sanfran

We had a wonderful Fourth!  We went up to San Francisco for the holiday since Tara and Andrew were blessing Aubrey that weekend.

It was so cute to get Drake and Jack together again!  As soon as Drake saw him, he ran up to him and gave him a huge hug and said "Jack Jack!!"

We started the day at the Taylor's ward pancake breakfast--YUMBELIEVABLE!  While I loved the food, the kids loved playing on the play ground of course!

Then we journeyed into the city for a day of sight seeing and waiting for the fireworks to start.  We walked SOOOO much and weren't thinking it would be as cold as it was.  It was 55 degrees and we ended up having to go to Gap to get Gwen some pants while we were there!

That's Drake letting us know he's done shopping.

The piers were closed off to traffic and were SOOO crowded!  There were seriously THOUSANDS of people there.  We were a bit of a group and all put our time in pushing strollers, and holding hands and kids.  But somehow in all of the meeting up after going to shops and switching around of people, we lost Gwen!  Ryan and I though she was with my dad, but as soon as my mom told us she wasn't we bolted!  We just split up and started canvasing the crowds looking for my sweet little Gwenny.  When I found her, she was holding a police officer's hand just bawling.  I ran up to grab her and of course was bawling too.  Just typing it now brings back the fear and it's hard not to get emotional.  That was seriously the scariest parenting moment I've had yet.  (It probably didn't help that a couple nights before we watched this special on Elizabeth Smart and were talking about how awful it would be to not know where your child was.  Bad thoughts came to mind instantly!)

So despite the scare of our life, we had a super fun Independence day, however we made our way to downtown and were there when it was time for the fireworks, and a low fog had settled in and we weren't able to see them,  :(

We also got to spend some good time with Aubrey and be there for the blessing, and wow is she a sweet baby!  She really hardly ever fusses and will just let you cuddle her!  And her cute thighs would make the Michellin man jealous!

I also had a great birthday!  I wasn't looking forward to it, and I knew Ryan hadn't brought any presents, so I was thinking it might be a forgotten day.  Nope.  Ryan had arranged before hand to have Tara get my gifts (my Wii finally!) and wrap them and have them there already!  We went to see Hancock, swam, and ate so much cake!  Thanks for all your work everybody to make my birthday so rad!

And since we were in the area, I had to stop by Desiree's to see her sweet new baby boy.  

 

She's FOUR!!

My silly little princess is four and I can't even believe it.  Time flies! We had a long day full of spoiling this little girl.  She got to have two parties, one at Bounce U with a lot of friends, then a family pool party at our house.  And as I'm typing this, she's in her room playing with her new toys even though she was put to bed an hour ago.  I can't blame her-she got some pretty cute stuff.  ;)

Gwen has been such a ray of sunshine in my life and I love her to pieces!  Happy Birthday Gwenny bum!!  

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

sweet babies...

My sister in law just called me to let me know she's found out the sex of her first baby! She having a BOY!! I'm so excited for her and her husband in joining the adventure of becoming parents. It made me think- exactly four years ago today my water broke and I went into labor. But it would still be 22 hours before I'd get to see and hold my sweet little Gwenny, and my life has been blessed ever since!

Viva Las Vegas baby, yah!

Ryan and I had a first this weekend...

The first time we took a trip without kids since Gwen was born!!

Crazy I know!  And thank you, thank you, thank you to mom for watching our offspring for us while we partied it up in Vegas!

We took off Saturday morning and just got back this evening, and holy smokes we had fun!

We stayed in the Planet Holywood resort, and it was so nice!  We did some shopping, played some games, swam, walked a lot and of course Ryan karaoked!  Ryan comparing his hands to Shaq's.

Water show at Belagio, yes we were on the red carpet, and a Tobias sighting.This funny little suit was from the movie The Stupids , and our room was cool enough the have the ORIGINAL displayed on the wall!  (so awesome I know ;)  Also we ate a lot of yummy food.
We really had an amazing time, just getting away for a while.  I forget how dirty Las Vegas is, and feel bad for one of my dear friends who unfortunately for me, has moved to as she puts it "Saddam and Gomorrah".  I might have developed lung cancer while there, and am sad to see the poor people that have to hand out pornography on the streets for a living.  :(  To help fight pornography, click here.
Lot's of fun just Ryan and Kristin, but we missed our babies sooooo much!!  Thanks again mom for loving them for us this weekend!

And CONGRATULATIONS to Dez and Josiah 

on the birth of Ezekiel Michael!  

Can't wait to see him!!!

she's crazy

Seriously, bonkers!  We live in the same neighborhood as my parents, so we walk over there alot, but in the summer, even with gas $2347/gallon, we usually will drive.  That's because we live in a little place called the "desert", and this desert will be 104 degrees at 8:20 at night.  

But you never would have guessed the way Gwen put on her fleece beenie and jogged home from GG's.  I of course just drove along side her in my wonderful climate controlled car.

Happy Father's Day

Ode to Ryan

I like him a lot

He is nice

And very hot!

He plays golf

and watches NBA

Here is something

I need to say:

You're so sweet

And good to our babies

It makes them jealous

(The other ladies)

Marrying you

Made me so glad,

But I never could have imagined

You'd be such a good DAD!

love you Ryan!!!  

And I love you too Dad!

A new one

First of all, thank you to all of you who requested I update the blog, it makes me feel loved!  :)

It hasn't been updated in a while because -gasp- my computer wasn't uploading my pictures.  What?  Mac issues?  Shocker I know.  But I've learned something.  If I just leave my computer turned off and I don't touch it two weeks at a time, it'll work just fine when I finally turn it back on again.  And sometimes when it's really bad and the "shut down" doesn't work, and I try to turn it off with the power button, and that doesn't work.  I just have to unplug it for a few days and then it works fine.

So what we've been up to...

Well, my BYU girlfriends and I had an amazing girls night.  This is us at an outrageous little restaurant that I won't mention the name of it for fear that you might google it and see how raunchy it is.  But us girls liked the shock of it all.  (only because our husbands weren't there)

Then I've been trying to come up with a good place to have a birthday party for Gwen.  Her bithday is coming up soon, and since we'll be moving in about a month and a half,  I wanted her to have a party with her friends.  The problem is coming up with a good place.  Peter Piper and Chuck E Cheese were obvious choices, but don't really cater to kids her age.  So we were told of this place called Jeepers that is supposed to be so much fun for 4 year olds, just it's not as new and clean as PP and CEC.  So we went to check it out and the kids loved it!  

+ kids love it    - not so clean

What do I go with?  

I of course also thought of Amazing Jakes ($20/kid, I don't think so), and Glitter Box is a min of $350!!!

Any other suggestions all you savvy moms out there?

The kids:

Gwen's latest obsession: spending the night at GG's house.  Every night she asks if she can, and she has the last couple of Fridays.  She went miniature golfing with GG and Papa this last weekend, and the rest of the time she spends stamping cards with her.  How are we supposed to move Gwenny from her GG?

Drake has been talking up a storm!  His favorite word?  "WHY"?  Then he usually answers himself and says "cuz".  He also likes saying "one, two, three, go!", "shoes on", "Gwen", "outside", "key" (kitty), "Diego", "cars", etc.

Us:

Ryan has been getting ready for school again.  At least all the fun stuff.  You know getting his new laptop, and searching for days for his new backpack for it.  It's really pretty funny.  Reminds me of how excited I'd get to start school when I was in grade school.  I'll bet Ryan lays out all his clothes the night before too.  ;)

Me.  Well, I'm involving the kids on this one.  We have what my grandpa would call "feral cats" living in our back yard.  I'm working on being their friend so they'll trust me and I can eventually get them in the house!  (Ryan's definitely not in on this, so don't tell him)  So we bring out chopped ham for them to eat, run inside and then watch them eat it from out the window.

Oh, and what's that you've noticed in that last picture?  Oh our TUMBLEWEED!  When it started growing, we thought it was a tumbleweed and wanted to watch it grow big enough that it would eventually die and blow away.  So it's an experiment now and we've got to see how it'll turn out.  I'll let you know.

In other news, my super duper cute cousin Crystal just had a beautiful baby boy.

Today is one of my dearest friends  Meg's birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

And... well, I guess that's all.  

got Hawaii on my mind

I read the Rollingstone article about Jack Johnson while waiting in the doctor's office the other day. I can't get out of my mind how cool he is! I am so impressed with how down to earth he is. His priorities are his family first, then his "island life". It talked about how he started out as a surfer, but got out of it because he didn't like how jaded all the surfers were. They were all in it for sponsorships and tv time. He talks about how he will never be away from his family for more than a month, and he'll leave a tour and cancel dates to come home to them. It talked about how he walks a quarter mile to the beach barefoot everday to surf, and how he and his wife have started a recycling program for Hawaii.

So of course it brought back memories of being in Hawaii, listening to Jack Johnson, and laying out. I'm just really craving the ocean and a warm beach. Also the smell of plumeria's wouldn't be so bad.

Then Saturday night, Ryan and I went to see the UFC fight, and BJ Penn won. (Yeah!) And he's Hawaiian so of course all about Hawaii pride. It's just time. I need a vacation.

FHE

Everyone at work loved this story, so I thought I'd share.

Last night was Monday night, so obviously we had FHE. Since it was 110 degrees yesterday (I don't think it DID get that hot, but it was supposed to) we went swimming for FHE. Well I was sitting on the edge of the pool with my feet in the water, and Drake wanted out. But once he got out he was freezing since his cold wet trunks were touching his legs, so I took off his trunks and cuddled him to warm him up. Being on my lap didn't last too long because he wanted his legs in the water too, so he snuggled next to me just sitting on the deck. I was watching Gwen and Ryan play when I noticed a stream shooting in the pool. I looked down and Drake was peeing straight into the pool. And the funny part was him looking down, watching it come out in awe. Well I'm laughing at him watching himself pee when I think, hmmm Drakes sitting funny, why is his hip cocked up? Then I look behind him and I see why. He took a HUGE poo that was coming out at the same time!!!! So I flew into clean up mode and it was quite the ordeal to get all that poop off the deck and off him since he was still sitting on the poo. It was all over his legs, and smelled like an outhouse, but it was so funny!

graduations...

Gwen had her preschool graduation Friday night. It was so cute, and Gwen was such a ham!
She kept doing this cheezy thumbs up thing during the songs or if she caught us looking at her. She also enjoyed waving like she was a supermodel.
The kids sang several songs including their ABCs days of the week, Peanut butter and jelly and other cute songs. She really has learned so much this year. I'm so glad that she was able to go to preschool and make so many friends. She absolutely loved her teacher too.
Check out my cheeseball...


Then Saturday Gwen had her ballet recital. And again, she totally hammed it up! Believe it or not, this is the best picture I got! They danced to "Good ship lollypop", and she was singing all the words as she danced.

And then I guess this can be our official announcement. Ryan has made the decision to go back to school, the question has been where. I have to admit I've really been hoping and pushing for ASU. That way we'll be here, well probably forever. But ultimately it's Ryan's decision as far as what he wants to do. And I guess University of Pacific has a wonderful Trial Advocacy program that Ryan really wants to do. And it just so happens that UoP is in Sacramento, where Ryan's from. So we're leaving my home town to go to Ryan's. Now that Ryan's made up his mind, we're just crossing out fingers that I'll get a transfer. IF that were to happen, we'd move as soon as that happens, but otherwise it looks like we'll be in Cali at the end of the summer. I'm really sad to be leaving all the family and friends we have here. We've really started our family here and I can't believe it's going to be over. But at the same time, the idea of starting somewhere new is exciting. Ryan's mom is still there, and his sister Molly and her family have recently moved back to Sacramento. Plus my sister Tara and her family recently moved to Concord. So I'll get to see her on the weekends. Wow, typing this has just made it even more real and I can't even imagine where I would start packing up my house....

good times

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I know a name, a wonderful name...

Happy Mother's Day to two amazing Moms!

How did you find the energy, Mom

To do all the things you did,

To be teacher, nurse and counselor

To me, when I was a kid.

How did you do it all, Mom,

Be a chauffeur, cook and friend,

Yet find time to be a playmate,

I just can’t comprehend.
I see now it was love, Mom

That made you come whenever I'd call,

Your inexhaustible love, Mom

And I thank you for it all.
By Joanna Fuchs

still frustrated

Never mind all the pictures and music I lost when my hard drive in my Mac crashed.
I brought my Mac in today so they could re-format my operating system, and she assured me I wouldn't lose any of my files. Well wouldn't you know my 2500 pictures I had on my computer weren't there! No worries right? I got an external hard drive for Time Machine to automatically back up every half hour (one of the features of the new amazing Leopard operating systems for Mac). Oh, but of course it's my operating system that corrupted! (That what they say since Macs "can't get viruses") So my Time Machine has been generating error messages and hasn't been running the back up!!!! I might not have those pictures! So tonight I have to go back again to see if my external hard drive has been in fact backing up, and to see if they can get my computer to recognize my ipod, etc.
I'm so over Macs!

warning.... this is a venting post

This is how I feel right now. I HATE HATE HATE my Mac!! I have had more problems, and worse problems in the past year of using a Mac than I have ever had in the 10+ years of using a PC. If any of you out there are thinking of buying a Mac, DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!! I know they are so enticing because they are so awesome looking and have sweet photo and music programs, but if you want a computer that you can use those programs whenever you want, a Mac is not for you.
If this thing could talk, it would say, "my purpose is to make Kristin as miserable as computerly possible!"