We Are Glad to Have You, and Other Funny Stuff.

I'm going to tell a couple of quick anecdotes from the last couple of days because I need to get them down while my brain is still remembering. I can't find my journal - second place to put it all down is the blog.

Anyway...

For those of you who don't know this, I work in an ER just down the road from me. Anyway, last night as I was ducking into an empty room (before it filled up) to grab gloves, I noticed something I haven't before - and I've even spent a night in that ER. They have boards (like most hospitals) so they can scribble the name of the nurse, dr., and patient rep. As well as what labs they're waiting on etc. Well, last night I noticed that at the very top of the board it says "We're Glad To Have You Here!". Whoa...

The other night Mark had a hankering for some "S.M.H. McDaniel Nachos". The only problem with this is that I hadn't made chili the day previously. (I make a batch of fabulous chili, then use the leftovers for nachos the next night. One day of work, two nights of food!) So, Mark sent me to the store to go buy some inferior canned chili in hopes that it would work for this one night. Well, Braxton decided he wanted to go with me. No problem there. We went through and found everything on our list but chili. So we were wandering around Wegmans trying to find a can of chili. I told Braxton that I need his eyes to help me find the chili.
He reaches up and starts squishing his eyes, yanking on his eyelids, pulling then says: "but mom, they're stuck!" Children are sooo literal. Love it.

Funny Face(s).

Did anyone get the reference? I'm pretty sure its before most of the stalkership's time... but owell.

A little role reversal here... usually I can't get Braxton to look at the camera for all the cookies in the world - yesterday I couldn't get Kieran to.

Uhm... ohkaaay...

One of my guilty pleasures/bad habits is reading celebrity gossip. I can't help it. I'm a naturally nosy person. I like people. Whatever. Anyway, I saw this little bit of info on one of the gossip blogs I stalk. PETA has decided to rename fish. Their explanation is below:

"People don't seem to like fish. They're slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads—which is weird, to say the least. Plus, the small ones nibble at your feet when you're swimming, and the big ones—well, the big ones will bite your face off if Jaws is anything to go by.
"Of course, if you look at it another way, what all this really means is that fish need to fire their PR guy—stat. Whoever was in charge of creating a positive image for fish needs to go right back to working on the Britney Spears account and leave our scaly little friends alone. You've done enough damage, buddy. We've got it from here. And we're going to start by retiring the old name for good. When your name can also be used as a verb that means driving a hook through your head, it's time for a serious image makeover. And who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten."

Yeah... The people of PETA are on some sort of acid trip, I swear. I mean really? Seriously? Thoughts from anyone out there?

Playground Pals

Alright, there is one more cousin I haven't blogged about yet. I was having fun playing with some of the pictures I took of her and her two bff's at the playground so I took a little longer with this one...
My last full day in Pheonix we went to the playground while we were waiting for my other cousins to get out of school. I went snap happy.

I honestly have no clue what they were doing. A game that only they knew the rules to.

The one-third of the trio who didn't shy away from the camera, Alex.

Zach, who pretended to shy away from the camera...

I'm not so sure she was happy when I snuck up on her for this one.

Zach wouldn't join in for this pic...

Exchangin' the goods.

This was a fun afternoon. The weather was awesome - 80 degrees and I was in a cute awesome summer dress that I won't be able to wear again for several months. I also LOVE taking pictures of kids. Especially when they are just playing. Someday I'll finish a photog class and actually be able to take decent ones... someday...

Sappy Sappy Mushy Mush

This morning I woke up and noticed one of those little things my husband does, that make me feel special. So, I felt it was time for a blog post in his honor.

~Mark always puts one of my two favorite coffee cups right next to the coffee pot in the morning.
~He wakes up at 5am (plus a couple of hits on the snooze...) every work day. He doesn't get upset that I don't get up with him to make his lunch or do more than mumble "I love you, have a good d... zzzz".
~He picks up the slack around the house for me when I'm just too tired to do it. Even though I know he's tired, and has also worked a full day.
~He let me get a job - that DOESN'T pay - because he knew it would make me happy.
~He does the dishes 90% of the time because he knows it is my least favorite chore. (I would rather scrub all three bathrooms everyday)
~He makes me laugh. Seriously - the stuff that comes out of that mans mouth keeps me from breathing occasionaly.
~He puts up with me.
~And my personal favorite - He thinks he's a ninja.

Nanana nanana nanana

BUTT MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is Kenny's butt wearing B-rox's Batman cape. I thought the butt/bat play on words was hilarious. I was also "legally intoxicated" from the IV anesthetic I was given a little earlier that day...

BLA

My second oldest cousin (from Uncle Bub and Aunt De - duh) is Blake. Or, when typing his name into Raving Rabbids - BLA. Yeah, we thought it was funny too.
The last day that I was there, I went with my aunt to pick him up from the school and he had a surprise for me.

He dug in his backpack for a few minutes and pulled this out:

I was a little confused at first, but he quickly explained that he remembered from the other night when we played "Scene It - Disney Edition" I had said Ariel was my favorite. So when he saw that a girl in his class had this pencil - he asked if he could trade so he could give this one to his cousin Baka. Isn't that super sweet? Hey guys watch this....I'm gonna lick the cactus! (ok ok, I asked him to pose - he's such a ham I knew it would be funny)

While at the zoo we referred to him as "mapquest". You can't really see it, but this is the view we had of him most of the time we were there. He was our trail blazer with that map. (Even though they go to the zoo once a month and pretty much have the lay of the land...)

Monkey'n Around Dos

The other cool monkey exhibit at the Pheonix Zoo is one with little spider monkey things, and you can walk into their cage. Very awesome. You walk around a pre-marked path (don't touch anything because it's all been peed on), and the monkeys are livin life all around you. You don't want to touch them, because they bite. I've seen Outbreak - my hands stayed on my camera, so don't you worry!
This monkey could have jumped on my head. Wouldn't that have made an awesome post? Uhm, yeah. If I were stupid I so could have reached out and grabbed this little guy. But, I do have a few brain cells that haven't been killed off by poopy diapers - so, I didn't.

Monkey'n Around

The Pheonix Zoo has a couple of awesome monkey exhibits. Before anyone goes and has a cow on me I'm going to say that I know Orangutans aren't actually a monkey, they're an ape, (I'm pretty sure I heard that somewhere) but it just works well with the "theme". The mom. I don't remember her name. Her baby. Her name is Kasih. She's going to be three years old in about two days. I think she looks like a couple of pictures I have of my own three year old. Kasih's gramma. I don't remember her name either.
Kirk's hand against the hand of the daddy Orangutan. Big. Giant. Huge.

A few notes.

Ok, I've had some people express interest in Mark's adventures in Orlando. Well, I mentioned that I had the stomach flu for the first dayish. Well... Mark and the boys didn't escape by any means. Neither did his parents. There was an entire day and a half that they didn't go anywhere but their frequent trips into the bathroom. I felt awful for all of them. Once they recovered from that Mark still had adventures in Kieran not having firmed up his poo. Luckily the suite they stayed in in Orlando had a washer and dryer... So yeah... In case anyone is interested I did some googling and our symptoms most closely match to that of the Norwalk virus. Fun right?

Oh, and Marj - I did see the pic you post of B-rox lifting that ball. I think it is adorable. I tried to post a comment on your blog, but apparently only team members can. But I did see it, and I love it!

Some Flora

While at the zoo I took some time to admire the flora as well as the fauna. (I'm pretty sure I have that right - but just in case I don't, feel free to leave a comment correcting me!) There were so many colors - especially red there. All we have here is... dead. Not really all that colorful, but still cooler than cement...An Arizonian snow man. Hehe.
A view from the bottom of a palm tree. A big whompin' palm tree. Bring on the red! Alright. That is the end of this post - I'm being summoned to go play Rockband. I'll try to get another in later this evening.

The weather in Pheonix is...

Cloudy. Ok, so that isn't what the forecast said, but seriously - the locals were complaining about the cold! It was 80 degrees. Perfect.

One For Kirk.

Our second trip to the zoo netted a bajillion pictures. Some of my favorites were the ones I took for my oldest cousin, Kirk. You'll get the idea...

Oh, wait - That doesn't belong!!!! I'm so confused!

Just kidding Kirk. Love you!

I'm Baaaaaaaack!

After a week spent on the surface of the sun, I'm back home. Even though my trip got off to a really rough start, I had an absolute blast. The rough start was this; I had never, ever - ever spent a night away from my kids. The thought of a whole week was getting pretty tough to fathom. Then, Braxton got the stomach flu. So, the day before I left was spent catching vomit. (I am pretty good at it though - You shoulda seen my wicked awesome moves on the stairs.) That night I almost had a complete meltdown. I mean, what mom can leave her kids while they're sick? Well, I am lucky and Mark's mom talked some sense into me. (Thanks Peggy!) It wasn't just me leaving, the boys were too. They were headed down to Disney World with Mark's parents. So I could cancel my trip, but they were still gonna go. So, I sucked it up and figured the stomach flu doesn't usually last very long, and Mark is more than capable of handling it. (Though maybe not as awesome at catching it in the bowl...) Anyway, I left the next morning without too many tears. (The boys shed none...) Made my way across the united states and was welcomed into the arms of my aunt, uncle, cousins and sister. We ate dinner then went home to go to bed. Then I woke up with the same bug Braxton had. Awesome. They took me to the zoo that day, but all I really remember about it was trying to find inconspicuous places to upchuck. Fun right? Well, after that day my trip looked up considerably. (We won't go into the horrors of Mark and the boys' trip to Orlando.) Anyway, I'll be posting many, many posts. Hopefully less rambling than this one.

Me and the cuz's at the "big" zoo. We went to two zoos. I am obviously NOT sick at this one.

Aren't we cute?

Done in the nick of time.

One of my hobbies is quilting. Last year before Kieran was born, I went on a quilting spree. It's a great pasttime for those who are ginormo preggo. Anyway, because of all the material I ended up buying on this spree I got a 75% off one item coupon. So I went in, browsed around and found an adorable quilt in a box kit. With the coupon it cost all of like ten dollars. Shortly after that I popped and up until November I had not pulled the sewing machine out for anything. But with the Christmas season approaching I thought some female out there could use a quilt made by an amateur. The female that we decided on was my little cousin Desirae. She's all of six now. The best part is that she's a girl so I can get her pink and girly things. Something my life distinctly lacks. So I put it together enjoying the pinkness of it all. After some swearing, un-stitching, restitching and a few pictures the end result is fairly awesome - imperfections and all.

This is the detail stitch I used on the binding. I call it egyptian waves, Mark calls it box in a box, and the sewing machine calls it "decorative stitch #46".

In all its pink and girly glory.

I already have plans for my next quilt - and who's getting it. They just don't know it yet.

Oh goodness

Today while the boys were playing Braxton found a few pennies and nickels somewhere. So he came up and asked to put it in his piggy bank. After he was done I told him "you're so good at saving your money. Someday you'll be able to buy something awesome!" Braxton said "yeah, a cookie store".

Great.

Look out Nick Arrojo!!!!

One of my favorite shows to watch when Mark isn't around is TLC's "What Not To Wear". I would kill to be given five grand and go shopping in New York City! (In our thirties Bob, we'll hit that town HARD - just you wait!) Anyway, another reason I like it is the hairstylist Nick Arrojo. He has an amazing ability to judge just what kind of cut is great on a person. I would love to go in and have him just do it. He's very gifted - even if in some seasons his own hair is kinda gross...

Anyway, the purpose of this blog post is to show off my mad skills as a hairstylist. Braxton's hair is the topic of many conversations in my house. There are many who believe I need to chop it off. However, I feel like he has beautiful hair and want to showcase as much as possible. I also think that his personality wouldn't do well with a Beaver Cleaver cut. Shaggy, and no styling is exactly what fits him. Think west coast laid back. That's my B-rox. However, Mark hates it when people call him a girl. It drives him crazy. I tell him people are stupid, but that doesn't seem to help. So we compromised. However, the last time he got his hair cut by a professional it sucked. A lot. So tonight I decided that I would try it, and if it sucked we'd take him to someone else and let them fix it. I couldn't possibly screw it up as much as the people at Cartoon Cuts did the last time.

I did a pretty durn good job if I do say so myself. It's still exactly what I think he needs, shaggy, no styling just wash and go. And Mark is now appeased because he looks like a boy. (I never thought anything different, but whatever...)

Just for a LOL.

Here is a picture of B-rox at Five Guys. For you non-east coast savvy people its the best fast food burger joint ever. Like In -n-Out - only its good! Anyway, all that is beside the point.

Braxton decided he needed to be like mom yesterday afternoon and wear his glasses too. Except his glasses are from when Mark went to see Beowulf in 3-D.

Yeah, the picture says it all.

My View From Three Feet Up...

A post by Braxton Xavier.

Hi peoples. Gramma and Pa Hat gave a camera for my Christmas. I like to take pictures of Kenny, the wall, mommy and my car seat. Its a blue camera. Its really good. I like it. That's my Gramma. She's drinking Starbucks. She's getting out of her green car.

That's my mommy and daddy. We were in the car for so so so long. Then we stopped at a dirty potty and I said NO, I don't have to go potty!

That's my brother Kenny. He was sitting in his high chair eating food. He's a crazy Kenny.

Those are my daddy's feet. He's a big daddy. He tickles me and gives me baths. I love him.

That's my mommy. She says no no no no cookies. She reads me Curious George. She's like a princess.

My mommy took this picture. That is Joey with me. We went to the aquarium today. There was rays, and sharks and a dolphin show. Jill was there. Marj was there too. But Kevin and Daddy wasn't there. I didn't cry though. Joey cried, but she was tired. So her mommy said "Jowin no crying!".

That is a turtle.

Those are fishes. They were big big fishes. They were by the sharks. Mom said Braxton stay with mommy. So I was jumping and waiting for mom. Then the sharks were there. Oooh, scary big sharks. I like the rays.

Then we went to our house and Mommy said "in a minute we can drive fast. We have to wait for stupid people".

~This is Sarah again. That folks, was a post by Braxton. Hopefully you understood that he recieved his own camera and took a bunch of pictures. I just uploaded them and then he told me he wanted to "vlog". So I let him tell me about some of the pictures he took and typed it out. Those words above are his, not mine. The only time I intervened was to cut it a little shorter than he dictated and when the grammar was so atrocious I couldn't help but fix it. He's a pretty cute kid eh?~

Strike! But you're not out!

Here are those bowling pictures I talked about. We had a lot of fun. Braxton has never used his monster bowling set as much as he does now. He throws the ball and yells "strike" and "gutter ball" all the time now. Even when neither of those things happened. Its pretty funny. Thanks again for inviting us guys! And thanks Marj for remembering your camera! This one was Braxton's first time putting a ball down the lane. He escaped me and decided to run after it down the lane. Luckily it was slippery and he fell on his booty before he got too far. He was embarrassed, but it gave us all - including the people next to us a good laugh!

The ball returner turned out to be pretty dangerous for two and three year olds. Yet, so interesting. Interesting enough that they wanted to stick their heads in it if we weren't uber watchful!

It was a great time!

yum...

You know its time to feed the kids when they start eating the plate.
Please ignore the messy floor. my iphone camera was all i had available and so I couldn't zoom in and cut all that out. :(

Let the countdown begin!

I should have started this yesterday, as most countdowns begin at T-10, but I'm doing it today at T-9 and counting. On Wednesday the 14th, I'm leaving, for an entire week, ALL BY MYSELF! This is going to be huge. It will be the first time in three entire years that I will have spent away from my kids. I am so excited. I get to see my little sister - of whom, I haven't seen in two years - and my aunt and uncle and cousins, which has been even longer. I'm also a little nervous (is there any mom out there who isn't at their first excursion without children?). Mark is taking the boys - aided by his parents - to Disney World. They should have a great time. No mommy there to be over protective - and Mark can get strawberries on his funnel cake!

So Pheonix - hold on to your 'roos. Da/Baka is comin' to town!!!!

Happy New Year...

And a happy new blog! Somebody mentioned that I should revamp for the new year. Alright, its been revamped. I am having a bit of a problem with my header though - does anybody know how to make it bigger? Send me any hints you can think of...

Anyway, we spent new years with our cousins, Kevin, Jill and Joey and my aunt and uncle who were (and I'm pretty sure still are) visiting. We went bowling. If you want to figure out how to stretch one game of bowling out as long as possible - take a two and a three year old with you. The adult game lasted forever! Between helping the kiddos get their ball down the lane, keeping them from sticking their heads in the ball shooter backer (I'm lacking a technical term here...), and getting them food, we didn't pay as much attention to our game. In the end though - Jill and I took the victory. But, I have to give the credit to Jill, who managed to get a high score - while carrying a baby around under her shirt. Go Jill! Hopefully, when Jill has some free time (yup, I'm sure you have tons of it Jill.... jk) she'll send me a few pictures of Braxton's first time bowling.

Then we went back to the cuz's house and ate food. Yummy yummy food. They made a seven layer dip. That was delicous. I learned a couple of days later that I'm like the only person ever to not have ever had it before. I'm pretty sure somebody told me that meant I've been living under a rock.

Then we played Apples to Apples. If anyone is looking for a party game, I totally reccomend it. It was awesome.

Then the ball dropped - and we took our kids (who had yet to fall asleep yet - sorry Kevin and Jill!) packed them up in the car and drove home.

It was a good evening. It was especially fun since Mark and I had figured we'd just go to bed at the normal time (how old are we really?).

Sunday dinner

Generally on Sundays I try to do something special for dinner, wether it be a special meal, or a special presentation, or special company. Tonight we did a special presentation. We had a picnic in our living room. Complete with a "campfire" (our fireplace), and a nice blanket. The meal wasn't all that spectacular, as eating too much makes the whole ridiculous ulcer thing flare up. But the setting was alot of fun. We even got braxton to eat some veggies. Trust me, that makes for a GREAT meal.