Phoenix Mercury Game

 On Saturday around lunchtime, the kids and I were trying to decide what we would do while Boss was watching UFC with friends. I had a craft party at my house later that night but it wasn't until the kids went to bed. My dad called and said he had tickets to a Phoenix Mercury game and asked if we wanted to go so I decided to cancel my craft party so the kids and I could get out of the house.

Sadly, I didn't even know the colors or anything about the team so I looked it up online so my kids could have team spirit. {Orange and purple}

 We got to ride the lightrail to the game and Spidey loved it! He was in Heaven the whole ride.

 My nephew was sitting next to us and wanted to take some pictures of us. We were having fun.

 Petey and George. Best buddies.

 Spidey's "pose"

 He kept pointing out the window at different things. He really did love the whole ride and I think that was the highlight of his night.

 Petey and Spidey switched seats halfway through so Spidey could sit by his cousin. I don't have a smart phone but Petey loves looking at pictures on my phone.

 The kids got these for free and loved playing with them during the game.

Grandpa spoiled us and got pizza, icees and popcorn.

 Petey is obsessed with popcorn and asks for it almost every day. Her seat was up by me but she ended up sitting on the steps so she could share popcorn with Grandpa.

 And my boy is obsessed with sugary drinks so the icee was his favorite thing. I'm not sure if he ever came up for a breath before it was gone.

About halfway through, they 'upgraded our tickets' {because the stadium was half empty and they wanted to clean the top part} so we got to sit in the 7th row. We lasted til about the 3rd quarter when Petey started crying because she was so tired. She cried on the lightrail and fell asleep in the car.

It was a super fun memory with the kids. I love doing things with them and seeing their reactions.  I have the best children AND the best dad!

Her First Day of Kindergarten

 Well, she did it. Peteyy survived her first day of school and she even survived the second day too! Since I am the momarazzi, I took a million pictures so let's just get started, shall we?

Petey was so good at getting herself dressed and ready for the first day of school. I let her pick out which uniform she wanted to wear and she said, "I just want to wear whatever E is wearing!" E is her best friend and goes to school with her. So E's mom and I coordinated their outfits.

 I decided our tradition will be having our kids write their names on the "1st day of school" paper they hold up. It'll be fun to see how their handwriting changes over the years.

 She was super excited all morning and I'm glad we got ready a little earlier than she needed because we had time for these pictures.

 I have a hard time believing she's old enough to be in school but it's true.

 Grandma got her the Tinkerbell lunchbox and backpack and she loves it so much.

 Once we got to the school, she got a bit nervous when she saw all of the people.

 As long as her buddy was with her, she did just fine and even played on the playground for a little bit.

 These kiddos are our carpool buddies. They are all in our ward and I love that Petey goes to school with some of her best friends.

 Petey and her bestie. They loved matching and since we had dessert at their house tonight, we even coordinated their outfits for tomorrow. Petey loves that she can match E most days. The plus side of uniforms. :)

I'd like to say that her smile stayed the whole time but as soon as it was time to line up, my girl melted in my arms and started crying.

 I felt so bad but I know it doesn't help to give too much attention when she's gets that way so instead, I assured her she would have a great day and I said goodbye. It was hard to walk away when she looked so scared.

Spidey and I hid by a brick wall and I snapped a picture of Petey in line with her class one last time. Can you spot her? She still looked sad but the crying had stopped.

I was a little nervouus for her but since I know her personality, I could almost guarantee she was having fun with her class. She gets super nervous for new adventures but usually ends up loving them.

Fortunatly, I was right. She came home and was excited to tell me everything she could remember about the first day. She was happy when I told her she would be going back the next day and she loved school on Friday too. She seems to have learned a lot of obedience at school already and I'm excited for the rest of the year.

One thing that really surprised me was when she came home on Friday and told me she had raised her hand and gave the teacher the date. Usually, it takes weeks for Petey to warm up to someone enough to willingly talk so I was surprised she is already raising her hand and answering questions. I'm so proud of my big, smart, independent daughter. School is going to be so good for her.

Meeting Her Teacher

We met her teach tonight right before dance class. I got to see her classroom and imagine her being in there, learning and playing.
She sits in the very back middle seat, which I'm hoping they'll change since she's so tiny and since I keep procrastinating that dang eye doctor appointment I was supposed to make her.
When I told her it was time to leave the school, she said she didn't want to go. When I asked her why, she said, "Because I like my very own desk." I hope she feels the same way on Thursday.

It's almost time to check another thing off of the no-longer-a-baby list. Even though she'll only be gone 3 hours a day, that is a total of 15 hours a week she is out of my care. For years, I've been talking about this day. I would say, "I can't believe it's only two years, a year, 6 months til she goes to kindergarten." Now, I can't believe it's only 1 DAY until she starts kindergarten. When did she get so big?
I'm excited for the new things she'll learn. I'm excited for her to be brave and make new friends. I'm hoping it isn't too long before she breaks out of her painfully shy shell that usually covers her up around people she's just met. School is going to be really good for her.
It's just hard to think that come Thursday, she'll be a student for the next 13+ years. I don't get those baby years back. She's just going to keep growing up.

I hope you're excited to see the pictures from her first day. She has already picked out the specific uniform she will wear and everything is packed in her backpack. We are ready for this next adventure.

Friends Without Judgment

 Dear Mahala,

I've been thinking about you a lot lately. I like to replay the memories I have of growing up with you. I remember playing on the treadmill at your house for hours on end because we thought it was a toy. I remember the dark turquoise slide in your backyard. I remember helping out in your class at school. Most of all, I remember how much you loved everyone.

Those memories became more vivid this week when my son met a new friend at Petey's dance class. You see, Spidey is drawn to anyone playing on an electronic device. He quickly saw that Jordan had an iPad and he ran over to him. At first, Jordan wasn't happy. His sensory issues make it so he gets agitated when people touch him. Spidey snuggled up close to him and Jordan tried to make him go away. When Jordan's mom told him that Spidey looked up to him {Jordan is going into 9th grade this year and Spidey likes playing with big kids}, he looked up with a huge smile and said, "Mom, now I have two best friends!" He seemed so delighted that Spidey was his friend. For 2 hours, they played games together on the iPad. Since Spidey is overly touchy, Jordan decided it was ok for Spidey to touch his shirt, just not his skin. I could see Spidey trying to refrain from touching Jordan too much. They laughed together, talked about their likes, and played Memory over and over and over. Any time Spidey would cheat and take 2 turns in Memory, Jordan would start a new game because you can't cheat!

I watched them sit side by side, playing and laughing together and I realized how soft Spidey's heart is. He has no idea that Jordan is any different than other kids. He has no idea that Jordan might have a hard time making friends. All he knows is that Jordan is his new best friend.

He left the dance studio with a huge smile on his face. Spidey loves making new friends. I don't think he could ever have too many friends. I hope to see more of him and Jordan together because it made me happy to see him with a role model like Jordan. I want my son to grow up loving others without judgment. I want him to know what it's like to be friends with someone like you. I wouldn't trade the 12 years we were friends for anything. I think about the day I'll get to see you up in Heaven and I know it will be a happy reunion.

Thank you for everything you taught me.

Hayley's Bowtique

 When Petey was born, I wanted her to be dolled up every day. I was kind of a psycho about it and would get frustrated if Boss didn't put a headband on her. She got her ears pierced at 2 months old and I loved them so much. I learned how to make bows when she was about 9 months old and tried to start a little business with it but I was working full time and it just stressed me out.
When she got a little bit older, I started looking around for those adorable chunky bead necklaces. The ones that I found were super expensive so I decided to make some myself for her.
Then recently I had some friends ask about those necklaces and I decided to hold a craft party at my house teaching them how to make the necklaces. One thing led to another and I decided to start back up Hayley's Bowtique. It's only been 2 months but I'm loving it so far.

Petey has a wide range of necklaces that hang on her wall. Some are older and not as fancy, the newer ones have cuter pendants and better clasps. I've gotten better over the years at perfecting the necklaces. I've used ribbon and tied bows, which is cheaper but then Petey started accidentally tying double knots in them and they would get stuck so now I'm back to clasps.

 The most recent necklace I sold was this purple one. How adorable, right? Petey was so excited that I ordered sparkly beads for this necklace. :)

 The rainbow necklace is my other favorite. She wears this one a lot because it matches almost everything!

 My wonderful friend, Leyla, offered to take some pictures of my products to help with my business. She is amazingly talented and I could not pass up an offer like that.

 She took some super adorable pictures of Petey and we have another photo shoot coming up soon. Go visit her website if you need pictures. She's amazing at what she does.

The only downside to all of this?

My poor kitchen table. That picture is from this morning. I did clean it up before dinner but I'm sure it'll look that way again tomorrow. I can't wait to get my desk put in our room so I have a place to work that isn't the same place we eat our meals.

It's All Worth It

I have been so busy and productive lately. I've been making necklaces and bows like crazy, the kids have had things going on, school starts for Petey in a little over a week, and my days have been full of children and cleaning.
I was driving the other day and I didn't even know why I was smiling. I just couldn't stop. I'm just really happy right now. The bad days fizzle and the good days are what I remember. Life is far from perfect and yet it feels pretty perfect.
If you would have told me that happiness was possible with the current struggles in my life, I would have laughed in your face and yet, here I am achieving happiness amidst trials. It's possible, people.

The kids have been challenging me daily. The pictures usually show them getting along but there is a lot of fighting going on. There are a lot of bad words being used and fists being thrown. There are a lot of tantrums for silly reasons and time outs. But I'm still happy. I've been reading Petey books at night and I can see her little eyes brighten when I lay down next to her. I snuggle Spidey in the mornings since he's been waking up before his sister.

 Dance days usually look like this. If we have Baby D, we often sit in the car because he fusses during dance class so Spidey ends up playing on the Kindle. He loves it. I love the quiet. But sometimes, I just want him to hang out with his momma.

And sometimes, he does. I love those moments.

I've been steadily writing back and forth with Boss' cousin my adopted little sister, Kaitlyn. She's serving a mission for our church and I'm just so proud of her. It's hard to see someone you love struggling. It's hard to see them have ups and downs because you just want to make their days full of ups. I'm sure that's how my own mother feels sometimes. I can't imagine having to watch my children go through huge trials and not being able to take it away from them. As I was pondering that the other day, I realized that must be how our Heavenly Father feels as well. I'm sure it's hard for Him to watch us struggle but he wouldn't let us struggle in vain. He knows those struggles are what make us stronger, better people.

I'm grateful for my life. I'm so lucky to have so many wonderful things. I don't doubt that my life is exactly where it is meant to be right now. The kids will only be young for so long and someday, I'm going to miss the 3 yr old tantrums and the 5 yr old talking back. So for now, I'm just trying my darndest to embrace it all.

Hello Kitty and The Avengers {Room Redo}

My kids have been with their Nana and Papa since Wednesday night. I have gotten so many things done these past 3 days and as glad as I am to have my kids back, I wasn't worried about them at all and I'm so grateful for the time I got to have to myself.

So here's the first project I finished:

For Christmas this past year, Santa brought my kids new bedding. I used to not be into character bedrooms but my kids both wanted specific bed sets and it was fun to see them so happy on Christmas.

Fast forward 7 months later and their rooms hadn't really been updated to match the bedspreads.

I made one set of letters and my friend had made the other set back when my kids were really little. The kids used to share a room and their colors were brown/blue and brown/pink. I loved the letters but unfortunately, they didn't match their rooms anymore!

 Also, my little stinker son had ripped the paper off of a couple of his sister's letters.

So while my kids were gone this week, I decided one of my projects was going to be redecorating their rooms. The only new things I bought were frames for the posters they already had, fabric for Spidey's decorations, paper for their letters, and some wall decals for Petey's room that happened to be on sale.

 Welcom to PINK and HELLO KITTY. :) That is all Petey has wanted forever. She keeps asking for pink walls but I think she has enough pink for now. Petey was flipping out when she got home. She was so excited to see her new room and her reaction was awesome. She definitely loves it!

 {I did take the hammer out before she got home, I promise}

 Her letters are now light/dark pink and baby blue, which are the colors of her Hello Kitty bedspread.

 Spidey walked into his room and looked super disappointed because he was just staring at his bed and he didn't think I'd changed anything. When I told him to look at the other wall, he started jumping around and screaming with excitement. He is a huge Avengers fan and he loves his poster and the fabric wall decorations.

 Unfortunately for my boy, the amount of damage he's done to his room was enough for us to not make it too nice. He has colored in red permanent marker on the walls and poop painted more times than I can count so even though his room needs to be repainted to match, I refuse to do it until I think he's old enough to treat his room a little better. He still loves it a ton.

I had a really hard time figuring out how to redo his letters to have them match the Avengers colors so I ended up doing mostly solid colors. He was so happy to see his name on the wall and as you can see, it's way too high for him to touch them and rip the paper. :) Smart momma.

It was a great 3 days and I am so thankful my in laws were willing to put up with our kids so that I could have a break. I feel so rejuvenated as a mother and am so happy my kids are back with me now.