Happy Birthday Derrick!!

On Monday Derrick turned 3! I cannot believe it! That morning I took him to the doctor to get his well check. I love our pediatrician and feel comforted that he is very thorough. As he was listening to Derrick's chest I noticed he was listening for a very long time. Usually they listen for a few seconds and they are done, but he listened for a few minutes. He said he didn't want to alarm me or make me worry, but he heard some premature heart beats. He said a lot of doctors don't even tell their patients because it is normal and nothing to be too concerned about. But he also said that he would like to refer Derrick to a cardiologist to get it checked out and just make sure every thing is ok. Surprisingly, I'm not freaking out about it. The doctor said Derrick is very healthy and he just wants to do this as a precaution. I will keep you updated after we see the cardiologist. I also talked to the doctor about asthma. In December when I took Derrick to Urgent Care the doctor we saw there told me I should talk to Derrick's pediatrician about asthma because he was having "asthma like" symptoms with his coughing. But thankfully Dr. Jones said Derrick has Reactive Airway Disease. He said basically when he gets sick, he gets wheezy. Well, that much we knew! We have a machine and albuterol at home. Derrick usually needs the breathing treatments a couple times a year. But other than that he is fine. So, no asthma! I was very happy that Derrick was in the 10 % for weight at 27 1/2 lbs and the 15% for height at just under 36 inches! That is progress for him! Last year he was in the 3% and before that he was never on the charts! So I will gladly take 10%. He really is making progress on his eating and for that I am extremely grateful for! For his birthday party Derrick chose to have a Fire Truck party at the Fire Truck park. Rather than bother my mom to make a cake for him this year, I decided to try my own. I bought a Wilton Fire Truck pan at Michael's and attempted to do it! It definitely was not the best, but Derrick liked it and I guess that's all that matters! One of my moms cakes would have been much prettier, but I have to remind myself..."He's only 3, he doesn't need a crazy party and cake!" One of the downfalls of making fire truck red frosting was my hands were stained pink for a couple of days! Jon and I bought Derrick his bike last week as part of his birthday presents. He also got a couple Thomas trains, some Lightning Mcqueen things and an action figure of his favorite Motocross rider, James "Bubba" Stewart (or maybe it's Daddy's favorite rider :) ). From family he got a Monster Truck, a Fire Truck, a new Thomas movie, a scooter and the Sherriff''s car from Cars. He has consistently played with every new toy he got, not favoring one over the other. I love birthdays and Christmas because the kids are always so occupied for the next few weeks with their new toys! It was a fun night and I appreciate those that came. Derrick is and always will be my baby no matter how old he gets! Happy Birthday and I love you Bubba!

Mark's Homecoming

Last Wednesday Jon's brother, Mark, came home from his mission in the Dominican Republic. 2 years has gone by fast! We went to the airport to pick him up with some of Jon's family. The kids were very excited to go to the airport. They were pretty little when Mark left, so they only knew him as someone we prayed for every night! He looked really thin, but I guess 2 years in a third world country will do that to a guy! Jon's parents and Mark stayed the night at our house on Wednesday before heading home to Young. The funniest thing to me was after Mark got out of the shower he kept rubbing his foot on the carpet. I asked him what he was doing and he said he had not felt carpet in 2 years or taken a shower barefoot, or basically been barefoot at all for 2 years! The little things we take for granted! It was good to see him though!

Emma and Derrick entertained themselves at the airport by counting the chairs, looking at the big airplane hanging from the ceiling and just being silly

Mark and his dad

Mark and Jon

Welcome Home Mark!

With Mark being home we decided to go up to Young for the weekend and spend some time with family. Andrea and Blake came down from Utah and Ron went up with us. It was a fun weekend! We watched movies and just visited. The kids love playing at Grandma and Grandpa Brenay's house. They held baby bunnies, fed the goats and went on "Vroom, Vroom" rides. There is a mountain in Young called Potato Butte that we hiked up (leaving the kids at home with Grandma and Aunt Sara). It was pretty steep, but worth the climb. It is a historical site and has Indian ruins on top. There is a beautiful view of Pleasant Valley from the top and the weather was perfect for hiking. On Sunday we went to church and Emma was very excited that Aunt Sara would be her teacher in Primary. We let Derrick stay with Emma, and he thought he was so big to go to Primary and not Nursery! Louise leads the music in Primary and when she came into Relief society she told me a funny story about Derrick. In Primary they were letting the kids each pick their favorite song to sing. Emma picked "I Am a Child of God". Then it was Derrick's turn. He picked Thomas the Train! No one knew the Thomas song so Emma said she would help him and they stood up and sang the whole Thomas song! I was cracking up when Louise was telling me this. Derrick definitely loves Thomas lately! After church I was trying to explain to him that if they ask you to pick a song in Primary you need to pick a Primary song. I listed some of the Primary songs he knows and he said, "But Thomas is a kid song." Well, yes it is! Anyway...we had a great weekend with the family!

Bargain Bikes!

I am not ashamed! Yesterday I took some things to donate to Savers after a week of cleaning out closets and toys! I thought while I was there I would look inside to see if there were any great deals. I was actually looking for a nightstand for Emma's room when I saw some bikes. I have been looking for bikes for the kids since before Christmas, but I guess I am really out of touch. I had no idea kids bikes cost $60-$80! Am I the only one that thinks that is absolutely crazy? Then you have to spend another $20 per kid to buy helmets so they don't get a concussion learning to ride their new bikes! So, when I saw these bikes at Savers I went over to take a look. To my amazement and surprise they had a purple Disney Princess bike in Emma's size! I took it down and looked it over. It was used, but barely! It was in excellent condition! Then I looked at the price tag and was sold...$9.99!! I couldn't believe it! All it needed were some training wheels and we were set! I think I was more excited than Emma was! So we bought it. Then I decided to head over to Once Upon a Child. I was looking for some dress pants for Derrick. I didn't find pants, but the kids wanted to look at the toys. As we were browsing through toys I noticed a shiny red bike for Derrick. I thought it was too good to be true that I could find great deals on bikes for both kids in the same day. It was just his size and at $30 it was 1/2 price of what it would cost at Target! I snatched it up! I was extremely thrilled to have found such great deals...even if if was at a used stores! I have no shame in buying used things...they are clearly cheaper and sometimes hardly even used! Jon stopped at Wal-Mart on his way home and picked up some helmets (Princess and Lightning McQueen) and some training wheels. The kids were excited to try their new bikes out. It was an interesting experience! I forgot how hard it was to actually learn to ride a bike! Derrick got the steering down pretty fast, but can't push the pedals. He had no crashes, but cried when Jon pushed him down a small hill and let go. But, he did it and didn't fall. Emma crashed 3 or 4 times! Most of them were in the grass and not that bad. She has a problem steering because she wants to look at her feet instead of where she is going. Her bike is almost too big for her, but I think she will get the hang of it quickly. And as soon as she grows a tiny bit, it will be perfect. Her last fall was on the way home. She crashed off the sidewalk and fell into the street and landed on her hands. She wasn't even cut, but to her it was the end of the world! Jon and I explained to her that everyone crashes when they are learning to ride a bike...it's part of life. She then had to call every Grandma and Grandpa to see if they crashed when they were learning to ride a bike. The pictures explain the night. It started out with smiles and ended with tears! Life is hard on a 2 and 4 year old sometimes!

Getting the bikes ready

When I took this picture I said to her, "Give me your saddest face!" She definitely did! Maybe I'm a mean mom for taking this picture, but she was fine and I couldn't resist!

Our Weekend

This weekend wasn't too exciting, but a little busy. The kids had fun with Jon playing guitars. I couldn't pass up on the cute pictures!
Friday Jon and I had a date night, which I really needed after being up with Derrick twice the night before and then cleaning up his potty mess in the bathroom that morning! Because he is a boy, it literally was everywhere! So date night was welcomed by me! We went to a restaurant over in Tempe called Lucille's Bar-b-Que. It was just ok and very overpriced. Jon and I agreed, you just can't beat Joe's Bar-b-Que in price and taste! Then we did some shopping and 2 of the 3 shirts I bought are going back! So not a really successful shopping trip, but a fun night anyway! Saturday Emma went to a birthday party for her friend from dance class. I knew it would be one of those over-the-top parties that makes you feel like you don't do enough for your kids! Not that that is a bad thing...I just knew this girls mom would go all out. The theme was Princesses and Pirates. We arrived at the party and there was a dressing room set up and each girl had her very own princess dress (sewn by the birthday girls grandma). They got to put their dress on and then go to the vanity where they could pick out a crown, gloves, jewelry and makeup! The boys had pirate hats, sashes and swords. It was so cute! Then after the first game all the kids got a prize which was matching purses for the girls and treasure chests for the boys. That was so they could fill them up with candy from the pinata! It was a fabulous party and Emma has lived in her new purple dress!
Yesterday was also a day of organizing Emma's room. We finally got her a dresser so that I could get the plastic drawers out of her closet, put her toys in the closet and get rid of the clutter! It has been a project! I will post pictures once it is all done.
Continue reading to the next post to see what else exciting happened this weekend!

It All Came Back to Me!

I am now a firm believer in all the fire safety drills they used to make you do in school! (Not that I wasn't before!) Here I am being vulnerable in this post and exposing something very stupid that I did (after swearing Jon to secrecy about the whole ordeal)! Yesterday I decided to cook a couple of tortillas on the stove. I love the uncooked tortillas from Cost-Co and I skipped lunch to take Emma to a birthday party. Well, I have made these a hundred times and we have had our gas stove for over 3 years now. So, there I was in a somewhat loose and flowy shirt cooking my tortilla. I reached up in the cupboard just to the left of the stove where we keep our paper plates. A few seconds later I smell something burning. I start looking around and all I remember is screaming, "Oh my gosh...I'm on fire!" Jon and Emma were both in the room. I'm not sure what they did because all that was going through my head was "Stop, drop and roll"! OK, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but the thought did cross my mind! But luckily all I did was grab a kitchen towel and put my shirt out. It caught fire pretty good! I was freaking out a little at the thought of how it could have been a lot worse. My hands were shaking like crazy after the whole ordeal. Thank goodness all I lost was a shirt, because it could have been bad! Moral of the story...don't wear loose clothing when cooking on a gas stove! Or, just be more careful around fire (unlike me)! :)

So, what do you do when Daddy's gone?

Jon left last Sunday for a business trip in San Antonio. He has a trip in March every year, and I usually meet him for the weekend, but not this year! First of all, I really didn't think San Antonio sounded like a place I would want to go. (I have since learned that it actually would have been pretty fun!). But, I also didn't want to ask my mom to do 2 overnight babysitting trips for us this year and we are trying to plan a fun trip for our 10 year anniversary this summer. So, it was a long week knowing I didn't have a fun trip waiting for me at the end of it! But, I tried to come up with some stuff to do with the kids and I stayed very busy with clients.
Derrick has been sleeping up against his wall lately and kicking it. So, I decided to put his big body pillow by the wall instead of on the edge of his bed. I thought he was old enough to stay in bed without falling out. I was wrong! I went in to check on him before I went to bed on Sunday night and there he was...a big heap on the floor, completely asleep! I felt bad, but couldn't stop laughing at the fact that it either didn't wake him up or he was just too tired to get back into bed after it happened!
Monday morning we went to the firetruck park with some friends. The kids love that park! It is about a mile and a half from our house. So, when we go I try to take the jogging stroller and get my exercise in. It is a really great park for little kids. There isn't too much for them to get hurt on, it's all just their size! Although Derrick always manages to fall and get hurt somehow (he's a boy!) Thanks Anitra, Kate and Ava for meeting us and bringing the snacks! The kids had a great time!

That night I took the kids out for free frozen yogurt. I got a coupon in the mail for Golden Spoon and it was for 2 free yogurts! Can't beat that! And Jon doesn't like frozen yogurt (I know he's crazy)!
We stayed busy the rest of the week. Emma had preschool and Derrick and I ran errands. On Wednesday we went to lunch with Grandma Trafzer at a new yummy place! They had the best cinnamon rolls I have ever tasted! Thursday we were all very excited when Jon got home. He brought the kids presents straight from Texas! See for yourselves! We love you Jon and we are glad you are home safe!

My Project

Last Thursday was our Enrichment night celebrating the Relief Society Birthday. I was in charge of decorating the main food table. When we had our first meeting about planning this night I volunteered to do this thinking my mom could help me make one of her fabulous cakes as the centerpiece. I shouldn't even say "help me"...it would be my mom making the cake for me! Well, as the time drew near I starting to think of ways I could do this on my own. I have no cake decorating skills and to buy rolled fondant icing gets a little pricey. So I was trying to think of what else I could cover a fake cake in. Wrapping paper! Just like a present. So I ordered some styrofoam cake dummies on the internet (I found a great deal!) and started buying wrapping paper. I tried a few different kinds of paper, before settling on this. The topper idea I stole from another cake that I saw. It it just flowers made from scrapbook paper and put onto wire. Thank you to my friend Jenny, who used her wonderful cricut to cut my flowers so I didn't have to do them all by hand! As most of you know I am not "super crafty lady"...but, I was happy with the way it turned out and had fun making it. Most of all, it was easily transported to the church with no problems! A real cake would not have been so easy!

Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! We had a great day yesterday! I was up most of the night before because Emma has been coughing. But, Jon woke me up by putting a bag on top of my head! It was the Fossil watch I asked him for! It's so cute...I love it! Here is a picture...

Well, I have been saving to get Jon something that he really wanted for a while now. After some help from his brother I discovered what new rifle Jon wanted and gave him a picture of the gun and the money to buy it wrapped up in a box. He was very surprised and very excited and happy! He deserves something that he really wants (and I kind of owed him for all the jewelry I've been given over the years!). After opening his gift Jon said he actually might cry! Nothing says "I Love You" like a new gun right?! So, Jon is now debating over what color to get. But he will soon be the proud new owner of this...
In the afternoon we went to the temple and did some sealings. It was very nice and inspired (for more reasons that one)! After that we went to dinner at Rustler's Rooste. I forgot the camera but the view was amazing! The food was good, although we discovered that you need to go down a temperature in your steak to get it cooked correctly. Jon always orders medium rare and the first one was pretty much medium well and then he sent it back the the second was was still medium to medium well. So he wasn't too happy. But, it was a fun place! We sat outside on the patio and you could see all of Phoenix and Tempe and it was the perfect day for a clear view. After dinner we went to the ghetto (Arizona Mills) and Jon found the deal of the night...some cargo pants at Old Navy for $3.49!! I found a couple shirts and some pants for Derrick. We were home early enough to put the kids to bed and received lots of loves and "Happy 'Balentins' Day" wishes from our cute kiddos! I am truly blessed with an amazing husband and two precious children! Happy Valentine's Day!

Just Some Love!

I just wanted to say how blessed we are as a family! I love my wonderful husband and all that he does for us! We are extremely blessed for him to have a great job right now with opportunities to grow with his company! I love my sweet kids! I may get frustrated with them sometimes, but they are such good kids and I love them more than I could ever put into words! Times are tough in the world right now and it hits close to home when you see family and friends struggling. We keep all in our prayers! So, there is my love and gratitude before Valentine's Day!

"Momma's Boy" & "Daddy's Girl"!

We figured out a long time ago that we have the classic "momma's boy" and "daddy's girl", but last week it was in full force! However, there were also tender learning moments involved. Emma had a couple breakdowns, crying for daddy in the middle of the day just because she missed him. One day last week after putting Emma in time out, she yelled at me "You're not nice to me today!" and slammed her door! We also heard from Derrick last week a few times, "I don't love dada!" Luckily, Jon and I know better than to let what our 2 and 4 year old say get to us too much. Saturday was Emma's big blow out! She woke up early that morning and was cranky most of the day. I tried to get her to take a nap (something she normally does not do, but she was tired!). After struggling with that she started throwing a huge fit, yelling, flailing her arms everywhere and not listening to anything I was trying to tell her. We were definitely butting heads! I told her to just sit on her bed for a while. I needed to calm down before I could talk to her. I was playing with Derrick in his room when I heard a sad, little voice in the next room. In between sobs Emma said the following, "Dear Heavenly Father, can you ever forgive me? Help me to make the right choices. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Tears welled up in my eyes and I felt like a horrible mom! Here I was trying to calm down so I could go talk to her and she was in there praying for forgiveness. What a lesson I learned from my sweet Emma that day! We had a long talk and I told her how happy that made me that she thought to say a prayer. Sometimes the kids are the teachers in life!
Well, on to Derrick's big fit! His came on Sunday. Usually Derrick goes to nursery at church without any problems, but the last few weeks he has had a hard time. It especially gets worse when I take him. So the last couple weeks Jon has taken Derrick to class. Last Sunday Derrick immediately started screaming and huge tears rolled down his cheeks when it was time to go to class. It wasn't that he didn't want to go, (he loves nursery)...he just didn't want dad to take him. I left him crying as I took Emma to her class. On my way back I ran into Jon and Derrick in the hallway. Derrick was still crying and wanting me to take him to class. I gave him a hug and kiss and told him to go with his dad. I went into my class and could hear Derrick screaming all the way out of the church! Jon came into class about 5 minutes later and said Derrick's teacher took him and he calmed down a little! You may be thinking, "was it worth all of that, why didn't I just take him to class?" I asked myself the same thing. But, Jon reminded me we need to teach him he can be separated from me! Unfortunately there is no great lesson learned here like there was with Emma. Derrick has not had a breakthrough and still cries if Jon tries to put him to bed at night! We have had long talks about how it is not nice to say that he doesn't love daddy. And usually after those talks he ends up crying and saying he loves daddy lots! I'm sure that when Emma starts school and it is just me and Derrick all day long, it may get worse instead of better!
But, we love them all the same!

Black-Eye & Build-A-Bear!

Last Saturday Jon took the kids for a ride on his "Vroom Vroom" (that's what the kids call his quad). Derrick was sitting up front and as they hit a bump, so did Derrick's eye! Jon said he didn't think it was that bad. Derrick is actually a pretty tough kid! They came in from their ride and Derrick told me he hit his eye. At first I didn't get a close look, and then I saw the giant bump in the corner of his eye! It looked like a large pea was under his skin. But Jon was a good dad and cleaned it up for him. But, as you can imagine it turned into quite the black eye and Derrick was very proud of it. These pictures were taken on Tuesday after it had a while to fester! Derrick was washing his hands in the bathroom that day and said "Mom, I got a cool black eye, it's a good one!" It didn't bother him too much!
On Friday the kids and I went to lunch with Grandma Trafzer. We were going out to San Tan Mall (mainly so I could go get a style number on a watch I want for Valentine's Day! I'm subtle right?!). But I decided since we were going there I would take the kids to Build-A Bear Workshop. They had never been before and I thought it would be a nice treat for them. Emma picked out a Hello Kitty and Derrick picked out a green dinosaur (are you surprised?!). Derrick named his dinosaur Rex, but when he says it it sounds more like Shrets. Grandma was nice enough to buy some clothes for Rex and Hello Kitty. The kids had a lot of fun and they both love their new toys and sleep with them every night! After Build-A-Bear we went to lunch at Paradise Bakery! The kids like going there and eating mac and cheese and cookies! It was a fun day!

Playing Catch-up!

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. We have been busy trying to get back into the swing of things. Emma welcomed the opportunity to return to dance and school after what she felt like was far too long of a break! She loves school and dance and is very eager to learn. Yesterday my friend brought me a flyer with the dates of Kindergarten registration! It made my stomach churn. In some ways I am very excited to have Emma go to school, but it makes me so nervous too! So, at the end of this month my baby girl will be registered to go to Kindergarten! I still haven't decided about the whole riding the bus thing. Emma really wants to ride the bus to school. I was completely against it, but as I start talking to people who's kids ride the bus they say it's no big deal. It would be convenient...it picks up at the park right by our house. It just scares me to send my 5 year old on a school bus with older kids and hope that she finds her way! I know I am totally being the overly paranoid mom right now, but I have a right to that! :)
Derrick was playing "sweet boy" for a couple weeks and now is back to his usual self! For a while there I thought maybe he was changing! But then he turned back into a 2 year old boy! (And we still love him!) He is doing so great wearing his big boy underwear! It has been about 3 weeks now and we have only had one little accident. He looks so cute in them! He picked out Lightning McQueen, Thomas the Train and Handy Manny. Thomas is his new favorite thing! He still loves his cars , but is showing more interest in trains now. He also loves watching the motorcycle races (Supercross) on tv with his dad. Derrick has decided that it is really fun to get up at 6:30 am this past week! I keep trying to bribe him to stay in bed until it is light outside. He doesn't get it! I will continue to work on that with him and hope that it is just a phase! A cute thing that Derrick did a couple weeks ago...I asked him to go put his pants in the dirty clothes. This is nothing new for him. He knows where his clothes hamper is and regularly puts his dirty clothes in there. But when he was taking a while I walked down the hall to see what he was doing. There he was in the laundry room trying to put his pants in the washing machine! Smart little guy...he knows that is where the clothes get washed so I guess he thought he would help me out! I had to take a picture because it made me laugh!
We are doing great and are very happy to finally be over all of our nasty sickness! February and March are usually our sick months of the year, so we hope we don't go through it all again! So far we are off to a good start. 2009 holds a lot of exciting possibilities for us and we are grateful for our blessings everyday!

This is Derrick's mischievous look!

Once There was a Snowman

Last Thursday afternoon we left for a trip to Young. We stopped on the way to let the kids play in the snow. They had a blast. Emma was asking me how to make a snowman on the way there and I told her I didn't know...I had never made a snowman before! I know...poor me! :) Ron came with us so we were able to get some family pictures. Emma loved looking for pine cones and sticks to help make the snowman and then we showed her how to have a snowball fight and she caught on to that real quick! That girl has a pretty good arm on her! Derrick in usual fashion was hesitant to pick up the snow. He doesn't really like touching new things. (For example...he freaks out if he gets food on his hands while he is eating!) But, if I made the snowball for him he would throw it. Derrick didn't really like laying in the snow to make snow angels either, but I think it was because the sun was in his eyes! But, Emma has been waiting to make snow angels. She lays on the carpet and makes them all the time, so she was extremely excited to make a real one!
We had a good trip to Young. The kids got more Christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa Brenay and we were able to just visit and relax. Emma kept asking if we could stay 10 days! Derrick then asked if we could stay forever! They love it up there!