In Good Company

November 5, 2010

Disneyland...

This was California Adventures our last day. These pics uploaded backwards and I am too lazy to fix it!! Laird LOVED meeting Minnie. Calvin LOVED the big roller coasters. He rode Tower of Terror with Daddy. He tells everyone the "Haunted Hotel" ride was his favorite. He's a thrill seeker just like Dad.

We visited Downtown Disney Sunday night. There is a shop there called "Ride Makerz." It is basically a Build a Bear shop, but for boys. They can pick the car and all different kind of accessories for it and build it in the shop. There is a drill that comes down and all the wheels snap onto the body. My boys loved it.

A lighthouse on Long Beach. The kids had so much fun running up and down this hill. See if you can spot Charles in this picture:)

Bubba Gump Shrimp for lunch.

Aquarium of the Pacific at Long Beach.

We did Disneyland Friday. Linda and Reggie were there with us. This last picture makes me laugh cuz Laird is trying to smile.

Halloween and other stuff....

October 1st we accompanied Aubrey and her kids to the Gilcrease Orchard for some pumpkin picking. We had fun mostly because we had never done this before. Next time: bring gloves! Those suckers are spiky! I brought home excitedly 2 green pumpkins. I put them on my sunny porch and they turned orange. Oh well.

We took the boys to the Springs Preserve Haunted Harvest. Since the last time we went to this, it was exceptionally better! We had fun! There was a Mad Scientist Show and Calvin was picked to help with one of the experiments. he loved it!

Calvin goes to two pre-schools. Both are thru the city rec programs. One (pictured 1st) is Tues. and Thurs. The other is only Fridays. He had double the parties:)

This was my stud muffins on our way to our ward Trunk or Treat.

October 13, 2010

What's going on???

Hey there friends...if there are any of you left!! Thought it would be a good time to post some pics and stuff. It is somewhat fall here in Vegas. It has been in the high 80's all week and, I can not believe I am about to say this, but where is the cooler weather?

Anyways, Calvin has started Preschool. He has been dying to go, so it was time to get him there!!! He has been having fun and comes home everyday with a new craft project. He is busy every day inventing something. He has now been asking for card board and tape tape TAPE TAPE!!! It is very wasteful, but he loves it! He would go through a whole roll of masking tape in one day if he could. It is pretty ridiculous, but he loves it! I'd rather encourage his creativity than stop it. He is obsessed with Ghost Busters. It has everything to do with the super cool "technology" involving their Proton "ghost sucking" Packs. SO, he is going to be a Ghost Buster for Halloween. We made him a jump suit with a "no ghosts" emblem on his sleeve and a Proton Pack original. He played a huge roll in the creation process. There will be plenty of pics soon...

Laird...oh Laird! He had a birthday in August and turned 2. The little guy is obsessed with Curious George. So, we had a Georgie party for him. He loved it. He is learning so many new words all the time and tries really hard to keep up with Calvin. Just today he whacked Cal in the head with a plastic golf club making him cry. I couldn't help but laugh thinking, "That is what you get for picking on someone smaller than you!" Laird has also started playing copy cat. He repeats everything! For example: Me, "Calvin stop crying!" Laird, "Calbin, stop kwrying!" It's pretty funny! I have also, not by choice, put Laird in a toddler bed. He was starting to try chewing his way out of his crib:) It was time. With that comes the head ache of keeping him in bed. His door does not have a lock on it, so I have to rope it shut with the Laundry room door. So, he just stays in there and plays for a bit and then eventually he tuckers out and takes his nap. Well, one day Calvin opened his door and yelled for me to come look at Laird. I was pretty angry Calvin let him out first of all, but when I saw him, I about died! He was covered in Desitin diaper cream!! White as a ghost! He smelled like chemicals for days and so did his room. On top of that, he has black furniture. There was thick white cream smeared everywhere! Regardless, Laird just has that personality that you just want to kiss him anyways!!!

Also, this summer Laird taught himself to swim. Crazy! With all the attention on Laird it got Calvin to get over his fear of putting his head under water and he started to swim too! It was so proud of him!!

I have been obsessed with reading! I have also been obsessed as usual with sewing and more specifically quilting. Oh, and tonight I was making a yummy homemade Mac and Cheese recipe I have never tried before...I put ground ginger in the mix rather than the ground mustard it called for!!! Happy Wednesday!

April 10, 2010

Newport Vacation...

Some good friends of mine invited me on a quick weekend trip to Newport, CA. Gotta love Newport! The weather was beautiful and the company was great! It is nice traveling with someone who knows where they are going. We tried some great restaurants that I would have never gone to otherwise. My cute friend Camille is a fashionista and so she knew all the good places to shop. We of course stopped at the O.C. Swap-meat. Camille knew the good tents to go to, so it made the Swap-meat a little less overwhelming. We found some smokin' deals and of course couldn't find the car afterwards:) We got our nails done at a place called "Lovely Nails." The name says it all! We walked in worried they wouldn't be able to get all four of us in. Boy were we wrong. Some of us had two ladies pampering us. We shopped a little at Fashion Island. There was a store there that had a bunch of "vintage" clothing. We had so much fun dressing up in all the tacky clothing. It would be a good place to go to for a Halloween costume. Funny thing is, what I consider a "costume" is another person's regular attire. Maybe I just don't have very good taste?? We saw a late night showing of Alice in Wonderland which I loved, except for the Mad Hatter dance at the end...weird. I think I was the only one into it though because it was almost too late at night to enjoy. We all were trying hard to stay awake! We ate at a hole in the wall restaurant (can't remember the name now) for dinner the last night. It was a little pricey so my friend Jill and I split our meal. We ordered handmade pea ravioli's. We about died when they brought us our plates with four ravioli's each! They weren't big either. The least they could have done was warned us that it's not really a good meal for sharing! We were so hungry! We filled up on bread! Thanks friends for a sweet vacation and fun memories!!!

Balboa Bars for dessert! Yum! For those who don't know what a Balboa Bar is, let me explain. It is a block of ice cream on a stick they dip in chocolate and whatever topping you choose. There is Oreo cookie crumbs, sprinkles, nuts, toffee or the works! I am going for the slice of cheesecake on a stick dipped in chocolate next time!

Ever seen "Anne of Green Gable's"? Recognize my carpet bag??

I made the girls stay up making rings with me! I think it was torture for them!!!

See the "Lovely Nails" sign in the background?? Pictured: Camille, Jill, Me, and Abbey

Picture Overload.....

Laird eating his Easter Bunny Lollipop.

Calvin and Daddy putting together his Lego Surprise from the Easter bunny.

Easter Bunny spoiled them this year:)

CHEESE! This was our annual Egg Hunt at my Dad's house.

Laird did not really get it at first, but once it clicked he was off finding eggs.

The nieces and nephews making the trek to the park down the street from my Dad's house.

We went to the Summerlin Egg Hunt and saw Mr. E. Bunny himself!

They had a petting zoo. Laird squealed at all the animals. He loved it.

Sweet boy! Calvin loves animals too.

This is from Valentine's Day!

Daddy got the boys a trampoline. They are always on it! This Calvin with his cousin Chanel.

St. Patty's Day, we had a party at my house. They made Leprechauns, had a treasure hunt and frosted cookies.

This was Elmo's Birthday Party story time at Border's Bookstore. Calvin is with his pal's Markie & Graham.

My niece, Charity, performed at the Touch a Truck event at the Orleans Parking lot. They basically had every kind of motor vehicle you could think of there. The kids could climb up in them and honk the horns, push buttons and pull levers. It was great except that after we left our ears were still honking! I think this was Calvin's favorite. Below is a robot used by military and such to retrieve bombs or hazardous materials (and Chanel's balloon below:)). Above, Calvin is watching the man control the robot from the computer. He was amazed.