What'd you say?

Parenting makes you say the craziest things. I would have never guessed the things I am constantly saying to Jace now. It's amazing how many times a day I say "what's in your mouth?"

I said something I would have never guessed I would have to say tonight. Jace and I make cupcakes (and a huge mess) after dinner tonight. When he finally got to eat his, he was really excited and dropped a lot of it on the floor. Next thing I knew, I see Jace on the floor eating what he dropped like a puppy. I actually had to say "No sir Jace, we do not eat of the floor." Wow.

Well hello there, Mr. Senator

You know that rule in the parenting handbook that says something like, never leave your child alone in the car EVER. Well, I broke it and the government came after me.

On Saturday, I was trying to get Jace to his fashion show on time and realized that I had left the camera in the house. My man was not able to attend Jace's show and I knew that he was counting on me to take pictures. So, I turned around and went back to the house. At this point we were really running late so I had a huge decision to make. Leave the boy strapped in his car seat for 2 minutes while I run in to get the camera, or take him in with me.

Getting a 2 year old in and out of the car is a huge production. Just buckling the seat is a big deal. So, I asked Jace if he would be ok in the car for a couple minutes and we both agreed it would be ok. I locked the door and ran up to the house. I was in the house just long enough to grab the camera and an extra pair of shoes for him, and I was on my way back out to the car.

As I opened the front door I saw this strange official looking man standing on my porch. My heart dropped as I knew I would be arrested for child neglect.

Me: Can I help you sir?

Strange man: Oh, hello! I am your state Senator and I am going door to door meeting the neighborhood.

Oh heck! What are the chances of my Senator wanting to hang out while I am running way late with my boy alone in the car? I explained that I was running really late and that I would look him up online as I walked him down the driveway. The whole time I was terrified he would look in the car and see Jace.

Luckily, my Senator got back in his car and drove without incident. I guess I learned my lesson though. I will not be leaving the boy alone in fear of the government showing up at my door again.

We're married!!!!

As my favorite rap artist Jay-Z would say, allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Stacee Osborn Pina. I am wife to Larry Pina (or LL as Carly would say) and Emmy to the fabulous Jace Pina. We are officially married and happy here in Phoenix.

Last weekend we all got married in Vegas. For those of you who didn't receive an invitation, this is what ya missed.

The only thing I wanted people to say when asked about our wedding is that it was FUN. I think we succeeded. It wasn't just fun, it was crazy fun. I was surrounded with so much love and by so many of the most important people in my life. I am blessed.

I was escorted down the aisle by the dashing Jace Pina, who remembered his most important line, "I do" and then proceeded to be extremely well behaved and polite. L and I were able to stand in front of our friends and family and finally say our most important lines, "I do." And now I'm a wife and step to some amazing boys.

It is such a good feeling to be back here and settling down again. I have so many things to share and pictures to show. I could blog for days. But, I have a stack of thank you's to write and laundry to do. So, I leave you for now with the first picture of my new family.

I'm still alive

Sorry for my lack of blogging recently. I have been super, super busy. I am getting married in 6 weeks ya know.

Since I last posted, I have been to Denver and back (barely made it back alive-thanks Shalee), stuffed and addressed 100 wedding invitations, helped Kai celebrate his first birthday, and had an amazing wedding shower myself. Needless to say, I will be blogging on all of the above in the coming days.

I do have to say that I am shocked right now. I am watching our boy doing something I have never seen before. He's watching TV! He will occassionally sit through about 30 seconds of Handy Manny but he has been still for about 10 minutes now watching Shrek. That's why I am able to post something now.

So, I will get pictures ready of our busy past few days (weeks) and have them post soon.

What happens after 3?

Luckily, Jace can't read yet so I can tell you a secret.



I have no idea what happens after 3. You know, when you've exhausted all of your parenting tricks for discipline and start counting. On Sunday, Jace was in time out but kept getting off the red rug (our time out spot of choice). He was already in time out so I had no where to go with this and I started count. I sounded very much like my mother and said 1...2... and I lucked out when he hopped back on the rug and said "ok, ok, ok, I on the rug."



I must have had an "I mean it" look on my face but I had no idea what to do if I were to have reached 3. I'm so glad he didn't call my bluff on this.

Saving? : (

I'm trying to save money...again. My man is the best saver ever and we'll be sharing finances soon. I'm scared. Now he will know my deep dark spending secrets. I have about 2 months to get my financial act together.

I'm a weird shopper. I wear scrubs to work everyday so, I really don't buy a lot of clothes. I buy random stuff that I can't possibly live without at the time and then never use it. I found this adorable little picnic basket at Target and thought I couldn't live another day without it. I had visions of us in Sedona with cute little sandwiches on a blanket in the sun-this never happened. It is sitting on the floor next to the cabinet in the kitchen.

My man has talks with me about my purchases and what we should do with them. He uses words like "consolidate" and "down-size" during these discussions. I usually nod my head and promise to work on it-soon.

So wish me luck. I've got to get it together by October 17th when I officially become a Pina. Til then, visions of picnic baskets and shiny pink bicycles dance in my head.

A quote from this evening

"I how know to open it by myself"
Jace Pickle Pina-about peeling an orange

At the car wash

Jace loves, loves, love going to the car wash. One Saturday, I took him for breakfast, took him to the train park and finally to the car wash. We had a great day and both were so happy. That evening when I put him down to bed, I asked what his favorite part of the day was. His answer: the car wash. Not the hours at the park, not the special breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, the car wash.

We had to get stop and fill the car up last night and Jace spotted his favorite place on earth. "Please go to the car wash! Please!" How could we say no? And we really needed it.

When we were inside he could not sit still. He said he was so happy!! That makes me so happy too. He loves the spinny things and the big dryer at the end.

It's the little things.

Sasha Fierce

I'm going to speak my mind tonight.

I have 1 semi-functioning, lazy kidney. I shouldn't call her lazy. She has been on her own for 31 yrs now fighting the good fight. And now she's getting tired. I can't blame her. She's like the single mom who's never received child support. I will call her Sasha Fierce. Like Beyonce.

Well, Sasha Fierce decided to be a party pooper this weekend. It happens from time to time. She gets tired and need attention and flares up. Usually in the middle of the night, I think just to make my man tired. Because he's the one who has to take me to the ER or urgent care for treatment for Sasha Fierce.

We were in Yuma this weekend for Aunt Mary's retirement/birthday party. All the closest family was there (all 3,000 of us) having a great time. I was having a hard time with it all. I just wanted to lay down but, Aunt Mary doesn't retire or have a birthday everyday so, there I was, pretending like my only kidney wasn't trying blow up inside of me. Stupid Sasha Fierce.

We of course, ended up talking to a doctor who frankly, didn't know what to do with me and Sasha and said to call my regular urologist during the week.

I don't normally complain about all of this. But, this is supposed to be the best time of my life and my dumb, lonely kidney wants to steal the show. I will go into logistics about why she's the single parent in my body and what's physically wrong with her later. Tonight, I just wanted to vent.

Fine by me

A couple days ago, I blogged about the challenges of raising a 2yr old. Today, I'll talk about the blessings.

We had a great night with the little pickle. I usually spend the majority of my time with him chasing, tickling, or doing other activities that involve too much energy. Last night, he wanted to just talk.

I love, love, love this age! His dad wanted to take him to the store but, he said "No Daddy, I want to stay with Emmy." Fine by me.

I poured myself a bowl of Special K and left the room momentarily. When I returned there he was, in my seat, eating my cereal. I asked if he wanted me to pour him some and he said " I want mine like yours, Emmy." Fine by me.

After dinner we both sat on the couch and just talked. Our conversation was nothing spectacular, just questions like "Where's daddy's other red phone?" "Why does daddy have this phone now?" "Emmy, did you have a red phone too?" "Can I have a red phone?" He just wanted to talk. Fine by me.

These moments are going too fast. I want to take it all in and remember every second. We don't have that much time while they're little. I miss this age already. If he wants to be little forever, that's fine by me.

We have noise in our house again!!!

He's baaaackk!!!

Finally, there is noise in our house again. Jace has been in South Dakota with his Mom since last Thursday and we finally have him back!

We have missed the constant drumming and singing and questions. It's really quiet when he's gone. And, we think he grew another inch.

I would take a picture of our even bigger boy but, our camera is spending time with the Geek Squad at Best Buy. Jace was taking pictures and it the zoomer thingy wont come out anymore.

I am watching him ride his tricycle (motorcycle as he calls it) around the house now. I have missed this scene. Wait, he just got in trouble for trying to let the air out of his bicycle with a screwdriver. I have not missed that. So, it's now officially business as usual for us.

Please, Please, Please, go to bed

No one ever told me it would be easy. I just didn't realize that it would be this hard. What could I possibly be talking about?

Cue scary music...

THE TERRIBLE TWOS!

For a while, I thought we would just skip it. Then, I thought those little cranky moments were it, now I know. We are smack dab in the eye of a terrible twos hurricane. And I'm tired.

Here are a few examples of the Twos.

• The "NO!!!" -This is typically used in public settings as a way to show you who's really in charge.
• The "Back-bending tantrum"- My personal favorite. The child will usually use this punishing tactic on the parent after the parent has denied the child yet another toy, or candy, or anything else the child can't possibly live without.
• The "I wanna sleep in YOU bed"- Our current issue. I can hear the sound of little feet sneaking down the hall now. This refusal to sleep alone can last up to our current record of 1 hr and 45 minutes.

I keep telling myself, It's just a phase and he"ll be three in November. So, I'm hoping on the morning of November 27th, I will wake up to a mature and well behaved three year old and this will all be a memory. Right?

His first fashion show.

A few weeks ago, Jace was asked to participate in Dillard's Children's Fashion Show. We spent the week practicing his walk and his turn at the end of the runway. He had it down pretty well and was very excited for the show.

Of course, I couldn't find my camera that morning but, Jace's mom emailed us some pictures she took. Here's our little model.

Potty Talk

Someday he might hate me for this...

I can't help it...

It's too funny...

Potty Conversations With Jace

This past Sunday, the three of us went shopping. Not regular people shopping, Nordstrom's Last Chance shopping. I really don't enjoy this. I don't like shopping in heavy crowds and especially in unorganized stores.

If you don't know about Last Chance, here's my brief description.

Nordstrom's is known for their very generous return policy. They'll take anything back. I've even heard a story about a lady returning tires there. So, they have to have some place to sell all of this returned stuff. Enter Last Chance.

This store is known for their amazing deals and aggressive shoppers. My man has bought his entire wardrobe there and he looks good. Because of the amazing deals, you have crazy shoppers. They can be mean and pushy. Before they open the doors, they warn everyone of the consequences of aggressive shopping. I don't enjoy shopping here.

While Larry was off doing his non-aggressive shopping, me and the little pickle were left to shop on our own. Then there was an announcement...

"I need to go POOP!"

Flash to my face becoming beet red and me scrambling with Jace to the exit.

On the way to the bathroom I was starting to feel lucky. After all, I had managed to get out of that crazy store. So, up the escalator (with "I do it, don't help me" comments), past two water fountains (drinks from both) and into the bathroom we go.

Once in the bathroom, I placed two of those potty covers down, dropped his pants and placed him on the potty.

This was our conversation.

"Emmy, I need my shirt off"

"No Jace, leave it alone"

"But it hurts my tummy if it's on."

"Ok, fine, give me your shirt."

What's the deal with nakedness on the potty? He likes to have all his clothes off when he has to handle business. I don't get it.

"Emmy, go away."

"I can't go away. We are in a public bathroom. You have to let me stay this time."

"Turn around" was his solution.

Here's the visual. Handicapped stall, Jace naked on the potty with my back turned to him.

And of course, the door didn't lock well.

So, into our stall walks a lady who quickly apologizes but not before she gives me the strangest look I've ever seen. We must have been a sight.

During this seemingly never-ending process, Jace gave commentary on his fellow pottiers.

"Oooh, somebody flushed!"

"Do you hear somebody potty?"

On, and on....

Finally, he was finished. And with the wash of his hands, and the 5oo automatically dispensed paper towels, we were off.

He's going to really hate this blog someday.

Watch out Elton John

Umm...Elton John called and he wants his glasses back.


I purchased a fabulous pair of summer sunglasses for $5, and they have been claimed by the littlest member of our house. Jace will put my glasses on and just stare at himself in the bathroom mirror (I caught him doing this today). I have to hand it to him, they do look pretty great.

It gets better.


I heard Jace in his playroom banging on the piano. "HEAD, SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES" was being sung at the top of his lungs. I turned the corner and saw this fabulous sight...





The straw is his microphone. He thought of that all by himself!! I am constantly amazed.

Granted, Twinkle Twinkle is no Crocodile Rock, but he's on his way!!!

Cranky Chicken

Jace is a very clever little boy. For a while, when he would get in trouble, he named himself "Jack." He was Jace when he was good and Jack when he was bad. We even caught ourselves yelling "JACK" when he was into something he shouldn't be.

I have about 15 other names for Jace. My favorite is "Cranky Chicken." I call him this when he wakes up from a nap or from sleeping. He's not a morning person (like his Dad) and his hair is usually 20 different directions.

This is an example of our Cranky Chicken. This picture was taken post nap last week.

The Pina High

I am still on the I just got engaged, bout to be a Pina high. This usually in involves me staring at the ring or being really blissful about my relationship.

I am fully aware that this may be sickening to people around me. I will try to do the ring staring in the privacy of my home (this is the best place to stare at it, usually on the couch with my arm extended so my fingers don't look so wrinkly). And I will try not to get all sappy, happy, and weirdly blissful about us and how after all this time we finally are getting married.

I do know this Pina high may be short lived. I am already having the creeping anxiety of wedding planning trying to kill my Pina buzz.

In the meantime, I will continue to say my future name (in my head so people don't throw up), sneak peeks of my ring, and try to help you all survive dealing with me for the duration of the Pina high.

Ice in Arizona

Drum roll please.....


WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!


There was a rare ice storm in Arizona in the middle of July and it landed on my left ring finger!!

Looking at the pictures gives me a greater appreciation for hand models. My wrinkly fingers are not very photogenic.

We have picked 10/17/09 as the date and Vegas as the location.

Shhhhh!!!!

I have a secret!

It's killing me right now not to just say what it is but, I have to wait for the right time.

I am terrible at secrets. Nothing makes me happier than figuring out a surprise someone has planned for me or guessing what a gift is. I am the same when it comes to me keeping secrets. I just want to yell right now in caps lock and let everyone know what it is. However, I will wait until the right time to share it with everyone.

In the meantime, Mom, Shalee, Lynn, PJ, Larry and Jace...shhhh!!!

The Whole Enchiladas!

What a night! I attempted and was successful in making enchiladas!

"Oh wow, " is what most of you might be thinking. But, most of you reading this have probably been making enchiladas since you were 2. It's a big accomplishment for me.

Let me first of all begin by saying, I will no longer simply order enchiladas and pay my $3-$5 and enjoy my dinner. I will appreciate every bite! It took me 3 hours!!!!! Larry was cleaning Jace's closet (that's his obsession, cleaning closets and pantries) and I began what he told me would be a 15 min process. He came to check on me an hour later to see a huge mess and about 15 rolled enchiladas.

"What are you doing?" he said.

"What does it look like, making enchiladas!"

"Why are you doing it like that?"

"Like what?" I say, at this point annoyed and sweating.

"Rolling them, I don't do that. It takes too long."

"Wow, get back to the closet. Romero's and everywhere else rolls their's and so will I!"

Not willing to admit defeat, I rolled on. This was the finished product,

After our delicious dinner, we played a game with Jace. The game was a father's day gift from Mr. Jim and Miss Beth at Jace's school. They are some of the most thoughtful and creative people I know. I am amazed everytime I pick Jace up at the structure and well balanced playful environment they provide. They are a gift to our most important boy and we are thankful for them every day!

For father's day they took pictures of Jace and made them into a matching game. This was an amazing Father's Day gift. Not only is is a great game to help Jace concentrate and focus, it is something that we will always treasure because it is such a good idea and we all love it.

Jace had a hard time understanding the rules the first few times we played but, once he figured it out, he was so exicted!

High five for Daddy! It is so exciting for me to see Jace figure something out and think through an issue. I can almost see the light bulb going off in his little head!


I feel so blessed to have each day with these boys. I love my life and would not trade it for anything in the world!

Just my luck...again

I have had terrible luck when it comes to my vehicles since moving to Phoenix. I have had a CD player stolen, a Jeep window slashed in a break in, and my Jeep stolen and recovered. I thought by switching vehicles with my parents and driving their Tahoe that my bad luck would end. I was wrong.

On Monday morning, I was doing my usual running late, hurry-up-get-to-work marathon, when I tried to use the keyless entry to the car. I was bummed that it wouldn't open, but just unlocked it my self instead. The first thing I noticed, was that the front seat was a disaster. I thought Larry might have been looking for something so I proceeded with trying to start the car. Turned the key, nothing happened. By this point, I was getting extremly frustrated. Minutes were passing and I needed to get to work.

I was headed to the house to get Larry to jump the car, and I noticed the hood was popped. I ran into the house and grabbed Larry to come out. He opened the hood and saw that every cord that goes to the battery had been cut. I was baffeled. I didn't understand why someone would cut the battery cords when they were trying to steal a car. Wouldn't it be easier just to drive it?

Larry started looking around the car and realized our thieves were not trying to steal the whole car, they just wanted our third row seat! Of all the things to steal, a third row seat? They didn't want my cute pink jacket or Jace's toys? Larry explained that these seats are a hot item to steal now. It's an easy steal and you can get $400-$500 at a swap market or on Craigslist.com.

I just wish they could have taken the seat without cutting the battery cords. They did this to stop the alarm from going off. We had to get it towed (Jace thought this was very exciting) and are waiting to find out the extent of the damage. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, remove your third row seat if you're not using them in your cars. I guess they could make a nice couch if you need it. Put it on the front porch. I'm sure it will look really classy.

Daddy's little helper

One of the benefits of having a 2.5 yr old in the house is all the help we get. Granted, this help sometimes means everything takes a little longer.

We encourage Jace to be as independent as possible and one of the best ways of doing this is giving him specific chores. Jace is responsible for making sure that all of the lights are off before we leave the house and helps pick up his toys.

Tonight Jace helped his Daddy make hot dogs. (My camera had issues so these are blurry but I didn't want to miss this).

Jace had his apron and his tongs and he was ready!



Larry let Jace carefully help him put the dogs on the grill.




The hot dogs were delicious. Jace takes after his Daddy and is a great cook!

After dinner there was a small head bumping incident and Jace got a a little goose egg.

But, within minutes he was fine again.

I'm feelin hot, hot, hot?

It is summer in Phoenix. However, we have been talking about how great the weather has been and how nice this summer is going.

I just checked the weather channel and our temperature is currently 103 degrees. To the rest of the country this is not "mild" weather but extreme heat. But to us, it's a beautiful day. So get out there and enjoy the "dry heat" of this perfect day.

The other Father in my Life

On Friday I gave a shout out to my Dad for Father's day, so today I need to honor the other Father in my life. Happy Father's Day Larry!



I have a great guy who embraces his role as a father and puts his son first.


Jace adores his Daddy! He loves "helping" his Daddy around the house. Or just watching tv.

Jace's Daddy is great at building box houses.

And hanging out.

Happy Father's Day Babe! Keep up the good work!

Father's Day Fiesta

We began our Father's Day celebration with a Fiesta at PJ and Lynn's house. On the menu was every one's favorite....STREET TACOS!






Larry is an amazing cook so I volunteered his services. I picked a great guy. Not only is he super cute but he can cook too!



It was a fun night. It's funny how the men always end outside around the grill...

And the women gather in the kitchen.

Kai demonstrated his new GI Joe army crawl.



Tessa was a beautiful princess, as usual!


And Jace found a way to turn a tierra into an alien mask.

He also taught us that the best way to fly a plane is to do so wearing oven mitts.

Thanks PJ and Lynn for having us over tonight. It's always fun to get the family together!

Flashback Friday- Happy Father's Day DAD!!

This is my DAD

I am the luckiest girl in the world to have been blessed with such an amazing father.

Because of my parents, I am who I am today.

Look how handsome he is!

To everyone else he is Big Wayne. Someone respected, admired and looked to. I feel so proud that he is my DAD.

He has taught me so many lessons in my life.
He has taught me independence, self worth, respect for others, the value of hard work, and the importance of family.




Anytime I have a problem, a question, or need advice I still run to my DAD for help.

I will never be able to express to him how much I value him in my life. The greatest compliment I think I can give him is to raise my children the way he raised me. If I am successful in this, I will have achieved my goal as a parent.

Thank you DAD so much for all you have given to me and have done for me. I love you more than I could ever tell you.

Happy Father's Day!!

A Conversation with Jace

This is a conversation I had with Jace in the airport Monday night.

He was tossing his toy plane around the waiting area when he yelled,

"Oooo, there's poop!" "Don't touch it!"

This got the attention of everyone else in the area. I quickly got Jace and tried to find said poop.

Much to my relief, on the floor was a piece of chocolate.

"Who would do that?" I asked him.

He answered "Jace."

"Jace wouldn't poop on the floor" I said.

"It must have been the naughty kids" he said running away from "the poop".

These are little conversations that go on in our lives everyday.

More about California

Ok, I will try to wrap up the rest of our trip in today's post. It sounds crazy but I am still tired from the vacation!

We stayed at the Knott's Berry Farm Resort. The best thing about our hotel was that you could see the roller coaster from the patio of our room. Jace would look at the roller coaster and say "don't be scared Daddy."



We had a large group of family with us. Larry's parents, PJ, Lynn, Tessa, Kai, Tanae, Jamie, Aunt Nelly and Uncle Phil, Gina, Aunt Yoli and Uncle Victor, Michael, James, Katie, and Isa, and Aunt Mary and Mikhail were all there so we occupied what seemed like most of the ground floor.

Once we checked in and were settled, Larry and I had a date night. His parents gave us tickets to California Adventure and volunteered to watch Jace for the night so we were set.

This is the two of us on a ride.



We had a great night and were able to get Jace his first pair of ears.







I have a confession... I slipped and let "Vacation Emmy" take over my parenting duties the next morning. I let Jace have cotton candy before breakfast.





I promise that this doesn't go on in our everyday life. I couldn't help it.


After that, we were off to HOLLYWOOD!! I was very excited to go and when I told Jace he was really excited too. I couldn't figure out why a 2 yr old would be so excited about Hollywood. Then he said "We're going to HARLEYWOOD!!" It suddenly hit me that he thought we were going to somewhere to see motorcycles and not movie stars! Of course he was excited.

Finally, it was the day we had all been waiting for.... Knott's Berry Farm day!! We got up early, ate a real breakfast (no cotton candy), and were ready to go!


On this very big day Jace was able to fulfill so many of his dreams!

He got to drive a car...

Fly a plane...

and his favorite...Drive a truck






He would have stayed on the trucks all day.

We left the park with one exhausted little boy.



Grandpa and Nana drove us back to the airport and it was time to head back to Phoenix. On the way home the plane hit a little turbulence and Jace raised his hands and said "woo woo" just like on the roller coasters.


Thank you so much Art and Margaret. We had an amazing weekend and look forward to doing it again. We love you so much and appreciate all you do for us.