Homemade Christmas Dress

My mother-in-law made Beth her first Christmas dress. Isn't it beautiful? It came complete with matching bloomers! I love it and am so thankful my mother-in-law took the time to make it for her. I'm going to be attending my very first sewing class (birthday gift from mother-in-law) in January. I'm so excited! Quit laughing, I seriously am excited!

Beau's an Angel

At least he was in his preschool Christmas Program! ;)

Below is a 41 second clip from the program. The video was taken on my camera, so it's really poor quality. But, cute nonetheless!!! Why is it I can never remember to bring my video camera anywhere...important?

I know I've said it before, but I'm SO happy I put Beau in preschool this year. He's learning so much there, not only in regard to your basic academics, but about our Heavenly Father and the love he has for us all, as well. The other day he was watching me blow dry my hair and saw my frustration in regard to how unruly it was being. He came into the bathroom, reached out and touched my arm and said, "Mom, it's ok. God made you perfect just the way you are. Even if your hair is messy." Gee, thanks Beau!

Another moment of honesty from Beau...

I got my hair cut and colored last Saturday (WAY overdue!) and when I got home, my hair had dried naturally, thus it was very curly...and frizzy. When I came in the door Beau asked me what I did to my hair. I told him I got it cut and colored and asked him if he liked it? Beau's reply, "No, you looked better before. Why did you do that?" This kid doesn't mince his words, that's for sure!

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

Up until a week or so ago I was still giving Beth baths in one of those infant tubs that you place on top of your sink. The boys were taking baths in the sink long before they were 9 months old, so I'm not exactly sure why it took me so long to make the transition with Beth.
Well, her first few baths in the kitchen sink were truly lovely: exciting and intriguing fun, yet still calm and relaxing for both Beth and myself. However, the last two baths have resulted in an aftermath much like that of a flood.

Bye-bye sink, hello bathtub!

Bad Mommy

Pretty, isn't it? Well, it should be considering Beau and I spent over 2 hours on it! Here's some important information that I need to get out there, so I can better hold myself accountable next year...

...I'm a control freak! There, I said it! Not only was this not a fun project for me, I'm pretty sure it wasn't quite the fun that Beau had imagined it would be, either.

Beau: Mom, can I unwrap the gingerbread pieces from the plastic they're in?

Me: No, I'm not sure how easily they might break, so you better just let me do it, ok?

...

Beau: Mom, can I do the frosting?

Me: Um, probably not, it's pretty messy and we need to get this part done quickly so we can move on.

...

Beau: I think I might like this kind of candy, can I have a piece?

Me: Well, we need to see how much of the candy we need for the house first. If there's any left, you can have some of that. We don't want to run out before we're finished. (The horror!!)

...

Me: No, no, Beau...put the red one here, and the green one over here, right. where. I'm. pointing.

Beau: Like this, Mommy?

Me: Yep, just like that. (As I adjust his piece of candy, ever so slightly.) *hangs head in shame*

And so on and so on...I think you get the gist, though. Poor Beau, huh? I just couldn't help myself. It had to be perfect, or why do it? I KNOW, I KNOW!!! We do it for our CHILDREN!

Soooo, next year, I have vowed to buy both Beau and Luke (Beth will still be too young) their own gingerbread houses and let them "have at it"!! No, really, I will!! I don't want to be that mom who's always correcting her children and giving them a complex or a feeling of being incapable of doing anything "right". Yes, I may know a little bit about how my actions will likely make them feel. Bless my mom, she meant well. :) Live and learn, I guess.

Next year, I'll be sure to post pictures of Tom holding me down in the other room while the boys create their masterpieces! :)

Sitting Pretty

Happy Beth...

Mischievous Beth...

Adorable Beth...

Silly Beth...

More Mischievous Beth...

Something tells me I'll be seeing this "look" all too often!

BabyLegs, NOT to be confused with 80's Leg Warmers!

The.Best.Invention.Ever.
BabyLegs!!!

If you have to ask, I have no words for you.


Beth's gone WILD over BabyLegs! Roooaar!!!!
And so has her momma!
I just love them and wish I could buy them all. Tom, however, not so much! :)


And, just for good measure, a couple more pictures of Beth sportin' her new BabyLegs!

Halloween Cuties

The cutest Trick-or-Treaters ever! Nope, I'm not biased. Just stating the facts! :)

Beau made a pumpkin gut snowman. Creative, don't you think? :)

She'll appreciate this someday....maybe?

Sorry, I just had to! How cute are those rolls? I hope she's as proud of the ones she has in her 30's as I am of these.!! :)

I just wanted to quickly record some of Beth's measurements and milestones for posterity...

9 months:

Height: 27.25 in.
Weight: 19.9 lbs.
Physical Development: sitting unassisted (barely, like just now)
Language Development: screams like she's on fire...oh, and babbles mamama & dadada, though not in context

In other words, she's PERFECT!!

Proof is in the picture! ;)

Farm Days

YeeHaw!! Doesn't Beau make a cute farmer/cowboy? He had a "Farm Day" at school a couple of weeks ago and loved every minute of it! They had a great petting zoo (way better than the one at the Phoenix Zoo, sadly) and while Beau was intimidated initially by all of the baby pigs and bunnies running around him, his nerves did finally ease up enough for him to really enjoy and pet each of the animals. I think his favorite was the miniature horse and baby calf.

There were so many fun activities set up for the kids to participate in: pseudo cow milking, stuffing their own scarecrow, square dancing, etc. Fun times for Beau!

I'm so happy we put him in preschool this year. It's been really good for him...and me! :)

Apple Picking in the Desert

That's right! Only in Arizona will you find and an apple and a pear orchard in the middle of the desert! We had a great time spending the day with some family and good friends of ours. Even though the "apple schmaple" stench lingered in my van for days, we can't wait to go again next year! Right, Daniel? :)

GoldiLUKE

A couple of months ago we tried moving Luke to his "big boy" bed. Let's just say....he's not ready yet! :)

This is what we found when we went in to check on him not too long after putting him down. He loves Beau so much that once he fell asleep he thought he'd snuggle in close to him, pull up the covers, and settle in for the night. When I first walked in, Luke was actually lying there, sucking his thumb, trying to go to sleep. When I came back with Tom and the camera he greeted us with a mischievous smile.

Apparently, Beau's bed is juuuust right!!

Monsters have God in their Hearts, too!

Beau has become quite the artist lately. Since I can't even draw a decent stick figure, I'll admit to having not given him much direction in this area, but he seems to be figuring it out all on his own....and loving it! He's drawn SO many adorable things for me in the last few months that I wish I could save them all.

This particular drawing was accompanied by such a precious commentary that I just had to take a picture of it. He brought the Magnadoodle to me and said, "Look mom, the monster's got God in his heart."

Aw, isn't that sweet?

Blogging, Menu Planning, and Scrapbooking

Blogging: Okay, so I'm a horrible blogger! I LOVE to read others' blogs, but keeping my own has been super challenging. I think my last entry was in July. BUT, I'm making a comeback! Blogging is something I really, REALLY want to do for my family, so I'm going to start taking the time to get it done. I have a problem not doing things unless I know I'll be able to do them perfectly and with 100% confidence. Yes, this is exactly why I don't do much at all! :) I'm going to have to settle for mediocrity and a substandard level of confidence on this one.

Menu Planning: I know how to do it, have the desire to do it, but never quite accomplish it. I want to be domesticated.....I really do! I feel like I need to be a good steward of my family's money and grocery shop on a budget, plan meals, and actually cook them once they're planned! We eat out WAY too much! So much that I can't even bring myself to confess just how much. My friend Brooke knows, and she still loves me, so maybe there is hope! It would be easier if Tom didn't want to eat all healthy and stuff, but whatever!!

Scrapbooking: I don't necessarily want to manually "scrapbook", but I would at least like to find a way to get my photos organized and easily shared. Digital scrapbooking?? I don't know. Just another thing that I'm stressing out about lately. I don't want to be buried in pictures 10 years from now that I have no recollection of when/where they were taken or who's even in them. I've seen this happen. Not good.

These are just a few of the MANY things I want to get the ball rolling on. Baby steps....

Family fun? Not so much!

My mother-in-law (Rita) wanted to have a family camping trip, so we conceded and went along, although I have to tell you, it's not something I was looking forward to with and infant and well, Luke.

Rita and Ron went up Friday to find a site for us all at Woods Canyon Lake and we were to meet them on Saturday morning. We drove up early Saturday morning, caravan style, with Ray and Amanda (brother-in-law & sister-in-law) and the girls. It was about 20-30 degrees cooler up on the rim than down here, and the 3 hour car ride went pretty smoothly, so I was excited for that and thinking it might not be too difficult of a trip after all.

Weeeeellllll, after driving around for well over an hour looking in every campsite in Woods Canyon, we were unable to find them and ended up finding a site of our own. The natives were getting seriously restless and needed to get out and expend some pent up energy.

The camp site was SO rocky that the boys fell down, on average, about 4 times an hour.....EACH! This means that I was dealing with a tired, cranky, crying child every 7.5 minutes! And so the good times began! We hung out, the kids walked out to the rim with Tom and Ray, we went to lake (though briefly), played some cards, and while everyone slept, I tossed and turned over the large "cliff" beneath my sleeping bag that was in just the right place to seriously encumber my sleep. I tried to turn upside down and sleep that way, but the incline made the blood rush to my head. Needless to say, I was pretty happy when Luke, my early riser, was up and ready to start the day.

And boy did the day start! Tom woke up and felt queasy. We decided to pack up camp early and while he was off in the woods getting sick, I did just that. 20 trips to the van and 20 child-centered "interruptions" later we were packed and ready to go home. What a bummer!

Even though the trip was sort of a bust, I did learn a few things.

1.) Never camp up on the rim again. At least not until the boys have grown a right foot to replace one of their two left feet and are capable of staying upright for longer than 15 minutes.

2.) Make sure that I get in on the planning to make sure important details (like where the rest of our family can be found) are taken care of! Grrrrr!!

3.) OR, send the kids camping with Tom while I stay behind and sleep in until noon, just in time to make it to my massage and pedicure appointments, only to return home with P.F. Chang's take-out and a half-gallon of coffee ice cream!

It's a Dry Heat!

While I've heard the expression "It's a dry heat!" tons of times growing up here in Arizona, I never really appreciated the depths of its meaning until our vacation in Florida a couple of weeks ago. DANG! "It's a dry heat!" is right! Florida is green and lush, and surely a beautiful state, but I'll take a scorching hot 115 degrees with 7% humidity ANY day as opposed to 90 degrees with 90% humidity! Blech! It felt like you were breathing under water! I don't know how people live there?! And my hair!! I'm pretty sure I'd still still be a single gal if I lived there, for two reasons: 1) It's so muggy I'd never want to leave my house to meet anyone, and 2) Men would have taken one look at my hair and ran the other direction! I'm already "hair challenged", but there I was "hair hopeless"!

We asked my mom to go along to help us take care of Beth in the hopes that we could spend a day together at the Magic Kingdom and have a couple of evenings to ourselves as well. Well, in order to do this, I had been trying desperately to get Beth to take a bottle for six weeks prior. The week before we left she started to take one bottle a day, though still not without a struggle much of the time. My mom had only been successful at giving her one bottle and the other attempts resulted in a hysterical baby girl. No, really.....HYSTERICAL! You would have thought we were trying to get her to drink an acid solution of some kind. So, needless to say, we were in Florida for 5 days and 4 nights and she NEVER took a bottle. Stinker!

Regardless, we had a really good time! We spent a couple of days at EPCOT, one at Magic Kingdom, and an evening at Universal Studios. I felt kind of badly for Tom because I wasn't such a good sport all the time due to the feelings Florida's disgusting weather cultivated in me. I was also constantly worried about Beth overheating and trying to keep her out of the direct sunlight. Hard task! She was such a trooper though, and barely ever made a peep. We've got ourselves a good little girl. She was even a great passenger on the flights to and from Florida. Benadryl is our friend! :)

Overall, it was a nice trip, that I likely won't be making again! ;) I think our family will stick with what Disney has to offer us on the west coast.

Farewell, Tishy!!!

A couple of nights ago I walked across my kitchen to give our family pet, Tishy, a few morsels of food before bed. To my surprise, this is what I found...

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of an animal lover, yet oddly, I felt a little sad at Tishy's demise. And then I got over it! :) My only concern was how Beau might react and how I was to tell him. Do fish go to Heaven? Do we flush him? Bury him?

Well, after procrastinating for over TWO days I decided to bite the bullet and tell Beau. The dead fish in my kitchen was starting to creep me out!

Me: "Hey, Beau, I've got to tell you something."

Beau: "Yeah."

Me: "Tishy has died."

Beau: "Oh, let me see!" (said with a giddiness that unnerved me)

I lift him up to take a look at Tishy on the counter.

Beau: "Mom, why did he die?"

Me: "Well, fish don't live very long lives, and he was getting pretty old. It was just his time to go. We had him for a really long time, huh? Maybe we'll get another fish some day."

Beau: "Are you sure it's not because we didn't feed him?"

Beau traipses off to the living room to play. Tra-la-la!!

Hmmm...I guess I was worried for nothing.

Such the businessman!

I LOVE me a good back rub, so of course I've been trying to teach Beau how to massage my shoulders. Nothing better than your own masseur, right? Well, today, all 33 pounds of him was squeezing the tops of my shoulders as hard as he could. It was actually feeling really good so I told him what a great job he was doing and how I should give him a dollar for his hard work. He continues to squeeze with all the super hero strength he can muster, pride and confidence abundant, and we have this conversation....

Beau: "Mom, I'm still doing a good job, right?"

Me: "Yes, Beau, I love it! It feels really nice. I might have to make you my official back rubber."

Beau: "Do you think you should pay me two dollars then?"

He DOES understand me!

Beau has been getting pretty demanding lately and I've said to him on several occasions that he does not tell mommy what to do, he asks me. Every time, after saying this to him, I wonder if he's even understanding my point or just appeasing me by saying, "Okay, mommy!", because he knows by the tone in my voice that he's done something I'm not pleased with.
Tonight, on our way to my mom's (Grammie's) we had this conversation:

Beau: "Mom, how about next time I spend the night at Grammie's house?"
Me: "Well, you should ask her."
Beau: "How about I tell her?"

Turkey!!! :)

Just because I can!

Yesterday was one of those uncharacteristic weather days. It was overcast, a little rainy, and extremely windy. Exciting times in the land of perpetual sun and sweltering heat! I was so excited that I could dress Beth in this cute little outfit with a matching hat. She was only able to wear it one other time and it's such a shame because it's adorable.

On her onsie it says, "Thank Heaven for little girls!" I thank God every day for her! I just love this little girl!

They weren't just cool in the 70's!

We live in a VERY small 2 story home for our family of 5. It's just under 1600 square feet, which might seem like a lot to some, but when you consider that our main living area, in which we spend 90% of our time each day, is only about 20X20, it can get a little cramped with 2 energetic boys and a baby.
So, I was on the phone with my mom today while she was shopping at Target and what does she propose we get for the boys? Bean bags! 2 of them! We don't want them fighting over one lone bean bag now do we?? Admittedly, I agreed that she should get them, knowing well enough that we have no room for such an item in our home, much less 2!
Well, lo and behold, the boys LOVE them! They've been jumping all over them the entire evening. Who knew? Beau even asked me if he could take his up to his room tonight and sleep in it. I told him no, he needed to sleep in his bed. He asked if he could put it on top of his bed and sleep in it that way. Again, I told him no, but maybe he could nap in it tomorrow. Tears ensued, I felt like a mean mommy, and now I'm sitting here wondering why I didn't just let him. Gah!



Maybe I should have gotten one for Beth, too! :)

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

It was our 6th anniversary this past Sunday, May 4th!
Too bad neither of us realized it had even come and gone until 11 o'clock at night...2 days later!
A house full of vomit and diarrhea will do that to you, I guess.

On a brighter note, for our anniversary Tom ordered me a new laptop. It's a Dell something or other. The important part is that it's the "blossom" design and a pretty purplish-pink. Pinkle? Anyway, so pretty and girly. It should be here any day now.

Here it is...arrived just minutes after I posted....

Ain't she purty?!?!
Happy Anniversary to ME!