Happy New Year!

2009’s end is neither an end nor a beginning

but a going on, with all the wisdom

that experience can instill in us.

I hope you all have a fun and safe New Year’s Even.

Joci's Family Birthday Party

What an interesting Birthday Joci had tonight.

She got to dress up in her sparkly blue party dress. Joci wanted to wear her hair down so I even straightened it for her. Then she asked if she could wear make-up, too, which would normally not be an issue for special occasions, except when I opened my make-up bag, I found that my mineral eyeshadow had pretty much exploded all over the inside of the bag. After I cleaned a few of the essentials off for her, and put on some lipgloss and mascara, it was time to go to meet Jon, Grandma, and Grandpa at the movie theater to see The Pricess and the Frog.

We had heard from lots of people that it was a great movie, so the kids and I were really looking forward to the movie. But...I didn't like the movie, at all. Wait, I did like the little lightening bug, Ray, and I liked the message that you can wish on a star, but you also have to work hard to get what you really want. Joci liked the parts of the movie that had, "the girl with the yellow hair" in it. Joe liked the parts of the movie that had the turtle and the alligator in it. We all thought the movie was too loud, and the shadows were pretty scary for the kids. When we were leaving the theater I told Jon that I felt like I had just been to a revival.

Jocelyn should feel very fortunate for one major thing, though...her Grandpa came and watched a movie just for her. My Dad hasn't been to a movie theater since Jurassic Park came out. Originally he didn't like them because you couldn't smoke in the theater, now he just has a hard time staying awake and engaged in the movie. He said this one was so loud, though, that he didn't have an issue staying awake. It didn't help that he and Mom were sick, with the crud we gave them no less.

After the movie we had Jocelyn open her presents in the lobby. She had such a fun time and said she felt special, which is the point. Tonight, as I was tucking her into bed, she told me Happy Birthday. She probably doesn't know how right she is. I always have felt that while the kids' birthdays are their special day, I quietly rejoice in them deep inside, remembering that I gave birth to them, both so special.

Jocelyn is Four!

Today is Jocelyn’s Fourth Birthday.

My baby, my girl, the last baby I will ever have, is turning four today.

I say it a lot, I think it a lot, but I still don’t know…where does the time go? Four years ago I was very sick with a nasty cold, but my doctor decided he wanted to do my c-section before I got any worse. Jon was sick, too, and his Mom was out for a visit. When Joci was born she was covered head to toe in a newborn rash and had a cute little bow in her hair when she was brought to me. Jon had to go home he was so sick. Later he brought Joe in to meet his baby sister. He was so excited to see her that he squeezed her arm a little too tight and it made her cry, and her crying made him cry. I will never, ever, forget him tickling her pink little newborn toes.

Joci is my extremes girl. She is almost always one extreme or the other. Whether it’s a terrible tantrum, or an over-exuberant hug, she does it all with gusto.

She is my girly girl. My pink loving, tutu and fairy wing wearing, singing, dancing, spitfire of a girl. She likes being a girly-girl, while also being a tomboy and playing in the dirt and the mud.

When I was pregnant with her and we found out she was a girl (oops!) admittedly, I didn’t know what I’d do with a girl. I haven’t been a girly-girl since I was four, and I absolutely hated the color pink. In fact, a good friend of mine bought me some really cute outfits for Jocelyn right after she was born and complained about how hard it was to find things that weren’t pink. I didn’t even like that everyone was over-using the word princess. But, then I had my little Lulu, and I have finally relented. If she wants Barbies and Disney Princess, whatever, that’s what she likes, who am I to tell her any different?

Joci is a lot like her Daddy. She is very, very headstrong and stubborn, nothing at all, of course, like me (Ü). She knows what she wants and she will fight to the very bitter end to get it. So, this can be annoying, yes, but it’s also an admirable trait in some ways. Perhaps when she is older, she will not compromise easily on the things she needs to be happy. Perhaps she won’t be a pushover when boys or peers pressure her to do things she doesn’t want to do. At least that’s what I tell myself when she is being especially difficult.

She can be super empathetic, though, too. When someone has a boo-boo, she is right there, comforting them, hugging them, and telling them it will be ok. She is quite the little Mommy, too. She loves playing with her baby dolls, feeding them and changing their diapers and rocking them to sleep.

Jocelyn is my tiny little baby, still able to curl up and snuggle on my lap when she needs a hug or is tired or grumpy. I love that feeling, being able to fold my arms around her to comfort her and make the bad things go away with snuggles and hushes and kisses on top of a sweet smelling head.

Joci is four now, which brings with it a challenging goal that we’ve had of getting her to quit sucking her finger. It’s going to be a very difficult journey to get that done, but it has to happen if she ever wants straight teeth.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl, I Love you more than all the Twinkle Stars in the Sky!

Christmas Day

We were so excited that the kids actually slept in Christmas morning, it was almost 8 am before they came in to wake me up. We were up really late the night before finishing wrapping and all the other things that we had to get done for the next morning. Plus the anticipation of the day always makes it hard to sleep.

After we opened presents we got around and went over to my parents house for round two of Christmas day. Later Dad made an awesome dinner with Prime Rib, twice baked potatoes, and corn. He even made a homemade cheesecake for dessert.

The most popular gifts were the mp3 players we got the kids.

Joe got a lot of his favorite new toys: Bionicles

Yes, Joci loves playdough.

Joci actually talked Grandma into painting her nails green. I wonder if they will still be that color Monday morning.

Joe got a sparring outfit and his karate gi from Grandma. He had them on and off for two days straight.

The Real Santa...

The kids with Santa....

We told both kids that they had to tell Santa how they had been a little naughty the last couple of days with whining, badgering, and throwing fits. Of course, they both told him that they had been nice all days...those little suckers!

A Poem About our Girlfriends

A Poem About Our Girlfriends
Someone will always be prettier.
Someone will always be smarter.
Some of their houses will be bigger.
Some will drive a better car.
Their children will do better in school.
And their husband will fix more things around the house.
So let it go, and love you and your circumstances.Think about it!
The prettiest woman in the world can have hell in her heart.
The most highly favored woman on your job may be unable to have children.
The richest woman you know, she's got the car, the house, the clothes~ might be lonely.
And the Word says, 'If I have not Love, I am nothing.' So, again, love you. Love who you are.
Look in the mirror in the morning and smile and say, 'I am too Blessed to be Stressed and too Anointed, to be Disappointed!'
'Winners make things happen~~' Be 'Blessed' Ladies and pass this on to encourage another woman. 'To the world you might be one person, to me you are special!

4 Things I Love About Arizona...
1. There’s no mold, moss, or green ‘stuff’ growing on the sidewalks, walls, or anywhere else.
2. We don’t have a lot of bugs everywhere. True, we have scorpians, rattlesnakes, fire ants, killer bees, and black widows, etc, but that’s about it.
3. Almost all the streets run North-East, South-West, which makes it easier for directionally defunct people like me find their way around town.
4. We can make sun-tea in one minute flat.

4 Things I Hate About Arizona...
1. Summertime
2. Burning my hands on my car steering wheel, sterio, seat belt, etc. because its around 300 degrees INSIDE my car. Thus making driving with oven mitts on your hands a good idea.
3. That the air conditioning in my house literally runs 24 hours a day in the summer.
4. What we think are green plants are still brown to most other states.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I am going to take a little Christmas break from blog-world to spend some extra time with these guys:

I hope you all have an amazing Christmas with your families and friends.

Gingerbread Houses

Tonight is, of course, Monday night football at our house. So this was the night that I thought would be a good time to do Gingerbread houses with the kids.

I bought a couple of kits from Walmart to make things a bit easier. All we had to do was add icing and decorations. I did the icing, the kids put all the candies on, while eating some of the rest.

They turned out pretty good!

Joe's Family Birthday Party

Joe turned six and chose that he wanted to have his family birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Later he and Jocelyn are going to have a joint party in January that they can invite their friends to.

The kids had a blast. They got to meet Chuck E. Cheese, and earned lots of tickets that they used to 'buy' their little prizes with at the end of the night.

Joe was a little scared of Chuck E. Cheese, Jocelyn was really excited about him.

A good picture of Joe's first tooth that he lost.

Yup, that's our big six year old boy.

I Want a Do-over!

I did not have the best weekend ever…this is where I will pause for you all to play your mini violins for me…thank you.

Saturday did not go well.

I woke up with a sore throat and nasty cough and knew that a cold was coming my way.

I had an infected hangnail and had to actually perform a small surgery to make it better.

It took a lot longer for me to bake my cookies for the cookie exchange than I thought. Then, the worst part of my day happened. While helping me with the cookies, Joe knocked the glass measuring cup off the counter onto the floor where it shattered. Then I yelled. It was such an automatic response, and I immediately regretted it. Joe started crying and ran over to the chair while I cleaned up the glass trying not to cry. Then I talked to him about what happened and sincerely apologized for yelling at him. He gave me a hug and said it was ok, he understood...what sweet boy.

Jocelyn and I had a major battle of wills all morning long. Most of it concerned how much cookie dough I would allow her to eat.

Both kids took a shower, only one of them washed themselves, can you guess which one?

It was the day we chose; don’t ask me why, to take the kids to see Santa.

My sandwich at Arby’s was awful.

Joci told us she had to pee after we were in the car and on the road and while trying to find her a potty, she had an accident.

After dropping the kids off at my parent’s house (Thank you, Mom and Dad!) we stopped at Walmart to pick up a last minute gift for Jon to give to a coworker who was leaving the country. This is when I was run-over inside a Walmart. I was standing near a man in one of those little scooter chairs and he backed up right into my ankle. Holy Moly you would not believe how much that hurt. Not only that, but it was the straw that finally broke this camel’s back. I excused myself to the restroom and cried, sobbed actually, in the stall all by myself. After I gained my composure I came out of the bathroom to Jon waiting for me patiently.

Then when we were checking out, we discovered that we left our wallets in the car, so I got stuck standing there with creepy Walmart guy until Jon came back with his wallet.

It was finally time to go back home. By this time I had totally missed a cookie exchange that I wanted to go to, but still had some time before we were to take our sitter’s out for dinner.

Admittedly, with the day going the way it was, I was a little concerned about the drive home, but we got there without a scratch, thank God.

I laid down for a good nap, that I really, really needed, and woke up with a better attitude.

Dinner with Lynda and Paul was delightful. We ate at a favorite restaurant, Uncle Sal’s, in Scottsdale and talked about everything.

Sunday was a little better, even though I woke up much sicker than on Saturday. Jon made me some brunch and I went back to bed for the day with lots of OTC meds in me. I woke up feeling a bit better to find the kids were home and excited about their finds at a garage sale.

Pretty much the rest of the day I just laid around until I decided to go get a pedicure, my regular place was closed, so then it was on to Target. I was ok until the fever came back so I had to leave.

Stopped at Walgreens to pick up my prescription and a few things to stock up and use up the rest of my FSA card, and found that Jon still had our FSA card in his wallet.

I went home, defeated and tired and fell asleep on the couch.

The highlight of my weekend though, was my family. My parents helped by taking the kids, Jon helped by getting me cold water and food, and the kids were super sweet to me, rubbing my back and telling everyone how much they hate it when Mommy is feeling sick. That’s quite the silver lining!

Dear Carmakers of America

Dear Carmakers of the world,

If you really want to sell some vehicles, make a Mommy car that can do all these things (and more)...

1. Have partitions built into the back seats that can be raised at the touch of button so that our precious children won’t be able to pick at, make faces at, or just generally bug each other at any time.

2. Completely stain resistant interior. I don’t mean stain resistant like you mean stain resistant either. I mean it like a Mommy means it. Two year old chocolate milk found under the car seat should be able to be cleaned up with a slightly moist wipey.

3. Built in Central Vac unit on the floor that automatically starts sucking each time the engine is turned off.

4. A layer of contact paper on the outside of the car so not only could we peel off a layer for a different color, but we wouldn’t have to wash it either.

5. Completely blacked out windows so passengers in other cars don’t have to watch my kids pick their noses.

6. A trash chute and compactor.

7. Noise buffers and driver's seat stabilizers for when your sweet little angel has had enough of that day, thank you very much, and is currently throwing the Mother of all tantrums in the back seat, which includes screaming at the top of their lungs and kicking the driver's seat. Oh, and an automatic aspirin dispenser for when they are done with their tantrum, but your headache is just starting.

8. A voice activated LED panel that is attached to the back of said vehicle so that you can tell off the individual driving the car behind you that is so far up your rear chasse that they could see such a sign at a 14pt font.

9. A laser pointed camera that you can submit your digital pictures to the police, or maybe your blog, of the idiot that is driving in front of you letting their 5 small children bounce on the back seat while your kids point it out to you over and over and over again and whine about why they can’t do that, too.

10. Starbucks drink dispenser, ‘nuff said.

11. Would foot massage and/or pedicure brake and accelerator pedals be too much to ask?

12. A giant cigarette deflector mounted on the front of your car for all those lovely people who make our streets their ashtrays.

13. What should this car run on, you may wonder, gasoline, water? No, I think it should run on McDonald’s wrappers, QT drink cups, and junk mail.

14. Sliding panel doors are a must to help your little ones keep from dinging the car next to you as they RAM their doors open to get out.

15. Seat air-conditioners for those of us that live in Arizona…ahhh a cool bum in 120 degree weather would be fantastic.

16. Don't forget the GPS, On Star, and all the other highend goodness that you offer to people that make a lot more money than I do.

17. My personal favorite…automatic seat belt fasteners, because I am tired of fastening and unfastening seatbelts while holding my purse, diaper bag, Starbucks (see above), groceries, keys, blankies and various toys while hoisting small children in and out of the car, desperately having to go to the bathroom because I have been in said car for the entire day.

All of this for under $10,000.00 and I’M SOLD!

Joesph's 6th Birthday is Today

Today is Joseph’s 6th Birthday.

Where did the years go?

Not only is it his Birthday today, but the Tooth Fairy visited him for the first time last night.

So, today is a big day for him.

Although, yesterday was pretty darn fun, too. While he was at school and playing with his tooth, it apparently just popped right out. His teacher sent him to the nurse and she gave him a little tooth box to put his tooth in. Grandpa picked him up from school and took him toy shopping for his birthday. He got to pick out several things including his new favorite…Bionicles. He stayed with Grandpa and Grandma for Dinner and then they brought him home so we could make cupcakes for his class and sitter’s house.

This morning he woke up in the best…mood…ever! He was so excited to see that the Tooth Fairy came and took his tooth! He got a gold $1 coin for his tooth, and a little bag for the next tooth that comes out. I got him showered and dressed and then he and Joci got to decorate 48 cupcakes with sprinkles…Joci figured out that the sprinkles were candy, and started eating the leftovers that fell on the table, too busy to decorate anymore.

We dropped off Joci and the cupcakes for the sitter first; she was so excited to be the cupcake chaperon. Then it was off to school.

I had to walk Joe in since not only did we bring cupcakes, but also 20 juice boxes for the Christmas party that they are having today, too. Right away Joe put his things away and went to sit down in his seat. His teacher was excited about the cupcakes and told me how well Joe was doing. Then, just as I was saying goodbye to Joe a last time, the teacher’s helper pulled me aside to talk to me. Literally, this sweet woman put her hand over her heart and proceeded to tell me how great Joe is, how respectful he is, and how everyday he makes a point to say goodbye to her. I almost cried. I love being told how amazing he is, it makes my heart all warm and gooey.

Tonight we are going to have his little family party. We are going to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner, at Joe’s request. There, we’ll let him open his presents and play and I will wonder out how he’s six, already, and what an awesome, awesome kid he is.

Later, when everyone is in bed, I will cry a little, thinking of this day, six years ago, holding my precious newborn boy at night all alone in the hospital. It’s amazing how fast he’s grown, where did the years go?

I’ll post some pictures later…

Little Bears at the Park