Sunday Snapshots

A beautiful Sunday afternoon warranted a nice family stroll with the dog.

The grass was green, the air was crisply cool following a big rainstorm, and the mountains were snow-capped.

Then home to make dinner preparations . . .

Corn Chowder,

and trying on the snow gear in preparation for going to said snow-capped mountains in the morning.

and enjoying fresh warm cornbread, hearty corn chowder, and In-N-Out table settings.

The whole family had to wear the hats during dinner. It was the rule mandated by the children.

Happy Sabbath y'all. We're grateful for a looong weekend and wish we had them every weekend.

Let's Go to the Hop

Tonight was a tri-ward Sock Hop and we got into it by sporting a Letterman's jacket, cardigan, and hair in a pony tail. Yeah, that's how we roll.

We totally cut the rug though let me tell you. It was probably the first ward activity where people actually stayed (and danced) until 10:00pm. The band actually ran out of numbers in their repertoire which was pretty funny.

We got our groove on and have very sore feet to prove it.

Good times!

Happy Heart Day!

It's fun having a little princess in the house who still gets excited over dressing up, frills, bows, and being cute. I'm taking full advantage while I can, because I know she will all-too soon outgrow this super cute phase.

A Surprise, a 40th, and a Get-a-Way

My bff since birth turned forty, and what better way to say happy birthday than to surprise her in person!?? Janae was hosting her annual "sistas weekend" where her six sisters and her mom come to her home in Arizona for some fun in the sun and awesome girl time. It also happened to be her birthday weekend so her sistas contacted me weeks ago and we planned this little reunion unbeknownst to her.

The plan was to go to a movie on Friday afternoon, then to a 'theme' restaurant where you're supposed to wear only black and white (while the house is being set up for the party). I flew in on Friday and was picked up at the airport by Kim and we headed straight for the theater. We figured we'd see the movie then surprise Janae on the way out of the theater. Well, the movie time got botched so with some quick texting back and forth with the sistas, Kim and I headed over to Borders where the group was hanging out trying to figure out the next step.

I casually walked amongst the aisles of books and when she came near I asked out loud about a particular book (Pioneer Woman - the one I mailed to Janae for her bday). Of course the title got her attention and the double-take-pause-step-back-stunned expression was priceless! I think patrons of the normally quiet store were getting annoyed with all the cackling laughing and talking of 9 women!

Instead of going to a 'themed restaurant', we blindfolded her and we went back to her house where her family and friends were waiting for the big surprise.

I don't know what was more surprising to her then - that she actually had a surprise party, or that it was in her own backyard!

They set up a white tent, had delish catered food, a fun DJ, games and prizes. It was a lot of fun!

On Saturday we lounged by the pool all day and relaxed, talked, caught up on life, then went out to dinner and a comedy club called JesterZ.

Rachelle, Janae, me, Laura, Anna (in back: Adrianne and Lisa. Sharon and Terri are walking in the door).

What a super fun getaway! Thanks to John for taking the kids for the weekend the sistas for a fab time!

I can't wait to get better pictures and the video that Adrianne is making!

Seventh Heaven

Christian is a cool kid; he's easy-going, kind, mild, smart and super excited to turn SEVEN, even though I've been protesting it.

He was thrilled to be able to open presents - which started Saturday night at Grandma and Grandpa Norris' house.

He got a Wii game, a couple of Lego sets, and an In-N-Out gift card. SCORE!

He was thrilled to be able to open presents on Sunday night when we had Grandma and Grandpa Merrill over along with the Clingers. We had his 2nd favorite food: PIZZA. We made five varieties which included his favorite topping: pineapple with lots of cheese.

For dessert he wanted some sort of a brownie and strawberry ice cream cake concoction so I made it into a trifle and he loved it.

Lucky for us strawberries are selling again straight from the farm so I was able to pick up some delicious fresh baskets of berries that were oh so sweet- just like summer.

Presents included Bionicles, Star Wars action figures and

an Erector Set! That one was from mom and dad which he got to open early since dad will be gone on the actual birthday. Christian and dad will have HOURS of fun with that!

His cousin Ben sent him this cool t-shirt and some basketball shorts. It's a tradition - then they'll get together over the summer and wear they're matching outfits.

Christian loves building, creating, designing (which seems to be the theme of his gifts here) . . . he'll have loads of fun with this paper airplane kit.

For his class treat at school, he brought in Yogurt Squishers (gogurts) that we froze so the kids had a non-messy frozen yogurt treat to enjoy as they headed out to recess. Christian LOVES yogurt and chose that as his treat over brownies. Can't argue with that, and his teacher was thrilled.

His number one favorite food is "cheese hamburgers" and especially In-N-Out, so what better way to celebrate his birthday dinner? Easy Peasy for me, too. John is out of town and it's Monday night - FHE Birthday rolled into one. He invited his BFF Harrison to come along and they had great fun.

Happy Birthday to our awesome seven-year-old boy!

Not Again!

January so far: one sprained finger (Brooke), one broken toe (Maddy), one sprained ankle (me), and this.

I'm happy to report that none of it is from the trampoline!

Same type of cast, same type of break, same place, different hand as last year.

Madison broke her finger while going for a rebound during basketball practice on Tuesday night. Her friend Fatima that accidentally did this feels so bad! Her dad even called me when he found out she had to have a cast. She'll only have to wear it for two weeks and miss two basketball games - no big deal! Although her penmanship suffers since it's her right hand.

Happy Belated

On Friday, we got to escape to celebrate John's birthday (only a month late, but hey! it's the best we could do). It was well worth the wait! John is starting to feel a bit better from his surgery and back problems, the Holidays are over, the weather is perfect, and we were ready for a break!

Enter the Renaissance in Aliso Viejo

We had a relaxing drive down in the late morning, checked in to the hotel at noon (they were very nice to let us check in early) and then got some lunch at Native Foods which we were a bit hesitant about at first, but it was right next to the movie theater and we wanted something healthy. It was so good!!!

Then we saw "True Grit" because when you are on vacation, and it's 2:00 in the afternoon, you are able to do that. It was just us and a couple of elderly people in the whole stadium-seat theater. Nice!

Then we did some shopping, and went back to the hotel and worked out at the awesome gym.

Then we had dinner at the hotel's restaurant, Citrus (another super amazing delish hit), and ate outside near the fire pits listening to a live Reggae band. There were only adults near us. No children, no whining, no messes.

The quality of these photos above aren't the best as they were taken with a phone in the dark.

Here's a better shot:

The view from our room. Aliso Viejo is very hilly and you can see forever out towards Mission Viejo. The other direction had snow-capped mountains and the other was toward the ocean. Lovely!

On Saturday we slept in, lounged and reluctantly packed our bags. When we headed out for lunch we were both craving Native Foods again. Why not? Again, super good. Then we looked at model homes and headed out to Newport Beach to do some shopping at Fashion Island.

Thanks to grandma and grandpa, the kids were well taken care of and were ready for us to pick them up when we got home Saturday night. They were so exhausted that they fell immediately to sleep when we got home, which was yet another gift to us!

Happy Birthday John! I'm so glad we had this little getaway to recharge our batteries that have been so depleted in these last crazy couple of months.