Olive's First Birthday

Our Ollie-Pop turned 1. We celebrated with a small party in our backyard.

I made this shirt and tutu to wear in her photos (see below).
The mini cake just for her.
She wasn't too into it.... all the kids were a bit overwhelming.
She was totally into opening presents. She loved it.
We had another birthday party that day where the kids had their faces painted. Brock was sporting the frog face with spiderman arms.... he enjoyed some hula-hooping as well.

Another Birthday at Farrells

We took the family to Farrells for another birthday celebration dinner. This is definitely the place to take a noisy family... because the place is so loud - we fit right in.

Here is the "girl side" of the table. (Notice Olive smiling for the camera again HA!)
The "boy side" of the table.
They came and sand happy birthday softly to Olive. She thought it was great and couldn't wait to dig into her ice cream. (will someone please tell her mom to wipe down her face before all the photos)

SHE LOVED IT!

Olive's 1 Year Photo Shoot

While we were in Utah for Spring Break I got the girls photos taken. Olive's 1 year and Paige's 8 year. Olive was a sick as can be - but snot aside... she is still super cute. Thanks Aynn for the photos.

Spring Break 2010

We decided to go up to Utah for Spring Break this year. Last year we were stuck at home, I was 9 months pregnant with Olive and the kids went stir crazy... thought this would be a better idea this year.

John drove up and back with us, but went home during the week via airplane. We thought driving straight through would be the way to go but we hit a terrible blizzard at 2 a.m. during our drive there. Yikes! We made it though.... exhausted and tired but alive.

So is this what Spring Break is? Why did we leave warm 80 degree California again??? Hmm...

The kids were excited as ever to see snow... good thing we brought jackets. :)
We attempted to see How to Train A Dragon... Olive had other ideas - bit Paige and Owen stayed and liked it. Afterwards, for every one's amusement - we paid too much to watch the kids suffer through a 30 second machine simulated Hurricane. They looked funny... that was about it.

We also took the time to visit the local mall and Smash Burger... why is it that other malls always have better play areas than ours. It really bums me out. Smash burger was excellent -- there is no way it can be healthy though... it was too tasty.
My Brock enjoying a lemonade.
Olive crawled all around this dirty floor enjoying herself - once again... why not our mall???
Owen --- these are the looks I often get from Owen. Not sure what it means ;)
Brock was into getting his picture taken - he kept saying, "mommy now me." As opposed to Olive or anyone else. I love this one... too bad he isn't on a sandy beach.
This is another classic.
Owen (who kept sneaking off) almost gave me a heart attack. Here he was on a giant globe.

We also went to some restaurant that I can't remember the name of... who does that? Oh yeah, me. Our cook was hilarious... super entertaining. The kids loved all the tricks and food.

Savanah, Fletcher, Skylar and Paige.
Rod and Julie
Me and Olive - I think it's so funny how she smiles for the camera... (look back at our IHOP night too.)

John and Owen

Easter Party

Thanks to Mike and Tiffany for their fabulous Easter Party and Egg Hunt! The kids had a blast as always!

{Owen & Paige after finding their eggs}

{Brock happy about his find}

{Olive watching the action}

{Paige}

Sk8er Girl

The other day we were out front and I got out my (yes, I use to ride one) old skate board. Paige hopped on and was instantly in love... I think she was out front the rest of the week. She road up and down our street for hours.
Ezra got in on the fun.
Paige and our neighbor Avery.
Anytime I try and take a picture of Paige lately this is what she does... really???

Cruise to Mexico

John planned a "tester Cruise" for our anniversary this year. Neither of us had ever been on a cruise, so why not a short 3 day one to try it out? Turns out we'd like to go on another one ...


An old winery
We anchored by Catalina
John posed by some old paintings
John farmed out kids out to all our friends and family - thanks for taking care of the kiddies!
Wendy kept emailing me photos of Olive... here she is having a blast at the beach.

Model in Training... at 10 months

Penelope Lotus Weston

March 20, 2010

7 lbs 12 oz

19.5 in

My little sister had her baby yesterday. Congratulations to Tracy & Joe. I can't wait to meet little Penny! She looks adorable.

Girls Get-Away!

For the past year+ Lori and I have been talking about doing a girls weekend to Big Bear... it just never seemed to quite work out until now. We were so excited it was like Christmas when the day finally arrived. The six of us packed up and headed for Big Bear last Friday afternoon -- we got off to a late start but it turned out just fine. We got to Big Bear in time to find a place to eat dinner and get settled into the cabin.

I purposely avoided taking Dramamine because it makes me drowsy. Well, Adrienne had some non-drowsy, so I took one. Big mistake! We got to the top around 6 p.m. and at 8:30 I was passed out - drugged to the world. I was so mad (inside my head) because I knew why I was so out of it. I couldn't even get changed in pj's... just out cold. I woke up at 12:30 a.m. lucky to find everyone still awake and talking. We stayed up till 2 am then hit the sack.

It snowed all through the night and all day Saturday... it was a winter wonderland. We got to stay inside and craft the whole time.

Lori (we nicknamed her "mamma bear") was always taking care of us and making our food. So nice Lori.
When I would get frustrated with my own projects I started to learn the crochet techniques from Adrienne - here I am making a shoe lace. Nice. I think I got carpal tunnel from holding those needles so tightly.
Here was where I camped out and worked most of the time... I think I was a bit of a counter hog. Oops! As you can see we made Happy Birthday signs... so cute.
Brad was giving Julie a hard time asking if we were going to do pillow fights while we were up there. So to appease Brad we took a couple of "fake" pillow fighting pictures -although about 1 1/2 blows into it we realized this was no "fake" fight. It was very therapeutic. I haven't laughed that hard in I don't know how long. I almost passed out.
Here we all are - at the end of the Way Too Short Trip. We dragged our feet on leaving - I could have stayed a lot longer, but that's the life of a mom.

{Christy, Lori, Me, Adrienne, Julie & Diana}

Look how beautiful it was the day we left. We got 2 whole days to ourselves up there. We crafted, watched a bazillion movies, laughed, ate, slept, ate chocolate and laughed some more. Oh yes, I ended my chocolate fast up there. I did it - 26 days without chocolate. Not 1 lick!