Mandy on her way to Australia

We had a family friend come in to town on Tuesday only for a few hours. Mandy lives in Florida with her family and was on her way to travel around Australia and had a lay over in California. My dad picked her up to come hang out with the family for about 6 hours. It was so wonderful to see her and she is just a delight of a person. Her father, Mark, and my parents have kept in touch very well for the past 20 years (which is when they actually moved away and haven't been back since). My family hasn't seen Mandy in 20 years (she was 2 when they left). I saw her about 8 years ago when I went to Florida to visit Jenny at college. I stayed with them for a couple of nights while I was out there. Her dad comes in to town once a year or so, so we have seen him several times in the last 20 years. Her family is wonderful and it was so good to see her again.
I thought I'd post this picture for anyone that remembers her family so that they can see what she looks like 20 years later. She is identical to her mom!

Cousins in town from Chicago

It's really hard getting that many kids to look happy for a picture, believe me we tried

My uncle Scott and his 2 kids, Matthew and Ethan, came to town for a long weekend last week. Matthew and Ethan are my cousins but they are closer in age to my kids so they had a great time playing with each other. It was so good to see all of them and catch up. I really miss my uncle. He moved years ago to Texas, then Georgia, and now Chicago. I'm hoping his next move is back to California. We grew up with him living close and he was such a goof-ball. He was always saying something off-the-wall or doing something crazy.

We went to the beach last Friday with them and then had a big family dinner at my dad and moms house on Monday evening. It was pure craziness on Monday. We had 9 kids and 9 adults. That many kids makes for a very loud night!

All the kid playing in the sandbox

I couldn't resist putting this one in of Amanda.

Blake and Matthew burying Ethan in the sand

Take me out to the ballgame

We went to the Angels game on Saturday evening with my parents. We had a great time. This was Jacks first baseball game and he was wowed by the whole thing. Neither one of the kids liked the fireworks though. We spent little time actually watching the game and lots of time walking around Angles stadium because my kids can't sit still that long. Emily waited all night to sing "Take Me out to the Ballgame" and then she missed it because she wanted to go on another walk. She was bummed so we've been singing it around the house all day for the past couple of days.

Papa and Grandma with the kids

Jack sharing his cotton candy with Daddy

Papa bought Emily one of her favorite treats

The Polka Dot Princess

The Polka-Dot princess (on Wednesday with the first 8)

Now what does she have? The famous words that come out of my mouth so often. Emily, who pretty much gets anything and everything, got the chicken pox. Yes she was vaccinated against it but she got them. My poor little girl seriously gets sick all of the time. On Monday a pimple like bump popped up on her face. No big deal, until Tuesday it turned into 3 and Wednesday it turned in to 8 and so on. I took her in Wed and the doctor said she had atypical chicken pox. That just means that she was vaccinated and got the chicken pox anyways. They aren't as bad and they don't really bother her too much. They only popped up on her face and they actually started going away today. I'm sure she'll be totally clear by tomorrow or Sunday. Actually the doctor said he doesn't think that they are super contagious and if they were anywhere else besides her face, he would let her go back to preschool the next day. But we just kept her home this week.
She's hilarious. When I showed her face to her she thought she looked so beautiful. She said, 'look at my polka-dots. I look like a polka-dot princess.' She could not get enough of herself. She had to look in the mirror every time she passed by one for the next couple of days. It was very cute. She actually seems kind of disappointed that they are going away. I know these aren't the best pictures but these were the best views I could get to see them.

Build-a-Bear

Our disneyland passes finally became good again and we were able to go back to Emily's favorite place. We went this last Monday and had a great time. Despite it being packed with people, it actually didn't take too long to get on the rides. But before Disneyland we took Emily to Build-a-Bear for the first time. My aunt and Uncle gave her a gift certificate for her birthday and we went to spend it. She loved making her own bear. I'm posting a picture of it because I thought it was hilarious what she ended up picking out. I tried to steer her away from a dog and go for a teddy bear but she wanted a doggy. So she ended up picking out a sleeping beauty costume with a crown, hello kitty fuzzy slippers, and striped colorful undies. It was really cute. Her name is Kelsey and she loves playing with her. Hehehe....

Too cute not to post

I just love this picture. I took it at church this past Sunday and it reminded me so much of Jenny and I when we were young. Emily and Maggie (Jenny's daughter) were having the best time on Sunday evening at church. They were chasing each other around and having a really good laugh and a really good time. I just sat back and watched them. It brought back a lot of memories of when Jenny and I were that age and I do feel very lucky that Jenny and I are still close friends and that our kids can grow up together like we did. Jenny and her family are a very important part of our lives and I am thankful for the lifelong friendship.

San Clemente camping trip.......

Family Picture at the beach


All the cousins, and they're actually all smiling

Family picture

Okay, where do I start. First I would like to say that I had to wear my glasses full time for the first 2 days. I woke up the morning of our trip with a painful and swollen eye. I went to the eye doctor and he said I had an eye infection and had to put antibiotic drops in for a few days. I'm not going for a new look or anything, I just had to wear them for most of the trip.

We went on a family camping trip to San Clemente from Wednesday to, what was supposed to be, Saturday. We packed for the trip which is always a nightmare because when you go camping you have to pack EVERYTHING! We packed (and I do mean packed) ourselves in the truck and headed off for what I was hoping would be a low stress camping trip. We got there, the men got the tents up, and we got settled in. The first day (Wednesday) was great. The kids got down and dirty the second we arrived and we couldn't keep them clean at all for the entire trip. They played in the dirt, rode their tricycles, searched around the campsite for rocks and treasures, and had a really great time. Matt and Bryan who I would consider to both be a "guys, guy" decided they were going to start the fire using flint and the brush/pine needles that nature provided them with. They often compare themselves with Bear Grylls. For those of you that don't know Bear, he is on a TV show called Man vs. Wild. Anyways, to make a long story short, Matt and Bryan failed miserably at making the fire. So my sister and I decided to show them how it's done. It took us about 2-3 minutes and wah-lah, we had fire. Call it beginners luck or maybe we're just naturals. It was actually pretty funny to watch their faces when the fire started. Priceless. On a side note, they "claimed" that they ate termites. I'm not so sure I believe them since nobody actually saw it. And anyways, WHY would you want to eat a termite??? Gross.

That evening my mom made a super yummy dinner. After dinner most of us walked down the hill to the beach. It was a gorgeous evening and the sunset was beautiful. Everything sounds good so far, right!?! Yes. Then came bed time. That's when things became a little out of control. Let's just say Jack slept from 2:30am-5:30am. It was MISERABLE. And I'm pretty sure that I made the rest of my family miserable too. So what we decided to do was spend the whole day at the beach and campsite, go home and sleep, and then come back the next morning and stay all day. It actually worked out so much better that day. Both of our kids got a really good night sleep on Thursday and them we headed back to San Clemente early the next morning and had a GREAT day.

On day 2, which was Thursday, my dad made an excellent breakfast. After breakfast, we went and spent most of the day at the beach. Emily loved playing in the sand but wanted nothing to do with the water. She sat there for hours and was so content on playing in the sand. Jack loved the sand and the water. He just played and played and played despite being super tired and kind of grumpy. When we got home from the beach we got the kids down for a nap and then took showers. The kids played around the campsite with some of the other kids and had a ball. For dinner we roasted hot dogs. Hot Dogs always taste so good over the fire. Then the guys went down to the beach for a little fishing. We made smores. Then off to our house we went for the night.

On day 3, we got back up to camp around 9am and the guys went fishing again and then off to the beach again for some more fun in the sun. That evening we had a yummy spaghetti dinner and more smores. Also on a side note, Matt and Bryan finally successfully made fire this last day with the flint. The only problem is that they had to use loads and loads of toilet paper to do it. :-) I love giving them a hard time. Matt also packed up our campsite to leave that evening because we just decided to make that the last day. It was so fun. We made a lot of really good family memories and had a lot of laughs. It's always fun to look back on these types of vacations and remember all of the funny memories and good times we shared through out the week. The cousins have a blast together and us adults really enjoy hanging out too. Overall a great trip (minus the sleeping).

Sorry I may have gone a little picture crazy!

DAY 1















Getting ready to depart for San Clemente

Emily at the beach the first evening















Jack playing in the sand

Matt and Bryan attempting to make fire

Attempt failed- Matt with matches, Bryan with lighter

Let us show you how it's done boys















The men eating sushi

DAY 2


With our little guy

Jack and Emily playing in the sand















Bathing beauty's (my mom and sister)

Making hot dogs with Emily















The rest of the gang roasting hot dogs

Papa and Jack having a good laugh

DAY 3

Jack as happy as can be in the sand



Grandma giving the girls manicures

Grandma taking the kids on a walk after dinner

Papa, Emily, and Amanda hanging out by the camp fire

They finally did it

While trying to move the fire to the pit, they almost started a wild fire

Bye-Bye Aunt Rachel and Brittany

Well, we finally had to say the dreaded goodbye to Rachel and Brittany. They decided to move to Texas together. Brittany is going to cosmetology school and Rachel is going to the local college full time. While I'm super sad to see them go, I know that this will probably be the best move for both of them. They have been a very important part of our lives and they have a close relationship with their niece and nephew. They will be missed a whole lot not only by Matt and I but also our kids (especially Emily). I say it's not forever and that they'll be back but I just don't know if that will be true...... I'm sure they'll find the love of their lives and then who knows where they'll end up. I am the type of person that just wants everyone to live close and be a big part of each others life. So these types of things are hard for me and sad. They're going to stay in Texas for at least year and then re-evaluate things at that time. They'll be back to visit simi-frequently and we are planning to go out to Texas to visit them (probably after the New Year).

We love you Rachel and Brittany and we'll miss you!!!

Jack...my little fireman

Jack finally had his first birthday party. After having to postpone it for a week because he got the stomach flu, we finally got to have it. It went great! There were quite a few people that couldn't make it because of the date change, but we did have a good turnout. My big surprise was that I had a fire engine from our city come out for the kids. They got to climb all over the engine, touch everything, sit in all the seats, pretend they were driving it and push all the buttons. It was awesome that they came out and a great treat for the kids (and I think the adults too). The firemen were super nice and even took pictures with us. After that we had a pinata, Jack smashed the cake in his face, presents, and more games. Everyone seemed to enjoy it but most importantly Jack had a ball. He LOVED the fire engine. He just had a great time for the entire party.

I can't believe my little guy is 1 years old already. Time has flown by with him. He is such a blessing to this family and has brought a countless number of smiles to our face. He has a sweet heart and he is all boy. It always makes me sad to see my kids grow up because I know that I'll never have this time back. That is why I feel so blessed to get to stay home and care for my kids and watch them grow and share every experience with them. I am truly grateful to Matt for allowing me the opportunity to do this and thankful that he is such a hard worker. God has blessed our family so much. He has taken care of us all and held our hands through many difficult situations.


The kids (minus a couple) in front of the fire engine with the firemen


Family photo (Emily was a little scared and wasn't in the mood to have her picture taken)


Jack and Emily in the backyard


Jack and his best friend Joe


Kids scrambling to get the candy after Blake smashed it open


Jack and me

Emilys birthday party at Chuck-e-cheese

After a long battle with the stomach flu in our house we finally had some good birthday parties. Emily had her 3rd birthday party at Chuck-e-cheese. We wanted to do something for her this year but nothing too big. So we had her cousins and a few friends attend the party, along with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and her friends parents. Emily had a blast playing on the toys and games, meeting chuck-e-cheese, opening her presents, having pizza and birthday cake. I thought it was well worth the money and I think that everyone had a good time.

Amanda, Blake and Emily


Emily and Maggie eating pizza


Grandma and Jack