Easter 2011

Easter was a blast as usual, especially for all of the kids. It was bittersweet this year though. We celebrated at my sister's park next to her house and this was the first Easter since her step-son, Josh, was killed in a motorcycle accident. We all had a heavy heart that day but we did manage to enjoy being with our close family and friends.

The night before we colored eggs. The kids woke up early and to get their goodies left by the Easter Bunny. Later in the morning we went over to my sisters to set up for our fun family day. We have a potluck every year and we all bring games and activities to do. This year we brought a humungous pinata to celebrate all of the Spring birthday in the family. We had silly string, bocci ball, bean bag toss, a train ride, over 300 water balloons, squirt guns, etc. At the end of the day, we even had a sand volleyball tournament. My boys talked about playing volleyball with their cousins and all of the adults for days afterward.

Making fun memories with friends and family is what holidays are all about. Easter has become one of my very favorite days of the year. Thanks Hil for making it so much fun for everyone!

Weekend Getaway

We had a blast in Vegas! We arrived on Saturday afternoon, after a short 45 minute flight. We are never ever driving to Vegas again. Saving 3 hours of drive time was well worth the airfare! The hotel was beautiful, our room was perfect. We upgraded to a suite. We could have had our entire family stay in that room comfortably! It was huge. I highly recommend the Paris hotel. Very nice, great location and a good price!

Funny story- Our bathroom had a bidet...you know, those cool sink-like things that you sit on in the bathroom....the hiney cleaner. Anyway, I turned on the water to warm it up and try it out! Bryan was standing right there of course. Totally sprayed myself in the face with the bidet water. Then I got images of some nasty herpes infected person sitting on it. Ewwww! I hope those maids disinfected that thing! It was pretty funny though, Bryan was rolling.

We spent two days alone together going to fancy restaurants, walking the strip and gambling. Bryan is a table kind of guy whereas I would prefer the slots. Bryan is always really lucky. He won quite a bit. I, on the other hand, am not so lucky. I lost his winnings. We make a great team!

The highlight of our trip was eating at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. Very fancy. It's at the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel. They sat us in the window facing the Bellagio Fountains at sunset. Very romantic. The menu was all french dishes and our waiter even spoke french. The food was delish. We both ordered Filet Mignon, shared scallops and croquets. For dessert we had the chocolate souffle. Mmmmm, my mouth is watering now. It was well worth the money to have a once every 5 year kind of dinner with my husband.

By the time Sunday rolled around, I was ready to get back on that plane to see my babies! I missed them like crazy but had such a wonderful time away. Every couple needs to get away alone once in a while!

Excited!

The past few months have been so busy with working and everyday life, I'm excited for our weekend getaway to Vegas! Bryan and I fly out on the 30th and stay for 3 days. We haven't been away on vacation ALONE since I was pregnant with Andrew.....5 years ago! We are staying at "Paris". We really like the atmosphere and I've always wanted to eat at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant! Pictures coming soon!

We're No Longer.....

A two van family! When we bought our new van a few months ago, we were still pretty upside-down in our old van so we decided to just keep it and continue paying on it. We traded it in last night and finally got a new car! Just in time too, the van was leaking and there was a mysterious noise coming from the steering wheel. Hmmm.....

Anyway, we got a new car! We decided on a Honda because my brother-in-law has one and really loves it. Plus, they are great on gas, and with gas prices approaching $4 a gallon, that's a must!

It took us about 3 hours from the time we walked in until the time we drove out of there. I attribute that to doing our shopping online, knowing EXACTLY the car we wanted and the price we needed it to be at. The people at San Tan Honda were wonderful. We brought all three kids. They had an enclosed play area and free drinks and snacks. My kids were happy, which means we were happy.

In the end, we walked out with the car we wanted at (almost) the price we wanted. We added in warranties and the alarm.

The car is a 2009 Honda Accord with 16K miles on it. It is black (the ONLY thing I didn't like but that's okay, it had everything else we wanted), tan leather interior, navigation, blue tooth, heated seats, sun roof, all the options. It's a really nice car! So happy to have a smaller car to drive when I don't have the kids with me. Bryan's happy to drive it to work too. No more 2 vans! Yay!

Here's the car....

Working Is A Lot Harder Than I Thought!

I never ever thought being a working mom would be easy but it's a lot harder than I expected. My job itself is demanding but the most difficult part of working is the time I am missing with my kids! I miss them like CRAZY. Connor had his first field trip yesterday and I was unable to attend because I had a class. :( I am off today, tomorrow and Saturday. I spent today trying to catch up on chores, parent/teacher conferences and we're going car-shopping tonight. I did get to spend some quality time with my kids though. This morning I took Drew and Taylor to McDonalds to play for breakfast and this afternoon I played the game "Life" with Connor and Andrew. It makes me sad that I am missing that time with them....time that I will never get back. I am just lucky that I got to spend the last 6 years of my life at home with them though. Hopefully once my training is finished, it will get easier!



Speaking of training. Holy breastfeeding classes, Batman. I think I pretty much know all there is to know about breastfeeding at this point. A big part of my job is educating families. I'm so glad I have the education myself to be able to teach these women. It does get hard though to sit through 4+ hour training classes on breastfeeding. I've breastfed for 3+ years of my life.....it gets a bit repetitive. They should be requiring these classes of the new parents! That would make my job a whole lot easier. Imagine....a world of new moms that don't say things like "I'm not producing any milk (on their 1st post-partum day)" or "the baby doesn't like breastfeeding, he likes the bottle better". Really folks?

Besides the fact that I am missing my kids and husband, my job is going awesome. So far I have received 4 Star Recognition nominations since I've started. A Star Recognition is when a patient nominates you because you were an outstanding nurse. They have to write a short paragraph on why they nominated you and then you get put into a drawing at the end of the year for a free vacation. Last year was a cruise to Alaska. I'm winning this year....I decided. :)

Potty Training

Taylor's second birthday is fast approaching and I figured it's time to start the dreaded potty training. She definitely shows signs of readiness. She tells me when she pees, she hides when she poops and if I take her diaper off, she won't pee on the floor. What's the problem then, you ask? She HATES the potty. I can barely get her to sit on it, much less pee in it. I think she's afraid of it. Really, half the battle, in my experience at least, is getting the kid to pee on the potty the first time. Both my boys were 100% daytime potty trained by the time they were 2. I think Taylor is going to be more difficult. She's extremely stubborn.....like me.

I've tried all of the tricks. She will sit on the potty now without freaking out because I started out rewarding her for sitting. We sit and read books on the potty, I fill her up with water and juice and NOTHING. She refuses. She doesn't get rewarded for sitting anymore....now she has to potty....which she won't do. I have heard different suggestions....buy her a baby potty, just quit using diapers, etc. I refuse to buy a baby potty. She has a princess potty seat she puts on the toilet. I don't want to shell out $30 for a potty (that she will be equally as stubborn with), since I have been able to get her to sit on the toilet for free. Plus I feel like when you use a baby potty, then you have an extra step in training them because in public, there are no baby potties. I am too lazy to quit diapers all together just yet. If I could just get her to pee ONCE I think we'd be in the clear! Oh, well. As long as she's trained before she goes to school, right? LOL!

I need to get better about taking pictures!

Maybe I just need a new camera to keep me motivated to take pictures! LOL! We've done so much this month but I have no pictures to show for it so I'll just give a quick update.

The kids went back to school and resumed their activities. Andrew is progressing well in gymnastics and I think he will be soon moving up to the boys novice gymnastics team for kids 5-7. He just turned 4 so that's pretty neat!

Connor is still in running club at his school his first race was last week. There were almost 400 Chandler school kids participating, Kindergarten-6th grade. He came in around 230...which is actually pretty good since he's only in Kindergarten! GOOOO Connor!!

Taylor started a mommy and me preschool class at a nearby church. She really loved it. She was shy at first but by the end of class she was dancing in the middle of the circle while we were singing our goodbye song. I think she enjoys going to "school" like her brothers.

We signed the boys up for t-ball, it starts in March and goes until June. We probably could have signed Connor up for coach pitch but we wanted to try to keep the kids on the same team for convenience since I'm working now and Bryan has to do all of the running around when I'm not here. Then Connor starts ice hockey again at the end of June and then swim lessons start too! We're keeping the kids very busy!

I've been working at my new job 3 nights a week. Did I mention how much I love it?? LOL! It does get tiring working nights though. In a way it has actually brought us closer as a family. When I am off, we try and spend as much time as possible together. Last weekend we went to the Phoenix Zoo, to Tempe Marketplace for dinner and shopping. Then Bryan got out our bikes and pumped up the tires. We took a nice long family bike ride through our neighborhood with Taylor in the bike trailer. Then we practiced hitting and catching baseballs at the park. I've been exhausted but that's okay! My kids are happy.

Today I went to the dentist. The dreaded dentist. LOL! I don't have any cavities...good news! Bad news, one of my fillings is going bad and I need a crown. BOOO! I'm just glad I caught it before I needed the root canal. After I'm done with my dental work, I'm getting braces!! Yes, I'm 13. LOL! I have always wanted braces and I didn't get them as a kid. I've decided this is something I'm going to do for myself. A bright, straight smile.

Our family is also being blessed with a new baby. NO, I'm not pregnant but my sister-in-law is! Her little boy will be welcomed into this world sometime in June. I'm so excited for her and for me too! Now my kids will have a cousin to play with on my husband's side of the family. Maybe she'll let me babysit!

On a serious note, my brother-in-law's 21 year old son, Josh, was killed in a motorcycle accident a couple of weeks ago. He will be forever missed. Please pray for my sister and her family, for God to give them peace. This was such an unexpected tragedy and it makes me so sad to know that they are going through so much sadness right now. I love you Johnson family.

That's all for January, we're ready to take on February!