Zen baby, Zen

in the spirit of rebooting our lives

2012-01-26T09:43:00.000-08:00

this blog is completely blah, and in need of a serious remodel!!!... now if only I had spare time to mess around with it ;) I will see what I can come up with.. new look? new format? new topics? this mama needs to step things up!

How can this not make you smile!!

2012-01-18T19:03:00.001-08:00

you know I have to admit.. when Keira and then Sienna turned out to have ricks colouring I was so thankful that they got "his genes"...I mean blonde haired, blue eyed beauties!! ... but now that we have Jade I have to say I am SO thrilled to have my Brown Eyed Girl!! a little mini me :) (poor thing LOL

new camera fun....sienna lynn

2012-01-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

Lil Einsteins Christmas Concert

2012-01-04T19:12:00.000-08:00

a serious jade and daddy
the girlies playing in the rocks

my two performers shivering.. nice work mom!

the whole school

my sugar lips sienna

big girl keira in the back row with her 3 BFFs

so cute!

So the girls preschool had its christmas concert and it was just so much fun! I loved that both of the girls were so excited to dress up and sing! I have to say for having as many kids as they did all 5 and under it was so organized and was over very quickly :) which is just good for everyone! My girls made me so proud they sang their little hearts out up there and we enjoyed every second of it

Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T19:26:00.000-08:00

And just like that Christmas 2011 is over.. I have to admit in the end there I was sad to not be with family... but I think sometimes things just work out for a reason and this year we made the BEST out of just being our little family! We spent christmas eve making cookies and then going for dinner to our favourite spot carrabas.. we definitely went there last year on Christmas eve.. but it is up for debate whether this was our 3rd year or not... I will have to look back at pictures to confirm that. Anyway we did a nice early 4:30 dinner and it was delicious! When we got home there was just enough time to give the girls baths and then put out milk and cookies for santa and sprinkle the oatmeal for the reindeer! I have to say I was probably just as excited for Christmas morning as our girls! Keira and Sienna were really into it this year and although I think Jade was a little overwhelmed by the whole thing she did great! Santa must have decided these girls were good this year... sometimes I wonder if he is slacking on his observation duties LOL no really they were so excited to get just what they had wished for... for keira that was ANYTHING barbie and for Sienna it was a sno cone machine (cone machine) and kookoo birds (yes she threw that one in at the last second! I had never heard of them) overall it was a great year for the hattenburg girls. Mommy was even spoiled with a new camera!! you know what that means.. MORE PICS LOL we finished off Christmas day with great friends Kelly Justin and their kids, they brought over some fireworks, we ate dessert and apparently despite having a new camera I didnt take one picture... it was a perfect ending to a perfect day!!

here are the pics to prove it :)

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=5528869027/a=5473485027_5473485027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Jade Lauren 14 mos

2011-12-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

our Jadey has a personality so much bigger than herself.. which I can finally say she hit the 20lb mark!!! I squealed so loud I scared the nurse and jade when they weighed her LOL hey it seems like a big milestone for my little peanut! She is so in tune with everything and seems so far ahead of just 14 months. A few nights ago I was feeding her her nighttime baba and just watching her drink it and drift off to sleep and all I could think is wow she is still a baby but its easy to forget during the day shes so active, she runs and plays and dances with her sisters and just talks my ear off now, she has quite a few words the doctor was really surprised with her but then not at the same time because she knows she has two sisters so close in age to learn from. She says hi, bye bye, doggie, ball, juice, mommeeeeeeeee, daddy, shoes, baba, binky, happy happy,uh oh,look at daaaaat and today it was confirmed she tells me dee dee (for doo doo) when she poops! I thought that sienna was early when she was telling me at 18 mos and refusing to go in her diaper at all when she was 19 mos but 14mos! She does apparently speak chinese too which I suppose just makes her more amazing ;) She does have 4 teeth now, her bottom two and her top two... although those top two dont show yet when she smiles.. she is going to have such a pumpkin smile when they do! She has been alot slower to get her teeth than her sisters... I think I was the same, I held onto my baby teeth forever!! Not losing my last one until I was 15 yikes!! well you all knew I was special LOL Jade never ceases to amaze me! This girl has some serious dance moves I will attach a video, she can sure shake what her mama gave her!! and it makes me so proud.. she loves to recite her vowels in the car A E I O U and she giggles her growly giggle after, she LOVES to play peek a boo. She loves when her sisters play the wii especially any of the dance games! She no longer eats baby food (that was an overnight thing) she loves fruit but is fairly picky already about everything else :( ahhhhh but being a short order cook is a specialty of mine as of late :) lets see she loves baby dolls and pushing her baby stroller, climbing, bringing everything out of the pantry, hiding in her cabinet and playing the iXL and sitting in the fridge... that is pretty much jade at 14 mos in a nutshell. She is a dream bug

The Polar Express

2011-12-12T16:30:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we actually convinced daddy to take a day off work! We had planned something fun to do as a family! These moments dont happen often enough :) I have heard so much about the polar express and was waiting for the when the girls seemed to be the "right" age to go. I have to say for keira and sienna the timing couldnt have been more perfect! The Polar Express takes place in Williams AZ (3 hrs from us) which also happens to be on route 66 so there is a cute little town there as well, however the polar express "experience" takes place in one hotel which is literally attached to the train station. You take the grand canyon railroad to the North Pole!! It is set up so well for kids and really organized for adults which makes it so much better! On board the kids get hot chocolate and cookies then get to meet santa and then have a sing a long on the ride back to the hotel. It is very short and sweet.. except when you are sick as all hell and feel like you are going to die on the train during the sing a long.. which by this point the kids are wired and armed with the jingle bells that santa gave them, the train is steamed up, and the singing is ..well terrible. yes I was sick :( LOL anyhoo you cant plan for these things and most importantly the girls had a blast.. Jade was for sure too young for the whole thing and for sure kept rick busy since she had no interest in just sitting nicely :) she is just not the sit nicely sort of kid! Which is of course why we love her! It was only a 24hr getaway for us, but being in the snow and completely disconnected was fantastic and rejuvenating in some way..despite the fact that I didnt sleep a wink but everyone else did LOL Anyway check out the million pics from that experience!

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=5345964027/a=5473485027_5473485027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T11:36:00.000-08:00

Wow I have been slacking on my blog...maybe I will get better next year....maybe not LOL anyway so this year was a little different, my family decided that it was best they stay put in WA. My mom is still doing traction to hopefully get her back stabilized, stretched and strengthened therefore it was best for her to continue with her treatment instead of flying here, my dad is slammed at work as well and really I think my brothers were probably happy to have the pressure of having to come here taken away :) So no family for the holidays this year. Well it just so happened that our good friends Carey and J decided to stay put this year since they are moving to cali in a month. So it was just the two families and we had a great time. I got to cook again this year and was much more calm and organized.. obviously cooking last year and having just had Jade was a little intense LOL Anyway the food was excellent the kids were so well behaved and overall it was a really good time. Its hard to believe that the marinellis are moving.. they were some of our first great friends here in AZ almost 8 years ago! and have become more like family to us. We are going to miss them immensely but wish them the best as they take the next step in their journey.. they will always be in our lives! I could post the millions of pics that I took but think this one of the kids just summed it all up! Thankful this year for family and friends who have become family!

Womens Half Marathon

2011-11-10T14:30:00.000-08:00

Since I ran the Rock n Roll half marathon with my little bro in June I have continued to train for the womens half marathon... and I have to say it was so worth it. Running us just not something I would say comes naturally to me, I definitely have to work hard at it every time I hit the pavement, but every time I run I feel so great afterwords and that makes it all worthwhile. So despite the fact that I had set my alarm for 3;45 to give myself enough time to wake up, eat, shower, etc I was restless throughout the night and ended up getting up at 3:30..or so I thought... I got up and walked in to the kitchen saw the clock on the microwave which read 4:34....I was like NO WAY.. I ran back into our room and said to rick what time is it??? to which he answered 4:30... After yelling some obscenities directed to my phone which even though it is set for arizona time.. which NEVER changes, it fell back an hour... This gave me 9 mins to leave the house... not the relaxing morning I had expected LOL However I am an extremely organized person and had set up a basket the night before of everything I would need in the morning.. so I literally put on my clothes grabbed everything and busted out the door. Despite this crazy start I made it into tempe to catch the bus to the start line and pretty much everything after that was amazing!! I met my friend Melanie at the start line, this was her first half! It was great to have someone there to start with, we ran the first mile together and then I just kinda fell into my own pace and tuned out the world. I stopped at mile 7 for a potty break.. the first set of portapotties that had no line LOL I didnt want to waste 10 mins in line like kurtis and I did. Mile 12 I did start to feel sore, they packed in some hills at the end of the route which intensified things but I just told myself the faster you run the faster youre done! And that last mile I just flew.. I felt like my legs werent even attached LOL I felt so strong! And was really proud of myself when I finished especially since I knew I had shaved 15 mins of my first race time and finished this time in 2hrs 11 mins and 17 secs! ...and yes I took pics and facebooked while running...cuz I am crazy like that :)

jades 1st haircut

2011-11-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

So it is no secret that I just dont do baby mullets... Keira had super stick straight hair from the get go... infact her stuck straight up in the air until it was long enough to fall flat, therefore when it got long at the back she had the definition of a baby mullet...joe dirt style... well I am a hair freak since my mom didnt allow to cut my hair FOREVER LOL (dont worry I learned my lesson) and my hair is from another planet (thank god for straightening irons) anyhoo so I am not attached to baby hair and would much rather have it look cute along the way. I took the same approach to sienna, cutting the back until the sides and bangs were the same length and then let it grow out all at the same time... always looking nice and trimmed along the way.. Jade is for sure NO exception and with a party starting to happen in the back it was time!! She HATED it LOL but survived and now mommy can relax .... hey keira and sienna have both got great but very different hair.. I am sure Jade will have her own thing going on too ... but whatever it is it will NOT be a mullet LOL

Halloween!

2011-11-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

determined to not have keira wearing the same costume for the 3rd year in a row... we ventured out to see what other possibilities there were... and it was a success. keira chose to be supergirl which is just so fitting since that is the game of choice at the moment...whether its at home, the park or the playground at school that girl plays superheros! And Sienna needed to look no farther after we saw the gnome costume... I could just imagine her in it and sure enough she was literally born to be a garden gnome LOL. Jades costume was a given.. she seems to have taken on this owl persona and does a super cute little hooooo hooooo face and sound. Anyway we ventured back to the old cul de sac to join in on the halloween festivites and it was soooo much fun. The girls had an absolute blast trick or treating!

Halloween approaching...

2011-10-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

jades party pics

2011-10-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

unfortunately snapfish wasnt letting me post the album from jades bday...but here is a link to copy and paste...enjoy

http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4713821027/a=5473485027_5473485027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

1 year of Jade Lauren!!!!

2011-10-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

Photography by Lissa Shigo

I cant even being to describe how I feel about our baby turning 1 already it is just unbelievable how darn fast a whole year has just slipped by. I would say it was a great year for our family, so busy, and so rich with love and Jade is a big part of that, she has made our lives undoubtably better. She has been an absolutely dream child and now she is moving on to toddlerhood! She is full of personality and just a few weeks ago added "uh oh".. and "cheese" for pics to her vocabulary. She has been walking for over a month and is perfecting running...scary. She is into everything her sisters weren't...which is just keeping me on my toes which is keeping me young right? LOL that is another subject altogether. Anywho Jades party was an owl theme, which came about fairly randomly actually, I was browsing invites on tiny prints and just kept going back to the this particular owl invite that reminded me of her, it was a small card which just added appeal since jade is my most petite one so far...the funny thing is she is only a pound less than keira and sienna who were always only ounces apart.. but she seems just so much more compact for some reason, small with a little bubble butt...definitely J-La booty.(step aside J-Lo) Anyway with an oct birthday owls are for sure fitting and now owls are everywhere I look! And guess what Jade is going to be for halloween LOL anyhoo I decided that I needed to be as resourceful as possible this year. All this meant was that although I got to use lots of stuff I already had and it was a crap ton of work, but when I get an idea in my head that is it, nothing else will do. So I made my own decorations and owl favor bags...it was for sure worth it, they turned out super cute. We made it easy on ourselves and had Guedos cater, we set up a taco bar which was yummy!! needless to say we were eating tacos for days LOL And for dessert we had delicious and adorable mini cupcakes from none other than Designer Cakes by April. The party was great fun and I think the kids enjoyed the bounce too. Unfortunately after coming in town and staying to be here for jades bday grandma couldnt make it, she threw out her back the day before the party and literally couldnt do anything and was in alot of pain and didnt want to move. We missed her lots but know that it would have been risky with all the kids bouncing around here. She was able to make it home and is only just now feeling only slightly better :(

There you have it, our baby is growing up quick..trying to catch up to her sisters! There are moments when all 3 play so nicely together...and it is amazing to watch! It is one of the things in this world that makes me the happiest!

up to speed

2011-09-25T16:42:00.001-07:00

My goodness I have alot to catch up on.... and therefore you are going to get the undetailed in a nutshell version of everything. Basically after 3 weeks of eric being here with us, it was evident that he was in need of help that we are clearly not qualified to give him, he was struggling in school, and continuing to use drugs and let them control his life. With less than a year before he would turn 18 Rick had to make the decision to send him to a school that would not only help him get his diploma, provide some serious structure, and most important of all build him back up emotionally. Its hard to imagine someone at that age who literally wants for nothing, no goals no aspirations and not even feeling they are worth anything, add drugs and a seriously poor view of others and the world in general, but we were staring it in the face and it was gut wrenching. Eric deserves to feel good about himself and deserves anything he wants in life... but he has got to want! Anyway we are positive that he is in the right place now! Rick gets to talk to him and do therapy sessions with him througout the program, so he will be a part of Erics journey. Although it is tough for Eric being completely disconnected from everything he knows, I think deep down he knows that he needs to be there. He has adjusted fairly smoothly and hopefully will keep thriving there and prove to himself how strong he is. Eric we are cheering for you!!

11 months and cruisin

2011-09-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

here is little Jadey Jade Lauren at 11 months she is the cutest little stinker around!!! ok I know I am biased but seriously :)

Life under a dark cloud

2011-08-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

I love this blog for so many reasons, I get to share not only our girls and their growth but our life and all things good and "challenging" but just like talking its so therapeutic to simply get it all out. We are facing one of the biggest challenges of our lives right now, opening our home and our lives to someone new. You may think really how hard can that be but in our case its not so simple and on top of everything its such an emotionally involved subject. To overnight have our lives change so dramatically has not been easy, not just because there was no warning so to speak but because this someone is a person we should already know and love and have had in our lives, this is ricks son!!! yet he is almost a stranger... and the reality of that is crushing. The first few days eric was here were jam packed with rick and eric getting things set up and really for me there was little involvement, but as we tackled the first few days of school and our new routine the reality of the change started to sink in along with the thoughts of how on earth did this happen. While we will never understand all that got eric to this point the one thing I can always hold onto is that HE asked for help and that alone is worth any "sacrifices" we may have to deal with. He deserves that chance because he wants it. After the dust settled in moved this "dark cloud". If I could draw worth a crap I would draw our house with me standing at the front door with a huge black cloud over us. The feelings of anger and frustration of the entire situation and the lack of control was crippling for me but being the person I am and having the responsibility of 3 little princesses I felt I HAD to keep going.... and I am sure you have heard the saying "a person can only handle so much", well I have learned it is so true. After desperately trying to process everything and gasping for every breath for 3 days straight paired with this roller coaster of not being able to control the tears a drive through the car wash pushed my body to the absolute limit. In that moment I swore that car wash was coming in to crush me, just thinking about it I can even slightly feel the burning sensation, then the tingling that quickly led to me not being able to feel or move my arms or legs, I felt like I was screaming but couldnt inhale, that there was just this burning in my chest and my hearing felt like I was under water. I could hear rick yelling but was not able to even turn my head to let him know I was in trouble. In the moment I though oh god this must be a seizure, not that I would have any clue what that would be like but I couldnt imagine what else would be that severe. I was in physical and emotional breakdown. I am sure you have guessed that this was infact a massive panic attack. Which I would have said in the past that I have had panic attacks like in high school when I thought I couldnt breathe and my mom would tell me I had heartburn LOL but now I realize that those were minor anxiety. This was the single most scary moment of my life so far. I was fully conscious but completely out of control at the same time. Rick took me to the hospital where he had to leave me...unfortunately all 3 girls were in the car with us so he had to take them home, luckily Carey was able to come over to take care of them. They quickly took me to a room, shoved a pill down my throat that they said would take 20 mins to take effect and left me there to work it out. As my body started to relax I just felt worse and worse thinking I have now failed everyone. Why cant I handle this, I am not the only person to have gone through this. Everyone at mercy gilbert were amazing and didnt treat me like that "crazy" that I felt. They assured me that it was normal and healthy for your body to react to extreme stress that trying to fight emotion like that was so harsh on your body and obviously mine had taken enough. When Rick came back I made sure to remind him that he had yelled at me and that had not been helpful at all LOL poor poor rick, he has been such a rock! So basically after a few hours and a visit from an amazing social worker who after working in CPS for 20 years had alot of great advice for rick and I, off I went home to just get on with life... that damn dark cloud tried to follow me. I am usually not a negative person, I do believe that you can make a choice to be positive and happy and although things can put you to the test you can fight them off. I hated that I felt so down and hated the thoughts in my head I felt like a bad person and how am I ever going to come out of this but I didnt give in and each day got a little better and today I felt like myself again. Optimistic and happy and energetic, already able to laugh at myself.. although I am probably going to be avoiding the car wash for a while ;) I realize this journey that we are on is going to for lack of better words SUCK and it going to be filled with ups and downs but it is part of our life we have been handed this challenge and hopefully we will come out ahead and be better equipped to handle the beast that is the teenage years when its the girls turn. I hope that this was just the initial shock and from here I can be a better support to Rick and our now 6 person family. Eric is going through alot himself but has got off to a good start in school and is figuring out where he fits in at home. Hopefully over time we will all feel more comfortable together and feel more at ease. More than anything I am hoping that Eric realizes his own potential and despite going through the normal teenage "stuff" and everything else he has dealt with that he gets a chance to have happiness in his future. Hey most of us grow up eventually right? LOL phew this was a long one :)

Hmmmm why am I sharing this, other than to prove what you already knew... I really am a loon.... or because maybe you have some crap going on in your life that now doesnt seem so bad now ;) , or maybe you have experienced something like this and you are happy to hear you are not the only one, or maybe just maybe because I am ready to say I am proud of myself for not letting this destroy everything that is our beautiful life and that I am learning to let go just a little more. Liz gilbert said in eat pray love something like "ruin is the road transformation" I will have to leave it at that for now, but not without saying that I have had constant support from my AMAZING husband, I love him, I am so proud of him for the selfless choice he made to give to his son what he has wanted to give all along. My family who rallied even though they knew they couldnt really do anything, my friends who listened and marissa who cried with me it means the absolute world to me! To carey for bringing wine over and saying " I am stressed and I have only been here 5 mins" LOVE YOU to pieces. To Kelly for having keira over to ease my wednesday morning! To my new friend Katy who came into my life at just the right time with a similar story who was a ray of sunshine in my few dark days who kissed my sweaty tear streamed cheek in the preschool parking lot and assured me that we would survive this and the barista at starbucks who reached into my car and grabbed my hand to give it a squeeze to let me know she was there. Those little gestures helped me tell that cloud to F off LOL I am done with that, I have so much goodness around me!!! And now I can get back to spreading it :) xoxoxoxoxox

these boots were made for walkin....

2011-08-22T19:32:00.001-07:00

even with the chaos that is our life right now.... we can stop to enjoy the "little things" my baby has been practicing for a while now and here she is showing off some of her first steps... at 10 mos! So proud are we!!

untitled...

2011-08-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

I have no clever title for this post which is crazy because normally I can think of something.. but the truth is that this change came out of nowhere for us and is something that is going to evolve and grow over time. Ricks son Eric reached out to him basically for a second chance, things werent going well for him and under the circumstances it even wasnt a question whether we would take him in or not. Last week Eric made the journey from seattle to arizona to start his new life here with us! I believe that everyone needs not only a second chance especially if they seek it but also no matter how old they are they need love and support and other than a roof over his head this is what we are offering eric. He is a great kid in need of alot of work, but I feel he is good in his heart and I hoping just being here with us will help him see that the work ahead of him is worth it! So here we are adding a new chapter to our lives, rick spent the last few days getting everything all set up and Eric started back to school today and I cant wait to hear how it all went and am really excited to watch him grow and become a happier healthier young man! Welcome Eric :)

Keira enters Prek

2011-08-12T13:04:00.001-07:00

Along with a school change Keira P entered in the "big" world of PreK and she did so very gracefully! She now tells everyone she IS a lil einstein (the preschool is called lil einsteins) and she is 4 and a half. She seems to have grown up so much over the summer! She has a really fun personality but is definitely trying out some new "hats". She is obsessed with forming "clubs" the sister club, the pink club, the 4 yr old club and the mermaid club, which usually means someone is left out, so we are working on all inclusive clubs such as the we better get along and be good otherwise our moms will be pissed club LOL Overall keira is a joy, she is funny, and funky with her purposely mismatched socks, she loves to entertain, dancing tons and singing...especially in the bathroom where it echos.. and can potentially entertain anyone else who might be in or close out side a public bathroom LOL she loves to say "like" which over all is not a great like habit but like it like makes me like laugh :) the other day I really had no clue what on earth she was telling me.. so my go to response was oooooh ok... and she turned to sienna and said "she was like oooooh ok" in exactly the same tone I said it. fun times. anyhoo thats keira she seems to happy in school and dance, especially in hip hop with Mr Ryan... but seriously who wouldnt be happy in his class...hmm ok enough of that LOL

Sienna starts preschool

2011-08-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

This day arrived far to quickly! My sienna lynn started preschool today and like with most things she made me so proud. She knew where her new school was and has been talking about her classroom since we toured the school! We met the teacher Mrs Megan last week and Sienna just reminded me over and over that she was so excited for school. Even though she fell asleep on the 5 min drive there she recovered quickly when she saw the playground construction from the last time was complete! She couldnt wait to put her backpack on and get inside. She walked straight in, put her folder in the basket, her backpack in the bin and headed off to find her fishy! Once she got settled she gave me a kiss and told me "bye bye mommy, see you waytour" LOL and that was that. When I picked her up she was so excited to see me and said she had so much fun. I know that she is so ready, she is very into letters and numbers. Today went smoothly so hopefully that continues.

kisses

2011-08-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

Yes another post about Jade, well she is making it easy to write about lately! Anyway so I have been obviously giving her kisses since the day she was born but lately she has been kissing back.. she kisses by sticking her tongue out just a little and pressing it on your mouth.. very drooly! :) anyway so this afternoon when I got her out of her crib I could see her looking at my mouth and kinda following my face with her head... so I looked at her and said "what is it?" and she leaned in and all on her own gave me a sweet jade kiss! I LOVED IT lol and she was sooo proud when I was saying wow you gave mama kisses without me asking or anything! anyway a little moment I hope I never forget! What a sweet baby girl

and just like that...

2011-08-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

tooth number two has made its debut!!

Jade is 10 months old!

2011-08-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe it but my baby is 10 months! Yes I am actually thinking of planning her birthday. We have had a few milestones squeezed in right before the 10 month mark, her first tooth! And her first steps, she has still only taken one or two at a time, but she is super steady on her feet so I expect her to take off very soon! Still working on a video of that. Hmm what else is new, she shakes her head no... especially when mommy sings her version of amy winehouse's rehab... she really should have gone to rehab but she said no no no LOL hey I gotta keep myself amused around here. And she says very quietly "b -key" for binky which is somehow amazing.. when I take her binky from her mouth in the morning or after nap and throw it back in the crib that is when she says it. Well that is enough amazing stuff for a 10 month old to be doing! Somehow I dont see her slowing down any... good luck to me and daddy!

kris and marias wedding (144 photos, 1 video), by Laura Hattenburg

2011-08-03T08:35:00.001-07:00

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

Kris and Marias wedding

2011-08-02T13:40:00.000-07:00

We made our second trip up to WA this time for Kris and Marias wedding! Thankfully the weather was amazing! We were so excited for this trip and even though it was short, it was super busy! The girls knew the drill since we were just there a month ago so they were also excited for the plane and to be at grandmas again. We arrived to grandmas to a yummy chili lunch when I went to unpack and hang up our wedding clothes I realized that Rick had forgotten his whole outfit! apart from his tie... not a great wedding outfit LOL anyway so we had to do a bit of shopping! Rick even managed to hit the gym and I went for a run while the girls were sleeping. We finished the day with a trip to the park and yummy yeas wok! Friday was mani pedis followed later by the unrehearsal BBQ! Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day! My mom and I went to get our hair done and then she headed off to the hotel for makeup and spending some time with Maria and her mom. I headed home to get early lunch and naps going for the girls...We only did hair at the house and then it was time to go to the hotel and get ready! The girls did so well the whole day! They loved their dresses and posing for the photographer, the woodmark hotel is just beautiful it was so nice to be next to the water with the sun beaming! The wedding itself was great, complete with piper, and quartet. the food was amazing! We really enjoyed ourselves! I think the pics speak for themselves! I am really happy for my brother, he seems as though he is in heaven with his new bride maria. And now I have a sister! LOL yes its all about me ;) So sunday was much needed relaxation but not without a huge Irish breakfast hosted by my parents at A Terrible Beauty, an irish restaurant! It was fabulous, and who doesnt love a beer at 11am? We spend the rest of the day at my parents and grilled later... actually I felt like I packed the whole day, it is amazing how much of a mess we can make in 3 days! my moms house was perfect when we walked in the door and two seconds later looked like a bomb hit! Rick and I said several times, wow this trip was super fun, it didnt go too quick or too slow and we enjoyed every second of it! Mostly in part to our girls being so well behaved! Congrats Kris and Maria, we are so happy we were there to witness your special moment! xo

Seattle Jun "11 (220 photos), by Laura Hattenburg

2011-08-02T13:39:00.001-07:00

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

June trip to WA

2011-08-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

wow am I really only getting on here once a month! We are busy!! At the end of june we visited grandma and grandpa in Seattle. Rick flew up with the girls and I but only stayed one day, we made it count and went down to pike place and walked through the market and lunched at Ettas! Delish! I spent the rest of the week keeping the girls busy with a few playdates, and trips to the childrens museum, the zoo, and lots of trips to various parks. I did get one night out with my friend crystal which was soooo much fun! Over all the trip flew by and I didnt see half of the people I would have loved to see but I suppose that is how it goes now. The girls did great and even shared a bed with no issues at all. When we came home we stayed busy the rest of our summer break with some camps, VBS and more playdates :) I am hoping that the pics from snapfish will upload as there are sooo many of them, too many to post... Enjoy!

Jade turns 9 months!!

2011-07-06T12:21:00.000-07:00

On the verge of walking.. trying to beat her sister siennas record my little bean is into EVERYTHING!!! lol she pulls up on the back of my legs which only means I am not getting anything done these days :) Its is great because it has forced me to slow down and explore her world a bit more before it changes completely. Jades 9 month well visit brought the news that I am well aware of that she is way ahead developmently than the "norm" for this age, she is not only on the go but claps, waves, points, uses pincher grasp, says mama dada baba no not in context but vocalizes them. So no worries for this little bean who taking her name seriously was acting quite caffeinated while in her visit keepind the doc very entertained! She weighed in at 17lbs exactly which is 17% and is 29 ins which is 90%...yes she is like her sisters favouring height over weight...although siennna was 18lbs and keira was 18.5 at 9 mos but all were same height... which I supposed isnt bad considering rick and I are not exactly giants keep on growing girls!!!!! LOL ok so thats that two shots later we were out the door. I am happy to so far have another happy and healthy baby girl!

xoxo

a mothers love

2011-07-01T13:18:00.001-07:00

I know every mother feels the same way about their kids, sometimes you just look at them in a single moment and are overwhelmed with how much you love them. This morning I was playing on the floor with jade while sienna and keira were watching a show on tv... I just glanced up at sienna and this is what I saw, I have had these moments before but never quite captured it on camera too. I was blown away by the emotion I felt right then in that moment.. I just hope that each one of these girls feel that way one day and know how much I love them! thank you keira sienna and jade for teaching me how to love so much it hurts.

Rock n Roll Half marathon

2011-06-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

My journey to my first ever half marathon started in December when I jumped onto our new treadmill about 8 weeks after having Jade. I had signed up for the race partly because I had planned to do one with my friend carey and instead got pregnant with Sienna :) and my second reason was to have motivation to get back into shape shortly after having Jade. I still remember the first time I got back on the treadmill and ran just one mile and thinking oh dear what have a got my self into. One mile became 3 then 4 then 5 and 6 fairly easily... but I got stuck at 6 for quite a few weeks. It took about a month to over come that hump because I got pretty sick during that time and my motivation dropped a bit. Finally breaking through 6 and got up to 10 and was pretty comfortable but then hit another drop in motivation. I honestly know why they say 4 months is a good amount of time to train.. because I gave myself six months and totally got bored with the whole thing LOL

By race day I was just stoked to go for it.. I knew I had done everything I could have possibly squeezed in including two runs in seattle one by myself and one with Kurtis so he could see what my pace was like. The whole day was a blast from beginning to end I didnt sleep at all the night before anticipating my alarm going off at around 4... kurtis and I jumped in the car and went into seattle where we left the car and had to take a shuttle to the start line... At that point it finally hit me how big of an event this was. I was just one of 26000 runners! So crazy... anyhoo we got to our corral after standing in two really long lines for just to have some sketchy honey bucket experiences ...did i mention there were 26000 needing to use the honey buckets LOL gross anyhoo the excitement builds as the music pumps and you hear the countdowns for the corrals before you.... then it was our turn... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..... run, run, run LOL and the excitment becomes oh crap now I have to run 13.1 miles. I have to say I didnt expect to actually enjoy this race.. I had treated it as something I committed to and wanted to complete... but I didnt know that from beginning to end it would feel so amazing! There was some good hills that really kicked my butt but we never walked at all which was a big personal goal of mine. We stopped at mile 6 to stand in yet another huge line to pee but that was it... Mile 11 I did start to feel my hips hurting and my legs starting to get tired but ironically enough those last two miles were two of our fastest... apparently despite what I was feeling I was really motivated to get to the finish line... running with my brother only made the whole thing so much cooler it was for sure the icing to have this experience with him, he was a great running partner! We finished in 2 hours 26mins.. which was 4 mins ahead of my goal...For sure one of the coolest things I have done for myself in a long time, I am proud of being able to this for myself finding the strength, motivation and time while having 3 kids LOL I really surprised myself ! And I am on to the next one!!! thanks for listening ;)

jade lauren is 8 months!

2011-06-02T20:42:00.001-07:00

What can I possibly say that I havent said already about our little coffee bean! jade is on the go and just never stops. As soon as she could crawl she was promptly pulling up on anything she can get her hands on... she is right there with her sisters joining in on whatever she can, and they are so good about including her. they have created a mc donalds drive thru game under the kitchen table where jade loves to hang out. I am not sure if this a good thing or not...LOL Still no teeth for Jade, we have been able to enjoy that gummy smile a bit longer than her sisters but with the amount of drool and chewing happening I know that it wont last too much longer. She loves to splash in the bath, clap her hands and all while giggling with the growliest little giggle ever! She is just a doll

KYLIE!!!!!

2011-06-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

blogging about myself...awkward! but my kylie trip deserves a post...months ago when corey asked me to go see kylie in LA my immediate response was um I am not sure about that.. but less than 24 hrs later I called back and said... whats there to think about I HAVE to go! So then the week of the concert arrived and I was sick as hell!!!! I woke up one day with no voice... not even a warning of a sore throat.. just no voice after 3 days of no voice then the pain came and then I was hit with the stomach flu, threw up for 24 hrs and the nausea continued for a week not to mention the sweats, chills and headaches so thursday hit and keira threw up I thought oh man how can I go feeling this awful and potentially leaving rick with sick kids! (I know it was a less than 24 hr trip) Anyhoo keira ended up only being sick one time and was fine and sienna nor jade got sick. So off I go on my first journey without my 3 bunnies...I made it to LA in one piece! barely still fighting the urge to throw up everywhere I met up with Corey and Michael and jumped in the car to the hotel... our 22 min trip took 2 and a half hours in LA traffic!!! I was in the back seat and for those who know me well I get car sick soooo easily. Ok so we made it to the hotel with only really an hour to spare before we needed to leave for the concert... we got caught up and I started to feel a bit better thank goodness! Finally in the party mood we grabbed a taxi to the holywood bowl got some food and went to our AMAZING seats!!! The holywood bowl in general is one of the coolest venues I have seen I am not sure there is a bad seat in there. Anyway Kaskade spun to open the show and we danced the whole time! And then Kylie came on and rocked the place because she is FREAKIN AMAZING!!! I was in the best company... all 3 of us knew every song and danced to every one of them! I will never forget that night it was well worth rallying at the last second to get there and have the whole experience.. we had to get up at 4am for me to catch my flight and boy was I wiped....completely overdone it but soooooooo soooooo worth it! Love you Corey!! Love you Michael!!! and Love you Kylie!!!!

Sienna... and her costume

2011-05-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

Ok so sienna started ballet at 19 mos... yes I was well aware that this is pretty young.. however when she feels like it she is a great little dancer... the key there is when she feels like it.. she has for sure spent some time scooting around the floor on her belly, taking her ballet shoes off and throwing them, being held by the teacher and screaming NO !!!!!! but things got better throughout the year however I wouldnt have guessed that when her costume arrived for recital that she would actually be scared of it? yes she literally screamed when she saw it and completely melted down when it came to class pictures. Needless to say she is not in her class pic... Anyhoo so this morning without much hope I suggested she try on her costume to "see if it fit" and she said OK!!!! And seriously she couldnt have been happier and insisted on putting on music to wear it. I have renewed hope that she may just make it on stage afterall!!!

Jade in ISR

2011-05-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

jade is a natural floater.... its just too bad she hates to float LOL my poor little bean is doing so well in ISR but unfortunately is still crying her way through lessons... here are a few pics....ooooh my cutie :(

shadow dancing

2011-05-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

keira shakin it

sienna peeking

jade, mommy and keira

jade mommy and sienna

sienna, mommy and jade (so cute)

Yes while the description sounds somewhat sketchy it is really just pure innocent fun! I love when there is something so simple that the girls go crazy for! The sun hits this wall just perfectly every evening for some serious shadow dancing, Jade and I just watch keira and sienna as they go crazy entertaining not just themselves but us as well. I would love one day to capture the whole family in shadow....

Cinderella at Hale theatre

2011-05-14T19:59:00.001-07:00

keira and juliana

me and my big girl Keira

little cuties

WAND WARS on the way home!!

I have wanted to check out this little theatre in gilbert forever and we finally had an opportunity to go today. My good friend kelly and her daughter Juliana invited keira and I to go see Cinderella! The show of course was very kid friendly and so enjoyable! Keira has been talking about the rest of the day. I know it wont be the last time we see a show there :)

Tiny and beautiful...Emma Paige

2011-05-06T15:27:00.000-07:00

Our friends Mike and Michelle welcomed their beautiful little daughter Emma Paige weighing in at just 3lbs 9oz, she was 2 months early but healthy as can be! I was so happy to be able to meet her, I had never seen a tiny baby like that before and she just melted my heart.

ISR refresher

2011-05-06T15:06:00.001-07:00

Sienna was first up this year for an ISR refresher course! She loves to swim with April and this years refresher has gone alot smoother than last year. At 18 mos I think we expected too much of her and therefore the two week refresher turned into a two month ordeal in which I finally said.. ok mama has had enough!... might have been the pregnancy nausea LOL anyhoo, my now big girl sienna has done amazingly well this year and always tells miss april "I did it!" or "I do it again" so she is really enjoying the process this year and I am sure will have hard time when its jades turn to get in the water... she is not the only one..I think I am going to have to get some anxiety meds.... it gets worse watching each child!

Jade and Avery

2011-05-06T14:44:00.000-07:00

I have been so fortunate for the last 8 yrs of my life to have a friend like Carey by my side...I cant imagine my journey of motherhood without her, we laugh, cry, experiment and debate every aspect of what we experience on a daily basis and support each other as we move through this amazing yet challenging period of life! We have been lucky to have gone through two of our pregnancies together building the families that we will enjoy and learn with for the rest of our lives.. I love her kids as if they were my own.. I know, I just love kids in general but really! Our babies are just 4 months apart which I know is huge during the first year of life.. but with our lives and families so intertwined I am looking forward to watching their friendship grow as they grow up together.. probably more like sisters! here they are in their first pictures together Avery Christine and Jade Lauren!

Jade random pics

2011-05-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

Jade at 7 months and easter

2011-05-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

sorry for the delay I had been having some technical difficulties posting via IE9 for some reason.. thank god I married the best technical support around :) pretty darn handsome too I must say LOL anyhoo so our baby jade is 7 months! lets see she is sitting and at the beginnings of crawling taking a few little crawls but still mostly rolls to get what she wants. She has the funniest growl giggle I have ever heard yes she is her mamas girl... slightly CRAZY :) which of course we love around here. hmmm what else.. Oh yes Easter!!! how could I forget! Jades first easter was a blast.. we had an egg hunt for the kids in the morning and did a wonderful ham brunch a little later.. it was a beautiful day and super fun to have the marinelli crew here to celebrate with us and Grandma and Grandpa too!

Wow 32 has come and gone...

2011-04-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

I have to admit there was some anxiety leading up to turning 32 .. I am not sure why this was because honestly I dont feel any different from the last few years... but I think that because my 30th bday seems so much like it was yesterday that I am getting a feel for just how fast time goes by... and that freaks me out! I just dont see things slowing down any time soon, anyhoo on the lighter side I had such an amazing birthday and was so spoiled for my day. First of all my brother and his fiance Maria (better known as moose, masha or whatever else you can come up with ) flew in for the weekend which made it extra special! Especially since it was the first time that Kris got to meet little Jade! he got to spend lots of time cuddling with her! And it was just so good to see him since it had been Fo'evah! Anyhoo so we celebrated with some friends with an adults only dinner catered by PF Changs!!! YUM and finished it off with die by chocolate cupcakes from designer cakes by april! beyond delicious. It was so fun to have everyone here relaxed and having a great time! And although no one would dance with me, well thats not true Mike gave it his best effort... I had the best time and am thankful for such great friends... and family!!!

Jade Lauren is 6 months!!

2011-04-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

I swear we just found out that I was pregnant with Jade! On Keiras birthday in february I kept thinking about how sick I was at her party last year.. and coming up to easter makes me think of how sick I was then too just trying to make it through easter brunch. All that seems like just yesterday... a year ago we couldnt have known how amazing our little lizard (my pet name for her) would be! How much can I really gush about this baby girl that I havent said before! She has a funny little personality and sticky fingers... she grabs anything she can get her hands on.. and what is funny about a 3rd child that I am sure every mom of 3 or more goes through is that she plays with stuff that is totally not geared for a 6 mo old. She chews on barbies and eats keiras school projects! she rips pages out of books already.... and eats those too! She loves to giggle! Since keira is in the 3rd row in the car and Jade is facing backward she has keira to entertain her! She loves her biggest sister and talks and giggles with her. And big sister sienna has a soft spot for baby jade too...she also makes her laugh and offers up her most special turtle and blanky only to jade, when jade smiles in return sienna will say "HE's happy!" yes she is still working on He vs She but then that makes me laugh too! Still no teeth for Jade although I think she is super close.. you can almost see them through the gums, she is very close to sitting up just the last two days she has gotten so strong but i think she still prefers to be on her tummy grabbing the carpet to move, she is great at scooting backwards. I have tried to have many conversations with her about how fun sitting is however I think she has other plans! The "transition" to mom of 3 has been a dream! Which leaves me thinking...hmmm 4 doesnt seem that bad after all... although I think my mom is wondering if we have plans to cast the sound of music... if thats the case I need to get some serious discipline going around here LOL Happy half birthday Jade you are the best little bug around!!!

Any old excuse

2011-03-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

oh hi mommy
jade LOVES to blow bubbles

she is so good with her hands

daddy always picks the best toys!

Jade is wearing lemons today...time for pictures LOL but seriously, trying to capture how much they change the first year is crazy since they literally change and grow daily. Every single picture of this little bug makes me smile... hope it makes you smile too :)

Is it spring?

2011-03-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

It is heating up around here which means.. we are pretty much living outside.. it is such a nice change for the girls and for rick and I too! Ahhh the smell of sunscreen is in the air! The girls play so well together outside and LOVE to make a big mess the kind that only sand and water can make :) Jade loves to feel a part of the mix and just goes crazy in her exersaucer watching her sisters play. After uploading these pictures I couldnt believe how big Jade looked! She has such a fun little personality. Happy babies = happy mama

J-La is 5 months!!!

2011-03-03T08:21:00.000-08:00

Since I have posted so many pics of our baby's big big big smile I thought I would share this more "serious" look of her little baby mug. At 5 mos this baby girl no longer stays put if she is laid down on her activity mat.. she rolls right over on her tummy and is busy grabbing for something to pull on to scoot across the floor! I fear she is skipping working on sitting and moving on to crawling, she is a busy baby that is for sure! Happy and content since day 1 she just breaks your heart with her big smiley face and baby chatter! Jade is up in her room now and sleeping as great as ever. She is a fun and relaxing baby to be around and we are so thankful to have her in our lives! WE LOVE JADE :) xo

toddler meets coffee table :(

2011-02-27T11:58:00.001-08:00

these pictures dont really do the damage justice... all I can say is thank god it wasnt her eye and thank goodness she is one tough cookie....I think I was in a worse state seeing it happen... but of course as the mom trying desperately not to react...

Dancin feet

2011-02-27T08:38:00.001-08:00

As much as I love watching little Jade grow and change daily I wish I could hold onto her babyness forever... she is growing just a little too fast for me! She is teething, babytalking and grabbing everything with those sticky baby fingers! Now up in her own room she just seems so much older... anyway this little video is just one of the many things that shows that she is well on her way to joining her sisters in the dance world....

Valentines Day

2011-02-15T07:12:00.000-08:00

Not exactly the most romantic of days around here but still a fun filled day! Keira celebrated at school with ALOT of treats, when I asked how school was she told me that she had cookies with purple frosting! I am sure she learned alot while eating them right? LOL After lunch and naps grandma came over! We spent the afternoon sitting outside loving the fact that it was 80 degrees! We opened little valentines gifts, had a glass of wine while the girls played, ate a great dinner and enjoyed cupcakes that grandma brought! Such a beautiful day.. only thing missing was daddy :( but he did send a little surprise for mommy to still make the day special! love love love my peeps! xoxoxo

Video time

2011-02-12T07:03:00.000-08:00

I finally have taken a couple of videos of Jade talking.. she talks alot!! And whatever she is saying sounds so interesting especially since she is so animated with her face actually she has been since was born and just gets more and more so... maybe she gets that from her momma LOL hey there are worse traits that she could have inherited. She is also had such a coordination growth, she is great at picking up toys and getting them to her mouth and has her "favourite" toys on the excersaucer now that she can spin herself! Anyway are two videos of my little buggy chatting it up!

baby food...

2011-02-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

Along with 4 months comes a big change... FOOD! Jade was ready for it... here she is enjoying her first rice cereal..

Jade is 4 months!

2011-02-05T07:38:00.000-08:00

Our bitty baby is growing up too quickly! And I am not kidding when I say bitty baby, at 4 months she weighs in at 12lbs exactly which is 16%. It seems that she has been working on her height the last two months, she went from the 19 % to the 75% growing to 21.5 to almost 25ins! The doc had to measure her 3 times to believe it. Anyway she is healthy and happy. Her most recent discovery is her toes and she grabs them at every opportunity and absolutely loves that she can get them in her mouth...yummy :) Jade is not really the cuddliest baby she is not the snuggler that her sisters were she has tried to sit up since the day she was born, she has no interest in laying down unless she is nursing or sleeping, good thing Sienna still gives a good snuggle so I am not missing out completely. Jade would rather be playing in her jumper, exersaucer or joining in whatever her sisters are playing. Jade is still an amazing night sleeper and apart from little cat naps only takes one longer nap during the day.. keira and Sienna were the same way early on.. trading naps for a good nights sleep, who would complain! What else can I say about Jade.... she has started to drool like crazy putting whatever she can find in her mouth for a good chew, she smiles the biggest gummy baby smiles that just warm your heart and loves to join in every converstation with her sweet little baby voice, a friend recently said that she feels she enjoyed her third the most so far and I have to say that I somewhat agree, I think with your first child there is so much learning and discovery, with the second you are mastering multitasking and the third you are already doing all of that but are also forced to slow down a bit and therefore enjoy the little things more! All in all we are doing pretty darn good!

its all about me...well not really

2011-01-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

ok I just couldnt think of a better title for this post... I dont have that much to report but I do have some pics to share that arent of me dont worry :) The news I do have to share is that I have started training for my first half marathon! I am soooo stoked because the furthest I have ran in my life is a 10k which I think is 8 miles? So 13+ is going to be such a personal accomplishment and something that I dont know if I ever imagined that I would complete. Anyway I just needed some motivation to get back in shape and didnt want to wait all the way until the Arizona rock n roll which would be next january, the stars aligned and the seattle rock n roll marathon in at the end of june which is when we were planning to be up there! It is so hard to start from scratch after each baby, but at the same time after every run I feel so damn good and therefore know it is going to be so worth it. There are so many things that I find motivation in, but the main one being that I want to set a great example for our girls and show them that they can be physically strong and do anything they want to! I think the best way to teach is to be a role model... I suppose those are my starbucks days talking! Lead by example, right? :)

ok so other than that we had a visitor from friday - wednesday last week, his name is Stretch and he is a giraffe! Keiras first take home "pet" from school and we had so much fun with him. Stretch came with only one rule (as far as I know anyway) and that was that he did not go in the bath LOL we took him out to dinner at red robin which was so fun! He had to try on some cowboy boots at Sabas, keira just loves her pink cowboy boots, we took him to the Irish dance festival Feis in the desert which was also a blast! All in all I think he had a fun and cultural weekend here at the hattenburgs. Ok so that is really it, we are loving that our baby jade is becoming so much more playful (did I mention she is a dream child) and her sisters are right up in her grill playing with her! The last month has been busy with nose wiping alone, we have been passing around some sort of funk, sienna and I had sinus infections, keira is apparently battling a "virus" and daddy had cold and ongoing coughing issues its been a gross snot filled month, but we are hoping to leave that behind and move on and get some warmer weather!! No longer pregnant and ready to be out soaking up some sun and introducing Jade to this crazy desert life we live and love! I just want to say that I am so thankful for everything that I have seen and done in life so far, its been on my mind so much lately that I am in my 30's which seemed so far away not that long ago and I have made so many mistakes but no matter what I think of them now I know that I cant regret anything because they have brought me here to today and today I wouldnt change a thing... not to sound at all like Kylie Minogue but I I I I wouldnt change, I I I I wouldnt change a thing who btw was the first album I ever got and I am, for the first time ever, going to see her in concert at the hollywood bowl in LA with my gbff in May... my first trip away from my family! Big steps people!

2011!!

2011-01-02T07:56:00.000-08:00

No clue what happened to 2010 but here we are in 2011! The beginning of the year is always exciting and somehow feels rejuvenating. Actually anything would seem that way after thanksgiving, christmas and new years. Anyway we more than survived the holidays even with our growing crew, Jade made it easy on us! I think most people with a new baby would rather pretend that it wasnt really christmas LOL infact I have seen that on one of those HGTV shows. They skipped christmas entirely, but we ploughed on through and actually enjoyed it! I think it was due to the fact that after doing thanksgiving here with a 6 week old that I actually asked my mom to host christmas and luckily she was all for it! I was so nice to be able just to take our time christmas morning and then just show up for dinner... who wouldnt love that! Anyway we had a great relaxing time christmas day and then it was back to hosting duties for new years eve. We did a day time celebration ... a late lunch of steak and salmon on the grill accompanied by a big pitcher of sangria, played the Wii all afternoon and finished it off with a batch of little cupcakes from my babycakes cupcake maker (I seriously need to work on my frosting) and called it a day! All in all it was fun but I am glad to be on the other side and moving onward and upward.

We are a few days from our little Jade Lauren turning 3 months! She is just growing up so fast, I actually have been putting her in the exersaucer for short periods of time because I feel bad that she is so awake and alert and is right at that inbetween time where there is not a ton for her to do! That seems weird to say but the alternative is just lying on the activity mat or sitting in her swing... boring!! she LOVEs the exersaucer and is able to spin the little toys which is super cute!

As for the big sisters, they are loving spending more time interacting with Jade! I have to say I am really ready for us to be back into the school routine, it gets us out of the house in the morning and while the last two weeks have been nice I am OVER feeling this lazy! well that is it for now :)

christmas and new years in a flash

2011-01-02T07:35:00.000-08:00

family santa pic!
leaving grandmas xmas day

the girls

mama and jade

sienna and keira dance it up

xmas morning

Jade and grandpa

christmas eve: jade and grandma

decorating cookies for santa

out of shear laziness and the fact that they are "so last year" I am just posting some pics from the holidays and leaving it at that!

Keiras Class party/Christmas Concert

2010-12-17T14:59:00.000-08:00

so around here it doesnt really feel like christmastime.. however if we were somewhere that it did feel like christmas then I would for sure be complaining.. and who wants to read that? LOL so anyhoo despite the lack of "christmasness" we are still all geared up and ready to celebrate.. but not with out some christmas parties! We went to our friend Jens (our old next door neighbor) annual christmas party.. which was soooo fun! Good friends, good food and good wine :) Wish I had pics.. but I didnt even take my camera out of my bag! Keira had her class xmas party on wednesday, they decorated gingerbread houses! This morning was Keiras Christmas Program which was so cute! I was so proud of her she sang all the songs... even pulled her dress right up for a second to flash the church LOL luckily it was too too noticable because she was in the second row. I think we are pretty much ready for christmas... we are going to Grandmas for christmas dinner.. which seems perfect, not just because I dont have to do anything LOL but because that is how it should be.. off to grandmas we go! Selfishly I will be happy to somewhat take the day off and just enjoy the whole family together!! (well minus Kris and Maria :(

wow 9wks!

2010-12-09T15:13:00.001-08:00

My baby is just growing up so quickly! She is smiling and has giggled her first giggles! She is as easy going as ever and seems to love the crazy antics of her sisters and all the noise they make. At her 2mo appt she weighed in at just 9lbs 9oz (19%) and 21.5 ins, she is growing steadily but is slightly more itty bitty than her sisters were at this point. Petite miss jade would rather give her mommy and daddy 8 hrs of sleep than bother them to wake up and eat... which we cant express how fabulous that is! However we are supplementing with a bottle of formula during the day just to make sure she is getting a few extra calories. Lets see, Sienna is is doing great and is starting to really talk my ear off, and has started learning her dance routine for their performance which isnt until June, but they need all the practice they can get! and Keira sings my ear off, she is learning songs for her xmas concert! Both Keira and Sienna are sick at the moment, keira has a lower respritory infection :( and sienna is undiagnosed at the moment... but I am sure she will be in the doc soon.. that seems to be how it goes :) Hopefully we wont get hit too hard this season and I am hoping these guys are well for christmas at Grandmas!!! Here are a few of little Jade doing the activity mat thing.. she is already rolling from front to back.. mostly because she seems to hate tummy time as much as Sienna did!!!

6 wks and Smiles!!!

2010-11-19T14:07:00.000-08:00

Nothing warms my heart more than those first social smiles... Jade is 6 wks and we know for sure the smiles she is dishing out are the real thing! She is such a happy baby and now she is able to show us just how happy she can be! Her eyes get so big and then her whole face smiles.. it is the best reward after weeks of blank baby stares! Here are a few that I have been able to capture...the last one I just love because she is showing off how far she can now stick her tongue out !

Siennas real birthday

2010-11-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

Since grandma and grandpa were in Cali for a wedding the day of siennas party we just had to have another celebration on her actual birthday... Uncle Kurtis and buddy were in town as well so we celebrated with a taco night! A great excuse for more presents and a real cake this time!!! Sienna had a great time eating the frosting with her finger... I suppose she was making up for the fact that she wanted nothing to do with her cake or making a mess on her first birthday! Here are a few shots....mommy and daddy got her her very own castle, Kurtis and buddy got her a tinkerbell outfit which she is pretty much living in! And grandma and grandpa got her a little vanity which she sits at wearing her tinkerbell costume and making faces at herself in the mirror.. tooooo cute! Overall her 2nd birthday was a great one!

Sienna Lynn turns 2!!

2010-11-17T13:36:00.001-08:00

Two years have gone by since Sienna Lynn entered our lives... with her mouth wide open but only a tiny little cry coming out!! She has never been quiet since.. everything sienna does is bold, loud and absolutely hilareous!! She has such a big personality for a little bug and keeps us constantly entertained and on our toes! She is a big talker and she loves to do ANYTHING her big sister does... but with her own twist.. which usually just means louder :) Since life is pretty crazy for us at the moment we decided to do a low key playdate party at the park...well as low key as I get. We had a ton of food and met at the park at 9:30 on a sunday morning and let the kids play... it turns out this is a darn good idea and I highly recommend it! All of the kids were happy, no fights and I think all of them may have also been filthy when they left but who doesnt love a two bath day? Anyway most importantly I think sienna had a blast! We made a "cake" from donut holes...a favourite treat of both sienna and keira, and enjoyed the gorgeous weather that reminds us why we love AZ especially at this time of the year! Happy Birthday Sienna Lynn, we love you lots!!!!!

No longer tongue tied!!

2010-11-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

Jades 1 month present? a procedure to untie her tongue.. hmmm doesnt seem like a good present.. however it could have saved her from a possible speech problem.. and I mean really what would you do if you couldnt stick out your tongue? it would be devastating LOL Ok so one of the first things the baby nurse said in the hospital immediately after Jade was born was oh she is tongue tied.. I didnt think too much of it at the time. When she cried you could see that skin underneath her tongue was super tight and now I do think that most of my prolonged nursing "issues" were most likely because her latch wasnt that great due to this fact. Anyway yesterday at her 1mo well check up I asked the doc to take a look and he immediately said yep I am referring you to an ENT. The ENT got us in this morning! I really didnt know what to expect but as soon as he looked in he agreed! Less than 5 mins later the procedure, which is a scissor type clamp and then actual scissors that cut the skin, was complete. She cried when the clamp went on and stopped as soon as I picked her up! She was such a little champ, there was minimal bleeding and was able to nurse her as soon as I picked her up. And that was that! I should mention that Keira and Sienna did amazing too, they were ready to give their baby sis lots of kisses.. and were very happy that they got stickers and lollipops on the way out!

1 mo appt

2010-11-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

Our baby Jade is growing like a ...flower? Her stats are 8lbs 5oz which is 23% and 20.5 ins which is 28%. Overall she is doing fab! Happy 1 month

Jade is 4 weeks!

2010-10-30T09:46:00.001-07:00

Jade is 4 weeks already...and she seems pretty happy about life!! I mean seriously.. could she get any cuter? I was so happy to capture one of her little sleep smiles.. oh sure say what you want, it means she has gas or whatever but regardless.. these little smiles warm my heart and make me laugh out loud everytime! Our baby Jade has been so good to us.. she is such a good baby.. not a peep out of her unless she is hungry! She is a sleeping champ.. I mean how did we get so lucky? She is just a dream come true! She has started to do some tummy time every day and is doing great with it.. she has been pretty strong since she was born so I am happy to let her work away at those muscles.. and of course her big sisters love to interact with her while she is on her activity mat..although their idea of calm and gentle differs greatly from mine :) Up next... her first halloween!

Busy fall weekend!!

2010-10-25T14:02:00.001-07:00

We had a great weekend here in the hattenburg household, Saturday morning keira scored her first goal in soccer.. I heard it was very much set up for her LOL but anyhoo she was very proud as were we and every week she has shown a little more interest in the game.. as opposed to snack time and anything else unrelated to actually playing soccer! Saturday night was Keiras school Fall Festival! Just Keira (dressed as a spider princess) and I went and she had a blast, she participated in the cake walk and trunk or treat, met up with Carey, J and the boys for a few of the games, the mad scientist lab and face painting, she even hit the dance floor and tinkerbell bounce house with her friend Rylan. Overall we had a blast. Sunday morning we went and picked our pumpkins at a random side of the road "pumpkin patch". I have to say I totally recommend this.. we have done the whole farm scene and this was so quick and easy with no other distractions.. definitely will be doing this for a few more years!!! I made a big crockpot of turkey chilli for our pumpkin carving "party" that night. The kids were only mildly into the carving experience.. I think the scraping of the pumpkin guts was enough for them but the daddies did a great job of carving the pumpkins!! And I think the kids had a blast playing!

3 weeks of baby Jade

2010-10-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

already looking around

love this one she looks like she is doing a little dance

Wow the transition to 3 has been a breeze, we have another easy baby on our hands. Jade eats, sleeps, poops, pees, burps and farts perfectly and when shes awake she is content and alert and such a doll. From the first night in the hospital, which I thought for sure was a fluke, she has slept 5-6 hours as her main nighttime stretch.. the first week 11pm seemed to be her time to settle down for that stretch and now it has been closer to 10pm which is just fab!!! We dont hear a peep until 3-4 am at which point she gets a fresh diaper or two LOL, eats and goes down for another few hours! Really you cant beat that!! I did battle some serious nipple crackage issues and apparently was enjoying Jades sleep wayyyyy to much leaving me engorged and during week 2 I got the first signs of mastitis... luckily with a push from my mommy I headed to the OB and they put me on antibiotics immediately which meant I really didnt suffer any of the more serious symptoms of mastitis. However they did put me on an every 2 hr pumping schedule for a week which meant while everyone else was sleeping soundly I was setting my alarm to pump :( anyway we are over that now!

Grandma was sent packing just before Jade turned 2 weeks... well I just wanted to get back into real life.. enough sitting around having my mommy do all the busy work! I just dont deal with that very well. We really had been spoiled, we had meals delivered sun-fri the whole second week! Thank god for amazing friends who I cant thank enough for everything they did for us! Even spoiling the big sisters with gifts! And now all is fab in the hattenburg household!! Might as well have a few more right? When my mom was still staying with us we packed up one morning and went to SanTan Village to get keira some fall clothes, as we pulled out of the garage I said to my mom "wow this is almost a full car!" to which she answered... "THIS IS A FULL CAR!!!" LOL ....anyway I have some wine drinking to catch up on, and I have to say it sure is nice to be back in normal clothes! love me some baby Jade and her little ski slope nose and well all my girlies and their craziness... there is never a second to relax but it sure is fun!

Jade- the details :)

2010-10-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

At my last OB visit on friday oct 1st Jade was still measuring the same as she had for a few weeks...according to the outside measurement. So they decided to do non stress tests just to make sure Jade was still doing ok.. and she was just moving around like crazy! They decided to do another ultrasound to get the best measurement, she was still measuring 36 wks 6 days. My Dr ( who ended up delivering Jade!!) asked how an induction sounded... I answered GREAT!!! Well among other things I had felt like I was in labor for over two weeks already so I was ready to go! An induction was scheduled for the next day at 2:30pm. Of course I was bumped from the 2:30 time and told to call a back at 4:30.. when I called they said... we will call you. At this point I thought great it is going to be days before they call me. So after sort of waiting around all afternoon I needed to get out of the house, we all went to dinner and wandered around a few stores until a huge dust storm hit! It poured on the drive home, which we desperately needed since it had still been in the 100's! All I was thinking was tonight would be a great night for a baby LOL Anyway we got home got the girls in bed.. and they called!!!! Poor rick had already brushed his teeth and was just about to get in bed when I came bouncing in saying lets go have a baby!!!!! So my mom stayed home to wait to make sure we got admitted.. Carey acted as my personal assistant calling a few of our options for who would come over to relieve my mom. The plan which worked out perfectly was for michelle to come over at 5am.. and then for carey to relieve her when the boys woke up. So off we went, it was so different to walk into the hospital this time, since last time with sienna I was in labor and doubled over and could barely sign in! Anyway at midnight they started with the gels which is such a tedious process.. lie with the gel in for an hour walk for an hour.. luckily by the second one I was contracting enough that they couldnt do the third... and at 5am my doc said go ahead and admit her!!!!!! My guess for when Jade would be born was 10-2-10... hey I was close! Induced on 10-2-10. So my mom headed over.. not without a trip to starbucks for her and rick who had pretty much been up all night apart from some catnaps on the most uncomfortable looking chair! I was started on pitocin initially but eventually took me off since I was contracting enough again on my own. ..after an hour of contractions.. nothing much was happening when my nurse checked me she was able to tell that I had a band of scar tissue that was preventing me from dialating any further.. she went ahead an broke that up.. which let me tell you pushed me to the limit, but immediately I was at 5cm...my dr walked in right then and was like well now I am going to check you at which point I asked my nurse if an epidural was in my near future :) He broke my water ..I got my epidural and silly me I thought relief was in sight... unfortunately my legs were numb but my belly was not.. so I continued gripping the bed and breathing and squirming through my contractions :( I was positioned on this peanut shaped balance ball situation to help baby Jade descend and less than an hour later I didnt know if I was going to throw up or what... my back was killing me and my mom raced out of the room to get the nurse.. the nurse came in and only had to look ... she said.. you are going to have this baby.. It was really time to meet her, I was so happy that I cried a little..I just couldnt wait to meet my new baby!! I was sitting upright so after 25 mins pushing and random conversations with Rick, Mum and the doctor about "slankets", "snuggies" and animal pillows? (yes it was a very relaxed environment) LOL I got to see her emerge into this world it was really amazing !!! And then there she was in my arms healthy and cute as can be!!!

Welcome to the world baby Jade Lauren!!

Jade the littlest sis...

2010-10-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

Big Sister Sienna!!!!

2010-10-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Jade Lauren Hattenburg!!!!

2010-10-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

Our baby girl has arrived!!!! Born on Sunday morning at 11:02 weighing 6lbs 12oz, 19.5 ins she is just a dream come true!!! Jade is such a good baby, eating and sleeping well ...so far LOL her arrival story will follow in a few days but I wanted to share our great news!

39 weeks!!!

2010-09-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

I really didnt think I would make it to 39 weeks... but that isnt entirely my fault since last friday at my 38 week appt my doc was convinced that I would be in triage that night... I have since decided that he is a very mean man LOL j/k but really I was 3cm, fully effaced and apparently she is "right there" so what is she waiting for!!! I feel good though so I guess I shouldnt complain and I cant wait to see what they have to say tommorrow morning at my appt :) Anyway we are "ready" the bag is finally packed, grandma is here, the texts, emails and phone calls have started "still pregnant?" "any news" etc. Everyone is anxiously awaiting our baby girl! And there I am 39 weeks!

38 weeks!!

2010-09-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

Well I am still going strong over here despite the doc thinking I was less than a week from delivery last friday... and even after a few days of low pressure weather and a full moon last night it seems baby is happy hanging out for a bit longer. Grandma comes in town on sunday and so maybe then she will be ready to meet everyone who is waiting for her in the outside world! The girls wanted to join in on this weeks belly pic so here we are, probably the best picture I actually have of the 3 of us girls.... too bad I look like a puffer fish LOL love my little girlies :)

3 weeks to go

2010-09-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

I am 37 weeks and hoping that our baby girl is enjoying her last moments of life on the inside... because we are soooo ready to meet her!! This past week has been interesting but I will spare the details, I will just add that the days are flying by and she will be here before we know it. Who knows when or where or how it will go down but I cant wait to experience baby #3's own little arrival story.

Progress??

2010-09-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

Sienna has done very well in dance considering she was about 6 mos too young for the class to begin with! She has her moments where she decides she doesnt want to wear her shoes, although that day she did continue the class barefoot LOL or sometimes she takes a little break and just sits down and scoots around the room on her bum or better yet just lies down completely. However in the days and moments that she actually is engaged in the class... she is pretty darn cute! Here she is in action :) just incase you dont know which one she is.. she is wearing the darker pink leotard with skirt.. and is so blonde we have nicknamed her Svea

shuffle step

tiny little marching steps

An excuse to post pics...

2010-09-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of cute pictures I have been wanting to post... about two weeks ago after yoga keira refused to get into her carseat... this was a first and so upon asking her why she said she wanted to sit in the back. I started to fight it at first but then I thought through it and realized here is another transition that I dont really have to do.. moving her to the back row was on her terms and she wasnt being booted to the back because the baby was here... So in 100+ degrees me and my belly changed the car seat to the back and she happily jumped in! I have started to experience the good and bad from this change.. first I have to climb back there to strap her in which is totally awesome for me right now :), second now I have one more row to clean, and third which I havent decided fully if it is good or bad.. but I cant hear her very well LOL. Anyway that is done and she seems happy back there. It took Sienna about a week to really have it sink in that keira was now behind her and now she doesnt really like getting strapped in and would rather sit on her knees and hang over the back of the seat to see her sister. Fun times :) So the pics are keira and cooper in the back row on our way to preschool, then sienna saying cheese with mommys lip gloss all over her face which apparently she helped herself to while I was getting both Keira and cooper strapped in... note to self, strap the youngest in first LOL I hadnt realized that she had the lip gloss until we were stopped at a light and I was taking the pictures over my shoulder.. I did a double take on sienna like what the heck is all over her face... and then I had to pull over to clean her up!! The last two are of Keira and I having a picnic in the car before my ultrasound last friday.

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-10T18:44:00.001-07:00

We had so much fun with Guncle Corey over labor day weekend!! After picking him up from the airport Keira, Corey and I headed to the grocery store to get our strawberry cake fixins. We came home and hung out a bit and got caught up over lunch and while the girls napped.. then headed to Carrabas for a "girls night out" with Carey!!! Dinner was so yummy and we had so much fun.. we did have the camera but didnt once think of getting it out.. but of course as you can imagine we all looked fabulous LOL riiiight ;) Sunday we hung out, keira helped Corey bake the cake!!! we swam and then had the marinellis over for taco night!!! Monday we were in the pool again, hit santan village and then headed to the marinellis for dinner. The weekend literally flew by! There was some relaxing time in there too and Corey played with the girls alot! he was determined to get some sun.. but never lasted very long sitting in the sun since it was you know the typical 5 million degrees!

I just wanted to tell corey we loved having you here you are always so much fun and really spoil our girls with attention!!! which is what they enjoy the most! Thank you so much for taking the time to come and hang out... we love you!!!! (and your baking) xo

36 weeks Another week.. another ultrasound

2010-09-10T16:35:00.000-07:00

Yes I had yet another ultrasound today, last week baby girl was again measuring quite small per the outside measurement. So another ultrasound was ordered for today. She has actually grown since the previous ultrasound though and once again it is more my belly that is refusing to get much bigger! Should I really complain about that? Hmm probably not :) Her growth has slowed though which is to be expected nearing delivery. Baby "J" is head down and has dropped (yes I am officially waddling) and it seems that delivery is closer than I thought.. I am 1cm dialated and almost fully effaced! So doc says my body is definitely doing its job! And baby is most likely two weeks or less from entering the big bad world. Grandma is in a slight panic but has decided to fly in next sunday.. and hopefully baby wont try anything sooner than that! So apart from the insane constant heartburn I really dont have any complaints!!

dress up

2010-09-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

we play ALOT of dress up here and the latest addition to the dress up collection is a box of hats and scarfs that I have in our closet. This is where their personalities really shine... Keira found a black scarf that I have had for years.. it is a "magic" scarf that you can wear multiple ways... basically it is hollow in the middle and super crazy stretchy. Keira has taken to wearing it as an evening dress!! and then lets us know she is off to a "mommy party". Anyway she LOVED posing for pics in her dress and I had a flash forward moment to the many dances that I am going to send these girls to... and how thankful I am that I have a few more years to prepare myself for that situation LOL And then there is sienna who paired one of my favourite WA winter hats with daddies goggles.. the perfect combo.. I think she was telling me she wants to learn how to ski...I mean come on.. I am not sure who is cuter :)

35 weeks

2010-09-02T17:46:00.000-07:00

Well there it is.. the 35 week belly... even partially exposed.. which was not necessarily intentional.. however I refuse to buy bigger tank tops at this point! And since today we had NOTHING planned which is such a rare occurance around here I thought I would take advantage and just let it all hang out.. literally! Hmmm not much to say this week.. baby is insanely busy which is good but not great for sleeping LOL I am sooo excited because "guncle" corey is flying in for labor day weekend and we are going to have a blast.. and although he probably thought because neither of the girls have a birthday party this weekend (which is normally the reason he is visiting) he would be off the hook.... but no no no.. I am putting him to work in the form of a Strawberry Cake!!! Which I cant wait for :) Will be sure to post pics of that... happy labor day weekend to all and to all a goodnight

33 wk belly and random thoughts

2010-08-20T20:57:00.000-07:00

the popsicle sisterhood
the belly (and really white legs :(..yikes)

I am sitting here thinking about how I may not have this time to myself for much longer.. the quiet minutes I have alone when Rick is reading to the girls and I am actually able to sit at the computer and read people.com and whatever else I get easily sucked into. I have these last few weeks wondering how it is all going to happen. I am so excited to meet our baby girl who is desperately trying to find more room inside my body... cant imagine kicks to the ribs and/or bladder are working.. but she keeps trying LOL I am so excited to be able to give keira and sienna the gift of another sister in their little sisterhood posse (rick told me he read an article that the sister relationship is the most important and meaningful relationship one can have... how lucky are they!!) In a way though it is hard to imagine having a new addition when Sienna is still my "baby". On that note my "baby" who is not only fairly well potty trained, is also sleeping in her big girl bed. When her big girl furniture arrived about a month or so ago she wanted nothing to do with her crib anymore. She would say bed, bed, so one day after reading books on her bed before nap I just let her stay and nap in there and we never looked back! And yesterday and today she refused to get into her high chair to eat, she wants to sit by her big sister... infact she wants to do everything her sister is doing and she just repeats everything her sister says! Which for the most part is very cute, her requests are mostly for anything and everything pink... the pink cup, pink bowl, pink dress. Hey she even throws tantrums big girl style... and the breath holding passing out scenario... not a one time deal... she is one of the lucky 5% of kids who have an abnormal reflex to almost instantly pass out if too pissed off... which being 21 months and not having many coping skills creates many opportunities for passing out and sending me into crazy contraction spells. LOL lucky me... can you imagine.. sienna passing out while I am trying to nurse #3, the fun we will have! Anyway it is as if she knows she herself is going to be a big sister and has to "grow up" all of a sudden! Really she has always been a go get em' child not waiting around and doing everything early but somehow I am still surprised by her. Anyway what was I saying... oh yeah I need to enjoy these quiet evenings....calm tea and chocolate cookies...peace out!

32 weeks or 8 months....& another ultrasound!!!

2010-08-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

I was so shocked to have the doctor say well great job you are 8 months pregnant! 8 months just sounds so crazy, it is literally flown by and we are just busy busy. My mom is talking about how she is going to be here in 6 wks! AHHHHH no not really.. I am just such a mixture of emotions.. excited, anxious, impatient yet just trying to really "enjoy" these last few weeks and all the movement that is happening... I had a regular appt today as well as another ultrasound. Well this ultrasound was actually a request from the doctor for a growth analysis on our baby girl... last week I had started to measure small... the ultrasound confirmed that baby #3 is infact measuring one day small.. LOL in otherwords... pretty damn near perfect! So no surprise that it is just me who is measuring small.. and just about everyone and their dog seem to agree LOL where the heck is that baby hiding??? I did however cross over the 20lb mark so I am headed in the right direction. phew.. babys approx weight is 3.5lbs. Over all things are looking good, they took updated pics of the brain/head, heart, aorta, femers, belly and all were looking healthy! WE LOVE YOU BABY!!!!!

3D babies

2010-08-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

baby girl #3
sienna lynn

keira piper

31 weeks/ 3D ultrasound

2010-08-05T12:36:00.001-07:00

31 weeks
playing with 3D colour

ear

i pinky swear

hiding face

rock on sista

my sweet baby girl

So today marks 31 weeks and we are still rockin and rollin over here.. we had our 3D ultrasound this morning which doesnt get any less amazing with each pregnancy! Our baby girl was in there going crazy and was dubbed the "wild woman" by our ultrasound tech, we couldnt get her to stay still at all! but we did capture a few goodies and did confirm she is infact a girl LOL wouldnt that have been a shocker! Especially since the nursery is almost done and very much a girly girl domain! Anyhoo things seemed to be going great for her and she looked happy, putting her hands in her mouth and covering her face so we couldnt get as many pics as we would have liked :) she is a stinker already.. which means she is going to fit right in!! Next week I have a growth analysis ultrasound since big surprise, she is measuring a bit small! so they will be looking more at her measurements etc in that one. But overall she had all the major bits and pieces all in the right place! We just thought she was adorable and love her sooooo very much already! Cant wait to meet her!!! and your big sister keira was very disappointed we were not going to the hospital to "get you out" today! She is going to love you and is excited to see you wrapped like a burrito!

30 Weeks!

2010-07-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

30 weeks....And all is good for now!!!

First day back at school

2010-07-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

Today was an exciting day for miss keira piper.. it was back to school for her second year of preschool! Today was a meet the teacher, see the classroom day so parents got to stay to see what they would be up to etc. I have to tell you I am blessed with some amazing friends that I am so very thankful for, my friend Kelly invited Sienna over for a playdate so that I could take Keira to her first day by myself. Considering it was pretty crazy with both students and parents in the classroom I was really glad I could concentrate on just Keira! Keiras little buddy Cooper is in her class again and so we had to get a picture of them walking into school together! We have had such a great experience with this school and I am sure this year wont disappoint Keira seemed to love her new classroom and teachers and with only 4 of her classmates from last year she will get to make 10 new friends! And I have heard really great things about her teacher for this year Mrs Kristy!

Almost back to school

2010-07-27T14:19:00.000-07:00

my crazy sienna.. not sure how she ended up with that sticker on her forehead...
sweet Keira

makes you want to stand on a step and dance!!

and pose

then they pulled out their chairs and I thought for sure it was going to be a perfect sister pic...but this was the best one LOL keira looks like she might just pee her pants!

then sienna tried to eat her bag!

So we have made it through the short summer break! and with just a few days to kill I am open to just about any project to keep these girls busy. We have been attending storytime at the library forever now but had never actually got a library card.. a 2 min process by the way!!! why I had not done it before now is beyond me because the girls really love the going through the books. Anyway so we are finally official. Our friends are frequent library goers? is that even a word LOL and we totally "borrowed" their idea of having library bags. First of all its perfect so that mommy doesnt have to juggle a million books and secondly both of the girls love bags of any size or shape and putting "stuff" into the bag is even better. So our latest craft was, if you couldnt guess, to get library bags and decorate them. Of course the decorating part had to be kept pretty basic so that they could actually manage to do the project themselves, so a trip to michaels provided us with two perfect $2 bags and a bag of felt flower stickers! voila!! They have so much fun with just the most simple things and this was no exception.. mommy peeled off the back of the sticker and they could stick them wherever they pleased.. they did a great job and sat as nice as they possibly could to get their pictures taken with them after!

It was an accident

2010-07-23T13:03:00.000-07:00

Yikes...keira woke up from her nap a bit early so rick took her for a dip in the pool.. meanwhile sienna woke up and we were just hanging out inside. I heard the back door open and heard rick calling "Laura and need your help" I was like what the heck does he need? and then I saw him....covered in blood! I was like holy crap what can I do?? I had no idea what had happened but ran for paper towels. When I got out there he was like I need you to see how bad it is.. I was like oh god where is all this blood coming from... well apparently Keira threw a plastic toy bucket and it happened to hit him just right on the top of the head (his poor unprotected head) that it split open! Not deep enough for stitches.. you know in my "professional" opinion but after getting the bleeding under control I tried my best with some butterfly bandages and well the result is above!! poor keira was just saying "Im sorry daddy!" over and over and she felt so bad. Everyday this week when rick comes home from work her first question is can I see your head..."its still on?" Yes but its healing! How many times in my life am I going to say theres never a dull moment around here?.... I am sure it wont take long to loose count :)

Legoland and Beach Day 3

2010-07-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

sister fun in the car!!
walking through minitown

on the lazy river

playing in the splash park

photo op with daddy

airplane ride

pirate ship ride

getting a lift from daddy

fun on the beach

sienna in the sand

too cute

daddy and Sienna

Sienna, Juliana and Keira

the family LOL gorgeous shot huh.. thanks keira for your best smile :)

and her newest pose..she likes the serious looks

crashed on the drive home

The last day of our trip came so quickly, and it was another hot one! We headed off to Legoland! I have to be honest, this was not our favourite place, first of all the kids arent really into lego.. so the miniland which is major cities from the US and all over the world made out of lego was not that captivating and then there was the fact that.. most of legoland is rides... and keira was only tall enough for a handful. However they do have a new splashpark that just opened last month and thankfully that saved the day, the girls were happy to play in the pool. Daddy took sienna down one of the slides which was sooo cute and then they rode the lazy river, Keira stuck with mama :) Keira did do a couple of helicoper and plane rides and really surprised me by going on this big pirate ship that twirled all over. We panned for gold, ate icecream and made the most of it. Then it was off to see our friends Kelly and Justin and their kids at the beach house that their family stay at each summer. It is so fun to be with friends in new surroundings!! To be able to sit on the beach getting close to sunset with the kids playing in the sand together was an amazing way to end our last day in San Diego! They cooked a wonderful taco dinner which was fabulous in two ways, one because I didnt have to make it and somehow that makes it sooo much more enjoyable LOL and of course because it was delish! Thank you for sharing the last night of your vacation with us kelly (and fam) it was so much fun!! And that was it we headed back to the hotel to bathe the girls put them to bed and pack! We were up at 4:30 the next morning, on the road just after 5am and home by noon. I am so glad we took this little family trip!

Day 2 SEAWORLD

2010-07-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

the start of the day
my big girl

mommy and keira

my peeps

sienna and the whale

dolphins in action

dolphins waving goodbye!

my peeps

keira trying to win a prize

daddys favourite moment

la la la la elmos world

my girl on the tea cups

sienna and her turtle.. she just had a blue lolli

dipper

very thirsty.. barbie lookin good

Siennas new pose!!!

daddy happy with his oysters

Day two started perfectly.. rick went to get starbucks,(you know that I was happy) coffee and yummy treats! We headed out to be there when seaworld opened at 9. It was another beautiful day! This was probably our favourite day.. we all enjoyed every exhibit, polar bears, beluga whales, more fish than you can imagine, penguins, frogs, eels, turtles you name it we saw it and loved every second of it.. the girls were again running around like crazy loving their freedom and all that there was to see! We caught the first dolphin show and it was so amazing! the girls were just in awe of it all and just loved seeing the dolphins jump out of the water. Keira was a little freaked out when she saw the whale soak the first two splash zone sections... and then it was our turn and she was very relieved that only our legs got wet! And then she talked about it for the rest of the day. I cant say I was very brave either..I wanted to sit the in the soak zone but didnt really want to get totally soaked...so we were in the last soak zone row LOL. Keira got to play some games and go on some rides with daddy which she just loved, while I occupied sienna (she was too short) we met Elmo and Zoe and had our picture taken with them! I had promised the girls at the end of the day that they could each pick a little something at the store... keira picked a super cute really soft dolphin ... Dipper and Sienna picked the cutest turtle that has these big brown eyes.. she was immediately attached! Since it was still light out we went back to the hotel to swim and then went for dinner to a local restaurant the Red Sail Inn. We had dinner outside which was wonderful apart from the fact that a very naughty seagull was looming and actually landed on some peoples dinner just two tables away LOL Just as we were finishing up it started to drizzle so we walked back to the hotel and called it a night! It was the greatest family day...

San Diego 10 (241 photos), by Laura Hattenburg

2010-07-19T16:59:00.001-07:00

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San Diego in a flash Day 1

2010-07-19T14:45:00.001-07:00

Daddy and Sienna

Black JellyFish

28wks!!!

adorable

not so adorable

looks like corey somehow LOL

birdie

Little Sue Lin

million dollar cups

mama and sienna

ready to go!!!!

dinner and a movie in bed

We finally took our first road trip as a family.. we decided to skip our annual trip to Seattle this year for a few reasons.. one travelling close to 30 wks pregnant with one child was enough and I couldnt have imagined it with two.. Plus my parents are doing mad remodeling to their house so it made sense to sort of stay put. But given that it is summer a time when vacations generally happen, I really wanted to go somewhere and san diego is "just" a 6 hour drive. So off we went at 5am after pulling the girls out of bed. The drive was not too bad at all, we stopped in Yuma for breakfast which is just past halfway! We had plenty of in car entertainment and we made it to San diego at around noon. Since our room wasnt quite ready we went straight out for lunch at pizza nova where right there in the water were the black jelly fish everyone was talking about and then off to the San Diego Zoo. WOW I didnt realize the zoo there was so insane, first of all it is HUGE and extremely hilly needless to say though in about 5 or so hours we made it around the whole thing and I really thought I was going to die. The girls were great and some of the highlights for them were the flamingos, elephants and the monkeys. We did get to see one of the little shows as well which the girls loved. I think more entertaining than any of the animals for rick and I were our own girls and how much energy they had.. they loved that they could be out of the stroller and giving us heart attacks as they ran hand in hand down the steep hills! Did I mention it was pretty darn hot there!! So it was not that much of a break in the weather for us although there was an occasional breeze :) So by the time we got back to the hotel it was almost 7 and time to unpack, eat, bathe the girls and go to bed. The first night of us all in the same room didnt go without some giggling but not much since we were exhausted!

So she thinks she can dance...

2010-07-13T12:28:00.001-07:00

I got these great shots of sienna after class when she was just checking herself out in the mirror!!

I just cant resist

2010-07-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

I am sure at some point I will get used to the fact that these girls are just going to melt my heart every week but come on.. I couldnt resist posting these videos of dance this week! Sienna turned pro ( well compared to last week LOL) she lasted the whole class and didnt skip a beat at shoe change time... and all I could think with Keira was ..wow what a difference a year makes in confidence and ability!!!! LOVE MY GIRLS

Role Model

2010-07-11T18:27:00.000-07:00

So it is good to know that so far I am setting a great example for my girls... I know this because keira plays barbies quite often and when she does all they do is yoga!!! LOL no kidding.. here is everyone lined up doing plank...

Ice cream truck

2010-07-06T13:20:00.000-07:00

For the last month or so we have been hearing the ice cream truck make its way through our neighborhood on a friday afternoon, we have missed it so many times for all different reasons but last friday when we heard the music it was game on!! Rick made it home from work early and was as excited as the girls to go wait for the ice cream truck! Well we thought it was closer than it really was and ended sweating our butts off out on the front patio waiting... but finally the truck around the corner!!! we werent the only ones waiting their were a few older kids and actually a dad had jumped in the car to catch the truck! Rick got his favourite choco taco, keira chose chocolate shortcake, sienna choose a rather large popsicle and mommy chose, according to the "icecream lady" the same as every mom which was the strawberry shortcake... my absolute favourite and has been forever!! anyway the girls were very happy and excited until I told them they had to eat dinner first LOL man it sucks to be the mommy sometimes! They ate quickly and then it was ice cream time.... afterwards sienna cooled down with a dip fully clothed in the little blow up pool :) smart girl it was a hot night!!

I heard it through the Grapevine...

2010-07-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

Our grapevine has been doing so well this year.. and we have bunches and bunches of grapes that we have been keeping our eye on wondering how big they are going to get. They just started to turn red (they are red seedless) and apparently we werent the only ones excited about them.. the birds have enjoyed most of the grapes that were visible.. but tucked underneath were some left for us to eat! They are sooo sweet and yummy and the girls thought it was just the coolest thing to be able to go out and eat right from the vine!! We will have to come up with ideas for how to keep them protected in the future, but this year it was just fun to see the vine really take off and produce so many grapes.

Sienna starts dance!!

2010-07-06T12:48:00.000-07:00

oh my we had an exciting morning.. Sienna took her first ballet/tap class... she is a little young but because Keira has been going to the dance studio for a year now and Sienna is familiar with the teacher and the situation in general we thought we would at least give it a try. I am not sure she could have been any cuter in her leotard and tap shoes! and overall she did pretty well.. she lasted through the tap half of class with a little bit of crawling on the floor (not part of the class) and a few full on lie face down on the floor meltdowns :) but hey one girl was doing nothing, and another sucking her thumb and twirling her hair.. I mean come on this is a 2yr old class LOL so sienna was ok with her binky in her mouth and her meltdowns! When it was time to switch to ballet shoes she didnt want to take off her tap shoes and had a meltdown and wanted her mommy.. I let her try to work things out but took her out of the class after a few mins so that none of the other girls would get upset...sometimes it only takes one to get everyone melting down... anyhoo that was a mistake because she was then really mad that I took her out. Hey I gotta learn too LOL so anyway I wont do that again. I was so proud of her today for just going in there and doing her best! For 19 months I think she did amazing! here is a video of her actually doing what she was supposed to :) she is blocked by another girl a little bit.. but obviously she is the one with the binky in her mouth!

Crepes and breath holding

2010-06-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

Sienna saying cheeeese just minutes after the "ordeal"

das batter

the cooking perfection

Mrs Butterworth :)

the finished stack... yummy

So this evening I decided since I was making dinner for just myself that I would try my hand at making crepes... my brother and his fiance are sort of known in the family for their crepes but everyonce in a while I would like to be able to make them myself. So I asked my brother Kris about their "recipe" which apparently consists of "throwing some crap in a bowl". Not generally the kind of recipe I like to use.. so I went the "traditional" route and googled basic crepe recipes.. they all had about the same ingredients just in different measurements so anyhoo I finally just chose one and got on with it. I have to tell you I was nervous since even kris a crepe expert said that the first one usually turns out like crap. Mine didnt turn out like crap so I wondered if that would be the only good pancake and then the rest would be burned! that wasnt the case.. apparently crepe making is in the blood. I even modified the recipe to fit my liking.. and it turned out fab.. Ok so now for the breath holding. Well after having a wonderful crepe dinner the girls and I headed upstairs for some serious pony partying. Keira and Sienna found themselves both wanting Pinkie Pie.. well this resulted in some serious screaming. Being the rational parent that I am I took the pony away from both of them and told them to choose a different pony from the many other ponies that we have. Well Sienna got quite upset and she is my little breath holder... well tonight she took it too the next level. I knew she was crying and throwing a fit which usually includes a moment of that silent cry where you are like ok girl breathe!! so I got up and walked away to put the pony out of sight... I turned around to see sienna still standing there mouth wide open turning purple with no sound still.. I rushed back and blew in her face I even sort of shook her arm and just kept saying breathe sienna breathe.. and then as I went to pull her onto my lap she passed out! I was in panic my baby was now limp in my arms all pale with purple lips and eyelids.. I was still trying to get her come to as I grabbed my phone to call 911. I hesitated for just a second and she came to but was really out of it.. scary!!!!!!!! She took a few minutes to come around but then pretty soon was able to get up and run off with Keira.. but I was left traumatized on my knees and decided to page the on call pediatrician. She called back so quickly and was able to reassure me that yes kids do this and as long as it was a "tantrum" and no other symptoms that she was just fine.. but I wasnt fine!!!!!! After a little meltdown and talking to my mommy I got there.. but the pediatrician was right.. Sienna is just fine.. but I am scarred for life !!! One more experience to add to the mommy resume.

Keiras 1st movie... Toy Story 3

2010-06-26T15:28:00.001-07:00

My little girl is so grown up LOL ok ok she is only 3 but it was a big morning for Keira Piper, we had been promising her that she would get to go to the big movies one day and get popcorn and candy and a drink but we had to wait for the perfect movie... and Toy Story 3 made the cut! Daddy and Keira took off this morning to see the 9:30 showing and she just loved every second of it from getting her ticket to the snacks to the big screen. Rick said she was a dream and sat through the whole movie and LOVED it!! daddy took these pics with his phone to capture the big event!

25 weeks

2010-06-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

Here I am 25 weeks along with our 3rd baby girl and I am not sure I have experienced this much exhaustion ever LOL and yes obviously I have done the newborn/nursing thing but there is something about the strain on your body while you are pregnant with your third and have 2 toddlers!! hahaha yes go ahead and laugh whether it is at, with or for me!! ... overall I feel good but definitely much more tired. Although in 110 degrees one tends to feel slightly more drained :) My appt last friday went great, baby is measuring right on and so far those contractions are NOT doing their job... which is a relief!! I did have early contractions with Sienna starting at 22 wks, so I wasnt too concerned. It is just a reminder that oh yes I have to deliver this baby at some point LOL I cant wait to meet her!! ok what else oh yes I got great advice from my OB about already being out of breath... to put my arms in the air... I imagined beavis and butthead, and though she didnt say pull your shirt up and say I have tp for your bunghole.. that is what I imagined..of course walking around with your arms in the air is quite normal... I am not sure I would keep my friends for very long so I think I will take the being out of breath and just grin and bare it :) Siennas furniture is ordered!!! So in about a month we will be able to move the rest of the furniture (apart from the crib, since sienna will be using it for a few more months) into the nursery! It will start to feel a bit more nurseryish and Siennas room will finally feel um.... DONE! Speaking of Sienna she has been quite the potty training pro.. pee pee and poo poos on the potty! My big girl is so proud and loves to get up and do the potty dance, she is so proud and so cute she jumps, claps and says "woohooo" as she gives me five! Oh the fun we have here in this house is crazy!