Besties birthday.....

Today is my besties birthday and I realized how stinky it is to have made such a good friend and then NOT be there for their birthday. SOO in honor of his birthday I shall post a pic of last years birthday cake and the MOST recent pic he and I took before I headed out here to CA!

We may be miles and miles apart but I (we all) miss you dearly! Live it up my friend and remember this time next year your WHOLE fam will be making many new, exciting and BUSY memories! May this next year be GRRRRREEEEAAAATTTTTT!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTY TAT!!!!!

Life....

Life is always hectic but it's made sweeter by the littlest things. Got up early today for work, always thinking it will get better it does eventually but this helped speed up the process. Love my kid. Love my hubby.

Busy...

Lots has been going on, my works office is moving, even more volunteering at school for the girls, Rian is taking a liking to the potty (I see potty training in our future) and of course just the normal, cooking, cleaning, living...and trying to be a good wife all at the same time. I admit my patience can be worn thin and where does that all get taken out on...my hubby. Luckily I have learned those words, those special little words "I'm sorry" and when it is said just right, he knows I really mean it. Lately there has been less picture taking, less fun having and more getting down to business but that's a good thing. Life has taken a more normal route.

I don't have much to vent about unless I want to give up a big secret but here are some friend/family news thats going on...

Dusty (my SIL) just told us that her doc told her this baby might be close to 8 pounds when he is born. Holy smokes. She is tiny but if I could push out an almost 9 pounder I am SURE she can handle this. She is tough! She only has less than 4 weeks left and at the most she will go 1 week past her due date. Which is really special cause Grandma will get to be there! I am so sad I can't share this special day with her...I wish we lived closer! More to come on that though I am sure! We love you Dusty!

I have some other friends with some big news but alas, I must wait to share that with everyone so just wait a few more days :)

We went to Six Flags Discovery this weekend with Grandma but HOLY SMOKES it was HOT HOT HOT so we left after only 2 hours! Good thing we have Season Passes!

Carina is going to be 11 in just a few short days and I cannot believe it. Where has the time gone! Seems like just yesterday she was born and now she is a mature almost TEEN! Yikes. I am excited to have her celebrate this special day but I know she also misses her friends in AZ. Good thing she is a social butterfly and has already made some really great friends here as well...ALMOST Happy Birthday baby girl!

Halloween shopping has been had, Rian will be a Frankenstein, Neya wants to be a kitty and Carina decided she wants to go 80's. Oddly she doesn't have to get a costume as some of the clothes she already wears are totally 80's...so we are just going to accessorize, we bought her the cutest lace headband with a giant bow on top! I really want to buy a crimper but then I am REALLY taking it old school! Haha.

All the holidays are coming up and although I used to pine for my CA family to be closer now I realize it will actually be LONELY (mentally not physically) without my AZ family around to share all these days with...not to fret. I will take lots of pics (and hope they will to) so that we can spend plenty of time together!

Vegas is NEARLY here and I am excited. We won't be around the kids for RC's birthday or New Years which is a first but ya know....I am still excited. We want to have fun. If we can find some friends that can join us great, if not, no big deal. I love time with my hubby cause sometimes you forget that you have one another and life becomes a job and not a relationship and you also forget to LOVE and you kinda just LIVE through the days. Its nice to have that break, reconnect and get back to normal.

Well thats about it and like I said earlier the pics have taken a backseat but here are a few from some walks and such that we have taken lately...kinda shows you the view we have around the house here!

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Okay now pics

So I posted the blog about this weekend but now here are the pics...backwards I know, don't judge me!

Noah and Aadens Party Pics...yay you're both 1 :)








Cousin Jose's Surprise 40th!

Phew...and the weekend is over!

So I think this weekend marked the last weekend till Carina's birthday that we have anything going on. Let me tell you, since we have been back in CA, EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND Has been packed with stuff that has gone on and this weekend was no exception.

Saturday:

We woke up early and the whole house was showered and cleaned up by around 930, BUT then of course life took over and then it all (by it I mean the SH1T) hit the fan. Rian was running around all morning taking not one tumble. But then I put on his new shoes, can you believe he is in a size 7 now, and he falls while walking and eating raisins! He fell right into the corner of our hall and needless to say he got his first bloody nose and fat lip. He took it pretty well considering all he was worried about was that his raisins fell everywhere!

After that I had to get him changed (due to blood spillage) get his bag ready (which was supposed to get done when he so rudely interrupted me with an injury) and then I realized CRAP,I have two...YES TWO...birthdays to get to and no damn camera charged! Ugh. So me, being the unorganized person I am, opted to leave the camera at home for the first party (sorry Sophia) and was going to come home to pick it up for the second party (Noah and Aadens) because I knew momma Tiff was probably not going to be able to take many pics.

Anywho, we went to the first party and it was fun. Of course Carina got there and was like "when are we eating" so Stephanie was nice enough to rush her hubby to cook some hot dogs. I swear you would think we never feed our kids. Ugh! Needless to say we got through cake and food and even a few popped balloons. I am pretty sure the balloons were attacking all the guests, but not to fret Sophia's sissy protected us all by popping nearly half of them with her teeth! SAVAGE! Hehe. Either way it was nice to hang with good friends during their little one's special day :)

THEN off to Noah and Aadens party but first I had to pick up our camera. This is where the crappy planning comes in. I didn't look at google maps to see where the other party was at but of course, after driving all the way across town to get my camera I realized..wow...we get to go RIGHT BACK to where we just were. LOL. Wasted gas and polluted the earth (sorry earth!) but we made it and were only 30 minutes late. Goodness! We got there and we saw cute Elmo cakes but more importantly we saw the birthday boys. They were so cute in their little shirts and man oh man were there a lot of people there! Talk about being loved! We stayed for nearly everything, but there were other photographers there to so I mostly tended to my crazy son because my crazy ALMOST TEEN was to busy mingling with other kids her age to help me out. Sheesh, why have more than one kid if they aren't going to help you! She ended up getting bullied by one of the kids that was there (whom we don't know very well outside of the fact that I went to school with her mom) and Carina ended up helping mostly so she had an excuse to NOT be around the older kids. My poor baby, she is a pretty sweet kid and isn't used to kids with crappy attitudes and no respect. She had a few tears but luckily we rarely see those folks so we shouldn't be in that sitch again anytime soon!

The rest of the day was good, but we had to leave around 315 to take Carina to her friends house (another crazy party cut short). We took her to her friends house and I thought...wow...I might have a nice quiet evening and it was for the most part. Until RIGHT when I got into a good sleep and my phone rang because Carina needed her inhaler. UGH! I swear, that kid, she NEVER thinks to take it anywhere, but will swear up and down its in her purse at all times. I ended up just picking her up in case she needed her nebulizer and by midnight I was back asleep and then Sunday was Free to roll in!

Sunday:

RC actually got to stay home for the day and it was pretty nice. We lounged around until about 1130, ate waffles for breakfast, and at 1130 RC helped my dad work on my bro's car and the boat and me and the kids went out to get a gift (yes a gift) for my cousin Jose's SURPRISE b-day party. He turned 40 this year which is insane. I never felt like we were that far apart but perhaps thats because he always had a way of making me feel like an equal to him no matter the age difference or place in my life. I love that guy, he is amazing and a great person to look up to! So glad my kids now get to know him and his family a lot better! Anywho, we got him a gift and OF COURSE as we were out something ridiculous happened. Rian got this party favor at the first party we went to Saturday and I thought I hid it from him but apparently not well enough. It was a water thing that had little toys inside. Rian decided to bite it and got water not only all over himself, but his sister, his carseat and my seats! I had to pull a quick "pull over" move, grab wipes, clean it all up and take the toy away which resulted in tears and screaming by my unhappy 2 year old. Haha. Of course, never a dull moment.

Once that was all done we got home, got changed...yes I said CHANGED...because it was a hawaiian theme party and I hate dressing up so I took out about a million outfits. Haha. Got dressed, left the house, stopped for drinks on the way and went to the party. It was fun, they had food from Ono's Hawaiian BBQ (haven't had that since Phoenix) and we did Pinatas, drank, ate and were all together merry. We opened gifts and then we bailed out because we STILL had to get one kid showered before school and get lunches made etc.

Thankfully this is I THINK The last weekened we have a ton of plans and I am soo excited for that because I was REALLY starting to miss AZ and my lowkey weekends of doing nothing unless I REALLY wanted to. RC admitted last night that he also misses AZ but doesn't tell me as often as I tell him because he doesn't want to give me a reason to say "I told you so" or get mad at him all over again for making me move. Truth be told, it really isn't as bad here as I thought it would be, it is just different. We don't have as many chill quiet family nights, we haven't had as many chill weekends and we don't have our friends that would just chill with us to, not that our CA friends don't chill but since we have been back its been hectic! I am looking forward to some relaxing weekends, a trip back to AZ maybe and making new memories, after all it doesn't really matter where you it matters who you are making the memories with!

We miss you AZ family but we can't lie and say we aren't enjoying our time here with our CA family...

Package!

So Rian has fans from everywhere! Last night we got a package from the Trojan Family...eventually I will be able to link you to their page but for now, we must settle with just "wondering who they are" Hehe.

Anywho, Matt, Ash and Xander sent Rian and even the girls (boy are they spoiled) a little package in honor of Rians birthday. So cute, he was soo excited, he totally gets what presents are now and even if they aren't opened up quickly he still has a great time!

Here are some pics from them opening their gifts and from us playing outside as well :) We tried for the first time ever to have RIan ride his bike. He has used his tricycle but that was right when he turned 1 and he totally understood, now he gets distracted by other things (as you will notice in the pics) and just wants to keep his helmet on and walk around, point at things at eat grapes. haha and you will ALSO see that in the pics!

Thanks Trojan family for the fun presents, in case you can't tell by the looks on their faces, they loved them all!

Collin James

Life is exciting, not only when it's full of your own little families happenings but when you get to share in the lives of other relatives, friends and siblings and their "going on's".

We are hundreds of miles away from Dusty, my SIL but I feel like we are close because of the pics we get, the little texts we send here and there and mostly because we lived together for so long that I am sure we don't talk as much as we both would like but I am sure we are still in similar routines haha.

Because we can't be there for when the baby is born or its first few days we wanted to do something that perhaps they may not have gotten otherwise and we "gifted" them a 3d Ultrasound! I love it. He totally looks like a little man and that is SUPER precious!

Here is sneak peak at my very first nephew: Collin James!



We love you and miss you all very much Stacy, Dusty and Collin! Yes we miss Collin even though he isn't "out" yet! Hehe.

Party. Party! PARTY!!!

Holy smokes this weekend was filled with lots of birthday happenings. CRAZY!

First it all started when I got off work at 430pm Friday and headed to the store for last minute stuff and then home for some cooking. I am a typical Facebook Junky but for this event I totally pt FB on the backburner from the second I got off work till I was all done with the party and got down to business.

I went home and started making pasta salad, potato salad and BAKING LOTS OF CUPCAKES oh and a cake! Yeah what was I thinking!Goodness! I was going and going until about 11 and then I went to bed and got up at 630 and did the same thing over again. Just kidding. I was the most proud of Rians cake and cupcakes. I wouldn't normally bust my hump on this but I LOVE to make the birthday cakes for the fam and so it worked out perfectly. So much fun, I may come up with another idea next year to!

When I woke up at 630 it was time to start setting up, cleaning chairs, getting balloons blown up and making sure that all things were in order!

Funny story for the day of the party...We had ordered some balloons to match the party that had number 2's on them and then some other orange ones that were just orange. I took them down at 9am to get blown up and they said it would be better to wait till closer to the party time to blow them up as the float time is only 4-5 hours. I said thanks and went on my way. My Bro's took Carina to get some reeds for her Clarinet and to pick up the balloons, they came home, tied them to the bbq outside and I took 3 out of the pile to go put them on the mailbox for party guests to see and as I was walking back up from doing my task I saw the WHOLE BUNCH OF BALLOONS floating away (not the ones I put on the mailbox, but the other 20 that were attached to the BBQ!). I couldn't do anything but laugh about it and to be honest it was funny...I mean what is the luck!

Anywho, the party started at 1 and it was roasting, we were in the back yard and there was hardly any shade so we ended up going out front half way through and taking all the items up there and in hindsight we should have done this to begin with but oh well. We had a bounce house that my cousin was so kind to let us borrow and we BBQ'd and we had fun. We rushed it a bit as we knew half the party had to head out as they all had other parties to tend to (apparently it was a good party day!) and the good part was that they got to see the crucial parts like cake eating, present opening etc.

I didn't get as many pics as I would have liked, in fact there isn't one pic of me, RC and Rian or even a family pic on Rians birthday. Kind of a bum deal but it happens. Next time I will just demand I have someone take some really good pics. My uncle had the camera and snapped a few but a good amount of them all came out blurry. Oh well, its the thought...THANKS NINO!









After the party we did clean up, and had a really late dinner from Taqueria as my bro was heading home the next day and hadn't gotten to it yet. He came out from the midwest to pick up a car and to of course, celebrate Rians birthday with us! Very nice! First time in a while that we have all been together at my parents house so we took a quick pic before he headed out to watch his old band play a gig in Vallejo.


Sunday we headed out to Noah and Aaden's house to celebrate their 1st birthday at their family party, yeah you read that right...we were invited to the FAMILY party, we are soon in!!!! My goodness I cannot believe they are 1! Soo crazy! THey are moving and talking and just give all sorts of loves and they have grown into such big boys. Makes me happy to know we are here now and get to enjoy them growing up, gotta admit, I love it when they put their hands up for Aunty Drea!

I was lucky enough to be deemed the "picture taker" for the day and wouldn't have had it any other way. Hopefully Momma Tiff got some good pics outta the bunch that I took and gets to use them to remember this very special day! We love you guys...and next time we are going to get OUR burgers from Andy's to! YUMM-O!

Now no more details, we are going to just post some more pics! Yes there are more pics of this party than Rians party, but hey, there are TWO kids and I was the one snapping the pics so of course I got a TON! Hehe.












OH and yes I have to post one...a pic of Rian at Noah and Aadens party...you guessed it...playing with cars!

Now for next weekend when we go to Noah and Aadens BIG party. I had one gift idea in mind but NOW I think I am going to change my mind...oh how shopping for boy toys is soo much fun!