Girl weekend vs. boy weekend

Thursday night I drove Chris to Denver to catch a flight to Mesa for his little brother Andrew's eagle scout shin-dig. I was going to stay with all four kids but Chris convinced me that the price of Asher's ticket is worth it so I could have a fun weekend with just the girls. I agreed and in the end I think it was totally worth it. Asher got the man-time he really craves with all his uncles and cousins.

Nana Richie sent us a girls only box and the girls couldn't wait and wouldn't let Asher even look in the box.

Friday night I took the girls to Olive Garden (their pick) and we ate lots of food and got fancy desserts. Then we went home and had popcorn and cuddled while watching How To Tame Your Dragon. (Chris took my camera with him and took 5 photos with it so I was stuck with my ipod to take photos. I apologize for low quality of these photos).

Saturday we went shopping, a plate full of cookies and milk, painted nails (only one foot for Fiona) and burnt popcorn. Each night they slept in my room with me, which I really needed. (I'm the biggest wuss. I would lock my bedroom door every night and take two tylenol pm so I didn't have to be awake long in bed).

 Fiona has not been sleeping awesome lately and I think it's because she's hungry now and ready for baby food. So with my crappy ipod camera I documented her first food. It didn't go so well. She didn't hate it but it's always a pain trying to get them to swallow it. The girls enjoyed it a lot though.

 Sunday the girls had their primary program. In my rush to get to church on time I forgot to feed Fiona so I didn't miss the program. I ended up missing Cecily saying her line but I got to see Jocelyn. Then during closing prayer I remembered I needed to sub Chris's primary class. Thank goodness it's only 6 year olds and they are content leaf hunting, coloring, and hang man. They did tell me I should be a cat or a piece of toast for Halloween. Both good suggestions.

Chris and Asher took the 6:30am flight home Monday morning. I was so happy to see them again! I convinced Chris to take one more day off work so I could be with him. (plus he was dead tired) We walked ran to pick up Cecily from class. It was soooooooooo windy and cold! I LOVE IT!

Asher missed Fiona a lot too. He asked to hold her and he did for probably 10 minutes.

I'm so glad my man and boy are home again!

Lonely Mee

I'm missing these two guys hardcore. 

The girl weekend has been a ton of fun! But I could sure use some testosterone to balance out all the girl-drama we've got goin' on here. 

12 more hours.

ps: This is another photo from our second photo shoot. Lindsay rocks my world!

Friday Friday

-Chris had to do the color test for a training at work. Since it's free he had me take it too. It's a bit different than the one we've all taken before. Chris is a equal mix of red/blue/yellow and I'm mostly blue and white. It was interesting and always a little creepy when it nails you on the head.

-I dropped Chris off at the airport and Fiona cried the WHOLE WAY HOME! Yep. 60 blissful minutes of I-can't-do-anything-for-you-while-I-am-driving kind of cry.

-Chris edited this photo on his ipod.

-I had to drop my HR class cause I got so sick and too far behind to bring up two failing grades. So graduation for me is delayed to March. I'm still in my marketing class and doing better. Plus now I will be able to help Chris with his school. He's going strong!

- When dropping Cecily off at school yesterday she said "I don't want daddy to leave, I like how we're a family." too freakin' sweet!

-Once a child is 2, it CANNOT be a lap child. No matter what the nice lady at Southwest tells you.

- The couch I bought last Friday is officially up for sale on craigslist. I found a slip cover that barely works on the long part of my red couch so I won't see it's disgustingness anymore. You know your life is good when your biggest trial is that your couch won't fit in your basement. (these rental curtains are coming down!)

-I haven't weighed in for 2 weeks and to my surprise I have lost almost 7 pounds since I left to AZ! Thank you chronic stomach flu!

-My friend was complaining on facebook that there is going to be a Cars 2. I flipped out with him cause, Hello! Cars 1 was LAAAAMMMMEeeeE! And someone said Monsters, Inc 2 is in development!!! I am speechless. This is just too awesome. I take back all the bad things I ever said about you, John Lasseter.

-Last weekend Chris and I made steak and some yummy butternut squash and walnut salad. Soooo super yummy! Also, to stay in the autumn mood I made THESE pumpkin pancakes with an apple-pecan saute. It was very tasty and almost like a dessert, Martha knows what she's doing!

-After nearly 8 years I have retired my mouse. My amazing logitech mouse! It's still going strong but it's scrolly thing was just too loud. Chris found me a cheap mighty mouse and let me tell you. It's pretty sweet.

Have a great weekend! I know I will, I'm hanging out with my girls and they get to pick everything we do. Chris has my camera so he better use it!

Mesa, Arizona, Mesa, Arizona not Louisiana, Paris, France, New York, or Rome, but...

Mesa, Arizonaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

                                                                       (I'll give whoever can guess this song, or what it's from, a box full of fall leaves).

I flew home to Mesa on Thursday night (Oct 7th). I had a wonderful facetime chat with Chris with our new iPods at the airport and Fiona was a freakin' doll the whole time. I was so nervous she would scream and cry the whole flight but she didn't. She giggled and cooed at all the people around me and then shortly after take off, fell asleep. I played chuzzle and listened to my new book World Without End (sounds like a James Bond movie title but it's the sequal to Pillars of the Earth).

Friday I spent the day with my mom and sister with breakfast at the Good Egg, pedicures and a trip to the Apple store. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry that I started to feel sick Thursday night. By the time I got back to my moms house that afternoon I was just wanting to relax on the couch. I decided I should keep moving and headed over to Molly's house to play for a bit before sushi. At this point sushi did not sound good at all but I wanted it so bad cause I never get good sushi! I told Molly my secret and she suggested canceling but I stomped my foot like a little kid and said NO! I want to play! Bad choice. I got fever chills, I was achy, miserable. Trying to keep a happy face on was very difficult. I had two pieces of sushi then whispered to Molly I was going to die. I got home, asked my mom for a fluffy blanket, and went to bed. I died that night.
(Picture of me with all the sister in laws with Sandy... sigh... didn't get one!)

Saturday I was supposed to make crepes with Bethany, go out to lunch with Amy, attend Chelsea's baby shower, and have a girl night with my mom and sisters. I had to bail on everything and barely made it to the dinner with my mom and sisters. The most I could do was rotate so I could feed Fiona. Poor thing spent most of the day in bed with me. And whenever she protested I called my mom and she came and played with her.
(picture of me with my mom, sisters, and sister in laws... sigh... didn't get on!)

Sunday I woke up feeling a little normal. With my massive head ache gone I could actually function. I attended my little neice Rebecca's baby blessing and breakfast then I headed over to my in-laws to catch the VERY tail end of my nephew's baby blessing breakfast. (Seriously, what are the odds Jesse and Beth would both have 8am church?!)

 I didn't get a picture of Fiona with Oakley! Totally bummed about that one! I spent the afternoon at my in-laws and had dinner with my family. Monday was a crazy day of trying to pack everything in that I didn't get to do yet. I got to see Amy, go out to lunch with my mom and sister, a reflexology appointment, it was a nice last day and I couldn't wait to get home to see Chris and the kids again. We decided 4 days is the max we can be without each other then it just gets crippling.

While I was in Mesa, Andrew came up to play with Chris. They did a lot of boy movie watching, eating, and playing. Here are some photos...

Random plus weekend

Guess what, I got sick AGAIN, awesome I know... so I wasn't feeling up to blogging plus the guilt of not doing school was too much for me. This post is my random Friday plus our weekend. I'll blog about my trip to AZ sometime...

-Tuesday Chris stayed home from work and it was so nice to spend the day with him after being gone all weekend. We walked together to pick up Jocelyn from school. I knew there was no school Thursday or Friday for parent/teacher conferences but I wasn't for sure about Wednesday. I asked Jocelyn and she said she had school. Wednesday morning we were running late cause the girls didn't want to get out of bed. I got to school right when the kids are usually lining up to go to class. I didn't see anyone and told the girls to haul it to their classes. They ended up going to the office cause they were tardy. By this time I'm walking in my door and hear my phone ringing. Cottonwood. Turns out there was no school and I needed to come and get them. I call this a mom's walk of shame because they were waiting in the front office and I was in Chris's red flannel pjs, asher wasn't wearing anything but his underwear and my hair was CRAZY! I was able to laugh about it, and so did the girls but it was still humbling.

-When Asher got his teeth cleaned they took a photo of him. Then this past week they sent a letter to him with his photo explaining how important it is to brush his teeth. He carried this around with him the rest of the night he thought it was "awesome" in his words.

-The girls got their school photos back. On the morning of the school pictures was Chris's late day so I decided to get up early and get the oil changed and tires rotated and he got the kids off to school. I remembered at 9am that it was picture day. Chris is pretty good at pony tails but these girls have such frizzy hair like me.

We have been looking forward to the pumpkin patch all year. We get to look through the field and pick our own pumpkin, they have animals you can feed and pet (which is Asher's favorite) they have a playground of hay bales, and a corn maze (which was surprisingly expensive!) We had a blast. I was pregnant last year when we went and Asher was crazy. Let me tell you how awesome life is now that I'm not pregnant and Asher has calmed down a little bit.

-Friday I bought a couch off craigslist took two trips in my van to bring it home. It was such a steal and it's pretty much brand new! My vision was to put the red sectional in the basement 1/2 of the new couch in the family room and the smaller half up in my room. Well, we can't get the larger part of the red couch into the basement. It's impossible unless I chop it in half. It was SO disappointing! The new couch isn't as wide to sit on nor comfy. I got such a steal on it I know if I re-list it I could probably make money on it. The problem is it took us a lot of work to get the whole red couch up in our room that I don't know if I want to bring it downstairs again. It's such a tuff decision! Plus I now that I actually have a neutral colored couch I feel as though someone took away my curly hair. Weird analogy I know but I don't know what to do. I like not being ashamed of the disgustingness of the red couch but it's so comfy and red and perfect. Waaahhhhh!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

Theory

I went on antibiotics for my toe infection. It  got rid of the infection and I was happy.... until I got sick. Thursday night on my way to the airport to visit family in Arizona I confessed to Chris my tummy was churning. Friday I was powering through it and Friday night I died. It was BAD! One of the worst times I've ever been sick. The most I could do was turn from side to side and feed Fiona. I couldn't eat, or drink and I could barely think (not to sound rhymie). So here's my theory on why antibiotics suck. It wiped me clean of all my antibodies so when I got some germ on me it took me OUT! For someone who would only battle the stomach bug for 24 - 48 hours has taken me almost a week to kick. Everyday when I eat my stomach dies churns and grumbles and I know in about 2 hours I'm going to be in pain. I can't complain too much though cause I lost almost 3 pounds over my vacation when I thought I would gain 5. So hopefully someday soon I will have the energy I need to do my mommy and student duties. Thank goodness for Chris and his amazingness to take care of me. So you'll get the full story of my visit home and the fun the kids had with Chris while I was away on Friday when I feel a little more "with it", right now I'm still surviving.

Random Friday

I had this scheduled to be published on Friday but I never hit publish so it stayed a draft. Oh well.

-I took the kids to get their teeth cleaned on Tuesday and amazingly they don't have any cavities! The dentist said no build up and their teeth look great. This was music to my ears! It's not easy brushing, flossing and doing fluoride on 3 kids every night. And some nights I just don't want to do it but it totally paid off! This was Asher's first time getting his teeth cleaned and I was a bit nervous but he did awesome!

-During conference I was cuddling with Cecily and she started to pick her nose. I told her not to. She then said "I'm not eating them just crumbling them like Jocelyn taught me!" Then Jocelyn yelled "No I didn't!" It was a classic family moment.

-I mentioned before my new favorite buttermilk biscuits but have you ever made buttermilk pancakes?! Holy moly, they are GOOD! Jocelyn and Cecily each ate 3.

-I got a B+ in my employment law class. It's a lot of affirmative action, civil rights act, fair labor act...blah blah blah... I'm pretty excited to be Toby on the office. 

-On Saturday I went to the thrift store. As an effort to be more green I bought a ton of towels to use in place of paper towels. They ended up having a ton of decent stuff so I bought a lot of long sleeve shirts for the girls, a warm car seat thing for Fiona (I would seriously sleep in an adult size one of these, it's so comfy) and a couple pairs of shoes for the kids. Then on Tuesday I went to Old Navy to buy some shirts for me for my trip to AZ and they were having a huge clearance. Mens shirts and shorts were 97 cents, and tons of baby girl stuff was a $1. There was nothing in boys or womens clearance. I ended up getting 23 items for $40 bucks. It was a good day.

-I got Fiona's tongue clipped. No more heart shaped tongue. They don't numb it cause it doesn't hurt babies that bad. I asked what to expect and he said just a little fussy. So he did it and she didn't even cry. In fact she just thought he was playing the whole time so she kept smiling.

-Chris and I went on a 30 Rock binge and there's an episode where Liz says "Somebody bring me some haaaammmm!" In a sing song voice. So Chris kept saying it over and over and it was driving Jocelyn crazy! She ended up singing back to him "Please stop singing that sooooooonng!" Classic.

-We had a photo shoot on Sunday after conference with Fiona for her 4 month birthday. Veronica gave me this pretty dress when I had Jocelyn and we took pictures of her then. We moved and I couldn't find it anywhere so I missed getting photos of Cecily in the dress. But I knew exactly where it was for Fiona. She's such a ham...

 Yep licking the grass.

For random photos here's the photo of Jocelyn in the same outfit.