did you hear that?

this is the first Christmas that zella really gets it. we have had so much fun with her this year. she understands the concept of Santa and is still scared to death of him. we did make it to the mall to wave at him this year. i gave up on making her sit on his lap. she just wasn't having it.
so last night we were at my parents house for Christmas eve. and on the way home we were telling zella that she needs to go to sleep when we get home so that Santa can come to our house. we told her that Santa can only come if she was asleep. so we got ready for bed, brushed teeth and i was tucking her in, going over our bed time rules. go to sleep, stay in your room. the usual. i was telling her that we had a big day on Christmas. we were going over to grandma and grandpa's house, we need to go to... this is when i stopped my sentence suddenly and turned around towards her window, as if something had startled me. i turned slowly around back to her and said,
"did you hear that?" her eyes got really wide and said
"what?"
"I think i heard some jingle bells..."
"what?"
"i think i heard some jingle bells... do you know who has jingle bells?"
"no"
"Santa..."
ok, so now i have her attention, i go back to telling her that she needs to go to sleep... i do it again...
"did you hear that?"
eyes as big as they can get, huge smile
"yes, i think i did mommy..."
i say, "lets go look out the back window to see if we can see Santa..."
we jump out of her bed and run down the hall, through the living room and jump on the couch that faces our backyard. we stick both of our noses on the window and look. i leaned back just a few inches so that i could watch her reflection in the glass. her little eyes were darting back and forth, trying to see something.
"did you hear that?"
"yes, i did!!"
"quick, you have to be asleep for him to come to our house, he is waiting on you!!"
she jumped up off of the couch as fast as she could and ran down the hall, back into her room and jumped back into bed. i was right behind her. she then asked me
"what do the elves do?" and i told her that they make the toys. she said
"no, what do they do in my house?"
"they make sure you are asleep so that Santa can come by..."
she thought about this and then yelled
"i love Christmas!!"
we laughed and i told her to go to sleep now
"did you hear that?"
and she got a huge smile on her face and i said good night and left her room.
i stood in the hallway for a few minutes, my heart was so full of happiness it was about to burst. it was so fun for me to experience the magic of Christmas, the excitement of Christmas with her. and i wondered if my parents had this much fun with my sister and i. i hope so, because it was fun!
or, i guess i should say
it was magical!!
merry Christmas
jill b

i hope you enjoy today like a 4 year old.

bath time antics

i have a girl who loves to take a bath. she is always up for entertaining me while i am watching her. sometimes i will bring in a magazine, or a book to read while she plays in the tub. but i always end up taking pictures of her. she is her silliest when bubbly. the first picture is my favorite. it always makes me laugh.
miss sassy,this smile reminds me of the cheese commercial they run every Christmas season. it starts out with no presents under the Christmas tree. then you see Santa putting packages under the tree. all the while the little girl is watching him work. then in the morning, the little girl's parents come into the living room to see massive presents under the tree. bikes, a car. tons of big ticket items. the dad turns to the mom and says something about Santa really liked the cookies they left for him. and the little girl says no cookies, i left him cheese...
and then smiles just like the smile above.

and this is usually the last smile before she wants to play.

jill b

birthday and christmas cards

so here is our christmas card. i had them printed in black and white. the hats were supposed to look like it is cold here. but i think they still look cute. we ended up taking the photo in our living room. it looked kinda like the one below. i made this photo stand for charlie's birthday, he put it on his desk. it is a book that flips up and has other photos behind it. he loved it.

jill b

better late than never...

I'm talking about Halloween pictures. we even celebrated Halloween 2 days before the actual holiday. so i was early with pictures, just late in posting.
this year, zella was a black kitty. so cute. her first costume was to be aurora, sleeping beauty. she talked about being aurora since last year at Halloween. so a couple of months ago, we found an aurora costume at Costco. so we bought it. she didn't want to try on the costume. so about a week before Halloween, i decided that we should try on the costume to make sure it would fit. i also wanted her to be used to wearing it, which would up the chances of her actually wearing the costume on Halloween. (see last year's post about Halloween). lately, when anyone tells her she looks cute or pretty, she gets really embarrassed and doesn't want to wear that outfit anymore. so i was trying to avoid this on Halloween. so, back to me trying to get her to try on her costume, we talked about it, nothing. i showed it to her. nothing. so, i put it on her. she didn't like this and proceeded to cry. realizing that this same serrano would happen on Halloween, and would make me a bad mommy, i made an executive decision to return the costume. so i did. and we had no costume. i was telling grandma about this and she said that ella, (zella's cousin) was going to be a kitty. i figured we could do that, because, what ever ella does, zella wants to. and it worked. so, long story short, we were a kitty...

the world series was on when we were over and grandma and grandpa's house. it was the Phillie's vs. the Yankees. Matt is a big time Yankee's fan and charlie b wore his Phillie's jersey . both jersey's were worn in actual games played by uncle Tommy Barrett.

and here are the two little kitties. too cute. we had a great Halloween. just a little bit of candy, and a lot of fun. thanks grandma...

how do you say thanks?

i was raised in a patriotic family. we always watched fourth of July celebrations. i always said the pledge to the flag. always took my minutes of silence when thinking about our veterans. and my father never allowed a jane fonda video in our house. i married a patriotic boy. we painted a giant (floor to ceiling) United States flag in our garage after 9/11. my boy loves all airplanes and watches many documentaries on the army, navy, and air force. we both have grandparents that served during war times. with all of that history between us, how do you say thanks to all of the service men and women who sacrifice everything for us to be safe?

a few months after zella was born, my sisters kids (the greatest nieces and nephew ever) came over and stayed the weekend with us. some of our friends asked why would we take on 3 more kids and a new born? because they are the best kids ever! they helped me do the dishes, and fold towels. leah, helped make dinner and they cleaned up after. they played with/held zella for hours upon hours.

during this weekend, we took the kids to the annual Luke-days. this is on the Luke air force base and they open up the base to the public. they have all kinds of air planes and old air planes on display. you can take pictures and go inside some of the planes. there are all kinds of air shows that go on that day. there are soldiers every where and alot of veterans. it is truly amazing.

it was in march of 2005 when we went. and security was extremely high at the base. we waited in line for an hour to get onto the base. there were people every where. there was a little boy behind us, about 5 years old. and the whole time we were in line, he kept asking his mom and dad when he could see his soldiers. they kept telling him, soon. as we got closer to the front of the line, you could start to make sense of the lines and all of the security that we would be soon going through. and the little boy kept asking about his soldiers. we began seeing sings about what would and would not be allowed on the base. after a few of these signs, and closer to the front of the entrance, there were soldiers. all dressed up and looking amazing. standing guard by the security tables. we had been talking to the people around us and had talked with this little boy in line behind us. he was so excited to see his soldiers. as we got closer to them, the little boy broke loose from his mothers hand and ran up to a soldier . the boy ran right up to him, put his little shoes toe to toe with the soldier, stood up as straight as he could, and saluted him. and said in a whisper, "excuse me, soldier. but thank you for protecting my family and my country." the soldier looked down and slowly brought his hand up and saluted the little boy and said "you are most welcomed". he put his hand in his pocket and handed the little boy a flag sticker. patted him on the head. the little boy was so proud and was smiling from ear to ear. he ran back to his mom and began showing everybody around him his sticker.
i had tears falling from my eyes. and i remember being so proud of my country, so proud of my soldiers and so hopeful for our future because of this little boys love of his country.

so how do you say thank you? maybe the answer is passing the love and pride of our country onto the next generation. i pray that our country is full of little boys (and girls) who can't wait to show their love and pride they have for this beautiful country.

happy veterans day to everyone
jill b

memorize

i have been doing a lot of memorizing lately. especially when it comes to zella. i am trying to memorize how it feels to hold her little hand when we are in a parking lot, or when we are in the mall. or anywhere we are holding hands. it's amazing how something so small as holding someone"s hand, can be to me. i remember when my dad had his heart attack, and we were waiting in the emergency waiting room. my mom, my sister and i sat for hours just holding hands. i remember the comfort it gave me, just knowing that they were there next to me. and feeling their hands in mine was a sense of peace.
charlie held my hand when i was in labor with zella. it was a small way to telling me that charlie was right there with me. that i wasn't doing it alone. well, i was, but you know what i mean.
when zella was a baby, charlie would hold her hand when she was tired, or fussy, or cuddling on the couch. as she has gotten older, she still holds his hand on the couch, while they watch a movie. when she is sick, he holds her hand until she falls asleep. i have found them holding hands, both asleep, in the middle of the night. the other night, i was falling asleep with zella, and she rolled over, she reached out for my hand. and this melted my heart.
so i have been trying to memorize her hands.
jill b

it's tea time, again...

that is what we have been up to. we have tea all of the time. we have tea in her room, living room and in our bedroom. it doesn't matter when, where or how much! black kitty normally joins us, but when she is not available, someone else fill in.

when we are not having a tea party, we are in the pool. she has been very nice to us this summer.

how to entertain yourself

we have been playing around alot this summer. one of my favorite ways is to grab my camera and try to get some good pictures. zella is starting to get annoyed with me and my camera. but if daddy is willing to get his picture taken, she will pose also. so this is what i got the other day.

and here is another page for our book

have a great day

jill b

mine and hers

with charlie b teaching on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, zella and i have had extra time to just play. sometimes we go swimming or go play with friends. but yesterday, zella wanted to scrapbook. so we got out papers and stickers and pictures. she picked out what she wanted to play with and began working. she didn't want me to help her with most of her creation. she was so proud of what she did. so while she worked, i pulled out a picture and played to. mine is on top and zella's is below. she had so much fun. this is her first page all by herself. (so proud!)

personally, i love the blue flower on my forehead.

what do you like?

have a great day

jill b

what have we been up to?

my mom takes Mondays off during the summer. and since we go over to my parents house on Monday afternoons, we have been able to see my a lot more of my mom. over at desert ridge mall, they have a splash pad. basically it consists of a area and water that shoots out of designated spots. zella was pretty hesitant to go and play in the water. i brought her swim suit and everything, but she didn't want to change into them. i think that i waded into the splash pad a couple of times before she would come with me. but she went with Grammy and started to have fun. this splash pad was really cool. with lots of water. the splash pad was shaded by big and tall palm trees which allowed a cool breeze to blow threw.

two days later, we met my girlfriend Kim and her kiddos at another splash pad. this one was at the new san tan mall. the splash pad was really cute but not nearly as good as desert ridge. this one only had 2 or 3 water shoots going at a time. and they moved around. the water nice and cold. but because of how the mall was set up, there was no breeze blowing to cool us off.

i just like this picture.

and to leave you with a very cute picture of Grammy and zella. we have really enjoyed having Grammy around this summer, and will miss her terribly when school starts.

have a great weekend.

jill b

p.s. zella's foot is healing nicely. she will have a scar, but scars are cool.

man, i am a bad blogger!!

nothing much going on over here. i have started taking pictures of things i probably won't see in 5 or 10 years. mostly things that zella is doing. this picture was taken at my parents house while we were visiting. zella likes to line up her littlest pet shop and my little pony guys. i love how she makes parades with them. this is a small collection of them, we have many, many more at home.

i will be thinking of what to blog about, maybe i will just make up stuff...

i have peeps!!!

i am so excited that i have a wee peep that reads this blog everyday!!!
hi kat!!! what are you doing with your bad-self today? i know that you go to sesame street web site after reading my blog, so i just wanted to say hi and that i appreciate you reading this every morning. zella is excited to play with you the next time you are in Arizona. have a great day, and listen to your mommy!
we love you
jill b

this post was sponsored by
the letter k (for kat)
and the number 4 (because kat and zella are 4 years old

where have we been?

what do you get when you cross a four year old and a giant metal cookie cutter?
yes, a nasty cut on a barefoot! we are going to see the doctor tomorrow. i called the nurse line at cigna, and she had a tetanus (sp?) shot with her immunizations when she was two. but since we were able to stop the bleeding, so we didn't have to go to the e.r. but after a few days of us taking care of it, we want the reassurance from the doctor.

these pictures were taken the other day when we had nothing to do, before the foot fiasco. not much going on over here. i just wanted to leave a few pictures...

jill b

where have i been?

you can call off the search, i am alright and i am back to blogging. we have been doing alot of swimming lately. the pool is finally just right. and on a hot day, it's heaven.
so what have we been up to during this blog break? well, charlie and i built a planter in our backyard. ok, charlie built it, i was just manual labor. we unloaded a billion bricks and had to carry them one by one into our backyard. each brick was really heavy. they were the big ones. but i think we did a great job. we were so proud of ourselves, that the next weekend we made another one by the pool pump.

mothers day was great. i got to sleep in and charlie made me french toast. it was delicious and a very good sugar rush. we spent the afternoon in the pool and went to chipotle for dinner. we ran by charlie's parents house to drop off some mothers day gifts.

my sister and i are doing mothers day at our mom's house tomorrow. so i can't tell you what we are doing, since mom is reading this. but i wanted to say that i have an incredible mom. she stayed home with kim and i until i went to school. she was a teacher and worked the same hours we were out of the house. i know that my parents made many sacrifices for my sister and i, and now that i am a mom, i appreciate those so much more now than i ever could have. i am the mom i am because of my mom. i always heard "i love you" from my parents when i was little. and i thought that i knew what all of that phrase meant. but i understand so much more what those 3 little words mean now.

so mom, i love you. and i am so glad that i got to have you as my mom.

jill b

kittens inspired by kittens...

this youtube video has been getting a lot of air time at our house. just hearing the little girl voice will send zella running from where ever she is in the house to the computer. i can't tell you how many times we have watched it. so here it is, now remember, zella is 4 and the little girl is probably about 6 or 7. so try to watch it with humor of a little kid.

enjoy

go team barrett!!

yea!!
2 weeks ago, charlie and i had our tenth wedding anniversary! and according to divorce magazine .com, (yes there is a divorce magazine) only 65% of marriages make it to their tenth anniversary. so yea for us. to be honest, it has been a really, really fun ride. ten years sounds like such a long time to me, and not very long at the same time. i think it has a lot to do with charlie being my best friend. i have seen people, on blogs, make a list of things they love about the birthday person. so i am gonna make a list of ten things i love about charlie b.

1. i love the way he is still the first person i want to see in the morning and the last person i want to see when i go to sleep.

2. i love the way he is always thinking one step ahead of what i might need or want, and then does it.

3. i love the way he is always trying to make me smile, even jumping into the pool in January.

4. i love how he will bring me a diet coke on Saturday mornings. with extra ice!

5. i love how he knows the characters on days of our lives, and he does the best john black impersonation.

6. i love how he still holds my hand when we go somewhere.

7. i love watching him love zella. he makes her feel like the center of the world!

8. i love how much random trivia he has stored away in his brain.

9. i love how he is the same person no matter who he is with.

10. i love how he is still my best friend!

so charlie, as you read this, know that i love you with everything that i have, and everything that i am. i am so proud to be your wife. i am so glad that you are zella's daddy. i love my little family. and i am ready to spend the next ten years together!
i love you
jill b

these two...

remember last thursday when it was really, really windy? and that wind caused it to cool down to the upper 60's? well, these two jumped into the pool and swam around on the kick board. they then jumped out. see, for a couple of years, charlie and zella have this game that they play by the pool. charlie will stand by the edge and proclaim that he hopes nobody pushes him in the pool, because he is standing so close to the edge. then zella will run over to him and tries to push him into the pool. the conversation goes back and forth for a while. and then eventually, zella pushes him into the pool. so last thursday, zella was telling charlie that she wants to get in the pool so she could use her kick board. we both tell her that the pool is really, really cold. this did not matter to her at all. charlie told her to stand on the first step, to test if she thinks it is cold. she did it and said it wasn't. charlie told her to stand on the second step. she did. so charlie went over to the deep end and started his song-and-dance about not wanting somebody to push him in the pool. zella jumped out of pool and ran to him and proceeded to try to push him in. he eventually let her and he went into the pool. she ran and got her kick board and brought it over to charlie. he helped her into the pool and they went the length of the pool and jumped out by the steps. when zella said "that was cold!" i got it all on video, but i am not allowed to show it. since proper swim wear was not worn and someone didn't want his underwear shown to all.
ha ha ha

flowers...

i had to show at least one picture of zella while i was making thisi bought a big gerber daisy from Michael's. it was in the floral dept.

i pulled the flower away from the stem

i turned the flower upside down and glued 2 magnets to it. i had to let this dry over night. i did put some glue in between the layers of the petals.

and that is it. very simple and easy to make.

i hope my instructions were easy to follow. if you have any questions, leave me a comment

jill

letters...

for the letters, i painted the sides of them cream. when they were dry, i turned them over and glued magnets on the back of them. i let them dry overnight.

i then glued them down on the back of the paper i had picked out for the letters. i cut them apart. i went back over them with an exacto knife. it is kind of hard to get in the letters that have a curl to them. so the exacto knife works good for small details. i used a nail file to sand down the edges i could not get with the knife.

i turned them over and used the ink to "dirty" them up. (just like i did around the frame).

materials

wood letters, paint, Michale's

magnets, home depot

glue stick

i will do the flowers next

jill

wanna make this?

little Taylor had a birthday the other day and i made this for her mom, Kim. i started off with a frame from Michael's. i painted all of the surfaces that would not be covered with paper.

i just used a foam brush and painted the sides. i didn't paint the back of the frame. i wanted to write a happy birthday wish to Taylor back there.

turn the shadow frame over. i then glued galvanized flashing to the 12 x 12 base of the frame. make sure it is the galvanized flashing, because the other one is not magnetic. i used just a tacky wet glue that i got at Michael's. i let it dry over night.

i then glued the patterned paper (floral) to the top of the flashing.

i then measured the width around the frame, and then cut out from the floral and the blue dots papers.

i arranged the papers the way i wanted them. i then used a glue stick to glue them down to the frame. i used an ink pad to "dirty" up the edges of the frame.

now my base is finished.

materials

shadow frame, paint, paint brush, are from Michael's

the magnets and the galvanized flashing is from home depot

the paper i already had, but you can get at any craft store.

i will post later on how i made the letter magnets and the flower magnets.
enjoy

jill

a few photos...

since i haven't sent out any winkflashes in a while, i thought i would share a few pictures of zella.
these are from my parents house. she is seriously reading a book.
i was able to get her to look up and smile, then back to reading.
have a good weekend.
jill b

the funny a,b,c's

we went on a walk last night. when zella asked: "wanna know whats funny about the a,b,c's?" charlie and i looked at each other and said "i don't know?" zella answered: "when its out of order!" and then she laughed and laughed!
i think that was her first joke that she made up all by herself.
jill b

cutest plummer-bum ever!

we were playing at the park when i noticed the plummber in the sand box. just too cute.
it has nothing to do with this post. just thought it was cute.
last night zella and i were playing with her little pet shop animals. since she has so many of them, we keep the animals and their accessories in a plastic tub with a lid. we were trying to find a lid to one of the little boxes and i was digging around in the tub for it. i found it and handed it to her. and she said "thanks mommy!, good looking skills!" i almost fell off of the couch laughing. i said "I liked the way you said thank you". and she said "you're welcome".
i just want to remember this
have a great day
jill b

best mommy ever!!

recently zella has become very attached to her stuffed animals. she loves them so much and calls them her babies. she has a special spot in her heart for her black kitty named Cinderella. this name was inspired by my parents two new kittens, one of them is named cinders. this is short for Cinderella. there is a story behind this name, but i digress. she had played with, slept with, ate with her Cinderella. then we couldn't find her. we looked everywhere. we looked at my parents house, and found nothing. one time we were at target and they had the exact same kitty. i thought about just buying her a new one, but decided against it. they also had a gray kitty. i showed it to her and she smiled and then reminded me that she wished she could find her Cinderella. flash forward a few weeks, and the other night, charlie told zella he had a surprise for her. he came into the kitchen with Cinderella in his hands. both of us, zella and myself, were jumping up and down with excitement. he had found Cinderella in the trunk of his car. she told charlie over and over, how happy she was that he found her. then she asked if we could go to target and get the gray kitty so Cinderella would have a sister. we talked about this for a while and said that if she was a really good girl for the rest of the week, the next time we went to target we would look to see if they still had her. so Saturday afternoon, i needed to run a few errands. charlie and zella came with me. we told zella that we would end up at target and that she was such a good girl, we would look to see if they still had the gray kitty.we first went to get something to eat and then to office max. we had said we would go to target after office max. while we were there, i realized that Costco closed in 30 min. so we changed our order of shopping. when we were finished with Costco, we had to come home to drop off the goods. so we had to change our shopping order again. this whole time, zella was really patient. when we got home, i decided that zella and i would go up to target. we first went to the target by office max. no kitty. we went back to office max to return our previous purchase, and then went to super target. no kitty. we returned something else at Michael's and then went to target greatland by the mall. i wish i would of had my camera when we walked around the isle and they had 2 gray kitties! she squealed and started jumping up and down. she was so excited. she picked her up and said "i will name her Tinkerbell" i had to get a few things, so while i was shopping, zella was in the cart hugging and hugging Tinkerbell. she was playing with her and Cinderella. yes, i let her bring Cinderella into target with us. she had the two kitties hugging and saying "i missed you, i missed you" while she was playing she looked up at me and said "mommy, you are the best mommy"!

now i realize that is a big title, maybe too big of a title for me. i didn't move any mountains, or swim any oceans. i did spend 3 hours looking at every target possible, but i will take it. she played with the kitties for the rest of the evening. and when she was going to bed, she made a spot for the kitties right by her pillows.

so at 4am, i woke up and went in to check on her and turn her light off, she was sound asleep with her arms around her new Tinkerbell. and when i was closing the door to her room, i thought, maybe i was the best mommy ever today. at least to her i was, and that is all that matters to me.

have a great day

jill b