6

Today Gabe and I have been married for six years. Wow, a lot has changed in those six years. While a lot has changed, one thing still remains the same. I still love that man with all my heart.

Does that mean that life is rainbows, roses, and butterflies? Nope... But I CAN tell you this... I couldn't imagine treading through this crazy life with anyone other than my bestfriend, soulmate, and love of my life.

He is my rock, and my confidant. We some how always manage to make some tasty lemonade when life gives us lemons. And this year we celebrate the best tasting lemonade ever: Noah Warren & Aaden Parker. Having this new lemonade in our lives has brought boat loads of happiness and smiles, and also healed some very broken hearts. But we have also been given a different variety of lemons in our life now. We are still learning how to be the best parents, the best spouse, the best employee, and still make time for eachother and our marriage.

Today on our anniversary, we will make the plunge to our new home. We hope to stay the night in our new home and mark this new year with a new journey with our sweet cups of lemonade right by our side.

On our wedding day I vowed to be his best friend and Mother of his children, well it looks like we finally made it.

Happy Anniversary to a man who can always make me laugh, a man whos smile can brighten my day, a man whos glow from enjoying his sons melts my heart, a man whom I am honored to call my husband.

While deep in the thick of our IF journey Gabe played a song from me to keep me motivated and promised me that we were "headed for a better life."

Better Life - By: Keith Urban
Friday night and the moon is high,
I'm wide awake just watchin' you sleep
And I promise you you're gonna have,
More than just the things that you need
We ain't got much now, we're just starting out
But I know somehow paradise is coming.

Chorus :
Someday baby,
You and I are gonna be the ones, good luck's gonna shine
Someday baby,
You and I are gonna be the ones, so hold on, we're headed for a better life.

Oh now theres a place for you and me,
Where we can dream as big as the sky.
I know its hard to see it now,
But baby someday we're gonna fly,
This road we're on, you know it might be long,
But my faith is strong, its all that really matters.

repeat Chorus:

So hold on, hold on, c'mon baby, hold on,
Yeah we're gonna have it all, and ooh

repeat chorus twice :

A better life now, oh ho, a better life
Hey we're gonna leave this all behind us baby, wait and see.
We're headed for a better life, you and me.
We're gonna break the chains that bind and, finally we'll be free.
We're gonna be the ones that have it all, you and me.
Just hold on tight now baby, woooh

He was right, we do have more than just the things that I need, we have reached our own little paradise, and good luck finally did shine. We got our better life, and while it's a crazy life, I sure as heck couldn't ask for much more.

Happy six year anniversary to the love of my life!

13

Dear Elianna,

Today you are 13 years old. I have watched you grow from a cute little colicky baby, to a sweet little chubbo toddler, then into a beautiful little "schoolager," and now into a gorgeous young woman. You have always and will always remain my baby girl. I remember the first time I laid eyes on you, you were just a few days old, I had no idea that you would play such a big role in my life. I began watching you overnight when you were just two weeks old and ever since we have not gone more than a month without seeing each other.

When I was just 15 years old and up with you in the middle of the night for hours at a time with you screaming your head off from colic, I loved you, even now with some of your "teenage attitude" I love you. I may not have given birth to you, but in my eyes you will always be like a daughter to me.

No matter what my sweet girl, I will always be here for you, as I always have been in the past. I am pleased that you are in my life. I am honored to have been able to teach and show you some of the things I have taught you. I am also honored to have you in Noah and Aaden's life, as they love their "Sassy Sissy" so much. Thank you for being such a big helper with them, thank you for putting smiles on my face in times of sadness, and thank you for filling some of void I had before Noah and Aaden came along. Thank you for letting me be like a Mother to you. Thank you for showing me what it feels like to love a child so much it hurts, thank you for showing me what an amazing honor it is to be called "Mom."

To me you will always be me little "waterlemon" eater, who loves the "hephatents" and couldn't sleep without her rock, sippy cup, and her Jessie doll. I will never forget your face the first time we took you to the beach and you said your first sentence "look at the water!" Visions of your excitement when we took you to Disneyland and Sedona are always wonderful memories that run through my mind.

Today I will call you a teenager, 13 years ago I called you a beautiful baby girl, forever I will call you a daughter.

Love,
Sissy, Tiffany, Mom

Sneak Peek of The Boy's One Year Photo Shoot

Zucchini

We have zucchini coming out of our ears. I am DONE WITH ZUCCHINI! What is left to make? Seriously help me out here. So far we have done:

Sauteed zucchini
baked zucchini
Zucchini soup
Zucchini bread
Fried zucchini
Chocolate chip zucchini cake
Zucchini pancakes
Salad with zucchini in it

I am afraid the boys and I are going to turn in zucchinis. What else can we do with it, short of letting them grow and carving them for Halloween?

Tomatoes!

Want to know what to do when you are overloaded with home grown tomatoes and basil?

You make Grammy's (my Grandma) sauce and freeze it! It is delish and super low in calories. Our freezer always has some sauce in it, makes a great fast, healthy dinner.

Saute a white onion and a clove of garlic in a splash of olive oil. Add 8 or so diced tomatoes, a handful of minced basil, and a dash of salt and let simmer for about 30 minutes. You can also make this with a can of diced tomatoes and dried basil, but why if your garden is anything like ours? I have even been making it with lemon boy tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. Any variety works just fine. Because this is a delicate sauce, I prefer it served with angel hair pasta and a bit of fresh parm.

Happy eating!

Our Derby King

On August 14th, 2010 our Noah became the King of the Fair!

That's right Noah Warren won the DIAPER DERBY.

In the first round Noah crawled from Daddy to Mommy. I bribed him with my car keys and cell phone. For the final round where Noah faced the other winner, we switched it up and he crawled from Mommy to Daddy where Daddy bribed him with a bottle. When he first took off I nudged his botty which prompted him to fall forward, but off he went. A little hesitant and at one point crawling towards the crowd and the cheers, because he is a little ham. He won by a land slide. We were so proud, so proud I almost cried. I have video of course, but well um... yes you guessed it, I haven't had time to upload it. But you can bet your diapered bootie I will get around to it soon.

Congratulations Noah Warren, we love you King!

The Phone

In the midst of a "break down" I am going to try to add yet another thing to my plate. My blogging has been lacking something fierce. While "trying" to sit down for just 15 minutes the night before last I made a list. This is something I do a lot of lately. I have gone list crazy! This list was started once before, October 2009 to be exact. It was a list of things I would like to blog about, while my October list now no longer makes much sense because it included things like facebooking while pumping and going back to work, things are much different now.

I am happy to announce that I have 15 topics I am planning to blog about within the next few weeks. Why might you ask? Because I am nuts and would like to add more things to do in my life! No, no really because I love my blog. I love the fact that I have documented so much of mine and the boys life and I am sad at the fact that I haven't documented more lately. I also feel like I am losing my readers, and while the point isn't to have followers and read my beautiful comments, I still enjoy it and I miss my comments and followers.

Before I begin with topic number one, lets do a tiny re-cap... fair, fair, moving, stress, crying, hurt back, packing, a haircut?, moving, floors, breakdown, a diet, packing, garden, bye bye Memphis?, sad, smiles, stress, laughter, a diaper derby king, financial wows, taking on a child to babysit, quitting my job, crying, fighting, working one day a week, insurance, working two days a week, moving, packing, paperwork, dog water, cleaning, laundry, working full-time, and again... a breakdown.

Since that made no sense at all, lets just say things are hectic and leave it at that. I plan to blog about many of those things in the future, but for now lets just keep it up beat.

Today's topic is "The Phone," starring Aaden Parker:

Aaden has clearly made it known that he loves phones and knows how to use them. A few weeks back our house phone rang, as I went to answer the phone I saw Aaden put his hand up to his ear and say "hi." I burst out laughing and thought it was a fluke, but NOT the case. This boy knows what's up. Now, every time the phone rings he puts his hand to his ear and says "hi!" If he finds the house phone or cell phone laying around, he will then put those up to his ear and smile and say "hi." So this morning I tried to again while changing his diaper (anything to keep him occupied during that time) and he said "Hello, oh hi!" Hummmm.... safe to say he is paying close attention to how a phone conversation starts. Awwwww how I love that boy with all my heart, and of course Noah too, but today was an Aaden story.

I'm off to day three of ten working days, and must say I am NOT cut out for working full-time anymore, I now loathe work mornings. Saturday we plan to get much of our moving done and then Sunday a one year old photo shoot and family portraits. If all goes well I plan to have topic number two up soon as well.

These Boots Are Made for Walking

Where to Begin?

In keeping with my slacking, I have decided instead of posting pictures, I would link you to my Facebook to take a look. I thought about loading them here, but figured saving the 45 minutes makes sense. Sorry about that, I guess that is what happens when you slack on posting pictures.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2073245&id=1467876466&l=755bc30f77

Ahhhh... where to begin? We are moving and packing and I am stressing. Stressing so much that I am pretty sure I had an anxiety attack, my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest and it was hard to catch my breath. It is hard to be at home because I can't sit still and my mind races. I just keep going and going and then worry about what is left to do. I think about the attic, the sheds, and to top it off I am working almost the whole month of August. I cannot wait to be settled in our new place, of how I wish I could afford to hire help. Help to move and to hire a babysitter for my days off. Oh wait... what days off? I only have weekends, weekends which I must add are jammed packed with activities. Packing with Noah and Aaden around is VERY hard, doable, but hard.

We got a rental from a friend of ours, it is NOT the one we originally planned on, but is still nice. Not as nice, but still decent. It is about 300 sq. feet bigger than our current house and has two bathrooms (thank goodness.) It also has central heat and air, a dog run, and a larger garage. We need to buy a fridge, so I am watching crai.gslist for a good deal. It is in a GREAT neighborhood. Two blocks from Ta.rget, Who.le Foods and our babysitter. The best news, it is $300 less than the other house we were going to rent and half the price of our mortgage. The floors are pretty bad, so we are meeting with someone to talk about refinishing the hardwood in the living room and hall. In the boys room and our room I plan to buy a large area rug, and for the playroom I bought this:
We are 95% sure that we will be taking our larger dog to the shelter within the next week. We don't have the time to give him the attention he deserves. He never got the training he deserves. We got him in December and then in January I was pregnant and then by May when the weather was nice and we planned to really work with him, I went on bed rest. It breaks my heart to think about it, but I know that it will take a lot of stress off of me and he will get so much more attention.

Birthday planning is under way. A park has been picked, the theme is Elmo, the menu is planned, the invites are almost done, decorations and cakes ordered. Oh oh... I have to share the cakes. They boys will each have their own small cake with their names on it and I will be making cupcakes for everyone else. Here is the cake:

We will have a small dinner and cake party on the 12th with close family and then the blowout will be the 18th. I started a Target list for the Bubos, they are in need of some big boy toys. They are over the little kid stuff.

Camping was fun, our visit with Mima was fun, swim lessons were a blast and the boys do great in the water now. This month is the fair, oh how I have waited to take kids of my own to the fair, I can't wait! Also this month is mine and Gabe's six year anniversary. We talked about taking a trip with one of my good friends for her 30th B-day, but it seems that funds and time our not on our side. So, hopefully we can sneak in a date night on our anniversary.