Life

Well, I haven't posted for two months! What can I say...life is BUSY! Danae is being a good big sister...most of the time. She gives Corbin kisses and hugs and talks to him when he's crying...sometimes she tells him to shutup when he's crying. Anyhow, she also loves to push him in her stroller...I know Corbin, it's pink...sorry.

Corbin is growing like a weed and has a contagious happy personality...hope it sticks! He will talk and fuss until you give him attention.

Lizard has been a huge help lately, she is staying the summer to do odd jobs, and also help with the kids...who love her. Yes, Elizabeth, Danae does love you!

My happy boy!

Grammie, Aunt Shell and Eden came to visit for a week. Danae and Eden did some fun activities like make playdough, color pictures, roast marshmallows for S'mores and make glitter horse snow globes.

Danae is Daddy's girl when she's happy...Mommy's girl when she's grumpy or doesn't feel well.

Anyhow, Danae is saying more and more things and putting together sentences all the time. Forget the dolls, her stuffed animals are her babies...and she breast feeds them...they really do take in all that they see, lol.

Michael is plugging away at selling tools, which is going ok...despite little hiccupps like a broken fuel pump in the freight liner.

This is just a quick snapshot update...but life is good and I don't think I could love my little family any more than I do now...they all make me so happy!

A Leap of Faith

I turned in my resignation to my employer of 12 years! Things are falling into place and my prayers are being answered positively, allowing me to be able to make the decision to stay home with our children and be a work at home mommy, I really thought I would never be able to be a WAHM! It is a very scary thing to do, especially in this economy...but so important. I have faith we will be fine. I will miss my career which I have worked hard for but will never regret my decision. It will be hard to turn in my badge, but it will be bitter sweet. Besides, I get to throw Taser Parties, make stick horses and teach women how to defend themselves!

What I won't miss is the schedule, the politics, the jerks (well, ok, sometimes they are kind of fun to deal with believe it or not) but most importantly I won't miss his first steps, her dance lessons, finger painting, cuddling, building sand castles, opening gifts on Christmas morning...just simply being here with them.

A Two-Year-Old's Logic

Just a couple quick snippets of Danae's logic that makes me smile. We've been working on potty training and this is sometimes how the conversation goes when she doesn't want to be interupted of her play time: "Danae, did you poop in your diaper?" "Nope, I farted" "It sure smells like poop" "Yeeeep, I farted" (she draws out her yeps) Although, the other night when we asked that question at the dinner table, I thought Anna was going to blow water out her nose when Danae said excitedly "I got diarrhea!" When its nap time, or bed time, this is sometimes how the converstation goes: "Danae it's time for your nap" "I wake up" She thinks since she woke up this morning, she doesn't have to go back to sleep. (Blogger is ticking me off...I can't get it to do separate paragraphs, sorry)

Chocolate Fish

We got Danae a fish tank about a month ago, to try to get her to sleep in her own room...and it has helped! She has been very good at only putting the fish food we give her in the tank. Sometimes she sticks her hand in, but until today...that was it. So, I'm in the living room with Corbin and talking to my mom on the phone when Danae comes in and says "Where did the fishies go?" I figured they were hiding in the plant and she just couldn't see them. But she was very persistant in wanting to know where the fishies went. Another minute later, she brings me her empty sippy cup which had chocolate milk in it and asked for more chocolate milk. I had given it to her about twenty minutes ago, so I wasn't surprised that is was all gone. She still wanted to know where the fishies went. Then I went to her room to show her where the fishies went and the tank was so clouded with chocolate milk the fish couldn't be seen...where did the fishies go! I hate cleaning fish tanks.

Old Dogs and Children

On Saturday March 12, I said goodbye to my buddy of 14 years. I adopted Tukir from the shelter when I was working there. He was a sick puppy found on the reservation. He was a great dog, despite trying to gnaw on several of my friends when he entered his grumpy midlife. The last year or so, he mellowed out again to the happy dog he was (with everyone...he always stayed happy with me and Michael). I only wish I could have taken him to the ceek one last time, he LOVED the water!

I believe he was also part goat too. He always tried to eat paper, plastic milk jugs, socks, trash and even a ball of lint from the dryer. So in his true fashion, as I was holding him as the vet was getting ready to do the deed, he quickly grabbed the tissue I had in my hand and gobbled it up...I just had to smile...he never lost his spirit despite how horrible I'm sure he felt.

We had Corbin blessed on Sunday March 6. My dad gave a wonderful blessing and Jason, Jon, Jim and Kevin stood in the circle as Michael held Corbin. I of course forgot to hand Michael the pacifier before he walked to the front and Corbin was a bit noisy during the blessing.

Danae was having a meltdown before we left for church...she has more and more of those and she usually isn't a morning person. She was refusing to smile or even show me her mouth and the look on Corbin's face just makes it even better.

Danae loves to fix...or "fhic" as she says...things and help daddy. She got a big girl bed with a under bed hideout and lots of drawers for her toys.

She also got a fish tank! She loves to watch the fish whenever we see a fish tank so we thought it might help her want to sleep in her own bed between the fish and a new bed...and it worked! She has to show everyone who comes over her fish and she'll sit in front of them and just watch them sometimes. She has actually been very good at not putting anything but fish food in the tank.

Welcome Corbin Rafe

Corbin arrived on Thursday January 20,2011 at 11:49 am. We began the enducement, AKA eviction process, at 5:00 am...and boy was I ever ready! He weighed in at 8 lbs 12 oz... no wonder I had been sooo tired. He was 20 inches long. My Mom and Michael were my support crew for the delivery. It didn't take but a few pushes and he was here...much different than Danae's delivery. His eyes are blue...Grammie and Michael are hoping they will change to brown. His hair is on the light side too...again...hopes for brown from Grammie and Michael.

Danae has only told Corbin to "go away" once. She has had to adjust but she is doing well with "baby Corbin". She helps mommy burp him, she kisses him on his head, she stuffs his pacifier in his mouth and she brings me wipes for changing his diaper. She tries to help mommy pump, she puts the lanolin on herself just like mommy and she wraps up her duck in a blanket like a baby...but I absolutely draw the line when she asks for a "bite" of Corbin's milk!

I want to thank Anna & Nando for watching Danae while we were at the hospital, my Mom for being there for me, watching Danae and helping out, to all the ladies who brought meals to us for the first few nights home from the hospital, to Jim Mathis for bringing me my 'traditional' after delivery blizzard from Dairy Queen to the hospital, to Grammie for helping out for two weeks and to all my friends and family for their support in the many forms...all those diapers, blankets, clothes, gift cards, cash, etc have all been very helpful!

Chocolate Cherrios

Before I start my little story, I want to preface it with the fact I know they make chocolate cherrios now, but I have not bought them, I have not pointed them out to Danae, and as far as I know she still can't read and hasn't noticed them for herself.... with that said, this is the conversation I had with my little sweet-toothed 2 year-old:

Danae had recently woken up and its time for her to eat her breakfast. She comes to me and asks for chocolate.

I say: "its too early for chocolate, you need to eat some cerial"

Her eyes go deep in thought and a smile crosses her face as she says: "Chocoalte Cherrios!"

Striking a compromise already! So I poured her a bowl of Cherrios and drizzled a touch of chocolate syrup on top....happy girl. ...and no, I'm still not going to buy the chocolate ones from the store :)

Finding the time...and energy!

Just thought I'ld update everyone a little on our happenings. Sorry, no pictures...I will post some later.

Danae's birthday went well, except for the fact the poor girl was sick most of that week. She has been sick on and off since going to preschool, which is expected. Lots of family and some friends showed up to help her celebrate. The smile on her face when she realized everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her was priceless! She isn't much into the unwrapping of gifts, but gets interested once you show her what's inside. This cutie just can't get enough of balloons and elephants right now.

Thanksgiving was good, we had Bear and Jenni with their two boys, Jodi, John and Lizard and Tonya and Ronin come over for Thanksgiving dinner. Bear and Jenni stayed the night before to help make pies and relax too.

Danae had a Christmas program and got total stage fright. Can't blame her! When a two year old is paraded into an auditorium of strange adults then walked right past her mommy and daddy...all she wanted was us. She threw a fit and never made it to the stage. That's ok, we have been having our own little performance from her. She loves jingle bells and has been singing jingle bells for weeks...which is the song her class was performing. She had also been at preschool since 7 am and the program was at 7 pm...long day for our little girl!

Lizard threw me a wonderful babyshower the weekend before Christmas. A small group attended...it's just a difficult time of year...but we had fun regardless! Thank you Lizard and Jodi!

We took Bear and Jenni on their 4th annual Christmas Tree Hunt on our family's property in Williams. Then to lunch at Pine Country. It was a fun day....no snow this year....just lots of mud!

Danae met Santa, but wasn't too impressed. She grabbed the candycane and wouldn't get close to him.

We spent Christmas in Williams with my family. There was snow on the ground, so it was basically a white Christmas. My mom and I stayed up way too late on Christmas Eve (4 am) making a bean bag chair for Danae. I was determined to have it under the tree on Christmas morning. My mom stuck right in there with me. I'm not sure how I managed to stay up that late...I have been so exhausted all the time. If Danae didn't sit in that bean bag on Christmas, I was going to tie her in it because we worked so hard to get it done. Fortunately, she loves it and plops in it. Only at a Cureton gift exchange would the game FART not be considered a practical joke gift. The game is actually quite fun!

I had my 36 week ultrasound just before Christmas. Corbin is measuring just under 7 lbs, give or take a pound. He should gain about 1/2 lb a week until he is born. I have been having tons of Braxton Hicks and just overall uncomfortable! But, I am grateful for this gift and hangin' in there. Yep, I'm still at work, at a desk of course...no chasing the crooks with this big belly!

Danae is learning new words and things every day and its a blast! Its so much fun watching her learn and grow, there is nothing more I'ld rather do!

Our Etsy shop reached its 100th sale! I made about 8 hobby horses/hobby unicorns in about two weeks...I'm sure they were all Christmas presents. The hobby horse pattern is also still selling well.

The Matco business is going well. We got into it in the slower season, but we're holding our own. Michael is enjoying it and now he is the one who gets recognized and talked to when we run errands...he's not too sure what to think about that.

Well, thats been our life in a nutshell the last two months.

Halloween

We weren't really thinking too much about doing the Halloween thing this year. Then Michael's Mom sent Danae the cutest lady bug costume.

On Friday night Danae and Michael carved a pumpkin. She thought that was lots of fun. The most fun came when it was time to light the candle and she kept blowing it out. She even got to the point she would growl at the light then blow it out. Then she thought it was funny to grab Daddy's hair and help his face into the pumpkin so he could blow out the candle.

Saturday we went to the Fall Festival at the church and man was it crowded! We had a soup potlock, played some games then did the Trunk or Treat. She wasn't the only ladybug...but she was the cutest! She had to wear a neclace so I gave her one that wasn't very expensive in case she broke it.

She wasn't sure about the trick or treating part. The first piece of candy she got in her pumpkin was a sucker and from then on we had to try to distract her from the sucker so she would do a little more trick or treating. All she wanted was to eat that sucker! She had to look in her pumpkin every time someone dropped some candy inside. I'm glad she was feeling better by the time the Fall Festival rolled around since she had a fever for two days up until that afternoon.

Preschool!

Danae has been showing readiness to play with other children and learn, so I put her in preschool instead of my in-home babysitter/nanny. Danae loves it. She shows up to school and hugs the other kids that are there as early as she is and just smiles. She's been doing art every day and learning her letters. They sang happy birthday at school and now she tells her 'chewy' (pacifier) happy birthday. She is almost weaned from chewy except she recently had a relapse. With all the exposure to other kids and then of course germs, she has been coughing and conjested and has had her first fever. So when she is sick, she wants chewy.

Yesterday another child was crying and she went over to him and patted him on the back and asked him "are you ok?" I think she'll be a social butterfly.

I wanted photos of her on her first day of preschool, that morning wasn't very smooth. Danae had been used to sleeping in and she had to get up at 6 am. She wanted nothing to do with the camera. When we arrived at school, the picture I got was the "are you kidding" pouting look. She was equipped with her ladybug backpack, new jacket and Tinkerbell lunch box.

Her teacher is a personal friend, which I am happy for that. I think Danae really loves her preschool!

Matco Tools

Michael is home from Matco Tool school in Ohio. He has been on the road now for two weeks and things seem to be going well. He's getting things down and the route changed up to run smoother, etc. I'm very proud of him and I think he's enjoying the change. He has been working about 12 hour days / 5 days a week between the route, closing out, doing inventory and orders, etc. Which also makes for long exhausting days for me as well, but pregnancy will do that.

Danae is so happy to have her daddy home, so is mommy :) We'll keep truckin' and hope we can run the business at least at the par of the previous owner, but its going well and kinks are getting worked out.

...and a huge thanks to Jason and Nando for putting the closet organizer in! Michael loves it and it saved him a couple days of work, like he doesn't already have enough piled on to get done. Thank you, it looks beautiful!

Monkey Hear, Monkey Repeat

I have to admit, I have a bad habbit of saying "Damnit". I never realized I said this word as much as I do until I really started listening to myself. Danae has been saying it and I am trying to get her to remove the word from her vocabulary. It does make you giggle and smile when she says it so appropriately...but nonetheless...not ok for an almost 2 year old...or her mommy...to be saying.

The other day she had a sheet of stickers and was peeling them off and sticking them on her bare belly and legs. She got to one sticker she just couldn't get off and I hear her clear as a bell "damnit stickers!"

For the Birds

Danae loves most critters and birds are no exception. She enjoys teasing, feeding and petting Emily and has to have her out at breakfast, lunch and dinner to sit on her chair while she eats. She loves to follow the neighbor's chickens around when they make it over to our property. She has really become attached to three plastic dove decoys...even taking them to bed as if they were stuffed animals. Then the other day a Blue Heron/Sand Crane, you know those huge gray stork looking water/swamp birds, flew overhead and I pointed it out to Danae. I had to smile when Danae looked up at this huge bird in the sky, held out her arm and curled her hand under (like she does when she wants to hold Emily or a bug) and said "on hand". Little does she realize the bird is bigger than she is.

Trying to Keep a Straight Face

Danae has been quite hyper later, either that or I have just been more tired. She had her "Frumpy" stuffed lion and was teasing Emily throught he cage by hitting the cage with Frumpy. I had told her to stop, I had given her a spanking because she didn't stop...and yes, she continued. So when I looked at her with an upset face and told her sternly no once again, she looked at me, smiled, started wiggling her rearend and said "dance".

We plan to name him...

Corbin Rafe Dearden. Michael had picked out Rafe from a Louis L'Amour book "Crossfire Trail" quite sometime ago. I never liked it and told him absolutely not! I've wanted Wyatt for a long time and Michael said no way! So when I found out my little bundle is a boy I actually hit the internet for "cowboy names". Corbin was one in a list of mostly common names. I wrote it down but wasn't too hip to it just yet. For days Michael and I through name combinations around and one day I put together Rafe Corbin, and it had a ring to it I liked; however, sounded better as Corbin Rafe. I wanted to spell it Raef and Michael was wanting Rafe.

I bugged him for a few days planting, ok kinda forcing, the seed in his head for Corbin Rafe. He didn't like the spelling I wanted so we hit the Louis L'Amour book to see how he spelled it. Ok, so Rafe it is. Once I agreed to that spelling, Michael agreed to Corbin Rafe. So there you have it :)

Got Tools?

Opportunity has knocked and we opened the door, signed the papers and Michael is going to be leaving for tool-man school on Sept 21 in Ohio. We bought the Verde Valley/Flagstaff route for the Matco mobile tool truck. Michael's last day at Red Rock Jeeps is Thursday the 9th and he is ready for the change. He has developed allergies to some of the oils and working in the heat box of a shop is wearing on him.

So here's to taking a leap and trying something new! Its a little scary knowing Michael has no set income and it will depend soley on his sales, but that can be a very good thing for us too. Its as exciting as it is scary to go out on a limb and go into business for yourself. But the other option is to keep doing what we're doing and just wonder if it would have ever worked out for us.

Here's to something new!

For the Love of Horses

Ok, so these aren't horse, but I wanted to throw this picture in there. The neighbor's chickens come over sometimes and my little animal hound loves to follow them and get as close as she can. She gets upset when they run home and she can't follow them anymore.

Now for the horses. She loves these two. She has to go in and pet them at feeding time and whenever she is outside and they come to the fence she has to say hello. My nibbler, T-Bone, does well with her and usually will keep his mouth to himself.

They love the attention as much as she loves them.

She finally discovered my collection of Breyer horses up on a high shelf. She just had to play with them, and they are quite sturdy so I let her play. She talked to them for about an hour. She washed them, then she put them to bed and got a wipe...or blanket...for each one and covered them up. What was really cute was at dinner she insisted on having one with her, so I let her. She set it on the table and then she held a fork full of peas to its mouth and began talking to it saying things like "yummy".

I know what collection I'm going to start for her. No barbies, its going to be Breyer horses. She really loves her critters! She really never showed much interest in the one baby doll she had.

What to name him?

Ok, Michael and I have agreed on a name. For a little fun, I posted a poll to the left. Please vote on the name you think we have picked and I will announce it soon.

The baby is a ....

BOY!! He was cooperating very much during the ultrasound yesterday and made it obvious numerous times that he is a boy. Now for names...that is going to be a tough one since Michael and I don't quite agree on many boys names...time to hash it out. We have so much to get done. Time to move all of our hobby/craft stuff to another location then paint and decorate his room.

Puddles, Bugs and Kansas

Here is a condensed picture update. We took a trip to Kansas the end of July to surprise Michael's mom and tell them all another little Dearden is on the way. This time our good buddy Shawn joined us because he is a HUGE John Deere fan and has wanted to go to Kansas for a while since they make 'em bigger out in Kansas. He finally made it and he is welcome back with us anytime. Did you ever see a more contagious smile! That's our happy Shawn, its the squeaky little John Deere horn on this big tractor that has him so excited. We found this butterfly at the farm when we were letting Shawn climb on the equipment. As usual, Danae was very interested in it, she didn't touch this one though.

Danae watched the Leoti parade, which is one of the few parades I've been to that remembers what a parade is supposed to be with passing out candy, etc. Danae collected several suckers, or "sticks" as she decided to call them. She is pictured above with her cousin Eden who is one year older than her.

Danae has sat on the horses a few times, once with mommy in uniform, then when mommy or daddy held her up there and this time she actually rode around a little with Daddy on T-Bone. She of course loved it!

This water hound was so excited when we introduced her to puddles. Now I'm not sure that she gets excited over the rain because she likes the rain or because it makes puddles. She gets so upset when mommy or daddy go out into the heavy rain, I think it scares her. Thanks to Lizard, these cute pink sandals make the best little puddle jumpers!

Of course with rain comes snails. This was Danae's first introduction to snails and she was intrigued at first and soon lost interest, but she of course wanted to hold it.