LIVIN' THE DREAM...

Is This A Joke?

2012-02-10T22:44:00.001-06:00

This week…WOW. I mean, I know it could always be worse but my gosh, what a week! Last Friday, Arabella caught croup. Rich and I spent our date night in the ER with her getting shots and breathing treatments.

Ok, so no biggie. That’s life, right? Kids get sick! Well, after 1 urgent care visit, 1 ER visit and 3 doctors visits, I am sooooo done with it all. In the beginning I was cool about it all but about halfway through the week it just started to feel like someone was playing a sick joke on me. So, finally the kids are healthy, for the most part, and I am ready for a fresh start next week.

What Are You Feeling?

2012-02-09T08:37:00.001-06:00

Aidan’s new favorite video as of this morning. He wanted to watch it over and over and over again.

Jesus Wants Maya For A Sunbeam!

2012-02-02T19:40:00.001-06:00

I feel so lame for taking so long to post that Maya is a Sunbeam! She has graduated from Nursery and is now a “big girl”. Her transition was a lot smoother than Aidan’s because she has such an easy going personality. It was so cool to see her for the very 1st time in primary and the really cool part about it was that she got to make the transition with her cousin, Danny, while we were visiting family in Missouri.

Maya is in the front row sitting next to Danny and then in the row behind her from left to right is cousin, Luke then teacher and then cousin Josy and then Aidan. How fun to transition to a new class with a bunch cousins!

Here she is in our home ward here in Davie. She is sitting next to her lifelong friend, Ella. They have literally been friends since birth. Ella is 3 months older and is the daughter of my BFF, Lucy. Adorable girlies!

It’s pretty weird how quickly life is changing. In just 2 years I’ve gone from having Aidan & Maya in Nursery together to having them in Primary together. Its fun and sad. They really do grow up too fast.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

2012-02-01T19:16:00.001-06:00

I’m gonna keep the pity party short and sweet cuz I don’t think everybody wants to know my business but since this IS my blog to document my life I shall let the pity party begin. My hair was falling out:( I’ve been taking Celexa for depression for the past 4 months and finally put 2 and 2 together. Needless to say, the second I realized it was causing my hair to fall out I started weaning off of it and that is when the nightmare began. WITHDRAWAL. What a miserable, horrible thing it has been. 6 days of feeling dizzy & nauseous topped off with a pounding headache. It was so debilitating. The good news is that today was the 1st day I could actually function without wanting to just die! The other good news is that so far there are no signs or symptoms of depression. I know it might be too early to tell and I’m being very realistic but wouldn’t it be AWESOME if it was gone? It’s so annoying!

I’m so happy to be past that horrible sickness that is withdrawal:)

In other news, we were invited to one of Aidan’s classmates birthday party. The kids had so much fun!

The photographer at the party was so nice. When he saw my camera he started talking to me about photography and then offered to teach me a few things! Turned out he was actually the owner of the kids club where the party was being held and photography was just his hobby. I’m hoping to swing by sometime soon to learn a thing or two about photoshop. Ok, blah blah blah enough about me and back to some party pics.

Arabella had her 1st face painting experience.

Yay! Parties are fun!

Tortillas And A Feast

2012-01-25T21:19:00.001-06:00

So, I grew up on homemade flour tortillas. I love them. I am so jealous that my nephews that live next door to my mom are also getting to grow up enjoying and loving my mom’s tortillas while my kids…well, don’t. How can I solve this dilemma? Make them myself! So finally, after years of watching and helping my mom make them, I made my very 1st batch all by myself!!! Where they good, you ask? Well, the kids ate them!

The funny thing about this is that it took my strong desire for my kids to grow up on the divinity that I did, to finally make them.

During our most recent visit to Missouri my mom cooked up a storm. My kids LOVED her flour tortillas. My sister and I got busy trying to show each other up on who was a better helper.

The hardest part is rolling them out. My mom’s always come out perfectly round. Mine are all sorts of different shapes:D I’ll keep practicing as long as my kids keep eating them!

A couple of days before we left Missouri my mom cooked a feast for some special guests…Rich’s parents! Dad loves Mexican food and my mom cooks THE BEST Mexican food so we had to treat them to some scrumptious dishes.

We had posole which is a soup made with red chili peppers, hominy and pork rib. After you dish it up you add shaved cabbage and fresh squeezed lime juice and voila! A delicious and very popular Mexican dish. We also had one of my favorite meals, pork in red pepper sauce served with Mexican rice and refried beans, then eaten with a flour tortilla, no fork, just the tortilla. YUM!

It was an awesome night with my favorite people and my favorite food.

Publix Field Trip!!!!

2012-01-23T19:04:00.001-06:00

~PUBLIX~

WHERE SHOPPING IS A PLEASURE

That is our grocery stores motto and to be honest, it is true. I love our grocery store for 4 reasons.

1. Everybody is always so nice and helpful. Not like other grocery stores where they act so annoyed that you have a question.

2. It is like 1/4 of a mile from my house.

3. They have such a wide variety of stuff. We have never had any problems finding any ingredient.

4. When we were gone for a month a couple of the workers asked me where we had been:)

Anyway, Aidan got to go on a cute little field trip to Publix and I got to go with him! I loved being there and watching him interact with all of his little classmates.

Aidan LOVES riding the school bus. He just thinks it’s the coolest thing ever!

Waiting to go in for the tour.

“This is embarrassing.”

“Can I take it off now?”

Aidan’s friend, Tadeo’s mommy.

1st stop~ The Bakery! They watched the bakery lady make a fancy shmancy cake. They thought that the buttercream flowers were the coolest. Then, they got to taste the buttercream!

Next stop~ The Deli! Here they got to chow down on some popcorn chicken.

Next they got to see how they peel and core a pineapple. It was this big dangerous machine and the kids all thought it was like magic. In goes a regular pineapple and out comes a cylinder of a pineapple ready to eat!

Then, they took them back into the huge refrigerators. All of the kids were jumping around and screaming because they were so cold. It was so funny to watch all of these Florida babies react to the cold.

Aidan behind the milk!

Last stop~ SEAFOOD!

They all got to touch somebody’s dinner. The lobster actually spit up all of this slimy stuff. I was pretty grossed out.

Such cute kids!

Lucero Girls Photoshoot

2012-01-22T21:16:00.001-06:00

I don’t think I’ll even bother trying to explain the following pictures.

My turn

Just to prove that we can be serious when trying to get pics together.

Playing A Little Game Called Catch-Up

2012-01-22T20:43:00.001-06:00

I’m behind. I’m waaaay behind, but since there are a few pictures I want to post, I’ll go ahead and do that really quickly to catch up:)

Baker New Year’s Eve

Fruit Ninja on the Kinect

Movie time

New Year’s Eve is also mom Baker’s birthday! Aidan waited patiently/anxiously all night, with his “birthday hat” on, for the cake and ice cream. He was so excited!

Not everybody made it until midnight…

Most remained strong and fought the sleep…

It was a very Happy New Year indeed!

Over the break, a good friend of mine was so kind as to let me practice some newborn photography on her beautiful baby girl, Naomi. I always appreciate opportunities to practice and I definitely learned a lot. Here are just a couple of those pics.

Now, looking back, I can think of a million things I could have done differently. I guess that’s why it’s called practice, right?

Later that day we hung out with Julianne, my sister-in-law who is freakin’ awesome, by the way. We took the kids to a bounce house and then got super brave and took them all out to eat at Mexican Villa.

Burrito Enchilada Style. YUMMY!!!!!!

This was the day Aidan developed a HUGE crush on his cousin, Kassie.

From then on everything was Kassie, Kassie, Kassie. So cute!

Another notable event: Maya ate a raw green onion.

My brother-in-law, Gary, turned the big 4-0!

Arabella went behind my back and found somebody that would give her another cupcake.

The kids played outside and LOVED IT, despite the cold.

Couple random pics:

The boys watching their fire burn.

My man:)

I think I’m caught up…hopefully!

Baker Bowling-Oh Heck Yeah!

2012-01-10T22:43:00.001-06:00

Now THAT was a fun night. All of the adults went out on a date! Except for Melanie and Gary because Gary had to work:( Even though I suck at bowling, it was F.U.N.

Momma Baker who blew me out of the water!

Poor Daddy-O has a bad knee so he had to bowl without bending his knee. I think he still got the highest overall score.

He’s so HOT!

The boyz

Crazy? Yeah, I think so.

Go Beth!

Hot tamale, Becca. She hates having her picture taken. Why? I don’t know. Look at her!

Final scores

Afterwards, we all went out to eat at Longhorn. The food was awesome but the company was even better.

On our way home, Jeffrey treated us to some ANDY’S!! What is Andy’s you ask? Only the world’s best frozen custard!

No, 35 degrees is not too cold for frozen custard…just eat it in your car!

I love my Baker family!

Vacation Is Not Vacation Without…

2012-01-10T22:14:00.001-06:00

Vacation is not vacation without #1- A vomiting kid and/or #2- An ER visit. We are definitely on vacation! We’ve had 3 puking kids and 1 ER visit. Yeah, it’s been a bit rough. Aidan was the 1st to get sick a couple days before Christmas, but only threw up once. Then, the day after Christmas we went out to lunch in Springfield with Rich’s parents. We were so excited to have some delish Chinese food at Mr. Yen’s until the vomit made it’s grand entrance right on the table. Poor Maya was suddenly not feeling so hot. She didn’t eat a bit and vomited twice during our lunch…then twice more during the drive home. I have to say, she is THE BEST sick kid EVER! She would warn me every time she had to throw up by saying, “It’s coming again” in the sweetest, cutest little voice. Then, she would throw up right in the bowl, wipe away the tears that were forced out and just sit back and quietly wait for it to come again. Such a sweetheart.

Then, it was Arabella’s turn.

She joined the puking fun when we got home from the restaurant. We spent the night with 2 sick girls, 2 bowls and Mama Mia on the TV. I don’t think anybody will ever be able to watch that movie without flashing back to that night.

Now for the ER visit. This one is still fresh in my mind because it happened just 2 days ago. Maya found a cat, or the cat found Maya, I’m not too sure which it was but these two were inseparable for a couple of days until...it happened:( I was watching Maya through the back window and something inside of me was telling me to tell her to get back on the porch where she was supposed to stay to play with the cat. She had followed the cat down to a big root pile from a tree that had been uprooted. It stands about 4 feet tall and the cat and climbed to the top of it. Maya was walking toward the pile and within 30 seconds of watching her walk down there she tripped and fell face first into the pile. One of the sticks cut her straight up and down right between her eye brows. I pretty much freaked out at the sight of blood running down her face. Rich and I rushed her to the ER, as much as you can rush to a hospital that is 45 minutes away. Thankfully she was calmed by a sucker given to her by Grandpa.

She was surprisingly happy after the initial pain of getting cut so deep wore off. This picture is right before the stitches.

Happy girl, fake happy momma. I felt like my heart had been ripped right out of my chest, seeing my baby girl hurt:( Seriously made me ache.

I think the stitches were the most traumatic part of the whole thing for her. I was SO PROUD of her! She was so strong when the doctor was giving her the lidocaine shots. I’m talking like 8-10 shots in and around the wound! And guess who didn’t cry a single tear? That’s right! MY GIRL! The doctor and the nurse were so impressed with her. They just could not BELIEVE that she was so strong and such a good girl. Then it happened. The doctor pulled out the stitching needle and the second he stuck it in her forehead she started screaming the most excruciatingly painful scream. She could feel it! The doctor immediately pulled it out and started giving her tons of shots of lidocaine over and over again and I swear it had ZERO effect on her because from then on out she had this look of extreme pain on her face and was screaming bloody murder. It just tore me up. They had wrapped her in a sheet with her arms pinned down and Rich held her legs down while a nurse held her head still and I was right in front of her face ready to kiss and comfort her throughout the ordeal. Thankfully the 5 stitches didn’t take too long and I was able to hug and comfort her. This picture is after the stitches.

That night when I put her to bed I lied down with her to snuggle for a bit after such a rough time and she was so shaken up. She would be just fine one second and then she would start whimpering and crying. When I asked her why she was crying she told me the story of how she got hurt. She did this a couple of times. She was so emotional. She slept well that night and the next day she was her old self again. No signs of emotional trauma.

She’s doing awesome and we are hoping that there will be very little scarring. Aidan was so cute. He was so concerned with what happened to his little sister. He was actually heading inside to get help when I ran out to get her. I heard him tell her, “I’ll got get help, ok.” As much as he fights with and pesters his little sisters, I know he is going to be a great big brother to them.

So, there you have it. Believe it or not, much fun has been had between all of this craziness. Life is fun, crazy, scary and just a wild rollercoaster of emotions. Isn’t it good:D

Christmas Vacation~Part 2

2012-01-04T22:29:00.001-06:00

We headed to the Baker home after a few days at my mom’s house. The fun started immediately. We headed over to Rich’s sister’s house for some gingerbread house making.

All their “hard work/candy eating” paid off

Kassie’s work of art

Luke & Ethan

Then came the big Christmas Eve party which included a re-enactment of the nativity by the kids.

Then, we got ready to open presents from each other.

Aidan was waiting so patiently for the ok to open his presents.

Julie and I got matching aprons!

Maya on my lap, Arabella on hers. hahaha!

The grandkids:D

Me and my honey

I didn’t take any pictures on Christmas morning because I was too busy enjoying it with the kids. My mother-in-law did so I’ll just have to steal them from her. It was a special Christmas. Any Christmas that we get to be together as a family is special. We have been making so many memories with our family. There are many more pictures and stories to come!

Thoughts~2011

2012-01-01T16:17:00.001-06:00

This is such an old person thing to say but it seriously seems like the older I get, the faster the years go by. I’m so thankful for my blog or else I might not believe that the year has passed and that we actually did something!

I just wanted to write down a few things that come to mind when I think of this past year. If I had to use one word to describe this year it would have to be

NORMAL

That is a BIG deal for my little family. The previous 3 years have been quite the ride and anything but normal. 2011 was a year to experience what normal life should be like. It was filled with normal trials and not such devastating and difficult ones. This past year has given me time to take in the lessons that I’ve learned from our struggles and grow from them. I am grateful for the peace that I’ve been able to feel. I’m grateful to have reached the light at the end of the tunnel…for now.

MY TOP 11 IN 2011

These are in no particular order because I don’t want to think hard enough to rank them. Actually, I will say that the single most important events this year will be my first 2.

11) ARABELLA'S DECANULATION: This was an amazing and life changing day. The day Arabella permanently pulled her trach out. Scary but by doing so she saved herself from at least 2 anesthesia experiences.

10) ARABELLA'S LAST SURGERY: The last of many surgeries was such a relief. Closing up the stoma left behind by the trach was closed up and that is when it really felt like we were done with the whole trach thing.

9) RICH'S 1ST HALF MARATHON: It’s no secret how proud I am of Rich and all of the goals that he has set and accomplished. He is such an example of hard work and determination. I was so proud of him when he became a Half Ironman last year and this year when he completed his 1st Half Marathon! He is currently training for his 1st Marathon in just a couple of months:)

8) AIDAN STARTS SCHOOL: I don’t think I had any idea how life changing it would be to only have 2 kids at home. 2 healthy kids at that! Let’s just say that this has changed my life and Aidan’s life drastically. He is doing so well and loving school so much and I am enjoying my 3 hours a day with my girls. We go shopping, to the gym, to the park and pretty much any where else we want to go. Going out with 3 kids…HARD. Going out with 2 kids…bring it!

7) ZUMBA: This year I discovered my love for Zumba! I LOOOOOVE ZUMBA! I have always loved dancing and so it only makes sense that I would fall in love with dancing as exercise. I am so passionate about it that I want to get certified to teach. I’m not claiming to be an amazing dancer but I love it, so why not? Also, I do Zumba with my BFF, Lucy. Can life get any better? I think not.

6) BAKER'S NEW HOUSE: My in-laws house burned down this year. Along with the passing of Great Granddad McKinley and Great Grandma Daisy, the loss of their home and all their belongings made for a very difficult year. The good news is that their home has been rebuilt and it is better than ever! They are so happy in their new home!

5) PHOTOGRAPHY: I love it! This year I have grown by leaps and bounds with my photography. Of course, I’m no pro but I do love it and love learning and improving so that I can have great pics of my babies. I also have really enjoyed taking pics for friends. Pictures of our babies are so priceless and it makes me feel so good to be able to take pictures for them.

4) FINDING MYSELF: This year I suffered from depression. Now that was a tough one to overcome. Actually, I haven’t really overcome it but I am treating it. I’m so happy not to be struggling with it any more. I’m grateful to be able to focus on and enjoy my kids again.

3) AIDAN’S LOVE FOR MUSIC: My boy has become so musical and it is so cute! He is always humming, singing or drumming. It is so fun to watch my kids grow and develop their gifts and talents.

2) AIDAN & MAYA POTTY TRAINED: We have gone from having 3 in diapers to 1 in diapers. I’m lovin’ that for sure! Aidan took forever to potty train but finally figured it out. Maya, on the other hand, potty trained herself completely. I didn’t have to lift a finger and she slept through the night, no problem. Hallelujah!

1) CRUISE: What a time we had. It was a much needed escape from life with the love of my life. We had so much fun and have been dreaming and planning our next escape since.

Christmas Vacation~Part 1

2011-12-27T22:30:00.001-06:00

I have so much to blog that I’m just gonna have to do this in parts. We are in Missouri having a blast! A pic from the drive:

Notice Aidan’s orange, girlie, dragonfly hoodie. We really didn’t have ANY winter clothes for this poor kid. Thankfully, Uncle Rudy bought him a Cardinals hoodie for Christmas.

I love hanging out with my family and Rich’s family so much. We always enjoy laughing together and just being together. We don’t even have to be doing anything exciting but the memories are always keepers:)

Finally, after 2 days of driving, we finally made it to Branson and it felt like we had never left.

Me and my Nephew, Gabriel. Yes, that is newspaper covering the beautiful decorative window on my mom’s door…don’t ask.

Sen, this is what happens when you take pictures with my camera. They end up on my blog ;)

Aidan & Josy making “soup”.

Maya LOVES my brother’s dog, Rosco. She REALLY, REALLY loves him. No matter how cold it was outside she would sit there with her arm around him for ever! Once she even snuck out to go sit with him.

Rosco loves her too. She is the only kid that he doesn’t jump all over and annoy. They have a special bond.

Feeding Rosco (Like the Bud Light bucket? My brother is funny.)

This is why older cousins are the best!

We had an early Christmas at my mom’s house with my side of the family. The best part of Christmas at my house? Posole!!!

Now THAT is some serious goodness!

Early Christmas pics:

I was too excited to take pics while they were opening presents so here are some post present pics:

Aunt Senia painting Maya’s toe nails

Uncle Rudy drying them:)

I love this!!! Can you say PRINCESS?!?!

Movie time

A couple of random pics to finish off this post:

I love my Chloe!

Arabella is 2!!!!

2011-12-09T21:17:00.001-06:00

Yes, it’s true! Arabella is 2! How crazy is that? My baby is 2 years old! I think the most surprising thing about that is that I’m still not pregnant again…surprising to all of my friends and family at least.

Arabella has been a dream. She is sooo sweet and affectionate and so full of spunk and personality for such a tiny little thing! I’ve decided to start a new birthday tradition in our family and Arabella was the lucky one who got to experience it first!

Waking up to balloons on her birthday! I know she doesn’t look super excited in the picture but she was really excited when she woke up and saw all of these colorful balloons waiting just for her. It was so cute because I know she didn’t quite understand that it was her birthday but she instantly knew it was something special for her. Since I decided not to throw her a big party with a bunch of friends I wanted to make it a very special day for her. After dropping Aidan off at school, we went to Publix and picked up a couple of birthday cupcakes….a couple? Yes, a couple. I couldn’t just buy one for Arabella and let Maya stand by and watch her eat it!

After they were finished eating their cupcakes we went to the playground and played until it was time to pick Aidan up from school. When daddy got home we went to her favorite place to eat and play, Chick-fil-a!

Then home for some ice cream cake goodness!

Happy Birthday video:

Happy Birthday to the most adorable 2 year old there is!

Date Night With The Douberley’s

2011-12-06T19:31:00.001-06:00

I love the Douberley’s! Lucy has been my bff pretty much since we moved here. Rich and Joe are also bff’s but they are men so they don’t call each other that. We spend most Sunday’s together as one big happy family, and Lucy and I do Zumba + Turbo Kick 4 times a week. Our kids adore each other, so basically what I’m trying to say is that it is going to be REALLY hard to leave South Florida:(

We try to go on double dates with them whenever it works out and this past Friday, it worked out! We had a Groupon for 2 hours of bowling so we went bowling! It had been years since any of us had been bowling so we were all a little rusty but I’m pretty sure that I was the only one that showed signs of rust. Seriously, pathetic. But it was a ton of fun trash talking and being competitive.

HIGHLIGHTS

Lucy kicking my butt

Victory dance

………

Going for 3 strikes in a row…HE DID IT!

Can he get 4?????

Yes. Yes he can.

At the end of the night everybody awesome…except for me. I am officially not a bowler. Think I’ll just go for the pizza next time:)

HO, HO, HO!

2011-12-04T15:05:00.001-06:00

This year Aidan was so excited to see Santa Clause. We were actually able to get a pretty decent picture which was s a complete shock to me.

Aidan told Santa that he has been a good boy and that he wants a “Sherriff Woody in a race car” for Christmas. Trip to meet Santa at Bass Pro Shop was a success. The kids even got to enjoy some fish watching:)

Blog Issues With A Happy Ending

2011-12-02T15:28:00.001-06:00

It was brought to my attention that there was an issue with leaving comments on my blog which makes me sad because, lets face it, comments are FUN to read! Turns out, my template was to blame so my blog is currently undergoing construction until I decide what I want it to look like. I LOVE BLOGGING! It can be time consuming but I’ve learned to cut corners by not editing my pictures and by being real, so I don’t have to spend tons of time trying to think of what to write, I just write what’s going on in my head:) My favorite part of blogging is looking back at what I’ve posted. I could seriously spend hours reading past posts. It’s such a fun way to document every day adventures as a mom & wife. The less I blog, the more I regret not having blogged more when I look back. So, here’s to blogging!

I Want To Go To Missouri!!!

2011-12-02T13:26:00.001-06:00

I wasn’t kidding when I said the kids really want to go to Missouri. Maya begs to go every single day. She has been super emotional today and this is the result of her asking to go to Missouri and me telling her not yet.

WARNING: There is a split second of booger eating and boogies throughout the whole video. Just thought I’d warn you:)

*side note~ Haha! I re-read this post hours after posting it and realized I spelled “buggers” instead of “boogers”. Don’t you hate it when that happens? Then you are thinking, “Oh my gosh, how many people read that and thought I am a total dork?” Just thought it was funny enough to change and then document.

Sk8erGrl

2011-12-01T20:18:00.001-06:00

Thus began Maya’s love for scootering…

Oct. 25th~Just getting started…loving it.

Nov. 10th~ Getting serious about this so we bought her a helmet and set her loose at the park. Biffed it and cried…biffed it again, dusted off her knees and got right back on. That’s my girl!

Today~ Got in trouble this morning because she went outside to ride the scooter while I was in the shower (Time to get an extra high lock. I almost had a heart attack!) These pics were taken later on in the day.

Getting a little overly confident with her scooting skills, steering with one hand!

She has gotten so good at it. She just loves to scoot.

Sometimes We Eat In A Grocery Cart

2011-11-30T20:54:00.001-06:00

Today, we had some fun. We had a little park time then we went to Publix for some donuts. I didn’t want the girls to make a mess in the van so they ate in the grocery cart:)

I’m pretty sure this was their 1st big donut ever. They thoroughly enjoyed it but were all sugared out after just a few bites.

Aidan surprised me today. He is coloring so well now!

Notice how he is more aware of the lines and actually makes more of an effort to stay in them. I’m loving his new interest in things that require focus.

The kids ask me every single day if we can go to Missouri. They are getting so excited and so am I! I’m so over this rotation that Rich is in right now. Long, late hours make me not a big fan. I can’t wait to spend Christmas with all of our family and watch the kids play and bond with their cousins. Christmas vacation couldn’t come soon enough!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!/Late Night Shopping

2011-11-26T22:21:00.001-06:00

YUMMY!

Our last Florida Thanksgiving was the best one of all. We had a fun night hanging out, chatting, eating and laughing with really great friends. We seriously love every single family that was there…The Tippet’s, Simms, Odenwalder’s, Rudd’s and a lonely McLeod:D

After dinner we played a “gratitude game” where we each anonymously wrote down what we were thankful for and as a group we tried to guess who was thankful for what. The kids played it too. I asked Aidan what he was thankful for and he said “Woody” of course. Rich asked Maya and she said, “Mommy!”. She got an extra cookie;) Love that girl! I wrote Zumba, healthy kids and a hot husband. Rich wrote his Iphone. Such a romantic:P

Afterwards, all of us mommas decided we would all go be young and wild and do some late night Toys-R-Us shopping!

The line just to get in was so crazy long…but not as long as the line to check out! Holy cow it was long! We stood in line for an hour and a half! I will say, I was getting so tired of standing in line but the company and conversation was worth it. Love those girls!

We left with lots of goods and memories. Only the strong continued on to Wal-Mart and Target (Holly & Amy). The rest of us went home to our inviting beds. It was my 1st time doing early Black Friday shopping and it was crazy! Only way I would do it again is if the company was as good as it was then. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Aidan Lately

2011-11-22T20:37:00.001-06:00

Seems like kids grow and change so much in such little time. I’m really enjoying SOME of Aidan’s changes lately. I won’t mention the changes that I don’t like so much. Let’s just say he has a very strong personality. Anyway, recently he has discovered a passion for puzzles!

This is him after completing his 1st big kid puzzle, not like the little wooden ones. He was so proud and so was I!

We found 3 big puzzles at a yard sale a couple weeks ago and he got right to it.

With a little bit of help he has completed all 3 big puzzles and yesterday he completed this big dinosaur puzzle all by himself!

Here he is admiring his accomplishment.

I love how diligently he works on his puzzles. His teacher, Miss. Michelle, showed me a Toy Story puzzle that the school recently bought. It’s only a couple of weeks old but the pieces are already worn and peeling, she said because it is all Aidan wants to do all day at school.

My most absolute favorite part about Aidan’s puzzle making is the fact that he hums while piecing it together! It is the cutest thing ever! I’ve just been enjoying all of the cute and fun stages each kid goes through…and enduring all of the not so fun stuff that comes along with their changes:)

I love my handsome little man!

Typical 2 Minutes In Our Home

2011-11-18T16:17:00.001-06:00

I initially pulled the camera out because I wanted to capture Aidan humming. He is ALWAYS humming! Anyway, I’ll save all that info for a later post specifically about him. So the camera started rolling and life in my home didn’t pause for a single minute. You’ll see that I got much more than just Aidan humming.

She’s A Talker!

2011-11-17T15:36:00.001-06:00

I realized recently that I don’t have any videos of Arabella chatting up a storm. In the past couple of months her speech has just exploded along with her independence and self- confidence. She had just gotten up from her nap and was chillin’ on the couch so I decided to play with my camera’s video option a bit. I obviously have some things to learn about focus:D Regardless, it’s a cute video:

Can’t believe that she will be 2 in a couple of weeks!!!

Sometimes There’s Love

2011-11-15T19:32:00.001-06:00

As my kids have gotten older they seem to fight…a lot. There is nobody they would rather play with than each other and yet at the same time they just can’t seem to get along! In spite of the constant screaming, hitting, crying, pestering and out right fighting, I know they love each other. And sometimes there is that rare occasion when I capture something like this:

(Arabella helping Aidan buckle the helmet)

It is very possible that just seconds before this picture was taken they were both fighting over Maya’s helmet. Yet, I was able to capture this rare moment, the true essence of their sibling love.

Seriously sweet.

13.1 Go Rich!!!

2011-11-13T20:13:00.000-06:00

Rich is so awesome! Today he ran in his 2nd Half Marathon.

That makes:

2 Half Marathons

2 Sprint Triathlons the 1st of which can be found HERE.

1 Olympic Triathlon

1 Half Ironman

He inspires me to strive to be fit…I said inspires, doesn’t mean I actually am fit;) He headed out the door at 4:30am to be ready to run at 6am! I got up at 6:00 and got the kids ready to go so that we could cheer him on at the finish line. The kids, especially Aidan, had such a fun time sitting by the finish line clapping and cheering for all of the incoming runners.

Maybe someday my kids will actually look at the camera when I take a picture.

So awesome!

First guy and girl to cross the finish line!

Here’s a video of Rich coming in for the last stretch. Sorry it’s all shaky. I was trying to wave to get his attention because I had seen him looking around for us. It obviously didn’t work:( But here’s a video of Rich finishing up his 13.1 mile non-stop run!

Rich made a friend during his run. Chris is here on vacation from Australia. He saw that there was a run and decided to go ahead and do it! They ran together off and on throughout the race.

We let the kids play for a bit before heading home to crash on the couch.

Rich ran at a 7.23 per mile pace. Way to go honey! We are so proud of you!

Happenings…

2011-11-12T19:09:00.001-06:00

I have been exhausted! Don’t know why all of a sudden I just can’t keep up with the kids, house, LAUNDRY and blogging! Oh well. I’ve been having fun with my family and that’s all that really matters, right? Who cares that Aidan has learned to look in the dryer when he can’t find clean clothes in his drawer. Yeah, it’s gotten THAT bad. Here’s what I have to show for it:

No school Friday=Toy Story 2 & popcorn for lunch day!

Good behavior reward=Ice cream night!

A yard sale Saturday=Baker girls hat day!

“Yay! Daddy is home today!”=Walk to Kristof’s Café for breakfast!

See the cowboy leading the pack?

Aidan was off running like a mad man in his Sheriff Woody hat so I didn’t get any pics of him. It was such a beautiful and fun walk to and from the café. If you didn’t notice, all of these pics were taken with my point & shoot. Why? Because I sold my Nikon D90:( The good news? I GOT A NIKON D7000!!!! Rich found a really great deal and we were able to upgrade to the best of the best for a little over $100 (Merry Christmas to me)! I’m so excited to learn how to use my new camera to it’s maximum capability and take thousands of pics of my adventures with my babies! Yay!

I Am A Child Of God

2011-11-01T20:31:00.001-05:00

Aidan loves to sing. I’m pretty sure he is going to be our little musician when he gets older because he is always humming or singing. Tonight, I heard him trying to teach Maya how to sing “I Am A Child Of God”. He was being very particular with how she sang it. He wanted her to belt it out like him. Listen closely and you will hear him instructing her how not to sing it and then the right way to sing it.

I Am A Child Of God

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-31T20:34:00.001-05:00

I am waaaay back blogged:( I hate it when that happens. A couple weeks ago we went to the pumpkin patch and I was so excited to get home and blog about it then my computer deleted all of my pics!!!! Thankfully I have an amazing husband that was able to recover them after a few days and here I am a good 2 weeks later, ready to catch up. So here was our amazing day at the pumpkin patch.

Of course, the only pic I would get out of this pose is Aidan with his glazed over eyes and fake smile. Maya squinting to see through her way too long bangs (which I cut right after the pumpkin patch). And Arabella looking completely disguisted:) At least we tried, right?

Picking out pumpkins:

I’ll finish with this picture which I LOVE!

HAPPY FALL!

Trunk or Treat

2011-10-31T20:01:00.001-05:00

Kids getting older can be so much fun! Sometimes I hate it and sometimes I love it. Right now I love it! Aidan is OBSESSED with Toy Story, has been for quite a while actually. There was no question what he wanted to be for Halloween…Woody! Of course Maya just had to be Jessie since she has been equally obsessed with her (we bought her a Jessie doll for her birthday). Arabella got to be a hand-me-down witch:) She wore Maya’s costume from last year “witch” was really cool. It’s so fun that they are so close in age we get a lot of use out of all of our girl stuff.

Now for some Trunk or Treat pics. It was a rainy day so it was moved indoors, to the gym.

I just couldn’t bring myself to spend 30bucks on a plastic Woody & Jessie costume so we just kinda pieced them together. I actually like them better because we invested a little more in the hats, which they LOVE, and I made Maya’s chaps and Aidan’s vest to add a little personal touch.

Arabella & Maya in the same costume one short year later. Oh how time flies.

Even Steve Jobs was there!

The Trunk or Treat was on Saturday. Today, on Halloween day, all of the mommies met at the park for a “Teeny Tiny Halloween Party”! Aidan was at school so I went with the girls. They played games, ate food and then had a little parade where the kids walked around to the Monster Mash, holding hands.

Here are most of the munchkins. It was impossible to get them all to sit down.

After some fun was had, the girls and I rushed down the street to crash Aidan’s class party for a few minutes.

Mrs. Michelle & Mrs. Tatiana made shirts for all of the kids and they each got to decorate it. Aidan had so much fun at the Halloween pizza party.

Side note: Mrs. Michelle said that there was a little boy on the play ground wearing a Woody costume and Aidan chased him around the whole time! hahaha!

I would say Halloween was a huge success! It was so much fun watching Aidan & Maya get excited about their costumes and Arabella go crazy over all of the candy. Best Halloween Ever!

Mi Nena

2011-10-21T22:14:00.001-05:00

Lately, it seems like every post is about Maya. Well, here’s another one. Today, as I was unloading all of my Target goodies from the basket into the van, I said to Maya, “Come on sugar.” And she responded, “No, I’m not sugar! I’m mommies Nena!” Nena is my nickname for Maya. It’s spanish for baby girl. She really loves her nickname. I can tell that it makes her feel very special and loved. One of my favorite questions to her is, “Are you mommies nena or daddies nena?” She, without fail, responds in a sweet, dainty little voice, “Mommies nena!”

I love my nena.

Little Momma

2011-10-19T14:21:00.001-05:00

Remember THIS post about Maya wanting a baby? Well, as it turns out, not only does she want a baby, she wants to cook and wear an apron like mommy. Last week I was in the kitchen cooking. I happened to be wearing an apron cuz I was frying some tortillas. I came out to check on the kids for a bit and Maya said, “Uhh Mommy, I like your dress! Can I wear it?” Sure! So I put it on her and off she went to the kitchen. I let her help me grate some cheese.

She was so happy to be a “momma” and help out in the kitchen.

Aidan’s 1st Primary Program!

2011-10-19T14:07:00.001-05:00

This past Sunday was Aidan’s very 1st Primary Program! I have been dreaming of this day since Aidan was a baby. I just couldn’t wait until we would have one of our very own up on the stand singing songs about Heavenly Father, Jesus, Daddy, Mommy & the scriptures. It was absolutely EVERYTHING I had always imagined it would be. I’m pretty sure I was smiling from ear to ear the entire program.

I’m so grateful for iphones! Personally I don’t want one but I’m so glad Rich had his and captured Aidan saying his part on video! I’ve only watched it a million times:)

Aidan’s Primary Program

I LOVE IT!!!! He was supposed to be completing the sentence, “I can follow God’s plan by…” His response was supposed to be, “By going to church on Sunday.” But he pretty much just said, “By going to Sunday!” I love how he looks at us for approval and then JUMPS down! I love primary and the things he learns there. It’s such a blessing to our home and family.

A Pony Ride

2011-10-19T13:53:00.001-05:00

This past Saturday was yet another reminder of how quickly my kids are growing up. I had to take Aidan to his 1st Saturday Primary Program practice. I just dropped him off at the church at 9:30am and then picked him up after their practice and pizza party at 12:30. Weird.

Rich and I decided we would take the girls out for a fun time since Aidan was livin’ it up with his primary friends. We took them to Tree Tops Park for a pony ride!

Arabella was cracking me up! I kept asking her to look at me so I could take a picture and this is what she would do instead:

She is SO DEFIANT!

Maya loved the pony ride so much that it was a struggle to convince her to get off.

Meanwhile, Arabella was preparing for her ride.

Off she went!

She loved it so much, too. Riding a pony was Aidan’s birthday wish so we will definitely be back to make his wish come true:)

They Are Out To Get Her!

2011-10-13T20:21:00.001-05:00

Poor Maya. Poor, poor Maya. The girl just can’t catch a break when it comes to ants! Remember THIS post about Maya sticking her hand in an ant hill? As it turns out, that was just the beginning of it! Just the other day we went out to eat as a family and happened to park our van right next to 10 billion ants, which only got on Maya of course. She freaked out as they bit her and I swatted them off. If that wasn’t enough ant incidents, she had another one today! After my Turbo Kick class at the gym we went out to the van where I had parked next to a palm tree. I was digging through my bag, trying to find my keys and Maya was pulling bark off of the palm tree. All of a sudden she starts stomping and screaming! Funny thing is I didn’t even have to look or think twice, I just grabbed her and started swatting at her feet. There were, in fact, several ants stinging my baby girls little feet:( Darn things! Hopefully, this will be the last of these encounters.

The other night we went to Chick-Fil-A to get Aidan & Arabella’s caricatures done, and we did! Because I’m too lazy to scan them I just took a picture of them. Here they are now all 3 together!

I know the colors and quality is horrible but I was just too darn lazy to scan them so instead I took a picture. I love them!!

In other news, Aidan received his 1st Ups package. By received I don’t mean that it was for him. I mean he actually answered the door and took the package!!!! I was in my bedroom putting the girls down for their naps and didn’t hear the knock at the door. No problem, Aidan heard it! He opened up the door and took the package. Luckily, we know our Ups guy. I think it’s time for a lock that Aidan can’t reach:)

Temple Trip!

2011-10-09T20:53:00.001-05:00

I almost can’t believe it but it’s true! Rich and I finally got to go to the TEMPLE!!! The last time we had gone was when we were sealed, like 3 1/2 years ago! It had been waaaay too long and we were in desperate need. How did we get so lucky to make Saturday our temple day? Well, some amazing friends volunteered, that’s right, they volunteered to watch our kids. Rich teaches the Temple Prep class and Grace and her fiance, Jared are in our class. They actually came up to us and asked us if we would like to go to the temple. Ummmm, yes please! So, they came over to our house at 5am and spent the day with the kiddos. Talk about nice!

We drove the 3 hours to the Orlando Temple. It was such a beautiful and enriching experience. I had missed the feeling of being in the temple so much and was soaking in the peace and beauty of it.

Didn’t this picture I took turn out awesome?!?! Totally kidding. I got this one online. Sadly, it was an extremely rainy day so I didn’t get any pics:(

I LOVE the temple!

My Mistake

2011-10-05T20:05:00.001-05:00

They really wanted to nap together in the tent.

So I let them.

They laughed, screamed, cried…the WHOLE time.

Lesson learned.

My Baby Wants A Baby

2011-10-05T19:55:00.001-05:00

Maya has decided that she is ready to be a mommy. Out of the blue she is all about babies. This actually really surprises me because she’s never been one to play with baby dolls or anything of the sort. Today we went to storytime at a friends house and my friend Heidi was there. Heidi is the mommy of 1 month old baby Addy. When Maya saw Addy she said to Heidi, “I want one!”. Then, she asked if she could hold her. Heidi let her and she sat there for a good 20 minutes being extremely protective of her baby.

The past couple of days she has asked me if she can hold Arabella after her nap.

They are pretty much the same size, haha!

Good thing I have a good 20 years before my baby has a baby.

Florida Baby

2011-10-04T20:38:00.001-05:00

I never really thought about it but today I realized that Maya is a REAL Florida baby. As we were leaving the gym this morning, Maya said, “Oooo, it’s cold!”. Cold? Really? There was a light breeze, no humidity and it was like 78 degrees. Yeah, I guess for a Floridian that would be considered cold!

Potty Training? Maybe…

2011-10-04T20:34:00.001-05:00

She probably won’t be too happy that I took a pic of her sitting on froggy toilet when she gets older but I just couldn’t resist. The past few days Arabella has been coming to me right before she goes poopy and she tells me that she needs to go. I know she’s not even 2 but hey, if she wants to potty train herself, I’m game!

She hasn’t actually gone yet. Today, she mostly just waved at me and said “hi” just to make sure I was looking at her.

Saying “CHEESE!”

I’m finding that she is more excited about the idea of sitting on the froggy toilet than actually doing it, so she gets up every 2 second. I like finding ways to solve these sorts of problems.

Just another reason our family loves the ipad:D We’ll see how long she is interested in potty training. I’m not really making an effort but maybe she’ll do what Maya did and train herself. Keep your fingers crossed!

General Conference Weekend

2011-10-02T21:51:00.001-05:00

This is one of my favorite times of year. I love the feeling of fall. It makes me feel all cozy and warm inside and for some reason always gets me thinking about where I’ve been, where I am and where I want to be. This weekend has been a particularly special one because of General Conference. Every time I see Temple Square I get a little choked up. It will always hold a special place in my heart because of the experiences I had, the people I met, the relationships I developed and the spirit that I felt every single day I was there during my mission.

Today, I thought about the conferences I spent working 15 hour days contacting the thousands of people that had all joined to hear the voice of the living prophet. What an experience of a lifetime and a privilege to serve on such sacred grounds.

Today, I thought about the General Conference that I spent in this room. 4 years ago today, was Aidan’s last night in the NICU. After 6 loooooong weeks we were finally going to get to take him home. In this NICU they would set you up in a room across the hall from the NICU where you would spend the night caring for your baby. I was so nervous because it would be the 1st time he would be 100% in my care. I had to do all of his trach suctioning, the g-tube feeding and give him all of his medications.

It was scary but exciting at the same time because I knew that I was going to bring him home the next day. While I was bummed that I didn’t get to watch General Conference, I was thankful for the blessings of the day. That weekend, 4 years ago, always comes to mind during this General Conference weekend.

Today, this was the scene at my house. I loved it. I don’t think I could have ever imagined this 7 years ago as a missionary on Temple Square. Today was just another special memory I can associate with such a special time of year.

I’m so grateful for a living prophet and the messages that are shared each General Conference. They motivate and encourage me to be a better mother, wife and friend. The experiences and trials I’ve had have made me who I am today and for that I am grateful and hope to continue growing and learning. Go to THIS website and listen to General Conference. It will make you happy. I promise.

Big Events, No Camera

2011-09-28T20:00:00.001-05:00

Today, I left the house in a hurry. I was in such a hurry that I ~~walked~~ ran out the door without my camera. I hate that. I like to have it in my bag because you never know when something epic is going to happen. Today was one of those days:( It was a very important day because Aidan was going to go on his very 1st FIELD TRIP!!! To Aidan, the destination wasn’t as exciting as the mode of transportation. His year long dream of riding on a school bus finally came true! That was the 1st thing he told me when I picked him up from school. They went to Young At Art and I got a pretty good report back from his teacher. Fhew!

(So focused doing his homework which he LOVES to do!)

I’m sad that I didn’t get a picture of him in his fieldtrip shirt or on the school bus. I had to drop him off and then rush to our next destination which was Dr. Singer’s office. Big event #2: Arabella’s last ENT visit!!! It was totally bitter sweet but a heck of a lot more sweet than bitter! Just a smidge bitter because it was the last time I would get to say thank you to the amazing doctor that did Aidan’s final surgeries and all of Arabella’s. I feel so blessed to have had one of THE BEST doctors in South Florida for my kids.

Anyway, those were 2 pretty big events that I’m bummed I didn’t have a camera for. Oh well.

I do have this cool picture to share:

We went to Chick-Fil-A last night and there was an amazingly talented lady drawing caricatures! We only had time to get Maya done but we will definitely be back in a couple of weeks to get the other two:D

A Proud Moment

2011-09-25T19:20:00.001-05:00

Friday night it was our turn to babysit. We trade off babysitting with 2 other families so that we get two dates with free babysitting and then we babysit once. I love our little arrangement since all of our kids are good friends. Anyway, this past friday night I had a very proud moment. Aidan & Hayden were playing at the train table. Aidan had 1 train and Hayden had the rest (like 6 trains). Kirk came up and said he wanted a train. Aidan said, “Ok, let’s go find you one!” and he proceeded to dig through one of the toy bins where we usually keep the cars & trains. He couldn’t find one so he said, “Let’s go ask Hayden if he’ll share with you. Hayden, can you give Kirk a train?” Hayden got a little upset so I stepped in before it turned into a big fight.

I had been on the other side of the house watching and listening to how Aidan was handling the situation and it made me SO PROUD! He really does try to be a good boy. He has such a good heart and is so thoughtful. I am one proud momma!

3 Year Old Maya

2011-09-24T14:18:00.001-05:00

Maya is now 3. How does that make me feel? A little sad, a lot nervous. So far I think that age 3 is the hardest. I shouldn’t complain though because Maya has been such an angel since she was a baby. Definitely my easiest, most laid back kid. I can already see that turning 3 has changed her. I’m up for the challenge so bring it on Maya!!! ;)

As a 3 year old Maya is:

* Becoming extremely assertive. No more getting pushed around by anybody.

*She still LOVES to read books.

*She is really good at puzzles on the Ipad.

*Loves to jump from anything and everything. The higher the better!

*Extremely sensitive to other peoples feelings. If she thinks I’m hurt or sad she immediately asks me if I’m ok. She cries if I cry and is quick to say she is sorry if she thinks she hurt me.

*Loves being a big sister. Lately she’s been wanting to hold Arabella who is almost as big as she is.

*Super active! She loves to run, play & especially climb & jump.

*Makes friends easily.

*Independent. She wants to do everything herself.

* Still very good at entertaining herself which is nice.

*Has not taken a nap in 2 weeks.

*Asks every day to watch Baby Einstein.

*Loves dropping off and picking up Aidan from school.

*Favorite foods: Oatmeal, veggies, yogurt.

*Best Friends: Kirk, Hayden & Hadley, Ella, Lili, Arabella & Aidan

*Favorite toys: Rocks, Cleo (purple dog from “Clifford”), Ipad, Goofy doll from Nana Jackie & Jessie doll from daddy, lip gloss from aunt Julie, Microphone from grandma Baker. She has lots of favorites as of today:D

Maya is so athletic, fearless, strong-willed, thoughtful, giving & LOVING. She has so many wonderful qualities that I adore. She’s so full of sweetness that I can’t help but love my little girl!

Happy 3rd Birthday Maya!!!

2011-09-24T13:47:00.001-05:00

Maya’s birthday was on the 22nd but we decided we would keep that a secret from her and celebrate it on Saturday the 24th! She doesn’t know the difference, right? :) We did basically the same thing we did for Aidan’s birthday party, we invited her close friends for some lunch, cupcakes (per Maya’s request), and a great time! For lunch we order pizza.

Even though all of her friends were sitting at the kids tables, Maya did not want to let the cupcakes out of her sight! She was so excited to have a cupcake. She kept asking me if we could sing “happy birthday” to her so that she could have one already.

Can you tell me what’s wrong with these pictures?

I was going crazy, taking tons of pictures before we lit the candle when my friend, Holly, says to me, “Why is there a 2 on her cupcake?” Ummmmm…because mommy is losing her mind!!! Don’t know why I put a 2 on there instead of a 3. I’ll blame it on the lack of sleep.

Problem solved:D

Dreams really do come true…

Let me explain the next part of the party. I’ve always though the idea of a “Candy Bar” at a kids birthday party would be so cool. I imagined in my mind how exciting it would be for all of the little kids to be able to choose from a wide variety, any candy they wanted. I finally decided that it was time to make it happen. I found some little tins at Target and asked my friend, Lucy to print out the kids names on vinyl for me and voila!

And the “Candy Bar”

The kids got to go find the tin with their name on it and fill it up!

I don’t know why but when I get an idea in my head of something that would be cool to do, I HAVE to do it! Even if it means a lot of work for me. So, I saw a tutorial of how to make cute little crochet bows and I thought, “That would be a super cute party favor!” So, I got to work.

I made them in tons of different colors and every little girl went home with 3.

It was fun, special and memorable. Happy Birthday to my 3 year old big girl, Maya!!!!

Deep Thoughts, By Rich Baker

2011-09-23T18:46:00.001-05:00

Today, as we were driving to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a drink dispenser for Maya’s party tomorrow, Rich said something deep. Funny thing is he totally didn’t mean it in a deep way but I guess I’m just one of those deep thinkers that reads into everything. It was a gorgeous day and all of a sudden, like Florida weather tends to do, it looked like a storm was coming in. I said, “Wow, all of a sudden in got gloomy and cloudy!" And Rich, in all of his wisdom said, “Yeah, but look beyond it. It’s beautiful.”

I don’t know why this struck me the way it did. It just got me thinking-not that I’m going through anything right now. I started thinking about how true that is. When we are in the midst of “clouds & gloominess” it’s so hard to see that beyond it, it is bright and beautiful. It’s even more beautiful that it was before because we see the world through with a heart filled with gratitude. At least I know that this has been so true for me. The “gloom” makes me SO grateful for the “sunshine”. The difficult part is seeing it while in the midst of a trial. I hope that I can have more faith and look beyond my struggles to the bright sunshine that awaits.

A Walk

2011-09-17T20:26:00.001-05:00

Today, the kids and I were left to fend for ourselves while Rich finished his scuba certification. I don’t particularly like spending Saturday’s without him but we tried to make the best of it. Some friends invited us to join them for a fun day at the beach but I knew better than to torture myself by going to the beach with all 3 kids and no Rich. I had to pass on that:( Instead they took long baths and went for a walk.

(Maya giving baby sister a kiss. Of course I had to tell her to do it;)

They grow up so fast. I cant believe that Aidan is 4, Maya will be 3 next week and then Arabella will no longer be1!!!! Time sure does fly.

Poor Baby Girl:(

2011-09-15T14:00:00.001-05:00

I feel so bad for Arabella. She really has had a rough couple of days. I can tell that she is in a lot of pain because she has been so cranky and fussy. I finally decided to take the tape off of her incision yesterday after her nap and it made me so sad:( The incision is about 2 inches long.

(You can kind of see the bruising that has faded in the picture above)

Today is the best she has been. I know she must be feeling better but she still has her moments. Can’t blame her. I think I would be pretty grouchy if my neck looked like this.

It looks like it is going to heal pretty well. Not quite as perfectly smooth as I had hoped but it’s a lot better than it was.

Random but cute pic of my girls sharing a cup of water.

Not So Good After All:(

2011-09-14T13:08:00.001-05:00

I thought that Arabella was doing abnormally well for having just had surgery, but that was all too good to be true:( Day 1 was ok but it was day 2, after all of the meds that they gave her in the hospital wore off, that she started to really fuss. We are now on day 3 and she doesn’t seem to be getting much better. She gets really cranky when the tylenol wears off and I can tell that she is in pain. To top it off, it seems like she caught something. Her voice is really hoarse and she has a runny nose. So, now not only does she have to deal with the pain of the surgery but she is also dealing with the discomfort of being sick. I will say that given her circumstances she is handling it all like a real champ. My heart just aches when I hear her whimpering because of the pain she is feeling. Hopefully she will get better within the next couple of days.

Arabella’s Stoma Surgery

2011-09-12T22:41:00.001-05:00

What a day! I am exhausted and grateful. Arabella had her final trach related surgery ever, today. What a relief to close that chapter in her life. Although I will say that caring for a trach baby was so much less stressful the 2nd time than the 1st time. I was able to relax a bit more because I had all of the experience from Aidan and I knew what to expect. I also noticed that the night before the surgery I was a ball of nerves but when it came time to send her back for the surgery I was completely at ease. That was a 1st for me. It only took a good 15-20 surgeries for me to get to that point!

This was the quickest, smoothest procedure ever. It was so quick that I barely had a chance to take pics or video. Here are a few from our morning.

5:45 am~ Arrived at Joe Dimaggio Children’s Hospital

6:45 am~ Killin’ time playing with some toys.

Pretty much every single nurse and doctor asked what happened to her cheek. It’s a mosquito bite.

7:30 am~ Starting to feel the affects of the medication. She was so cute. When she started getting really loopy she giggled and giggled. Then, she became super affectionate, kissing me on the cheek over and over. Then, she got grouchy and irritable and was insisting that I put her down even though her body was almost totally limp from the medicine. All this happened in like 5 minutes.

(I look as tired as I felt:)

Here’s a short video of her starting to get grouchy. It was super short because she kept trying to get the camera.

7:40 am~ Off to the operating room. Got to give her a kiss before she rolled away.

8:35 am~ Out of surgery. When I went back to the recovery room a nurse was holding her and Arabella was screaming and kicking. A very common reaction to coming out of the anesthesia. The second the nurse handed her to me I snuggled her and she was out within seconds.

Sweet baby girl was such a trooper. She chugged her apple juice at 9:30 and at 9:40 she was discharged. I was blown away at how fast everything was. We were home by 10:00!! That has never happened before. The doctor did give me the option of staying over night and I quickly declined that offer:)

Arabella is doing so great. She bounced back ridiculously fast. She threw up a couple of times and then was ready to eat, run and play!

Happy just poppin’ her cheerios!

We are so happy with how well everything went today. We are hoping that her neck will heal quickly, without any infections. Soon you will not even be able to tell that she ever had a trach. Can’t wait to see how good it looks!

Cowgirl

2011-09-07T16:14:00.001-05:00

Just a quick post to write about something that happened today that I don’t ever want to forget. On our way to Aidan’s school this morning I was fighting the traffic and the stop lights. I was coming up on the last light of the drive and I just knew it was going to turn red on me! I sped up just a bit, not crazy fast but just a tad. Well, apparently Maya really liked that because as I was making the left hand turn at the light she said, “Yeeeehaaaaw! Ride ‘em cowboy!”. I almost died! My guess is she learned that from Sheriff Woody but I’ve never, ever heard her say it before and it just cracked me up!

Before Noon

2011-09-06T15:29:00.001-05:00

It amazes me how much can happen(go wrong) before noon. Before Aidan started school we usually just hung around the house with not too much to do. Now that Aidan is in school we are a lot busier. I actually really love it because it has given us a reason to get up and out of the house every day. It’s only been a little over a week of our new schedule but I’m already debating on changing my blog title to, “Adventures Of A Stay-At-Home Mom” because since Aidan has been in school, every day has been an adventure! Today was no exception.

8:50~As we were driving to Aidan’s school I heard Arabella gag and when I turned back she was spewing out all of the oatmeal that she had for breakfast…Aidan was late to school due to the unbelievable amount of vomit I had to wipe off of her.

10:10~We were late to Arabella’s appointment with Dr. Singer because I had to go back home to change her clothes. GREAT NEWS THOUGH, Dr. Singer looked at Arabella’s stoma and was shocked to see that it had closed up completely! To quote him, he said “That’s incredible!”. That, coming from a guy that see’s lots of stomas. I was beaming:) We are going to go ahead with the surgery next week but it will be an outpatient surgery, purely for cosmetic reasons. YAY for Arabella!

11:15~Took the girls to the park by our house for 30 minutes of play time. They were having a good time and I was enjoying watching them when about 5 minutes into it Maya yells, “It was an accident!” Not again. She had another accident! I mean, the girl basically potty trained herself so I shouldn’t complain but I don’t understand why she’s suddenly having so many accidents. Anyhow, there was no saving this one. There was sand at this park and pee and sand don’t mix…they stick. I had to run home, wash her off and change her clothes.

11:45~Finally ready to run out the door to get Aidan and the unpredictable Florida weather decided to make my day a little more exciting. It starts to POUR! Have you seen a Florida downpour? It made for some extra fun. Luckily it stopped before we got to Aidan’s school.

Good times. Just another day at the office ;)

Arabella’s Stoma

2011-09-05T21:54:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow I will be dropping Aidan off at school and then taking Arabella to see Dr. Singer. He is just going to check out her stoma and then next tuesday, Sept. 12, will be the surgery. Every time I think about my kids and surgery I just want to puke. I’m excited to get her stoma closed up and be done with it but when is surgery ever fun? It’s not. I’m always a nervous wreck. Anyway, I deal with it and I’m just grateful that it’s not for anything serious.

See the trach hole? That will soon be gone!

Hopefully Arabella won’t have to go through the same thing Aidan did when his incision got infected:( It was horrible & heartbreaking. You can read about Aidan’s final surgery here. I’ll keep updating, of course. We are, as always, hoping and praying for a smooth procedure.

Well, other than Aidan completing his 1st week of school it has been a pretty uneventful week. Little mishaps here and there but I think I pretty much covered that in the previous post. I did snap a few shot of the kids today on our way to the pool.

I can’t resist this one of Maya, fresh from a bath.

So random yet so SWEET!

Never A Dull Moment

2011-08-31T17:08:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I decided to take the girls to the park before picking up Aidan because we had 30 minutes before he got out of school and I didn’t want to go home. About 10 minutes into playing at the park, right when I settled onto the bench in the shade and dialed my mom’s phone number, Maya had another plan. She was bending over taking her shoes off and when she stood up she was wet up to her neck. My mom answered her phone and I said, “Hi mom, I’ve gotta go.” Maya was wearing a jumper and had completely soaked it. I didn’t have enough time to go home and change her but I couldn’t leave her in the car. I stripped her down, wiped her with wipes and then started digging through the van, praying for clothes to put on her. I found her zebra pants and one of Arabella’s tank tops, so that is what she wore!

I just thought it was funny how I actually though I was going to have a good 20 minutes to just relax in the shade. Teach me to try to take a break!

Aidan’s 1st day of school & other happenings…

2011-08-29T19:06:00.001-05:00

Today was the big day! The big day that I’ve thought about and had such mixed feelings about for quite some time, and guess what, it was awesome! Aidan has done nothing but ask if he could, “go to school to get an education” for the past year. Then finally the big day comes and he’s not so sure if he wants to do it after all. He went and he LOVED it! I, honestly, loved it too.

(night before school preparations)

It was so very nice to be able to spend some time with just the girls, doing girly things. After I did a little bit of cleaning I painted the girls toe nails for the 1st time! It was so cute to see how excited Maya was about the sparkles on her toes and then asked for sparkles on her fingers:D Arabella wasn’t too wild about it because she didn’t like the sitting still part, it was fun though.

(I love those cute little fingers and toes!)

When it was time to pick Aidan up from school the drama began. Aidan was so excited to tell me that he went to school and got an education but as it turned out, Maya also wanted an education! She did not want to leave! I had to chase that girl all over the school. Around the playground equipment and through the sand. It was quite the ordeal with me chasing Maya and Aidan & Arabella chasing me. I was not too happy with her when I finally caught her. Tomorrow i’ll be sure not to let go of her hand.

Now for the “other happenings” part of this post. We discovered a very strange fear that Maya has. Yes, fearless Maya is not completely fearless after all. Her fear? Feathers. It is so out of character for her. This is the girl that will touch worms, lizards, jump off of or climb anything, squish spiders with her bare hand but put a feather in front of her and she freaks!

This is the part where you see what horrible parents we are, well mainly Rich. He has a sick obsession with scaring our kids which actually drives me crazy, like REALLY crazy. This video is a little long so you don’t have to watch the whole thing but you’ll get the gist at the beginning. Oh and one more little disclaimer…please excuse Aidan’s really bad haircut. It wasn’t me this time, it was a friend :)

Oh, I almost forgot to mention another 1st today with Aidan. Today Aidan called me Jessica. Ahem, excuse me my 4 year old son? I was quick to correct him. Yesterday he called his daddy, Rich. Don’t know what’s going on with him but suddenly he’s too cool to call us mom & dad. I don’t think I’m ready for this whole “growing up” thing.

Cruisin’

2011-08-27T21:19:00.001-05:00

At the very moment that I am writing this Rich & I are on a CRUISE!! We were so lucky to have a week off before Rich starts his next rotation and decided to take advantage of it. It was the perfect opportunity to cross off one more thing on our Florida “To Do” list. We have two of the greatest friends that were willing to watch the kids for the week. Aidan is with Lucy. I’m sure he is in heaven since Ella, Lucy’s daughter, is pretty much one of his favorite people. Maya and Arabella went with Holly who has 2 kids of her own that are the same ages as the girls, not to mention the fact that she is pregnant! Yeah, she has her hands full! We are so grateful for such awesome friends that are willing to help make this happen for us.

So, here we are! The 1st day we familiarized ourselves with the ship and the food deck:D We went to dinner and met some really fun people. There are 3 other couples at our table that have quickly become our friends. Today, day 2, we docked at Key West. Talk about a fun day! Rich and I rode a wave runner around the entire island with a group. It was seriously the most fun I’ve had in a long time. An hour and a half out on the ocean on a wave runner with Rich…it was a really great time.

We spent the rest of our time on Key West just running around and enjoying the unique atmosphere of such a tiny island.

We had our 1st Chonch ever. They were soooooo good!

Back on the ship it was “elegant night”. We got all dressed up and joined our new friends for dinner and then we all went to a show. Now I understand why they always make fun of cruise ship singers (cheesy)!

What’s in store for tomorrow? Cozumel!!!!

Day 3:

Today we will be docking at Cozumel. We are still a couple of hours out so we decided to just chill for a while. We slept in until 9 this morning and then Rich dragged me to the gym to make a little dent in the thousands of calories we’ve been eating. We both ran 3 miles…of course he did it in half my time. Then we had some scrumptious breakfast. I could really get used to this kind of life. Rich is living his dream of going down the water slide while I’m sitting in the shade blogging and videoing him.

Ok, so it’s now day 4 but I’ve gotta write about how incredible day 3 was in Cozumel.

We got off the ship and were immediately bombarded by people asking us if we wanted to rent a scooter. After a few minutes we decided that we would rent a scooter for $30 for the whole day and we were off! It was so fun scooting around the island.

Rich had booked a snorkeling adventure for us which turned out to be private! It was awesome having a boat and guide all to ourselves. Carlos was our guide and he was super nice. Our captain, Jaime, didn’t seem all there but he was nice too:) We went to a couple of different sections of the reef and the first, Santa Rosa, was where I discovered my love for snorkeling. I’m not even exaggerating…I LOVE SNORKELING! We had been 3 times before but for some reason I couldn’t pressurize and it just wasn’t very enjoyable to me. This time I completely fell in love with it after I figured our the whole pressurizing thing. Carlos asked me if I was going to go down and I decided I would give it a shot. My 1st try I went all the way down to the bottom which was about 30ft. and I felt such a rush! I enjoyed every single second of our 2 1/2 hours of snorkeling, except for the 15 jelly fish stings that I endured. It didn’t seem quite fair that I got stung 15 times and Rich didn’t get one single sting! I’m so excited that we still have another year in Florida so that we can keep going snorkeling.

Rich is like a fish in the water. Even the fish think so! From the the second he jumped in the water he had 2 companions. Two little fish stuck my his side the entire time we were at the 1st reef. If he was down deep, they were right by his head. If he was just snorkeling at the top, they were by his lower back. We were there for 1 hour and they did not leave his side. It was sooo cute! Wish we could have kept them. Lots of pictures coming soon from our under water adventures!

After snorkeling we went for a bite to eat and then on to some shopping. Cozumel made me miss Mexico so much. As a kid we would go to Mexico at least once a year. Now, it is just too dangerous to go visit. I miss my grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins. Hopefully it will get cleaned up soon so that my kids can enjoy the same experiences I did as a kid in Mexico.

(my pharmacist)

When it was time to leave the island we didn’t realize how late it was and had to run what felt like a mile to me but Rich said it was only a 1/4 mile. We made it on and they closed the door behind us. They were waiting for us! It was awesome! Our day on Cozumel was such a rush. From riding a scooter to discovering my passion for snorkeling to booking it to get on the ship, it was all such a rush!!! We were both just smiling from ear to ear all day. Then, after a day of playing hard, this is what we come home to:)

I think we are now converted to cruising. You don’t have to worry about ANYTHING on a cruise. All of your meals are made for you. You can get room service 24/7 and every time we go back to our room it is clean with mints on our bed! Seriously, this is what I call a vacation.

We are now on day 4 of our vacation and our plan for today is…a whole lot of nothing. We slept in til 11 and now we are just hanging out. Rich is reading and I’m blogging. We plan on going to bingo at 3, dinner at 6, the comedy club at 8 and then we’ll just have to see what we decide to do.

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Ok, so our vacation is over and we’ve actually been home for a couple of days now. I have to admit, I really enjoyed my alone time with Rich. Our stress-free personalities came out and we were like kids again, without a care or worry in the world. I am happy to be back home with my babies, even though they’ve already given me a headache;) So, here’s what we ended up doing on our last day…bingo at 3~we didn’t win:( Dinner at 6~So much fun!!!!

Good times with new friends.

Every night after dinner, music would come on and all of the servers would start dancing. It was awesome.

After dinner we all went to a show. Then, Rich and I did this:

It was a beautiful and relaxing last evening on the ship. We watched the sunset and chilled on the deck. I loved every single second of our cruise. I gained 5 pounds and I don’t regret a single ounce. We are already dreaming about our next cruise. I know it won’t be any time soon but it’s nice to dream. One thing is for sure. We did a lot of BOTH of these:

Happy cruisin’ everyone!

Aidan’s Birthday Party!

2011-08-26T22:52:00.001-05:00

This year Aidan was SOOOO excited about his birthday. That made Rich and I get really excited about it and we wanted to make is a special and memorable experience for him. I think we pulled it off:D Because we wanted to make it special we invited his closest friends so that it would be a more intimate experience.

We started the party with a delicious lunch, hawaiian haystacks.

(Two of my best friends, America & Lucy. Love them!)

Then, my favorite part was singing happy birthday. Aidan has been dreaming about his 4th birthday for months now. He’s been talking about making a wish and blowing out the candles and everybody singing the birthday song. It really was one of the best moments ever, and I got it on video!

He was very specific when requesting his birthday cake. It had to be an ice cream cake. He loved it.

After the cake we opened presents. He has some really great friends that got him such good gifts! Airplanes, helicopters, transformers, a crane, a dry erase activity book with lots of markers…he was in HEAVEN!

I just HAVE to post a pic of one of the party favors that we gave out. I had this idea months ago but lost all motivation to do it…until the night before the party right around 10pm. So, I stayed up until 1:30 making these mini crayon rolls for all of Aidan’s little friends. Why did it take so long, you ask? Because I am a sloooow sewer:)

It was a fun and successful party. I had a fun time with so many great friends that have become like family.

Happy 4th Birthday Aidan!!!

2011-08-26T22:34:00.001-05:00

I can hardly believe that I have a 4 year old. It doesn’t feel like it was yesterday but I remember his birth like it was yesterday. He is such a gift that I’m so very grateful for and have loved watching him grow. Aidan at 4 years old is such a big boy.

(reading to Maya before bed)

*He is very independent and wants to do everything by himself.

*He is a really big help when it’s time to clean.

*He always holds the door open for me. Such a gentleman.

*Finally 100% potty trained! That was like a year long process but he finally did it!

*Very friendly. He is always waving and saying hi to people.

*My baby boy will be starting school this week! He is so excited to go and “get an education like daddy.”

*Favorite toys: Sheriff Woody, Toy Story Memory cards, Clifford stuffed animal

*Favorite cartoons: Super Why, Jake & The Neverland Pirates, Clifford

*Best friends: Kirk, Ella, Lily, Maya, Arabella

*Favorite food: Cheerios with honey, oatmeal (for lunch), anything with rice and he LOVES apple juice.

Conversations that are had at least twice a day…EVERY DAY!

Aidan: Mom, what are you eating?

Me: Crackers, Aidan. (Or whatever it may be)

Aidan: Mmmmm mom I looove crackers!

Basically, his way of asking if he can have some:)

Conversation #2

Aidan: I like you.

Me: I love you, Aidan.

Aidan: You do?

Me: Yes, I do.

Aidan: Ok!

(sharing his popsicle)

He is so funny! Maya has caught on to the things he says on a daily basis as well. When she woke up from her nap today Aidan said to her, “I like you, Maya!” and she said, “No! I LOVE you, Aidan!” Every day they make me laugh.

Every year on Aidan’s birthday my mind always takes me back to that day, 4 years ago, and the long journey that we had no idea we were just beginning. While I know that a birthday is a day of celebration it really, truly was ONE of the most traumatic days of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I am eternally grateful for that day and his birth. In my heart I feel like I also want to celebrate the day that he came home from the hospital…6 weeks after his birthday. I think we just might do that this year:)

I Love This Mess!

2011-08-16T10:27:00.001-05:00

She is such a funny little disaster and I love everything about her! She’s been so quirky lately and I don’t want to forget it so I must document. First of all, she is talking up a storm. One of her 1st words was ipad. Recently she has started putting words together like last week she said, “Aidan sleeping. Maya sleeping.” She adores her brother and sister and is a momma’s girl.

Arabella is ALWAYS putting clothes on. And I do mean ALWAYS! She often has at least 5 articles of clothing on either her leg or arm.

I just can’t keep her out of the dressers!

She is sweet, sweet, sweet! She just had to kiss every single stuffed animal.

She is very feisty. She can definitely hold her own when it comes to Aidan & Maya. Sometimes she even picks on them! She had to sit in time-out for the 1st time the other day because she wouldn’t stop pushing Aidan. She looks innocent but she is not.

Her 1st time-out. She didn’t really like it much.

She is such a fun girl with so much personality. I just can’t believe that she is almost 2 years old!!! Love my baby girl.

Chloe Michelle

2011-08-14T20:00:00.001-05:00

This is a belated welcome to the world and our family to my newest niece, Chloe! As I mentioned previously, I missed Chloe’s birth by 6 hours which totally bummed me out because I was able to be there for both her brother and sister’s birth. I feel so lucky to have gotten to spend so much time snuggling her and smooching her for the week that we were there. I even had to sneak away from the Baker home for a day to spend a few more hours with her. She is SO precious! Here are some pics from the hospital and then at home.

This is my little sister. Seriously, who looks this good after having a baby? Gorgeous!

At home:

Visit To Missouri

2011-08-13T20:15:00.001-05:00

Fun, fun, fun!!! I love my family so much, so you can imagine how excited I was to go visit. Aidan had been asking for months if he could go to Missouri so I know he was also excited. Maya was most excited to go see Rosco, my brother’s dog. So, we headed out and actually had a really great 24 hour drive. The first 12 hours were better than the second 12 but all in all it was good. A couple pics:

Stopped to eat lunch

Yum!

As we started our 2nd day of driving I got a text that said my sister was checking into the hospital to have her baby. I was so bummed that little Miss. Chloe decided not to wait 6 more hours for me to be there for her grand entrance into the world. So happy she had a safe delivery though. The next day I went in to see my beautiful little niece and took a few pics of her and her momma. I had so much fun doing Sen’s hair and make-up. She looked beautiful. I’m doing an entire post dedicated to my new niece so here’s just one pic of momma & baby.

We had fun hanging out with my family. We even had a family date night and got a babysitter for all of the kids. It was good family fun:)

Warning…I’m being such a big nerd in the following pic. I like it ;)

Mi familia! Not pictured: My brother-in-law, David, who had to work. We missed him!

Other stuff we did?

Kids shoved themselves into a tiny pool that was intended for Arabella.

Water fights and just regular fights. Here’s a shot that turned out really cool of my nephew, Julian.

Went to my sister-in-laws show, The Dutton's to see my nephew, Damian, sing “This Little Light of Mine.”

Josiah, who is obsessed with my mom, ate her face.

We had some good times. I miss them. That was only half of our vacation!!! We still had another fun filled week with the Baker side of our family! I’ll tell you what, those Baker’s sure know how to throw a party! There was eating, playing in the pool & sprinkler, a water balloon toss, sundaes and sparklers!

The winners! Kassie & Brhett!

Ice Cream

We spent the rest of our days just hanging out with Grandma, Grandpa & cousins.

Dad

Hello Handsome

It was a very fun and successful trip to Missouri. Can’t wait to go back. Hopefully it will be sooner than later.

A Glimpse

2011-08-04T20:23:00.001-05:00

I was watching some of the short videos that I’ve taken of the kids recently and they were making me smile ear to ear:) I just had to share a few so that you could get a glimpse into our life with 3 wild & fun kiddos. Love them SO MUCH!

Let me just say, I feel like I’m totally exposing myself as far as the tidiness of my home goes. I don’t claim to always have a clean house but you will see how crazy things REALLY get. Also, one or two of my kids is usually missing an article of clothing…ok, sometimes all of their clothes! That’s the beauty of staying at home, right? Don’t judge or I’m gonna make you come over and try to keep up;)

Enjoy!

I love this next one! This was during our recent 24 hour drive to Missouri. They totally like to gang up and drive us nuts. Fun!

How they decided to entertain themselves while I was making dinner.

Maya does the funniest, crazy girl giggle. She doesn’t do it very often but I just had to capture it on video before she realizes how crazy she sounds and stops. The video doesn’t do it justice because she usually does it a lot longer than these short giggles but you’ll get the idea of how cute it is.

So, there you have it! Are they crazy or what!?!? I feel so blessed to be their mommy.

Love my babies!

Dear DSLR

2011-07-31T20:36:00.001-05:00

I love you. You know I love you. I’ve really enjoyed learning how to shoot in manual and you are so much fun to play with but if something has got to go, well, it’s you. Don’t worry, it’s not for good! I will still pull you out for the occasional photo shoot of the kids and on special occasions but if I’m being honest, I just can’t take care of all 3 kids and use you for regular outings. Point and shoot doesn’t do as good of a job but it does a pretty darn good one, so that is what I’ll be using a little more often. You are still my favorite.

Love,

Jess

Saturday Beach Day

2011-07-30T21:07:00.001-05:00

This morning Rich asked me what I wanted to do today. I said, “I just wanna get out of this house!” So, what do you do when it’s in the 90’s and you live in South Florida? Go to the pool! NOT! We went to the beach:) The kids love the beach and I have to admit it’s a lot more fun now that they are a little older. Just a few pics:

Beware of my blinding white thighs!

Maná!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-07-30T20:14:00.001-05:00

It was A-MA-ZING!!! What more can I say? How do you describe a once in a lifetime experience like seeing Maná in concert? I mean, really? I know most people are like Ma-who? That’s ok. You’re only missing out on the most famous, incredible, amazing, talented, spanish rock band EVER!!!! I still can’t believe we got to go to there concert. I wish soooo badly that I could relive that night.

Now, of course no big exciting event would be complete without me goofing it up in some way so I left my mark on the night in a very devastating way. I’ll tell you how. So, we got a sitter for the kids and had dinner at Olive Garden which was horrible and free:) Then, we drove up to Miami. We parked a couple of blocks from the arena and followed the crowd. The closer we got the more excited I got. I was getting all giggly and giddy as we were walking up the steps of the arena. Seeing as how it was a once in a lifetime experience I wanted to be sure to document every single moment with pictures and about halfway up the steps to the arena I saw the perfect shot. I stopped to get out my camera, flipped the on button and held up my camera…nothing…….panic set in…..no……no….NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I forgot the battery!!! Can you picture me? Standing there? Devastated. I cried. I could not believe that I was at a Maná concert that I had looked forward to for so many months and I was going to be camera-less. Rich was so positive and whipped out his phone, which takes horrible pictures by the way, and became the photographer for the night:)

Sadly, this was the best pic of the night:( Despite the horrid quality of this picture I love it and will treasure it forever. It was an amazing night. Like I said, if I could just relive that night one more time I would be in heaven.

Fher, the lead singer was so freakin’ awesome! As a band they are amazing. I think it’s so incredible that they’ve been famous since the 80’s and their older songs are still popular among the younger generation. There was such a wide age range at the concert, people in their 50’s to teenagers. I will say though, there weren’t too many white guys from Missouri there! hahaha! It’s just one more thing I love about Rich, we can both get excited about spanish music, bands and concerts. It was so much fun sharing something that I love with him. Oh yeah, the matching shirts were his idea…he’s the best!

I don’t know if we'll ever get another opportunity like that again so I’m glad we jumped at the chance to see such a legendary band in concert. One of the greatest experiences of my life!

Don’t Give Up!

2011-07-28T21:24:00.001-05:00

I realize I am REALLY REALLY far behind on my blog and I have every intention of writing about the Maná concert that Rich and I went to, which by the way was AMAZING, and our 2 week trip to Missouri. For now, I’m just gonna write about an experience that I’m sure I’ll be laughing about a few years from now.

First of all, let me just mention my incredible 14 hours of sleep that I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of nights ago. I was crashing on the couch at 6:30, when my night in shining armor stepped in and rescued me. “Go to bed.” Were the loving words that he ever so sweetly uttered. I obeyed:) I woke up at 8:30 the next morning and it felt sooooo goooooood. Unfortunately, I’m still fighting a losing battle with depression and the sleep didn’t help the next day. Anyway, to repay Rich for his kindness I though I would let him go running all by himself. With 3 little kids doing anything by yourself is quite the treat. I was also determined to do something good for myself and go to the gym. I loaded up the kids and drove to the gym, leaving behind my cell phone (I will regret this later). So, as I was unloading the kids I hit the lock button out of habit. One by one I unbuckled Aidan, Maya and then I set my wallet and keys down on the seat to take Arabella out her her seat. Then, I closed the door……………………..:(

I realized instantly that I had just locked myself out of the van but made every effort not to panic. I just turned towards the gym and decided that I would go right ahead and get a good work out and then worry about how I was going to get home. Did you know that you can’t check your kids into the kid care at 24 hour fitness without your id? I did. I just didn’t know that they wouldn’t make any acceptions, even if they know you. There I was, with 3 screaming kids that wanted to go play, no keys, no phone, oh and just to make it a little more impossible, Rich JUST changed his cell phone number last week and I didn’t know his new number. Isn’t it horrible to be so dependant on a cell phone that you don’t know anybody’s number in case of emergency. Shame on me.

The 1st thing I did was go to the front desk to ask them to contact one of my friends that I knew had been to the gym before. I was shocked when not one of my friends came up in the computer. Then I sat outside with the kids just to think about other options.

Just to clarify the gravity of the situation: I am at the gym with all 3 kids. I don’t know anybody’s number. Rich is on a run for at least 45 minutes. I live about 3 miles away. What would you do? Start walking? I considered it but there would be several very busy streets to cross with my kids and that was just a risk I wasn’t willing to take. I even contemplated asking some random, nice looking lady if she would be willing to give us a ride home without car seats. It really seemed like my only option until I had an “ah ha moment”. When you register your kids at the kid care you have to fill out a form for each child with your contact info. My friend, Lori, was a member and took her kids there! I rushed in and practically begged the lady to break the rules for me and call my friend. She asked for permission from a manager and then called Lori. She was on a walk near my house and was so nice to swing by and inform Rich of my situation. Hallelujah! About 20 minutes later I was rescued, once again by my hero. Poor guy, he sure does have a lot to deal with, with me as his wife.

I never did get my workout but the next morning I woke up with 1 goal in mind: I was going to go to the gym. I did! I did not give up. Lately, I’m not gonna lie, it feels like the world is against me. I’m sure this has happened to everybody at some point in their lives. If it hasn’t, it probably will but the most important thing to remember is to not give up.

Moral of the story? Get out of the habit of locking the doors before I actually close them. Lesson learned:)

The Potty Game

2011-07-02T19:19:00.001-05:00

Guess who’s potty trained…Aidan and almost Maya! Aidan has finally decided that going #2 in the toilet isn’t such a bad thing. Maya has pretty much potty trained herself as far as #2 goes and I guess that means I should probably put some effort into #1 with her. I know I should be jumping up and down at the fact that an 8 month struggle has finally come to an end but I think I’ve been had. I thought that I would be amazing when he was totally potty trained but he’s figured out how to make up for the lack of diapers by playing THE POTTY GAME (dun dun dun). Have you ever been through this one? Every night after changing clothes, brushing teeth and saying prayers we close the door and are home free!!!! So we thought. About 10 minutes later we hear, “Mommy, Daddy I need to go poop!” It’s Aidan. Ugh! Let him out, strip his clothes and sit him on the toilet. 15 minutes later he decides he doesn’t need to go after all. Dress him and put him back to bed. 2 minutes later, “Mommy, Daddy I need to go poop!” Maya’s turn. Some nights it’s just once for each kid and others it’s twice. I hate the potty game. Like every thing else, it’s just a phase. Thank goodness!

Hello Blog. It’s been a while.

2011-07-01T13:28:00.001-05:00

I had really good intentions. I have a bunch of pics and stories to tell but just didn’t make the time to blog so here I am 2 weeks later. Lots on my mind. Lots has happened. On father’s day I got a call from someone special. No, not my dad, my little brother! Did you know that I have a little brother? I do! Actually, besides Rudy and Sen I have 3 little brothers and a little sister. They are my dad’s kids that he had with his 2nd wife after my parents divorce. So anyways, my brother Fernando called me on fathers day and that was the 1st time I’ve ever spoken with him. It was so cool to get to know him and find out more about who he is and about his life. I hope we can build a long distance relationship.

It was really interesting hearing about his childhood and how he had to live the life that me and my siblings escaped. It made me so grateful for a strong and loving mom that always made us the priority. It also made me feel guilty, like I should have been some sort of support for them because they definitely needed it. My life would have been so different had my mom stayed in that marriage. I’m so grateful.

Father’s Day. Well, we celebrated father’s day without Rich this year. He was in California for his Grandpa’s memorial. It was kind of nice though because it gave me a few extra days to finish up his gift:) One thing that I’ve learned about Rich is that it’s impossible to buy him a gift. He is a master researcher and researches for days before buying anything. It’s taken me 5 years to learn this but finally after 5 years I now know that I have to get him “It’s the thought that counts” gifts. So this is what I did for him:

I saw this idea on one of my favorite blogs and kind of made it my own. Instead of just filling the bucket with candy I put a heart note on each one of them with a reason why he is the best dad.

The kids colored for him and I bought him a little gift. He felt special and THAT is what matters, right?

He brought me some goodies from San Francisco. Delicious chocolates and the most divine sourdough bread ever!

Ok, now that I’m somewhat caught up I can keep up and blog about the fun we’ve been having with daddy around!!

Just like Jake

2011-06-20T12:49:00.001-05:00

Aidan has a new hero, besides daddy of course. Lately he has been obsessed with Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He wants to be just like Jake! He has been asking me for a treasure chest the past few days and so finally, today I emptied my little jewelry box and gave it to him. I wish I would have gotten his reaction on video because it was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. He was beaming and was soooo excited to have his very own treasure chest! I pulled out his pirate halloween costume from last year and he was the happiest kid on earth.

I whipped up a red “pirate bandana” just like Jakes and I’m pretty sure it was the quickest, easiest and most rewarding thing I’ve ever made. Seriously, he LOVES it!

The very 1st thing he asked me was, “Mommy can I have gold doubloon’s?” Of course! How could I forget? Now, Jake doesn’t just get gold doubloon’s for nothing, he has to earn them. I gave him a job, he did it and so I gave him a gold doubloon (quarter) to put in his treasure chest. He was so helpful this morning, cleaning up all of his toys to earn more gold doubloon’s. This is gonna get expensive.

I guess there is an episode where Jake has a necklace in his treasure chest? I haven’t seen it but Aidan kept asking me for a necklace to put in his treasure chest. Yay! Finally, my dream came true! I don’t know why I’ve always wanted my kids to love stringing stuff like cheerios, fruit loops, beads…they’ve just never really been interested. Instead they would eat the goodies and they’ve never been interested in beading:( This time was different. Both Aidan & Maya were so excited to make a necklace to put in their treasure chest. They didn’t want to wear it, they just wanted to put it in their treasure chest.

I think this is my favorite obsession of theirs to date because there is so much we can do with it! Love my little pirates!

Mini Me

2011-06-20T11:57:00.001-05:00

Last week my friend, Chelsey came over to finish up her crochet headband that I was teaching her how to make (which by the way are super cute). I walked away from my ball of yarn and crochet hook for 1 second and look what I found!

My little mini me trying to crochet:) The cutest part was when I tried to take it away from her because she was destroying my ball of yarn, she freaked out! She was really lovin’ it! So, I got her some yarn that I didn’t care about and she was in heaven.

Don’t you love that she is wearing her ear warmers? She wouldn’t wear them in December but come summer time and she’s all about it…stinker;)

Here is a picture of the headband:

The flower is on a clip, so it comes off. I just love how cute it looks on my girls! It’s been my most recent addiction. Pretty sure I’ve made at least 10 of them!

Dear Tiffany,

2011-06-18T19:19:00.001-05:00

A woman named Tiffany left a comment on the previous post. She happened upon my blog by googling “g-tube removal” and my blog post about Aidan’s g-tube removal popped up. I’ve actually noticed that a lot of people are led to my blog via that post. I’m grateful to know that it has been helpful to somebody. I don’t know how to contact Tiffany so here’s a post for her, in hopes that she’ll swing by once again and see it:)

Dear Tiffany,

First of all, thank you so much for your kind comment. Like you I feel “not so alone” when I meet people that are going through or have gone through the struggle of g-tubes and trachs. Until you go through it, you just can’t understand the stress and worry that comes with the territory, right? Just want you to know, I understand! There is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if you can’t see it. My heart goes out to you.fff I can’t imagine having 2 with a g-tube at the same time + the trach. Talk about H A R D!!! You are superwoman! I would love to give you more info on the trach removal process but I don’t know how to contact you:( This blog post is for you and I sure hope you wander onto my blog again and read this. E-mail me at jessbaker321@gmail.com so that I can get in contact with you.

Here are a few links to blog posts I made about Aidan’s trach removal process and also a couple to Arabella’s trach removal. Aidan's 2nd pH probe, Aidan's trach removal, Arabella's pH probe, and last but not least (I hope this doesn’t happen to you) Arabella's trach removal...yikes!

Tiffany, I wish you the very best. I know it’s hard but keep it up and yes, you are definitely right, it is all worth it to wake up to their sweet little faces every day. What little miracles and blessings we have!

What’s working for me

2011-06-15T12:10:00.001-05:00

I mentioned in a couple of previous posts that I’ve been struggling with “depression” the past few months. I put quotation marks because it doesn’t always feel like depression. I think that is a common misconception. Most days I’m fine and dandy, just crazy tired! Other days I have little motivation to do much of anything and every once in a while I’ve felt down right depressed. I did decide that I was going to try everything in my control to dig myself out of this hole without taking prescription meds and I even spoke to my doctor about my game plan of which he is very supportive of. Want to hear it? Here it is:

*1st and foremost, I’ve accepted that it is depression. I was in denial for a little while because I didn’t like the image of self pity and ingratitude that I though the word would cast on me. Lesson I’ve learned? It’s ok. It happens to A LOT of people and it doesn’t mean we are wimps, it just means we have a lot on our plates and that’s how our body is handling the stress.

*2nd my AMAZING husband has become super dad/husband. He is stepping it up and making it possible for me to have a little more me time and even spoiling me a bit:)

*3rd I’m joining 24 hour fitness!! I am SO excited about this one! I’ve been doing a 14 day trial and taking the Zumba class at night…LOVE IT! We are gonna fork out the money because it is so worth it for me to get plenty of exercise. Also, they have a kids club there where I can drop my kids off and they can play and color and have a great time while I work out! Can’t wait!

*4th I’ve developed an early bedtime routine. I try to be sure to be in bed by 10:30 or earlier if I get sleepy, preferably after taking a shower and drinking my herbal sleepytime tea:)

*Last but definitely NOT LEAST~ I’ve been taking this:

Let me just tell you, this has made ALL of the difference! I would absolutely recommend it to anybody who is suffering from depression. Now I’m not naive enough to think that this is the magical cure for everybody. If you are struggling with exhaustion and the occasional mood swing I think it could work but for those who have a life long battle that they are fighting, I really don’t know, but I think it’s worth a shot.

Doing all of these things has made me feel “normal” again and I’m just so grateful every day to feel good. That doesn’t mean I haven’t still had bad days. I was quite the grouch yesterday, but then again I guess that is normal, right? Anyway, I just wanted to share all of this incase there is somebody else that could use what I’ve learned in the past few weeks:)

Random Happenings

2011-06-11T20:51:00.001-05:00

Did you know that you can give your kids a cup and a pile of rocks and they’ll be entertained for a really long time?

It’s true. Try it!

We initially went out to release a baby lizard that had been starved. I saw it in one of the kids toy bins a few days ago and just ignored it because that’s what you do when you live in Florida. They are harmless and don’t bother me as long as they are little. Anyway, I saw it again in the same bin days later. It was so skinny so I put it in a cup and released it into the wild in front of my house.

Can you see it? It’s to the left of the raisin I also put out there for it to attract ants for it to eat. Clever, I know ;) Poor little guy.

In other news, we got another table for the kids from Ikea. Their table only seats 2 and Arabella was feeling left out. They were so excited. They just HAD to eat breakfast there.

I couldn’t handle how cute it was that Maya’s feet didn’t reach the ground.

Can she stay little forever? Please!

Beach Day!

2011-06-11T20:36:00.001-05:00

Since we’ve lived in Florida we’ve only been to the beach a hand-full of times. Sad, I know:( It just wasn’t something I’ve been interested in doing since Arabella had the trach and I’d have to stress about the sand. We’ll guess what, trach is gone so to the beach we went!

Please be warned, half a million pictures to follow:

Lunch on the beach.

You might ask, “What did Arabella think about the beach?” Allow me to show you:)

Slowly but surely she started to warm up to the sand a bit, after she realized that we brought along some toys.

Before long she was all about the sand & water.

After Rich took her out in the ocean, I spent the rest of the time trying to keep her from drowning herself. She LOVED it!

Maya also loved the water…a little too much. This girl is fearless which makes me a very tense and nervous momma. She was all about standing in the water and then running from the waves.

Aidan was such a crack up! I think he laughed more than any of us. He would run to the water and throw his bucket in the shallow end and when a wave came up and filled it he would grab it and run, laughing like crazy, trying to beat the next wave. This is gonna make me look so mean but I thought this was so hilarious! He would freak out when a wave would get too close and this time he fumbled a bit:)

He was crawling so fast because he knew a wave was coming! hahaha!

So very happy with his bucket full of water.

Then he would fill up Arabella’s bucket of sand, which made her happy.

It was a lot of work but it was SO MUCH FUN!

One of my favorite moments: Watching the kids sitting on daddy’s lap, waiting for waves to wash up on them. They would all crack up every time. It was priceless.

We will be back again…soon!