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Ma itchy all betta!

Poor little J-man has a nasty reaction to mosquito bites. He gets bit and immediately starts to swell. Sometimes they swell up so large that they break his skin open. That was the case a few weeks ago...poor little buddy had been out enjoying the summer evening when he got eaten alive by mosquitoes. He had gotten a bite on each side of his ankle and his leg was swollen up to his knee cap. We had been putting Caladryl lotion on it to help with the itching every night and every morning for a couple of days. Every time we put it on J would tell me it was "all betta".

Rick and I had been up late all weekend and by Sunday we were exhausted. That morning I woke up and knew it was late so I grabbed my phone to see what time it was. In between my hazy vision I saw that the time was 9:45 am...9:45!!!! I immediately shot out of bed worried and confused why J's usual morning conversations with himself hadn't yet woke me. I rushed into his bedroom and found him like this...


and he announced to me "Mommy ma itchy all betta!" and then he proceeded to also let me know that...

"Mickey itchy all betta too!". He was so incredibly proud of himself. I couldn't be mad at the poor kid! It was my fault I left the Caladryl within his reach and also my fault that my lazy butt slept in so late.

Of course the new pj's were drenched


After peeling off his clothes I discovered that he had also covered all of his legs, and then put his jammie's back on after that!

Luckily Mickey cleaned up really nice after a run through the washing machine. Even worse than the clean-up was the welts on J's skin from using too much Caladryl lotion. I do have to thank him though...Daddy finally agreed to allow me to get that carpet cleaner I've been wanting! What a little turkey he is...always keeping us on our toes!

Gleeks

I don't really watch the show regularly, but I L-O-V-E their music and have since I first heard it a couple of years ago SO when my adorable friend Leslie called to invite me to their concert in Las Vegas with her, of course I said YES! This was going to be my first time leaving Jordan overnight so I was a little bit nervous about it, but at least I was leaving him with his Daddy so it wasn't too terribly traumatic. That and with the exception of Leslie's dad Doug (who is probably one of my favorite people on the planet)it was going to be a girls trip, SCORE!! We flew out on Friday afternoon on Doug's plane, yeah Doug has a plane, Leslie calls it the "Princess Program" with Doug, Carol, Les, Tahsha, Stephanie, and myself.

Les, me, Tahsha, and Steph all ready for take off!

Once we landed we checked into our hotel and then went off to pick up our tickets for the shows we were going to see that night. Tahsha and Steph were going to see Phantom of the Opera and the rest of us were going to see Terry Fator. I had no clue who he was but apparently he won "America's Got Talent" one year and was supposed to be really good. I figured if he had his own show at the Mirage, he was probably going to be okay. The show by far exceeded my expectations! He was an AMAZING ventriloquist! I was so impressed at how he could change voices and switch gears so quick and keep who's who straight and honestly his mouth hardly moved at all. He also has a really great singing voice and right in the middle of his comedy show he sang a song called "Are There Horses in Heaven". I haven't mentioned on here that back in February a very dear friend of mine, Brad, passed away in a tragic accident. He was the cream of the crop, one of the most sincere, kind people I have ever met. Brad happens to be Doug and Carol's son, Leslie's brother, and Tahsha's husband. I have known the family for about 11 years. I went to high school with Brad, watched him fall in love and marry his beautiful wife. I absolutely adore this family. Watching all of them go through this has been hard. I love them all so dearly and Brad was probably the closest friend that was my age that has gone too early. Brad was a very talented roper and this song just described him to a "T". I am so glad that we got the chance to hear this song, and to offer those words of comfort to the family. Leslie has said that sometimes she feels like she encounters things in life now and it seems like it is just what she needed to hear; this was one of those times for her and I was lucky enough to be there with her. Sorry, I got sidetracked a little there but if you ever get the opportunity to go to his show, do it! It is a family friendly Vegas show (not many of them out there!) that is lots of fun to watch! Dinner that night was at the Mirage buffet. I hadn't ever tried that one before but I highly recommend it now!

The Terry Fator Theater

Doug and Carol at Terry Fator

Me and Les at Terry Fator

That night all of us young'uns went out to see the sights and show Steph Vegas at night. I laughed so hard at all of the guys picking up on Steph and Tahsha, and I even got to have a cougar moment where some teenager picked up on me. Granted I think he had consumed A LOT of alcohol at that point, but he still acknowledged me :)

Me, Steph, Tahsha, and Les at the Bellagio fountain show

The next day we went out to walk to strip and sight see...little did we know we would get more than we bargained for! When we were at the Bellagio gardens there was a swarm of people hanging out around a glasses shop and low and behold Fiddy Cent was inside (or 50 Cents as the grandma behind me was saying)! We lined up outside the shop and as he walked out we all got to give him high fives! It was pretty fun!

50 Cent sporting his new shades

That night was Glee!! Pam and Ashley (Leslie's aunt and cousin) had just flown in that afternoon right after running a marathon, um ambitious I know, and we also met up with Camille (one of Leslie's close friends) and her mom as well for dinner at the Prime Rib Loft for dinner at the Orlean's. Right after that we headed on over to Mandalay Bay for the show. What can I say?! It was AWESOME! All of them are so talented and their voices are fantastic live!

Les, Ashley, Pam, Me, Tahsha, Stephanie, Carol, Doug all ready to go in!

All the Gleeks!

Ash, Les, and me

Me, Tahsh, and Steph

Britney!

Born this way

Love her!

Diana Agron, can I please have my body back? Lea Michele, I'm going to need my voice back. I had SO much fun and the company was great! A BIG thanks to Leslie for the invite, you are such an awesome friend! Thanks for the great time ladies, and Doug the polygamist...good thing nobody asked if we were from Utah!

On our way home! I must say, the "Princess Program" is pretty posh!

Bon Jovi

Obviously with the number of posts I have done this year I am a little behind, so there are going to be lots of random posts from a while back - forgive me! This is one of them.

My cute hubby bought me tickets to Bon Jovi for my Birthday back in January. Then 6 days before the concert he got put on an audit in Hawaii (yeah, I felt bad for him too) and couldn't go. That left me to go by myself with 3 seats to fill. Luckily I have awesome friends who were great fillers and joined me in the nose bleed section to watch Jon Bon shake his groove thang like no other man can! It was a blast!


I have known Kristy for years...like probably 12. She is one of those friends that I can go forever without talking to her, and then we can have a conversation and it's like we saw each other yesterday.


Sherri, Sher-Bear, Sherzie...this girl cracks me up! I have had the chance to sit by this girl at work for the past year and she cracks me up! We have so much in common and have so much fun together. She was the biggest Bon Jovi lover of us all so I knew when I asked her to come with me that it would be a definite yes!


Miss Shannon. I love this girl. Shannon was my neighbor up until about a year ago. Our daughter's used to play together all the time and I miss having her so close. She is so much fun to be around and one of the most genuine, kind people I know; I was SO excited she could go out for a girls night.


All of us "Hot Mommas" - literally, it was incredibly hot inside ESA and we are all Mom's.


Rock On!!! Shannon's face is priceless in this picture!


Jon Bon himself



Lighter chick and tight pants girl. These 2 provided just as much entertainment for us as the concert did! They were die hard Bon Jovi fans. Lighter chick swayed to the music, flipping her hair to and fro, just like a 80's music video. Tight pants girl...well she just wears that same outfit to every Bon Jovi concert she goes to...since the 80's.

I had so much fun and I am so glad these girls went with me!

Thankful

I have been following this story on the news about a family from this area who just lost their 2 year old in an accident over the weekend. I hate the news and this is why. I don't know this family, but it really hits close to home when it involves a 2 year old and you also have a child the same age living in your home. It makes me realize how thankful I need to be for all of my children, even on the toughest of days for instance when Jordan manages to cry the entire grocery shopping trip to Macey's because I didn't pick the right racecar cart (yeah that really happened, tonight in fact). So tonight I am going to go in and give my poor little man who experienced his first bee sting tonight, biffed it down the slide and bonked his head, then skinned his knee running around at the ballpark an extra kiss and tuck him in because I can, and I am thankful I am able to!

If love could have saved you...

you would have lived forever.

I was due this week with our 4th (my 2nd biological) baby this week. It wasn't planned...but obviously I know how it happened :) But because it wasn't planned I was a little bit upset over it. Rick and I had a plan, and this didn't fit into that mold at the time. But as the weeks went by I became more and more okay and excited about it. I was positive it was a little girl! Both my friend and I at work confided in each other that we were both expecting (unexpectedly), and due within a week of each other. This was going to be so fun being preggers together! Then one Saturday I started having some problems. I called into the Doctor and they told me to take it easy and if things didn't change to come in. I knew things weren't okay, but I wanted to believe they were. Things improved, but didn't stop. I called in and the nurse told me that I was far enough along (I was 9 or 10 weeks at the time) to be able to hear a heart beat on the doppler so to stop in and they would put my mind at ease. I went in and she started to search for that woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh sound.....nothing. I knew, I knew right then, but of course we went through 2 more ultra-sounds with 2 different machines before they decided it probably wasn't a viable pregnancy. I was heartbroken. To make things worse I had to wait a week because I wasn't 100% sure on my dates so they wanted to be sure before doing a D&C. My last ultrasound showed a growing yolk sac but a shrinking fetus and I went in the next day for the procedure.

I honestly can't imagine having another one right now. Jordan is so much fun, and so incredibly hard all at the same time. He is very particular and VERY good at tantrums when things don't go his way, which is quite often! I am nervous for 3 because everyone says it is worse than 2 but he is just a turd sometimes so I can't imagine him being worse than he is now. But, at the same time, I wonder what our little sweetie would have looked like. Was it a boy, or a girl? It's amazing to me that as a mother you can fall in love with something growing inside of you, in such a short amount of time! I was surprised how many people have suffered a miscarriage and shared their stories with me while I was dealing with those emotions. To those of you who did, thank you for your words of comfort when I needed them! So many things have to go right to make these perfect little beings. I know that the time wasn't right and that it was something we needed to go through. Hopefully you don't take this to be a pity post, believe me, I have SEVERAL close friends who have gone through a lot worse than I have and I would take my trial over theirs any day of the week - I have just been thinking about our little one considerably more this past month, and exceptionally more this week and wanted to express my love for our little one that didn't quite make it here!

Neglect

I felt like I had neglected Jordan all night tonight. We got home and the only way I could get him to come inside from playing was to bribe him and let him watch his Mater movie...so he did that...twice; all the while I was putting dishes in the dishwasher, etc. Then we met up with an old friend for a drink run. He sat in the back and watched Despicable Me the entire time. Then we got home and I sat him down for some chicken nuggets after a Wendy's run. After he was done eating it was bath time. While he was in the bath I got on my laptop to look at Facebook for a few minutes of that precious "me time" all of us mothers long for. I could hear him talking and playing with his monster truck the whole time. Then I heard what sounded like him getting out of the tub. As I got up to go and check on him the bathroom door started to shut in my face. Obviously he had gotten out but I didn't know what I was in store for until I opened the door...

There he was...sitting on the John, the entire roll of toilet paper unraveled onto the floor, and a surprise in the toilet, just for me.

Nope that's not a poo-poo in the big boy potty...that is a monster truck. I am just lucky he didn't try to flush the toilet!

Look how proud of himself he is!! That is what I get for neglecting my little one...lesson learned!

Who are you and where did my baby go?!

Our little man turned 2 today...2!!! He isn't a baby at all; he is in full blown toddler mode running around, speaking his own language that we occasionally understand, and full of an extremely hilarious personality! What can I say, I am in love with this boy! He is ALWAYS sick still but I am hopeful that he will grow out of this at some point in life :) His Daddy is still his favorite and he loves playing with Tay and Bennett as well. I am kind of an afterthought but always good for kissing boo boos and snuggling. We all love this kid and we are having so much fun with him!

I took off Jordan's pajamas to get him ready for the day and he picked out his own outfit to wear...




Yep, those are his Christmas p.j.'s! I let him wear them since it was his Birthday and all...

Here are some fun facts about J...
He weighs 30 lbs...the same as his 5 year old cousin Emma
Toy Story and Cars are his favorite movies - like he really loves them and requests to watch them in the car ALL THE TIME. Wu-dee (Woody), Bahz (Buzz), Eye-ing (Lightening) and Manny (Mater) are his favorites.
He loves toy cars and choo choos
He still loves to be outside
Minnie (Mickey Mouse) is his baby lately. Just today I walked into the bathroom to find that it was Mickey's bath time. Last night Mickey got tucked in and got a binkie too!
I love how his face lights up when he sees his Mommy and Daddy!
My favorite phrase is Wuh-Voo (Love you) - it melts me every time!
He thinks barts (farts) are funny...I don't really blame him, they are!
He would live off of fruit snacks alone if we would let him.
Day and Betty (Tay and Bennett) are some of his favorite play mates and they still dote over him...I love that they love him so much!
His cousin Emme (Emma) is his best friend, and she gets to run the roost with him and he does just about whatever she wants him too so it works out well for both of them!

Happy Birthday little man! We love you so much!