My Baby Girl Turns Four

It really seems like yesterday we were anxiously driving to phoenix in hopes to add a little girl to our family.(click here to see the day we got Elena) There are somethings that you will never forget and one of those is seeing your baby girl for the first time....love at first sight would be an understatement. And then, somehow you blink and that sweet little baby is suddenly four...saying things like "that is so dilarious", "I look Fablieous!" and "when I am a mother, I will give these to my children."  Making up songs about her "sweet Jedi" and spending hours in front of the mirror putting on lip-gloss and hair clips.  We won't even mention the number of times she changes from one dress-up to the next.  She is a little mother, and always has words of advice to hand out whether solicited or not.  How we are so fortunate to have Elena as our daughter, I will never know....She is one of our greatest blessings!!!  The night before her birthday I was tucking her in and told her this is the last night she will be sleeping in her bed as a three year old.  I don't know what happened, but she got all emotional and crying saying she didn't want to be four, she hated four year olds and only wanted to be two.  I finally got her settled down from that emotional down pour and she suddenly got excited for the morning to come, because she would have breakfast in bed.  Morning came early because Matt was in Tennessee and called at 5:00am.  We have this tradition of waking the kids up by singing Happy Birthday to them.  Matt was three hours ahead and had meetings all day, so 5:00am it was. (the video is kinda funny because Matt is on his cell phone and was feeling a little embarrassed as people were passing by as he was singing.) Because Matt was out of town we didn't do the whole birthday shabang, but we did do some fun things and I think she had a fun and special day.  On Friday Matt came home from being gone all week and as you can imagine Elena was more than excited to finally open her presents.  We had a great time together as a family as we partied it up in celebration of Elena's Birthday and it happened to be the anniversary of the day we got Elena....even more reason to celebrate.  Elena was so excited to get a new princess bike.  It is a little big, but she is doing quite well at maneuvering it.  And lets not forget the Barbie Princess Birthday Cake....which I will post about separately.  It was a great day!!!!

Cody's Backwards Birthday Party

K- So I know this will sound all too familiar to my long time blog readers.  Yes I did this same party theme last year for Cody. (click here to view last years take on the backwards birthday party, pictures of invites and decorations)  But I can almost guarantee you would have done the same thing.  And come on...no one really knew because we lived in Kaysville last year and now we are here, so whole new group of kids.  This party is SO easy to pull together and to keep kids entertained for an hour and half.   Invites, just made a little Thank You card with the invite on the inside. Decorations are cheep and easy...no helium needed just blow balloons up and and let them hang upside down.  Printed out each child's name backwards and let them decorate as everyone got there.  Then they hold it up to a mirror and see it is written correctly....AMAZING!! Then we had dessert first and ate backwards Cup Cake Ice Cream Cones and sang !You to Birthday Happy! Then we opened presents with a little twist. The person who brought the present sits behind Cody and is his hands and opens the present they brought for Cody.  It is hilarious to see Cody trying to be so patient as he has to wait for whoever is unwrapping the gift.  Next we ate lunch.  I never get a great picture of this because I am too busy getting it out to everyone.  But we had backwards hot dogs, were you cut the hot dog in half and but one on one side of the bun and the other half on the other side of the bun.  And got our Capri suns out of the oven.  Then this was the new thing I added this year.  We made a backwards Pinata.  As dumb as these look, the kids had a blast taping candy on them. (If you want to use this idea....be sure and have lots of helpers for the tapping.  I was lucky and had Matt, my self and my sister Vera and we had a neighbor mom helping too. We had 3 bowls full of candy. They would bring the candy to us, hold it on their balloon and then we would tape it, worked out great. And that my friends was it...party over.  Cody had a great time with all of his friends!

Water Babies

When I was about 5-8 years old, I tried to play with my neighbor Jodi. She was 3 or 4 years older than I was and I am sure she considered me as the annoying little neighbor girl. She always had really cute toys and clothes and I remember asking her if she ever has anything she doesn't want, she could give it to me....ya....the annoying neighbor girl was probably an understatement. Jodi and her friend Carmen would do fun little summer school classes and carnivals for us neighbor kids. One day, Carmen was over and they let me play water babies with them. This is when you get a balloon and fill it up with water, tie it off and then wrap it up in a blanket and it is now your water baby. My water baby happened to have a big air bubble (cancer) and it had to have surgery. Things did not go well for my water baby and I had to go home. Anyways, as sad as it seams, it really was fun for me to play with them. The other day the kids were in the pool and all I could think about were the water babies. We filled up some balloons and the kids had a blast with their water babies. The balloons both float and sink, it is actually really really fun. You can fling them across the pool and down the slide and gather them all together and occasionally they pop. The kids had to wear their floaties because it was too hard to stay a float while trying to juggle all the water babies. It was great to reinvent fun with Water Babies.

Pre-K and some of my crazy emotions!

Elena started Pre-K this year. She was SOOO excited to wear her backpack and go meet her teacher. She loaded her backpack with all sorts of junk (or as my dad would call it.....Neat Things). She has been a little confused because....Well, last year I began telling her that when she is four, she will start Preschool. So when she woke up the morning of her fist day, I told her that today is the day you get to go to Preschool. She responded....I'M FOUR??? And now everyday that it is a Pre-K day, she asks if she is four. We still have one more month before she actually turns four. She did great going, no tears, no fears, just typical happy Elena. There was alittle bit of sadness that she didn't get to bring her backpack, because the teacher provides a bag for them.

And then Wow!! Some emotions I didn't see coming. After droping her off I pulled back into our garage and got myself out of the car, I stood there empty handed and started to cry. No one to get out of a car seat, or have to stand and hold the door open for, no one to stumble over as we make our way though the garage door. No one, it was just me. It has been along time since I have been sad for myself. But I can't deny the emptiness that has begun to grow inside of me...that of another baby. Don't get me wrong, I am so blessed and have so much to be grateful for....but, I just didn't think I would be home alone so soon. I thought for sure there was another baby for us, and somehow I really feel that there is. But as each day passes and years go by....I am beginning to wonder if I need to change the way I am feeling. Is this really feelings of another baby or is it just a fantasy that I want so badly to come true? As I went inside I started to wonder, is this really it? Are my babies all grown up? All of these baby accessories and clothes and cribs, ect... is it time to let it all go? How long do I keep doing this to myself....saying I feel like it is going to be soon, fasting and praying for a baby that may never find its way to us. Now the kids are all warped up in this fantasy that I have created, never missing an opportunity to pray that we will get a baby soon. When do I say enough is enough....

Well now that some time has passed, since my bout with the sadness. I have come to the conclusion that enough is not enough yet....I am still going to push forward and find this little piece of heaven that is missing from our family. (Any ways this post turned out to be more about me than my big Pre-K girl, sorry.)

So of course when I picked up Elena she had had a wonderful day!!! I love this Pre-K School, I thought I would feel guilty for putting her in preschool. Here I am a stay at home mom and should easily be able to do preschool at home with her. I always have great intentions of doing all of these fun crafts and finger painting and alphabet games, worksheets, etc....but sadly the reality is I am not consistent with it and then I just feel down on myself for not doing more than I am. But here at Preschool she gets all of that and more, plus she has homework and fun crafts that get sent home for us to do together. It actually makes me feel more fulfilled to see here thriving in this environment. Everyday she looks bigger and more grown up, every day she gets smarter and more amazing. Everyday I just can't believe how blessed I am to be her mother.

Utah Part 5 - Last of the Utah Trip

On Wednesday we had a fun day with cousins at Classic. We played inside first and of course Matt got addicted to an arcade game of Cut the String or something like that. Just $10.00 later he won an Itouch. Cody was one of the only ones rooting Matt on, the rest of us rolled our eyes and told him he should never go to Vegas, that is until he won. Somehow in all the excitement of Matt winning, Elena got a little misplaced. I had her over by this play area and then I heard Matt had won, so I went over to where Matt was. When I came back to Elena, she was gone. I searched all around the bounce houses and slides, but no sign. Humm....I knew she couldn't have gone too far, but still I was starting to panic. And then I saw her.... crouched into a corner sobbing. The only problem was she was 20 feet in the air in a jungle tree house (which is where I left her, I just didn't know there was a passage way that went clear above us and into a whole other section.) I stood under her and told her daddy was coming, but she was in hysteria at this point and could not hear me. My heart broke for her, but Matt was there soon and just held her until she calmed down enough to go play and have fun. Then the kids had a blast in the bounce houses and slides and then we changed and went to the water park there. Those slides are hecka fast, but it was so fun!!!! Such a great day!!!!


The next day we went to Hollywood Connection. It was ok fun.... the kids loved the bumper cars the best. We tried to go roller skating which is something I have always wanted to do with the kids, but it was totally not fun at all. About 1/4th of the way around the rink, trying to skate and hold the kids up was not even remotely fun. We finally made it back around and put our shoes back on. We did have fun with the miniature golf, and then played on the rides again.

That night we ended the reunion at Leatherby's....I again forgot my camera, I know there were people there who took pictures of my kids, so maybe I will put a picture on some other time. But Cody was in heaven as he got to share the biggest ice cream they make with Matt.



Then we went home packed up and in the morning headed to my mom's house to spend some time there. From there we drove to Tuacahn and went and saw The Little Mermaid. Neither of us had ever been to Tuacahn, and it was the kids first musical or play of any kind. They loved it and we had a blast!!! I am not a big fan of my picture with Elena, probably because I had been eating too many of my favorite Granny B's Cookies....every gas stop in Utah for the whole time were were there, I would grab me one. I just can't get enough of these and they don't have them here in AZ. Any ways at the end, Elena got to meet Ariel and Eric. Pretty Fun. When we got in the car around midnight the kids looked like this. Less then 5 minuets and they looked like this. Matt drank a 5 hour energy and we rolled into our driveway around 6 in the morning. FANTASTIC VACATION!!!!

Utah Part 4 - Lagoon

Ok, this was a super fun day and has NO pictures. We left the kids for a day with Grandma Peggy and Matt and I took off for Lagoon. We got there right after it opened and hopped in the non existing line for the Wicked. We road it twice and I needed a rest. (Oh, my aged body.) But that didn't stop Matt, he went five more times. Then we went to the Colossus and I road it once and Matt went on to ride it a few more times. At this point things were starting get busy, but never really bad at all. We went to pioneer village and road my favorite the Log Flume....I know I am lame. And then got soaked on Rattle Snake Rapids. We road more rides and then.....he did it!!!! Matt talked me into doing the Sky Coaster. I don't know what possessed me to say yes, or if I really ever did. But IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! This is the one where you have to pay extra (totally worth it) and they strap you into this little jump suite and raise you hundreds of feet above the park. Then you pull the rip cord (well Matt pulled the rip cord) and you drop strait down and then swing out and FLY!!! It was so freaky and yet so fun. I don't know if I will ever do it again, but I am so glad that I did it. Click here for a video I found on You Tube. (this is not us.) Then we went to Lagoona Beach and did the tube ride a million times and then floated around the lazy river for about an hour. It was wonderful!!! We got dressed, grabbed some food and road some more rides. What a fun date day with my LOVE!!!!

Utah Part 3 - Matt Joins Us Again

Ok, I need to finish up our Utah trip...Soooo finally the day came when we got to pick up Matt from the Airport. From there we set a new record for fastest suite buying, which also did not leave a lot of time for the kids to make much trouble....notice I said MUCH trouble. Then we headed to Old Spaghetti Factory to meet us with some friends, we brought our camera, but Cody was the only one who took any pictures. The next days started our family reunion on Matt's side of the family. It was a full house, but lots of fun. We had family pictures, I brought my little camera along and had Matt's sister snap one of Matt and I and took a couple of the kids. We then had a BBQ and celebrate birthday's that would be taking place in the next few months. Cody was SO excited for his bibirthday celebration with his cousins. Each family that has someone's birthday to celebrate is in charge of making a cake, so I did this cute little sharing cake for Cody and Elena. (Elena's birthday isn't until September, but we figured she should open her presents from Grandma and Grandpa where they can see her open them. Cody was beyond thrilled with is gift from Grandma and Grandpa, it was a huge Lego Star Wars book and he still reads it every night. And Elena got Baby All-Gone, she loved the doll, but was really really happy with this lipgloss watch her cousin gave her. Then we did fireworks. On Monday we went up into the canyons and also did a hike to the SL Overlook. Cody and Matt made it to the top and Elena and I decided to stop half way and then collected potato bugs all the way down. At the camp site, there was a river that the kids love to play around. As predicted Cody made it into the water first and only after being there about 3 minuets. He also made another splash later on that day. Both were accidents of course. I thought I had pictures, but the one I had is blurry...oh well, it is no fun to have a picture of a big almost 7 year old crying shown for all the world to see, especially if you are that 7 year old. :)