A fun week

I just received a few snapshots from Lily's week with Grandma and Aunt Mary.

Looks to me like she had a great time and was all smiles.

Grandma and Aunt Mary seem pretty happy too.

Which makes this mama all smiles as well.

Kristen and Kayl met the ladies for brunch.

I would not say these two girls are huge cuddlers.

So I thought this photo was pretty sweet.

Someone has a birthday next week.

Looks like Grandma gave her an early birthday present.

She tells everyone she sees "Grandma gave me my bike!"

(I love that cheesy smile!)

Thank you for sending us these pictures.

I loved having a sneak peek into your week with Lily.

And thanks again for spending such quality time with our girl!!!

Birthday party

Happy 3rd birthday Cruz! We spent Saturday morning celebrating with Ryan's co-worker, Jason, and their family and friends.

One of my favorite things about Arizona is all the splash parks.

Such a fun, free, easy activity that the kiddos love!

Lily had a great morning splashing around with her new friends.

Thanks for including us in Cruz's big day!

Extra special play date

What a fun trip to the train park!

Ryan's cousin Leann is in town visiting her sister Kristen.

Though she is his cousin, she is one of my best friends from high school.

So it was an extra special treat to see her.

The sisters invited Lily and I to join them for a park date.

Kayl (5), Lily (almost 2), and Letty (18mths)

Poor Kayl had to play with the little girls. But she is always such a good sport.

Lily kept calling Letty a baby even though she is just a few months younger than her.

And Letty was probably tired of both bigger girls tugging on her all afternoon!

(By the way, Lily is super jealous of the cousins' heads full of hair!)

Who would have guessed after all Leann and I's fun memories growing up, that years later we would be cousin-in-laws (is that a word?), watching our little girls play together.

What special, new memories we are creating!

After many visits to this park, Lily finally sat on a horse.

She would still not do it when the carousal was moving, but it's at least progress!

Can you tell someone was excited for the choo-choo train?

All abroad, she says!

Thanks for including us in your park date. Looking forward to many more in our future!

Bliss, I tell ya.

Six days on an amazing Caribbean island.

Sans children.

Ryan's company trip this year was to St Maarten.

Beautiful hotel. Beautiful beaches.

We overslept every morning.

Stayed up way too late every night.

Enjoyed socializing with his co-workers across the country.

We missed Lily so much.

But enjoyed a few days by ourselves.

My view each day.

Wednesday night was a casual welcome dinner. Poolside.

Let me tell a little (hypothetical) story.

Ryan loves Bob Marley.

Ryan sings Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds"

Caribbean singer says Ryan is pretty good.

With a slightly surprised expression.

Ryan spends the rest of the week claiming Jamaican ancestors.

Hypothetically.

Phoenix office representing...Ryan, Jason, and Patrick

Thursday, we went into town for dinner.

Started with a cocktail overlooking the ocean.

Then enjoyed an amazing dinner at a quaint French restaurant.

(The island is half French and half Dutch)

Our dining group.

It happened to be my birthday.

Which meant candles on my dessert and the whole restaurant singing to me.

And banana rum shots.

Because we're in the Caribbean, remember!

Friday was the 'gala'...aka fancy night.

I can not even begin to describe the venue.

A house perched on the mountain overlooking the ocean.

Better than anything I've seen on "Cribs" (ha, is that show still on??)

Saturday night was the farewell party.

Normally held outside, beachside.

This year, it rained and was moved inside.

Kinda ruined the party.

So our group decided to create our own party.

By stealing two bottles of wine from the bar and heading outside to smoke cigars.

Good idea right? Glad we didn't have the flight/shuttle that left the hotel at 5am.

Thank you, Ryan, for your hard work so that we could go on this trip.

And thank you, Grandma and Aunt Mary, for spending the week with Lily so that it was possible for us to leave town.

Happy Mother's Day?

Did you have a happy Mother's day?

Mine was, let's say, memorable.

I had breakfast (and lunch and dinner) in bed.

I watched more cheesy Lifetime movies in one day than I thought possible.

I had absolutely no responsibility for taking care of Lily.

I was quarantined to my bedroom.

With the flu.

Happy freaking mother's day, huh?

There were some perks.

No whining.

No tantrums.

No diaper changes.

No making meals and having someone refuse to take one bite.

No cleaning up messes.

No park dates.

No fun, silly, random dance parties.

No extra sweet hugs and kisses.

No family day on the one day each week we actually get to just hang out together.

On this Mother's Day, I missed being a mom.

Random happenings...

Just a few random happenings around our house...

Daddy treated his girls to frozen yogurt.

We had to cut off our little addict.

She kept begging for "more, More, MORE, NOW!"

Definitely has her father's sweet tooth.

We've had a few visitors over the last few weekends.

Walt and Melissa were in from Kansas City.

We had a great time hiking, eating, drinking wine.

My girlfriend Kelly also came to town...

...how did I not take one single picture all weekend?

Guess we were too busy gabbing and catching up.

Ryan has been working late or having lots of after hour obligations.

So one night, we met him at Chick-fil-a for a quick dinner before one such event.

Lily loved the french fries, ketchup, and chicken nuggets.

In that order.

She also likes her daddy a lot.

In case you couldn't tell from the picture below.

We still love baths around here.

Lily also loves to sort and line up her toys.

In a very specific order.

Don't mess with this girl's order.

Unless you want to see a serious tantrum.

Then go ahead and mess. But don't say I didn't warn you.

I love the random, every day, simple parts of our life.

A day in the life...

Sneak peak at a series of emails sent to Ryan...

7:59am

OMG, I am cracking up. She somehow bit a hole in her paci and keeps looking at it trying to figure out what's wrong. Finally she said "MOMMY, IT'S.......IT'S.......PACI.......IT'S......UHHH.......IT'S BROKEN!" I said, yup, it's broken, and she then threw it on the floor. I'm thinking maybe we should go with this and cut a tiny hole in all her paci's? Guess I'll see how today goes with just this one "broken" paci.

8:58am

Oh boy, we are in TROUBLE!

We are upstairs playing and she keeps putting on her dress up clothes. She just got the whole outfit on again, was spinning with her hands above her head, and said "Mommy, look, I'm a princess!"

This girl rocks. :)

1:03pm

Seriously, she is on a roll today. She was throwing a HUGE fit when I put her down for a nap - I mean, totally hyper ventilating, sobbing, screaming for 15 minutes after I went downstairs. Probably my fault, I let her get too tired and made her eat when we got home instead of going straight to bed. Plus her paci is still 'broken'.

So I let her come back downstairs to sit with me and watch one show. Just a moment ago, she looked over and said "Mommy, I feel better. Thank you."

Seriously? Who is this kid!!! She is such a mixture of both of us - a severe drama queen and a complete kiss up.

2:01pm

Nap number 1 with 'broken' paci....took over 30 mins to go to sleep, but I think she is finally there. We will see how long this lasts!

What time is too early to crack open a bottle of wine? It's been a long two hours :)

3:26pm

Broken paci = 1, Mommy = 0. One hour nap and a grouchy little girl. She asked for Dora and I obliged...picking my battles today and paci is winning!!!

6:00pm

Where the he(double hockey sticks) are you? Get home now!!!

(ok, fine, I didn't really send that last email. But many of nights, I've seriously considered it)

Typical day for a stay at home mom, wouldn't you say?