5 Fantastic Things about Today

1. My baby is the size of a fig and is almost fully formed!
2. I got my Christmas photo cards printed!
3. I am far less nauseous than I was a week ago!
4. Bryce still sleeps at least 16 hours a day! (I am so spoiled)
5. I just paid $14 to refill my gas tank! (1.51/gallon) I remember paying over $40 this year

Today is a great day...partially because I decided to notice the good things in the day. I was feeling so sorry for myself about my sickness, etc. I just decided this week to be happier because, as Abraham Lincoln said, "Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."

Santa came early!

So Santa came early...or shall I say, one of our family Christmas gifts came and Scott could not contain himself until Christmas and we enjoyed it early! It is the coolest contraption, a bike trailer. But not your usual bike trailer...

It's a tandem bike that attaches to a regular adult bike. A child can sit in the back seat and peddle and learn to ride. It's designed for kids ages 5-10, but the weight limit is 200, so I rode it! Then we put Bryce in a carseat and attached the carseat to the tray in the back. Doesn't sound secure? I thought so too when looking at the picture online, but Scott insisted it would be perfect. As usual, all of his "crazy" ideas are always perfect! I have learned after 4 years to just trust his notions, even if they sound crazy to me, because they always work out (except once, but one in over a hundred ideas is still great odds). Afterall, he is an Aquarius...he always thinks outside the box! So I let him order it, and it came yesterday. After I went to bed, he spent all night last night putting it together and surprised us this morning with a bike ride to Denny's (a mile away) for breakfast. We all loved it, especially Bryce. After breakfast we walked down to the pond across the street and fed the ducks (Bryce's new favorite animal). Bryce had a great nap after all this excitement and then we took the bike out again to go ride and rent a movie. Both experiences were fun, exciting and great. Bryce kept talking the whole time, although I'm not exactly sure what he was talking about, except when he said "ho, ho, ho" when we'd pass a house with a santa in the front yard. I don't have pictures because we were all riding and, honestly, I didn't think about blogging about it until now. I was just reflecting on how perfect of a day it was with my family.

This website would sell a lot more of this product if people knew it was adaptable for babies. It's only a little more than other baby bike trailers, but so much more versatile and safer! Bryce was safely secure in his car seat. I'm not soliciting for them, but if anyone is interested in bike trailers, I would check out the Morgan Cycle caboose bike trailer!

Oh, and I promise, no more Christmas presents early!

It's a grape!

I'm so excited! I can't contain it anymore. I know it's taboo to kiss-and-tell too soon, but I am pregnant! Nine-and-a-half weeks to be exact and I am so excited! The cool thing was this time, I knew I was pregnant a week after I conceived even though I got negative pregnancy tests - it's weird how a woman knows her body.


I went to my midwife today and heard the baby's heartbeat and I just melted (and teared up a bit)! It's funny how I have heard it before with Bryce but it is so special with every pregnancy. I have been so sick this pregnancy, which was a surprise because I wasn't sick at all with Bryce. Some are saying that means I'm having a girl. When we were trying, I felt like it would be another boy, and then as soon as I was pregnant, I felt like it was a girl. Does that make it a double-negative and they cancel each other out...or am I having a girl because I think so now that I'm pregnant AND I'm sick? Who knows for another 10 weeks.


Well, according to http://www.babycenter.com/ (my favorite pregnancy website), my little one is the size of a grape this week. It's got all it's major body parts but still has a lot of developing and growing to do. Oh, and my due date is June 28. So both my children will be Cancers (as long as I go at least 39 weeks, but if I'm earlier she/he's a Gemini which is cool too!) I get along very well with Cancers. Let's just hope I don't have another red-head. I love Bryce's hair, but he's got quite the temper : )


So this is the longest blog-post yet. But I have to show a pic of my barely-showing belly. I can tell, a few others can tell, but the question is...can YOU tell? Not to give myself airs, but I normally have a flat tummy (and a smaller butt, too). It's a little bump for now, but I promise it will be bigger than last time!

Editorial on the pic: it was late and I didn't pay attention to the fact that I was wearing a green shirt against a green backdrop...maybe not the best idea for dramatic effect : )

The Twilight Phenomenon

Let me just say that I think it is absolutely amazing that one author, unknown before this book, can create a phenomenon about a love story about vampires. I have not read the books, but I have followed as almost all of my friends have read it and are most likely obsessed with it over the past 2 years. Now that the movie is finally out and everyone thinks it's lame, I am glad I haven't read it.


But this is typical of me, I never got into Seinfeld or Friends or The Office until years after it was popular. A good TV show had to prove that it was good enough to stick around before I started spending my 30 minutes to see if I'd like it. I now love all of those shows. I've also still not seen/read Harry Potter yet. So when everyone has moved on to the next big fad, and when the crazy hype has cooled off and everyone has forgotten about it, you'll find me reading Twilight.

I've been tagged...

I groaned when I saw myself tagged, but it was actually fun/interesting to do. Here are my answers, with some editorials too!

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. I was a sophomore at ASU...eegads I feel old (so far I've been reading friends who were in junior high or high school 10 years ago)
2. Recovering from my traumatic brain injury - sounds depressing, but it really took all my energy to recover as quickly as I did. (it took 5 years)
3. Working as a college tutor for a freshman dorm (Sonora). Got a free dorm and got paid to do it (that was such an easy job, I miss it. Life was really much simpler)
4. Getting over my first love - the firefighter that broke my heart (I was so stupid)
5. Spending a lot of time with my best friend Jessica at Starbucks! (the funnest part : )

5 Things on my to-do list today: (quite boring)
1. Go through my inbox (go through mail, sort bills, send to bookkeeper, review financial reports)
2. Finish payroll for our 6 employees
3. Order supplies for offices
4. Take Bryce for a walk to the park
5. Go to enrichment

5 Snacks I enjoy (I'm still on a modified Candida cleanse diet):
1. Potato chips with onion dip (yummmmm)
2. Half a banana
3. Protein shake with berries
4. Triscuits with goat cheese spread
5. Plain cheerios

5 Places I've lived:
1. Houston, TX (Spring, Kingwood, Atascocita)
2. Austin, TX (Round Rock)
3. Tempe, AZ
4. Mesa, AZ
5. Chandler, AZ (my current and my fave!)

5 Jobs I've had: (I've had many so I'll just name the highlights)
1. First job ever: Admin Assistant for my mom & her boss when I was 15-17
2. Residential Tutor at ASU
3. Recreational Therapist at Art Awakenings (Art Studio for people with mental illnesses)
4. Special Olympics Coach/Coordinator (for City of Chandler then City of Mesa, then Arizona Special Olympics)
5. Owner/Manager/Hearing Specialist - 2 hearing aid centers

5 People I tag:
1. Mary
2. Cassie
3. Sharon
4. Heather Harris-Torriente
5. Bethany

More modeling madness

So I told you that our friend Mary is using us to learn how to take family pictures (a.k.a. baby pictures). I totally love it because it gives us good family pics without all the effort of doing it ourselves. I really like the pics...I only wish Mary wouldn't be so hard on herself and just admit that they're good. I'm starting to believe the saying is true that baby will only smile for mom or dad. You can see that in these shots...
Scott holding Bryce in the air.
Bryce laughing as Dad throws him up again.
Mary trying to get a smile out of him. See what I mean? Of course this was near the end of the shoot and he was tired. I bet he was thinking "Aren't we done already?"

My husband is so cute! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Post-Halloween/Post-election Lamentations

Ok, so I'm a slacker. When I started this blog, I tried to post once or twice a week. Well it's been 2 weeks. I missed Halloween (although you got many cute shots of the pre-Halloween costume parties). I felt it was redundant to do it again on Halloween. Now I feel gipped because the only pic of me on Halloween is on Michayle's blog and I'm talking while she's taking the pic so I look like a dork! But I'm happy to finally make it onto her blog.

On another note, I am so glad the elections are over. Some turned out how I voted, others didn't. But I am grateful that I have the opportunity to vote and that we live in a democracy. I read something recently that said, "I'm grateful that I hear so many people complain about the government because it means we have freedom of speech." It's nice to be reminded of our basic freedoms that we overlook or take for granted many times.

Mr. Photo Opp

One of Scott's patients knitted this sweater for Bryce. This picture was taken a couple months ago, and I can already see that he is more of a boy now and less of a baby... :(














You wouldn't know it by looking at these shots, but he was really cranky that day, (teething...say no more). But as soon as I pulled out the camera, he was all smiles!

And on that farm he had a chicken...

This weekend was so fun! We went to the Annual East Valley Special Olympics Halloween Dance on Friday. For the record, it is the best halloween party/dance ever! (Sorry Heather, I promise yours is second) I used to work with Special Olympics and some of my best and funnest (I know it's not a word, but it fits) memories are with Special Olympics. I hope I can get our kids involved when they're older.

Here are some cute shots of Bryce as a chicken with mom and dad as farmers. (We love group costumes and can't wait to have enough kids to be the Village People!)
Lastly, here is a pic of getting ready earlier. I couldn't resist Bryce's signature smile!

Halloween Sneak Preview

Ah, the month of October...the time for one of my favorite fun-holidays - Halloween! If you don't know already, I was sheltered during my childhood and was not allowed to dress up for halloween after age 5 (tragic, I know). So I have done my best to make up for all those lost years by making a huge deal of halloween. Now that I'm a mother, it's even more fun.

This year, Bryce is 15 months old, and I thought it would be fun to dress him up as a superhero, but Scott said no-way. He said that Bryce will have many superhero years ahead of him, but this year, he wanted to dress him up in a costume that will embarass him later in life when he's dating girls, like a farm animal. Fortunately our cool cousins, Spencer and Sharon had this cute chicken costume that is a little big for Bryce, but it is so cute. So we're borrowing it and Bryce loves it. It is so perfect. Maybe Scott and I will be farmers to go with the package...

Bryce flapping his wings!

I miss Bryce's rolls

This is a pic of Bryce at 7 months, right when he started crawling. He was always a chubby baby with lots of rolls, and we took these pics to remember them as he was embarking on this new stage. He has since gotten taller and is slowly losing those rolls and baby boobies as he walks and emplores, which is a little sad for us : (
A friend said it looked like rubber bands around his arms and legs!

Editorial #1: my beef with blogs

So if you are reading this, you know me well enough to know that I have an opinion about everything... Anyway, I have learned that some people only post pics of their kids, which puzzles me.
#1. Family blogs should be about the family, even if the kids are so darn cute. They got their good looks from you, so include yourself in those pics!
# 2. We were looking at friends-of-old-friends blogs to see if we knew people. We couldn't even tell if we knew them because it was just pics of their kids. Help us out, because it may be our only way to reconnect with you!

Our very first photo posting

So I'm learning as I go with blogging, and here's a recent family photo that our friend Mary took. It looks like I'm trying to kiss Bryce, but really I'm blowing on his face to get him to smile (he was hot and cranky). You may see more pics like this as our friend Mary exploits us for her new photo hobby. Mary, we're just kidding. We love to be the guinea pigs!

So I'm finally a blogger

I've always been the last to get into technology...my family was the last to get a microwave in the 80's, I didn't get a cell phone until I was 22 and we JUST got high-speed internet this year (and we have a business!). So needless to say, I feel like I'm the last to "blog." The only reasons I'm embracing it is because it will make sharing our lives with our friends & family easier, and well, if Google endorses it, it must be good!