The Last Post of 2014

Every year I say I can't wait for the year to be over and this year is no exception to that statement.
This year has been pretty good.
Let's see if I can recap the year.....

JANUARY:
Miss Kourtney turned TWO! My kids are growing up so stinking fast!
Kourtney is now going to be THREE in 3 days!It makes me sad because she is my last baby!

Berto and I were fortunate enough to go to a Suns game and get almost front row seats. One of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.


FEBRUARY:

Berto and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. The 2 year itch they call it.
And Valentine's Day of course...

MARCH:

Berto turned 30!!!
We went to California and celebrated with my Grandma. We went to Outback steakhouse for dinner. We also took Matthew to Disneyland and California Adventure. We got to see Cars land for the first time and it was so much fun!

APRIL:

We moved Kourtney to her own bed. It didn't last long. Our current sleeping arrangements include her in my bed every night. Which I'm okay with. I like my kids sleeping with me.

We went to the San Diego Zoo. That was a lot of fun! We saw lots of fun animals!

MAY:

Kourtney's Cat Obsession grew to a whole new level.
Matthew was obsessed with walking around the mall. They both only like going there for the carousel.
Matthew's very last day of preschool was May 21st. We got to go to the Aquarium as the end of the year field trip. Aunt Kinsey came with us.

Mcdonalds came out with the creepiest, weirdest Happy Meal box which ended up being the new "character." He's still around and still creepy as ever. I love creeping Kinsey out by randomly sending her pictures or videos of him.... haha.

JUNE:

June must have been pretty uneventful because I have no idea what we did that month.....

JULY:

Matthew turned 5!
He got a Wii U for his birthday which was super exciting!
I made him a ridiculous Mickey Mouse cake.

We celebrated the 4th of July with our good friends Rich and Roz. Both kids got to hold a sparkler for the first time. And I even held one which I haven't done since I was a kid.

Kourtney discovered Selene's Minnie Mouse bike and that turned into a disaster! A week of her whining and asking about the minnie mouse bike! We finally found her one and she was so happy!

AUGUST:

Matthew started KINDERGARTEN!
This day was so bittersweet for me.
I was so happy for him to be in school making friends and keeping busy which he needs. But at the same time I was so sad realizing he was growing up and he was no longer my little baby boy. I think I cried more than he did.

I finished my Beauty and the Beast cross stitch. And started The Little Mermaid.

SEPTEMBER:

Just busy with all things school related. Homework..... you name it. all school.
Of course there was also the bullying issue. That was difficult.

OCTOBER:

Both kids got Croup. That was Hell.
Steven moved into his own place.
The kids picked out their Halloween Costumes. Matthew was Captain America and Kourtney was Sofia the First.
We played at the park. Went to the splash pad with Grandma, and spent more time at the mall.
We went to daddy's job for the Halloween Party and then went trick or treating with Berto's mom, Kinsey, and Korbin.

Matthew had his very first school official school field trip to Schnepf farms. I volunteered as a chaperone. IT was fun but WAY TOO HOT!

We got Matthew's Kindergarten school picture.

NOVEMBER:

We spent time with Berto's mom. She was here the whole month.
We put up our Christmas decorations, celebrated Thanksgiving, and of course did Black Friday.
We saw some AMAZING Christmas Light displays. We went and saw Santa. Sent out Christmas cards. AND the vapor rub disaster.....

DECEMBER:

This month has just been the stress of Christmas and all things that go along with that.
We got to celebrate Christmas Eve with almost everyone. (Me, Berto, the kids, Aubrey and Ben, Kinsey, Steven, mom, and Mark.) It was nice having everyone at the house just hanging out.

Christmas it was us and my mom and Steven. Everyone else was either working or had plans. It was kind of a strange Christmas. I still had fun hanging out with my mom though.
The kids got so many new toys. Unfortunately, Berto had to work Christmas morning. So we got up at 6am so he could be here to see the kids open and then he left. So I was left with the task of building EVERYTHING! That took almost 2 hours to finish everything! Ridiculous!
I took the kids to Freestone Park the other day to the little train park. They had a lot of fun.
I let Matthew go play at the the little park outside our apt by himself for the first time. (There were other kids there) It made me feel like he grew up 5 more years!

I'm ready for this new year to start. I'm ready to move forward. Move out of this apartment to somewhere cheaper so we can save some money. Focus on Matthew and school so he can continue to make progress. Focus on my relationship with Berto since we don't get to spend a ton of time together because he has to work so much.
And just watch my kids learn and grow.

I'm ready for 2015.

McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park

McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park

Serrano Family

The whole family Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Kourtney's Toys

Matty's Toys

Christmas Morning

Freestone Park Train

Freestone Park

Goofballs

Playing all by himself

Christmas stuff, Fun activities, & Santa

This month has been crazy. I guess I should say last month and 13 days of this month.
Berto's mom was here until the 7th and we tried to do lots of fun stuff while she was here.
There is only so much you can do that doesn't cost a fortune.

We had a pretty good visit for the most part. A couple of speed bumps but all is good.
At the end of November we put up the Christmas tree and decor. I love this time of year. The lights, the smells, the happiness.... it just makes me happy.

We of course did Black Friday with all the other crazies out there. I don't know why but I actually like Black Friday. Not just for the deals but maybe the excitement of it all. I love to people watch because lets face it the craziest of the crazies are out on Black Friday!

I added some new decor to the Christmas decor. I saw it on pinterest. You hang icicle Christmas lights in your hall. It's pretty and makes a great night light. And it's true. Berto actually liked it enough that he suggested we leave it up all year!

I took Berto's mom out to Fountain Hills while she was here. Trying to find something fun to do. They have a fun park and the Fountain is of course really cool. I'm pretty sure she enjoyed it.

Christmas Lights.....
Holy Christmas Lights! We have seen some pretty spectacular Christmas Light displays this year already!
A couple years ago I saw on TLC's Extreme Christmas Lights a house here in Scottsdale so we checked it out. We had been before but no one but me remembers it. haha
This guy's house is amazing. Pictures of course do it no justice.He has fake snow, his lights are timed to music, you can go in his backyard which is completely decked out in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer characters. You know the old school clay model movie? Rudolph, his girlfriend (I don't remember her name), Yukon Cornelius, the abominable snowman.....
He completely transforms his backyard including his pool! I should have taken pictures...... maybe next year.

We also went to Christmas at the Princess.
Now this is an awesome family activity. It's $30 for parking but you can have up to 10 people in your car so its really not a bad price. It's at the Fairmont Princess Hotel in Scottsdale and it is amazing!
They have a train that goes through their lagoon of lights, a carousel with teacups which you can ride as many times as you want, Santa (although he wasn't there the night we went), a four story dancing Christmas tree, an ice skating rink (that costs extra), and lots of other stuff.
The kids had a blast!
We also took my mom and my brother Steven with us and I think they had a lot of fun too.
Kourtney made me ride the teacups with her 3 different times and that was hilarious. I wish I could have gotten that on video. She got so dizzy her head started dropping from side to side. Haha.
It was nice having most my family there. I haven't had that much fun in a long time.

We finally went to see Santa. I kept seeing all the posts on facebook from my friends about Bass Pro Shop. I didn't know until this year that the picture with Santa is free! How I never knew this I have no idea! So me and my mom went to check it out since we were going to go to the mall anyway to see Santa.
Now this place is cool!
I feel like its set up more for kids than adults!
Not only do they have Santa, they have a carousel too! There is a waterfall that drops into a huge tank of fish and they have the most amazing FUDGE! I'm totally going there from now on. Of course you only get one picture free so if you want more you have to buy them which we did.
And OMG Kourtney's face. She was perfect all through the line and the second Santa's elf said it was our turn she froze. She was absolutely terrified! So the picture this year was not great.....but it is funny.

I also did our Christmas cards. I procrastinated a little this year. I'm pretty sure they will all get to the people before Christmas but oh well at least I sent them!

We are almost all set for Christmas. Kids presents are bought and hidden. They just need to be wrapped. All that's left is the rest of the family which we will hopefully get done next weekend.

That's all for now!
Here's all the pictures from our adventures!

OH AND.........
We had this disaster happen which I have to document because it's pretty funny.

Kourtney was being REALLY quiet. And all us parents know this is NOT a good thing. I was just about to get up and check on her when she comes out and looks like this....

The top right photo is Matthew's hair balm. Bottom right is Baby vicks chest rub......
She apparently thought the pink lid was balm for her hair and globbed it in....
Oh my goodness. I washed her hair a total of 7 times. I combed cornstarch through her hair 2 times and I washed her hair with dish soap. This stuff is ridiculously hard to get out of hair!! Thank goodness for the internet. And shame on me for not putting it out of her reach. We're lucky it didn't get in her eyes!
But it's going to be a funny story when she's older!

Halloween

Halloween was fun.
We went to Berto's work celebration the day before. The kids love getting to see where daddy works, it gives them a reason to where their costumes twice, and we usually get a pretty good family pic.

Halloween day I volunteered to be a chaperone on matt's school field trip to schnepf farm. It was fun. A really cool place with lots of stuff to do, we just didn't have enough time to do it. We got there at about 10am and have to meet up to pick out pumpkins ans load the bus at 1pm. We did 2 rides, watched the pig races, and stood in line for 20 min for the roller coaster only to have to leave and run to meet up with the group. But it was fun.
Halloween night we did our usual route in the neighborhood near Matthew's school. The people loved their costumes and just couldn't get over how cute they were, especially Kourtney.

Life has been kind of blah lately. I've been sick the past 2 weeks with a sinus infection so I've been exhausted. I've been sleeping a lot which makes me feel bad because Berto's mom is here. But I have just felt like crap. And then a couple days ago I busted my toe trying to kick a stuffed animal into the kids room and I missed and hit the wall.
I didn't go to the doctor or anything but it doesn't take a genius to see its broken. Probably just a hairline because It's not super painful. Hurts when people touch it or step on it or you know to bend it all the way but for the most part I'm ok.
Just my luck.
The hall could be 25 feet wide and I would still manage to kick it somehow. Joys of being me.
Anywho, here's some pics.

School life, Bullying, moving, Halloween, and more!

Things have been CRAZY the past two months!!

Matthew has been loving Kindergarten! I really like his teacher. And I got to meet his new speech therapist and I just LOVE her. She explains everything in terms that I understand because lets face it they have their own language and unless you speak it you cant understand it.

He know his numbers 1-10 and can write the number word.
He knows his ABC's.
And he loves to play with the flashcards we have at home to practice his letters.
He even builds letters with his megablocks! haha.
He loves school. He made what I think will be a lifelong friend named Adam. Those two are inseparable! They are so cute!
There is only one problem at school and its this kid Jayden.
He's a bully. Flat out. He is bigger than all the other kids and he loves to intimidate all of them. He yells at everyone for getting in line before him or being line leader. A couple weeks ago he screamed in Matthew's face and pushed him for being line leader.
I got up and yelled at this kid and told him not to touch him and that he doesn't get to be a bully to my son. But now I worry that he is going to be targeted because I said something to Jayden. And the sad part is I'm not the only mom. I've seen this kid push, hit, and scream at least 4 other kids. And the moms are all telling me the same thing. They are sick of this kid. It's one thing when its one kid picking on another but when you have 5 or 6 different parents complaining about the same kid? It's a problem. One mom told me she went to see the counselor and the principal about this kid bullying everyone in the class and she was told that they are already aware!
If you're already aware of the situation WHY is this kid still bullying???
Parent/teacher conference are coming up at the end of this week so I'm definitely going to talk to his teacher about it. And if I don't see some changes in the next couple of weeks I'm going to see about talking so someone higher up. This is kindergarten! This stuff isn't supposed to happen in Kindergarten.

Miss Kourtney is growing like a weed.
Always learning something new without me even noticing. Although she has developed an attitude over the past couple of months that I am so done with.
I realize I have many many more years of this and its only going to get worse but shes still my baby and I need her sweet personality back!

Both kids had croup last week and that was a nightmare!
Plus on top of that I helped my sister, Kinsey move into her first apartment and then that same weekend I helped my brother move out of my house into his own apartment.
It's nice having the space. Kids are happier since they have more room which makes me happier.
While moving my brother I came across a dresser next to the dumpster at his house and it was in great condition!! I have no idea why someone would throw it out!
I didn't care for the color of the wood so I took it home and stained it and changes the handles. Looks brand new! I missed a few spots that I thought the drawers would cover when they were shut but thats something that can be fixed later if need be.

We were good parents this year and remembered to get the kids Halloween costumes early and not the  week before. Matthew is going to be Captain America and Kourtney is going to be Sofia the First. They are going to be so cute!

So that's life lately.
Berto's mom is coming at the end of the month.
Which means the holidays are coming!! My favorite time of the year! I have new decorating ideas I can't wait to try!

First Day of KINDERGARTEN!

Last Wednesday was Matthew's first day of Kindergarten. I think I was more nervous than he was. He was perfectly fine until he went to play on the playground and looked back and didn't see me (a man stepped in front of me so I was blocked from his view). He came running over crying hysterically because he thought I had left him.

I felt so bad. After that everything was an issue. He didn't want to get in line. He wanted me to hold him like a baby. He never wants me to do that. So I held him until the line started to move and then I made him walk to the class. He cried the whole way in, HUGE crocodile tears.
Broke my heart.

I got back in the car and burst into tears. I felt so bad leaving him there. I know this is part of life and it was going to happen no matter what. I just felt it came so fast and neither one of us were prepared.
When I picked him up he had a huge smile on his face. He had a lot of fun.
He likes his teacher and he likes his friends.
Thank goodness because I didn't think I could take another day with him acting like that.
So day 2 was better except he refused to go play because he was afraid I was going to leave him. He got in line and walked with the other kids but I could see tears in his eyes. Poor kid.
Change is so hard for him.

Here we are 5 school days later and he's a pro. He doesn't even hug me goodbye unless I make him.
His teacher does a Green Light System for behavior,
Green- Good behavior
Yellow- Warning
Red- missed 5 min of recess
Double Red- Missed all of recess

Well yesterday Matthew came home with a yellow stamp. Apparently he wouldn't stop talking and was disturbing others.
We had a serious conversation when we got home because he knows he needs to listen. He promised he would get Green Lights from now on.
He brought a green stamp home today so let's hope it lasts.

I'm not going to lie, having Matthew in school is doing wonders for my anxiety. I get some time away from him and by the time he gets home he's tired so he's very relaxed. Has no energy to annoy Kourtney or me and I am way okay with that.

The house is so quiet during the day. I almost don't know what to do with myself. haha

I finished number two in my disney cross stitch collection.

Beauty and the Beast

I am now working on The Little Mermaid.
I'm determined to have the whole collection!
Well that's all for now.

Looking back....

I was bored and I started looking back on my older blog posts.
As I was reading I realized I can slowly see my depression progressing.
I never thought it was that noticeable but after reading my earlier posts which were full of jokes and were bubbly and then reading some of my newer posts which are just blah. Not funny, not full of fun.
What happened?
And then I realized my life has been a whirlwind of stress, fights with my family, family drama, and massive anxiety.

The past 2 years have been terrible.
I've had to deal with family coming to visit and staying way too long.
My dad attacking me and blaming me for things that weren't even my fault.
My brother moving in with us (we don't have anything in common and don't really get along)
Fights with my mom over the above problem.
FIghts with my kids about sharing their toys because they have to share a room and no one gets what they want.

MANY MANY MANY fights.

I guess I'm just feeling overwhelmed.
I just want my family back to normal.
Where everyone sort of gets along and no one is yelling at anyone for anything.

I feel like my kids suffer the most from all of this.
No one wants to visit us anymore
No one wants to go places with us anymore
I go everywhere by myself. And I mean everywhere.
Its a rare occasion when someone actually WANTS to come with us.
Why?
Because no one wants to start a fight over nothing or bring anything up that will start a fight.
No one ever has anything nice to say.
We all have something to complain about.
It's very frustrating.

It's hard to get on my blog and be bubbly and write about things that are funny when nothing is really funny right now and hasn't been. Which is probably why I haven't been writing as often as I used to.

It's not just my family issues.
I've had health issues which I think is also from stress.

I need to find a way to improve myself so I can be happy again.
So I've decided when Matthew starts school and I can afford it, I'm going to get some exercise equipment and start working out. Better my body and maybe my body won't attack me anymore and I can start feeling better.
And in the words of Elle Woods,

" Exercise gives you endorphin's. Endorphin's make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands, they just don't"

Only in my case its not my husband, its my family.

I just wanna feel good again.
I don't want to feel like a crazy, ready to snap at any moment freak anymore.

Kudos to my husband for having to put up with all these issues and my emotions. It's a lot to take.

Sorry for the depressing rant but I needed an outlet.

I think with Matthew starting school next week its opening feelings that I didn't know were an issue.
He's starting kindergarten! I feel like its the end of his baby/toddler stage and the next thing I know he's going to be graduation....
I know he's going to have so much fun and I know it will be a welcome break from him... I just don't want him to grow up.

Next post will probably be from his first day.....


I'm not ready.

Disneyland!

We took the kids to see Bee-ba (great grandma) this past week. We had SO much fun! It was so nice to get out of the AZ heat. Even though its not a whole lot cooler in California.
We celebrated my birthday. The big 2-7!
We took the kids to Disneyland last Monday. It was Kourtney's first time there. She had SO much fun! She is fearless, so every ride she was just excited about. No hesitation at all!

Matthew had lots of fun too. He was a little more hesitant. He didn't really remember our last visit so everything was new and scary. Haha.
IT WAS HOT!
Technically it was only 85 degrees but the humidity makes it like 105 degrees. We were dying.
Luckily the little carts were selling mister fans. They were already filled with water and sitting in ice so they were AMAZING! We bought one and I'm pretty sure thats the only thing that saved us while we were there!

This Disney trip was a little strange for me.
In the past 7 years I've been married and going to Disneyland I have never, not gotten a churro or a souvenir. I make a point of stopping and getting both of those things. This time I didn't get a churro and I didn't even want a souvenir!
I think the people at the end of the night and the heat of the day just crept up on me and I got really irritated and just wanted to leave.

We lost a bunch of stuff too!
Matthew lost his sunglasses first thing getting off the tram at the entrance to the park.
I accidentally left our treasured mister fan on the monorail and it was GONE! I realized this while we were eating lunch and I almost cried. I was so upset because we had relied so heavily on that little fan to be even remotely comfortable.
Luckily we decided to stop at the lost and found to see if by some miracle someone had returned our fan. They didn't BUT they happened to have one and they gave it to us! And earlier in the day when we bought ours the guy told us if it breaks or leaks we can take it to any cart and they will exchange it. Well the one at the lost and found leaked so we exchanged it and got a new one!! So it worked out.
Then we realized we had NO wipes. NONE.
We learned that Disneyland does sell wipes and for only $2.49!
That's cheaper than walmart and target!
Turns out we left the wipes in the car.

We were able to see Mickey Mouse. I was pleasantly surprised that Kourtney didn't freak out! She said hi and bye and took a picture and was totally happy to see him! I wish we would have been able to see Minnie but her line was 45 min long and when we went back later she was gone. :(

This was also the only Disney trip I've done where I didn't get on ANY of the big rides. The one we tried to ride was Thunder Mountain and the second Matthew and I got in line they announced it was not working. Figures.
So we really went and only rode the kid rides. And I was okay with that. The kids had tons of fun and it was fun just to watch them enjoy themselves.

We were completely exhausted by the time we got back to Grandma's. Matthew and Berto passed out almost instantly. I stayed up for a little while but mostly because Kourtney was SO tired she couldn't stop crying. It was sad.

On Tuesday we took Grandma to Solvang for salt water taffy.
We literally drove 2 hours for 2 bags of salt water taffy and some pastries. It was totally worth it. Such a pretty drive too.

We came back Wednesday.
Back to reality.

It was a nice break. Can't wait to do it again!
Here's some pictures!

We had these painted at disneyland! We love them!