A Good Note-Mostly...

We've had a fun and busy January, and I was happy that we had made it through the month without any sickness...until today. Poor Nate has fallen victim to the flu and cold season. I very much hope he has a good night and feels a lot better tomorrow. Since Nate has actually been "napping" the last three-ish hours now, that for sure clues me in that something isn't right! (he hasn't napped since right before Christmas) Fingers crossed he's a happy boy tomorrow and mommy and daddy avoid getting the bugs!

Other than that, it really has been a busy and fun month for us. Here are some more activities we've been up to!


Park time

Disney on Ice

"Mickey Mouse!"

Feeding Charlie the giraffe @ The Phoenix Zoo

Liking his train conductor hat from his train craft class

Flying leap from the haystack at Superstition Farm

Milk from the farm!

Potty Time!

This exciting news deserves its own post! Starting on Friday, Nate all of a sudden became interested in going potty in his potty chair. At first he wanted his privacy (lucky for me he used his potty with music that played when he went so I knew something happened!) He didn't freak out when he did it and I immediately made a big deal of it-out came the Mini Oreos and Skittles and a potty dance.

Since that time, he has wanted me in there with him participating (him on his little potty, me on mine). What a good little boy-we'll sit there patiently waiting, even up to fifteen minutes. I've been doing this a few times a day with him (he doesn't tell us when he needs to go though, so he still uses his diaper, but when I invite him in to go potty he runs in with me). He's gone a few times though, which is a great start!

Luckily we don't have many diapers left so we'll move on to pull-ups and eventually underwear. We've had a busy weekend so I'm looking forward to concentrating on the potty a lot more this week when we get a chance to be home. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow and make him a basket of sorts to keep by his potty to help entertain him while we wait. I'm just so thrilled that he's interested and willing to at least try, with a huge smile on his face! I find it amazing that it was literally very sudden-just like an off/on switch.

I owe credit to the following items that I think helped Nate decide to be a big boy :)



Nate watched the potty video in particular two dozen times I think before he was interested in trying himself. He still watches it! The potty behind the video is a Fisher Price one that makes all the noise. We still have his old one which basically just doesn't make music that he uses too. Lucky boy, he gets to choose which he prefers that day! :) So proud of him.

Fun Times

Thought I'd post some pictures from December and a few from January so far of our fun days!


Up close and personal at the World Wildlife Zoo




Meet the Creature event-just a porcupine strolling behind...



Toy Town


First time bowler-was more content watching mommy and daddy play

Now for 2011 so far!



Train craft class-first project was painting a wooden train


Playing at Artville-in the Arizona Museum for Youth




Wee Play class


Reflecting on a South Mountain hike with daddy

Whew. I'm getting tired just looking back at all those pictures! We've certainly been busy, and the month isn't even over yet. More classes, Disney on Ice this coming weekend and other fun dates with friends. Guess that'll mean more pictures in a few weeks ;)

Also in a few weeks-my little boy's third birthday! Wow, it's here already. We're planning to have another park playdate with friends in our Moms Club and another family birthday party at the same park as last year. This year Nate's birthday theme is Thomas the train. Nate is in love with his train sets and The Polar Express movie so I think it's a good fit! I bought a train cake pan that I'm going to attempt for dessert. I will have to declare myself Martha Stewart if I can pull it off :)

Again, in a few weeks-the start of my last trimester with Aaron! That is also unbelieveable. At first time felt like it was moving slowly, now it's really been moving quite fast. I'm currently twenty three weeks along-here's a recent shot of me :



I'm growing more week to week :) I think I only have two more months of monthly appointments before they start becoming every two weeks/one week. Wow. I can't believe that in no time we'll become a family of four.

Time for some quiet reading-until next time!

Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a fun and memorable Christmas and New Years! We had a great time with Josh while he was off. Even more importantly, Nate must have thought it was "winter vacation" himself and slept in each day Josh was home! What a treat for us all to get some extra sleep. It was so weird (but nice!) to not even start opening stockings or gifts on Christmas until 8am. Christmas was even more fun this year since Nate was actually interested in unwrapping his gifts. He got a lot of fun toys (including two laptops-now mommy can type on her computer while Nate uses his, yay!)

We didn't do much New Years Eve-in fact we didn't even stay up until midnight even, we were pooped. We had some appetizers and played games, just chilled at home. Josh and I got some nice restaurant gift cards for Christmas, so maybe next year we'll use one and have a little date night on New Years.

For a pregnancy update : I'm now twenty two weeks along. Just started with heartburn :P I'm already doing better than my pregnancy with Nate by still working out at the gym-I didn't work out with Nate past my first trimester. In fact, I just signed up for a 5k race at our zoo and a 10 mile total mountain climb in February. I'm more motivated this time around to stay in shape in hopes of not gaining quite as much weight and being able to lose the weight,hopefully, a bit faster afterwards. For Christmas I got a Nike+ Sportband which records the distance, pace, time and calories burned during runs. I love it! Though I move a lot slower and it takes longer for me to go further, I'm still running, and having the sportband that records all my info motivates me to do it. I also have my account set up to download my running info to Facebook, so that motivates me too. Hmmm...I should also say that I'm trying to work out also because my little boy loves his bagels and cream cheese, as well as pizza :) I have each of those a few times a week. Not the healthiest, so I need to do something from gaining eighty pounds!

Some exciting news: around New Years Eve, I started to feel baby movement! I mostly notice it when I'm sitting/laying down. Little kicker. We have also decided on a name for our little guy : Aaron Michael. Josh and I had a list of names we liked, but couldn't decide on one so we had our families help decide. Josh did paint his room over the break and I just put up some wall decals.


Until we get the new carpet we'd like, there's not much else we can do to his room. I'm excited to get it all set up. I bought a jogging stroller about a week ago, I can't wait to use it with the little man. Nate isn't much into sitting in strollers anymore so I wasn't even going to try using it with him. I'm hoping to use it in another stroller class or at least outside running.


I love all the storage/compartments, deep cup holders, area for music and the snap on/off toy for when Aaron gets older. Can't wait to take it out.

Back another time with some Winter Break pictures!

Christmas 2010

Create your own scrapbook

More Holiday Fun!

Despite Josh being a little sick and Sedona being gloomy and rainy, we had a good weekend away! A few pictures...





One of our favorite light displays at Red Rock Fantasy-M & M's!


Disney gang

It drizzled all day in Sedona, but we were happy that the weather cooperated for us to go see Christmas lights that evening-a main reason of our trip! Conveniently a few of the light displays weren't working so we got free admission, and because of the rain there was hardly anyone there with us! I also have to mention how proud I am of my little boy-on the two hour drive to/from Sedona, he didn't play with a single toy or watch a single movie! I couldn't believe it. He entertained himself and looked out the window.

It was still rainy the next morning so we just started for home. We hit some outlet stores on the way home and shopped for Nate's little brother-he's all set with newborn,short sleeved clothes! I'm excited to hold a tiny little baby again :) Lots of fun shopping. Nate also loved looking at the huge Christmas tree, the largest real one in Arizona!


I had a great birthday on Tuesday, just getting to spend time with both my boys (Josh is now off for the rest of the year!) We've been busy wrapping,baking,cleaning...all that good holiday stuff. We also took Nate for one last visit to the man in red at Bass Pro Shop-long wait but they have the prettiest background!



Finally, today on Christmas Eve we have time to take a breath! The boys are currently hiking and then we'll be getting ready for church and over to Josh's parents to celebrate Christmas with his family. Tomorrow we'll open gifts together then go over to open gifts and eat with my family. We're trying to plan some fun activities to do with Nate while daddy has the quality time off. One of the things we'd like to do is paint Nate's little brother's room while Josh has some time. We've decided on a theme for his room-airplanes! We just bought adorable crib bedding, a lamp, valance, wall decals, etc for his room. We'd like to put in new carpet first so we're waiting to start setting everything.

Time to get some lunch and get ready-Merry Christmas!

Busy Elves

I'd like to start this post off by asking...what happened to December?! I shake my head every morning when we change our blocks, counting down the days until Christmas. A week away already. We've been so busy since my last post.

Unfortunately, as soon as I wrote our last post, the boys came down with different sicknesses. The nurse practioner we each saw different days probably has a nice, new TV in her room with the money she got from visiting with us :) Nate got pinkeye, Josh got tonsillitis and everyone got colds. After spending almost a week just hanging at home, I'm happy to report that we're doing a lot better other than some nighttime and morning cough attacks. I've said it a hundred times-I love this season, but I hate it at the same time! Thankfully the sicknesses didn't get in the way of the majority of our fun activities planned. We've been crazy busy this week!

We've started to bake cookies and had a cookie exchange with our friends this week. Last night we took Nate to a Polar Express event in town-it was so cute with a bunch of craft tables, Santa was there to read the story and then meet with the kids, they served cookies and hot cocoa...Nate seemed to enjoy it.


Making a gingerbread ornament-which he happily put on the tree at home!


Meeting his new favorite person

This morning we had our next attempt at a gingerbread house. It was more fun for both of us-the gingerbread house was already put together so it was a matter of spreading frosting on and Nate took his time putting all kinds of candy on it. I didn't have to make sure the walls would stand up :)


The finished house!

We've also had some holiday get together's and tomorrow we're heading to Sedona for an early birthday celebration.

The biggest news I haven't mentioned yet is that we found out the sex of our baby this week also-a BOY! I was bummed before when I had an earlier ultrasound and the technician thought the same thing (before our official, 20 week one this week) but now I've let go of having a girl and I'm looking forward to having another boy. Nate will have a buddy/playmate and we have the vast majority of furniture,clothes and other boy baby stuff we'll need (so from a financial standpoint we're thrilled!) The baby made it pretty obvious that he, well, was a he. His legs were spread pretty far apart :) We brought Nate to watch the ultrasound, Josh pointed out what everything was to him. Nate doesn't seem to get the idea about mommy having another baby yet. I haven't felt any movement so far (though he was wildly moving around on the ultrasound) but I should in the next few weeks. I'm getting anxious for that!

O Christmas Tree...

We just got and decorated our Christmas tree this weekend. Mmmm, the fresh smell of pine! I got a few tree candles when I was in Oklahoma too. With all of those my house ought to be smelling like a nice forest!

Thanksgiving was grand. We enjoyed the parade, had good food, played games with my family. Black Friday shopping went pretty well too. We spent Friday afternoon with Josh's family. Again-good food and we made a fire and played games with the kids outside.

We're decorated and about halfway done with Christmas shopping. My goal is to finish the shopping this week and get started on cookies! Very important. I'm excited that I'll have an anxious helper in the kitchen with me, we'll be busy!

This past weekend we had another great time at our favorite brunchery's "Tea with Santa" event. We saw St Nick, Mrs. Claus and a few elves. Nate was more into it this year-it's fun to hear him say "Santa Claus" and he didn't mind going on his lap (already our 2nd time this year so far!)

Sugar cookie with apple cider


Laughing away from the elf


Silly picture with Mrs. Claus

Next Saturday is my 12k's of Christmas run (eight miles total). I'll be thrilled if I can run at least some of it :) Definately planning for a more fun, relaxed run vs trying to hit a running time goal. Now that I'm starting to fill out in the back and front, I don't nearly run as fast as I used to ;) Though even then I wasn't very fast. Josh and Nate are planning to come-there should be tons of things for them to do while I run. Bounce houses, Santa, dogs and cats to see...plus with it taking place at a park there should be a playground too. On Sunday we're going with our church to see the latest Narnia movie-with Nate. This will be his second theater movie. I'll just have to be sure to have my popcorn and gummy bears handy!

I almost forgot to post a picture of our first gingerbread house of the season-


The frosting was a little bit runny and things were falling apart. I'm looking forward to trying again!

One more picture-I forgot to talk about going to Zoolights. Nate loves seeing Christmas lights this year so he really enjoyed seeing the zoo lit up at night. His Pap-Pap that went along with us was nice enough to buy him a cool light up sword that he adores :)


Time to make sure my boys aren't getting into trouble!

Kickoff Season

I can't believe Thanksgiving is just about a week away. Where has the month gone? I can't say I'm disappointed, though. What a busy month! We've done a few fun activities with the club so far this month-including a tour and pizza making at California Pizza Kitchen and getting to frost our own donuts at Dunkin Donuts!



I just got home from visiting great friends in Oklahoma. The wait was well worth it! Weather wise it was a nice difference-high's in the 50's opposed to the 70's and
80's. It truly felt like fall/winter time there! Plus, I got to see the change of color with the trees! I never knew they were anything but maybe green and brown...


Because of some rain we didn't go out much but that was fine with me. It was nice to chill out and just catch up, watch a few movies. My good friend Sami and I even got out to see a movie. One of the highlights of my trip-on the last night-was dinner at a bar and grill. Who would have thought that fried pickles would have affected me so much?! They were DELICIOUS! I think I'm going to have to see if there's a place here who sells them! I'm a little embarrassed since I practically ate the whole appetizer.Well, no one can give me grief for eating a ton now, right?! :) I'm taking full advantage of eating lots. I was glad to get home to my boys (who were perfectly fine in my absence) but I miss my friends lots. Wish I could have both!


Though it always involves a week of hecticness, I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. Nate and I always enjoy any extra time Josh gets off of work, but the other nice part this year will be getting to enjoy the holiday a little bit more to ourselves. We love seeing family, but we're glad that this year has started a tradition of celebrating different holidays around the actual holiday. We are hosting my family on Thanksgiving afternoon but won't be seeing Josh's side until the day after. I think this will be the first year where we won't need to be rushing around, waking up at 5am to start our turkey and get to sit and actually enjoy the whole parade on TV. It's more enjoyable when we aren't hopping from house to house. Also per tradition, we go to Zoolights (our zoo is decorated at night with lights everywhere) the beginning of Thanksgiving week. This year Nate has been more interested in lights than he's ever been, so it should be a lot of fun.

This Friday is finally our "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" broadway show where Nate and I got tickets months ago. I plan to keep him busy all day so he's ready to sit and be entertained for a while that evening :) It should be a lot of fun. I saw the play in NY years ago and can't wait to see it again. I think it will be a lot more fun now that I get to experience it with my own child. I love that!

Thankful for November!

As I've said before in previous posts, I'm thankful that November has arrived! Life would be perfect if it wasn't 90 degrees out,however. Some stores have started to play Christmas music-a little hard to swallow when the sun is blazing and we're walking around in tank tops and sandals. If it would drop 15 degrees or so, then it might feel like Thanksgiving is a few weeks away :)

We've kept busy over the last two weeks or so with pumpkin patches and farm activities. We got a little bit of a break from hot weather so it was enjoyable. We ended up having a good Halloween-though it was doubtful at first. Nate woke up and immediately we noticed he wasn't himself. He felt warm and was lethargic-just wanted us to hold him and watch cartoons. The things that would usually make him jump with joy didn't-he'd sit there like a sack of potatoes. Thinking we weren't going out that night, guilty mommy braved Halloween crowds to try and round up items to make a gift bag instead. Luckily, after two naps and medicine, Nate was back to himself-just in time for trick or treating to start. He wasn't sure at first, but once he noticed what the "knock on the door/candy pattern" was, he got into it :) I couldn't get him to say "trick or treat", but he politely took 1-2 pieces of candy from the bowls and put them in his bag. I think he enjoyed seeing the decorations and lights. We were out only for about an hour. We've got our candy stash purged and hidden away. Looking forward to Nate being more interested in the holiday next year!

I'm now 13 weeks along in the pregnancy-the verge of the second trimester. We had a little scare last week at my appt when a few people couldn't find the heartbeat. I sat and waited for the ultrasound to be available (longest.wait.ever!) The tech was able to find it, however, and the baby is looking good and healthy. In fact, after getting to see the baby's legs and middle section, the tech is making early bets that we're having another BOY! I suppose there's still a margin for error but I believe she could be right. I always had the gut feeling that I was meant to be a mother of boys for whatever reason. Truly happy that the baby is healthy, but feeling guilty that I'm a little bummed about not having a girl. I feel bad for feeling that way. I go back the end of this month and I'm hoping we don't have another scare. It was good to see the baby's development though.

Getting pretty stoked now about seeing my good friend and her family in Oklahoma next week (especially for a weather break!) My boys ought to have some good quality time together.

More another time!