A Whole Hand!

Dear Aiden,

You are 5 years old now. That is a WHOLE HAND!

It's hard to imagine we went to the hospital to have you on June 26th around midnight and the next day we had you. I remember being so full of excitement and nervousness. I had no clue what to do with a baby and just like that God gave us you! You were a dream come true and so desired and longed for by your daddy and I.

I will never forget the moment they put you on my chest and tears of joy streamed down my face faster than I could wipe them away.

Now your 5. You are smart. So smart. I know all moms say this but really....you are brilliant. You can spell and read many words. You know the sounds to your letters. You can add and subtract. You understand so much and have such a funny way with words.

You are also strong willed and stubborn. Aw man, we have our work cut out with you. You will fight tooth and nail. If you think the sky is green there is nothing that will make you think otherwise.

You love your Aunt Toots. She is your hero. You would move out and live with her if I let you. And she loves you so much. In fact, you are surrounded by so many people that love you. You have your Nana and Grandpa. They let you spend the night many times and you cant get enough of their pool. Nana say when you turn 5 you can't sleep in her bed anymore. She says you have to move to your own room. Well, you haven't spent the night since you turned 5, we will see how long that lasts. haha I know she loves to snuggle you and you always ask her to rub your back. You also have your Goofy Grandpa and Goofy Grandma here. Sometimes you get annoyed at them calling you goofy. You know how that name started? Well, you had so many grandparents and when we would talk about them when you were about 3 you would always ask, "which one?" So we said the one that calls you goofy. That lead to just "goofy grandma and goofy grandpa" You also have your Grandma Jo Jo. She lives in California and you guys are buds!! She loves doing anything outdoors and creative with you. She has even flown out to see you about 4 times already!

Aiden, you are a fantastic big brother. I couldn't ask for you to be any better with your little brothers. You are so kind and so protective. Don't get me wrong, you sometimes get fed up with Jax taking your toys or following you everywhere but that's cause he wants to be just like you. You love to hug them, kiss them, and talk to them. You also love to discipline them. Your not quite getting it that that is my job. But you mean well and they adore you. You are always asking for a baby sister. Today you said, "mom, I don't care if you have 15 boys before we get a sister, can't we PLEASE just have one?"  I think you are going to make an awesome daddy one day.

I am so proud of the polite and sweet young man you are becoming. You are a light in my life and a joy to my world. Whoever you become and wherever this life takes you I will always love you and be your biggest fan.

Love you Forever!

Your Mamma

Hate

"I hate my life" my newly 5 year old son screamed at me yesterday. I don't remember what I said or did to make him go into such a frenzy but this was the first time he had said it and it hurt me greatly.

For the most part Aiden, which fittingly means "fiery" is a really great kid. He is loving, compassionate, sensitive, caring, and polite. Then his episodes come out. It use to happen once a day and has slowly declined to about every 2 months. (thank you JESUS!)

I wasn't prepared for this episode. It came out of left field. At first I got angry even though I didn't let him see it. I pulled him aside and described all the wonderful things he has in his life. Love, shelter, toys, clothes, food, Wii, go kart..well you get the point.

We were getting ready to go to the grocery store right before his episode happened. While at the store he picked out some high sugar, nasty, Super Mario brothers fruit snacks. He begged for them. I used this chance to explain to him how great his life is and GASP I allowed him to put them in the cart.

Fast forward to tonight. I didn't have a chance to tell J.R. what Aiden had said to me the night before because I worked so we were all sitting on the couch and I told him. J.R. acted very calmly and asked Aiden what his favorite toys were. Aiden listed them off and J.R. asked him to go get them all and bring them to him. He explained to him that since he hated his life so much his favorite toys would be givin to another family. He cried and said, "yes sir" and brought every single toy to his dad and put them in a garbage bag. Next was clothes. We put his favorite shirt in the bag. Then J.R. asked him to take off all his clothes besides his under ware.  And then, the Super Mario fruit snacks were next. We took his favorite toys, clothes, and food away from him and sent him to bed. In his under ware and without his favorite blanket.

I tucked  him in and explained to him how precious our life is. How his mommy and daddy love him so much and will always do everything we can to make him have a happy life.  We weren't just talking about materialistic stuff but most of it was. He is only 5. That's what registers to him.

As I looked in his big brown eyes and stroked his forehead and got teary eyed. I got tears in my eyes thinking about how much I do love this little man. How he was my first born. How the first time I held him in my arms I never would have thought such a precious thing would ever say such a mean thing. But, he is human. And he will make mistakes, and break my heart. At the end of the day, he knows  how much his mamma and daddy love him and adore him. And I think tonight, as he fell asleep it really sank in how blessed he is.

24 Hours in Paradise

5 years. We have been parents for 5 wonderful, amazing, joyful and EXHAUSTING 5 years. Since the birth of our first child we have had 2 more after. We are now a semi large family of 5. My house is filled with trucks and blocks and stinky socks. (not trying to rhyme)

With all the responsibility of work and kids oh yeah and theres that economy crisis thing, it has taken a huge toll on our marriage as most of my faithful readers know.

Fast forward to about 4 weeks ago. I knew my husband and I needed to get away. I knew we were on that breaking point that we were either going to walk away from our marriage or see if there is anything left to salvage.

We went on Orbitz.com and started looking at hotels in the area that we could actually afford for one night. The most important thing to me was a nice pool. 

We had about 3 hotels in mind and for the next 2 weeks I kept coming back to this one FireSky

I will admit, I was a bit skeptical because pictures always are a ton better than real life.

Getting out of our cars and walking in we are greeted by 2 young guys that hold these massive doors open and greet you with a smile. You feel like you are royalty and walking into a ball room. At least that's how I felt. The lobby was amazing. The lights, the furniture, the fish bowl with the giant  goldfish. I wish I would have taken pictures of the lobby. There was so much beauty to take in. I was literally like a little kid that couldn't stop grinning form ear to ear. I was so anxious to get to our room and start our now 23 hours away.

The lady checked us in and was so kind. She made us feel incredibly welcome and special. She even upgraded us to a room with a view of the pool. Finally, we have our room. After leaving the double doors I literally skipped to our car to head up to our room.

 The room was beautiful. I mean just simple, elegant, refreshing. Beautiful. In fact, I didn't even want to leave the room. I just wanted to sit outside the spacious deck and be still and quiet.

 There were 2 pools and both pools were filled with people of all ages. I noticed many young families and we couldn't help but miss our boys. There was a beach area where kids could build a sandcastle and wiggle their toes in the sand.

 We opted to go to the pool that had the bar. The hotel gave us 2 free drink vouchers and since my husband doesn't drink I took the liberty to order 2 berry mojitos that were DELISH! The fountains, the sun, and the super comfy lounge chairs made this an ideal 2 hours.

 3:00pm we decided to go up to our room and take A NAP! Can you believe it? We drew the curtains back and slept. Till 5pm! I woke up refreshed and ready to start the night. I realized I forgot shampoo, conditioner, AND toothpaste. All of what I forgot was provided and let me tell you, the trial size shampoo and conditioner you get is awesome. It was that mentholy, tingly shampoo. LOVED IT.

Oh yeah, and can I say that we got a phone call to our room saying we were being brought up a bottle of champagne compliments of FireSky? HOLLA! Thank you for making me feel special. The bottle even came with a handwritten card which sadly, I think I left in the hotel. I was seriously feeling like a VIP at this point.

One perk that we didn't enjoy that I wish we had was the hosted wine hour. It is held in the lobby between 4 and 7 I believe. We were anxious to go see Scottsdale so we passed.

Dinner was great. We went out to SaddleRanch and ate ourselves into a coma. Because our resort was so nice, we didn't even go out and do anything after dinner. We just wanted to come back and enjoy the resort. We came back around 8pm to sit around the fire and enjoy some coffee and just sit. After letting our food settle we headed up to our room to put on our suits and jump in the hot tub.

Awww, the hot tub was so nice. I never would have thought I would enjoy a hot tub. In June. In Arizona!

And the part I am embarrassed to say...we were back in our room sleeping by 9:30. No partying, so sightseeing, just good ole fashion sleep.

 The next morning we dinned at Taggia, the hotel restaurant. We had a table that looked out into a courtyard and the food was wonderful and well priced.

Sadly our trip had to come to an end.

Bottom line, if you are looking for a place to stay in Scottsdale, weather an overnight get-a-way, a stay-cation, or a long visit to this beautiful town the FireSky Resort is the way to go. Affordable, friendly, hospitable and just all around wonderful.

I'm already planning my next trip here. We decided we are going to take the boys with us since it is so family friendly.

I only have 2 regrets from this weekend. The first being that I didn't take enough pictures and the second being only staying one night.

With all that said, I give it 2 thumbs way up. And this is coming from a very critical person. Even J.R. who finds something wrong with EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE was so happy and raved about this place. Thank you to the staff at FireSky for making our 24 hours away so amazing!

What a Difference 2 Months Can Make

Dear Reid,

Please forgive me for never blogging about your first year.  I've said this many times that it's better late than never. I woke up this morning just wanting to talk to you (well the old you because the time you read this Im sure you will be well into your teens)

We were so blessed by you. You started sleeping through the night at only 6 weeks old. You would sleep 12 straight hours. You were an angel baby. You would never fuss. Even when you had ear aches you would just never cry. You loved being held and cuddled. You could sit on someones lap for an hour without fussing or getting bored. You adored your brothers and watched their every move. They also adored you. They would often fight over who got to kiss you goodnight first and were always wanting to hug you, hold you and feed you.

At about 11 months old you started to cry. Don't get me wrong, its not like you never cried before. You would whimper every now and then,k but around 11 months is when you started to throw fits. I didn't mind at all. You were getting a personality and were quickly growing out of the baby phase and rapidly approaching a ONE YEAR OLD!

You were still not walking and had no desire to do so. That was fine with me. You would walk when you were ready.

Your first birthday came and went. You had a great first year. You were seriously the most amazing, loving, and easiest baby ever! (sorry brothers)

13 months old you started walking and BOY DID YOU CHANGE!

You have become such a rebel in the past 2 months. I mean a real wild, daring, mischiefs little MONKEY!

You will climb on everything. Try to leap off the couch like your brothers. Get into everything. Open ever cabinet (thank the Lord for locks) Climb out of your high chair (I don't have the straps anymore. You are the only one of the boys that needs to be strapped in) You have learned how to open the stove and stand on the door (thanks Jax!) You dump out any crafts and rip every single piece of paper you can find. You will eat anything and EVERYTHING in sight. Even if its not food...it goes in your mouth.

You squeak and squeal and laugh so loud. You are already starting to talk. You can say "bye bye" "hi daddy" "thank you" "ball" and of course Nana swears you can say her name.

You are a ball of energy. Still ever so sweet as the day you were born. You are our lover boy. You are social and curious. Not so much cautious and extremely adventurous. You are so perfect in every way. I love watching you grow and turn into a toddler. You bless my life more than words can say. I love you so much Josiah "re-re" Lanway!