A "camping" we will go

This weekend was the 5th? 4th? Annual Flipside Family Camp. Being in the large state I am in and close to my due date (1 week to go) we decided to just go down for the day and it was totally worth it. We had a fun time hanging out and Nate had so much fun playing with all his buds.
Here we are on our annual walk to Starbucks (I know, real camping doesn't include Starbucks but this is nothing close to real camping) and Nate playing with the big kids on the merry-go-round.


Our kiddie pool party was a ton of fun for the little kiddos.
Here I am with 3 other preggos - I'm winning!

Rumble Rumble

This Sunday was the 4th Annual Salsa Rumble at Flipside. It was a super fun day (It could have been a bit warmer at night but we survived) This year my salsa was called "Ranchy Not Raunchy Salsa" It had ranch dip mix in the salsa and sour cream and it was YUM - the best I think I ever made. If I was ever really trying to win I think this could have been my year! (I run the event and count the votes so I can never win, that would be weird)

Here is me and some of the girls - it was so fun just hangin out with my friends that day!

So who won??? Well Andira won in the morning with "Wangy Tangy Kid Friendly Salsa" and Nicole won at night with "Flipt Fruit Salsa." Here's my very own "original" recipe if you want it (original minus the part hidden valley did)

Top 10 things I WONT miss about upstairs neighbors

In honor of turning in the keys at the old apartment I've compiled this list. Yes it has been narrowed down to 10 - I excluded things that were really annoying one-time occurrences and only listed things that happened repeatedly.

#10 I wont miss hearing them pee
#9 I wont miss having to turn up the TV when they take a shower
#8 I wont miss when they vacuum the room above my sleeping baby
#7 I wont miss when their son destroys the flowers outside
#6 I wont miss various items thrown into the bushes along the walkway to our door, ie: cigarette butts, soda cans, trash, destroyed toys
#5 I wont miss their cat crapping in the planters by my door
#4 I wont miss fearing that my son will learn the F word by overhearing them - like the other upstairs neighbor's granddaughter did
#3 I wont miss hearing their fights escalate to violence
#2 I wont miss various things falling from their patio on to my patio and my son's toys, ie: rabbit poop (twice) bbq meat drippings (twice) - or items being thrown off their patio (beer bottles and firecrackers)
and the number one thing...
I wont miss being woken up almost everyday by their squeaking bed and moaning

Hop hop hop

Some Easter images for your enjoyment. Nate's favorite thing from his Easter basket was this 88 cent recorder.
Nate lovin himself some corn on the cob.

Nate's Phares cousins (it was a popular Easter for striped polos) and Nate's Lane cousins.

Yesterday was our first full day living in the new house.
Night 1 we got N8 to bed late at 10:30 in his new room and he slept till 6:30 then I went in and covered him up and he went back to sleep till 8:30! It was awesome. Last night he slept straight thru till 7:30. So that's been nice.
The house is a mess - everything seems to have a light dusting of sanded wall on it. (or wall "knockoff" from where Ryan overshot his protective plastic barriers) So we are just sorting thru the chaos with alot of help that we are much grateful for. You never know how much stuff you have till you try to cram your life into a trailer. Kevin Siana thinks we have more stuff then they do - yeah, we'll see when you move soon buddy!
We are still working on the kitchen re-model and painting touch ups in the boys rooms. There are still 6 boxes marked "bathroom" on the floor of our bathroom and many other boxes strewn throughout the whole place.
So I thought I'd give an update since we got our computer set up - I'll post pictures when it looks nicer :)

And the walls came tumbling down

Friday afternoon we got the keys to our new home - Friday night we started banging a sledgehammer into the walls!

We are expanding the kitchen, moving the fridge and laying laminate down for the new kitchen/eating area (scroll down to see the before photos)

It's frustrating having so much to do and being in the physical condition where you cant help that much :(

If anyone is super bored this week and loves manual labor (who dosent?), come on over! We'll be working Monday night after 8pm (sanding and texturizing) Tuesday after 10:30am (painting and misc) Thursday day (flooring) Thursday after dinner (the giant move) Friday all day (unpacking and finish the floor)

Sounds like tons of fun eh?

Look what I made!

These are 2 of my favorite new things for our new house.

I always wanted to get those cool bulletin boards for Nate's room with the ribbons to tuck things behind instead of all those push pins so I made one to go in Nate's new "surf" room. It was easy and didn't take very long but I did have to pull it all apart and re-do it after the first time I got it together. It's not perfect, but it works. I'm hoping to make another one for Zach's room eventually.

I could never figure out what to do with all those 8x10 portraits we got for Nate's first year so they all ended up on one little wall of our apartment which was cluttery and made us look a little obsessed with him. But I couldn't just put them in a book and never see them. So I took all my favorites and printed them smaller and black n white for this collage frame and I love it.

I picked up a matching frame for Zach's first year portraits too.

6 years ago...

Ryan and I were married.

It was awesome then, and is still awesome now.

Home Sweet Home

Here are some pictures of our "soon to be" home in Heritage! We are super excited about it and cant believe this is a reality! Yes it really is pink - but we like it and are not planning on changing it.

3 boys and 4 pregos

What better way to beat the 90 degree heat then to run thru the fountain at the Gardens? ...Well when the big fountain is TURNED OFF you have to be content with splashing water from the little fountain. Here are Nate, Jake and Hunter having fun.

And this picture of Nate and Jake Lime Heads is from a different day but it was pretty cute so I included it.

Movin on up!

I know, I know it's been a while since my last post. Between events at church, trying to finish up invitation jobs and growing a person; I've been busy.

Our big event this week is that we said "So long" to the crib and "Hello" big boy bed. Here is Nate waking up in his crib for the very last time. Thanks to the Reynolds, we have the perfect transition bed: the cool Little Tykes twin racecar bed. I think it's perfect because I know with the high sides he has no chance or rolling out. Nate's first night in the bed he woke up crying FOUR TIMES! But night #2 he didn't wake up once. He even sat in the bed till I came and got him in the morning. Nate loves the new bed, he has already mastered climbing up the "headboard" and jumping off onto the bed.

Yo Quiero Del Taco

Well it seems like Zach already has a favorite food - I just can't seem to get enough Carne Asada Steak Tacos from Del Taco. I've always been a bigger fan of Taco Bell but Zach is not. Mmm they are so good with the lime squeezed over them my mouth is watering right now thinkin about it. Here is a close up for your enjoyment.
Nate's treat is the Del Taco Cheeseburger - I know most people think it's sacrilegious to get a burger at a taco place but he loves them and they are under a buck so I don't care. Another thing i newly discovered at the Del is that their "small" sizes are really the size of a medium - if you really just want an actual small, you can get a "kids" size drink or fry. Anyways it was news to me.
I just really like this picture of Nate doing 1 of his favorite things: jumping on Nana's trampoline.

Happy Valentines Day!

Ryan works on Wednesday Nights now so we celebrated our 10th Valentines Day together on Tuesday at Panda Inn (mmm...yum) It was just me and Nate tonight and our coupon for the Picture People expired after today so we headed on down to see what we could get. I love the new digital system, no more waiting for a hour to see your photos and they take a TON of shots. We had a good photographer - too many to pick from but here's what we got.

Holy crap!

Check out the big boy! Today Nate had his first #2 in the toilet! Whoo-hoo! I'm not "actively" training him it was really more of an experiment: he'd been going at the same time every morning so today I just sat him on the pot and we read books until suddenly... ta-da! We made a big deal and immediately gave him chocolate but I really don't think he made the connection or has any idea when his #2's are coming. We'll see what happens.
We then spent the morning at the park with our buddies Jenn and Jake. We filled the bellies of the local ducks with bread, fruit loops and cheereios then had fun playing on the toys.

My hump, my lovely baby bump

Just an update on the size of my belly.
I'm 27 weeks now - almost 7 months.
I've gained 10 pounds and I assume my total gain will be around 30 lbs. since that's what it was last time.
Lower back is getting sore and sleeping is uncomfortable but other than that things are going well.
Zach is movin and groovin all the time - especially when I lean forward too much (like when I'm sitting at the computer)
We tell Nate about the baby in mommy's belly and he gives it hugs and kisses but I'm pretty sure he has no idea what's going on.

Mouse House

Ryan earned half a day off work thru his bonuses so we decided to take Nate the big boy to Disneyland - if you haven't heard Nate took a step towards big boy this last week and has given up on a pacifier outside of his bed (not by choice) and we actually even stopped turning on the monitor on him at night - next stop: big boy bed! N8 is growing up so much lately and seems so much more aware of what's going on and interacting with the world as a little boy. It was such a fun day at the park. The weather was good, the lines were short, the Jedi Training show started right as we were in the area and let out just in time for our fast passes to start at Buzz Lightyear. We also discovered that N8 is now tall enough to ride the Matterhorn! We couldn't believe it! He's actually 2-3 inches taller than the mark which means he could have gone on the Matterhorn last month as a one year old! Unfortunately that line was way too long so maybe next time he can go with daddy. We also discovered a good way to get big smiles out of N8 for pictures - by pretending to hit ourselves on the head. Its not the most glamorous thing to do to yourself but look at those big toothy smiles! Hey, whatever works right?