Vinny's room

Vinny is coming soon and I have been trying to convert Susie's old room into "Andy's room". I have cut and nailed the wainscotting up on the wall but still have a lot to do to make the room the way that I see the finished product looking. Regardless, here are a few pics of how Andy's room looks on Toy Story and then a few pictures of the slow transformation.

Andy's room on toy story

Wainscotting up and ready to be primed

Primed!

I also am covering up the old crib bumper I had for Susie with fabric that is worthy of a cowboy. More pictures of both Vinny's toy story room and Susie's Dr. Seuss room as I complete projects.

not a "big mac" virgin anymore

Yesterday Jim and I took Susie to a pet store to pet puppies but stopped off at McDonald's to get something to eat. I told him just to get me a double cheeseburger and small fry off the dollar menu when he remembered that I had told him a couple of weeks ago that I had never had a Big Mac, ever.

He told me that I was unamerican and must not be from this planet. I just laughed.

So I did it yesterday...I ordered and ate a Big Mac. I am not a Big Mac Virgin anymore...and the verdict is...I didn't like it. I will go back to my double cheeseburger off the dollar menu anyday.

this is so handy

This little handy-vac made by Reynolds is sooooo handy. Eventually I want to get one of those industrial FoodSaver vacuum packers but for now this is so nice to lock in freshness and lock out frezzer burn. LOVE it.

me and my "cuz's"

Last week Susie and I went up to visit my family. Here are a few pics of the week.

Sue with all of her cousins on my side of the family.

Easter..Susie loved collecting eggs, playing with her cousins and enjoying the decent weather (it snowed the rest of the week!)

Been missing a little bit of THIS and a whole lot of THAT

THIS...

is a pork salad from Cafe Rio! I will be able to have one this weekend and am sooooo excited. (This is the 6 month pregnant lady talking!) I have been missing THIS and hope for the day that there is one closer to my home than 2 states away.

I have also been missing a whole lot of

THAT...

I have been missing my family, nieces, and nephews. Even though I have grown to love Texas I still miss the beautiful mountains and the fresh cool air of Utah. I have a brand new niece, Rachel, that I am very excited to meet and hold. Here we come family! My nieces and nephews are growing up so fast. I am excited for Susie to get to know them better.

and the verdict is.....

Yesterday we went to the doctor's appointment and found out what we are having! With Susie we waited until she was born to find out and so this was a new experience for us parents. They are both fun but just for the record I am pretty sure that next time we will wait to find out. You see, I HAVE MY GIRL AND now JIM HAS HIS BOY!

Yes, that is what you think it is. What a beautiful sight. We are so excited to be having a little boy. We are pretty sure that we will be calling him Vincent; Vince or little Vinny for short. Just 20 more weeks until we meet the little guy.

Here is another look at the little guy. He is a very healthy, active boy. I have been feeling his kicks for the last 4 weeks. The sonographer kept telling us when she was doing the sonogram that this baby is very active. I think he just can't wait to play with his big sister. I am sure Sue won't have a problem showing him everything she knows. His due date is around August 15th. Another pregnant texas summer for me...joy!

Our little Italian Stallion...what do you think of "Rocky" as a middle name, eh?

2 kids under the age of 2...wish us luck!

Classic...

Here is the classic bath picture of Susie. I can't believe how much hair she has now.

ode to the CRV - written by jim

Last night we let my beloved CRV go. We traded her in for, of all things, a new mini-van.

Having been through the process of buying a new car a few times, there were few suprizes. After a few weeks of shopping we got the price and interest rate we wanted, signed the papers, dropped the down payment, and we were ready to roll out with a new pimpin minivan. My last item of business to be taken care of was to look through the CRV one more time to make sure we weren't leaving anything behind. As I peered through the nooks and cranies of that green machine for the last time I was suprized with how sad I felt. I felt silly for feeling so attached to a bunch of metal and plastic, but I couldn't help but reminice of all the good times I had in that car. The first thing I thought of were the trips to California. These trips were accompanied with great friends, drama, and good times. Some of the most notable California memories are the streeker on the bridge, Joe and Nancy drama, Hungington Beach, traffic from Vegas to LA, China Town, Robb and he knows what, and seemingly never being fully reimbursed for gas. All that said, we always had a great time.

I first learned to fix my brakes on the CRV with a little help from my bud Penfield. I removed the cassette player and installed a CD player that, no doubt, played more DMB music than any other CD player known to mankind. She was present for many first dates as well as many last dates. She was my only companion for several long, and tiresome trips between Orem and Houston.

When I packed my bags for college, I loaded them up in the CRV and drove 1600 miles without knowing where I would live.

Over the past 10 years she has taken good care of me and I have tried to do the same. I never got in a wreck with her, but she was involved in a hit and run while she was parked. However, with the assistance of a couple of good Samaritans, I was able to track him down and avenge her.
I got too many tickets and "DTRs" within her doors and she always seemed to play Rage just a little louder afterwards...Vogel understands.

There is no doubt she has been good to me and she was hard to let go. Over the past 10 years she has been the one constant thing in my life. Wherever I was, she was always close by. So as I raise this glass of Martinelle, as a tribute to her, I say, "this new mini-van is way nicer than I expected."

my daughter the "trek-ke"

Friday morning Jim was getting ready for work as usual, and Susie was trying to help him in anyway possible as usual, but the unusual thing about this particular morning's ritual was the accident that happened. Susie loves her daddy. She would choose Jim over me 100 times to 1. (I had to put the "1" in there to make me feel better). What can I say other than my daughter is a daddy's girl through and through. She is Jim's shadow.

This particular morning she was back in our bedroom helping daddy by picking up his size 12 shoes by the shoelaces and waddling over to him to give it him. We were both watching her closely as she insisted on bring the shoe to him and NOT wanting any help. Miss independent lately. Out of the blue she started running towards daddy and tripped over the shoe that she was carrying. The fall to the floor wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't a bed post that all of her weight, and forehead was heading for first. Yikes. It was a slow motion moment for both Jim and myself as we saw it happening and weren't able to react fast enough to stop her headbutt into the corner of the bedpost.

There was screaming, crocodile tears, checking for blood, checking for all of her teeth. We both thought as a held her that she had hit her nose and that it was broken. After a few moments of frantic checking our daughter out and screaming, lots of tears and screams, we saw it. The monster of bumps, the "trek" scar.

After the fall our daughter looked a lot like this lady...

Luckily no permanent damage. Now all that remains is a greenish type bump on her forehead. We were so lucky that nothing major happened.

Here is a picture of her a couple of hours after the accident. Pictures never do accidents and "ouchies" like this justice. Anyway, we are just glad that our Susie-sue is okay and healthy.

how to get a 16 month old out of a locked car

Yes, my friend Jamie said it best after I told her the story of what happened this past Thursday morning, "You are officially a mom now!"

Susie loves to back out the car in the mornings with Jim. She jumps to the music on the radio. She also turns on the lights, windshield wipers, air conditioner, and anything else that will move or turn.





Well this morning was a little bit different from our normal routine. This particular morning included an ambulance. Not to worry, read on.

So Jim had to leave in a rush thursday morning and so Susie didn't get to back out the car with daddy. She just waved goodbye and then started crying now knowing that daddy was driving away without her help. So I told Susie as we started walking into the garage that she could back out our other car that was parked in the garage. As soon as I opened up the driver side door and let her stand in the front seat she was totally content with the situation. Any thoughts of her missing her daddy had vanished for the moment.

We were sitting in the unstarted, parked car for about 15 minutes when I knew I needed a drink of something...so I closed the door to the passenger side, where I was sitting, and told Susie I would be right back. I ran inside and within 20 seconds was back out in the garage. Susie was having a great time. As I tried to open the driver side door to get Susie out my heart sank and started beating really fast. She had LOCKED herself in the car. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't accidently left the keys on the floor of the passenger side and that we didn't have any spare keys to this car. YIKES!



So...as Susie kept playing in the driver side seat I called the local police NON-emergency line, emphasis on NON-emergency, and told them of the situation. I specifically told the dispatcher that we were both fine and that my daughter was fine in the car for awhile longer. To pass the time I decided to sweep the garage out while watching Susie in the front seat. After about 3 minutes I hear a siren nearby. The siren noise keeps getting closer and closer. I prayed in my heart that the siren wasn't headed for MY house. Well it was. A minute or two later an AMBULANCE showed up. Man, I thought I had told them it was a non-emergency. Oh well. Not just one, not just two, but three police officers stepped out of the ambulance.



Needless to say, they were able to open the car within a minute and Susie-sue was sad to leave her "fun" spot in the car.