Joel McHale is coming to town!

I don't know if any of my blogging buddies watch the Soup on E! or not, but Joel McHale is coming to Celebrity Theater in November. Ryan and I are so totally going and I am so excited. Joel McHale is hilarious! He makes fun of celebrities and stuff in pop culture. I'm hoping that his stand-up bits are a lot like his show.

If you are interested in attending, check out the details HERE

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

One of Joshua's favorite songs is Twinkle Twinkle. He told me he wouldn't sing it, but I decided to try recording anyways. He's got a pretty forceful Twinkle. It looks like he is punching or something.

When it rains it pours

First off, my finger is much much better. Yay for that.
Now let me tell a story about Tuesday.
Tuesday was Ryan's birthday so I decided to take him a cake and his favorite bean burrito to his work for lunch. His favorite bean burrito comes from a restaurant, El Metate, on Recker and Main, near where he used to live and work. I drive out there on the 202 and stop for gas at Recker and McDowell. The battery in my car was then dead. My hand hurt, my kids were screaming their heads off, and the blasted car would not start.
I had jumper cables, but still had two different people refuse to help me jump my car. So then I was crying too. I gave up and asked Ryan to drive from Tempe to help me out, when magically the good Samaritan I had been praying for showed up.
A nice man saw the obvious signs of car troubles, hood up, jumper cables out, lots of crying, and offered to help. It took him all of 30 seconds to hook up the cables, I started the car, and off he went.
Ryan was still pretty close to work, so he could just turn around and go back. He never got his favorite bean burrito, but I did stop by and make him meet me to get his birthday cake.

Another ray of sunshine in the day was that I took my car to Auto Zone and they tested the battery while it was still in the car, and then took out the old one and put the new one in for me. All this happened while I stood inside the air conditioned store.

I still get a little emotional telling the story, because I just can't imagine if I saw someone in such distress that I would refuse to help them. One of the bad Samaritans was a Realtor. I should have written down his name and number off the side of his car and started an internet smear campaign. LOL!

The rest of the day went very nicely and Ryan had a good birthday. Thankfully, Wednesday and so far Thursday have been without major incident. I have been trying to lay low though. No need to tempt fate.

Let my bad experience be a reminder to be the good Samaritan and do what you can to help out. It has definitely been a reminder to me.

Walking wounded

WARNING: Slightly gory post, so if you don't want to hear about blood, stop reading.

You may or may not have seen already that today is Ryan's birthday. He requested lasagna for tonight, but I thought it might be fun to stock the week with some of his favorite dinners. Monday night was flautas. I got out a frozen chicken to boil for the flautas. I dumped the chicken in the pot and realized that it had one of those little absorbent pads stuck to it. Being the genius I am, I decided to use a sharp knife to get under the pad and pry it off. I'm sure you can see where this is headed. The knife slipped and I stabbed my index finger just about where your finger meets your hand.
LAST WARNING... stop now if you don't want to hear about the gore.


My first indication that something was wrong was the fountain{I mean that literally} of blood that came spurting out. I didn't stab very deep, but there just so happens to be a nice vein there. So I had a perfectly gory video game scene of blood spurting out all over the kitchen and my shirt.
I gathered my wits enough to put pressure on my hand and stop the bleeding. Then I called Ryan and totally lost it. He agreed to come home because I didn't think I had my wits about me to determine whether I needed to seek medical attention, or to bandage it myself.
I wish I had sucked it up though, because by the time Ryan got home it had swollen enough that I had some hand "meat" poking out of my puncture wound. Hey, you were warned.

Ryan got home and took care of me and the kiddies very very well. Instead of flautas we had Dominos pizza, which is also a fav of Ryans.

As Ryan was cleaning up me and the stove, sink, floor, etc he kept asking if I wanted pictures. He knows how I love to blog. He also likes to tease my very squeamish mother, so he wanted to take pictures to show her.

This morning I am hurting, swollen, and bruised. I am also trying to type 9 fingered, which takes some adjusting to.

One last thing in my own defense. If you were to look at the wound now, you probably wouldn't think it's any big deal. {I've been afraid to take off the bandage and peak, so I can't say that for sure.} If I had sliced my finger, or not hit a vein I'm sure I would have been able to cope better. Blood does not usually freak me out. However, I will be scarred for a long time by the way in which I bled. It really freaked me out.

28 things I love about Ryan

Today is Ryan's 28th birthday and to celebrate I have compiled a list of 28 things I love about Ryan. These are in no particular order.

1. He gladly will use a day off to take care of me and the kids when I am sick
2. He took part of the day off of work yesterday to tend to me when I stabbed my hand with a kitchen knife. {More on that later.}
   
3. He stays up too late listening to me talk about whatever random thoughts pop up in my head
4. He takes the garbage out without having to be asked
5. He changes a lot of diapers
6. He always knows how to make me laugh
7. He thinks it is funny that I find bathroom jokes funny
8. He makes me feel special
9. He knows just when I'm running out of patience and steps in with buckets full of his own
   
10. He takes a genuine interest in all my various craft projects
11. He is a worthy holder of the Priesthood
    
12. He is willing to try whatever foods I ask him to even though he is "allergic" to new foods
    
13. He is one hunky muffin in his jeans, checked shirt, and hat
14. He purposely makes jokes that only I will get just to make me laugh
15. He loves to play with his children
16. He loves to teach his children new things
17. He happily watches the kids so I can get away for a bit
18. Until we had kids, we went everywhere together. Now we go mostly everywhere together
19. He will lay on the floor in Joshua's room with him on nights that he has a hard time sleeping
20. He wears the tie Joshua and I made him for his first Father's Day, every week to church
21. He is a problem solver
22. He is always telling me about fun things he found on the internet that I thinks I will like
23. He calls me everyday from work during his lunch hour to chat
24. He makes the whole world better when I snuggle with him and lay my head on his shoulder
25. He gives a mean foot massage, especially when I was pregnant
26. He only left my side to get food when I was in the hospital for both births
27. He is always putting the needs of me and the kids ahead of his own needs
28. He is mine forever, and I am his forever.
    

I could easily keep going, but that sort of defeats the purpose of 28 things for 28 years.
I love Ryan to pieces and I am so grateful to have him as my eternal companion. I love you babe!

Picture update

It seems I have been slacking quite a bit on the picture taking front, so here is a little bit of catch-up.

My Mom retired from the Tempe Elementary School district on Sept 2 and they threw her a party. Here's a picture of Grandpa and Morgan.



A nice woman decided to entertain Joshua at the party by rolling a glass apple back and forth with him for a LONG time. Morgan got in on the action to. Look how enthralled they are.


Next we have some pictures of Morgan doing some of her favorite things, standing and sticking her tongue out.

Look at me Mom! Check out my 6 chompers!


Baby fall down, go boom. Baby had better hold on with both hands from now on!

Here I go again, I'm not afraid of anything. Here is what I think of you fear!



I'm sure you noticed that Morgan is using a case of water to stand up with. Well I bought it over a week ago and it got set in the living room while the groceries were coming in from outside. We quickly noticed that it is Morgan's favorite thing to climb on and the perfect height to help her stand. I'm sure it will stay in the living room a while longer.

Tonight my parents are having us over to their house for dinner to celebrate Ryan's birthday since they will be out of town for the joyous event. I'm sure even more pictures will be taken then.

Joshua's update

I would feel bad if I didn't do an update for Joshua too.
I hate the phrase "late bloomer," not for any reason I'll bother to explain, I just don't like it. So when I was told Joshua was probably just a late bloomer and he would one day go from very little speaking to full paragraphs, I was skeptical and possibly a little annoyed. However, Joshua's language skills seem to have exploded. I still have to act as a translator a good deal of the time, but he is improving daily. He is even willing to repeat what you say. I'm proud of all the progress he has made.

♥ He loves to sing. ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, I am a child of God, are some of his favorites.
♥ He sings the ABC song, but is also getting to where he can recognize about 75% of the letters.
♥ He loves his numbers, he can count to about 12 and his favorite thing is pointing out numbers when he sees them. When walking at AZ Mills mall, we always know what neighborhood we are in, thanks to Joshua.
♥ As of last week, Joshua can say his own name. It sound like Oshua, or Washua. I'd say this is an improvement to him answering "Hanna fast"{Thomas is fast} when asked his name.
♥ That is a good segue way to this one. Whenever Joshua is feeling insecure he will start talking about Thomas. Typically he will say Thomas is fast.
♥ Here's a list of some of things he says and what he really means

• Hanna - Thomas
• Orno - Gordon
• Who-do - Percy(He's actually getting a lot better with saying Percy, but who-do is just funny)
  
• Hames - James
• Hemmer Ham - Peter Pan
• Biff - Buffer (as in Thomas buffers with James)
• Bee - Grandma, or Grandpa
• Friends - Anyone who is knocking on the door
• Morna - Morgan
• Har - car
• Hurch - church
• No Morna hutch! - Morgan don't touch that! He is very concerned about Morgan touching anything.
  

♥ Now that Joshua can say his name, the phrase he uses most is, "Joshua Do it." Gotta love that one.
♥ His favorite foods are Beans and Rice or izza{Pizza}.
♥ He is still in diapers but today he told me when he went poo poo and even wanted me to change his diaper ASAP. He usually runs and hides from that.
♥ Joshua has some crazy good computer skills. He is so good with the mouse and clicking where he is supposed to/wants to. He didn't have a hope of not being a computer whiz between Ryan and myself, but it is now confirmed.

My { not so little} baby

Morgan is 9 months old already, September 5th actually! Holy guacamole, the time has just flown by. Last week she had her 9 month check-up and she is healthy as can be. Here are her vital stats:
Weight: 22lbs 10 ounces/ 95th percentile (yay for being back on the curve)
Height: 29.5 inches/ 97th percentile
Head Circumference: 19" / 90th percentile

♥ She is currently wearing 12 or 18 month clothes. Sometimes I make her wear 24 months just because the outfit is cute, but that is rare.
♥ She has FIVE teeth and is a little vampire, she has bitten me hard enough to break the skin twice. I'm trying to make it work for a few more months though.
♥ She still has a funky contact allergy with all things containing dairy.
♥ She loves to "dance" along with the music that her toys make. It's sort of a rocking back and forth that makes my heart happy.
♥ She is CRAWLING. It is an honest to goodness, hands and knees, tummy off the ground, crawl. Joshua was more into the scoot and drag so we are excited to see this development.
♥ Morgan is also pulling herself to standing. She is starting to think about making her way around the furniture, but we aren't there quite yet.
♥ She loves to babble. Buh, Buh, Buh, bye is her favorite, but sometimes she throws in other sounds for variety.
♥ Her hair is coming in pretty well and still seems to be some mystery color. It's a mix of blond, brown, and sometimes red in the right light.
♥ She has been sleeping through the night since she was about 8 months old and sleeps 3-4 hours during the day depending on the number of naps she gets.

We love her to bits!!