Flashback Friday

Aha! It's is currently 1:09am on Saturday but I woke up just especially for you because I forgot to give you a Flashback Friday.

Just kidding. I was already awake from our ward Midnight Madness, which ended at midnight...but then I decided to come home and watch The Office on Hulu while Boss was busily carving his 3rd pumpkin of the night...and I thought I was crazy.

Tonight's Flashback Friday is brought to you by the letter H---for Halloween, of course.

Here is Petey last year on Halloween. Oh yeah, she was Nacho Libre. There will only be so many years I get to pick her costumes out so I've wanted to make them as original as possible.

I'm crazy, I know. Who dresses their 16 month old daughter up as Nacho Libre?!! I do!

This year she is doing the punk rock princess thing. That has been a fun one for me. Mostly because I get to dress her up 80's style and I love doing that!

Many times, I feel like I am living the 80's through her, since I wasn't brought into this world until '87. Did you know I'm only 23? Or that I am already 23? Or however surprising that age revelation was. Usually people are surprised at how young I am---like on Sunday when a bunch of 8 year olds asked me if I was 40. What the???!!!!!! I'm guessing it's because I have 2 kids.

Anyway, I LOVED this costume on Petey. We may have to repeat it next year for her brother if he'll let me.

Goodnight to me...Good morning to my sister in China...and hopefully the rest of you are already getting some good sleep. :)

And that's how Suze sees it.

"Old Friends"

Right this very moment, my sweet baby boy is poking me in the eyes and folding my ears over. He likes to sit next to me and do this if he has the chance.
Earlier today, this same boy and I played for a long time. He is easily amused...I am easily amusing. :) We work well together. He likes to play catch and can throw a ball with pretty good aim.
This brings me back to last night. My little boy was dressed up as a cow. Petey was the cutest punk princess. We were at my parents ward trunk or treat. Oh to think back to the days when I was a child/teenager in a family ward and not the adult...the one with a seriously awesome calling and not the primary pianist (not that being the pianist wasn't a good calling...but I just don't play the piano very well).
*ouch! baby boy just grabbed a chunk of my hair!*
I'd like to think that I'm a pretty outgoing person but I'm starting to think that isn't so true. Or that maybe it's true for the people that I've met post high school but not for my "*old friends (review term below)". I'm trying to decide what the reason is. Is it because post high school people have never known me pre-baby-body so I feel less self concious? Sometimes I wonder if my high school friends look at me and think, "Wow, she really let herself go after having those kids."(because yes, my body does have an extra 30 pounds of love since high school...or more, depending on which year of high school we are talking about) They might not think that way and I'm not saying they're shallow people...but I am trying to figure out why I feel so reserved when I see them in public. And I think I'm going to pinpoint that as the reason for now and try to fix it.
So how do you fix a problem like that?
If I'm happy in my new post baby body, I would fix the problem by getting over my self conciousness and realizing that nobody's opinion matters besides that of my husband and myself.
And if I'm not happy with my post baby body, then I need to start fixing the problem there. :)

So now to decide if I'm happy or not...I'll get back to you after I finish off this chocolate ice cream...
Just kidding. I'm not really eating chocolate ice cream...though I did have some earlier today. :)

I'm not happy with my body but I don't hate it. Does that make sense? And I sure haven't weighed myself in weeks but I've been riding my bike a lot of mornings and cooking healthier dinners so something is hopefully bound to change.
And you know what? I think that's where I'm most happy.
I'm NOT happy changing my entire diet and lifestyle and going on a strict "lose 30 lbs in 3 weeks" crazy diet.
So I'll do things my way and realize that it's up to me to be happy in the body that Heavenly Father has created for me.

So nevermind...I'm going to say that I am happy.
Happy to have a hard working husband and 2 crazy rascals to love and care for me. Happy for parents, siblings and friends who love and care for me no matter how I look.

I am happy.

And that's how Suze sees it.

*"Old friend": a person you still keep in touch with through the internet but don't see on a daily or weekly basis.

PS: Is there a therapy for a person who blogs too much? Because I think I've just hit my record with 3 blog posts in one day all on the same blog. I must be crazy...and yes, my kids did exist in my world today. Dont worry. :)

Going Potty for Pennies

I have been sad lately about something. Or maybe the right word is stressed.
Little Miss has been "potty trained" for a little over 2 months now. The quotations are there because ever since I stopped giving her treats, Little Miss Petey stopped using the potty as often. She just doesnt care. I make her clean up her messes, sit on the potty, change her own underwear, and put the underwear in the hamper when she has accidents and she is just ok with doing that.
I've heard a lot of opinions on this matter. Put her back in a diaper, don't put her back in a diaper, etc but I am choosing to listen to my heart and brain on this one. If Petey knows how to use the potty, I am not going to continue to put her in diapers and pay for them. I'm just not. After 2 months of underwear every day, we really can't go back...because to her, that would be success.
So I went looking and found THIS blogpost on Make and Takes. Because here was my other dilemma. In my opinion, Little Miss is over the days of getting candy for going peepee. She is smart enough to do it without added sugar intake during the day and I refuse to give her sugar as a reward for something she needs to just be doing now, not because of her age (because I know there are kids her age who aren't ready) but because she understands and IS ready and COULD stay dry if she wanted to.
I talked to Boss and we thought we'd give it a try. Maybe some type of reward system would actually help her and I like that this one is not something she gets to have right away. She simply gets to put a penny in her jar every time she goes and we decided once it's filled up, she gets to go to the dollar store and pick out a prize.
The other thing I tweeked about this Going Potty for Pennies was that Petey knows if she has an accident in her panties, she has to take a penny back out of the jar. For a while, we tried time out for her going peepee in her pants and I know you will probably think that was wrong but oh well. We tried it and that didn't even work.
With the hopes of not jinxing myself, I will say that Petey has been dry for 2 days since we started giving her pennies. She talks about it all the time and loves picking her "favorite" penny out of the cup to put into her jar.
Wish us luck on our journey. This has been one of the biggest challenges I've faced lately. I've been stumped as to how I should go about fixing the problem Miss Stubborn has and hopefully this is the answer.

On the other hand, dos anybody have any tips for getting your "kid that should know how to walk but doesnt" to walk? :) I thought not...

And thats how Suze sees it.

Pizza Pockets

I know what you're thinking..."There's no way I'm taking a recipe from HER blog." Well just give me a second to explain. Yes, I made this up. And yes, I'm sure it's been thought of many times before me but if you haven't heard of it, try this out. Especially if you have kids that love pizza like I do.
What you'll need:
bread
shredded mozzarella cheese
pepperonis
pizza sauce
a sandwich cooker or a stove (I'm sure you at least have one of those...hopefully)

Step 1: Put the bread down and sprinkle mozarella cheese on it. Step 2: add your sauce.

Step 3: add your pepperonis.

Step 4: add some more mozzarella cheese.

Step 5: grill to perfection and devour.

If you are at our house for lunch, this is probably what it would look like. We keep our lunch meals as simple and quick as possible. It's usually some sort of sandwich or burrito or chicken nuggets, etc because my kids are almost always cranky at lunch time.

Enjoy!

Tutorial Tuesday

I've been wanting to use that title since I made this awesome wreath yesterday..so let's just pretend this was posted yesterday. I promise I started to write it yesterday---and then the Boss came home and found me asleep at the computer.

This lovely yarn wreath was one of the easiest things I've ever made and I think it is my favorite craft so far. I am LOVING the way it looks. I found the tutorial HERE. I've also taken pictures of my wreath in case you want to see more pictures of how it's made.

Supplies:
Yarn
Wreath form
Felt
Hot glue
Scissors

Start by tying a knot around the wreath.
Then start wrapping the yarn around the wreath. It doesn't need to be perfect...mine sure isn't.

Here's the finished product.

I didn't take pictures of how to make the felt flowers step by step so again, just go HERE. They are super easy to make and look how they turned out.

Here's Petey modeling the wreath. :)

I am seriously in love with the way these flowers turned out. You may see these turning up in other craft posts.

The finished product hanging on my door.

I made this wreath for Thanksgiving decorations but I loved it so much, I'm putting it up a week early.

And that's how Suze made it.

Monday Madness

What made me laugh today?

Editing these pictures I took yesterday at my parent's house. My mom has some hilarious Halloween costumes and the kids (and maybe adults too) decided to play dress ups.

Who was Ms. Silly Pants at our house?

Petey girl! She was dancin' and groovin' for my pictures today (and in between all her dancin' and groovin', she was a sassy, cranky toddler).

What did I learn today?

Don't give a toddler a candy bar in the car...or anywhere, for that matter. She may just make a huge mess of it. And then she may rub her eyes right before falling asleep.

What did I love doing today?

Petey's hair. I've always wanted to start a hair blog but I think I'll just post the hair do's on here when I find new cute ones. This one is a side pony tail but we have to improvise since her hair isn't long enough yet. Sorry, I'm not good at taking step by step pictures yet.

What did I make today?

Not dinner, if you're thinking that's the answer. I had planned on making parmesan chicken but we got home from the store at 6:30pm and my kids were starving and screaming so we had pb&j's instead. :)

I made a Halloween ornament for my door. From scratch! All by myself. I didn't even use a tutorial. I've seen these pin wheel looking things before so I just got out my colored paper and went to town figuring it all out.

In short, my Monday Madness (and my weekend) has mostly been filled with a cranky toddler, a needy 1 yr old, a tired husband, and a mom that found about a million crfat blogs to waste her time looking at. :) But we all find time for each other and are grateful for these wonderful cards we've been delt.

A cranky toddler and a needy 1 yr old and a tired husband are 100 times better than no toddler, no 1 yr old, and no husband. Trust me. If you are experiencing what I am, be grateful we are experiencing what we are and not something truly tragic.

And that's how Suze sees it.

Flashback Friday

Good morning, Saturday. My "I have a cooking handicap" post took up Friday so we are actually doing Flashback Saturday today. :)

Today, I wasnt quite sure of a certain photo or time frame to pick so I decided to pick the 7th picture from my 50th album. Seriously, I have A LOT of albums. Anyway, this is what I found.

This picture was taken one morning when I was meeting Boss' Mom at the high school to drop off my kids (way closer than driving them out to Queen Creek). Petey was bored and so I let her come sit up with me...only in a parked position, of course. She found my mirror and thought ti was the greatest thing ever invented. I love this picture of her. I love a lot of pictures of her. She is so beautiful.
This brings me back to the many memories I have of dropping my children off at various places. Between June and July, I think I cried dropping them off more than I didn't. For some reason, those months were getting more and more difficult for me and who knew that only a month after that, I'd make the plunge and stay home with them.
It's hard...don't get me wrong...but I don't cry and my heart doesnt break when I leave them places because I know I am raising them. I know they are learning and growing (or not doing so) because of me. It is absolutely 100% worth the pay cut we took to do this. And I would absolutely encourage any mother that wants to be home with her kids to look into your budget and see just how far you can cut it down to stay home with your kids.
Because in the end, money means nothing and family means everything.

And that's how Suze sees it.

I have a cooking handicap...The end.

Oh the joys of cooking meals for my family. And by joy, I mean frustration. :)
I try to follow recipes to a T. I try. And yet, my food almost always tastes like crap.
Remember how I made manicotti on Monday night? Yeah...my husband wont touch it. And I wont even touch it. It was good when I was really hungry for dinner but as my tummy filled up, I realized how not good it was.

Then there was Phase 2: Bruschetta. This was the ONLY thing I've made this week that I liked and almost ate the entire thing of. Yum. The recipe called for A LOT of basil and though it tasted good at the time, you'll hear about the end result with Phase 3.
Phase 3 was homemade pizza. How could anybody screw this one up with premade dough from Fresh and Easy (my favorite!)? I got smart and decided to spread the leftover bruschetta on the pizza and just add some tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. I thought I was becoming quite savvy with cooking until I ate that pizza. Basil up the wazoo! Maybe the flavor of the basil had just soaked into the leftovers and become WAY too much in 24 hours. Whatever it was, I did not like the homemade pizza. On the other hand, of course Boss thought it was pretty good. Of course...the one meal I hated.
Phase 4 was homemade macaroni and cheese. You see, that was supposed to be Phase 3 (Wednesday's meal) but I realized we had no milk or worchestershire sauce that night so we did pizza instead. [Notice I made 3 italian meals in a row? I didnt even realize that!] The macaroni and cheese wouldve been pretty good but the ratio of noodles to sauce that the recipe called for was WAY off in my opinion. There were times I was just eating plain sauce and it was too cheesy for me. I could probably tweek it if I made it again to taste better.

I guess I'm just a bit discouraged. If Phase 5 (Chili Verde) doesn't work out tonight, I may just have to hire a chef. Or eat prepackaged meals. Or starve. Who knows. I am very very VERY proud that I have cooked 5 homemade meals this week. I am serious when I say I have never done that in our entire marriage...or actually in my entire life, for that matter. But I wish something would actually taste good enough to eat again the next day. How does my mom do it? She is always cooking awesome meals and I have always loved eating the leftovers. "sigh".

Wish me good luck tonight...and forever. Hopefully my cooking becomes better with time.

And that's how Suze sees it.

Lesson 1: Get your hopes up

Last week, I gave you the link to a women's conference I was going to attend that weekend. If you weren't able to join me there, I hope that you'll read through this and get a taste of what I learned.
Today I chose one of my favorite talks, "Get your hopes up" by Amanda Dickson. As a young girl, Sis. Dickson was told not to get her hopes up and she always wondered why. Her talk to us focused on getting our hopes up and why it is healthy and important.

She said, "Instead of thinking about the worst thing that can happen, what's the best thing? Not getting your hopes up doesn't protect you from bad things" She even taught us that we may end up liking the "worst thing". You see, she was pregnant at the age of 41 and stressed about how her unborn child would be affected by her age. She expected the worst and knew he was going have some sort of handicap. And he did. She spoke of how this was her worst fear and it had come true...and she loved it because she loved her son. He was perfect just the way God created him.

"We fear change because we are unfamiliar with it." Sis. Dickson spoke about how most of us probably sit in the same spot every Sunday at church. And we probably have many other things that we do out of habit. We fear change. This part of her talk really hit me hard because I fear change. A lot. I have done a lot of things the secure way...getting a job from my dad being one of the biggest things. I have had much anxiety and fear towards making the leap to stay home...especially not knowing exactly how we are going to make it. But we always do. And I know this is where I need to be.

"If you never change your mind, why have one?" Sis. Dickson spoke of how she usually drives to work and one day as she pulled into the parking lot, she couldn't even remember the drive there. Because it was so engrained in her mind, she didn't have to fully wake up to drive to work. So she started taking different ways. This made it so she had to be aware of her surroundings in order to get to work. She enjoyed the drive more and was more attentive in the mornings.

The most amazing thing about Sis. Dickson was that she is not a member of my same faith. And yet, she stood in front of a group of us and spoke so lovingly towards us AND about us.

This truly was an amazing weekend full of spiritual talks. Stay tuned for more lessons taught by others, portrayed by me. :)

Monday Madness

Oh the Monday Madness is over.
Today was a busy busy day. I had 3 different grocery stores to go to, had to watch G-man for a couple of hours, and wanted to go clothes shopping in the afternoon. AND...I had a yummy dinner planned so I wanted to be back in time to prepare it. Phew! Miraculously, we got everything done!

What made me sad today?

Realizing that my kids are growing up too fast. Notice Spidey is standing up right there by himself. He does that constantly.
And notice Petey just looks like she's 10 yrs old here. Yeah...she's way too big too fast. I swear she was born yesterday.

What did I splurge on today?

A Belle costume for Hayley. She now has all of the princesses and Tinkerbell (though her other princess dresses are not even half as fancy as this one). We read Beauty and the Beast and talked about how princesses are nice to other people for FHE. You get creative when you need to keep a 2 yr old interested in the lesson. :)

What did I decide to rename Petey?

Princess Dirty Feet. :)

What made me feel domestic today?

Making manicotti. Yeah it was way different than the recipe, since halfway through putting the ingredients together, I forgot I was cutting the recipe in half and started putting full measurements of certain ingredients in. Oh well. I thought it tasted good. The Boss probably wont.

What proved that we had a busy day today?

This picture of my Bubs sleeping in his high chair at 6pm. He even had a great nap today so this shows that I really wore him out today. *crossing my fingers he still sleeps all night*

Tinkerbell

Last week, I celebrated my 23rd birthday...old!!! Just kidding.
I was given a total of $150 for shopping money between my mom and my husband.
Since I have 2 kids, babysit another kid, and had lots to do last weekend, I wasnt planning on spending any of my money just yet.
But on my actual birthday, the Boss and I went on a date and decided to go see a movie. The movi didnt start for 1 1/2 hrs so we walked around San Tan mall.
I contemplated going in Forever 21 to shop around but Boss hates that store with a passion.
Boss tried to get me into the running shoe store but there was NO way I was spending ALL of my money on running shoes...what fun is that? Plus I already have a good pair.
We kept walking when I remembered a very fun store nearby.
The Disney Store.
I told Boss I wanted to just walk around and show him all the awesome costumes for both of my kids in the store. Boss thought it sounded fun so we went inside. I told him I wouldn't buy any dress ups because they were only 25% off right now, making them still $30 but when we walked inside, half of the dress ups were marked down to 40%.
*cue thoughts of buying every 40% dress up in the store*
Boss said it was my money and I could do with it what I want so I decided to pick 1 dress up for each kid.
For Petey, I was immediately drawn to the Tinkerbell costume. Not a huge ball gown dress but perfect for my spunky little 2 yr old. For Spidey...nothing. I couldn't find a boy costume in the 40% off rack that I liked.
So we continued on and came to the pajamas.
Boss starts pulling me over to the cutest pajamas you have ever seen for our Bubs. I had planned on making their Christmas pj's since I'm trying to make everything homemade but nope...we couldnt pass up the sale for these Buzz Lightyear pj's. And in order to get them so cheaply, we had to buy a 2nd set of pj's so we picked out tinkerbell pj's for Petey.
Yes, all in all, Petey came out with more than her brother this time.
But even better than that is that Boss says I dont have to pay for their Christmas pj's out of my birthday money. Yahoo! More birthday money for me.

All of this story just made me realize how much I love my kids. At times, it makes me equally if not more happy to buy things for them as I feel buying things for myself. If you've ever seen your child with that ecstatic look opening up a present they love, you know what I mean.

Their happiness is my happiness.

I love these sweet blessings I have been given to raise in this life. They mean the world to me.

But since one of them (Spidey) is sick,possibly teething, and screaming right now, I had better cut this off and go cuddle him.

And that's how Suze sees it.

Flashback Friday

Welcome to Flashback Friday. I'm going to make this short and sweet since I'm getting ready to leave for Time Out for Women in 2 hours and havent even packed yet.

I love my dad. I hope everyone loves their dad---but I really love mine.
When Petey was in the hospital, he was calling to make sure "they were doing their job" and to make sure she was being treated well at Cardon's.
When Spidey was really little and had really horrible croup, I remember him calling me at 2am to make sure our little guy was doing ok.
When Petey was a colicky baby, he would take her and let her scream in his face for hours while I took breaks.
When both of my kids were born via c section, he was able to be there for the entire thing and make sure both of my babies came out healthy.

He's headstrong. He's stubborn. He knows how to be a boss. I get a lot of personality traits from my dad.

I found this picture while rummaging through last year's Halloween pictues. Can you believe my Bubs was that little only a year ago? My dad has THE MOST patience for babies---he is a pediatrician so this makes sense to me. He just loves them. He is always wanting to hold our children---mine and both my sisters. He just loves his grandkids so much and is constantly asking for them.

Arent they just so cute snuggled up on the couch like that?

It can happen in a second

Bad things really only take seconds to happen. Sometimes we take for granted our healthy children. Actually we probably do that A LOT of the time.
Yesterday, my SIL, Juli, and I decided to take our kids to Sam's Club together. I also had my nephews but was still determined to get to the store that morning so off we went with 6 kids under the age of 5. Crazy? Yes, we are.
We got through the shopping with nothing more than a couple of fighting and antsy children and as we were checking out, I was thinking how lucky we were to have no major disasters. Of course, I "thought" a little too soon.
I was loading my stuff onto the belt to pay for my stuff when I heard a crack. I literally thought someone had dropped a huge can of beans onto the tile floor until the cashier and Juli bolted for the other side of Juli's cart. I looked in her cart, counted her 2 children, and immediately knew it was my girlie that had fallen out of the cart. The rushed her into my arms and the back of her head was read and her nose was bleeding. I took her into the bathroom while Juli used my card to pay for my stuff. My poor Petey girl wouldnt let me put her down so I carried her out to the car.
As we were walking out, I noticed she was extremely pale and lethargic so I chose to drive her over to my dad's pediatric office down the street. He was out of town but his awesome partner, Dr Leavitt, saw us immediately. He said her head was bruised and possibly cracked but there was no reason to get an xray unless we thought she might have a concussion.
I watched my girly closely all afternoon and things seemed normal except that she was a lot more clumsy (running into walls, tripping randomly, etc) so I called my dad who said that was not normal and if it continued, she would need to go to the hospital.
We went out to take pictures for Spidey's first birthday and she seemed fine but on the way back, she had 2 staring spells where I couldnt get her attention for at least 15 seconds. I set my path for the hospital and called the Boss at work.
He met me at home and took our Bubs and I took Petey to the hospital. My awesome dad called ahead so we got right in, saw the dr, and got the xrays. She was SOOO brave and didnt move or cry during the xrays. I was so proud of her. They gave her a popsicle and she was happy as can be...as you will see below. :)

The xrays came back negative and because she was acting fine at the hospital, they decided not to do the CT scan unless she was acting funny because of the radiation she'd be put under. They sent us home with strict orders to wake her up every 2 hours to make sure she could be aroused and watch for signs of concussion.

The night went well but she slept in our bed and I'm exhausted! She was punching and kicking us all night long and I hardly got any sleep. But it's worth it for my little princess.

She is acting great this morning and things seem fine.

But please give your babies an extra hug today. Even though things turned out well for us in the end (or so we are still praying), bad things only take seconds to happen.

And that's how Suze sees it.

PS: Happy birthday to ME today!!! Lot's of free meals coming my way today.

Monday Madness

What made me laugh today?

Seeing my mom snag some frosting off the side of my cake. (Ok so this was from yesterday...still made me laugh when I looked at the picture again today)
What made me frustrated?

Putting this girly in time out 5 times in a row because she refused to listen to me.

What did I spend a lot of time doing?

Well, today as I was rummaging through clothes for Petey to wear, I realized there were so many clean clothes right in front of me but I had a certain style in mind for her and so I kept rummaging. So today I realized I spend A LOT of time getting her ready for the day. Is that normal? She sure looked cute though. :)

What stressed me out today?

My mischevious little monkey of a boy. He seriously pushed that chair over to the lights and started turning them on and off. What the??? He doesnt even walk yet! This boy wears me out. He gets into everything.

Later that same day, I found him on the same chair playing with the door handle. Seriously???!!

What made me happy today?

Getting my vinyl quote put up on the door. Of course, Boss came home and told me it wasnt the best idea because we cant take it with us if we move but I didn't care. I love it for the time being. :)

What did I think would be fun today?

Taking my kids to the play place at the mall...little did I know, Spidey would be obsessed with climbing up that slide and being in the way for about 10 million other children so I was constantly getting up and moving him. It wasn't as much fun as it normally is. Oh well. :)

How was your Monday Madness?

Sometimes my feelings get hurt and I don't know how to express them nicely. This is usually why I keep them to myself---because it seems much safer that way.
I dont want people to be mad at me and I dont like being mad at others but I wish I could spit out what I'm feeling in a way that wouldn't hurt other's feeling's. Because my feelings are already hurt---I dont want somebody else to feel that same way.
Frustrating cycle, huh?
Ill post Monday Madness later...just wanted to get some of my thoughts out a bit early today.

On the upside, I got an awesome vinyl quote and put it up on my front door and I love it!
"If I walk far but am angry toward others in my journey, I walk nowhere."

So true, isn't it?

And that's how Suze sees it.

Full Size

Whoever invented the full size bed sure wasn't thinking clearly. Not that it isn't a good sized bed for the average single person...I just don't know who decided it should be named "full". You see, my husband and I sleep on a "full size" mattress and it is anything but full. Maybe another 5 feet and I would consider it full. Maybe.
Anyway...Boss was trying to go to sleep last night and we kept bumping into each other and rolling over and trying to get comfortable while trying to shove the other as close to the edge as possible. He finally said to me, "Ill give you a dollar if you go sleep on the couch." and I said heck no! He upped the price to $20 and then to $100 and I still refused. Finally, he offered the greatest thing in the world. He said if I slept on the couch, he would clean the entire kitchen the next day. Talk about an offer you can't refuse. The dishes are piled up in my kitchen, there are crumbs and other food stains everywhere and I just havent gotten the guts to tackle it. Maybe if he'd have looked it over before making the offer, he would've kept his mouth shut.
So onto the couch I went and Boss gets to clean the entire kitchen for me today. Booyah! If only he knew that he got the short end of the deal...because I sleep like a baby on the couch. :)

And that's how Suze sees it.

Flashback Friday

On this Flashback Friday, there is a special person I would like to honor. Spidey turned 1 yr old yesterday so flashback day is all his.
This picture was taken after we got home from the hospital with our new little bug. Nana and Papa had been watching Petey that day and brought her home a little while after we got there. This is her meeting her brother. She was very unsure of him, as the picture will show.
Almost exactly 1 yr later, she couldnt love the kid more. She is always trying to help with her brother and play with him. And this boy has made this first year a breeze. He is always happy and smiling and lately has started showing a goofy side to his personality. I love it!

I cant believe it's been a year already. Spidey was supposed to stay little---didnt he get the memo? We love our little boy so much and couldnt imagine life without him.

Happy birthday, Spidey Bubs!

Monday Madness

What was my favorite thing about this weekend?

Seeing Spidey anialate his early birthday cake. He looked like he was turning into the Hulk with all that green. :)
What made me slightly queasy?

The fact that his bath water looked like he pooped in it. :)

What made me sad?

Spidey was up ALL night with a stomach ache after devouring his cake. Poor little guy.

What made me smile today?

Spidey riding a horse for the first time and Petey wanting NOTHING to do with it. I love the difference in their personalities. He may not look happy in the picture but he was actually ecstatic. He was grinning most of the time and after he got off, he was angry that I walked away from the horse.

What did I accomplish?

Getting all of my Halloween decorations put up. Although my kids are fascinated and want to play with the ones within their reach, I love the spirit that Halloween starts to bring. Thanksgiving and Christmas are even better but this time of year is my favorite.