Thankful Thursday - The Vacation Edition

Well, I've been trying to make a blog entry since Sunday and have had no success. We have been traveling and I totally expected to make daily updates while we were gone, honest, I toted my laptop through airport security and everything!! A host of problems occurred, no chance to get on-line in the airport (too chaotic), no WiFi in our room unless I wanted to mortgage the house to pay for it, sent on a wild goosechase to random points around the hotel searching for the elusive "free WiFi" spot......"it's in the 7th floor lounge" (nope), "it's poolside" (negative), try the lobby (BINGO) so here I sit four days later. I'm not sure how long they will let me sit here. They are tearing the lobby apart setting up a stage for some "performance" and I'm sitting on the only couch left with two dripping wet babies from the pool. I'm getting looks from the "roadies" - seriously, I can't make this stuff up. A bald guy with beard down to his belly button and ten pounds of metal in his face (accentuated by his almost completely tatooed head and neck) just walked by me and looked at me like I was from another planet. I was going to post some pictures of vacation, but didn't bring my camera with me to upload photos because I kind of expected to hit another dead end with the internet connection. So, I will try and get some pictures up today or tomorrow.

Anyway, I HAD to find a way to update since it is Thankful Thursday and I certainly didn't want to miss my very first Thursday after the debut. So here goes...

- I'm thankful for Dramamine!

- I'm equally thankful for Children's liquid Bendadryl - makes a plane ride with babies a possibility.

- I guess you could say I'm thankful for the pharmaceutical industry in general. (I don't agree with the bad reputation you have been labeled with, I believe in better living through science).

- Jason Mraz. His music can put a smile on my face regardless of how bad my day might be going.

- Air Conditioning - genius.......PURE genius!

- Colorado water. I forget how great it really is until I travel somewhere and can barely brush my teeth with the nasty sulfur smelling stuff.

- My parents! Vacation with little ones can be a logistical nightmare and thank heavens they were willing to come along and be such an enormous help!

- The "express pass" tickets to Universal Studios that came with our hotel room. If you go to a Universal theme park, you MUST get them. You get to go in the "special" short line rather than the "regular" line...you get on a ride in less than ten minutes rather than somewhere North of an hour.....woohoo....especially when the temperature is somewhere near that of the surface of the sun!

Okay, I'm signing off for now because this lobby is getting more strange by the moment. A guy just hung a picture of a crying Velvet Elvis on the wall next to me and there is another guy five steps in front of me that is hanging a disco ball from the ceiling (no joke).

First Tooth!

Ian's first tooth broke through yesterday. I must say I have mixed emotions. He is doing so many new things these days, getting up on all fours and rocking away - he is going to take off crawling any day now, pulling himself up to a standing position with this eagerness on his face to sprint across the room.....sigh. While it is very exciting to watch him develop and witness the firsts in my little guy's life, I do feel a tug of sadness. He's growing up! As I look at him while I'm typing this post, I'm amazed at how big he looks lying there - was he really 5lbs 13ounces when he was born? So while I celebrate Ian's milestones, I also mourn the loss of the little guy that only a short time ago was swimming in his preemie pajamas.

Maybe it's time to have another baby?! Just kidding honey!

Thankful Thursdays

We live in a fallen world, don't we? Every time I turn on the television, radio, computer, cell phone, stand in the checkstand at the grocery store, log onto Facebook, check my e-mail, or talk to another human being it seems that I am digesting difficult news or am confronted with information that drains me rather than builds me up to be a better person. I am not nor have I ever considered myself to be a "Debbie Downer" (if you don't know who I'm talking about check out this old SNL skit...HYSTERICAL...http://www.buzznet.com/tags/debbiedowner/video/12536/saturday-night-live-debbie-downer/) or an Eeyore type of character. But, I must admit that while I believe myself to be a pretty positive person, I find myself crestfallen at times when I think about the world my brood is navigating. Really, think about it, our economy is in the toilet and despite what experts say most of us don't see the positive turn we are supposedly taking (this takes a much bigger toll on our families than just our checking account balances), our childhood idols drug themselves to death because life is too much for them to bear, teenagers are getting plastic surgery for their 16th birthday's because they think their value is in what they look like rather than who they are, etc. (I'll stop now because I am starting to sound like Debbie Downer!) So, this has inspired me to take better stock of the things in my world I have to be thankful for. I'm going to try to publish this list every week...probably on Thursday's....and call it Thankful Thursday's. Why Thursday's? Because I thought the "Th" in Thankful and the "Th" in Thursday's was kind of clever and I like clever things (yes, I know, nerdy....this is a theme you should become comfortable with) - we'll see how it goes and I'll adjust if needed. Here ya have it!

Thankful Thursday 7/23/09

- I'm thankful that my darling husband remembers to return the stroller into the back of the car after the boys take it out to load up their guitar and baseball gear - this has spared me from getting to the store and having to turn around and come right back home countless times.

- I'm thankful that my husband still has a job.

- I'm thankful that my parents have moved a mile away from us. Their help is priceless and I love that my children have grown so close to their Nana and Papa.

- I'm thankful that Ian wakes up every 3 hours during the night. Yes, I'm tired but it gives me uninterrupted time to hold and cuddle my sweet little man. I realize that in a blink he will be grown and I will long for the days that I held him, and would welcome being tired for the chance to do it all over again.

- I'm thankful that Zach will be getting his driver's license in a few short weeks. Can I get an "Amen!" from those of you that seemingly have little time to do anything other than be a chauffeur?

- I'm thankful that my family is healthy and for the astute medical caregivers that have helped to keep us all this way. In a country where the healthcare debate rages on, we should all be pulling for a system that continues to attract the best and brightest.

- I'm thankful for McDonald's iced mocha's and $1 sweet tea....basically caffeine in general.

- I'm thankful for the group of girls that gather in my basement on Tuesday nights to watch the Bachelorette. What a sweet group of ladies! Can I get an "Oh Yah!" for girl time?



If anyone would like to share the things they are thankful for, or even complain about the things that you aren't, feel free to leave a comment.


Happy Thankful Thursday,




Debbie.....ummm, I mean Kristen

I'm Not a Giggle Box, I'm a Diva!

My lovely, sweet daughter that I love more than there are fish in the sea and stars in the sky will occasionally provide me with glimpses into our future. Sometimes these glimpses capture her sweet and nurturing nature that gives me some insight into what kind of mommy she will be, sometimes they capture an intellect that really blows me away and I wonder if she will cure cancer, solve world hunger, or be our first female President, or all three, and then sometimes she lets me see something that scares me to my core - a high-maintenance princess. Does she really have the potential to be a diva? I suppose the potential exists, but rest assured that I am flexing the best parent muscles I have to prevent this from developing.

I apologize for those of you that have caught wind of this story on Facebook. I don't intend to make a habit of duplicating content here and there, but had to document this story here and provide some video footage as evidence for Annalise when she is grown. I regret that this video is not the first time she said it.....this occurred later the same day after she realized that what she was saying got lots of laughs and attention from those around her. This was not rehearsed and I didn't coach her on what to say - this came from somewhere within her - please say a prayer for me now.

My Handsome Prince

Now, I'm sure that my mommy bias is partly to blame for my belief that I have the most gorgeous babies around. I am not and will not apologize for that because I believe all kiddos should live in a home where their parents think they hung the moon - and the kids should know that their parents think they hung the moon (....sorry, slowly stepping off of soap-box). But, I was delighted when our photographer went out of her way to gush over our little Ian. She told us he was one of the cutest she has ever photographed and that choosing which photos to select to present to us for possible purchase was the toughest "edit job" she ever had to do because she wanted to keep every single one of them (we still had 87 pictures to choose from). If she had that tough of a time selecting her favorites, can you imagine how difficult that was for us since we have all the love and emotional connection business going on as well.....let's just say we emerged from the office hours later and pounds lighter - it was a physically and emotionally challenging process!

Anyway, we do not yet have all of the images because some of them are currently being framed, but I wanted to share the pictures we do have. One of them is the photo of Annalise and Ian on the top of the blog so I won't repost that one and I will post the others when we get them.




Also, I like to share my favorite things with my friends so I'd like to share a little info about our photographer, her name is Sandy Puc. SHE IS AMAZING, as a photographer and as a human being. I want to be Sandy when I grow up. I can honestly say that I have only personally known a very few people that give back to worthy causes as much as Sandy has - and I'm all for supporting people that support other people. I have attached a link to her studio website and to her charity's website (you may have heard about them, they have been featured on the news and in several magazines). Her organization (Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep) goes into hospitals and takes the most amazing portraits of babies that are too sick to ever go home and provides these families with professional portraits free of charge....before I was a mommy this idea really hit me the wrong way....but now I think it is one of the most amazing gifts a family could receive in such a desperate and dark time. So, If you are in need of any sort of family pictures, I would highly recommend Sandy Puc of Expressions Photography.

Expressions Website: http://www.expressionsphotos.com/home.shtml
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Website: http://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/

Evanovich, baby!!

Today, I'm sharing with all of my fellow bookworms, those that like or love a bookworm, aspire to be a bookworm, sat next to a bookworm once, or anyone that has any plans to ever read a book in their lifetime.

I am a bookie, not the kind that takes your money to place bets, but the kind that doesn't just like books but LOVES books. Prior to having babies, I constantly had more than one book going and still could never get through my "too read" pile. Since having babies, my consumption of literature consists of reading assembly instructions for miscellaneous baby contraptions and road signs - job requirements for the caregiver of two little ones and two teens that do not yet have drivers licenses. However, there is one guilty pleasure that I look forward to every summer that I simply will not forego, regardless of how busy my life gets. Each summer, Janet Evanovich releases a new Stephanie Plum book. You may have seen them out and about, they always have the number in the series in the title (One For the Money, Two for the Dough, etc.) When I say these books are my guilty pleasure I mean guilty pleasure for sure - they will not teach you to be a better person, increase your understanding of your fellow human being, or even increase your vocabulary......but you will laugh out loud more times than you can count, turn pages quickly trying to figure out "who done it", and begin mourning once you hit the halfway point in the book because you are reminded that you will be finished much sooner than you would like to be. I will be enjoying a little "pool time" in the near future and just purchased "Fearless Fourteen" and I'm like a little kid on Christmas morning (you don't have to tell me, I already know I'm nerdy). For those of you that read the Stephanie Plum series, yes I know that she just released "Finger-Lickin' Fifteen". So why am I one book behind in the series, you might ask? Well, first of all, when the new hardcover comes out, the previous book is released in paperback for at least 40% off, meaning I can buy it for about four bucks rather than the cost of a new release (hey! I'm not cheap....I'm just financially aware!). Secondly, and most importantly, I treat my books like they are my children. The covers and pages are in pristine condition when I finish reading them, never will I dog-ear a page, highlight, write, or even allow a blemish on the cover.....so when it comes to the book I bring to the pool, I will be much less heartbroken if it is my little paperback that gets water-logged or sun-tan lotioned than a hardback. So there you have it, my reasons for always being one book behind, even if you really didn't care why.

Enough of explaining and defending my neuroses, please go read these books now - you won't be sorry!
Do you have a favorite book or series of books? If so, let me know about it. I'd love to add it to my "too read" pile!

Watch Out Taylor Swift......A Star is Born!

Let me begin by stating that my entire life I have avoided being in the spotlight. Attention makes my palms sweaty and large black spots appear in my line of sight, so avoiding anything that captures the attention of others is my modus operandi. Brian is basically of the same make-up when it comes to these matters. That makes it difficult for me to explain what happens in this video. We have created a child that......performs......I'm getting clammy just thinking about it.

So, this is how it went down. For those of you that don't know, Trev is a guitar fanatic and has gotten quite good recently. He practices everyday and then in the evenings we convene in his room for "Trev's Bedroom Concert Series". Last night, we had a guest vocalist. While Trev was wailing away, Annalise picked up the microphone and the following ensued.......watch out Hollywood, here we come!

A New Leaf?

Well all, I believe it is apparent that I have fallen off of the blog wagon....in a BIG way! I will not make excuses but merely admit that I have. But I am beginning to feel drawn in a super committed way to making this blog a regular part of my day. I know it is a belief of some that blogs are for those of us that can't get enough of ourselves and think that our lives are somehow so amazing that the world will benefit from reading about them. This has been somewhat of a roadblock for me in the past - being the people pleaser that I am I shutter at the thought of having someone think ill of me and/or my blog. So, what has gotten me over this hurdle and thrust me into the arena of wanting to spew my life all over this silly web....it is simply....my babies. I will confess that well I have had great intentions of scrapbooking and filling baby books with oodles of adorable babyness (ha, I made up a word) life right now just doesn't seem to allow me the means to get this accomplished. I have realized that blogging is kind of the best of both scrapbooking and baby booking (ha, I made up another word) in that I can preserve favorite memories and pictures at the same time. AND there are now these great companies that will turn your blog into a memory book....what a great gifty for the kiddos when they are grown. There you have it - my reasons for rededicating myself to this crazy process - they are my sweet bundles of baby deliciousness - Annalise and Ian. For those of you that are more visual, I hope this will provide all of the clarity necessary!