We're Baaacckkk!

Well we have been home for a week now, and this is the first time I have been able to sit down and update!

We had the most AMAZING week in San Diego. The flight was good, we packed to much, the weather was perfect, the house was perfect, and family was great!! First thing we did when we got off the plane and got a rental (van..haha :)) was stop and In N Out for a burger!! Its safe to say I gained 3 lbs while on vacation, thanks to In N Out! :) Seriously!! We ate there 8 times in 7 days! I like it alot, but thanks to my brother in-law Ryan, we ate there once a day! I am pretty sure he could live on In N Out!

We spent our first day in Old Town San Diego. I love it there, so much culture, and hands down the best mexican food I have EVER had! And quite possibly the best little mexican band ever! I think they are called mariachi band.. but I am horrible at spelling, so you will have to sound that one out. :)
below: us walking around Old Town :)

The next few days were spent at the beach. Our house was right on the water in Mission Bay. It couldn't have been any more perfect! Beautiful views, large windows, 3 balconies, the house was amazing! The house was more on the residential side, so we had lots of beach to play on!

below: we went out to watch the sunset...

Wednesday we went to Disneyland! I was so anxious! We finally got there after a 2 hour drive. IT WAS PERFECT. Madeline was so excited that she was stuttering. I had to fight the lump in my throat so I wouldn't cry a little. When we got in we went straight to see the princesses! Madeline was starstruck! I have never seen her act the way she did, or make the faces she made. Again I had to fight back a tear or two. :) The rest of the day was spent riding rides and seeing all that Disney had to offer. Josh took me to ride a few adult rides while the grandparents took the little ones for a while. First we rode Space Mountain. I screamed A LOT!!! So much that Josh, Tiffany(sister in law), and Ryan(brother in law) were laughing so hard they couldnt make a noise! And the 2 people we didnt know were laughing at me as well. When we got off I had mascara running down my cheeks from fear and laughing. Finally, after a l-o-n-g day it ended with a parade! Madeline was so excited to see all the princesses and all their friends. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day.

above: Madeline at the very moment she saw the parade starting! Priceless
below: just before leaving disneyland we were there open to close!

We spent one cloudy day playing put-put golf and hitting some balls in the batting cages. The rest of our time we spent on the beach. Josh has some friends that lived close by so it was nice to see them a few nights. We even went out one night we were there. We went downtown to Shout House. It was a piano bar, so much fun! The week went perfectly. I am blessed to have married into a such wonderful family.

Thank you Don,Yvonne, Tiffany, Ryan & Michele Ethan & Abby. We made wonderful memories!

If you want to see all of our pics check out our facebooks or myspaces!

mission, disney, zoo OH MY!

In 2 days we will be boarding a plane headed to San Diego CA!! Need I say, "I AM SO EXCITED!" We are staying in a beach house on Mission beach for a whole week, a full 7 days!!

We are going to Disneyland, I cant even begin to tell you how much I am looking foward to it! We will also be visiting to infamous SD Zoo!

Here is what I am not excited about. PACKING. So packing for 4 is a whole new ballgame. Who knew that 4 people would use so much stuff in 1 week! And I am still afraid we are going to have enough. AIRPLANE. I am ok with airplane rides.. but Madi and Cait will probably have a different opinion on it all. And if you know Cait, you know she is hard to handle at times, and she will be sitting on our laps! SLEEPING. I know that there is going to be plenty of room in the house to sleep, but I assure you Madeline will find her way to our bed everynight equalling a week on bad sleep.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week while we are gone. OH and we bought a new camera so pictures will be coming soon!!!!

For you veiwing pleasure... a pic of the girls last december! hahahaaa

Olympsticks

For the past 4 weeks we have been watching the best of the best compete in the Olympics much like the rest of the world sooo.... Hopefully, you find this as funny as I do! I was putting Madeline to bed the other night as she said "No mommy, I want to watch seseme street!" Of course I told her they were sleeping too. Then she says "Mommy, I just want to watch TV." Again I tell her its "night, night." Finally she says "Fine, I will just watch the Olympsticks."

HAHAA!! I start laughing! I have lost hours of sleep watching the olympics, so I found the humor in that.

Tonight, I flip on the news at 10 just to catch the end of the Democratic Party Convention. Madeline's response, "Is this the Olympsticks?" I have to laugh again! She says, "oohhh" and lays her head back down. I guess it must have been the fireworks.

Goodnight!

I would love to post a recent picture of my really cute kids or my giant dogs, but I cant! I lost our camera! I had it in the diaper bag on sunday when I dropped to girls off at church and havent seen it since. :( Hopefully, It just fell out and someone found it.

Above, I think this was in June Before Madeline got her teeth. She went down the slide and looked like this when she was getting off!!! HAHAHAAaaa

You can call me Speedy!

What a week! Monday, I had jury duty! It was terrible for the 2 hours I was there, I was standing in line with about 300 other people, then forced to sit in a stuffy basement. Then an announcement!!! "If there is any reason you can not perform jury duty at this time, please go to room 314 on the 3rd floor." I was excited and was nearly the first one out the door. So I see a judge, "why cant you do your jury duty?" he asked. So I reply in a sweet voice, "Well I am a stay at home mom and cant find a sitter for an entire week." He says, "your jury date will be postponed 6 month, that should be attiquite time to get your childcare situated." So they ship me off to a different room to decide on a new date. January 12! Needless to say, I am looking for a sitter for the week. :( But my sister was in town to watch my girls for the day, so we got to hang out for a while once I left the courthouse.

Tuesday, started a new job. :) I like it. (MDO teacher for 1yr olds)

Wednesday, Work for my mom from 9-5 then Josh and I are "moms and pops" of a youth community group from 6:30-8. It went much better than I expected. The kids are great!

Thursday, back to work with the kiddos. Then back to help my mom for a few hours, then we went to Utica Square for "summers fifth night"

FRIDAY... a day of much needed rest. The girls and I slept in till 10, then Josh scheduled me a massage, then I came home rested, showered, then we went out to dinner! It was a good day....... OTHER than the speeding ticket I earned on the way home from the massage! So I was trying to hurry home because I knew josh needed to get back to work. He had an appt at 12:30. Well guess what, I sat up from my massage at 12:30! AHHH!! So I was racing, literally, home and I come up over a hill and see the cop! I start slowing down and sure enough, she flips her lights on!

She come to my window and says "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I love this question. I mean really??? Like I didnt know I was speeding! Not to mention now I am going to be even later!!!!!!!!! So I say, "Yes, I was speeding, but I dont know how fast I was going." She informed me that my speed was 55 IN A 40!!!! ughhhhh.... I didnt even know they still had 40 as a speed limit. She was nice enough to write my ticket for 9 over, so it doesnt hit my driving record or insurance. :)

So I am racing home again, as fast as the law allows! I walk in the door, its almost 1! Josh says to me nicely ;) "what? did you forget?" Just as I am about to explain, he looks at my hand, see the pink slip, Yells and storms out!!! At this point I am thinking... thanks for the massage, but I am no longer relaxed!

He called back an hour later said that he wasnt mad anymore and that he should just expect it from me since IT WAS MY 4TH TICKET THIS YEAR!!!! He said he was more worried about me since he couldnt get ahold of me... and he was running late.

Hahaa... what a week.

Today is sunday, we spent all of the morning at church. We are headed back in just about 30 min so I need to get all of us girls ready.

Hopefully we will be in a routine soon!

Above is a picture that makes me laugh everytime I see it! It was taken when I was 6 months prenant with Cait, we were on a cruise to the Bahamas and we wanted to take a picture by the rails to prove that we were in the middle of nowhere.... much to my suprise, its windy next to the rails... but not really anywhere else!! Hahaaaa.. it was so funny! The picture turned out perfect!!!

Birthdays....

Yesterday was my dads birthday!! 60!! I cant believe it. I cant imagine what my dad must have felt like 24 1/2 years ago on his birthday. He must have felt every emotion possible... scared, excited, anxious, etc. For his birthday he recieved 2 baby girls! Twins, just 18 months old. He and my mom only had 3 days to prepare for this birthday party! They were called by DHS and were told "we have twin girls ready for adoption, would you like them?" Of course their answer was yes, after years of being unable to concieve. The DHS worker said ok, they are yours, in 3 days, August 18, my dads birthday.


So every year we celebrate my dads birthday and our adoption birthday together. Of course its not about gifts, its about being thankful for each other.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

This pic is from Wednesday night.... my papa showed up for a suprise visit, but it got all of us together!

I got out of just duty this week! BUT, I have to serve in January NO EXCEPTIONS! Ugh.... hopefully I get a good trial! (and can find daycare for a week)



Today was my first day of teaching at my new job and their first day of school! I was udder craziness at first, but once the kids got settled it went a little smoother! I have one girl in my class that was recently adopted from Guatamala. She is precious! I felt terrible because she cried for 2 1/2 hours straight. We called her mom, she informed us of Analise being a little untrusting at first. I think that is totally understandable. By the end of the day, she was playing and smiling, she even gave me a kiss! It made the terrible morning worth every crying minute! :)

SAHM??

Well, I got a job! I will have my own class of 1 year olds twice a week at a Mothers Day Out in Bixby, to be more specific, the church I grew up in. :) Funny how things like that happen! So now I will be working Tues and Thurs there, and will help my mom Mon and Wed, then I have my youth group on Wed nights and Sunday mornings!

HOPEFULLY, I will be able to keep my fridays and saturdays free!

I am excited to be busy again!!!


above... the girls one year ago!! They have grown up so fast! This was the first time Madeline really wanted to help with Cait and she was soooo proud of herself. Although, the moment was short lived I was quick enough to catch a picture of it! Its one of my favorite pictures.

Bring on the Rain

Finally, some rain! When it started raining on Friday, I stopped to watch it for a while. I felt like it had been months since I had seen the rain... and maybe it had been, I dont know. But it was much welcomed. It was a full 11 degrees cooler than the day previous!

This weekend Josh got his tattoo worked on Friday and Saturday! He is still pretty sore, but it is looking good. I just thought it would be done by now! He is over 28 hours in... and it still looks like it will be at least 10hours or more. Keep in mind, this started out being a 18hour job!

Marshalls opened!! Its a mile from my house!! I am super excited. They have really cute home stuff for pretty cheap! And they have really fun stuff for the kids! I got books, cd's and some clothes! They have everything! And for a bargian hunter like me, its heaven! Its probably not good thats its so close. :/

Madeline went to a birthday party this weekend! He friend Claira turned 3, and Cinderella came to her party. Madi was so excited! She couldnt believe that Belle came to her party and Cinderella showed up at Clairas party. She was so cute, she kept asking where Prince Charming was! She kept telling Cinderella that we were going to go see her in her castle, which we are going to next month when we go to Disneyland! I didnt take my camera! But I got a few pics on my phone.. so once I firgure out how to get them off.. I will post a pic!

Today I am going to buy a new bible. And I am actully excited about it. Josh and I were asked to teach a small group at our church on Wednesdays nights. If you know me, your probably thinking.. ya right. Over the last 2 months Josh and I have been making some much needed changes in our lives. I have eliminated a few friends that were not who they turned out to be. We have been attending our church for over a year now, and we love it. So, as being leaders in our youth group the next semester will be filled with high school football games, dinners, band events, and anything else that may come up. I am so so so excited about the opprotunity to have an impact on todays teens. And, what an amazing example we will be setting for our own girls. I have tears in my eyes while I write this, b/c I think it is amazing how God knows exactly what you need when you need it. :)