Leavin' on a Jet Plane ...

The Merry Christmas post below was a bit ... well, it was a bit of a manipulation. It's not pictures of Christmas morning ... it's pictures of the afternoon of Christmas Eve. I scheduled the post to appear on our blog mid-morning on Christmas so we could secretly travel to Denver to visit our family.

Christian did remarkably well on our journey. He was great at the airport ... great on the plane (we planned ahead and bought a portable DVD player and he watched "The Polar Express." He did great on the terminal train at the Denver airport, great on the bus to the rental car.

More pics of our trip are coming up!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! May your day be blessed!

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve!

Have I ever mentioned I love living here in the Phoenix area? December ... and clear blue skies, lush green grass, and warm temps. The grass is doing so unexectedly well that Jonathan had to actually mow the lawn today. Last year, we didn't need to mow the lawn all winter.



We set out luminarias again this year. You can take the girl out of New Mexico, but you can't take New Mexico out of the girl. I simply MUST put out luminarias at Christmas!

My sister stopped by tonight with tamales for dinner - yum!

Zoo Monday - December 20, 2010

Jonathan had to work again today, so today was "Zoo Monday." There is a playground just inside to the zoo entrance, and if given the opportunity, Christian would have spent our entire zoo visit going down the slide (over and over again).

We got to see some birds and kangaroos before he started losing interest and just wanted to be carried around. He's much too big these days for me to carry him around like that, so we didn't get to see much of the zoo at all.

But that is oikay ... we went to the zoo to have fun. And he sure did have fun on the slide!

A Wonderful, Delightful, Happy Surprise!

If your husband unexpectedly asks what he can do to help out around the house, and then suggests, himself, that he clean the bathroom ... be suspicious.

If your husband reminds you to keep things picked up one morning, when normally he doesn't care ... be suspicious.

If your husband sends you an e-mail early in the day and tells you he'll be in meetings for the rest of the day, and unavailable ... be suspicious.

On Friday night, Christian's school had "Parent's Night Out." So Jonathan and I planned on dinner together at the nice restaurant in our community.

For my birthday on Thursday, Jonathan sent me this Birthday Gram. I thought the use of my high school logo was a bit odd. And wasn't sure why he included the image of two girls hugging each other.

Jonathan came home late Friday afternoon. I knew he had come inside ... and I was busy with Christian, who had just woken up and was in desperate need of a diaper change. The doorbell rang, and I went to answer it - surpirsed by two things 1) Jonathan didn't get the door himself and 2) Bella didn't bark.

I opened the door, and before me was my best friend since first grade, Valerie. I hadn't seen her in a year and half or so ... and I was just floored.

Turns out, she and Jonathan had been planning her arrival for weeks. WEEKS!

But her arrival wasn't the only surprise. The plan was for us go to the Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale for a spa day, dinner, overnight stay and movie in the room. It was like a dream come true!

Valerie and I had such a blast! We went shopping, ate a lot of sushi, got all caught up on eachother's lives ... and laughed and laughed. And we watched "Inception" in the hotel room.

Valerie also came bearing gifts: red chile (YES!!!), beautiful jewelry and socks for me, and a kite and a Kimochi for Christian.

It was an absolutely perfect weekend ... and the best birthday EVER! Many, many thanks to Jonathan and Valerie for this very special treat!

Los Luceros De Arizona

Christian and Mommy

The Lucero Men

Today we'll focus on the Lucero men!

By the way, the photos in this series were taken by my talented sister, Liz!

Wordless Wednesday - December 15, 2010

The Cherry Cordial Hershey Kiss

I bought a bag of "Cherry Cordial Hershey Kisses" tonight and decided to let Christian try one.

We unwrappeed one and gave it to him and, 'It's chocolate!" And he replied, "Choc-watt!" (I LOVE the way he says chocolate - it'll be one of those things that is engrained in my memory forever).

He loved it and we gave him one more ... but left it wrapped. He wasn't too sure what to do with it, but tugged on that little paper, and slowly unwrapped it. When he freed the Kiss from its wrapper, Christian happily proclaimed, "It's BEAUTIFUL!!!!"

He ate it, and naturally, asked for, "More choco-watt kisses?" Our answer was no ... two was enough. Rather than having a total meltdown (which we expected), he extended his arm across the table and put his head down in defeat. And then oh-so-quietly said, "Go sit on couch, please."

The couch is where we got sit after dinner when Christian has grown impatient that Jonathan and I are still eating. We finish our dinner and then I say, "Christian, do you want to sit on the couch with me."

So asking to sit on the couch indicated he knew wasn't going to win the battle for another piece of chocolate. He was defeated.

"It's BEAUTIFUL!!!"

Musical Muffin Monday - December 13, 2010

Christian's personality has been changing a lot lately. He's becoming more assertive with what he wants, and more irritable when he doesn't get what he wants (I'll discuss his recent habit of meltdowns in public and visits to the "naughty corner" in another post).

Christian's teacher at school is out on maternity leave, and one of his most favorite people in the whole world, Miss Stephanie, has taken over for the next few weeks. Miss Stephanie seems to be the only other person with whom Christian will share his affections. It took him months to get comfortable enough with her ... but it's so easy to love Miss Stephanie. She's fun, outgoing, loveable ... we're really big fans of Miss Stephanie.

But it seems that Christian is so comfortable with her that he's now being defiant when she asks him to do something. In the past, he never needed any "redirecting" at school and now ... well ... it's a whole other story.

Likewise, today at music school, Christian wasn't too into any of it. He wasn't paying attention ... wasn't doing as the teacher asked him to do. Jonathan tried to get him to engage, but Christian wasn't interested.

Christian was like this last week, too. And so we think that his music school days are coming to an end. The teacher is really nice, but she's very quiet and doesn't have an energetic personality ... and Christian needs somebody who is energetic like he is. So, we have decided we need to find him something more interactive to do on Monday mornings. Shouldn't be too hard, as there's lots to do in Phoenix. The difficulty will be finding something that is fairly close to our house.

Wordless Wednesday - December 8, 2010

My Other Project - Custom Onesies

Ah, the Onesie ... one of the best baby / toddler inventions, ever. Christian had just about outgrown all his Onesies when I found 3T onesies at the store the other day!

In the past few months, I've had three pregnant friends and so when looking for something unique to give them, I decided to make some cute, custom onesies.

My most recent onesie project was for Christian's teacher. She was having a girl, but didn't like "girlie things" and told me she had decorated the baby's room in "baby skulls." So I set out for a way to decorate onesies with baby skulls ... and I succeeded!




I also went to a little craft fair, and found somebody else had my idea and had custom onesies with skull and cross bones. Although, her onesies feature original artwork, whereas mine are purchased iron-on transfers.

She charged $10.00 for one onesie. I paid less than that for four white onesies (plus the cost of all the iron-on transfers, of course). So, if I were ambitous enough, I could make several of them and sell them on Etsy.

Still pondering that opportunity.

And I happened to come across an adorable Hello Kitty iron-on transfer, so I made a shirt for myself, too! :)

My Little Furniture Project

There's a blog I absolutely L.O.V.E.: "Better After" (check it out under my favorite blog list on the right).

I love seeing how people transform an ugly piece of furniture (or a room) into something absolutely dreamy. And I vowed that if I ever came across a piece of furniture I though had potential, I'd try my hand at refurbishing it.

And so I walked into the Goodwill store in Scottsdale when we were in that part of the Valley. This particular Goodwill store is the first of its kind: it's sole focus is furniture.

And that is where I found this little treasure and paid just $18.00 for it!

I love the shape of it, and the metal grate on the door. And it just screamed, "Fix me!" Much to my surprise, Jonathan was on-board with the idea of turning this piece into our little treasure.

So we bought a smaller sander, and I got to work.

We're trying to figure out where it'll go ... and the location will help to deside what color I paint it.

I'm thinking some shade of white, and then I can "glaze" the various grooves and scrolls to make them stand out.

The exciting thing is that my favorite catalog, "Ballard Designs," sells similar pieces of furniture from $300 and up ... and I paid a mere $18.00.

So stay tuned for the final reveal of my handiwork!!

Wordless Wednesday - December 1, 2010

Musical Muffin Monday - November 29, 2010

Wordless Wednesday - November 24, 2010

Musical Muffin Monday - November 22, 2010

Today was another installment of "Muffin Monday Mommy Style," as Jonathan had to work today.

Our morning started off with breakfast at Mimi's. And then music school and then a visit to Barnes and Noble. Christian loves their kids' books section ... but Mommy forgot about their Wall o' Thomas (the train). Christian got really mad when I pried him away from the Thomas wall for a bathroom break ... and then really mad a bit later when I told him it was time to go (and without the two trains he so desperately wanted).

He cried and screamed as we walked through the store and it was terribly embarassing. But I just stayed calm and quiet as we made our way to the door (there was nothing I could possibly say to calm him down - except for buy him something, which wasn't going to happen).

We got outside and the fit continued. He plopped down onto the sidewalk and intentionally banged his forehead into the sidewalk and looked up for my reaction. I did my best to not give him a reaction, and told him I was going to keep on walking. Well, that made him really, really mad ... so, I decided it was simply time for us to get into the car and go home.

Ah, to be the parent of a three year old ... it's not always easy.