San Diego top 10

10. Thankful for friends who are generous and hospitable!
9. Sunshine...and lots of it!
8. Watching my kids LOVE the beach and ocean!
7. Sleeping in (kind of,) and not rushing out the door each morning!
6. My own mini van for a whole week!
5. Amusement parks!
4. Eating out!
3. Having Lance around!
2. Starbucks I can walk to, one block away!
1. Memories...

Yay for McDonald's!

We love birthday parties at McDonald's! No set up, it's easy on the budget, the kids all love it, and there is no clean up. Not to mention its the birthday girl's favorite place to dine other than Fazoli's. (Yes, I did have to tell her that having a party at Fazoli's was not an option.) Anyhoo...

Celebrating with lots of special friends = lots of fun memories!
I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all.

We did have a small malfunction during the first attempt at blowing out the candles. An overly excited friend and mom tried to help before Syd was ready, (it was a really long wish, I guess.) There might have been some tears but before they could fall we quickly relit the candles and tried again. Whew.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Moving backwards through the day...she was so tired from a fun day of celebrating! I just love how they look when they are sleeping, and how they sigh...Happy 4th Birthday, Baby Girl! Where does the time go?

Syd was very excited to have dinner at Red Robin tonight. She seemed a bit shy while they sang to her, but she immediately sat up straighter when it was time to enjoy the ice cream!
"Thanks for the baby horse, Aunt Noni!"
Syd got a Hannah Montana jacket to go with Katie's High School Musical jacket...
The first thing she wanted to do this morning was, of course, open gifts! I love her enthusiasm!
Happy birthday to one of the kindest and funniest little girls this side of the Mississippi. We sure love you and cannot imagine life without you. You're a beautiful blessing...

We're halfway through birthday season...

Another birthday, another trip down memory lane. I think that there were so many nerves surrounding Katie's birth, that I was perhaps a little more excited for Sydney's arrival. I also longed for Katie to have a sibling, so this was especially precious, having another sweet little girl.
And if there was any doubt that Lance wouldn't be as excited as he was the first time around, I couldn't have been more wrong. (Despite adding another girl to our family meant he would be outnumbered 5 to 1, including our two female dogs!)
Sydney's first birthday.
Her 2nd birthday.
Although she looks very similar now to this picture from her 3rd birthday, she has lost all of her precious baby fat rolls and has grown several inches.

Speech Meet

I always thought that participating in a speech meet was optional. I, for one, would probably never have participated. Katie's school, which is K-8, requires first graders to participate in their annual Fall speech meet. I love this! One of our goals for Katie this year was to develop her self-confidence, particularly in front of her class. So this will hopefully be a positive experience for her. We just filmed this earlier this morning and there is still some fine tuning to do, but otherwise her selection is coming along great and we couldn't be more proud of her!

So we won't be getting that t.v...

LB took this pic of me and the kiddos tonight. It was a long day with Will, we have officially hit the terrible two's. He appears to be following the footsteps of Sydney, as he did not nap today--he just played happily in his crib for 2 freakin' hours, but never slept mind you! I am so NOT ready for him to stop napping! However, I just look at his sweet face and my heart melts. Tomorrow is a new day.
The wife of one of Lance's coworkers just had twin girls a couple of weeks ago. They are still in the NICU but doing well, which is awesome considering they were 7 or 8 weeks early! I love babies. I just can't stop finding little things for them, and buying two of everything is twice the fun. Especially when its pink. I used to hate pink but now pink and I have reconciled. Perhaps having two girls weakened my resolve. Plus my mother-in-law says I look good in pink. In this little gift basket are the final purchases I will be making for the bundles of joy--at least until Christmas rolls around! Have I mentioned that I love babies?

Finally, we have been saving and searching for the perfect new, bigger and better t.v. That was until last Sunday when our dishwasher broke. We still ate on real dishes Sunday night. Then I reluctantly dug into my stash of paper products with the full intent of having the kids use those while the adults still used the real deal. That worked for one full day. I did dishes 4 times on Monday. Keep in mind that we only eat 3 meals, I just had no idea how many dishes we actually use! It was overwhelming, therefore I had to spread it out a little. We had a very nice and honest repair man come look at it and he gave a very costly repair option. He also wisely suggested that it might be time to replace it, as it was nearing 10 years old and is run on a daily basis. With that happy news, we bought a new one. I was not happy to hear on Monday night that our new dishwasher could not be delivered and installed until the following Monday. My resolve to be as "green" as possible disappeared come Tuesday morning. I even made a special trip to the store to by paper bowls. I waited as patiently as I could but finally called on Wednesday afternoon to see if they could pretty please have it to us by the weekend. So I was thrilled when it arrived on Friday. Whew.
So there she is. Yes, its a she. Only a good girlfriend would so faithfully serve you without an ounce of complaint, day after day, meal after meal. Thanks to my wonderful husband for putting our t.v. purchase on the back burner for the time being. I think we are all in agreement that our new kitchen help was a necessity in keeping this a happy home. Maybe we'll get that new t.v. in time for the Superbowl?