October 2012

Still nothing much has changed on the job front. Blaine is thinking of taking a job that would be an OTR driving job but we are still looking into our options.

Gracie is getting cuter everyday she is usually such a fun and happy little one.

She is now pulling herself up on everything. As well as cutting more teeth.

They closed our road off becasue they where going to put new oil down. Ryan thought this was so cool. You can see he took a chair out and watche as they did our entire side of the street. Its the little things in life.

The new Ribbon Store is about to open soon. We have all been working like crazy to get it ready to go. They are moving the Mesa store to Gilbert. It is HUGE this picture doesn't show half of it. We are all really excited to get it opend agian.

Childrens Museum

Blaine had the day off and it was Ryan's October break so we decided to take the kids to the children's Museum in Phoenix. We also thought it would be fun to take the light rail since we weren't sure if you had to pay for parking or not plus we knew it would make Ryan super happy.

I have seen pictures on other peoples blog of this place and knew that Ryan would love it.
The bad thing about taking the light rail was you had to walk a little ways from the station to the museum. It wasn't bad but with the kids they got tired of it quick. We learned that next time we will drive. Unless we are going to something right around the station.

At first Ryan was a little scared of the pool noodles but after the 1st time he thought it was great and didn't want to go any where else. This was our 1st stop we decided to go to the top and work our way down.

Ryan thought everything was pretty cool. Cameron on the other hand wouldn't go near the pool noodles.

This isn't a great picture but it shows that Cameron did eventually go inside the what we called a "tent" he stayed long enough for me to get a pic to bad it didn't turn out very well.

Then we went into the store room and it was pretty crowded but Ryan and Cameron both loved it. Cameron really liked that this little girl played with him. He went back a ton of times to get more stuff.

Ryan liked to be the cashier as well as the restock boy. He really like that it beeped just like the real store.

It took some convincing but I said lets go and find the car wash and then he was all for leaving this room.

Ryan was in HEAVEN bikes with cones speed bumps and a car wash some of his favorite things in life.

Cam thought it was pretty great to but he didn't use the pedals on this bike ad he kept running into the wall. But he still said that he had fun.

His face says it all he just went through the car wash and he couldn't be happier.

Cameron thought it was pretty cool just didn't like the end part touching him very much but he must have gotten use to it since he did this a few different times.

Cameron getting use to the car wash. Lets just say Cameron was ready to be done with this long before Cameron was.

Cameron wasn't so sure about going up in this thing. It is three stories high he had to have Daddy go with him.

In the bathtub the boys thought it was crazy to have a bathtub up in the air.

Gracie and mom hung out at the bottom so she could have a bottle. I looked out the window to see a storm coming and fast so I thought we should leave it was getting very dark and it was super windy and since we had a little bit of a walk to get back to the light rail we had to go. The boys where pretty bummed but we promised that we would come back sometime.

On our way home Grace got sick of sitting in the stroller so daddy let her out. She thought she was pretty hot stuff being like the big people.

We where at the stop just before the last one about a mile away when the doors closed and we figured we would start to move. Well that didn't happen the operator came on and said there was an accident ahead and it is blocking the tracks. They where not sure how long we it was going to take. By this time our kids where getting cranky and so we decided to walk it. As we got closer we saw what a mess it was. Ryan of course thought it was great.
It was going to be at least an hour before the train would get to move cuz after they finally got the truck rolled back over they had to pick up everything that fell out of the back of it and it had a lot of drywall all over the place. Then they said they would have to inspect the track. Cameron and Grace fell asleep on our walk back. It was hard to keep Cameron from falling out of the stroller since we have a sit and stand. It was starting to rain so we made it to the Safeway and had daddy and Ryan go and get the Tahoe and pick us up. It was defiantly an exciting end to our day and it made mom and dad really tired.

Ryan is still talking about this and its March already. Best light rail ride ever according to him

September 2012

September has come and gone. I will post some cute pictures that I have found for the month. Cameron is still in love with Super Mario Brothers. He always has to sleep with his Mario.

I am really having some fun with Instagram. Cameron still likes Angry Birds just not as much as Super Mario Brothers. We where walking around Kmart and he found this Hat. This is what he says that he is going to be for Halloween. I'm good that what ever makes him happy.

In other news Blaine quit his job. He has been at Arizona Interactive for 7 1/2 years. They have been good to us but we need to. Not only has he gone to school to become a Diesel Mechanic but he finished up his CDL school so now he is looking for a job driving truck. We decided that it would be better for him to leave so that he could train his replacement and now he can focus 100% on finding a job. I will start working full time at the Ribbon Store until he can find something.
They where very nice and threw him a going away lunch and invited me to join them. They had some super yummy BBQ so that was nice. I guess technically he still works for them just part time doing Clipper. That way it works out better for taxes and for there insurance and stuff like that. So we know he will be working at least one weekend a month.

John the big boss wanted to say a few words and he really paid Blaine some really nice complements. He said that if it wasn't for Blaine they couldn't of moved Clipper from California production to AZ. He talked about all the long thankless hours Blaine would put in to make sure that the product got out on time. It was really nice to hear and some of the people in the room didn't realize all that Blaine did around there. The guy standing by the balloons is Wade his replacement and everyone kept saying he has some really big shoes to fill.

Also in September we as a few members of the ward was able to do a 2nd yard sale  for Paula Layton and her boys. It was a three house event. We took all the left over stuff from the 1st one and still sold a lot for her and her boys. The turn out was amazing.

Trying to keep my head above water

You know in Nemo where Dori sing swimming swimming just keep swimming or something like that. Well that is what I keep thinking latley. Blaine got his CDL and all of his endorsements except passenger this month. I have applied to so many places and still NOTHING! It is the most frustrating thing ever. Blaines last day at his current job is a week from Saturday and we have nothing lined up yet. I feel like will we ever catch a break? What are we doing wrong why isnt anything working out? I really am trying to stay positive but it is really hard to do. We really can't do OTR it would be not a good thing for anyone involved. It would really do a number on Ryan and I would have to pull him out and home school him just cuz of how he would freak out. OTR is not an option so I keep praying that something will work out and that he will be able to find a good local driving job. I am so far behind on this blog partly cuz all I do is look for jobs and apply online. Between that and PTO stuff I don't have a lot of extra time but one of these days I WILL get caught up.

Camerons Chew Toys

Anyone who knows Cameron knows that he has to have his froggies. The 1 froggie started out as Ryan's when he was a baby. Baba gave it to him he slept with it a couple of times but that was it. Cameron came along and took it and we have never looked back. I looked everywhere for another just like it since Cameron took to it so much but only found one on Ebay. I still look every once in a while but no luck. The 2nd froggie was suppose to be a back up. It ended up turning into a twin. Cameron preferred way of carrying them is in his mouth like a dog. Worked out well when he was crawling but he has been walking for a while now and I think just likes it. His froggies are normally soaked with spit and super disgusting. Yesterday he called them his chew toy. They have no more eyes and most of the stuffing is coming out of the eye and mouth holes that I have sewn up many times but have finally given up on. Last night as we where getting ready for bed he took his froggie in his arms like a baby and started rocking and singing to it.

He's cute and he knows it.

I will try and find a before and after picture of froggie soon.

6 month old little sneak

Gracie turned 6 months old on the 7th the day before Ryry started school. This little girl has been super miserable since Sunday. Non stop crying even when I hold her, can't keep anything out of her mouth ect.. These teeth are going to be the death of us. She really wants to make sure she stays the baby of the family and trust me she was going to be anyway.

Don't let this smile fool you. This was in between crying so this only lasted about 3 minuets. For the most part until this week Gracie has been a happy baby. Its just these dang teeth that is causing all the problems. She still tries to smile but it doesn't last long. Although the good news is that Gracie is now 6 months old. All you moms know what a great mile stone that is when it come to Motrin. Oh ya she can have Motrin now so it lasts longer and she doesn't seem to mind the flavor of this one as much. So the last two days have been a little better. Thank you Motrin and thanks Graice for being 6 months old.
Some of the fun things that Graice does is roll all over the place. This morning I put her on the floor on one part of the living room and she rolled all the way to the the other side. She gets up on her knees and then scoots backwards. She LOVES her brothers especially Cameron. Cam always comes to check on her and love on her. Ryry loves her to and she gets excited when she sees him but he stays away most of the time cuz he says she stinks cuz of her bottle. He has super sensitive sense of smell. Gracie also LOVES her papa she always gets excited to see him when he comes home. I think when we finally move out there will be withdrawals on both parts. Now that Blaine hasn't been home the past week since he has started CDL school she hasn't seen much of him. I have a picture on my laptop of our family at Bishops Castle in Colorado.

She gets so excited and starts smiling every time she sees it. It is really cute to see how much she loves her daddy even though she is turning out to be a mamma's girl. About being a mamma's girl its funny the boys I could always pass off, walk out of a room and no big deal. Gracie forget about it. If she doesn't want you to feed her she won't eat. Daddy was trying to feed her and she didn't want anything to do with it. As soon as I get her and try no problem. Tonight I gave her to papa so I could get her meds and a baba walked out of the room she was super upset even got a tear going as soon as I picked her up she turned back looked down at papa and had a huge grin on her face and was no longer crying. I am really worried about the next few years and this girl she is going to be TROUBLE. Its a good thing that she is cute.

Speaking of TROUBLE maker I put her in the bumbo while I was trying to put groceries away. I thought she was far enough away from the popcorn. I was wrong. I had my phone in my pocket so I took a couple of pictures. I love the 1st one cuz I was saying no Gracie that isn't for you. You can see Cameron's hand in the picture cuz he was going to take it away from her and you can see that she is batting it away. The next one is great cuz she gets a little lick. This isn't normal popcorn, its Gma Matthews Carmel popcorn that has coconut flavoring on it. She put some on her tongue made a funny face and then I took it away from her. She reached around to try and get more and was mad at me when I moved her. That is when I saw her little hand head for her mouth again. That little stink had a popcorn in her other hand and I didn't see it cuz she had it clenched tight. See what I mean about TROUBLE.

I don't have her stats yet cuz we see "Dr. Bill" on Tuesday.

1st Day of School

Yesterday was the 1st day of school (finally). It has been a rough last few weeks. Ryan does really good with a schedule and something to do other than fight with his brother. I still however don't get why we start school when its 115 outside. It would be so much better if we started after Labor day and got out later in June. Its not this hot in June the kids can't even go outside it is so hot. Even worse Ryry can't walk home cuz it is just to dang hot.Anyway we did really good picking out his outfit before bed Tuesday night and he even got to bed by 7:30. Not asleep but to bed so that was great. He had asked me two days before when he was going to get to go back to school so he was happy. Life for me had been a little crazy with being the new PTO president and all. Having to feed the teachers Monday all by myself cuz Ashley couldn't come. So I took Ry and for the most part he was a great help along with a couple of other people who helped out.
Ryry got up had his dry captain crunch and then we headed out the door. Blaine went into work a little late so we could walk Ryry to school. (we should have drove to freakin hot) Cameron decided to come along in the stroller and it was a good thing that we left Gracie at home cuz it was already 98 at 8:15 in the morning.

I really don't get why this kid can't smile normally when you tell him to. Its a good thing he is cute.

He is so dang cute and excited to be in 2nd grade. We find out before school is out who his teacher is for the fallowing year. Ya I know they are not suppose to tell you but we have to work with him all summer getting him ready for the change. I tell his teacher that had him the year before, you know his little tendencies and you know the other teachers so pick who you think will do good with him. So far so good. We found out that he would have Ms. Munoz. She is super nice and LOVES hello kitty so that should make teacher gifts really good for me. I have heard from a few different people how great she is. She is very understanding but not a push over. We had a meeting the day after school was over last year with Mrs. Vogt his 1st grade teacher and Ms. Munoz his new 2nd grade teacher. We got to see what room he would be in and stuff like that.
A week before school started I saw that people where posting on Facebook who there kids got for teachers. I had made a comment on Aprils saying cool Ryan and Sophi will be in the same class again. Went out to the mail box just to make sure that is who he had and the postcard said Maldanado. Holy crap how did this happen. I called the school immediately and talked to Margaret. Nice thing is I have been working with these ladies most of the summer so that helps. I told her about the meeting and she asked if I filled out a parent request form I told her no since the teachers had it figured out. She said she would have to call the teachers and figure out what was going on. She said it would take a couple of days especially since the teachers didn't have to report back until the fallowing Thursday. I figured it would all work out otherwise I guess the perk of being PTO president I can just say no money for anyone till RyRy has his class fixed. Granted I wouldn't do that but it sounds great and powerful right? The next morning around 10:00 Margret called back. I had figured it was about PTO stuff but she said that everything was taken care of in regards to Ryan. John told her just to put him back in Ms. Munoz class so everything was fixed. One stress taken off my back I was so grateful to have everything fixed and so was Ryry. I was making copies that day that the teachers came back and Mrs. Vogt was in doing the same and she said I don't know what happened with Ryan and she was super sorry and was glad that everything was fixed.

Ryry said that his backpack was to heavy so it got to ride in the stroller with Cameron. It was so hot Cam had his water gone by the end of the street.

Great it's already started he doesn't want to be seen with his mom and dad. He is big enough to walk alone. I told him he will never be big enough to not have his mommy around. I did however tell him that he could walk to school one of these days. Although today he was running late so that didn't happen. Don't know when that will be. He said that his 1st day back was fun and they made a cute little art project with there hand that they colored then glued into the sign I love you. for the 1st time ever I cried reading the little note. Ryan has been in school since he was 2 years and 9 months and I think the day I put him on the but I got misty eyed but at the same time I was just hoping he would go to school and that someday he would talk so it was a little different.