Kylene & Doug's Wedding

So this past Saturday my sweet and beautiful cousin married a wonderful man, Doug. The wedding was down at Mission Bay (at a hotel) and was so pretty. Jason and Stephen and their families brought the kiddos and we had so much fun dancing the night away.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Friday we went to Disneyland with our family. Stephen, Beth, and the girls had planned on taking Taylor to Disneyland to celebrate her 3rd birthday. Beth's family was going to be joining them and they asked if we would like to tag along too (thanks guys!). We had a blast. Eric took the day off of work and we ended up staying pretty late to see the fireworks. Drew, Aiden, and Taylor were so sweet playing together. They enjoyed dancing to music and watching the parade as well. Aiden and Drew walked around holding hands for part of the day; so precious. They also found a little fountain in Toon Town and stood over it on the bench splashing in the water. They soon figured out the best way to cool down would be to lean over and dunk their heads in - they got soaked, but it was priceless to watch. Here are some pics...

Surprise!!

Stephen, Beth, Taylor, and Brynnly surprised my family by coming into town on Thursday. They have been planning this for months and had kept me in the loop, trying to figure out how to surprise my parents and Jason and Michelle. I had my family up for pizza Thursday evening under the context of showing Jason and Michelle pics from our Michigan trip. Unfortunately, Jason had to work late, and couldn't make it. We pursuaded Michelle to bring Aiden and Carly, even though they had their shots that day and were a little cranky. My parents were here when Stephen and Beth walked into our house with the girls and were so shocked!! The looks on their faces was priceless and will forever be etched into my mind. Michelle was equally surprised when she showed up. We had a great time hanging out with them!! They are here for 10 days for a vacation and to visit family and friends before they head back to Montana.

The Rest of the Trip

Okay, so I don't want to go day by day so much...I guess I am too lazy, or I just don't have the time. Eric flew in Thursday and was set to arrive in the afternoon in Detroit, so my parents took Drew and me to Greenfield Village (http://www.hfmgv.org/) for the day. It was so much fun - very hot and humid, but great. We rode on a train and had frozen custard. Drew enjoyed himself so much. We headed back towards the airport to go get Eric only to find out that he had been bumped (he was flying on a pass thanks to my wonderful cousin who is a pilot for Southwest). He didn't end up getting in until 11pm! But, it was fun just hanging out with my parents at the airport. We then drove to Port Huron that night and got into bed around 2am!! Long day, but Drew did marvelous. Friday was full of sightseeing around Port Huron. Seeing the homes where my parents grew up, their high schools, the house where I was born, all that fun stuff. Saturday and Sunday we spent time up at the lake house that my aunt and uncle had rented for them, their kids, and their grandkids. It was a beautiful log cabin right on the lake. It was so awesome to see family and spend that time all together. Monday was my Grandma's memorial service, which was beautiful and a wonderful celebration of her life. We all went to eat at Coney Island afterwards and had coney dogs in honor of her. Thankfully, Eric was able to fly back with us the whole way home and Drew once again amazed me. I think it helped that the flight wasn't full, so he had his own seat right between Eric and me. He slept some and played with his Play-doh. It was a wonderful trip, but it is so nice to be home as well. Yesterday was consumed with laundry and unpacking...and Drew took a four and a half hour nap. He was just plain tuckered out after traveling. Thanks Mom and Dad for a memorable and amazing trip back home.

Last Wednesday

So, I'll just do a sort of day by day of our vacation in Port Huron, MI. Last Wed started with Drew and I leaving San Diego airport with my parents. I was especially anxious about flying because I had no idea how little Drew would do on the plane for that long. We had a VERY small layover in Chicago, so I knew he would be able to get off the plane and stretch his legs for a bit, but it was only enough time to get something to eat to take on the plane with us and then rush to the next gate. He did wonderfully!! He was awesome. Play-doh was a hit!! I didn't even have to reach into his toy bag to get out too many distractions for the long flight. Thankfully, my dad's friends let us borrow their little dvd player, so I started a Veggie Tales for him when he was getting antsy, and it actually put him right to sleep. He only slept for a little while, but the flight did not seem as long as it really was. Once we got into Detroit, we picked up our rental car and checked into our hotel. Our small hotel room seemed so much smaller with all of our luggage in it, but we were only staying there for one night, so it worked just fine. We went to dinner at Chele's (don't even know if that is spelled correctly), a sports bar and restaurant in Dearborne named after some Detroit Red Wings hockey player. The food was great, but Drew was falling asleep in the high chair as he ate his chicken fingers. It was so cute!! We made it back to the room before the storm hit, thankfully. It was the biggest and loudest rain, thunder, and lightening storm I have ever seen or heard. I know that isn't saying much as I have grown up in southern California most of my life, but it was so neat. The "crib" we had requested for the room was actually one of the oldest and ricketiest pack-n-plays that I have ever seen, so I opted to just have him sleep in bed with me. He slept great - sideways and upside down. That boy moves in his sleep!! The pic is of Thursday morning leaving the hotel. Drew was actually pushing the cart and my dad was just steering it. He is such an independent person. Thursday was the day Eric was flying in, so I was looking forward to picking him up in the afternoon!!

Home from Vacation

We got home from Michigan yesterday evening and it is wonderful to be back. We had a great time there, but are exhausted. I will post more about the trip at a later time, but here are a couple of pics from our week in my birth town...Port Huron.

Kisses from Drew

So I haven't been feeling well lately (thanks to womanly cramps), and I have been resting as much as possible. The other day, Drew crawled up on the couch with me and gave me so many kisses to make me feel better. He is such a sweet spirited boy. Eric and I are truly blessed to have him as our son.

Radio Flyer Tricycle

I found a great deal on http://www.craigslist.com/ for a brand new (in the box) Radio Flyer tricycle for Drew. Normally this bike costs $75 and I found a lady in town selling it for $20!! I jumped at the opportunity to get Drew a tricycle and actually was the first person to contact her, and bought it. I was so excited to have Eric come home and put it together with Drew. It was really hard for Drew to understand that Eric needed the different pieces to put it all together, but they managed to do all right. Once the entire thing was put together, all that was left was to put the seat on and a bolt in it to secure the seat to the frame. Wouldn't you know that the bolt DOES NOT fit!! I can't exactly return the bike. So, I resigned myself to having to call Radio Flyer and ask for them to send a new bolt. But, my handy and creative husband went on a hunt in his work bench and found a bolt that fit perfectly. Well, it is much longer than the original, but it works. So, Eric finished the bike with Drew crying really hard because all he wanted to do was play on it and he didn't understand that he needed to wait just a little while longer for it to be ready. It is a little too big for him so far, but I am sure he will grow into it sooner than we would like!

Happy 4th of July - a little late!

This is a little late, but we had a great 4th of July celebration. It started in the morning with doing Drew's big boy bed...after that, my parents and brother, Jason, Michelle, Aiden, and Carly all came over for a BBQ courtesy of my dad. We had a great time and so did the boys. They played in the water the majority of the day. We got on the camera on the computer and talked with Stephen and the gang. And got to see Brynnly stink-bug crawl all over their kitchen. Jason and Michelle took the kids home right before the fireworks to hang out with her family. My parents, Eric, Drew, and I all sat in lawn chairs in the middle of our street (cul-de-sac) with other neighbors and watched the fireworks over the city. It was so beautiful (I absolutely LOVE fireworks). Drew did too!! He was laughing, squealing, and having so much fun. What a great day!!

Home Improvement Mishaps

This is my (Eric's) first blog, but I thought I'd try it out cause I'm sure you are all interested in what I'm up to. I read about everyone else's life, so I thought I'd let you read about mine. When I'm not working, I try to do little projects around the house. I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much because I have a certain knack of turning the easiest of home repairs into salvation losing dilemmas! Let's just say I won't be putting up anymore child safety locks on cabinets or hanging curtain rods.

The other day, I tried to replace an outlet on our back patio because Drew broke off the cover and I already had the items needed to replace it. Sounds easy huh? I have changed dozens of outlets in my short 33 years of life (only been shocked 67 times) and I had 20 minutes to quickly change this one. Two hours later and a trip to Home Depot (which I thought I didn't need to do) our new outlet is working fine. Make that 68 times now, only I can turn the power off and still get shocked!

My latest project is tiling the master bathroom floor. Once again I thought, "I can do this, how hard can it be?" Famous words from my father-in-law. Plus I was given the tile for free, so I was under the impression that I would be doing an (economic) disservice to the house by not tiling something. Not sure why I thought this because if someone had given me tires, I don't think I would build a car!! Well, after a little more than 2 months of not being able to use our bathroom, half a dozen trips to Home Depot, over $300 in supplies, and a leak from the toilet that resulted in a beautiful stain on our kitchen ceiling, the bathroom is almost finished. This is not a project I recommend to anyone who is a perfectionist. Trust me, I pretty much had to do all the finish work twice.

Well, my first blog is turning out to be long and I apologize, I will go now because I need to ice my wrist again. Long story short, I thought I'd put the crib that Drew doesn't use anymore in the attic (another relatively simple job, or so I think). I get all the way in there and try to turn around on the top step of the ladder (8 ft.) and fall. Result: 2 sprained wrists and a bruised ego!

Drew's Big Boy Bed

We decided it was time for our little man to have a big boy bed. After a lot of searching on http://www.craigslist.com/ and stores, I found a bed on http://www.craigslist.com/ down in San Diego. We were planning on a twin size bed right away, but the bed I found was a toddler bed that slides into a twin size bed. And it was so inexpensive, wood, and cute! Thursday I had an acupuncture appointment down in San Diego, so I arranged to pick up the bed that morning, go get his bedding, and then go to acupuncture. I had looked online wondering what mattress fits a toddler bed, thinking we would just use the crib mattress and keep the bed in toddler mode for awhile, switching it to a twin when he gets a little bigger. Everything I found told me that a crib mattress fits toddler beds, so I was excited since we could use his mattress and not have to get one right away. After picking up the bed and going shopping for his new room linens, drapes, and such, I was so excited to get everything put together. We planned to just do it all Friday morning, so it was all ready for his nap. I was up early with Drew taking the crib down and laundering all his new bedding. Eric eventually crawled out of bed and helped me with the crib and the new bed. Once we got the bed together, I proudly placed the crib mattress into the frame, looking forward to putting his new sheets on it. But, the mattress was way too narrow. This mattress didn't fit at all!!!! It was 10:30am, nap time is in about an hour and a half, and he had nowhere to sleep. I quickly realized the bed was from IKEA, a Swedish company, and was a lot wider than normal toddler beds. In fact they sell special mattresses for their toddler beds. And it makes sense now since the bed just slides into a twin size, it would have to be as wide as a twin mattress. So, we hurriedly got dressed and ran to a mattress store in town to buy a twin size mattress. $130 later, we were driving home, trying to keep Drew awake so that we could put a bed together for his nap. Thankfully, it fit and the new linens are so cute. One minor detail is that I bought two comforter/quilts and duvet covers to go over them. One of them melted in my dryer that morning, so I have to figure out when I am going to get down to IKEA again and try to exchange it with a non-melted comforter. So, one of his little blanket/comforters is not on the bed yet, but it is cute too. Here are some pics of Drew asleep at nap time yesterday and of the bed finally put together. He did great for such a big transition. It took a little comforting to get him to sleep at nap time, but only a couple of minutes before he was asleep. He fell out at nap after two hours of sleeping, but the bed is very low to the ground and we had pillows there just in case. Last night, he went down great, but woke up at 1am crying really hard. Eric tried to calm him, but he wanted his mama, so I laid in bed with him for about an hour. It was actually really sweet to be able to do that. It's been about a year since we moved him out of our bed and into the crib, so it was kind of nice to sleep with him again for a little bit. He woke up happy, as always, but didn't get out of bed on his own. I am not sure if he understands yet that he can just hop out of bed and come find us...that will come with time I am sure.