2011 Review Extravaganza: October, November, December

October started out with a very special boy turning 2. He had a wonderful Toy Story birthday and made this face when opening most of his presents. :)

October also hosted many Halloween parties for our family. I loved the kids costumes this year but would like to do something easier next year with the little miss. I also went back to work full time for 3 weeks, starting on Halloween. What a fun day to begin work, since we dress up. The first weekend in November, my sisters were all in town and we attended Time Out for Women together. We had a blast going to the Science Center together that morning with no kids...since we really are all kids at heart anyway.Also in November, I won a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory so we took the kids and went on a family date. This almost never happens and it was so fun. The kids experienced Tucson through the beautiful backyard view of my in laws new home.November ended with a very special holiday, Thanksgiving. It was fun to spend time with my family (including one sister from out of town) and watch Grandpa play with the kids outside most of the morning. December was Petey's very first dance concert. She did so well and we were proud to watch her perform. Christmas seemed super busy but was such a fun couple of days. The kids were so excited for their Santa presents (which I have yet to blog about).One of the most special events in December happened 2 days ago. My brother in law, Fatty, got married in the temple to his beautiful bride, Katie. Both of our kids were excited and they love Katie SO much. We are so happy to have her in our family.

Hope you enjoyed this last review!
And that's how Suze sees it.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve morning, we packed up the car (I mean REALLY packed it tight) and headed down to Tucson for the weekend.

As soon as we got there, the kids found their best friend, Paco, and gave him some love (too much love). :)For lunch that day, Petey tried sushi for the first time. She didn't like it much and Papa helped her spit it into a napkin shortly after this picture.It was Katie's first time trying sushi too and she wasn't a big fan either. But she wasn't getting off that easy and she had to swallow hers. :)That night, Santa's elves brought our family some new pajamas for Christmas. The kids were SO excited to both get Toy Story pj's this year. Papa offered to let them Petey sleep on the couch in his room and Petey had such a fun time snuggling on their couch. Unfortunatly, an hour later she was still wide awake so we had to move her to a less fun room to sleep with her brother. :)

That night, we also continued our tradition and watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and read the story of Christ's birth in the scriptures. It was a fun filled family night and we were so blessed to be able to spend that time with our Maughan family.

Crockett Mexican Fiesta

Every year, my husband's extended family has a fun Mexican fiesta sometime around Christmas to celebrate with each other.
This year, it was the day after Christmas but with the Christmas posts, the wedding, and New Years, I never blogged about it! So here you have it. :)
The best part of the fiesta for the kids is being able to smack the pinata.

Here are some of the adults, lined up against the wall, ready to watch the kids smash the pinata. One of the people in this picture was the one who ended up breaking the pinata. :) My kids posed by the enormous Snow man pinata.Josh is the youngest (besides Carissa who is still too little to hit the pinata) so he got to go first.Next was Spidey and boy did he smack that thing hard. He had SO much fun. Caia went after him and did pretty well also. To keep Spidey occupied during the rest of the pinata fun (since he kept wanting to go back and hit it), Boss played catch with him. Our little boy has a pretty good arm. Miss Petey was a little more apprehensive but she gave it a few good hits. I missed taking pictures of a couple people between Petey and Sarah and this was the last pinata picture I took but there are tons of kids in the family and everyone got a turn...until Rylee (who's 14) got a hold of the bat. :) She smacked him around and broke him open. Petey LOVED grabbing a bunch of candy and the older cousins kept giving her and Spidey more! (There are still 2 full bags sitting in my kitchen, since I give the kids once piece a day). Uncle Ben gave Petey a shoulder ride to watch the end of the pinata fun......and Spidey hitched a ride on Uncle John's shoulders (These are my husbands little brothers).

It was such a fun day and I love when we get to spend time with our Crockett side of the family. It is always entertaining and we enjoy being around our wonderful family.

And that's how Suze sees it.

Christmas Adam

Since I found a tiny little 5 min break between holiday festivities, I decided I'd better get on the ball and post our celebration of Christmas Adam (you know, the day before Christmas Eve?).
We spent the evening with my family since we wouldn't see them on Christmas Eve or Christmas and we did all of our regular Christmas Eve traditions. Caroling, pizza, and opening presents from cousins to cousins, siblings to siblings, Grandparents to grandkids, and parents to kids. :) As you can see, Spidey was a bit excited to start opening presents.Aren't they all adorable? We did not plan to dress them all matching but it was adorable. We wish Kai was in this picture but we did skype with them while opening all of the presents. Isnt he a cutie?!Cousin Dallen got Spidey this fun game. Aunt Candace got Petey a princess book and these princess dominoes. Petey with Grandpa. :) Grandpa got Petey this awesome book with over 100 princess stickers. My favorite gift. :) I love Hilary Weeks newest cd and am SO glad my mom got it for me. This is a picture I took at home of the gift I made for my parents. I am pretty proud of it. My sisters and I went in it together and helped buy the supplies for the vinyl board and we also took some pictures of the kids for them. And here are my cute kids at the end of Christmas Adam. Spidey got those pj's from Grandma and Grandpa and Petey already had her pair so of course, I had to make them match. :)

2011 Review Extravaganza: July, August, and September

Welcome to the third segment of my review!

July was a fabulous month. The beginning of the month was busy and filled with me becoming a working mom again (only for 2 weeks) to fill in at my dad's office.

After that, my 2nd oldest sister got married! We are so happy to have her husband, Chris, in our family. It was a fun, crazy weekend but well worth it. Next, we headed to Carlsbad, California to the beach house my parents purchased a few months prior. The kids loved going to the beach and I loved taking a million pictures, including this one. It was supposed to be a picture of my kids sitting in the sand but right when I took it, a wave crashed over them. Poor kiddos but a great picture. :) Also while we were in Carlsbad, my parents took everyone to Disneyland! This was Boss and the kids' first time going and they all loved it! Spidey actually ran up and hugged Woody but as you can see by the picture, when he looked up from his hug, he realized how big Woody's head was and started crying. :)

August is really where my life went downhill. I went in to see my obgyn because I had missed 2 months of my period. I figured he would tell me I was pregnant but in his office, the tests were also negative. They did blood work and sent me home to worry for the next week.

In the middle of all that happening, Boss had to get his appendix removed. It was a stressful time since I was due back at the doctor's office the next day and they had already told me they were pretty sure I had PCOS. I needed Boss at that appointment and lucky for me, he sucked it up and came anyway (the day after being discharged from the hospital).

Like I recently wrote, it was a very dark time for me. I wondered if I'd ever be pregnant again (Actually, I still wonder that). I tried to stay positive with my blog posts but my world seemed to be falling apart around me. I like to have my control and it seemed controlw as nowhere to be found.

In September, my poor Spidey got beat up at Mcdonalds and I held him for over an hour before he was ready to let me put him down.

Our house also got turned upside down after looking like an episode of Hoarders.

September things seemed to be sinking in and I wanted to feel like I was learning and making life changes regarding my PCOS. I'm sad to say that wasn't the case. For a few months, I kind of just pretended I didn't have PCOS and would try not to think about it. I'm slowly learning and healing but the process is a lot slower than I thought it would be. I still have break downs a lot and my heart aches for another baby and for balanced hormones (Seriously!). But I'm here and alive and trying to stay positive as much as possible.

And thats how Suze reviews it!

A Glimpse

It has now been almost 4 months since I was diagnosed with PCOS.
I look back on those first few weeks and wonder how I even got to this point. I used to always tell people that I was dealing, sometimes happily and sometimes with a heavy heart. But what nobody saw and what nobody heard were the car rides where I would yell up to Heaven and ask, "Why?" I felt like less of a woman. I felt small and insignificant. And I felt like it would be ok if my life ended sooner than originally planned (The original plan has always been to make it to 100. :)). I was not suicidal but I was depressed.
Besides losing a spouse or child, infertility was the one trial I thought I could not handle. Month 1 of fertility came and went and we were not pregnant. Month 2 and Month 3 were also fails and we are now smack dab in the middle of month 4. That is, month 4 of fertility, month 8 of trying to conceive.

In the beginning, most days felt like I had a dark cloud hovering over me. I didn't want to be around friends, family, or anybody else because I knew all I'd want to talk about was my PCOS and thought everyone would get annoyed with that. As it turns out, I probably should have trusted my heart and opened up to those that I trust, instead of ignore and try to act like things were ok, when they weren't (because I'm really not that great of a liar). I had many days like this. I cried a lot, mostly at bed time or in the car. As I look back, those times were very dark. I felt like I could not escape the constant tug at my heart for a baby or for my body to just feel normal again. I wanted out. For a while, I stopped really appreciating my life. But slowly, the clouds began to open.

And I'd feel a break in the storm. My trial became a beautiful heartbreak and I am still surviving daily. But there is an indescribable amount of gratitude that I have for my life.

I may sometimes feel like there is a dark cloud hovering over my head but I will always know that there will be a break in the storm.

I write this post not to relive those dark days and feelings but to show you a glimpse of how hard it actually was. If you are going through something similiar, look for the the break in the clouds and you will find sunshine.

And that's how Suze sees it.

2011 Review Extravaganza: April, May, and June

Welcome back for more Review Extravaganza fun! Today, we are reviewing April, May and June. These months were a bit harder for me to look back on because they were the happiest months of the year. SO much has changed since then and many days, I wish things would just go back to the way they were.

In April, it started to get hot outside and we stayed cool by going to splash pads almost every week (sometimes multiple times a week).
Petey and D are so cute together. They loved being able to play all of the time and on that particular day, we had taken them to BK after.
April is also the month we got Astrid, our bunny. When we realized this was an animal Petey wasn't afraid of, we jumped at the chance to have one in our backyard. Unfortunatly, she didn't make it through the summer. RIP Astrid the black bunny.

Flattering picture, huh? April is the month we celebrated our 4th anniversary. Boss' aunt and uncle took our kids and we had a fabulous night just to ourselves.

May is one of the two big birthday months in our house. Petey turned 3 and was beyond excited to unwrap this movie.

And Boss celebrated his 26th birthday and got one of our favorite games.

In May, with the help of many others, I threw my friend, Leyla, a baby shower. It was so much fun and she scored so many cute things for her little princess.

In June, we spent most of our days at swim lessons with D and his mom. Petey did so well and I hope we get to take lessons again next year.We also spent all of our Fridays at the summer movie program at Harkins. This was the kids first time at a theater and my son never took his eyes off the screen. :)

To celebrate the end of June, I decided it was time to get my wisdom teeth out. It was really painful for weeks and I am so glad that I don't have to feel that way anymore. We had so much help from so many people and were so blessed in so many ways.

I know it's going to be hard to muster up the energy to review the next three months, as they've been the hardest months of the year, but I promise I will still come back next week to review them.

And that's how Suze sees it.