My Mid-Life Crisis

Most men get a sports car....I wanted a Beetle. I have wanted a beetle since I had a dream about it back in Jr. high. I had a dream that Ericka and I were walking down the street and we see a car parked on the side of the road. I thought it was a cool looking car. A couple years later, I'm looking thru Popular Science magazine and I see an article where Volkswagen was going to release the New Beetle a couple years later. It was the car from my dream.....so it's my dream car. Once I had my first child and got a van, I told Chris "I'm having two kids and when the youngest turns 4, I'm getting a beetle." So the day Reagan turned 4, I put my car up for sale. It took about 3 weeks to sell and then we went up to Phoenix and bought this one. I only spent half of what I got from my car, in case in six months, I end up hating this car, but so far...I love it!

Thanksgiving Trip 2009

This past Thanksgiving we took a trip to Rocky Point for an entire week.....and let me tell you.....it was NICE! We took the girls with us and it was seriously the most enjoyable, not-at-all stressful week. This is the resort we stayed at. Very nice. People asked us what we did all day and I would respond "we laid around and drank." And we did. We would lay at the palapas all day and order virgin piña coladas and limeades during happy hour. They would bring our food to us. The ocean was a little too cold for me but the girls loved it.

This was the view from our room.

Ryan and Reagan had a great time with their cousin, Grace. It was nice hanging out with Chad and Stacy too! (uurreeaaa) -inside joke.....I still crack up with that one! Good one Chad.

Oh....how cute.

Why was Ryan chasing PELICANS??? Those things are mean and scary!

This guy was at the resort.....we thought he looked like Barack.

I didn't post pics, but Chris' parents came up during the last half of the week and we all had a nice time. Chris and his dad went golfing. We went swimming in the indoor heated pool. We watched Mexican TV....which is Weird....and I'm not talking about Univision. We ate dinner at the restaurant a couple of nights. One night, the theme was Mexican (go figure) and they had a couple dancing traditional Mexican dances. They then asked for volunteers from the audience to go up to....what I thought was to dance......so my family volunteered me. It turned out to be a drinking game! I quickly turned down the tequila and went back to my seat.

Now....if it was a virgin Piña Colada.....

She's 6.......

Ryan's birthday is today.

I had said a few times before that I would post pictures of what Ryan looked like when she was born. The above picture was the day after. She looked like her face had been burned. Later that afternoon the doctor told me that she had hemangiomas on her face and that they would keep growing and get so big that she would not be able to see and she would be blind. Not what a first-time mom wants to hear. Then another doctor came in and told me he didn't know what it was and that on our way home from the hospital we were to stop at a pediatric dermatologist to have her checked out and that they were waiting to examine her. After many family prayers and family fasts, the day came when we were released (c-section, four day stay) and the dermatologist took one look and said "they're not hemangiomas, so don't worry about that, but we need to find out what it is." The doctor said she was the 3rd child he had ever seen with this condition. Another doctor told me "well.....you see this in textbooks, but I'd never met a child with it." Few days later, after blood tests from Ryan and me, we found out it was a Lupus Rash. We took Ryan back to the hospital to have her heart checked. Everything came back completely normal! (although I found out I have Sjogrens which I wouldn't have known if it wasn't for Ryan being born). Ryan's rash got better and better every week and by the time she was a year, it was pretty all gone. It left spots on her skin that are thin and the skin behind her ears is so thin, she looks like she has bruises. So...if you see them....I'm not abusing her! :)

And now look at her! She's smart and so hilarious! She loves to sing and loves school.

Happy Birthday Ryan!!! I love you!

She's 4....

My baby is four years old today. Reagan keeps our family interesting and unpredictable. She's has a mind of her own.....and that mind is about 16 years old. She is a fashionista.....but not in a good way. Some outfits basically look like she's a clown. She's probably getting back at me for not being thrilled when I found out I was pregnant with her. (it was a surprise!) I think I was 7 months pregnant when I finally got excited and thought "OK....I can handle two kids....I think."

Year one was tough! Didn't nurse, took forever to eat, wouldn't take long naps, didn't sleep through the night until about 10 months, began crawling at 5 months, walking at 10.

But She's Beautiful and we love her!

The Latest!

My mom has more bags available! Please check them out! Perfect for Christmas.....which is coming up whether you like it or not!

http://ladybugbags.blogspot.com/

You'll love them!

11 years ago today....

Chris proposed to me. I don't know if I have this written down or not.....hmmm....i should check my journal. But basically, Chris came down for a weekend visit, (he was going to the U of A and he would come visit me every other weekend). So he came down to visit and took me to get dinner and we took it to the park to eat it. After dinner he told me he was going to sketch something for me (he's an architect and a great artist). He told me was going to draw my left hand. I kind of knew where this was going. When we began to talk about getting married, I told him about a certain ring that I saw the year before that at a jewelry store that I almost bought myself, thinking I would just have my husband pay me back.....I'm a dork. Well I showed Chris a picture and told him that this was THE RING! My ring is very similar to the picture above. So...back to the story. He sketches my left hand and then draws the ring on my finger. Then he gets up and kneels beside me and asks me to marry him. I yelled YES. We spent the rest of the night arguing with my mom about when we should get married. OK...not really arguing....but A LOT of talking went on that night. So....that was October 23, 1998. We got married a few months later in March. Happy Day.

Ugly Screamer

Ryan came home one day from school.....I think it was still the first week of school.....and she was crying. I asked her what was wrong and she tells me that a girl in her class called her an "ugly screamer." With tears running down her face, I realized that I had no idea what to say. My first instinct was to say "Well she's Ugly for saying that to you!" or "Show me who she is.....I'll show her." Both would not go over well, I'm sure. Then I kind of laughed to myself because I can totally imagine the scream she did, that is.....ugly....or at least annoying. So my infinite wisdom and knowledge on 5 year olds....I said "there, there......let's get ice cream." I've just come to realize how protective and how CLUELESS I am and that I'm already teaching her to become an emotional eater. What will I do when it's something totally serious? Get ice cream, I guess.