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.

More California Dreamin

I have so many great things to write about our trip. I will try to to give you the shortened version. Nana and Grandpa Guero(pronounced- "huero" or "weddo") picked us up from the airport and Jace was so excited to see them. It had been about six weeks since they had seen Jace he had grown so much since then. He always wants to wear a "pocket shirt" like Grandpa and loves, loves, loves, them both so much. Nana and Grandpa used to live in California and so they were fantastic tour guides. Our first stop was Seal Beach. We walked around the shops and had quick lunch before we hit the beach. Then we walked down the pier and narrowly escaped being hit by a fish that a lady had just caught on her pole. Jace found all of this to be fascinating and wanted to fish too.

We walked down to the ocean and it was time for Jace to catch some waves. He was a little unsure of the ocean. I can't blame him. The water was really cold. Jace got his shorts wet and wanted to take them off, so for the rest of the day our little rockstar wanted to wear nothing but his sunglasses and chonies.




It was another great day and Jace was so happy!

Our Amazing California Adventure.

Hi everyone! I decided to start a blog to keep you up to date with our busy lives. The name Pickle Pina is something Jace and I made up. I would ask his name and he would say it was Jace Pickle Pina. So Larry became Daddy Pickle Pina and I am Emmy (extra mommy) Pickle Pina.

We had the best weekend ever!! We did more in the past three days than most families do in a three week vacation. We are all exhusted but have so many amazing memories. I will be posting pictures of our trip over the next few days.

The first big adventure began with Jace's first plane ride. He had been so excited about the plane. We had been counting the days until his first big flight. On the way to the airport his job was to watch for planes in the sky and lookout for our plane.



Once we had parked the car, taken the bus to our terminal, and made it through security I was ready to head back home. Trying to take a curious two year old through security along with my purse, Jace's backpack and two carry on bags is no small task. The TSA agent asked Jace for his driver's license and he said "I rode the bus" which was a very smart answer.

This is Jace watching planes getting ready. He could have stayed there all day.





The 3 weeks leading up to this big ride required much bargaining on my part. Jace is very wise for his age. First, he said he didn't want to ride the plane and said that he wanted to ride the "heliplopter." I told him that we had to take the plane and he said that HE would "drive it." Those of you who know Jace will know that he has a history of trying to drive so this desire is not unusual for him. I countered his offer with an offer to let him buckle his own seatbelt and we had a deal.

Once buckled in we were off. Here's Larry and Jace.



Here's a picture of me and Jace.

He kept busy during the flight by drinking soda

And listening to Bob Marley

It was a very good flight and I was very proud of him for being so well behaved. Since it was his first flight the nice flight attendant gave him a certificate, luggage tag, crayons, playing cards and anything else she could find in the Southwest swag drawer.

My favorite part of the flight was about half way through when he turned to me and said "I'm all done with the airplane" and he was ready to get off the plane.