Easter Egg Hunt

Last night we had an Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard for the grandkids! It was so much fun. I think that we had 3 times as many eggs then we had last year. All of the kids had overflowing baskets, so we had to start filling bags! I was walking around with Mara taking pictures, so I didn't get that many of Xander. But Karri, Lisa, and Mom were taking pictures too, so I was able to snatch a bunch of them :) All together we had so many pictures that I had to make a slideshow! (oh darn) After the egg hunt we had BBQ hamburgers and hung out. It's so great to have family close by. After dinner my mom played "Ring around the Rosies" with the girls, it was so cute, those pics are at the end of the slideshow.
But I had to post one picture, because it was so cute!

Happy Easter

HAPPY EASTER!!!

I feel like this holiday has snuck up on me, so I haven't done all the things that I would normally do. I would usually get the kids some new clothes, a new shirt for Xander and a dress for Mara, but that didn't happen :( But I did get a dress from my sister in-law Liza, that her daughter Addi wore, which turned out to be perfect for Mara!! We didn't color any eggs, even though I bought more eggs just so we could color them :) There is always next year!
We had baskets ready for the kids this morning, and Xander decided to go upstairs without us and peek! I can't believe he is already getting like this. They were excited for there presents. Xander got a cool 3-D Ninja Turtles Puzzle, the newest Little Einsteins Movie, M&M's, a little Pablo stuff toy (from Backyardigans) and a cool gun that blows bubbles!
We got for Mara her own My Friends Tigger and Pooh movie, M&M's, a Uniqua stuff toy (also from Backyardigans), some cool bath tub crayons, and a little egg toy that lights up. Xander's first thing he did was put together his puzzle. He loves it and I know he will be playing with it alot :)
In the rush to get out the door to go to church I got a snap shot of the two of them together. They are so loving when they want to be, lol. I actually braided the top of Mara's hair into two braids. They were so little because she has such fine hair, but then I put little ribbons at the bottom and it was so cute! I really need to try some new styles with her, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.
This was after church, she is showing off her dress! Thanks again Liza, I love it!!



And another sweet picture of my girl :)

I'm So Excited!!

One of my favorite shows in the history of the fraking universe (ty JD) is Battlestar Galactica!!! This show is so amazing! It is a re-imagining of the original BSG, but a hundred times better. And yes I am a Sci-Fi geek when it comes to certain things (if you didn't know already). The 4th and final season of BSG starts on the 4th of April and we are so excited! I have never posted anything from YouTube before but this was totally worthy of a post. On Wednesday some of the cast of BSG was on David Letterman and they did the top ten list. Karri called me and told me about it, so I have to post it. Enjoy!!

Eventful Weekend

Sorry this is a long one! I didn't mean it to be so long LOL!

So I was debating whether or not to make a slide show of the weekend, because now that I have made one, I want to make more!! But I decided to just do a few pictures, so here we go!

On Friday, Xander had his Pre-School Spring Program. They sang some really fun songs, and they all had parts from the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". He got to say "On Sunday he ate through one cupcake, one lollipop, one pickle, one piece of bubblegum..." He does so well at memorizing things, (only because we drill him on them) So these are pictures of them singing their songs and doing actions. They even sang Zip-a-dee-do-da!! That was my favorite, only because he had been singing it all week.





Then later that day we were able to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for my niece Conli's Birthday Party! It had been awhile since we had been there so Xander was really excited to be there! He was the big winner that day! He was playing Skee Ball and I was chasing after Mara, then I heard the siren go off near him. So I ran over to see what was going on and an employee came over, turned it off, and then gave me a voucher for 131 tickets!!! Turns out Xander hit the Grand Prize on Skee Ball, and the only way to do that is to get a score of 450,000!!! (There is no way I could have done that) He has such a great left hook that he must have got the ball in the 100,000 spot a few times. And of course how kids are, he didn't really understand what was going on :) LOL! So, after that he just went around playing games and bringing me back all his tickets. So when we counted them all up he had 260 (with the 131 bonus) When we went to cash them in, he only wanted 4 things that were all 10 tickets each!!! So I have a voucher for 220 for the next time we go. (Kids are so funny) And I had to put this picture of Mara after she was done eating her cupcake. (this is her cheese face) I love how kids faces get so messy and they don't even notice!! While we were at the Cheese, Mara was liking to run around and sit on the chairs of the car games. Actually, those were the only places she would stay for more then a few seconds. They have so many little ride things that you put a token into and it moves. She has climbed into one, I put a token in, it started to move, and she freaked out and would have anything to do with any of the moving machines, until we found this one. She loved it because it only went in circles. Then I couldn't get her off of it when it was time to go! It was a really fun day, and I'm glad we were able to be there for Conli's bday. I only got one picture of Conli that afternoon, and she wasn't even looking at the camera :(



But last night the whole Ramey clan got together to celebrate Conli's 3rd birthday. And of course the girls had to get their favorite dresses out and play dress-ups! (Mara does this everyday!!!) So we were able to get some cute pictures of the girls together. My brother JD even put on the music to "Enchanted" and all the kids danced around to the songs! It was so cute!
It was a really fun night and I am glad that our family is so close and we are able to get together often. It's fun to watch the kids play together (when they are nice to each other, lol) Xander and Max played Star Wars Lego on the Wii and they were quite happy together, which was nice :)







This second picture of Mara is her "I'm a princess" bow!! She does this whenever she has a dress on, I love it!

Here is Lisa (my sister-in-law) Conli and Mara!
And I love this picture! Mara is so sweet and I am so glad that she is in our family :)

"Real Life Bowling"

On Monday we went to Jack & Jill's bowling in AF to have a family night in "celebration" of my dad. It was a lot of fun and there were even some strikes for everyone (I think). We had told Xander over the weekend that we were going bowling (real life bowling, in comparison to Wii bowling), so he was really excited about it. There were just so many pictures from that night that I decided to make my very first slide show!! (Aren't you proud?) Mara wasn't the happiest person there, and was getting in everyone's way, so we had to get out our stroller and strap her in so we could all enjoy the evening. As long as she had food in her mouth, she was happy (thank heavens for Yo Go's) After we were done, we came back here and had cookies. My dad loved fresh cookie dough, so we each had our bowls of cookie dough before my mom baked the rest of it. :) It was a great night and I look forward to the day that Mara will be more well mannered and actually be able to participate with the rest of us!!

Things I miss...

I Miss My Dad.

I have been thinking about this day and dreading it. I can't help that it comes around every year. It has been 5 years since my dad died. I get so emotional when I think about him lately. It is harder this year, because it is 5 years, if that makes any sense. And it's also the same day of the week that he actually died. It has been hard, thinking about what I want to say, and to convey my thoughts in an orderly manner. But with emotions involved, my thoughts are sporadic. But these are the things that I miss...

• I miss his smile, no matter what, he could always make me smile with him, even if I was having a bad day. He could always make me happy
• I miss his hugs, he always made me feel safe


• I miss his sense of humor. It was definitely one of a kind


• I miss his enthusiasm. He would do things whole heartedly, like fly fishing and tieing flies, or his garden train, or any household repair.


• I miss his love for Halloween :) Our house would be the coolest house on the street for Halloween and kids would love to come and see what was new.


• I miss his love for music. He loved Celine Dion and Gloria Estefan and would just listen to them with the volume up all the way :)


• I miss his love for good movies. After I got married he converted the family room in the basement into a home theater. There are movie posters and seating for the whole family. He was so proud of his work that he would show it off to anyone who came over. He would show certain clips from his favorite movies to show off the sound system :) If we watched a movie with him, we would have to be silent. He would shush us if we talked :)


• I miss his love for my mom. When he looked at her, you knew he was in love and would do anything to make her happy.


• I miss that he isn't here to be a Grandpa. My nephew Max was 6 months old when he died, and I was pregnant with Xander. That has always been a hard thing for me. I wanted my children to know him, because his dad died when I was about Mara's age, so I don't have any memories of my grandpa.


• I miss the way he ate M&M's :) He would take a handful and shake them around in his hand then pop a few in his mouth until they were all gone


• I miss the way he would always support us kids. Even when he didn't agree with what we were doing all the time, he still showed his love for us.


• I miss the little games we would play, namely he would say "Guess what?" Then I would say "What?" And he would respond with "I love you!". I came to find out that he only really did this with me, and in turn I have started to do it with my kids :)

I'm sure there are more things that I miss about him, but I can't think of them right now. He was such a great man, and a wonderful example to me.

I Love You Dad!

Oh, the Joys #4

Today Mara has been doing OK, she had 3 accidents all within an hour, but had 1 pee and 1 poop on the potty!! I guess it is easier to poop on the potty since she gets more warning for it, and you have to push it out!! With pee, she hasn't developed the muscles to control when it comes out. So after the accidents, I put her back in a diaper. But when she needed to poop we took it off and she did it in the potty. So I am glad that going back and forth from diaper to underwear isn't really affecting her right now.

When we potty trained Xander at 3 1/2, he was old enough to really understand what was going on. We had to make a sticker chart with prizes on it and had a party at the end for him. Over all it took him a month to really get the peeing down, and he has only wet the bed 2 times in a year!!!!! I am most excited about that :-) He still has tough time with pooping (he has constipation problems) but we are working on it.

I am just surprised that Mara is even interested, but she see Xander and her cousin Conli use the potty and she is at that age where she wants to do what everyone else is doing. And something that I have learned is not to fight about the potty. Your child will do it when they want to and you can't make them any sooner. With Xander we had tried on and off for about 6 months before he really wanted to do it. So since Mara wants to, I'm going along with it :)

Oh, the Joys #3

Yet another update on Mara. Tonight was a success! About an hour after peeing on the towel, she once again said "I need go potty", so I got her underwear off, and sure enough, she peed in the potty!! And she did it again a half hour later, all by herself!!! WAHOO!!!! But then after dinner she was in the toy room with me, she had an accident on the carpet and said "Oh, no, I spilled!" It was the cutest thing ever. Luckily my sister Karri was here and volunteered to clean the carpet for me. (Sisters are the greatest) So overall we have had a 50% success rate today!! That is pretty darn good for day 1 :)

Oh, the Joys #2

So, this morning started out like every morning. Mara goes running down the hall saying "I need go potty!" So after being in the bathroom with her for about 8-10 minutes, I decided to do my hair. After I was done, I was trying to convince her that time was up and we needed to put a diaper back on. She wasn't ready, so I asked her if she needed to poop. And then she did!!!!! It was so great!! (I haven't changed a poopy diaper in 3 days!!!!) She even let me wipe her!! I made a big deal out of it, but she still didn't care. I decided that we needed to call Mana and tell her what happened. So Mara talked to my mom and told her that she pooped. (And Mara still didn't care) So I talked to my mom about it and she suggested that maybe I put her in underwear. I did and she had 3 accidents all morning. The first time she didn't even notice that she was all wet, then the other two she told me that she pooped. At least she was in the kitchen all 3 times. So finally before I put her down for a nap I made her sit on the potty, which I moved into the kitchen. And sure enough she peed in the potty!! But once again, she really didn't care. So I got a diaper on her for her nap and got her dressed and put her to bed. I don't know if I will do this again for awhile (the underwear thing) I want her to want to do it. And so far it has really just been pooping. She has been doing good as far as wanting to "Go potty" I just don't know if she really understands or is really all that ready. She isn't even 2 yet!!! I guess, I really don't know what to do at this point. Xander was never like this. I would love it if she were potty trained, but I am just hesitant about the whole thing. I figure that she will catch on and decided to do it when she wants to. But so far, it's going well!!

Update: Mara has been up from her nap for about 30 minutes, she just told me she wanted to go potty. So we took off her pants and diaper. She sat down for a minute. I turned around and she was standing up right next to the potty and she had peed on the towel that the potty was sitting on!! She almost made it!! If she could just sit still a little longer, she would have made it in the potty. I guess that it's starting to click! Kids amaze me! Especially Mara. She is just growing up so fast :(

Oh, the Joys of Parenting!!

This is how our day started! I got Mara this way cute hat at the Disney Warehouse up in Salt Lake on Union Park Ave. It was only $3.oo, regularly $14.00 in park. (They sell older merchandise from Disneyland and California Adventure. I try to go up every few months and usually find some really good deals.) So anyway, I got out the hat and she loves it!!! I just hope that she will wear it alot to make my 3 bucks worth it. LOL

And then, for the past month, Mara has decided that she needed to go potty. Nothing has happened yet, but it is an every day thing. She will go running down the hallway towards the bathroom and say "I need go potty". So I run after her with a new diaper and sit her down and we wait. (Her diaper is usually already wet, so I think that her brain just isn't catching on fast enough to get to the potty in time.) After a few minutes I tell her that we are done and then try to get her to put a diaper back on. This is when the battle ensues. She will stand up and say that she is done and then the moment I show her a diaper she will say "I need go potty" and sit back down! Now this lasts for another few minutes, until I have had enough and then I fight to get a diaper on her, which I usually have to pin her on the floor or try to put it on her while she is standing. (This is not fun, she is almost 2 and has started into the tantrums) So today after her nap, she ran to the bathroom and the process began. After a few minutes I decided that I needed to get a picture of her at least sitting on the potty to scrapbook and blog, even though nothing has happened yet. (don't mind the hair, I didn't re-do it today) When I came back into the bathroom I could smell something!!!!! Sure enough, she pooped!!! So I made a big deal and cleaned her up! And she still didn't want a diaper on!! So at least there has been some progress. So anyway, I had to share!!

If you don't want to see a flash of poop in a training potty don't watch the video!!! LOL

New Family Pictures

Last week we went to Target and did our first "real" family picture. I say "real" meaning, professional, in studio, actually paying someone to take our picture. We usually just have my mom or sister take our picture in the backyard or something. But I just love the look of studio pictures! And my kids are more behaved when we are doing things like this. I know that I put the pictures on the side bar, but I felt that they needed a post too! We get to pick up the pictures next Monday, and then I can complete my wall of pictures, and finally post that too :) Little by little I am making the space that we are living in feel more like MY home then my mothers.

What Princess Are You?

I found this on Kristen's blog, and thought it was cute!


You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Dinosaurs!!!

I am a little behind in the blogging, but on Wednesday Pat didn't have his afternoon classes. But he had to do some school work, in the form of visiting historical sites for his Utah History class. So we ventured to Salt Lake for most of them, on the way we went to Thanksgiving Point and did the Dinosaur Museum. This was the first time we have taken Xander, so he was excited and had alot of fun. Here are some of the highlights :)

More Birthday!

"You Are My Cup of Tea"

Pat gave me the rest of my birthday present last night!! Here is another Disney Park Exclusive Precious Moments figurine. I am very lucky to get this one. My sister Karri was in Disneyland in December, and was looking for the Mickey one that I got on sunday, and saw this one! She called me and sent me a picture and I told her to buy it for me. So she tried, only to find out that you could only buy it online for 4 days!!! So I jumped online and bought it from a Disney website!! We were so lucky!! They had another one that was a little girl riding in Dumbo, but I liked the Minnie one better (since I was getting the Micky figure too!) I love Precious Moments, and have bought or recieved 8 Disney figurines since last May when I went to Disneyland and found Aurora!! I will have to take pics and post what other figurines that I have.

Birthday

I just want to say a very heart felt THANK YOU to Natalie. You are so awesome to take my kids for me, and even pick Xander up from school! My pedicure was great, and a nice way to start my birthday :)

Today is my 27th birthday! I started the day with the above mentioned pedicure, then I went to the mall and got a few new shirts :) Then I got my kids and met up with Pat and his sister Lana for lunch! THANK YOU Lana for lunch! It was great :) After getting home and putting Mara down for a nap, Xander and I watched the live-action Peter Pan!! Pat got me this movie for a late christmas present. I love the music to it. (listen to "I do believe in fairies" in my playlist) They use the music from the movie in the Disneyland commercials!! And my sister Karri even made the music into a ring tone, so I have it on my phone!!! I LOVE IT!!!! Now I am just waiting for my mom to come home, so Pat and I can go to dinner and a movie!! (we are seeing "Definetly, Maybe")

Birthday's are fun. I was just going to hang out at home and do nothing today, but Natalie surprised me with watching my kids, and the day has just snowballed!! It is nice to know that I am loved and have great friends and family that can help make my day special :)

ZzZzZzZz...

I am very grateful for good sleepers. Both Xander and Mara sleep through the night, which is heavenly!! Xander only started sleeping all night long regularly when we got him a twin bed last spring. It is a very rare occasion that he wakes up at night. We were able to teach Mara at a young age to sleep all night, but she will wake every so often, and when she does it takes awhile for her to go back to sleep. We usually just turn down the room moniter and go back to sleep ourselves. But last night was different. She woke up around 1:30 and just called out "mom" alot. So of course I just laid in bed, waiting. We try not to get her out of bed unless nessecary, because she definetly won't go back to sleep! So after a few minutes, she began to cry. And the great husband that I have, got up to check on her :) It ended up that she had wet out of her pj's and needed a change of diaper and clothes. When Pat went to put her back to bed, he noticed that her sheets were wet too. So then we had to change her sheets!! And through all this, Xander didn't even move!! He is amazing! He is able to ignore her during the night, or he just sleeps really hard! LOL Mara was able to go back to sleep, but it didn't last long. She woke up at 4:30 needing a drink of water. Pat had forgotten to put her cup back in her bed after changing the sheets. At least that second waking didn't last too long. So I am a little tired today, I am used to getting more sleep because my kids are great sleepers :) At least Mara slept in until 8:30!! (8:00 is the usually waking time for both kids) I just hope that they will always sleep well! :)

Early and Late Birthdays

Last night we had a birthday celebration for me and Pat. Pat's bday is on the 5th and mine is on the 20th, so we always celebrate them together with my family. We both got mainly cash (which is awesome!) But I did get a few items :)

Here is our family effort at blowing out the candles :)

My mom gave me this awesome card from Hallmark that playes "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins!!! (It is one of my most favorite movies) And Mara was dancing on my lap to the music :)

My mom also got me this wall hanging that says:

"I believe stars in the sky are openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy"

We saw this when we were at Swiss Days in September, and it made me cry because I thought of my dad.

Then Pat gave me this sweet Precious Moments figure from Disneyland. (Thanks again Karri for picking it up for us!!) I love it so much!! It has the theme on it "Where Dreams Come True". Oh how I love Disney :)

So happy late bday to Pat, and happy early bday to me :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!

These are my attempts at doing cute Valentine's pictures. Mara doesn't sit still very well, so after each picture, she would run away!!! At least I was able to get some good ones. (The one in our title is my favorite)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!

New Windows!!!! Yipee!!!!

We have been living with my mom for 3 years now. This house is a little over 30 years old, and still has the original windows in the basement (where we sleep). The basement has always been cold, but whenever it is cold outside there is a breeze that comes through the windows. Our bed is directly under our window, and I can always feel the cold air on my face when I am going to sleep. In the kids room, Mara's crib is under their window, and my mom is always so worried about her being cold, enough that she bought some new pjs for her. So finally after talking with my mom, we got new windows!!!
Our room
Goodbye old, single pane, drafty windows!!
Kids room

Our room
Hello, beautiful nice and warm windows!!

Kids room

I am so excited to go to sleep tonight and actually be warm!!! This is going to be great! We didn't only replace the windows for the bedrooms, but all 6 windows in the basement. :)
THANKS AGAIN MOM!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Happy Birthday :)

Today is Pat's Birthday!!! He is the big 27!! Which means that I will be 27 in a few weeks :) The majority of his presents are pre-order items, or are in the mail, so there really wasn't much for him to open up this morning. But we got out the 3 items and took some pictures.

I'm glad that Mara looks cute, even with bed-head!


We got Pat this cool Star Wars Mighty Mug toy. He has a Darth Vader collection, to see a better picture of it you can go to his blog http://www.jeditolmantoys.blogspot.com/


Xander helped me pick out this shirt for him. He loves Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas!


I love this picture. It looks like Mara is trying to get away, but she is actually saying "cheese"


Pat, showing off his way cool shirt!!

I love you, honey!! You are my one and only. My Soul Mate. You can always make me smile and laugh. I know that the next 2 years are going to be rough, but you can do it! School will be over before you know it, and you will have the career that you have worked so hard for. Just remember that I love you and support you with all that you do.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!