A Father's Love

I have been thinking about my kids lately and how I want them to be raised. Tommy is starting to pick up on every little thing we say or do and I want to make sure he is feeling love and hearing loving words even when he is being disciplined. This topic has come up with a couple of my friends lately as we discuss how we parent our children. I want my children to know that they are loved by their parents and loved by God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus.

I look at Joe and I am so thankful for a strong husband and father who loves his children whole heartedly. I am so thankful that Joe helps out so much with everything from cleaning to diapers and he also works so hard to provide for his family. None of this would be possible without the love of his parents especially the love and teachings he receives from his father. I was looking through a prayer book of Joe's the other day and I found a note that was written on the front cover. The note wast written to Joe from his Dad.

To Our Joe, My Champ,

Throughout every moment of your wonderful,

blessed life,

No matter what you think, no matter what you say,

no matter what you do,

You can ABSOLUTELY count on the fact that

you are LOVED, a powerful love, all healthy love,

a tender love, a rough love, a rich love,

a thoughtful love, a love that wants everything great, good

and wonderful to happen to you Joe.

A love that wants you feeling happy and joyful throughout

your whole eternal life. GOD LOVES YOU JOE,

Jesus love you Joe, the Holy Spirit loves you Champ,

All with God love you, your beautiful Mom loves you Joe,
Dad loves you....

Joe, every moment

be the best you can be, no matter what you think, say or do...

Love, Mom and Dad

I can only hope that Joe and I can love and teach our kids the way our parents raised us and loved us especially the way Randy and Colleen raised Joe. The writing above by Joe's Dad is so beautiful and powerful and Randy means every word he wrote as I can see that powerful love in Joe. That is why I have such a strong and wonderful husband who is such an amazing father to our children. Hopefully, we can pass on this powerful love to our children and grandchildren.

Tommy's Monster Truck Birthday Party

We threw Tommy his 2nd birthday party a month early as family was in town from ND and Texas! Tommy's official birthday is December 30th so I wanted to throw him a birthday early so it would be seperate from Christmas. We will still celebrate with him on his actual birthday but it will be just our family.

We had a Monster Truck bounce house and served pizza with mud pie for dessert! It was so fun as we have made so many good friends in AZ over the past few years so it was fun to celebrate with family and friends. Tommy loved the bounce house and he had fun with all of his friends and he received some amazing gifts!! Thankfully, my mom was in town so she helped me decorate and she made over 40 cups of mud pie! Mud pie was my favorite version of birthday cake when I was a kid so we had to make it for Tommy and it was a hit.

Our Thanksgiving

My mom and brother Steven flew in from ND for Thanksgiving weekend. We had so much fun with them and Joe's sister Mary and her husband David and daughter Lucy who flew in from Texas! It was a great weekend. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner and it was very easy for me because my husband loves to cook. I woke up on Thanksgiving morning and Joe had one turkey brined and cooking in the roaster and one turkey in the oven. He had everything lined up and labeled and a timeline for all the cooking. He also found time to mow the lawn! He is amazing as the food tasted great! Nana and Pops (Joe's parents) also brought an amazing ham so we had a lot of food and leftovers which I think is the best part!

Tommy and Lily had so much fun playing with their cousin Lucy and Tommy loves his Uncle Steven who he calls "Zena" - Tommy was really sad to see Steven fly home and even said "I luv you Zena" as Steven was heading into the airport. I may or may not have seen a tear coming down from Uncle Zena's face as he walked inside. Tommy also loves playing with his Aunt Mary and Uncle David. David is really good at throwing Tommy up in the there air!

Joe's cooking timeline and set-up

Playing a little ping-pong before dinner

I wish I had gotten a picture of everyone eating

Lily and I in our matching necklace and headband that was made by my friend Heather

Aunt Mary and Tommy playing

The cousins - Lily, Lucy and Tommy (We were missing Jaxson and Wyatt)

Uncle Zena and Tommy enjoying the pool

Saying good-bye - so sad!

Daydreaming

I received an e-mail last night from my cousin Michelle. She is getting married at the end of December and I am her Matron of Honor. I am so honored to be in her wedding as I love her like a sister. Anyways, she wrote me last night to confirm my hair/airbrush make-up/fake eyelashes appointment!! YEAH!! I am going to get my hair and make-up done with her in her room before the wedding along with fake eyelashes! This may not seem like a big deal but when you have been either pregnant or nursing for the past three years being pampered sounds like heaven!! I was daydreaming about flying away to her wedding without the kids. Should we bring them or leave them? My mom bought Joe and I plane tickets and got us our very own hotel room with a king size bed as we will be flying to Texas for her wedding. I cannot even imagine being away from the kids as it makes me scared but hey, I also need a break and Joe and I could use some time away from the kids. The only time I have been away from Tommy for more than 10 hours was when I gave birth to Lily and that was an amazing experience but it was no vacation. So, my dilemma is that Lily refuses to take a bottle even with pumped milk....do I leave the kids with Joe's parents who are amazing or do we bring them along since Lily won't drink out of the bottle? I think I have already made up my mind to leave them as we will only be gone for two days but I am also nervous as I don't want Lily to scream for two days? What do you think? Any advice?

Happy Halloween

We had a fun day yesterday on Halloween! We went to church with Joe's family and then we went out for breakfast before Joe's Grandma flew back to North Dakota. Tommy is still wondering where GG went as he is sad she left.

Joe and I were both so tired from a busy weekend but we spent most of the afternoon in the backyard playing with the kids and carving pumpkins. Joe made real pumpkin masks for the whole family.

We were excited to take Tommy trick or treating this year. He did not really know what was going on at first but he loved it after he realized he was getting all of this free candy! We went over to my friend Kim's house and went trick or treating with her kids and husband Johnathan. Her daughter is a few months older than Tommy and her son is a couple months younger than Lily so we had fun hanging out with them and they have a great neighborhood! There were lots of trick or treaters running around.

Tommy and Lily went as skeletons and Joe went as a Chilean Miner. He was chanting, "Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le... Chile Chile Chile" most of the night.

On our way home we stopped at Nana and Pops house and they had a huge plate of candy, treats, and a movie for Tommy. It was so cute and Tommy loved showing off his costume to Nana and Pops! Joe then transformed into a Pumpkin head Chilean Miner.

Tommy and Lily Updates

Time flies by when you have two little ones so I want to try and slow it down by writing down a few updates.


Tommy turns 22 months old today- October 30, 2010. He is a very sweet boy. He loves his little sister Lily and is very protective of her. He protects her car seat and toys when we are out at playdates. He likes to check on her and give her lots of kisses and he tries to pick her up and walk around with her but he is not strong enough yet... so I am always holding onto her too while he tries to hold her. He weighs around 23-24 pounds. He is a Daddy's boy. He loves to play with his Dad and he runs to the door every night when Joe gets home. Tommy takes a 2-3 hour nap everyday. He sleeps through the night and usually sleeps around 10-12 hours. He goes to bed around 8:30pm. Tommy loves milk. He would rather drink milk than eat a meal so we are working with him on eating as he has become a picky eater. Although, he always has room for dessert which is just like his momma! He loves to give us kisses and hugs and he told me that he loved me the other day for the first time. It melted my heart!! Tommy still loves his pacifier and we are trying to break him of this habit. He has gone pee on the toilet a few times with his special football seat and has gone #2 on the toilet once. I am slowly working on potty training but I don't think he is ready yet so I am going to wait until he shows more interest. I think the only reason he went #2 on the toilet once was because I gave him a whole ice cream bar. Tommy loves to talk and he amazes me every day as he learns new words. He loves to play football and loves to play with trains.

Lily turned 5 months old on October 21, 2010. She is a very smiley baby and is usually happy. She loves her older brother Tommy and lights up when he is around her. She loves to jump in her jumper and loves to watch Tommy play. She also sits nicely for meals in her Bumbo. We started her on rice cereal and oatmeal cereal at 4 months old. She can't get enough food and she is always trying to reach for our food. So, I gave her crushed up bananas the other night, crushed up peas, and an avocado. She did not love the avocado or peas but she did like the bananas. So, I bought her a lot of 1st food jars today and I am going to start giving her food twice a day. She loves to nurse and has stopped using her pacifier. She has rolled over from front to back and from back to front a few times but does not roll a lot. She cannot sit up on her own but she is almost there. She weighed 15 pounds at her 4 month appointment and was in the 90th percentiles for height, weight, and head circumference. So, I am excited to see her progress at her 6 month appointment. Lily does not like to sleep on her own. She loves to cuddle next to me and loves our king size bed. She sleeps good and usually wakes up to eat 1-2 times a night and gets around 11-12 hours of sleep each night. She takes a morning nap and usually a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon. So, we are doing the co-sleeping thing at night right now. I am not against co-sleeping but I don't really like it as I don't sleep as well when she is sleeping right next to me. I am hoping to work her out of this stage soon.

I love my babies and I thank God everyday for them. They amaze me and I am so thankful that I can be their mom and I enjoy staying home with them!

Great Grandma (GG) comes to town

Joe's Grandma is in town visiting and it is so nice to have her stay with us. All of my grandparents have passed away and I miss them a lot so it is nice to have GG come and visit us from North Dakota. It has been fun seeing her play with the kids. They love her and it is so cute to hear Tommy say GG. I am glad that Tommy and Lily have Great Grandparents on Joe's side. Virgie is really young and active so we have had fun taking her hiking and enjoying Arizona. She stays with us at night and goes over to Randy and Colleen's most days to visit. She has been helping me with cooking and baking and I like learning her tips. Here are a couple of pics from this past week.

Garage Sales

I love garage sales. I never thought I would be the garage sale type but now I love them. They are all over the place in Arizona and you can find one every weekend almost year round. I don't go every weekend but now is prime time for garage sales in AZ as the weather is nice. Some have a lot of junk but you can always find one or two good houses that are selling quality items. I usually wake up at 6am on Saturday and head to Starbucks before driving around to look for garage sales. I really enjoy my alone time and it is pretty peaceful drinking my coffee driving around the neighborhoods in Gilbert. I don't have to drive far as there are tons of them.

Two weekends ago I found some great deals! I found a baseball ceiling fan for Tommy's room for only $8.00! He had a plain white ceiling fan in his room before without a light. Now, he has a light/ceiling fan with a baseball theme! He loves it! I looked online and this ceiling fan retails for $100-$149.

I also found a Thomas the Train set. I had been looking for a good used set. The guy wanted to sell it for $20 but I bargained with him and got it down to $10. It has tons of tracks and trains and Tommy plays with his "choo choo" set for hours at a time. A big box like this retails for around $100. Lily likes to watch Tommy play while eating her "Baby Mum-Mum" and jumping in her jumper. She likes to watch the trains go round and round. Joe also likes the train set as he sets up new tracks for Tommy.

56

i

Happy Birthday Dad! My Dad is 56 today and I get to celebrate with him on Friday when I get back to Bismarck. We are going to go for coffee and talk which is one of my favorite things to do with my Dad and Lily will be joining us! Happy Birthday Dad! Can't wait to see you on Friday!

Fall

I am so excited for fall as I am ready for it to cool down here in Arizona. It has been way too hot. When I first moved here three years ago Joe told me that it cools down by September 1st....YEAH RIGHT!! He later told me he may have fibbed as he wanted me to move to AZ. I realized that it does not cool down here until October and it is still a little hot this year. I was so excited the other day for cool weather, fall and Halloween so I had the kids try on their Halloween costumes. They are going to be skeletons. My mom bought Tommy some skeleton pajamas when we were back in Grand Forks and it reminded me of when I was little as my brothers loved their skeleton pajamas. Luckily, I was able to find a skeleton onsie for Lily at a little boutique in Grand Forks for $3 so I was pumped! I think they both look so cute! I also have a Superman costume and Elmo costume for Tommy. My mom got the Elmo costume at a garage sale this past year and she bought the Superman costume last year at Wal-Mart after Halloween. You can get the best costume deals after Halloween so I will be on the lookout this year.


We had the best time last weekend in Grand Forks. It was the best trip we have taken in a long time. It was three days and we had so much fun visiting and staying with Joe's Grandma Virgie and Aunt Joanne. They were the best hostesses. We also had fun visiting with old friends and eating at all of our favorite restaurants from college. We also went to a UND football game. I did not make it through the game as the kids were tired but Joe had a great time watching the whole game and hanging out with some of his old football buddies. You can check out our pictures from Grand Forks by clicking here. We want to try and make it an annual trip back to Grand Forks in the fall as we had such a blast and you can't beat $19.99 airline tickets one way!! We love Allegiant Air as it has great prices on air fare and direct flights back to 3 major cities in ND so it works out great!! I will be heading back to Bismarck this weekend with Lily to attend my 10 year high school reunion. Joe will be home in AZ with Tommy. Hopefully, the boys won't get into too much trouble while the girls are away!