Visitors

We try to entice any visitors down with the promise of Jay's steaks (which have now been affectionately named "J-bones"...instead of T-bones..get it??) and a trip to the lake.  We were excited when my brother Troy and his family took the bait and came down for Memorial day weekend.  We got an extra bonus when my other brother, Tyler who is down in Tucson for the month doing his medical residency was able to get the weekend off and come too (along with a quick visit from Jason's highschool friend and his wife and some of my brother's friends who recently moved here too...maybe we shouldn't throw out the lure of steaks quite so loosely next time, haha :).  We really did do more than just go to the park but I have not been at the top of my photography game and this was the only time I remembered my camera.  Besides the park we lived in the pool, on the lake and at the kitchen table (and in front of the TV with wii and movie parties).  Brenton and Jayden formed an eternal bond over Christmas and it was fun to see them reunited.  Maddox adopted Alyssa as his "new baby brother" and was so cute and protective of her.  Troy managed to pop out a few ribs on the wakeboard and Sam gave me AMAZING foot massages and that pretty much sums up our weekend.  Thanks for coming!!

Big Boy Nana

First to go were the sippy cups, then the diapers and now his crib.  Maddox has been forced to grow up over the past few months before this baby comes and rocks his world.   So far he has embraced his inner big boy with open arms and it has been fun seeing him grow up.  He has finally hit the terrible two's, though, and curse whoever came up with that.  It may be for the best since I was having serious issues with playing favorites.  I remember a month ago talking to my sister on the phone and taking pride in the fact that he is so easy and I had never raised my voice or lost my cool with him while every other mother of a two year old was at the mercy of their tantrums.  Then IT happened. I was at the store and he happened to open a sucker and since the cashier was watching I had to do the right thing and pay for it, even though it was one of those obnoxious blow pops that are the size of his head.  I wouldn't give it to him even after I bought it because all 2 year olds have the intellectual capability of understanding consequences (right??) and that was the beginning of the end.  Back arched, writhing on the floor, feet kicking, non stop crying....and it hasn't stopped yet.  I still have room in my heart to love him, but he has definately dropped ranks in the favorites category (although he does get extra credit points everytime he randomly runs up to me, wraps his arms around me and says, "I lub you, mom, you my bes fren").  Maybe just maybe he'll get it all out of his system before the next little bundle of crying joy comes along.

LA Baby!

I didn't go into labor, much to the relief of my 10 honorary birthing coaches...we learned the hard way that a Subway located in a gas station is never a good idea...we laughed until we almost peed our pants in the McDonald's parking lot...after 3 failed attempts at good food we finally had a decent meal...we didn't get attacked by our sketchy "6 foot, 7 foot, 8 foot punch" hotel neighbor (who ended up being a church going family guy)...we shopped more in one day than I have the entire past month...thankfully the world didn't come to an end on May 21st as predicted by the crazies...we enjoyed the magic of Hollywood with shoulder to shoulder sweaty tourists and creepy guys dressed up trying to make a buck...we thought 11 obnoxious hot mamas would be enough to get us front row seats at the Jay Leno show, but we were lucky to barely get in and enjoy our nosebleed seats...We were hoping they would secure the likes of Justin Timberlake, Usher or The Beibes on the Tonight Show.  Instead we got Kirstie Alley, whoop....I forget that unlike Gilbert, every other woman in LA is not pregnant and I can't count how many times strangers commented on my belly (like the lady who asked me how I got pregnant and then continued to lecture me, if only my fingers weren't too swollen to wear my wedding ring)...not getting cited for jay walking across 4 lanes of traffic in front of a cop is always a good thing....eating Crumbs cupcakes in the middle of the night after some questionable Mexican food is not a good thing...I really tried to not pull the pregnancy card but when my friends volunteered a foot massage I didn't hesitate for a second and it was heavenly....contrary to popular belief, you do not get sick from fettucini alfredo that has been sitting in the car for hours and then reheated in a gas station microwave (we had some serious food issues on this trip)....to sum it up: we slept in, ate like crap, shopped our hearts (and feet) out, we chose girl talk over sleep every night and we have enough inside jokes to keep us laughing for a loooong time now. I had the best time with these girls and can't wait until the next girls trip!

Spoiled

I have the greatest friends.  I was emberassed and excited to have so much attention for this little guy.  It is my 4th kid and my 3rd boy, but who doesn't get giddy over brand new itty bitty onesies and a lifetime supply of diapers?  It meant so much that they put this together for me and I had a hard time keeping my high pitched voice in check while opening the gifts, but I did my best. It got me so excited to meet this little guy and put his tiny little bum in those tiny little diapers. Thanks so much ladies, you guys are the best!!

Amy was the fabulous host, the decorations were adorable and the food was delicious. 

This little girl was thrilled to be a part of the party and was especially thrilled to be the official photographer of the night.  This may not have been the best idea since I ended up with about 50 pictures like the one below and the other ones made me look like I had a double chin--there is definately proof that pictures taken from a higher angle are much more slimming.  It was fun having her there, another advantage of being the only girl :)

Melissa made this amazing diaper cake, have you ever seen anything like it??  Amazing.

These ladies did so much to help out also.  Spoiled I tell you, spoiled.

Mountain men

Jayden is not a man of many words, these are the important facts he told me over the phone on the way home from the fathers and sons camping trip:

1. He went on the zipline.

2. "you will be so happy with us, we went on a hike and it was a beautiful view and we remembered to take a picture"

3. Somebody was kidnapped

WHAT?!  Apparently on the way up there was an Amber Alert somewhere in Phoenix and when Jason explained to him what that meant he was so distraught about it and had a hard time sleeping that night. That's the first thing he told Kylie when he walked in the door and then they both bombarded me with questions about why people kidnap kids.  Such a hard question to answer, I sugar coated it and said that usually it was just custody stuff, how could I tell them the reality of why people abduct little kids?  Such a sick, sad, scary world. After that I told Jason he was banned from listening to the news with the kids (or me) in the car because not only does talk radio do very little for any man's sex appeal, but the news can be scary.  That is why Inside Edition is my only news source. Atleast it didn't seem to ruin the entire weekend, they had such a great time and when I asked Jayden what his favorite part was, without hesitation he said, "all of it!" Good answer.

Is it normal for hammocks to be only 2 inches from the ground?  I would hate to see a big guy in there.

Kylie and I had a fun girls night (with Maddox as an honorary girl) while they were away.  We, along with about 20 other moms and daughters got together at our friends house for food, Just Dance, games, the Justin Bieber movie and lots and lots of screaming.  I'm pretty sure Nicole was having party planning remorse after seeing the soda spilt on her carpet and chocolate smeared on her couch.  It was a fun night and hopefully she (and her house) eventually recover! And just for the record, I won musical chairs. Nobody dared push a pregnant lady.