one!

It has been awesome having my mom in town to spend time with. We had a rough week with sick kids and Nick being out of town so it has been wonderful to have an extra set of hands around here. I haven't done one load of laundry in over a week! Today after we picked up Maya from school we headed to Subway for lunch and then off to the zoo for a few hours. The weather was beautiful today! Then we took Josh to Portrait Innovations to get his pictures done. Boy was he tired, I thought he'd sleep more in the car but he only got 20 minutes in. He was still adorable and warmed up to the photographer a couple of minutes into the session. Oh! I almost forgot! We picked me up a sewing machine a couple of days ago and while Maya was in school my mom helped me start a few projects. It's not nearly as scary as I thought it was. So, we've been busy with grandma.

Here are a few pictures of our birthday boy. I love him!!! These aren't the cropped ones, just the original shots that were put on a CD for us. I wanted to post some pictures from Sunday and his birthday dinner at Red Robin yesterday but I can't find the camera attachment so it'll have to wait.

We love you JB!

Josh CRAWLING!

2010-02-19T09:48:00.001-08:00

Josh surprised us today by deciding he was finally ready to crawl. Maya clearly does not like the extra attention he was getting!

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Valentine's Day Program

2010-02-16T17:59:00.001-08:00

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Valentine's Day, funny sayings, other stuff

2010-02-16T17:30:00.000-08:00

I sent out this email to some family members to share some of the cute things that Maya has been saying. I thought it would be a good way to 'document' it. I have a few more sayings that I had to share.
________________________________________________

On Saturday, Josh was in the kitchen getting his bi-monthly haircut courtesy of daddy. I had Josh in my lap to help calm his nerves a bit. Maya was in the living room playing some imaginative game and decided to check in on us, saying, "So, guys, how's the haircut coming along for old Joshy Boy?" Nick and I looked at each other and started laughing our heads off! It was so cute and unexpected.

"Well, these blocks sure don't stay up well."

While talking about the fun things we are going to do outside when it heats up, "Well, Joshy is becoming large, like I am, so he'll be able to play with me."

She starts pretty much EVERY sentence with "well..."

Tara: "After dinner do you and Josh want to take a bath and play with your toys?"
Maya: "Well, prob'ly I'll need to have some dessert first."

We went to McDonald's with some friends for lunch and on the way home Maya asked me to name all of her friends that were there (5 kids). Well, (I guess we know where she gets "well" from) she asked me no less than 15 times and I finally just stopped answering her. She asked 5 more times with no response from me and then let out a loud sigh/grunt and said, "Mom! You are making me so f'ustrated!"

She loves to say, "What did you say mom?" after I say anything to her. So I have to repeat myself a lot.

She also likes to say, "Do you bemember that, mom?" instead of remember.

"You guys went to the show and Jessica came to visit me. But, guys? I was worried about you!" After we explained why the babysitter came over.

During Family Home Evening we were talking about how the Savior loves all of us, Maya chimed in and said, "Jesus loves me guys! And Wall-E loves all of us too." Later on I said, "Maya can you say the closing prayer for us?" She said, "Okay. Dear Heavenly Father...HEY! Mom, I'm Wall-E, not Maya!.....thankful for the rug, for the cupcakes, for the walls....etc." Somebody is obsessed with Wall-E!

We dropped off some books at the library and as we were driving past City Hall, where they have a seasonal water fountain display, Maya said, "Well, would you look at that. The water fountains are missing."

After having a pee pee accident on our bedroom floor Maya said, "I'm so sorry mommy, it was just an accident. But why did I just do that?" I threw her in the tub and put some fresh pj's on her and she said, "Mrs. Jumbo, I'm so sorry I broke your bedroom floor with my pee pee." ???? Lately I have been Mrs. Jumbo and she has been Dumbo but I don't get the 'broke your floor' part.

That's all for now. I'm sure she'll say something funny tomorrow!

On Thursday, Maya had her Valentine's Day party with her preschool. All of the parents got to come back at the end of class and have treats and watch the kids perform their songs. It was so cute! Here is Maya in her little V-day dress:

I'm glad they put her next to the other 'shorty' in class, that way, she doesn't look so tiny.

Showing off her Valentine's. I think she has at least 2 'admirers' in class...good thing she is still oblivious to that stuff.

Our pretty little girl

Valentine's Day is never a big deal at our house but this year Nick and I decided to get a "joint gift." We've had the same down comforter since 2002 so we got a new one at IKEA and a duvet cover and then Nick put the head board back up! Our bed looks so comfy and nice now. The kids each got a few Dollar Tree gifts and Wall-E to share. (Bad idea, this show is driving me crazy!) We had a great weekend.

Just because he is so dang cute....

2010-02-05T17:07:00.000-08:00

Scrunchy Faces

2010-01-20T06:59:00.000-08:00

When our kids hit the 9 month mark something inside of them goes, "Hmmmm, it would be funny if I scrunched up my nose and breathed really loud, everyone would get a kick out of it." Here is Maya at 9 months, I'm sure you'll notice she had no teeth, making this face even more hilarious:

Josh's scrunchy face (he's been doing it for about a month now) usually isn't as extreme as Maya's but it's very cute:

Our little J-Boy is feeling much better and it shows. He has been on the antibiotics for almost a week now and in that week he has become more active. His legs have always been like wet noodles but over the past few days he has been really trying to stand and crawl. He'll get it soon. He has also been so much more smiley! I love it. You can tell he is feeling much better now even though before we knew he was sick he was still pleasant to be around.

Here are some pictures we took the other night when we were hanging out as a family.

After Josh was born we had the hardest time getting her to even put her arm around him. I can't recall who told me this but somebody said, "She'll get used to him and she won't even remember what it was like without him around." It is sooo true! She loves playing with him and because it wasn't an instant thing for her I think it makes us appreciate their friendship more now.

Nick and Maya were making different faces for the camera. I chose this one to post because look at those lashes on Nick! He is such a hottie!

More scrunchy face from J

Maya had a play date with our neighbor, Laura. These two are about a year apart but they played so well together. They didn't need me around for 3 whole hours! I stuck close by but they wanted to play on their own. She had so much fun.

And, finally, to end this very random post, here is my "new kitchen". I painted it over Christmas break and actually completed a big paint project without Nick's help!
I used my Christmas money to get a new curtain rod and valance. It's still far from being done but it's much more livable now.

A new song and a sick baby boy

2010-01-15T04:16:00.001-08:00

It was so nice having Nick home over Christmas break and he didn't start back up at school until January 11 so each night we'd take one of the kids and put them to bed. Maya always chose Nick and I always took Josh. Nick mentioned a few times that he was running out of songs to sing at night and was asking which ones I sing to her. I told him a few - "Baby Mine", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", etc. The next day Maya shared with me what song daddy taught her. I finally got her to sing it to the camera a few weeks later. She sings this song everywhere...people were giving me the strangest looks at Target yesterday when she was singing it while we shopped.

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(This song has now been been banned from the dinner table.)

Can I just say I have the best little boy in the world!?! He has been sleeping horribly lately but during the day he's been pretty happy and his napping is normal. He has had some congestion in his chest for over a month but when I saw the doctor she said it should pass on it's own. Well, we had the worst night ever on Wednesday night, between the 2 kids we were up for hours that night. Maya was just being delusional saying her hands felt "bumpy" she did this again last night, don't know what that's all about and Josh was just clingy and wouldn't sleep unless I stood over his crib with my hand on his chest.

I finally brought him into bed with me but I could tell he just wasn't himself. So I took him in to see the doctor again and the poor boy has double ear infections and the doctor was very concerned about his breathing so she got us a prescription for a Nebulizer breathing machine. He is already doing so much better and slept all night last night. I just can't believe that he has been such a good boy for this long with all he has going on inside of him. The breathing machine will come in handy when he has his wheezing/asthma attacks as well. I feel like the worst mom ever for waiting this long to see the doctor but at least his ears were clear when we went to Urgent Care 2 weeks ago - that makes me feel a little better.

P.S. We had both of the kids weighed yesterday - Josh was 22 pounds and Maya was 29! He's a fatso and Maya is still teeny.