And...a moment to breathe!

It has been a little bit since I have posted a GOOD blog (much like my friend Tiff, we are JUST TO BUSY and life is JUST TO HECTIC!). Of course good busy and good hectic, but busy and hectic none the less!

So here I sit, at an "undisclosed place" and I have a few moments to jot down what we have been up to the last few weeks since the move. We moved in 15 days ago to be exact and its SLOWLY starting to feel like home. We have the girls room some what set up and although I haven't posted ANY pics of the new home I have decided this is because I only want everyone to see FINISHED results (in hopes that this will push me to get to decorating!). The first week was rough in itself. The dogs totally tore up the back yard, just after we had laid grass seed down and I was so close to getting rid of them that I even posted an ad on Craigs List. Even I have my breaking point when it comes to animals. HOWEVER, as soon as people started ACTUALLY replying I realized that getting rid of them would only ever be a thought and my backyard will have to sit on the back burner until we put up a fence! UGH, anyone who knows me knows I hate to wait on ANYTHING, especially when it's something I want as bad as a LAWN! If I miss ANYTHING from CA more than friends it HAS to be grass. I want my kids to KNOW what grass is. So far, Rian is more afraid of grass on his toes than welcoming and I HAVE to break that!

Anywho, outside of that we haven't even had many visitors to our house except for my Bro Alex who ALSO turned 21 on the 18th. I have been a bad sister, no birthday celebration so far for him, but I am sure we will surprise him with something. Stinky guy had to leave the weekend of his birthday but hey, just means he gets to prolong the birthday celebrating.

The girls have some friends that live in our neighborhood and we have had some good sleepovers, where I ACTUALLY get some sleep. We invested in a bunk bed with a FULL size bed on the bottom and what a great investment it was. Makes sleepovers so much easier. Not to mention now we have a loft and a TV up there so we ACTUALLY get to sit in our living room and have adult time while all the kids play upstairs! WOOHOO! Rian is actually loving all the moving around he can do and is quite the busy guy and although there are days when we want to send Neya to Boarding School she teaches us new things every day. Here is a funny story in case anyone isn't quite awake yet!

Scene: Sitting at a Starbucks Grocery Store location....
Who is around: me, the kids, and a couple Starbucks workers and ONE lonely innocent bystander...

I got Neya and Rian milk and this is the conversation that followed:

Neya: Mom, my milk tastes like a cow
Mommy: (being funny) Oh yeah, your milk tastes like a hamburger...
Neya: (being SERIOUS) NO MOM! (sigh) the milk kind of cow, not the hamburger kind

(At this point I am totally trying to take her and this conversation serious as she is NOT even cracking a smile)

Mommy: oh I see. (trying my best to just let the conversation trail off)
Neya:How does the cow make chocolate milk?
Mommy: Well, it comes from....(she cuts me off)

(Here folks is where each day that I am a mom, I realize its TOTALLY worth it in an odd yet VERY amusing way...)

Neya: Oh I know...it comes from the cows butt!!

To this of course, everyone stares at me, I start to laugh, then I peer down at Neya with her little tiny self who is TOTALLY proud that she figured this out (and QUITE serious faced by the way) and I say...in my best mom voice...Well Neya, that isn't quite where it comes from but thats a good thought...

and she says: I know mom, I am SOO smart
(then takes off drinking her milk happy as a clam)

When I look around I get two nods and a grin, and I think...what a successful parenting day!

So that my friends is what we have been up to. I am looking forward to a VERY quick trip to CA to visit Gabe, Tiff, Noah and Aaden and of course all of our other family and friends as well.

I was going to leave out ANOTHER very good and HILARIOUS story but I think I might have to add if for any reason...just to make everyone else feel as though they are normal...

Scene: Sunday, same starbucks as the previous story, in fact same 15 minute period...
Who was around: Same folks

SO I go through all of this in the Starbucks with Neya and in my haste to get milk into Rian's cup and all that jazz, we begin to walk to the car and once we get there I realize...shoot...I forgot my keys in Starbucks. Go to walk back and when we get there, the keys are gone and NO ONE has turned them into Lost and Found. LAME.

We call RC, my darling DARLING husband and tell him the situation. He so nicely calls a locksmith he knows, comes down, gets us all situated and then we begin to wait. Mind you we live in AZ and the heat is KILLER and yet...there we sit, waiting for this LOVELY gentleman to make me a new key. TO my surprise my key costs us a BOAT LOAD of money as it has some fancy anti theft chip in it and of course we have no spare. OF COURSE. Well once I found out that news I was sort of in a bad mood but still not totally upset as it was my own fault anyways, and so we wait. After roughly 5-6 hours (I don't know exactly what time I lost my keys) we FINALLY get a key made and a chip coded. Let me tell ya, if you have a Mazda make sure you have a spare, APPARENTLY They are so hard to figure out it took THREE...yes I said it...THREE locksmiths to figure it all out and get my key made! Haha.

We finally get home and I make it an In n Out Dinner night and think to myself...even though MOST other people might have thought it STRESSFUL to sit in the parking lot with their 3 kids, in the heat and wait for the ability to take their car home with a successfully made key after ALMOST SIX HOURS, what did we do and think...well...we thought...that was quite fun and we EVEN took pics while were hanging out in the parking lot. I know. What an odd bunch, but it is how we make all our fun little adventures FUN. haha.

P.S. I do still blame RC for my lost keys as SUNDAYS are supposed to be his day off, my day to kinda gain back my brain from the HECTIC weeks mommywork and WORK work....and he had to cover another guys shift. So OF COURSE had I gotten my break I would NEVER have lost my keys...or at least that is what I tell myself!

Now here are some pics to make this BLOG entry even MORE enjoyable :)

Sleepover Pics

Random Pics of Rian TOTALLY LOVING the vacuum

Some pics from our FUN time waiting for my car key to be remade! The pic of Rian is TOTALLY goofy but shows ALL his little teeth (including his little fangs. haha.

4 hours!!!!

So the last two days we packed up and moved our house. I have been in the process of "moving" now for about a month. Getting everything packed, cleaned etc. I know, the moving is always the easiest and shortest but I swear leading up to that moment seems to take FOREVER.

Either way, in 4 hours, me, RC and 2 other folks managed to KNOCK OUT the loading and unloading of our house in less than half a day. In fact it only took 4 hours! CRAZY. I will be posting pics soon of the new place, and don't talk smack when you realize how little furniture we have. LOL.

Welcome to the World Noah and Aaden!

Congrats to Gabe and Tiffany Snook who welcomed their twin boys on 9/12/2009!

Noah Warren Snook
5lbs 8oz
18 3/4 inches
11:03pm on 9/12/2009

Aaden Parker Snook
5lbs 14oz
19 9/4 inches
11:04pm on 9/12/2009

Rian's Birthday Party In AZ

So it has been VERY hectic since his birthday TWO weekends ago but here are just a few pics from what went on. He did pretty well, didn't hit any kids or body slam anyone who happened to be laying on the floor. Haha. We did get some funny pics of him eating his cake.

The whole "Gang" Xander, Neya, Jack, Carina, Jaiden, Aubrey and Rian front and center On his ACTUAL birtday we got a cute video of Grandma Frances and his Aunt and Uncle singing him Happy Birthday on Speaker Phone. So cute. Also Uncle Alex came over and gave him a present and hung out with us while he totally GRUBBED on his birthday cupcake. Aww we love that kid :)

Congrats Cousin Vicky

My cousin Vicky and her hubby Joe welcomed their newest little bundle last night...ON RIAN'S BIRTHDAY!!!!

Katelyn Marie Mendes
7:50 PM
6lbs 5 oz

Welcome to the world baby girl!

1 year and counting....

A year ago today (at 3pm to be exact) Rian was born at Arrowhead hospital and our lives were turned absolutely upside down. I was the only one to hold him, for probably just shy of a minute, before they whisked him away and he was on oxygen in the nursery, awaiting an ambulance to take him to St. Josephs so they could diagnose him further. The time from when they took him away until they FINALLY told us what was going on seemed to be forever and I will never forget the helplessness I felt when I heard the words "we need to get him there as quick as possible to prevent any further damage or a loss". I couldn't quite grasp those words at the time but when they came to show him to us in his oxygen pumping incubator when they took him in the ambulance it all sunk in. Why you ask...well...because as a new mom (the 3rd time around) I didn't even know if I could touch him and he just seemed so helpless. So very very helpless.

The next day we went into St. Josephs not sure of what to expect but what we saw was surely what we imagined as the worst. Our once normal sized baby was puffed up with liquids and had a breathing tube down his throat. He had wires coming out of him and underneath the worst part was the realization that it was nor or never. We diagnosed him and we found out the next step. To us this was the closest to the end that we NEVER wanted to be. A mere 1.5 days later they told us they diagnosed him with Transposition of the Great Arteries and that he would be fine on breathing tubes for up to TWO weeks. We felt like that gave us a "deadline" so to speak and from then on it was up the doctors to work their magic and get us into surgery.

After a week and a half of changing dates, countless nights of no sleep and tears, and so much poking and prodding to our little baby boy he was taken into surgery. What we saw next was WAY worse than we walked into that very first day. He was surrounded by TONS of medication and IV's and totally passed out to the world. It was so sad I actually got nauseous and had to walk out because the thought of NOT being able to pick him up, hold him or hear his cry was devastating.

At 2 weeks they took the tubes out, and he was breathing on his own. We heard his first cry and I couldn't hold back the tears. At 3 weeks he was doing AMAZING and the doctors were shocked by his progress. SO much so that after much teetering around a "take home date" they decided on his 3 week birthday that he could be released. His first car ride was nerve wracking but he made it just fine and without a tear shed. He went home without feeding tubes and only on 2 meds and he was such a trooper.

At 1 month he celebrated his 1st Halloween. At 2 months he had his first thanksgiving and at 3 months he celebrated his first Christmas. It is still amazing to me that he has come so far. He had monthly doctor appointments for the first 3 months of life along with physical therapy checkups and every time they were amazed that he was so big and so "on track, if not ahead" for all his milestons. He sat up at 5 months, little slower than normal, was crawling at 6 months and at 7 months was cruising around all the furniture and we were sure he would walk before he crawled. LOL. At 7.5 months he started crawling (guess that did come first after all) and at 9months he took his first steps and at 9.5 months he was fully walking around. At 10 months we were told his arteries hadn't gotten any better (growth wise) but hadn't gotten any worse either and so this was a good thing regardless of the worry we had that NO change was still bad. At 10 months he understood the concept of catch and although he coudlnt catch he knew how to throw back at the person tossing to him, and at 11 months he was riding a power wheels quad on his own. He has simply amazed us at every milestone and although he still slaps me before he kisses me (yes we are trying to break that) and although I can't lay on the floor without him body slamming me or the fact that dad can't pick up the car keys without Rian crying and wanting to go with him, we love him to pieces. He has overcome every obstacle and even surprised us with his personality and pure joy for life already.

Any parent who says that they don't know how you love your second child the same as your first or your 3rd as much as your second surely doesn't have more than 1 child. Your heart grows to sizes you couldn't imagine as do your patience :) Each day is a blessing and although he came in with a bang we know now from his totally BOYISH attitude and mannerisms that he just wanted to show his two older sisters up and make us all realize he was a tough guy, and nothing less.

We love him more than words can express and we wouldn't have changed his "story" for anything in the world, it made us the family we are today, stronger and able to love and appreciate one another that much more! We love you Rian!!!

Rian at 1 Day

Rian at 1 Year

Our Wedding Video

Our super good friend Tiffany is amazing with making videos and so for our wedding she gave us two gifts. One was a trip to Sedona and the other was a video of all the memorable moments at our wedding. So here for your enjoyment is our wedding video!!

THANK YOU GABE AND TIFF!!!!

Hamburger Cupcakes ?!?

Last night we had some friends over, as they needed to drop off boxes and we hadn't seen eachother in FOREVER anyways.So they came by with DINNER and of course themselves :) The night was SOO fun, and we had lots of good laughs together. We also spent some time together to use them as my "test dummies" for a new cute little recipe I found for Hamburger Cupcakes! I know, weird right. WHO CARES, they were soo delicious. So what you see below is the "outcome" of what they were and in case you are wondering they are made with, yellow cake mix, chocolate brownies, frosting and YES topped off with Sesame Seeds! haha. so cute, and soo delicous.


Then once we were all fat and happy from cupcakes and dinner and good conversation, we decided to play with the boys. Now Rian has ALWAYS enjoyed his Quad, so we figured it was time to get Xander on there as well! Of course he loved it. Didn't quite get it just yet but he loved it anyways. hehe. So here are the last few pics of the day. Hope you enjoy!

Sedona Sedona Sedona

So for our wedding our friends Gabe and Tiff gave us a few days in their timeshare anywhere we wanted to go pretty much, we chose Sedona, and it was amazing. Granted the initial trip was supposed to be minus the munchkins, it was actually a lot of fun WITH them as well. We realized that our lives now are much different than they were even though as a couple we have ALWAYS had "kids, it is now LIGHTYEARS different with THREE kids.

So. The first day we ended up leaving a little later than we originally expected and the last half hour was torture as Rian STILL hadn't had a nap and he was NOT going to fall asleep in the car. Of course! So when we finally got there (we left at lunch time) we were STARVING and tired and soo ready to stretch our legs. Then we quickly realized we all have mild cases of ADD (kidding of course), as we all got sidetracked with shops and UFO's and such. We took mini detours before catching a bite to eat at the RED ROCK CAFE at a little shopping strip where the girls found bracelets and necklaces and a UFO shop that was closed, but we stopped and took a quick pic anyways :)





After we ate we headed to the grocery story to pick up some munchie type snacks for the kiddos and once we got back to the condo/room (not quite sure how to classify it) we got on o ur bathing suits and headed out for a nighttime swim. One of the greatest joys of Arizona is pretty much being able to swim NEARLY year round and at ANY hour of the day. I love it, the kids loved and it was the perfect way to wind down from our OF COURSE hectic first day :)




Then of course, day 2 rolled around. We had big plans for that day. We had intended to go on a Pink Jeep Tour but in order to get the full fun affect and go on the bumpy bumpy one the baby had to be 18 months or older. As sturdy as he is he is still only 11 months and although they said "it was our choice" I decided to play it safe rather than have my babies brain shaken about for a couple hours in order for the rest of us to have a good time. hehe. Lucky him, good thing we love him. So instead we went BACK to the UFO shop, we hung out with some aliens, we went to another little shopping center called TLAQUEPAQUE. It had some GREAT little novelty shops, a cute jewelry store and even a toy store. So cute. The kids enjoyed the toy store as well as checking out some of the really unique metal sculptures. We went to a magic shop where the kids totally scored, learned some magic tricks and hung out with the crazy magic lady who was ACTUALLY really really nice. Then we ended the day with a trip to SLIDE Rock. It was soo much fun. We went to this Slide Rock National Park, and when we FINALLY saw it, were pretty impressed. The "slides" are pretty much smoothed down rock, and the water from "wherever" runs through it and is just soo much fun. Cold, but SUPER fun.
















Day 3 was pretty hectic. We woke up, had breakfast at a cute little place where the views were amazing, we walked aroudn some more shops, took some cute pics, had some frozen lemonades, we sat through a lecture on TimeShares and they ALMOST convinced us to purchase one but now we are glad we didn't sign on any dotted lines. We had a time we NEEDED to be home so the trip ended pretty abruptly but the whole "Weekend" was pretty good overall. Despite of course the fact that Rian didn't sleep very good either night, the girls of course wanted more more more and RC and I didn't even get to enjoy the Sauna Tub! OH well, next time I suppose!






This amazing trip wouldn't have been possible without Gabe and Tiff so thank you guys for your GENEROUS and thoughtful gift!!! We love you guys!!!