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.

Flowers, Chocolate, and a Crab

On Friday some other moms and I took our little ones to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. Isn't it pretty? I think the outside looks fake, like something from the Wizard of Oz. A would make a really cute Dorothy, don't you think? I already feel like the tin man almost every day...if I only had a brain! The rule inside the Conservatory is no strollers, yet no touching, which to me is the biggest oxymoron. It was really neat inside. There were different rooms with different themes, and one room smelled so good it made us all hungry. Especially my little A who wanted some crackers. We had to go outside to eat them because if we didn't cockroaches would come (the worker inside let me in on this little secret). I must have looked mortified because she calmly reassured me and told me not to worry, for there were geckos inside that ate the cockroaches. Sick. We had a great time, and my left arm is stronger that it was on Thursday (I hold A on my left side 99% of the time). The weather was so beautiful and we had a great morning running around and playing on all the grass.

Saturday morning my friend K and I ran 10 miles. Now, I hate to sound brag-a-docious, but I am pretty darn proud of myself. I used to not be able three blocks, and I am not even exaggerating. I am training for another half marathon and it was our 10 mile Saturday. This Sat is 11 miles. Let's see if I live to tell about it. This is after our run drinking some Gatorade. I love Gatorade. The berry flavor is the best.

Today A and I went to go visit a friend of ours named Odette. Nobody knows how old Odette is, but I am guessing 92. She is the sweetest little French lady. When we went last month, Odette gave A a cookie. Today when I rang Odette's bell, A busted out with, "Cookie". I was shocked. What a great memory she has when it comes to food! She must have said, "cookie" 20 times while we were there. Odette broke out some Sees candy and let A rip into it. A ate WAY more chocolate then I would have liked, but Odette was laughing so hard watching the chocolate run down A's chin that I couldn't bring myself to stop the madness. All in the name of entertainment for a sweet old lady who doesn't own a TV, right?

After we left Odette's house, I headed to the Dr's with my daughter on a sugar high. It was A's 18 month check up today. My little noodle is 28 pounds and 33 inches (95% for height, and 90% for weight). A must have remembered how many shots she got last time we were there because the minute she saw the nurse she freaked out and cried the entire time the nurse was in the room. Lucky for A, no shots today! Lucky for mom too. I hate them as much as she does I think. A loved the pictures on the wall, especially the crab. She kept pointing it out. I love how she is on her tip toes. I think she'll be a dancer someday! :)

These Is My Words

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to always be reading a book. When I finished one, I wanted to start another one right away. My favorite so far this year (well, actually one of my favorite books ever) has been "These Is My Words" by Nancy E. Turner.I know, I know, the title is SO bizarre, but it is such a great book. The first 60 pages are pretty slow, but after that I could not put it down. I would get headaches from reading so much, my eyes would ache, but I would push through so I could find out what happened to Sarah! I would highly recommend this book to anyone. This book was our book club book, and we got together this week to discuss this great book. I love book club...I loved discussing this book with girls I adore, and I LOVED the cookies and avocado egg rolls! By the way...this is my only New Year's resolution I have kept! Oh, and don't get confused, the sweet little girl on my lap is not A. I was just missing my little one so I had to borrow my friend's daughter!

My Heart Belongs in San Francisco

We had a perfect weekend. I love San Francisco. Friday night D and I went to dinner to celebrate our getting engaged anniversary (any reason to celebrate, I'll take it). We went to a really good Mexican place called Tres Agaves. It was rated one of the top 10 restaurants in SF for 2006. Saturday D had to get some work done in the lab so my fabulous sister in law came in for the day to hang out with A and me. We went down to the beach and enjoyed the sun and the water. Some of our friends were there and it was fun to see everyone. A loved the water. She could not get enough of the ice cold water hitting her legs...thank goodness for Aunt K, because I was a wimp and it took me a while to get out there to where my brave daughter was splashing around oblivious to the numbing water. She took a spill into the water and got all wet and I thought that would be the end of the water, but it only encouraged her. Off went her sweatshirt and skirt and back into the water she went. We had a great day at the beach and we are so glad Aunt K came to visit!

Sunday we went to visit my parents. A loves playing with everyone, and I love being able to take a nap while her aunts, uncle and grandparents play with her! What a lucky little girl to be able to play with so much family all the time, and what a lucky mom I am to have so much help.




Happy President's Day! D had the day off of school (gotta love the student life) so we took A to the SF Zoo. She loved it. Her favorites were the penguins, monkeys and bears. My favorite was watching D carry A on his shoulders and "hop hop hop" like a kangaroo. We really wore A out because she came home and took a four hour nap! After she finally decided to wake up, we went and had some yummy steaks for dinner. No, not at Ruth's Chris...even better! We have some Canadian friends and it is Family Day in Canada instead of Presidents Day, so they organized a BBQ for our "school family". It was a perfect way to end the perfect weekend.