Cinco De Mayo and Nursery

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Saturday with my niece Abbey at a Mexican restuarant.  It seemed like everyone had a birthday that day. They were singing happy birthday like every 5 minutes. Seriously.

What's a Cinco celebration without a sombrero and a drink (virgin strawberry daiquiri of course).

Matthew is about 3 months from going into the nursery at church (18 months is when they go).  On Sunday, I was able to take him in for a little bit, just to slowly ease him into it.  He was just loving it! All the toys and big kids (well, bigger than him).  He enjoyed singing time and snack time! 

My baby is growing up!  I can't believe he will be in nursery in a few months. 

At least I have 18 yrs left before he goes on a mission!

p.s. now that I have crossed over into the iPhone world and apps like instagram and diptic (photo collage for my cell phone pics), I don't pick up my Cannon as much.  :(

Need to put more time (and effort) into my Cannon.  I'm sure it feels neglected.

Weekend Fun and Free Sock Monkey Stuff

Matthew went to celebrate his friend Justin's 1st birthday party over the weekend.  Justin and Matthew are only a few weeks apart, but Justin is a big boy (compared to my little pumpkin), he wears size 2T!  It was a Dr. Seuss theme and there were lots of yummy food.  It was very similiar to Matthew's party in that it was a Vietnamese 1st birthday so it was kind of a big deal.  Just look at that yummy cake!

Then on Sunday we went to grandma's house and Matthew played with his cousins and ate Vietnamese Pancake (a.k.a banh xeo).  Doesn't look very appetizing in the picture below, because I like mine plain with just cucumbers and fish sauce.  

Matthew also got his second hair cut by daddy.  (So much cheaper than taking him to the barber shop.) Everytime he gets a hair cut, it makes my baby look like such a big boy!  I think I'm in denial that he is growing up, right before my eyes.

Now that Matthew's awesome party is over and I'm finally getting around to putting stuff away, I am giving away everything in the picture below.  If you are local to VA or even W.VA and D.C., and you want it, I can meet you somewhere and give it to you.  If you are not local, I am willing to ship it to you, but YOU will have to pay for shipping.

Balloon wreath (w/out the 'M'), 8-brown party favor bags, 2-red basket/containers, 1-big sock monkey, 3-mini sock monkeys, 6-monkey buckets,1-party hat, and a few yards of sock monkey material/red polka dot material (I used as table cloths and they have been washed.  You just need to iron them.)

And, if anyone wants Matthew's monkey vest and shirt below, let me know and it's yours. (It's a Paul Frank brand, purchased at Target).

Leave me comment if you want it (all of it or some of it).  Make sure to leave your email address so I can contact you back.  GONE!

 

Have a great week!

Weekend Round Up

1. Finished the second Christmas tree.

2. Put out the Nativity set .

3. Lunch with my sister, niece & nephew (yummy pho and spring rolls)

4. Spent time with Abbey.

And to end the weekend, we watched the First Presidency Chrismas Devotional (program starts at about 1:09).

Halloween Weekend Round Up

I got to meet my new niece on Friday. 

Jessica Nicole was born on Thursday, Oct. 27th, weighing 8 lbs 7 oz. 

She is absolutely precious!  This is my sister's 5th kid (under 6 yrs old).

I still can't believe we got snow on Saturday! Two days before Halloween!



We got most of the snow, but everyone else got rain.

That didn't stop us from trunk or treating at my friend's church.

It's been a busy month and I'm looking forward to slower weekends so I can start getting things around the house!  Christmas will be here before you know it!

Arizona - Phoenix and Scottsdale

My girl's weekend started out rough, spending six hours at the airport due to plane delays and getting re-routed, we landed in Phoenix 11 hours after being dropped off at the airport.

Fortunately, that was the only bad thing that happened the entire weekend.  

It was a FABULOUS weekend! 

We ate lots of really good Mexican food. I'm usually not a big fan of Mexican food, but Phoenix really impressed me.  I swear I could easily eat a breakfast burrito every morning if I lived there.

We had a spa day at the Val.ley Ho hotel.

An hour massage, followed by thirty minutes of foot reflexology (a.k.a footmassage).

Absolute heaven!

Soooo relaxing that I snored off to sleep. 

We stayed at our friend's timeshare in Phoenix for the first two nights, then she booked us a suite at the Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale.  We spent the entire day hanging by the pool.  Again, very relaxing!

We did a lot of eating this weekend.  If you ever visit Scottsdale and in the mood for good Thai food,  you have to try Soi 4. (They also have a location in Oakland,CA).

Here's a picture of us eating sushi at 10:00 pm at Blue Wasabi.

(I can't remember the last time I ate dinner that late!)

Lots of laughter, food, friends and fond memories.

It was much needed.  It's nice to get away every once in a while with your girlfriends and laugh until your belly aches!

(More pictures to come from Sedona and meeting up with my awesome blogger friend).

Labor Day Weekend

We had a good low key weekend.  Having an extra day off is always nice! 

Steve started his Human Anatomy class on Saturday so he will be busy every Saturday for the next 16 weeks!  I'm sad he won't be able to join us for all the Fall festivities this year. He's sooo bummed about it too because it's his favorite time of year when I drag him out every weekend (enter sarcasm).

After his class we dropped Matthew off at my mom's and went to the temple.  It's been so long since we've been able to go back (due to pregnancy and then baby).  It was SO nice.  It was just what I needed to feed my spiritual soul. 

(picture taken in April 2009)

(As a side note, some of the tops of the spirals on the temple were damaged in the earthquake we had recently. Nothing too major and they are in the process of getting if fixed).

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend my friend's baby blessing.  Baby Hudson is absolutely adorable!  What a special day it was for their family. 

Monday was just a day of cleaning and hanging around the house with Matthew and Abbey.  My neighbor had twins last week so I made her family dinner on her first day home.  Babies (boy and girl) are still in the NICU.  Hope they can get strong enough to come home soon. 

It was a very nice weekend, but now it's back to work. :(

A Good Weekend of NOT Running Around Like Crazy

We had a good, lowkey weekend.

Friday night I went to a 'stamp camp' at my friend's house who is a Stampin Up demonstrator.  We made a flower bag, flower tea candle holder and a graduation card.  I invited my neighbor and we had a good time hanging out.  The little flower bag is my favorite but it took forever!

While I was at stamp camp, Steve took Abbey to our neighborhood movie night on the lawn.  One of the neighbors has a projector and they play movies on the side of their house.  The movie that night was Tangled.  I heard they had a good turn out so it sounds like movie night on the lawn may be a regular thing this summer.  I hope so! 

On Saturday, Matthew and I slept in a bit while Steve took Abbey to the Home De.pot kids workshop.  I was planning on cleaning up around the house, but I didn't get to it.  I wanted to go strawberry picking, but I didn't get to that either!  I actually didn't leave the house until around 2:30 pm so I just ran errands with Abbey and Matthew while Steve stained the deck.  Saturday night, we all went to the playground. Matthew loved the swing.  He was so content!

Matthew after his bath.

It was nice to be home (Winchester) and not running around all over town (No.VA). I could have easily made plans to go to do a bazillion activities, but sometimes it's nice to just see what the day (or weekend) has to offer. I love lowkey weekends.

Halloween Weekend

Work has been keeping me super busy so I haven't had time to blog. I'm hoping things will slow down, but it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.

Other than a busy work schedule, everything else is going well.  Baby is good, life is good.

We managed to go to the pumpkin patch the day before Halloween.  I was trying to find a pumpkin patch that was reasonably priced that had fun activities for Abbey.  There is a huge one in the area that costs $15 a person on the weekends!  I did NOT want to spend that much money, but Steve convinced me to (it's easier on my conscious to blame the hubby). So much for reasonably priced!

 It actually really was HUGE and did have lots for Abbey to do.  I'm glad we went this year. 

Who knows if the price will go up next year!

After the pumpkin patch, we went to my friend's trunk or treat at church.  It was chilly, but the kids had fun going from trunk to trunk getting candy.

(A unicorn, witch, dragon and spider man) 

I ran into my dear friend Mindy there!  We go way back from when her family served in the Dulles Branch.  I was so excited to see her.  Her family is so awesome! 

Eating chili in the church parking lot before the trunk or treating began!

Nothing beats chili on a chilly night!

Me and my sister on Halloween at a family gathering.

So that was pretty much our Halloween weekend.

This past weekend was very low key.  After a busy October, Steve is happy that all the fall activities are over.  We will be starting on the nursery soon! More to come on that.

Weekend Round Up

We went to see Disney on Ice, Toy Story 3 on Saturday with some friends.

It was our first time to see a Disney on Ice show.  It was fun and the kids had a blast.

Here's a picture of Abbey right before we left.

(Don't pay attention to the sad looking mums.  It's been blown over a few times).



I didn't bring my good camera so I just had my little point and shoot.

Here's buzz light year to the rescue.

(This picture makes it look like the place was empty, but it was just that section that was empty).

Prior to coming to the show, I told Abbey that we were not going to be buying any toys or anything from the show and I didn't want her asking (or begging) for any toys.  At intermission, they had people coming around selling cotton candy and drinks (from Toy Story mugs).  Of course Abbey wanted one and I didn't have any cash on me at all so I told her that we couldn't get it.  She was not happy at all and was pouting. 

I felt horrible!  I hate to see her sad and there was a part of me that wanted to go out and buy her something (they accepted credit cards outside by the concessions), but I knew that I couldn't give in to her.  I had already told her from the beginning that we weren't going to buy anything and I didn't want to go back on my word. I was trying to teach her a lesson, and while it was hard for me, I knew that it was the right thing to do.  She was very sad for a while, but by the end of the show, she was perfectly fine.  I'm glad that I was able to stand by ground. 



We had good seats, thanks to my friends who were able to get discounted tickets for us.

Another fun weekend with my Abbey and my friends!

Fall Festival Weekend

Another beautiful weekend spent enjoying the Fall weather!

We went to a fall festival that was sponsored by a non profit organization in our area.  It was held on a family farm and they had free food and games for kids. 

Abbey loved playing the games because you get a prize (candy) every time!

Here they are playing a game called 'my cup runneth over'.  They had to squirt water into a glass and Abbey beat Steve!  She was so happy.  Her prize was a little yellow rubber ducky.  

Silly Faces!

What's a fall festival without a tractor ride?!   

Holding on tight getting ready to ride the horses/ponies.

I can't believe we're half way through October!  Every weekend has been filled with fun activities for us.  I made sure not to over do it this weekend.  After our fall festival, we went home and took naps, then we spent the rest of the evening canning our apples that we picked from last week (more to come on that)!

A Blog Gathering

These are the lovely blogging ladies I met up with while in Williamsburg.

This is just a small sampling of the Braces Bunch (no we don't all have braces).  It's a group of us bloggers who love and support one another through blogging, email and snail mail (yes, people still send snail mail). 

Some of the bloggers like to remain anonymous, like dr. S.euss below. 

It was so awesome to meet these ladies in person.  One of the ladies is a local to Williamsburg so they all stayed together at her house.  I stayed at the timeshare with Abbey and Steve, but I met up with them for lunch and dinner and fun times.  Once again, it was stress free and very relaxing because no one had any definite plans so we were able to just wing it.

It's amazing how much you can bond with people over food and fun!  We all shared our struggles and got to know each other better. 

Absolutely a wonderful girl's weekend!

We went to dinner at Food for Thought and it was very yummy!  It was a very simple restaurant and was super crowded but we called ahead so we didn't have to wait very long.  And our waitress totally looked like Katherine Hei.gel (from Greys Anatomy)!

This picture quote was hanging on their wall and I really liked it.  

For those who are vision challenged, it says:

"Look to this one day, for it is life.  Yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision.  Yet each day well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.  Look therefore to this one day, for it alone is life."  

Thanks ladies for an awesome weekend!  Can't wait until we meet up again next year!

Nieces and Nephew Weekend

I had the privilege of watching two of my nieces and my nephew over the weekend.

I'm so use to just watching Abbey so adding two more kids to the mix was a lot of work!

It was so hot on Saturday! (100 degrees)

We went to chick.fil.A for lunch and then I had the crazy idea to go peach picking.  It didn't take us long to fill up our bag, but the heat was exhausting!  We were only out there for about 15 minutes and it was more than enough time before we passed out.

Yummy peach cobler!  Steve doesn't like peaches so I could have easily eaten the whole thing, but I shared it with my neighbor because I knew I would keep eating it if it was left here.

We made cups of 'dirt' (chocolate pudding with crushed oreo crums on top) for dessert with 'worms' at the bottom of each cup.

Abbey found her worm first.  She loved this dessert and requested it again on Sunday after church.

On Sunday, I had to get all three kids dressed for church by myself (Steve has early meetings at church so he always leaves before we do).  Surprisingly, we arrived at church 15 minutes early!  I'm hardly ever on time for church.  Even when it's just me and Abbey.  I don't know how I managed to get three kids and myself ready so fast. 

Silly faces!

It was non-stop all weekend.  Kids fighting, feeding them, entertaining them, bathing them, and putting them to bed.  It was a fun weekend, but I was VERY exhausted by Sunday evening.  I admire all the moms out there who do this every day. 

Besides the occassional fighting and crying, it was such a joy to hear their laughter fill our home. 

I hope they had as much fun as we did.  And I hope they will remember the good times at Aunt Hannah and Uncle Steve's house!