come to Papi

This might not be the most suitable post going into the Sabbath day, but I've never really been the proper type.

With a built-in babysitter living with us, my husband and I get many an opportunity for little dates. This weekend we had a romantic night out at a not so fancy Mexican restaurant (which are usually the best kind... I love finding hole-in-the-walls.) After dinner we hit Ross, where we bought this classy men's thong:

The dazzling bejeweled lettering is awesome, but the tag on the undies is what had me at hello. It reads: "FEEL IT. Papi is a term universally spoken, utilized and understood to celebrate the spirit, strength and sex appeal of today's young man. Papi is the man who has style, sophistication and sex appeal, yet has his own identity." If these don't say sophistication, I'm not sure what does... They retail for $18 a pop. We scored at Ross and bought them for a screaming $2.99.

Let it be known that my husband has never been, nor will ever be, referred to as PAPI. We don't typically shop for Christmas gifts in July, but when you come across a killer white elephant gift for $2.99, you just gotta buy. Socialize with us at your own risk: If we get an invitation to your Holiday get-together, your husband may or may not be coming home with these fancy undies.

birthdays, birthdays everywhere!

Today is my charismatic, Southern-talking, curly-haired brother-in-law's birthday. He lives far away in Georgia with my sister and their 5 kids. We miss them terribly! Lucky for us, we get to see them all in a few weeks!

For Randy's birthday, our family answered a few questions about him. The traditional birthday questionnaire has been quite a hit... in fact, it's gotten a little carried away. Instead of emailing out the questions and compiling them myself, I decided to whip up a Birthday Questionnaire Blog. It's been easy for others to access and so much less work for me to organize. I post the questions on the blog and let others answer in the comment box. On the actual birthday, we give the web address to the birthday girl/boy and they get to read all the answers. How simple is that? I am keeping them on the same blog so that at the end of the year, we can compile everyone's answers in a book. The only trick (when you have as many family members as I do and some people know their birthday questions are coming up) is to make sure you CHANGE the web address so the birthday person doesn't cheat and read all the questions before their big day. This is simple to do under settings/publishing. Once a birthday has passed, you can type up questions for the next birthday and let everything think on them for a while. I have LOVED being in charge of something like this. It makes me feel more connected to my family who lives so far away. For those of you who know and love my mom, she celebrated her birthday in June. You may want to read HER birthday tribute HERE.

This has been so much fun for our family and it really doesn't take THAT much effort. This past month, my sweet Grandma June had a birthday and I decided to do questions for her and invite the extended family to answer. So, I started her own blog and sent out the link. The response was overwhelming. Not only did all of her children answer the questions, but EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. of her grandchildren answered before her birthday. It was such an outpouring of love and I felt so emotional reading over her birthday tribute. (I cried like a baby!) I decided to take everyone's answers and compile them into a book at Kinko's. And even though my Grandma was able to read everyone's comments via the computer, I thought it would be special to have a hard copy to read any time she wants. The book was over 45 pages long and it was only about $12 to print. How's that for a meaningful, inexpensive gift?

A few days ago, my wonderful, sweet, spunky Aunt Karen had a birthday and we threw together a blog for her-- totally last minute. The day before her birthday, I sent out the link to her loving family. It was so simple and so easy, and the end result is really powerful. It's truly amazing how easily you can unite family members (who live thousands of miles away from each other) with just a few simple questions. These past few weeks, I have been reminded what an amazing family I have. I feel so lucky to belong to such a group of people.

Spread the love and start your own family birthday blog! I dare you!

on being a mommy

I dealt with my first "real" public tantrum yesterday. I realize this is a little late in motherhood for me to experience this, but after two really good boys, I got a crazy one. Zack has had plenty of tantrums at home, but never one out in public. We went to Cafe Rio to meet daddy for lunch. Zack wanted to go to Taco Bell instead (even though he loves Cafe Rio and could eat an adult-sized meal himself.) When I parked the car, he said he wasn't getting out. So we left him there. Eventually he came in the restaurant, but he was screaming-- and he wouldn't stop. I had four kids... two of them were babies. Aaron didn't join us for a while and Zack was inconsolable. I completely ignored him, which fueled the fire. Aaron eventually told him he was going to ask other parents in the restaurant if they could take him home with them because he wasn't allowed in either of our cars. It was the only thing that got him to settle down after 45 solid minutes of screaming. Apparently threats work with this kid. He was happy-go-lucky for a polar bear fieldtrip at the mall. Then it was a trip inside Walmart, a nap for the baby, and an exciting evening of scouts. The day was long and even though I was completely exhausted, my lamp wasn't off until after midnight. oy.

My alarm rang at 4:45 this morning... Aaron and I put on our running shoes and hit the road. The red sun peeked over the mountains and it looked as though a volcano was erupting in the far off desert. I was so happy to be out with my man-- and was grateful it was cooler than 110 degrees. The 1/2 marathon is just over a week away and I am getting anxious. We were supposed to go 10 miles this morning and I was determined to run like the wind. But a couple of miles into the run, I got a terrible headache. It was so bad that I had to sit down on the pavement and hold my head. I was honestly afraid that I was going to pass out. Aaron sat next to me and waited patiently for 20 minutes or so. When I felt well enough to stand up again, he held my hand and we walked home. I felt frustrated and defeated. My body wanted to run, but my head wanted to explode. As we walked home, I said to myself, "Why didn't the television show work out for me? Too bad I haven't heard anything. If I was still in the running for my own show, I wouldn't have to run this stupid marathon...." And just as I was feeling defeated, an answer came. It was clear and penetrated through my terrible headache. It said, "What you're doing is more powerful and important than any tv show. You are most influential as a mother." And I knew it was true.

Dealing with tantrums, cleaning up messes, kissing dirty knees, making home-cooked meals and folding laundry is pretty darn important. That doesn't mean it's easy. It's just after 8 pm and I am exhausted. My headache hasn't let up much and my baby is crying himself to sleep. He never does that anymore, but he's super sleepy and so is me. I just popped a couple of tylenol PM and I am heading straight to bed. Yeah for nighttime!!!

I am leaving you with a short message on motherhood. It may not touch you the way it touched me today, but you may need to come back to it on a difficult day. This motherhood stuff IS HARD! But it's worth it. then. now. forever.

my baby's gone and grown up

It's hard to believe he's already 8 months.

What did our family ever do without him? I can't remember.

He's silly, playful, independent, happy, and he eats as much as my other kids put together. Yesterday he had 12 ounces of formula, 1 package of instant oatmeal, 1 large banana AND a jar of baby food-- all before 9 am. I stress when I don't have something for him to munch on. While in the Adventuredome at Circus Circus last week, he ate everything I had brought for him in the first two hours.. I kept him satisfied with 3 NutriGrain bars.. yes, he ate 3 whole bars and then looked at me as if to say, "That's all you got?" He is literally eating us out of house and home.
He has two teeth and waves bye-bye. He can't crawl yet, but he scoots his little bum and turns in all directions. After a full belly, he sleeps a solid 12 hours a night and still adores his crib. He loves playing with his brothers and hardly ever wants to be held... by anyone, including me :(

And even with killer eyelashes, he is still such a big hunk!

He got a buzz cut like the rest of his brothers.. and wasn't exactly thrilled.
Happy 8 months, Sy-Guy!
We sure love our babymonster!

spent

learning to crawl can be SO EXHAUSTING sometimes....