It's...um....snowing?

Let me start by saying, I hate cottonwoods! Zoe is always quick to remind me that we do not say hate, but the situation calls for it. Our neighbor has three huge cottonwood trees (you can see them behind our house in the picture). They are the worst trees. For two weeks, they drop sticky yellow things that stick to everything. They stain skin and cannot even be washed off with dish soap.

Then after that stops, the cotton starts to fly. I grew up with cotton woods and always promised myself I would never plant them. I should have investigated further into what type of trees they were before purchasing. AAAAHHH!!!! I am going crazy with all of this cotton!

Call the fire department again!

Anthony decided to take the kids to the store while I was doing my visiting teaching. He wanted to surprise me and buy some fun treats for us. When I came home, everything seemed calm and normal. After I got relaxed and situated, he told me that something had happened. This is a great way to worry a mother (in case anyone is interested in doing so). I asked him very calmly what had happened. I seriously had no clue. I had already seen the kids and everyone was fine. Then he showed me a picture on his cell phone. Sam likes to try to get out of the shopping cart every time. This time, he stuck his leg straight through the bars. It was seriously stuck in there, and they almost had to call the fire department. Poor Anthony! He felt so bad for Sam and he was a little embarrassed that it had happened on his watch. I am not upset, stuff like that always happens on my watch. He is a great dad, Sam is just a foolish baby.

Cinco De Mayo (late post)

Being married to a Mexican means you have to participate in Mexican holidays. :) I am learning everything slowly. We went to Anthony's parent's for a pinata the weekend before Cinco De Mayo. I love visiting his family for any reason, so it is a great thing. We went down and did the pinata with the kids. It was a rainy day and it had cleared up just long enough for the ground to dry a little and be ready for the pinata. It started raining again right after the pinata broke. I helped Anthony's mom make gorditas. She bought me my own tortilla press too. I have made them on my own since, and they actually turned out (on the second try).


Sam was just excited to ride the pinata. I love watching him be silly!

Note: We forgot our camera that day, so we had to wait to get the pictures emailed to us (that is why this is so late) and we did not get any pictures of Parker. Sorry Parker!

Carson's Preschool Graduation

Carson graduated from preschool last night! I think Parker and Zoe were more excited to learn what he had been doing than he was to share what he had learned. Sam was dancing to every song the class sang. Zoe was upfront and center wanting to participate. Parker wanted to get a graduation gift too. We gave Carson a little hot wheels track set for his graduation gift, and he would not let it go. He was so excited about it. We are glad he has made such an accomplishment. Before we know it we will be attending his high school graduation, so we are trying to enjoy every moment of what we currently have.

The ceremony was at a library so we did some reading afterward. The kids all love when Anthony reads to them. He is such an awesome dad. He gets on their level and has so much fun with them. I love him very much for this wonderful quality.

How Do Boys Play With Barbies?

First of all: MY HOUSE IS NOT MESSY!
My wonderful mother called me and informed me that her friends saw my blog and commented on how messy my house is. I run a daycare and I allow them to play, so there are lots of toys on the floor throughout the day. We clean up every day though.

On to the video. Sam likes to go in Zoe's room and "play" with her toys. He has just learned about throwing things and how much fun it is. He stands at her Barbie house and throws everything out of it. If you watch closely in the video clip, he hesitates on throwing the zebra out. When he was all done, he took the zebra and left.

A Mother's Day post about Missy

As far as people go I enjoy surprises as much as the next person….except my favorite kinds of surprises are the ones that I am able to give away! Whether it be waking up an hour early to run to the grocery store to get something that Missy will need that day, cleaning the house in complete darkness so Missy can start her day with a smile, or bringing home flowers just because… I LOVE giving surprises. So when it comes to Mother’s Day I had quite a few well planned out (at least I thought) surprises, however, all my surprises seemed to get spoiled one way or another this year. LOL all of my surprises, with the exception of me writing this blog entry! :P

There are a lot of things that I have to be very grateful for in this world. I have 4 wonderful children that I love very much, I have a good job, I have been blessed with the ability to learn, and I feel a great sense of peace in how my life is going. None of those however seem to come close to the blessing of being married to someone as amazing as my beautiful wife Missy.

For those of you who have not had the chance to meet Missy in person, I’m sorry, you are truly missing out, and although this blog has been a good way for her to share some insight into our family and into herself with you, I sincerely hope that you are able to meet her in person! For those of you who have had the chance to meet Missy you know that she is a very captivating person. She is fun to talk to. She is interesting, smart, and has a good sense of perspective when speaking about things. She is extremely intelligent and has been through many experiences in her 25 years that would take some people a lifetime to acquire. She is driven, she is tenacious, she is complex and yet in many ways so simple. In most situations, and in most circumstances Missy is tough as nails, and yet, if you pay attention you’ll see that she is also as soft,kind, and hilarious as they come.

Missy is the kind of person that makes you want to be the best person you can be, just because you seem to feel that that is what she deserves. For these reasons that I have mentioned, and for many more which I have not, I want you all to know, Missy is a wonder amazing person, and I love her with all my heart.

As a Wife she is constantly evolving. She went from being a single mother doing it all on her own and being very successful at it, to being a partner in a marriage, and sharing the load with me. She is working so well with me, and is doing so much that makes out marriage great. In addition to being a wonderful wife, Missy is also an amazing mother. She interacts everyday with Zoe and Sam and Zoe is growing, and learning and really has gained so many great things from having Missy as a mother. Sam (although still very young) has the cutest and silliest interactions with Missy. She is so cute, she can have an awful day with him because he is teething or sick or whatnot, and at the end of the day he falls asleep next to her, and rather than take him to his bed she insists on cuddling him because she wants to have that positive interaction with him. She has also taken on the role of step-mom to Carson and Parker and done it very well. They can be such a handful sometimes, and can requires so much time and patience and yet throughout the year she is looking for presents for them and trying to think of things that she can do to make that interaction more positive and meaningful.

So on this day that we recognize our spouse’s and mother’s for all that they do and have done, I wanted to make sure that I shared a little and recognized Missy for the wonderful Mother that she is. Missy I love you, and I am so grateful for you! Thank you so much for all you do, and thank you for being so amazing!!!

False Alarm!

So as most of you know, we just moved into our new house in February. It was built in 2003, it has smoke alarms wired into the house, and I just passed a fire inspection. All of this made me believe that we had the whole fire thing under control. Wednesday morning however, the alarm went off! It was not just a little beep either, every alarm in the house was going off. The fire department asked me which one it was, they are wired in! They all go off at once! They said they would come out, but only because I have a daycare. Um, I guess that means anyone who does not run a business from their home which involves other people's children is just going to have to forfeit fire services. After waiting outside with all of the kids for about 20 minutes (I would use exclamation points to finish every sentence, but I think you get the idea), they arrived. They informed me that I had a low battery. A low battery!?!?!? No warning!?!?!? Who invented that function? We had to leave our house, I did not have extra batteries, and the alarm was above two sets of stairs on a vaulted ceiling. So they at least brought in a ladder and replaced my battery for me.

1 1/2 hours later, the alarm started again! I went and got Anthony's ladder from the garage and pulled the entire detector off the ceiling. We went today and bought new batteries for every detector in the house (and then some). The positive outcomes from this episode; the kids thought it was great to see the fire truck, we got in one of our mandatory fire drills, and we are now prepared when it comes to batteries.

Chuck E. Cheese

Zoe has a star chart with her chores on it. We have started to reward her for filling up every spot on the chart. She has started her list of rewards. Her first request was a trip to Red Lobster. This is one of my favorites, so I wanted to oblige, but I am not sure she needs to learn to expect that at the ripe old age of four. So we asked her if there was a better place. She decided to go see her friend Chuck. She had heard that he is a real mouse and he gives you birthday cake. So we went to Chuck E. Cheese's. We really did have a lot of fun. Sam was so excited to be there. He wanted to ride every ride Zoe rode. He also caught on to the idea of using the steering wheel. I think he had more fun than any of us. It is so great to see him getting bigger and watch him learn and get excited.