Puppy party...

Yesterday, we went to Jonah & Javan's 4th birthday party. The theme was puppies/dogs and Marikka went all out! It was so cute and so clever. A sign out front welcomed us to the dog house, the kids all wore handmade (by Marikka) puppy costumes, they played puppy-themed games, had hot dogs for dinner, and ate dog bone cookies. Kate and Luke had a great time with all of their friends and cousins.

Luke wore his ears for all of 5 seconds while I took a picture.

Luke and Anna playing house. Check out Emily's pictures, too.

Giant dog bone cake...it was about 2 1/2 feet long and so cute and yummy!

Happy Birthday, Javan and Jonah!! ♥

Gotta love it....

Kate and Luke have become such good playmates and friends. I walked in on this image the other day and my heart melted a little....check out Luke's arm. =)

Our little artist...

As you may recall, a few weeks ago we went to Bekah's birthday party at Color Me Mine where Kate painted a little fairy figurine. The girls didn't get their art that day since it had to be glazed and fired so Kate got hers yesterday! She was so excited and we were really impressed by it. I promise I had very little to do with how it turned out. My only contribution was to add the 2nd and 3rd coats (and I stuck with what she'd already painted- hence the reason the face and arms were not painted) and I did the eyes. It was all her for the most part! She loves it and is so very proud. =)

Thanks, Nelsons, for the fun experience!

7 years...

Today, John and I are celebrating our wedding anniversary! It's been a great 7 years and we had a VERY nice weekend-long celebration in Santa Ynez with Aaron and Sarah. Over the years, Aaron and Sarah have been our traveling companions and have actually helped us celebrate a couple of anniversaries. We always have a lot of fun together and this weekend was no exception. It took much persuading, but John was finally able to talk me into leaving the kids home this time so we could spend some real quality time together and even though I missed Kate and Luke terribly, I'm glad we had that time to relax. We packed our 2 1/2 days away with lots of activities we could not have done with little ones in tow. On the way up the coast on Saturday we stopped in Goleta at a ranch called Circle Bar B to go horseback riding. John and I haven't been horseback riding in so many years and it was SO fun! The weather was perfect for a ride and we had a really nice guide, Clay, who kept us informed and entertained. I highly recommend this place to anyone traveling up in the Santa Barbara area. After our ride we check out the grounds and decided it would be worth going up and staying at the ranch sometime.

John and Aaron on Trapper & Muffin

My horse, Smokey, and Sarah's horse, Wiley, competed the whole time to be in front of one another. It was pretty funny when they would take off trotting and we were bouncing around in the saddle. =)

After we got to the Hertzog's house in Santa Ynez and got settle in, we went to the famous Hitching Post for dinner. Here we are in front of the house on our way out.

On Sunday, we headed out to visit some of the local wineries. The grounds are so pretty but it was really cold and windy. We stopped for lunch at the Firestone Brewery restaurant and then headed to Los Olivos for a little tasting. One of the tasting rooms we stopped by belongs to some friends of friends, the Saarloos'. They just opened their tasting room and it was beautiful. Keith Saarloos, the owner, was there pouring and gave us a great tasting lesson. We went out that night for a delicious Italian dinner at Grappolos. This morning, after a Solvang breakfast we made our way home to our babes. It was a perfect weekend full of great fun with great friends!

In front of the vineyards at Melville Winery.

Aaron and John at the Saarloos tasting room.

St. Patrick's Day...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

*Please note Kate has a ring pop in her mouth, we have NOT reverted back to the paci. =)*

We love celebrating St. Patrick's Day and, especially now that we have kids, are enjoying continuing old and establishing new traditions. Our day started out with a green breakfast of scrambled eggs and pancakes. Then the kids opened their gifts...stuff to appropriately deck themselves out Irish-style.

Luke's gift bag consisted of temporary tattoos. His said "Kiss Me" and "Lucky".

For lunch we met John's parents and brother for lunch at E.J. Malloy's. John and I have been having lunch at E.J.'s on St. Patty's Day since we first got married and usually it's pretty quiet but today it was packed. Regardless of the crowd, we had a nice lunch complete with our traditional fish 'n' chips and green beer. Craig and Sharon were double celebrating today as it was their 35 year wedding anniversary!

After nap time, Kate and I "made"(read: placed pre-cut cookies on cookie sheet and baked) some shamrock sugar cookies. To finish the day off we had a small dinner celebration with the Irelands, Reeves, and Vander Molens over for corned beef sandwiches and a potato bar. The kids all looked so cute in their green and had a great time playing together.

Luke and Brooklyn wanted nothing to do with a group shot so here are the other girls.

Baked potatoes and all the toppings, crock-potted corned beef on rye bread, and a man doing the dishes at the end of the meal...what more could a girl ask for. =)

After getting quite dirty outside, 2 rounds of bath time were necessary.

Date night...

Last night, we spent the afternoon/evening with the Irelands sans kids. After some overwhelming tile shopping for our upcoming bathroom project, we had a nice dinner at a new restaurant. Not newly built, but new to us, the Orange Hill Restaurant did not disappoint. Since getting to go out to dinner without kids is so rare, I tend to want to hit up the favorites when we get a chance but that can become a bit monotonous. So, we've decided that from now on when we do go out we are going to go somewhere new each time.
The Orange Hill Restaurant offers a great view and an even better sunset special. We spent the evening in sunglasses because we are just super cool...and the sun was quite glaring...but the food was really good. I highly recommend the pre-dinner bread and pesto. So yummy!! After dinner we sat out on the balcony around the fire pit to watch part of the sunset. Even in the haze we could make out Signal Hill, Palos Verdes, and even had a partial ocean view.

A little dark but check out the view.

Out by one of the many fire pits.

Of course, even being without the kids there are constant reminders of them. A child's birthday party was going on in the restaurant and we were able to snag Tinkerbell on her way in to make an appearance.

Weekend full of family time...

We had a fun family "weekend". John's weekends are not like normal ones being that they are Sunday-Tuesday but this weekend we made the most of our days with Daddy home. On Sunday, after naps we headed out to Disneyland to meet some of my Child Life buddies for a couple of hours. It's a rare treat to have Daddy at Disneyland with us and we managed to get him out there 2 days in a row as the 4 of us also went for a few hours on Monday morning. It was unusually crowded for a Monday and Luke was extra ornery but we were able to get a few of the favorites in and Kate was thrilled to show Daddy around one of her favorite places.

I had to include a couple of pictures from this morning. Kate and Luke built a mountain out of the couch cushions and enjoyed climbing up and down and tackling each other into them.

Bangs...

Last night, after her bath, I was able to talk Kate into trying a new hairstyle. I've wanted to try bangs on her for quite some time in an effort to give her a 'do that didn't always have to be done. She was very cooperative and LOVES the end result.

Luke cracking himself up

Luke went over to hang out with the Ireland girls tonight while I took Kate to dance class. He had such a great time. See Sarah's blog for more cute video. Thanks, Sar!

More birthdays...

Yesterday, we went to Ryan's make-up birthday party. His was the one that was cancelled on Saturday due to illness. The kids had a great time at his safari-themed party...my kids even experienced their first pinata. I'm so glad we were able to celebrate with him after everyone has been so sick. Happy Birthday, Ryan!

They made cute little binoculars and went on a safari through the house looking for wild animals. We visited Africa and the Arctic! =)

Luke with a bat was more than a little terrifying but you can bet he LOVED it!

And Kate loved the candy!

That evening, we went to Eccos with my family to celebrate Curt's birthday. The kids did so well. Luke even spent most of the time in his highchair (this is quite a feat for him), not without much entertaining and distracting by Mommy and Brookie. The babies enjoyed playing peek-a-boo and feeding each other. Happy Birthday, Uncle Curt!

Brooklyn thinks Luke is pretty amazing. =)

Crafty...

Now that the gifts have been given, I can post pictures of my latest projects. I have so many friends who are super talented and crafty. I so envy their creativity and abilities and wish I could do what they can do. I often get the bug to try my hand at something crafty, but usually chicken out not knowing where to start. But for two of our favorite girls' birthdays I decided to give it a shot and give them something handmade.They certainly weren't huge undertakings that involved much talent but it was a lot of fun to have projects.

An easy-as-can-be no-sew tutu for Miss Bekah....

...along with a plaque to display her projects and art. An identical plaque for Reags to go with a game that Kate picked out.

Happy birthday friends!

Our birthday-full weekend has come and gone and we made one party. Sadly, Kate was so sick on Saturday that we had to miss Reagan's party. =( I've promised Kate that we will have a play date with Reagan so they can dress up like princesses together. The other party that was planned for Saturday had to be postponed because the birthday boy was sick. Darn this sickness!!
***Side note: Friday night/Saturday morning around 12:30 am, Kate woke up with a 104.4* fever, having had thrown up. I dosed her up with Motrin and Tylenol to bring down the fever and brought her to bed with me. For the better part of 2 1/2 hours she hallucinated about Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, and gorillas on the ceiling and alligators trying to get her feet! It was scary but I felt sure that the hallucinations were caused by the high fever and was assured of that by the doctor the next morning.***
Sunday morning she was feeling much better and by Sunday afternoon was well enough to attend Rebekah's birthday party. They planned a fun afternoon at Color Me Mine in Brea where each girl got to pick a little figurine to paint. Kate had a great time!

Note the adorable aprons that the very talented Emily made for each girl!

Cake time...not only super cute but very yummy.

Kate and the birthday girl.