The Adventures of Mya & Mommy

Last weekend, Mya and I took a quick trip down to Arizona to surprise my sister for her birthday. It was a long drive, and a short time in Arizona, but it was a super fun trip! Alex had to stay home to work, and to take care of our diabetic cat. We missed him, but it was fun to have some Mya/Mommy time!

Apparently, poor little Mya has some car sickness issues. The drive down was pretty messy, because she kept throwing up. Here she is after one of our clean-ups.



And here's Mya enjoying some Jack In the Box in Mesquite, NV. (Unfortunately, it did come back up later...)



My Mom was visiting my sister, Kara, in Arizona. For her birthday present, I had gotten her a gift card to Dolce to have a nice pedicure, and a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory, so that they could have a fun birthday morning together. What Kara didn't know is that I had driven down the night before, and I showed up at the salon to join them!



It turned out to be the perfect surprise!



We got these chocolate pedicures that were SO great. Here's a picture of my foot getting a chocolate souffle mask. It was very decadent, to say the least!



Me with my beautiful Mom and sister at Dolce Salon.



And here we are enjoying a wonderful lunch at the Cheesecake Factory



While I was having a girls day with my mom and sister, Mya got to have a wonderful day with her Grandma Merla, Grandpa Brian, Aunt Kaiti, and Uncle Richard.



They had a very busy morning swimming and playing at the park



And here is Mya in the awesome tent that her aunt Kaiti made for her to take a nap in



She zonked out for over 3 1/2 hours.... she was pretty worn out from the exciting day!



Mya also had a wonderful time playing with Kara's adorable little boy, Liam



On the return drive, I gave Mya some dramamine and we made lots of stops to get some fresh air. Here's Mya enjoying a sucker in Wikiup AZ



Mmmmm.....water.....



Mya has never really eaten a cheeseburger before (she usually prefers chicken nuggets or something). So when we went to In-N-Out Burger, I wasn't sure if she would like a burger or not. As you can see in the picture, she went to town on the cheeseburger! She almost ate the whole thing, and thankfully, she never got sick on the drive home. I'm so proud that Mya enjoys the finer things in life, like this delicious In-N-Out burger!



We had a fun time looking around at the Hoover Dam



The trip was exhausting, but SO much fun, and totally worth it. Mya and I had so much fun together, and it was WONDERFUL to get to spend some time with my amazing family. I'm thankful it all worked out the way it did!

Birthdays, Diabetes, and Exercise

We have had an eventful couple of weeks! Last weekend, Alex turned 29, and we had a great time celebrating his birthday. I had fun planning some suprises for him--we went to a movie (Harry Potter, which was great by the way), then had a nice dinner at Market Street Grill, then spent the night at this great bed and breakfast called the Armstrong Mansion. Then after checking out the next morning, we decided to take advantage of having a babysitter (THANK YOU AGAIN MOM!), and we went to another movie at the dollar theater (we saw 17 Again, which was also good). Alex may be getting old, but he's as handsome and awesome as ever, and we had a super fun time!

One thing that wasn't so fun over Alex's birthday weekend was our trip to the vet. Our beloved cat, Moki, has been losing a lot of weight lately. We took him to a vet in May, who assured us that nothing was wrong with him and sent us on our way.... But Moki started losing more weight, and actually acting quite sick, so we took him to a more competent vet, only to find out that Moki is diabetic. Our once large and spunky cat of 15 lbs had lost over half of his body weight, and was very lethargic. We started giving him special food and insulin shots twice a day. I'm happy and relieved to report that he is already getting better, after only a few days of insulin. This morning he was more bright-eyed, and was even running around wanting to play! It's a bit of an adjustment taking care of his new ailment, but we're grateful that he'll at least be okay!



This was Moki a couple of days ago, all 7 pounds of him. And there I was, preparing to give him his insulin shot. The picture below shows him happy and plump a few years ago, at a whopping 15 pounds (with his little 'sister' Rudy of course)

So, my doctor has been telling me for a little while now that I need to exercise (yeah, right, like exercising ever did anything good for anybody). The only problem is, I hate exercising. I really don't even like moving for the most part. And I hate sweating. And I'm really awful at getting up in the morning just to start the day, let alone get up an hour earlier to work out--yuck. Anyway, Alex has decided to help motivate me to work out in the mornings. We've actually been doing it too--we're in our second week... I kind of feel like I want to die, but it's mostly going well. He's decided to do P90X, while I run next to him on my elliptical. I'm not sure how or why he is so motivated to do this stuff.... but it's a really good thing, and I'm grateful for it, so I guess I won't question him too much! I think he might start making us eat healthier too. I went to Arctic Circle today to get a nice, greasy lunch of fried chicken strips, french fries, and a milkshake--I wanted to have one last hoorah before I turn 'healthy'. But now my stomach hurts. So maybe eating healthier is a good idea... Wish us luck!

Mya Is Two Years Old!

I put pictures from Mya's 2nd birthday on Facebook, and totally forgot to put some on my blog! It was a fun time. Mya's cousins and friends came over, and we all had fun eating pizza and cake and playing outside. I still can't believe that she's already two years old--it's been a wonderful two years, without any dull moments!!

Alex is usually the one who gets all the credit for stuff in the kitchen, so I am particularly proud to say that I made Mya's birthday cake! It was really fun, and I was really proud of how it turned out--and best of all, Mya loved it!

PRESENTS!!! Thank you to all of our friends and family who celebrated Mya's birthday with us!

A couple weeks ago, my dad and step-mom and sister came to visit from Yemen. Mya had so much fun with Grandpa Cozzens and Grandma Erl (which sounded more like Grandma Oatmeal). We all had a great time together!

Mya LOVED spending time with her Aunt Aiko!

While my dad was in town, we had a family/friend reunion at Lagoon. Little Miss Independent wanted to hold the umbrella herself : ). It was such a fun day, although the rain did eventually get the best of us.

Yay for carousels!

Mya being a goofball before church

Happy 4th of July!!!

My little 'All American Girl' with the American flag (thank you for the cute patriotic outfit Grandma Cozzens!)

Mya looks at my painted toenails sometimes and tries to color on her toes with crayons.... The other day she actually saw me painting them, and was just dying for me to paint hers too. I love having a girly little girl!

And Mya loves her 'pretty toes' (and is more than happy to show anyone that will look at them)!

And here is Mya enjoying an afternoon popsickle on this glorious Independance Day.

Another fun event that happened lately was mine and Alex's anniversary--6 YEARS! It makes me feel old to say that I've been married for six years... I guess I did get married just a tad young though, didn't I : ). I don't have any pictures from our big day, but we had lots of fun. Our actual anniversary was on a Wednesday, and Alex and Mya surprised me at work for an Arctic Circle lunch (romantic, I know) and some beautiful flowers! Then on Friday, we didn't have any work or school during the day, so we went on a day date. We saw The Proposal (which I thought was great--I would definitely recommend it), did some Costco shopping, and had a super yummy lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Happy Anniversary Sweetie!!! Thank you for being so amazing and reminding me all the time why I'm grateful I married you 6 years ago. I LOVE YOU!!!

I Sort Of Forgot That I Have A Blog...

Yes, I can admit it--I actually forgot that I had a blog. I'm officially a worse blogger than my husband! Let's see, what's new with us...

We had a fun trip to Phoenix recently! I went down for a week for a training for work, then Alex and Mya flew down mid-week and we stayed a few extra days for a wonderful visit with family and friends. We got to go swimming a couple of times--it was Mya's first time being 'dunked'. She was a little freaked, but she did really well! I hope that she's not too traumatized anyway. Mya also had a great time playing with her cousin and some friends...she's our little social butterfly, that's for sure!

Mya's 2nd birthday is coming up (pictures of her Dora party will be posted shortly thereafter) ... I can't believe how fast time has flown by! She is most definitely a 2 year old....adorable, loving, smart, and challenging. I love being her mom!

I'm as busy as ever at work! Unfortunately, I'm super busy and super stressed all the time because I have so many foreclosure prevention clients. I love being able to help people, but man, it sure gets tiring sometimes. Please folks...whoever's reading this... please, please try to be smart with your money. Not that everyone in foreclosure has been not smart with their money or anything, but sometimes there's something that could have been done on the homeowner's part to keep themselves from getting into foreclosure. If there's one thing I could advise--save your money!!! Save some money each month...especially if you're a homeowner...even if it's just a little. And never, ever refinance your house and pay off credit cards with cash-out--it's just dumb. (I apologize if I've now offended anyone....) Alright, I'll get off my soap-box now (my cynical soap-box...).


I'm having knee surgery in a couple weeks! It's minor, but I still get nervous about getting anesthesia. And I'm a total wuss when it comes to pain, so I guess I'm not looking forward to that so much. But hopefully my knee won't crackle and hurt all the time after I get it done! Wish me luck!

A Fun Day at the Park!

We had a great time at the park the other day. It was a bit chilly, but it didn't stop Mya and her friend Cole from having a blast!



I don't know who had more fun on the teeter-totter... the kids or the dads : )




Mya hasn't been a huge fan of the swings--but she enjoyed it a little more this time around

Hey, What's That Girl's Name Again?

Lately Alex and I have been forgetting our daughter's name a lot... so as you can see, we posted it across her chest to help our young but already failing memories. Well, okay, maybe we didn't actually forget her name--but it's sure a cute picture! And Alex is mad that I put this picture on my blog (hey man, you snooze, you lose). But he wanted me to make sure and put a disclaimer on here that he was the one who came up with the idea to stick letters on our daughter.


As my dear friend/co-worker (AKA my "work wife" as Alex would call her) pointed out to me today, that I am officially no better at blogging than my husband. It's true. I figured I would suck at it, and I do. Really though, I just don't know if I have a whole lot of information to share with the world... And I don't really think anyone is reading the blog anyway, so I just kind of feel like I'm talking to myself as I type (and then I just start to feel weird...)



I've tried to think about what has been entertaining to me lately, because maybe if I blogged about whatever that might be, then maybe it could be entertaining to somebody else too. So, of course, my thoughts defer to Miss Mya...She continues to be a hilarious little girl, so very full of personality. The other night we went to a Jazz game, and we had a blast. Mya babbled on the way there about "pizza pasta pizza pasta pizza pasta pizza pasta" for I don't know how long. And on the way back, it was "yay cabakee ('basketball') and "choo choo" (we rode the trax down to the game). It was such a fun night!

Sometimes she talks in her sleep about 'Grandma,' 'hair,' 'jammies,' and 'Swiper no swiping' (all you Dora fans out there know what I'm talking about). I just wonder what is going on in that little head sometimes...



I'm going to try to start speaking more Italian from now on. First I will need to learn some Italian, but once I do that, I am going to try to speak it. The reason is, Alex apparently has the chance to do an internship in Italy next summer... so there's a chance that we might be living in Torino for two months in 2010! Ciao!!

Everybody Poops

Until you have a potty-training toddler, I don't think you can really understand just how exciting poop really is... Mya had her first success on the potty tonight! I never imagined myself having such a fun celebration over poop. Granted, the first part of it did exit Mya's little body while she was standing in the bath tub, but that's not the point. The second part came out in the potty (nice work on the quick hussle Alex ; )! ), and wow, was that a party! I think that Mya was a little too sleepy to fully enjoy our enthusiasm, but she had fun getting to pull some toilet paper off the roll, and then getting to flush the toilet. Hooray for pooping!!!