Joy

I took the kids to Disneyland today for a few hours since we got our passes and they will be blocked out for summer soon. It's hard to ever catch this face on camera, but it shows the pure joy, excitement, and fun of a little girl! I LOVED it! She always poses and smiles for the camera but this was the real deal! (We were on the teacups and she was spinning us when I managed to capture it!)

And here's Ryan not wanting to pose, finally holding still to pose for Jayne and Jayne striking a typical pose :-)

Stop and Smell the Flowers....And New Features

Maybe it's getting older and wiser or maybe it's having 2 kids now, but I realize I've been slowly transitioning from crazy worker girl to stay at home mom who enjoys the moment! My ahah moment this week has been realizing that instead of always worrying about accomplishing some huge project or task everyday, I can and should be just relishing my moments with my kids. It sounds so simple, but I guess it was a more major discovery to myself. I try to stop and smell the flowers often, but I think it would help to not have so much on my plate to start with.

Jayne is so adorable. She catches everything and is so smart. She wants to know about everything and copies everything I do. She's so fun to hang out with. Ryan is really getting this adorable personality. His first year of life we were moving around and he was a horrible sleeper (and still is) but now that we finally have our own space and this great house, it's fun to just spend time with him. I only get a few moments with just him while Jayne's at preschool and he is so fun. So, while I love crafting, sewing, trying to earn a little extra money for stuff... maybe I can just be. I can get fewer things done but do more with my kids. Once their in school I'll have LOTS of time to cram in all my crafts, volunteer work, and money making ideas :-) But don't worry, I will still be doing all those things, just maybe in smaller quantities?

Leanna's challenge: Leanna is challenging people to blog everyday for the month of June. She's having similar ahah moments about having time to reflect and enjoy. I think it will be really fun, but I'm not going to do weekends. I'll do Monday through Friday and here will be my Daily Topics:
Monday- Week Prep (FHE Idea and Food Plan for the week), I do this anyway and think it's fun to post and get your ideas

Tuesday- Taste of Tuesday, I'll post a recipe, usually something new I'll be trying or one of my favorites

Wednesday- What'cha Work'in On Wednesday, I'll post a project I'm working on for that week

Thursday- My Favorite Things

Friday- Fun Friday, Kids pics and what fun things we've been up to that week, maybe fun date ideas since we do our date nights on Fridays

The weekend is all about spending time with my family and not being on the computer. So there you have it! These are all my favorite things/topics/things I do weekly anyway, so kinda fun to post. Tune in next week for my exciting new stuff. And I'll put up the follower link so you can follow along, and I think I might even do a giveaway sometime this month. :-)

Birthday Party!

We celebrated Jayne's birthday on Monday with both of our families! We had so much fun. We rented a picnic spot at our club next to our house. It has pools and tennis and playground and big grass field etc. It's really awesome and a perfect party spot. We ended up with about 20 adults and 10 kids with just both of our immediate families (and the Hunts, some of our best friends). The kids played, swam, ate, presents, cake, and a pinata. It was a cold morning but burned off and was absolutely beautiful! Thanks to all of our family for a wonderful birthday! Jayne was so happy. It was a wonderful celebration and party!!

Ryan and Jason playing ball. Ryan was a trooper. He only fell asleep for about 30 min. the whole day but he was out and about having fun the entire time.

Happy 4th Birthday Jayne!

Jason teased me about getting a pinata, but it was a huge hit and all the kids loved it! We even let Ryan have a go at it, but gave him a racket instead of the stick. He thought it was pretty fun.

The kids on the playground before swimming.

Our picnic spot before the party.

It was my mom's Birthday on Monday, but we had already celebrated on Saturday. We were sure glad she could make it on her special day.

Four is Fantastic!

The Happiest Place on Earth

Jayne has had a wonderful Birthday so far! The big family party is yet to come (this monday), but we sure had fun on her actual birth day! She had preschool, so she went to school and I brought treats. They had a little party in her class for her. I picked her up and we headed straight to Disneyland. We got her bday pass and we upgraded it to a season pass for one of her bday presents. I got a season pass (Ryan is free) and off we went! We stayed until 5 (much later than I anticipated). Ryan got no nap but was a trooper. We stopped off at Chik-fil-a on the way home and met Jason there! We celebrated with chicken nuggets and chocolate shakes (Jayne's favorites). What a day! The kids were so exhausted. We took it easy the following day and just went swimming and made sure they got good naps. Jayne is very excited for her family bday swim party on Monday and the chance to celebrate with all of her cousins!

Birthday Breakfast (she requested buttermilk waffles, fake bacon and oj)

Birthday sign outside of Jayne's classroom

Ryan running into Jayne's class to give her a big hug. Jayne in her birthday hat.

The kids and I at Disneyland waiting for Casie Jr. Train
Ryan's First Time at Disneyland! (Jayne behind the camera)
What a nice thank you note from Mickey Mouse!
Ryan has been wearing Jayne's birthday hat and running around. He thinks it's really funny and so does Jayne. He's really liked all the fun we've had this week too!

Turning 4!

My little girl turns 4 tomorrow! I can't believe it. I'm sad and happy at the same time. I can't wait for her to grow up and experience so many wonderful things in life, but at the same time I don't want my baby to grow up so fast! She acts so old! She's 4 going on 16! Here's a picture of her tonight when I put her to bed. She got to bring the class pet (fake dog) home for the weekend, so this was his last night with us. She wanted curlers in her hair for the big day tomorrow and picked out her dress she was going to wear. She is so excited! She has preschool, with a little party in her class, then we're headed to Disneyland and later we'll meet up with Jason for a dinner of chicken nuggets and ice cream. More pictures to come....

Sliding

Ryan got this slide for Christmas. He's just big enough to climb up it and go down himself. I have to put it on the grass for fear he topples off and cracks his head. He scares me so we constantly supervise, but he's so dang cute, and proud of himself for doing it. It goes really fast too and he always lands pretty hard at the bottom. He never cries, just jumps up and hurries to do it again. Today he even had grass on his face from falling over forward when he landed. Still no cries and ran to try again. So funny!

Happy Anniversary Babe!

Yes, today is our anniversary! We've been married 9 wonderful years!! Crazy how time flies! We've been together 10 1/2 years now (9 years +1 year dating+6month engagement). I am very lucky to be married to an amazing man! He's more than everything I ever wanted (which was a lot). He's my best friend in the entire world and I love our life together! And I love our little family we've created together!

So this past weekend my parents took our kids. We dropped them off early Saturday morning and didn't pick up until Sunday night and boy did we have fun!! I HIGHLY recommend this adorable little place called the Rancho Bernardo Inn. If you're looking for a quick get-a-way, this is the place. It's only 20 minutes from my parents house but feels like a world away. It's nestled in these hills, has beautiful grounds, nice updated rooms, an amazing spa, work out facilities, pools, 2 great restaurants, tennis, and is on a golf course! It's everything we need so we never leave the place once we get there. We were totally relaxed and not rushed but we actually got to do so much! We went to the spa, had massages, played tennis, laid by the pool, took a nap both days, and played 14 holes of golf (twilight). It was so much fun!! It's been hard to go back to our normal routine this week because it was just so much fun! This was our 4th time going there for a weekend and I'm sure we'll be back. I was too busy relaxing, so I didn't take many pictures but here's a few I snapped because the place was just so beautiful!

On our way to play tennis

Part of the spa

They have a salt water pool and hot tub. Very cool.

At Dinner

USC Football Scrimmage

College football, you might be wondering? Oh yes. We, along with 25,000 other dedicated fans, packed the coliseum two Saturday's ago, in full USC gear, to watch our team practice...against themselves. It may seem funny to some, but my dear husband wouldn't miss it, or the chance to take our kids. It's actually a good thing to take the kids too, cause it's shorter than a normal game and substantially cheaper to get into but we still feel like we are getting the game day experience. We had a blast!! Fight on!

Ryan literally sat there like that watching the game from his dad's lap for at least 30 minutes before he started searching for food and even realized there were other people around. Jayne loves football and never missed a beat, or her chance to cheer or proudly raise her victory fingers for the fight song, all without any prompting of course.

Jayne and her cousin Kacie.

Ryan with cousin Tyler on Aunt Shan's lap.

Sunday Picnic

A couple Sunday's ago we decided to pack up our dinner and go have a picnic and watch the sun go down. We headed to our new favorite beach, which has a grassy hill and picnic area. We brought a football and soccer ball and had a wonderful time.

Beautiful Sunset

Ryan's First Tie

He looked so cute! I just had to take a picture with his dad. Thanks Leanna, for the adorable tie and pants for his birthday!