Visit

After being in Kansas for 4 weeks visiting my uncle, my grandparents stopped in Arizona for a few days on their way home to California. It had been 18 months since we had last seen them I and was happy that Emma would have a chance to spend time with her great grandparents now that she is at an age where she is remembering people more. It was also exciting because I wasn't even pregnant with Josh the last time they were in Arizona and this was their first meeting.

When we arrived at my parent's house on Friday evening Emma noticed immediately that there was a new car in the driveway. She is going through a funny stage right now and acts very shy around new people for quite some time so I was surprised when she went in the house and walked right up to Grandpa and said I remember you and gave him a big hug, it was incredibly sweet. She also took to Grandma right away and was building domino houses with her by that evening. She also suckered Grandma into playing Barbies (which just means dressing them in fancy dresses, undressing them to put on pajamas, and then putting them down for bed) with her for about an hour. Josh also decided he loved Grandma right away and was more content then I have ever seen in her arms. He was so content he even fell asleep on her Sunday night at dinner. He's never done that without being rocked and she was just patting his back, he must have been able to tell she's had 6 children of her own and 17 grandchildren! I told Grandpa that they needed to move to Arizona so Grandma could babysit for us and he just laughed. Oh well, wishful thinking!

On Wednesday morning my grandparents drove home to California. I hate when they leave and still cry every single time I have to say goodbye, such a wimp! I plan not to make it another 18 months until our next visit and am working on our next trip to California already.

The big 30!

Last Sunday I turned 30 and last Sunday it did not bother me to turn 30. To me, 30 is no different than 29. I know I am getting older, its a fact of life and why have a melt down about the inevitable.

For my birthday Eric and the kids took me out to breakfast at Joe's Farm Grill. It's a great deal to go there since they give you a free meal on your birthday. I had my favorite, Belgian waffles and bacon, yum! After breakfast, we spent sometime at home then headed to 11 o'clock mass at Mary Magdalene. Afterward we went to Costco for some shopping and a birthday hot dog. (As you can see, I ate really healthy on my birthday!) At 4:00 I started getting ready for my birthday dinner with Eric and we headed out to my parent's house to drop the kids off to be babysat. I was taken completely by surprise when I walked in the door and there were a bunch of our really close friends, Eric's family, and my family ready to help celebrate my birthday. It was a nice evening of being able to hang out with the people I love and the day was one of my best birthdays. So here's to being 30 and all of the good things that are going to come along with it!

What a week!

My goal when I started this blog was to update it weekly but as you can see I have not done a very good job with that. It's sad but I go to bed at night thinking of the blogs I'm going to post and then before I know it, the time has passed and what I was going to say is old news. So in order to not let this week go by without a post, here is the brief version of what our week was like.

On Monday Emma, Josh, and I traveled down to Phoenix Childrens Hospital for Josh's graduation (that's what they call the exit appointment) from his helmet. He stopped wearing his helmet three weeks ago and after three tries at an exit appointment we finally were able to get in. At the appointment, they took another set of 3D images of Josh to show how his head had changed. To tell you the truth, I was really disappointed when I saw the images. I know just from looking at his head there is a difference but I really couldn't see such a huge change on the 3D images. After that, they gave us the mold of Josh's head and retired his helmet on it. They also took "after" digital images of him just like they did at his very first appointment and told me they would e-mail them to me later in the day. As we left, they gave us a graduation certificate that is sure to make it in Josh's scrapbook and we said goodbye! Later that afternoon, I got the promised e-mail from them and was so happy with what I saw that I cried like a baby. Seeing these images, made all the hassle of this whole process worth it! I hope my poorly taken pictures of pictures does everything justice.

In this picture you can see the proof when you look at the alignment in Josh's eyes and ears.


The slope on the top of Josh's head in the before pictures is gone now and his head is nicely rounded in the back.


In the before picture Josh's head sloped to the right and it is gone now!

Everything looks so good!


Wednesday was field trip day for my preschoolers and now that Emma is 3, I am lucky enough to be able to bring her into my classroom as a sighted peer for my students. I am not sure who loves it more, my students having her there or her getting to hang out with friends her own age. Our field trip was to the Desert Botanical Garden for their Pumpkin Festival. It was unfortunately warmer out then I would have liked but all the kids had fun. They all especially liked picking pumpkins out of the pumpkin patch and decorating them. Like a ding dong, I left my camera at school and the only pictures I took were on a school camera. I would like to post those pictures but need to get permission from my students' parents before I do.
After a long day at school, Emma crashed out for a 3 plus hour nap and then we suckered Eric into getting Chick-fil-A for dinner. We seriously only eat there anymore, it is so clean, the staff is so nice, they have a terrific indoor play land, and it's only 5 minutes from the house.
I also got a new cell phone on Wednesday and am super excited because I haven't had a new one in about 3 years. Emma is also excited because that means she gets my old phone!





Friday night my parents came over and we went to the Verizon store to get them set up on a family plan with Eric and I (way cheaper that way). It was hilarious watching my mom and dad who have always said they will never text, look at phones and ask the guy a million questions (honestly like a million) about texting and the phones. We shut the place down and walked out of the store 45 minutes after it closed but I think the Verizon guy was happy because we bought every accessory know to man for their new phones. Plus my dad was happy because he haggled (and if you really know my dad, yes he haggles everywhere) the guy into a free phone and 25% off all the accessories.

Yesterday morning Eric went out into the desert with two of our neighbors to go shooting and had a great time. The kids and I hung out here and made a trip to Target. That afternoon we went to the mall and then spent the evening outside talking with our neighbors (we are really lucky to have some good families living right near us) while the kids rode bikes and scooters.





Today we headed to my parent's house for a late lunch/early dinner. My dad recently cleaned out his attic and found all of mine and Dani's My Little Ponies and brought them down. Emma discovered them today and I think I may have had more fun playing with them then she did, ah the memories! As we played my dad put Josh in one of the bins that had ponies in it and soon Emma thought it looked like fun too.








So there is my shortened version of this last week, we had a great week. Wouldn't you hate to see my long version?

Costumes

About this time last year, Emma and I were at SanTan Village playing at the outdoor play land. Unfortunately for me the Disney Store is right next to the play land area and I couldn't resist the urge to go in and check things out. Of course they had their Halloween costumes out and I fell in love with two costumes but they were so expensive. Being the clever girl that I am, Emma and I headed back to SanTan the day after Halloween and purchased a costume for her and a costume for Josh (who we'd recently found out was a boy) for 75% off the original price. What a deal! So here is the first look of Emma and Josh in their costumes for this year.





Good grief, could they be any cuter?

Happy Birthday Emma

Today Emma is 3 years old! She is growing into such a beautiful girl and I just don't think I am ready for her to get older. To celebrate her birthday we had the family and Emma's Godparents all over on Sunday for dinner. Tonight the four of us walked to Water N Ice for Emma's favorite (and Aunt Dani's) scoop of ice cream, Bubble Gum. It was a beautiful night out and after we got home Josh went to bed and Eric and I played Emma's favorite board games with her. As Emma got ready for bed tonight we told her that her binky was taken by the binky fairies because now she is a big 3 year old. Waiting for the melt down that never came we were both surprised to have Emma tell us that she is ready to play with daddy's computer now. Smart girl used our own words on us (we have always told her that when she's a big girl she can play with the computer)! So, Eric promised to show her how to play games on the computer tomorrow, I'm sure by the end of the week she'll have figured out how to have her own Facebook. Where has the time gone? Happy birthday baby girl!

Road trip pictures

The life of the party, this lady can hang with the best of them

Playing with Hannah and Harley

With Daddy

Eric and Karen

Her new best friend Sadie


The birthday boy

This group knows how to do it

Everyone hanging out in the gorgeous weather

Eric and Chris

Just chillin

With Grammie

My mom and a few of her high school friends

The family


Eric and Josh

Her other new best friend Jake

Chasing her woof dog

Wondering where the woof dog went

Road trip

This weekend we headed to California for our first road trip as a family of four to see old family friends and to celebrate the 80th birthday of a man I have known my whole life. Those of you who know Emma well, know that she is NOT a good car traveler, never has been. She just gets so restless in her car seat and even when she is tired, she refuses to sleep (which is unusual because she is normally a terrific sleeper) so she just cries instead. Josh on the other hand does pretty good in the car. He will sleep when tired and generally plays happily in his seat.

Things definitely did not go as I thought, but they did not go badly either. The ride to California started off good and both kids fell asleep right away! Unfortunately we had to stop and pick up my mom at her house. That woke both kids up right away but they behaved pretty well. Josh slept on and off in the car and Emma did eventually fall asleep for about 45 minutes. We made it to Temecula around 6:30-7:00 and after meeting the Maurice and Tusler clans, Josh went to bed for the night. He slept like a rock and after playing with David and Chris' dog Sadie, Emma went to bed around 8:30. We hung out for a few more hours and then it was time to drive up the mountain to Anza where our friends Eric and Karen Tusler live. The drive is about 45 minutes from Temecula and I was afraid waking the kids from bed would end horribly but both transitioned back to bed wonderfully.

The next morning Emma was in heaven! Eric and Karen have 5 dogs and a number of horses (Karen is a professional rider). Emma fell in love with their new Great Dane, Jake and loved walking around the back as Karen tended to the horses. She thought it was fun to chase their huge (I cannot even remember what breed he is) dog Murphy who is a very shy dog and wouldn't let her get close. She nicknamed him woof dog because he had a great time barking at her as she ran around. After playing outside, we lounged around the house for the rest of the day until it was time to return to Temecula to celebrate Dave Maurice's birthday. As we went down the mountain, we noticed smoke and as we got closer we realized the smoke was a fire. We kept traveling hoping that the fire was not near the road and that we could make it down but not so much luck. We were turned around and took a detour because the fire was right at the side of the road. It was amazing seeing the flames and being so close to them, Eric was mad because his camera equipment was in the back of the Tahoe and he couldn't document it-crazy guy!

When we finally got to Temecula we started the party and it was great seeing more old friends that hadn't made it the night before. Both kids went down to bed and slept like champs (Thank you Baby Wise!) despite all the people, drinking, and general loudness of the party. To end the party, Dave's family and friends got up and shared stories and love they had for him. It was touching to hear what was shared and to realize how this man has impacted so many. I don't think their was a dry eye in the place and I know that I felt incredibly fortunate to be there.

The drive back to Anza that night was hard, we had to go a very long way around because of the fire (which was still burning) and were in the car from midnight until 1:30 am. Again both kids did terrific and slept but Eric and I were exhausted, especially Eric since he was the one doing all the driving. On Sunday, we again lounged around and left back for home around 3 pm. The drive home was long and tiring but Emma got the fantastic car rider award (we even told her that) because she was so good and actually slept a majority of the way. Josh had a mini melt down because he was so tired and couldn't get to sleep but finally he passed out and stayed out even as we transitioned him at home to bed for the night.

I am glad that we went and I am glad that we are back home. We had fun and even though both kids did better than I could have imagined, I think that our next road trip to California is not going to be for a little while!