I love Utah!

A and I went to Utah last week to surprise Aunt Mimi for her baby shower. We had a great time seeing family and friends, and of course eating at Cafe Rio!
















My sisters and old college roommates. My sister and friend are due on the exact same day! Aren't they cute pregnant ladies? I wished I had looked like that! They are both having girls and I can't wait for A to have more friends!



















We ate at Los Hermanos with my sisters and A. One of my favorite things in the whole world is spending time with my sisters. We have such a fun time together and they love my A so much, which makes me love them even more. I am sad my other two sisters weren't there...we missed you R and J. A made such a mess at the restaurant. Good thing she is so cute, or else they would have thrown us out!


















Four generations.


















Cafe Rio. YUM. This is one of my cousins that I have always been close to. Her little guy is exactly two weeks younger than my A. When we were pregnant, I swore I was having a boy, and she thought she was having a girl! We switched!

Thank you Star 101.3 (well kinda...)

Last November I made the biggest fool of myself. I was listening to the radio (Star 101.3, I love Don Blue) and they asked a question that I surprisingly enough knew the answer to. I called the radio station (A was being mystifyingly well behaved in the car...it must be fate!) and I was the correct number of caller, and I knew the correct answer so I won Josh Groban tickets! I was one of those really over the top winners, and I didn't even mean to be. I was yelling, screaming, you name it, because I was so excited about winning. The host on the radio even said, "Wow, you must be pretty excited!" She even said, "I wish people like you could win every day. You have so much energy." Don Blue told me he was exhausted after talking to me. Well, what do you know. The week before the concert (the concert was last week) I still hadn't received my tickets in the mail yet. I called the station and they told me they had no record of me winning! WHAT!! I told them I made a fool of myself on air and I very kindly told them I was very disappointed they "didn't have record of it". They were kind enough to give me two free tickets anyway (nose bleeds seats, but beggars can't be choosers) and we had a great time at the concert. Some of our friends bought tickets so we all went down together. It was a great night...In-N-Out for dinner, Josh Groban concert, and then Krispy Kreme donuts for dessert. Does it get better than that?



Mr. Groban singing, "You Raise Me Up". That is my favorite song of his. This was the encore number and he came back out wearing a San Jose Sharks jersey (he played at the Sharks Arena. Dad, this picture is for you.) Don't let this picture fool you. Our seats were not that good. I gave my camera to my friend, whos seats were that good!




Krispy Kremes! YUMMY!!! I do love those donuts, and those girls!

Back to Reality...

Sad, sad, sad. D had to go back to school yesterday and our little family is very sad. We are officially back to reality and it STINKS! We loved having D home all last week and we had so much fun together. My parents took A home with them from Vegas last Sunday and D and I stayed until Tuesday. A had a great time with her Grandparents, and D and I had a great time laying by the pool, going out to dinner, and watching the Bellagio water show with my sisters and their husbands. D and I came home from Vegas on Tuesday and the rest of the week was spent hanging out with friends on the beach, going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and just spending quality time together as a family.

We bought a new camera (wahooooo for tax returns! This will be our last one for awhile so we spent it wisely...on a new beautiful digital Canon Rebel XTi...I LOVE IT)! We had so much fun taking lots of pictures and trying out our new purchase.

Dinner in Vegas with two of my sisters and their husbands. (old camera)


A was so excited for our friends to come to the beach. Here they come! (new camera)











Monterey Bay Aquarium

D and his friend playing with A and R. Who's having more fun? :)


A's beautiful facial expressions as she discovers things at the Discovery Museum. All these pictures were taken in about two seconds. That is why I love my new camera. It can really capture A's personality.


When's the next break? :)

My Celebrity Look-alikes

D played Halo with some of his friends tonight, so their wives came over to hang out here. Six copies of US Weekly later, we decided to look at Blogs. We found this cool site on someone's blog and decided to try it. It is hysterical! I am flattered by some(Jessica Alba), and confused by others(Halle Berry? Jessica Simpson? I don't think I look anything like them!). Try it out and let me know who you look like!


http://www.myheritage.com

Viva Las Vegas

Viva Las Vegas! A and I have been in Las Vegas for the last nine nine days, and we had a great time. D was swamped with finials (nine finals in three days!) so A and I went to go visit my sister in Las Vegas so D could study, study, study. My mom and I flew with A last Monday to Vegas and I was so grateful my mom was there to help with A on the "arrr pane". A loved everything about the airplane, except sitting in the seat!

My sister was the event manager for Mitt Romney's Las Vegas campaign event and my mom and I were able to go the the event with her. It was great to meet Mr. Romney, and my sister did a great job with the event.










Sunscreen and sunshine. Little A smelled of sunscreen and sunshine for most of the week. I loved it. We went to the pool at the Bellagio two days in a row and A LOVED the pool, and the people at the pool loved A. She met lots of new friends, my favorite being a lady with fake fingernails, and when we left A kept pointing to her own fingernails and fake crying because she wanted pretty fingernails.




Our old neighbor works for the Hoover Dam so my sister arranged a VIP tour for us! We were able to go places that "civilians" aren't allowed. It was a really interesting tour and I learned a lot about the Hoover Dam.



Run, run, run. Two of my sisters, two of my brother-in-laws and I ran a half marathon on Sat. It was a fun, hard, hot run and I was glad when it was over! :)
The five runners.


A is proud of her Mommy.

My beautiful sisters. My sister on the right is pregnant so she couldn't run, and my sister on the far left hurt her knee skiing so she couldn't run, but they made GREAT cheerleaders! We all made matching shirt so people would know how lame we are! :) On the front it had a four leaf clover (it was St. Patricks Day) and on the back it had our maiden name (we are all married) and the number child we are. Then on the bottom (this is my favorite part) we all wrote the name that A calls us. Wara, Mimi, Dachel, and Da. I love my shirt and I will keep it forever.

We had a great time in Vegas. My sister and brother in law are wonderful hosts, and their home is beatuful. They were so kind to have us ALL sleep, and eat at their home! When can we come again? :)

Girls

On Thursday morning, my fabulous friend R and I took four little girls (all under the age of four) to the Discovery Museum and then to In-N-Out for lunch. R and I each only have one child so this was quite the fun adventure. A friend of ours wasn't feeling well so we had her adorable children for the morning. I am not used to holding a full conversation with a child, and it was so fun to hang out with a four year old. We went to In-N-Out right as the high school near by got out for lunch, and the line was out the door. When we finally got our food, we managed to feed the kids, eat a ton of fries ourselves, and we didn't even make that big of mess...until the end. We had a spill of blue Gatorade everywhere. No big deal. Oscar, the In-N-Out worker was so kind to bring over a yellow "Caution Wet Floor" cone and mop up the mess. About 15 seconds after Oscar left, the kids must have missed him because a water bottle was tipped over knocking its contents next to the blue Gatorade residue. Back came Oscar with another cone. I'm sure Oscar was glad to see us go!

Friday night R and I made a treck to Target. Man I love that place. I love it even more when A is home in bed and I can take my time picking out Easter treats!

Saturday morning was a double baby shower for two of my good frineds. I took A along since D is studying like crazy for finals that start this Wednesday. The drink at the shower was delicious...can you tell?

While the boys are away, the girls will play! On Saturday night, all our husbnads were busy studying so a bunch of other dental student wives came over to hang out, eat LOTS of yummy donuts (yes, more donuts), choclate cake, Easter treats (thank you Target) and licorice. We watched "A Good Year" with Russell Crowe. It was a fun night and I do love these girls.

The weather was so beautiful today so D, A and I headed down to the beach. A loves the water and couldn't wait to get in. It was SO freezing, but she didn't care. D kept saying he was getting cold headaches from his feet being so cold, but it didn't seem to bother A!She loved to dig her toes in the sand and then have the water come and clean it off. We had a great weekend, even though we did lose an hour of sleep!

Two words, Birthdays and the Zoo

Just within the last couple of days, A has started saying two words together. She used to say, "Hi", but now she will say, "Hi Mama", or "Bye Daddy". She says hi to everything now. Aunt Da gave A a Belle barbie, and A is always saying, "Hi Belle". Uncle Gooke took her on a walk last week and they saw a dead squirrel and Gooke lovingly explained the circle of life, and then taught her how to say, "dead squirrel". It comes out sounding all jumbled, but if you know that is what she is saying, it sounds just like "yeaah whirl". Wouldn't you get "dead squirrle" from that? It is amazing to me how quickly she is learning and growing up. I remember the days she couldn't even hold her head up by herself, and how she knows about dead squirrels!

Yesterday my sweet in-laws came to celebrate birthdays. It is D's sister's birthday today and yesterday it was D's grandma's birthday who passed away in November. It was so fun to see them and A had a blast with her Memor, Fafa, Aunt Alli and Aunt Ritz. Happy Birthday Aunt Ritz!



Today was free day at the zoo, so of course we all packed up and headed out for a morning of giraffes, gorillas and even an attempt by little S to swim in the zoo fountain.


A and S and O....oh my! This was pre S's dip in the fountain.

A wanted to give Baby C a kiss...and N an arm workout!

Our friends at the zoo. It was J's birthday yesterday so we celebrated with yummy donuts. Thanks N, for the discovery of my new favorite donut shop! I have felt sick all afternoon because I have ZERO self control and ate two and half large donuts. I love maple donuts! and apple fritters! and cinnamon sugar twists!
I think I will take A to the zoo everyday. She has been asleep now for three and half hours! Watching those monkeys must have really worn her out.

Mimi and Gooke are in town!

Sorry for not posting anything for such a long time. I went up to parent's house because my sister and her husband were in town, and I came back yesterday. It was such a fun week and my little A had SO MUCH FUN with her Aunt Mimi, Aunt Da, Uncle Gooke and her Grandparents (lovingly called D and Guy). Even Aunt Ray and Uncle Ry came by! I loved having so much help and A was very bored today with just her boring ol mama. A really loves her aunts and uncles, and so do I. To see someone be so sweet and loving to my child is so endearing. A went on walks every morning with her Aunt Mimi, and Uncle Gooke even put A to bed all by himself one night. A woke up this morning asking for Gooke. It was pretty stinkin cute. She is one lucky little girl to be loved so much.
A wanted Aunt Mimi to sit on her toy, and because Aunt Mimi is such a good sport, she did it for A. Aunt Mimi is going to have baby S (my first niece!! YEAH!) in June, and she still fit on A's toy! Then A decided she wanted to push Aunt Mimi (and baby S) around the house. It was so funny. The toy was shaking, and I thought it was going to break, but thank goodness it held together.









A and her skinny Uncle Gooke

I had what I like to call my "fancy pants" dinner group last week. I have been part of this dinner group for over three years now, and these ladies have inspired me to be the best cook I can be. The host picks a theme and we then we are each assigned something to bring (appetizer, soup, bread, drink, salad or dessert). Rachel hosted this month and went all out. The theme was a Valentines theme since it was in February. Like most San Francisco apartments, Rachel doesn't have a table to sit eight people, so we ate on this low table. Rachel made the pillow cases to match the decor. See what I mean when I say fancy pants? The food was SOO good, and the company fabulous!

A woke up this morning asking for Uncle Gooke and I knew it would be a very long, sad day for her if I didn't get her out of the house and doing something fun. The weather was perfect so we headed to the park with our friends. A and her friend S seriously love each other. They ran to each other and when they got to each other they hugged and hugged. Then they got the biggest kick out of holding hands everywhere they went. Strangers would stop and look at them and say, "I wish I had my camera!" Luckily, I did...a true blogger always does.