Let's Celebrate!!

The festivities began on April 29th with Brandon's 25th birthday! His family came to San Clemente and we spent the day together then had a nice birthday dinner. Brandon and I were babysitting my friend's kids. The 3 year old had a fever all weekend and woke up several times each night crying. Brandon was a champ and since I sleep like a rock he made sure I woke up and went to her each time she cried! HAHA just kidding, he really was willing to do his share, but she knows me better and would have cried harder if he had gone to her! the boys played some basketball and walked along the beach and we ended the evening with a dirt bike cake!

View from my friend's balcony. It was really nice to wake up to the sound of the waves and a sea breeze blowing in through the window! Christine was there also, but she is always the one taking the pictures!

Oh the things you can do with an 8 year old's basketball hoop!!

Brandon's new birthday present! He also got some bike accessories and, of course, no birthday would be complete without a knife... or two!

You know your husband is HOT when he even looks good blowing out candles!!

Brandon's dirt bike cake! Does it look muddy enough?

Next came Mother's day! We drove up Friday night and spent the whole weekend. Brandon's brother Michael got home from his mission the previous Wednesday so it was an extra special mother's day for Christine!! Saturday we had a BBQ/pool party to welcome Michael home then on Sunday we drove to Bellflower to spend the day with Grandma hatch and Aunt Diane! Traci, Rex, and Rebecca surprised us by coming all the way from Utah! (At least it was a surprise for Brandon and I, I'm sure everyone else knew)

My first complete family picture with the Hatchs! (Michael left for an LDS mission to NYC a few months before our wedding).

Can you tell how happy she was to have all her boys together again?

I finally got my "Bodyguard" picture!!  Why marry a tall guy with tall brothers if you can't get some protection out of it?

Cousins came to visit!

Brandon's wife and girlfriend! our flower girl just loves her cousin Brandon!

We celebrated my birthday along with mothers day which is something I have gotten used to over the years! 23 years ago I was born on Mother's day and I can't believe its been that long! My family and Muriel chipped in to buy me cutco knives! Diane gave me mangoes, which I LOVE!! Here is me through the years! (Which is more for myself than anyone who reads this, but I hope you enjoy!)

I have a really hard time believing that's me, anyone else think my parents forgot to take a picture of me at birth so they stole one and just pretended it was me?

You know how everyone has those awkward years? Well mine started in 3rd grade.....

The braces are OFF!!

and I didn't outgrow it until my junior year of high school!!

23 years and lots of memories!

Spring!!!

It's been pretty busy around here lately! Time goes by so quickly yet somehow I never seem to get anything done... I have been wanting to do some spring cleaning but I think its going to have to wait another week!

My mom came to visit a few weeks ago! I loved having her come and see where we live! We got to take her around San Clemente, I took her to work, and I endangered her life with my lack of kayak skills! All in all, it was an eventful weekend!

Notice the purse! 1: It is rare to see me with one. 2: My DAD gave me that purse... I should send him to do my shopping more often!

I was SO excited to hang out with my friends Sally and Farah last weekend, we ended up having a wonderful lunch together and although it was only a short time, It was so nice to see them. I am SO mad that none of us remembered to take a picture but here we are at different reunions since high school!

Me and Farah in NYC

Me and Sally in Chicago

This week is Easter, my FAVORITE holiday! Brandon and I had Banana chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast but that's all we did special to celebrate. We will go to our friends house for Easter dinner tonight! Then we went to church which was wonderful, the true reason for Easter is all about Jesus Christ and his resurrection!

Brandon and I spent the day at the beach yesterday which was soo nice! It was sunny, warm, and NOT windy!! (I hate wind)

Yea, this is an old one... but we forgot the camera!

Here's to a BIG week!

This week has been CRAZY, but also very rewarding!

I was told by the parents I nanny for that I should read up on potty-taining because they think their daughter is ready for it. I took that to heart and started attempting research! I read a book listing 11 pointers for potty training but honestly, I was disappointed... It all seemed really logical to me! Things I would naturally do! I figured I would ask some experienced potty-trainers and find a more helpful book but THEN I show up to work on Wednesday and R was wearing underwear! Apparently she woke up and refused to let her mom put a new diaper on her, she wanted to wear underwear! As with most things, I confidently got in WAAAYY over my head and agreed that I would start the training, how hard could it be, right?

After about half an hour I called my parents! and later that day when I heard the neighbor (who is a good friend of mine and mother of 4) outside, I rushed out with lots of questions!

Apparently I was doing everything right and was re-assured that I should just keep doing what I'm doing but I could NOT understand why she kept having accidents! In my mind, once she learned what to do, and felt how gross it is to go in her pants, she would catch on... that's wishing, not reality!

The second day started out better but by 10:30 she was DONE and wanted her diaper back! I am very stubborn and was NOT about to be defeated by potty-training so right before she woke up from her nap I filled up 3 sippy cups, two types of juice and one with water, I also lined all her favorite snacks up on the counted, and displayed the new coloring kit she could get by going #2 in the potty! I went in to her room with a great big smile, enthusiasm, and lots of potty talk! We had a GREAT afternoon! We taught her curious George doll how to use the potty and then gave him m&m's for a job well done! This worked really well. I also skimmed the potty training in less than a day book and got some great pointers!

The third day was SO rewarding! she only had ONE accident (#2 only) and had totally caught on! The only problem is, I think I made her too reliant on me because although she had no accidents, she never went to the potty by herself. She would tell me she had to go and then just stand there until I came over and walked her to the potty...

All this was accomplished JUST in time for her 2nd birthday which is today, Saturday! I am excited to see how she progresses this weekend and if she is more independent on Monday when I go back to work. I will, however, be devastated if I show up and she is wearing a diaper!

The plus from this experience far out ways the difficulty, I now have my own fine tuned potty training method and wished I had read that less than a day book before beginning! I would of course change some things to suite my own personality (and my future children's) but I now feel A LOT more confidant about going through it as a parent!


Potty training took its toll, 3 BEAUTIFUL days and no park are hard on a two year old! Also, S was neglected socially! She got all her meals, naps and diaper changes but when she was awake she mostly had to amuse herself! (P.S. R's only accident on the 3rd day was when S was being fussy and getting all the attention!)

Favorite quotes from R this week:
     -"Ok emmy, you have two choices! We can go to the park or go on a walk"
     -"emmy, we can go to the park or you can sit on time out!"
     - after her first poop and lesson on wiping she sang this repeated for a few minutes "No poop in the vagina"
     - "Monkey George went poop, monkey George needs markers! I will give them to him" smart kid, but I'm smarter!
     - Q: R, what does mommy wear?
        A: Underwear!!
       Q: What does emmy wear?
       A: underwear!
       Q: what does daddy wear?
       A: Shirts!! (haha, obviously!!)


On another note, Brandon and I had a BEAUTIFUL weekend filled with excitement (and no potty-training)! Friday night the elders quorum threw a fiesta for the ward! Decoration included streamers thrown over the basketball hoop in the cultural hall. (yea that's it! Sometimes I wish I were a boy, i am SO not cute enough to be in relief society) . It was a really fun evening with a Mexican themed pot luck, a pinata for the kids, and a tortilla throwing competition in which Brandon tied for second place! Brandon went on a long ride this morning while I went on a run and cleaned the house a bit! Then we headed down to the beach where we met up with quite a few families from our ward! later we went to my friend/coworker at BYU's wedding reception which was catered by in and out burger! Tomorrow we plan to go on a nice long walk along the beach after church and feed the missionaries!

Sorry for the long post with no pictures! I'm pretty sure R's parents would not be too happy about me putting a picture of their naked child online and we didn't have our camera with us this weekend! But rest assured we both have smiles on our faces, I have some extra freckles, and Brandon is a shade darker!

2012 thus far

I have officially been nannying R (23 mo) and S (2 1/2 mo) for an entire month! R was going to stay in preschool until mid February but she just loves being home so much that she has not gone in over 2 weeks! She loves adult attention and being able to do her own thing which she gets a lot of at home. At first, she had a very difficult time sharing me with her new little sister, but we have come SO far in just a few weeks and she is really understanding that S needs my attention sometimes also! S is so darling , its crazy how natural it is to love such a helpless little thing! She has been fighting sleep lately and loves to socialize, unfortunately if she doesn't sleep enough, she breaks down in the evening and screams for 30 minutes at a time!

So... here's my question! R has started getting time out when she either does not listen after multiple warnings, or refuses to do something she needs to do (ie. a diaper change or wash her hands). She LOVES the timer and makes sure I remember to set it! She gets so excited when it goes off. Yesterday she put herself in time out, haha I laughed so hard! She kept getting up and trying to walk around with her snack and after only telling her twice that she needs to stay at her table, she goes "R needs time out, R stay at table" she put down her snack and headed over to the stairs, then she says "Timer emmy, timer". I'd be afraid I was not getting through, but when I ask her why she was in time out, she always gives me the right answer! Anyway, back to my question... would it be bad to give her, her own time out timer for her birthday? a pretty one that she can watch tick down...

While looking for timers, I found the coolest time out tools on amazon! Including my favorite, A little floor seat that beeps when it no longer feels pressure so the parent can walk away and know if the kid gets up!! It also lets the kid know they can't get away with it because it beeps until they sit down again! oh, and its small enough to take to grandmas house or the park so you can keep the consistency! Time Out Pad

On another note, Brandon is doing GREAT! He LOVES it here in San Clemente, as do I, and finally has his own biker gang!! ok, when he reads this, he will laugh and give me that "really, em, really... biker gang?" look! In reality, its made up of him and 2 family guys from our church but he loves mountain biking with them and goes every weekend! He has been wanting a nice bike since his got stolen almost 2 years ago and FINALLY found one that won't brake the bank but that is great quality! He has been riding around on a cheap one (mountain bike standards) that is 3 sizes too small, and has a broken something important, fork maybe? His new bike is as big as bikes come and our neighbors (both build bikes for a living) tuned it up for him and made sure he put it together perfectly! Technically, the bike is for his birthday... but it was on sale now so he was afraid of waiting until April to buy it!

Because I worked so hard the past 4 1/2 years in college, my parents wanted to get me something special to celebrate my graduation! I have a REALLY hard time thinking of things I want... I just like small things and am in heaven when I get a bag of dried mangoes! My dad had me think about it for a little while and I decided that I wanted a treadmill! Our neighborhood has very few street lights and is a little bit ghetto so now that I am working from dawn till dusk I can't run outside... meaning I've stopped running completely! It arrived last week but we have had some electrical problems since our house is old and they take up lots of power! Brandon finally got it up and running smoothly so my training can now begin! Training? you ask... Brandon, Cory, Rick, and I are running in the Camp Pendleton mud run (10K) in June, I am SO excited!!

We also went to my fist ever surf competition!!! It was AWESOME!!! unfortunately we only got to see the 7 year old boys and 13 year old girls, I was hoping for some pros... but it was still fun and a lot cuter!

Holiday catch up...

Christmas was GREAT! We had excellent weather which meant we got to go on hikes and eat Christmas lunch outside by the pool! We also went to a boat parade. Unfortunately the pictures did not turn out great but it was still fun!

Brandon and I both got kindles and I LOVE IT!! I was hesitant because I love books so much, it was hard to imagine not turning paged and having to sit in awkward positions but you wont spend more than a few hours with me without me pulling it out to read! I also got a steam mop which cleans my floors like nobody's business! Brandon got a new head lamp which he loves and some other trinkets that amuse him greatly!

We had red and green waffles for breakfast... I ran out of green so it looks yellow, I'll do better next year!

We spent new years in San Clemente but Brandon's family came to join in the fun! Again we had wonderful weather and spent a day walking along the tide pools!

Also, I found a job!! It is such a blessing to have one! I really wanted a teaching job but just couldn't find anything!! As for working outside of education, I was not qualified for most of what I found and have no experience outside of teaching! I finally found a nanny job which still allows me to teach even if it is not in a formal setting! There are two kids ages 22 months and 7 weeks! Some days are smooth and great while others are pretty chaotic (2 year olds on benadryl are now officially my worst nightmare!) We go to the park, the beach, and sing songs/read stories. I am excited to add the library to the list once they get a double stroller! The baby is tiny but she is a very happy and calm baby which is great for someone like me who has never had one kid to take care of all day let alone two! The two year old is very advanced for her age (given that she is not even technically 2 yet) and can talk well enough to communicate anything she wants to say. She can also count past 10, knows her ABC's, a few shapes and colors, and has a better memory than me! She also loves painting and stickers and has better fine motor skills than I have seen in some 4 year olds! Oh and she is a lefty!!

She found her Halloween costume in the closet when we went to get a jacket and insisted on wearing it! Strangers have never in my life been so friendly as they were that day as I pushed a cow along the beach in a car!

Holiday Spirit!!!

Thanks giving was great, the best part was... NO DISHES :) We went to Brandon's grandma Hatch's house for thanksgiving and since we were coming from all different directions it seemed best to go out to eat, so we went to Marie Calendars! The food was great and the company was even better!

We spent the rest of the break with Brandon's parents and brothers!

It was a beautiful weekend with weather in the mid 80's!! Just the way I like it!

Once we got back, It was time to start getting ready for Christmas!

This is the view outside our apartment looking through the window beside the door!

Carolers in our living room! (The camel bone box has frankincense and merr in it, compliments of Saudi Arabia!)

Our lovely reindeer

Joy in the kitchen!

Ah, my favorite part! I just LOVE Christmas trees!!

Here is the living room as a whole! Can you see the Christmas train on the table?

 Now the tricky part was figuring out where to hang our stockings! I had to get a bit creative since we didn't want to put holes in the wall only to use them 1 month out of the year! My mom made Brandon and I stockings last year for Christmas, she also gave me 3 more for future use ;)

yes well... we make due!!

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Next up, Dana Point Boat parade of lights!! Were going on Saturday night and I am SO excited!!