Bittersweet

Well, the day my big boy goes to K is here! You know I can remember when I gave birth to him, his tiny 6 lb 4 oz body with blonde hair and eyes for mommy. He was a "mamas boy" from the start. When he was around 1 year old he had these fly away baby hairs by his ears that were oh-so-cute. They would fill up with his baby smells, and to this day I am still addicted to smelling that spot by his ears throughout the day- its the sweetest smell in the world. I have breast-fed him, changed his didies, got thrown up on, help teach him right from wrong, and so much more. The biggest joy of my heart though is to see what a strong and intelligent boy that kid is. He may be stubborn, but he knows what he wants... and that is good. He has a precious heart, and my gosh EXCITED about everything. I love to tell him things or places we are going for the day and watch his big brown eyes fill up with joy and wonder about what the experience will bring. I can't believe the day that he starts the rest of his childhood life in school is here. It seriously flew by so quick. He is beyond ready for this day, and I know that, so I knew I would be taking this okay today. This morning he woke up ecstatic and got all ready for school, all fresh and shiny with his new stuff on. He had his favorite for breakfast: pancakes. Then it came time to go and I was putting his water bottle and lunch I made him in his backpack and there it went... the tears came a rollin' without any warning and it hit me. I just clenched him and kissed him and smelled him. I told him I would miss him so, and I will. When we got to his classroom I gave him my love and gave him a look at his desk as he looked at me and showed me a smile in return to let me know how strong he is, but through that smile I could see a side of hesitation. I found this poem that suited this day well:

My son I am here

I cannot protect you from everything in the world,

My son I am here

I can only love you no matter what,

My son I am here

My love unconditional on this day you can rely,

My son I am here

To guide and teach you and now you must fly,

My son I am here

Life can be difficult I hear you cry,

My son I am here

Changes are painful never forget who you are,

My son I am here

Maintain the faith in God and yourself,

My son I am here

Self acceptance is yours do not fear,

My son I am here.

I am so in love with that boy. He is going to do well in school, and I can't wait to see what he becomes in life. He is such a great person and I am proud to be his "mama". Have a great day at K, little one...

So Long, Summer

Sometimes its hard to find things to do to beat the AZ heat. So this summer we bought water park passes to visit all the water parks whenever we wanted- Sunsplash, Waterworld, and Big Surf. Our favorite one is Big Surf by far. Its got so much for the kids and plus its not as crowded as some of the others. The boys thoroughly enjoyed all the time we spent there this year. Grandma Jana, Auntie, and all the boys' Uncles bought passes as well, so we got to go with them and have some fun too. Yesterday we had a nice day as a family. It was special- our last day together before our big boy goes to Kindergarten! So we went to breakfast then Big Surf and had a family movie night at home. Every so often we like to pile a bunch of pillows and blankets, and nestle together on the living room floor to watch a movie together. For movie night the boys always get a small bowl of popcorn and I mix it with a variety of some yummy sweets... Swedish Fish is number one in our house, yeah!! Last nights movie was "The Bee Movie". The boys totally loved it and Steve and I agreed it was our favorite. You know how these little kids movies have entertaining "one liners" for the adults, well this ones got lots of em'. The boys got another treat as well. They got to sleep in the nestled mess all night after the movie, they loved it! It was a great day, and a fun ending to our summer!!

Parents Night Out

Yes!!!!! A night away from the kids is always refreshing. Steve and I spent the time with our adult neighborly friends. We were celebrating a few birthdays as well. The festivities were held at Kona Grill, our favorite!! There isn't too much better than martinis and sushi without kids. All of our kiddos were at a children's program for 6 hours. The kids got to eat dinner together, watch movies, play, and hang out in their jammies. I think I over-did it on the sushi though... a little after I ate (probably when the rice was expanding in my stomach) I got a horrid tummy ache. I couldn't help it though- the waiter brought by some free sushi that just happened to be my favorite kind, and who can deny that jazz? After Kona, we all decided to lug on over to Blue Wasabi... another yummy in the tummy place. It was great to hang out with all the neighbors, we are so spoiled with great friends on our street! When we went to pick up the boys they were each passed out, imagine that! When we got them home and into bed we decided it would be fun to eat Jack in the Box in the rain. The guys took a while getting it so the women were sopped by the time we got to eat our burgers- but it was fun! Happy Birthday Daniella and Pam!!!

A Day at The Children's Museum

We went to The Children's Museum in downtown Phoenix the other morning with some friends. Whew... what a drive for us. I am not really familiar with Phoenix and every time I have to go out there I have driving issues. Luckily I didn't harm anyone this trip, but I couldn't leave Phoenix without making a driving oops of course. I had some trouble finding the museum and went to turn, on a one way street, the wrong way. The only reason I knew that I was going the wrong way is by seeing the car coming straight at me! Yeah, big oops!! I would like to consider myself a good driver, but when I'm out of my element... forget that. We got to the world of wonders just fine though. :) The museum is in the old Monroe School building which is quite nice. I just love older buildings and it had such a nice old smell too. In the museum they had art rooms and in one of them they had a house that the kids could paint and boy did my little one love that! No restrictions, no nothing, just paint whatever wherever! Let me tell ya that this place is mighty creative. There was a "ball room" and in it was a bunch of different tunnel mazes you can put your golf balls in and watch them on their journey across the room. There was a pizza and ice cream making parlor and a trike track... where my oldest thought he could go 10 miles an hour, and I think he got close!














There was this really cool area that had wooden race cars and ginormous race tracks that the kids enjoyed playing with. There was even a cool motorcycle and track car nearby that the boys posed on. It was here that I set my camera down and it came up missing. I thought for sure it was forever gone. There was an honest soul however, that returned it to the front desk. I was really bummed about it and couldn't help but think about it the rest of the museum trip. The desk clerk said someone found it in the cars. So I assume a kid thought it was a cool thing to put down the race way! Hey, I don't blame em'. Glad to have it back though! We ended the trip by picking something small in the gift shop. Big brother got a hatchable egg toy and little brother wanted this fart noise maker. Its literally sludge that you push in a container and as your pushing, it makes the attention getting noise of passing gas. Yeah, boys!!

Our Baby Turns 4!!

Not a baby anymore! Our little one had a Birthday yesterday, and what a joyous day it was! In the morning for breakfast (I always cook them something special on their day) he requested blueberry muffins and apple soda. He chugged the soda, but left no room for muffins... that's our boy, drinking his meals as usual! His sweet big brother picked out an awesome present: a Wall-E. rocket launcher. That was the first present to be opened and he loved it! Steve and I got him a big Wall-E. interactive toy, which he was ecstatic about when he opened it. His party was Wall-E. themed of course if you couldn't tell by now. We saw the Wall-E. movie when it first came out, and ever since the boys have been all over it. Wall-E. is a trash compactor that lives on the deserted earth and ends up bringing back a plant to the humans on a space ship to let them know that it is safe to return to earth and start life again.

We had his party at Chuck E. Cheeses, and it turned out to be a big one to say the least... 27 kids!! It was so much fun, where a kid can be kid right?! There was a Chuck E. Birthday Show for the Birthday Boy where Chuck E. came out to visit everyone. When he came out Chuck E. danced with all of the Chuck E. staff and the cutest part... our birthday star gets up there and starts dancing with them! They gave him a Birthday medallion and we all sang to him. We opened presents and I have to say the kid is absolutely spoiled! So, project for today: going through all the toys to make room for the new ones, fun fun!

We ended the day with Grandma and Grandpa Carlson, and Auntie coming by. They came over to bring a HUGE B-Ball hoop to the Birthday Boy- in which dad gets the joy of putting it together today! While they were over the Birthday Boy decided to transform himself into Hulk with his new present, the Hulk mask. In fact we all tried it on!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUNCHKIN, MAMA LOVES YOU!!!

PROJECT: Windows

Complete! Buying a brand-new new house, there comes a lot of work. So one of our many projects is the windows. We had ordered blinds to custom fit our windows and Steve and I had the joy of installing them together! We saved over 1K by doing it ourselves, so it was well worth all the nagging, pounding and hearing a few choice words installing them with each other! Once we got the blinds done, I wanted to spice up the windows a bit. I decided to sew swag window treatments and curtains on our sliding glass door.

I wasn't so set on the vertical blinds look in our house, so I sewed curtains for both the sliding glass doors in the house. I even learned how to sew triple pinch pleats with little inspiration and you-tube! They came out wonderful! Steve and I learned a new tongue twister outta the deal, "I can so see why sewers sew with thimbles". It was late, and I was tired and sewing... so you can imagine how those words came out of my mouth. Steve looked at me like I was speaking a different language, and I probably sounded like it. It was a good laugh!

The picture is dark, but here is the treatments that I did in the play-room. The boys are ecstatic that mom has put her sewing machine away now. It was in the place of where their bounce house is, so they couldn't use it while mom was needing the space.

This is Steve's baby. I sewed, and he hung up (on the extension ladder), oh and what pride he takes in that!! He did a great job. Stay tuned for more home projects to come, we got a lot!! I am trying to whip some of them out during the summer before I go back to school. The windows turned out just how we wanted, not to fancy but simple and tasteful.

Back to Bright Blonde...

plus, I chopped it!! I have been wanting a change with my hair, and I think I hit the spot! This past year I have been getting sick of the same old long, really blonde hair. About 6 months ago I tried putting some darker colors in it. It looked nice for a while, but I don't think I was too hot on it. So I went back to my bright-light blonde which I love love love!! I also cut my hair very short, its called an A-line cut. When I got home and styled it, I knew this was the change I have been looking for. I am still getting used to it, but I really like it. I wasn't going to tell Steve about it, but I did, and then he ended up loving it! He likes it so much better than the long which struck me, I think its because he believes it gives me a "naughty" look is what he said. I didn't get home from the salon until 10pm at night, so the boys didn't see their new mom until the next morning. One of my sweet boys told me "Mommy, you look so pretty". Then there is the other, that is looking at me curiously all morning, and doesn't say a word about it until I asked him. His response, "Well, boys have their hair short, I don't like it."

Here it is!! Having it flat and straight is Steve's favorite.

Here is some curl added at the ends.

I haven't played with it too much, but it definitely needs some body to it, I think anyway. I am letting it settle though, because my hair went through some hard times at the salon. The stylist had to re-do it after messing up so I was at the salon for what made a long night with her trying to fix it. She didn't dye my roots properly, and the color doesn't match the rest of my hair exactly. Overall it came out good, but my poor hair is fried. So pumping it up with volume and product to see all the neat tricks my new hair can do is going to have to wait... my strands need a little R&R. The gal even gave me some not-so-pretty chemical burns on the sides of my face and ear. Although she is such a nice lady, I think I will be shopping for a new stylist.

Well, we had a wonderful 4th of July holiday. The boys and I spent it with friends. We were without Daddy this year so I decided to ditch the crowds and all the madness that goes along with them. Instead we had a laid back evening with our neighborly friends, which are like family to us. Neighbors Umer & Saira hosted at their house, and I trucked all my goodies and grillings in a wagon and strolled down the street to their place. The kids swam in the pool and were in and out all night and playing with all their friends.

I bought these little kiddie firecrackers that turned out to be pretty cheesy to say the least. You just pulled the string on these bottles and out popped confetti. They lasted maybe 3 minutes with all the kids. I decided to play a clean-up game after that and every time someone picked up a piece of confetti, you earned a point and a cookie at the end. It was a sweet deal for all... and a quick way to clean up the mess. We saw fireworks from a distance in the heart of our cul-de-sac but the attention span just wasn't there for very long. Maybe we weren't close enough? All the kiddos decided that watching Spiderman III was more fun... so inside they went. We got to bed late with our hair and skin smelling like chlorine, frosting on our face, and dirt on our feet... but it was all in the name of FUN!