30 Days!

We spent this weekend really thinking about just how close we are to having baby Jasmine and just how much there is still left to do! We bought her dresser and moved all of her stuff into it, then worked a bit on getting our room cleaned and organized. We bought both the kids some more clothes at the Gap, Tay got the cutest shoes, and Daddy keeps looking in her dresser at all her sweet little clothes. I think we need to get some more things that are not pink, though :)Then we spent the rest of the weekend thinking about we we already have, but need to find in the storage room. Oh! We are so close to meeting little Jasmine! This is very exciting!

Big, BizE Plans

I can't even start to explain how excited I am about BizEMoms this year. Not that last year wasn't great, but this year is going to be awesome! We are in the process of figuring out this whole business licensing and registering and trade-marking, as well as lots of other cool stuff. We are completely re-doing our website, we changed the meeting format, which has been super cool. We have guest speakers at each meeting, this time we have a tax accountant coming. Last month was Shay Pausa with Chiiki productions. If you have a business- check out her site! www.chiiki.com. We are planning our next two events with our event planner extraordinaire, and it looks like we might be able to do a few other extras like a few mixers with another networking group and a talk about white collar crime from our event planner extraordinaire, who also happens to be a lawyer. By far, though,the coolest thing is that we are doing is something called BizEMoms Helps, where we are partnering up each month with a different charity or organization. The group threw out some really cool ideas, and we are going to try to work with them all. I never even knew about half of these organizations and how cool it is that our "little group" can do such big things.

Gotta say, I am pretty proud to be a BizEMom!

Party Weekend!

We spent the weekend in Tucson with family, and it was lots of fun. Brooks worked half a day on Friday and we drove down to Tucson once he got off. We dropped our Mazda off to have some work done as this seemed good timing, and came down in a rental, which happened to be the 2008 version of our Mazda. It was pretty nice and Brooks enjoyed driving it. We stayed at the Embassy Suites Paloma Village, which was in North Tucson, near the pretty mountains, and a new shopping development. Being in Phoenix for a few years now, we drive faster, and we think better, than most Tucsonans and enjoy making comments to each other like, "stupid Tucson driver" or whatever. If you are from Tucson, you either love it and never leave, or you hate it and move to Phoenix. I'd say we are the latter, but Brooks says he has a special place in his heart for Tucson. And, if he ever got a smokin' job offer down there, which is highly unlikely just because there isn't much down there, we'd go back. But, it would have to be a really good offer.

But, it is worth going to T-Town to see family. Worth the ugly drive on the I-10 and the slow traffic and the bad freeway construction. After checking into the hotel, we headed to Araceli's house for Bella's birthday party. We were starvin' Marvins and hit the pizza right away. Taylor went off with Michael to play Transformers and chase the girls around. I am not sure if Bella and her friends wanted Tay with them, but he is a social guy and wanted to hang out. Which meant run around with them while they were playing musical chairs and dancing on Bella's High School Musical dance mat while she was trying to. Bella turned seven on the 16th and was having a High School Musical slumber party. It was too cute, all her little friends were wearing their HSM t-shirts and having a good time. We also brought Sarah's present since she is a January baby, too. We got Bella a karaoke machine and the kids had a blast singing and dancing along to the HSM songs.

The hotel was nice, and it was great to have a king size bed. The bed seems so big now, but won't once we are in the new house and have us, the kids, and the doggies with us. Oh, and a kitty cat. The coolest thing about the hotel room, though, is that there were a couple floor length mirrors, which I have not looked into in a loooong time. It was neat to see my big belly and how much it sticks out. We are so excited to meet little Jasmine, but this will be my last pregnancy, so it is bitter-sweet.

Saturday we went shopping at the mall and bought the kids new clothes and got them each a Build A Bear. Daddy went crazy shopping for Jasmine, but then he usually does. She is going to be a Daddy's girl for sure. Tay picked out a fluffy white polar bear and dressed him in a Phoenix Suns uniform. His name is Prime, after Optimus Prime. Later on in the day, Tay decided he wasn't a polar bear, he was a doggy. Jasmine got the February animal, which is a doggy with heart "spots". After the mall, we headed to our baby shower, which was lots of fun. Jasmine made out like a bandit, and I ate three plate fulls of Carne Asada. I could have easily had more, and if we weren't going back to a hotel, I totally would have taken some home. Taylor loved playing with the other kids, but not quite as much as he enjoyed rolling around in the dirt. Last time we were at Terrie and Spanky's I think I had to change his clothes before we left, this time I knew there was no way I was prying the Herbie shirt off of him. That night we got The Kingdom on the hotel movie list, then slept in until 9 or so.

Sunday we had a big breakfast, then visited Grandma at work and went and played at the park for a while. Afterwards we went to Bison Whiches for lunch and headed home. It was a nice weekend, and the kids made out pretty well. Taylor was on his cutest behavior and was very excited to see Grandma and Katie!

Half Done With January

I honestly am not sure where the first half of January went. We have been busy, but we are always busy. I am pretty sure my organizational and time management skills have disappeared with my memory and bladder. Hopefully once Jasmine comes, I can regain those and be able to function like I used to! In the meantime, here is a run-down of January's first half:

Brooks has been busy, busy at work. They acquired a new property just before Christmas, and now he is doing interviews for a new maintenance engineer and Brooks has taken on the dual role between tenant services and property manager. He is getting promoted officially in March, and in the meantime has been working late and even going in on the weekends. Sometime after March, he will eventually do more interviews to hire his replacement for tenant services. But, it may be a little bit as Carlson is growing by building and buying. He still loves it there and so do we (Tay and I). Daddy doesn't have to work hard all the time, and they are a great company to work for if you have a family. He is looking forward to the time off when we have Jasmine, but also worrying about the amount of work he will have once he returns. Daddy also turned the big 2-7 on the 10th. Taylor helped to make him a chocolate cake. Daddy just wanted to have Totino's for dinner. That was his celebration. When we both have more energy, we will make up for it. I am very proud of him, and I think he is starting to see just how cool he is and just how awesome his job is. There is something pretty neat about having a million and a half dollar check on your desk or working on a $46 million acquisition. And, most importantly having the support of your bosses to make decisions by yourself. Oh, and the big office is nice. It's pretty cool not being in a cubicle anymore.

The Jasmine Countdown begins. We are going to Tucson this weekend for a baby shower given by my aunt and uncle. My Uncle is making his famous carne asada. We are looking forward to it, as it is a mini-vacation for us, even though it is Tucson. We are just excited to leave Phoenix, as it has been a bit. I can't wait until we can travel again, and we wonder what Jasmine's first trip will be. It's crunch time and we will be heading to Baby's R Us hopefully soon to pick up her crib. Her dresser is coming from our other favorite store, Ikea. Daddy has managed to buy her some clothes, and onesies and little frilly socks and headbands. In fact, he can't seem to go to any store without picking something up for her. I think we are going to go to Anthem and hit the Carter's and Osh Kosh and pick up clothes for Jasmine and new summer clothes for Taylor the weed. He is so tall, I don't think he has any shorts that still fit. One of the RT's I used to work with just adopted a baby brother and sister from Ethiopia, so we have passed on his clothes and some toys to them. Jasmine's announcements are done, all handmade by me. It was lots of fun and I am so crafty sometimes, I can't stand myself :)

Taylor's imagination is really something wonderful! He loves to play with Herbie (of course) and now is really into his Transformers. He has an Optimus Prime and a Megatron and plays with them really well. He has a different voice he does for each character. He also loves to play Daddy's Transformers game on the Playstation. He has figured out if you push the triangle button, the character will transform. He likes it when Daddy plays, but Daddy has a problem with Taylor continuously pushing the button while Daddy is trying to play. I am rather pitiful at that game, and can't make it past the first challenges. Taylor also has become quite the fashion man. He likes to wear the same outfit EVERYDAY. Which means, mom and dad are washing his outfit every night. It includes his green sweatpants, red firetruck shoes and red jacket. He will wear only a Herbie shirt, which was a problem as he only had two. Grandma made him two more, and mailed them to us, since this is turning into an emergency situation, especially as his shirts are usually chocolate stained and way dirty each night. It will be nice to actually let them soak between washings! Taylor has also developed quite the attitude. Everything is "Mommy do it!" "No, that's Taylor's!" and "My pillow/refrigerator/couch/car/TV!" "No Daddy!" Some of this is just being three, and I think a little may be about Jasmine. And, in super big news, that should be announced- Taylor went pee-pee on the big potty!!! It was a very exciting day! We went to the store and bought some big boy undies, which he liked at the time. The next day he decided though, that he wanted to wear his Diego diaper again. But, it is a start and we are going to keep working on this potty business.

The house: It's coming. We haven't been down to Maricopa in forever and a day. Every weekend there seems to be something going on. One day we'll make it down there to figure out whats going on. In the meantime, we are still shopping and planning for our new space.

And, then there's me. I feel like each day is just flying by and I never seem to get everything done on my to-do list. Brooks has been pretty understanding as the ironing pile keeps growing, dinner is rarely on time and he has even been pitching in a little with helping me tidy the house each night. As long as he still gets to watch his basketball and UFC, I think he is happy. I have one more class, that ends right on my due date. I have a short break with Jasmine, then really need to somehow get cracking on completing my teacher observation hours. BizEMoms, is well, busy. We are planning our next two events, working on our business license, planning meetings with business lawyers, tax accountants, our new webmaster, and each other to make sure we are keeping up on everything else that is just the day to day of the group. Fortunately we have an awesome event planner that should help keep us on task for the events. We also moved to a central meeting location, and made a few other changes with the new year.

I think that is it, but I am sure I probably forgot something. I have phone calls, emails and of course, homework. Plus there is the world's cutest little two year old that I need to dress in his fashionable color scheme of green, red and either the white, black or yellow Herbie shirt. His new white one with Grandma's bus on it is now covered with chocolate milk and "pray dough" (play dough).

Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a safe, and wonderful New Years celebration! Taylor and Mommy have both been sick. Tay is pretty much over his cold now, but it is much more pitiful for babies to be sick, so he has been our main worry. Brooks had New Years Day off, which capped off his slacker week at work. He decided to take New Years Eve off too, to be home with us sickies. All the girls in the office, as well as the big boss were on vacation, so the remaining guys took it easy, way easy. I don't think he "worked" a day all week past 3:00. New Years Eve, Jasmine was kinda thinking maybe she wanted to see what was going on, so we ended up at Chandler Regional at 9:30 at night. I was having regular contractions, but fortunately they were not long enough (40-60 seconds) and after a few hours and some tests, we were happily sent home. My cervix has started to thin out a bit, so my prediction of Jasmine being a February baby might be true. I was watching HGTV at midnight on the TV in my triage room, and Tay and Brooks were playing in the waiting room. Yes-Tay was up that late. He had not been feeling well and decided to nap at 6 p.m., which at the time we just said OK because we knew he was sick, but with how the evening ended up,it turned out OK. Jasmine has been relatively quiet since then, I think she knows she worried her Daddy.

Michelle came in to town on the 2nd. It was great to see her. Michelle is my good friend from Iowa, we have been friends for over 10 years now, and have gone through quite a lot together. It is always great to see her. Adam, her husband had a conference in Scottsdale, so she tagged along. They flew into Phoenix, stayed a few days in Tucson, then drove to Pasadena and went to the Rose Bowl, then she dropped Adam off at the conference and came to visit me and Tay. We'll see them again after Adam's conference on the 4th. She has the same cold Tay and I do, so we were blowing noses and coughing together. Now Brooks, who has been bragging about his bionic immune system is coming down with our cooties.