Ice cream & bath time!

Lilly looks mad, but was posing for the camera with her messy face! Just havin' fun!
Zac loves bath time!

Have a great week!

Zac's on solids!

First of all, thanks for all the comments on my last post! I really loved reading all your thoughts and opinions!

Zac has made it perfectly clear that he wants food. All kinds of food. Lots and lots and lots of food. Last weekend we finally started him on Cheerios. He played with the first one until I put it in his mouth, but once he got the idea he turned into a professional Cheerio eater! Here are some first pics!

This one isn't about solids, but it's a pretty neat "messy face" pic... plus it is a good shot of his teeth. He still just has the two bottoms, but I think some tops are at least threatening to come in.

And this was last night when we gave him peas. He's also had sweet potato puffs at Daycare, and loved them.
We're going to be introducing more and more solids now that he has the idea. Plus... the boy is just always hungry!!

What kind of person am I?

This morning, I stopped at Starbucks. I was excited! As I sit here enjoying my delicious drink, though, I am reflecting ... 

Starbucks is busy on Fridays. That is just usually a fact. Today was no exception. There were probably 5 people in front of me in what was a very efficient and quick line. No kidding, I was probably there for only about 5 minutes. Toward the front of the line there were two ladies. They ordered, and one lady got her drink (I think it was straight coffee or something really fast - I wasn't yet paying much attention) while the other lady went to the pick-up area to wait. In no time at all, it became obvious that they were annoyed at having to wait. They were rude. The lady making the drinks got flustered. 

My thoughts were: you are at Starbucks on a Friday. Be happy that: A. You are at Starbucks and,  B. It is Friday. Instead, they were obnoxious and, again, rude. 

As the barista handed her the long awaited for drink (can you sense the sarcasm?), she apologized. Mrs. Obnoxious said "I'll just be needing a free drink card." 

Seriously?!?

It gets better. 

Barista said "sure thing" and told the lady at the register, who said, "you got it. It will just take a minute." 

Mrs. Obnoxious got, again, annoyed that it was going to take a minute to get her undeserved (in my opinion) free drink card.

Poor barista was obviously flustered. 

My question... what should a customer such as myself do in this situation?

A. Ignore it

B. Confront Mrs. Obnoxious

C. Passive Aggressively comfort the barista

D. Something else??

I chose C. When she handed me my drink and apologized intensely (needlessly) for the wait, I told her not to apologize because I am not obnoxious like Mrs. O. 

Barista laughed and seemed to relax a little. 

My thoughts:

On one hand, no matter what I said I would not have changed Mrs. O or her personality. 

On the other hand... do I always choose the "middle?" Wanting to do something but not wanting to confront? Am I one of those "bystanders" that we teach in bullying lessons that stand by and don't do anything? 

My apologies for being a little "journal-y." This isn't usually my type of post, but I'm curious... 

What would you have done??

Saturday and Sunday in Vegas!

Saturday we were able to have a little downtime. Lilly watched a movie and read some books.

Zac played and played.

Lilly discovered new toys.

Shyla laid around and looked cute!
We were all pretty tired.
It's hard to tell, but Stevie is pretty much asleep here.

Not as hard to tell... Lilly is asleep here. This is after another tantrum due to lack of nap.

The brothers. Apparently there is no "Palmer rule" in Vegas - in Tucson there can be no more than 2 brothers together in a public place at any one time... they just cause too darn much trouble!

Saturday night as the kids went to bed, Andrea and I were able to sneak out for a couple of hours of eating, gossiping, and sipping on some cocktails. Thanks again to my mom and Kendra for taking care of the kiddos so I could go out! It was much needed, and SO much fun! Naturally, I forgot my camera.

That concludes our Vegas trip! We flew home on Sunday morning-ish. It was definitely fun, but I couldn't do a trip there with the kids again until they are a bit older. Well worth it though!

Goodnight!

They do!

Our Las Vegas trip continued....
Friday evening was Cindy and Dean's wedding! Here are the pics of the ceremony:




Ha! I didn't get to see the ceremony due to the tantrum of a two year old. Honestly, I don't blame her - it had been a big day and she just had a meltdown. I got her out of the chapel literally seconds before Cindy walked down the aisle. Kendra followed only a few minutes later with Shyla, so us girls sat outside and listened sheepishly.
I took Lilly up to uncle Pete's room to cool down. A little while later, we decided to try to go to the reception. We missed the introductions and first dance and stuff, but we still got there in time to have some fun. Here are the newlyweds!


And my attempt at a pic with my two kids.

My grandparents - aren't they perfect!
Grandma was the first one to the dancefloor!
Uncle Pete, dad, and Shyla

I like this pic of Pete and Nanette! They both laugh a lot, so getting a pic of them laughing together just makes me happy.
My dad and Cindy. I especially like how Kendra is ducking.
Zac was a party animal! He made it through the wedding ceremony, then danced all night with Nanette and anyone else who would dance with him! So fun!

And, this is about 5 minutes after putting them back in the stroller.

I'm usually pretty good with the camera - at least in terms of getting pics of everyone. Kendra calls me paparazzi because I always have it out. But, honestly, Lilly's meltdowns kinda threw me off, so my pictures were kinda spuratic and random. Plus, there were some that I thought I took that apparently I didn't. For example, I didn't get any of uncle Joe (Cindy's dad) or aunt Vicky. Or my mom, apparently. Kinda bummed, but it is what it is I guess.

Regardless, a big congratulations to Cindy and Dean!

Stay tuned... Vegas day 2 coming up soon...

Vegas baby!!!

We just got back from a weekend in Las Vegas, and I am exhausted! I'm going to blog about the weekend in shifts, because I took so many pictures!!
We went there for my cousin Cindy's wedding. We were so excited! Her wedding was Friday night, and unfortunately I couldn't leave until Friday morning. So... my dad and I woke the kids up at 4:30 am and caught a 6:15 flight (the rest of the fam was already there). Lilly was so excited to ride the airplane again! I was so excited to have my dad there to help with the kiddos, and this time I actually got to take a couple pictures on the plane.
After a short and uneventful flight, we were ready to get to our hotel and rest before the wedding. Stevie came to pick us up... and forgot the carseat for Zac in their hotel room (Zac was borrowing Shyla's). So, dad and Lilly headed to the hotel, and Zac and I hung out on the curb. Ha! Luckily, this was the face I saw the whole time:

What a happy boy! We ate, played, and did some photo shoots!

Eventually we did make it to the hotel (hee hee... sorry Stevie, but you knew I'd blog it!). It was probably a bigger pain for Stevie than for us - I got to have a few minutes of alone time with Zac while he fought traffic.
Anyhow, soon after, my friend Andrea showed up! She lives in Vegas so she was spending the weekend with me on the strip! We all went to lunch. Here's Lilly with Andrea!

And Zac with her too!

Anyone remember my recent post about Zac's stranger anxiety? That is apparently NOT true in Vegas. I think his little 7 month old brain was yelling "Vegas Baby!!" the whole time. He was laughing and flirting and letting everyone hold him and dance with him! The above pic of him snuggling with Andrea was just the beginning. Classic!
After lunch, we went back to the room to let the kids rest. Zac took a nice long nap, while Lilly did not. She rested a little... watched some Dora and read some Cinderella, but she did not nap. I don't blame her - it was a cool place and everything was new and so exciting. However, we had a wedding to go to!
Here are the kids on the way to the wedding...

The wedding/reception itself will be the next post, in a couple of days.

I have to say, I had a great weekend. BUT, Vegas is really a difficult place to be with young children. Really, the stroller issue alone is exhausting. Casinos have tons of stairs, so anywhere we wanted to go we had to find alternate routes with elevators... I'm just exhausted!

And, on that note, I have to work tomorrow so I'm going to bed! Check back in a couple of days for the wedding/reception post with lots of great pics of the bride and groom and family!
Happy Monday tomorrow!

August 2008!

Just some fun pics from about a year ago! Lilly was so little!

I love this one!

She loved her camo!

And Zac was getting bigger and bigger...
Happy Weekend!

New residents of the old pueblo!

We are so happy to have Rob and Marv here in Tucson now! We had them and my dad over for dinner tonight, and we are looking forward to so many more cookouts and laughs!

Zac is having a lot of stranger anxiety these days... and a "stranger" could be anyone he hasn't seen in, oh, 24 hours or more. Still, he eventually gets over it and has lots of smiles and laughs!

Lilly is also usually quite happy! We are so lucky. This was her enjoying her pasta tonight!

Gotta love eating dinner outside over cover, surrounded by thunder, lightening and rain!

No, Odee me do it!

That's "only me do it" to the rest of us. Lilly is such an independent little lady! This morning she had to put her flip flops on all by herself. Didn't she do a great job?

Let's ignore the fact that they are on the wrong foot and the toe part is between the wrong toes. They were still perfectly functional!
Later, she had to help daddy stir the eggs.

This is only two of so many, many examples.

Let's not leave Zac out... he and Lilly play and laugh and smile and interact all day! He even took a step yesterday, while holding onto the couch, in order to get closer to her when she was making him laugh. Seriously?!?

Happy Monday!

Saturday!

What a fun day we had yesterday! Mom, Kendra, Shyla, Kim, Karen and I went to Cienega high school early for their 5K - we had so much fun! Kim and Karen are pros, Kendra rocked it, and mom and I pulled up the rear pushing Shyla in the stroller. Oh shoot.... I was supposed to rename Kim, because she didn't like this pic, but I forgot the name! Ha!
My mom even won a metal for her age bracket! Go mama!

After the race, my dad met us at Kendra's house with my kiddos (he picked them up from my house when Jer had to leave for work), and we all had breakfast. Yum!

Then... that afternoon we headed to my cousin Cindy's bridal shower! I attempted to get a good pic of Lilly and Ben together, but didn't have much luck.

The beautiful bride and aunt Nanette.

My mom trying to find safety pins in a bowl of rice.

Us hanging out.

Isn't this a great pic of Kendra and Shyla?

And even I had a few minutes to hold Shyla!

It was a fun day!

Couple of stories without pictures:

-At the shower, Lilly was very interested in the cake. It was on a low-ish table, so she could gaze at it! She was VERY good about following my "no touch" instructions, but she did keep going over to look at it. It was cute... until she walked over and the cake was gone. I wish I had this next series of feelings on video: She panicked, but quietly. She started looking around, like on the floor, nearby tables, etc, looking for the cake. No luck. Then she decided that it MUST be on the table still, and she just missed it... she goes back to the table. Still no luck. The look on her face of fear and sadness - someone obviously stole the cake!! Just then Kathy (Cindy's mom) walks by with a piece that she is delivering to a guest. Lilly saw it and... immediate surprise and relief! Then, another little disappointment when she realizes it wasn't for her. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions within a very short time period!! Super cute - all was good a minute later when she had her own piece of yummy cake!

-Also, at the shower she got bubbles! Fun! But, by the time we were home, they were gone. Just before bed, she wanted more, but daddy and mommy said no. In order to avoid a meltdown, I told Lilly the story of the "bubble fairy" who brings good little girls bubbles while they sleep. So we drew a picture for the bulbbe fairy, and left out the empty bubble container. We said "more bubbles please bubble fairy" a couple of times before bed. Shockingly, overnight, the bubble fair arrived and brought Lilly a whole new jar of bubbles! Fun! She was happy and surprised and VERY cute this morning when she saw them and the note left by the bubble fairy. So fun!!

I have been trying to do a flashback picture once a month, and I think I forgot July. So... even though it is officially August, here is a flashback to July, 2008. We had moved into our house pretty recently, and it was monsoon season! This pic shows when it was just getting ready to rain - isn't the sky beautiful? That's why I didn't zoom in more. Lilly looks so little, and you can see little Zacky in my belly :)

Hoping good weekends are being had by all...