Petey's first dance concert

Today was a very special day in our home. Miss Petey started taking dance lessons back in September and had her first dance concert tonight!
I may have turned into one of those crazy dance moms and gotten a little too excited but don't worry, I tried not to go overboard. I'm just so happy that she has had such a good time and loves going to class every week.
Being the crazy mom that I am, I had a dream about her concert last night and decided yesterday how her hair would be done. I know I shouldn't admit this but that isn't the first time I've planned out hairstyles days in advance for her. I think I have an addiction to doing my child's hair! :) She was happy when I put the curlers in so she would have curly hair (which is funny since her hair is already curly...I was just doing it to make her feel more special). :)

Then, before it got dark outside, I put her in her costume and we went outside for some pictures. Isn't her costume adorable?

I am so luck to have such a smart, pretty little girly! She makes us so happy.

Sass.

I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to put make up on her. Boss is actually the one who brought it up and asked if I was going to and I told him I wasn't sure if it was appropriate. He said it was just for her concert so I got to try out some make up skills on her. Just mascara, blush, and lip gloss.

She actually looked way too old and I'm glad we don't ever let her wear make up. A 3 year old should look like a 3 year old!

She is so full of personality. :) I love this little girly of mine.

Finally, it was time to head to her concert. She was really excited and would not stop talking about how she was going to dance for everybody.

Here we are waiting for her to go backstage before the concert.

If you listen to the beginning of the video, the teacher announces that they are going to do their dance a second time. Well, she is correct. This is actually the second time they did it for us.

The first time, Miss Leah (in the video), was standing behind the curtain and all of the girls looked nervous and just stared over at her. Luckily, the owner of the studio decided they needed to do the dance again but with Miss Leah standing with them and dancing.

Petey was such a ham and did really well but kind of got side tracked and kept staring at the other girls. :) She's only 3 so we expected that. But as you can see, she was great at singing the words and she did really great waving and smiling when she walked off the stage. :)

After all the dancers were done, they all went on stage together.

As you can see by the build up of crumbs on Spidey's jacket, we kept him well entertained with food so he wouldn't cry during the concert. :) That's called being prepared!

Petey was so excited that her friend, Tessa (who I sometimes babysit), was in the concert as well.

Mia, Petey, Ranie and Tess (Mia, Ranie, and Tessie are sisters) after the concert. They all did such a great job.

Petey with Miss Leah and her friend, Holland. I'm so glad Miss Leah was their teacher. Petey loves her and loves going to class.

To end our fabulous night, Boss had his last final and is officially done with another semester of school! I am so proud of him and the hard work he does for us.

And that's how Suze sees it.

Sun Devil Winters

One of my favorite things about the weather cooling down and Christmas lights being put up on houses is knowing that college basketball season has started. I am not an avid basketball fan but I am a Sun Devil fan!
We have already been to a couple of games (and missed many of them too) but last weekend, Boss stayed home with Spidey and my girly and I got to go to the game with Grandpa and Wilbur Force.
My parents even had some awesome ASU Santa hats for us to sport. Wilbur Force and Petey wore them. :)

That's my little girly, posing ON a chair. Good thing it didn't fold up on her.

Halfway through the game, Petey was a little bored and tired so we broke out the camera and took some funny pictures.

This was supposed to be our smiling picture but someone gave me the crazy eyes. I love looking at this picture because that is exactly my girl! She is always doing something silly.

Of course, this picture was a close second for funniest picture. She tried really hard to copy the face I was making.

Getting a shoulder ride from Grandpa is the best way to leave the game. Of course, we did lose that particular game but we still support our Devils!

And that's how Suze sees it.

Kids' Room/Play Room Redo{Again}

Yes, we have redone the kid's room a little bit. And yes, I am here to tell you all about it...again.
It's just that we followed through with a great idea and I want to share it with all of you!
So here is the first picture. This is right as you walk into the kids' room. Notice anything missing? Maybe a huge load of toys that are usually scattered on the ground? Now, that wall is only home to two mini couches, a toddler basketball hoop, and a rocking horse. Organization at it's finest.

Now let's move to Petey's bed. Notice a change there? Where is the top half of the bunkbed?!

Oh look! I found it. It is now the bed of our dear little Spidey. When he sleeps in it, he looks so small but luckily since it was the top bunk, it has a rail so he won't fall off his new big boy bed. Bye bye, crib! This room has definitely graduated from a baby room to a little kid room now. :(

So I know you are wondering where AL of the toys went. That was our biggest change and the master plan behind all of this moving around of beds and things.

Let's take a tour of the kids' closet...

Hey look, I found all the toys! And they are neatly organized in those metal cubbies!

So now feel free to ask yourself why the heck we would stuff the kids' toys into their not-so-big-closet. And the answer is simple and the most genius idea of all. We turned the lock to the closet around and now the toys are ALL locked up.

The kids have been wonderful with this new change and know to ask one of us if they can play with a certain toy. They have also learned that when they want a new toy out, that other toy better be cleaned up before mom or dad will get them another toy.

Booyah!

Greatest idea we have ever had.

This change has taken so much stress off of Petey and I because we no longer stare at a terrorized room at the end of the day and wonder how we'll ever clean everything up. There are usually one or two straggling toys at the end of the day and we just put them back in the closet and lock it up for the night.

Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

And that's how Suze comes up with a solution to a very annoying problem. :)

2011 Review Extravaganza: Jan, Feb and March

I am so excited to be linking up with Emmy and the other great bloggers for my review of 2011!
Today, we are reviewing January, February and March.
In January, my cute little 15 month old adopted the cheesiest smile in the world. He still flashes this smile for my camera almost every day. :)

January was also when we started going to kid's club at our local mall. We LOVE getting a free carousel ride each week.

In February, we celebrated my friend, Heather's birthday with a crazy sleepover party. We did glitter toes, heart attacked/tee-pee'd some houses, and went shopping the next day.

Also in February, we had a mini backyard campout at Joel and Gigi's and we roasted hot dogs and marshmellows (not at the same time).

February was also the month we were lucky enough to start babysitting Tess. Her and Hayley play so well together and we'e loved watching her and her sisters throughout the year.

Not a bunch happened in March but one fun thing we discovered was Pinkalicious! Petey LOVES Pinkalicious and I love her too. They are such cute little books for little girly girls. :)

Come back next week to see my review of April, May and June! :)

And that's how Suze sees it.

The test I've been failing

Yesterday and today have been hard parenting days. Thing #1 has been testing my patience and each time she tests it, I fail. And in the middle of yelling or spanking her, I think, "I don't want to be this parent!" And then at night, I practically pull my hair out trying to figure out how to do better the next day. I place my blame on the fertility but I REALLY need to figure this all out because if we aren't pregnant soon, we will still be doing fertility and I just cannot have my patience missing for much longer. Plus, once I get pregnant, we all know my hormones will make things hard for a while anyway. :)
So the blame needs to be placed on me. And no one or nothing else.
I am responsible for all that sass rolled into one very little girl.

One of the most important things I realized today is that I am responsible for teaching her how to react to any certain situation. So if I proceed to FREAK OUT when milk is spilled, guess what? She is going to freak out too.
Some days, I wonder if that is why she screams incessantly while she is in time out. Either that or she lets out some seriously loud 2 second screams every minute or so to let me know she is still angry. Because sometimes when I'm having a rough time, I go and scream it out in my room too!
And does anyone else's 3 year old lie? My girly has done it once or twice but tonight, it was blatant and obvious and it made me so upset. I had told her if she wanted me to read her Pinkalicious, she would need to finish her dinner. I left the room and not ten seconds later, she yelled, "Mom, I ate my dinner all gone." I walked back in and asked her where her plate was and she said, "It's not under the kitchen table." And there it was, still full of food. Her food went in the trash, she did not get anything else to eat tonight, and she did not get Pinkalicious read to her. Did I do the right thing? Am I too harsh? Too lenient?
Sometimes, I just wish I could have a parenting expert at hand to let me know when I am making the right parenting decisions. That would really be helpful.
I am trying my best to be the best mother for my children. There doesn't seem to be enough time in the day for them, my husband, the house, AND myself.
I look at that list and I know I am the last one on it and that is ok with me. As long as I have some time to myself at night, I feel like I can give my family the rest of my day.
I feel horrible that I have been writing about only the bad from the past few days. The funny thing is, the days haven't actually felt all that bad. Those certain moments between my daughter and I have been hard. But the rest of the days have been filled with mostly happiness.
Boss and I have been on a Harry Potter kick and hae watched the first couple of movies. We have also loved playing Harry Potter Scene-It and Ticket to Ride together. These things happen at night on the days when he isn't at school and they are precious moments. They are as good a date night as any we've been on and I appreciate him being patient as I yell at him for winning for the umpteenth time (he always wins!).
My house has benefited. I still need to post the redo of the kids room but it is practically spotless! And stays that way most of the day! And I did laundry today and swept. It's going to take me awhile to get the house back in order since I've been sick and lethargic lately (Hi, fertility. I dont like you!) but I am getting there.
And the kids and I have done some fun things every day. They have been the hardest area of y life lately but I wouldn't trade them for anything. How blessed I am to be a mother! It is really all I've ever wanted and I get to do it full time, all day, every day. It is the hardest and most rewarding job and I am lucky. Stressed out but lucky. :)
I hope you are all getting into the Christmas spirit. We are having fun and enjoying (well, my kids are enduring...) the cold weather.

And that's how Suze sees it.

Christmas Traditions: Part 3

Last year, my sister-in-law and I made fun little advent calendars for our kids to use the month of December. We took note cards and wrote down fun things the kids could do each day as a countdown to Christmas. Of course, we made each card look cute and put them on green cardstock. :) I had a little red box with snowmen on it and that is where my cards are stored.
We just started our advent calendar today (since I had forgotten about it) and the first card my kids picked out said "Go for a walk outside.". It was the perfect card for us today since we had been cleaning all morning and hadn't left the house all day. So off we went.
I thought I'd let Spidey "walk" with help of the monkey leash. :) We kept trying to run in the street so I am very glad we had it with us.

Petey wanted to ride her bike instead.

We decided to stop off at the park to play with some friends. My kids were ALL smiles for about 10 minutes before Petey started crying and saying she was cold.

And then she bawled the entire walk home. "sigh"

But as soon as we got home, I found a beanie and some gloves and she cheered up.

Spidey wanted a hat and gloves too. :) I love his cheesy little grin.

Yes, as you can see, she even put her headband over her beanie. So stylish. :)

And of course, I snapped some more pictures since they both looked so darn adorable.

I have no idea what my boy was doing here but he sure is a cutie.

It was a fun day and I can't wait to see what the kids pick out of the box for our activity tomorrow!

And that's how Suze sees it.

The Bad Times

It's been a HARD week.
I know you probably think I'm crazy because there is a certain week out of the month where I seem to write more about my baby hunger, hard times, etc. Yup, that darn week is here! And add on top of that many other life stressors and it has been one heck of a crappy week.
Every time this week happens, I feel like it's going to take forever to get pregnant again...if ever. I get a lot more pessimistic and I am not a very good mother. And then I get mad that I'm not being a good mother and that just leads me to more frustration which leads to being a worse mother.
My kids watch too many movies. I don't teach them as many things as I used to. I feel like I'm being such a lazy parent. We used to do fun things almost every day. The house used to stay clean. Notice I still haven't finished my "Mothers Who Know" segment? That is because I have NOT been a mother who knows.
But hopefully next week, things change. Hopefully, it will be a better week. And maybe I'll even try to keep the house clean. "sigh"
I'm just a bit discouraged today. Things will get better.
"It's a bad day, NOT a bad life." I have a great life. It just isn't a great day.

And that's how Suze complains even though she's been dealt a pretty great life.