Mommy and Daughter Fun

Being silly & taking pictures of ourselves

Mackenzie got flour all over herself and decided to get naked, she does have panties on.

There never seems to be enough time in the day and when I know I have a ton to do I always find myself doing the non important things, blogging, cleaning the toilets etc. We are leaving for a week tomorrow and I have tons to do, clean the house, finish the laundry, PACK, finish wrapping presents etc. So what do I decide to do today.... make Christmas cookies with Mackenzie. We made gingerman or at least tried to make them look like that. Then we took a nap, oh I love napping. It is so much more fun than laundry etc. Now it's 6 at night so we eat dinner and then decide to go over to a friend's to look at Christmas lights. Now you may be asking where is Bret, he had to work an operation the past few days and has been working til midnight so it has just been the girls.

Even though it is eleven thirty and still haven't started packing I wouldn't change anything about today. I had a blast with my little one today and we made memories that will last a lifetime. So remember just to enjoy the moment because they are over so fast!!!!!!

Santa isn't sooo bad!

Mackenzie has been petrified of Santa since last year, not because he is a big scary man, but because he wears gloves. I know, I know strange, but that's my daughter. So we ran into a problem this year because Mackenzie completely understands Christmas this year and was really concerned how Santa was going to know what she wanted because she wouldn't go to visit him. I told her that we could mail him a letter or I could call him, but that wasn't good enough for her. She came up with some elaborate plan while spending time with my mom that her friend Shannon would sit next to Santa and then Mackenzie would hand Shannon the letter and then Shannon would hand Santa the letter. Too complicated for me, and a 3 year old came up with it. Anyways she then changed her mind and wanted to go see him, so I wasn't about to change her mind.

As we were driving to the mall, we were talking about what she wanted for Christmas so she decided to make a list, she began to write down everything she wanted. We then got to the mall and got in line, immediately she started to freak out and wasn't so sure about the big guy. I talked her into staying in line and thought it would be great because there was a short line because Santa took a break at 12:30 for lunch. We were having a great time talking to other people in line, until I turned around and saw that Santa was GONE!!! We were second in line and the he went to lunch at 12:25, let me tell you how mad I was. Now I had to wait in line for 30 minutes while he ATE!!! Mackenzie then started to get antsy and not want to wait. I talked her into waiting since we had gotten ourselves there and she had her list.

So finally Santa finished eating and it was our turn. Mackenzie walked up to Santa and threw the list at him and ran away. He then asked if he could have a picture with her, she said NO, but then I talked her into it, but I had to be in it. After the picture he asked her to tell him what was on the list, Mackenzie began telling him the items one after another extremely fast.. double stroller..baby..phone..tent, she then noticed I had stepped away to take a picture and ran towards me, Santa then told her to wait and asked if he could have a picture with her, I thought Santa, you are crazy, but right before my eyes she hugged him, and I snapped a picture.

She was so pround of herself for being brave and is now content that she let Santa know what she wanted for Christmas.

We made it and we are still alive!!

This past weekend Bret, Mackenzie and I loaded up in the car and made the 4 hour drive over to Las Vegas. The purpose... to have fun, but mainly because Bret and I were going to run the Las Vegas Half Marathon. My mom and sister flew in to watch the munchkin while we ran and it turned more into a fun break weekend for mommy and daddy. Mackenzie spent most of her time with her Geeky (that's what she calls my mom) and her aunt Bibby (what she calls my sister), while mommy and daddy had fun gambling and spending time together.

I am so proud of Bret for doing this race. Let's just say that Bret is not a runner, and doesn't claim to be one. He set up this whole weekend because he knows that I love to run, bless his heart. When I heard that we were going to do this, I set up a training schedule for us. Let's just say with our busy life we never completed it, or I guess I could say we never even started it. The most that Bret ran was 3 miles and the most I ran was 8. I told Bret that we weren't going to run together because we just don't run at the same pace. He wasn't too happy with this at first, but then he got over it and agreed. He kept coming up with solutions on how he was going to beat me, his favorite was that his dad was going to pick him up half way and drop him off at the finish line, he thought the look on my face would have been priceless.

The day before the race Bret and I were not thinking or having the mind set of runners. Bret sat in the sports book all day drinking Jack Daniels and club soda, then finished the night off with McDonalds and a strawberry shake while I decided to walk the strip all day. So in the morning of the race, 4:45 am we were not too happy. To top it off we had to walk about a mile and a half to the Mandalay Bay where the start line was. So it was time to start and we split up immediately because of how many people were there it was too hard to stay right with someone. I finished in 2:03 and I then called Bret, he said that he was at our hotel. I immediately panicked because I thought he got hurt or something, but he just meant that he was running right behind our hotel. He did awesome and finished in 2:34. So we survived and had a blast.

It's Christmas Time

Yeah!!!!! It is Christmas time, I am so excited, and I am even more excited to see how Mackenzie responds to Christmas this year. She is sooo excited, so when I got back from Chicago I knew that I needed to get all of our Christmas decorations up immediately. So Tuesday night I pulled all of the boxes out of the garage and started. I first put up the tree and then my little helper put on all of the ornaments. There were about 50 ornaments all on the bottom of the tree because that was the only place she could reach, so after she went to bed, I rearranged just a few of them. After I would take a picture of her, she would immediately turn to me and say "you put that on your bwog momma." In case you couldn't figure it out, bwog to Mackenzie is blog to the rest of the world. She loves this blog and we have to look at it everyday, she even sings along to the songs. So this post is so that I don't get in trouble, because if she looks at it and doesn't see herself decorating the tree, I will never hear the end of it.

My mom bought Mackenzie a snowman candy box where you put candy in a drawers and then every day you get to eat one and you count down to Chirstmas day. This has helped Mackenzie understand that Santa is not coming until all of the candy is gone. I just don't hope I wake up one morning with all of the candy gone and one unhappy 3 year old:) Anyways Mackenzie filled her own boxes with candy and had so much fun. She is still not a fan of Santa, she keeps telling me that she won't go see him, but that we need to write him a letter and get it in the mail soon. She also told me tonight that she is a fan of getting all of the toys, but not a fan of his. What 3 year old talks like this???

Anyways we are off to Las Vegas for the weekend. On Sunday Bret and I are running the half marathon, so wish us luck and I will let you know how we did early next week!!!

Snow, Snow and more Snow

This past weekend I headed to Chicago for my grandma's funeral. I do not do really well dealing with death and all of the saddness, but it was great to spend time with my mom and dad and all of my extended family. All of the arrangements were perfect, and my grandma went out in style with a snow storm.

It was just a quick trip, I went out there on Sat and headed back home on Monday night. Both mine and my parents planes were delayed coming home because of the snow storm. You should have seen it, the airport was packed because of all of the delayed planes so people were sitting on the floor, by trashcans etc. It was absolutely disgusting, so once I found a seat I did not leave it until it was time to board. When it was time for me to board the plane, I got up and stood in line only to find out that our plane was having technical difficulty, something that you never want to hear right before you are going to take a 4 hour flight. I was mad, not only was my plane going to be even later, now I had lost my seat. Then.... they come on the loud speaker and say that they were taking the plane on a test drive, never heard of this before, something you also never want to hear. Well all in all I finally got loaded and flew off and arrived safe and sound.

There are a few pictures of the snow at the cemetary, me and my mom at the airport, and my dad throwing a snowball at me... he missed:)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We had our first Thanksgiving in Arizona, and Bret made the turkey and I even baked. I am happy to say that no one got sick, so I say it was a great success. Before dinner we all go around the table and say everything that we are thankful for for the past year. Mackenzie started and said she was thankful for her friends, Julia and Shannon. With a little probing she did say she was thankful for her mom and dad and family, ok it was a lot of probing. When each person would talk Mackenzie would chime in with, don't forget me, you are thankful for me. It was absolutely adorable and soon our thankful speeches turned into a dinner of Mackenzie praises. She absolutely loved it.

You are probably looking at the pictures wondering what the heck we were doing, well it is a family tradition that I started a few years ago. At the end of dinner each person sits in the end chair and trys to blow out both candles in a straight line. As you can see we look very funny, but definitely have a great time doing it. My dad says stupid things like, "be the candle", or my mom starts by meditating. We are all so strange, but dinner always ends with a great laugh. Sadly this year, no one was able to do it, I couldn't even blow out the first candle. Mackenzie was old enough this year so she joined in with us, she is just like her mom and is not good at blowing out the candles, Ithink we will start practicing for next year, only 364 days to go.

A little sad news to conclude with: on Wed my family got the news that my grandma had passed away. My grandma was a special lady who will be missed dearly, but I am thankful that she is now in a peaceful place and reunited with my grandpa. I will be leaving to go to Chicago for the funeral and wake, while my sister stays and watches Mackenzie for a few days (she is an amazing sister), and Bret helps Gary move to AZ. Please keep us in your thoughts as my family is doing a lot of traveling in the next few days, so that we all return safe and sound.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and now it is time to get those Christmas trees out:)

Mackenzie being Mackenzie

There are some days when you look at your little one and think why are you such a pain or a PITA, (pain in the @#$) and then there are those days when you look at them and are just in awe of how adorable they are. Well Mackenzie has been giving me many awe moments lately, now don't get me wrong she definitely has her PITA moments and has to be sent to her room, but mostly this week she has been adorable.

Every Sunday, I sit on the couch and cut out coupons so this Sunday Mackenzie decided that she was going to join me. She was so excited because she thought she was helping me out, what a sweetheart, even if she was cutting up all of the coupons that I already cut out and now wouldn't be able to use, but oh well this moment was worth way more than the $.45 I would have saved on rolls.

Then today, I was cleaning the house to get ready for Thanksgiving and Mackenzie got bored helping me so she went and played in our exercise room. She was being awfully quiet, which is normally not a good thing, so I went to check on her. I walked in and she had taken her elmo chair and put it on the treadmill and lined up all of her Little People and was reading them stories. This was such an AWE moment. With Thanksgiving coming I have been in this thankful mode of feeling so lucky to have the life that I do, and when I see my little one being so creative and adorable it just makes me even more thankful.

I hope you and your family have a great Thanksgiving!!!!!!

GP came to Visit

Thanksgiving shopping together

Most of you are probably wondering who GP is, well it is my dad. Instead of being called grandpa, he refers to himself as GP. What can I say my dad likes initials after all his name is T.J. Anyways Mackenzie was soooo excited to see GP. You never know what you are going to get from her, it is always a 50-50 no matter who you are. Half the time she will run towards you and be so excited to see you, and the other half she will put her head down and not want anything to do with you. This even happens to me and for goodness sakes I am the one who delivered the stubborn 10 pounder. Well for the entire trip Mackenzie was GP's buddy, they played tick tack toe at breakfast, went Thanksgiving shopping together, watched cartoons early in the morning together while I was sleeping:), and played basketball. Like mother like daughter Mackenzie wanted to play for money and every shot she made she got a dollar, it was so funny to watch her because she concentrated so hard for each shot because she wanted that money. When it was all said and done Mackenzie walked away with 6 dollars even though she says she won 3 "hundy" dollars. That is her word for hundred. I have had Mackenzie practicing every night so that for Thanksgiving maybe she can get some more money out of GP!!! All in all it was a great trip, Mackenzie had a blast with her GP and I got to spend some quality time with my dad.

Am I losing my Mind???

O.K. I don't know if I am losing my mind or not. This past Saturday was absolutely horrible, I had no motivation to do anything, I didn't want to get out of bed, get off the couch etc. After hearing the word mommy for the 150th time within an hour I wanted to jump out a window. Ok I know at this point you think I am psycho and are wondering if Bret has had me admitted. I know as a woman we are hormonal, but my hormones were taken to a whole new level this weekend. Since I had no motivation to do anything or to play house or baby with the munchkin all day, I decided to do something I did with my mom when I was little. I knew for sure this would get me out of my funk. We used to clean out my closet and play dressing room to get rid of all my old clothes and to make room for clothes for the new season. So Mackenzie and I took ALL of her clothes out of her room and threw them into the middle of the loft floor. I was so excited that I was actually going to do something... Until I found myself overwhelmed eating pretzels and watching the real housewives of Atlanta on the couch while Mackenzie took the clothes and spread them all over the house. So needless to say I did not get out of my funk and now my house was a disaster. I then decided to call my mom and sister who I ended up crying to on the phone for absolutey no reason at all. Bret then came up with the wonderful idea that I needed some time for myself. He is so brilliant or he was just scared to death of me.

So Sunday morning rolls around and Mackenzie comes in our room like usual asking to watch toons (cartoons), Bret literally jumped out of bed picked Mackenzie up and took her downstairs so that I wouldn't wake up. I then rolled out of bed at 9:30, my husband is amazing. He then told me that he was taking her to lunch with him and one of his friends. I was feeling so much better from getting a good night sleep, but the thought of an afternoon alone was wonderful so I wasn't going to stop a father, daughter date.

Now I know it sounds like I don't like my life and that I am miserable, but it is the complete opposite, I am the luckiest wife and mom in the world, but every now and then we need to be by ourselves. So there I was driving in the car actually listening to music, instead of hearing the wiggles or elmo from the dvd player. I went in the store without unbuckling a car seat, getting the diaper bag and making sure there were snacks and milk etc. I then decided I would stop and have lunch, a quesadilla & chips from Chipotle, I ate it in my car in the parking lot of Target and was in heaven. I then did some Christmas shopping. Can I just say how amazing Bret is he never once called to ask if I was coming home, I truely believe he wouldn't have called even if the house was on fire because he wanted me to have some time for myself. So I know you are wondering if I decided to go home. Well the answer is YES, the second I walked in the door Mackenzie came running down the stairs and jumped into my arms, and Bret was laying on the couch looking just as I had looked the day before. I was not going crazy, life makes us crazy and a 3 year old who is amazing, hilarious, and priceless is a lot of work, however with just a little break I am back and fresh. Now Bret needs a nap and a day to himself, that is why we make such a good team.

My Husband is a Cave Man

Bret and I have been so busy lately that we are like two ships passing in the night. So when Bret walked in from work today and I saw that he had almost a full beard I almost passed out. He said that he has been too busy to shave and I have been too busy to notice. Mackenzie told Bret that his face was dirty and that he needed to have a picture taken.

If you notice I am not in the picture and that is for a good reason. I have chosen to give up caffeine and boy do I look terrible. I am 2 days clean, I can not believe how much I am craving a cold glass of diet pepsi, I have had a headache for the past two days and absolutely no energy. I hope it will get easier. I decided that drinking an entire liter of diet pepsi in a day is a little ridiculous, don't ya think. I would pour myself a glass, get a refill go on the computer, get a refill, watch t.v. etc and before you know it an entire liter was gone. I know I am pathetic, but hopefully over the next few days my cravings will be gone and I won't look so tired and miserable.

Halloween Has Come and Gone!!!

I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween. Mackenzie had a very happy halloween and went to many parties. She had a preschool party, then two stroller strides parties and then we went to a carnival on the actual night of halloween. I was hosting a booth at the carnival for stroller strides and Mackenzie was obsessed with our game of ring toss, she would put a ring on and then say "o.k, I need some candy now" How did she get so smart??? Bret had to work so Auntie Kristen came and saved the day. Mackenzie got to go around and play all of the games with her aunt while mommy hosted the booth and daddy worked. Pops ( Bret's dad also came to visit, but he opted to stay at the house, I don't blame him). Mackenzie has already chosen her costume for next year... a carebear, elmo, cookie monster, and my favorite a chicken. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

As Sweet as Cookies!!!

It was Mackenzie's turn to bring snack for preschool today, so last night we made pumpkin cookies for her little friends. Mackenzie mixed the dough, and then helped put the candy on for the faces. She was soooo excited to bring them to school that she picked out a special cookie for each kid in her class. When I went to pick Mackenzie up from school today her teacher said that she had fallen during snack time spilling milk everywhere and some of the kids cookies were ruined. Luckily I had brought extra because you never know when something like this is going to happen. I thought Mackenzie would be devastated, nope not her she had a blast and hasn't even talked about her SPILL. She is very excited about her halloween party this Thursday so stay posted and I will update you on her many parties. Hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween.

A day at the Pumpkin Patch

Today was our Fall workout at Stroller Strides and afterwards we all went to the Pumpkin Patch. Mackenzie had so much fun and loved to pose for the pictures. You will see the big picture with all of the kids, many are crying or not even looking, but not mine, she is right in the middle with a huge smile. She is absolutely adorable if I do say so myself. The entire time we were at the pumpkin patch all Mackenzie would talk about was taking the train around the corn maze, so we waited in a really long line and of course when we got to the front she didn't want to go. So I told her that we would just go and pick out a pumpkin then. Well that wasn't good enough for Mackenzie, she came up with the brilliant idea that I would go with her. What was I thinking, I have so many bruises on my back, my knees, you name it and there is a bruise there. Oh the things you do for your little ones, but it is so worth it when you see them smile!!! I think daddy should have to ride next time!!

My Poor Baby

Mackenzie during the day before she got sick!!

This past week Bret and I have been babysitting for our neighbors and Mackenzie has had so much fun, until last night. Around midnight, Mackenzie came into my room telling me that she had an ear ache, I gave her medicine and sent her on her way to go back to bed. About 15 minutes later she was screaming in her room and I ran in to see what was the matter and because I didn't want her to wake up her friend. Nothing is worse than having 2 three year olds up at midnight, one is bad enough:) I then took Mackenzie to lay on our loft couch and to go to sleep when out of the blue she threw up, and like every kid the second I got her cleaned up as well as the couch, she did it again. I rushed her to the bathroom and had to hold her hair while she threw up. I had visions of my mom doing this for me, and I would have done anything to have switched places with Mackenzie. It took everything for me to hold back the tears as my poor little three year old leaned over the toilet, throwing up and asking, "mommy why this happen to me?" It is now 2 am and I had to give her a bath, which Mackenzie's awesome daddy got up to show his support even though he had to go into work at 5 am, and then it was down stairs to the couch to hopefully fall asleep to sesame street. The next morning we went to stroller strides and then it was off to the Dr. Mackenzie had a 102.2 fever, the highest she has ever had as well as a really bad ear infection. Mackenzie is now on antibiotics and catching up on all the sleep she lost. Nothing is worse than seeing your little precious girl sick, I would have taken 20 tantrums rather than to see her in that pain, did I just really say that! Anyways I am off to a stroller strides ACADEMY, Bret laughs when I say that, but that is what it is called in San Diego tomorrow, so daddy will be on Mackenzie duty. They have a date tomorrow night to McDonalds and Mackenzie has her dress all picked out, then Geeky (my mom) is visiting Friday night who I know will spoil Mackenzie.

Life is sooo busy...yet FUN!!

Sleeping Beauty

Me and A future stroller strides instructor

Theresa and I teaching at the grand opening

Mackenzie, Julia & Lucas...Too cute

Last week Katie, Jacco, Julia and Lucas came to visit. The main reason for their visit was to help me with my grand opening of stroller strides in good old Surprise, AZ. We had a blast, we are so lucky to have such good friends. The grand opening was great, about 30 people showed up and now things are up and rolling. I have the best husband in town who took care of all the behind the scenes work so that I could get everything done. By the time Wednesday rolled around Mackenzie and I were exhausted and we both took 4 hour naps on the couch, I posted a picture of her because she was way cuter than I was.