Eric Comes Home!

The Preparation.

The Airport.

Home.

It was so fun being in Utah to see Eric come home from Greece. 

My favorite moment was watching him chase the little kids around and then just scoop them up into a giant hug. 

It's good to have my little buddy home.

Now I just need to convince him to come to California.

Utah

The boys and I flew to Utah on the 27th in anticipation of Uncle Eric's arrival home from his mission in Greece.

To prepare for the trip Bear drank his body weight in cran-apple juice that morning.

My friend April loaned me her stroller for the excursion. I could not have made it through the airports without her it!

Nana picked us up from the airport and took us to my parents house. We arrived to a house full of family and some KFC. After everyone left mom and I took the boys to do some grocery shopping and last minute errands.  We didn't make it home from the store until after 10:30 that night! Moose was worn out, but Bear was just getting started for the night and ate a bowl of cereal, a bagel and a banana. He was still going strong at midnight!

Sunday after church we were going to have an Easter egg hung and decorate posters for the big day, but poor Kaylie was sick. Melanie and Jordan still came up to the house and Melanie made the big banner for the garage door while I entertained my kids and tried keeping them out of trouble.

That night we were able to go to FHE at my grandparents and see the extended family. We also stopped by Nana and Grandpas to visit with them and see Jaxson and Olivia.

Date Night

When an e-mail showed up in my inbox asking if we wanted to go on a family date night, I couldn't resist the invitation.  We started our date by swimming, then we headed over to Chic-fil-A for dinner. Of course since REI is in the same parking lot as Chic-fil-A the night wouldn't have been complete without a stop at our favorite gear store.

I'm already looking forward to our next date night!

Celebrate Good Times

Bear turned 3 yesterday.

We started our celebrating on Saturday because we're party animals. Or not.

I decided that I wanted to keep Bear's birthday party low key this year. We threw together a last minute (literally) get together at the park with some of our friends.

My original plan was to go to one of our favorite parks, but when we pulled in there were 3 other parties there, including a huge bounce house. I knew there was no way I could keep the kids away from the other parties so we went to another park.

Unfortunately the park we ended up at didn't have a table; which meant all the food went on the blankets. Aaron ran to costco to pick up some pizzas for everyone and while he was gone one of the little kids walked right through the tray of cupcakes (we won't name any names...Aiden!) We got a good laugh out of it, and then proceeded to eat the cupcakes.

I asked that no one bring gifts, we just wanted to spend a night with our friends.

It was so much fun. I think we might have a new party tradition.

The kids loved running around and played the funniest game of duck, duck, goose I've ever seen.

Poor Lilly didn't know what to think about all the crazy boys running around her.

For Bear's official birthday yesterday it was yet another low key day. Tuesday night after Bear went to bed Aaron and I decorated the living room as a surprise for Bear when he woke up the next morning.

I have to tell the story about the three balloons.

I asked Aaron to stop by the grocery store on the way home from young mens and pick up three balloons. In your head what do you visualize when you think of three balloons?

Well, if you're like me you think of three latex balloons. Anyway, when Aaron got home, he walked in the door he asked me to guess how much the balloons cost. I said $5.00, so when he told me $20.00 I about fell off my chair and asked him what on earth he bought. Bear loved the balloons, and Aaron will never be sent to the store for balloons again...

We met up with some friends at the park after a breakfast of Mickey Mouse pancakes covered in peanut butter, syrup and whip cream. Then headed to chick-fil-a to redeem a free meal from their march madness deal. After that it was home for naps while I tried to figure out his cake.

With help from April, I decorated my first cake ever and I have to admit I was pretty impressed with how it turned out. (If you can't tell, it's a rocket). Bear got to open his presents after dinner while sitting in front of the webcam so that family could see what he was getting. I had to laugh because he'd open a gift and get this excited look on his face and I'd ask him "what is it!?" Without fail every time he'd say "I don't know!" Pretty funny.

We finished off the night with good company, cake and ice cream.

\

Today we went to Disneyland with a bunch of our friends.

I am officially exhausted and partied out.

But the fun doesn't stop here.

The boys and I fly to Utah Saturday to welcome Eric home from his mission. We are beyond excited to see him and the rest of our family. Except for the part where we leave Aaron in California and come home before Pappy gets to Utah and Eric speaks in church. Ugh.

On the bright side, we will come home to visitors with trips to the beach and the zoo planned.

I think when all is said and done I'm going to need a very long nap.

Bear

How is it that they can change so much in the blink of an eye?

Happy Birthday little man.

We love you to the moon and back.

Bunny

April made some sock bunnies with her girls and offered me her "leftovers". Anytime there's a cheap, easy craft I can make with Bear I jump at the chance, so I gladly took her leftovers and headed home.

Bear and I made our sock bunnies today and I thought they turned out pretty cute. Aaron on the other hand said "I don't think you'll be selling those on e-bay (I think he meant Etsy) anytime soon. In fact, I don't think Goodwill will take them either". Aaron might not like them, but at least Bear and I had a good time, and now I have one Easter decoration in my house.

thanks April!

If....

{Aaron Hawaii 1999}

If you would have told me 11 years ago that I was going to marry the "jock" in my high school aerobics class I would have laughed and told you that you were absolutely crazy.

If you would have told me 8 years ago that I'd marry the boy with platinum hair at the LDS Singles dance at Trolley Sqaure I would have rolled my eyes and said yeah right.

If you would have asked me 7 1/2 years ago how I felt about marrying Aaron, I would have said I was the luckiest girl in the world.

And I still believe that today.

Thank you Aaron for giving the shy girl a chance and for making me and the boys the luckiest bunch in the world.

Just how lucky am I?

Aaron cleans the house on a regular basis

He is a master on the bbq grill. my mouth waters just thinking about his julep ribs.

He insists I take naps and keeps the boys entertained while I do just that.

He cooks dinner while I take my said naps.

He works so hard at everything he does.

He is handy around the house.

He would do anything for us.

He hates it when people brag about their spouses and get all mushy, so I'll stop now.

I seriously can't believe we met 8 years ago today.

And, I can't believe the is no picture to be found of Aaron with his platinum hair. It was something special to say the least.

St. Patricks Day

We had a very low key St. Patricks day this year, in fact it was just like any other day except I made both the boys wear green and had Aaron cook us up some delicious green crepes.

My favorite part of the day was enjoying the beautiful 80 degree weather we've been having and spending the afternoon at the park.

Trains

A couple of weeks ago Aaron had a convention in Huntington Beach, which left me to build the train tracks to entertain Bear. I won't admit how long it actually took me to figure out the little setup (complete with lincoln log train station). Let's just say it took me long enough that I left in on his bedroom floor for several days.

Moose

epidural anyone?

Aaron was getting ready for a day in the OB department and pulled out his epidural kit to check things out. All I can say is that I can't believe I've had that needle stuck in my back twice--it's huge!

Disneyland (again...)

We've had a couple unblogged trips to Disneyland over the past little while. I'm sure you're all wondering exactly how much Disneyland can be blogged about...well I'm here to find out! What can say, we live in Southern California now, so it's just what we do.

The first trip happened the end of February. April and I both had sick kids, but we were sick of being in our houses, so we did the responsible thing and took our kids to Disneyland. Now that I said that, do I really have to ask myself why my kids keep getting sick?

Bear rode the roller coaster in toontown and was so proud of himself. Now he keeps telling me when it gets his birthday he will be taller and he can ride the really big roller coaster. Meaning, he thinks after he turns 3 he can go on the Screamin' California roller coaster. Almost, little buddy. In the mean time we'll just have to go to toontown every Disney visit now.

As for the picture of Moose screaming, despite it's claims, Disneyland is not always the happiest place on Earth.

Our next trip to Disneyland was actually on a Friday night. We met up with a couple families after Aaron got out of clinicals. We were able to see the Pixar Parade for the first time, which was really fun. Bear loved seeing all of his favorite characters.

And....drumroll please-I went on the tower of terror. I was pretty nervous because of my fear of heights, but it was actually really fun. We took turns watching the kids so the guys went first and then the girls. I'm sure Grace and April think I'm a total whimp because I really was so nervous (and I may or may not have tried to hold Aprils hand). I tried to take a picture of the picture, so it's blurry, but we are the 3 in the back right on the ride.

We stayed until just before fireworks, and then it was a mad house trying to maneuver through the crowds in our big double jogger. We were able to catch some of the fireworks while heading to the car. I'd love to go back with just Aaron and stay late enough to see the fireworks in the park.
Needless to say we really like Disneyland. In fact, I think we're due for another excursion.

12 of 12 March

*Bear is really good about wiping his own nose. Unfortunately he is not so good about throwing them away once he is finished.

*Bear loves to talk on the phone. We have to call Grandma Jo almost every day just so he has someone to talk to.

*Moose's new favorite thing is to pull himself up to any object he can. He wants to stand on his own so bad.

*We couldn't ignore the California sunshine anymore so we headed out to the park.

*Trying to eat a little healthier these days.

*Reading books before naps is a must. The NASCAR book from the library is a favorite.

*Moose's medications/machines. I will be so happy when he's healthy and we don't have to give him breathing treatments anymore.

*Mini Eggs. Enough Said.

*Moose started crawling earlier this week. He's already figured out how to carry stuff with him while he crawls.

*Blue popsicles after naps are a daily favorite. The bike helmet was just an added bonus today.

*Aaron was supposed to go help the youth with baptisms; but they didn't need him so he came home to spend time with us since we rarely see him. We had a little movie night complete with popcorn and mike & ikes.

*Every night this week we've been sleeping with Moose on the couch. I don't even know if sleeping is the right word, mostly just holding him and trying to keep him from screaming, coughing and throwing up. Tonight was no exception.

Sick.

Is it just me, or has everyone else been sick

ALL. WINTER. LONG.

I am beyond ready to have healthy, happy boys once again.

I really swear that we've been wiping noses since December 1st.

Ugh.

I took the boys to the dr. today because I just couldn't take it anymore.

Good News: I finally found a great doctor here.

Bad News: The cold season isn't going away anytime soon.

More Bad News: Bear has allergies.

Allergy season has just started.

And for the icing on the cake: Moose is sick-not just runny nose sick either.

As in coughs so hard he throws up sick and has constant wheezing.

I have been thrown up on more times today than I can count.

And to top it all off, he hasn't slept for more than five minutes today.

Because, as soon as he falls asleep he has a coughing fit, and the whole cycle starts all over.

He had to have a breathing treatment in the doctors office today. Have you ever given a breathing treatment to a 9 month old by yourself? I was holding him against my body trapping his one arm under my arm, trying to hold him still and keep his other hand from scratching his face and pulling the mask off, while trying to keep the mask on his face with my free hand.

It was NOT an easy task. Moose SCREAMED the whole time. And when I say screamed, I mean screamed at the top of his lungs, face turning redder than red, arching his back screaming.

Bear was yelling at me to stop hurting his brother and to be nice to Moose. I'm pretty sure the whole building could hear us.

We left the doctors office with a paper grocery sack full of medicine and equipment-which doesn't count the machine that was later delivered.

Poor little guy.

I hate it when my kids are sick.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's just a continuation of his Bronchiolitis from January

and not asthma.

Needless to say we've been doing a lot of this:

And very little of this:

I have a feeling it's going to be another very long, sleepless night around here.

Bored...

What do you do when you're bored, your kids are driving you crazy and you want to take a decent picture of a willing subject? Well, if you're me, you beg a friend to come over to your zoo house and let you borrow her adorable girls for a while.

Thank you for saving my sanity.

Nine (and a half)

Nine months. I can't believe my little boy is already nine (and half) months old. It blows my mind. I wanted to get some updated pictures of him; and I've come to find out that the task is next to impossible. This past week I tried a couple different times and he will not hold still. I don't know why I expect anything different. He is a mover. Here's a few things about the littlest man.

1. He is a crazy fast scooter.

2. He loves to do the downward dog yoga pose.

3. He still has yet to figure out how to drink out of a bottle or a sippy cup.

4. He loves his brother. He will just laugh and laugh when he sees Bear.

5. He has four teeth, all of which he's cut in the last six weeks.

6. He still doesn't sleep through the night. (Heaven help me)

7. He loves to chew on his blanket.

8. He eats anything and everything he can find.

9. He is now getting into everything he isn't supposed be. Time to make sure the bathroom doors are closed and the house is baby proofed.

I love you little man. Please don't grow up too fast.

Buddies

This past week the first thing I hear in the morning is Bear on the baby monitor saying "Moose, Moose, it's morning! Time to wake up" No matter how fast I run down the hallway, by the time I get to their bedroom Moose is wide awake (did I mention it's been at 6 am? Not quite morning in my book).

After I get Moose out of his crib Bear wants to just chill in the rocking chair and sing him songs from the iPod. While it drives me crazy that Bear wakes Moose up, I love that he just wants to play with him. I just hope as they become older instead of driving each other crazy they become the best of friends.

Broken

Mom: Bear come in the bathroom, I need to fix your hair so we can go see friends.

Bear: What happened mom? Is it broken?

Worth it.

A few months ago while talking to a friend she mentioned she was signing up for a pilates class at the community center on Thursday nights. I thought it sounded fun, but seeing as we're living off student loans I wasn't sure about taking it. After talking with Aaron, I decided to go ahead and sign up. One of the best decisions I've made. Ever.

Why? While it was good to go exercise and do something I've never done before, it was even better to have one hour all to myself. It's amazing what one hour to focus on yourself and not hear kids whining can do for a tired mom. I look forward to Thursdays at 7pm every week for my little recharge.

Tonight was our last class and I'm totally bummed. If you see me next Friday and I'm looking a little more frazzled than I usually do, you'll know it's because I didn't get my "recharge" Thursday night.

And, if you have a chance to do something without your kids (or husband) do it. Just for you. I can't believe I'm just figuring this out.

The Boss

I was looking at the calendar tonight and realized it's Bear's birthday three weeks from today. I have no idea how we are going to celebrate his third birthday. When I've asked him what he wants to for his birthday he tells me he wants a green birthday. I should just hit up Target after St. Patricks day and buy all their green stuff on clearance (kidding...maybe???)

I really can't believe my little boy is just shy of 3 years old. He definitely thinks he is the boss of the house and it drives me crazy. He asks me to play cars with him and then will have complete meltdowns if I don't say what he wants or if I drive the car wrong. Basically, I've given up playing toys with him....

He is always telling us where we need to stand or sit, how we should walk, dance, jump, etc. We have the book the Bernstein Bears and the trouble with friends. We tell him he's getting bossy like Lizzy and he gets so upset and yells "I'm not bossy!" However, as soon as Aaron or I try to parent he steps right in to tell us we are being too bossy. Ahhh, my child just might be the death of me one of these days.

But, I do love him, even if he is bossy. Big booger hanging out of his nose and everything.