Take It Easy

How To Lose Your Concentration During A Talk 101

2011-12-13T13:21:00.001-08:00

Here are 5 easy steps you should follow if you want to insure the bishopric NEVER calls you to give a talk again.

1. Have you 3 year old run through the chapel calling out for you as your giving a talk.
2. Have no one stop him, but you (remind you are at the stand). Stop talking, take him to his father.
3. Have the 2 year old run with with dad to get big brother and have the two kids refuse to leave the stand.
4. Have the bishop get up and help your hubby with the kids.
5. Since both men can't quietly get the kids down, just have them sit with your kids behind you for the remainder of your talk.

For some odd reason it is just much easier to focus on what you are saying when your kids are in front of you (even if making faces) instead of behind you.

(In case you are wondering, this really did happen on Sunday. To put the icing on the cake, Drew threw up in the car on the way home. Yea for being a mom!!!)

Here are the little "angels" right before church. Boy, I had no idead what was about to unfold within the next hour. Haha

Ward Halloween Party. The Super Family

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-12-02T22:57:00.000-08:00

I have this weird assumption that people think that because I haven't blogged in over a month I must be doing nothing. After all, we are always so good at keeping others informed and writing in our journals, right? Haha, well, it's just the opposite. So here's a quick post just so I can remind myself of how incredibly;y busy life's been. Oh, and the order of the pictures is totally messed up. It's way to late to try to figure out how to properly arrange them.
During this past month I've:

Gotten addicted to pinterest. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I think it's the coolest thing, but I hate how I spend so much time on it!!

Became a US citizen!!! Yea me!!! I got sworn in November 18th. It was a rather emotional ceremony for me. I know I'm dumb, but I cried through it. Cory took pictures on his phone of me, but he's dead asleep right now, and I can't get to them. I'll post them some day (maybe).
We had a little celebration at our house afterwards. The food was great and the theme was Red, White, and Blue (duh, you could probably have guessed it yourself). Here's the invite I was very proud of myself for designing (minus the very personal details like my address).

Clarissa learned how to roll over. She did it this week actually, so this should be the last picture. Oh well. my life's is far from being perfect! I love her fat tummy hanging out. She is soo chubby.

Played dress up with the baby about a million times. Girls are so much fun!! Here she's wearing 2 pig tails. Cory hates it when I do this to her hair, but I think she looks cute.

grandma bought her this dress, and I think she looks adorable in purple (but I guess I am a little biased).

Hosted a pirate themed baby shower. "Ahoy, It's a Boy!". The decorations turned out really cute, the food was excellent, and I think (hope) everyone had a good time. Well, at least I did. I also hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year. The Jessica, Kyle and their cute boys came and feasted with us. My best friend since I was 10, was also in town and we had a great time catching up.

We celebrated Halloween!! Wow, that seems like forever ago and I never wrote about it. We were Super Heroes this year. I have a picture of the whole family dressed up somewhere, but here are the kids. Christopher was Spider man (and he was in heaven). Drew was Superman, and all he cared about was CANDY. Clarissa was Wonder women, and she was totally clueless. Cory was Batman and I was Cat women, but if you ask Christopher he thinks I was a kitty cat. We celebrated Halloween over 3 days, and the kids definitely got a sugar high from all the sweets.

We also got our Christmas pictures taken for Christmas cards, you can see them on the right side. I got them mailed today. Very proud of myself for doing it early this year. Oh, and I also got 15 Christmas gifts done for our friends and people we home/visit teach.

Ok, I think I convinced myself I've been busy!!

Just as a quick update on the boys.

Drew is in love with superhero movies. He begs to watch Spider man or Iron man daily. I don't give in (these movies are PG13 and the kid is only 2), but daddy (and grandpa) sure love an excuse to watch them again. Oh, he's got those two men wrapped around his fingers.

Christopher has been coming up with the funniest sentences lately. Here are just a few:

Cory went to put the boys down one night. After about 30 minutes I could still hear the kids talking so I walked into their room to see what was going on. I found Cory dead asleep on the bed. Christopher sitting next to him, and Drew sitting on the ground. Christopher looks at me and says:

"Shhh, daddy's sleeping."

The other morning I came downstairs to find both boys awake and quietly eating candy.

Me: "Christopher, go upstairs and wake up your dad."

Christopher: "Drew we have to be quiet. Daddy is sleeping and if he wakes up he'll take away our candy."

He knew I was too tired to do it myself. Stinker little kid!!

Yesterday Christopher was tormenting us to go take him to see Christmas lights. After about 15 minutes of nagging, Cory finally told him he would take them after dinner.

Christopher: "Yeppy, I'm so happy!" (opening the cutest and widest grin). "Thanks daddy, that makes me happy!"

Hodge Podge

2011-10-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my pictures today and realized I have a whole bunch of pictures I've been meaning to post. So here's to an attempt to getting caught up!

This was a little project I did last week. I was feeling a little crafty and came up with this Halloween wreath. I love the outcome, did not like spending 3 hours cutting and tying tulle!

My poor neighbor, Miss Ruth, gets harassed by Christopher. He loves to push his car over to the wall, climb on it and bug her anytime she is outside. She been hiding inside her house more often lately. I wonder why?! Haha

Every once in a while we open Christopher's door at night to check on him. This night, this is what we found. Couldn't help but to take a picture. This kid cracks me up.

Like father

Like son (The first picture is Cory when he was a baby - already addicted to video games. And when I took this picture of Drew, it just totally reminded me of his daddy)

Drew got his first dental cleaning way back in July. He did a great job!!

This was one of my first shots of her smiling. She's been smiling since 4 weeks, she was around 7 weeks old here.

Clarissa has the chubbiest cheeks. Look at my little princess sleeping.

She is so cute and sweet!! I LOVE this baby girl!

Pictures

2011-09-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post more pictures of Clarissa, but never seem to find the time. Christopher is in school and the other kids are sleeping (due to an early morning for everyone - they woke up at 4:50 AM and didn't want to go back down).

I'm exhausted, so this is just a quick post. I took Clarissa's 1 month pictures a couple weeks ago and here are my favorite. I didn't really like the photographer, so I'm not too impressed with these shots.

She was not very happy for pictures. All she wanted was her binky.

The girl taking her pictures did not do a good job (granted she had a crying baby to work with, but most her angles were bad). Here's Clarissa in her blessing dress.

My little boy is 2. (I took these back in July)

He's such a good little boy.

Chillin like a villain

Christopher fell from he jungle gym at the park a few weeks ago (19 days to be exact). He cried like crazy and said his foot hurt. We took him to the doctor the next day, but everything seemed fine, it just looked like it was bruised. A week later the kid was still limping so we took an x-ray and yesterday we finally got a call back from his doctor telling us he broke is foot. He actually has 2 fractures and needs to have it cast. The kid has been walking, running and jumping on a broken foot for 3 weeks and doesn't even complain of pain!!! I felt horrible though, for not being more proactive about finding out about his x-ray results earlier. My mom bought Christopher a t-shirt when she was in town and it says "Never Stop". Sooo appropriate!!! Even with an injury the kid never stops.

Lastly, I went to the Relief Society broadcast this weekend and it was AMAZING. I'm sure everyone who attended it fell in love with President Uchtdorf's message. He suggested 5 things we sister should not forget. I'm posting it so I don't forget this in a few weeks.

1. Forget not to have patience with yourself - no one is perfect, be patient with yourself and your weaknesses.

2. Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice - don't waste your time on foolish things.

3. Forget not to be happy now - don't spend your life waiting for your dreams/goals to come true saying you will be happy when it happens. Look at your everyday blessings and be happy with your life now.

4. Forget not the why of the gospel - don't think of the gospel as a to do list.

5. Forget not that the Lord love you - God has not forgotten you. He's aware of you, your fears, your trials. He loves you and has not forgotten you.

Welcome Clarissa

2011-09-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

This is way overdue, but our sweet baby Clarissa arrived on August 9th. She is a really good baby and is very loved by the whole family. I've had a crazy month adjusting to life with 3 kids, culminating on my whole family flying in for her baby blessing. We had a great time, I was super busy, and am glad life is staring to go back to normal.

Clarissa arrived 1 day early from my scheduled c-section date, even though I tried my hardest to postpone it. She was scheduled for the 10th, which is my grandma's birthday and I really wanted for them to share birthdays. I went into labor Tuesday morning and after hiding/fighting/refusing to have Cory take me to the hospital I was finally dragged there. The checked me and said I could either stay and have the baby that day, or go home and come back the next morning, when I was scheduled to go.

What did I choose? Go home. Too bad the contractions got really bad by the afternoon, that this time I was asking to go to the hospital. She arrived safe and healthy that evening, and has been a good baby since.

At 4 weeks she started smiling and sleeping 8 hours at night. Although sleeping through the night does not happen every night, we will gladly take what we get!!

Quick updates on the boys:

Christopher has started preschool at his new school and he loves it (and so do I). He goes to school for 5 hours 3 times a week.

We have started to potty train Drew this week. He is catching on fast, wish me luck!!!

Happy Birthday Boys

2011-07-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

This year I went the easy way and decided to combine the boys birthday party. We threw them a party at McDonald's right between both their birthdays. I have to admit it was weird to sing Happy Birthday to them when it really was neither of their birthdays, but it sure made my life easier. Here are some of our highlights.

Christopher was obsessed with the cupcakes. He had to have one before it was time. But I guess that's the perk of being the party kid. You get whatever you want.

My cute little boy putting on his party hat. I had to buy hats because he specifically asked for it. (They are such a waste of money!!!)

Drew playing on the playground.How would wee survive without inside playgrounds during the summer?

I can't believe it, one decent picture of the whole family. We sang Happy Birthday twice. This one only shows Christopher's cupcake tower, but Drew had one for him too. Actually Drew's cupcake stand tipped over a little before we sang to them, so we just had to switch the top cupcake when it was singing time because the second stand wasn't too reliable.

Who had the idea of getting bright blue, green and orange cupcakes? It was such a mess, that's okay, I only had to deal with it once, instead of twice.Opening gifts

Drew fell in love with his "Rex". He carries it around and calls him Rexy. Thanks Cammie!!

Well, I think I'm all caught up with my blogging, so you probably won't hear from me until after the baby. Wish me luck!! I hope it's soon!!!!

Random Thoughts

2011-07-14T15:52:00.001-07:00

We've had a lot going on recently and I better blog about it now while I have time, or I'll never get to it.

My in-laws treated us to a trip to Sedona for the 4th of July. We had a great time swimming and playing with the Schmid cousins. The weather was amazing (I guess anything is amazing compared to the 118 degrees that was in Phoenix that weekend). It was literally a torture to have to come back to the valley and deal with this NASTY monsoon season!!!

At the airport overlook. I was quite impressed we were able to snap a decent picture of 5 kids.

This is the best our little family could come up with!!

This picture pretty much summarizes our mini-vacation. Hanging out a grandma and grandpa's resort eating popsicles and swimming. The boys loved hanging out at the patio and they would scream high to EVERYONE that walked by.

Cory and I had been to Sedona once before, but only for a day. This time we drove around and got to know more of this beautiful city. We were just in awe with all the amazing views that the residents of Sedona see daily. It made us wonder if they even appreciate it and notice it, like we outsiders did.

Our little hotel was next to an outlet mall, so on Saturday we were even able to go shopping for a bit. We had not planned on it, but who can really pass up 65% off at the GAP? (Well, a very pregnant lady can, but her husband can't and there were some great deals for the kids too).

Last week Cory took Christopher to get his 3 year old pictures taken. I was busy with other things and was going to have to cancel the appointment, so he decided to help me out. I have to admit I was a little nervous of what the outcome would be, but they did great. I can't believe my baby is 3!! (Actually he's been 3 for over a month now).

He's been talking (like real sentence talking) for a while now, and now I have to deal with talking back. I didn't think this would happen until he became a teenager, but I guess I was wrong. Some days he's the sweetest little boy and I just love him to pieces. And then there are the bad days, that get me on my knees pleading with Heavenly Father for patience and ideas on how to be a better mother. Right now the main problem is that I don't have enough patience to deal with the lack of maturity and huge amounts of craziness this little guy has.

This (ugly) picture is for my mom. She's been bugging me to post a pregnancy picture. Here's me at 34 weeks.

I'm currently 35 weeks (4 weeks left until schedule c-section date). I can't stand the heat anymore and I'm officially unpleasant to be around. I whine and complain most of the time and I don't EVER want to be pregnant again. I think I can finally say I AM DONE (just need to convince my other half that WE are done).

This has been a fairly easy pregnancy, but I just go CRAZY when I'm pregnant. And I really mean crazy. My poor family should not have to suffer through mom being pregnant again!!!

I had my last baby shower this week, and my good friend (and visiting teacher) Ivana was kind enough to come over and take ALL of my baby stuff to her house to wash. At this point, I'm accepting all the help I can get. I'm getting really excited and ANXIOUS to meet this little girl. She is a mover and I can't wait to see her and get to know her personality.

I could go on and on about how I'm done being pregnant, and done with the summer, but this post is too long so I better finish here. I totally forgot I still haven't posted about the boys birthday party. I need to get the pictures on this computer and then I'll post about it.

Happy Father's Day!!! (belated)

2011-06-24T00:06:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this on Sunday, but never got around to. I didn't get Cory a Father's Day card this year (I know I am terrible) and I had great plans of publicly expressing my gratitude to him of what an amazing father he is. Well, I guess it's never too late.

I just want to let the blogging world know how lucky I am to have married such a wonderful guy. Cory, you are an awesome father and the boys ADORE you. They look up to you and love playing with you. Some of their favorite games with daddy include: ridding the bull, hide and seek, and, and just having Cory run around the house chasing them. I am really blessed to have such a hands-on husband who helps out a lot with the kids!!!

So, for father's day Cory got a BIG (8 person) tent. And to celebrate, we took him camping (more like he took us). Yes, I know I'm crazy. I'm 7 months pregnant and I wanted to go camping. I swear it's the pregnancy hormones that make me this nuts. We've been married for almost 6 years and I have never agreed to let him take me out, and now that I am huge and uncomfortable I say "Let's camp!" Go figure?!

We went with another couple (the Lewis) and had a great time. The boys really enjoyed being able to run freely, I liked the cooler weather. I do have to admit I probably won't be doing this again so soon. I need to get over how dirty and dry my skin was!!! I think it was more the dryness that drove me nuts. So here are some pictures as proof that we actually camped.

Here we are!!

The boys drinking their milk in the morning. And the TENT!

Cute Christopher. He walked around our camp site like this all morning. We had to convince him to take it off becuase it was getting too warm.

Our morning entertainment. This squirrel just hung around for a while and the kids loved watching it. When it finally left, Drew kept saying "squirrel, where are you?"

Can you tell Drew was happy?

May???

2011-06-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

Did I really not blog in May? I try to post at least once a month, but I guess I'm not that consistent.

Lets just get straight to business. Last weekend Cory and I had a little staycation. His mom agreed to watch the boys over night so we could get a hotel near the temple, wake up early and go to a session. When we left her with the boys Friday night she made the mistake to tells us "Don't rush." Oh we sure took that to heart!!! The waking up early turned more into waking up at 9:00. WOW, I think that was the highlight of my weekend, but the amazing breakfast buffet, followed by time in the temple just made the beginning of our holiday weekend AMAZING!!

On Monday Memorial Day we had my in-laws over for dinner. We usually go over to their house, but this year we decided to just do it at our place. Cory and I pulled out the Dutch Oven and made a yummy meal in it. We also had corn on the cob and peach cobbler. It felt like camping, only better!! I had running water and my comfy bed to sleep.

Christopher
How do I put this in a nice way? He's driving me crazy with his creativeness!! He turns 3 on Saturday, but he thinks he's 16. On Sunday we were driving up to my in-laws and this was our conversation in the car:

Christopher: "Mamae, I go swimming at grandma's?"
Me: "No, it's late, cold, and it's Sunday."
Christopher: "Ok. Papai, I go swimming at grandmas?"
Cory: "No, it's Sunday"
Christopher: "I ask grandma to go swimming"
Cory: "Grandma will say no, it's Sunday"
Christopher: "Ok, I go swimming by myself."

Just like that, a simple statement. He thinks he can do whatever he wants. He always asks first, but I don't even know why, because no matter the answer he still does whatever he feels like.

We have a few things planned for the summer including Summer Movie Fun and swim lessons. This week was the first time at the theaters for the movie fun. I go with a bunch of friends and their kids. And guess what? I was the only one to lose a kid. Guess what kid? Christopher!! He ran away at the end of the movie and left me and other 5 moms nervously looking for him. He literally disappeared for about 3 minutes. It was a VERY scary moment.

Drew
He's all of a sudden decided to talk. He repeats stuff we say and seems to talk non stop (specially if we're in the car).

He insists Christopher's name is also Drew. Funny, but very confusing!!
Here are some of his other funny words:

Keebee - binky
teddy - blanky
Buzz tu-tain - Buzz chu-chu train (Toy story 3 - it starts with a chu-chu train scene)
I did it (even when we are the ones that do it)
I she-she - I want to go potty (she-she is pee in Portuguese)

Today he pooped in the toilet for the first time!! I'm not pushing potty training, but the kids constantly takes his diapers off and runs to the bathroom door asking to go potty. Pee in the potty has become a constant, but poo, that was a first!!

He loves to play with Christopher. He is lost, when his big brother isn't around!! Christopher went camping with Cory and Drew was in complete distress. The kid didn't really laugh until Christopher got back. He was so happy to see him, that he hugged and kissed his big brother on his own.

Baby Girl
She is a MOVER!! My goodness this kid kicks and moves around ALL the time. Christopher moved a lot, specially when I was eating. Drew was a bit more quiet. He moved at night time. Baby #3 beats the boys by far!! She moves when I eat, she moves when I lay down, she moves pretty much anytime anything is touching my belly. I'm a little concern about all this activity. The trend tends follow after birth. Will I ever get a calm kid?

I'm 10 weeks away from my scheduled c-section. I'm getting bigger and more uncomfortable by the minute. I had my first baby shower this week, and I'm getting more and more excited about having a girl. I can't wait to put bows on her hair, and to finally be able to dress a baby in pink dresses!!

Big Boy(s)

2011-04-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

My little boys have been growing so fast, and life has been so busy that I feel like I can never keep up with all the journaling I should do. By the time I get to sit down and write all the events and sayings from the kids I already forgot half of them, I wonder if it's even worth it at all.

Christopher:
Well, I feel like he is officially a BIG boy. For a while now he has been:
bottle free
crib free
binky free

And for a month now he's been
DIAPER free!!!

This is how he spends most of his time at home.
Potty training wasn't as bad as I expected, but definitely not something fun. It took 3 days of intense training and frustrating accidents, but after some bribery to take him to the ice cream store (AKA Dairy Queen), he even got the poop thing down!!!

He's been saying and doing funny things lately, but of course, I didn't write them down so I can't remember them all. The other day he got a shirt from the library for participating in their reading program. They only had medium or large shirts, so his shirt is quite big. When we got home I let him wear it. He immediately put his hands in the air and started twirling around saying "Look mamae, I'm a princess." I couldn't help but laugh. Seriously, where did you get that from? I guess the shirt fit him more like a dress.

This one happened soon after Christmas, but I never got to writing about it. I was at the mall with the boys and Christopher as usual just RUNS. So this day, he ran ahead of me and into Pac Sun. So I ran in the after him to find him totally dancing in the middle of the store. It was really funny. I made sure I would remember that one so when he's old enough to want to shop there I can run in and DANCE at Pac Sun to embarrass him.

Drew:
He's been super cute and good lately.
He's super attached to his binky and blanket. The other day he woke up and didn't want to take a bath without his blanket. I figured his blanky needed a bath too, so I let it go in. He was in baby heaven to be able to do that.

So here's what Drew needs to work on before baby 3 comes:
Become binky free
diaper free
crib free
move in to Christopher's room

This past week we've been working on being bottle free (I know he's almost 2 and still takes a bottle for milk). I think we have finally achieved that!!! If I can get him to leave his crib and sleep in Christopher's room before the baby come I'll be a happy camper. We can work on the rest later.

Speaking of Baby 3. IT'S A GIRL!!!!
We are excited for the change, and I can't wait to be done being pregnant. This pregnancy has been the easiest one so far, although for the past month I've been dying of pain on my tail bone. Yes the bone, not my sciatic nerve. Going to church for 3 hours is becoming VERY painful. I can stand or lay down without problem, but sitting is just painful. Oh well, 15 more weeks and it's over. (Holly cow, I didn't realize I was that close to my due date!!)

Hanging over my head

2011-03-08T21:58:00.001-08:00

I've been wanting to blog about a bunch of short stories lately, but I've had these Christmas pictures hanging over my head, and I can't seem to blog about life, until I get my pictures done. So here!!! Now I can move one.

I threw a shower for my friend back in December and the theme was Jungle Animals. It turned out super cute. I guess I was feeling creative.

Christopher in front of his preschool on his first day of school. (Keep reading for more info)

Christmas with my family. Enjoying the lights and ride at the train park.

Mesa Temple lights. Somehow I didn't get any good pictures with my parents and siblings while they were here. :(

Christmas morning at the Garretts. Drew looks so tired.

Christmas eve. Boy, I miss looking that skinny!! These are the Fletts, our great Brazilian friends in our ward. This was the day we had the BIG family dinner. 22 people!!!!

The girls posing by the tree.

These pictures are not in chronological order, which bugs me incredibly!! Ward Christmas party. The boys with Santa (although you can't really see Santa's face.) If you look close enough you can see Drew has a butterfly on his chin. He fell and split his chin open on the fireplace that week.

Doesn't his smile say it all? He is soooo full of mischief!

We've been busy lately, but it's late and I don't want to blog all the details. Here are some of the short main points.

I turned 27 on the 27th!! My golden birthday!! I went out to dinner with Cory to a fabulous Brazilian restaurant. Then later during the week I got to celebrate with my girl friends at the Cheesecake factory. Easiest birthday yet!! Loved it!

Christopher started preschool last week. So far he's loving it and so am I. He goes twice a week for a few hours. My mornings are so much quieter when he's gone, and I can actually get stuff done around the house. Yesterday I got to clean out the garage while he was at school. It was awesome, I left the garage opened and Drew just played in the garage the whole time!!! That would never happen if Christopher was home. I would have to chase him around and threaten him a gazillion times before finally giving up. I love that boy, but he requires so much stimulation, I just couldn't provide it anymore. I hope things keep going this well.

Drew is finally talking more and more. It's still very hard to understand him, but we're happy with his progress.

Here are Drew's words at 19 months (funny to compare the list with Christopher's at 15 months):

Mamae - mommy

Papai - daddy

all duh

buba - bottle

acua - water

doggy

ca - car

ba - ball

bu - Buzz (he LOVES Buzz Lightyear)

tatch - catch

Jesus

ights - lights

soes - shoes

what's that

I know he says a few more things but that's all I can remember. He speaks his own language most of the time.

Ok, it's way too late to keep going. Funny Christopher stories will have to wait until next time. Hopefully by the next time I post I'll also have a 100% on the baby gender.

A Rough January

2011-02-02T20:50:00.000-08:00

I'm hoping this will be just a quick post to tell the blogging world, we're still alive.

We've had a rough beginning of year, to say the least.

My whole family came to Arizona for Christmas. We had a blast spending time together with all the cousins. Cory and I accommodated 12 people (including us) for about a week, and I was impressed with how smooth it all went. Christopher really LOVED having a full house and always having someone to play with. Amongst a few of our accomplishments were hosting Christmas eve dinner for 22 guests, Laura's baptism (Alvaro's oldest), visits to the train park, temple lights, and Jump and Shout. Oh how I miss them!!!

Then, there was New Year's Eve. AHHH!! Drew got the flu, then Christopher got it, and then I got it. Every night we added one more person to the puking list. I did so many loads of dirty sheets, I can't even remember what the grand total came up to. I know that I averaged 1 load of throw up per day for about 10 days. Drew's flu turned into a cold, that turned into double ear infections with pink eye, that turned into bronchiolitis. All followed by Christopher. Fun!!

When the kids finally recovered (around the second week of January) I found out we are in for MORE FUN!! Haha, Cory and I are EXPECTING again!! Surprise!!! At least it was for me. I'm 12 weeks pregnant and hanging in there.

Along with all the other craziness, we sold our Tucson (I'm sad) and bought a Honda Civic. Cory's enjoying his "new" car, specially since it's a stick. I miss my baby, but we need to cut back on gas costs, and the Civic is definitely more efficient.

I don't have pictures ready to post. So I promise to add lots of pictures to my next post, whenever that happens.

Funny Moments

2010-12-05T22:01:00.001-08:00

We’ve had funny things happen during this past month, but I never seem to find time to blog them. I’ve been keeping track of it on a piece of paper, and now that I’m finally blogging, they don’t seem to be as funny, but I’ll record them anyway. Maybe one day I’ll laugh at them again! J

I sold my digital piano about a month ago and bought a real piano. Boy, I love craigslist!! Anyway, the piano I was purchasing was all the way out in EAST Mesa (a good 45 minutes drive away). Cory and I loaded the kids in the car, packed lots of goodies, a DVD player and some movies and off we went to buy the piano. 5 minutes into the drive Christopher starts to complain about his tummy. We tried distracting him with mints, songs, talking… anything that would get his head off his stomach. Well, that didn’t seem to work so I jumped in the back and sat prepared with a puke bag in hand. Sure enough about 20 minutes out from our destination Christopher started throwing up. The funny part is that just as Christopher started to puke Drew started to cry and when I looked over he was also full on throwing up!! Haha, Cory looked back and just started to laugh hysterically. Seriously, 2 kids throwing up at the exact time?!! Luckily I was able to catch all of Christopher’s in the bag, and I’ve gotten so good at cleaning throw up in the car, that we didn’t even need to stop so I could clean Drew. I was somehow able to clean the car seat and change the kid while he was still strapped.

When Drew gets tired he becomes VERY needy. He just wants to be held, and even then he’s not happy. So the other day we were at my in-laws for Sunday dinner, and since we tend to leave at the kids bed-time, we already pack their toothbrushes and pajamas so they can fall asleep in the car. This day Drew was being his normal cranky self, tugging on my legs as I was getting the toothbrushes ready. (By the way, the kid HATES brushing his teeth). Then, I had a brilliant idea, I got the toothbrush and showed it to Drew. It worked like magic!! The kid stopped crying and ran as fast as he could to the other side of the room. I started laughing so hard. Seriously, I should walk around with his toothbrush in my pocket. This way whenever I need to do something I can just flash it at him and he’ll run for his life. Crazy Drew!!

Lately Christopher has been into playing with cars and dinosaurs. A few weeks ago Christopher was playing pretend with his dino. He turned to me and said “Dinosaur eat pao (bread)”. So I went to the fridge and got him a slice of bread. He had a few bites of it and shared with the dinosaur. Then he had a brilliant idea, if I asked for bread and got it, let’s try something else, so he said “Dinosaur eat hopsicle?” I couldn’t stop laughing. Sorry bud, dinosaurs don’t eat popsicles, at least not the ones in this house. Good try though.

To end my funny moments I’ll tell the most recent one. This one wasn’t so funny though. Last week we were at my in-laws enjoying leftovers the day after Thanksgiving. We usually put a gate up blocking the boys from the bedroom area. This day we decided not to do so, since their cousins where there and they were playing pretty well together. Boy, don’t I regret that!!! That night Drew got into the bathroom in one of the rooms and decided to throw a remote control in the toilet. I found him happily splashing a way with the soaked remote at the bottom of the bowl. AHHH!!!! Then, to end the night, Cory and I were talking to my mother-in-law as Christopher played in the bedroom. He was so quiet Cory decided to check on him. He found Christopher with a Sharpie coloring on their white doors. He managed to get 2 doors really bad, and a little bit on the wall. Seriously kids, we give a little bit of freedom and this is what you do? Today when we went there for dinner we had the gates up again!!!

Christopher has been talking more and more lately. In fact that kid is never quiet and he only has one volume: LOUD!!! These are some of his cute words:

hiffo - hippo

hopsicle - popsicle

lu-of – Rudolf (the red nose reindeer)

it’s uge – it’s huge. Usually when he sees any kind of Santa Claus (even small decorative ones)

Enough with the writing. Here are some funny pictures of the boys, mostly Christopher.

He was playing outside with chalk today and decided to color his nose red. I called him "Christopher the red nose little boy"

Better late than never. Halloween pictures!! Drew the giraffe and Christopher as Buzz.

Sooooo happy!!!

To infinity, and beyond!

Where did the boys go? I gace Christopher an umbrella to play with and this is how I found the boys.

First visit to the dentist. Aunt Kady cleaned his teeth and he did great!! (he actually realy liked it, even though it looks like he's terrified in the picture.)

These are my mom's cleaning gloves. Christopher loves playing with them. In fact, this day he wanted to leave the house with them on. At least he never left the car with them. I guess he was too embarassed to do that.

2010-11-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

I had some pictures taken lately of the boys and of the family. WOW I did not imagine it would be so difficult to get some nice shots of the kids together. They usually do great when I take their pictures individually, but once you add both kids, it's pretty much impossible!!!

I still need to upload Halloween pictures. This year Christopher was Buzz Lightyear and Drew was a giraffe. Christopher LOVED his costume. In fact he actually still likes to put it on and play around in it. I went shopping this week for costumes for next year. I'm so proud of myself, I bought ALL of our costumes (even Cory's and mine) for a grand total of $23. That's less than 6 bucks a piece!!

Other than that life is pretty much the same. Drew has been a much happier baby latelly. He's actually been really cute, him and Christopher play well together. Christopher has been doing much better with using the potty. He pees in it without a problem, but still hasn't gone poop. I still haven't let him roam around in just underwear though. I'm not sure how to do the bathroom scene when I'm out shopping with the two boys. Any suggestions? How do I help Christopher use the bathroom and hold Drew at the same time?

Better get going. I still haven't had dinner, and this post is way longer than I expected.

My cute boys

This is the reality of family pictures. Hard to get Drew to smile. Impossible to get Christopher to sit still!!!

Brothers! I love them!!!

Journaling

2010-09-26T21:17:00.001-07:00

The other day Cory and I got out our journals and spent some time reading through the past. We had such a good time and I realized that since I've started to blog, I've been using this as my journal and I haven't really been good at writing stories about my day to day. My goal is to write at least once a month, and I'm good at posting once a month, but I do a lot of picture posts and not a lot of story behind it.

Anyway, that was a long intro. Let me just begin with saying that I'm sick and tired of cleaning Christopher's puke!!! Yes, he still throws up at least once a month, and most of the time in the car. Today he did it again. We were almost home and he started complaining "tummy hurt". I wasn't prepared because we were in Cory's car (which means I didn't have my normal gallon Ziploc bag and towel at hand). Well, he did it. He threw up all over himself and the car when we were only 1 minute away from home. Will he ever outgrow his car sickness?!

On another note. I thought Christopher was a gross little boy, but I'm starting to think Drew is worse. We are trying to potty train Christopher, so anytime Drew sees the bathroom door opened he makes a run for it. He loves to stick his hands in the bowl and make HUGE splashes. He always enjoy getting into dirty diapers. If I don't throw them away fast enough, he most likely gets into them. AHHHH!!! This week as I was on the phone with one of the ladies I visit teach I heard Christopher say "coco potty" (poop in the potty). Well, next thing I see is Christopher without diapers in the bathroom (poop on the diaper), Drew with both hands in the toilet and Christopher saying "drink". Yes, he (Christopher) was trying to stick his head in the bowl and get a drink! GROSS BOYS!!! Needless to say I had to hang up very quickly, and somehow I managed to get things cleaned up without killing a kid. I'm sure one day I'll look back and laugh at this.

This week we started taking Christopher's binky away. He's been doing very well, and I think I'm having more withdrawals than he is. I have been tempted to offer him a binky so many times when he was sad, even though he hasn't asked for it. I didn't know this binky thing would be harder on me than on him. I guess I'm just losing my baby.

Christopher has also started saying prayers. It's really cute to see him say them. He usually lets us help him but sometimes he insists on doing it by himself. A couple weeks ago I was at mutual and Christopher said the night time prayer. This is what Cory texted me:

"Heavenly Father

Bless Drew night night

Bless mamae, ... "and beyond"

In the name of J.C. Amen"

In case you are wondering the "and beyond" part see if this serves as a hint. Who says "to infinity, and beyond!"? If you answered Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story you're correct. He LOVES Buzz and calls him "And Beyond". In the past month we have seen Toy Story at least once a day. Good thing we own the first 2 and he doesn't care which one he watches. I laughed pretty hard when I got the text and realized he was asking for Buzz to be protected.

Since this journaling attempt has gotten longer than expected I'll stop now, and of course, I'll leave you with some pictures.

Do I bug you? Poor Christopher his little brother won't leave him alone not even when he's drinking his milk. Good thing he's a good sport about it.

Drew is our first child to get a bee sting. If you look closely you'll see how his right index finger is fatter than the one on the left. He picked up a bee at the park and tried eating it. Than when I pulled it out of his mouth he screamed at me because I took away his "treat".

Got stickers?

Movie Time

2010-09-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Grab your popcorn and a drink because this is a “movie” post. I’ve been meaning to post these videos for a while, but just now got the chance. They are really short, though.

Drew has been walking for a few weeks now. I know, I’m a bad mother, I don’t blog about my children’s accomplishments as often as I should. Anyway, he started walking around the 1^st of the month, and now he’s quite fast on his feet. I took the video when he had been walking for just a week.

This video is about the boys playing outside. I’ve said before that Drew absolutely LOVES his big brother. Well, here’s the proof. Christopher was playing with sand and rocks outside and Drew couldn’t stop laughing. Super cute!!! I love baby giggles!!!!

Lastly, this one is mainly for me. I know my little boy will one day grow up and say “I hate you mom” (not looking forward to that day). This video is for when that day comes, so I can play it and know he really meant he loves me. I love his cute high pitched voice!

Drew's Pictures

2010-08-18T10:13:00.001-07:00

We took Drew to get his 1 year old pictures last week. He did great and we got some really cute shots. The studio gave us the idea of bringing in a birthday cake to take pictures of Drew eating it. He was so focused in eating the cake that it was hard to get him actually smiling on those, but they still turned out adorable. Here are some of my favorites.

What would you do if...

2010-08-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

What would you do if you opened the door to your son's room and found this?

(No the brown stuff isn't chocolate)

And this... (no those aren't bunny tracks)

I learned two painful lessons this morning.

1- Christopher no longer needs a morning nap. (He fought it for 45 minutes this morning until I finally gave up and decided to let him free. Unfortunately, I have to admit he has WON this battle!!)

2- I guess it's time for potty training. He's been fighting me for the past few weeks on not wanting to wear his diapers. The past couple days he's even told me he needs to go poop in the toilet, but I just kind of "forced" him to go in his diapers. Well, this morning after I opened his door, he looked at me and said "coco potty" (poop in the toilet). I guess I better listen to him next time he tells me he wants to use the potty.

I have more fun and exciting things to blog about, but it will have to wait until I get over my poop shock. For now you get poop pictures.

Drew's 1!!!

2010-07-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this day has come! My baby turned one last week and we threw him a "car" themed party. I decorated the cake myself (ok, I admit I had a lot of help from a friend, but I did do the cupcakes completely alone) and it turned out adorable!! The food table was also super cute but we didn't get any pictures of it. It had dump trucks dumping out corndogs, carrying sandwhiches and even carrying some dulce de leche for churros. I also had traffic signs printed directing the flow of the buffet line (one way signs at the beginning, slow sign in the middle, and stop at the end).

Ok, I guess I should also blog about the birthday boy. Haha, what kind of mom am I? I was more excited about my decorations than the actual reason for celebrating. We kept the party pretty low key and only invited family this time. I think that next year we will combine Christopher's and Drew's party into 1 bigger celebration, so this way I don't get burned out with Christopher's birthday and do something small for Drew.

Today I was actually thinking about how Drew is the "perfect" first child. At first he was a very challenging baby. He didn't eat well, he didn't sleep well (until he was about 3 months), he had LOTS of colic, he loved to be held (ALL the time). Get the picture?! Christopher was not like that at all, and that's why we decided to have another one so quick. I have come to a conclusion that if Drew was born first he would still be a single child!

Anyway, he has come a LONG way in a year, and I was actually happy to have my baby turn 1. He's become a much better child. He loves to play with his brother. In fact, the first time Drew giggled real hard was when he was 5 months and he was watching Christopher jump on the couch. He absolutely enjoys watching Christopher perform his stunts and then tries to imitate them (pretty funny to watch). He's become a great eater and loves solid "people" food. He's becoming a little "fruit fly" just like Christopher (they go through so much fruit in a day).

I could just go on and on about how cute he is, but since this post is getting too big, I'll leave with some of the party pictures for now.

Cake Table. The blue truck on the right is holding the forks.

Top view of the cake.

Oh, what a proud family of their little Drew!!

Cake? What's that mom?

Umm, cake!!! I don't know what's up with him, but he's been doing these "cheesy grins" when he's happy.

He definitely got cake ALL over. Even the wall!!

Opening presents. Better, watching Christopher open his prestents.

My mom's gift included 2 camping chairs (yeah I know, Christopher scored too). Drew LOVES sitting and relaxing on his chair. Can you tell?

Terrible 2

2010-07-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

I was so scared of Christopher turning 2 because I didn't want to deal with the tantrums. Oh, how innocent was I thinking that the terrible twos was only about tantrums!!! In our case, it means getting into anything and everything, and doing everything he shouldn't do (and he's only been 2 for 1 month. Boy I'm in trouble).

Yesterday he:

1- escaped from the mall play area 3 times (one of the times, I actually didn't see him and found him near the mall exit door)

2- ripped a bag of cookies that Cory was going to take to the family he home teaches.

3- got into the fridge a thousand times (a no-no at our house)

4- hit Drew and I a few times

5- threw his binky in the toilet (that I had just peed in and didn't have time to flush)

and the list goes on...

Today he's already been in time out twice (and he's only been up for 1 hour). Ahhh, does this ever end?

Last night when I got home from church he was still up, laying in my bed with Cory. I told Cory I would put him down. It was actually a great end to such a tough day. Christopher just cuddled with me for a good 20 minutes. He giggled when I gave him butterfly and Eskimo kisses and then he went to bed without screaming and crying. It gave me hope that today would be a better day, I'm still hanging on to that feeling. Haha

Right now he's quietly sitting down watching Caillou (which he's addicted to). I guess I better get going and give him lots of hugs and kisses.

Meanwhile I have Drew tugging at my leg begging for attention. I guess I better blog about him too. He's becoming quite the little tormentor. He lives to bug his brother. He follows Christopher around all day and loves to climb and crawl all over him. He'll take anything Christopher has in his hands, specially if it's food. Christopher has learned to eat his snacks standing on the couch or sitting on the couch arm, so Drew can't get to him. It's actually pretty funny.

Here are some of Christopher's professional 2 year old pictures. He's such a cutie!!!

Christopher is 2!!!

2010-06-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my baby turned two this month!! I know it's cliché but I remember the day he was born, and the great feeling of holding him in my arms for the very first time. He just laid on top of me quietly looking at Cory and I. Definitely a very peaceful and special moment in our lives!!!!

Anyway, the little man is official 2, and to celebrate we threw him a "surfer" party. Since the kid loves water I thought the theme couldn't be more appropriate. He had a blast, and so did our kid guests. The adults had to endure the painful 107 degrees weather that day, but it was all worth it. Thanks to all those who made it, and for the great gifts!!! Here are some of my favorite pictures. If you feel like these aren't enough, just email me and I'll send you a link to the 180 other pictures Cory took during the party. :)

The birthday boy playing in his pool

The beautiful and amazing cake my friend Rachael made as her gift. It totally completed the surfer theme!!

Where the kids were entertained for almost 2 hours

My favorite picture!!! Drew hated the kiddy pool at first. Than we gave him a pretzel, and his mood changed!! Here he is all proud with his pretzel in hand

Christopher's future girl!! (Livy)

The 4 of us. Oh, how hard is it to get everyone looking and smiling at the camera?

The 4 again, but this time Drew is looking and Christopher isn't. LOL

My 2year old posing

The talented "cake lady" (aka Rachael)

Hummmmmm cake!!

opening presents

Out with the old, in with the new

2010-05-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

We've had LOTS of changes this past month.

Kitchen

We finally got rid of our old ugly laminate countertops, and replaced them with beautiful granite!!! I'm so excited about my new kitchen. I couldn't stop starring at it after it was done. I need to send a BIG thanks to my hubby who worked really hard pulling the old countertops off and redoing all the new pluming.

old countertop

new countertop

Andrew

We are pleased to announce we have a "new" baby. We finally figured out what was wrong with our poor Drew. He's got problems with regular iron fortified formula, so he's now on a low iron formula. He's doing great, is totally happy, can use the bathroom everyday, and just seems like a new child. He's learned to crawl, pull himself up to furniture, crawl and go back to sitting position all within one week. This past week he mastered crawling all the way up the stairs. Oh boy, I'm in trouble!!

I forgot to mention that when the kids were sick last week Drew got some weird virus that left his body covered in a rash. Here's a graphic picture (that's what mom's are for!)

Drew all proud of himself for standing up next to the couch.

Christopher

Oh, where do I begin?! He's turning 2 this week and seems to have hit his terrible twos. He is getting into EVERYTHING. This past week he spilt toilet bowl cleaner all over my in-laws bathroom, drank toilet water, and finished the week with "drinking" rubbing alcohol. It wasn't so fun having to talk to poison control for the first time. I guess he never really drank it because he didn't show any of the side effects (vomiting and acting drunk).

We had the kids enrolled in swim lessons through the month of May. They both LOVED it, but aren't swimming yet. I never got a picture pf Drew in the pool, but here’s a picture of Christopher.

Car

We sold Cory's Corolla and bought a minivan. It's taking Cory and I a little time to come up with the courage to say we own a minivan, but we actually love all the comfort it brings. Oh, it's a white Kia Sedona.

How Much Is Too Much?

2010-05-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

I have the "slight impression" I've cleaned up way too many throw-ups this past week. Really, how much puke is too much? If you ask me I would say 1 is more than enough, but I guess my kids don't think I've mastered the art or cleaning up puke. That's why they seem to be taking turns this week giving me all the opportunity to "practice". Here's how my past week has been.

Tuesday: Christopher throws up in the car
Thursday: Andrew throws up in his crib and then my bathroom floor
Saturday: Christopher throws up in his crib
Sunday: Andrew throws up on ME and him
Monday (today): Christopher throws up on the kitchen floor

Do you see a pattern here?

Anyway, the boys are sick AGAIN!! I have a ton of fun things to blog about, but I guess that will have to wait until they're well.

Until then, I hope this bug doesn't find its way to your house!!!

Sick

2010-04-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

We've had a rough week this past week. First Christopher got sick, then he was followed by Drew, me and lastly Cory. We seem to all be finally recovering. This was the first time that the whole family got a bug together and it was not fun!

It's been on and off hot and cold here in Phoenix these past few days. It seems like we hit mid 90s for a few days to be followed by a couple days in the low 70s. On our hot days we've been enjoying the pool or just playing with water. Christopher is such a water baby he just absolutely loves getting wet. Yesterday I took him to the park. It was so hot when we got home that I just let him play with the water hose in our front yard. He LOVED it, and today he spent the day begging me to "play with agua."

I finally decided we were wasting too much water, got his sand box and filled it with water

Drew on the other hand did not enjoy the water as much. He liked being warm and dry much better!!

We went to Utah to visit my family a few weeks ago. While I was upstairs grabbing a few things I left the kids in the family room with my mom in the kitchen watching them. When I got back I discovered Christopher had helped himself to the baby puffs while Drew fully enjoyed rolling around in them. (More pictures on the Utah trip to follow.)

That stuck under Drew's nose is not a bugger, but a cereal puff.

Christopher

Here are some of his cute words:

koowi - kiwi he loves them

push button - any button: microwave, elevator, automatic doors at the mall...

mamae's hair - this one is not so cute as it is annoying. Anytime I put my hair up he MUST play with my hair accessory. And if I say "no" he just says it over and over again until I give in because I can't stand it anymore.

Drew is finally getting up on his hands and knees and trying to crawl. Not that he actaully crawls, but I'll give him an A for effort. He'll be there any minute, just needs to learn how to move those hands. It's quite funny. His hands stay put while his legs move, and the next thing you see is Drew with his bum up in the air forming a triangle with this body. LOL. Silly boy!!!

Time Out

2010-03-17T13:57:00.001-07:00

On Sunday Christopher went to time out for hitting me. Our little time out routine consists of us strapping Christopher in his booster seat (located in our living room facing the wall - I know, we are mean parents), leaving him there for 1 minute, and then coming back to have a quick lesson on why he's on time out and how to behave next time.

Well, on Sunday time out didn't go quite as planned. I left Christopher to go turn the timer on, and next thing I notice is him walking around the house with the chair attached to his bum. Haha!! I couldn't resist but to laugh and snap a picture. He was also quite proud of himself as you can tell. Needless to say we now need to hold the chair down when he goes in time out.

We've been going to the zoo a lot lately. This is the boys posing for a picture with the giraffes. Some how the giraffes seem to be doing a better job at posing then my little monkeys.

At the zoo again, with his buddy Chase. Christopher and Chase play really well together. Usually kids this age don't play with each other, but somehow these two do, and it's cute to watch.

The impossible happened!!! He was so tired he fell asleep on the couch.

Drew having fun playing outside. He loves playing in the buggy.

Definitely Worth Blogging

2010-03-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

My dear husband spent this past weekend working SUPER hard on our garage that it is definitely worth blogging about. He put up 3 huge sets of shelves that took him 2 days worth of work. I'm so grateful for all his hard work and I love my new shelves!!! The garage is so much more organized now, and we even have more space than we need.

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished project. I should've taken before pictures too, so you could compare.

On a side note, the kids are doing well. Christopher keeps talking more and more. He's starting to make 2 word sentences and I'm so excited. The other day he hit his head on a toy and said "hurt head" and when he wants to go see grandma he asks for "grandma house". Yea!! He is interacting more with Drew and it's cute to see them play together.

Drew is finally rolling all over the place. He's been able to roll from back to front since 4 months but just now has mastered the front to back rolling. He's got 3 bottom teeth and has 2 upper teeth coming in. He's a horrible teether, but such a happy baby when not teething.

Say Cheese

2010-01-23T14:38:00.001-08:00

Here are the so promised pictures. Beware, there are a lot of them!!

Christopher with Santa. (He didn't cry!!!)

We were getting ready for church and before I had time to put his shirt on he had already put on the vest. We had a good laugh at our little (fill in the blank) dancer.

Christmas Eve

Christmas day. He got a bike.

Drew didn't have a clue about what was going on

Playing in the snow for the first time.

Yummy snow!

Cory made him a little snowman

We went to Utah to visit my family and went to a restaurant that had a pirate theme.

My parents and some of the grandkids on my side (we are missing my sister's kids)

Cory's parents and all the Garrett cousins

Happy boy

Super goofy!!!

He's so cute!!

Drew, Drew the drool man!!!

At the children' musem

Andrew got his 6 months pictures taken yesterday. He's such handsome little guy!!

I love to stand

Picture perfect

Bath time is so much fun!!

Can you see my blue eyes?

I found my foot!!

Boys

2010-01-22T13:57:00.000-08:00

On my last post I said I had a ton to blog about, but I'm not sure I'll ever blog about everything I want. I just don't have enough time to ever post as many pictures and videos as I want.

I got a digital SLR camera for Christmas and we've taken a few shots of the kids on it, but I still haven't transferred them to the computer, so sorry, you only get 1 camera phone picture on this post. I promise I'll do a post with just pictures next time!!

Christopher

We got a membership pass to the children's museum and have been going there quite often. Christopher loves it. The only bad part is having to drive there (I'm afraid he'll get car sick and puke). So far he's only thrown up once and he managed to wait for me to pull him out of the car to do it!!!

Last week he had a high fever for 2 days so I decided to take him to the doctor. The poor little guy had an ear infection in both ears. He's doing much better now and life is good again. The only nice thing about him being sick was the fact he wanted to cuddle with me ALL the time. I never get that kind of attention from him.

He's been talking more and more, although I seem to be the only one that can understand him.

Here are some of his new words:

Hi Dew - hi Drew (he loves his brother!!)

poppuck - popcorn

clockit - chocolate (I didn't know he knew what chocolate was, but the other day I made fudge and he walked around asking for more clockit)

ut dob (followed by either clapping or patting himself) - good job

tacket - jacket

all wet - he says this constantly in the bath as he splashes around and gets us all wet.

found it - today I found a hair tie under the couch cushions and said "found it." Ever since then he's been walking around the house pointing to things and saying "found it"

Andrew

He's doing really well. He turned 6 months this week and is progressing good. He's a tall skinny kid (as both my boys have always been).

weight: 19 lbs 5 oz (80%)

height: 29 inches (97%)

I gave him haircut last week and Cory's been calling him Fraiar Tuck ever since. I'll post a picture of Drew and Friar Tuck for you to compare.

He started baby food this week. So far he's had bananas, pears and carrots. Loved them all but carrots are definitely a favorite!! This is him eating carrots for the first time. (you can also see the new hair cut).

For Now...

2009-12-20T16:40:00.000-08:00

I have tons to blog about but for now, this is all you get.

We were driving home from church today and when I turned around to check on the kids this is what I saw. Christopher was so tired that he fell asleep with his binky in the wrong way. LOL Thank goodness for camera phones!!

Since I know I probably won't post until after Christmas I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

I took some cute pictures of the boys for our Christmas card that I better share now, or I'll never get to it.

November has come and gone

2009-12-07T22:59:00.000-08:00

Wow, I can't believe it's already December and I've gone a whole month without posting. Cory's been bugging me asking "when are you going to update the blog?" My latest response was "when the kids leave the house." I seriously feel like I have no personal time. It's midnight, Drew finally fell asleep 2 hours ago, I've showered, read my scriptures and am ready for bed. Why am I still up? I figure once I get this post out of the way I'll most likely go back to blogging a little more frequent (I hope). So here's a little recap of what's been going on in the Garrett household.

Halloween:

Christopher was a monkey (a really cute one may I add) and Drew was a penguin. I feel sorry for Drew having to use Christopher's last year costume, but I refuse to buy a new one. We had Cory's family over and the cousins got to go trick or treating together. It was fun to take the boys and to be able to pass out candy.

Christopher:

He's been speaking more and more by the day. He had his first official nursery day this Sunday and it didn't go very well. He was way too tired due to lack of sleep and cried pretty much the whole time. (I don't like 1pm church!! Can't wait till next year for a new schedule.)

He can jump out of his crib, jump the stairs' gate and plug and unplug the Christmas tree lights (oh and he learned how to do his all on Sunday before church). I forgot to add he can open our child proof locks in the kitchen drawers.

Our Christmas tree is only decorated from the top half, because I'm tired of chasing Christopher away from the ornaments. Although, he still finds it amusing to shake the tree and see ornaments drop from the top.

Andrew:

He's becoming a much more pleasant child!! He smiles and giggles often and is a very mellow baby compared to Christopher at this age. He can roll from his back to his tummy, but gets stuck and can't roll back. We are trying to get him on an earlier schedule (which didn't happen today). We are putting him down at 9:00 pm now (instead of 11:30) and are trying to have him fall asleep on his own. Lets just hope he gets used to this SOON!

Thanksgiving:

We got to go visit my sister in Florida. It was great to spend time with my family and see her new adorable baby girl. My mom was also there, so we had fun shopping the day after Thanksgiving and staying up late chatting every night.

As for the trip itself, all I can say is that my kids don't travel well. By kids I mostly mean Christopher. Making the LONG story short, he didn't sleep well while at my sister's because we were all sleeping in the same room, and we missed our flight back home because of HORRIBLE holiday traffic combined with Christopher puking TWICE in the car on the way to the airport. Luckily we made it in time for the last flight leaving Orlando that night and made it home past midnight.

Spike It

2009-10-27T22:29:00.000-07:00

I took Christopher to get a hair cut today. I specifically told the lady "no clippers, but I want it short enough to spike it."

Well, she followed the instruction of no clippers, but I'm not too sure he's got enough hair for spiking! (LOL) When she was finished she asked if I wanted to have her put anything in his hair, and I said I wanted to learn how to spike it. The lady put some gel on Christopher's hair and tried to spike it, not very successful. She finally looked at me and said "Well, his hair isn't used to staying up (not true, his hair sticks up when long), but as you keep doing this it will learn how to spike." I just wanted to tell her, yeah, it will spike once it grows back in and there's hair enough for spiking!!!

Anyway, he looks cute (kind of). Actually,considering his wild behavior, you would think he ran away from a juvenile corrections facility.

This is Christopher with his new hair cut!! It's a little spiky.

On a side note. I took this picture of Drew tonight and he looks so much like Christopher when he was this age. I think it's the big smile.

All About Christopher

2009-10-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

Christopher has been talking a lot lately and I wanted to write down his words before the list got to be too long. Anyway, this post is mostly for my own information, since I know it’s kind of boring to read a huge list of words a 16 month old can say. In case you do read it “iP” stands for “in Portuguese.” I know I probably missed some words, so I’ll add them on as I remember. I tried to keep it to just words, not sounds (like uh-oh, yay …). He repeats a lot of words we say, but I tried to write only the words he uses consistently.

agua – water iP
all duh – all done
amen
Aplefur - Christopher
apple
baaboo (banho) – bath iP or when reading it’s Brown Bear
ball
be – asking us to sing “Jesus wants me for a sun beam”
beebee – baby
bubba - bottle
bubush – bubbles
bue or blue – if you ask him “what’s your favorite color?” he’ll always answer “blue”
byeye
car
Cheese-for both the camera and the food
chuchu – train
clock
coco – poop iP
cookie
Dew - Drew
dinner
down
ee up - clean up
eeboo – peekaboo
e-i-e-i-o – usually when he wants to watch a movie, or to specifically listen to Old Mcdonals
esse - this one iP
eww – ears
eyes
five (sometimes he’ll say 1,3 and 4 when counting, but I usually have to say those)
food
fower – flower
get dOWn
Guga – grandma Garrett
hat
hi
hot
how cooool (sun glasses are also called how cool because every time he puts it on I tell him “how cool)
how cuuute
hue – hair
I __ youuuuu – I love you (we say love)
I see you
lights
mais – more iP
Mamãe - mommy iP
mão - hand iP
mine
nanana - banana
não – no iP
nigh-nigh
okay
ouside – outside
Papa – grandpa Garrett
Papai - daddy iP
pe - foot iP
peepee – his privates
play
please
pop – ballon
ração (oração) – prayer iP
ready set go
sh** - shirt
shishi (xixi in Portuguese) – pee
shoes
shots - shorts
tan tu - thank you
teddy
tó - here iP
tss cold – puts the cold object to his cheeks and makes a “tsss” noise followed by the word cold
twee - tree
two
uck – stuck
up
Vovô – my dad
Vovó – my mom
watch
whasat – what’s that
wheggo – where did it go
WOW – usually when he sees a ceiling fan or when he finds anything amazing (like the garage door opening or closing)
you fufall – you’re going to fall (he hears this one a lot)

Refuses to say animal names, but can make the sounds. Animal sounds: meow, woof, roar, quack, baa, u-u-a-a (monkey), uuuh (elephant – accompanied by hand motion for the trunk).
On a not so related note, I took some pictures of the boys last night as they were ready for bed. They turned out kind of goofy, but since I haven’t posted pictures of them lately, here are a few.

Christopher was really happy when he saw me get the camera!!

Christopher took this picture of Drew and I think he did pretty good, even getting the baby smiling

House

2009-10-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a quick post about the house because the baby just woke up and needs to eat.

I finally got around to taking some pictures of the house. We bought a 3bedrooms, 2.5 baths, plus living room, family room and dinning room house. I didn't take pictures of every room (too much work and not everything is nice and organized). For now this is what you get (by the way, I'm terrible at taking pictures, as you will soon see!!).

The House!!

Living room (you can kind of see the family room in the back

The master bedroom (I don't know why the picture turned out so red. No our room does not have pink walls! We actually just have one color through out the whole house)
These are the 2 other bedrooms. Christopher was asleep when I took this, that's why the door is closed.

Phoenix Zoo

2009-09-28T16:15:00.000-07:00

I took the boys to the zoo today with some of my friends and their kids. I'm sure you're expecting to write how we had such a great time and how Christopher saw a ton of animals (...) Well, the least I can say is that the trip didn't quite go as planned. Here's how our day went (in chronological order):

1. Get to Rachael's house 30 minutes late (well, I'm usually late, so that's no biggy).

2. Drive to the zoo.

3. Get flashed by a dumb speeding camera on the way (and I couldn't even hope it was the person in front of me that got flashed because I was following my good friend Dana).

4. Pull over into a restaurant area because Christopher puked all over himself.

5. Clean the HUGE STINKY mess with no more than 10 baby wipes.

6. Get to the zoo and buy Christopher a t-shirt, since the kid is roaming around in just diapers.

7. Enjoy a total of 3 animals at the zoo because it's too hot to go any further. (We are approaching the end of September and still dealing with weather over 100 degrees in Phoenix. Does it ever cool down here?)

8. Walk to my car, load up the kids, put away stroller and bag, turn on the car. Oh no, my car won't turn on!!! Can it seriously get any worse?!

9. Have my friend help jump-start my car (thank goodness it was the battery or I would have laid in the parking lot crying at this point).

10. Finally, arrive home safely (to find 5 cop cars in front of my neighbor's house. Man if they were in front of my house I'm not quite sure what I would have done).

I think I'll stay home for the rest of the day and wait for my "little" dark cloud to pass over. I need to go grocery shopping, but I'm pretty sure that can wait until tomorrow!!

Hope your day is going a little better.

This one is for you Cory!!

2009-09-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

My dear husband has had to put up with so much in these last few months, and I just need to let him know how much he's loved and appreciated!!

This week I was having a rough day with the baby and Cory called to check on me. As I went off on how the child won't sleep, I can't get anything done, I'm tired (...) he just paciently listened and then we hung up. That evening when he got home he had this beautifull bouquet with red and white roses to cheer me up! I was shocked and absolutely loved them!!!! If you know Cory, you know he doesn't usually give me flowers, which makes this so much more special and totally worth blogging about.

Thanks hun! I loved the flowers and I love you!!!

What's for dinner?

2009-09-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

I added a new section to the right side of my blog. I saw this at a friend's blog and thought it was a good idea. I'll try to post our dinner menu for the next two weeks (that's why the different colors). Anyway, if you start one it will definitely help me too. Hope you enjoy!!
Oh and if you want a recipe, leave me a message and I'll email it to you.

Can I have some privacy?

2009-09-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while I was feeding/burping the baby, Christopher decided he needed some quiet, private place to do his reading. This is what he came up with.I was quite entertained just watching him dump all his books out from this little book stand, get himself in there (I have no clue how he manage to fit in it), and then close the door. He did it all on his own! I was excited I was able to find the camera fast enough before he decided to leave.

Oh, and while I'm at it, here are some more pictures of Drew.

Quick Updates

2009-08-31T11:11:00.000-07:00

This will be a really quick post, since life with 2 kids isn't as easy as I was hoping. How do you moms out there manage to blog weekly when you have more than 1 kid to tend too?

My friend Rachael came over last week and took a ton of pictures of Andrew. They turned out really cute, but since it takes forever to upload images to the blog, you only get to see a few.

This is what TV does to a toddler (and this is how we were able to take pictures of the baby)

On another quick note. We BOUGHT A HOUSE!! Actually we are already moved in, reason why I haven't blogged lately. We closed on our house 2 weeks after Drew was born and moved in the following week. To make things even a little more stressful we blessed Drew the day after we moved and had friends and family over to the house to celebrate his blessing. CRAZY!! I don't know how I was able to find church clothes for everyone and the baby's blessing outfit, but somehow I did. My mom and mother-in-law were my life savers. My parents packed up the apartment and set up the whole downstairs pretty much on their own. My mother-in-law watched Christopher, did all my laundry, and made all the beds. What did I do? Took care of the baby and felt extremely overwhelmed. Thankfully that nightmare of house hunting, moving, and having a baby is all over!!! I'll post pictures of the house soon (well, first have to take them, so it might not be so soon).

Surprise

2009-07-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

Andrew Cory Camargo Garrett born July 19, 2009 weighing 7lbs 3oz and 19.5in. He came 4 weeks early and caught us all by surprise. We have now doubled our family in just 13 small months.I woke up Sunday morning with contractions coming every 2-3 minutes, but since I was induced with Christopher and didn't know what it was like to go into labor alone I thought they were Braxton Hicks. Cory wanted me to call the doctor right away, but I'm a little more stuborned and refused to think that the baby would come earlier. In my mind for sure those were false labor pains and would go away on their own.

3 hours later I still had contractions but they were now every 10 minutes, and a little more intense. Cory paged the doctor himself because I just refused to be another women to go to the hospital early and be sent back home. I told him to get dressed for church because I wasn't going to the hospital. The doctor called us back and told me to just go to the hospital to get checked out. So we went to the hospital wearing our church clothes and I was convinced I would be leaving in 30 minutes proving to my husband that he was wrong.

Making a long story short, we got there and I was dilated to a 5 and was told I was having the baby today. That's when all the tears came in and reality started to hit. We went to the hospital with no bags packed, no camera and 2 dying phones. We managed to snag a few phone pictures of the birth in the OR before our phones died.

Life has been a little hectic around here lately but we are all doing well. The c-section has turned out to be a lot better than what I expected and I'm recovering well. Because Drew was premature he had a little problem with being Jaundice and had to go back to the hospital for another 2 days of intense light treatment. This is a picture of Drew during the light treatment at the hospital. He had to wear little shades to keep his eyes safe while under the lights. He is doing well now and we are all back home!!

This is my mom and Drew the day we left the hospital the second time.

Busy

2009-06-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

We've been pretty busy lately.

I've been wanting to make baby #2 a quilt for his crib that will match Christopher's. Anyway, I got the fabric for it a few weeks ago and last week my friends Rachael and Dana helped me out with it. This is a quick picture of the finished product.

Last week we also took Christopher to get his 1 year pictures taken. Here are some of our favorites.

Yesterday I did my first Craigslist purchase. I've been wanting to buy a little playground for Christopher and I finally found one for a good price. I was so excited about buying it that I called my mother-in-law right away to come out to the place and help me pick it up. We some how managed to fit the whole thing in our 2 cars. Now all we need is a yard to put it in. This is what the playground looks like, although this is not my playground nor my yard. :(

We're still house hunting. It's getting pretty frustrating and I'm growing exhausted of having to go up and down our apartment stairs 2-3 times a day carrying Christopher. I was hoping we would be moved out by the time the baby comes, but it doesn't seem like it will happen.

I Can't Believe He's 1!!!

2009-06-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my little baby turned 1 this week!!! Time seems to just have flown by. He is the happiest little guy and it really has been a great blessing to have stayed home with him this year. I have to admit that not everyday is amazing in a mother's world, but we definitely had far more great days than bad ones.

We celebrated his birthday with a little "Puppy Party" with our family. Since we consider Christopher to be our little puppy, (if you haven't read the puppy post scroll down and this will make more sense) we threw him a doggy party complete with hotdogs, pupcakes (served in a dog bowl), and the cousins got to take home little doggy bags. The kids got to go swimming, and it was a very pleasant day overall. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Cake Table

Gifts and Party Favors

He LOVES the pool (which is a little scary)

Singing "Happy Birthday"

I thought he would hesitate a little before touching or trying the cupcake, but he just attacked it!

Since this is getting kind of long, I made the pictures smaller.

Cleaning up cake mess and opening presents.

This post is supposed to be all about Christopher, but I guess since he's got a little brother on the way soon, he'll need to learn to share the attention. My great friends Rachael and Dana threw me a ward baby shower on Friday, even though I insisted I didn't need one. The theme was movie premiere "Baby Garrett II". I got lots of diapers and wipes (everything I really wanted!!) Thanks girls!!!!

Dana, Me and Rachael

As you can see, Rachael is really talented. She made that delicious and cute cake, and came up with all the decoration ideas! (We even had a red carpet and paparazzis stalking us as we walked in.)

Birthday Help

2009-05-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

I have a dumb dilemma that requires some girl help. I scheduled my c-section about 2 weeks ago and found out my doctor is delivering my baby on his birthday. Should I get him anything (besides paying the fat check he'll send me in the mail a few weeks later)?

I know this sounds really trivial to some of you, but birthdays are a pretty big deal for me and I feel like since I'm forcing the man to work on his birthday I might as well bring him a treat. Do you think I can sneak some cupcakes into the OR? (haha- wouldn't that be funny?!)

Anyway - please give me your suggestions on what would be an appropriate gift to your OB.

On a not so related birthday note. Happy Birthday Cory!!! He turned 25 yesterday and is now officially my age. I invited a couple of friends with their families over for pizza (great excuse to not cook) and boy, the realization that our birthday parties will consist of much chaos for the next few years hit us pretty hard. We still had a good time though.

Did I Bring Home a Baby or a Puppy?

2009-05-01T09:22:00.001-07:00

Lately I've been wondering if I brought home a baby or a puppy from the hospital. Here are my top 10 reasons why I think I have a puppy. (In no particular order)

1. Likes to chew on shoes.

2. Bites other dogs' tails (or at least tries too).

3. Carries things around with his mouth.

4. Likes to curl up with clean laundry.

5. Loves to chew on leather (I have to explain the picture - this is my piano bench that is now covered with a blanket because I got tired of stopping Christopher from chewing on it. I just got this piano for Christmas and he has chewed a few holes through the bench already).

6. Growls at you when mad.

7. Plays in/with the trash.

8. Eats food from the trash.

9. Begs you for food when you sit to eat.

10. Likes to go on walks (I know I'm not supposed to put pictures of naked babies on my blog, but he has a diaper on. That counts, right? Anyway this was taken after he got back from his walk. We can't put the stroller away right away or else he throws a fit, so he was playing with it).

Walking

2009-04-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it but my 10 months-old baby is walking!!! Here's the proof. I know I sound like I'm bragging, but this was something I just never expected from any of my kids. I come from a family of late walkers and I thought Christopher would follow the trend. Well he didn't, and now everyday I feel more like I have a toddler and not a baby. (I guess that won't be a problem soon, considering I have a new baby in the making - oh the crazy things we do.)

Swimming

2009-04-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

We took Christopher swimming for the first time this week. I was hoping he would enjoy it because he loves his bath time, but the water was a bit cold, so I wasn't too sure what to expect. Well, as you can tell by the pictures he LOVED it!! It was actually hard to get him out of the pool. He kept on screaming and trying to crawl back in. Anyway, we've hit 100 degrees in Phoenix, so I guess we'll be making many more pool trips for him to enjoy.

Easter

2009-04-19T14:07:00.001-07:00

I know I'm a week late, but better late than never.

Growing up in Brazil has made Easter quite a significant holiday for me. After Christmas, it is definitely my favorite holiday. It's a tradition in Brazil to give chocolate eggs to your family and friends (maybe that's why this holiday is so "special" for me). Anyway, since we can't find chocolate eggs in the US (at least not in Brazil's size) I decided I would make it a tradition to make eggs for my family every year.

Last year I made Cory one and myself one. I ended up eating both eggs, so this year I made little eggs for the girls I visit teach and made 1 big egg for Cory and I to "share". Let's just say my half is gone, and I'm starting to work on Cory's half as I write. Here's a picture of what it looked like when it was all done and wrapped.

We also took some family pictures on our way to church. I promise I don't look this big in real life (at least that's what my friends say). I'm 22 weeks on this picture and definitely showing. I'm hoping it's the dress that makes me look so big.

Here are me cute boys!!(Little cuttie was supposed to be sitting quietly in sacrament, but decided to be loud and play outside with dad instead)

I know this is mean. But for general conference, on Sunday, we went to our friend's house for lunch. Christopher loves to play on their trampoline. This is what happened to his hair (hahaha).

Time Flies

2009-04-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted something. We've been busy with everyday stuff and I finally found some time to do a little update, so be ware, this post will be scattered.

Christopher Updates:

He's had this nasty diarrhea for the past 2 weeks and I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions? Bananas tend to be his miracle food, but not even that is helping hold things in.

He's trying to walk (ok, I'm being a little generous, a few steps is more like it).

He loves glasses (I think I wrote that before) but this past week we were at the store and found baby sun glasses. Doesn't he look cute?

My mom was in town and bought some French bread one day for dinner. When she walked in the door she was harassed by Christopher. She handed him the loaf, and he absolutely loved chewing on it. At first we just let him have it with the whole bread, but then we broke off a smaller piece for him. He dragged it around for a while and I ended up with bread crumbs all over the carpet. I'm still finding crumbs around.

Baby #2 Updates:

Baby 2 is growing well.

This pregnancy has been much easier than Christopher's, but I do feel more exhausted and "crazy" at times. Gees, those hormones really get to you.

I had my 20 weeks doctor's appointment yesterday and we had another ultrasound (I already had 7 - wow, I only had 3-4 with Christopher). Anyway, the baby was facing us and we got a nice alien shot of him. The amazing part was being able to see him open and close his mouth. It seemed like he was just having some lunch, not too sure what he was eating, but with all that nasty liquid in there I'm not sure I want to know.

Here's a 3D immage taken last week. He's got his hand on his head (I think).

Cory and Juliana Update:

Not much to update. Cory's still working and I'm still babysitting.

I turned 25 in February and had a nice little fondue dinner with some friends.

We're trying to buy a house, but it's not as easy as I thought it would be. We've been house hunting for over 1 month and so far we haven't had much luck. We want to stay in this area, so it's a little hard to find something nice in our price range.

Here's an interesting story. We put in an offer for a home that we really liked. We felt good about this house, and were really excited about it. We'll we didn't get it (we were outbid, which has happened a few times - are we really in a bad economy?) Anyway, I drove by my "dream house" last week and it had caught on fire!!! Can you believe it? I guess the good feelings we had, came from the Lord protecting us from what could have been the worst.

Stand Up Time

2009-02-24T11:22:00.000-08:00

Christopher has been pulling himself up to furniture for the past 2 weeks. It seems like ever since he learned how to stand up, there's no stopping him now. He loves to crawl around EVERYWHERE and pull himself up to anything he can. (This picture was taken the first time he stood up in his crib.)

He's also started eating more "people" food lately which is really fun. We went to IHOP today (they were giving free pancakes) and he ate plane pancakes and drank water from my cup. He was so proud of himself, it was cute to watch. I'm starting to think that we might be able to enjoy going out to dinner again sometime soon, instead of just having to do take out.

M is for...

2009-02-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

Today was preschool day with the little girl I watch. I go over to my friend Rachael's house and we do it together with her son. Well, today we were learning the letter M, and lets just say it wasn't very smooth. The kids were MONKEYING and Rachael and I had a rough morning. She somehow gathered enough strength to get the kids coloring and practing their letter and read them a couple books.

We're hoping tomorrow will be a better day to reinfoce the letter M because we are taking a field trip to McDonald's!! I am looking forward to that one.
Thank goodness McDonald's starts with M. Actually today on the way home from preschool I stopped there to grab some lunch. The kids had already eaten at Rachael's but I still needed food, and for some reason fast food seems to be one of my few pregnancy cravings. I tend to crave french fries and hamburgers when I'm pregnant, so I justfied being pregnant, sick, and exhausted and allowed myself to have a DELICIOUS lunch. The sad part is that I'm still looking forward to another McDonald's visit tomorrow. I sure hope I get these cravings under control, otherwise I'll be broke and fat by the end of this gestation!!!

On a quick side note, Christopher is really starting to be a handful. Here are some things he learned do this past week:

Stand up to furniture (which includes his crib, so now sleep time is play time)
Say Mamamamama (it can go on forever) when he wants me
Climb stairs
He rediscovered his tongue, so now it tends to hang out of his mouth most of the time. Yesterday he stood up to the front door and licked it clean. Everytime I told him to stop he would do it again, smack his lips, look at me and give me the cutest smile. If he wasn't so cute I would probably have lost it by now.

Outnumbered

2009-02-08T08:51:00.000-08:00

It's official. I have been completely outnumbered by the boys living in this house 3-1. There's Cory, Christopher and Baby Boy #2 vs. just poor lonely me!!!

I guess for those that didn't know I better do some explaining. Cory and I are expecting our 2nd child this August. We are SUPER excited about it, and I'm actually really happy it's another boy. Ever since I found out I was pregnant (again) I've been saying (and wishing) it's a boy. This week we went to the Dr. and they found out it is indeed another little man for this house. I'm only 13 weeks along, so it's still kind of soon to tell, but the doctor seemed very confident about it being a boy. Anyway, here's a "cute" picture of baby 2.

Picture Time

2009-01-25T21:53:00.000-08:00

Here are some promised pictures.

I took Christopher to the zoo before Christmas. You can see a baboon on the background.
Here's us with the Rino's. It was a little frustrating trying to show the baby all these animals when all he cared about where the trees and leaves he could touch and grab. I don't think he really saw any of the animals.
This is what happens when daddy feeds him!!

Ward Christmas party. I thought he would cry with Santa, but I sware this kid loves strangers!! Christmas Eve at my sister's house.

Us and the Florida alligators (right by Cory's ear there are about 7 gators).

Magic Kingdom. He's such a happy baby!!

Waiting in line for a ride.

Still Alive

2009-01-23T11:59:00.000-08:00

I was doing so good at this blogging business and then Christmas hit and life got too busy. Here are a few of the things we've been up too. I'll have to post Christmas pictures later. (As they've been loaded onto Cory's laptop and not this computer).

We spent Christmas in Florida with my family and got to go to Disnelyworld the day after Christmas. The park was completely packed but the kids still loved it. I loved the fact that I got to have ice cream, churros, and rice crispy treats!!! Christopher loved the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

We also got to see some Florida gators. The children were all pretty interested on them.

Cory's back to fulltime work and is taking 2 extra classes this semester. We thought he was done with school, but that's what happens when you decide to apply to a grad program in which you don't have all the prerequisit work done. :( He'll be very busy studing (he's taking biochemistry and anatomy) and I'll definitely miss the extra help I get from him.

Christopher is officialy doing the army crawl. The kid gets into trouble more often than I would like. He loves cords (any type of cord - which poses a huge choking and electricution hazard considering he doesn't mind if they are plugged to the outlet). He also loves opening the drawers of our entertainment system, and I'm sure he'll get his fingers caught any day.

I'm babysitting a 4 year old little girl fulltime. Reason for which I haven't blogged lately. She naps in the computer room so I can't use the computer when the kids are asleep. I'm also doing some preschool with her on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I've been busy planning, teaching, cleaning, tending, and singing to kids ALL day.

Wow this got way too long. I promise to post pictures soon!!

6 months

2008-12-17T11:15:00.000-08:00

Last week we took Christopher's 6 month pictures. He looks SO CUTE in them!!!

He loves this blue teddy he's holding!!

A classic Christopher holding his feet :)

On this one you can see his two bottom teeth.

Movie Time

2008-12-11T17:37:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been putting on a Baby Einstein DVD I have for Christopher to watch while I get things done around the house. Since this doesn't happen very often, he seems to really enjoy it. It's quite funny to watch him as he is totally entertained by the movie.

He moves like this for the full 30 minutes and when I pick him up he is sweating. Quite the workout!!

Oh Christmas Tree

2008-12-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted something. But between papers and presentations due for my class, church callings, Christmas decorating and shopping, life has been pretty busy.

Last week we put up our Christmas decorations while Christopher was taking a nap. He seems to really like Christmas trees and is fascinated by them when we go to stores. So Cory and I were really excited to see his reaction when he woke up. Needless to say, he got very bright eyed when I brought him out to the living room. He was pretty excited!! I should have taken a picture of it, but I didn't think about it. So now I spend my days chasing him out from under the tree. Good thing he's not crawling yet (he rolls his way to under the tree).

Play time

2008-11-21T10:20:00.001-08:00

Christopher LOVES playing in this toy. Speaking of which, he is in it right now, so I better get going.

Roly Poly

2008-11-19T09:52:00.000-08:00

This past week Christopher’s gotten really good at rolling all over. Yesterday I was checking my email and left him in the living room playing on the floor near the couch. Then I started to hear a “thump, thump” noise. I went to the living room to see what was going on and this is what I found.

Mr. Roly Poly had rolled all the way to the TV and was stuck, bumping himself against our armoire. The funny part is that he only knows how to roll in one direction (as Biance sings it “to the left, to the left"). As you can see by his smile, he was VERY proud of himself!

P.S. I know this is another bad picture I took with my phone, but our camera's memory was full so I couldn't get a really good pic.

Trick or Treat

2008-11-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

I know I'm really late at posting our Halloween pictures, but I just finally got them to my computer. Cory and I dressed up (if you can't tell Cory's a vet, I'm a vet's nurse, and Christopher is our penguin patient).

It was REALLY hot here in Phoenix that night (we were in the low 90s) and the poor baby had a very warm costume. He was actually a pretty good sport about it, considering he never cried or complained, but he also wasn't very smiley about it. Oh, I even got him a little pail to carry around.

Head to Toe

2008-11-13T12:42:00.000-08:00

Christopher's newest thing is to play and eat his toes. It's really cute, but sometimes it gets in the way. The other day Cory was feeding him rice cereal and watching TV at the same time. So in that split second he turned his head to watch the TV, Christopher managed to get his toes in his mouth. Needless to say, the kid was literally covered in rice cereal from head to toe by the time he was done eating!!! (I have to admit that this has also happened to me. You get distracted for a second and he gets his foot in his mouth.)

Here he is, full on eating his foot!!

(I know the picture is blurry, but it's nearly impossible to take a clear picture of a moving baby)

Oh, here's a little update of what baby Christopher likes to do:

eat his feet
kick NON-STOP when trying to go to sleep (my mother-in-law watched him the other day and had to hold his feet down so he could fall asleep)
roll on to his tummy (he's not so good at rolling back to his back)
eat rice cereal (he hates his bottle though)
play in his exer-saucer (Thank you JD!!)

Cleaning

2008-11-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

I consider myself a pretty clean person. I clean my house once a week and I like things to be organized. But there are some things that I just HATE cleaning. For example, I hate mopping. Every time my mom comes in to town, it seems like she’s mopping my apartment for me. Good thing I only have 3 very small areas to be mopped.

Lately I’ve been noticing how dirty my oven looks. That’s another thing I HATE cleaning. So I gathered up the courage and cleaned the oven for the first time since I’ve been married!! (Wow that’s 3 years without being cleaned. Pretty gross!!) So, is there anything you don’t like to clean?

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

Just a little preview of what our neighborhood will see this Halloween. Christopher the Penguin!!

(I know I am biased, but he's so stinking CUTE!!)

Roll Over

2008-10-29T20:37:00.000-07:00

Christopher finally rolled over (from back to side) for the first time last week. Here's a picture of him after acomplishng such a deed!!

Brazil

2008-10-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

So here are the promised Brazil pictures. He had a great time spending time with my family.

Us in my parents' neighborhood

My sister and Christopher

Eric (my brother's baby) and Topher. These two are only 15 days apart.

While in Brazil we got to go to a soccer museum. This is us with the King - Pele.

We had 2 family reunions. This is my mom's whole side of the family.

I still don't have the pictures with everyone from my dad's side, but here's us with grandparents (dad's side)

The four cousins get reunited!! We used to love playing together when little. (Now we love to chat, gossip and catch up on each other's lives when we are together.)

(from left to right: Cynthia, Renata, Me, Ruth)
My parents, grandparents (dad's side), and us

Christopher on the day he got his first tooth!! Yeah!!

Christopher and Ruth's son, Pedro.

Update + Tag

2008-10-20T00:50:00.000-07:00

So I realize I’m really bad at this blogging business, but here’s a little update on our life. We just got back from a quick trip to Brazil this week. We usually go for at least a month, but this one didn’t last more than 2 weeks. Christopher was a good baby on the plane and in Brazil (which helped considering I was alone with him for all flights and for 1 week in Brazil). He grew his 1st tooth while we were there, and he’s just a happy little guy. I’ll post pictures sometime this week. Right now I’m just writing because I’ve been tagged by my friend Dana, so here it goes:

Answer the following with only one word.

Where is your cell phone?...................................purse
Your significant other?...................................... handsome
Your hair?................................................... complicated
Your mother?................................................... funny
Your father?.................................................... serious
Your favorite thing?........................................... food
Your dream last night.........................................forgot
Your favorite drink................................... water
Your dream/goal.................................. exaltation
The room you're in.......................................... living room
Your children?........................................... happy
Your Fear?............................................. death (losing husband/child)
Where do you want to be in 6 years?.................. my house
Where were you last night?................................home
What you're not?............................................ messy
Muffins?............................................ fattening
One of your wish list items?.................... pre-school (own one)
Where'd you grow up?.......................... Brazil
What'd you read last?....................... Book of Mormon
What are you wearing?............................PJ’s
Your TV?.......................................... off
Your pet?........................................ dead
Your computer?........................................Dell
Your life?........................................... interesting
Your mood?.................................. mild (?)
Missing someone?.................................. mom
Your car?........................................... white
Something you're not wearing?................ watch
Favorite store?.................................. (this is a hard one, it depends on what I’m buying) Ross, Babies R Us, Target (although I hate their return policy)
Your summer?..................................... HOT
Like someone?.......................... Cory
Your favorite color?......................... yellow (when I was little, today anything goes!)
Last time you laughed................................Today
Last time you cried?................................Today

The Garrett Grandchildren

2008-09-02T01:43:00.000-07:00

All of the Garrett grandchildren gathered at Kady and Taco's home

A Taste of Things to Come

2008-09-01T22:40:00.000-07:00

This is Christopher having a taste of rice cereal.

A Case of the Giggles

2008-08-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

We finally caught him on camera giggling. Although a little dark, the video does have great sound.

Giggle Time

2008-08-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

Christopher is starting to giggle, and for some reason I always have my phone around and not the camera to take a good picture. Anyway, this afternoon I was playing with him and was able to catch a big smile (that actually had a giggle with it, but I didn’t have my camera to record it). He’s such a good baby, it’s been a lot of fun staying home with him!!!

Best Dad in the World

2008-08-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Every night Cory comes home and has a little alone time with his son. One of Christopher’s favorite parts of this is to lie down on his blanket and listen to Cory tell him stories. This night Cory was telling him about the 3 little pigs. Christopher was so into it that I couldn’t resist but to pick up the camera and sneak behind Cory to capture this cute father/son bonding time.

Are you ready for shark week?

2008-07-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

Since this week is shark week on Discovery Channel, I decided to play with Christopher’s hair. We call him our baby shark. Can you tell why?

Baby Christopher

2008-07-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

Under the great pressure and constant inquiry of whether we have and why we don’t yet have a blog, we have finally caved and created this site. Of course news on are side first worth mentioning is the birth of our first child Christopher; born June 4, 2008. Our little toddler (as he was born 9lbs 8oz) is already smiling.