Balls of fury!

So us mommies from church have started "moms time" which include bible studies, play dates and family get togethers. Saturday was our first family night. It was game night and potluck and the UFC fight was on. We had a great showing and everyone had a fun time, especially the guys. As it turns out they had no interest in the fight once they found out Dan and Jen had their new ping pong table set up. I think we only saw the men when they came in for food! CJ schooled them all so now Jon and Dan want a rematch! Jon kept joking he needed to rent the movie Balls of fury so he could get some tips for next time. :) The kids of course had a great time together chasing each other around, playing dress up and playing the Wii, Ashley's poor room looked like it had been visited by a demolition team. We did manage to clean it up enough to see the floor though. :) Us ladies also had a good time chit chatting and enjoying all the yummy food and desserts. For next month it's mommies only and we're doing pj and movies night! It's at Alys' house and I hear she is an excellent cook so I'm so excited!

For Steph!

Okay so Stephanie just pointed out the fact that it was I who prompted her to do her blog and now it is I who is slacking on my own blog.
Let's see my last post brought us up to January so hmm...nothing much exciting happening lately so I haven't had much to post. Don't get me wrong, my life is filled daily with as much fun, excitement and drama as any mother with a four year old and toddler could have but if I were to put that on this blog you may never come back for fear of death by boredom! I could post my hundreds of pictures and videos taken but I fear that only a mother could love the 50 attempts at trying to catch a picture of Bryn smiling only to have her grab the camera and instead get a picture of her eyeball. Or Brook performing her renditon of Hannah Montana's "Best of Both Worlds" for the 20th time since dinner. I guess truth be told I know all of you out there love reading about the Mazlo family as much as I love writing about us! :)
So here I go... Superbowl #??? (don't know, don't care) was lots of fun. Grandpa and Grandma Arias, Uncle Joe and cousin Michael came up for the weekend so Jon and I were able to make a quick escape to Dane and Steph's on saturday night for some grownup time. We had lots of fun and Steph introduced us ladies to a new yummy drink, mmm. On Sunday my brother Joe, my parents, Grammy and Grampy, Robbyn and the kids all helped us yell at the TV in hopes that the Cardinals would be able to hear us and pull off a miracle, sadly they weren't able to and I believe I even saw a tear in my brother's eye at the end of the game. :)
Valentine's Day celebrations and President's weekend were great too. Brook's highlight of the month was having not one but two Vday parties at school. She got lots of cards, candies and goodies and was generous enough to share them with all of us. We also had two visits from Gavin that week. Bryn is just so happy to see him and they have so much fun together. They remind me of Brian and Brook at their age, too cute! President's weekend the weather was nice. We really thought we'd have nasty rain but it didn't even sprinkle till we had packed up and were ready to drive off monday afternoon. In fact saturday was actually hot enough for shorts and tshirts, which is quite funny because the weekend before we took the girls up our mountain to play in the snow. Bryn is now very aware of all the fun she can have on the rhino and Brook's quad and wants nothing to do with staying in the toyhauler. First thing each morning she would bring us her shoes so she could go outside. She even got to hang out with everyone by the campfire this trip, she's so cute and getting to be such a big girl. Brook had Devon, Colton, Heidi and Jonathon to run around with. She and Colton even fell asleep watching Madagascar 2. The kids made friends with the neighbors and somehow ended up scoring bags of Vday candy. I'm pretty sure Brook can hear a candy wrapper being opened a mile away. :)
Our next trip is not until Easter but we've got lots more going on before then so I'll be back!

Late as usual....

So I know it's already the middle of January but I wanted to catch everyone up on our holidays. Christmas was wondeful and the girls were once again spoiled by grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends and of course us! This year my family couldn't make it over for our Christmas Eve dinner celebration so we had two family dinners, one on Christmas Eve and the other Christmas day. Although both meals included yummy deep fried turkey I really missed the usual Christmas Day tamales and menudo meal we do. Usually my mom spends the week before Christmas with us and we make tamales, menudo and biscochos but this year she couldn't make it and so I had to suffer silently on Christmas Day :P
New Year's was lots of fun too. We spent it in Dumont with friends. We even let the kids have a celebration toast (grape juice of course) and light up sparklers before they headed off to bed. Brian and Aubrie were there with their new quads and had lots of fun riding around camp with Brook. The kids even had their first "trail" ride. Dane led the kids out of camp for a short ride that included riding up a dune and "chillin" like the adults do. Deano followed them in his rhino which made me feel a little better. She's growing up too fast!!!!
The holidays are over and now it's back to the normal-ness of everyday. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Happy 2009!
Oh and one more thing...I got a new camera from Santa!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!

December, oh where to start?

Well I was planning on posting after Christmas but with the beautiful snow we had yesterday I just had to share. December started with our annual trip to see Santa. Brook did well and asked Santa for a Barbie but he made me leave so I didn't get to hear which Barbie. Bryn of course wanted no part of the jolly ole' St. Nick, oh well hopefully next year won't be so traumatic. And speaking of which why do we parents (I know I'm not the only one) feel the need to torture our little ones just so they can have a moment with Santa knowing full well he isn't the one dragging his butt off to the mall and everywhere else to get said child the perfect gift for Christmas?? I'm hoping this won't require therapy :P At least the girls were able to hang out with their cousin Alexis and their friends Aubrie, Brian, Andrew, Evan and Gavin. Later that weekend Jon, myself and the girls went on a 2 hour Christmas tree hunt, to the woods you ask? No to Star Nursery, then Walmart and finally we found our perfect little tree at Home Depot (yes we have a Home Depot in Pahrump). Brook and Bryn helped me decorate the tree and inside of the house while Daddy handled the lights on the outside. Yay! I love to see the house and tree lights at night, it just seems to make everything so beautiful. The following weekend we had Dane and Steph's first annual adults only Christmas party, we had lots of fun and some well deserved grownup time! Now onto the exciting parts...monday it snowed all morning but didn't stick :( It ended up being a big muddy mess and then wednesday after I took Brook to preschool it started snowing and didn't stop until after 4 this morning! Poor Jon had to use chains on wednesday afternoon to get home and again this morning to get to work. Also wednesday night Brook had her Christmas concert, my gosh these little preschoolers are so cute! They sang songs, recited Bible verses and even said the pledge to the American and Christian flags, adorable!!!! Grampy and Grammy were also there to share in Brook's big night. This morning we played in the snow and even attempted a snow man but Brook said her hands were getting too cold and Bryn kept trying to escape to Cato and Robbyn's house so after I got some pictures and video we headed inside to change and warm up. Sadly, once the sun started to show through the snow melted and now it sounds like it's raining outside from all the dripping water. Ah well, it was definitely fun while it lasted!!!!

Prayers.....

Please keep this family in your prayers and take care to make sure batteries and other dangerous things are out of the reach of your children, no matter what age.
"Hazel is in the eye of the beholder"
http://hazelana.blogspot.com/

Thanksgiving 2008

Once again we spent our Thanksgiving holiday in Glamis surrounded by family, friends and sand as the far as the eye can see. I really love the time we spend here, our longest to date 10 days, and I know the kids enjoy the freedom to run themselves ragged :) This year it was so much fun to watch the "babies" Gavin and Bryn run, play and interact with everyone. In fact all the kids were so busy playing with each other that we didn't take the jumper out once! Brook rode her quad very well and even followed Kyra out of the camp a few times. Sadly her bike gave out on her and despite all of Daddy's attempts to fix it she was without her "ride" the last few days. :( Hmm...Santa may have to make a quick stop at Honda. We did the usual, hang out, go for rides, eat :P, this year we even went on a tour of the "untouched" sand. Turkey dinner was excellent as always. We had so much food we ended up with a whole leftover turkey, even with a couple of extra guests we had invited after the guys "rescued" them earlier that day because their truck and trailer were stuck. As usual it was a great trip and although I hate the piles of laundry that have to be done when we get home I am looking forward to our next big trip in August to Pismo Beach. 12 days of relaxing on the beach yay!!!!! Well maybe I should just focus on our next event...Christmas!!! I hope you all had an equally wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Almost forgot...

Oops, I almost forgot to share Bryn's 1 year pictures. I know I'm a little late but we don't have Kiddie Kandids in town so I had to make a trip down to Vegas for these. Oh and they were actually taken on the 18th of October so only a month late :P Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

So another year has gone by, I think when Jon and I celebrate either one of our birthdays we are even more determined to see age as only a number. :P Besides, the girls our much too young for us to feel old! Well Jon doesn't like a bunch hoopla for his birthday but we were still able to manage a small gathering without too much fuss. Brook worked hard on her Daddy's birthday card, you could tell she put lots of thought into and even included some stickers of his favorite things and Daddy was very happy with it. In fact Brook was the most excited for his birthday and even went around collecting various toys to wrap up and give him and of course had to decorate the cake herself, too cute. Bryn is still too young to join in but did clap for Daddy when he was opening his presents. :) All in all it was a nice evening, Jon got to go shooting with Matt and Justin before dinner, had his favorite meal chicken broccoli fettucine and chocolate cake and spent the evening with family and friends.

Happy Halloween!

So we had a very busy October with our 5 year wedding anniversary, Jon's graduation dinner, Halloween/Dumont and just everyday happenings. Both the anniversary/graduation weekends were well deserved Daddy and Mommy time away. We stayed at hotels both times and the girls were with Cato and Robbyn one weekend and my mom and sister the other weekend. We had a great time just the two of us and decided we need to "get away" more often! Also in the busy-ness Jon managed to transfer tons of dirt from our neighbors yard (they were having a garage built had a huge pile of dirt they needed to get rid of) to our yard. We had a John Deere loader for two sundays so Jon was not only able to transfer the dirt but was able to get our yard level/ready for concrete around his shop and grass around the house when it comes time to put it down and of course there was enough dirt left over to build a few hills/jumps for the girls. Though they were long days Jon enjoyed himself and could hardly keep the girls off the loader. Of course the big weekend was Halloween/Dumont. I love that even though we are in the sand dunes for this holiday the girls don't miss out on all the fun, the girls still get to dress up and trick or treat. This year instead of just t-o-t from trailer to trailer in our camp we took the kids from camp to camp and I was very impressed with the level of decorating out there. There were some camps that rivaled the most decorated houses I've seen. It was surreal to see these rhinos loaded with costume clad children driving around the sand dunes trick or treating. It was great fun and I think Emilie and I will attempt some sort of big decorating next year, I can't wait!

BTW I also threw in some pictures of Daddy saving the day with his pumpkin carving skills!

Wanted: Experienced mother with background in creative craft making!

I'm sure this is the ad my children would place if they could. There should be all kinds of tests given to women prior to having children so as to test their abiblities or lack there of. I so would have failed the pumpkin decorating test! So here's the scenario....ooh girls let's get some pumpkins and we can carve and paint them and decorate the front porch with them! Yay, mom you're the best :) Uh yeah, we get home and all of a sudden the ideas I had in my head flew right out the door, I had even purchased a carving kit but it was no help. Here I am with 5 pumpkins begging to be done up and 2 girls all apronned up with paint brushes and eager smiles on their faces...dear God please take me now! Anyways it wasn't nearly that dramatic and luckily the girls could care less about what the pumpkins looked like but next year I'm hiring someone to do this with my children, I'll be in the background baking, at least I do that well. :P
Here are some pictures of the girls and the sad looking pumpkins, 3 of which didn't end up getting touched. Thankfully Daddy said he'll do some carving on saturday, my hero!

Fall Festival

I love the Fall Festival, although being in NV it's nothing like fall weather. In fact when we went to the parade Saturday morning it was 90 degrees at 9am!!!! We went with Jen, Ashley and Seth to the parade and then went to the fair for a bit so the girls could ride a few rides but it was 90+ degrees so we didn't stay long. We all went home to recuperate for a bit before going back later that night with the Daddies, since they had to work that morning. Also on Saturday we got a visit from Kristen and Lance who were in town for the rodeo part of the festival. It was great to visit with them for awhile and Lance relit Jon's desire for hunting, fabulous :P And for another pleasant surprise Chuck, Emilie and Gavin showed up to join us for the festival that evening. We all had a much better time in the cooler temperatures. Brook, Ashley and Gavin rode more rides, Bryn rode the carousel but didn't love it, maybe next year, Daddy won a huge doggie for Brook, and the topper of the evening was Jon and Chuck riding the mechanical bull! Too funny! They both did pretty well much to our surprise. Although Emilie and I didn't get any funnel cake we all had a great time together.
Oh and the kicker of it all....I actually took my camera to get pictures of the happy event and it wouldn't even turn on! I so need a new camera! I'll have to get some from Emilie and Jen and post some on here later.

The big day!

Although I did have a few moments of pre-party stress I think Bryn's first birthday party went pretty well. We were greatful to have family and friends from all over come and celebrate this special day with us. There was a pony and a goat, a bounce house and we even had a few of the kids jump in the pool. My favorite part was Bryn realizing she had a whole cake all to herself and taking full advantage of the moment! I love first birthday parties for this very reason :)
I'm now looking forward to a break from event planning, at least until Halloween!

Happy Birthday Bryn!!!!!!!!

How does a year pass so quickly? I'm sure it has something to do with the hours spent changing diapers, making bottles and eventually chasing little ones all over the house! We have been so blessed with our little Brynnie. She is like the icing on the cake of our little family. It's amazing that this tiny little baby girl is now a toddler. She is so much fun to watch as she figures out how things work. She just adores Brook and is all about Daddy and of course she is not happy unless she is eating something :) Seemingly just to mark her birthday she was up at 1:30 this morning, demolished a bottle of milk and instead of going right back to bed decided she wanted to play. So we sang Patty cake and Itsy bitsy spider and then she started yelling for Dada and Booh (Brook), apparently it was to be a family celebration. She did finally go back to bed but I'm sure she'll be up and ready to go in no time...ahh I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
I'm not sure what her stats are I'll have to update after her appointment next wednesday, but on our scale she was 21lbs and I'm sure she is taller than Brook was at this age. Today will be a simple dinner and some cupcakes to celebrate and then the big party will be on Saturday. Everyone is coming and I'm so excited to see her reaction to everything going on. We'll have a pony and I hope she will "ride" on him. I also hope she demolishes her cake although I'm pretty confident that won't be an issue :)

We love you BrynBryn and hope you have a wonderful 1st birthday!

Update: Bryn weighed in at 19lbs 13 oz and is 30 1/2 in.

First day!

So Brook had her first day of 4 day preschool yesterday. She was excited all morning but as soon as we arrived at the school she became quite nervous(as you can see in her picture with the teacher). Thankfully she was fine when I left her, well I didn't get a call to come get her anyway. Bryn looked a little confused though, like why is my sister staying and not me? I can't wait till kindergarten when Bryn will realize her sister will be gone all day :(
Daddy came home early so we could all go pick up Brook and she was very happy to see him. All in all I think things went well although I still can't believe my "baby" is going to school! I'm proud and sad all at the same time.

End of summer and I HATE my camera!

Okay so I had put off posting about our Labor day weekend because I "forgot" to take my camera with us to CA and was waiting for our friend Ronnie to email me the pics he took. To date he has not and so I blame the lack of LD pics on him and not on the fact that I hate my camera and did not take it. Anyways...we went to CA to visit for the weekend and had a great time. Bryn met her Great Grandma Mazlo for the first time and the girls also got to spend the day with Grandpa Craig, Grandma Lila and Uncle Justin. We stayed at Andy's house so it was like a sleepover weekend for Brook with Alyssa and Sierra. We bbq'd on Saturday and hung out till Sunday morning then headed to Ronnie's house on our way home. He and his family own a nursery where he also makes rustic cedar log furniture. It's great stuff, check it out at Uniquenursery.com. We're fortunate enough to have just about everything he has made and we love it all! While there we took a little nature trip up the mountain he logs and it was all just so beautiful and peaceful, I didn't want to leave. On monday we bbq'd at Grampy and Grammy's house. Our neighbors Cato and Robin came with us and we got to visit with Uncle Chris and Becky, Uncle Kermit and Leah. Nana, Connor, Sue and Steve were there also.
On wednesday Brook had her first ballet class. She is too cute in her outfit and her hair in a bun. By the way, they really should offer a pre class for the mom's to teach them how to get the kids ready for class. I had no idea how to do a bun, I had to call Robin, or whether or not the undies stay on underneath..small details but still wanted to get them right. Anyways Brook had a great time and I'm so excited to see all she will have learned at the performance next May.
Last night was open house to meet the teachers for preschool. It's great that Brook's a returning student, I think she was more comfortable with the idea this time around. Also she has Mrs. Shelley this year which is wonderful since she was the sub for Mrs. Shaw last year, so they are well acquainted with each other. Brook is excited now and can't wait for monday, and I have to say neither can I! :P
I guess summer is officially over.

Summertime fun!

Among the other things going on this summer Brook has decided she is not afraid of the pool anymore and now jumps from the top of the ladder, with a life jacket still but we're so very proud of her! Not to be left out Bryn decided she wants to "jump" from the top step also (to mommy of course). It's very cute, I put her on the top step and she opens up her arms, leans forward and falls, each time with a huge grin on her face, we're going to have to watch this one very carefully. Also Bryn discovered her sister's Barbie jeep and goes straight for it everytime we go outside. Brook drives her all around the yard and they both have a blast, I'm cringing as I picture big sister giving little sister driving lessons at 16, oh my. The only bad part about all the fun is it leads to lots of Bryn crying and screaming when it's time to go in.

Yay!!!

Not sure what happened but my "comments" section is now working!!! So if you had something to share, like how cute our kids are :P, and weren't able to before please feel free to share now :) Love you all!!!!

Pismo 08

We're back from our spectacular vacation! The weather was so perfect! How can you not love 60 degree temps when you have been in 100+ for months :P The girls did great, I think Brook napped once in 10 days...she had nonstop playtime with Aubrie and Brian! Kiki and Alyssa were there for a few days too so that was some extra fun. Bryn did very well with the exception of some separation anxiety issues but by the end of the trip was doing well letting everyone hold her and even went on a buggy ride with Grandpa Craig all by herself (slow speeds of course). She took a couple days to realize sand is NOT yummy but she had tons of fun filling up the holes as fast the big kids could dig them.
For my birthday celebration this year I opted out of cake and presents and decided we ladies would do a girls day out and had pedicures and lunch on the pier! It was some well deserved mommy time!
We all had a great time collecting seashells and rocks, playing in the water, skim boarding, dirt bike and rhino riding and just sitting back doing nothing. The jumper was set up for the kids and they all got to ride Brook's quad and did very well. Even Gavin got to get a little ride in, for at least 10 feet :) All in all everything went smoothly and we were not ready to come back on saturday :( Can't wait till next year already!!!!

Walking and talking

Well we have an official walker and talker on our hands. On the 13th Bryn took her first unassisted/unpromted steps, about 3 of them and then on the 19th she "chased" Gavin all over Stephanie's house. On Sunday she started saying "dada", so now her vocabulary consists of Hi and dada, which of course just makes Jon so happy. She's kind of got a "mmmm" going on I'm pretty sure that means food because she only does it when it's time to eat. All this week she's been walking more than crawling. Basically she walks around the house saying Hi dada, it's really too cute. The girls had their well visits on thursday Bryn is 19 lbs 4oz and 28 1/2 in and the doctor says she has a big head??? I think her head is perfect! He wasn't concerned just stating a fact I guess. Anyways Brook is 33 lbs (same as her 3 year visit) and 42 inches tall, again the doctor wasn't concerned just said she'll be a thin girl (too bad we can't all have that problem :P). Poor thing!

My heart is overflowing...

with love for my family. Is there any greater blessing than family? I'm in awe watching my girls grow. Bryn is now 10 months and determined to do everything big sister does. Yesterday was Brook's last day at gymnastics and the mommies got to watch all they had learned, it's eye opening to see all that a child can retain. The teacher gave instruction and this group of 3-5 year olds did just what they were told. Of course Bryn was not to be left out and escaped onto the mats several times but I suppose she's just trying to get an early start. In addition to gymnastics Brook had swimming lessons yesterday and again my heart swelled with pride as this little girl, who just two weeks earlier refused to get her face wet, went fully underwater for a few seconds and came back up with a grin the size of the Grand Canyon! This moment was made all the better because Daddy surprised us by getting off work early to come and watch. Such a good Daddy! And you guessed it, Bryn would not stay out of the water as usual. We have a little fish on our hands. Luckily there is a baby pool and so Bryn and I have been hanging out there while Brook has her lessons.Today is Brook's last day of swimming and she's decided she's taking us out to McDonalds to celebrate, I love how her little brain works :)

Well I just wanted to share my joy with everyone, I hope you all have a blessed weekend!