Happy Birthday Baby

SO here he is on his FIRST birthday. I can't believe my baby is one. I have to admit, his birthday wasn't all that Ellie's first birthday was. I think it's just the curse of being the second child --alas, I am also a second child and I can't even begin to explain what a horrific childhood I had ;). I didn't even wrap his presents. There were also no balloons, no huge special party just for him. . . I only got him two toys.

Part of me feels horrible mommy guilt, and then the practical side of me reminds myself that it doesn't matter! He's only one. He'll never remember and he doesn't need anything. Plus he's happy as can be with just two toys.

So happy birthday baby! You're just as adorable and sweet as ever. WE LOVE YOU!

Yup, doughnuts for breakfast. I think Nate got his sugar fill for a year this weekend. Doughnuts for breakfast was followed by corn bread and brownies for dinner (and maybe some chili), some leftover doughnut for lunch on Sunday (after green beans of course) and two kinds of cake for his birthday meal on Sunday.

We made the mistake of buying a cake for him. With all the leftover sugar in this house, he would have been fine with just that, but Dustin and Ellie really wanted him to have his own special cake. Then of course the HOA President brought over a cake as a thank you for putting together the block party. So now we had two cakes. Luckily we had invited over some friends who had a birthday last week as well (I swear I can name 10 people who had birthdays last week) so they helped eat down some of the cake and the rest I sent to work with Dustin today.

NO MORE CANDY!

The Block Party

Our block party was a HUUUGE success. At first we were a little nervous that it would only be our little group of friends and a few other LDS couples in our neighborhood, but we actually had an AWESOME turn out. Tons of food and it was so much fun. Everyone chatted and got to know eachother and the kids had the best time playing all the games (see Ellie swinging at the pinata? She swings like a girl).

Everyone was thrilled with how well it turned out. We all stayed until it was too dark to talk any longer. It was a good mix too. About half our neighborhood is young families and the other half are older retired couples who loooooved spoiling our kids. I don't think Dustin or I held Nate the entire evening and all the kids entertained themselves too, so we were child free.

We're doing it again in December too. Although, I hope someone else gets put in charge of it, because I am party-planning-ed out.

I'm also glad Ellie is getting such good use out of her Halloween costume. definitely worth the money if she's going to have a zillion parties to wear it too. Tonight is the last one, and I'm sure I'll have pictures tomorrow. We're doing a big potluck with 7 other families and then taking the kids Trunk-or-Treating. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Jill found these stinking cute potato sack bags. The kids were so darn adorable. Do you see how all the other mothers are helping their small children get into their potato sack? Notice that a neighbor is helping Ellie into hers? Oh well. Some one has to take the pictures.

A *fabulous* action shot for your viewing pleasure

Please note that as Ellie struggles, I continue to take pictures. Bad mom!

Halloween Party #3

This is possibly the world's worst picture, but I can't stop laughing when I look at it. Today was the playgroup Halloween party and I'm not sure what I was thinking. I had it all planned out in my mind and it was going to be so cute and organized. But I soon realized that 20+ kids under the age of 4 and the word "organized" don't really jive. The games quickly went out the window and we did what we do best -- let the kids run wild while we chatted. Overall, a huge success.

The picture is of all the kids old enough to sit up minus 3 little buddies who showed up late and Hayden and Abby who are out of town. But this is our usual friday group (it has gotten HUUUUUGE since 5 of us started it last year). I love how only Ethan is smiling and everyone else is either distracted or staring blankly. And the two in the corner crawling off screaming crack me up. Hopefully someone else has a better picture!

Picture update

I'm back from out of town and have realized that I've been neglecting this thing. So I thought I'd upload a few photos from our week so far.

Today's Dustin's birthday, so Ellie and I are off to make a cake. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

The Pumpkin Patch

This has got to be my least favorite activity of all time. It was dirty, crazy, crowded and Ellie was intent on driving me crazy. But we went, we did, we survived. Of course every one else we went with had a fabulous time, so I know there must be something fun about it. Nate eating the hay? Nope. Ellie crying the entire tractor ride? Nope. The smelly petting zoo? Nope. Getting paint all over while trying to paint pumpkins? Nope. The Bouce thingy packed with waaaaaay too many kids? OK, that was kind of nice because Ellie did enjoy it and I got to relax for a second.

I make it sound way worse than it was. I am sure it's actually really fun and lots of people I know love it, but it was just not the place I wanted to be Tuesday morning. Anyway, enjoy a picture from the place. There really aren't many to choose from since they refused to sit still for any of them. I could always find a few of Ellie throwing her tantrum on the hay ride that lasted foreeeeeever. I don't get how you can stuff 75 people on something so small.

Where'd he get that from?

So last night we get a call from an old friend. Dustin and he are talking on the phone catching up and comparing what the boys are going to be for Halloween. All of a sudden, I hear Dustin inform him that Nate is going to be a cheetah.

WAHHHHHH? Where did he get that from? Nate's going to be a dog (a shout out to my girl Kerry who handed it down to us). We (as DUSTIN and I) have put Nate in his dog costume before and I've mentioned to several people IN FRONT OF DUSTIN that Nate was going to be a dog. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

We actually do own a cheetah costume, but it's 18-24 months and seeing as Nate isn't one until Saturday, I thikn it would drown him. Maybe next year.

So of course after Dustin and I start discussing the cheetah costume, Ellie had to go get it out of her closet and dress up too. I can't believe she can still fit in that thing. It's from two Halloween's ago.

School Halloween party

Today was Ellie's pre-school Halloween party. She decided to wear her BYU cheerleading outfit instead of her Sleeping Beauty costume after she heard all the rules I had if she chose to wear her SleepingBeauty dress(like no eating, no playing in the dirt. . .). I thought she looked stinking cute in it!! And it worked out better anyway because it had to have been 90 degrees out today.

At the end of class the kids came out and did a little parade for us. The little boy with the Darth Vader costume has a little brother Nate's age who is giong as Yoda for Halloween -- so darn adorable. And his older brother is Ankin, his mom is Leah and his dad is being Han Solo. I am going on the record as saying that as much as I love my kids, I'm not sure we'll ever have a family costume for Halloween. But if we did, Star Wars would be the coolest.

PS Big shout out to Uncle Casey and Aunt Sarah who were so sweet and bought Ellie her cheerleading outfit as a gift. Ellie has the best Aunts and Uncles!!!

Cute cute Ellie and Ashley are such good little buddies. They are in Pre-School, Girl School and play group together. Although, no longer in the same ward. Believe it or not, Ashley's mom and I have known each other since I was a baby. It's so strange that I have so many friends down here who I knew in Oregon. And pretty cool too.

My Arizona Baby

This morning my girlfriend and were going walking at 8 am. It's been a little chilly in the mornings, so I checked the weather and sure enough it was only 68 degrees out (which is COLD if you live in Arizona). I decided to dress Ellie and Nate in pants and long sleeves to make sure they were plenty warm. Poor Nate hasn't worn pants or long sleeves since January, so the kid had no idea what was getting putting on him.

Poor little Arizona baby -- he doesn't even know what a long sleeve shirt is. He kept pulling on his sleeves and looking at them with wonder. Then the pants got on and he was even more confused. He'd pull on the bottoms and look at me quizically. I wonder what will happen the first time he wears a coat.

Why I am so tired

Let me recreate my night for you

8 pm Cuddle up with Dustin to watch Desparate Houswives. The house is clean, the kids are asleep, and we've got candy to munch on

10 pm Crawl into bed and fall asleep almost immediately (after a short conversation, but we'd been up late every night this weekend and we were beat).

Midnight What is that noise?? Wake up to hear Nate SCREAMING. Go into hold him and comfort him. Cralw back into bed at 12:30

2:30 More screaming. Nate is burning up, give him tylenol, hold him, put him back in bed and try to go back to sleep at 2:45

3:30 Once again, screaming. Close eyes hoping Dustin will hear baby and get up with him. Dustin continues snoring. Kick Dustin hoping that will wake him up. Dustin is startled, but falls back asleep quickly. Kick Dustin again and BEG him to get up with screaming son. Dustin who is still haldf asleep has no idea what is going on and needs step by step explanation of what he is awake for. Finally Dustin goes and gets Nate. He then sits in the squeaky rocking chair and rockes Nate. Yeah, that's going to put him to sleep. Fall back asleep at 3:50.

Meanwhile, Dustin decides that he doesn't want his alarm to wake me up and goes to sleep in the guest room as not to disturb me.

4:15 More crying. No one next to me to kick. Get out of bed and hold Nate. Get back to sleep almost within seconds of hitting the pillow.

5:15 Yes, he's up again. I'm soooooooo tired. Will he go back to sleep if I ignore him? No, go cuddle him, give him tylenol, kiss him and put him back down. I'm not even sure I made it back into bed before I fell asleep

6 am I decide to just ignore this time. My eyes are unable to open due to lack of sleep.

6:50 Ellie is up. Get her out of bedm give her a glass of orange juice and tell her to watch tv. Crawl back into bed.

6:55 Ellie is in my face. "Mom, I want some more juice."

7:00 Nate is awake. Time to get him up for the day.

8:00 Dustin is home from the gym, cralw back into bed and fall asleep for a power nap.

8:22 Stinking phone rings and wakes me up. I decide that Dustin should actually make an appearance at the office today and tell him I've got it under control.

Let's just say that today has been looooooooooong and very little is under control, but it's almost over.

Funeral flowers, my little "princess" and more

OK, I know people warned me about this "stage," but I'm about to pull my hair out. Ellie is trying to drive me to the point of insanity and she's not being shy about it. I am at my wit's end. Half of her toys are in the "garbage" right now (which means they're hidden in the garage). The other night after begging her to clean up her room (and even trying to help), I told her I was putting her toys in the trash. So what does she do??? Bends down to help me put them in the trash bag. AHHHH! So then the NEXt night, when her toys are all over the floor and I ask her to go pick them up, she says, "No mom, just put them in the trash." GRRRRRR! I'm doing it again tonight. Pretty soon she's not going to have any toys to play with.

Other than that, my stressful week is almost over. The funeral meal went perfectly (I loved how the center pieces turned out) and everyone was so helpful. My turn at Girl School is over for the month. PHEW! Ellie and Lexia had a great time playing together and tomorrow's activity will be over soon enough. I'm so excited for the weekend.