Happy 4th Birthday Tristan Phoenix

My little boy turned 4 years old yesterday. I cannot believe how fast time flies by and how big he is getting. Tristan is such a special little man and I love him so much! He was so excited for his birthday because he knew daddy would be home. Devin actually came home late Friday night and was here in the morning. When Tristan saw him he was so happy and gave him the biggest hug. All day long Tristan was Devin's little shadow. Devin bought everyone a Boise State shirt and Tristan was so excited to wear his. At first he was concerned that it was a girls shirt because it was long on him but we assured him that it was ALL BOY.
We had planned a birthday party for him but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and no one was able to come. I felt bad for him but we made sure to make it a special day for him. We opened presents and took him to McDonald's than we came back home to eat cake and ice cream and than watch "The Last Airbender". I think he had a good day.

Tristan @McDonald's Tristan w/the Iron Man toys

Eating his cake and ice cream

such a cheesy grin

His Star Wars Cake

Slumber parties and Donuts with Dad

Devin has been gone for just over a week and we have 3 more days to go. It has been such a long and exhausting week! I had most of this week scheduled off prior to Devin's trip was scheduled and I'm so glad it worked out this way. Trying to juggle work and the kids schedule by myself last week was tough!

For my vacation I have a huge to-do list and so far I've completed none of them. I am SO tired! All I want to do is sleep--I think it is my bodies way of getting ready for the baby to arrive. Good for the baby but not good for my list. Tomorrow I WILL get something done!
Last Friday and Saturday night the kids and I had a slumber party. We all piled up in my bed with treats and watched a movie until we all fell asleep. Tristan is so cute he wants to have a slumber party every night now. I've created a monster! Not sure where Devin will sleep when he gets home.... ;-)
Yesterday I helped out at Cortlynn's school for about an hour. This is fun because I get to know the teacher and the other students. I almost wonder if helping stresses Cortlynn out a little bit. Yesterday I was timing different students on their multiplication tables and poor Cortlynn was so upset when she didn't finish hers: she was only 1 off and she completely broke down. I felt so bad for her. I tried to talk to her about it later in the day but of course she didn't have answers for me---just that she was tired and had a bad day.... Since she had such a bad day I decided to have today be a "Cortlynn Day".
To start off the day they had a Donuts with Dad morning at her school. Since Devin is out of town I decided to take her. I was shocked by how many dads actually showed up. We had to wait outside for about 5 minutes to even get into the school there were so many dads. It was fun-we had juice, a donut, and than we sat in the library and read a book for a few minutes. Cortlynn was glad I was able to go with her. After school I took her to get a haircut. She loves to get her haircut so I knew this would make her day. I hope this made up for yesterday.

Cortlynn eating her donut at the school today.....

Tristan's FIRST (professional) haircut

Since today was Veterans Day the bank was closed and so was Tristan's daycare so it became a mommy and son day. First thing on the agenda was getting Tristan an actual professional haircut. I was putting this off forever because he is such a drama king I knew it would be an exhausting appointment. I tried to make it a positive trip--and told him we would go to McDonalds for lunch when he was all done. That seemed to work until we pulled up to the salon. When he saw the front door he began to cry and tell me that only girls get their haircut there and he didn't want a girls haircut. (oh great, what am I doing?) We get inside and I explain that this is his first time and that it may be slightly traumatic. He was really good for the first 10 minutes. 10 minutes was his limit.....she pulled out the clippers (with a purple comb on it) and he freaks out. "I DON'T WANT a GIRLS HAIRCUT!!!!" We tried to console him and the tears that came out were HUGE! The poor little boy. I took the camera but I knew that would make it even worse. She continued to cut the back while she combed the rest to the front--ooohhh-this was not good. He really had a girls look and he wasn't too happy about it. A few more minutes past and I held his hand while she attempted to clean up the stray hairs and make it even. At this point he looked at all the hair on the floor and the cape he was wearing and began to cry again, "Mom, I don't want all my hair gone. I want my hair back." Too late for that. I'm glad that is over and next time he will be going with Devin.
Cortlynn came home from school and told him how much she liked it and than touched his hair and he preceded to tell her not to touch his hair because she was going to mess it up. I'm happy with the haircut but he looks like he aged about 2 years. He really looks like a little man, not my little boy. ;-(

Below are a couple of photos I took in the car right after the event. If you look close you can see that his eyes are red and he is still pretty mad at me.

hmmmmmm...

I swear I tell myself I'm not going to go a week without updating the blog-but here it is over two weeks since my last post. So much has gone on so I'm not going to bore you with me trying to update all of you with the last two weeks; I'll just vent. ;-)

Tristan and Cortlynn had a good Halloween and have been so busy. With school, dance, preschool, and Tristan being too big for naps--these kids are exhausted by the end of the day. This pregnancy is kicking my butt. It could be that I'm not young anymore or it could be that I don't take the time to take good care of myself; either way--good grief, I'm so tired, sore, itchy, big, waddling, you name it. Today I had a doctor appointment and everything is progressing normally. She hid from the nurse again and trying to hear the heartbeat was almost impossible. The baby is low and her head is in position for the big event. Not too sure if I will go until my due date or not. Based on her lack of patience-I would say she is eager to come into this world.

Devin was volunteered to travel to Twin Falls to help with the Fred Meyer Re-Grand Opening. Lucky us. He was told it would be from Nov. 10 thru the 19th (he would be back in time to celebrate Tristan's birthday). Well-wouldn't you know it--he gets part of his itinerary and it shows him checking in on the 9th and checking out on the 20th. So that was the plan; until we get home from the doctor and there is a message on the phone wondering where he is.... WHAT?! Yep-someone messed up (surprise) and he was supposed to be there this morning. He packed his bag and away he went. How frustrating. It only went down hill from there. We were told that the hotel was all paid for and not to worry about it. NOPE-he gave them his debit card for incidentals (using the phone or renting a movie) and the hotel has charged almost $400 to his account so far....NICE! Hopefully that gets corrected and they don't decide to charge his debit card for the entire 10 nights. Tristan is having a hard time understanding that he won't be home and cries. It's pretty sad--I guess I'm going to have a roommate while Devin is gone and maybe his feelings won't be hurt as much.

The week in review

This has been such a busy week. Between doctor appointments for me and the kids and dentist appointments for the kids; it didn't leave a lot of time to get the bedrooms rearranged before the baby gets here. The dentist visits went well and Tristan is getting better every time we go. He is such a sensitive little man that X-Rays were not an option. His gag reflex is too strong and they didn't want to traumatize him. He also couldn't watch the movie on the ceiling because the lights were too bright and the two pairs of sun glasses weren't cutting it. He did ok with the cleaning part but refused to lay down-nope, he had to sit up and have them cleaned. Too funny. Cortlynn had another No Cavity visit and was so proud of herself.

On Thursday I woke up early to help at the school and than I came home to bake cakes for the Harvest Hoedown. Four cakes later (I decorated them but didn't go all out like the last couple of years) I was done baking and moved on to cleaning out the toy room. Switching out rooms for the kids is so much work. I had an entire truck load of items I took to the DI which included an old mattress. WOW---I really shouldn't have carried all of that stuff-I sure paid for it later. The Harvest Hoedown was fun. The kids were able to dress up and play carnival games. Texas Roadhouse catered the evening and it was very tasty. Mmmmm mmmm good!

Earlier in the week I went to the doctor for a baby appointment and failed my blood sugar test. So-I had to wake up early and be in Idaho Falls by 8:00am Friday morning for a morning of blood tests. Talk about a boring morning! Since you really can't do anything or eat anything-all I did was sit there and watch awful morning shows which included Kathy Lee on the today show. This was such torture! It was almost as bad as listening to one of the women getting her blood tested---holy cow what a drama queen! I seriously thought she would have an ambulance come and pick her up because she was such so tired and in such pain where the IV was placed...She acted like she was on her death bed---such a whiner. After the tests were done I went to Subway in the mall to get something to eat. I was starving! While there a women that was at the ear doctor on Monday walked in. How weird is that to run into the same person 5 days later at a completely different location?! The funny thing is I should have tried to take her picture because I swear she is the model for the Polly Pocket toys. No joke! She had the hair cut and the painted on smile. It was hilarious to see... I was waiting for her snap on clothes to come off and her plastic dog to bark...

This is the kids all dressed up for the carnival. My little Iron Man and my little Pirate cheerleader. Too cute!

A Few Days Off

I am taking a few days off from work and decided to take a few minutes to update the blog. Actually I created a "To-Do" list and this was included. I'm putting off the rest of the list because I'm just tired and want to rest.
Devin has this week off as well BUT has it in his head that he should be able to go hunting all week....he is mistaken! I need things done and he needs to help me with them. He did wake up at the bum crack of dawn today to go hunting....Yippee! 5:00am was the time and he wasn't the only one up. Nope---let's turn on all the lights and open all the drawers at 5:00 in the morning!!! I wanted to scream. Tristan heard him and thought it was time to wake up and watch cartoons----nope-mom is the bad guy and made him get back to bed. He needs all the sleep he can get since he is too big to take naps now. What a little man he is becoming.
Yesterday I had a baby doctor appointment and this little bundle HATES the visits. She will not sit still long enough to have her heartbeat counted; in fact-she will kick the nurse away. What a little stinker and she's not even out in the real worl yet--I think I'm going to be in trouble.
We also took both kids to the ear doctor yesterday and they were too funny. The first thing Tristan said when the doctor came in was, "My ears are all fixed!" He was right-they are fixed-yeah! Cortlynn has no change in her ears/hearing--the doctor just wants to make sure that she sits at the front of the class and when I told him that she starts in the front-but the teacher will always forget and move her to the back. Well-this isn't acceptable so he will be writing a note to the school to make sure she doesn't get moved. Sometimes the school will do what they think is best and you have to put them back in their place.

More droppings, a rat, and a magic doctor...

This has been another one of those "weeks". We have not caught any of our mice and I'm quite disgusted by this. We know they are still around thanks to the droppings we find and have to clean up...I know that vacuuming mice crap isn't the safest thing for a pregnant women to do but neither is going completely nuts in thinking that she sleeps in a bed with them. Maybe I should invest in some cats.
Ironically, Cortlynn found out that she will be a rat in the 4 Nutcracker performances this December. Too funny! She is so excited to be a rat AND to be able to perform in all the performances including on "tour" in Blackfoot. Now the extra classes and running around begins; but it is worth it in the end.
Tristan has been too funny again this week. He has so many questions pertaining to the baby and I laugh at every one of them. A few of them include:
"Mom-does the baby pee and poop in your tummy?"
"When I was in your tummy did I fart?"
"Will the baby like to listen to Michael Jackson?"
"Can the baby listen to Michael Jackson now?" (I place headphones on my belly @night and the baby listens to Mozart)
"Did the baby get in your tummy by a magic doctor?"

These are just a few of the funnier ones....what a cutie.

I had a few meetings in Salt Lake this week so I had to stay in a hotel for 2 days. I really dislike travelling when I have so many other things to do at home and at work. This coming week is the same way---more traveling. I guess I need to get the traveling done before I'm not able to in a few weeks.
The baby has really seemed to grow the last little bit. I've actually had to break down and wear a maternity shirt at work because my other shirts are getting a little snug. My tummy has really popped out this week too....there is no denying that I'm expecting. Customers have made comments the last 2 days and were shocked to find out that I've hid it for so long. Tonight I had a regular customer come in and actually tell me that I'm too old to have a baby! Who says stuff like this??? I'm 34 for crying out loud! I can't believe the nerve of some people.