Vivians in Santa Fe

A few weeks ago, Sophie and I took a trip to Santa Fe for our annual Indian Market gathering with the girls.  It was Sophie's first time going and she did wonderfully.  She slept in the closet in our hotel room (don't report me to DCFS...it was dark, quiet, and she loved it).

Indian Market is full of beautiful artwork, jewelry, and culture.  Other than walking around the plaza and seeing the artists and their work, we like to visit the Georgia O'Keefe museum, eat at Tomassitas (among other delicious New Mexican restaurants), make several trips to Trader Joe's, and relax in our hotel room.

Each year we like to have a "Vivian Project" where we use our creative juices to make something for one of the other ladies in our group.  If you're wondering about the meaning of "Vivian", well...that's a whole other post which probably wouldn't make much sense until you came on one of our trips.  This year we made tiaras for each other and I got to make one for my mom.  I opted not to go too cheesy with it.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

The Vivians

 

Audra, Me, Laura, Mom, and Sophie Sue

 

Tiara made by Joan

 

Mom's Tiara

Plane ride home

Thank you, to my dear Vivians, for a wonderful trip! Many more to come!

We're going private, Folks.

We've decided to go private. I know it's inconvenient for some but it's in our best interest. If you'd like to be included, please send me your email address. You don't have to leave it in the comments if you don't want to. Email me with it instead.

More posts to come!

My baby is all grown up!

Today was Jon's first day of school. Even though he didn't have any classes, he was still a little anxious about it all. Last night I cut his hair and this morning he woke up early to iron his shirt. He had to wear a suit today and wanted to look as sharp as a pin for his official MBA picture which will be hanging in the Tanner Building "for years to come" (as he put it).

I decided to drive him to school this morning so I could have the car for the rest of the day. As we drove up to the front of the building, I insisted on taking his picture. We said a prayer and he got out of the car, grabbed his briefcase, and headed in with the rest of the suits. I was so proud. I had to choke back the tears. It was as if I had dropped off my first child at school. I wanted to get out and hold his hand and walk him inside to make sure he got adjusted quickly and comfortably.

So begins a new phase in our lives. Doors will open and exciting things will happen! (Maybe I'll write fortunes for fortune cookies to make a few extra bucks.)

I want to get on the potty train!

We took the leap yesterday and started potty-training Jonah. I've been prepping myself mentally for a few weeks now and decided it would be best if we started when Jon could be home to help. Jon's last day of work was last Friday and he has a week and a half off before starting the MBA program.

One particular event, really helped push me over the edge and start potty-training. A couple of weeks ago we went to the pool with my in-laws and Jonah's cousins. As I paid for the tickets, the woman at the desk asked if my kids had swim diapers AND the plastic underwear over them. I lied (like everyone else in the pool) and told her they did. I entered the park and while searching for some shade, I grumbled under my breath, "Who really buys those plastic pants anyway? What a ridiculous requirement."

The kids had a great time playing in the water and near the end of our stay, my sister-in-law said, "What is that in the water?" Sure enough, there was poop floating around us. I stood up, disgusted, and went to pick Jonah up out of the water. It was time to go home. Just to make sure, though, I checked his pants. I didn't want to be the one with the kid who pooped in the pool! Much to my dismay, my dear, sweet Jonah had not only pooped in his swim diaper, but it had started to disintegrate and break down so much so that it was oozing out the sides of his diaper and swimsuit. I was mortified.

I took him back to our towels, changed his diaper, vowed never to return without plastic undies, and decided it was time to potty-train.

I was pretty nervous when yesterday came and it was time to teach him to go potty. He'd been fairly resistant to my encouraging and motivating to sit on the potty. The morning was horrible. He sat on the potty for about 85% of the morning and still managed to pee 5 times on the floor in the 15% he wasn't on the potty. But after nap time, he finally peed for the first time and then it just caught on like wild fire. He has yet to poop in the potty and I'm sure he's holding back, but he hasn't had an accident since yesterday morning.

I'm so proud of my little boy! He looks so cute in his big boy underwear. He ran around in his "Handy Manny" undies outside last night, playing with all the neighbor kids. What a cutie.

Sophie, 8 months

How time flies. My little Sophie Sue is growing so fast. I got her dressed the other day and thought it was a perfect outfit for a few pictures.

I need to go to Colorado!

Once we told Jonah about our planned trip to Colorado on July 16th, we heard this phrase non-stop: "I need to go to Colorado!". Well, we've been back for about 2 weeks now and we're still hearing it occasionally. He loves to visit Mimi and Grandpa.

Jon's new shades reflect the highway

I-80, Wyoming style

The car ride was pretty good both ways. I'm grateful to have discovered that Jonah enjoys watching movies on my iPod. It keeps him nice and quiet when he's refusing to take a nap. He calls his headphones his "listens".


While we were there, we went to Water World for the afternoon. It was so much fun to have Mimi and Grandpa there with us and they were so wonderful and watched Jonah, Sophie, and Eva for us while we went on a few adult rides. We waited way too long for the toilet bowl ride but it was worth seeing Johnny and Jonathan go around in circles for 10 minutes before dropping into the pool below. On another note, thank goodness for people who know how to wear a swimsuit that fits.

We also got to celebrate little Eva's first birthday with a beautiful cake that Audra created. It was delicious! Happy Birthday, Eva!

I have no words

My dear friend Bethany was so very sweet and took a few pictures of Jonah and Sophie a few weeks ago before she moved to Dallas. She is an awesome photographer and I only wish I'd asked her sooner so she could take some of our whole family. Still...I owe her big!!

I got the kiddies all dolled up and set out for at least 1 good picture of them. That's all I wanted--ONE. Well, she did an amazing job. Here they are:

What's for dinner?

Jonah is a picky eater. I'm not sure if he's any worse than other 2 year old but it sure seems to show more on him. He's very tall, but also very skinny. To paint a picture for you, he has an outie (belly button) simply because he doesn't have enough fat on his belly for it to go IN anywhere.

He has his normal menu items--things I know I can count on actually hitting his stomach: hot dogs, chicken nuggets, noodles, quesadillas, etc. So tonight when we went to get burgers from 5 Guys Burgers & Fries, we decided to play it safe and give him some fries and just make a hot dog for him at home. Why pay for something we know he won't eat? So when we got home, that's what we did.

Here's what Jonah had for dinner tonight:
1 hot dog
3 Babybel mini cheeses
1 string cheese (do you think maybe he likes cheese?)
a few fries
1 Oreo

Don't judge me. If the kid eats, it makes me happy enough. I hardly care what it is! :)

Piece of Jungle

We bought a little kiddie pool to put in our backyard for Jonah. I was outside getting ready to pump it up and get water in to it so that it would have time to warm up in the sun before Jonah jumped in. Its not a big pool by any means, but it took me about 30 minutes of pumping to get it all inflated...maybe because I was using Jon's bike pump. There are 2 little palm trees (which Jonah intuitively called flowers due to the fact that they are closer to the actual size of a flower than that of a tree) which had to be inflated separately from the main pool so I moved on to those next. Each time I'd pull the pump out of the valve and hurry to close it, the stupid thing was almost totally deflated already. In my frustration, I exclaimed, "Stupid piece of JUNK!!" which Jonah heard and almost immediately repeated. But thank goodness, he confused "Junk" with "Jungle" and started saying, "It's a piece of jungle, Mommy!" I laughed and all I could say was, "Yep!" Because, technically, a palm tree is a piece of jungle. Man my kid is brilliant! ;)

I had gotten all parts inflated except for the last fin on the whale slide. The fin is completely for looks and serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever but I was still upset when I was about to plug the valve after pumping it up and it burst! I debated whether to take it back and get a new one but decided not to because--let's be realistic--the pool will probably be in ruins by the end of the summer anyway.

You can see that we already have amazing tans, especially Jonah. And Sophie is growing quite rapidly for a 7 month old...I wonder if she should see a doctor...

Respite

After staying up until 4:30am, we were able to clean our entire apartment and get checked out. We left for Colorado the next day and had to switch drivers several times because we were both so tired. We had a wonderful time in Fort Collins, though. Josh and Lindsey were there with the boys. We hadn't see them since Thanksgiving, which means Sophie was only a week old and little Cooper (their 3rd boy) wasn't born yet. So we got to meet him and had a great time playing with everyone.

Mimi bought a pool and some water toys for the kids to play with, so after lunch with Grandpa and Mo, we got the kids in their suits and let them play for a while. It was Sophie's first time in a suity. She hated the water (ice-cold) but she loved being outside with everyone.

Josh having a water-fight with Chase and Lincoln.

Jonah and Lincoln

Sweet Sophie in her suity.

Smile!

It was a wonderful way to relax from our move and spend time with family.