3 Lucky People

Now this is an awesome blog idea! I found this on my friend Mele's blog and thought it was the coolest. I haven't heard of it before but here's how the game works:
Be one of the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post and you'll receive something handmade from me sometime in the next year. But there is a catch, you have to do the same thing on your blog. (so if you're a reader but a non blogger you're out of luck)
I think it's pretty cool that you get to pass on the joy of gift giving. I'm not quite positive what I will make for you most likely it will depend on the people who reply, and my creative juices of course! :) Good Luck!

Luck O' the Irish

Oh how I love St. Patricks Day! Why?? I don't particularly know...maybe it's the Irish in me. Or maybe it's the memory of my Dad getting all hyped up about St. Patricks Day, wearing his green and trying his best irish accent out. Whatever the case may be I've always tried to go out of my way on St. Pattys to make it special. I always wear my green and make a traditional Irish meal. This year I had big plans, found some fun activities for the kids and planned a new version of the meal. But things happen as they always do and we were late on our planning and as luck would have it the stores were all out of corned beef. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I'm not the only who tries to make an irish meal on St Pattys day. Regardless our day still turned out to be a great one even though the irish theme of things sort of went out the window.
Kurt had to run some errands in Valencia so we all piled in the car and drove down together. The weather was so incredibly nice in Valencia!! I LOVE the heat, just in case no one knew that by now. It was so sunny and warm...no sweater required. A nice change from the weather we've been having in Frazier lately, I don't think I could express just how much I am OVER the winter! :) After finishing up his duties we tried to take one last stab at the hunt for corned beef and were unsuccessful. We were all hungry for some lunch so we headed to our fave place from back in our Valencia days, The Habit. They have super yummy sandwiches, salads, and burgers....and yummy malts! Once our bellies were full we had to take advantage of the nice weather so we took the kids to a park to play. We were the only ones there so the kids got to do their thing without being bullied. Kurt & I had tons of fun honing our aerobie skills. We tried to see just how far we could throw it, I got it all the way across the street and to the other park...lol! Then we ran around and played tag with the kiddos. It was so nice out I just didn't want to leave.
We stopped to rent some movies on our way home, I have been dying to see Australia. It was well worth the stop! The movie was incredible, if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it. Emmitt has been battling a fever since Monday, he was so pooped out from the daily adventures that he passed out around 6pm. I woke him at about 8:30 worried that he would be wide awake at 2 am. When I woke him he had a fever again so I gave him some medicine and he sat drowsy on the couch. I felt bad for waking him up so we put him back to bed a half hr later. He slept soundly till morning. The pictures were taken in front of our home on a hillside that is just so green and pretty. After all the fun we had I guess it's not about how "Irish" you make the day but the time spent together.

Dana Point, CA

This weekend 3/13-3/15 Kurt & I were able to getaway to a timeshare in Dana Point. We left Friday the 13th and drove to Orange Cnty to do a couple errands. Then we drove out to Escondido (close to San Diego) to do a timeshare preview. A timeshare preview is just a visit to a particular timeshare where they show you around and tell you what they offer and try to get you to buy into their program. We mainly did it for the free gift (a 3 day cruise), but this place was beautiful! We visited the Lawrence Welk resort and it was amazing. We would have bought into it if we had the money to spend. The day was nice anyway, we met some interesting people and goofed off. We met this Irish man from Belfast and he was a crack up!! He loved Kurts Irish hat. Once we finished things up there we headed to Dana Point for our stay.
Once we arrived it was a little late so we watched a little tv and went to bed. I had a horrible nightmare that night about Alaina and woke up crying. (this is what pregnancy does to me, I really don't dream except when prego) We called the family right away to check on them, it was so nice to hear their little voices. Our babies were in good hands in Kurts families care. We ate some breakfast and went to the activities center at our resort. They rent out free beach cruiser bikes so we took our pick and off we were. We spent the majority of the day riding our bikes along the beach and checking out all the little shops at the marina. After 4 hrs or so we decided to head back to our room to relax. We turned in our bikes, played a round of pool, and headed up to our room for a nap. After our nap Kurt went for a quick swim while I got ready for dinner. We ate at the Harbor Grill, a small but very nice restaurant. We wandered around some more shops after our meal. We found a toy store/souvenir shop that had all kinds of cute things for the kids. Kurt bought these sprite bombs, which look like little poppers. He threw one outside the shop and scared the you know what out of everyone even himself! It sounded like a gunshot and sparked and smoked. Those little things were crazy!! We bought a couple more boxes and some of the regular ones to bring home for the kids entertainment.
I'm sorry but can I just say... how super HOT my husband looks in this pic!! ;)
The following morning was check out day, we got our stuff together turned in our keys, and headed to the beach for one last look. We played a little aerobie, and skipped rocks. I am not so good at the skipping rocks thing but it was fun to watch Kurt. All in all it was a great little getaway. I love being able to spend time with Kurt alone, helps us relieve our stress and strengthen our bond. I LOVE YOU KURT!
We were happy to get home to our babies too!! It's rough being away from our kiddos.

Great friends help make a great day

About 2 wks ago my good friend Christine came out with her kids to visit. Christine and I met 5 yrs ago when I worked at Black Angus, we both waitressed there. We've kept in touch and been friends ever since. I feel lucky to know such a wonderful person like her, she's a sweetheart. It was so much fun just hanging out together and watching the kids play. The day was pretty nasty out so we just stayed inside. We hadn't had our kids together since our boys were one. We've both had some girls days out together, but the kids were always left at home w/ the husbands. It was nice to get them together again, even more so since I got to meet her 3rd little guy Mason. All her kids are so adorable!! Ryder & Emmitt had a blast playing together, they are so much alike! They both tower over other kids their age, it was nice to see that my son isn't the only big man on campus. :)
Christine and I sat and gabbed while the kids played. And of course we had to snap some pics before they left. We look forward to more playdates with the Westmoreland Family!The boys- Mason, Emmitt, & Ryder.Kayden and Alaina- these girls were a crack up while we were taking pictures. We were trying to get Alaina to put her arm around Kayden and she just stuck her arm straight up in the air, then Kayden copied and had her arm straight up in the air. It was hilarious we couldn't stop laughing enough to take the pic.

March 3, 2009

That's what Emmitts invites read for his 4th birthday. We kept it small and just invited our local family members to come by for cake and games. Emmitt was given a choice of some different activities that he could do for his birthday. We asked him, "What would you like to do for your birthday? Go to disneyland, go to the zoo, or ride dirtbikes?" His response, "Ummmm.....I just want to ride dirtbikes." Such a boy!
We headed to the farm around noon to ride. We stopped off at Subway and grabbed some sandwiches beforehand to have a picnic on the trampoline before riding. When we got to the house Alaina was asleep, so we just rolled the windows down and the rest of us sat on the trampoline and ate our lunch. It was nice to be able to spend some one on one time with our birthday boy. He had fun bouncing up and down around us while we were relaxing. Kurt fired up the dirtbike and took Emmitt for a nice little ride around Lockwood. Of course the kids had to play with the chickens before we left.
After we got home the kids took naps and I got started on the cake. I wanted to make the cake myself and I knew I wanted a dirtbike theme. I found this idea and I was pleased with how it came out, Emmitt loved it because it gave him another toy to play with. Our family party was really small, just Kurts family was able to attend. We ate cake and ice cream, opened gifts, and chatted. Emmitt received 2 baseball hats, a leather aviation jacket, a gooey ball, and some candy. This year we decided to let Emmitt choose his gift from us. He chose a electronic star wars lightsaber. All in all it was a great 4 yr birthday for him.

The Bachelor

Ok I just have to vent my steaming frustration, so bear with me. "The Bachelor" we've all heard of it and maybe most of us have watched it at some point. I am not an avid Bachelor watcher, in fact this was the first season that I had watched from start to finish. I've seen other seasons episodes here and there but they never really grabbed me enough to see it through. This season was different, here you have this guy who's a single Dad, coming off of the previous Bachelorette season, and he seems like a really nice guy who's served his time enough to find his own happiness. His little boy is super cute, and I thought this season will be more descent then the rest since he's got a little guy. I was sucked in from the very first episode and couldn't stop watching.
Now with these kind of shows you tend to have "your pick", the ones that you want to win. For me this was early on, I chose my fave then my 2nd in line that I thought this guy would go for. As the show was coming to an end it became evident that my fave was his fave! I was soooooo excited and thought their just so cute for each other. Jason Mesnick had proposed to Melissa. This cute girl from Texas, and their relationship seemed effortless and perfect. That is until the "After the Final Rose" show.
Talk about steamed!!! The man who I thought had some kind of brains dumps this poor girl on live television after only 6 wks!!! It was awful. I watched with my hubby and he fully agreed that Jason was an idiot! Melissa said some smart and well put things in response to this awful event. I just felt so bad for this girl and wanted to chuck a bat at my tv. His only excuse was he couldn't stop thinking about the other girl. So what does he do?? He dumps her, tells her he's going after the one he didn't choose, and on the very same episode does exactly that!!!
All this time I wasted just to watch this guy go from hero to a zero. In closing the best part of that ending was when Melissa called him a choice word..(which I won't repeat)...I was fired up right along with her I only wish she would've socked him in the face. LOL!! :)