Matt - My Baby No More

Just a quick post to wish Matt a Happy 1st Birthday. I will try to post a longer post about Matt today but just in case (today is pretty jam packed)....

Matt - Happy Birthday!! You entered our family quickly and unexpected at 12:31am today. I love you dearly and I already miss you being a baby.

Love, Mom

Black Friday - The Experience

So, I attempted Black Friday for the first time. Yes, kind of weird since I love shopping but in recent years with having both Kate and Matt, I have turned to internet shopping. Well, I guess I do internet shopping throughout the year and probably 80% of my shopping is off the internet. But that is besides the point. Back to Black Friday....

My friend, Jenni, asked me to come along on her Black Friday excursion. Unfortunately, that meant leaving my house at 4:30am (which meant getting up at 3:50am to get ready). So Jenni, our other friend, Amy, and I set out for our day of shopping at 4:30ish (come on, we're Mormon and we are never on time). First stop, Starbucks for peppermint hot chocolate - thank you Starbucks for opening at 4:30 every morning. Then on to Toys R Us in Concord since it opened at 5am. The lines were crazy but not the frenzy that I had imagined. In my head, I was picturing moms pushing and grabbing for the toys but not so - thank goodness. I have to say, I am not sure why people wake up their little kids to go to the sales - saw this a lot and the kids looked miserable. After Toys R Us and a hefty portion of shopping done and oh, a stop at the car to get rid of our loot, we headed next door to Target. More good shopping and I have to say that I am now almost done with Kate and Matt for Christmas and Matt for his birthday.

All in all, we went to Toys R Us, Target, Old Navy, REI, Michaels, a scrapbooking store, Right Start and Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek. We were shopping literally from about 5:15am until 4pm, with a stop at CPK for lunch. I had a blast and it was great spending time with my girls - too much fun. And when we got home, we had to have Alan take pictures of our day's loot (now I have to say that by the end, we were starting to wonder where all the stuff was going to go and if it would all be in the car after we got it from valet in Walnut Creek - all was good). So here are the pics....

Here is the back of Jenni's car with all our loot purchased by 3 woman for our collective 7 kids and other odds and ends.

Side view of the car. The back seat had enough room for Amy; the other seat was full of bags.

The three shoppers after a long, hard, productive day. Don't we look tired - especially me.

Well, as a side note, after all that shopping, my body decided to go crazy and I ended up with a migraine-like headache soon after getting home. So bad that my dad and Alan had to give me a blessing so that I could sleep. And sleep I did for the next 12 hours.

But all in all, I had a blast and I can't wait to do it again next year. Maybe I won't be such a whiner next time.

I WAS TAGGED (a long time ago)

I was tagged quite awhile ago so now the slacker that I am, I am finally go to do these...

I was tagged by Jenni (http://hootieshowl.blogspot.com/) ...she is a very talented scrapbooker so check out her great layouts (hey, she is even getting me into the scrapbooking thing). Also I was tagged by Kristin (http://kristin-partylikearockstar.blogspot.com/) ...we have been friends for over 15 years now and she is a rocking rock climber so also check her out.

Anyway, here are 7 random facts about me....

1. I love breakfast food. I could eat breakfast for every meal. But I can't stand eggs and dry heave at the smell of them.

2. I live in a perpetually world of organized chaos. Our downstairs always looks organized but our office is a total mess. Yet I could find anything I need in the office.

3. I cannot throw away a magazine unless I have read it from cover to cover (I have the same issue with newspapers and catalogs too). I have magazines from 2002 probably in a box waiting for me to read. I did throw away a lot of magazines while I was pumping with Matt since I read about 3 or so magazines a day while I was pumping.

4. Now this is something that most people don't know unless you went to college with me...My nickname in college was and still is to this day EZ. I was nicknamed after the rapper Easy E. My old roommate's entire family still calls me EZ.

5. I am obsessed with spelling. I love to find spelling errors in newspapers or magazines. I don't know why but it seems so funny to have a misspell in a newspaper...don't they use spell check plus it's a newspaper for crying out loud.

6. I can't remember any lines from any movie I have ever seen. Alan is great at remembering that stuff but me, I couldn't hardly tell you about the movie long after I have seen it. I guess I just few movies/TV as forms of entertainment and so my brain is turned off when I am watching.

7. Like Kristin (above), I cannot stand to have my fingernails painted. But I love to paint my toe nails and I do feel kind of naked when they are not painted. Unfortunately, since Matt was born, they do not get painted regularly. Something I definitely need to start up again plus Kate loves to have her toes painted.


I also got tagged by Shaina so here goes that one (BTW, this was quite difficult because my memory sucks)...

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
It was 1997 and I was working in San Francisco (pretty boring life)...
1. Moving to the other side of Walnut Creek for cheaper rent
2. Working 70-90 hour weeks working for Arthur Andersen as a tax consultant
3. Spending more time with my newly relocated brothers and their families, especially the kids
4. Taking a trip with Kristin (above) to NYC and DC (so much fun and such great memories)
5. Eating lunch everyday with my work friend, Kathy, whom I still keep in touch with

5 things on my to-do list today:
1. Go to Target
2. Take Kate to the park
3. Catch up on emails
4. Go through bags of clothes to donate to DI
5. Go to a Homemade Gourmet party at Amy's

5 snacks I enjoy:
1. Diet Coke
2. Ice Cream
3. 100 Grand Bars
4. Genisoy Chocolate Mint bars
5. Chips and salsa

5 songs I know the lyrics to:
1. Most primary songs because I sing them every night
....Without the song playing....no other song - one of the things that I am really bad about but I can't remember words to songs to save my life. But if the song is on...
2. Most Linkin Park songs
3. Most boy band songs
4. Bibidee Bopadee Boo from one of the Cinderella movies (that is just because I hear it so often but Kate loves to have "dance party" to this song
5. Can't think of any more but I am sure there are more

5 of my bad habits:
1. I pick at my cuticles on my fingernails
2. A little OCD but I have to check all the doors every night to be sure that they are locked (even if Alan checked them)
3. I obsess about losing weight but I am too lazy to be on a diet
4. I am a procrastinator and therefore my office is always a disaster
5. I am always late, no matter how hard I try

5 things I'd do if I were a millionaire:
1. Put away enough for our kids' college
2. Build and design my dream house
3. Tithing, of course
4. Help my family members out with expenses
5. Save and invest the rest after a good shopping spree

5 things I will never wear again:
1. Spandex - as Alan says..it is a privilege not a right
2. Pegged pants (never wore reverse fit but did peg pants myself back in the day)
3. Not really wearing but I will never perm my hair again
4. Denim shirt
5. Faded or white washed jeans

5 of my favorite toys:
1. My iPhone
2. TIVO
3. My straightener
4. Internet
5. Jewelry

Now I am not going to tag anyone specifically but challenge all those who haven't done one or the other or both to do them on your blog. Great getting to know all you better. Happy Blogging for the day!!!!

Kate's Birthday Party

Last week was Kate's birthday and hence, also her birthday party. I always waffle between whether to have a party or not. Some friends and family do not do parties for their young kids but then others do so what do you do. I guess this year I felt Kate deserved a party for all the inattention she has had to endure this year with all of Matt's issues. She has been a trooper this year and this party, to me, was her prize or reward for being such a great little girl. Okay, well back to the party....since Kate's birthday is in October, she decided she wanted a Halloween party, not a Princess Party like I expected. You know 3 year olds, always keeping you on your toes.

As we have never really decorated for Halloween, we had to buy a bunch of decorations and also, me being me, I had to attempt to be crafty, which I am not. You know sometimes I feel the pressure to be crafty and usually it hits will someone's birthday. So here are my crafts:

I made the little haunted house (3 tissue boxes, some tissue paper, black spray paint, gray craft paint, and styrofoam ghosts). I thought it turned out cute!

The other crafty thing I did was glitter a bunch of bones and a skull. This was easy but very time taking. This display was on our island with the food.

I had a lot more crafts and food concotions I wanted to try but Alan was out of town that week from Tuesday night until late Friday afternoon so I decided to drop some of the decorations. All in all the decorations were enough and the food was good (we had soup and chili plus cornbread and breadsticks; also had mac n cheese and mummy wraps for the kids).

One of the activities for the party was a jumphouse (very worried about the weather all week because it was forecast to possibly rain that day). We have never done this before but it was the best money we have ever spent. The kids had a blast and my house stayed relatively clean. We also decorated pumpkins with foam stickers as the favor - great fun!!

Kate and Alan and her cake before everyone started to sing Happy Birthday!! Look how excited and happy she looks....

And this is her after the singing began. She actually started crying and freaking out. It's not like we don't sing Happy Birthday at home constantly because believe me we do. Oh well. My shy little girl had a great birthday and great friends and family to spend it with. Thanks all that are part of Kate's life.

My Little Princess.....

is 3 years old today!!!! I can't believe that it has been three entire years of her love, laughter and the occassional (well, not so occassional) tantrums. We had a Halloween party for her yesterday, which I will post about later. Today, I want to post a little photo memory of her first 3 years....

First time I held Kate - about 5 hours after she was born. All the nurses commented on how she got my red hair, except Kate's was real and mine was just done at the salon the day before!!!

Kate at 7 months

Kate at her 1st Birthday Party

Kate at 18 months on Easter 2006

Kate at 2 years old - showing her love of bags and not just one .

Kate at 2.5 years old at the "glass slipper ball". She is wearing my red wedges, which she has deemed her glass slippers.

Kate a month shy of 3 years old on her first day in preschool.

Kate, Thank you so much for coming into our family and my life. You are such a great little person and so full of life. I love you to pieces, my little princess. Love, Mommy

I AM FINALLY GOING TO START POSTING....

I have now had this blog for 18 months and have a posted on it yet...NO!!! Everyday, I think about posting but something comes up, mostly getting sucked into reading other blogs. So now I am going to start, I hope...

First off, a little about my humble and seemingly normal life. I am a mom to two preemies. Kate is almost 3 and was born 6 weeks early (after a near delivery at 26 weeks, resulting in 8 weeks of lovely bedrest for me). As a side note, I was working at the time and so I did get paid for all 8 weeks of watching TV and reading magazines, not a bad deal. Well we thought Kate was a handful...her brother decided to show her up. Matt is 9 months old now but he decided to show up a little over 8 weeks early. Matt spent 9 weeks in the hospital fighting pneumonia induced by aspirating on milk. He is our little trooper and has kept a smile on his face the entire time. I am also a wife to a great man, Alan, who so lovingly goes to work every day so that I can stay home and spend the money. Thanks babe!!!

Prior to mommyhood, I worked in the accounting industry doing taxes and estate planning for high wealth individuals - first at Arthur Andersen and then at HSBC - for 9 years. I loved what I did and also working in San Francisco and do miss working, well really, I miss the social life and the shopping.

Currently, I am dealing with potty training (still after 3 months), Kate starting preschool, tons of physical therapy for Matt (possibility of Matt having cerebal palsy from all his complications) and also speech therapy for Matt for supposed oral aversion, and also trying to have a social life myself and lose this freaking baby weight once and for all.

So this is my life in a nut shell. Not glamorous by any means but eventful for sure....So enjoy our journey!!