2010: Year in Review.

This is not your usual, "Oh our family is so perfect, all of our children are beautiful, We are the most fantastic parents in the world" year in review letter.
No, because that's not the way I roll. I keep things real.
Here is a realistic view of 2010.

2010 started off with morning sickness in full effect and continued until about mid February.

My oldest son took a vow of silence and would only communicate with us in written form. That only lasted about 2 hours, but it was nice to have a break from him and his sister's arguing. It's kind of difficult to argue with your sister when you are only writing on a piece of paper and using a crayon!

My daughter lost her first tooth.

I decided to improve on my culinary skills and served a dinner which consisted of cheesy hot dogs, potato salad, peas and potato chips. It must have been a hit because my son exclaimed, "Now that's what I call a dinner!"

My friends threw a baby shower for me in Phoenix. I was able to spend some time with some of my family and also was able to reconnect with friends I hadn't seen in over 10 years! Thanks, Facebook!

My daughter turned 6!

Some more friends threw a baby shower for me here in Nevada.

My oldest son turned 8!


I counted down the days until our baby was going to make his/her entrance into the world.

My In Laws came to stay with us and help out around the house until the baby was born. During their visit, my Father in Law kept himself busy by installing a new shower head, buying some new rugs for the kitchen (because the old ones were old and ugly), installed a new toilet seat, organized our pantry, fixed our kitchen drawer and I'm sure there were some other things he did to help spruce up our house, but I can't recall.
My Mother in Law kept herself busy by helping out with the kiddos, cooking and being a totally awesome Grandma!

Finally, our little guy was born. Baby "J" was born on 6/24/10 weighing in at 7 lbs. 2 oz.

My daughter lost another tooth the 2nd day that our baby was home. She put the tooth in her pillow and the tooth fairy forgot to show up that night.
So she put her tooth in the pillow the following night and the tooth fairy showed up that night, left her some money but forgot to take her tooth! My daughter was confused as to why the tooth fairy left her money but left the tooth in her pillow.
At that point I explained to my daughter that the tooth fairy has lots of little boys and girls to take care of
 and sometimes she forgets to take the teeth. I also explained that maybe the tooth fairy had her own family to take care of and that maybe the tooth fairy still had to get dinner made every night and clean the house and drive her children to Karate practice and that maybe the tooth fairy also had a newborn baby at home and was busy breastfeeding and changing diapers and was probably sleep deprived and barely had time to take a shower! I told her she should just leave the tooth in the pillow yet again and maybe the tooth fairy would come back.
 Luckily for my daughter's sake the tooth fairy came that night and took the tooth and left a pillow for her mistake.
The following morning the world was a happier place, at least for a moment.


My Dad and his wife came to visit us and meet the new baby!

My Brother and his family came to visit and meet the new baby too.

My oldest son went to spend a week with his cousins in Arizona. He went swimming every day and my Sister in law reported to me that he didn't cry or whine one single time during his visit! I'll have to be sure to send him to Arizona more often.

I realized that my baby was a beautiful baby because total strangers would approach me and say, "Oh, your baby girl is so pretty!"

My oldest son attended summer camp for the first time. When I was packing his clothes he made sure to advise me as to not pack any pajamas that had animal prints or car prints. Just plain pajamas because he was a big boy now.
He learned a hip hop dance, did some rock climbing, made me a gorgeous flower pen and made lots of new friends!
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My Husband's sister and one of her daughter's came to visit us and meet baby "J"

My daughter decided to expand on her culinary skills and started making her own breakfast. Most mornings she would have a healthy serving of: Cocoa puffs, lucky charms and trix all mixed together in one bowl.
My older two children headed back to school.

My Uncle and Aunt came from New Mexico to meet the baby.

My Husband and I celebrated 10 years of wedded bliss by going on  a short trip to Portland.

I experienced changing a 3 month's old explosive diaper in an airplane bathroom. Let me just give you a tip: Have plenty of wipes on hand.

Made some new friends and tried some Thai food for the first time ever. I'm now addicted!

We had a small, private baby dedication at our house. Our Good looking Pastor and his lovely wife agreed to do the baby dedication for us.  My Dad and his wife came from Phoenix for the special occasion. Baby "J" pretty much slept through the whole event.

 My daughter continued her Taekwondo lessons and received her yellow belt!





 My older son dropped out of Taekwondo lessons because in his words it was "too boring".

My Hubby took the older two children on some camping trips and several bike rides.

My older two children had to discover how to keep themselves self entertained because their parents were busy with the new baby and  didn't have time to give them all the love and attention they needed. They mostly did this by building things with Lego's.

They also kept themselves entertained by taking pictures of themselves and anything else they came across.

Baby "J" celebrated his first Halloween.

We made a trip to Phoenix and more family members got to meet our newest addition, including my Grandma.

We attended the Arizona State Fair! I talked my children into going on the Giant slide, my son was scared to death when we reached the top, but there was no time to give into his whining, so me and my Daughter went down the slide together and I left my terrified, trembling son at the top of the slide to figure it out for himself. Hey, tough love. He's gotta learn to get through rough times in life sooner or later. He came down the slide about 3 minutes later. He had a look of terror on his face, but he decided that he liked it and actually went down a second time.

We visited my Mom's grave in Phoenix. I tried not to cry like a baby, but I couldn't hold the tears back.

Baby "J" celebrated his first Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 We celebrated Christmas and baby "J" did not enjoy opening presents.

2010 was full of it's usual joys, sorrows, laughter, tears ....but most importantly it was full of love!
Wishing all of you a joyous and realistic 2011!