I got my MOTY award in the mail.  Imagine my surprise when the committee actually took note of my motherly awesomeness and felt I deserved the award!!

*I got a hilarious personalized MOTY award in the mail from my aunt and her girls... You guys are the best, thanks for making me laugh.

Fun stuff!

So many fun pictures I will have a long post soon to come.  We also got good news that we are officially licensed for foster care!!  So hopefully we will have an additional kiddo in our home soon... Just an FYI, we are not allowed to call them foster children, so if you ask I won't be able to say foster care, foster child, etc. (legal issues...stupid.)  They will be our kid, and we are cool with that so that is what we will call them.

MOTY (mother of the year)

You know those days where you plan something really amazing, and you're sure that at the end of the day you will feel like MOTY?  I had a plan, I had the most fun day planned ever; it was going to be awesome.  Lite rail ride to the Children's Museum of Phoenix, play, eat lunch, play, lite rail home...and the weather yesterday was so incredible it would add to the fun.  We boarded the lite rail with several "random" riders, and Gus loved every minute of it.  When we got off in downtown Phoenix, I knew we had a bit of a walk so we walked quickly seeing that Gus needed to go to the bathroom, and there is NO WHERE to go in downtown Phoenix.  We made it to the museum, got our hands stamped and headed straight to the bathroom.  Gus had a meltdown, he was certain that the bathrooms had hand blowers and those are his personal kryptonite....(I don't know why, they just scare him to death.)  So being MOTY, I drug him by the arm, screaming into the bathroom, where he proceeded to stand in front of the toilet and wiz his pants.  In all fairness, he had a belt on and couldn't get his britches down, but I was sure it was him trying to foil our perfect day.  What do I do...take my kid and his wet pants into the museum, take the long walk back to the lite rail and sit there for an hour in wet pants (I'm sure he would have been super pissed about that.)  No Walmart, no drugstore, no car to get anywhere.....FREAK!  I about lost it, what the heck was I supposed to do.  I proceeded to grab Gus' arm and drag him into the gift shop, hoping to randomly find shorts.  The kid had the nerve to ask for a toy..."are you serious?  You're lucky to be alive."  Fortunately the gift shop does have overpriced shorts (in the storage room) for just such an event.  We cleaned up the wiz, bagged up the pee clothes and slipped on his sweet cotton shorts, and Gus went commando.  For reals, the museum is so great, he had a great time and looked totally homeless.  By the end of the day his legs were black from climbing all over everything, he looked raggedy.  We stepped outside and it was raining, I again take the title of MOTY as it's raining, windy and cold and Gus is in thin shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops, walking around downtown Phoenix.  I ended up giving him my cardigan to wrap around himself so he didn't freeze, but it did make both of us look more homeless and we were carrying a bag that wreaked of wiz.  It was a great day!  I'm pretty sure I will get my nomination for MOTY here in the mail pretty soon.

Month of May...

Does it seem like this year is going by ridiculously fast, or is it just me?  I can't believe we are almost half way through the year, how did this happen?  May has been a crazy month, with funerals, family gatherings, and mother's day ( I had a wonderful mother's day, complete with breakfast and hugs and kisses.  I've got a great family...I did however have the standard mother's day tears.  I don't know why I'm always such a mess on holidays like that, I'm an emotional woman, what can I say.)  I feel like life has gotten a little turned upside down and I'm hoping to catch my breath and enjoy the rest of this month. 

Gus a roo turns 4

Yes...it's official, he survived his toddler stage and is on to a very interesting kid stage. 

Some current Gus tidbits include his obsession with "Muscle Song," which is more commonly referred to as Viva La Vida by Coldplay.  If you are ever in the car with us or at our home, he will question your love of this song; I suggest you tell him you love it.  One Sunday I got pulled out of my church class because Gus was requesting his class sing "Muscle Song."  The teachers were willing, they just weren't familiar with this tune.  It was awesome! 

We've spoiled Gus and his palette for water.  We have a water cooler, we don't drink tap water; we are snobs.  The other day we were totally out of water, so I quickly filled up his cup with tap water and ice.  When I brought him his cup he took a big swig followed by "Mom, dump this freaking sink water out of my cup."  Snap, we are in trouble, and apparently I say freaking A LOT!!

His best friend is still his elephant, someday we hope he branches out and finds a friend who will talk back to him :)

We had a great time on Gus' birthday, playing with cousins and coloring Easter eggs.  By the end of the day Gus looked completely homeless.  His face was stained with food coloring his hair was disheveled and his clothes were all raggedy.  I took him to Liberty Market to pick a free birthday treat looking straight off the streets.  The looks we got were awesome... I looked horrible too and I can almost guarantee they thought we were homeless and begging food.  It was lovely. 

At Gus' birthday party we had his favorite friend Jessi, make us some elephant cupcakes.  Gus loved them, but was a bit torn when he was required to eat his beloved elephant friends.

We love Gus so much!  He is a great kid, and we are so glad we've been blessed to be his parents.

The smell of Noxzema and Pert Plus will always remind me of my sweet Grandma Nanny.  She is an amazing woman who is so kind and gentle, but tough when she needs to be.  I will never forget when my Grandma was babysitting my family and I tried to sneak my breakfast into the toilet...she caught me and had me sit and eat until I was done.  She taught me how to tie my shoes with patience only a Grandma could give.  Recently she taught Gus how to do #3 with his fingers; I'd been trying to do that for almost a year.  He attributes his #3 success to his beloved Nanny.  It sounds so trite to put my memories of my Nanny into a blog post, but I want my posterity to know how much she is to me.  She is stalwart and brave, hard working and loveable.  I got to sit with Nanny and hear stories of her childhood, engagement and marriage.  It was fascinating to hear this whole side of a person you never really consider as a child.   She struggled, she grew and she is great.  She has overcome many challenges and has stayed faithful in the Gospel.  She has a great posterity of children, grand children and we will all love and miss our Nanny.

Lacy's shower

It's so bizarre that my 8 year old sister Lacy is having a baby...okay she's really not 8, but she still seems so young to me.  It probably doesn't help that she has all over miniature features.  We did a "pop" theme for her shower (soda pop, pop corn, cake pops, jalapeno poppers, Popsicle)  It was to be a wonderful outdoor spring shower, it was however one of the coldest weekends ever and pouring rain.  We still had a great time, we just threw hot cocoa into the mix (I will never complain about rain and cold, I LOVE IT.)  Lacy is adorable pregnant, too bad this picture is blurry.

And just for viewing pleasure...this picture makes me laugh