my life = good

loved this. love her. with all out there that is telling us and bombarding us with images and words of defeat and despair there are people and words like this to help us rise and see that life is one of the greatest gifts we have been given by our Father in Heaven.  i love my life and my family. 

Before and after...

                               

My creative outlet is doing home renovations to our house.  I love how liberating building something with only a few supplies and using a little bit of elbow grease feels.  I told my husband from now on that the only thing I want for Christmas and birthdays are POWER TOOLS.  (wink, wink, nod, nod) :)  This is a picture of our kitchen area.  The actual BEFORE picture should have been without the wood panels but I always, always, always forget to get an offical "before" picture before I start the project.  There are still a few things that need to be done before I can pronouce this room completed (like decorating the shelf above the table) but other than that I am pretty satisfied.  I used an old chandlier that was in the attic of the house when we bought it.  I took it apart and assembled it back together with only the parts I wanted to use + spray painted it + added small lamp shades.  And poof...an updated lighting fixture for under 30 bucks!  Not to shabby.  I also spray painted our old table and chairs you see in the "before" picture black and we almost have ourselves a new table.  I am working on the rest of kitchen right now and will post pictures when I finally finish it. 

I have to give a shout out to my husband and thank him for allowing our house be a, as he would say, "a construction zone" for the past year and a half. 

The beautiful flowers were given to me as my mother's day gift from my husband.  Thank you babe. 

We really are still alive!!! PROMISE!

Susie and Vince are doing great!  I know, I know, I know it has been FOREVER since I have done any posts, but we are BACK.  These past few months have been busy but fun.  We have been busy playing with the kids, keeping up with Vince (rolling everywhere) and Susie.  We just bought Susie her very first Scooter yesterday and she has already gone all the way around the block all by herself.  In order to keep anyone that reads this blog up to date in our life I will start back in November when Susie turned 2.  Her birthday was during the week and we had a small birthday party planned for that weekend but her party was interupted by the admission of her little 3 month old brother into the hospital for RSV.  After that happened Thanksgiving happpened, Christmas came and went, and then off to see my side of the family back in March.  Now we come to April...fewwwwww.  Dad has been busy with work (60+) hours of work during the week, Mom busy with kids and major home improvements, Sue busy with loving her younger brother and playing even harder, and our Vince growing bigger, bigger, and even bigger.

Let me explain this picture.  Our Vince is a big cuddley teddy bear with "rubberbands around his wrists."  We have been asked more than once why we put rubberbands around our son's wrists. : D Ha, ha people are sooooooo clever.   He finally has slowed down on his growth.  At his 7 month visit (should have been his 6 month visit but I was a month late getting around to the doctor for his well visit - the story of my life right now) his stats were...

Weight: 25 lbs 3 oz.   (99.999+%)

Height: 29 inches    (93%)

Head cir: 18 1/2 inches    (96%)

I think that I can finally stop buying him clothes for a couple of months now that he fits into 24 month clothes.

Here are a few current pictures that we have taken of the kids.  Enjoy!

our very Curious Susie

For Halloween we dressed up "theme" style...yes, that means that I was able to get Jim into a costume!  I have always thought it would be fun to have "family pictures" taken themed style every year.  So this is true for now 2 of our family pictures.  This year we were "the man in yellow hat's family".  Susie is obsessed with watching CG (curious george) and so we knew we were meant to be "curious susie's" family this year.  Here are a few snapshots that were taken that night.

Vince as Curious Susie's banana - thankfully she didn't really eat him...actually I think he could have eaten her-he is ALWAYS hungry.

I am pretty sure that those are tears of HAPPINESS...right? : )

The MAN in the yellow hat getting ready...without his yellow hat.

My little kiddos look so happy to be going trick-or-treating!  Actually I am pretty sure that both of them are thinking right now "why does mom make us do these things?"  I assured them that they will be so glad that they did it when they get older - it is just something that mommy's and daddy's know! haha

Here we are with the YELLOW HAT (I paper mached it) and if you can't tell I am the "woman in the yellow bow".

This look was brought to you by lots, and lots of YELLOW DYE!

Happy Halloween 2009.  You were good to us...except for Jim slicing his finger open that night and having to get stitches...that's a whole new story all in it's self because of the nature of spending time on Halloween night in the ER.  SCARY!

our boy is 2 months already!

Vince is 2 months old!

We went for his 2 month checkup today and here are a few stats on our "not so little one anymore"...take a look at his weight and you will know what I mean :)

Weight: 16 lbs 7 oz. (99 %)

Length: 24 in (80%)

Head Circumference: 16 1/2 in (87%)

Most babies don't double their birth weight until they are 6 months old but our little Vince is dyfing all the "norms" and has doubled his birth weight by 2 months of age.

Lately Vince has been SMILING...

WATCHING THE CRAZY THINGS HIS SISTER DOES...

LISTENING TO HIS SISTER, WELL KIND OF...

TAKING NAPS WITH DADDY...

AND BEST OF ALL BEING MOMMY'S SWEET LITTLE BOY!





Smile for the camera...click

and the Nobel Peace Prize winner is.....IREANA

I am posting an email I got just today about a true deserver of the Nobel Peace Prize. Read on it is well worth the time.

"The Nobel Peace Prize is a JOKE. For Gore and Obama to receive it has made it a laughing stock of the World."

THIS YEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS BEEN PRESENTED WITH THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. FOR HIS WORK TOWARDS WORLD PEACE. THE NOMINATION DATE FOR SELECTION CLOSED 14 DAYS AFTER HE CAME TO OFFICE. WHAT EXACTLY DID HE DO IN THOSE 14 DAYS TO HAVE DESERVED SUCH A HIGH ACCOLADE.? SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG AND CHEAPENS ALL WHO HAVE RECEIVED IT EARLIER.

The prize hasn't gone to the most deserving...

IREANA SENDLER

There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize .... She was not selected Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.
What a Joke. The years 2009 has been the coolest year all over the world since records have been kept.

In MEMORIAM - 63 YEARS LATER

May we never forget to do what is right and love our neighbor as ourself.

she speaks...kind of

Our Susie doesn't talk much yet. I am convinced that she is a perfectionist and doesn't want to say a word unless she says it right...or maybe I am just in denile that my little girl doesn't say much except a few words, like...

She definitely knows and says daddy, dada, or dad. Won't say mommy, mama, or mom :(
She says more while signing the word.
She tries to say her name but it comes out more like Suzzzzzzzz.

She is not a girly-girl. She prefers balls and cars over princess stuff or hates dress up stuff.

When my mom came down to help me after I had Vince I asked her if she would bring the road map that she made for me and my siblings when we were young so I could use it as a template for the one I want to make my kids. Here is a picture of the map. My siblings and I spent a good chunk of our childhood playing on and around this roadmap. There is even a Utah Lake that my mom painted onto it for pretend boating trips for the pretend people in our cars to take. Thanks mom for being so creative and making this for us.

Here is a picture of Sue's first braid that I was able to do in her hair about a week ago.

The other day when I went in to wake Susie from her nap I laid Vince down beside her. When she woke up (Vinny was hitting her in the face) she was so excited to see her little brother and snuggled up next to him to give him a big hug and a kiss. I love having two, it is so fun to see them interact with each other.

Rare occasion

This picture is of a rare occasion at our house these days. Everyone I ever met at the hospital (staff) when I have had a baby tells me that newborns and babies in general are SLEEPY...well it is a LIE. Both Susie and Vinny from day one were not sleepy. Yes, they always ate their share and pooped their share but definitely didn't SLEEP their share. We are lucky to get Vinny to take even 1 nap during the day. He is not a particularly fussy baby. He just DOESN'T sleep.

So for all you mothers out there that are bored during the day because your baby sleeps so much or that you can say that you actually got a nap during the day...count yourself lucky!

"God, why couldn't you have sent me a sleepy baby this time around? You are making me question having a third."

Yours truly,

Want to sleep, really want to sleep, but can't...

my present this year...

This year for my birthday I asked my hubby for a full night's rest! So...this weekend yours truly is going to be able to sleep all the way through the night without feeding the baby...that is going to be Mr. Mom's job. Yahoo. Seriously this is probably going to be the best birthday present EVER! I am excited just thinking about it.

Here are a couple of pictures that I found of me growing up. Enjoy!

Me at around 3 months old

Me at around 6 months old

Me in my Rainbow Brite swimsuit at around age 5 (I think?)

Did he come from you?

All of us that have had a newborn at a shopping center know that even the strangest stranger feels like they have the right to ask you anything as well as touch your baby without you saying so...read on and my point will be made...hence the blog post name (Did he come from you?)

Yesterday I was at Wal*Mart with Sue and baby Vinny in the checkout line. As the cashier was ringing up my few items he started making lite conversation with me-this is fine-but the conversation quickly turned to my kids, more specifically the baby that was in the carrier but covered so you couldn't see him. The cashier asked me how old-I told him 5 weeks and then uncovered sleeping Vinny. The cashier was silent, looked at me and then at Vinny and asked, "Did he come from you?" I was a little confused at first at what spurred that kind of question from someone...then I realized what he meant. It wasn't because of the color of Vinny's eyes, or the shape of his little toe, if wasn't even the wolverine hairs he has on the back of his ears, it WAS because of the size of our little one...uhum...little meaning 13 lb boy! Yes my baby that was in my tummy just 5 weeks ago is 13 lbs big. He has gained 5 pounds in 5 weeks. Jim and I are convinced that everytime Vinny eats, poops, sleeps, or sucks his binkie, wait-that is pretty much his whole existance-he gets hungrier by the minute.

1 month old pics

Vinny is eating all the time that sometimes that I resort to this handy-dandy bottle holder!

On this past Sunday we were down in Houston for Jim's brothers homecoming and since most of the family were there at church we decided to bless Vinny. Here is a picture of our little family-we couldn't get everyone to look and smile at the camera at the same time. :)