Sun, Sand, San Diego....and some rain

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. I was out at an event October 4-6 in Phoenix and my parents came in to visit on the 4th (Jordan and Matthew picked them up) and left today (16th). We left for San Diego on the 11th and got back last night (15th). Needless to say it's been pretty busy around here lately.

I just thought I'd post a little bit about our trip.

We all stayed together at the La Jolla Embassy Suites which ended up being the perfect location, and of course had a great breakfast every morning. Matthew always wanted to leave the room to go out to the elevators and run around. He was such a trooper and did really well considering he was in a stroller for 4 days straight and never took a nap unless we were back at the hotel. He was so sick of being in his stroller on Monday and was not very happy to ride in a carseat for 5 hours coming home. I think he's just glad to be back in his own house running around and playing with his favorite things.

Friday we decided to hit Sea World and boy was it warm and Sunny. The Stephens all got some good sun and it was a good thing we went that day as the rest of the time was overcast and drizzly. Matthew was pretty antsy and didn't love the shows as much as I thought he would, he loved watching the kids and eating more. We were going to go to the zoo on Saturday, but it rained all morning so MJ got some much needed rest, I did some work, and everyone else napped. In the afternoon we went to Old Town San Diego and then to Coronado Island where Matthew met the Ocean for the first time. It was so cold and he still wanted to run into it if I let go of him. He loved the sand and water-too cute! Sunday we went to the Zoo and saw some awesome animals. They have some seriously cool exhibits at the zoo and parking is free! Monday we packed up and then went to the San Diego Animal Park. Jordan and I had never been there before so that was really neat. It was drizzly on Monday morning and we discussed bagging it as it was about a 30 min. drive north of where we were, but we just all decided to go. I am so glad we did. The rain cleared up and the weather was perfect, not too hot or cold. We went on a Safari tram ride first thing so that was interesting. After the tram ride we went and saw the Lions, Giraffes, and Elephants. They put these branches on a pulley system up a pole for the giraffes (so they would think it was a tree) and about 7 were eating right in front of us-so cool! I just wish we would have had more time. You can pay to go on this jeep ride and get up close to the animals. I would LOVE to do that sometime and pretend I was in Africa. We saw the cutest little elephant running around that was only 2.5 weeks old. Seriously it was so, so cute!

We had a lot of fun, but it's always good to get back into a routine and Jordan and I needed to get things done for work. It was really fun having my mom and dad come and of course Matthew loves them spoiling him. It's always sad when they go, but they have things to get home to and we need to get back to normal. Matthew walked into the guest room this afternoon looking for them (after they left) and seemed to wonder where they went. I did tell him they had to go home and we would see them at Christmas, but who knows how much he understands.
I'm including some of my favorite pics from the trip.

At Sea World















On Coronado Island















Also on Coronado Island














San Diego Zoo















Meerkats!















Momma's sunglasses















Heading into the Wild Animal Park















On the Safari ride















More Safari

Thanks, cleaning fairy

When we got home on Sunday the house was perfectly clean and organized. Matthew mostly made a huge mess yesterday and I didn't have time to get everything cleaned up before Jordan got home from work. Matthew was off schedule, VERY ornery and difficult yesterday and I needed a break when Jordan got home from work. He took Matthew for a walk, had him watch baseball with him, and got him ready for bed. I was still pretty exhausted from this weekend and went to bed early intending to take care of the mess today.

I have no idea when Jordan came to bed as I was pretty out. I think I fell asleep at 9 pm. When I got up this morning the cleaning fairy had visited (Jordan). I don't expect him to do this and he does it often. I know he's tired too so I really appreciate it. He's so great in helping out with everything around the house even when he doesn't need to. I don't know what my MIL did to raise him this way but I need to learn her secrets to pass along to Matthew.

Thanks Jordan for the clean house this morning. It will definitely make my morning less chaotic and hopefully I can get ALL of the laundry (about 3-5 loads) done today. I am so blessed to have you in my life. Love you!

Me, Myself, and I

Ok, so my friend EmmaLee tagged me to share 7 things about myself.

1-New York & Company is my favorite clothing store. It carries trendy clothing, isn't too pricey, and their pants fit me better than any other store. I almost shop there exclusively. They are always offering coupons in my email so it's hard to pass up. I scored big time (as did my credit card) while I was in Utah. It's so interesting the same things and different things that each store carries.

2-I work from home part-time. The company I work for Isagenix has been gracious enough to let me work from home. I go into the office 1 day a week, definitely always a much needed break from Matthew and to really focus on things that need to get done. I find and book the hotels for our events, order our promotion items, and work with the hotels when we're onsite. It's a busy job and depending on our workload I vary between 20-30 hours a week. Sometimes it's hard keeping everything running smoothly with Matthew causing chaos but it works for now.

3-I really do love to cook. We have been trying a lot of new recipes lately. Sometimes they are winners and sometimes the recipe needs tweaking to fit our taste buds. It's been really fun to experiment and try new things. I can't wait for my parents to get here so I can make these super yummy shredded beef tacos (I've made once), yummy mexican rice (I've made 2-3 times), homemade guacamole, and homemade taco shells. I'm trying to find a good recipe using pinto beans-the two recipes I've tried aren't up to my standards. :)

4-Ok, I admit it I am CHEAP! We have gotten pretty good at shopping sales everywhere. I really do hate paying full price for anything! We are so cheap that we buy our chicken and beef when it's a really good deal and then use our food saver to suck the air out and put it in our freezer. I refuse to buy a 12-pack of coke for more than $2.50 so we usually stock up when they are on sale. I love Gymboree clothes but can't bring myself to spend $24 on a pair of pants for Matthew that's going to last about 3 months. I usually wait until I get a 30% coupon from them and then shop the clearance sales. I usually get shirts for $4-$8 that normally costs $16.50 or more. If you need any tips let me know!

5-I love to scrapbook and make crafty projects. I have more supplies than I know what to do with and plenty of pages to get caught up on. My scrapbook table is a mess and I must get it cleaned up so I can do a few projects that need to get done for Christmas. Speaking of Christmas I got some super cute paper to make my cards with. It was all 40%-50% off and exactly my style. Love it!

6-My favorite candy is licorice. Give me red, black, or brown and I am a happy camper. I was really craving sweets last night after getting home from 9 days in Utah. Not a single sweet in the house-total bummer!

7-I really hate the flavor of Cherry. I think this stems from having to take Cherry flavored cold medicine when I was little. I will eat all other flavors and leave the Cherry behind. One of my friends loves Cherry so we make a good team when eating candy together. You know what's weird, I love the fruit Cherries, just hate the artifical flavoring of cherry-ick!

Ok, so that's a little bit about me! I am tagging Heather Strasser and Jordan Stephens to tell me 7 things about them!

p.s. Return Plane Ride Home Update
We made it through the return plane ride from Utah just fine. I was at the airport WAY early and then my plane was delayed. I was first in line though to get on the plane. About 10 people passed me up while I was getting everything off the stroller and getting situated, but we did much better. A stewardess even offered to help, but I passed since I had everything under control (much easier to do when you're not stressed). We sat by the nicest lady and man (they weren't together) and Matthew did pretty good considering the plane was full and he couldn't get off my lap. He smiled and flirted with everyone. Sometimes I think he's too friendly for his own good. He zonked out in the car about 5 min. after leaving the airport-poor guy!

A Plane, A Mom, and a 15-month Old....

You can only guess where this is going to go....

I have a work event the 28th-29th in Utah so Matthew and I decided to head to Utah a week early to see family and go shopping. This was my first time going on a plane alone with Matthew since he was about 3 months old. Here's a run down of how our experience was....

Jordan takes us to the airport and we are checked in for our 4:21 flight by 3:00. We look at the security line and "see" that it's short so we grab some lunch/dinner before we go through security. I get into the security line at 3:30 and you can't see the real line until you round the corner and it was huge. I thought uh oh, I wonder if we're going to make it.

I'm too cheap to buy a second seat for Matthew so I had to take my laptop bag and a huge carry on because Matthew's carseat was one of our checked "bags". I hooked both bags onto the back of Matthew's stroller and we went round and round security for 1/2 hour before finally getting through. To get through security I had to unload my laptop, portable DVD player, video camera, take both of our shoes off, fold up the stroller, put both bags through and carry Matthew through. Just that alone made me sweaty and Matthew was really good through the whole ordeal. Jordan was watching us the whole time (unbenownst to me) because he was worried I wasn't going to get through in time. I finally got out of security at 4:09-too close for comfort.

Our gate was only 3 gates down so that was nice. I don't think I realized how late we really were as there was no one left to board so we jumped on the plane. At the end of the walkway I had to get Matthew down, get both bags off the stroller, fold up the stroller and then carry Matthew and my two bags all the way down the plane. I know that helping me isn't anyone's job, but I was rather surprised that no one offered to help me as I ambled down the plane with everything (definitely not an easy task) while everyone was staring at me. I finally get to my seat and someone is sitting there. I ask the guy if he has 17C as that's my seat and he said no, he was just trying to get an aisle seat. He moved pretty quick because I don't think he really wanted to sit by MJ.

Ok, so I've stowed my bags, have things ready to entertain Matthew and I'm seriously hot and feel like throwing up. Matthew was pretty good during take-off and then the wrestling began. I am so glad that the middle seat was empty or he would have been screaming the whole time. He played there for awhile, peeked at everyone around him and gave them smiles, and then wanted to get down and screamed about 3 times because he wasn't happy about having to stay up in the seat. Let's just say that the pretzels were the perfect size for him and kept him entertained for awhile.

Once we landed I had to haul everything off again and once again not a soul asked if they could help me. Matthew was not happy the whole ride to my parents house and was so excited when he was finally out of the car and able to run around and be "free".

I leave on the 30th to fly back home and only can hope that the middle seat will be empty and that Matthew will be pretty tired since it is a 8pm flight. I really don't think I'll be flying much alone until he gets older. I was very stressed out trying to keep him entertained and not screaming his head off. After this week of being on my own with Matthew I am even more impressed by single moms and don't know how they do it day in and day out with no breaks and possibly minimal help.

I was contemplating flying to Russia this summer just me and Matthew alone to visit our friends Paul & Lindsey. That WILL NOT be happening. Jordan will be going even if it burns up the rest of his vacation. There is no way I can handle Matthew myself for that long of a flight. It's really our only shot at going so let's hope he's a bit better by the time he's 2. We might even buy him his own seat (actually we'll probably have to).

Movin' On Up

Last week, Karin took MJ to the doctor for some shots, and they ran him through the typical battery of baby tests to see how he stacks up. He continues to be somewhere in the middle weight-wise, despite the chubby cheeks, but he's falling a bit behind the pack on height. We're going to work on that one - stretching, Nutri-Grow... whatever it takes. Kidding, of course - I'm guessing that stuff tells you absolutely nothing. I'm highly, highly suspicious of statistics that are thrown at you with no context. I'm sure Matthew has just as much chance of being 6'3" as he does being 5'3", and either way, it doesn't matter really all that much.

Actually, we should be counting our blessings, because Matthew has now discovered climbing, and maybe his somewhat less-than-average height at the moment is the only thing keeping him from swinging from the ceiling fan. As it is now, he uses everything at his disposal to get onto the couch, in some cases to get at things on the other side but mostly just to run back-and-forth or sit down like the big people. I'm glad we have a happy, active kid, but he definitely is keeping us on our toes.

Starting Over....:( (sniff, sniff)

Ok, you know your ward is HUGE when it is constantly referred to as the largest ward in the world by the Stake Presidency and other leaders and we checked in at just over 1,000 people on Sunday (no not in attendance). We were so big our Relief Society met in the chapel and even that was getting full.

The 3 wards in Maricopa got split into 5 on Sunday (plus a Spanish branch). Our ward (Maricopa 6th) is teeny tiny in boundaries compared to everyone else. Why am I so sad?...(sniff, sniff) because ALL of my friends are in another ward. Not one single good friend of mine is in my new ward. It's just such a bummer to feel like the new person sitting all alone again after being here for 1.75 years.

Of course Jordan is optimistic because we did inherit a tiny part of the development next to ours that was going to a different ward-they'll know even less people than we do. It's just hard finding couples that we connect with. In the spirit of trying to stay positive, here are some good things about the split.

1. A new ward building-the old one's AC is kindof broken. I've been getting headaches every Sunday at church lately from the heat.
2. At least we can meet people and see them regularly. You'd meet a new person in our old ward and not see them for a month and not even realize it because there were so many people.
3. We MAY get a padded seat for sacrament without arriving 1/2 hr early.
4. Less noise from all the children. Sacrament was so noisy in our old ward.
5. Matthew's nursery size should be doable. We had 4 nurseries in our old ward and the 18 month nursery was 30 kids alone. Only 3 months to go-yipee! Yes, we are all looking forward to it. Matthew is going to love playing with the kids and we are going to love not having to fight with his wiggle wormness after Sacrament.
6. We move up an hour to 2-5 pm from 3-6 pm. Only 4 more months and then we'll get a better schedule-hopefully 9-12.
7. People who bugged us are not in our ward.

So that's all I can think of right now. Maybe Jordan can think of some additional positive ideas. On the downside there are plenty of positions to fill so that's a scary thought! Please send good vibes our way that we'll meet some cool couples soon.

p.s. I have a friend in Maricopa in another ward and I go to her book group and Bunco group. They are so cool and I wish I could be adopted into that ward. I really click with a lot of them and they are not snobs!

Oh The Funny Places I Sit my Seat

Lately we've been finding Matthew in all sorts of silly places. This kid is so quick he's somewhere so fast it's hard to keep track of him. You usually know when something is going on because he is way too quiet. Here are some funny locations we've found him in recently. He's a climbing fiend and has some amazing balance skills.

I took the car seat out of the car to put in my friends car since we were going somewhere together. Before I knew it Matthew was sitting in his seat (that was by the door) ready to head out. This car seat is not low to the ground and pretty high so I was surprised he was able to climb in. He makes me laugh.


One of Matthew's long standing fun things to do is push our rocking chair ottoman over. Well, Monday he climbed on top of it before I knew it and was sitting there enjoying his great view. He did need help getting down as he kept getting stuck-silly boy!














This is our new storage unit for Matthew's older toys. He loves to go into his room now and play with these toys. It was so quiet the other day so I checked on what he was doing and low and behold he was hanging out inside one of his storage buckets. I think he just likes climbing in and out of things lately.














Jordan found Matthew inside of this other toy basket that is located in our living room. Doesn't that hurt having hard plastic toys press into your flesh. Once we found a huge spider in that basket--ewwww!!!














Jordan knew I was going to write a blog about silly sitting locations so he let Matthew climb up onto the dishwasher while I was at work yesterday.














We keep this step in the laundry room and try to keep the laundry room door closed so Mr. M will stay off the step. He likes to climb up though and pull open the blinds and look out the window. Knock on wood he hasn't fallen off yet. I know he is sitting precariously close to the edge of that step and I would have freaked out, but I was at work and Jordan took this pic.














This shoe rack is also in our laundry room and I have never seen Matthew climb up on it. He usually just takes my shoes and walks around with them throughout the house or throws them in our flip flop basket (you must have sandals and flip flops if you live in AZ, let me know if you don't know the difference).














Once again something new I've never seen before. He decided to sit on top of the stereo in his room. I think we need to get him his own player that I can put on top of his TALL dresser.













P.S. It is a balmy 93 degrees today. It's so nice not to broil when you get inside your car and an added bonus is the AC works quicker too (I hate the blast of hot air you have to endure for at least 2 min. before the cold air kicks in-I swear I'm crisping my skin when that happens).

Me and Matthew are heading to Utah at the end of September as I have a work function up there so we're going to make it an week long outing. I asked my sister if I should bring long sleeved clothes for Matthew and she said yes, it's 63 degrees today and will be cooler by the end of September. I don't think we'll see 63 degrees down here for another 4-5 months. Good thing I just purchased some warm clothes for Matthew from Gymboree the other day when it was on sale. About a month ago I even found some closed toe shoes (on sale) for the winter. Now I just need to get Matthew some socks!