Surviving The Chaos

Meet Me in St. Louis!

2012-02-15T18:03:00.001-08:00

I had to go to St. Louis last week for work. I was excited to go since I had never been but I wasn't thrilled that the weather was so cold and it was forecasted to snow. Luckily I was traveling with great co-workers/friends so we made the most of it and had a fun time. We tried to see as much as we could in the few days that we were there - when we weren't working.

Heather and I eating at one of the best steak houses I've ever been to. Yummy!

The St. Louis Arch

It was like 20 degrees and raining when were there.

Heather and Jennifer at the base of the arch.

We went for a 4 minute elevator ride to the top. You have to get in this little egg like capsule - it was not for the claustrophobic. The door was a window so you could see out into the stairwell next to the elevator shaft.

I'm pretty sure it was like 4 1/2 feet tall inside the pod.

View looking west - downtown St. Louis. The Cardinal's Stadium is on the left.

View looking northwest - downtown St. Louis. The Ram's football stadium is the white dome.

The Mississippi River

Heather, Me and Jennifer at the top of the arch.

630 feet high.

The view looking down the inside of the arch that doesn't have the elevator.

This is a demo elevator egg/pod that we rode in to the top.

We found a local hot spot for dinner one night in downtown. It's called Three Kings and the food was delicious!

As part of tradition we scout out the best cupcake bakery and lucky St. Louis happens to have a Cupcake Wars winner in town - Jilly's. We met the owner, and her two chef's that were on the show.

Luckily for us we got there with about 10 minutes to spare before closing time.

This is by far the best cupcake I have EVER had. It was AMAZING. It's the Twisted Pink Velvet.

You never know what you're going to find in an airport bathroom.

We flew home first class it Jen was so excited since it was her first time flying first class. It was a nice and comfortable ride home!

We got out of town just in time. It snowed our last night there and a big storm was rolling in so we were glad to be heading home. I missed my boys!

Makeover - Logan's Room

2012-02-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I got on this little redecorating kick and decided to add/change the decor in the boys rooms. We kept the same overall decor and theme and I just added a few things like his name and a couple of paintings that I did. He also got a new big boy bed as well so we moved the furniture around to accommodate that. He seems to love it and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T12:21:00.000-08:00

Our Valentine's day was sweet, simple and fun. Lincoln and Logan got to take boxes of chocolates to their teachers, Lincoln had Rock Star Valentine's cards with guitar magnets to give the kids in his class and I got to enjoy a beautiful bouquet of red roses! I bought the boys a balloon and a little package of candy. Rick and I exchanged gifts over lunch and we order take out from Pei Wei for dinner. It was much better than waiting at a restaurant with the boys for hours and we couldn't find a babysitter so we just enjoyed the night together. I actually went to tennis practice and Ricky watched Tree of Life - a movie he's been wanting to see for a while. I'm so lucky to have a wonderful husband, who is also my best friend, and two little boys who I love dearly.

It's fun to have a little extra fun and love in the air!

Red roses are my favorite!

Lincoln made this at school.

I like a good practical gift every now and again.

I made the little LOVE decoration a couple weeks ago. I was a lot of fun to paint and I think it turned out nicely.

Ribbit

2012-02-03T07:44:00.002-08:00

Isn't this the cutest little frog you've ever seen!?!? Logan loves this frog towel and he makes the cutest little ribbit sound when he gets out of the bath.

Lincoln's Art

2012-02-03T07:44:00.001-08:00

We're learning that Lincoln is quite the little artist. He loves to draw and he's also reached the stage of wanting to write letters (although he wants/needs you to spell every word to him nice and slowly and repeat each letter several times until he gets it on the page) but it's been fun. Here are a few examples of things he's done lately. I'm going to try and get him into an art class soon!

Monster Jam

2012-02-03T07:44:00.000-08:00

Monster trucks came to Phoenix last week so Ricky took Lincoln for a father/son outing. Logan and I stayed home and actually had a nice time to together too! The Monster Jam was at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix. Lincoln's favorite truck is Grave Digger. He was super excited all day to go on this special trip with daddy. They ate dinner at the stadium and had a lot of fun together. Lincoln got a bit antsy the last 30 minutes but what four year old wouldn't!? It was like a three hour show so all in all he did really well. I'm looking forward to next year when Logan is old enough to go and enjoy it too!

My Birthday Weekend

2012-01-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

Friday was just an easy going day with my mom at the Disneyland Resort. Lisa flew home that morning so mom and I just mostly saw the shows since the day before we went on all the rides.
We also spent some time in DTD learning about Vinylmation and eating beignets. We needed the full day to do everything we wanted to see. A lot had changed since the last time I was there. it was a really nice day and fun to just spend the day with mom.

This one's for Lincoln. He LOVES Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

Mom and me with Chip and Dale.

This is a new show in DCA and it was pretty lame until Mickey started dancing. He busted out some pretty impressive moves and the show suddenly got better. It was also neat because Mickey's eyes and mouth actually opened and closed throughout the performance. Technology is definitely getting better!

The is my new favorite parade.

I loved the fairy like princess dresses.

Saturday was a super busy day for me. It all started with a visit to Londi at her home. Over the last several years her and her husband had gutted and reconstructed their home. I hadn't seen it since it was in construction and now that it was mostly complete it was nice to see it. We had a wonderful visit and it was so nice to see her. (I'm totally lame and forgot to take a picture of us together.) I left her house and went straight to Brea to meet Kim and Laura for lunch. We've made a tradition of meeting at our favorite hole in the wall Mexican restaurant every time I come to town. We ate yummy food and visited for an hour before I was off to Whittier for my hair appointment. Three hours later I had shorter hair with lighter highlights and I had bangs! Definitely a change for me.

I spent the evening in downtown Brea with friends. We went for crepes at a little French joint and just spent some time catching up. Calee and I went to the Improv and saw Steve Bryne. The show was hilarious and Calee and I always enjoy comedy clubs. It seems we've made the Improv a sisters tradition when we're together. It made for a late night but it was a ton of fun.

Calee, Me, Laura, Janelle, and Kim at the French diner.

After sleeping in on Sunday morning I went up to Tevye and Dana's house to meet my new niece, Danica. She is super cute and a pretty easy going baby. Later Mom, Calee and Tony, and Aunt Alice joined us for dinner and some birthday cupcakes. It was a nice relaxing evening.

Me with Danica

Aunt Alice and Danica

Tennis ball cupcakes that Calee made for me. Super sweet and thoughtful!

Monday morning I packed up, left the hotel and headed home. I did make one little stop for a facial but I was eager to get home and see my boys. That night after dinner we celebrated my birthday with a cake that Ricky made. I opened a few presents and we just hung out before going to bed fairly early. It was a wonderful ending to a fabulous weekend!

Disneyland For My Birthday

2012-01-21T13:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to me!! Our day started with mom meeting us at the hotel for breakfast. We then headed to Company D (the cast member store) for shopping.
The most special part of the day was lunch...at Club 33 in Disneyland. It was SO much fun. The food was delicious, the history in there is fascinating, and the overall experience was awesome! Lots of great memories from there. Here are a few highlights from lunch in the Club:
•riding in the elevator (it's an old school one)
• going out on the balconies overlooking New Orleans Square
•laughing because mom didn't like that the cast member folded her napkin everytime she got up.
•sparkles on the cupcakes and cookies
•meeting Don Nixon, nephew of Richard Nixon
•getting a Mickey Mouse birthday cake

After lunch we set out to play in the park. It wasn't very crowded so we got to do a lot of things. Mom also hooked us up with fast passes. We tried to do all the big rides since we can't do those when we have our kiddos with us. A few things were closed for refurbishing but we still did a lot.
• Splash Mountain
•Big Thunder
Indiana Jones
Pirates
Captain EO
Star Tours
Space Mountain
The Castle
Toy Story Mania
Ariel's Underwater Adventure
Tower of Terror

The park closed at 8:00 pm, which is pretty early but we strolled down main street and shopped until the park closed. Then we went back to DTD to close out the night.

It was such a fun day and I'm so glad I got to spend it with Mom and Lisa. I did missy Ricky and the boys but it was a great way to celebrate the big 3-0.

Lisa and me at the top of Main St.

Lisa, Me, Pluto and Mom.

I got lots of kisses from Mickey since it was my birthday!!

Club 33

In front of the elevator in Club 33

Lisa in the dining room. We got the best seats in the place - right in the back corner with doors to two balconies.

The dessert bar - yummy!

We loved all the sparkles on the desserts.

Don Nixon

This picture is for Calee.

Lisa is pointing to where we were sitting in Club 33 - right in the corner.

They thought they were so funny getting their Club 33 napkins.

This was a fun surprise. I didn't realize Captain EO came back. I loved it!

This one was for my boys!

When I started to see the characters that the boys liked it made me start to miss them.

That day was my first time on the Ariel ride. It was super cute!

Lisa got a special one of a kind wine glass at the Ariba shop on main street.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2012-01-21T12:41:00.000-08:00

My birthday was last week and I hit the big 3 - 0. Everyone acts as if I should be worried that I'm actually 30 but to me the reality is that I can't control it. It came whether I wanted it to or not so I'm just embracing it. My birthday present from Ricky was a girls trip to California. No kiddos. Just me doing whatever I wanted to do.
My birthday weekend celebration was off to a good start. My friend Lisa and I started our drive just after lunch and made a stop at the Cabazon outlets for dinner and some shopping. The time seemed to fly by since Lisa and I talked all the way there. We checked into the hotel about 8:00 pm and headed to Downtown Disney. We didnt stay long because we were pretty tired and had a long day planned for the next day. Day one of our trip went by quickly but was a fun.

No I didn't actually wear this hat - just thought it was fun for a picture!

Weekend Visitors

2012-01-11T07:15:00.000-08:00

Calee and Tony drove out from Southern CA on Friday to spend the weekend with us. Tony had never been to our house before so we got to give him a tour of our town and all the things we love about it, including a trip to Five Guys. The boys were very excited to have them here and they kept them busy jumping on the trampoline, playing games and Lincoln talked their ear off. We spent our weekend visiting, shopping, watching a movie, eating and just hanging out. It was a fun weekend and we're glad they came. Both boys are still talking about them....I think they miss their new play buddies!

Calee and I made mom's caramel popcorn recipe for movie night.

Ricky, Calee and Tony hanging out ready the movie to start.

Tea Party

2012-01-06T14:47:00.000-08:00

I was working in my office yesterday afternoon when my super cute husband walked in and said we were having a tea party! He actually brought up some hot chocolate for me - in our china. It's the china set that we got as a wedding gift almost nine years ago and it's the first time we used it! We sat at my desk for a few minutes and drank hot chocolate together. It was super sweet and thoughtful.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

I was so excited to go to a New Year's Eve party this year. My tennis partner was going to host a party for our team and others at her house. It's been a long time since Ricky and I have actually gone to a party together. Only a couple of the ladies from my team have met Ricky and they all wanted to meet him. (I'm pretty sure they were starting to think he didn't really exist.) Really he's just been home with the boys during my tennis functions.

After trying to find a babysitter who was available I gave into the idea that we would have to have our own little family party at home. Nobody was available to babysit. NYE morning I went to tennis practice and one of my teammates gave me a referral for a babysitter. Long story short, after I called and talked with her she was available to tend and she actually goes to our church. Logan didn't even make it to the New York New Year. He was in bed by 8:30. Ricky and I headed over to the party and had a great time. We visited, ate yummy food, watched fireworks, watched the ball drop, we I danced, and we kissed at midnight! It was a fun filled evening and it was nice to enjoy some good adult time together.

May 2012 bring everyone much success, good health, more patience and fun memories.
Peace. Joy. Happiness. Happy New Year!

Kim, Kareth, Kristy, Me, Debbie, Linda, Trina, Bam-Bam, Lenore

Christmas Day

2011-12-29T11:43:00.000-08:00

Christmas this year was at home and just the four of us. We opened presents around 8:00 am and then really just hung out the rest of the day. It was nice to have a simple quiet Christmas but by the time the afternoon came I think we missed being with family. We played a few of the new games the boys got, watched our new movies and Ricky and Lincoln built the new Lego sets. After the delicious turkey dinner that Ricky cooked we took cookies over to Uncle Lee and Aunt Carol and visited with them for an hour. It was a really nice enjoyable Christmas day.

Lincoln noticed that the cookies and hot chocolate we left for Santa were gone. It was a magical little moment.

He found this cute note from Santa thanking the boys for the cookies.

Lincoln's first tennis racket. I'm looking forward to playing with him.

The wrapping didn't last long on presents.

Each boy got a bucket that had 1,600 Lego bricks. Logan took Lincoln's bucket and moved it to his pile of presents. It was pretty funny and adorable. He loved the bags of Legos.

His Christmas consisted of mostly Legos.

Logan wasn't really interested in his presents. Mostly he just wanted to open everyone else's presents or play with what was already unwrapped.

Luckily for Lincoln he was a good boy and got the Clone Turbo Tank that he wanted. His first choice was the Republic Frigate but he said if Santa ran out of those then he wanted the Turbo Tank.

He was showing Daddy all the guys that it comes with. He knew everything about this tank before he even opened the box.

Logan loved his Playdough set.

Once presents were unwrapped it was immediately off to the playroom to start building Legos. Logan loved dumping the new bags of Lego bricks into our Lego bin. Finally we have some color! (All of the sets we have a ships, city sets, etc and are mostly gray, black, blue and white pieces.)

Daddy and Lincoln spent most of the afternoon and evening building this - the Clone Turbo Tank.

Daddy built most of it but Lincoln didn't leave his side. He was so excited to get it built. I think he favorite part is the baby walker that goes inside the tank.

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas! On another note, Logan knows all the words to Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer. Pretty cute!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

Birthday Fun

2011-12-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

We spent ALL day yesterday celebrating Ricky's birthday. It was such a fun day and he said he really enjoyed it....that's all that counts! Turning 40 isn't so bad after all! Here are a few pictures from the day.

We went to Scottsdale for breakfast so he could eat at his favorite breakfast spot, The Original Pancake House. (Not to be confused with IHOP - The International House of Pancakes.) This is the only one is Arizona so we made the drive.

After running a few errands we went and saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

We picked up some Sprinkles cupcakes to replace his birthday cake.

They were delish!

The Man of the hour! We sang happy birthday with the boys at home and then Ricky opened presents.

Lincoln was extra sweet to daddy. Lincoln kept telling him Happy Birthday all day and he even made him a special birthday card while he was at school.

This is a book that Ricky has been wanting for years and he finally got it!

For dinner that night we went to the Melting Pot. Yummy!

It was nice to just relax and talk.

Happy Birthday!

Christmas Activities

2011-12-24T12:47:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of Christmas we've been trying to decorate, do activities, bake yummy treats all that have to do with Christmas. We've also received a few early Christmas presents too! Here are a few things we've been up to.

The boys got this special box from Madison and it said to open before Christmas.

It had a book with special reindeer games so we played a few games...

and ate a few cookies. They were supposed to be for Santa but we are going to make him some new ones instead. Here was all of the contents of the box. We will read the Night Before Christmas poem tonight and leave hot chocolate and cookies for Santa.

Autie Michaela and Uncle Jared came to visit this week and brought the boys a couple gifts. Lincoln got a fun Lego game and this was the little guy that he built completely by himself following the instruction booklet.

Logan's school put on a little Christmas performance and his class sang Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer.

He was so cute as Rudolph but more importantly you can tell that he felt pretty cool and special to be wearing the antlers and red nose paint.

Once he saw us he ran over to us and gave daddy a big hug. I love this picture because it's when he first realized that we were there watching him.

This doesn't look very festive but it feels like Christmas to us. We now officially own our truck!!

Is it bad that I bought a gingerbread house decorating kit to do with the boys and then decided that I wanted to do it all on my own? Well, it is what it is and I did it.

Since Lincoln had already done one that day at school I figured he wouldn't mind. I was also doing it at 11:00 at night so it didn't really work with their schedule. I had a lot of fun though.

We decorated the Christmas tree and Lincoln was so excited to help. This is the first year that he's been old enough to do so without destroying everything. He got to put the angel on top of the tree.

Logan has been pretty fascinated with all of the Christmas decorations. I'm hoping to just get through the month without anything getting broken. So far so good.

We went to the mall to see Santa. Lincoln wrote him a letter - he told him he loved him.

Then he got to put it in a huge mailbox.

We waited in line for about 45 minutes. Lincoln promised to be patient because he really was anxious and excited to talk to Santa.

Lincoln told Santa, in great details, all about the Lego Clone Turbo Tank that he wanted, if he couldn't have the Republic Frigate. Logan told Santa, Merry Christmas, then he jumped off Santa's lap to smell the fake flowers and trees. Overall it was a successful trip to visit Santa.

Lincoln and I made a count down chain. He's been taking off a link every night and counting down the days until Daddy's birthday and Christmas. Just one day left!!

Happy Birthday, Ricky!

2011-12-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

It's the big 4 - 0 today! He's been dreading this day for a while and for some reason the number 40 seems to have brought a slight damper to the birthday celebration. We have a fun day planned though and I'm so excited to share it with him.
Ricky is an amazing husband and father. He has wonderful qualities that allow him to support and love us unconditionally. Our boys love their daddy so much even though they don't always show it. He is my best friend, my biggest supporter and my love. We are so grateful to have him in our lives.
Happy Birthday, honey. We love you!!

I don't have a lot of early childhood pictures handy but here's one when he was little.

In his 20's - yes, he had long hair.

2002 - When we were dating.

2003 - Honeymoon in Hawaii.

2004 - Our trip to NYC

2006

2006 - There's that smile that I love!

2007 - Days after back surgery.

2007 (two weeks after back surgery) - Holding Lincoln the day he was born. Proud daddy!

2009 - Holding Logan in the hospital the day he was born.

2011 - Motorcycles is his hobby. He's going out for a 9 day trip.

2011 - My sweet and handsome blue eyed boys!

9 Years Ago Today

2011-12-21T09:57:00.000-08:00

Ricky and I were out celebrating early for his birthday and he took me to Disneyland to watch the fireworks. Little did I know he also had orchestrated quite the event. Before I knew it we were surrounded by family, friends, a photographer and hundreds of on-lookers. To my surprise, with the snow falling on main street, he got down on one knee and proposed. Of course I immediately said, Yes!

I always said I wanted a fun engagement story to tell and I've got one. It was such a beautiful, fun and memorable day. Ricky definitely went out of his way to make it special. I love him so much and it's fair to say that day changed my life! Just a fun flashback for me.

I Love Vacation!

2011-12-20T22:07:00.000-08:00

I love to have time off work and be in vacation mode. I've been really excited to do projects, spend more day time with the family and to not have the stresses of work during the holidays. We've been doing a few projects or activities everyday. Monday Ricky and I got to go to the outlet mall for the first time. It was so nice to explore new things and to have a few hours to spend with him during the day. We had a great time together.

This morning we got to go to Lincoln's school for the Christmas party. I got to help him decorate a gingerbread (it was actually graham crackers) house. I loved being able to be there and participate with him. There was a short break in between when the party finished and when school was over so Ricky decided he wanted to take me for a donut and hot chocolate. I think the last time we went into a donut shop was a couple years ago. I know it was only a donut but the spontaneous idea and the few minutes with him to sit and talk, sure was a sweet treat and fun adventure for me.

Tonight I had my first USTA Flex League tennis match in Scottsdale. I'm playing with a different partner for this league than I do for my normal one and we haven't practiced much together. We ended up playing well together and having a great night. We won 6-2, 7-5. We have 9 more matches to go. Hopefully they all go this well!

Bottom line is, I like my job but I love not working! Time away from work during the holidays is something I look forward to every year.

The house was put together with sugar before school started. We just had to decorate it.

Lincoln was very particular about what candies he chose to put on. It went like this...one for the hosue, one in my mouth, one for the house, one for my mouth...

The finished product. I was very proud of him and it was great to see his creative mind in action.

My sweet hubby with a sweet treat!

Catching Up or Just a Phase?

2011-12-19T08:12:00.000-08:00

Logan went from essentially no watching TV at all to watching it for a few minutes to being totally obsessed with it. The last two weeks the only thing he's wanted to do at home during his waking hours is watch movies. And by movies I mean two. Once one is done, then he switches it for the other....over and over again. He can't get enough of them. Ricky, Lincoln and I on the other hand are REALLY over his two movies - they are making us crazy. I will admit Logan has watched more TV in the last two weeks then I would like (and more than any kid should really watch in a day) but he won't do anything else and when we turn off the TV he walks around the house with the DVD cases begging/whining for his movie to be put on. I'm thinking it's just a phase but it sure it nice to be a able to cook, clean, shower, etc without him being on our hip. He is for once, actually entertained.

Preferred movies:

I'm surprised this DVD has made it as long as it has. It has to be getting pretty worn out by now. Logan loves Yo Gabba Gabba.

Specifically he loves Jack and Mini Bike!

Shapes and Colors comes in a close second. This movie (and music) will put any parent over the edge. I'm excited for the day to come that he will replace this favorite with something the rest of us can enjoy, or at least stand.

Conversation With Lincoln

2011-12-18T20:51:00.000-08:00

When Lincoln doesn't sleep it often means his on edge late into the afternoon. Sitting around the dinner table tonight his was pretty grumpy and complaining about dinner. I'm not beneath bringing Santa into the conversation to hold it over his head for the month before Christmas.

Me: "Maybe Santa is going to bring you coal."

Lincoln: "No! I want presents."

Ricky: "I'm going to call him on my iphone and tell him how you're acting."

Lincoln: "No. How can you call him."

Ricky: "I have his phone number."

Lincoln: "How did you get that?"

Me: "All Mom's and Dad's have his number."

Ricky: "I got it from the internet."

Lincoln: "From the internet. Okay."

A Note From Daddy...

2011-12-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

I saw the man in my son today. While waiting with my two boys in our truck after church

today I looked back to see Logan unsuccessfully reaching for his blanket. Lincoln,

recognizing Logan’s need, picked up the blanket and handed it to Logan. Then sitting

back in his seat he began to tell me the story of the resurrection of Jesus. Soft light from

the completely cloud filtered sun rested upon his perfect little four-year-old face and eyes.

He looked into my eyes with the absolute confidence of an equal, but also as one who

understood and loved me just as completely as I did him. May sound silly to some, but to

his dad he was a real man for that moment. There’s plenty of growing up to go, but for

me, I saw the divine in my son today. A moment of grace. . . silent tears.

Puppy Love..."Sometimes"

2011-12-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

Ricky observed a little girl doting over Lincoln at school today. She stared into Lincoln's eyes as if to say I will love you forever. She held his hand, and then kissed it. She insisted that she sit by Lincoln during the cookie decorating activity. Unfortunately her name (and assigned seat) weren't next to his so she was moved across the room. At one point she shouted from the other side of the room, "Lincoln, you are my best friend in the whole world that I ever had!" Ricky stood there perplex and utterly confused as to how to react or respond to this "relationship."

After they came home from school and told me about the day, I got the scoop from Ricky about this interaction between Hailey and Lincoln. I decided to find out more from Lincoln.

Me: "Lincoln, tell me about Hailey."
Lincoln: "I don't want to talk about her."
Me: "Is she your girlfriend?"
Lincoln: "Yes."
Ricky: "Do you love her?"
Lincoln: "Sometimes."

At this point we couldn't help but bust up laughing. We tried to ask another question before we were quickly given the hand. Yep, our 4 year old put up the "talk to the hand" sign because he didn't want to talk about his girlfriend. Hailey might be his first little girlfriend. Ricky and I just laughed. It's so cute yet so disturbing when we think of what's to come when he's older. Those pretty blue eyes might cause a few hearts to break along the way.

Out With the Old...

2011-12-08T21:37:00.000-08:00

and in with the new!! We were in need of a new couch. The couch we had is one that I bought when I moved into my own apartment - when I was 18! Needless to say that couch had run it's course. We took advantage of a great Black Friday deal and picked out an early Christmas present. We've been anxiously awaiting it's arrival and today was the day! Yesterday the truck from Habitat for Humanity came and picked up the old couch, chair, end tables, foot stools and lamps. Today, the Ashley truck delivered and set up the new couch. It was well orchestrated and it feels like an early Christmas around here!

Before:

After:

Birthday Pictures

2011-12-08T21:35:00.000-08:00

I was a couple weeks behind in getting the boys studio birthday pictures taken this year. Partly because we were waiting for black eyes to go away. Each of them had one for a week prior to pictures. Logan got his at school and Lincoln got his from Logan at home. Not fun. Lincoln's pictures turned out really cute but we didn't have many of Logan to chose from. He wasn't the most cooperative. There's something in the universe that says when two little kids take pictures together that they will never both have a smile (and looking at the camera) in the same picture. Luckily we were able to get a couple.

A Few Things To Note

2011-12-08T21:34:00.000-08:00

A few things have happened this week that I thought would be good to note.

It has been SO cold here. I wanted to move to the desert to be warm but we've been in the low 30's at night. The days are not much warmer!
Lincoln slept from 6:30 pm yesterday through the night and woke up at 8:30 am this morning. He's the happiest he's been all week. I have to admit I wouldn't mind if he kept up this sleeping pattern. He doesn't normally like to to sleep but he's such a happier kid when he does!
Logan is talking in sentences and actually watching TV for 15 minutes at a time. His communication over the last two weeks has improved significantly.
I won my tennis match on Tuesday. It was the toughest match we've had so far but we won in a third set tie break...beating an undefeated team.
I'm pretty much done with Christmas shopping. I would say about 90% of our shopping was done online this year. So much easy than toting the kiddos around from store to store. This is the first year I've been done this early!

Bath Time

2011-12-02T22:53:00.000-08:00

Our boys love to take baths! They love the water and they love to play in it. They always have. Here is what we experience during bath time at our house. There's always a lot of laughing, giggling and water all over the bathroom. Not much explanation needed...

Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-12-02T22:49:00.000-08:00

We decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year and luckily for us, Troy and Nancee drove up from Tucson to join us for a few days. We wanted a fun, delicious and relaxing Thanksgiving. We decided to make all of our favorite basic Thanksgiving foods but not slave away in the kitchen for hours. Thanks to Costco bakery, Pillsbury crescent rolls, stove top stuffing, and a 3 pound boneless skinless turkey breast (SO easy and low maintenance) we were only left with a few other dishes that we actually needed to make.
Dinner turned out to be delicious and according to Lincoln, "It was the best Thanksgiving ever!"

This cousins loved playing with each other while the adults actually go to visit. Thursday night I took Ricky out and he got to experience first hand the craziness of "Black Friday specials." He was a little reluctant about it at first but we scored some great deals so it was worth it. Friday morning Nancee went with me to a Turkey Tennisize at our local courts. It was an hour and a half of cardio tennis drills and we had a fun and got a good workout!

We are very blessed. I often think about how lucky I am to have what I have in my life. I try hard to not take things for granted. It doesn't mean that there aren't times of struggle or that everything is perfect. It just means that I have a lot to be thankful for!

All in all we were able to accomplish our goal of a relaxing fun and delicious Thanksgiving!

Trying to get this kiddo to pose for a picture these days is almost a lost cause. Luckily I got this.

Lincoln made this at school.

The boys got to shuck corn for the first time. Logan just wanted to hold it, he was clearly not interested in having to shuck it.

Lincoln was a great little helper and shucked several cobs. Corn on the cob was his favorite part of dinner.

Everyone was in on the fun!

Lincoln and Erica kept each other entertained all weekend.

The whether was a tad chilly but it turned out to be a beautiful weekend.

Listening to the two of them interact and play together all on their own was so cute and entertaining. They were often in the playroom and every now and again we would hear them say something pretty funny that made us laugh.

This is what happens when you can't wait for Thanksgiving dinner. =)

There was food galore and it was yum-my!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T23:24:00.000-08:00

Conversations With Lincoln

2011-11-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

This conversation took place in the car on our way home after a long day of errands. Oh how children can humble you.

Ricky: "There are too many freakin' birds in our neighborhood." (He was referring to what we feel like is a pigeon infestation.)
Lincoln: "Don't say that word."
Ricky: "There are so many dumb birds."
Lincoln (in a stern and defensive voice): "Don't say that word. Those are Heavenly Father's birds - don't call them dumb."
**********************************
We were running errands, in fact Christmas shopping for Lincoln when this conversation took place.

Ricky: "I'm going to take Logan and you take Lincoln."
Me: Okay, Lincoln let's go."
Lincoln: "I don't want to go with you. I want to go with Dad was (his substitution for because) I love him."
Ricky: "You love mommy too. Be nice to mommy."
Lincoln: "Well I love Logan, and mommy and me and daddy but I love daddy the most."

Lincoln Turned 4

2011-11-23T09:44:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind with this post but it's been a little busy around here. Lincoln turned 4 a couple weeks ago. As mentioned in an earlier post we had a Lego birthday party for him. I'm glad he's finally four because he's so tall that he's look like a four year old for a while.
I could talk about Lincoln all day. He is so incredibly bright, he has the cutest voice, he says the funniest things and I just love him. Lincoln is definitely an independent kid...that could also be interchanged with stubborn. smile. Sometimes it feels like he's a teenager already by the things that interest him, what he says and by his attitude. It is fun though that he likes the same kind of music and movies as us . Lincoln is also very sweet. He wears his emotions on his sleeve so there's no mistaken what he's feeling. He is a social butterfly. He will talk to anyone and play with any kid, no matter their size. Lincoln has great taste in music and loves movies. School is something that Lincoln enjoys and he picks up on things very quickly. He can now count to 20 by himself. More importantly, he can name most any Star Wars character and ship!
Here are a few more stats:

Height: 41.7 inches (80%)
Weight: 34 pounds (32%)
BMI: 13.75 (2%)
Favorite Food: depends on the day, he is VERY picky. Some of his favorites include turkey sandwich, nachos, chicken and BBQ sauce, grilled cheese, chips and cheeze its.
Favorite TV Show: Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Team Umizoomi
Favorite Movies: Star Wars, Up, and Shrek 2
Favorite Music: Pop
Favorite Singers: Black Eyed Peas, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and Sugarland
Favorite Church Song: Praise to the Man (he knows all of the words to both verses and he sings it constantly)
Favorite Color: switches between red, blue and green
Favorite Toys: Legos, Legos and Legos
Favorite Places to Go: the mall play area, the Lego store, Chuck E Cheese, and the movie theater for a special date
Favorite activities: playing his iphone, watching star wars youtube videos, coloring, dancing and racing Logan around the island in our kitchen.
Best Friend: still his teddy from when he was a baby
Favorite MotoGP Rider: Ben Spies Jorenzo (that's a combination of Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo)
What he says he wants to be when he grows up: a poop doctor, a medicine doctor and a fireman.
Favorite Brother: Obviously Logan! He definitely starting to play better with Logan. He watches out for him and tells us when there's an "emergency" which consists of things like Logan getting something he's not supposed to have, or if Logan climbed up somewhere that he wasn't supposed to, etc. He's more protective of him then he's been before which I think comes with age.
Number of times he's had stitches: just once, but he's had several black eyes and a ton of bruises. He's a very, very active little boy.

We are so blessed to have Lincoln in our family. He makes sure to tell me every time I leave the house (for any reason) that he loves me and then we do all of our special "I love you" signs. Happy 4th birthday sweet boy! We love you!

November 2007 - 1 day old

May 2008 - Six months old

June 2009 - 1 1/2 years old

May 2009 - 1 1/2 years old

May 2010 - 2 1/2 years old

Sept 2011 - 3 years old

November 2011 - 4 years old

FIVE Guys

2011-11-17T15:31:00.000-08:00

You know when your city gets a Five Guys that you're movin' up in the world. We've been wanting a good hamburger joint to come to our town since we moved here. We said all along that we'd be happy with either a Five Guys or In-N-Out. On Tuesday of this week a Five Guys opened up about five minutes from our house. Ricky made sure we were there on opening day and he even scored a free lunch for us! It turned out to be a fun lunch date for the two of us. As always, it was delish!

Party In the House

2011-11-11T14:31:00.000-08:00

Literally. Last weekend we threw both Lincoln and Logan a big Lego themed birthday party at our house. I had been planning this party for months so we were excited that it had finally come. We've decided that while the boys are young, we'll have a birthday party for them every other year and do something as a family on the off year.
Parties are a lot of work but I have to admit that I really love planning them. Since Lincoln is so into Legos right now, and Logan loves whatever Lincoln does, it made for an easy choice of theme. The problem with Lego parties is that there isn't a lot of pre-made Lego party things that you can buy so I ended up making a lot of it. We had about 40 people here and everyone seemed to have a good time. It was a mix of friends from church, tennis, neighbors, work and family. We played Lego themed games, had lunch, sang Happy Birthday and opened presents. Everything went according to plan and the boys had a ton of fun. Lincoln said several times, "this is the best birthday party ever!" That is what makes it all worth it.

The Save the date (I removed our last name for privacy)

The invitations (again, I removed some info for privacy)

The thank you cards

I made the gift bags to look like Lego bricks.

I started making the crayons for the gift bags months ago. I got the idea off of some blogs but most of them made mini-figure crayons so I thought this would be a fun twist - especially since most of the kids at the party were younger. I bought new crayons, sorted them out by color, took off the wrapper, melted them down in the microwave and used a Lego brick ice tray to form them.

Inside each gift bag was a Lego Club Magazine, Lego brick crayons, Lego edible bricks that you can actually build with and a Lego mini gift set (the little kids got Playdough instead of the Lego set.)

To me it's the little details that count. I saw this on a blog and used the idea. Lego soap.

I made the boys their own cake and added a few cupcakes as well. They were just white cake, with confetti frosting filling, buttercream icing and rolled fondant. Lincoln wanted a green brick and I picked blue for Logan. I thought it would be cute for them to have the corresponding brick for their age, i.e. Lincoln's has 4 dots and Logan's has 2.

I loved how the subway art turned out. I blocked out their last name for blogging purposes but it really fit the theme well and was cute on the table next to their cakes.

Yoda, the Lego head and a container of Duplos served as the center piece for our food table.

I made Lego bricks out of colored paper and hung them on the walls. I know our boys love balloons and they always add life to a birthday party so we had about 50+ around the house.

Logan's goal for the entire day seemed to be to get as much cake, cupcakes and candy as possible.

Papa Tutu and cousin Sadie

Grandma Tutu played with the boys while we got things ready in the morning.

Ricky and Aunt Carol

Uncle Lee (and Carol) stayed most of the day with us to visit and have dinner with us.

Michaela, Jared and their niece Heidi came for the party.

Doug, Lisa, Dylan and Sadie

Ryan and Saige

The first game was a Lego relay.

Lincoln and Dylan running their bricks in a spoon to the bucket.

We played pin the dot on the brick.

Abbie, Joey and Lincoln looking for the Lego brick with a black dot on the bottom so they could get a prize.

The table was covered in Duplos and each child picked a brick to see if they had the winning Lego.

After lunch we sang "Happy Birthday" and it was time for cake!

Lincoln blew his candles out on his own and I got to help Logan with his.

It was a fairly cold day but the kids all loved playing outside and eating together.

Cousin Erica came from Tucson with her family.

Lincoln and Logan both got some really fun presents.

Lincoln was so excited and animated when opening his presents, unfortunately Logan was to the end of his rope.

Logan was off for a nap and we decided it was best that he opened his presents after his nap - when he would be a little happier.

After the party and later that afternoon when Logan woke up we did round two of presents. Logan was much more interested and happy this time.

He played with the little Lego guy and tried to make him talk.

Logan got some fun Duplo sets...

and super cute clothes.

I'm not sure if Ricky or Lincoln liked this movie better, either way it was fun to watch.

That night Tutus took us to dinner at TGIF and then we came back to the house to hang out, visit some more and so the boys could play with all of their new toys.

Daddy helped Lincoln build this X-wing.

Thanks to everyone who called, sent cards and sent texts on their birthdays. Lincoln got pretty good at talking on the phone. At one point he was holding the phone with his ear and shoulder and using his hands to play with his Legos.

Bottom line is that parties are always a lot of work, time and money but they are also a lot of fun! We were so happy to share that day with those who came and missed those who couldn't be here. Logan is a little young to remember but I think special memories were created for the boys (especially Lincoln) that they will have for years to come. Happy Birthday to my sweet boys. I love you!

Conversations With Lincoln

2011-11-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

Lincoln recently has been doing this coughing noise that scares me. It makes me think he's choking. It's this sort of raspy gag cough. He thinks it's funny. This was our conversation a few weeks ago...

Me: "Lincoln, don't cough like that. It will mess up your voice and throat."
Lincoln: "You mean if I do that it will make me talk a different language? I don't want to talk a different language."
*********************************

As mentioned in previous posts, Lincoln likes youtube. He watches all of the Star Wars things people put out there. Ricky has over heard Lincoln say this a few times and I'm sure he's picked it up from youtube.

Lincoln: "New from Lego Star Wars. Each set sold separately."
*********************************
Earlier tonight the boys were chasing each other around the island in the kitchen. After a few laps Lincoln crashed landed on the carpet. Logan followed suit - making sure he was very close to Lincoln. Logan's leg ended up on Lincoln and Lincoln immediately responded by saying, "get off off of me Casey Stoner." I chimed in, "if Logan is Casey Stoner then who are you?" He quickly replied, "Ben Spies Lorenzo."

(Casey Stoner, Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo are MotoGP riders. Spies and Lorenzo are on a team together and Spies is our favorite. Lincoln thinks if he combines Spies and Lorenzo he will be the fastest of them all - he may be right. Too bad that wouldn't work in real life.)

Costosternal Chondrodynia

2011-11-09T21:51:00.000-08:00

Costochondritis (kos-toe-KHON-dri-tis) is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone (sternum). It causes sharp pain in the costosternal joint — where your ribs and breastbone are joined by rubbery cartilage. Pain caused by costochondritis may mimic that of a heart attack or other heart conditions. Your doctor might refer to costochondritis by other names, including chest wall pain, costosternal syndrome and costosternal chondrodynia. Most cases of costochondritis have no apparent cause. In these cases, treatment focuses on easing your pain while you wait for costochondritis to improve on its own.

So, leave it to me to have something weird like this happen to me. I didn't even know I had joints in my chest. I guess if I sat down and thought about it I would've figured it out but instead I went to the doctor last week because I had a crazy pain in my chest that stopped me in my tracks and unfortunately brought me to tears. I didn't think it was my heart but figured I should probably get it checked out. Sure enough, after an EKG the my heart looked good and it was just Costochondritis.

It started a couple weeks ago and then got progressively worse. Long story short, the doctor said it's inflamed and I need to take a week off from tennis. Since I was playing 5 days a week (it started at Nationals when I played 4-6 hours a day) it didn't have enough down time to heal itself. So, no tennis for me this week. It's been almost a week since I went in and it's still hurting so hopefully I will see some relief soon!

Logan Turns 2

2011-11-09T21:37:00.001-08:00

Last week Logan turned 2! For one week I have a 2 and a 3 year old - kinda fun. He is growing so quickly...I know I say that a lot but it's so true. Logan is such a sweet boy but I think the terrible two's are creeping in. I don't understand why that has to happen but we are at that phase in life.
Here are a few things about Logan:

Height: 35.2 inches (69%)
Weight: 28 pounds (49%)
Head: 48.5 cm (44%)
BMI: 15.88 (29%)
It's very possible the he could be left handed. He eats often with his left hand. He throws just as good left handed (maybe even better) than he does with his right. We'll have to wait and see!
Nickname from Mommy: Bubba and Sweet pea
Nickname from Daddy: Logos.
He is a great eater. He out eats his brother most of the time. Some of his favorites are chicken fries, bananas, cereal, fruit snacks, graham crackers and pasta. He's not really fond of cheese or vegetables but were working on it. Without a doubt this kid loves sugar. He still has a soy milk bottle a couple times a day, including one in the morning between 3:00 - 6:00 am.
He loves music. Logan has incredible rhythm, is captivated and calmed by good music and has the cutest dance moves a two year old could have. Those hips can move!
Even though Logan appears to be shy he really is quite social. He isn't afraid of the bigger kids and will jump into a group easily. Having said that, he is quite close to mom and dad and willing to give kisses (especially butterfly kisses) and cuddle.
He wears 3T tops and 2T bottoms. Logan does not like wearing shoes. He will put on his Crocs if he's walking but he will take off any socks or shoes he has on once he's in the car or at home.
Logan has a serious attachment to his white blankly - well, it used to be white. We've tried to kick the habit but it's not worth the fight at this point. He loves it. It will be in his hands when he's home 95% of the time.
We have a little chatter box. He loves to talk. He's at the stage of putting several words together. His pronunciation of words is quite good for his age. He loves to read and do puzzles but really isn't into toys, other than the Legos that Lincoln builds for him.
Outside is Logan's favorite place to be. He can't get enough of it. On walk, in the yard, even driving, he just loves to be out and about.
TV has really kept Logan's attention until recently. He'll now watch about 10 minutes at a time, especially if Lincoln is watching with him. His favorite shows are Mickey Mouse Club House, Chugginton and Little Einsteins.
Logan's teeth are adorable. In October he went to the dentist for the first time and got a thumbs up from Dr. Jane. No cavities, teeth are all in, including the back 2 year molars he just cut. He's is now the official poster boy for the new Baby Banana Sharky Toothbrush.
Our bedtime routine is an easy one because once we lay him down he is almost immediately silent and goes to sleep quite quickly. He sleeps from about 7:30 pm - 6:30 am with a two hour nap during the day. He's now sleeping in a big boy day bed and has only fallen out a couple o times but that was within the first week that we transitioned him.
I'm constantly amazed by how cute and lovable Logan is. He has such a fun personality and he already has a great sense of humor. Logan idolizes Lincoln and looks up to him. He wants to be around him every minute that they're home together. The boys are just at the point that they're stating to wrestle and play together and it's definitely fun to watch. The quote in our house..."Brothers are Best Friends." I truly hope it stays that way.

Here are a few pictures from the last month or so.

Sass and sarcasm.

Thank goodness for the pillows but I think he's mastered staying in bed.

He loves his school and doing all of the activities they have for him.

There's the blanket!

He made friends with this little Lego guy and when I can into the room he was making him talk. Adorable.

Logan, we love you and we knew you were the key to completing our family. You bring joy, happiness, frustration, laughter, adventure, danger, sweetness and love to our family. We love you dearly! Happy birthday sweet boy!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

The days are warm (not burning hot) and the evenings are cool...fall is finally here and it's Halloween! We've had a very busy weekend with three Halloween parties and we'll be trick-or-treating tonight!

My subway art.

We went with a Star Wars theme this year - My little Clone Trooper and Ewok!

They both wore their costumes proudly and thought they were pretty special - and they are!

Logan did a fun ghost project at school. The picture above is him making the ghost below.

Lincoln's festive fall pumpkin collage he made at school.

National Tennis Tournament

2011-10-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

My 3.0 tennis team made it to the USTA National Tennis Tournament, held in Tucson, AZ last weekend. We went into this tournament undefeated but we knew the competition would be much better than what we've encountered in other matches. My personal goal was to win one match. If I could do that I would feel like it was a good experience. This team has had a lot of drama throughout the season. We lost a lot of our team throughout the season due to the controversy leaving us with only 9 players - much less than what the other teams have.
We were in the toughest bracket, having to play four teams verses the other brackets that had three. We also had back to back matches on Saturday. On Friday morning I played #1 singles against the Northern division and won 6-3, 6-3. On Friday afternoon I played #1 doubles with Deb against the Southern team and unfortunately we lost in a very close third set tie breaker. We lost the first set 1-6, won 7-5 in the second and lost 7-10 in the tie breaker. We fought hard and Deb was playing with an ankle injury so we were pretty bummed that we were so close and lost. Southern went on to win the title.
Saturday morning I played a doubles match with Trina against the Caribbean. We lost 1-6, 3-6. We weren't originally scheduled to play together during this match but we went with it. Trina and I played well but there were just a lot of distractions and I don't think we played our game but it was fun to play with Trina. We had about 45 minutes in between our two matches that day and I ended up playing a singles match for the afternoon. I was pretty tired and it was a really hot day. I wasn't thrilled about my serve. It had been off a little all day Saturday. I ended up with some really good points but ultimately lost it in a second set tie breaker 2-6, 6-7. I was so close to pushing it to a third set tie break but couldn't make it happen. Some of those missed shots have haunted me a little since the tournament but I can say it as a really good experience.
Ricky had never seen me play tennis competitively before so it was special for me to have him there and cheer me on. Thanks to Reed, Sandi and Nat would took the boys during the matches so that Ricky could come watch. It was fun to have everyone there to help support me in this tournament. Having gone in undefeated it was hard to have my first losses at a National Tournament but overall it was a very good experience. I got my one win and considering everything that was going on I think I played fairly well and I'm proud that we got got to that level.

Our team pictures before match #2.

My closest friends on the team; Angie, Lisa and Trina.

Ricky caught a few good action shots while he was there. I only have pictures from the two matches that he got to watch. This was my afternoon doubles match against Southern on day 1.

We don't have set partners on the team because we're such a small team and have had a lot change. I played with Deb for this match. Normally I make funny faces when I play so it was nice to see a picture of me actually smiling on the court.

My serve was exactly what I wanted it to be for day one. Unfortunately I struggled a bit with it on day two but was still able to pull out a few aces so I guess I can't complain too much!

These action shots are from my last match of the weekend. A singles match. Ricky was so sweet and supportive and watched from a court away so that I wouldn't be nervous - and so he could stay in the shade because by this time it was ridiculously hot!

Marco Simoncelli #58

2011-10-23T23:43:00.000-07:00

January 20, 1987 - October 23, 2011

The Honda family is mourning the loss of one its rising stars, the
charismatic Italian Marco Simoncelli, who lost his life in a racing
accident in today's Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang.

The race was stopped immediately with the red flag and Simoncelli was transported by ambulance to the circuit medical centre where the medical staff worked to resuscitate him. Despite their efforts, Marco sadly succumbed to his injuries at 4:56pm local time.
Everyone involved in MotoGP extends its deepest condolences to Marco’s family, friends and team at this tragic loss.

Simoncelli was one of the sport's rising stars, a charismatic 24-year-old who rode with his heart. He was as passionate on the track as he was off, and sometimes that got him in trouble. His was an aggressive style that didn't always suit the venue, but he was maturing as a rider. This season he earned his first two MotoGP podiums and his first two MotoGP pole positions. Only a week ago, he finished a career best second in MotoGP race at the Australian Grand Prix, taking the runner-up spot to Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda RC212V) with a brilliant last lap pass of Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda RC212V).

Photos from that day show Simoncelli standing out on the podium, which he also did in life. It wasn't just because he was one of the taller riders in MotoGP, and it wasn't just for the blossoming, bushy hair that paid homage to guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, but it was because of his outsized personality and his passion for winning.
The Honda Motor Company family would like to express its sincere condolences to the family of Marco Simoncelli, his team owner Fausto Gresini, his team, his legion of friends, and his thousands of fans throughout the world. He will be missed.

Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso says, "In these circumstances, words don't seem to be appropriate. I think of Marco's family and all the people dear to him, in particular his father and mother. I also have a child and what happened today is the hardest situation you can imagine. I watched the images and I'm shocked. In a race you fight and push hard and disaster is often around the corner. Marco was a strong rider and he always pushed hard. We raced together since we were kids. I saw him always pushing to the maximum, he crashed many times, but without major injuries, he was seemed invincible. What happened today seems impossible."

I was about 20 feet away from him at IMS MotGP race - picture above. I believe in life after death but it's hard to believe that someone can just be taken so suddenly...just gone. Tough day for MotoGP. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

Never A Dull Moment

2011-10-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

Urgent Care, doctors, stitches, medicine...that's how we spent our morning. About 9:00 this morning Ricky got a call from Logan's daycare that he had been hurt and we needed to go pick him up. Apparently his pinky finger had been caught in the hinge of a gate out on the playground. That resulted in a pretty good cut on the bottom of his pinky finger, from his top knuckle to the tip of his finger. His fingernail had been smashed pretty badly and the skin on the top of his finger around the nail had been scraped off. We were most worried about him losing his fingernail so we picked him up and headed straight to Urgent Care.

They were able to numb his finger, clean it, put in several stitches and then bandage it up. He will lose his fingernail but the trick is for it to stay on as long as possible so a new nail will grow before this one falls off. My poor baby was in a lot of pain when someone touched it but as expected he was quite a trooper and survived it all. Stitches will come out in 11 days. The little guy couldn't even make it to two before stitches! I have a feeling that will not be our last Urgent Care visit for him.

Rough day for this poor little guy. Sometime you just need a binky and a blanket.

The Bath

2011-10-12T20:06:00.000-07:00

Rick mentioned to me that we needed to give the kids a bath. Logan loves baths so when he heard that he perked up immediately and then he started asking for a bath. We were all sitting in the living room and Logan said, "Bass. Bass." (His pronunciation of bath.) Lincoln immediately jumped in to help him. "Logan, it's not bass...it's baff. Say baa...fff. See, baff." Logan did exactly what Lincoln told him. Next thing I know we have two kids asking for a baff.

Young and In Love

2011-10-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

Someone once said, "Date night is expensive but marriage counseling will be more." I've tried to take that to heart and realize that date nights are important and worth the expense. We try to get out once a month or so just to have time for us to be together away from the kiddos.
I had a gift certificate to a restaurant that we'd never been to before, Calico Jack's. We walked in and Ricky headed to the bathroom while the host seated me. The employee began to tell me that we had the best seat in the house...for what he perceived to be a date. I confirmed that it was in fact date night. Then he asked, "is it a first date?" I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Then I replied, "Oh no, we've been married for eight years and we have two kids. We're way past the first date." He seemed a little embarrassed and then went about his business shortly before Ricky returned to the table.
A lot of thoughts ran though my head as I was replaying the conversation to Rick. I was glad that I looked young enough that I couldn't have possibly been married for 8 years and have two kids. I was more excited about the fact that Ricky and I still look like we're in love...in a possible budding romance...a fresh and exciting relationship. It's all true! We are in love. I'm not gonna lie, some days it doesn't feel very fresh and new but I get really excited to spend quality time with him and it reminds me of our dating days or pre-children days. It's way to easy to get stuck in a marriage rut and I think date night is the perfect fix.
We had a great time together, even if the food wasn't all that great and the restaurant is somewhere we wouldn't go back to. Time together is important so I'm grateful I have an eternity with Ricky.
I figured this is a good time for a flashback...

Our Engagement Picture

Our wedding day - we were much younger!

Camping - Sort Of

2011-10-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

If you want to go camping but the thought of cold showers, dirt, bugs and chasing two little guys around the campsite sounds like too much mess and work....just escape to the wonders of your backyard!! On Thursday I decided that we should go camping at the Grand Canyon. By the time I evaluated everything and came back to reality, I realized that wasn't going to happen this weekend. Ricky decided that he'd put up the tent in the backyard for the boys to play in for the afternoon and then he and Lincoln could sleep in it. Logan and I slept in the house, in our warm, soft beds. It worked out well since I've been recovering from a terrible migraine for the last couple of days.
As expected, the boys loved the idea of playing in the tent and Lincoln thought he was pretty lucky to sleep in the tent with daddy. He had his binoculars, his flashlight and his teddy bear so he was definitely set. Ricky didn't sleep too well but Lincoln did and he had a fun time. I hope next time we pull out the tent it's to really go camping somewhere fun...like the Grand Canyon!

My First Singles Tennis Match

2011-10-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

I've always considered myself a doubles player...until now. Last night was my first singles match in competition play. I've had a lot of singles practice matches with other players on my teams but have always ended up playing doubles on game nights. I was scheduled to play doubles last night but in the car on the way over to the courts our captain switched it up and put me at #1 singles. I'm a team player and will play wherever I'm needed. I was anxious, excited and a little nervous about playing singles. Mentally I was prepared for doubles, which is quite a different game. I was also wearing new shoes that I was breaking in and had never played at these courts before (they had terrible lights and no score cards) so there were a lot of new elements for me. I didn't play as well as I wanted to. I made a lot of unforced errors and our match ended up being a good battle. After just over two hours of play, I won!! I was determined and did fairly well at staying focused. Our scores were 6-4, 7-6...it was pretty close. I'm glad I was able to pull out a win because our team won 3-2. Had I lost we would have lost the whole match. I'm playing singles at nationals so this was great practice. Here's to more singles matches!
P.S. - I had to wear a jacket to my game last night. We've actually hit weather in the 70's and it's starting to feel like fall!

Sad Day

2011-10-05T23:23:00.000-07:00

We are an Apple family. We love our Apple products - from our ipods, iMac, Macbook, iphones, itunes and our iPad...we love it all. Like many other families, our kids at the ages of 1 and 3 even know how to operate these gadgets. Ricky is always reading the latest and greatest on what Apple is doing with technology. It's quite an amazing company. Ricky and I even stopped at the headquarters of Apple in Cupertino on our last visit to Northern CA.

Well, today is a sad day for Apple with the passing of co-founder, former CEO and really the face of Apple as we know it, Steve Jobs.

1955 - 2011

From Aunt Talicee

2011-10-05T23:11:00.000-07:00

My little sister Talicee got the artistic gene in the family. She's attending BYU and took an art class last semester. She surprised me by taking a picture of Logan off of our blog and using it for one of her assignments. I didn't find out about it until it was complete and my mom brought it down to us on her visit last month. I didn't know what to expect but it was awesome. Really neat. I'm going to frame it an put it in Logan's room for him. I know he won't appreciate it now but I hope he will as he gets older. I thought she did a really good job and I'm so glad she picked Logan as her model!

Too Tempting

2011-10-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

A few days ago Ricky took Lincoln to ACE Hardware with him to pick up a few things. After Ricky made his purchase and was heading out he noticed Lincoln, with his hands behind his back and a mischievous look on his face, pass the counter and head for the exit doors. Ricky clearly knew something was up. He asked Lincoln what he had behind his back. "Nothing." Lincoln replied. After Lincoln continually denied that he had anything, Ricky was able to see that Lincoln had this....

a package of Now and Laters that he was hiding....trying to sneak them out of the store. Really?? Ricky couldn't believe it. He immediately, with multiple other customers and workers around, had a conversation with Lincoln about not taking things we didn't pay for. Ricky, being the good dad that he is, end up buying the candy to show Lincoln the right thing to do. Lincoln didn't get to eat the candy right away but I hope he learned his lesson. I never doubted that these little boys would cause some mischief at some point. Luckily he's still little and learning so we are able to teach some valuable lessons. Hopefully we won't be dealing with this one again!

Lincoln's School Pictures

2011-09-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

Lincoln has almost completed his second month at the preschool. It's so much like regular school since it's done through the school district so there's, PTA, recess, scholastic book orders and school pictures. It requires much more involvement then a daycare/preschool but I think it's fun. Lincoln's been putting on some pretty fun faces recently when we ask him to smile so we were a little nervous about what his pictures would ultimately look like. I can see him as the class clown one day. Anyway, I think they turned out nicely.

Note to self...only the top half of the shirt ends up in the picture so it didn't matter that his shorts or the bottom half of the shirt with the design were really cute! Maybe next time.

The Simple Things

2011-09-27T08:12:00.001-07:00

Red Vines: $1.00
Red Box: $1.12
Time with my hubby after a hard day: priceless

This is how I know my husband loves me. Saturday went all wrong. Our plans for a fun filled day went to pot when our boys decided to have one of the worst days they've had in a long time. I don't know what happened except that we ended up being home all day and Rick and I were exhausted from dealing with two little grumpy boys that wouldn't eat or sleep. Later that evening, once the boys were in bed, Ricky went and picked up a movie and some red vines. It's the simple things sometimes that just make a terrible day suddenly a little better.

A Little of Everything

2011-09-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago we went to Tucson to cousin Erica's 4th birthday party. We just went down for the day and we had a lot of fun celebrating with her. Lincoln had a great time playing with all the kids and Logan loved being in the backyard. Right as we were about to leave a monsoon like storm rolled in. Pee size hail dropped from the sky and the winds ripped through the area. Of course we ended up driving right through it for a couple hours. The rain came so hard and fast that I'm sure there were times Ricky couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him. Since I couldn't sleep I kept busy trying to capture the lightning in pictures. Pictures will never do it justice but it was sure exciting to see.

Logan is loving school. He is really happy there and has a lot of fun doing all of the projects. His teachers commented on how well he holds the paint brush, crayons, etc. Good form, son!

Ricky spent a couple hours cleaning the car last weekend so that meant he automatically got two helpers. Our boys cannot stand to be inside if daddy is outside working. They think they need to be right next to him doing everything he's doing. I can't wait until they get older and the two of them can do this project together without dad. I'm sure Ricky will be excited when that day comes!

Conversations with Lincoln

2011-09-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

Ricky and Lincoln were having some sort of a discussion that involved them looking at the clock. I'm sure it was a conversation about bed time but I don't remember. What I know is that Lincoln saw something pretty interesting.
Lincoln: "Look, Dad. The big hand is making an 'N' with the 1 and the 1."
Ricky took note. It was 8:55 which meant the big hand cross perfectly over the 11 and formed an N. Good eyes, Lincoln!
***************************
This morning I was eating some lucky Charms and sitting next to Lincoln on the ottoman in the living room. Logan was standing next to me (he likes to share cereal with me) and they were both watching tv. I leaned over to give Lincoln a kiss on the top of his head.
Lincoln: "Mom, have you ever seen someone eating lucky charms and kissing someone before?"
How on earth was I supposed to respond to that? The phrase, "have you seen someone...." is his new thing over the last week.
***************************

10 Things About Me

2011-09-20T07:57:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to get Ricky to finish up his list of 100 things he's experienced. He isn't the type of guy that will easily talk about himself or his experiences so I think that list will be really nice for the boys to have. In the meantime, I will just keep writing things about me! haha. smile. As I was cleaning out my office I found a list titled 10 Things About Me. I don't remember why I had to write it, maybe for work or something, but I figured I should transfer the list here...just because. Some may be a duplicate from my 100 Things list but oh well. So here it is...not anything extraordinarily exciting or interesting...just about me...and in no particular order.

1. I love ice cream.
2. I've always wanted to be a police officer.
3. I believe in justice.
4. I love to travel. Places I like to go include Fiji, Australia, Italy and Alaska.
5. I love Mickey Mouse.
6. I enjoy baking, cake decorating and making candy.
7. I played the clarinet, alto clarinet, tuba and percussion. I love all types of music.
8. "Common sense is under rated."
9. I've never been diagnosed but I might have a little OCD. just a little.
10. I love to dance. I don't live with regrets but looking back I wish I would have continued dance classes.

Transitions, Adjustment and Growing Pains

2011-09-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

This last week has been an interesting one at our house. We all seem to be going through some sort of an adjustment. Some being easier to deal with than others. Over the weekend Logan bed went from a crib to a day bed. It's an converting crib so the front panel comes off. It got to the point that we were worried he would try to climb out of his crib and hurt himself. We lined the floor next to his bed with pillows in hopes that they would break his fall if he fell out of the bed. Sure enough, he did fall out the first night (a couple times) and the pillows were there to cushion the fall. The second night he did much better. I think he will adjust quickly. It will be nice when we're confident enough to take away the pillows.

Lincoln is growing like a weed. I feel like once a week he wakes up in the morning and he's noticeably taller than the day before. Unfortunately with all of that growth, comes growing pains. The poor little guy often wakes up crying because his bones hurt. Daddy gives him some medicine and massages his legs. We always knew he would be tall, I just didn't realize that he would have to deal with growing pains. He takes a vitamin supplement that is supposed to help with bone growth but we'll have to figure out something else to help him as well. It's not fun for him to experience and it's hard for us as parents to watch helplessly.

A few days ago Ricky and I decided that we were going to try and live on a budget. That's not to say that we weren't before but this time we were going to be more aggressive with it than we've been previously. I don't like when people talk money on their blogs but since this is my journal and an adjustment for me I figured I should capture this time for memory sake.
We had a great summer but now with birthdays (all four of ours) and the holidays coming up, we decided that we need to be more careful about where our money is going. We've always been good about not carrying debt - outside our house and car. That's been important to both of us and sometimes that means we go without some of our wants in order to make that happen. Debt can so easily get out of control and we've been able to manage it so that we don't put ourselves in that situation. I truly believe the way one is raised will greatly impact their financial choices for the rest of their life - good or bad. Living on a strict budget is hard for me. It's not a secret that I didn't have a lot of extras growing up. I don't think I've ever been reckless with money and I do good to use coupons or discount codes if I have them, although I don't allow that to necessarily dictate what I buy. I've worked hard and established my career to ensure that I can provide for my family. The hardest part for me is telling my boys (hubby included) no when it comes to something they want. (Although, that is just another reason why this exercise is good for our entire family. I do have spoiled boys!) Bottom line is that our needs are met so I'm very grateful. We've been blessed. I am in no way complaining. I know it's a temporary adjustment and won't last forever but it's a good exercise for us to go through for now.

Discipline

2011-09-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

I wish there was a book that would cover this topic. Not in a general context but specifically - for my boys. That is one of the hardest parts of parenting. I want to ensure that the appropriate consequences are imposed without going overboard. How do I do that?? I guess we learn as we go.
I don't know what's gotten into my sweet Lincoln but on Friday he broke a kids necklace at school because the kid did something Lincoln didn't like and today he punched a kid that was being mean to him. We've done the writing a sorry note, he lost TV privileges last Friday and today he spent time in his room. I'm not sure what, if any of it will work. He clearly didn't learn the lesson from Friday because he hit a kid today!
I have to admit on one hand I am a little happy that he's not afraid of kids and willing to stick up for himself but on the other hand I don't want him to be a bully and he knows he needs to use his words and tell his teachers. I'm just hoping he gets this all out of his system now so we're not dealing with it when we're in kindergarten and grade school. Oh what to do?!?!

I Lost!

2011-09-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

I guess everyone has to lose once, right? That's what I'm telling myself because tonight was that night for me. I lost my first tennis match....and it sucks! I played with a new partner and for some reason we just didn't play our best. I don't think it was because the other team was better (does that sound bad?) but I think we beat ourselves with unforced errors. Our scores were 6-7 and 3-6, so we didn't get walked on. If I played my best and still got beat, then I don't think I would feel bad about it. Luckily our team came through with the 3-2 match victory! I'm on a new team and really enjoy it. So far so good and I look forward to the rest of the season.

Just Because...

2011-09-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

...they're cute! A couple days ago we were getting ready to go out and I realized how incredibly cute my two boys were in their matching outfits. It's also super cute to watch them play together. It's almost impossible to get them both to look at the camera at the same time but we did our best.

Brothers Are Best Friends!

Logan - First Day in "School"

2011-09-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday Logan started a daycare/pre-school type class that he will be attending three days a week. He was so excited to get into his new class and see the new toys and kids. We are really excited for him because I think he was starting to get bored being at home and the structure and time away from mom and dad will be really good for him.
It was a year ago that we started Lincoln there and it was perfect. He excelled and I expect that Logan will do the same. I know I always say that time flies...but it does! Logan is growing up so quickly and I think being in school will help with that process. Soon enough he will be potty trained and then we will be out of diapers!! With both boys in school for a few hours, Ricky finally has a couple hours to himself a couple days a week, during the day, and he is REALLY happy about that. After dropping Lincoln off he came up to my office with the biggest grin on his face. Bottom line...it's good for everyone!

Big boy on the morning he first went to school!

Daddy has the boys schedule down and is making trips all over town in the mornings between two different schools and the gym.

Lincoln was excited for Logan and was trying to talk to him about school. Then he got silly.

Indianapolis - Day 5 and 6

2011-09-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

Race day had finally arrived. We got to the track early to watch morning warm ups and then planted ourselves in the shade of the bleachers for several hours until the race began. Prior to the race I went to the bottom of the grand stands and was maybe 10-15 feet away from the riders as they lined up on the starting grid. It was quite the scene to watch as the crews got the bikes in proper order and the racers went through their routine getting them focused and ready to race.

After the national anthem was sung by American Idol Finalist, Amanda Overmyer, two A-10 Thunderbolt fighter jets flew over the track and then the race was off! Spies didn't have a great start and after the first lap was in 9th place. We were really hoping he would win but it didn't look good. Watching the race that close and with thousands of other fans is really loud and exciting, and a little nerve racking. Because we were there I couldn't just check the results on Speed.com like I normally do before we watch the race. Spies was able to come back and secure a third place finish, allowing him a spot on the podium.

That night we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Qboada. It's similar to Chipole and I would recommend it. The next day we slept in and did some shopping at a mall on our way to the airport. We got back to Arizona about dinner time and we were home in time to see the boys before bed. It was so nice to see them and give big hugs and kisses after not seeing them for five days. They were so excited to show us all of the things they did with Grammy and all the treats she showered them with. They had a great time with her, which in itself was a great treat for them.

I love to travel! I especially love to travel with Ricky. I look forward to when the boys get older because it will make traveling with them a little easier. In a couple years there will be a new MotoGP race track in Texas and I think we will take the boys with us to that one. I can already see Lincoln having a blast!

Ricky sporting his Ben Spies attire. We watched warm ups from this section.

Turn 16 coming into the front straight.

Spies trying to focus and talk to his crew about the bike.

Spies and Lorezo

Starting grid.

Stoner and Spies just seconds before the green light.

This one is for the Rizzo's. Rossi was in 14th place but came back to finish 10th. He was the only crash in the race.

Final results.

We sat right across from pit lane so we watched all the riders and their crews in the pit.

Nicky Hayden ended up wearing out his tires with two laps to go so he ended the race early.

Spies is on the right. We were pretty far away. Next time I go to a race I will invest in a telephoto lens first!

Indianapolis - Day 4

2011-09-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday we slept in and made it to the track in time to watch qualifying. Spies qualified in second so we felt like it would be a really good race.

The Yamaha riders (Lorenzo, Spies, Edwards and Crutchlow) did another longer Q&A session with the fans. I got a front and center seat (I was actually standing) but was right in there with all the action. I got a shirt from Colin Edwards and Jorge Lorenzo and gave them both a high five. Ricky wasn't there because he went to the pit walk about to see the riders bikes. He came a little late and saw the last half of the interviews. He also got to give Jorge a high five, pat him on his back and tell him good luck. It was fun to see the riders in a more playful, less serious and competitive mood. They were all quite funny and gave great interviews. Two of the four are americans so it was fun to cheer them on in their home country.

Valentino Rossi

Ben Spies

Jorge Lorenzo

Ben Spies

Corner 8 of the track.

Colin Edwards

Ben Spies

Jorge Lorenzo, Ben Spies, Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow.

Ben, Colin and Cal being interviewed.

Jorge and Ben are teammates on the factory Yamaha team.

Indianapolis - Day 3

2011-09-04T23:59:00.000-07:00

Our first day at the track was pretty fun although it was really hot. The track was huge but not exactly what I expected it to be. It was old like the rest of the town. We watched two practice rounds from different spots on the track. The sponsors of the bikes, riders and event have big tents up with different activities and things for sale so we walked through and saw everything.
We sat on one of Jorge Lorenzo's race bikes - which is what Ben races also.

My favorite part of the day was meeting Ben Spies. He's our favorite rider. I happen to think he looks a little like Ricky - so of course, he's cute! Even Lincoln really like him. Anytime he does something fast like run, ride his bike, race Logan, he always says he's Ben Spies. Anytime he sees the number 11, Lincoln says, "Look, a 1 and a 1 like Ben Spies!" We are a Spies fan club family.

That day was the premiere release of his new biography, Taking it to the Next Level. He signed books for a limited number of fans and we happened to be second in line. We got a lot of pictures and told him that Lincoln says he's fast like Ben Spies, and that his number is a 1 and a 1. Ben seemed to appreciate that; although I wish Lincoln was with us to meet him. We also met his mom, Mary. She was really sweet and talked to us for about five minutes telling me a story about when Ben's grandmother passed away and he was just really young and riding the tractor on the family farm in Texas.

That afternoon we watched a Q&A session with all of the riders and also attended a charity auction, but we didn't buy at it. We got a pretty good sun burn but still really enjoyed our day at the track.

Later that evening we walked downtown and ate dinner at Weber Grille. We wanted to try new places and it was delicious. I would highly recommend it to anyone. Besides great food, we saw Nicky Hayden (another rider) there eating with his family. I would like to point out that I'm the one that recognized him and told Ricky. Ricky shook his and and told him good luck. He was really nice and appreciative. All in all, it was a great day.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Pagoda

Ben Spies...

He wasn't taking pictures with anyone which was a bummer but Ricky was a great photographer and captured some great shots for me.

I read half the book on the way home and it's pretty interesting. I've learned a lot about Ben, his mom - who is a major factor in his success and also about the sport in general.

Mamma (Mary) Spies

Ricky on Jorge Lorenzo's bikes. I'm pretty sure he could've been a racer.

Ricky at the dealership tents.

Valentino Rossi - I'm not a fan of his. I think it's just trendy to like him. I will say though that the more I've heard his interviews off the track, the more I seem to like him. (Ducati Rider)

Nicky Hayden - He is very fan friendly and an all American guy. (Ducati Rider)

Ben Spies - As previously mentioned, my favorite. (Factory Yamaha Rider)

Nicky Hayden in the Red shirt, and his also famous racing brother, outside of the restaurant.

Indianapolis - Day 2

2011-09-03T12:18:00.001-07:00

Thursday was a true vacation day. We had nothing scheduled or planned. Just a day to do whatever we wanted. We slept in, went to lunch, did some shopping and saw a movie. We spent the evening sight seeing...although I'm not that impressed with the things/places Indy has to offer tourists. We toured the Capitol building, walked the canal walk and had dinner at a little cafe by the water. The immediate circle center downtown area was a fun and lively place. All the hotels and restaurants are within a few blocks of each other and it makes for a busy happening place.

I'm not at all impressed with the rest of the city. Yes, they have a nice big race track but it's old. The city is old and pretty dumpy. There was construction all over the city and every road we drove on seemed like it needed to be repaved. There were also a lot of abandoned buildings. The funny thing is that the city had a ton of statues and memorials to honor random events in history. I felt like every block had a statue or memorial site of some kind. If they spent less money on statues and more money on the rest of the city I think it would help. I will get off my soap box now! I'm sure there are really nice parts of Indianapolis.

I know you have to pay for parking in any downtown area of a major city although I was surprised that we had to pay $26 a day to park at our hotel with no in and out privileges. We thought we were pretty clever (and we turned out to be) when we decided to park in the meter parking on the street by our hotel. It ended up only costing us a few dollars a day since we were gone during the majority of the daytime hours. We did have one little hiccup which came in the way of a parking ticket on Friday morning. They start charging for parking at 7:00 am and we forgot to set the alarm to get out there and put money in the meter. Ricky made it out at 7:08 am but we had already gotten a ticket. Good news...the ticket was only $20 which was still cheaper then parking in the structure. Once we got in the routine down and we didn't see any more tickets!

It's tradition for us to see one, or several, churches when we vacation. They are all so unique and different and fascinating to see. This trip there were quite a few within walking distance of where we were staying so we explored all of them.

This is the inside of the church in the picture above. I really liked the dark wood on the beige walls. It was very dramatic looking and very eye catching.

We didn't get to go inside this one. From the outside I think it's one of the prettiest churches I've ever seen. It looks like a castle from England. We walked all the way around it hoping to find an unlocked door but no such luck. Bummer.

The State Capitol Building.

Inside the capitol.

A meeting had just adjourned when we arrived so we didn't get to see much of anything spectacular happening while we were there.

The little cafe we ate at was at one end of the canal walk over looking the water.

We walked about halfway down the trail. There were some cute apartments on one side of the water and a sidewalk on the other. Given what we had seen in the rest of the town, this was a nice little area.

This sporty little car is what got us around for the week.

Indianapolis - Day 1

2011-09-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

Ricky is a fan of motorcycle racing. He specifically likes the MotoGP circuit which only comes to the United States twice a year. He's said for a while now that he wanted to go to the Indianapolis race so we finally decided to make it happen. My mom flew down to stay with the boys so Ricky and I could have some time together. I'm not going to pretend that I didn't also really want to go. While watching the races seem to give me some anxiety, I still enjoy them. I've learned a lot about the riders, bikes and tracks so it gets more interesting to me as the seasons go along.
Wednesday was a travel day. We spent the day in airports and on planes as we made our way to Indy. We checked into our hotel and grabbed some dinner before heading to bed.

Logan and Grammy.

Grammy took Lincoln to school for a few days while she was here.

Our hotel

We had a nice little connection and ended up with a beautiful suite. This was the view out of one of the bedroom windows. It was pretty beautiful at night.

Signs that Logan is Growing Up

2011-08-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

I've noticed this last couple weeks that Logan is definitely in the toddler stage and growing up fast. He's not quite two but the tantrums have started. I'm pretty sure we've entered the terrible two's. Here are a few things that caught my eye recently...

He started picking his nose.

He picked out his own Little Einstein pj's.

he puts on everyone's shoes (and most often they're on the right feet!)...

There's the attitude. (He still looks sweet though.)

he climbs up and walks across the entertainment center if I'm not looking. I only got a picture of him sitting. He also stands on the smallest indentation of the trim on our kitchen cabinet doors and pulls himself up to see what's on the counters.

Everyday he says several new words. He is a picky eater unless it has to do with sugar. He wants to go everywhere with mom and dad and he tries really hard to play with Lincoln, even though he loves to push his buttons. He also has quite the comedic streak in him. I can't wait to see what that will bring as he gets older.

I love you sweet boy!

Conversations with Lincoln

2011-08-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

When we change Logan's diaper, recently Lincoln has been very interested in watching, specifically wanting to see the poop. I'm a little concerned about this so I decided to see if I could get some answers.

Me: "Why do you want to always see the poop?"

Lincoln: " Because I want to see it."

Me: "Isn't it gross and stinky? I think it's yucky. I don't understand why you always want to look at it. How come you always want to see it?"

Lincoln: "Because I'm going to be a poop doctor."

**************

Tonight we were out in the backyard and the wind started to pick up as a storm was rolling in.

Me: "Okay, we're going to go inside in a minute because a storm's coming and it's getting windy."

Lincoln: "Mom, you better get Logan or he's going to blow away."

After a few minutes I started to see the lightning and hear the thunder.

Me: "Lincoln, I see lightning so it's time to go in."

Lincoln: "No, I want to stay and touch the lightning."

Me: (not really thinking about what I was saying since I was trying to clean up the toys in the yard) "No, if lightning touches you it will kill you."

Lincoln: "It will kill me?"

I went on to explain that it would hurt him really bad and he would have to go to the doctors if lightning touched him, etc.

As we were walking into the house Lincoln pauses.

Lincoln: "Mom, quick, come look at this cloud."

I looked up and sure enough it was a dark gray storm cloud.

Lincoln: "It's gonna kill me."

Okay, I learned my lesson. I have to watch what I say. Everyday I'm reminded of that...eventually I will learn. After he said that I went into damage control and tried to talk through what that means and clouds won't kill us, etc.

This is a self portrait he had to do for school. I think his writing is really good for his age but I don't really have anything to compare it to.

A Child's Prayer

2011-08-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

This was Lincoln's prayer, all on his own, in it's entirety...

Jesus Christ, thank you for cars.
Please make our car bigger, like a monster truck.

Lincoln's First Day of PreSchool

2011-08-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

Lincoln has been going to a structured daycare program three days a week for the last year. We call it school but it technically was child care, although they have lessons, focus on letters, numbers, writing, etc. Last week he started an official preschool program through our school district. While his vocabulary and sentence structure is really good, his pronunciation of certain letters has qualified him to be enrolled in the speech program. He is at age level for all of the letters he is supposed to know but for the ones he can't pronounce properly (sounds for r, l, ch, sh, y, etc.) he doesn't substitute it for the common sound. Common being the sounds other 3 year olds would substitute it with. Instead of yep - it's wep. Instead of Logan - it's Wogan. Instead of teacher - it's teetser.

We're really excited that he is in a class with 10-12 other students, with two teachers and a speech therapist. He only goes for 2.5 hours a day, four days a week. I think it will be a really good transition for him into kindergarten. It's set up like kindergarten. They have a structure including, lesson (activities based around the sound they are working on) snack, recess, show and tell, etc.

I attended a meet the teacher night, there's a PTA, the whole nine yards. It was a little weird to think that he's old enough to be going through this. Next it's kindergarten, middle school and high school. He needed to have a full size children's backpack so we went shopping for a backpack and school supplies. It was a little surreal. I'm a mom. I have a child in the school system. When I was young I dreamed of having a family and being a volunteer in my kids classes at school and that time is here. It's funny to say but sometimes I pause to realize that this is what I wanted for all those year and I'm now living that. I won't say it's been easy or that my boys are angels but it's my life. I have a quote on my office wall that I really love. It is something that I'm trying to do better at so I posted in it big beautiful letters.

"Enjoy this moment, for this moment is your life!"

Logan seemed to be just as excited about all of it as Lincoln was.

The motto in our house is that brothers are best friends!

The first day he used his old Diego backpack but he later picked out a new Transformers backpack with Bumblebee on it.

That smile is precious. He was so excited to go to his new class. Lincoln has never been afraid to be away from us, to go to a new place or struggled to make friends.

He's tall enough to look like he's going into kindergarten but it's crazy when I remind myself that he's really only 3 1/2!

We had to have spikes for the first day. Unfortunately since I was on my trip the two weeks before school started we never got him a haircut but we've since taken care of that too!

Tucson Trip - Day 10

2011-08-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Our last day of sectionals we played against The team from El Paso, Texas. They were 1-1 so we knew we had a good shot at winning. I struggled quite a bit with my backhand (which is normally my strength) but I was able to play well in the other aspects of the game. The heat had been a big factor the first two days but it didn't seem to effect me as much by the third day. We played our best match and won in two sets, 6-4, 6-2. Our team won again 5-0 which meant as a team we were undefeated for the weekend. We were named sectional champions and will be going on to play for the national title in October.
As a team we grabbed lunch and headed home. I have to admit that it's really nice to get a break every so often and have some time to myself. On the other hand 10 days away from Ricky and the boys was really long and I missed them a lot. I was really excited to get home to see them. It was fun to give them their little "surprises" from my trip that I brought home for them. All in all it was a successful, fun, memory filled trip!

The team before our day three match.

Stacy and me watching and routing on the rest of the team after we finished playing.

It's hard to see our little trophies because they are glass but they say Southwest Champions!

Tucson Trip-Day 9

2011-08-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we played the Tucson team. They had won their match the day before so it was an important match for us to win. Luckily my partner and I won our match in two sets with scores of 6-0, 6-4. I don't think that they were easier that the first team we played I just think that my partner and I played better. Our team won the overall match at 4-1.
We spent the afternoon at the pool and that evening was a luau for all the players. It was fun to hang out with the girls and dance but I missed Ricky. He is a really supportive husband and kept the boys that entire time.

Team before our day two match.

I played with Lenore all three days. We had never played together before so all things considering I thought we made a great team!

The team after our day two win!

Lisa and me at the luau.

Stacy, Trisha, Deb and Me.

Our team with coach at the luau.

Tucson Trip - Day 8

2011-08-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

I'm now in my third city of the trip, the last leg. I was there because my USTA 3.0 ladies tennis team won our regular season and we were competing against three other teams for the chance to go to nationals.
Our First match Friday morning was against Albuequrque, NM. I elected to play doubles because I had been sick and then on vacation so I hadn't picked up a raquet in two weeks and I was a little nervous about how I would play. I wasn't thrilled about playing in temperatures that exceeded 110 degrees but we had no choice. Our team only has eight players which is exactly the minimum of what you need to compete. I played with a new partner and played the forehand side which is opposite of what I normally play.
We started out doing farely well. We were up 3-0 and then the other team cane back to be us in the first set. By the second set Lenore and I finally got our groove together and we won't the second and third sets. Our scores for the match wer 5-7, 6-4, 12-10. Our team ending up winning day one 5-0.

This is the team.

This is the team at lunch after our first win.

Lisa and me at dinner with the team Friday night. I roomed with Lisa and it was nice to get to know her better. Our kids are about the same age so we are experiencing similar things with them. It was nice to be able to get out an have some girl time.

New York Trip - Day 7

2011-08-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

We finally took a morning to sleep in A little. We got up packed our bags and checked out. Luckily our hotel had bag check so we left our luggage while we spent a few more hours in the city. The only thing we really had left to do was to go to the observatory in the Empire State Building. We bought our tickets earlier at the hotel which saved us a ton of time. We were able to skip a large portion of the line and our total wait time was about 30-45 minutes with the elevator lines. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and amazing views from atop the 86th floor outside deck.

Looking south. New Jersey on the right.

Looking Northeast. The gold top building is the Chrysler Building.

Looking Northwest.

Top of the Empire State Building.

Looking south at the Flat Iron district. I loved see the roof top gardens.

In case you wanted to know what looking down from the Empire State Building looks like.

By the time we finished with the Empire State Building it was time to grab lunch and finish up our last minute souvenir shopping. We got our bags and headed to JFK airport. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant, waiting briefly for my plane and then said our goodbyes. Calee and Talicee were flying back to Southern CA together and their flight departed shortly after mine.

I had a smooth flight back to Phoenix and by the time we deplaned and I got my luggage it was shotly after 11:00 pm. Next stop...Tucson. I was playing an a tournament Friday morning so I had to drive the two hours right from the airport to the hotel in Tuscon. I finally got to my room and was in bed shortly before 2:00 am. I had been up for 21 hours and I was ready to call it a day!

New York Trip - Day 6

2011-08-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

I don't like early mornings, especially on vacation, but it was definitely worth getting up early that morning for our first stop...Hoboken, New Jersey. Why Hoboken you ask? To go to Carlos Bakery!!! If you've ever seen the TV show Cake Boss with Buddy and his family, that's where they film the show. Calee and I are both fans of the show and we know it's a popular place so we wanted to get there early. We rode the NJ transit train over to NJ and it was really simple and quick. We only had to wait in line for about 30 minutes. Inside the tiny bakery was a mad house. There were so many delicious pastries and cakes to choose from. We picked a few things and then stood there for a little bit hoping to see the famous family. Luckily we saw Madeline and Mauro - Buddy's sister and brother-in-law.

Welcome to Hoboken...it was much smaller than I expected.

Hudson River and New York Skyline

We made it!

Unfortunately I only got the backside of Mauro. He is now he point man at this location since Buddy and the others are working at a new larger facility that's not open to the public.

Family portrait.

This is the famous consultation seating area.

This place was packed full and people we spending hundreds of dollars on bakery goods and merchandise. It was a little wild but very fun to see and experience.

We heard Madeline back taking orders on the phone. We called her name and she peaked around the corner. We've seen the sisters working that phone station on the show so we knew what she was doing.

When she came out the chaos in the bakery definitely increased. This isn't the best picture but we were trying to be quick. It because like a pushing match as people tried to get through the crowd to meet her. She was really nice, sweet and funny. She spent a few minutes talking to us and then took pictures with a few others before returning to work. She is Buddy's sister who is married to Mauro.

This is Frankie's little brother. He is a baker and makes the pastries on site with Mauro.

We thought we would be like the crazy paparazzi and see what or who we could find in the back of the bakery.

We did get a little sneak peak inside but they were pretty good about keeping that door closed.

This is the closest we got to seeing Buddy - The Boss.

These cupcakes were SO yummy. I wasn't overly impressed with the frosting - that was just average vanilla buttercream.

After picking Talicee up at the hotel we went on to see St. Paul's church across from ground zero. We also went to the 911 Memorial site and tried to get additional views of the construction. Unfortunately it started to rain on us so we didn't stay there for long. We went on to see Grand Central Station, FAO Shwartz and ate lunch at Famous Dave's.

This is the transit station that sits below the ground zero site

This is a model in the 9/11 Memorial building that shows the end result of the area that will open in 2012.

I saw this when I went to NY the first time. It's just as impressive and touching to see it again as it was the first time. It's a lot of the mementos, pictures, badges left on the fence at the World Trade Center site in the days following the attacks.

St. Paul's church. When I saw it before it had pews but they've since taken those out and put in chairs. The pews were significant because the firefighters working the rescue effort slept on those benches in addition to the cots pictures below.

Grand Central Station

It's like playing Where's Waldo.

As you can see it rained on us and we weren't prepared. It was nice because the rain brought the temperature down into the 70's from the 90's so it was worth it.

FAO Schwarz Soldier

We played on the big piano!

Wednesday was what I called our TLC tour. Next stop was Kleinfelds. Made popular by the TV show "Say Yes to the Dress!" I happen to love this show. even though we are already married I think I'm more into wedding dresses now then I was when I was picking mine out. We found the store and unfortunately they were closed...but the doors were unlocked! We made our way in and were greeted by a nice man in the lobby who said we could snap a few pictures. Being my nosey self, I asked if Randy was still around. He's what makes the show interesting to me. Unfortunately he wasn't there but he told me that the owner was just around the corner on the other side of the lobby. I was excited! Just then the owner, Ronnie Rothstein, ended his conversation to another gentleman and introduced himself to us. He was so nice. He spent about 10 minutes with us talking to us about the show, asking our opinions on certain aspects of it and then eventually took a picture with us. He gave us his business card and asked that we send him the picture and our feedback so he could share it with the producers. It was super stoked. I was a little bummed when I realized it was closed but left extremely excited that we got to have that fun experience.

We ended the evening with a little shopping and some NY style pizza.

New York Trip - Day 5, Part II

2011-08-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

After the taping for Regis and Kelly we packed the rest of the day with shopping in SOHO, Magnolias Bakery, The Natural History Museum, a walk across Central Park, Serendipity, Dylan's Candy Co and finished with dinner and show at Dangerfield's Comedy Club.

The Manhattan temple was closed for cleaning so we couldn't go inside but it was fun to see it.

This is the only temple that I know of that is attached to other buildings and right on a street corner. Most of the time they are on a large piece of land separated from all of the business of everyday life.

This sign made me think of my little guys and I was hoping Daddy was surviving with them.

I was referred to this bakery by a co-worker (my boss) and she raved how good it was so we had to try it. I got a red velvet cupcake that was just okay but the vanilla buttercream frosting was really good.

Calee got a chocolate cupcake that unfortunately was really dry and not that delish. I would try somewhere else next time.

Rockefeller Center

Calee trying to pose on the subway.

Talicee was navigating and we ended up taking the subway to Harlem. We looked around the subway at one point and realized we were definitely not in the right place. We ended up on an express train so we missed our stop. We jumped off at the first stop and jumped back on the subway heading the right direction. That was an interesting experience that I won't forget anytime soon.

The Natural History Museum is where the movie "Night at the Museum" takes place. We got to the museum about 20 minutes before they closed. We decided that was wanted to see everything pertinent to the movie so we made a mad dash for it. Teddy Roosevelt statue was under construction and Sacajawea isn't actually in the museum - they added that for the movie. This is what else we found...

The crazy monkeys...

Dum-Dum...

This looks like Octavious and the little people but it's not really. I just had to take this picture because only in a museum would you see a display like this. I busted up laughing. Not that history is funny but that they would show it in this way.

Central Park

Alice in Wonderland statue on the east side of Central Park.

Dylan's Candy Bar was a huge three story candy store. It had every kind of candy you could imagine. It even had an ice cream parlor on one floor too.

This portrait is made entirely out of jelly beans. This is Dylan Lauren - daughter of Ralph Lauren and owner of Dylan's Candy Bar. It was a really fun place and I would recommend it.

The first day we were in NYC we bought some tickets from a street vendor for a comedy show at Dangerfield's. We were a little leery at first but figured it would be a good deal if everything turned out to be legit....which it was. We ended up eating dinner there and the show went for 2.5 hours.

Quentin Meggs was the MC and Ryan Rees was my favorite comedian. There were five comedians that all did a set. The first one was terrible and I was worried it was going to be a long night. He was not funny. Luckily the other four were absolutely hilarious and we had a great time. This was Talicee's first time to a comedy club and she seemed to enjoy it.

Us with the MC on the left and the guy who sold us the tickets on the right. Since the show was on the upper east side and we had a little walk to the subway he walked us to where we needed to be. I think he had a little something for Talicee but either way they were sure nice and a lot of fun!

New York Trip - Day 5, Part I

2011-08-12T16:35:00.000-07:00

Live with Regis and Kelly was our first stop of the day. I sent a post card several months ago requesting tickets and was SO excited when I received a letter stating we received tickets for today. The guest were Cory Monteith who plays Finn Hudson on Glee and Ashley Herbert from the Bachelorette and her new fiancé JP. I wasn't super excited about the guests since I don't watch either of those shows but it was still fun to be there. I'm pretty fascinated by TV sets. I've been to several and I'm always amazed at the entire operation. On the day we went they did one full live show and then taped segments for two additional shows. We ended up being there for a few hours.
Kelly Ripa is as cute and tiny as ever. She was more funny off camera than she is on camera. Regis was quite nice and shorter than I expected. At every commercial break both of them would come and talk to and interact with the audience. Unfortunately we were toward the top of the audience so we weren't able to get down to take pictures with them. It was still really fun to see.

This is the Executive Producer, Michael Gelman doing the audience warm-ups.

Guest Cory Monteith

Guests Ashley Herbert an JP.

Kelly was doing a tribal dance around Regis. She had the outfit on for it so she was sort of making fun of it.

Recording voice over segments.

At the end of the show they took questions from the audience for a few minutes and then headed backstage.

New York Trip - Day 4

2011-08-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Monday started with a five hour guided tour through the main attractions of NYC including Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building, St Patrick's Cathedral, Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown, Wall Street, World Trade Center sites, and an hour New York Water taxi ride around the Statue of Liberty.
After a recommendation, we decided to have dinner at Jekyll and Hyde Club. It was interesting to say the least. Luckily my sisters and I were able to make the most of it and we had a lot of laughs. It's not something I would do again or recommend to anyone but at least we tried something new.
We spent the evening on Broadway watching a classic, The Phantom of the Opera. By the end of the show we were pretty beat and ready for bed.

This was classic. Our tour bus driver dropped us off across the street from Central Park. Apparently you can't stop there. The driver sort of laughed and didn't seem phased by it. I guess it happens a lot. We were pretty amused and sort of felt bad for the guy. He was just doing his job. Nothing like bike cop vs. tour bus.

Strawberry Fields is the section of Central Park named in honor of John Lennon.

I'm not a huge Beatles fan but it was fun to learn a few fun facts about John Lennon and Yoko Ono who lived in New York across from Central Park for many years before his death.

St. James' Cathedral.

I love 30 Rock!

This is the flat iron district named after this building.

Empire State Building from the ground.

This building isn't as impressive as the Empire State Building...unless you're a Seinfeld fan. I took this picture for Ricky and Aunt Natalee.

Waiting in line for our Water Taxi. I was a little hesitant about taking the tour but I think the Water Taxi ride made it all worth it. I loved being out on the water and I think we had better views of the Statue of Liberty than if we had gone to the island.

We had beautiful views of the New York skyline from both the Hudson and the East River.

New York

This is where the Titanic was supposed to dock but as we know it never made it back.

Ellis Island

Lady Liberty

This sculpture was inside one of the World Trade Center tours. It was damaged as you can see but after the clean up it was moved to this location in Battery Park.

Wall Street.

I was so sad that we couldn't go into the Stock Exchange. Prior to 9/11 you could walk through a portion of it and see all of the screens and the traders. It's too much of a security risk now...so sad.

This is the World Trade Center site. It's come a long way since I saw it back in 2003.

The memorial site will open in 2012. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot for us to see when we were there.

Jekyll and Hyde Club was pretty much a hole in the wall dinner theater.

Good thing we made the most of it and will have some fun memories from that night.

I've seen Phantom before but it was fun to see it again. I love Broadway shows - especially musicals.

Inside the Majestic Theater

We got to walk right through Times Square on our way back to the hotel. There's nothing like New York at midnight!

Philadelphia/New York - Day 3

2011-08-10T15:00:00.001-07:00

The weekend convention ended Sunday morning with breakfast at the hotel. At noon we said our goodbyes and then Calee, Talicee and I hopped on Bolt Bus for the two hour drive to New York City!!!

After checking into our hotel we headed south a couple blocks to Times Square! I could sit there for hours and people watch. There's nothing else like it. We took in all of the usual New York sidewalk entertainment and grabbed some dinner before heading to bed.

Times Square

Calee had these sunglasses and I tried them on and loved them. I needed some new sunglasses so I thought a new pair would make a great NY souvenir. First stop, Oakley store in Times Square.

This billboard was really neat. It had a camera down in times square and the picture was projected live onto the screen. It was like playing "Where's Waldo?" but you had to find yourself.

We are on the far left about a 1/3 of the way up. I'm in a pink shirt and I had my camera to my face taking pictures.

Never a dull moment with the Naked Cowboy around.

Nothing like a cheap knock-off. Who knew Mickey Mouse was really 6 feet tall.

Gotta love the street performers although I was hoping for better.

We strolled through the M&M Store, Hershey's Store and everything else Times Square shopping had to offer.