We did NOT fall off the planet... I promise!

I'm totally slacking off in the blog department. I have no idea why. I guess just plain laziness.
My last post was after our vacation so lets see what has happened since??.....


SICK SICK AND MORE SICKIES!
Seriously we have been sick since January. It is SO frustrating!
After the kids got better from having the flu Matthew got a sinus infection twice!!
Kourtney has had at least 3 really bad diaper rashes, pink eye, and a double ear infection.
Just last week Matthew had the stomach flu, Berto had laryngitis, I got the stomach flu and now I have a sore throat!! Will it ever end!?
Hopefully this really ridiculous hot weather will kill everything and we can be well.

We had our first MAJOR accident in our house. Matthew fell and hit his head on his window sill and split his forehead open. Poor kid. I've never seen blood ooze like that sucker did. Only in movies. SO gross. It was a really deep cut. All the way to his skull. He had to get 3 stitches. One in the lower layer of skin and 2 on the outer layer. He did so good! They brought 3 nurses and the PA in for the stitches just in case he needed to be held down and they really only needed one to hold his head still. He had an entire audience in absolute aww in how good he did. 3 nurses, one fire fighter(observing), the PA, me, and my mom. He got 2 stickers, a popsicle, and a really cool toy for doing so awesome.
It's been a month since that happened and the stitches have dissolved and he just has a really clean cut pink line on the right side of his forehead. Hopefully it'll fade with time and we won't be able to notice.

WE MOVED!
AGAIN!
haha we are always moving it seems. One day we will stay put.
We moved down the street into another apartment. Its a little bigger than the one we were in and much much nicer. No rude neighbors as of yet and no nasty cigarette or weed smells! Its so wonderful. We have a garage so the car will stay cooler this summer.
overall we're pretty happy here. We also have a mini park right out our front door so thats nice on days when its not too hot. (which are becoming few and far between)

Matthew is almost done with preschool this year. His last day is May 22. They are having a field trip to the sea life aquarium. I'm actually pretty excited about this simply because I've never been and they're paying :)
He has improved so much since October when he first started in the program. I wish they would have the program throughout the summer especially for kids like Matthew who need the extra help.

Kourtney is her cute self. Always happy especially when she has food. My little fatty :)
She is growing like a weed. We're trying to get her to start saying words but she is stubborn and doesn't want anything to do with it. She does know how to throw things in the trash which we learned yesterday. Grandma changed her diaper and told her to throw it away and she walked right to the trash can. She just needed a little help putting it in.

I had a nice Mother's Day as well. Got some really pretty flowers and some really cute creations from Matthew that he made at school. Made me feel extra special. :)

Well I think thats all for now. Nothing interesting to tell. Til next time...

The One About Our Long Awaited Trip

So we've been talking about this trip for almost 2 months. Our original plan was to spend our 4 days in Las Vegas... After thinking about it we decided we didn't want to spend our entire vacation in Las Vegas simply because we don't drink and we don't gamble... what else is there to do??
So we decided to go to Vegas for one day and then drive up to San Francisco for 2 days and then drive home.
Of course a couple days before we were supposed to leave Matthew got sick. He had the flu. Poor kid was miserable. My mom is such a trooper for staying with the kids for 5 days.

We left Sunday morning and got to Vegas around 4. We checked in, stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. We drove around the strip and went over to the outlet mall. We were going to find somewhere to eat on the strip but we couldn't figure out where to park. We chose to eat at The Hard Rock Cafe. It was really good.
Our room was really nice. I've never stayed at a hotel like that. They had this weird sensor thing where if you pick up the nuts or water they automatically charge your account for them after 30 seconds. WTF!? I picked up practically everything before I read the brochure that explained that. Berto had to call the front desk to make sure we didn't get charged for anything and luckily I put everything down in time and didn't get charged!

The next day we drove up to San Francisco.... THE LONGEST MOST BORING DRIVE EVER!!!
We were going crazy!
We finally got there and checked in to the hotel. I was a little disappointed because we paid for the upgraded room so we would be on one of the top 3 floors but apparently the hotel is under renovations on the top 11 floors. So we should have been on floors 25,26, OR 27 but we were put on floor 16.
We still had a pretty nice view but I was hoping for something better. The first night we were there I thought it would be a good idea to walk to the BART station and take the train to Fisherman's wharf. Holy cow that was the scariest thing we've ever done!!
First off, NEVER walk around that town at night if you don't know where you're going and second of all, that train system is so dang confusing!!!
We were lucky that someone was willing to help us. We got on the train and made it to Embarcadero but by the time we got off that train I had NO idea where to go from there to get to Fisherman's Wharf. I was scared and cold so we waved a cab to take us back to the hotel.

OMG they gave us the cabbie from hell. This man drove like a maniac!! I knew it was bad when Berto was digging his nails into my leg. This guy took the steep hills at like 40 and almost ran people over. I couldn't get out of the cab fast enough. NEVER NEVER take a cab unless its a last resort. Seriously.
We ended up eating a pizza at the hotel because after that disaster of an evening we didn't want to walk anywhere else.

The next day we went to Fisherman's Wharf. We bought some bread at the Boudin Factory (Yummy). Got a couple T-shirts on the pier, saw the sea lions and Alcatraz and decided we were ready to go to the Walt Disney Family Museum.

We drive up to this beautiful building and I'm just so excited because I've been wanting to go for so long.....

CLOSED

Are you serious??
Apparently the museum is closed every Tuesday. My dream was crushed.
So we decided to go the Point Reyes because its one of my most favorite places ever.
We drive like 50 miles and guess what?

CLOSED

The freaking lighthouse is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays!
OMG everything I wanted to do is not working out.
Another dream crushed.
While we were on the beach we had zero service. When we were on our way back I had this feeling my mom was trying to get a hold of us so as soon as we got service I had Berto call her.

Guess what now?
Kourtney has the flu too and my mom has to go pick up Tamiflu at the Pharmacy and of all the things I left her I forgot to leave our pharmacy card. UGH!
ANOTHER dream crushed! I was hoping and praying Miss K wouldn't get this hellish flu that's going around.
Luckily Berto called the pharmacy and it all worked out so my mom got the medicine. Poor baby girl. My kids were so miserable and we felt so bad that we were on vacation and they were home.


We still had fun despite all the mishaps.

Our second night in San Francisco we just relaxed at the hotel. We had dinner down the street at a place I found on Groupon called Mel's Drive in. And the rest of the night we stayed in. Its probably good we did because it rained all the rest of the night. It was nice watching the rain and people watching from the hotel. I enjoyed myself.
At the last minute we decided we didn't want to drive straight from San Francisco to Arizona so we drove back to Las Vegas for one more night.
We stayed at The Luxor (the pyramid hotel).
It wasn't our favorite. It was nice but it was old. I wouldn't stay there again though.

Freezing at the hotel

Point Reyes

Point reyes

Golden Gate Bridge

Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf

Relaxing

Our View in San Francisco

We got up early on Thursday and drove home.

All in all we had a really nice time away. We really really needed it.

A BIG thank you to my mom for being a super hero and taking care of my sick babies!!

View from the Luxor

View from outside our room inside the Luxor

Playing Catch Up

The lack in blogging is due to the lack of energy and me just plainly being lazy.
Let's see, what has happened since January.....

Miss K turned 13 months.... Good grief she's growing so fast!!

Valentine's Day came and went
We did get to go out the Friday after Valentine's Day to celebrate. We went to BJ's Brewery and walked around the mall a little bit.

We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! I can't believe its already been that long. We went and saw the movie Side Effects. It was pretty good. Very suspenseful.

We decided on our vacation spot. We are going to Las Vegas for a night and then driving up to San Francisco and staying a couple days there. We are driving so it should be a nice drive as well.
I am so looking forward to a vacation. No kids. It's going to be wonderful.


OH and it SNOWED!!! Here in Gilbert right outside our front door. It was so cool!

Here's Miss K in the dress my Grandma made me 23+ years ago. She looks so adorable!

That's all for now. Hopefully we'll take lots of pictures on our vacation and I'll have more to talk about. Til next time :)

A New Year Resolution??

Remember when I said I don't make New Year Resolutions? Ya, I thought of one.... after the fact though...

So back before Christmas, like the 2nd week of December, a filling in one of my back teeth fell out. I immediately felt a sense of terror because I knew this meant I would have to go to the dentist.
I'm not going to lie. I have the biggest phobia of the dentist. HUGE.
Not just I'm afraid, I don't want to go but I literally have anxiety 2 days before I have to go, I cry the second I see the dentist (totally uncontrollable), absolute fear. The dentist for me is like people being afraid of spiders. I just can't help it. I've had some pretty traumatizing experiences at different dentists over the years.
And for these reasons I have not been to a dentist since I got my braces off in 2005. No joke.
There was a period of time I didn't have insurance but I've had insurance for the past 3 years and I just never went. Always, always, always think about it because I want to have nice, white teeth, but then my fear would sink in and I would just forget it.

Anyway, my brother also had to see a dentist last year and I happened to find the one he went to and my mom told me he was a really nice guy and that I would probably like him. Since I lost a filling my mom called and scheduled an appointment for me.
The staff was really awesome and didn't make me feel stupid for crying even though I always feel stupid and they even told me stories of people twice my age that won't even get into the chair... haha. I guess I'm not the worst....
They offer Nitrous Oxide at this office so they gassed me and the visit was tolerable. I had a minor freak out in the middle and started to cry for who knows what reason. Probably the sound of the drill... I got my filling re-filled and he even replaced the one in front of that since it was starting to decay and I was already there. The dentist gave me a prescription for an anti-anxiety medication to take next time I go to the office.
At the end of my appointment I actually made a follow up appointment for an exam to have my teeth looked at and see what I needed done.

I went at the beginning of the year to have the exam. I needed a deep cleaning for obvious reasons and I have a few fillings that need to be re-done and a couple cavities to be filled which was to be expected.
I went back last week to have the 1st part of the cleaning done. I took my anti-anxiety medicine and I was also gassed (even though I couldn't breathe it in most of the time because my nose was so stuffed up) and I don't really remember too much from that appointment...
I do know that all the tartar is gone and my teeth already look and feel 100 times better that I am actually looking forward to having them cleaned. (Not the actual appt but the end result)
I have a couple more visits to go before I'm completely done but I am just so happy to have found a dentist I really love.

Everytime I go he asks how I'm doing and he makes it known to me that they will do whatever it takes to make it so I'll keep coming back. He is just a nice person and really cares. He is the exact dentist I NEEDED to make my experience better so that maybe someday I can be normal and just go to the dentist without medication or gas.
His name is Dr. Curtis Clifford.
He.is.amazing. And so is his staff. I would so totally recommend him!
I actually like him so much I took Matthew to him for his first dentist appointment too! He did really well and has perfect teeth which I hope will stay that way!

So my New Year Resolution... to get my teeth completely fixed and beautiful again so that all I need are my yearly cleanings and nothing else.
I am in the process and I hope to be done by March.

I feel so proud that I am tackling this fear even if I do have a little help from meds or gas. It makes me feel good to know that I am being taken care of and that they care for me and my teeth and not just my money.

On a different note:

Miss K had her first "major" owie....
She was running back and forth in the living room playing with Matthew and she tripped and went head first into my recliner. And of course not the soft part. She hit her forehead right smack in the middle and got a bruise right away and was of course so upset. I felt so bad for her. Then I started to worry. I called my mom who told me to call the pediatrician which I did and they told me as long as she is alert, her pupils are the same size, she's acting normal, and she's not throwing up that she is probably fine. I was worried about the bruise and they told me that its good that she bruised because it means that the blood released and is not building up pressure on her brain.
She is fine. Has a nice inch and half to 2 inch line down her forehead. Poor thing.

Anyway,
that's all for now.

The One about my Sweet Baby Girl turning ONE!

A year ago my sweet baby girl came into our lives.
There are no words to explain how much we love her and how happy she is a part of our family.

Miss Kourtney Lorraine

Born January 3, 2012

8 pounds, 1 ounce

18 3/4 inches

11:47pm

I can't believe how much she has grown in a year. She is no longer considered a "baby" she's a toddler! I don't want to accept it! She is my baby girl.

She is walking
babbling
waving
shakes her head no
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY
claps
curious
NO teeth
Drinking from a sippy cup
LOVES pancakes and Graham crackers
cuddles
smiles always
loves her big brother even when he's mean
LOVES her Grandma
a joy to be around! Always!

We had a small party for her the Saturday after her birthday. Just the family.
It was princess themed because she is, of course, a princess!
She was pretty grumpy unfortunately. The day before we took her to her one year appointment and she got 4 shots. She wasn't happy.
I tried to get her to make a mess and eat her cupcake but she really didn't want anything to do with it.
Hopefully she'll have a better birthday next year.
Can't believe she's ONE!

The One About the New Year

First off....

We had a fun New Year! We celebrated with our good friends Rich & Roz and their 2 daughters. We ate, baked, watched movies, and the basketball game, talked, and the kids played. It was probably one of the best New Year's I've had in awhile. 

Kourtney got to play with Selene who is only about 3 months younger than Kourtney but pretty much the same size. It was so fun to watch them play. Both were so interested in each other. Poking each other in the eyes and noses out of curiosity. So cute.

Matthew got to play with their other daughter Jasmine who just turned 6. They had fun playing hide and go seek, monsters, and whatever else they did.

So far our New Year has been pretty great. 

We are only 4 days in and already we've taken a day trip up to the snow.

Kourtney turned one!

(entirely different post)

AND we have been on a date!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

LOVE,

THE SERRANO'S

Roberto, Julie, Matthew, & Kourtney

The One About being happy 2012 is OVER!

This is my annual end of the year post.
You know, the one where I reminisce about everything that has happened and what not.
Let me tell you this year has completely and totally sucked 100%.
Sorry. It just has.

There have been a handful of fun and exciting things that have happened but for the most part it was just another year.
So here we go.....

2012

JANUARY:
My sweet baby girl joined our family. January 3, 2012.
Life has been 10 times better because of her. She is the biggest joy and the happiest baby. We all love her very much.

FEBRUARY:
Berto's mom came to stay with us for 6 weeks to help with the baby and to do her annual visit. It was hard being a new mom and in a new place but it was nice to have her. We took Matthew to Disneyland for the very first time and Berto's mom for the first time in like 27 years. They both enjoyed it but I think Matty was a little too young. He was so tired the whole time and we couldn't go on any of the big rides. Next time we'll make sure he's old enough and tall enough before we go again. We also celebrated our 5 year Anniversary!

MARCH: Berto celebrated his 28th birthday. He's becoming an old man!! Is it sad that I don't even remember what we did for his birthday this year? Shame on me. My sister Kinsey also came to visit us in California for her Spring Break and we took her to the San Diego Zoo.

APRIL: I don't remember much happening in April. We celebrated Easter and Matty of course loved it. We decorated eggs and ate yummy food.  I know Miss K started to roll in April and I believe we took Grandma out for her birthday to Marie Callendars. I chopped off my hair again and totally regret it. Mostly because they lady didn't listen and cut like 6 inches more than she was supposed to. Good thing hair grows.

MAY: May was our HUGE decision month. We came to the conclusion we could no longer afford to live in California. We sat down and made a plan to leave and move back to Arizona. We packed up and moved in a matter of days. My mom and brother came out for vacation and ended up helping us move back.We knew it was going to be a long Summer...This meant that Berto and I would be separated until his contract with his company was up in October.
5 months. So we packed everything up and moved within a matter of a week maybe even less. Back to AZ. BEST decision we ever made. We are glad we had the opportunity to see what living in California was like and that we learned that we really do love Arizona. I just wish it didn't cost us and everyone we love so much money. (you know who you are and we are forever grateful)

JUNE:
Nothing too eventful. We started to potty train Matthew. SUCCESS!
Kinsey moved in to help me with babies and keep me company because being alone sucks!!
We also swam a lot and got to see Daddy.

JULY:
I celebrated my 25th birthday. Kourtney turned 6 months, Matthew turned 3. Matty had a pirate birthday party which was a lot of fun. Kourtney was trying to sit and getting up on all fours. We also traveled back to CA to see daddy and went to Legoland for the first time. We had lots of fun!
It was also one of the hardest months for me this year. I had to  make the heart wrenching decision to put my sweet cat Bobbi to sleep. She was sick with liver problems. It was a situation where I could pay tons of money to maybe get her better or pay lots of money for her to continue to be sick and suffer. I just couldn't take the risk of her suffering. I miss her everyday and I am still so sad that she is gone. I know she's in a better place.

AUGUST:
Miss Kourtney was a full blown sitter!! Matthew was evaluated because at his 3 year doctors appointment we were told he was behind in his speech. We had to get him glasses for an astigmatism before we could move forward in the program. Kinsey moved out into Clif's house. My dad also came to stay with us for a week. He took Matty fishing for the first time and he caught a fish! We got rained on the first 45 minutes of our adventure but once the rain let up it was pretty fun.

SEPTEMBER:
We traveled back to CA again to see daddy and grandma lorraine, We went to a farm and rode on a cow train and picked a pumpkin. Matthew was super excited about that cow train. He still talks about it. We celebrated Kinsey's 21st birthday by taking her to Chili's. Baby K started pulling herself up to stand! Matthew had his last evaluation and was accepted into the preschool program.

OCTOBER:
DADDY CAME HOME FINALLY!!!
Best thing other than Kourtney being born that has happened to us all year!!
We got to meet Matthew's new preschool teacher, Mrs. Barclay. He started preschool Mon-Thurs. 7:45am-10:15am. Life is awesome with Matthew getting the help he needs for his speech! And getting the interaction with other kids! We also decorated for Halloween and had the cutest Pirate and Minnie Mouse on the planet!!

NOVEMBER:
Kourtney started walking!
We celebrated Thanksgiving with our family although we were missing Great Grandma. Berto and I braved Black Friday and scored some awesome deals. Thanks mom for watching the babies so we could go shopping!
We took out the Christmas decorations and put up the tree. We took the kiddos to see Santa before the line at the mall got too crazy. AND Berto and I got to go on a date for the first time since MARCH!! It was so awesome to get out of the house without babies!

DECEMBER: 
Kourtney is a pro at walking. She is so fast, sometimes I can't catch her!
Matthew is doing so well in school. He made so many Christmas decorations! I LOVE them all. I think I'm more excited about the decorations than he is. He is starting to talk more and more. It amazes me everyday when he tells me something and I realize I can understand him! I Love his teachers, they are amazing women and I am so grateful he was put in their class.
It was Kourtney's first Christmas. She enjoyed the paper and bows. All the presents and she preferred the trash. Figures.
Matty got a big knight castle and a leappad2.
Both kids got a little kitchen/table. Matty is of course enjoying it more than Kourtney right now. She likes utensils.
We had a nice Christmas. Grandma Lorraine came to visit. We enjoyed her company. We miss her. Matty especially. He asked everyday if we are going to see Ba and B-ba.... haha.
Berto got all his superhero/avenger movies. He was pretty happy about that.
I got Giftcards to my favorite stores and a curling iron and perfume.
All in all it was really nice. I really enjoy having my family around.

If you know me, you know I do NOT make New Year's Resolutions. Why make promises I won't keep? I don't like it. Never have, never will.
So for the New Year I hope to accomplish a few things but I'm not going to change my whole life around to make it happen.

I look forward to
Miss Kourtney turning ONE! Holy cow that happened fast!
a vacation in February/March with Berto. CAN'T WAIT!
Moving in May to a house hopefully
Matty turning 4 in July and also my birthday
Maybe losing some weight
finishing my cross stitch

It's been a pretty sucky year and I am looking forward to this year being over and done.
Lets hope 2013 brings us a better year!