whats in a name?

I got this from john's cousin's blog and i thought i was kind of interesting. i liked that it tries to make you look better then some of the character traits really mean. most of the stuff that describes me isn't true but i would like to believe it is. the only true part is the fact that i often get carried away with my thoughts and tend to over react and get jealous, as evident by my last post.

John's is a little bit more acurate to his personality but it did sound an aweful lot like mine.

Finally Jack, now this is what Jack could be like but seeing as he is only going to be 3 on monday we will have to wait and see if it is true.

Shannyn

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong.You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do.

You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia.Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing.

You're a strong person.You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in.You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising.You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care.

John

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you.You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries.You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice.

You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life.You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you.At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself.

You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia.Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

Jack

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you.You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries.You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily.You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind.A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable.

You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life.You are also a keeper of knowledge - meaning you don't spill secrets or spread gossip.People sometimes think you're snobby or aloof, but you're just too deep in thought to pay attention to them.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyournameshiddenmeaningquiz/

i'm probably just crazy

we have now made it through two whole weeks of jack in school and i swear i'm already noticing the growth jack is making. he is talking more and in complete sentences. today when i dropped him off he didn't even fuss at all and didn't care that i left. i picked him up and he knew the drill and started telling me all about what he did in class, he is actually doing puzzles now, playing with play dough, coloring and asking for things without whining. this may not seem like a big deal to other people but for jack it is huge. i have to say i'm very pleased to see all these improvements in such a short amount of time. i still don't get feed back from his teachers and i don't really know what all they do in class but it seems to be going well. am i crazy to think that there can already be that many improvments?

another thing that makes me crazy is the fact that i'm a mother and "gave birth" to my son but i was completely freak out with the idea of my sister going into labor while i was down there for her baby shower. i've never been around someone about to go into labor and i have no idea about all the warning signs that the baby is just around the corner. the whole weekend i was paranoid that the baby was just going to drop out or something. i know that, that is not what would happen, but again i'm crazy. i'm happy to report that my sister did have her baby girl, haylie and both are doing really well. she is a tiny, sweet and a beautiful little girl. it is nice to have another girl in the family finally.

this has been another look into my messed up mind and what goes through my head on a daily basis. it is a crazy place in there.

i'm a big kid now!

today was the day, jack started preschool. we talked to jack about it for several weeks, we taught him his teachers name told him he was a big boy and he had to carry his back pack by himself, he had to listen to the teacher, be nice to the other kids and most of all no whining. i know that last one was wishful thinking but we had to try right.

john decided that he was going to come with me to drop off jack on his first day, we got there early because that is how john rolls and we wait around until the teacher comes to the gate to let the kids in. of course because we got there too early we had to wait around and jack was not very happy about that and of course first thing he does is whine. finally the teacher and the aids come and we sign in our kids and they are suppose to line up and wait for everyone to be signed in then they are off to the play ground. jack was excited about the idea of playing but then he realized that mom and dad weren't coming with him, so he looks around for us and keeps trying to grab for my hand so i will go with him. he whines a little bit but goes over to the play ground with the teacher. one of the aids comes out so i tell her that jack tends to cry when he realizes that we aren't going to be there and then he will often make himself throw up and she says, "oh yours is the one who throws up." i didn't really like the tone of that comment but what can you do, my kid is that kid. i ask her what happens when he does that and she just said we calm him down and then move on. very rarely do they call the parents to come and get them. so with that john and i realized there wasn't much else we could do so we left. as we drove away i look in the play ground and there is little jack standing by the gate crying. it was hard for me to see that and not go over there to comfort him but i stayed strong and let him work it out with his teacher.

two and a half hours later i come back to school to pick him up and there he is right next to his teacher holding onto the gate waiting to be let out. to my surprise he is wearing the same outfit i dropped him off in (meaning he didn't throw up all over himself) there were no tears on his cheeks and no red face signifying that he cried the whole time. what a load off. the teacher did inform me that he did cry off and on but they managed to get him to stop and they said he had a fun time swining on the swings. i asked him in the car if he wanted to go back to school tomorrow and can you believe it, he said yes.

so there you have it, jack is now in school and seems to like it for the most part and i have two and a half hours to myself four days a week. swimming here i come!

My son is trying to kill me...

Yes, it's true. For the first time in his short life, Jack almost gave me a heart attack! While I am sure it won't be the last time he does this to his old man, it was the first.

Need a little background first. A few weeks ago, we were staying over at Steph's. I wake up to Jack whining. Nothing out of the normal, but then the whining starts moving down the hall. WHAT??? I got up, looked around, and found no adults who would have taken Jack out of his crib. Sure enough, the little bugger had engineered a crib break!

He has since tried it a few times with varying degrees of success, but for the most part I am pretty sure he ends up falling out of his crib since we have found him on the floor crying.

So last night, we decided to put him in his big boy bed since he always asks to sleep there but never actually sleeps. He did fine on Friday night so we figured he had got it down. Well after about 2 hours of listening to Jack play in his room, we decide it's time he goes back to the crib. Sure enough he falls right to sleep or so we thought.

As we are going to bed, I tell Shannyn, "I am going to go lower the crib rails in Jack's bed so if he tries to climb out, he doesn't fall as far."

So here I am, sneaking in to Jack's room in the dark. Trying so carefully to lower the rail without making noise. I get it lowered (pretty darn quietly I might add) and I am kind of staring at this mess of blankets in Jack's crib trying to make out where Jack is (did I mention it was dark). I can't make him out, so I start feeling around the bed. Nothing! That was the moment Jack almost gave me a heart attack. So I flick on the light, the little turkey had climbed out of his bed (without making a peep mind you because we had the monitor on) and in to his big boy bed where he was going to sleep for the night.

So there you have it, proof that Jack is trying to kill his old man. Maybe if I tell him he is not the beneficiary of my life insurance he will cut it out...

meet the teacher night

tonight was back to school night and an opportunity to take jack to meet his teacher and see his classroom. well we now know jack's teacher's name, mrs. zeek and that is about it. i tried to ask the teacher questions but i really didn't get very good answers. and top it all off the teacher didn't even really try to interact with jack. i know you all think i'm crazy but, one there was only one other family in there with us and two she is a developemental preschool teacher so shouldn't she be more out going and more approachable. i mean these are kids with "special needs." we went and spent about 40 minutes in there, jack loved all the toys and the "magic carpet" with all the shapes, but he could care less about the teacher. i know i shouldn't look to far into that but it makes me very nervous. jack tends to do whatever he wants in nursery and doesn't ever want to participate in group activities, what is he going to be like in school. i left back to school night not feeling very prepared and very anxious about the whole thing. i don't think it helped that i had to do this by myself, john was out of town unfortunately.

another interesting thing of note, while jack was playing with a bunch of cars in his classroom another kid older and bigger then jack came over and started to play. as soon as this kid sat down jack goes right over to him and pushes him and yells at him. jack has never done anything that aggressive before, he is usually the one who waits around until the kid is done playing with something and then takes his turn. school is going to be a rude awakening for the florez family. wish us luck and i will keep you all posted on the adventures in preschool, to which i'm sure there will be many.

no more vampires!!

i don't know if it is just me and the end of a series of books but i'm really not sure how i feel about the last book in the twilight series, breaking dawn. don't get me wrong it is a fast read and it had a couple twists in the book that i liked but i don't really think i loved it like i did the others. maybe it was just too much anticipation on my part for the book to live up to, or maybe i'm just mad the story is over and there will be no more edward in my life. i don't want to ruin it for those of you who haven't read it yet or are in the middle of reading it but i just wanted to put my thoughts out there. although i don't really think that i have said too much about what i really thought about it. i'll wait until i have someone i can discuss it with. anyone out there done yet??

"say a little prayer for me..."

lately we have been letting jack say the family pray and it is so cute to hear him talk to Heavenly Father. the other night jack was telling Him all the things he was thankful for and this is some of what he said.

"Heavenly Father, thank thee for this day. thankful for the rocks. thankful for the swings. thankful for the slide. thankful for spin the wheel (that is a silly game on the wii that he likes to watch)." and so on.

i love when he says his prayers and the fact that he knows how to do it and in the right way makes me so happy. little moments like these makes dealing with the terrible twos all worth it.

"Oh what do you do in the summertime..."

WARNING this is extremely long and lame, proceed at your own risk.

i can't believe we are already half way through the summer and jack will be in school in about 3 weeks. summer always goes too fast. the month of july has been full of fun adventures and activities, i hardly know where to begin.

to start the month we got to go up to st george for the 4th of july. i love this new family tradition. this year it was just the sisters up there none of the brothers we able to make it. it was filled with swimming, bowling, bounce houses, shopping, great food, air soft gun wars and of course fireworks. i love that utah still allows fireworks since we can't do them in arizona.

how cute are our little guys with their tiny bowling shoes. i know what you are thinking how could be let them wear those shoes without socks. well we didn't have any and the guy promised he sprays them really well. just focus on how cute they are, thats what we did.

ok i know you are definately noticing my socks. again i didn't pack any socks for any of us so i asked my mom if i could borrow a pair. now my mom subscribes to the idea of color socks are way better then white socks so she of course she gives me a pair of bright orange socks to coordinate with my orange striped shirt. i know it isn't the most flattering picture of me but i had to show you what i was working with.

we decided to take the little boys to jumping jack's and we actually the the place pretty much to ourselves and we had a great time. i think the dads were having more fun then jack and tyler.




a shot of the guys right before they went out to war. they seemed to really enjoy themselves even though they came back with twisted ankles, welts on their faces, backs and chest and scrapes all over their legs and arms. they all went back out the next night.

when we got back from st george we were lucky enough to have john's family here to hang out and play. we went to the mall for some of jacks favorite noodles from panda express and of course to follow that we rode the carousel. then nana, papa, jack and i headed up to prescott, arizona for the "cooler" weather and to see if it could be a place for nana and papa to live. they loved the little town but it is really quite expensive to live there. of course while they were staying with us jack wanted to go feed the ducks again and then have some fun at the park and play in the water. then to finish the week laura, kevin, lilly and max came up for the weekend and played a marathon of rock band. seeing as i'm pretty shy about singing or playing an insturment infront of people i stuck with cooking with my awesome helpler max. if anyone needs something mixed he is your man.

can you believe it, jack is actually eating something other then chicken nuggets or a PBandJ sandwich. now our little max man loves to eat. john likes to say he looks like a shark because he loves eating so much he rolls his eyes back into his head, like a shark does when they eat.

this is not your aveage carousel, it is two stories and they other cousins went up there so we couldn't get a good picture of them.


while we drove around prescott arizona we stopped at good old burger king for some lunch and of course jack had to take his tennis ball that papa gave him with us.



just some good old playing around the park with nana, papa, mom and dad.

are you seeing the serious concentration on their faces. this had to be some of the funniest times we've had in a long time. i was laughing so hard i started crying. everyone should come and experience this.

me being the party pooper that i am, cooking with max.

this last week john was out of town pretty much the whole week so i went down to hang out in gilbert. i know more about what there is to do down there then i do in my own neck of the woods. we went to rosa's mexican resturant for tommy's birthday and then went night swimming. i'm glad i have family around me so i have someone to keep me company when john is out of town. friday my dad actually came down here and he came to see my house and took us out for lunch. that night we went to a diamondbacks game. they were playing the dodgers and the dodgers actually won. go dodgers. jack was actually really good at the game. i guess watching all that espn with daddy has really paid off because jack was fascinated with the game.

as you can see this month has been so much fun, i'm sad it is almost over. i love summertime even when it is 112 degrees outside.

i was going for the worlds longest post and i think i might have gotten it.

FHE anyone?

john and i have decided to be better about having family home evening and last week we had a little lesson and then proceeded to venture out into the 110 degree weather to feed the ducks. people who know me know that i'm not very good with animals, most tend to scare the crap out of me so being surrounded by so many ducks was quite an undertaking for me. needless to say i was the camera man and john and jack did the feeding. how lame am i that i let my baby do the job i'm afraid of. jack actually really liked it and thought it was the funniest thing to throw the bread at the ducks (relatively speaking) not to the ducks. i guess maybe next time i will get brave and try actually feeding the ducks.

you can't tell from these pictures but there were 20 something ducks surrounding us. that is why my camera work is so shaky because i was afraid i was going to step on a duck or worse they were going to attack by surpise

this was going to be a really cool picture because when jack and john started walking away all the ducks were following them. but of course another family decided to start feeding the ducks right then and there so they all ran over to them. lame family ruining my picture.


sorry the video is so shaky

happy father's day...and more

i justed wanted to wish all the fathers out there a very happy fathers day, but i especially want to let my "hooch" know that he is the very best father i could ask for, for our little jack jack. i could not do the things we have to do if i didn't have you as my partner. i know that jack loves you and is so happy to have you as his father. i hope that our jack jack grows up to be just like his dad. we love you daddy.

another note of interest, we found out on friday that jack qualified for developemental preschool. i have mixed emotions about the whole thing, happy that he is going to get the extra help he needs but a little sad he needs the extra help. if that makes any sense at all. i guess i'm just shallow or somethings because i just want jack to live an average childs life and that is not the path heavenly father has in store for him. i know that, that means he has a super strong spirit and i'm lucky heavenly father thought john and i were the best parents for him. i guess i'm just having a human moment. don't get me wrong i know that jack can and will do anything he wants to do in life.

so back to the origianlly point of this, he will actually start school this august and he will go 4 days a week for 2 and a half hours. i can't believe my baby is going to be in school. not that 2 and a half hours is a long time but i don't know what i'm going to do with myself. i haven't been alone in my house for more then an hour since jack was born. well wish us luck with this whole transition, i'm pretty sure jack will love it and really benefit from this opportunity.

what a way to kill the happy fathers day, huh!?!?

memorial day festivities

this last weekend we had a blast. it made me even more grateful that i live here in arizona because we are closer to family. monday we had all our family come over for a carne asada bbq. of course the kids pretty much played outside on the swing set and the pool. it was an unusually cool memorial day for arizona, it only got to be about 80, so perfect for the days festivities. thanks to all who came up, it was a blast.

uncle kevin and aunt steph decided to put the pool at the bottom of the slide. it was pretty funny watching the kids launch off the slide and crash into the pool. sounds bad but no kids were hurt and they had a blast.
why is it that all boys love playing with the hose.
sweet cousin max, the ultimate boy.

the boys wanted to go outside and play and the little turkeys went into the pool with their pj's on.

officially the last backyard post

ok so i know i said that the swing set would be built on monday, well it ended up taking these guys 3 days to put the whole thing together. when they finally finished it, it of coursed rained. jack would sit at the window and cry because he wanted to go out and play on it. today it stopped raining long enough that i decided to let go out and play on it while it was wet. he loved it and we played out there for over an hour. with no further delays here it is, the mother of all swing sets...

Uncle Jonathan the bachelor

this weekend we not only got "grass" in our backyard but jonathan came up to hang out because his little family went up to st. george and he had to stay behind. i think he really missed his family because he was willing to get in the little pool with jack and play. what a good sport. but if you look behind the activities in the pool you can see our new lawn. jack loves having a place to play, too bad it is so dang hot i don't really want to hang out back there. we usually go out around five or six in the evening and have some fun. monday (which is tomorrow) a guy is going to come and put together the massive swing set we got for jack, we are totally excited.

California all the way

last week we took a family vacation down to the good old hood, that is north hollywood. we went down to spend time with john's family and take jack to disneyland for the first time. i have to say that we took so many pictures that i'm a little overwhelmed at the thought of doing this post. i thought i would make it a little easier on myself and do a smilebox scrapbook. here is a little snip it of our trip.

Make a Smilebox photobook

as if that wasn't enough here is a cute video from our day at the zoo. jack really liked watching the monkeys swing all over the place so we went over to the howler monkeys. when we first got there they were just swinging around and then they went nuts and started howling at each other. it was pretty crazy.

Dying in anticipation...

I know after the last post, you are all checking back every day to see how the back yard turned out. Well here it is:

Ok, well, it's still not all the way done. The other shot I would have to put in here is the roll of artificial grass that is currently sitting in our driveway. Anyhow, Jack loves all the rocks that are now out there for him to pick up and throw. He likes them so much that I am tempted to not even put up his swing set! Here is one more picture for you...

the work has finally begun

so i'm taking time away from packing to say, i'm pleased to annouce that we have finally broken ground in our backyard. we have trees and bushes in our backyard and by the time we come back from california it should all be complete except for our huge swing set that we have to hire a handyman to build because we don't have the tools to do it ourselves. so here are some pictures of the backyard in progress. we will post more when it is all the way done. hooray for tommy for making this happen!!!

getting with the program

so back in good old orem, utah our friends were all good about getting excercise and lets just say that john and i aren't the best. while i was in st. george john and i decided we needed to get moving more so we stole my moms treadmill and got ourselves some real running shoes. that is right i said running shoes. we all know that john and i are anti running but we decided it was the cheapest and hopefully easiest way to get some exercise in. so i'm happy to report that we have now exercised six days in a row (of course we didn't exercise on sunday) and we are going strong. we aren't up to running the whole time yet but we will get there. i'm just happy i'm doing something. and jack of course loves to get on the treadmill and do his part.

exploring the red rocks

so this past week jack and i went up to st george while john was in baltimore. pawpop took us up to the red rocks and jack was is heaven. he loved finding all the small rocks and sticking them in the holes and climbing in the tunnels. we had a blast, i actually really miss utah.

this one is for you sarah

I'm only doing this tag because I love Sarah. If you can't tell it is about me and John

How long have you been together? We have been together for 8 years, married for 6 of those years. We have known each other since I was 13.

Who said "I Love You" first? John said it first and I can remember it like it was yesterday. We had only been dating for about 2 months and I had a "missionary" at the time so when he said it I couldn't say it back to him, I just said thank you. How lame I know but I wasn't sure at the time what I was going to do about the missionary. It took me a while to say it back to him but when I did I knew he was the one for me for sure.

Who is smarter? Obviously I am. Just kidding John is too dang smart for his own good. Everything comes to him easily he can't always appreciate how lucky he is. Lucky for Jack that is dad is super smart otherwise he would be in real big trouble because his mom is how you say, special.

Who Pays the Bills? John does, but I sure do hear all about them.

Who is the most stubborn? Depends on what it is. I would say that Jack is the most stubborn in our household.

Who wears the pants in your family? Again it depends on the situation. But I would say we share the pants really well. Those ar lames answers sorry.

Now, 3 random things about me.

1. I can't sleep if my legs touch skin to skin. I always have to wear pants to bed.

2. I have a mad crush on Jesse James from Monster Garage. I guess he is my bad boy. But it is all good because John knows about him and he has a crush on Serena Williams, don't ask me why, but to each his own.

3. I too have a fetish for ear wax. I can't leave Jacks ears only, poor kid. I thought I was the only one. thanks Sarah, now I don't feel like such a weirdo.

Hmmmm? Who should I tag? Smellin head and Jenica

adios mi amigo!!

you have been a true and trusted friend these past two and a half years. we weren't sure we wanted you at first but you were forced upon us in the NICU and then became an inseperable friend of our sweet jack jack soon after you were introduced. but i'm afraid the time has come for you to leave our family forever. i'm very happy to report that jack has given up his binki about two months ago and hasn't looked back. one step closer to jack no longer being a baby, tons more to go. we are on our way!!