Cause and Effect

Can you guess what these pictures are.... It is our NEW HOUSE! New to us, that is! As you can see we are busy ripping it apart. That picture the kitchen was taken right before we took all of that out! Once we put everything back it, we will post beautiful pictures so you can stop feeling bad for us that our new house looks like a dump. We are really excited about having a little ( literally ) home of our own!

As we are waiting for everything to be finished, we are staying at my parent's house. It has been so nice to have a place to stay that is not under constuction. However, it has thrown Ryan for a loop. He was SUCH a great sleep befire we came here. He was in bed with no fuss at 7 everynight. But now we are at Grammy and Grandpa's fun house with tv and big boy beds and tons of attention. Sleep is not on the priority list. One night last week, I spent 3 hours trying to get this kid in bed. I used all of the tricks; laying next to him, the super-nanny put back in bed tactic, I even put a child-proof knob on his door. But he got that right off. What a kid.

Whie we are looking forward to moving into our new place, I am so not looking forward to breaking these horrible sleep habits! Although it will be nice to have 7:00 bedtime again!

Mothering

Some of the perks of being a stay at home mom:

Witnessing the first nose pick.

So cute, I just had to get a picture before I told him to take it out.

The kisses.

Swimming whenever we want!

And the joy that this cute smile brings to my heart.

I feel so blessed to be able to be with my little boy everyday!

Twenty Seven

I had a great birthday week. Some of the highlights include:

Fondue and Jazz with my hubs.

Making my own cupcakes - Junior Mint. There were pretty good if I do say so myself.

Dinner and yogurt with the fam.

I have heard 27 is a good year. I am sure it will be!

The Ring Story... A Glimmer of Hope

( this is my first time adding text to pictures... can you tell?)

I always knew that Brett was a great guy. But the longer we are married to more I realize it. He really puts up with a lot and is so patient and mostly understanding about most things that I do or don't do... or lose.

And thus begins the ring story.

One of my flaws is that I don't worry too much about things - as in material things. I guess in some ways that can be good but in my way, it is not.

I am working on it.

One day, as I was putting lotion on Ryan, I set my rings on the bed. This was a daily occurrence and almost every time Brett would tell me, " you are going to lose that ring if you take it off like that."

I had, truth be told, been very impressed with myself for not losing it for the 4+ years we had been married , and I would reply with a " no, I won't. how can I lose it in our HOUSE?"

This particular day, Ryan picked up my rings and carried them out to the front room and placed them on the floor. It was morning and I had not yet put my "eyes" in, but proceeded to vacuum the front room. I heard a noise as I was vacuuming, but couldn't see anything so I kept vacuuming. It wasn't until I noticed my ring was gone that I realized what that noise was.

I immediately dumped out the contents of the vacuum, but could not see my ring and threw the debris away. I convinced myself that the ring was still in the house and would show up eventually. That was 6 months ago.

I still haven't really looked because I don't want to face the reality that it could be gone.

As in: under a pile of trash in a dump.

BUT

Today I found this article and now have hope that my ring still can be found:

A New Zealand man has been dubbed the Lord of the Ring after he searched and found his wedding ring more than a year after it slipped off his finger and sank to the sea floor.
The ring was lost for 16 months

in the harbor of the country's capital city, Wellington, before Aleki Taumoepeau

found it shining on the sea floor.
"But, equipped with new global satellite based coordinates

and offering up a quick prayer,

he found the ring after an hour's search.

He found it a sea floor!

I can find mine in my house or my vacuum... but probably not in a dump.

Hopefully a happy follow-up post will be coming soon!

"

A Hidden Talent

Apparently, I am a good spiller.

If you ever need anything spilled give me a call and I will spill it for you. Check out this little number I that I pulled off with a blueberry smoothie.

No, I did not throw the contents out of the cup. I am so good that I simple knocked the cup over and it splattered the ENTIRE kitchen: floors, walls, ceiling - everything!

And I can't get it all off.

I am good!

Dear Daddy,

We missed you so much when you were gone to Charlotte! I asked for you every morning and even checked under the sheets for you. Mommy didn't want you to feel left out of what we did so here are some pictures of what we did. I got to eat captian crunch with "two 'poons"!

We played in the fountian. Check out how big my diaper got!
In your honor, we got smoothies. They were good!

This is how I looked when I remebered you were gone.




I want to be just like you!

Mommy and I had fun together, but things just aren't the same without you!

Mommy kept herself busy while I was asleep by making gross pink soup ( mom note: red-pepper-beet soup with goat cheese... good! ) and watching the Bachelorette while eating 21 choices yogurt.

We love you and and so glad you are home!

XOXO : Ry

Thirty

In my mind, Brett has pretty much been thirty for a while. Ever since he turned 27 I knew he was on the downhill slope to full fledged adulthood. And now, he has arrived more handsome then ever! Now that I am mere weeks away from 27, Brett is already throwing thirty in my face... but thirty has been good to Brett so far, so bring it on!

I started planning the big weekend months ago. We started off with a DiSCo PAR-TAY! He was born in 1979, so I thought it would be fun to relive the year he was born. We got decked out, ate fondue and boogied to some bee-jees and the Jacksons.

Disco Gangsters?

Brett showing us that he still has "got it!"

Day Number Two was a family dinner. We has some delicious North Carolina BBQ and some brownie cheesecake.

Right after this, I handed Brett a book and in it were driving directions to Santa Barbra. We left right then. Man was it hard for me to keep that a secret!


We stayed two nights. The first night, we stayed at a place called The Bath Street Inn. The house was over 100 years old. It was so charming and fun to think about all the life that was lived there before it was an inn.

We got up Monday morning and went for a beautiful tandem bike ride, shopped and ate at this great little Mexican Place La Super Rica. I surely was "La Super".

We ordered our food and our total was $19.79... the year Brett was born. That must have been a good sign that we were in the right place!

Then we hit the beach for a few hours and it was heavenly! I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of time we had left in the day... I kinda forgot what I used to fill my time with before I had little Ry to chase after. But, I then realized that we had the whole afternoon to read and nap and walk on the beach to our hearts content. And we did.

After the beach, we headed off to our next stop: the Inn on Summerhill in Summerland. GREAT place! I am usually a little wary about staying in B+Bs and basically hotels in general, but this one was so nice and clean and beautiful! Four stars... or is it five? How about two thumbs way up!

Not only was Brett's big day full of fun and relaxation, it was also all about Desserts!! In the course of 24 hours we had:

Brownie Cheesecake, Chocolate Cake, Pinkberry, Baklava, cookie, gelato AND a cupcake. Wow- just reading that list would pack on the pounds. We did share all of those things and calories on birthdays do not count!

We had a wonderful time together and I am so grateful to Mom and Dad who watch Ry for us. I didn't worry at all - although I did shed a tear or two when we left. Brett asked if I was crying because of leaving Ryan or if it was because I was going to be alone with him! Funny guy... I do love and appreciate Brett so much and am so glad he was born!

4th of July

We had a very fun 4th of July! We hit a pancake breakfast, the La Verne parade and swimming and BBQ at my parents. Brett got to go to a Galaxy soccer game while I went with my family to see fireworks. Ryan wasn't to excited about the fireworks. Maybe next year. I love the 4th!

At the parade... this is a classic hometown parade. What you see below is the winner of the "best float award". It was one of three :).

To top off our festivities on Saturday, we decided gto go beach camping with my fun cousin Katie and he husband Brandon. Christie and a friend came along, too.

Christie looks more like Ryan's mother than I do. Maybe her kids will look like me!

Brett had a great time taking his little boy camping. Altough, I don't know if you can qualifiy what we did as camping. We got pizza for dinner and had a train and helicopters passing by all night.



We did have a campfire, though. Our stuff still smells like it. The joys.

The best part about camping- s'mores!

Helping Dad with the tent.

Funny Ryan

Ryan is quite a character. Every day he does something to make us laugh.

The other day he decided that he wanted to walk around the house like this:

One ball is not enough. He has to have "two"(he can't say three yet).


Picture face! He came up with this one on his own!

He was very proud when he put these on all by himself.

This one is just cute.
Little boys are so much fun!

Griffith Observatory

One of the fun things about being in CA is that there are so many wonderful things to do. Last weekend we went on a fun day trip to Griffith Observatory. It is a great little area. We went to a train museum, which Ryan loved. Everything that moves is a "choo-choo" so it was fun for him to see some real "choo-choos" There is a merry go round, parks and the beautiful observatory and museum. It is a fun, (almost) free day. One of the best parts was seeing our NYC friends, the Tanners. We always have a great time with them! We are glad they are back on the west! Here is to day-trippin'!