Texas... Yeehaw!

I just got home from Texas Monday night after visiting my best friend. She just had her adorable baby Dylan and I was so glad that I was able to go and meet him and spend a few days with her family.
I had a really great time, totally relaxing and fun. I met some really nice people and saw a few I'd met before. And best of all, I got lots of time to hold and snuggle sweet Dylan. I know I should have taken pics and posted them but I really didn't take any... I was busy loving on that cute baby boy!
Thank you so much to Stacy & Jamie for letting me come out and hang with them for a few days!!

Back to School

Ashlyn headed back to school on Monday... this time as a 3rd grader! She is very excited at the prospect of learning to write cursive! She was also excited that our neighborhood got a bus (as was I, considering the school is just over 5 miles away!).

Here is Ashlyn, waiting at the bus stop.

Gabe & I walked her to the bus stop.

The bus is here!!

She's had a great week so far. She really likes her teacher. I hope the excitement is still there when she starts getting homework next week!

This busy life!

I know I haven't been staying on top of my blog lately, but I've been busy, really!!
Because we tend to host so much company (it's been someone every month since March!) and we still have our busy lives to live, we haven't been able to get a lot done on the house. We start a lot of projects that don't always get finished. We are attempting to get 2-3 months to ourselves to catch up and get some projects done. I am currently working on Gabe's room, which has waited a long time. We're putting up bead board in the lower half of his room and hoping to get that all done this weekend, but of course it's so much more than just that... it's chair rail and baseboards too!
Meanwhile, Brian has been very busy at work, getting home late and working plenty of weekend hours as well.
Gabriel goes back to preschool tomorrow (Yay!) and Ashlyn is enjoying her visit with her grandparents in Utah. She left Wednesday and is spending one week with my mom & Don and one with my dad & Jennie. Summer has gone by pretty quickly!
Hopefully my next update will include Gabe's finished bedroom!!

Ashlyn's 8th Birthday

We celebrated Ashlyn's 8th birthday today (two days early) and went to CB's Cupcakes at the mall. This place is so cute! Ashlyn invited 5 of her friends and they decorated cupcakes together. The theme was Harry Potter (what else?) so the cupcakes were red velvet with yellow (gold) buttercream frosting. The girls had a lot of fun putting all kinds of toppings on their individual cupcakes. Ashlyn included red and yellow gummy bears on hers.

I love the decor!

Ashlyn in her special chair. I want to make one

for my scrapbook room! It has chiffon ruffles

all around the bottom, like a tutu!

Blowing out her candle.


Opening gifts at home.

This is an inside family joke... we got Ashlyn a Snuggie!

She thinks it's totally great and plans on using

it tonight while she reads.

She was so excited to get her very own

(PINK!!) iPod! We pre-loaded it

with all of her favorite music from The Beatles

to Gwen Stefani.

Listening to "Dani California"

Wearing her Snuggie. Haha!! (And little

brother being silly)

We feel so lucky to have such an amazing daughter. She's intelligent, funny, beautiful, and caring. Ashlyn has a very important role in our family and she fits it perfectly. We love you so much Ashlyn!!! Happy Birthday.

Petting Zoo fun

We went up to Orange County last week to pick up Ashlyn's friend and take her to our house for a sleepover. We stopped at this little petting zoo before going home and stayed for a couple of hours visiting the animals.

Ashlyn pretended to take care of all the bunnies

Gabriel loved the guinea pigs.

This is the first animal he's picked up that

didn't squirm and try to get away. I'm pretty

sure guinea pigs have very small brains.

Don't let them fool you. These goats appear to
be sweet and gentle, but they are ruthless!

Look how cautious Ashlyn is. This is of course, after

a couple of them jumped on her, trying to get at food.

We love DisneyLand!

Okay so these pics are actually from the middle of June... but I just found them! We met up with our friends, Jean Claude and Elena, for an evening of fun at DisneyLand and California Adventure. We had a great time with them. We let the kids choose every ride. :)

Just the girls.

On Triton's carousel.

Look at our pretty princess.

We waited SO LONG to go on Toy Story Mania.

It was worth it though!

Waiting in line...

Gabe would not pose with me. Little stinker.

What's a "Sprayground"?

Whenever I post on my FaceBook page that we are going or have just been to the sprayground, I get at least a couple of comments asking me what a sprayground is. Hopefully this helps explain it a little better. I should have taken a picture of the entire structure but I didn't even think of it at the time. Next time, I'll get the whole thing in the shot!

The sprayground is a play area based around waterworks. There are several different sprinkler set ups. Basically, it's just a big wet zone with a bunch of different ways to get soaked! The kids were hanging around this small sprayer, filling up their buckets and then throwing the full buckets of water onto each other. There are bigger sprayers that you can run through and stand under as well. This sprayground is in the East County at Santee Lakes.