Happy Birth Day!

Welcome to the world

Reese Ella Ramirez

born March 30 2008

It's official. Carly's a mom. I got the call in the middle of the night last Saturday night,hopped in my car and drove down. Got to Torrance about 3:30 am and realized we had a while to wait so we decided to snooze knowing it could be a whileAfter sleeping for a while Mark and I decided to go to Carly & Sonny's house to get some real sleep. We got there, brushed our teeth got into bed and the phone rang. Carly was at 10 centimeters. I calmly asked "got your camera ready?" "Well, I was hoping you'd be the one to take pictures." was her reply. I hopped out of bed, made Mark get dressed and we were back in the car driving again. I got to be in the room to take picures which in my eyes was a big honor. I wanted NO ONE around when I delivered. She had a great labor, totally calm and pushed like a champ for 2 1/2 hours. She never struggled, or faultered. Although extremely exhausted, she delivered the beautiful baby Reese into the world. It was truly an amazing experience.

Now.....that being said I still have a few differnt thoughts. The main one being,OH...MY...GOSH! No thank you. Having had c-sections I never truely saw a birth. I mean, I watched a baby story and watched it in movies, but to watch how long she actually had to push and hoping that with each push little Reese would stay and not float back up was complete agony. It seemed so much more painful and stressful. I always assumed pushing meant the baby would crown and not float back up to her warm little home/womb. Then....seeing her actually come out. WOW. I'm at a loss for words and have a picture I can't get out of my head. It was fast, beautiful, but yet unreal. A baby can actually make it through there??? Are you serious? It all just happened so fast that I just wasn't ready. But, thankfully, Carly was ready for her and didn't skip a beat. I can't wait until I can see Reese again and get to hold her and love her. I'm finally an aunt!

Suprise Visitors

So, the day that I suprised Mark on our day date, I also knew Ann and Ernie were coming out to visit. I just wanted to keep that as part of his suprise. She of course brought the kids easter baskets full of goodies and they loved breaking into it. They can't wait to sport the goggles to the pool. I personally think they should wear them all the time.

Happy Easter

The Easter bunny came to last night! I can't believe I didn't even hear it. The kids were really excited and it's fun to see that Drew is beginning to understand the concept of things. Such as, the more eggs she gets the more candy she gets. Here's just a few pics of the morning. Much more to come throughout the day. Thankfully the bunny didn't bring a whole lot of candy. More sensible things like flip flops,diving sticks, sidewalk chalk. That bunny sure is smart. As you can see, I desperately need a new camera. If you look at Lillie's blog you can see how awesome her camera is. Mine...not so much. The kids were moving a lot faster than my camera can click.

City Slickers

A look at our day as cowboys. Wow, for just one hour of riding, it's amazing the muscles you use. We were sore! For the record, Mark was excited about the date so he ran out and bought Wranglers and the hat. Not his normal attire but I think he makes a pretty cute cowboy! I love that he was so into it.

Answers to Date Clues

1. There will be mud











2. A Pink Flower

3. Healing Waters

Can't seem to copy the pic but it was here which suprisingly enough is know for their natural healing waters. Of course, we went for the $5 blackjack but it all works out.

4. Carrots Limes and Cherries....Combo of our 3 part date.....Horses, Margaritas, and jackpots!

LOTS of pictures to come but I must say, having lived in the desert for 7 years and being able to go riding in the canyon felt like we were far away on vacation. I highly, highly recommend. It was by far one of the best days I've had in a long time. I love my husband so much and seeing him have so much fun made me so happy.

Mellow on the homefront

Mark has been working a ton between Morongo and the Westin Mission Hills. He works on call there and they've been calling a lot. So, that leaves me and the kids at home missing him. I decided to suprise him with a day date! One of my favorite types of dates. I planned it out and asked Jen if she and Christophe wanted to join us. We decided to keep it a suprise and each day give clues to the guys. It's been fun to see them get into it and sending in there guesses. Tomorrow is the date so stay tuned. Here are the clues they've gotten...

1. There may be mud
2. A pink flower
3. Healing waters
4. Carrots, Limes, & Cherries

We should have a good time!

Recouperating

We're back from vegas and it felt like a whirlwind of a trip. It was like a high school reunion meeting up with old friends and laughing so hard till our sides hurt. These guys make friends wherever they go and had the party pit at Harrah's on their side. Unfortunately, I came down with a nasty, nasty cold which took a toll on the trip. I did my best to suck it up and not be a debbie downer for Mark but this is what I looked like.........

I was constantly walking around with toilet paper in my hand, blowing my nose and wiping my watery eyes, all with different tissues of course. This is Sergio supporting me as I make my nose more raw. We did though have a highlight of the trip which was running into VH1's favorite celebreality star: FLAVA FLAV. He was playing roulette a few tables away so the guys HAD to have their picture taken. I myself was extremely embarrased to be taking the picture but it was a funny memory of the trip.

The other good news was that Joey found out he's going to be a dad. What a way to celebrate your 30th birthday. I don't have a pic of them together but here is the happy mom to be, Lindsey, who was an amazing trooper. As most moms know the first trimester is the worst when your sick, exhausted, and hungry but she never let it affect her. I on the other hand look like I should be laying in bed and not sitting in a bar in Vegas. Ugghh, I still have the cold and want so bad to be back to normal. This is the time I wish I had family around so I can hand off the kids for a few hours while I sleep and get better.

Suprise Trip...sort of

We're off to Vegas today completely spur of the moment. I can't believe we pulled it off. My mom's watching the kids, we booked our rooms Wednesday and now we're off. It's feels very strange not having planned for months but I'm very excited despite the head cold I'm fighting. People without kids do this all the time and it feels so fun and carefree. We're going to celebrate my wonderful friends Joey's 30th birthday. Wow, he's old!
Lot's of pics to come.......

Favor...disaster

Sometimes thoughts should stay just thoughts. I had the bright idea of making carmel apples as one of Carly's baby shower favors and thought it was a brilliant idea. My wonderful chef of a husband insisted that we make the carmel and everything will be fine, so Thursday night we did just that. He cooked up the carmel on the stove, I had all my apples in line and we were off. It took just about and hour and they looked pretty darn tasty. We let them sit over night and I checked on them in the morning. Not so pretty. Apparently there was too much corn syrup in the carmel and it never quite thickened enough. The carmel and nuts has slid down durning the night into a messy puddle. It was pretty pathetic. Thankfully, my wonderful and controller of the kitchen friend Courtney came to my rescue. She insisted we make pink chocolate covered pretzels with pink sprinkles and it would be a piece of cake. Umm...did I really want to go there since I was told the apples would be a piece of cake? Not really, I was over it and ready to throw in the towel. I hate being in the kitchen. Everyone knows that, but....she thankfully didn't take no for an answer. She, along with her adorable twin boys, came over and literally went to work. All I had to do was supply the chips, salsa, guacamole and margaritas and she was off. She dipped all but one pretzel, but I do have to take credit for the sprinkles. I can shake on sprinkles like nobodys business. They turned out very cute and were quite tastey from what I was told by shower-goers. I owe her a huge thank you, so Court, you're the best. I couldn't have done it with out you. Best of all, the kids had fun playing together.

The progress

The end result

Luke and Drew

Take Home Chef

For those who don't know, Take Home Chef is a show of TLC where a chef approaches people (usually attractive women, such as myself ) in a grocery store and convinces them to take him home and cook a meal for the family. I myself have never watched the show (I despise cooking shows unless it's the cake making challenges) but have heard about it from Mark. Well now I proudly have my very own Take Home Chef, desert style.

Mark got a call the other day from a food writer who had written an article on him last year. He needed a chef to do a local version of Take Home Chef called Desert Magazine Chef Suprise, so Mark happily agreed, but then quickly started having second thoughts wondering "what did I get myself into?" With the cameras all around and the photographer snapping away he completed the meal and it will be featured on the news and in the Desert Magazine in April. Not to worry, I'll make sure to remind everyone.

The "surprise meal" was for a family in Cathedral City celebrating a wedding anniversary. The man had worked for Wally's Desert Turtle for 26 years so he definately knew food. The concept is that the family provides the food and kitchen and he makes the meal using their equipment, spices, dishes, etc. not knowing ahead of time what they've bought. Apparently it went really well and the family enjoyed every bite. Afterwards he was asked to compete in a Chef of the Desert competition coming up soon. I'm a very proud wifey. In do time, my husband will soon have his own line of cookware coming to a store near you :) BAM!

The menu:

1st Course: Heart of Romaine Salad w/ Roquefort Vinergarette

2nd Course: Spinach Ravioli w/ carrot basil mash, pancetta crisp with a creme fresh butter

3rd Course: Herb Marinated Veal Chop, roasted Shitake mushrooms, sauteed fingerling potatoes and asparagus finished w/ a red zinfindel butter