One of Many

I wanted to share one of the many reasons I'm glad I can stay home with the kids. Days when they play so well together make the tougher days a little bit easier to handle and remind me how lucky we are to have two great and loving kids!

Isaac is One!

Our little boy turned one yesterday. I can't believe it was a year ago that I was in the hospital, watching the Florida-Florida State game while in labor. My beautiful, little boy even waited until 20 minutes after the game before making his grand entrance into this world.

My parents came over for dinner last night and my mom helped me make Isaac's cake. It was my very first attempt at a "designer" cake. I'm not sure how successful it was though. We made a dinosaur, but Kylee wondered if it was a bird? Do a dinosaur and a bird even resemble each other in the slightest? Either way, it was so much fun to make and I was so happy to have my mom's moral support and help. Unfortunately, Todd took pictures at all stages of the cake decorating process, but he never got a final shot! How awful is that? Oh well, I'll have to try something else for Dylan's birthday next year...or maybe Todd will get a dinosaur in January for his birthday! I think I like that idea better.

Isaac got his own special cake to dig into, and Dylan even showed him how it was done. She grabbed a handful and put it in his mouth for him. After that, he was hooked. He ate the whole thing. At least all the frosting. Michael knew to hang out by him because there was plenty of cake dropped on the floor.

After cake we opened presents and Isaac got all sorts of fun things. Dylan doesn't quite understand that it was Isaac's birthday and they were his presents. In her mind, they are her toys, not Isaac's. Luckily, Isaac doesn't quite understand that they are his toys and he just let's Dylan take what she wants. Any guesses on how much longer that will last?

All in all it was a great night. Our son is one and he's as happy as can be.

Here are some shots of the party:

I promise...

it's not because of the hair cut.

After Todd finished cutting the knot out of Dylan's hair, we decided to let Dylan try on some of the clothes we had stashed away for her. Dylan is lucky to have so many cousins that are older than her so she gets lots of hand-me-downs. We tried on dresses and pants and shirts and sweaters.

But this was Dylan's favorite.

These pictures remind me of the twins (my younger sisters) and how they used to dress up when they were younger. Especially Jamie. She always wore hats and glasses. I even recall a post a while back on her blog where her daughter was doing the exact same thing. What is it with little girls and hats? Or dress up in general?

Dylan's First Haircut

Unfortunately, it's not what you think.

Dylan didn't get to go to the salon, sit in a chair, freak out about what was about to happen and have some nice person cut her golden locks.

Instead, her dad took a pair of scissors to her head of hair and started hacking away.

Now, before any of you are shocked or appalled, I should mention that Todd's reasoning for a "snip, snip" were good.

Dylan likes to suck her thumb. For the last two years (Dylan learned to suck her thumb at Grandma and Pa's house in California two Thanksgiving's ago) whenever she was upset or tired, her thumb went in her mouth. And many of you know that when she sucks her thumb, it's always her right thumb. Just like her brother. (Or I should say Isaac is just like her, although with him, it's his left).

This may not seem odd to anyone, but here's the thing, whenever she is sucking her thumb her left hand is pulling at her hair. She doesn't really pull her hair, it's more like running her fingers through it and curling it with her hand. When her right thumb is in her mouth, her left hand is in her hair. Guaranteed.

So what does this have to do with Todd giving our daughter a bowl cut? (just kidding by the way) Todd was giving Dylan a bath as I was playing with Isaac when he mentioned that Dylan had a knot in her hair. I thought that was funny because I hadn't noticed it at all. When she got out of the bath she came and sat on the bed with me and lo and behold, there was a good-sized knot in her hair. And wouldn't you know it was where that left hand likes to rest.

I tried to get the knot out and it wouldn't budge. I grabbed a comb and couldn't get it to even diminish in size. Then I left Dylan on the bed as I went to grab the camera (I know, bad mommy!) and came back to find Dylan had gotten to comb stuck in her hair where the knot was.

After trying for a few minutes, I decided it would be easier to just cut it out. I was about to get the scissors when Todd felt that since he found the knot, he should get to cut it out. I figured if he was going to cut I should document the moment. I was a little worried about how much hair he would take off, but luckily he did a great job and cut as little as possible.

You couldn't even tell he cut anything, until you saw the knot of hair in his hand.

The $1000 Phone Call

About a month ago Todd and I bought a new kitchen table. It came with seating for eight, but I think we can seat 10 comfortably. It's all black and is a 54" square table, with a leaf making it 54"x 72". I absolutely love it.

It has six chairs and a bench seat for two. I think it looks great in our kitchen and can't wait to get our cabinets in and to finally get the kitchen painted.

There was a slight problem with our table though. They undercharged us. By a lot. When Todd realized this almost two weeks later, the question for debate was, "What should I do?" or "What would you do?"


I'm sure Todd knew exactly what needed to be done, but he was hoping someone would tell him that it was the store's mistake and that was the end of it. He wasn't so lucky.


Finally Todd decided it was time to let the store know about the error. He asked me to call them so I could let them know. We were in the car driving home when I made the call and Todd was leaning over so he could hear the whole conversation.


This is roughly how it went:


Nicole: Hi, we bought a table from you about two weeks ago and we noticed an error on our credit card statement.


Salesman: Uhhhh, okaaay.


N: Actually, it was an error in our favor.

S: Ohhhh. Well then, what happened?


N: I have the invoice number if you'd like to pull the receipt.

S: Great. Let me go get that. (wait for a few seconds to pull the receipt) So, what seems to be the problem?


N: It looks like the cost of the table is $1296.40 and we were only charged $129.46.


S: Wow. That was a big mistake. Well it looks like it's already been sent to our main office in Phoenix, so we'll have to have someone get back to you at the first of the week. Thank you so much for being a nice lady and letting us know about this.


N: Sure. No problem. Have a good day.


S: Thanks. You too.


After this call ended I thought Todd was going to drive off the road. He said that was the most expensive call I'd ever made. Who knew I could spend about $1000 in a matter of minutes?


I mentioned that when we were younger, if we went to a teacher and told them they counted our test wrong and gave us a higher grade, the teacher would often let you keep the grade because you were honest. Why does that happen when we're young, but not later in life? Couldn't we have been given some sort of discount for our honesty? Please?


Three days later, this message was left on our answering machine.

Needless to say, Todd was depressed all over again. As for me, I asked for a copy of the message so I could blog about it! How different we are!

"I'm Officer C from *******"

It took 4 years. I've had to wait 4 years. Four very long years. But boy was it worth it...almost.

On Monday Todd and I were taking the kids to Target to get their pictures taken and we left a few minutes earlier than normal hoping to get in to the studio a little bit early. Come to find out, it's a good thing we did.

We were driving down F*** and almost at the stop sign at H*** to turn right. I see a motorcycle officer driving the opposite direction on H***, but figured Todd had seen him also so I didn't say anything. The officer looked right at us as he drove past...and Todd rolled the stop sign! It was so obvious, and you should have seen how fast that cop made a U-turn! His lights went on and Todd drove a little further and turned into the next housing development.

This is what I've been waiting for. Todd has mentioned in the past that he would never get a ticket in the state of Arizona for any sort of law-breaking activity. I've been waiting for this very moment so I could test his statement.

The conversation went something like this:

Cop: "I'm Officer C from ******. Do you know why I pulled you over?"

Todd: "Yes sir, I didn't come to a complete stop at the stop sign back there."

C: "That's right. Can I see your registration and insurance?" (Todd had already handed him his license.)

T: "Yes sir. *******"

C: "Man, why are you doing this to me?" (said with a smile and a short laugh) "Can I see your commission card?"

T: (*************) "Sorry about this. I'm probably gonna get more grief from my wife about this."

C: "The fine for running a stop sign in ****** is $250 and it's important to obey these laws especially with all the construction going on. I'm hoping that if I let you off with a warning you'll take it to heart, especially with that precious cargo you've got in the backseat." (what, I'm not precious cargo in the passenger seat?)

T: "Yes sir. Thank you."

And do you know what Todd said to me after we went on our way again..."Do you think I should roll this stop sign?" Then he says, "If I paid you the $250 (the cost of the ticket) would that be enough to keep you from telling people about it??" My response, "Not in this lifetime."

Four years! Four years waiting for Todd to get pulled over hoping he'd end up with a ticket. Four years! I guess I'll just keep waiting cause it's bound to happen. Although Todd did mention that it probably would...in about 10 years after he retires! I just wish I had my camera so we could take a picture at the scene of the crime, and maybe with Officer C from *****.