In a child's mind

As you know we are in the midst of potty training, and doing pretty successful so far with it.

So yesterday, after 40 long days, we finally got a little rain and actual fall type day. I had the kids out in the backyard for a couple hours prior to the rain, and then the rain started and Griffin came up to me with the best analogy.

Griffin: "Mama, you don't go potty in your underwear, like the rain."
Me: "Yeah, you don't go potty in your underwear."
Griffin: "The rain didn't go in the potty, did it?"
Me: "No, you are right."
Griffin: "The rain went potty on the grass and sidewalk, but that's okay."
Me: "Yeah, that's okay, do you have to go potty now??" (as he was doing the "pee-pee" dance)
Griffin: "Yeah!"

Off we went inside..

Oh, to see the world again through the eyes of a 2 year old...

The next color...

Well as you can see his nose is now a shade of green with a hint of purple, but it is looking better.

As for my little girl, it has been a struggle of wills today as she is so desperately trying to crawl. She is just so anxious to play with her brother. She is getting up in more of a "push-up" position and then falls forward, it is only a matter of time...

Tim is coming home tonight and his plane has been delayed, so every little noise we hear outside you see Griffins little body run to the window and press his face against the window. Then he yells, "Daddy, Daddy, where are you??" It is just so amazing to me how much has changed in the last 5 days, Tim has yet to see Griffins new battle wounds or to see the progress that McKenna is making on her mission to move. Everyone is excited to see him and share of all our adventures of the last week, and Griffin has many things to tell his Daddy. He says he is going to tell him about his nose, the doctor took a picture of it, the M&M's, helicopters, elephants (at rainforest cafe), M&M's (yes, again), Maggie (my aunt's dog), and M&M's (as you can tell he is very excited about this part), and the slide at the park, and airplanes, and M&M's. So I hope that Tim doesn't want to talk to much when he gets home because Griffin has alot to say.

Viva Las Vegas

Wow, I don't even know where to begin on this one. Tim was out of town yet again for work so I decided that what better way to spend that time than to go up to Vegas and visit some much loved and missed family. My Aunt Diane (who I think of more like a sister than an aunt), and my cousin Deidre and Danielle live up in Vegas, so my Mom and I packed up the car on off we went. We got up there and the first night we were there we were all sitting in the living room and catching up and Griffin was running around the room being the main event. He was making McKenna laugh this great belly laugh and then BOOM. Down he went face first on the tile. I was holding McKenna, so I ran over and handed her off and scooped up Griffin within seconds. I walked about 3 feet to get into the light and I said to myself, why him? Why, Why Why? His nose immediately bruised and started to swell. I thought without a doubt that it was broken, so my aunt and I loaded him up in the car and began our journey to the ER, his nose started to bleed, but thank goodness not that bad.

I called Tim on the way, knowing that making that phone call was frustrating for all 3 of us because Griffin and I wanted him there and Tim was still in Phoenix and not with us, not knowing exactly what was going on. But into the ER Diane and I went with my poor babe. However, this little man with a swelling and throbbing nose and long bruise beginning to appear on his forehead, dictated to the nurse how to take all his vitals as we did the first steps in checking in. A two year old should not know these things. But the good news is with some cool X-rays that Griffin was impressed with, some Motrin, ice and two Popsicles the doc said no broken nose.

He had an orange Popsicle, can you tell?

The next morning it looked better, but since then the bruise has been getting bigger and changing colors, so Griffin is having fun looking at the new color in the morning. But wow, we spent the next day on the strip, going to the M&M store (mmm...) and Griffin experienced the Rainforest Cafe for the first time and the double takes at his nose and then at me have been fun.

The good news is that Griffin decided half way through lunch at the Rainforest cafe, with the bathrooms up a long flight of stairs, that he was ready to make a real go at potty training so we are making successful steps in that world.

We also got to see the lions at the MGM and the wedding chapel that my parents got married at almost 28 years ago.

McKenna had a good time too, she is so close to crawling she can't stand it. I am sure that is only days away.

We had great fun, had a long drive home, but what an experience.

Happy Halloween

We hope that your Halloween was

Messy

Out of this world

Surprising

All together Happy!

oh happy day

My sister got married last weekend and what a day. Many times events like these don't go without tension, anxiety, some sort of panic; which took place is small doses throughout the week. However, never have I attended an event where it was just a pure, joyous event. They were married in a small church in downtown Glendale and then we were able to walk across the street to the Spicery for the reception. One of the best moments was when Griffin was in his tux, walking down the aisle, until he saw me about started to run about 4 pews away.

Jessica and I worked at the same place until I quit to stay home, but I got to spend a great deal of time with one of my favorite former co-workers, and catching up on old office happenings is always a good time!

The thing that I love about my sister is that she is who she is, take her or leave her. The theme of the wedding was "The Corpse Bride", which some would say is unconventional, however, this is who she is, it is what she loves, and so does Tyler, her husband. So there were skeleton soaps as party favors, a corpse bride cake, skeleton lights and so on, and it was perfect.

Yeah for the official addition to our family.

A break in the hustle of life...

As we have been so busy with just life in general we have been blessed to take a few steps back here and there and really enjoy it.

We got to experience feeding time at the zoo...

We were able to head up north and breathe in a little October air and immerse ourselves in some very missed fall foliage...

And feeling grateful that my Dad took off yesterday to watch my babes so I could go with my mom and sisters to experience some much needed girly time in preparation for my sisters big day, which is tonight...

A True Gift

It is in the eyes of a child that you can experience a true excitement, curiosity, a true and honest joy, happiness a true amazement. As a we grow we seem to loose a piece of that genuine emotion. So today I was given this gift to see all those emotions in the eyes and face of my son. My mom I took the kids to the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the Butterfly exhibit. I was so excited to get him ready this morning and tell him all about our day, the entire ride over he was only talking about the butterflies that he was inevitably going to see. It wasn't until we got there that I realized that the things that we think that our kids will be so impressed with can be a minute piece of the gigantic picture, in the eyes of a child. Inside the butterfly exhibit there was a pond with goldfish, as we were pointing out the butterflies scattered all around us, Griffin kept wanting to look at the pond and the "fishies" and even asked if he could get in the pond. So I had to say to myself, that is really exciting for him even with hundreds of butterflies flying all around us.

Later on we found our way to these amazing sculptures that you could walk around and through and as Griffin was running through these, the happiness and excitement was expelling from every ounce of his body. You could see the intimidation of the first couple of steps as these sculptures were enormous, but then the giggles and light in his eyes were indescribable. However, the most excited part of his day came when an army helicopter flew over and he was beside himself, so excited, screaming "helicopter, helicopter mama."

So as we were driving away I asked him if he had fun and told me that he wanted to tell daddy all about the helicopter. I thought that the butterflies were amazing though. So today I learned a valuable lesson in living in the moment and letting my children help guide the way.

However, Griffin was impressed with our decision to stop for lunch and ice cream after our adventure...