UPDATED!!

You may want to scroll down a bit... I did about 6 new posts today! Enjoy!

80's Party!

Our friend Brian turned the big 33 this month ;-) And he decided to celebrate with an 80's party! He pretty much threatened that you wouldn't be able to get through the front door if you weren't decked out 80's style! It was a lot of fun! We got all dressed up and everyone looked great. There were some classic 80's treats like gummy bears and Reese's Pieces, there were Garbage Pail Kids cards out, a crimper for your hair and Aqua Net hair spray. We also had some 80's TV theme music trivia, we took the Coke/Pepsi challenge and there was a hot game of Ms. Pac Man going most of the evening. Oh, there was also a Rubik's cube and the electronic game, Simon! So classic!

Aidan's 4th Birthday Party!

Aidan's birthday is the day after Halloween! This year we got to have his party on his actual birthday, Saturday! We decided it would be fun if everyone came in their Halloween costumes! Everyone wants to wear their costumes again, don't they? It was fun to see everyone, especially those we didn't get to see the night before on Halloween... oh yeah, that was 2 parties, 2 days in a row at our house! :-) I can't believe my little boy is 4 years old!! We got him a bike with training wheels and it took him about one day to learn to ride it and now he is a pro and loves it! But watching him on it just reminds me that much more how big he is getting! Although, not THAT big... at his checkup with the doctor he only weighs 30 pounds! He is in the 5th percentile for height and weight. While we were at the Dr.'s office the nurse went ahead and weighed Alec and he also weighs 30 pounds!

Halloween!

As usual we had so much fun on Halloween! It is our annual tradition to gather all of our family and friends at our house who don't have their own trick-or-treat plans or as awesome of a neighborhood as ours to come over and trick-or-treat all over our neighborhood and then come back to our house and eat chili and yummy artichoke, garlic bread and pig out on candy!! This was a our biggest year yet! We actually ran out of two pots of homemade chili and had to open a can or two!! My mom and Ty and Lisa, Torin and Trace, dad and Christine, Scott, Johanna and Jakob, Kody, Brian, Macy, Drew and Evan, Julie, Anthony, Faith and Mikayla, Matt, Ann, Antonia, Maddie, Noel, and Dylan were all here and then Pastor Mike and Kim stopped by with Taylor and Jason and Elisa were here too with their brood of Halle, Braedon, Ella, Lola and Jaellyn! I think the total was like 20 adults and 20 kids INSIDE our house at once! We are used to that outside for parties, but inside it was a bit crowded! Let's just say the kids had fun upstairs in the bonus room and no adult dared enter until the end of the night when everyone had left... I think it took Anthony almost 30 minutes to get everything squared back away... this is for a job that on any regular day takes about 5 minutes! It was nuts! I don't know what those kids were doing! But oh well... for most of the night they were happy and so were the adults!

Aidan dressed up as a Pit Crew guy from the Cars movie. Alec was Darth Vader! He was so funny too... he kept the mask on for a really long time. He wanted to wear his baseball helmet with the costume too! He had a light saber and everything. I was a pirate... Ruby, the Pirate Beauty to more exact (that was actually the name of the costume!). Anthony didn't have the time or inclination to dress up... he was just DAD... someone needed to stay sane anyway!

It was the first year that both kids knew what was going on and knew what to do at the houses to get candy. Alec would have to stop after each house and look in his bag and smell the candy!!

OCTOBER!!

I took the kids to Bates Nut Farm in Valley Center with our friends, Stephanie and her kids David and Kaitlyn, Julie came too with Mikayla. It just isn't Fall without a trip to Bates to see all the pumpkins and go on a pony ride!

A Little Bit of Drama

I am so behind in my blogging! I think it has a lot to do with getting totally hooked on FaceBook and so every time I sit down at the computer intending on doing something, like updating my blog, I get completely side tracked by what is happening on FaceBook! But here I am, inspired by Tami who just threw up a bunch of posts... so here goes!
The last few months have had a bit of drama for us. While my mom and I were on our cruise in Mexico we got a call that my grandmother passed away (my mom's mom). That put a slight damper on our time at sea, but we still managed to make the most of it. However, when we got home there was much time to rest before spending the next few days up in the San Fernando Valley getting things squared away for the funeral. While it was a sad time for our family it was also full of blessings! My grandmother is no longer in pain, no longer trapped in a body that wasn't really functioning anymore and no longer prisoner to a mind that had stolen her ability to communicate the way she used to. Plus, we were reunited as a family... my brother from New York, his wife and their 2 daughters, one of whom we hadn't met yet, came all the way out, Tami and Craig and their girls were here from Spokane, my Aunt and Uncle from Colorado were there and we all got to spend some really neat time together.
On top of the emotions of dealing with a death in the family our church went through a major split right at the same time. It was so emotional and a really difficult situation for us to deal with. We had been going to Riverview for over 6 1/2 years! But after everything came out and our Pastor announced that he was going to resign and leave the church we really felt the spirit guiding us away from Riverview and the people that had manipulated the situation that had been unfolding for so long. We are really excited though because our Pastor decided to start a brand new church in our community! We have heard his vision and we have prayed about it and it is already so fulfilling and great to be a part of something that will touch our community in a real way. So we are now a part of Inland Hills Community Church! There is definitely still some healing and broken realtionships as a result of the split in the church, but we are trusting God to renew them with time.

Mexican Cruise with Mom

What a whirlwind life has been the last couple of weeks! Let's just start with September 20th... mom and I left for Mexico from San Diego on the Carnival cruise ship the Elation. What an amazing 5 days! We hung out on the Lido Deck by the pool and read and went swimming. We ate dinner in the super nice restaurant... and actually the first night we sat at a table all by ourselves... we were feeling a little left out as the tables around us were all full and we knew you usually end up sitting at a table with people you don't know, and here we were sitting at a table for 8 just the 2 of us! The next day we had a card under our door that said we had been moved to a new table per our request (we had not requested a move!). It turned out to be a great thing! We sat with a couple and their 2 boys, ages 8 and 11. They were from Australia and the cruise was the last leg of their 5 week U.S.A. vacation! We looked forward to seeing and talking to them each night. Anyway, we went to an alcohol tasting that first night and played BINGO in the Mikado Lounge and stayed to watch the entertainment that night. There were stage shows every night with music and dancers or magicians or comedians. There is a casino on board so you know we had to sit in there every night for awhile for mom! They had lounges to listen to music, they had lounges to dance, they had something going on every hour, every day until 3 in the morning! We stopped at two ports, Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada. We only got off at both places for a few hours and then we would head back to the ship and lie out by the pool. The ship was really the best place to be. We both had such a good time and were so glad to be experiencing it together... I want to go on one every year, I think it is the best way to vacation!

Our room. We had windows!One of the "towel animals" they

made for us each night at turn down service.

The pool with the cool slide.

Our table MATES

The view from the deck of

the ship of Cabo

Having margaritas in Ensenada, and a fish taco!Relaxing on the deck overlooking the pool AND the ocean!

Indio!

This past weekend we headed out to Indio with the Tegts to spent a few days at their time share resort! We went with them 2 years ago and had a blast! This time they got a three bedroom and the Vitranos came as well. So for Friday night, Saturday day, Saturday night and Sunday morning there were 6 adults and 7 children in a 3 bedroom apartment! It was crazy but so much fun. So, you might be asking yourself... what is there to do in Indio? And then you might ask, how freakin' hot is it in Indio? Well, since it is about 105 degrees there and you can't take kids into the casinos... we swam! And that is all we did! The resort has 3 pools all located in the same area. You can take a dip in the big pool or cruise around the lazy river on an inner tube... or like us hang out in the 1 foot kiddie pool all day! Actually, we all loved the kiddie pool, the kids loved running around in it and as an adult you can lay in the sun while being mostly submerged so you don't melt from the heat. We would head up to the room at lunch time and eat and put the kids down for naps and get some rest ourselves and hang out then head back down to the pools. At night after the kids went to bed we played board games and drank wine! As we were getting ready to leave on Sunday the Young family showed up to stay the last night with the Tegts.

Cousins!

A few weeks ago our family drove up to Thousand Oaks to spend the day with Anthony's cousin Mary and her family. Anthony's Uncle Sam and his wife Kelly were out here in CA visiting from Nevada and staying with Mary. We have gone many years without seeing this part of his family and have recently made more of an effort to get together with them and I am so glad we have because we all have so much fun together! Mary has 5 kids and a stepson! And they are all great and Aidan and Alec have a blast playing with them, even though the younger ones their age are girls! This last time we went up there I showed Mary digital scrapbooking and she was immediately hooked... even though she doesn't have a clue how to do it! We downloaded a free trial of Photoshop and everything! We were on the computer for probably 3 hours at least! So we had to make a plan for them to come down here soon so I could show her all of my stuff and we could make some more pages.

Mom's 60th Birthday Surprise Party

Sunday, August 17th, 2008... My mom's 60th birthday surprise party finally happens! Good thing we only really started planning it about 3 weeks before hand, I don't think I could have taken the stress much longer! Actually, it wasn't that bad before her birthday... once her birthday passed and it kind of seemed like we hadn't made a very big deal about it since we were saving the big deal for Sunday, that part was the hardest! Anyway, she seemed pretty surprised! I think she guessed something was going on but she didn't know who was going to be here and all that we were up to. My Aunt Sheri and John were here with Kimber (Tami's little girl who was visiting them), Bob and Gloria, Pat, then the Lambs came, Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jim, Hannah (and her friend), Jessica, Erik and Bret and of course Grandma. We had a Mexican Fiesta theme going on so we had carne asada street tacos and beans and to make it totally authentic every fly in the neighborhood showed up as well! (UGH!) Oh, and MARGARITAS! The reason we went with the Mexican theme is because my brothers and I (and spouses) gave mom a 5 night cruise to Baja Mexico for her birthday! She has been wanting to go on a cruise for so long... the best part? I get to go with her! The cruise is in one month and I (we) am so excited! I have never been on a cruise either. Anthony is totally excited to take a week off of work to stay home with the boys and I am looking forward to that part too! ;-)

Just Stuff

I couldn't actually let the month of July go by without taking some pictures and posting them! So in these last few days of the month I took some pictures and will be sharing them.

But first I wanted to share that I took the boys to the beach this past Saturday to meet up with Anthony's cousin Lisa nd her daughter Quinn. We went to Moonlight Beach in Encinitas instead of our usual Oceanside beach. It may have been the change in location or the fact that there was someone else around that Aidan thought he could trust more than me... but he went in the water!!! Not like all the way or anything but he played near and in the water. I was so excited (no, I do not have pictures of it!). We went down to the water and just held hands and were running around in it for a long time (Moonlight has a much larger shallow area than Oceanside so it also doesn't seem like there are as many big waves crashing close to the shore like at Oceanside) and then we was fine and played in the water mostly by himself for at least an hour! Didn't even want to come in to eat lunch. What a relief! I really thought he might go all summer afraid of the ocean.

The reason Anthony wasn't with us was because he went up to Northridge and got a moving truck and brought home my grandmother's dining room table and chairs and grandfather clock and took some things to my brother's place as well. My grandmother's house has sold and there are only a few weeks left to get everything out of there. I am so glad we decided to take the dining room set... I really like it and it looks good in our dining room... and sometimes when I go by the room I can smell my grandmother's house... in a good way, not like an old lady's house way! :-)

There are some young girls in our neighborhood who have decided to have what they call Camp Seashell every Wednesday this summer from 10 to 12 for kids 5 and under. They play with them and do crafts and color! Today was the first day I was able to take advantage of it because since summer started I have been in a Bible study Wed. mornings at church. So today my friend Julie and I dropped our kids off at Camp Seashell and headed out for pedicures! And then we had time for sushi too!! YAY! It was so great. THEN while we were leaving the sushi place I ran into my boyfriend from the 5th grade!! How random is that???

Monday mom and the boys came over andhung out for awhlie and I took some great pictures of them... and then I took the boys to the park yesterday, so here are the pictures I have taken in the last few days of July!

Summertime!

We have been so busy just doing our thing this summer! I just realized that I haven't even taken a picture this whole month of July! In fact I haven't taken a picture since the 200+ I took on our camping trip a month ago. The boys and I have been doing the free family movie... which has been so much busier than in years past! This week we didn't even get to see a movie because they were both full by the time we got there. Oh well... I don't think we were missing out too much on Care Bears 2 from 1988! We have been to the beach about 4 times already and my kids are terrified of the water! Actually, Aidan is terrified of the water which means Alec thinks he should be too. It is really frustrating to me and annoying... especially since last year Aidan would go in the water and he loves the pool. The ocean is a lot different than a pool, but still, he likes water... I guess it is the waves that are scary. Anyway, I hope that by the end of summer he will want to go at least near the water. The bonus to the boys not wanting to go near the water is that I can sit and relax and not worry about them getting swept out to sea! They love to go and play in the sand so I will still take them. I am totally that mom that makes my kids do things I think they shouldn't be scared of too... sorry to those of you are more sensitive souls! So I am sure that I have not helped Aidan's anxiety about the ocean. I even asked him if he would go in the water with daddy instead of me and he said he would! So he doesn't even trust me! Can you blame him? Anyway, I promised him and myself this last time that I wouldn't make him go in and I didn't. However, I didn't make that promise to Alec!! Poor kid! He acts like he hates it but I really don't think he does! ;-)

It would have been nice for me to post some pictures from our Fourth of July but I didn't take any! We spent the holiday weekend up at Big Bear and went to the lake for the day and watched the fireworks from there that night. It was pretty fun. Saturday Anthony went on a "jeep run" with Ty and they were gone for about 6 hours! So Lisa and I were at the house with the 4 boys relaxing and watching movies. We all went to dinner that night to a new place... and it was pretty awful! They were out of about 75% of the things that were on their menu and then the stuff they did have wasn't that great and it was over priced! SUPER! It was actually pretty comical by the time we were done.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer! xo

Riverview Family Adventure Camp

We made it! 4 days and 3 nights in the car and sleeping outside with two kids and a dog! We had a lot of fun, we would totally do it again... however, there were parts of it that really sucked! Taking 11 hours to get there wasn't super fun, not awful, but not great... but I guess you can't expect too much when you are driving with four other families with a total of 13 kids, 12 of them 6 and under (and one 8 year old), 2 of them babies who needed to nurse... I suppose considering all of that it is lucky we made it there before dark! We did leave at 4:30 in the morning! The other sucky parts were the mosquitos. I was doing pretty well with the spray and everything but one day I didn't get my back well enough and I have about 2 dozen bites back there! The dirt wasn't great either but both of those things were to be expected. I think the worst part was the first two nights trying to sleep. The first night I would fall asleep a little bit but not deeply enough because Alec would make some small noise and I would wake up. The second night I just flat out had insomnia! I could not fall sleep at all which meant my bladder never shut off and I actually had to get up out of the tent FOUR times to pee! And we had an incline right outside our tent, I am surprised I didn't twist my ankle in the middle of the night... so at one point I thought I was going to cry and I was so frustrated that I kept shushing Anthony or bumping him to be quiet because I had lost one of my ear plugs and could hear all of his snoring and loud breathing. Well, he felt bad for me and decided to go try and sleep in the car! And actually I did eventually fall alseep for a brief time but actually woke up shaking from the cold since my body heater had left! It was miserable!! The third night I slept like a dream! We borrowed a blanket from somone who had an extra one, I bought and took some Excedrin PM, and I found my other ear plug!! It was wonderful! And as far as I know Alec didn't make a peep! ;-) Actually I don't think he ever woke up any of those times he made noise, I think he just shifted and made noise in his sleep... I am just not used to him sleeping in the same room.

ANYWAY! Being up in the Sequoias with all of our friends from church was a lot of fun. The church provided dinner each night and we were all assigned different tasks on different nights to help out but it was nice to have it taken care of and to eat all together for that one meal. We also had little fellowship services together each night and each morning. We sang and one night each family shared a special time in their lives that God was faithful to them... it was very cool.

Friday we drove up to the National Park where there is museum and a hike that taked you around to see all of these amazings Sequoias, they are so beautiful and of course HUGE. We almost weren't going to be able to go because we brought Max and dogs weren't allowed on the trails. However, a super nice man from our group was just getting done with the hike and said he would take Max back to camp for us! That night after we gathered with everyone and headed back to our own campsite that we shared with Julie and Anthony Gioia we put the kids to bed and made a fire in our own little fire pit and we hung out and talked for awhile with them, which was so nice to have a some adult time to unwind and relax at the end of the day. We did that the next night as well and actually played a little bit of a game.

Saturday we headed out to Hume Lake. A couple of us left earlier than the rest and we were pretty sure we had found the place that would be meeting up with all of them but of course after we unpacked on the beach and ate lunch and started to swim we find out that they are all over on the other side of the lake! So we packed everything back up and hiked back to our cars... but it was totally worth it! We had so much fun swimming in the lake and hanging out with everyone. Max got to go swimming and we bathed in the lake! I actually swam out a ways with my friend Elisa and then as we were headed back in Adam was starting to swim out so I swam back out with him. On the way back I decided to really swim freestyle and just truck it in. I had no idea that Adam was trying to swim along with me... apparently I whipped him!! And he is a SWAT officer in Carlsbad!!

That was about it! We woke up Sunday morning and started packing up after breakfast. After having slept so well the night before Anthony and I both said we were ready to camping again soon!

PS- I have already scrapbooked all 200+ pictures from the camping trip (as you can see some of the examples above)!!!

What's Happening

I haven't been around this site much to do any new posts since my computer crashed AGAIN! Yes, the "newish" computer I got about 6 months ago crashed on me. It was actually a used computer from Anthony's office and he took it back to the IT guy and he said the opertaing system crapped out. The good news is that I did learn my lesson last time and I bought an external hard drive and I had just saved all of my pictures through last month to it. Plus, in the last month I signed up and paid for a website called www.carbonite.com that constantly saves all of our files to an online site that can later be downloaded back on to a computer!! YAY! AND the night before the crash I had just finished working on a bunch of digital scrapbook pages and I hadn't saved them to the hard drive and there may not have been enough time for carbonite to copy them yet but just before I shut the computer down (for the last time it ever worked) I uploaded those pages to Costco.com. WHEW! Anyway, just wanted to share the little dilemma I was in. Luckily, I bought this laptop for Anthony for Christmas so I am still connnected! He is LOVING it too! :-p

Other than that we have already been pretty busy with summer activities! Last weekend we spent Sunday afternoon with our wonderful friends, Steph, her family and extended family, that we have adopted ourselves into! They have a beautiful home and great pool that we all had fun swimming in. I am a little nervous about driving anywhere these days so today was the first day this week the kids and I ventured out of the house... we went to the movies and saw Kung-Fu Panda. It was really cute. Saturday we have Torin's 6th birthday party in the morning/afternoon and then it is Julie's 35th birthday party that afternoon/evening. Sunday is Father's Day and I don't know what we are doing.

Next week we head off to the Sierra Nevadas for our camping trip with a large group from church. We are excited about it and really unsure too! I just don't know how it is going to go with all those kids, two bathrooms, possibly no runing water and bear lockers!! But, hey, it's an adventure, right!?

Then June winds down... it was a pretty busy month! We don't have a lot of plans for July... mostly just weekday stuff like free kid movies, the beach, Wednesday camp day for the kids, MOPS mom activities... so we have a pretty fun summer ahead! Hopefully lots of BBQ's too!

I don't have any new pictures right now so maybe next time!

The Boys

Last night my mom came over to hang out with the boys and me like she does most Thursday nights. Anthony was in Detroit so it was extra nice to have her company. She actually didn't get here till right before bedtime so all four of us sat in Aidan's room on his bed to read bedtime stories. Well, Alec has decided he knows how to read so he will actually fight with me when I try to read a story to him! He will grab the book and say, "No, I read it!" While it is sometimes annoying... it is also pretty funny and he will actually take a book he has heard before and try to remember how the story goes and tell it. He is really into books right now and I hope he will one day love to read!

Anyway, after we read stories they both said that they wanted Alec to sleep in Aidan's bed with him... I decided to let them try (not the first time, but it never lasts long). Mom and I left the room and went downstairs. We didn't hear anything from them for at least 10 minutes so I went up to check on them and I could hear (mostly Alec) talking and talking and since they weren't fighting I decided to leave them alone awhile longer, thinking that if by some miracle they fell alseep I would just carry Alec to his bed later. About 5 minutes after I checked on them we heard them come out of the bedroom. Alec says, "I come out of brother's room." Aidan said, "Alec talks too much!" It was pretty funny! So they went to their own beds and all was well for the night! They are too cute. I hope they will really be friends someday.

Haircut

Yesterday Anthony and I celebrated 12 years of marriage! I can hardly believe it! And apparently I can hardly remember it... after I had been out of bed for over an hour he said Happy Anniversary to me first, then I forgot to put my wedding ring on before going to church and then at church I went to write the date on something and I couldn't remember what the date was! Sheeeesh! We did get to go out to a nice dinner together and a movie while my mom watched the boys for us, which was a really nice, special treat. We saw Chronicles of Narnia, good movie. Anyway, I have been wanting to get my hair cut for ages and just haven't gotten around to doing it and so yesterday I just decided to go for it. I LOVE it! I had gone online and used this really cool website called The Hairstyler where you put a picture of your face and then you can try on tons of different hairstyles. I picked one out that I really liked and I think the girl did a pretty good job of getting it... of course it doesn't look exactly like the picture, but I still like it. I think the color change alone helped give my hair some volume and made it better. The pictures I took aren't that great, but you can kind of see it... the front picture doesn't really show how it is flips up on the sides. Anyway, let me know what you think!

As I look at the two pictures above, my new haircut and the picture from The Hairstyler, they don't appear to be very simliar at all! But in person it actually does look a little more like the picture... my hair isn't quite as full but it was hard to capture on film! :-)

Good-Bye to Jason

I got some better pictures on our last day visiting with Jason so I wanted to add them. We picked up Jason in La Costa and drove down to Seaport Village and ate appetizers and drank wine and then walked around the seaport for awhile, which was fun because I hadn't been down there in a long time. Again, the boys had fun playing with Uncle Jason and we all had a nice visit with him before he headed back to New York. Jason rode on the carousel with Aidan and Alec and mom and I stood and watched and we started reading this board they had there about the history of that particular carousel and how it had been made in 1895! And how it has been to about a dozen different places and parks in its life. The most interesting thing about it was that it in the 50's and 60's it was at Pacific Ocean Park where my mom spent time as a child so she had ridden that very carousel as a kid and there she was watching her son and two grandsons ride the very same carousel! I thought that was pretty neat.

Jason's Visit

My "little" brother Jason came for a quick visit this weekend. He has a conference today in San Diego so he came in Saturday night (from Brooklyn) and spent the night with us and we got to hang out Sunday as well. It was so nice to get to spend some time with him, just hanging out, no plans. Sunday morning I made pancakes and eggs and then we all went for a walk around the neighborhood a little bit but even though it wasn't even 10 am yet it was blazing hot so we decided to head to the pool. Nonna and Trace showed up and swam with us for awhile too. The kids are just loving the water (especially the heated pool water) and it was fun to watch them playing with their Uncle Jason in the pool. We went back to the house for lunch and naps and just some relaxation time. I did make Jason look at my scrapbooks... he is such a good sport. He doesn't leave to go back to New York until tomorrow on a red-eye so I think the boys and I are going to meet up with my mom and go hang out with him for a few hours, maybe meet Anthony for dinner and then mom will stay with Jason to take him to the airport. I miss having Jason around... I wish my kids got to see him more often and I wish we could watch my niece Cali grow up (and Lola... once she gets here, only 6 more weeks till her arrival into the world). Oh well... we're family, we'll always be in each other's lives at least! xoxoxox love you lil' bro.

Backyard Planting

We decided to spend yesterday planting plants in the back planter box. On one of the hottest days at the hottest time of the day we decided to plant in the backyard!! It was 97 degrees here yesterday! Actually, it wasn't that bad once we were out there and started digging, there was a nice breeze and there was the pool of course (1)! The plants make such a big difference in the yard. I was feeling like the backyard didn't have much character to it and now it has a definite start in the right direction... besides the amazing view of the mountain (2). We planted two pygmy date palms on the ends (4), asiatic lillies, a bush with white gardenia flowers, a hydrenga, a philadendron (sp?) and some other stuff I can't remember the names of! (3) I put two of these garden butterflies in random spots among the plants and later in the day the sun cast like a halo around one of them in the coolest way (5).

Anthony and Aidan hung out in the pool for awile cooling off after a hard day in the yard (1) and showing off their tattoos (6). If you can't see it in that picture look a little harder in picture 7. After Alec woke up from his nap we finally came in the house to get out of the heat and Alec was just too cute in my hat (8, 9).

Quick swim update... We went to the pool in our neighborhood on Thursday and spent a good two + hours swimming, the kids loved it! They were doing really well with their water wings again. It didn't take long before Aidan was jumping off the top step by himself and then even off the side of the pool. After about an hour or hour and a half he decided he wanted the water wings off... so off they came and he was still jumping in all over the place! Of course someone had to be there to catch him, he can't quite get himself up to take a breath but he didn't lose any of his confidence just because the water wings were off. I was so proud of him and totally encouraged that the water wings were the way to go.

(Be sure to click on the image above, it will enlarge it and make it easier to see each picture)

DISNEYLAND

Our family went to Disneyland this week! We left Monday afternoon and drove up to Anaheim to our hotel where we just hung out and went in the pool and jacuzzi and took a little walk and waited for Nonna to drive up and join us. After my mom showed up she stayed in the room with the boys while Anthony and I got to go out for the evening! Yes, like on a date! We went over to Downtown Disney and walked around the shops for awhile and then we ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, which felt very much like Disneyland itself. I had a terrible night's sleep that night. I had been having a little bit of insomnia for the last 3 days where I would fall asleep OK but wake up really early in the morning and not be able to go back to sleep... but this night I couldn't even fall asleep! I think I slept a total of 3 hours. It didn't help that we had no idea the alarm clock in our room was set for 6 am. It woke us all up and Aidan, Anthony and I couldn't fall back asleep. By the way, after Anthony messed with the thing for a long time and it was seemingly 'off'... it woke us up again the next morning at 6 am!! That sucked because again Aidan wasn't about to go back to sleep. Luckily for me I had taken Advil PM the night before and I fell back asleep for another 2 hours! Anyway, Tuesday morning we all got ready and took the shuttle over to Disneyland. The first ride we went on was Pirates of the Carribean! It started out like almost every other ride for the rest of the day for Aidan... "I don't like it... I don't want to go..." and along the way he was literally shaking in his seat! But no crying and no fits or anything so I figure he isn't traumatized or anything! Anyway, as soon as we would get off the ride he would say, "That was fun!" After Pirates we went on the Jungle Cruise and then Nonna took the boys on the Winnie the Pooh ride while Anthony and I went on Splash Mountain... BIG mistake! We got SOAKED! And not even on the last big hill it goes down, no, that just kind of splashed us a little... the two smaller ones before that literally dumped buckets of water into our laps! Then we went over to what used to be Tom Sawyer's Island and I guess is now Pirate's Island and walked around and let the kids explore. We had to cut that a little short because we had reservations at the Blue Bayou restaurant. So we went over there for lunch. It brings back a lot of memories for me from childhood and I enjoyed it but with the prices of their food and limited selection I doubt we will go back there again on our next visit. We headed over to Fantasyland after lunch and road on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride... I always remember that ride as one of my dad's favorites. We also waited in line to ride Dumbo. The kids were doing great, Alec is a rock... nothing phased him either way, he wasn't scared but he wasn't jumping up and down with excitement either. He would say after each ride, "Not over yet, Not over yet!" The one ride Aidan got really excited about and wanted to go on more than once was Autopia! Of course he has some experience there since he owns a yellow Corvette! Unfortunately, two cars ahead of us was a kid who obviously couldn't reach the gas pedal very well because we were constantly stopping and the car in front of us had his mom in it who instead of nudging him along was stopping every time he did to take his picture (from behind!). Anyway, we also took Aidan on Matterhorn because he just made the height requirement. Let's just say he didn't love it... I mean he was shaking! I did tell him he could close his eyes, which he told me later that he did... but if you ask him about it he will tell you about the mountain with the monster in it. It was also hard to resist going on a ride like that when the wait was only 15 mintues! It was the perfect day really... the weather was great and it wasn't crowded at all, we waited on average 10 to 15 minutes per ride and the longest we waited was 45 minutes for the Nemo Submarine ride. We went to Toon Town where the kids got to meet Mickey Mouse and Goofy and they weren't scared at all, they loved doing that.

The next day we went to CA Adventure. It did seem like there were a lot of rides the kids couldn't go on because they weren't tall enough. We all went on the Ferris Wheel together and will probably never do that again! The cage that you sit in swings around as you go around the circle and at one point Aidan said he was sick! Luckily there is actually a sick bag on the ride so I was holding it in case Aidan threw up, which he did not! After lunch we went to some of the shows they have. The first one was an Aladdin musical and it was really good but both boys fell asleep which was actually perfect. Aidan hadn't even taken a nap at Disneyland so I was glad he got some rest that day. After that we saw the Muppets 3-D show which was fun to see the kids' reactions. Then mom and I took Aidan to the Playhouse Disney show where he got to see all of his favorite characters from his favorite shows like, The Little Einsteins, and Handy Manny not to mention Mickey and Donald and Goofy. Anthony took Alec to Bug's Land and they went on rides and Alec ran through the water stuff they have there. After the show we met Anthony and Alec at a bench where we sat and waited for the Disney Pixar parade to start. That was a lot of fun since Aidan knows all the caracters and he was waving at them as they went by. The park closes at 6 pm during the week so after the parade we hit the store and loaded up on souvenirs and then headed home!

We had a really fun time on our Disney vacation with the boys and I am so glad my mom was there to share it with us. I wouldn't say that the kids thought it was the best time of their lives... which I think has to do with their age and their personalities.... like they aren't still talking about it or asking when can we go back. However, they did great and they had a good time. I think we will wait a few more years to go back and then it will be like going for the first time all over again!
Check out all of our vacation photos at: COSTCO PHOTO

Just a Note

So, I was thinking how it had been a few days since I left a post and really, I don't even know if anyone is reading this thing anymore! But I thought I would "check in" anyway. There just hasn't been a whole lot going on around here ever since the weather turned back to Early Spring! Gray outside all day, the temperature in the 60's... kind of makes you feel like staying indoors and there isn't a lot to report about what we do in indoors except how can the boys annoy each other? It is kind of like an all day version of what goes on in the stroller for an hour in the mornings on our walks. Although, right at this very moment there is a calm quiet in the house as they are actually eating lunch together without yelling, spitting or banging on the table... aaaaah. And then we all know what comes after lunch, right? NAPTIME! Sweet, sweet nap time. Maybe we will head to the park after naps if it isn't too chilly outside.

Right now the one thing I am really looking forward to is next week... We are off to Disneyland! I can't wait! We are going up on Monday afternoon and checking into our hotel and we are just going to hang out. Tuesday we go to Disneyland and then Wednesday it is California Adventure!! I love Disneyland and I hope the kids do too! So you know when we get back I will be posting all the details and pictures... so stay tuned. Till then, have a blessed day. xo

Backyard Swim Fun

I know, I know! It isn't even summer yet! But I do LOVE the summer time! And it has peeked its head out a few times this Spring and we are taking full advantage of it! So my friend Stephanie's little boy got this really cool pool for his birthday and when I saw it I just knew we had to have it! So I went by Wal-Mart today and picked one up. It is so much better than the little plastic pool we bought when Max was a puppy 7 years ago! This one is deeper, bigger and, get this, has a slide!! It actually didn't fit in the back of my van all that well... I had to practically fold it and this older couple walking by took pity on me and helped me shove it in. But I got it in and got it home! It was the perfect day out today, not too hot, about 80 degrees. Aidan did brave the slide a few times, but we all knew who kept going up and down, up and down!

Swimming 2

Yesterday afternoon Anthony and I took the boys to Toys R Us to spend the gift card that Alec got for his birthday. We decided some pool toys would be a good thing for them to pick out. We actually only ended up with a boogie board and some arm floaties. I knew today was supposed to be another scorcher (almost 100!) so after our morning walk we headed right over to the pool. I didn't know how it was going to go watching both kids in the pool by myself... and actually Brian, Kody, Macy, Drew and Evan ended up coming down to the pool as well so that made it a little easier. Anyway, I put the arm floaties on Aidan and Alec and we got in the pool... Aidan wasn't too sure at first but once he saw how well they held him up he started to come around. As far as Alec, I figured the floaties would just give me a little more peace of mind in case I couldn't get to him fast enough... yeah, they just made him braver! He

was jumping in all over the place! By the time we had been in the pool for over two hours Alec could put his face in the water and kick his legs and actually SWIM and then lift his face out of the water for a breath and then keep going! Aidan pretty much made his way around the entire pool and was even jumping in to the

water all by himself from the steps. It was so much fun and they had a blast! Aidan did not want to leave. This is going to be one fun summer!!

Swimming

As far as yesterday and today goes... Summer is here!! Of course by Wednesday it is supposed to be back down to the 60's... but for now it is in the 80's and 90's and we took full advantage and headed to the pool both days. We all had a blast, the kids really loved it. I knew that Aidan would need some time to warm up to it but he has been going in the "little pool" (jacuzzi) at Uncle Ty and Aunt Lisa's house for ahwile now so I knew he would come around. It didn't take too long before he was ready to venture off the step and in to the "deep"... however, not without at least one hand in a death grip on whoever happened to be holding him. But he wanted to go under water and he did a really good job at kicking his feet and even jumping in off the side as long as I was holding his hands. Overall a great job. Then there is Alec... I remember from last year that he liked the water, but that was a long time ago... a whole year! Who knew what we had in store for us from the one who doesn't really go in the "little pool" at Uncle Ty & Aunt Lisa's and who so far has screamed every time someone squirt him with our backyard water toys. Well, the big pool is a totally different story... turns out Alec is part fish! He literally dives right in! And I think he thinks he can swim because he doesn't really care if someone is nearby to catch him (let alone holding his hands as he does it). We couldn't take our eyes off of him for a second and if we did you bet we turned every time we heard a splash. So, like I said, we had a lot of fun watching these two in the water. I am thinking about taking Aidan to swim lessons just to boost his confidence. I will say that the only down side of the whole experience was that it is just another activity my boys would rather I not participate in, they only want to swim with daddy, swim to daddy, go under water with daddy, jump to daddy... nobody's asking for mommy! The only lucky break I get is that it is a little hard for daddy to swim with both kids so someone HAS to come with me... nice. (I may get a chance to post pictures with this soon)

The Trail

My mom friends and I from the neighborhood walk every morning with our double jog strollers (except Kody, who has a TRIPLE) to get exercise, fresh air, and talk. It is our "Mommy Time." Of course a lot of days it is just as much an exercise in patience as it is a physical exercise. For my kids, they see the stroller as a place for their own personal cage match! They can barely get along when they have to share the whole backyard or the bonus room, so when they are forced to sit in a 2x2 space... well, you can imagine the nightmare it becomes. It always starts with Aidan grabbing on to Alec thinking he is soooo funny all the while Alec is screaming his irritating, high-pitched squeal of a scream. Then suddenly he decides to fight back and squeeze Aidan or smack him and guess what... Aidan doesn't like that! And he starts crying and crying and unlike Alec who screams so Aidan will leave him alone and then is done with it, Aidan will cry and cry until someone (me) pays some attention to him and makes sure all is OK with his world. If it requires that Alec get some kind of punishment Aidan is so grateful he will tell me, "Thank you, Mommy" while he watches his brother get a spanking or a time out. UGH! It is actually wearing me out just talking about it! So, anyway, while I wouldn't want to start my day without my morning walk, sometimes it doesn't exactly start our days on the best foot. Since starting Weight Watchers I have felt more compelled to "step things up a notch" especially since I have been "walking the neighborhood" for almost 6 years and I doubt that it is doing much for me anymore. So for awhile now we have had some different routes that we take. This morning we did The Trail. Which is this great dirt path back behind our houses and there is a great big hill to hike at the end. Today I decided to skip the big hill at the end and instead run up and down a smaller but steeper hill as many times as I could. It was a great workout! However, it was day three of wearing my brand new shoes and I had a blister starting going into it and of course that only made it worse. I powered through the best I could. I have decided one of things I like best about blogging is using pictures to tell these stories as well, so I am including a picture of not only my shoes that are three days new but look 3 years old already but my blister as well!!

The kids are in the backyard playing with their friend, Katja. I can hear the screaming and yelling.. mostly Aidan at Alec... so I am counting the minutes till I go down and make them lunch and put them to bed for 2 hours! Now THAT is what I call "Mommy Time!"