My Birthday- 2 Days Late

I am not a big fan of making my birthday a big deal. I usually don't have a "big gift" that I want because Christmas is just past, but I do absolutely love the sweet cards and gifts and I especially LOVE when my family sings happy birthday to me on my voice mail. (Thank you Ethan/Ashley, Erin (at the car dealership!!), Devyn, Mom, Dad, and Zach!)

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You know what else I love? Facebook. I love that they remind you when friends have birthdays and even though I know all my friends don't automatically remember it is my birthday, at least I know they want to take an extra couple seconds to wish me a happy birthday online. And that makes me happy. Very happy.

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I also love when your bestest friends offer to watch your toddler for the night so you can go on a much needed birthday date/dinner with your husband (thanks hansens!)

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And what made this birthday the most special 25th birthday ever? Rich agreed to order something quick, eat super fast, and hurry down the freeway to the hospital so I could spend the next couple hours with another fabulous girlfriend while she had her baby. I know I see births all the time, but being able to be with Kristen and help welcome baby boy KYRE into the world was one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever had. I took probably 200 more pictures than I needed to, but I was so happy to be there and honored that she would ask for me to be with her on this special day.

So happy 25th birthday to me and welcome to the world baby KYRE!

SuperMan!

Ryann was playing with Rich's blow up superman punching bag yesterday. She usually rides it- but here is a little clip for your viewing pleasure

Boyshorts

This is what your cute little girl wears home from daycare when daddy forgets to bring her an extra pair of clothes (when I asked him to three weeks ago!)

And she only had her pants changed because she spilled her lunch on them- no other yucky reason.
:)

Health and Baby Fair

Since this is my family blog I try not to talk too much about work (even though I have the best job ever!!) but this is something that has kind of consumed my life for the past month or so... and I wanted to get the word out to as many people as I can- so here is the deal: My practice is called Phoenician Women's Care. We are sponsoring a Health and Baby Fair on Valentine's Day (from 11-3). I have gathered over 40 vendors to come to our event. We have 99.9 Radio station going to be there. We have TONS of FREE stuff to give away!

There will be free lunch, free flowers for valentines day, free giveaways and prizes, and best of all--- a FREE PETTING ZOO!

So- tell your friends, tell your neighbors, and bring your kids to the health and baby fair for free food and fun.

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So here is the details

1343 N Alma School Rd

Chandler, AZ 85224

(between Warner and Ray)

480-496-2651

11am-3pm

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Some examples of vendors: Boon Inc, Laborlooks, Arizona Mama, Phoenix Kids.com, the bump, stork vision, Aubry Startin Photography, Doulas, Raising AZ kids magazine, Arizona Childproofers, Cookie Lee Jewelry, and a lot of cute ladies with etsy shops will be bringing their goodies for you to check out!

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Come! Please Come! We are actually expecting about 1000 women and families.

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Oh yeah- the fire department will be there doing free car seat safety checks- so if you have never had your car seat checked to make sure it is installed properly- get it done that day!

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Comment to me if you have any questions!

Night 2

Night 1 was a success! Ryann eventually got tired of knocking and went and fell asleep in her bed. So stinkin cute. She slept the entire night as well!

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So we are on night 2. She is knocking, but it has only been for a couple minutes.

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Oh sweetie. I love her.

Toddler Bed- Seriously

So I was pretty serious about getting Nugs into her toddler bed. So serious that I took apart her beautiful round crib and put it away. So now I am listening to her quietly knock on the door. I will let you know how this plays out tomorrow...

New Bath Toys

I don't know how she does it- but my good friend Rebecca designs and makes these amazing prodcuts over at www.booninc.com. We just picked up the new bath toys (a net with little "bugs") and Nugs LOVES playing with them! She cleans up all her toys by scooping them into the net each night.

Daddy's Hat

Sorry that the picture isn't the best- dang sunlight through the window!

Anyway, Nugs pulled Rich's hat off his head and was playing with it the entire car ride home. She was definitely posing for this picture and she did this all herself.We put her in long sleeves today but that was a mistake- it has been so warm here in phoenix!

26 Weeks- Pregnancy and Life update

So this week has been INSANE! It has been non-stop, very busy, and I thought I would possibly go crazy but fortunately the weekend is here!

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I spent Monday having lots of contractions so I had to lie down, take some terbutaline (Rx that makes contractions stop! yippy!), and spend most of Rich's Family birthday dinner on the couch.

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I spent Tuesday trying to celebrate Rich's birthday by taking Nugs to softball to watch daddy play- which means she didn't get to sleep until 9:00pm

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I spent Wednesday late from work, buying Rich his iPhone at the mall, trying to get church YW stuff organized, going to YW, having a meeting afterwards and not getting to bed until late

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I spent Thursday picking up a babysitter and going to ward temple night and once again not getting to bed until late.

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And today- on Friday- I am going to take Nugs to the park at 3:30. Because we both need that.

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And come back later today because I will post a picture of my exponentially growing 26 week belly! I have less than 100 days of pregnancy to go!

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Maybe I will take a look at CK on the ultrasound machine today. I feel her kick like crazy all day long- but I haven't seen her in 6 weeks. That would make me happy.

Happy Birthday

So I woke up especially early today so I could make sure to blog about my sweet husband. I leave for work every morning before he wakes up and I think he will actually read the blog before I have a chance to tell him "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" so I figured this would work out well too. Here are some of my favorite pictures of the birthday boy:

Nug's Arrival- he had more protective gear than the Doctors! And he ate my food- rude

Once I opened the birth photos I had to add another one of this proud papa

He did have hair once upon a time

I don't think he has been to Hooter's since I took this picture- and yes- I suggested we take this picture

Well, I have plenty more to choose from - so I will add more later. But I love my husband and all that he does for me. He is patient and kind and never fails to make me laugh. He is a great dad and he is just awf-some... I mean, awesome.

Happy 31st!

Nugs 1: Dad 0

It was hard to decide on a post for this blog. I was choosing between:

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1. Toddler Bed Night #1

2. Nugs vs Toddler Bed

3. How to get a horrible night sleep

4. Daddy's Tired

5. Dad is Obviously More Fun Than Mom

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and the list goes on and on...

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So anyway, I decided last night to have Nugs sleep in her toddler bed. Since the girls will be sleeping in the same room I want to get a head start on having Nugs out of the crib. So we did the bedtime routine and we laid her in her bed and and tucked her in. She didn't immediately start screaming like we thought- she just would walk to the door after a few minutes and knock. So then Rich would open her door and put her back in bed. He only had to do this 4 or 5 times before she fell asleep in her bed!

Success!

We were aware that she would probably wake up sometime in the middle of the night screaming and we would just calm her down or whatever.

(we didn't really think this through or have a game plan)

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Fast foward to midnight. Crying starts- not screaming, just long drawn out crying like "mom, did you forget about me?" crying. The kind that pulls you to them immediately-

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So I go and lay down with her in the bed and we fall asleep until 3 when she decides it is time to play with mom. So after an hour of this I decide to put her in her crib and go back to bed. As I set her down she immediately starts SCREAMING. Like full on bloody murder SCREAMING. So I walk away and hope she calms down. She doesn't, so I send Rich in- thinking after my 1 hour of no sleep he should take a turn.

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Well, obviously Daddy is more fun to play with than mommy because according to Rich he didn't sleep at all.

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So I feel a little bad. But I am happy to say Nugs slept in her toddler bed excellent from 7-12 (5 hours) and then another 3 hours she slept pretty well. So a total of 8 hours of sleep in her toddler bed is a good start if you ask me.

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But please don't ask Rich... cause he won't tell you the same thing.

Here is Nugs saying, "who me? I would never keep my daddy awake! But... just in case I accidently did... I will wear his t-shirt he made in kindergarten so he is really happy next time he looks at me."

Precious

I love this silly girl. And she loves me.

And if you are reading this blog- I am sure she loves you too.

Have I posted Nugs running away yet? I better do that, cause it is hilarious. I promise she brought this suitcase outside all by herself.

Leg Warmers

So I never put leg warmers (or bows for that matter-another story for another day) on Nugs when she was a baby. I thought that they were silly and a quick fad that would soon be gone. Well, for Christmas I broke down and bought her a clearance pair because she has so many pairs of shorts (duh- we live in phoenix) and I thought this would extend their life. Now I realized that I don't need an excuse to buy leg warmers for this cute nugget because look at her! She looks so stinkin cute! (yes- even with food on her shirt, no pants, rolling her eyes, sticking her tongue out and holding 2 sippy cups!)

I did have a skirt on her at one point today- but after changing her diaper I figured I would just leave it off- it was almost bath time anyway.

And by the way- the BUM Genius diapers are still amazing, still wonderful, and we have not only saved over 3 packs of costco sized diapers but tons of money too!

Sunday Dress

Isn't great when you find that sunday dress that doesn't really show stains and is easy enough to be a play dress too? Well, thanks GRAMINGO and Vicki for the wonderful dress.

Nugs loves it!

Or rather- I love it- and Rich loves it too because there aren't any buttons!

Elmo

One of my favorite things about the Ahwatukee area of Phoenix is that there are so many things for families to do (sometimes you have to search- but really, they are out there!) and most of them are FREE!

Today we took Nugs to the Ahwatukee My Gym where she was able to meet a giant ELMO! She brought her (daddy's) Elmo doll with her and got to sit on his lap and had so much fun.

Even more fun than ELMO was jumping on the trampoline, hanging on the bars, sliding down the slide, and playing in the ball pit.

It was quite the adventure and she was definately worn out.

Here is Nugs climbing the rock wall (with assistance) and my definately showing 24 week belly!

Speech Therapy Anyone?

So as most of you know, Nugs doesn't talk much. She is pretty hysterical and funny and keeps us on her toes- but for some reason she hasn't felt the need to talk.

And of course we all know she is very independent.

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At 18 months our pediatrician was concerned about how few words she was saying. So she had me come back in at 21 months to get her evaluated and at that point she referred me to the Arizona Early Intervention Program.

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Think whatever you want (i have heard it all from, "oh- you better get her checked..." to, "well, we know she isn't dumb..." to, "She is just a late talker...") but I went ahead and had her evaluated. The first evaluation put Nugs below the charts on her language development- well, duh, I knew that... so the official "speech therapist" was called into our home.

Part of me kept thinking that it would be really nice for someone to come to our house every couple weeks or months to help teach me how to teach Nugs how to talk. It is free, it can't hurt, and it will help me develop my skills as a parent and a teacher.

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Well, we were denied.

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Do you cheer when you are denied? Or feel bad? I haven't decided yet.

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The 6 page paper that came along with our denial letter had quite a lot of information in it. it was very detailed and described exactly what happened during the evaluation. It really boiled down to a couple things:

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1. Nugs understands everything we say to her- thus we know she has the ability to communicate, even if it is one-sided.

2. Nugs has a "very strong sense of self" (therapist's words) even though she doesn't use her own name or say "mine".

4. Nugs makes all the appropriate sounds for her age so she will eventually put them together.

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So that is where we stand.

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The initial evaluator also reminded me that Nugs is now "on file" so if things don't develop well over the next 6 months then we can have her re-evaluated. However, I am sure she will be fine- the extra help just would have been nice.

Adventure

Every day with a toddler is an adventure. For example... last night we went to get the mail. Of course we had to bring the fish food with us- because what if there are hungry fish on the way to the mailbox?

Who remembers the red echo in the back?

And then we have to stop and play in the puddles on the street.

And then by the time we actually get the mail it is getting dark.

And then we try to race home- Nugs is a pretty fast little girl!

I hope she makes this face when she runs track someday!

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Great for the cute outfit for Christmas! Nugs loves it!

Sorry for the blurry pictures!

Way too funny not to post...

So here is a little story that is somewhat embarassing for me- but I am telling it anyway for humor sake-

So, Rich is in the bathroom (or library as he likes to call it) and the pregnancy bladder sounds it warning so I run into the other bathroom and do my business. All of the sudden I realize that I have been stranded (aka- no toilet paper).

I start yelling for Rich- when will he be done? Can he bring me toilet paper? Well, he gets the genius idea to have Nugs bring me some. I yell for her and she comes into the bathroom and I hand her the empty toilet paper roll and tell her to "bring this to daddy"

Then Rich starts yelling for her to come to him. After a couple minutes I realize this is hopeless and I am just going to have to wait this out. Well, I give it one last ditch attempt and start yelling for Nugs again. In comes my sweet angel-faced toddler holding a brand new roll of toilet paper!

So it turns out Rich gave her 3 different rolls and fortunately one made it to me- the others were randomly scattered throughout the house. Oh well. I was saved by my Nugs and I couldn't be happier!

Petting Zoo

Today Nug's friend Jaidin had a birthday party with a petting zoo!

Nugs had a blast- especially on the pony ride!

However, she made sure that I was never touching her as she was led around.

This is the most I got to touch her and you can see her reaction.

Oh- and it is a belly picture. Not very impressive- huh?

It was also pretty hysterical to see her face the loudest of all the animals...

The DUCK!!

Here is Nugs staring intently at the duck

And now she is still staring at the duck as he moves around.

Needless to say- she stayed away from the duck for most of the party.

Nugs also loved the goats, cow, bunnies, chickens, and llama. I will try to post a video soon.

Silly Nugs

Ryann's cute pigtails got a little messy during her nap- so instead of pointing backwards they are pointing forwards! She is too cute.

She also loves eating her popcorn from target! She loves target trips because she and daddy share popcorn.