About Me

At the beginning of the month, I was able to attend Time Out for Women here in Phoenix with a bunch of girlfriends.  They did the overnight at the hotel thing again but since I am still nursing a baby, I reluctantly skipped out on the overnight part and just met up with them for the event.  I'm looking forward to next year when I can be a part of the up-all-night girly fun!!

As usual, it was a good, uplifting experience to be there and hear the inspirational stories, words and music the presenters had to share with us.  I was most excited about hearing from two, young Mormon moms, Kate Jones & Sara Wells, who are the food bloggers at Our Best Bites!  I have both their cookbooks and their site is always the first I visit when I'm looking for new dinner or dessert ideas.

Back to the part about me being a nursing mother-- I left Hayden all day, hoping that she would take bottles of pumped milk throughout the day.  I brought my pump with me and joined lots of other mamas in the mother's lounge for a little pumping session after lunch.  I'm glad I wasn't the only one!!

I'm so glad I can be part of such a good group of friends. They are always there to lend a hand when needed or plan a girls night out just because.  A few are missing from this picture that also attended TOFW but with family~

Katie Bodell, Melissa Thornes, Nicole Cronin, Heather Oitzman, Becky Hatch, Katherine Sam, Kasey Turner, me

Yummy lunch at some hole in the wall Mexican place in Phx

*****

I had the opportunity to sign-up for a co-ed softball league up in Mesa and play on a team with my friend Trish.  I was hesitant at first because it was a 7 week commitment, every Friday night (minus a few weekends for the holidays), but Matt encouraged me to do it!  I was soooo nervous because I haven't really played softball consistently since before we moved to California for school!  And it's pretty intimidating play with/against guys who throw harder and hit farther.  I have absolutely loved being out on the field and swinging the bat again!!  I was definitely feeling my "old" age and how out of shape I am after the first couple games - oy!  Matt and the kids have come to the early games to cheer me on.  Maybe someday when our kids are all a little older, we can actually play ball together. :)

*****

A couple weeks before Thanksgiving, I told Matt I was going to sign up for the Turkey Waddle 5K out by us.  Now, I haven't run since I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Hayden and I've actually missed running a lot.  I knew that I could do 3.2 miles, even if it was cold turkey (pun intended).  Matt and I did a quick 1 mile run a couple days before.  My goal was to run the whole thing.  During the run, I was reminded how much of a mental game it is.   I managed to accomplish my goal and finished in 34:50, which is just under an 11 minute mile.  Not too shabby!!

Hard to believe she's 11 months old!

I posted this on Facebook a couple weeks ago: I love that I can lay my baby down and she'll go to sleep, but sometimes I wish she would relax in my arms and just let me rock her while I soak in her sweetness. Her first birthday is in 7 weeks and I'm a little bit sad that she's growing up right before my eyes. I love you, Hayden Claire!! ♥


Thankfully, she's still nursing so I still get some baby snuggle time in. And just this last week, she's been running a fever so she did lay on me for awhile, which is pretty unheard of.

She has the MOST adorable wave, all you have to do is say, "Bye-bye!" and her little wrist goes a'twirlin'! It's THE cutest thing!

She hardly holds still for a minute. Diaper changes are full out wrestling matches. I'm usually grabbing her by the leg to drag her back and get the dipe on her bare bum! She's in the pantry, unloading water bottles and other treasures. If the fridge door is open, she wants to be in there too.

She growls, she fake coughs, fake laughs, "sings" when everyone is singing, says "uh-oh"

Preston is really rough with her and I'm constantly telling him to get off of her or to put her down. He carries her around under her arms, poor thing! But Hayden sure loves her Preston!! She loves seeing him after her naps. In fact, sometimes Preston just jumps right in to her crib and they bounce around for a bit!She hardly holds still for a minute.

Hayden is still in our room, but I'm hoping that we can get the room situation all worked out very SOON!!! She's waking several times a night and since she can see us, she just yells and screams until Matt gets her out and I nurse her. I'm ready for some sleep training and a good night's sleep. It's been well over a year and I think I deserve it!!!


Stealing mom's smoothie~

It's not always that we get Daddy in Sunday School with us, but he sure likes to have fun entertaining everyone around us! 

I can tell she's not going to let me get off easy. She's already trouble with a capital "T!" It's always an adventure while we're shopping.

Even though she can be a stinker at times, but she is such a little love bug and I wouldn't trade her for the world!!! I can't believe we're only a few short weeks away from her first birthday. I wish time could stand still and she could stay little forever!

It's hard being 3

Preston has been going though some rough times lately.  He's my little buddy right now and I'll admit, he may be a little bit spoiled.  Not that he's getting a new toy every time we go somewhere, but we'll stop and get lunch every once in awhile, or ice cream after we check out at Costco, a cookie from the grocery store bakery, maaaaaaaybe a book or DVD on occasion.

Apparently in all of that, he's come to expect something EVERY.TIME.WE.GO.ANYWHERE.  And he's start throwing MASSIVE tantrums in the store- hitting me, screaming, crying, etc.  Of course it's embarrassing and my heart always goes out to other mothers when I see them dealing with this type of behavior.  I've learned to remain calm, tell him we're not here to get (fill in the blank) today, and quickly finish up at the store while I'm sure customer and employee is giving me the stink eye.  I prep him EVERY time we go into a store, but he melts down EVERY time.  He wants gum.  He wants a Skylanders Giant.  He wants candy or a toy.  He doesn't discriminate stores.  Fry's, Target, WalMart.  I started taking pictures with my phone to document the occasion-

#tantrumoftheweek

Sometimes I forget he's *ONLY* 3.  Well, almost 4.  I think we expect him to behave like a big kid at all times because overall, he is pretty mature for his age.  For the most part, he's a good little kid and I like taking him with me places, I just hope he outgrows this phase quickly!  I'm holding strong, not giving in and constantly reminding him that we don't get something we want every time we go to the store.

A few more pleasant pictures~

Riding the carousel after Kids' Club at the mall.

 Getting Fall flowers for the front yard

One day after an emotionally draining trip to the grocery store, I just decided to drop my plans for the day and sit down to play with Preston.  He was happy as could be and boy was his imagination going!   I read somewhere that playing with your child(ren) is the best behavior modification secret.  It's true.  I need to do more of that.

Creepy Critters

This is the CrAZieST~ thing!!!  Several times in the past couple months, I have found LIZARDS *IN* my house!!!  These guys are all over the place outside.  We frequently see them scampering across our back porch or doing "push-ups" on the block fence.  We've seen some practically the size of Gila monsters and others soooooo teeny tiny!

Anywho, somehow, they've been making their way into the house.  I suspect it's through crevices in the sliding glass door out to the back.  The first time I saw one, it was up on the STOVE and I literally screamed out loud!  I whimpered the whole time I was trying to catch it!  I think they must like to come into the cool of the house.  And when their body temp gets cooler, they slow down and aren't as skittish because it's been easier to catch the last few.  I'm practically a pro by now!  Preston thinks I'm the best mom ever because I let him keep them in an old peanut butter jar until everyone gets home from school and work, then we let them go back outside.  He has even named them: Eartha(girl), Rocky(boy), Scales... haha!

We've also seen another scorpion since the one that stung Brooklyn back a month or so ago.  I guess they like to make their appearance when Matt isn't home!  I hate having to be the one to kill these nasty suckers!

Halloween Time

This year for the ward Trunk or Treat, Matt decided that we must dress up.  I agreed, only if we did a "couples" costumes.  We ended up dressing as Waldo and Wenda. :)

Brooklyn & Blake - Hermione Granger & Harry Potter

Gavin - Pikachu

 Preston - lobster

 Hayden - watermelon

 BOO!!

Just before Halloween, we actually CARVED our pumpkins!  I think last year, we didn't even buy pumpkins and a couple years ago, we bought pumpkins but never carved them.  I wanted the kids to take charge on what they'd be carving instead of Matt making a stencil out of whatever character they like, then him carving their pumpkin.  Brooklyn insisted upon Hello Kitty so Daddy did help her. ;)

Finished products~  

 Happy Halloween!  This is what we came up with for outfits- #black&orange

Halloween night, I made one of our favorite chicken veggie soups with homemade rolls and orange jello jigglers, which we ate before heading out to trick-or-treat.   Yum!

I'm always torn....  I want to go out trick-or-treating with the kids, BUT I love handing out candy and glow sticks to all the trick-or-treaters!  Our neighborhood is hopping on Halloween night!!!!  We ended up staying out together longer than anticipated so we were literally dumping handfuls of candy into the bags of kids that came by after we got back!

Trick or treat!!

 Preston got all offended when one person called him a crab. haha

 Oooooo!   What's in here??

(I'm bummed that I didn't get better pictures of my kids in their costumes. *sigh*)