Rain, rain, go away....

Actually.....I guess all this rain has been great for the valley so perhaps it shouldn't go away! Alex was pretty excited to get some use out of his dinosaur raincoat he got for Christmas. We like to call him Alexsauraus-rex when he wears it...pretty stinkin' cute!

Luckily we had a full weekend to keep us busy. I got in a 4 mile run Saturday morning before the downpour started and Alex got some energy out at gymnastic lessons (thank you Nana) that afternoon.



On Sunday Alex had his "favorite friend" Bridget over in the morning before we went to a bowling birthday party that afternoon for Allison. I realized we are raising a new generation when Alex, who has never been bowling before except on our Nintendo Wii, asked where the remotes were. Sigh, oh what a technological generation. But, he had fun even without the remotes. I thought Amelia would love watching the bright bowling balls, but she couldn't keep her eyes off the birthday balloons, or birthday cake. She experienced her first bites of vanilla ice cream, and like her mommy has a sweet tooth. Alex also greatly enjoyed Allison's birthday cake (as did Mommy who cheated a bit on her diet to enjoy a piece, split with Daddy though).



After the birthday party it was nap time for two pooped out little kids. Paul and I redeemed ourselves from birthday cake by cooking a healthy fish dinner for two. Amelia entertained herself with a teething biscuit - which for those of you who don't know - getting her to feed herself has been quite the task so this was a monumental moment in our house! She actually picked it up and fed herself. I suppose with Mommy, Daddy and Big Brother always helping she hasn't quite felt the need to do it herself! She LOOOOVVVVEEEEDDD it though and I kept my OCD in check by not freaking out with the mess, but bath time was immediately after!

Family + Long weekend + Sunshine = Happiness!

After an extremely stressful week at work (still have yet to receive my the unpaid portion of my paycheck....argh) we had an awesome weekend! It started with my cousin Kim coming to visit with her baby girl Olivia. Kim & I try to get our girls together as often as the 3 hour distance between us allows. Since Kim & I were so close growing up we hope our girls will be close as well, they are only 6 days apart in age so they should be great friends! I had bought them matching Valentine's Day outfits properly making the statement of who they favor.....

Kim & I were soooo lucky that my wonderful, generous, loving husband agreed to watch Alex, Amelia & Olivia so Kim & I could attend a 12 hour scrapbook crop at my scrapbook store. Eeekkk! Luckily my in laws came down to help too! Kim & I had so much fun having some time together and working on our scrapbooks. I have recently sucked her into the world of scrapbooking and it is so much fun to have someone else to scrapbook with! She is very new at it but learning quickly. I haven't had any time to work on pages so I worked diligently on Amelia's baby book and am pretty well caught up now! I also managed to work on our family album a bit as well. Here are a few pictures of pages I completed:



Sunday Paul went golfing with some friends, which he highly deserved at that point! Kim & I spent time with the kids and let them play. Alex is so sweet with both girls, he just dotes on them. He was constantly fetching them snacks and toys as they grunted or squealed for them. We were all sad to see Kim & Olivia leave later that afternoon, but we hope to visit them soon.

Today Paul & I took advantage of the sunshine and a day off from work and took the kids to the park. Alex had fun on the playground and Amelia even took a couple of trips (assisted of course) down the slide and loved it! She wore her new daisy outfit I just got and looked too cute!





I am feeling rested and prepared to go back to work tomorrow. I wish every weekend could be a 3 day weekend!!! I wonder who I should talk to about that.....

Crazed!

I love this picture of Amelia, because this is how I am feeling this week! I took this picture of her right after bath time and when I had just towel dried her hair, but it portrays the image of craziness (which her hair is!).

This week I started back teaching on line with University of Pheonix as well as of course doing my regular full time job with Families First. My company recently merged with another company and all this week it has been one problem after another at work. The most recent being today that they paid me the wrong amount on my paycheck, and it wasn't in my favor. After several phone calls it still hasn't been resolved. Arrrggghhhh!

Luckily I have this weekend to look forward to. My cousin Kim and her daughter Olivia are coming to visit!!!! What a treat for us! We love having them visit us. Paul is in the running for hubby of the year because on Saturday he is watching both Amelia and Olivia, as well as Alex, so Kim and I can do a 12 hour scrapbook crop. His mom is also coming to help so he doesn't go mental by the end of the day. I am excited to scrap because I never get a chance to anymore, but I am trying to get my pictures and things organized admist everything else going on this week. I know it will all come together in the end but right now - I resemble my baby girl!!!

Sarah turns the big 2-1!

My cousin Sarah turned 21 on January 4th! A very exciting day for her! Funny thing about January 4th is that not only is Sarah's birthday, who is my paternal aunt's daughter, but my cousin Jessie, who is my maternal aunt's daughter, was also born on January 4th, the same year, so she too turned 21.

This year is a big birthday year for our family. My other cousin Ann turns 40, my mom turns 65, my aunt turns 60, Amelia turns 1 and Paul turns 30. Whew! I better start saving up for birthday celebrations!

When I asked Sarah what she wanted for her 21st birthday she said for me to take her out for some drinks. Paul is never one to be left behind so we got a babysitter and Paul took Sarah and I out for drinks on the town. We introducted Sarah to some of her new favorite cocktails at The Elbow Room first, where we also fed her a starchy dinner! She is now a fan of Lemon Drops and also took a Butterball shot - which is comprised of Butterschotch Snaaps and Amaretto. After dinner we went over to Pangea's bar and she had a Chocalatini and some dessert. I indulged a bit last night, going off my week's diet, by having an Appletini and some of the creme brule we got for dessert.

It was a fun night and one to remember. Sarah is usually our babysitter so it was fun to have some strictly 'adult' time with her since she is now officially an adult!

Happy Birthday to my dear cousins Sarah and Jessie!

7 days in beach heaven....

We have returned home after spending a great and memorable week on the Central Coast in Cambria. We went with our friends Dave and Debbie, and their two children Sean and Allison, to Cambria and rented a beach house on Moonstone beach. We were across the street from the beach and in our rented house you could hear waves crashing from every room. That is my kind of house!!! Dave's sister Jenn and her boyfriend Paul also joined us a few days into the week. This has become somewhat of a tradition for us, spending New Year's at the beach with our good friends and after another fun year, a tradition I am sure will continue.



Our week started with some wine tasting on the way over to Cambria, specifically a VIP tasting in the underground caves of Eberle Winery. Now, wine tasting with children you may say? Ah, we were oh so lucky to have Ms. Tabitha with us who was one of Alex's former pre-school teachers. She came as our babysitter for the first two days so we could have some adult time. She rocked and the kids loved her.



After we tasted a bit and got settled into our house the four adults (Jenn & Paul hadn't arrived yet) went to our favorite seafood restaurant, The Sea Chest, and consumed many oysters and a bit more wine. We stayed within walking distance this year so we were lucky to just walk on home afterwards.

On Tuesday we also got a limo and took a trip through the wine country (with no kids) and checked out a few more of our favorite wineries. As usual it was a rip roaring fun time tasting and riding through Cambria's wine country in style. Our limo driver, Charlie, was awesome and took excellent care of us.





The kids were thrilled to be at the beach but unfortunately Amelia was a little sick at the start of the week, but she is now doing much better. She loved the sink in the beach house's kitchen and had a blast playing with the other kids. She also took advantage of the coffee table in the living room and worked on her crawling and standing techniques....I fear walking is going to coming our way quickly with her.





Alex and Sean (who are only 3 months apart) fought like brothers all week long and drove us parents crazy, but they had so much fun together. I can see they will be close friends in the future. Sean also just loved Amelia and was so sweet to her.




I really enjoyed some time to just relax and be at the beach with good friends and good wine. I also read 2 books I'd been wanting to read and am now very into the while 'Twilight' book series. I can't put them down!

One day Paul and the kids and I took a little trip into Cayucos, a nearby beach town, to check out their beach. They had a swing set right there on the beach and Alex just thought it was wonderful.



As the week wound down we started to hear about cold foggy weather in Clovis and were sad to leave the beach. The picture below was taken off our balcony at sunset, which was a beautiful one for our last night there.



I hope everyone out there had a wonderful New Year's and started 2009 off great! I am off to take down Christmas decorations (sigh) and then off for a run to lose those last pesky pregnancy pounds (one of my New Year resolutions of course)!