Congrats Mike!

This deserves a post on it's own. Mike's fiscal year ended in July and he ended up number 1 out of 58 is his company with almost $2 million GMD. I am soooo super proud of him and all his hard work. There were many stressful days for him, vacation days spent dealing with issues, hot (like over 112 degree) days spent outside working with his guys doing installs and sleepless nights of calling in propane deliveries and dealing with problem equipment. But, Mike is such a hard worker and wants everything to be just perfect.

His company had a big get together for all the sales guys this past week at their corporate office area in Kansas City. He received an award for being #1!



This is a picture of him and John Loeb (who was #2 and lives here in Chandler) with their awards!!

Congrats Mike, we are so proud of you and we managed to survive while you were away!!

A Whole Lotta Posts In One

Wow! It has been some time. There hasn't been too much going on, but a lot to update.

A couple of weeks ago, Papa Ron and Nana came to visit the kids. Well, they actually came to meet the newest grandson, Sam. It was a fun filled weekend with lots of family time. The kids really enjoyed their visit with them. We usually rotate houses for each day they are here and everyone gets a chance to host. We hosted Thursday because I don't work, so they can come to our house when they land and then everyone can come over after work. We had pizza and I actually had some. It has been a YEAR since I have had pizza. It was as delicious as I remember, but I did wake up feeling like I had a hangover. Oh well, I will have it again sometime, but just not as often as I did a long time ago.
Anyway, we did get a family shot:

Apparently my nephew likes to do a thumbs up in all his photos! Ha!!

****************************************************************

Noah has been doing ok in his big boy bed. We have had some hiccups along the way. He is waking up in the middle of the night more often now. He used to sleep through the night, but not anymore. A lot of times he thinks there are bugs in his bed. We had to go and buy new sheets, because he would see big blobs and think they were bugs. Last night was particularly bad. He was up screaming for over an hour.  Part of the problem was that Mike had been gone for 3 days and he didn't get home until after the kids went to bed last night and he went in there and at that point, Noah just wanted daddy.  Noah is a smart kid and if you start with any bad habits, it only takes one night of sleeping in there to get it to be a daily occurrence, so we had to just keep going in and telling him that it was ok and that he could sleep just fine on his own. It is still rough, it is still an adjustment for him and it is just a phase (or at least that is what I have to tell myself).

****************************************************************
We bought electric toothbrushes for the kids last week. If I would have known that doing this would cause them to want to brush their teeth a million times a day, I would have done it sooner. Nonetheless, they really like brushing their teeth.


********************************************************************
Mike pulled his first sweet potatoes from the garden.

I baked one up and it was great. Looking forward to the fall when we will start getting the rest!

*******************************************************************
Mike was gone for a couple of days, so the kids and I went to the mall to get new kicks! I feel like we are always buying shoes!! Ava has been walking on the balls of her feet and it is causing her arches to hurt. I really need to take her to the doctor. In the meantime, we bought shoes that fit her now and not ones to grow into. The ones that she has to grow into are just too loose and couple that with how she has been walking and we were having daily issues. Noah had to get in on the action too because he is down to 1 pair. Never a good thing in this house!!

Ava Sang

Ava goes to a church run Pre school. So part of the curriculum is going to Chapel twice a month. They learn a story from the Bible and at the end of it they sing a song that they learned in class. Last year, Ava would not sing. She would not move her hands. She would not smile. She would just stand there looking a little scared. I bribed her with many toys. We even bought one and kept it out so she could see it. I would bring it to Chapel just in case she would sing. Nope, nope, not having it. The very last Chapel last year, she did move her hands just a little.

So, this year, I was hoping that she would have matured a bit and would sing. We recently went to Toys 'R' Us for an outing and Ava saw a baby stroller that she wanted. I told her she could have it for Christmas or if she sang at Chapel.  She would just respond by saying, "I will just wait until Christmas mommy". That was code for, I am not going to sing.

Yesterday was the first Chapel of the year and we talked about the stroller before school and she was still saying that she wanted it for Christmas. Then, we went to Chapel, listened to the story and all the kids got up front to sing their song and guess what, Ava SANG!!! Que the bells. I was so excited, I teared up a bit. This is big!

After they were all done, I went up to her and told her how proud I was of her and told her we would make a trip to Toys 'R' Us after dinner.

After dinner, we went and she picked out her stroller.

She was sooooo excited and she is taking her baby in her stroller everywhere. I just love seeing how happy this makes her.

I know the image is a bit blurry, but she is the one in the front with the purple shirt pointing to herself.

I am such a proud mama!

Ava's First Day of Pre-K

Yesterday was Ava's first day of Pre School. She is going Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-12. We had the option of sending her 5 days a week, but decided that 3 days would be better for her. She has the rest of her life of school.  She did great. I think I was more nervous than she was. I remember always being nervous on the first day of school. You never know what to expect. She had a great time and is excited to go back. Always a plus. She has some friends in her class from last year too, so I think that helps.She is growing up too fast!

Hastag Happy

Not sure if you all have joined the Instagram party, but if not, you should. I love it. You can follow me at: @saraleptuch

Here is a post in hastags from the past week or so of what we have been up to:


#youhavetotakeapictureandframeitofallmyanimals


#prekorientation
#mylittlegirlisgrowinguptoofast


#iwilldounassistedpullupsbytheendoftheyear
#rougefitnessassistedpullupband
#lookscanbedecieving
#thisthingwillkickmybutt


#noaheatingataco
#waitnoahisacutallyeatingsomething
#wishiknewthatputtinganythinginatacoshellwouldgetmykidstoeat
#wemayhaveeatentacos5daysthisweek


#siblinglove
#needisaymore


#fashionista


#toocutetoonotpost
#shelovesherdolls

Noah's Big Boy Bed

We finally made the plunge and put Noah in a big boy bed yesterday. I knew the time was coming. Not because he was climbing out or anything, it is just the natural progression. I wanted him to be in a big boy bed before we started potty training. I guess you can say potty training is our end game. We first started with a monkey clock in his room. That was for 2 reasons: 1. to keep him in his room long enough for us to get showered in the morning and 2. So that he could practice following direction. He has to wait for the monkey to open his eyes to call for us.  Now, we put him in his big boy bed. Next is to get rid of his sleep sack and finally, we will potty train. I am currently aiming for the week in October that Ava is off for school break. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, let's go back to Noah's big boy bed... I knew that I wanted to do this after our trip to LA because Noah is a creature of habit and likes things a certain way. (Gee, I wonder where he gets that from?!) On Thursday we made a trip to Target and bought some new sheets. Even though he wants "Mater" sheets, I just bought something that will match his room and he likes his animal crib sheet, so we went that direction for now.  We pulled the mattress out from the garage (they were in plastic bags) and put them in the house to get him used to the idea and Saturday before nap time, we got his bed all made up and ready.

Bed without the side railing

All set up and ready to go.

Now we have been pumping this up. I told him that he had to wait for mommy or daddy to get him before he could get out of bed and if he did, he would get a treat when he woke up. (We do a lot of bribing around here) So we did our usual nap time routine and put him down. Easy peasy. No problems, no fights. Yay, round 1 was a success!

Then came bedtime. We started gathering the animals and getting everything ready for bed and Noah said, "Put my bed back together, put my bed back together, I don't want to go to bed." Yikes, I was a little worried, but we told him what we were going to do, then we read books and put him down and NOT A PEEP! Success. Now let's see how the rest of the week goes. He will sometimes be ok right away and then digresses, but always comes around.

I just never know how the kids are going to do with things. Ava was easy and I forget that Noah isn't Ava sometimes and he doesn't do things like she did, so it is always stressful for me.

Yay for Noah. One more milestone met without too much heartache, except for mama. My little boy is growing up so fast.

Family Trip to LA for Susan and Troy's Wedding

This past weekend we went to LA for Mike's sisters wedding. I was a little nervous about the trip because Noah likes structure and quietness and I knew that this trip was going to be anything but that. This is also his first real trip.

I packed way more than I needed to, but I didn't know what the weather was going to be like. We had to pack for wedding, wedding rehearsal, 70 degree weather and 90 degree weather.

SATURDAY 7/13/2013: Drive and wedding rehearsal
It is a 6 1/2 hour drive to Redondo Beach, CA which is where the wedding was being held. We woke up and we were out the door at 4 am. We figured that the kids would fall back asleep for a while, but we were wrong. Ava did for a bit, but all the lights leaving Phoenix kept Noah awake Noah did some quite reading with all the new books we brought along (Thanks Mom). Noah had a moment about 2 hours into the drive where he was super tired and started to melt down. I just rubbed his leg and he eventually passed out. Ava got to read the books then and we also brought the DVD player for them to watch videos. We made 3 stops and overall everyone did pretty well.

We arrived around 10:30 am, checked in, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then it was off to the rehearsal. The location of the wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was on a Palos Verdes Golf Course. Noah and Ava practiced walking down the aisle as ring bearer and the "number one" flower girl. That was what Ava was calling herself and number one flower girl she most definitely was. (More on that later).

This is the view from where the guest sat.

We all met up at El Torito afterwards. It was right on the pier and beautiful. Unfortunately Noah was complaining of some problems and crying so we had to cut it short just as our food arrived. We headed back to the hotel and got a short nap in.

SUNDAY 7/14/2013: The beach and wedding day
The sleeping situation had me a bit nervous too. Noah has never slept anywhere but his crib. He ended up sleeping in a bed with Mike that was closest to the wall and we put a comforter in between the bed and the wall as a buffer and Ava and I shared a bed. As always, sleep was an issue. They did pretty good, but Noah was up at the crack of dawn (5am) despite the black out curtains. I think Ava could have slept another 2 hours, but she got up too. After we woke up, I had to find the nearest Starbucks because none of the restaurants opened until 6:30am. We met up with Grandma Nini for breakfast that morning and then headed to the beach.

Noah and Daddy sleeping.

The kids have mixed reaction to the beach at first. Once they got into it, they really enjoyed it. The weather was still overcast and not warm at all, which was nice. Noah was a bit scared of the noise the waves made at first, but Mike took him down to the water to look for shells and he warmed up to it. Ava on the other hand, was having a blast running and jumping face first into the sand and making sand angels. What a weirdo!

There she is running down into the sand as if it was a slip and slide.

And down!

Ava and Noah playing with the shells

Noah and Daddy collecting shells.

Ava making Sand Angels

Noah trying it too!

They were so tired from the lack of sleep and the fresh ocean air that they fell asleep in the stroller on the way back to the hotel (which is how they spent a lot of this trip), so we took them for a walk to Whole Foods too so that they could sleep longer.

We went to the hotel pool for a little bit after that and a lot of people that were there for the wedding were just hanging out, including the groom.

Then we got ready for the wedding.

So stinkin' cute

With Mama!

There was a bus that took everyone to the golf course and home. Ava was so excited to ride without her seat belt.

Then it was wedding time!!! OMG. Noah and Ava were so cute. I really didn't think that Noah was going to walk down the aisle, but he did.

Then the flower girls followed... Now, let me tell you.... There are 4 flower girls, but if you look in the next picture very closely, you will see 3 in the back ground...all but Ava. My immediate reaction was that she wasn't going to come...

Now you can see them getting further down the aisle and still no Ava...

Ahh, here she comes. She was taking her sweet, sweet time very specifically placing the rose petals down. 

Still coming down and still placing each petal down...

still placing them down...

So stinking cute!!! 

I was laughing so hard. She took her job very seriously and she did a great job! She gave Troy a high five when she got to the end.

Mike's dad giving Susan away to Troy!

Such a beautiful ceremony and we all had a blast. It was a 6 o'clock wedding and there was a cocktail hour after. So by the time it was dinner time, Noah was dunzo. He was covering his ear to drown out the noise. He finally fell asleep on me with me covering his ear for a little while. He woke up just in time to have some cupcakes and chocolate!

MONDAY 7/15/2013: MIKE'S MOMS HOUSE
Monday morning we checked out of the hotel and headed back to Mike's moms house. His mom's side of the family was coming over that afternoon to visit. There was family from Germany in town, so everyone wanted to visit. This is where Noah started going downhill fast. There were about 30 or so people there and Noah doesn't like being around big groups. He was whiny and tired. He just wanted to be held, but when we would hold him, he would cry and whine and want the other parent to hold him. It was all just too much over the past 2 days. He said that he wanted to go home a number of times. Poor thing.

These kids were tired because we went to bed a lot later than normal every night and even though they napped here and there, they didn't sleep a full ten or more hours of sleep each night.

TUESDAY: 7/16/2013: MIKE'S DADS HOUSE
Tuesday we had a low key day. We hung out at Mike's moms house in the morning and headed over to his dads house in the evening.

WEDNESDAY: 7/17/2013: HEADED HOME
By Wednesday we were all ready to be home. The ride home always seems longer and of course both kids fell asleep within a hour of being home.

Besides the sleep issues, Noah is a really picky eater so trying to find something for him to eat a restaurants was a challenge. We just stopped ordering him food and made sure to load him up on snacks that we stocked up on at the grocery store. I don't think he ate one meal. He just snacked. As soon as we got home, he finally had his first meal and was a happy boy.

That first night home, Noah woke up a couple of times and I suspect it was because he had 4 nights of sleeping in the bed with Mike and when he would wake up, Mike was always there to comfort him and tell him to go to bed. But by Thursday night, he was back to normal.

It was a great trip. I think we all do better with short trips and having Noah in a different room. I think next year will be better because they will be older and there won't be as many people so many days in a row.