Something Special

Happy 2nd Birthday to our beautiful, mischevious, spunky baby girl Drew. Mark and I always thought we were going to have boys. We went back to the doctor twice to make sure they were right when they said girl. Sure enough, they were. She was 2 weeks early from her original due date and 4 days early from her scheduled c-section. That should have been our clue that she was going to have a mind of her own. She knows how to cuddle up to Mark and look at him with her big brown eyes when he raises his voice at her. She knows how to come kiss me when I'm frustrated with her,and she makes sure to hug Peyton when I catch her hitting him. It's safe to say we have our hands full but I wouldn't trade her in. She was the missing piece that made our family complete.

Here's a little something I put together to celebrate her birthday. Hope you enjoy it. Please click on the "slideroll" link below.

http://slideroll.com/?s=g63vbqhg

Good Luck

Mark and Christophe are off to San Diego tomorrow to do a Lobster Competition. Basically, you can make anything you want as long as it has lobster in it. Kind of like Iron Chef. They decided to go with an american favorites theme and created a miniature lobster bacon cheeseburger, a lobster dog and kentucky fried lobster w/ lobster country gravy. Now, I know these may sound strange but I trust their judgment and I'm pretty sure they are tasty dishes. Mark has done 2 competitions previously and had to use dates as the ingredients. He won both times with things I was afraid to try but they ended up being fan favorites.

Good luck guys! And remember, it's not if you win or lose, it's how good it tasted. :)

Technical Difficulty

Well, I have some cute pictures and things to write but I don't have a USB cable to upload. So, please stay tuned.....

Good Times

Well, another fun weekend has come and gone. Way too quickly. I had a lot of it documented with some fun pics but our wonderful dog chewed up my brand new USB cable. Dumb dog. I mean that lovingly. Sort of. So, here just a few that got emailed to me.

Friday was play date time for Drew and Peyton with the Hershberger boys. Court and I love these days. It's our "happy hour". The kids are happy, we're happy and the occassional Pacifico tops it off. Courtney has the most beautiful, big backyard with a TON of toys for the kids to play with. Peyton and Ty run wild, get tired and play video games, then run some more. I now understand why adults used to always tell me when I was a kid that they wished they had my energy. I would kill for that energy. Think how skinny I'd be if I ran like that! Court is just an alien who's naturally skinny. I don't know anyone who has twins by c-section then is back to normal in a month. Complete alien I tell you! I on the other hand think I'll be skinny by sitting in front of a computer all day. It should just melt off with how fast I can type. Okay, I've gotten way off the subject. Drew loves all the Hershberger boys and doesn't seem to mind who she plays with. This is her in the car with Mason, sitting closely with Luke while he puts his arm around her and tries to steal a kiss. Can you blame him? I'm sure it's the hair that he can't resist.

We also went over to Jen and Christophe's this weekend. We've started playing Blackjack on the weekends so it keeps us out of the casino and we still get to gamble. Everyone puts in 20.00 and we have a good time. The rules are simple in case you ever want to play. The dealer rotates every shue (we all know the house always wins) and the max bet is 5 dollars. It's a little scary to be dealer because you have to pay out with your own money but you can also get ahead. Jen made caramel apples for the kids and while eating them Olivier lost his very first tooth. It was pretty exciting but a little scary for him at first. But, after he rememberd that the tooth fairy would come he felt better. He even told me the next day that he slept in his bed all night because his parents bed had too many pillows and he didn't want the tooth fairy to not find the tooth. How cute is that? Peyton has lost his bottom 2 already and his top 2 teeth are loose. I'm sure they'll fall out right around Christmas time.

Comments

First I wanted to say to please feel free to comment here. Don't be afraid......

I've gotten a few comments/emails from people about Drew's hair. Some love it, others despise it. I kind of like it. It has the afro thing going on. Sure I'd love for her to have straight hair to put in barrettes and pony tails but that is most likely not going to happen any time soon. Her hair just took off growing in March and I'm kind of at a cross roads. Do I trim it so it stays healthy or do I get it past this afro stage then it won't be so crazy? I think the people who have commented have forgotten what I looked like at her age so I've taken the liberty of reminding you all. Of course I was cute as ever but I did have those curls. And for those who don't know, you might get a kick out of it. So, the following is Drew in March without her fro, Me in 1979 at 1 year old and Drew now. Since she looks so much like Mark I'm happy that at least she has my hair!

Sundays

I love love love Sundays. It's the only family day we have and in the words of Randy it's "Sunday Funday", you do what you want and only that. No cleaning, no chores. It always leaves for a tired Monday but it's worth it. The kids love having the both of us home and I love being able to have some time with Mark that doesn't consist of tag teaming the kids with baths, lunches, dinner and bedtime routine. So, today was no exception. We went for a walk, came home and blasted the radio and danced with the kids. Peyton wanted to learn Salsa so I did the best I could teaching him what I knew. Mark and I use to take lessons but ended up arguing the whole time that for the sake of our marriage we had to quit. I was more into learning the steps, he was more into just dancing. That's all I'm gonna say about that because I'm sure his version is different! The kids then got bored with us so they watched a movie while we got ready. Drew see the camera though and pretends like she's sleeping.

We went over to Veronica's house for a football Sunday. We don't normally watch football but it was a good excuse to get out and hang out with my co-workers. The weather was perfect. You can see a change in the seasons coming. I'm so excited!! Fall is my favorite. We were able to sit outside all day and not sweat to death and the kids were able to run around without a worry. This picture is of V's daughter Lola, my boss's daughter Dominique and Drew. The boys were having too much fun to stay still for a picture. If that wasn't enough we then came home and went swimming. The pool was cold which is weird because it's almost 100 degrees out but we were perfectly happy in the jacuzzi.Before we could call it a night the kids wanted to show off for the camera. I thought these were cute of them and even Drew made it into the picture. Poor girl, she eventually had to run away from all that testosterone.

Official Announcement

Since I couldn't contain my excitement most of you already know, but, today is the day I can make my Official Announcement:

Carly & Sonny are having a baby!!!

Congratulations! I can't wait. Carly is 3 months along and Baby Ramirez should be here late March so stay tuned. And, as luck would have it, Vern is a unisex name so keep that in mind. Congratulations, we love you both!

The Cowboy Way

Tehachapi-My hometown and a quiet way of life.

Many of you have never been to Tehachapi and hear me talking about how small and quiet it is. Lot's of trees and cattle and 4 different street lights. It has a town square where all the action of shopping at Albertons and meeting up at a fast food place is the place to be. You can tell it's on the up and up because it just got a Starbucks of all things and Home Depot opened up on the edge of town. It's a little sad to see how much it's grown in the last 10 years with big chains now coming in. Growing up there you craved more action and more stores but now that I'm older with my own family I see the charm and luxury of such a small town. I think it's a different way of life. Much more slow paced.

My dad lives on a ranch with a lot of cattle and in the last 3 years he's started a new tradition. Every spring about 4-6 calves are born. When they are old enough they need to be branded because they roam the land and every now and then one will get out. And also that's apparently what you do when you have cattle. The branding has now turned into a full day event with several families coming together. After the branding is all done we barbeque, usually with Mark doing most of the cooking. The kids have a blast playing in the dirt and running up and down the hills. Mark has a blast fulfilling his childhood dreams of being a cowboy. As you can see above the cows are all okay afterwards and continue their lives of grazing in the field. The other pictures are of Peyton and a boy named Drew, which got a little confusing at times, my Drew with my dad, and the guys participating in the Branding. I'm trying to figure out how to caption them but so in the meantime you'll just have to enjoy the messy layout.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend was full of fun. We had something going on everyday and Friday night started it off with a bang. We went out to Fantasy Springs Casino with Jen & Christophe to see the Gypsy Kings. It was such a good concert. I could have sat and listened all night. The show was only an hour and a half so we gambled of course afterwards before coming home. These pictures are from before the show. Everything we took during the show came out too dark.



Saturday I was feeling a little under the weather. Hmm, not really sure why. Peyton had a play date at his friend Ty's house along with another little boy from school so all day was countdown to when he could go over. Courtney's husband Eric came by to pick him up, took the boys to the movie store, got pizza then went back to the house for a swim. I was thinking Courtney was brave and somewhat crazy to have the boys over. She has 2 year old twin boys at home along with 4 yr old Ty and now Peyton and Dean but after talking to her I think Eric gets the bravery award. He was the one that took the kids to the store which I could imagine was no easy task. These boys were SO excited. I didn't get any pictures of this day but Court did get one of Drew and Luke kissing. She also has one of Mason and Drew kissing. There's something about those Hershberger boys she can't get enough of. As Courtney put it, if she married one of them she'd still be a berger.

Sunday was the day I was waiting for. Carly and Sonny came into town!! They decided to celebrate their first anniversary here in the desert so Mark got them rooms at the Westin. We had an early dinner at our favorite place: El Mirasol in Palm Springs. We then went to the bowling alley for some good friendly competition. Carly and Peyton were a good match, while Mark, Sonny and I duked it out. Drew was happy being our cheerleader, until she dozed off in her stoller.












Monday we went to the pool at the Westin. Unfortunately the water was as hot as the air but it was still fun being together. All in all it was a really good weekend.

My little Kindergardner

We can't believe Peyton is officially in school. I feel like such an old 29. It feels a little strange to know he has to be there on time; can't stay home with dad anymore and is going to be doing homework. He was so excited but he did tell us that he only wants to learn to read. Once he gets that down he doesn't want to go anymore. His teachers name is Miss Joanne and the school is Kiddie Kollege in Palm Springs. I love the school and the teachers there. I know it's a good place for him to be. We weren't able to get a picture with Miss Joanne but we got some of him. He name tag was an apple hat that he was so proud to wear. Also, the school already sent them home with the fundraiser packet. So, if you're in need of some expensive, but really cute wrapping paper then check out this website and let me know if there is anything you can't live without! www.innisbrook.com