Our 4 Year Anniversary

Sorry this is so late now! Work and mothering has taken up so much of my time recently. But I have many posts waiting for you so be ready! :)

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Let me start this off by saying that this was not my best anniversary gift. And Max has been very supportive in my failings. I had a super cute idea but my execution was...lacking. One day I will learn that my mother is always right.

So what happened you ask...

Well as you well know this year was flowers and fruit. I wanted to come up with something creative and cute outside of a simple bouquet or edible arrangement. I came up with a super cute idea. I was going to fill a vase with skittles and put a single flower for each flavor/color and attach a little love note to each one. For instance the yellow sunflower would say "Lemons may be sour but you're oh so sweet!". Cute right? Everyone at worked loved it, I was going to win.

I love giving presents and I'm usually pretty good at it.

Year 1: paper flowers with love notes, hand crafted.

Win.

Year 2: Custom cotton t-shirt that he still wears without being asked to.

Win.

Year 3: Custom leather luggage tags that are currently attached to this bags and he uses whenever he travels.

Win.

I was so excited for my plan. But where do you get single flowers in every color of all different varieties. Your standard grocery store only sells bouquets, hardware stores like Lowes or Home Depot only sell planting flowers, and general stores like Target and Walmart are a crap shoot. This meant I needed a florist. Well a local florist isn't something that most people use anymore so where could I find one.

Google.

I was on my lunch break and thought I could at least find a florist and get an idea on pricing and what they had before Friday when I really needed them. I thought I would start with the closest one and move my way out. Now for those that don't know, I work in Scottsdale. Whether you are from AZ or not you will know Scottsdale for it's richness. Rich people, sports people, famous people, did I already say rich people, all live there. This means there are small cute boutiques, hi-end stores, and custom shops. A pencil probably costs $100. I was expecting to find a florist that only did weddings, or would only sell exotic flowers from far away lands. But what I found was amazing. It was still small, a boutique, a custom shop but it was fantastic and perfect.

I found P.V. Florist

The greatest florist there ever was. The store is very small and tucked away beside other larger ones. As far as I could tell there was no sign until you got right up to it and the front door is a solid wood door that made you feel as if you were walking into someone's home. Which is exactly what you were doing.

Immediately when I walked in I thought I was in the wrong place. It was a small store which in my naive head meant that they only did events and didn't sell individual arrangements. But right when I was about to turn around and walk out the bells on the door clanged and Suki Jandu, Proprietor and Designer, came running out of the back. I hesitated and thought "CRAP!" Now I have to tell her my whole stupid idea and why I'm there and she'll have to explain that she can't help me and fight back laughter as I walk away." But I was wrong.

I told her I was looking for individual stems in every color. She immediately started pulling out the roses. I sighed and told her I didn't want all roses if it was at all possible. She did a double take at her fridge and then turned to me and asked what I wanted them for. I decided I would tell her the whole idea and she could tell me if I was insane or not. And maybe just maybe she could have some great ideas.

She told me it was the cutest thing she had ever heard. She started pulling daises, thistles, roses, some giant green puff thing, and sun flowers. The last color on our list was orange. I didn't see anything in the case and was prepared to surrender and buy pink or something. She then pulled out a GIGANTIC orange rose (pretty sure it's a rose, I'm really losing my girl cred here). PERFECT! She sorta stared at it a moment and inspected it. She then put it on the counter and said it was on her because it was already open and wilting ever so slightly. I was amazed!

She rang me up and the price came in WAY under what I was expecting like way way under. And there are only 6 colors in the rainbow and 6 flowers looks kinda sad. So I told her I would gladly double it and take two of each color. She grabbed all the extras for me and added two extra orange roses those ones also for free! I told her I worked right around the corner and that this cute little shop was such a surprise and that I was so glad she would treat me so kindly when I was probably her smallest customer ever.

When she heard that my anniversary wasn't until the next day and that I worked right around the corner she offered to keep the flowers in her fridge until I could pick them up Friday again at no extra charge. She's amazing.

When I went to the pick them up Friday, the day I had to work all night, she asked me how my day was going. I told her about the late late night that was headed my way and that I probably wouldn't be home until 10ish. She asked me what I was going to do with the flowers. I told her there was a fridge at work and if they didn't fit I would just keep them at my desk and they would be fine enough until I got home. She looked the orange ones over again and told me to keep the vase she stored them in to make sure they stayed fresh for my husband. This too was at no extra charge.

She took better care of me then I do. I can't recommend this place enough.

Earlier that day I had bought the skittles and was ready to put the two together. My mother had come up with a variety of ideas of how to use the skittles without putting the flowers in them. She thought maybe I could put the skittles in baggies then put them in the vase so the flowers could still have water. Or put them in a bowl around a vase in the middle. All with the goal that the flowers would never leave water. But I told her it would be fine and that they would only be out of water and in the skittles for a few hours.

I was wrong.

Once I got home Friday night around 10 I showed Max what I had made and we immediately went to bed. I was exhausted, he was tired from watching Jack and we crashed. The flowers had no water expect skittle wetness for 6ish hours. Whoops. They were droopy and wilty when we woke up and I felt terrible! All that hard work, all that effort and such cute varieties that I hoped max would get to enjoy. It's not every day you get a bouquet with thistle in it. They weren't dead but they weren't as vibrant.

My mother is always right. O well, Max still liked them for awhile.

Max got me a beautiful bouquet of calla lilies and roses and they are so gorgeous! Calla lilies are my favorite and what we used for our wedding; he's so thoughtful :).

The rest of our anniversary was pretty low key. We dropped Jack of at the grandparents before dinner and headed out. We decided to go to dinner and a movie since it's pretty cheap but not only did we do that we killed two birds with one stone and went to the AMC Dinner Theater.

This is every parent's dream. You can sit at the bar and order drinks before your movie. Then take your drinks into the theater and order and eat dinner while you sit in enormous comfy chairs. They also have a call button for your server and you can still put the arm up if you want to cuddle. But let's be honest no parent is giving up precious "me" space ;-).

We ended up seeing Zootopia because my husband knows me too well. He saw right through my "I don't care; we can see whatever you want" ploy. I'm a child at heart, I won't deny it. It was a super cute movie and I highly recommend it to anyone with or without kids.

After the movie we headed back to get Jack and then home to crash. We really are an old married couple now. But it was exactly what we were hoping for. It was a perfect anniversary.

I can't wait to spend another year growing old together.

4 Year Wedding Anniversary - Fruit/Flowers

Happy St. Patty's Day but maybe more importantly it's my Anniversary Eve! ;)

Yup it's that time of year again! I can't believe I will have been married for 4 years tomorrow! If you missed reading about the first three years you can read about some gift ideas here and about what we got each other here.

So as you know Max and I follow the traditional gifts for each year and try to do something cheap and fun. This year is fruit/flowers which is either really super easy or really hard. You can always go with a bouquet of flowers or edible arrangements but those have been done before so I am trying really hard to come up with something a little more creative.

Note : Max - That being said if your plan is to send 100 roses to my office a la How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days style I wouldn't be mad :)

So here are a few of the ideas I've come up with so far :

1) Fruit with little loves notes attached. This is healthy, cute, and super easy!

2) Fruit paired with different flowers. Make a bowl of strawberries surrounded by roses, Blueberries surrounded by blue Peonies, Kiwi surrounded by succulents (not technically a flower but what the hell else goes with kiwi's :) )

3) Fruit scented perfume

4) Rose colored Jewelry. Origami Owl has some great lockets that are changeable! Put some fun flowery, fruity, and love related charms in a rose colored locket and chain and you can't lose!

4) Bouquet of fruit flavored candy

5) Fruit of the month club

6) Buy only exotic fruit you have never tried and go on a world wide tour of fruit right in your own home!

7) Spend the day together making your own caramel apples or fruity desserts.

8) Spend the night together making fruity cocktails and eating chocolate covered fruit.

9) Sprinkle rose petals the floor in front of the tv, grab some blankets, fruity candy and enjoy a great movie!

10) Have a fondue night with chocolate and fruit and use different flowers to decorate the table. Maybe even include some fake ones for keepsakes.


There are a ton of options! I can't wait to celebrate another year with the man of my dreams :)

Jack's 11 Month Update

Weight: ~19 lbs

Length: ~29"

Loves: His loves are still pretty much the same. He loves to stand and walk. He pulls up on the coffee table then walks to the other side and sits down. Then he gets back up and does it all over again. He's constantly standing and sitting. He also now stands up with his push toy and takes off around the house. He still can't turn though :)

Hates: He doesn't hate much these days except when we stop him from doing whatever he shouldn't be doing at that moment: playing in the dog bowl, throwing food off of his highchair, hitting our faces, etc.

Milestones: He pulls up on everything! He's also become a pro at sitting back down without startling himself. He loves to sit and stand back up. But he hasn't quite figured out how to stand up without pulling up on something yet.

He can stand without holding on though but I'm not sure he knows it ;). He consistently pulls up on the coffee table and then lets go to grab and play with a toy, leaving him standing unassisted. But if I put him in the middle of the room and let go he freaks out and sits down. We just need to do some baby confidence boosting!

He still favors saying Dada but he'll throw other noises/words in there too. He'll say mama if he's feeling especially nice, but his most favorite is screaming "DOOOOOOO". It's amazingly adorable. He'll also try to repeat your words. He'll get the sound right but use the wrong letters. "Jack can you say Dog"..."touggg". Eh close enough. Or even better he'll just think about it for a second and then look at you and say dada. Well he tries :).

His newest trick is giving people high-fives. He doesn't put any "umph" behind it but he does put his hand to yours which counts in our book :). We're still working on waving and clapping. When we ask him to clap he immediately grabs our hands and slaps them together. Technically he isn't wrong. We didn't specify whose hands to clap ;)

Sleep: He's still amazing in this department. He sleeps from 8 to 6:30ish. He would sleep longer but he's on work schedule so weekends I still have to get up like I would for work but those mornings are filled with cuddles instead of insane traffic.

Eating: He still has 4 bottles a day 6 oz each. Then three solids, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We are starting to wean him off of the purees. He's been eating finger food for months now but we used to only offer them after he ate his puree. Now we only give him puree's if he's just not having the finger food we give him. I also still provide it to our day care lady so she has backup food just in case he rejects something she gives him. So I'm not completely out of the baby food factory but oh so close. I am so ready to be done making baby food all the time!

Teething: When it rains it pours! He has his top left tooth. His bottom left tooth has finally poked through and then the tooth to the left of this top tooth is just starting to poke through. I can see the teeny tiniest bit of white. So it looks like he'll be pretty lop sided to his left side for a while :). But all the other front teeth are swollen and hard so we're expecting them any day now.

Jack Hears a Who - Hiking at Horton Creek

Last weekend Max rolled over in bed and said "Do you want to go on the hike or are you too tired?", I responded how everyone responds "I don't care, whatever you want to do love." He said that it was fine and that we would go next weekend. I laid in bed starring at the ceiling trying to decide what to say. Do I say "No, let's go. You won't be so tired once we get moving" and seal my fate to a long day of hiking and fun in the sun with my family or do I just lay here and blame him for being too tired when he complains about being lazy later and enjoy a slow Sunday?

I went with the blame him option.

"I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephants faithful 100%"




But my fate was sealed anyway. We woke up a few hours later and decided it was still early enough to go so we grabbed Jack, the dogs, and our already packed packs (thank you eagle scout constantly ready husband) and headed out.

Max had landed on the Horton Creek Trail because it met all my super easy requirements; flat, not too short or too long, easy-ish, pretty, and not too far away. God, I'm so agreeable :).

Now because it was Horton Creek there were several Horton Hears a Who references, Max was ready for them and even fired a few back, and that's why he's my husband.

The trail was exactly what I was looking for, pretty, easy, and so much fun. It started off so easy that I started planning Horton Hears a Who reference pictures for Jack to be in for this blog. But I somewhat quickly changed my tune. No it didn't start to get hard, no I wasn't worried about Max carrying our 10 month old alone with no help, no the dogs weren't pulling on me because they were off leash, My I-haven't-gone-on-a-hike-in-2-years-because-I-had-a-baby tiredness set in. And when I get tired and frustrated I get mad. This did not make Max happy.

"This entire Jungle is a house of death!"

For the most part stopping to catch my breath and a drink of water helped so we did that frequently. Max was very supportive and would drink and say he needed the break too.

Liar.

But I got some great pictures and even got some of my movie reference ones :).

I even took one of a butterfly, which is incredibly difficult which is why it's terrible. But instantly after I took the terrible photo the butterfly started flying at my face. I was waving my arms wildly and snapping the camera because I thought "I might die from a butterfly attack but maybe I'll get a great picture!" I found it funny. But once we got home and I showed Max the pictures he laughed at me not like "oh how adorable" but more like "OMG your insane and I have to tell everyone how your afraid of butterflies" so the pictures got deleted. So I'm sorry your only left with a terrible on-purpose photo of a butterfly.

"...They all eat rainbows and poop butterflies"

Well my tiredness continued and I couldn't quite make it to the end of the hike. Max kept lying to me and telling me it was just "a little farther" but since it was always "a little farther" I got a little more frustrated. And he called it quits before I completely broke down and starting singing "liar liar pants on fire..."

We decided to walk down to the creek and enjoy a nice relaxed lunch together. We got Jack out of his king's seat so he could stretch and enjoy a bottle of his own.

It was truly adorable. Our little family enjoying some time relaxing by the water and eating some delicious snacks. Jack had his puffs, we had some sandwiches and the dogs finally stopped long enough to take a drink from the creek. Jack walked around a bit (with some help of course) and there were many giggles.

"A person's a person no matter how small"

The hike out was about the same as the hike in and I tried to keep my frustration to myself even though my pinky toe decided to burrow a hole through the toe next to it. I some how survived and I'm already excited for the next adventure.

As you may know Max runs his own humble, ok let's be honest better, blog : Lesser Places. Where he writes about his out door adventures. If you want to read about our hike from a not-so-tired mama point of view, with less Horton Hears a Who references, or want to see more adorable pictures of Jack on our trip make sure to CHECK IT OUT NOW!

9 Month Must Haves

Surprise, surprise...9 months was a lot of fun! Jack became more independent and started to show some more personality.

He's a lover of moving. He wants to dance, walk, crawl, climb, slap, and roll everywhere.

#1 Activity Table - This is another Christmas winner. We have this little table setup in front of our coffee table and Jack is standing up at it as soon as you put his butt on the ground. Obviously the cell phone is his favorite part just like it is on this other push toy from last month. Matter of face we have both toys next to each other and cruises between each one. Hands down his favorite thing in the world. It also now gains him access to the coffee table and mom and dads toys!

#2 Cart Cover - Ours is a hammy down but this one is similar. I love it. I see other parents roll their eyes at me and think "first time mom" but sure enough I didn't use it one time and Jack immediately started sucking on the handle of the cart and then had pink eye, an ear infection, and a cold within a few days....so this is priceless to me. I'd rather annoy other parents then deal with that plague again.

#3 Spin Rattle and Roll Toy - This is a simple baby toy. But he simply can't get enough. He SLAPS EVERYTHING! So the giant spinners get a lot of use and he thinks the rattle noise they make is hilarious. The tiny balls on top are perfect for practicing dexterity and he loves moving them from one side to the other. And he really concentrates on doing one at a time, so hey whatever works :)

#4 Foam Bath Animals - I bought these for myself really :). He was perfectly content with his bath chickens from his 6 months must haves but I wanted more toys for him since he loves bath time so much and now he's in the giant bath. He does play with them but he's picky. He only plays with the dolphins. I think it's because they have the skinny bodies that are easy for his tiny hands to hold or he's just discovered his favorite animal. He'll play with the other ones until a dolphin gets close enough to grab and then they get tossed aside. So to make it fair and equal sometimes I play with them. We can't have sad bath toys ;)

Jack's 10 Month Update

Weight: ~18 lbs

Length: ~28"

Loves: His loves are still pretty much the same. He loves to army crawl, hold on to us while walking or standing, and he still loves his walker. But man that kids needs to learn to turn :). He also loves to play chase. When he's crawling he looks over his shoulder at you like a cheeky fox and then giggles and takes off crawling, hoping to beat you to nowhere, if he's walking he loves to chase you and run over your toes.

Hates: He HATES when he gets stuck. If he's in his walker and a wall has rudely gotten in his way, or if he tries to pull up and stand under the coffee table or that the bottom bars on our chairs are too high to wiggle over. He hates getting stuck.

Milestones: He has done a lot! He's pulling up on pretty much everything, but since he's an army crawler it has to be close enough to the ground for him to reach from his belly. So people, toys, shelves, etc. are all fair game. He can pull up to stand from sitting and he does try to stand from sitting without something to pull up on but he looks pretty sad :).

Update! - I almost forgot Jack has started to cruise a little! He pulls up on his toy table and grabs and waddles like a handsy drunk sailor over to his push toy. He obviously can't walk without holding onto something but slowly he's learning! Hopefully a video to come :)

So last month I thought he was on the verge of meaning it when he says mama and dada but I think I was wrong. He still throws them around aimlessly. But sometimes it does seem on purpose like when I change his diaper he'll say mama or dada if he sees him come in the room but other times he'll look right at me and say dada. So who really knows :)

He can wave now but still needs prompting and he waves with his whole arm which is totally adorable.

He will also share his toys sometimes. If you are doing something cool with his toy (because we have to play or do something while we watch them :) ) he will hand it back to you to do again. It's really the most adorable thing.

Sleep: He is a great sleeper! But he's getting used to work schedule again after the holidays so he's waking up earlier which means waking up earlier on weekends too. But I guess that's just more snuggle time :)

Eating: He still has 4 bottles a day 6 oz each. Then three solids, breakfast, lunch and dinner. He is capable of eating smooshy finger foods but he doesn't really like to. He wants what he wants and nobody can convenience him otherwise. He'll eat some fries off our plate, puffs, and some other various things I cut up for him; but other times he throws a fit and spits it all back out. So we're learning.

Teething: FINALLY HE HAS A TOOTH! It's also his top tooth which I guess is not the norm but hey we'll take it! It so funny to see this pearly white thing sticking out of his gum when he giggles.

Romantic Getaway Christmas Present

A few weekends ago now Max and I went on our Romantic Getaway. It was my Christmas present and I couldn't have been happier.

Max booked a fantastic room at Hacienda Corona de Guevavi B&B (Spoiler: the first picture on the home page was our room! It was enormous!) but didn't plan anything before check in which was at 4 so we had some time to kill. He gave me several options including a guided cave tour, the biosphere, or a national park. But we finally decided to walk around and enjoy the town of Bisbee.

We left the house around 8:30 and dropped Jack off with my in-laws. Of course I packed a giant bag, wrote out a schedule, and other crazy first time mom things but I was going to miss him so much! They were very nice about it and scooped him up and shoved us out the door. It was a 3 hr. drive down to Bisbee so we needed to get started early.

We got there right around lunch time so first things first we ate a delicious meal at an old historic hotel; it was so cool. The rest of the day we spent walking around, antiquing, eating, drinking coffee and holding hands :). I was all so adorable.

We found this old antique toy store and of course I had to check it out. They had the oldest walker I had ever seen and some fun wooden toys. I really wanted to get Jack one of those old wooden boats but Max thought it was goofy so we didn't. When he's a little older I totally plan on coming back and letting him pick something out if he wants.

We got some hand made dog treats, Bisbee Coffee, and a jar of the best desert honey ever!! I also got a super cute glass bracelet from a local lady in this open air alley-way market. Her jewelery was gorgeous. She made it all by hand. She would spin thin lines of glass around and around to make a whole bead then press it down and magically those thin lines would make a pretty desert scene. She was amazing!

I highly recommend Bisbee to everyone it was amazing and the people are super nice.

The B&B was about an 1.5 hrs. from Bisbee which was kinda of annoying but the drive was so beautiful that it made it worth it. We drove between two mountains and even got peeks at snow. There were so many saguaro's and amazing views.

We got to the B&B just after check in and because of some kind of miracle we were there all alone. We got the whole place to ourselves. Our host was truly amazing. She was beyond nice and made us feel like family. The night started off with free wine and appetizers and we got to hear so many stories about the place in the "good ol' days". Little did we know that the "John Wayne" room isn't just named that because of all the cowboy memorabilia but because he actually met the old owners when he was filming Red River. He became such good friends with them that he threw parties and hung out there a lot. It's also known for the beautiful murals on it's walls in the courtyard. They were well preserved and apparently people come from all over to see them. We didn't even know so it was an extra nice surprise for us.

Not only was the B&B gorgeous the property it sat on was as well. It had acres after acres of land. Horses, cows, chickens, and amazing views in every direction.

Sitting around talking felt so comfortable and relaxing that I almost felt bad for asking about dinner and heading off on our own.

But of course she suggested a fantastic place for dinner and the way she sold it we knew we couldn't pass it up, and we were starving anyway :). It turned out to be the best Mexican food I have ever had. The atmosphere was amazing and the food was even better. I would drive all the way down there just for that.

We spent the rest of the night enjoying every second of our little getaway for two. The next morning we had a super tasty breakfast. It was like a combination between a dutch baby and a crepe with fruit baked into it. We had to get back up to Jack so we left right after breakfast, but both of us were dragging our feet. I missed Jack so much but was so glad to spend some time just being husband and wife and not mom and dad. Max truly won this Christmas.

Hope you loved all your Christmas presents as much as I did!