Roswell, part 2

While in Roswell we took the kids down to the cute little ski town of Ruidoso. We drove all the way up a crazy winding mountain road to Ski Apache. I think it is the closest skiing place to Texas because 97% of all the cars in the parking lot had Texas license plates. Thankfully it wasn't too cold outside because we forgot to pack anything suitable for less than 50 degrees!

My cousin April, her husband Corey, and their kids Kiley and Elijah.

I must point out here that we are standing on a hill so Brian appears to be 8 inches taller than me, which is not true...

Before we went to Roswell I wasn't sure if Brian would find stuff in common with Corey. I only met Corey at their wedding 5 years ago and didn't get to know him.

Well, I think they really enjoyed hanging out together as much as the kids! They climbed up this large hill so that I could play with the zoom on our new camera. They were up there for the longest time - talking, taking in the view I guess, so I finally just started snapping pictures of them. Then out of nowhere they started to race down the hill!

Sigh - a little healthy comptition between friends. Boys are so much different than girls! Could you imagine April and I racing each other down a mountain?

Roswell

Before you ask, no I didn't go to Roswell for the aliens. In fact if you constantly ask the locals there about alien stuff, they get annoyed with you. I have family in Roswell. Brian has never been there before - so after Christmas I dragged (drug? drugged?!) him down there. The part that he was most hesitant about was the drive there, all 8 hours of it with a toddler in the back seat. Now I wasn't too thrilled about the 8 hours in the car with the toddler and ADD man, but I've made the drive many times before and with the right music and conversation it can fly by.

We survived the drive there just fine - thanks to a wise investment in a portable DVD player and a few Disney DVD's. We stayed with my cousin, April and her family which included 2 built in toddler occupiers:

Kiley

and Elijah

Little Red, Kiley, and Elijah played and played and played the entire time we were there. I think it really helped Red learn how to play with toys. It was awesome to sit back and watch people with endless energy and no responsibility play from dawn until dusk... I'm talking about the kids... When you only have one child you are that child's fulltime playmate. When you have more than one child, they can play with each other... and leave you alone sometimes! Don't read too much into that - I love playing with my girl! I love revisting the joys of childhood; I love showing her things that I've seen a million times but she has never seen before (like choo-choo trains and dandelions).

Here we are with my Grandpa "Papo." As far back as I can remember, Papo has been building houses - as a hobby. When I was a kid we all lived in LA and my mom and I would visit Papo and Mamu (my grandma). They lived in a trailor on the property that he was working on. Anyway, I would follow that man around for hours and I would play in the mud or ask him 1,000 questions. And I collected a lot of rocks. 100's of them I'm sure. I gave most of them to Mamu as presents. Little Red apparently has the same passion for rocks. The entire time we were checking out his new construction project, she was checking out the rocks and bringing them to me as presents "Here go, mommy! Rock!"

Christmas Day

Ah the joys of working healthcare - I had to celebrate my Christmas Day at work with all the little babies and missed out on my baby's 2nd Christmas. But don't worry about her - I doubt she had time to miss me! She went to the zoo with her Daddy, GG, Pappaw, and Aunt Sara. They took some of my all time favorite pictures that day - look for them in my house sometime soon!

And my absolute 100% hands-down favorite picture of Christmas Day:

A visit with Santa

I wish I could have taken a picture of Little Red's reaction to Santa when she first saw him tonight! She had been talking about Santa for weeks; every picture, Christmas light display, and Christmas present we saw she'd declare, "Santa!" We thought she was still too stranger-danger to take her to the mall Santa so we just stuck with the annual personal visit from "Santa" and "Mrs.Claus."

We were in her bedroom putting on her Christmas pajamas when Santa came around the corner... pure terror is the best word I can use to describe her reaction! She froze and screamed and cried - I tried so hard not to laugh (didn't want to terrorize her any further). Santa came and talked her through it all, I think she may have recognized his voice. By the end of the evening she was just fine with it. Sure glad I didn't take her to the mall Santa!

Christmas with Peanut!

Today my friend Amanda came over with her daughter so that the girls could celebrate their Christmas together! The weather was very pleasant so I set up the bounce house in the backyard. I think they both had a great time! "Peanut" gave my girl some Little Golden books and some Little People play sets and she gave Peanut a Disney Fairies nail station. Let the Christmas fun begin!

She Sings!

I am so excited to announce that my sweet baby girl has accomplished an important milestone: she can sing! This is not her best performance, but it makes me super happy and proud!



If you didn't catch it, she is singing 2 songs: the ABC song and "I'm picking up a baby bumblebee" She usually does a very dramatic "Ouch! He stung me!" But this time she let me do it.

I Lost a Friend

Hi everyone. I normally keep this blog very light, but I feel the need to cry out about my friend and co-worker, Shawn. Shawn lost his life in a horrible car wreck the day after Thanksgiving. I still can't believe he is gone. It's like some awful dream, and I can't wake up and go into work, see him and give him a hug and say, "I had the most awful dream last night!"

Shawn was a person who was liked and loved by everyone. He was the life of the party everywhere he went - he always had a smile on his face. It could be the worst, most hectic day of his life and he would still be dancing and smiling saying, "it's all good, girl" Shawn was the easiest person to talk to, he would come down to the NICU to help me and we'd work side by side and talk for hours about anything from important patient care issues to pizza and restaurants. He always tried his best at everything - even if he looked silly. He always had a joke, always had a way to make us smile.

When I'm at work, I see him in my mind all over the hospital, and I can hear his voice in my head, and I think he'll always be in my heart.

I've learned a few hard lessons from this. Shawn had just moved less than 10 minutes from me and we talked about meeting at a local Italian place for pizza soon. There was always some silly reason why we never could, work schedules, football season, someone was sick etc. We never got to go out for that pizza. One of my biggest faults is talking to people about going and doing something, but never following through and actually doing it. I'm going to try very hard to change that.

I have so many people in my life that I love and cherish. If you're reading this (I think I know who reads my blogs), you are one of them. So to you I say thank you for being my friend and I love you. I feel the need to mention a few people here instead of just a blanket statement. (These are in no particular order) Bethany, I think about you daily. You inspire me to read more books and do my dishes with gloves on. You make me want to be more affectionate with my husband because you are so affectionate with yours and you and Dave are so much in love with each other. Holly, you inspire me to be a more energetic mom. On days where Little Red is bored and I don't feel like playing anymore, I think "What would Holly do, how would she make this child happy?" Holly, you are one of those people who does what you say you're going to do. You make plans and you are so thoughtful. I hope to be half as thoughtful as you someday. Melanie, I don't talk to you anymore outside of the blog world but I think about you and your beautiful children often and remember our chats we used to have. You are a very creative writer and I always enjoy reading your posts, and sometimes when I am making an entry of my own I think of how you would word it. Amie, your story inspires me to hold on to my faith in God and he will provide what I need in his own time. That reminds me of someone else - Jenny, I don't know if you read this little blog of mine but you my friend inspire me to hold on to my faith in God as well and to pray pray pray. You have inspired me to journal whats going on in my life so someday when I actually scrapbook again, those memories will be there. Jenny, you are such a good friend to everybody, you are outgoing and you are unique and proud to be who you are. Amanda, you know more about me than I do, you have such an incredible memory I wish I could remember half the stuff you do. And you are never too shy to pick up the phone and say hi. You are what kept our friendship alive when you lived in Oregon and Conn. Kimi, you have taught me that it's normal to be confused by God and to sometimes be a little upset with him too. Katie, you inspire me to slow down when I talk and pronounce my words. Alicia, you have inspired me to play with Little Red more and enjoy her while she's little. Courtney, you have taught me to be patient with the Lord and pray about everything.

I have so many more friends that lift me up and encourage me everyday and it is impossible for me to list everyone. I love you all!

Shawn, enjoy heaven. I'll keep smiling.
Love, Tiff

Halloween

We thought it would be a great idea to take Little Red to the pumpkin patch and grab some great pictures. We had a great time, but didn't get a single "good" picture.

Me: Ooh Sweetie! Stand next to Snow White and I'll take your picture!

Me: hmmm... not quite what I meant...

Me: Stand next to Daddy and I'll take a picture! Look at Mommy!!!! (Insert raspberry, yoo-hoo, and peek-a-boo)

Me: Oh Sweetheart, look - it's Dora and Diego!

(sighs...) It is impossible to get a nearly 2-year-old to stand in one place for more than 2 seconds... ever... So we gave up on pictures and just made memories. We have "memory" pictures!


We went to a little Halloween party at Holly's house. Little Red was the oldest child there. It was just adorable! She went as Little Red Riding Hood! I guess you could say that I went as the mom from the Suave commercial (before she uses the shampoo and is all pretty...)

We tried to get a picture of all the kids together! We knew going into it that it was not going to be organized but we tried anyway.


I think Caden (the pumpkin) is trying to talk to the kitty cat next to him, who seems to be interested in Lake (the giraffe who refused to sit on the hay next to the other older kids) Makenna (the frog) cannot sit up yet so she kept falling over onto Caden and I think Isabella (the ladybug) is trying to figure out a way to help her teetering cousin. Trenton (Spiderman) and Little Red are up there, I promise you but I was balancing on the stairs and holding my camera out over the ledge and then my camera card was full... and then there were a lot of tears so that was it! Did anyone get a good picture of them all???

More Portrait Innovations

I have so many Portrait Innovations pictures that I could post a new one every day until the end of the year! (But I will spare you the time and me the embarassment and only post my favorites!)

20 month pictures!

Tuesday I took Little Red to Portrait Innovations in Colleyville for a little Mommy-Daughter photo session. These photographers were AWESOME!!!! What they do is exhausting - acting silly just to catch a smile and they act really silly. I highly recommend them, they do a great job, totally patient with kiddos, reasonably priced, and they print your pictures out right there while you wait! I have a CD with all the pictures and I'll post more when I have more time, I just wanted to give everyone a little peek at our beauty!

Attn Bloggers

I have a question for all my blogger friends out there: Where are you all getting the really cute templates and name graphics and such? I am so bored with my template and blogger doesn't offer all that many templates. I tried to copy and paste the HTML like I do on myspace, but I lose my lists and recipes, etc. Help anyone?

Caution

Don't let me or my family come to your house and touch anything expensive - or valuable. Little Red is going through a destructive phase (I've been told this never ends...) The King of the Castle broke the Outlander 3 weeks ago (minor fender bender)... Red ripped the decorative bows off of my favorite pair of shoes... I have fought with my printer EVERY day at work... Red broke the buckle on a shopping cart halfway during our grocery shopping (too late to switch out carts - so she kept standing up in the seat!!!) ... One of my favorite ventilators at work broke the day before I was going to use it for a demo/ lecture... and then the worst of the worst: my cell phone is now broken! I was trying to clean my house and Red woke up a little early from her nap. I spread out several of her toys in the living room so that I could finish up the kitchen. She started to play ball with Fonzie, well then the ball rolled under the couch. So then she started throwing blocks at the poor creature. I'm just guessing that she thought he would catch them in his mouth like he does the ball.... hmm... not so much. I (quickly?) reminded her that that was not allowed. She then climbed up the kitchen chair to the table and got my cell. I keep my phone locked so that she can't call Japan or 911 so I didn't worry too much about it. I glanced at her a minute later and she had it in her mouth, so I took it away from her and gave her a toy phone again (btw, that didn't go over so well!). The phone was a little drooled on, but really not bad. Well, now none of the buttons work! I can see that someone is calling me, but I can't answer my phone or dial any numbers. It's very strange. So tomorrow I am headed to a cell-phone repair center and I hope I can just take it there and say it broke and they won't ask very many questions. Maybe I'll leave out the part where my kid had the phone in her mouth...

What happened to August?

Wow, what an August we had! It flew by so quickly that I never even had time to blog - let alone check the blogs that I stalk... so here's what we did (maybe in chronological order...):

Little Red has figured out this playground thing in a major way. She loves LOVES LOVES slides and ladders that lead up to slides and well anything else she can climb on all by herself!

We spent a lot of time at the indoor play area at our local Chick-fil-a because well, it's too darn hot for the outdoor playgrounds!!!

Towards the middle of the month we took the long-awaited trip to Lake Texoma with Rob, Kimi, and Lake; Dave and Bethany; Brandon, Alicia, and Trenton; and Joel, Jenny, and Caden. We loved spending time with all of our friends! I forgot to charge my camera before we left so I only took 1 picture... the rest I had to beg via email. So here's what I've gathered so far:

This is Lake, just hanging out....

Here's the whole group, except for Little Red and Trenton... it was a much needed nap time!

Little Red and her baby doll got to swim for a little bit.

Alicia with Trenton and me with Little Red.

Rub-a-dub dub. three babes in a tub... and no, Trenton does not have black eyes. (I think whoever this picture came from had an over eager red-eye reducer!)

Brian went back to work last week - he's teaching 7th graders this year, plus coaching football, so please pray for him!!!

Oh, one last photo.... and maybe a video too...


Audrey honey, you can't nap sideways in the bed! You know what happened right after I snapped this photo, right? The camera startled her, she tried to roll over in a hurry, got stuck and cried... nap time over....

So I bought Little Red her own slide - which really helps with keeping her from climbing on the kitchen chairs. Well, I took this first video and then showed it to her. I think she has totally figured out what this whole camera thing does... here's the second video:

Public Notice

This is a Little Red when she is HOT, not sunburned. So you random people in Wal-Mart, Kroger, Central Market or wherever... quit looking at me like you're going to call CPS and asking her if she "got a little sun lately?" or "did you put sunscreen on her?!?!"

She's a fair-skinned red-head, she quickly turns red when she's hot - this is after 15 minutes of playing outside on the shaded back porch. I promise you, she's not sunburned!

Captain Destruct-o strikes again!

This is what can happen when a 17-month old is left alone in her room for 5 minutes while Mommy unloads the dishwasher!!!


Before:


And After, the movie version:



Sigh... The gasp at the end is because I stepped on a toy, and it really hurt!

We were BABIES!!!!!

Little Red has a new game she likes to play. It's called "pull all of the photo albums off of the bookcase while Mommy is cooking dinner." I'm teaching her that the photo albums shouldn't be thrown on the floor, but she can look at them. This morning she actually opened one and brought it to me. This picture really took me back...

This is from 8 years ago when we first started dating. I am 18 and Brian is 21... Wow! We were just babies then!

Coincidence or Irony???

About a month ago I ran into someone I hadn't seen in awhile and we started talking about our kids. She asked me about Little Red's sleep habits, how she eats, and if she had many colds, etc. So I was happy to report that she almost always slept very well, 12 hours most nights and then a 2 or 3 hour nap after lunch; that she was a very good eater, not picky loves fruit and veggies; and only 2 colds this past winter with one ear infection.

I think I even had this conversation with another person or two soon after that...

Apparently I spoke too soon..

Little Red woke up twice last night - where I had to get up and calm her down. She only took a 20 minute nap the other day, didn't take a nap at all the next day at the babysitters, and went on a hunger strike Tuesday. She had a minor cold 3 weeks ago (which she passed on to me) and now I think she's sick again - or it's teething. (A mom can blame just about anything on teething. Diarrhea = teething. Unusual crankiness = teething. Fever = teething. Snotty nose = teething.)

So maybe it's all my fault for "bragging" When she was an infant, I used to DREAD when people would ask me if she was sleeping through the night - because when I answered honestly "yes" enevitably she would wake up 2 or 3 times that very night. It had me so convinced that I was jinxing myself that I started lying to people.

"Is your daughter sleeping through the night?"

"Nope. Do you think it's going to rain today?"

So is it coincidence or irony?

I would just like to say that I have never ever ever won any sort of money or a vacation.

;-)

Tagged!

I've been tagged - it may have been like 2 weeks ago, but Brian has been hoggin the computer for a month now!


Ten years ago: I was working at NRH2O in the Ice Cream Shoppe, it was my first summer job. I was trying very hard to stay single and meet some friends but instead I went through 3 boyfriends that summer...

Five years ago: I bought my first brand-new car (which I still have), graduated from college, got my first full time job, got engaged to Brian, and moved out of my parents house and in with Brian. This all happened in a 2-month time-frame!

Five months ago: I was not coping well with a roll reversal in my house - Brian becoming the stay at home parent and me being the full-time worker, and celebrating my baby girl's first birthday!

Five things on my to-do-list:
1. Clean the bathrooms
2. Go to the bank
3. Vacuum
4. clean out my car
5. Go to Bed!

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. Cheez-It's
2. Pringles
3. String Cheese
4. Pretzels
5. peanut butter on crackers

Five bad habits:
1. Forgetting to call people
2. Forgetting to call people back
3. popping my knuckles, wrists, and elbows (and neck and back and knees and jaw...)
4. wasting time on the computer
5. being late

Five places that I have lived:
1. Keller, TX
2. Haltom City, TX
3. North Richland Hills, TX
4. Grand Prarie, TX
5. Canoga Park, CA

Five jobs I have had:
1. Respiratory Therapist
2. Assistant Point of Sale Supervisor
3. grocery store cashier
4. food court/ ice cream shoppe
5. retail

Five things people dont know about me (except for family):
1. I can't find the floor in my office right now!
2. I can tell you the month of birth of most of our good friends (Holly's is October and Ryan's is April, Bethany's is in September and Dave's is in January, Jenny's is in December and Joel's is in April... and so on)
3. I am our household accountant
4. I am a night-owl (though not quite like i used to be)
5. My mom knows everything about me and I mean everything

Five people I want to tag:(otherwise known and the people i think haven't been tagged yet by a mutual friend!)
1. Stacy
2. Amie
3. Melanie
4. ....???
5. ....???

The Cookie Dance

I gave Little Red  a chocolate chip cookie tonight. She started to dance. That's my girl! This was a rare opportunity where she continued to dance even after I got my camera!

Cute Hat Alert!

This is a safari hat at Party City. No, we did not buy it, we just tried it on for fun and pictures. She wouldn't wear the sambrero... darn.

A Purse

I'm done talking about tomatoes for a little while (you can sigh in relief now). I snapped this little picture to remind me of the obsession Little Red has with purses. She loves to put things in them, take things out of them, and put one (or two!) up over her shoulder and walk around the house. I'll say, "Honey, are you going shopping?" and she'll say, "Yes," nod her head and head towards the front door, waving bye-bye.

We are going to be in trouble when she's a teenager aren't we? I'm going to have to remember how cute it was when she was 1.

Do I have tomato on my face?

As many of you know, we are growing some tomatoes in our backyard!!! I LOVE homegrown tomatoes - and I'm just imagining all the things I can do with them... salads... salsa...marinated... with fresh mozerella cheese.... We (okay, well actually, Brian) planted small tomatoes called "sweet 100" and then 2 other regular sized tomatoes (celebrity? beefsteak?) We finally had our first little tomato last week and I just had to take its picture. I sat it next to a regular tomato just to get a size comparison. But my bright idea to take its picture came at night and the lighting is really poor so I kept moving them to various places around my kitchen to try to get a decent picture:



Well after I looked at too many pictures of tomatoes in various places around my kitchen, it started to look like I took them on a tour of my house, so I thought, "Where else would my tomatoes like to go?"




They went to see the Ice at the Gaylord exhibit...



went for a ride at the airshow...





and took a little wagon ride with Little Red...
Hahaha...sigh... then we ate them. They were rather tastey!
;) The people in the white coats are going to lock me up and throw away the key one day aren't they...