2010 Review Extravaganza-Part 4

Welcome to my 4th and final 2010 Review Extravaganza! Hosted by...




October was an eventful month. My little man turned the big O-N-E and I loved watching him annialate his birthday cake.
The day before my birthday, we had a huge scare with Petey. It made me realize just how sacred these bodies are that we've been given and made me thankful that Heavenly Father answered our prayers.

Also in October, I was brave (or stupid) and squeezed myself into a barrel so that my son could enjoy a ride on this tiny train...and he did.

*tear* Spidey (Spider Monkey?) learned how to climb onto my kitchen table before learning how to walk. He's been doing it ever since so recently, I bought a baby gate and if I can't be with him, he gets "locked" in the playroom with the door open.

And although Petey was to be a punk rock princess for Halloween, on Halloween night, she decided she would rather wear her Belle costume...oh well. :)

One of my favorite (or maybe least favorite) blog posts in October was when I realized I have a cooking handicap. It's gotten better since then---not much---but better.


To start November, my sister turned 30 and my mom made us all lovely necklaces for the day that read "My sister/Aunt/mom/daughter is 30 today!" Slightly embarrassing and yet, amazingly hilarious.

In November, something inside of me got brave and I altered one of my shirts so it would fit better. I also altered one of Petey's shirts and made some cute arm warmers. November was a big sewing month for me.

For Thanksgiving, we flew to Alaska with my family and braved the freezing cold weather to enjoy some ASU basketball. Yup, we're crazy.

To start off December, we cut off ALL of Petey's hair---or mostly all of it. I couldn't find a blog post to link to this so apparently, I never blogged about her new do. It is adorable!

I also learned how strong my little monkey girl is when she showed me she can swing back on forth on the trapeze on my parent's swing set. Yup, I dressed my 2 year old in a onesie in the middle of December.

December also gave us one more hospital scare when we had to take Spidey there. Apparently, we had a scorpions= and apparently, they liked my son's arm --- or didnt, since it stung him. But he liked the hospital attention and was out of there within 5 hours.

December is also home to this blog post abuot being baby hungry. I have since zeroed in on the reasons I want a baby right now and they don't have much to do with actually wanting a baby---because my hands are full right now. They have to do with knowing this will be the first baby we will have that I will stay home to raise and I am anxious to see how that feels. How much easier breastfeeding and getting up at night will be when I don't have work at 7am. So no, I don't want a baby---I just am excited for the new experiences I'll enjoy of being a SAHM to a newborn.

PS: Still not happening anytime soon.

Thank you, wonderful ladies, for letting me in on this Review Extravaganza. It has been fun reviewing my wonderful year.

And that's how Suze sees it.

Christmas Present Crafts

There were a few things that I made my kids for Christmas that never made it to tutorials on my blog...sorry!
I decided to post them here and send you to the links of where I got the original tutorials.

First up, Petey's new crayon roll. I found this tutorial on Make It and Love It and Petey LOVES it. I knew my sister in law was sewing quiet bags for my kids to take to church so I tried to find ideas that would go along with that.
The next present Petey opened was a quiet book for church. I found the tutorial for this on my friend, Leah's, blog.

The last project that I forget to mention on my blog were these awesome snakes I made for Spidey. I have no credit to give to another blog but have seen the idea in many different places.

Basically, Boss donated 2 of his old ties to me and I stuffed them. I hot glued both ends shut, hot glued a piece of red felt for the tongue and glued the eyes on.

Super simple and my boy LOVES them.
He sat in church on Sunday and just sucked on the snake's tongue...gross but it kept him quiet. :)

There's the surprised face again. I love this boy.

And that's how Suze crafts it.

Monday Madness (on Tuesday again)

Why didnt I blog yesterday?

Because I was throwing up and super duper uper shmooper sick so I went to bed at 6pm.

What will this Monday Madness entail?

Some of my favorite Christmas pictures...none of which have anything to do with Monday. :)


What made me laugh on Christmas?

Capturing this excited face. Apparently, he was uber excited about unwrapping that book!
Who was flashing smiles ALL morning?

This grateful little princess. I loved seeing her smiles with everything she unwrapped.

What was MY favorite Christmas gift?

Boss' parents gave our family a wagon. I almost cried. I have been wanting one for a while but couldn't justify buying one since I already have strollers and things. I am LOVING it!

Who zonked out at the end of our busy day?

Petey. On Aunt Gigi's lap. It was awesome. :)

I hope you had a very merry Christmas.

And I hope if you are sick like me that you feel better soon...because I want to be a mom again instead of a couch potato.

2010 Review Extravaganza-Part 3

Welcome to the third blogisode of my 2010 Review Extravaganza...hosted by:


Today's post reflects back on July, August and September.

Many changes came our way in July and August of 2010.

In July, Spidey received his first Toy Story themed gift...one of many since then. Papa decided since his nam matches the character in Toy Story's name, he should get all of the fun toys too.
We took lots of trips on the lightrail...

...and took trips to many different museusm in our area, thanks to my wonderful mom.

In July, we took family pictures with my family. I wondered if it was true what they say about red heads. I also made some changes and some more changes in our home.

August was one of the saddest and happiest months of the year.

I babysat my nephew, K Bear, for the last time this year.

We had a goodbye party at my parent's house for K Bear and his parents since they were leaving for China and below was the best picture we got...too bad my son was hugo-ginormous compared to his older sister so you cant really see her face.

Of course, the biggest part of August was when I became a stay at home mom. I started staying home on the exact day that I drove my sister and her family to the airport, where they would say goodbye to the US for 9 months and goodbye to Arizona for many more years after that. Saddest happy day of my life.

I cried a lot. I still miss them so much but thankfully, some genius invented Skype just for me.

In September, I started watching G-man.

And my sister in law and I started taking our kids to the temple once a week for a picnic.

I started hosting Monday Madness on my blog.

I was also learning how to be a stay at home mom through my struggles and triumphs.

September was a huge "mom" month for me since it was the huge test of whether we had made the right decision or not. So many people pulled me through that month and taught me so much of how truly important it is to be a mom. Maybe someday my kids will appreciate me as much as I've come to appreciate my own mother.

Stay tuned for next week's fourth and final review!

And that's how Suze sees it!

Wild Wednesday

Just in case you were wondering, I've given up on my link posts but I will continue to blog on Wild Wednesday. Maybe someday when I have more than 15 followers, the link posts can start back up. Oh well. :)

Today my baby girl is sick. Sick as sick can be. Fevers of 105. Puss bubbles in her throat (tmi?). Oh she is miserable. And her brother is still on breathing treatments.
Yeah it's a great day for our family.

But seriously, wasn't she an adorable angel?

And even though our kids are sick, I am so thankful for life today.

I am thankful that Christmas is in a couple of days and I had decided that Spidey's Christmas just wouldn't be as cool as his sister's (not that I need to be comparing) and then Santa Clause decided he had something else up his sleeve for our boy. My aunt contacted a bunch of us cousins about an awesome car rug she was giving away for free and I emailed her back right away and snatched it up for my son.

Thanks, Santa. You sure know how to make a mom's job easier.

And Spidey is going to love it.

I also asked Petey if she wanted Santa to bring her a baby doll or Tinkerbell dress ups for Christmas (since I had to swing her vote for one of those 2 things). The past couple of days, she was stuck on the Tinkerbell dress ups and then last night she said, "Mom, Santa is going to bring me Tinkerbell dress ups AND a baby doll."

Smart cookie, that Petey. Good thing she is getting both presents anyway...guess I'll put Santa's name on both of them. :)

Hope everyone is having a very thankful Wednesday.

Monday Madness

Who has a silly daddy?

My kids! Boss likes to smush their faces and say they look like baby sharpe's. He is such a weirdo.
What was the hightlight of my day?

Playing on the swingset with Boss and Petey.
We got a little crazy and decided to swing upsidedown with no hands...as I used to do as a child.

It was 100 times harder to do than I remember it being. I used to hang like that for minutes...I think I lasted 3 seconds this time.

Petey loves playing on my parent's swingset.

What did we do tonight?

Celebrated "Christmas Eve" (our old Christmas Eve traditions before my dad's family got too big) with the G side of my family. Petey and George got to dress up and be in the play.

And Petey was front and center (because that's where the cutest angel goes) but of course, she was a bit unsure of it all so she just sat there with her fingers in her mouth the whole time. :)

What did we end our absolutely awesome day with?

Spidey holding this on his face for 30 minutes. Poor baby boy. He has such a hard time with his asthma. But at least at 14 months (actually he learned it at about 7 months), he can hold his own mask on.

How was your Monday Madness? Are you ready for Christmas? I have everything wrapped and under the tree besides one tiny present that I need to go grab at the store. Yay me!

Many Happy Faces

My camera died last night.

The red battery light had been blinking for days and then it just died.

Of course, it died within seconds of us stepping foot on the Mesa Temple grounds to see the beautiful Christmas lights.
Of course, it died right as I told my pretty little princess to pose for a picture in front of the camels.
And of course, after it died and I had a second of being upset, Little Miss decided to escape under the strung lights and head for the camels...luckily I grabbed the back of her shirt just in time so no escaping happened.
So my camera died and I had lost the charger.
I. Was. Flustered.
Today was the Christmas program at our church and my kids were dressed in their Christmas outfits.
My camera was dead.

We put them to bed tonight and then I found my charger.

Of.

Course.

I wish I could've captured the many happy faces of yesterday and today.

This is the last picture I took before my camera died.

As of tomorrow, Petey will have worn that pettiskirt 3 days in a row...because that's how we roll. We have Christmas activities all of those days and my girly needs to be showing off her adorable outfit. :) Or moreso, I just want her in it. And she wants to be in it.

Trust me, it works out.

At the grocery store yesterday, I was bribing, yes bribing my girly with a treat if she behaved at the store. She had had a rough morning and I just needed a happy girl. Everytime she would frown and whine, I would say, "Show me your happy face." and her entire face would light up. She wanted that treat so badly.

And then after feeding her some of the treats she picked out (yogurt covered pretzels), we drove home and Boss reminded me that neither of our kids are allowed to have dairy right now (due to having diarrhea for over 10 days). Darn it!

She was extremely angry. I was extremely tired. She took a nap. I looked for my camera charger with no luck.

But thankfully, tonight brought me more luck.

I'm happy to have my camera to catch those many happy faces tomorrow.

And that's how Suze sees it.

2010 Review Extravaganza-Part 2

Welcome to another blogisode of my 2010 Review Extravaganza! Hosted by...




In April of 2010, we celebrated Easter by having my SIL and her family here. The girls all had matching dresses and our Spidey was in an awesome pink tie. We tried to do a photoshoot and got some pictures...but it was kind of melt down mode for the kids.Also in April, I wrote this post which reflected some of my thoughts about marriage. I loved going back and reading so many of my April posts but that one stuck out to me the most.

In May, we celebrated our girly's 2nd birthday! Petey learned how to squish her brother's fat cheeks together...

...and she got a new bike for her birthday! A very special pink bike that is still too big for her this December. Someday, she'll grow---we hope.

May was also Mother's Day and I dedicated 5 blog posts to special mother's in my life. You will find them here, here, here, here, and here.

In June, these cute cousins (Spidey on the left, K Bear on the right) were starting to interact with each other more. I remember the day we parked their carseats like this when we were both at my parent's house. They were so cute together and I miss my K Bear so darn much!

Also in June, I wrote this post about how I'm sure some of us tend to get on our blogs and relay our lives to others as perfect and always happy. I talked about how frustrating work was (even though I loved that job so much) and how much I wanted to be with my kids. My patience was growing thin as I longed to be with my kids. If only I had known then...

And to end our wacky June, my 2 1/2 year old was still skinny enough for an infant carseat. Dont worry, we never put her in the car like this but at the science center one day, both of my kids were getting restless and wanting to be out of the stroller. I suddenly had a great idea that if we changed their point of view (we put Spidey in the front facing forward seat and Petey up in his carseat), maybe they'd be happy.
And guess what? They were! :)

I am loving this 2010 Review.

Stay tuned for next week's review of July, August and September.

And that's how Suze sees it.

Wild Wednesday

Happy linky Wednesday! I've been up since 5am...and I normally get up around 9am.

All thanks to this little guy. Because he had a dirty diaper and was screaming his head off at 5am.
After changing him, I realized he had woken up another special someone who was wide awake. So I brought her to my bed.

Ten minutes later, I heard more screaming from Spidey. I went in to find he had pooped again. What?! So I changed him again, put him back to bed and he fell asleep again.

But guess who was still awake?

And guess who's daddy has finals today and needed sleep?

So we left the bed, came out to the couch and then just decided to go grocery shopping. One kid is easier than two...even at 5am.

Boy, am I exhausted...and it's 8:30 in the morning. But like every other Wednesday post, I am choosing to find the good in this.

Positives:

• At least I can be grateful that my kids are normally super sleepers and sometimes sleep in until 10 or 11.
• At least when Petey was up, she was full of smiles and hasnt been hard to deal with all morning.
• At least one of them went back to sleep.
• At least I have kids...this is a big one. Throughout all of the things that go on in our world, infertility, child loss, etc, I am grateful to have healthy and happy children.

I am so grateful for my children...even on days that they wake me up at 5am. That surely isnt something to complain about.

And now it's your turn. Link up with a positive post of your own...about anything. You guys realize I will keep putting these link posts up and someday someone will link up with me. ;)

Happy Wednesday!