Celebrate!

The BEST girls weekend EVER!

Last Thursday evening, Autrey and I hopped on a plan to SLC for the weekend to meet up with best friends BETH and BRE. We are flying home tonight. I can't tell you how positively special and endearing this trip has been for me. I knew that reconnecting with the girls would be fun but I had no idea i would feel this bonded to them again as well as reconnect to the individual I am and love. Gosh, I have AMAZING friends! I haven't laughed this hard since, I don't know when. So here's what we've been up to...
Thursday night Bethany's mom Char picked us up at the airport ( Autrey did fantastic on his first flight by the way!! Oh yeah!). Bethany flew in shortly after me and we all headed to The Campbell's home and managed to get the kids to sleep before 10. I brought autrey with me on this girls trip because both Bre and Beth have kids under 2 as well: Bre's twins, David and Emily and Beth's little girl Annabelle. I'm sooo glad I brought him! It has been such a bonding experience with my baby. Friday morning we started a puzzle and took a little trip to the store before Bre and the twins came over to play. Char made us this CUTE cake, picked up pizza and a balloon and these WILD glasses so we could have ourselves an official 30th BIrthday party together. The 3 of us turn 30 in the next 3 months. At times of the evening we were on the ground laughing so hard. So much laughing. It took forever to light the 30 candles with a blow torch. We managed to get this picture before the candle tipped on to each other, some completely melting onto the cake. We decided to talk and finish the puzzle. Beth had to go help Annabelle about 11:30ish and Bre and I set the goal to finish the blasted puzzle by 1. We reminisced and laughed at the funniest memories, most coming from Bre's brain. We went to bed at 2. The next morning we took the babies to the aquarium and then after naps (mom's included) got babysitters (Thank you Bumpa!!) and hit the town. Cafe rio, down east clothes, costco and the sunglass hut. Beth and I got a new pair of glasses for our birthdays. We went home, watched mulan rouge and called it a night at 11pm. This morning we went to church and took naps. Autrey is still down for his. It has been very relaxing and great fun. I hope we can make this a more frequent occasion! Huge Thank You to Pat for taking a day off of work and watching Camden and Ellie all weekend. I appreciate this weekend so much and will no doubt go back to phoenix a better wife and mommy.
Cheers ladies! Thanks for the best birthday in my 30's ever! More pics to come.

Ellie's game

So, the weather is great, kids are in a good mood and I'm in the mood to hang. Ellie is being her bossy self and created a game that involves everything in the backyard, including goggles. Cam and Ellie are currently taking turns standing on a big rock and shouting orders. This is awesome. Lol

Student of the week

I have this poster hanging around my house, ripped and crumpled ready to be tossed. Camden's was a student of the week last November and I've been meaning to do something with the info on it. So here it is:
November 2011 Camden Hobbs star of the week

My favorite color is: green
I am 5 years old
When I grow up... I'm going to be in a karate class and I'm going to be a chef and bring food to people and I'm going to be a grocery store man.
Soccer... Is my favorite sport.
My favorite food is... Cheese pizza
These are my hobbies:
Wrestling, to think about things and just do them, ride my bike, coloring, help mommy, trying new foods.

You are a star Camden!

Sent from my iPhone

Autrey

Autrey is kind of a forgotten child... He's usually in a stroller so he doesn't make it in a ton of candid pictures. He's super easy going and stays out of the big kid drama and doesn't talk at all... So, when I get a picture like this of him with his amazing smile, I have to give him a shout out! Baby boy, like I tell you every night, you are my happiness!! I adore you!!

Library day

Tuesday is library day. Our community has a new public library, built last summer. Now we don't have to drive to tempe. The kids pick out a fiction book, non-fiction book and DVD ( favorites are Backyardagains and Dora) each. It has been a nice little tradition that hopefully will instill a love of books and respect for the Library. Griffin is with us Tuesdays. We are happy to have him join in our adventures :)
Note: the last 2 weeks we have been learning about stars and constellations.
Rattle snakes too. We also finished our first chapter book. Working on comprehension.
Just a reminder: when I give little details it's because this blog is our family journal. It's really the only way I'm keeping memories. So details are for us. We are happy you like to follow along.

Meet Shelly

Shelly is a Mermaid from Scrap Island. A girlfriend of mine bought her to give to a little birthday girl. I was the face painter at the party do I got to see the look on her Mommy's face. Vessa didn't open her presents at the party so unfortunately I didn't get to see Shelly's first hug :) ok, I'm getting cheesier...

Meet Scurvy!

Skurvy Is Camden's doll. His hook comes off. I love him, I'm so happy to have found a boy friendly project that I can make with my hands. He was a 4 am project. In other words, kid free crafting time.
All of the dolls that I made last week required no trips to the store which makes them extra gratifying. More pics on the way... Sending these by my phone is truly amazing and extremely exciting for the future of this family blog.

Meet Cantaloupe

So this is doll #1. Ellie picked out all of the fabric, including her hair. And she named her Cantaloupe. More pics to come...

Can I really blog my email from my phone now?!

Testing testing 123
Sent from my iPhone

Feeling behind

Oh, man. Blogging is a bit depressing right now because it is yet another thing I feel behind on in life. So here's our update:

It looks like round two of illness is going around. My kids have coughs and the runs. Seems like a strange combination to me. They all are happy though, that's nice. I'm the only grump these days. But I'm feeling better!

Potty training NIGHTS:

So Ellie has been sleeping in underwear the past week or two. and now Camden is on the pull-up free wagon. But I still have to wake both of them 2 and sometimes 3 times to take them potty. They go every time I take them. when I tried to only take them once last night, they both wet the bed. Camden did twice. I limit there liquids after 6 but I think I need to bring it back to like 4pm and not let them drink with dinner. But camden is such a picky eater, drinking helps him wash down his food that he is reluctant to try. My plan is to go another week of not drinking late and waking them to take them 2 times and down to once a night. And then consider something else. Any advice out there?? Should I just let them wear pull-ups?? I almost feel like we have this problem because we went strait to night pull-ups after potty training (which is a choice made both times having an infant. I was exhausted). Did they never learn the trick because they didn't have to or has it not developed yet?? I was told that a very high percentage of children still struggle with bed wetting, especially boys (which is why I worked with Ellie first). My kids never woke up in the morning with dry pull-ups. THis is obviously something I'm working on :)

But some WAY more exciting things I've been working on............. are to come in my next post that I will do before next Sunday. That's my goal. Goals for this year have been broken down by the month. I have chosen to CREATE on thing each month that I've thought about making but never got around to it or felt I had a reason to spend my time on it. Now I do and I LOVE IT! So I can't wait to share my January CREATION with you!!