Seriously Funny!

Saw this blog by a Labor and Delivery Nurse on my friend Julie's blog:

http://itsababynotbrainsurgery.blogspot.com/

And I thought I had heard it all from working with so many birthmoms... many of them who come with crazy stories!

The Tri-Athlete

Jeremy did another triathlon yesterday. In the past he has just done sprint triathlons. This one was an olympic triathlon. Here is what he did:

Swam 1 mile in Lake Saquaro (yikes - I would be so scared of fish getting me!)
Biked 30 miles
Ran 5.5 miles (through mountain trails!)

Isn't he amazing??!! He was supposed to ride his bike by my parents' neighborhood so the kids and I were camped out ready to take pictures and cheer him on. Well him and another group of riders missed the turn-off and took the long route so they didn't come by us. Maya was really bummed to not see her daddy "win the race." Hopefully next time!

Where we have been...

The kids and I spent the last 3 days with 2 of my closest friends and their kiddos. We met through an online adoption hair care group 2 1/2 years ago, but have since become great friends. We email daily and get together when we can. Kiara lives in Phoenix and Elise lives in California. When we first met we would meet up in California when Kiara and I were there visiting family. Since I moved to AZ, Kiara and I have gotten together more often. Elise visits once a year and we love it!!

Although at times it was crazy with 8 kids (ages 6, 5, 3, 3, 3, 1, 1, and 11 months), overall we had a great time! It helps that all 3 of us parent the same so the battles were minimized. We even had an award for the mom of the feistiest child. It was our little joke the whole time, saying things like, "You are ahead for that tantrum" or "I am about to win that trophy." Very funny and our way of dealing with the strong-spirited ones! :)

Of course we did hair

Aren't these girls the cutest?!

What a task to get all of them to look at the camera!

Swimming and picnicking at my parents

The babies!

Disneyland Pics

Minnie Mouse!

She acted shy, but loved it!

One of his many "stroller naps"

Snacking while in line for Autopia

Maya went in to give Pluto a kiss on his nose and he opened up - it scared her to death!! :)

Waving at the characters in the parade

She absolutely loved this turkey bone - nasty!

All of the kiddos
The kids loved running around outside of our room.

Maya and Aunt Tiff

They loved cooling off in the water at A Bug's Land (Oh and we also saw Weird All Yankovic at A Bug's Land. Jeremy yelled, "Weird Al" and he turned and help up "Peace" to him :)

Kenyon chased these ducks around forever!

Great Nana

Cuddle time with Nana

Disneyland

We just got back from a fun-filled trip to Disneyland. The Happiest Place on Earth was happy most of the time, but there were also times I wondered why we took our young kids there. It was a lot of work! Maya loved it and Kenyon just looked around as if to ask, "What is going on here?!" Here are some of the highlights:

Maya and Jeremy drove with my parents, but Kenyon and I flew there. Jeremy said that $100 was worth it for our sanity - he is not so great in the car still! The drive went smooth until they had just picked us up at the airport and we were headed to the hotel. All of the sudden the car wreaked of throw up. We turned around to find that Maya had thrown up all over herself, her car seat, and the little DVD player that she was watching her movie on. It was EVERYWHERE and she had not even said anything, just kept watching her movie. That is so Maya - she loves her movies and has a high tolerance for pain!

We went to Disneyland Thursday and California Adventure on Friday. Some of my family and some of Jer's family was there. We stayed at a hotel right next to Disneyland so it was nice to be able to go back and forth. On Saturday we went shopping at H&M (love that store!) and that evening we met up with Jeremy's family at Chuck E Cheese's. We also got to go see his Nana who has not been well so that was really special for her to see our kids.

Overall, the trip was a success. Maya says her favorite part was the parade and the roller coaster (the Matterhorn) and Kenyon's was playing with and chasing around cousin Olivia (they were so cute together!). I will post some pictures very soon!

The Big Day

The time had come to cut Kenyon's hair! With swimming season upon us, I felt bad every time we swam and his hair was falling into his eyes. So my friend Debbie cut it off today. I got really sad about it all and even saved an envelope of curls. He sat so still because he had never had a sucker before and Deb gave him one. He is so grown up! Thanks Deb for taking him on! :)

Did you notice the hair stuck to the sticky drool under his mouth?! Yummy!

Our Weekend

Swam

Played in the fountains

Watched a concert (Maya made friends that she danced with)
Wished grandpa a Happy Birthday

Our life is good!

Maternity/Delivery Gowns and Belly Bands

Nope - I don't need either of these products :), but my cute friend Niki is selling these adorable maternity/delivery gowns and belly bands for all of you preggos out there! They would make a cute shower gift. The gowns look so cute they almost make me want to get pregnant... only for a second. There is a reason I can't get pregnant - a paper cut about kills me for a week!! :)

If you would like to place an order, email Niki at: gregandniki@qwest.net by THURSDAY 4/17/08.

MNO

It used to be GNO for girls' night out, but now it is MNO for moms' night out. Tonight we had one! I went out with Niki and Shantel (my friends from high school in Utah that live here now) and we had a ball. Dinner, pedicures and gelato for dessert. We decided we need to do this every Friday night!

Thanks girls for a fun night!! And thanks Jer for keeping the kiddos... and Kyle for watching them until Jer got home!

Pictures

I have been a blogging fool today! :) Jeremy has worked nights all week and was finally home tonight. What a difference it makes to have a hubby around to help - Thus the reason for 3 posts in one day!

Auburn took pics of my kids a couple of weeks ago and I haven't had a chance to post them. Here they are: Kenyon's 1 year old and Maya's 3 year old!

SCARY!!

She loves this fake smile! :)

For my own sake in remembering why both of my kids had face injuries in these pictures - Maya's cheek is from when she fell off of the sled into the icy snow nearly 3 months ago and Kenyon's nose is from nearly falling into my mom's pool and he scraped it on the edge of the rock. We have had many injuries lately - ahhh!

Vote, Vote, Vote for Deanna!!!

My friend Deanna entered a modeling contest for Go Gilbert’s New Top Model. She was selected as one of the top four finalists. Last month there was a photo shoot with the four of them and the time has come for everyone to vote for their favorite!

The magazine just hit thousands of Gilbert homes today with the pics from the photo shoot. One of the girls (the one with orange hair) is still in high school so she's going to have thousands of votes right there. Sidenote: Deanna is the only Mama, is dang hot and even has given birth to 2 children! Besides that, she is really sweet so I want her to win!! :)

Deanna needs ALL of your votes to win! Please vote once from EVERY email account you have AND pass this on to your friends and family too.

The email address you need to send your vote to is:
ggmodel-finalists@yahoo.com

and in the subject line just put :
Vote for Deanna Gifford

Thanks!

Tagged - Top 10 Restaurants

Shannan tagged me so here I go!

1. Kimo's in Maui - Right on the ocean, amazing seafood and yummy hula pie for dessert!

2. Baja Cantina in Park City - The TJ Taxi is delicious! I can't wait until we are there this summer!!

3. King's Fish House in Tempe - We tried this out recently and the Parmesan-crusted swordfish was to die for!!

4. Cafe Rio (or Taco Rio as Maya calls it) - Chicken salad with black beans and the cilantro dressing - mmmmm!

5. Joe's BBQ in Gilbert - Love the BBQ meat, the mac and cheese and that your kids can run around on the grass while you eat on picnic tables!

6. Chili's - I don't love everything about Chili's, but there are certain times that I get a strong craving for the queso dip and we have to go!

7. Chick-Fil-A - I know what you are thinking, it is fast food! However, they are the most kid-friendly joint around. Some of the highlights: toddler play area, clorox wipes hooked onto the high chairs, sticky place mats to stick to the table so the kids can't pull them off, diapers and wipes in the bathrooms and so much more!

8. Saute in Gilbert - Unfortunately this restaurant is no longer open, but they had a stuffed chicken breast that my mouth still waters for!

9. The Barcellona in Scottsdale - Not somewhere we could visit often ($$$), but my dad took us for my birthday last year and the food and ambiance was exquisite! I couldn't believe that one of the limos waiting out front afterwards wasn't for me! :)

10. Paradise Bakery - Now that it is less than a mile from our house, we meet friends for lunch there often. I love, love, love the tomato soup!

I just realized that we don't go out to nice restaurants too often - mostly restaurants that are just a step above fast food :).

I tag: Niki, Kyle, Mariel, Courtney and Tricia

Texas

I had never been to Texas... until yesterday! Came here for work to help facilitate an adoption. Amazingly courageous birthmom, stinkin' cute baby and a very happy adoptive couple.

I have the best job!

Father of the Year

Today was one of those days where as soon as Jer walked in the door, I fed them dinner and walked out the door for Bahama Bucks to get a shaved ice and have some alone time.

This is what I came home to:

What a man! Oh and the kids are in their swimsuits because a little earlier I turned on this:

The Dentist - Part 2

Yuck! She really chewed that lip up and has not even complained about it since!

Happy Birthday Kenyon!

Today is Kenyon's big day. My sister-in-law and I were saying how more than anything the first birthday is to congratulate the parents on surviving. I feel like this is a big accomplishment!! :)

We had a little party last week for him when my brother's family was in town. We had friends and family over for cake and ice cream. It is not Kenyon's favorite thing to have a big party so he was pretty fussy and Maya, on the other hand, loved it. He would not even eat his little cake. He just kept signing "All done" and wanting me to get him out of his seat. Oh well - there is always next year to eat birthday cake!

Today we are taking it easy and doing things Kenyon likes. We played toys this morning, met some friends for lunch at the park and tonight we will go do something Kenyon likes such as playing at the play area at the mall. Should be fun to celebrate with just our immediate family!

Here are some birthday pics:

When Maya was a baby, I went on a trip to China. I got this amazing birthday candle that popped open and played the music to "Happy Birthday to You." I never thought I would find one for Kenyon, but a fellow blogger had posted pics of one on her blog so I tracked them down and bought one. He just stared at it with no expression!

Not loving it!

He had lots of helpers with birthday presents.

Loving all of the bubbles from his new bubble machine!

I have started the tradition of writing a letter to my kids on their birthdays. Here it is so you can stop reading at this point! :)

Hey Kenyon!

I can't believe you are 1 already! It seems like just yesterday we found out you had been born and caught the next plane to Florida. It was so exciting! There was a lot of drama surrounding your adoption that has happened over the past year, but it has just solidified our feelings for you - We are completely head over heels in love with you! Even when you were so colicky and took months and months and months to sleep through the night, we still loved you!

I love to watch your little personality develop. You make the silliest faces that make us all laugh. The way your crinkle your nose is just too cute! I used to think you were going to be on the sensitive side and not as much of a dare devil as your sister, but you are proving me wrong. Last week you loved swimming and especially loved to go underwater and then last night we took you to some water fountains and you ran right through them and even stuck your face in them. You had no fear!

You were pretty attached to me before I went to Hawaii for a week and since then you are much more independent. I love to see you waddling around the house looking for what trouble you can get into next. You are especially loving to stick your hands in the toilet if we leave the toilet seat up. If I tell you "uh-oh" and move you away, you smile a cheesy smile and cay "uh-oh" right back to me in your deep, deep voice. You know you are in trouble, but think you can smile your way out of it!

You love to play with other kids and especially with Maya. When you get up in the morning before she does, you walk down to her bedroom door and yell, "Maaa." Then when she wakes up, you attack her in her bed. I love to watch the 2 of you together!

So Kenyon, on this first birthday, live it up! Heck - I might even let you stay up until 8:15 tonight! We love you so much and can't imagine our family without you in it. We feel like the luckiest parents to have been blessed with you in our lives!

Happy Birthday Kenyon!