We've hit another milestone!

We can now officially go to the movies with both kids..no problem! The last time we attempted to take Corbin to the movies was 6 months ago on Tatum's birthday to see Enchanted. The first 20 mins we were good until the candy was out and he wasn't interested anymore. So I pushed him all around the back of the theatre back and fourth in his stroller, then I'd get to sit for like 2 mins (with his stroller next to my seat)..then we were making laps again the moment he realized we weren't lol. I probably burned about 300 calories doing that lol. I did the summer movie deal with the kids the summer before, but he was still so little and I think still nursing that it wasn't that big of a deal.
So this time he sat in his seat through 75% of the movie sucking on one lollipop (yes, he finally sucks it and not just chews it the moment it hits his lips lol). The other 25% he sat in one of our laps. He didn't try and get down once and he stayed quiet and just watched Wall-E the whole time. I'm so excited to go again!!

Our new baby Ficus trees

We finally have two new Ficus trees. We had planted four the same week I got preg. with Tatum and they did really well. Then we had the freeze of last winter that just killed them off. It was so devastating since they had gotten so big. We live next to a green belt and because most of our backyard is grass, we believe our yard was much colder and that's why they didn't make it (or so we were told). So back to square one. These are a little bigger than the ones we had planted 5 years ago, so hopefully they will thrive and grow strong. Daryl really staked them down well and made really nice wells for them. We are currently in monsoon season and I remember having to run out and hold each tree while Daryl went around and re-staked our Queen Palms and Ficus trees a few Monsoon seasons ago and that was not fun! So bring it on Monsoon lol!!

Umm..can I have her!

I got the pleasure of getting to watch Machaela last week. I've been friends with her mom since I was six when my mom started baby-sitting her on a daily basis (Machaela is now eight). We used to go to elementary school and junior high together, so it's awesome that we've been able to stay friends throughout the years (and even live pretty close to one another). She also has a little boy named Xavier who's 2 months older than Tatum to the day. We are already planning on them growing up and getting married one day lol. Melissa's kids are so well behaved and really sweet kids. Tatum had a ball having Machaela all to herself for a few hours. Machaela is definitely not a novice at Barbie's, games, dress-up and such, so Tatum definitely had fun playing with someone other than her mom or brother (who just destroys everything when he gets frustrated lol).

"Shnoozy" Pictures

Tatum Riley pictured at 8 months

4 1/2

Corbin Lee-8 months
29 1/2 months

I just wanted to share some older sleepy time pic's of the kids (we call it "shnoozy time" around our house lol). I have to pull the binky out of Corbin's mouth every night I check on him so he won't suck it all night.

Tatum ended up sleeping next to us in a cradle for about 8 months until I started to move her to her room for half of the night. Corbin was the same way. They'd start off in their crib and then when they got up to nurse anywhere from 2-10 times (lol), it was just easier to bring them back to our room. I had a super hard time moving Tatum to her room because I felt so separated from her since she was my first, so it was good to transition for part of the night.

Notice how chubby Tatum's cheeks were! Corbin has always been so slender that he never really had chubby cheeks..maybe for 2 days, but they never stayed.

A favorite hobby of mine

Many of you who know me, know I love..well..how should I put this..a good deal on something that is well above my price range..especially baby gear. But the thing I love about these kinds of purchases are when they come at a good price and then I can turn around and sell them on craigslist.com when I am done for about half of what I paid for (and sometimes 3/4's if I got an excellent deal on it). For instance, I bought my P3 stroller (which normally goes for around $339+tax with limited colors at Babies R' Us) for $240 out the door with my choice of color (and no shipping). When I go to sell it, I can probably get around $150 for it no problem which I love (or maybe a little less..we'll see how it ends up in the long run lol). I've sold a few other strollers for deals like that too and it's worked out really well. I buy high end diaper bags, yes, I'm guilty of that one too. Those are not as easy to find that big of a price difference or should I say..price break, but when I turn around and sell them..yes, them...I still get a ton for it. So basically, I get to enjoy it new for a price of what I could have paid for it used down the road. You all know how much I love Britax car seats. My first one was a Roundabout (which retails for for $229+tax at Babies R' Us). I priced it out at (I believe) babycenter.com on sale for $140 out the door brand new and with my choice of fabrics. I then sold it 3 years later for $100 on craigslist (with several people wanting it) and turned around about bought Tatum's Regent for $200 out the door (those normally go for $279.99+tax at BRU). I tell Daryl that these purchases are my little investments and he's like, "whatever makes you feel better" lol. I just wanted to share with you some amazing sites. All you have to do is type in what you are looking for in the search box and you can narrow it from most popular to lowest to highest prices. It's crazy what kind of price ranges you can find when you do it this way. It's not just for baby gear, you can search for anything! It's so rewarding to find such a steal. Just wanted to pass this bit of info on to you all :)).

www.bizrate.com, www.shopzilla.com, www.NexTag.com, www.become.com and a plethora of others.

Tatum's Dance Class

We signed Tatum up for ballet/jazz combo at Palm Valley Community Center with her girlfriend from her school. Tatum loves it and it's nice to keep the connection throughout the summer with some of her school friends. The pictures are obviously not "quality" shots due to the fact that I was having to take them through a glass window with fingerprints all over them. I should get some better shots on her last day when they have a performance for the parents and we can go inside the room with them.

See, they really can play nice together

As a baby, Tatum was super easy and happy all of the time. I could sit her in one spot when she was 8 months or so and she would play with her toys and I could clean the whole house no problem (both of my kids didn't crawl until 10 months). She (to this day) can self entertain and play independently very easily. Many of you know, I had a rough pregnancy with Corbin complete with back to back kidney infections and had passed several stones throughout, eventually leading to having an early c-section and then having lithotripsy to blast the stone because of the size about a month after(total run-on, but whatever lol). They are 25 months apart and throughout most of my pregnancy, I was stuck to the couch with ice packs, heating pads and medication because of my condition..it was pretty awful. Tatum would happily fetch me snacks from the pantry, pick up around the house and just go and play in her room. She was amazing and I never truly appreciated that until I had my little bug.

Corbin on the other hand was more of a "high needs" type of child. He does not like to play by himself, so it's been a little bit more of a challenge. He's super sensitive, so if someone does something that remotely rubs him the wrong way, he will throw a fit and give you the look of death (refer to the picture on my previous post with the three boys sitting in the pool together). As he's been getting older, he has been getting much easier and I'm finding that Tatum is starting to get a little more difficult which is hard to understand. Many of my friends have said it's because she's four and their girls are going through this and it's just a faze. Because of that "faze", there has been a lot more "fighting" going on between the two with not wanting to share and lots of talking back and not listening to mommy. Over the past few days, I'm starting to notice somewhat of a change and they are "finally" starting to play with one another. They still have the occasional disagreement and that's to be expected, but all I have to say is FINALLY! I'm finding myself thinking that maybe we really can do this again. So who knows, we may add another brother or sister to our party of four very soon :)).

Father's Day Weekend Family Swim

My brother invited us out to stay at the Pointe on Sat to hang out with Theresa's side of the family and go swimming with the kids. We had a blast and now that Corbin isn't afraid of the water...it was much more fun. We are definitely going to take advantage of the summer resort rates that Arizona has to offer this time of year. We'll probably hit up another resort in the near future since we had so much fun. It's like a mini vacation and you really aren't having to travel all that far.

First Day of Swimming Lessons

I found Teacher Nicole off of Craigslist and she was amazing with the kids. Tatum hadn't been in swim lessons since last summer, so she is definitely having to relearn the skill. She pretty much has picked up from where she left back with just a little bit of regression, but that's to be expected.

Corbin has not had swim lessons before and was the type of child that you had to practically bribe to have him even go on the step. He'd much rather walk laps around the pool and dip in his water gun than go in. By the end of his private half hour session, she had him jumping off of the side to her. We have our 2nd lesson tomorrow and I can't wait to see what's going to happen next.

It could have almost happened to us!

After we got home on Sunday from shopping and such, I went out into the garage to back the car back in. Well Daryl always backs the van up backwards because it's easier to unload, so I was just going to back it in the rest of the way since we were done and needed to close the garage. Corbin was in the kitchen eating and Daryl was still unloading groceries, so I "assumed" I was safe. As I'm backing up the van (barely letting my foot off the brake with the car in drive) I hear my back-up sensors going off like crazy and there in my little navigation screen is my son just standing there right next to my bumper just starring at my brake lights. I immediately put the car in park and jumped out and grabbed him. He was literally standing inches away from the bumper. Who knows what could have happened if I didn't have that kind of technology. I'm usually pretty good about stuff like that and always hear the horror stories and I just never thought it could have almost happened to me. We will now ALWAYS own a vehicle with a back-up camera and sensors. We almost didn't get this van because we didn't think we really needed it. It really is a lifesaver!

Family Time=Swim Time at the Atkinson's

Sundays we usually have "Family Day" because most Saturdays, Daryl is usually working some overtime (and the weekend after this one, he has to work both Sat and Sunday). Every day Tatum will ask Daryl, "How many more days until no more work daddy?" On Monday, she asked again after just hanging out all day Sunday. He had to tell her 4 and a half more days! It's so sad how much they miss him when he's at work :(.

Daryl has been wanting to buy a bigger pool for a while now, so we finally decided to get one. Little did we know it was going to take like 8 hrs to fill up. By the time everyone was done (with a break inside in between), it still was not all the way filled up. Then we just dumped it because it just wouldn't be safe to leave it filled. What a waste of water, but I'm sure our grass loved it lol. The kids start private swim lessons today over at my in-laws house. I'm really hoping this will work out. Tatum used to swim at Teacher Lynda's Swim School, but we are going to go a different route this time. I'll post updates and pictures on that as well.

Sleepover Time!!!

We had Devin and Regan over last weekend so their parents could go to an awards ceremony in Sedona and it was a lot of fun. Now that everyone is getting older, it makes this so much easier.

The kids all got along really well...It was some good bonding time for everyone :)).