Happy Thanksgiving...

(Todd here enjoying to-do lists)

First off Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Nicole left this morning at 3:45am to wait in line with the rest of the world. The rest of us slept in until she returned shortly after 8:00 (having hit 3 different stores and purchasing items for 7-8 people). Just like the Army, Nicole accomplished more before 8:00am then most people will accomplish all day. This concluded the list of "to-do" items for Nicole for the day however my list hadn't even started yet.

After breakfast the kids were playing in the front room so I started on my list. Item #1 - Set up X-Mas tree. Of course the kids crowded around and got in the way so it was no easy task (yes I should have known better). It got to the point of frustration that I put the kids in Dylan's room and shut the door.


Ten minutes later the X-Mas tree was up and ready to be decorated (that falls back on Nicole's list for tomorrow though). I went back to Dylan's room and asked if they wanted to see the X-Mas tree. Screams and several small footsteps later they were in the front room screaming excitement about X-Mas.

I asked, "Do you guys like it?" Dylan immediately stopped and replied while pointing to the top and bottom of the tree, "Wait, we are missing a star and presents!" If it helps she only thought we needed four presents under the tree - one for her, one for mommy & daddy and two for Isaac. Lucky boy.

Happy Birthday To You...

Happy Birthday, You're Two.

This was the way I sang "Happy Birthday" all day long today, because today, Isaac turned 2!

Isn't he just about the happiest two year old??

As is tradition in our house, cupcakes were the food of choice for all meals, as well as small themed gifts throughout the day. This was the first year Isaac had a theme, and I had a tough time choosing one. In the end, the Dollar Store ended up choosing the theme for me...Winnie the Pooh. It ended up being a good choice because with Isaac's first gifts at breakfast, he immediately was thrilled to see his Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eyeore figurines. He even knew all of their names.

I won't go into detail about his day, but we ate Pumpkin Muffin "cupcakes" with cream cheese icing, had mini presents all day long which Dylan loved to give to Isaac and "share" with Isaac. (Dylan's idea of sharing is taking the toys from Isaac and telling him thank you for sharing. It has nothing to do with actually sharing the toys. In her opinion they all belong to her.) We also had some of Todd's family over for dinner before almost all of our whole family came over for cake, ice cream and presents.

Isaac's train cake. Made by me. Yikes!

I did want to share a little bit about Isaac's birth day two years ago, since I realize I didn't write too much last year when he turned one.

Since Dylan was only 6 months old when I got pregnant with Isaac (unintentionally) you can imagine that I was shocked and hysterical to find out I was having another baby so soon. Imagine my surprise even further when I found out that I was already 11 weeks along. My due date was to be December 6th. Less than three months after Dylan turned 1. Yikes.

From that day, I swore up and down that this baby would be born early. He would be born Thanksgiving weekend. I would get to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, eat as much as I wanted without feeling guilty (after all, I WAS pregnant) and that after I had eaten to my heart's desire, Isaac would be born.

People thought I was crazy. That there was no way he would show up almost two weeks early. I was sure though. Whenever I was asked about my due date, I would say in December, but this baby is coming Thanksgiving weekend. Apparently, my parents didn't listen, or didn't believe me. They decided to go to Utah for the long holiday weekend to spend it with my sister and her family. I warned my mom time and time again that this baby was coming. And then I told her I was sure he would come, just to spite my mom for leaving.

Thanksgiving came, and a huge feast was enjoyed. There was very little early morning shopping on Black Friday and then Saturday morning rolled around. I woke up at about 6 and had to use the bathroom. As soon as I got up, I knew that my water had broke. I woke Todd up, told him what had happened and he was up and in the shower. I called my sister Jennifer to come watch Dylan, because after all, she was on call now that my mom had up and left the state. Jenn also took a shower and arrived at our house at about 7am. At this point, there had still been no contractions. None.

Todd and I got in the car and started toward the hospital. I called my dad's cell phone knowing that he would be awake and to share the news. I told him we were on our way to the hospital and to just let mom know. I didn't want him to wake her. He decided to go back and see if she was awake just in case, and I hear my mom in the background say "Oh crap" as soon as my dad opened the door. I talked to my mom for a couple of minutes, just to remind her of the warning I had given her, and to tell her that we would call with more news later.

Todd and I continued our drive to the hospital and I still hadn't had any contractions. He asked if he could drive through somewhere and get some breakfast and I said that was fine. While in the drive through at Jack in the Box (ewww, gross!) I called my friend Whitney to tell her we were on our way to the hospital, and to also tell her little boy happy first birthday. That's right. I was going into labor with my second child, one year after my best friend had her first. It was so fun.

Once we got to the hospital I told the nurse that my water had broke about an hour and a half before. She didn't admit me because she didn't believe me. She was sure I was crazy and it was a false alarm. After all, I wasn't in any pain whatsoever. She did however hook me up to monitor me and the baby and I stayed that way for about an hour. I finally started having some contractions, but they weren't very strong. The nurse came in quite a few times telling me that she didn't really think I was in labor as my contractions weren't strong, or frequent. She never even bothered to check to see if my water had broke. Finally, at least an hour later she finally decided to check and lo and behold, my water had broke. (Like I hadn't told her that an hour earlier.)

I was finally put in a room, and almost immediately had an epidural. I laid in bed and relaxed, did a couple of sudoku puzzles and talked with Todd. I talked with the doctors that came in and out, and occasionally set the bells and whistles on my monitors off due to my blood pressure dropping. Lucky for me, I had to lay on my left side to combat the issue, and that still allowed me to watch the television.

You see, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is a special day. This is the day that the Florida Gators play the Florida State Seminoles. It's a big game. One of the biggest football games of the season. Of course, as a rabid Gator fan, I was thrilled to get to watch the game. And better yet, I was going to watch without the distraction of a one year old at home. And pain free thanks to the epidural.

Doctors and nurses came and went, asking for score updates and maybe to catch a play or two. I enjoyed a great game and my Florida Gators won, 21-14. The game ended at 1:45pm, and I watched a few post-game interviews.

Finally, at about 2pm I felt like it was time to start pushing. The on call doctor barely got there in time. William Isaac Bailey was born at 2:21pm. Basically, the doctor walked in, introduced himself as he was putting on his gloves and sat down just in time to catch Isaac as he made his entrance into this world. He was 8 pounds and 20.5 inches long.

Isaac was beautiful and already such a great listener! He arrived almost two weeks early just like I had "planned" and waited until after the football game was over so I could enjoy the entire game. I knew right then and there that he was going to be such a happy and good baby. And I was so right.

My very favorite picture from his "birth" day.

Todd and I enjoyed a quiet afternoon with our son, and I called my parents to share the news. To this day, Isaac is still the only grandchild that hasn't met his grandparents on the day he was born. My parents (or my mom) have either been in the waiting room for the birth of each grandchild, or flown in the day of the birth to be there that first day. I don't let my mom forget that either. I felt impressed to tell my mom not to fly home from Utah and let my dad drive back by himself. With the storm I didn't feel comfortable about him driving alone, and I knew that he wasn't one to turn around or stop if the weather got too bad. It made me nervous. It was good too because she had considered flying home and decided against it, and the next day my parents started the drive back to Arizona and due to the huge storm decided to turn around and wait another day. I'm glad my mom stayed behind because I'm not sure my dad would have turned around on his own. Either way, Isaac got to meet his grandparents a few days later, once we were home.

I should also share here that Jennifer brought Dylan to the hospital so she could meet her new brother and to see Todd and I. Remember, Dylan was only 14 and a half months old, and still wasn't walking more than a step or two. When Jenn opened the door to my hospital room, she put Dylan on the floor and she walked all the way across the room to my bed. Our little girl just walked across a room for the first time, to me and her baby brother. It was wonderful.

And it was only going to get better.

Bargaining

I'm not sure when this first started, but it happens often in our house now.

Dylan has learned how to bargain, and she's made it an art form.

Case in point, today at lunch she starts rambling something to me from the kitchen. I get up to try to figure out what she's saying and ask her to repeat it. Again, I still don't understand. There are two reasons I don't get it. First, she is mumbling, and second, her mouth is full of food. I'm guessing the mouthful is the reason for the mumbling.

After she swallows, she states her request again. She wants a treat if she eats all of her lunch. Isaac mumbles his concurrence with this request by repeating the word "treat" three times. I then tell them that if they both eat all their lunch, I will in fact give them a treat.

Dylan then wants to know what kind of treat. I tell her I'll think about it. She comes back with, "How about a popsicle." I return, "How about a candy treat." I'm thinking this has to be a great compromise. She gets candy, and I don't have to clean up two popsicle-sticky kids. It's a win-win.

Of course, Dylan want to know immediately, "What kind of candy treat."

Are you kidding? When did she learn how to bargain for the kind of treat she wanted? When did eating your lunch become a bargain? Or any meal for that matter? When did it become a bargain to temper the temper tantrums? Or to get dressed? Or to go to bed? Everything is a bargaining tool these days.

And Dylan is a master craftsman.

Contact Sports

Yesterday I was at my sister Shanen's house canning apples with Shanen and Jennifer. We had four huge boxes of apples and we made apple pie filling, applesauce and dehydrated apples. It was a long morning, but we had great results.

When we were finally done for the afternoon I sat on the couch and had a conversation with my 7 year old niece. I don't remember how we got on the topic, but she rolled up her jeans to show me a massive bruise she had on her knee. Her left kneecap was one big bruise and there was a scrape just above the knee.

I asked what had happened, expecting to hear about some incident during a soccer game. She then informed me that she got it at running club. I was shocked and tried to stifle my laugh. As I was chuckling, I sarcastically told her that I didn't know running was a contact sport. She just looked at me and said she fell. Simple enough.

I continued to laugh to myself as I thought about this conversation and how cross country running was not supposed to inflict bruises.

Then I woke up today. I sat down with the laptop and immediately felt pain. How can that be? Pain. Lots of pain.

I looked at my left arm where the pain was stemming from, and found this:

Apparently making applesauce is a contact sport too.

You've got to be kidding me...

(Todd here complaining...)

So I've been married to Nicole for nearly five years and today she pulls out this little bit of knowledge that just makes me say, "You've got to be kidding me." This post is about music so I'll give a little background that I've learned in these five years. Nicole listens to or has listened to most types of music. Rap, Country, Pop, Musicals, whatever. I think at one point or another I've heard Nicole listening to most types of music on the car radio or at home. One genre I can't say my little church going wife listens to often is Rock and Roll or Classic Rock.

While sitting in Wendy's (fast food restaurant) for lunch with Nicole and the kids the classic station was playing over the speakers in the dining room. A song originally released in October of 1978 (I had to look it up) came over the speakers with the popular chorus repeating "Bicycle, Bicycle," over and over again.

I smiled recognizing the song and thinking there was no way Nicole had ever heard it before. One might say she was originally released earlier the same year the song came out! I quickly blurbed out, "A frosty if you can tell me who sings this."

Now if you haven't looked ahead and seen the link below do you have any idea what song it was, let alone who sings it?

Without any hesitation Nicole answers, "Queen," while giving me a smirk. "You've got to be kidding me," I thought but was in such shock I don't think I was able to actually say it out loud. Nicole just sat there continuing to smile until I handed over the necessary cash to buy the frosty.

I later found out Nicole borrowed her brother-in-laws Queen Greatest Hits CD after hearing about them from the movie Wayne's World in 1992. Note to anyone who hasn't seen Wayne's World, the song Bicycle is not even in it. She listened to the whole CD while looking for Bohemian Rhapsody and remembered the Bicycle song. My wife the secret Queen Fan. I need to stop betting.

Shop-a-thon and 12 Days of Junkie Giveaway

Tip Junkie is one of my favorite blogs. Laurie is hosting a Mom-preneur shop-a-thon and a 12 days of Junkie GIVEAWAY that starts tomorrow (Tuesday). Go over to her site Tip Junkie and check it out! There are so many cute ideas on her blog! I was so excited during her last giveaway that I can't wait to see what she gives away this time.

I just hope I win!

The Best Seat in the House

Or at least Isaac's favorite seat.

Usually each morning I get the kids up, get them dressed and feed them breakfast. After this routine is over, I can finally get in the shower. Now, I know that a lot of moms out there get themselves ready before their kids even wake up. But I've also learned that my kids wake up anytime from 6 am to 9 am. I'm certainly not going to wake up at 5 to shower and get dressed in the hopes that my kids wake up at 6. And let's be honest, I don't ever hope they wake up at 6.

Therefore it's really difficult to judge what time I should wake up, so I end up sleeping until they wake me up.

Now, back to that morning routine. After breakfast is over and the kitchen and kids are clean, it's time for me to get going. This means one of two things can happen. The kids are either left to roam free in the basement or the upstairs of the house, or I lock them in my room so I can keep them somewhat contained. More times than not, they end up locked in my room with some sort of cartoon on the television.

Usually the kids keep themselves occupied with the program on the screen and will rarely move as I take my 3 minute shower. And yes, it really is only three minutes long. But, there are those times when standing next to the bed is not Isaac's place of choice. He has found his favorite seat and I've found him here on plenty of morning occasions. It's the perfect size for him and it must be comfortable because he's there often.

Here he is on three different occasions, just so you know that it really is his favorite spot.

True Confessions

I had plenty of titles for this post running through my head. I decided this might be the most appropriate.

I have a confession to make. I am 30 years old, and I have never voted.

Until today.

Before any of you shake your head in wonder or frustration, let me explain.

Okay, so I don't have an explanation. Not even any excuses. I just never registered to vote. Luckily, I have a friend that was very passionate about me voting, and determined to have me registered in time. Whitney sent me links for online registration, links to help me find the right candidate for me, links about each of the presidential candidates and links about different propositions that were on our ballot this year. And I should tell you, Whitney lives in Pennsylvania so she was searching for local Arizona issues for me to read. Like I said, passionate!

I feel a little robbed of my voting experience this year though.

Each year I hear about the horrible lines people had to stand in in order to cast their vote. I see news stories on the same topic. I was secretly looking forward to this. My dad came over to watch the kids during nap time so I could go vote. He had just finished voting and told me that the line was about a 45 minute wait where he voted.

Today it took me longer to drive to my polling location than it did to vote and snap a few pictures. I would have been done even faster if the woman in front of me hadn't chit chatted with the lady checking us in. She seriously held on a conversation for 8 minutes. I counted. In that amount of time, a line formed behind me. Three additional voters.

I had my sample ballot filled out ahead of time, so all I had to do was copy my choices on the official ballot and have it counted. I scanned my ballot through the machine and it was over.

This is the view of the entrance to my polling location

I'm proud to say my vote was number 776 at my polling location. For the first time, I'm proud to be sporting my "I voted today" sticker.

Trick or Treat

Last month I wrote about Dylan's decision to be a bumble bee for Halloween. I was really troubled with this choice because I was hoping I could coordinate the kids' costumes for at least a few years. I was stumped with the prospect of what to do with Isaac. Luckily, I had some great ideas offered in my comments for choices for Isaac. Thank you!

I worried and fretted over both costumes, and ended making them semi-homemade. It was a lot easier (and faster) than I expected them to be. I was so glad for that. And to top it all off, both the kids wore and liked there costumes. I was even more glad for that!

Last week started with Dylan getting to wear her costume to school. She was so excited, and looked so cute. All week long she walked around buzzing like a bee. Someone would ask her what she was going to be for Halloween and she'd respond, "I'm going to be a bee. They go bzzzz and scare people." It was so funny.

On Wednesday my sister had her annual Halloween party. We got dressed up and went over to Jenn's house and got to make some fun Halloween crafts and eat some great treats. It was the first time I had both the kids in their costumes at the same time and they sure did look cute. And Isaac even kept his hat on. I wasn't sure he would.

Wednesday night was our ward Trunk or Treat. We walked to the church and there were all the cars lined up ready to hand out candy. We couldn't even contain Dylan. She was off like a bullet. She'd start at the first car, say "Trick or Treat," get her piece of candy, say "Thank you," and run off to the next car. Rarely was she at a car long enough to respond to a comment or question about her costume. I can't even tell you how many times we had to tell her to slow down and wait for Isaac.

Isaac also "got it" too when it came to the Trunk or Treat. He'd mumble something that had the inflection of trick or treat, then say thank you and bye bye so clearly when he was given his candy. Todd was even impressed with how many comments we got on his costume. He was sure no one would recognize that he was a beekeeper. We got quite a few comments on their costumes and how cute it was to see a bee and a beekeeper. And since their costumes were somewhat homemade, that made me feel pretty good too. Maybe there's a little hope for me yet!

Friday came along and we had chili at my parents house with the cousins as usual, and had a great time. My poor mom! She mentioned how she worked all day long to make two different types of chili, all the fixings for a great salad, and even tried a new dessert (that didn't even come out right, so it wasn't eaten) and all of us were in and out of their house in less than an hour! Can you believe it? She worked all day long to see almost all of her grandkids in costume for less than an hour. I hope she knows how much we appreciate her hard work and this fun tradition!

We got back home and set up the chairs in the driveway to hand out candy. Todd took Dylan and Isaac out to a few houses with the neighbors while I sat and chatted and handed out candy. Our neighbors have a little girl Dylan's age, and a son that's about a year younger than Isaac. Every year since the girls were born we've sent the dads off with the kids to trick or treat while us moms stayed behind to hand out the goods and chit chat. It's a nice tradition.

Soon it was time for Isaac to go to bed, and for me to take Dylan to a few more homes. Once again, she had it down. She'd run up to the door (or person sitting in their driveway) and say trick or treat and take her candy while saying thank you as she ran to the next house. I loved that this year she wasn't afraid of any of the houses and I could just stand on the sidewalk as she went to get her candy. She's growing up so fast!

Once we finished visiting the houses on our street we came back and talked some more with our friends while Dylan and Alice handed out the rest of the candy to the kids. I really think Dylan enjoyed this more than the trick or treating. She'd stand at the end of the driveway and yell that more kids were coming whenever she saw them....and they were usually three or four houses away.

We had a great night and a great week. I even went shopping the day after Halloween and started picking up things for next year. I just hope I have some luck next year convincing Dylan that I know what she wants to be for Halloween!