Happy 6th Birthday

I can't believe my little boy is 6. There is nothing little about him anymore and coming to terms about how fast he's grown is a little hard. He is a wonderful boy who has the biggest heart. If I'm sick, he prays to make me feel better. If I'm tired, he hurries and cleans his room so I won't have to. If Drew is being a handful, he's extra good so I won't get overwhelmed. His laughter is contagious and fills a room and his spirit is full of joy. I absolutely love him and am so blessed to have such a wonderul little boy.



I made this little slide show of the past 6 years to make the special occasion.

http://www.slide.com/r/4GrGVTmy0D8GiQxheEI94wL2pE7IXUkX?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

disclaimer: there is music but of course there has to be a honda commercial before the music actually starts!

Emily's Birthday

Friday night we went out to celebrate our friend Emily's birthday. About 15 of us got together for a night of bowling, laughs, dinner and unfortunately one to many cocktails. A couple moments are a little foggy towards the end of the night but I'd like to count that on fact that it was late and I was very tired. :) Emily wasn't feeling a 100% so I made sure to celebrate for her and boy did I celebrate. I don't think I need to do any celebrating any time soon! It's was so much fun to go out with a different group of people and feel like you've known them forever.

Court and Eric at Shanghai Red's.

Mark being his serious self. Between him and Eric I couldn't get a "normal" picture. Must have been something in the water.

Wish I could remember what we were laughing at but at least I know we were having a good time!

Brunch

I came across these pictures from brunch a couple of weeks ago. This is
one of our favorite things to do in the summer. We've become friends with the mariachis, the waiters and it's a relaxing day. It was the day after Peyton hurt his arm. And, by the way, the outcome was a dislocated elbow and he had his splint removed yesterday. He's a happy camper. So, just some cute pics of a warm Palm Springs day in January. Different from the rainy weather we're having today but I'm

loving every minute of it!

Need suggestions

My 30th birthday is coming up in August and I want to do something special. I feel like I have to offically grow up. I've always said that the 20's are a time to find out who you are and learn from your stupid mistakes so I have 7 more months to make those! I may have to sqeeze in my tattoo before then just to blame it on my "20's" later in life. So, even though many of you don't like to comment, I'd really like your opinions. These are the things I'm contemplating:

Vegas-Hard Rock is my favorite in the summer
Weekend in San Diego and Del Mar Horse Track
A 4 day Carnival Cruise to Cabo
Or a Theme party (I'm partial to 20's or 80's)
Any suggestions???

Mark is pushing me to make a decision but I'm cracking under pressure! Help...

E.R. Visit

What a night. Yesterday afternoon Mark and I took the kids to the park around dinnertime. They were playing, running around, jumping off swings and pretending to be pirates. Peyton decided to do the monkey bars with me standing very close to him as he makes his way across. As I tell him "wow, you're doing great" his hands slip and he falls. It was the way he fell that we knew wasn't right. He immediately started crying, got really pale and couldn't move his arm. Uh Oh. I begin to giggle. I have a horrible habit of laughing when someone gets hurt more because I'm nervous not because I'm mean. As I'm on the floor holding him, I tell him "Peyton, you looked just like spiderman doing that" but it didn't help like it normally does. Maybe I should have said Batman. He dried his tears but wouldn't let go of his arm. Finally I tell Mark let's go home and see whats wrong. As we're walking he burst into tears again because of the pain. This is very out of character for him because he's like me. He gets hurt, laughs, waits for the pain to stop, then continues on playing. We somewhat warned him that if he couldn't move his arm then we're going to have to go to the ER to get it checked out. "Okay", he said, "but I don't want them to cut if off". So off we go and it turns out he has a fracture in the elbow. What kind of fracture, we're still unsure. It's either the bone or the cartlidge and we won't know until we see an orthopedic surgeon. I must admit. I was very calm during the whole ordeal until the doctor thought it might be dislocated and started tugging on it to pop it back. I had to leave the room for fear of passing out. I hated to see my baby in so much pain. Thankfully Mark was the tough one and shared his stories of his own childhood ER visits. I have to give a very special thank you to Jen and Christophe though. Jen's sick and as a family they had an extemely busy Saturday, but when I called them to dump off my full of energy, screaming banchee of a daughter they had no hesitations. That's what makes us family instead of friends. Now, Peyton's only other concern/request besides the pain is that he needs to be able to bowl for his birthday party so we need to take him today to practice. I don't think so but nice try!

A cool dinosaur sling and chocolate shake makes the pain go away.

Drew kissing Peytons owie. Kisses always make things better.

Drew posing for the camera for once. Happy that we're home.

Bowling.....again

So, bowling has very quickly become our new outing with the kids. They could be loud, active and it's fun for the whole family. I know the one thing that turns people off is the whole shoe thing but really, it's not that bad. You try shoes on all the time at the mall and they don't spray anything in them when the person decides not to buy them. Which is worse? Last weekend when it was raining the kids were cooped up all day on Saturday so by Sunday we had to get them out. We started out by planning Peyton's birthday which got him WAY too excited and hyper. Thankfully he mentioned he wanted to get some practice time in since we'll be having the party at the Casino Morongo bowling alley. I took a picture of the screen to remind Mark that I WON! Yes indeed, I can throw a ball like the pros. If I keep practicing I may make it my fallback career for when I grow up.

Reflection

Happy New Year to all who read this! New Year, New Layout.I want to encourage you to not be afraid to leave a comment. Just say HI!

Mark and I decided to spend New Years at home with each other and it was one of the more fun times we've had. It confirmed our theory that as long as we're together we know it'll be fun. It also let us reflect over the good and bad of 2007 and come up with some plans for 2008. Of course losing weight and eating right is at the top of our list we made sure to get some real goals down, both financially and spiritually. We want to find a church we like and make it a habit to go, not wake up and decide that going to bruch would be so much more fun!

New Years day we held brunch at our house for the Douherets, Pasquals, my parents and grandma. The kids played outside all day with cars, bikes, scooters, poppers and lots of food. It was the kind of day I loved when I was a kid. The day you felt like you can run free. We of course made time pass with a friendly game of black jack which lucky enough, Mark won the pot. We bought this dealer visor in vegas and couldn't wait to pull it out. My grandma was here for a week visiting from Texas and it was nice to see her with her great grandkids. Although she only speaks espanol, they seemed to get by just fine. Cookies and candy is internationally known.

Christmas

Oh to be a kid again. The excitement of knowing that Santa came is such an enjoyment as a parent. Mark and I lay awake at 6:00 in the morning expecting our kids to come running but instead, we lay. And lay. And lay. Fianlly Drew wakes up and we beg her to go wake up Peyton but she demands milk. Sigh. This has happened every Christmas. Peyton is up late Christmas eve so he sleeps in longer than we can and we lay in bed waiting to hear his footsteps in the living room then hear them charging into our bedroom. Maybe next year. They were both extememly excited about what Santa brought and we even learned that Drew isn't as much of a tomboy as we thought. It turns out that if you buy her girly things she'll play with them. She loves a tea set that my boss bought for her and Santa gave her a stroller with a Dora doll that she pushes all around the house. Not to mention the plastic dress up shoes and hot pink cell phone. I really do have a little girl! Peyton was very happy with his cool new sponge bob skateboard amongst the gazillion other things he got, but he couldn't wait to put on his chef's gear and help dad cook breakfast. No, that is not a knife he's holding but some kind of skinny spatula. Unfortunately, kitchen utensils aren't my thing.

Catching Up

Well, time completely flew the last 2 weeks so I have some catching up to do. So much to write about, so little time. We started off our Christmas with a wonderful dinner/gift exchange at Jen and Christophe. The kids were so excited to open presents but they very nicely posed for a pic so I can blog it! And of course afterwards they sat with all of the goods before running off to play the new game, try on the new clothes or hat. The house was decorated so pretty they had a nice tree that gave off scent compared to ours which dried out and drooped. I think the scent of the tree helps getting into the Christmas mode. Maybe next year I'll buy a pine scented candle to help my mood. I was getting a little bah humbug-ish but this party helped me snap out of it and get into the spirit of things.

Mark and I under the mistletoe. Oh wait, there wasn't any!

Drew posing in her new p.js, thanks danielle!