Learning From Others' Mistakes...

I drove to work this morning and my office looked like this...

Um... Hello!?!? Have any of you ever seen a horror film before? They always start with a scene like this! Where the poor, unsuspeting white girl goes skipping off into the dark foggy wilderness checking things out by herself... the music that sounds like a heartbeat starts... and a serial killer who was behind her the whole time jumps out of the fog and slashes her into tiny bits.

Well that's not happening to this white girl. I headed straight for the door, locked it right behind me, and it has been locked ever since. My apologies to anyone who may or may not have been waiting in the bushes for me. ;)

4 Months

You guessed it. Another post about the Bambino. Bet you never saw that one coming huh? He is 4 months old already. We (well Matt) took him to get his 4 month shots on Thursday. I always "happen" to schedule these appointments when Matt has the day off and I have to work. It just "works out" that way. What a "coinsidence". Poor little bug - how many more of these do we have to do??? He weighed in at a whopping 16 lbs 4 oz... our little chunka-chunka!

The other day I was lifting him up and down in the air (one of his favorite things) and I said "I have something sooooo important to tell you. I loooooo-" and he puked right in my mouth. Guess I should have cut the "I love you" part short. Matt was watching and just stood there frozen and wide-eyed until I screamed "TAKE HIM!!!" At which point he started laughing so hard I wondered if he was going to pass out. Being a mama has peaks and valleys I suppose.

TC has had eczema on his cheeks for months now. We are constantly putting stuff on his face and neck but he scratches up his face it drives me crazy! I sometimes call him Edward Sissor Hands Face. I cut his nails every-other day and I can't keep them short enough. Finally the doctor prescribed us with some stuff that will hopefully clear it up. Bah!

He is getting so smart. He's figured out how to use his hands and he concentrates really hard when he has something in front of him. Everyone in my family sticks out our tongue when we are concentrating and guess who has picked up the trait? (Hint: it's not Matt)

He hates laying down. He always wants to be sitting or standing so he can see. He will grab onto the sides of his carseat/bathtub/anything else he can get his hands on and try and pull himself up. Daddy has been helping him do "ab workouts". (Notice the tongue once again)

In other Mann news... Matt got invited to the combine in Atlanta in June! So it's official... he is going to tryout to play professional football. Now comes the hard part... 6 months of intense training. But we're pretty excited!

I got contacts! I finally made an appointment and got them... I guess I didn't realize how bad my eyes have gotten. No more guessing street signs for me! (doesn't that scare you a little?) I can see again - it's a Christmas miracle!

Dear Santa...

So I'm at work on Friday, and I get a picture message that says this....

"Mama I want these for Christmas"

and another one that says "Mama I want the same ones he wants"

Bah! How can I say no???

One Long Drive and a Thanksgiving Surprise!

So about two weeks before Thanksgiving, Matt woke up and asked me if I wanted to go to my parents for the holiday. Um yes... yes I do. Me and the bug were so excited! This is his face when I told him we were going to Utah. I asked Matt if he was excited too and he said "yeah of course... I mean, at least we are gonna get some good food on Thanksgiving". I tried not to be offended. My name might not be Betty Crocker, but obviously neither of us are starving.

So we planned the trip and left Monday night after we both got off work. We thought it would be best to drive through the night so the baby would sleep most of the way. I thought this was a brilliant idea of mine until about 4 am when my eyes started burning out of my skull due to lack of sleep. I used to "pull all-nighters" all of the time, but oh how times have changed. I love my precious sleep. We stopped in Nephi for the final gas-up before SLC only to find out it had dropped 50 degrees since we had left California. So we got back in the car ready to turn around and drive straight back to the sunny state of CA, but since it was 11 1/2 hours in the opposite direction, we decided to continue on to Utah. This surprise had better be worth it.

And it was! Everyone was so surprised. First we woke up Curt (who decided at that point he needed to take the day off) and then we drove to my mom's work who started crying and said "I'll shut down my computer". Sister was the only one who knew we were coming. Turns out she is a pretty good secret keeper. They were shocked! By the time we got home, my mom had called pretty much everyone she had ever met, so we had a lot of visitors while we were there.





My friend Steph and I had our babies 3 days apart and while we were pregnant we just knew they were gonna be boyfriend and girlfriend and get married and have babies and live happily ever after. Turns out they both had boy parts, so we changed it to being best friends forever. We planned their first playdate and we knew it would be great. Wrong. For some reason Xay hates TC. He screamed everytime he saw him - it was hilarious. TC just talked and talked to him. So much for planning our son's lives.


TC didn't understand what the problem was.


The Bug loves Grandpa and Nana's house. They have way better toys than we do. Remember when Grandpa bought him a pony? Well we finally got to meet Mr. Shorty and go for a little ride. His face might not show it... but he LOVED it lol.



Now I love Thanksgiving for 2 reasons. Stuffing and an unlimited amount of stuffing. It is my favorite food. I have shed tears of joy for this dish. The Wardle's did not disappoint this year. We had quite a spread. Let the feast begin! I think Jess has the right idea lol.


Then we packed up and headed back home. Have I mentioned that I hate the drive? By the time we got to Primm, I decided we should stop and stay the night because the burning sensation had returned to my eyes and I couldn't make it another 5 hours. We slept in a classy little joint called Whiskey Pete's for a couple hours before driving the rest of the way. Luckily when we got home we found out that our fridge had "shit the bed" while we were gone and all our food had gone bad. Kind of a sour ending to a sweet trip. So instead of dealing with it, me and the bug ventured to the mall and got a little shopping (for myself) done. I felt better.

Now things are back to normal, and I have already started the countdown to Christmas Break. Off to Utah and Georgia on our next adventure!

A New Perspective

Is it just me or is time going by at warp speed? (is that even what it's called???) I feel like I barely have time to breathe and as we come into the holiday season and I don't see it letting up anytime soon. Bah!

First thing's first... Some pictures of the bug. (I am turning into one of those moms who constantly talk about their babies, but too bad so sad. He is too cute.) Everyday is something new with him.

He loves going for walks and looking at the ducks.

Taking baths... Grrrr!

And staring at the Christmas Tree we/I just put up.

When I was young(er) and single I kept thinking life could not get any better. I loved my life. I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Then I met Matt and I changed my mind. I thought surely it can't get any better than this. I get an unlimited supply of kisses and I never have to sleep alone again. But I have to say, this little guy has stolen my heart. I wake up every morning between 5 and 6 and I look forward to seeing him because I miss him when I sleep. It's funny how life gets better and better as you go. I love being a mama... everyday I soak it all in.

As some of you may know Matt is going to try out to play professional football in the spring. He has been working really hard trying to get back into shape and training. I blessed to have the kind of job that I love going to everyday, and I want the same for him. I am so proud of him. It is going to be a lot of work, but I know it will pay off in the end. (Especially after I watched E!'s THS on Football Wives) If it all works out I'm going to have to get some bigger sunglasses, a boob job, and tummy tuck (damn baby ;)!

Matt running some drills

Me and the bug watching daddy training

We are so blessed to have good jobs, and we have enough money to pay our bills. But money is tight, and sometimes we can't afford everything we would like to have. There are a lot of people who are in worse situations than we are in right now. Lately I have found myself getting caught up on little things that in the big scheme of life don't really matter. So yeah, maybe Matt watches Sports Center a little more often than I would like, and maybe he leaves the cupboard open after he gets a glass out, and maybe he buys stuff that I don't think we desperately need (okay this is no longer going the direction I want it to)... but he is a great husband and a great daddy. WHY am I so focused on the negative things??? I have to remind myself that in the end none of that other stuff really matters.

I am making a commitment to myself to have a new perspective on things. I am head over heels in love with my husband. He is romantic, smart, funny, smooookin hot (see photo below) and he loves me more than anything in the world (even more than Sports Center) Matt gave up a lot of things that are important to him to make me happy. Sometimes I get caught up in the sacrifices I have to make and forget that he makes sacrifices too. I'm so grateful that we came into each other's lives.

We have each other. We have TC. Not much else matters.

Family Pictures

We just got our family pictures done... Here are some of my favorites!

2 Months

My little bug is 2 months old! I can't belive how fast time is going by. If you know a way to slow it down do tell! This babe is growing like a weed. Look at the difference just a month has made.

Month 1

Month 2

He has learned how to smile. It is too adorable. It all starts in his eyes and his mouth has to play catch up. We can't take our eyes off of him!

I just have to say that Colic is a Bitch! But we're beating it! Well... we are on the downhill anyway. The last 6 weeks have been pretty rough. He is so uncomfortable and it breaks my heart! We have tried everything but nothing seems to help that much. The last two nights have been sigificantly better and I think (hope) that it will be over soon.

TC loves his baths! He loves to pump pump pump his legs back and forth until the entire counter is flooded. He cries everytime I take him out.

He got his shots yesterday morning. I purposely scheduled the appointment so Matt would have to take him while I was at work. He was so sad! When I saw the bandaids I was sad too. This is a picture of us being mad about immunizations.

Utah comes to California

This is a long post, so if you skip over and just look at the pictures I won't be mad.

What a weekend! I think I'm still trying to recover from all of the things we crammed into three days. We wanted to do a baby blessing for TC, so my family made plans to come out for the weekend. This is the first time Curt and Grandpa Coy got to meet the baby! Gramps called him "a perfect little peach" and the baby was so obsessed with Curt. No literally... he would not take his eyes off of him. Who knew my little bro was so entrancing! Maybe it's the haircut???

As we were getting ready to go to dinner on Friday night, Aunt Teri and Uncle Brad came waltzing into my apartment, and a few minutes later Kerri, Raymond, Erin and Chels followed! Surprise! My family is too nuts! I can't believe they drove 24 hours in 2 days for this blessing. We are so lucky to have a family who is so supportive!

Saturday morning we did family pictures and got ready for the blessing. Lucky for us, the photographer suggested to do the photoshoot in a park filled with homeless people. Curt and my dad became besties with a homeless man named David... or was it Daniel? He told them lots of stories about how "12 men were hung here at 12:00 midnight" and how he has slept in cemetaries "but nothing happened". Definately entertaining.

After the shoot we (well mostly my mom, Teri, and Sister) cooked food and cleaned the house for the blessing. Shout out to my Aunt Teri... it was her birthday and she spend the day helping us while the boys took Grandpa to the hospital because his foot was really bothering him. They made it back just in time for the blessing. A lot of our friends from Hanford, family from Utah and Erin and John met in our apartment for the big event. After a few minor setbacks, my dad gave the most beautiful baby blessing I have ever heard. It meant so much to me that he did it. I don't think this baby will ever realize how much we all love him.

Naturally, we had a big BBQ after (when don't we?). I had reserved the BBQ area at our apartment complex but when we arrived it was already occupied by several large men barbecuing, boozing, and listening to music about "36 Double D's" and "dropping panties to the floor". Hardly appropriate for little ears! So we moved the party to the clubhouse. It worked out perfectly because attached to the clubhouse is the pool. So as usual, we acted like adults and Sister bet Chels $50 to jump in the pool fully clothed and yell "CANNONBALL!" No "cannonball" no dice. She agreed to do it if we made it $100. So we all chipped in. I think you will enjoy the results. All I have to say is you're welcome. That's what I love about Chelsie... she is so much fun... and easily persuaded by money lol. Thanks to everyone who came - it was so nice to relax and enjoy the time with our family and friends.

The next morning my family and Grandpa got up bright and early to head to San Francisco for the 49ers vs. Falcons game. It was the first NFL game any of us had ever been to. Grandpa waited 87 years to go and TC waited 2 months. This baby is so spoiled! He did really great. I couldn't ask for a better baby - he snuggled up with Nana the whole game and just soaked it all in. We are definately going to go back. Hopefully next time we will be able to watch Matt play!

After dinner my family headed home and we headed home. Too bad they were in opposite directions. It's not easy living so far away from everyone. Miss you and love you all! Thanks for coming!