"MOM! COME LOOK AT THIS!!!"

As I head down the hall a giggling Bubba says to me "WAIT!! Close your eyes!" After which he takes my hands and leads me into his bedroom (But not before running into the wall himself). Still giggling he leads me right up to the edge of his bed and says "Ok! Open you eyes....NOW!!!"

This is what I found

He was so pleased with himself for getting it on his bed and setting it up all by himself! What a cutie!

Spring it on!!!

Why do I love spring?!

It means playing outside

Standing in the sun, just because you can

Making grumpy faces, outside

and it means it's warm enough to bust out the tools

We are very excited that Spring has Sprung!

Need a laugh?!

Just watch this!

 

Also here is the video of the Boys and Girls Club Jazz band from Palm Springs

Dear Diary

In case I haven't mentioned this before. I married the Greatest guy in the whole world! He is a Great Father, and Excellent provider, and takes care of me in every way possible.

Just this past weekend he surprised me with a little parental getaway.

Monday night he told me we were going on a trip. We would be getting on a plane Thursday morning, early, and flying out of state...That's all he told me. Anxiety immediately set in. Tuesday I started cleaning, laundry, dishes, straightening up. Wednesday I couldn't take the mystery any longer. I cleaned like a maniac to keep my mind off the fact that he would be packing for me. I wouldn't know what I had to wear, I had no clue where we were going or what we were doing. All I knew is that we were flying somewhere out of state and we would be gone for 4 days!!! My mind was racing with the "Where's and What's"  I finished all the laundry. Finished all the dishes. Picked up every room. Packed the boys. Painted my nails. Made cookies. Packed food for the boys while they stayed at their Grandma and Grandpa's. I was a wreck!!

I LOVE Surprises but we later decided that 48 hrs was a little too much.

I took the boys down to Grama and Grampas and then came home, washed the 6 dishes in the sink by hand, picked random fuzzies out of the carpet, swept and mopped...again, and then Greg got home. We tried to go to bed but couldn't sleep. He couldn't take it either. He finally couldn't contain himself anymore and told me we would be flying to LA!!! He still wouldn't tell me why, or what we would be doing. Instead he had printed off all of our destinations on a piece of paper and covered them with strips of colored paper that I got to pull off as we went.

Thursday: 3am we got up, loaded the car and headed to the air port.  We Landed in LA at about 9am, got our rental car, and headed to the Long Beach Art Museum. We had an amazing lunch at the restaurant at the art museum and then drove down to Palm Springs! I am in love with Palm Springs. Seriously, I could live there.  We ate at Las Casuelas, which was SUPER Yummy!!! We walked the Street fair they have every Thursday night called Village Fest. So much fun. So many musicians, vendors and amazing smelling food (we didn't eat any because we had just eaten).  So surreal and SO much fun. After we had our fill of Village Fest we went back to the hotel .

Friday: After Breakfast we get in the car and I get to pull off the next strip of paper "Baseball Game"  Awesome! I love baseball!  He then points out WHERE this baseball game is .... Peoria AZ .... WHAT?!?! We're headed to SPRING TRAINING!!!!!  and just like that we're off to Arizona!!  Saw my first wild cactus and we even saw the "Google maps street view" car with camera on top of the car!  We got into Peoria at about Noon and went to our first Spring Training game!! Mariners Vs Diamond Backs. We sat in the grass, in the sun, in our shorts and t-shirts (because it was 80 degrees!).  We had so much fun. Stayed at the Crown Plaza that night. Amazing!

Saturday: Took our time headed back to LA. We talked, sang, laughed, stopped for anything we wanted. We love road trips and that was the perfect one!  We stayed at the Hilton that night! TOTALLY AMAZING!!!

Sunday: Up and to the airport to head home! It was raining and chilly.  Flew back into Sea-Tac at 10:30. It was overcast and FREEZING!! But it's good to be home!!!

THURSDAY:

4am at the Airport, excited to go to LA

Baywatch lifeguard towers!

Lunch at Long Beach

He had to have our pics in front of the towers

So we did!

Our rental car....with WA Plates!

Welcome to Palm Springs

Dinner in Palm Springs

This guy was amazing, and selling his CD

Merilyn Monroe

Boys and Girls Club Jazz Band ....

So Amazing!!

I have video of them but I can't get it to upload right now...I've been trying for the past 45 mins >=/

FRIDAY:

Seriously In LOVE with Palm Springs

Cardinals Stadium in Arizona

At SPRING TRAINING!!!!

Just so you know, This is what Heaven looks like!

80 degrees + Baseball in AZ = Couldn't be Happier then right now!

Out side the stadium they had these HUGE baseballs with the Team Logos on them

What happens when Washingtonians go to Arizona in March?

They get Sun burned.

This is NOTHIN Compared to his legs!

SATURDAY:

Cactus...

We saw this sign and had to turn around so that we could get a picture of it.

just in case common sense has escaped you:

Totally in Love with This Guy

Oh - and we saw a plane crash. We didn't see it Crash...we saw it after it had crashed.

LA Freeways

Our View from the Hilton

At night

SUNDAY:

What LA looked like when we left

Headed home



The flight home was super bumpy. We even ALMOST got hit with lightning!! It was a tad scary.

We made it home. and it is Good to be home. I feel so much better. Happier, more patience, motivated to do what I should be doing. I just all around feel better.

It was an AMAZING Trip and I LOVE that he knew that it would be just what I needed!!!

Thanks Babe! I Love you TONS!!!!

The Diet

If you are wondering what I'm talking about because you've missed my last couple of posts, feel free to scroll down to catch up...............It's ok....I'll wait.................................................................................................
Done?! Good! 
I guess you could just go Here but that's ok because now your caught up on our life too! ;)
 So the diet!  Yesterday was the last day! Beef and veggies until full, with the soup!  The last 2 days were the absolute hardest! I thought it was going to be day 4, which is bananas and milk, and just happened to be Bubba's birthday, but the last 2 days I was tired of eating soup and was beginning to be tempted by everything. But I made it! I made it a full 7 days with out Cheating! I stuck right to the diet!!  I Lost 4 lbs. which is 4 lbs I didn't have before but seeing as how my sister in law lost 8, my mother in law lost 10 and everyone on the website stated that they lost anywhere from 7-15 lbs, my 4 is kind of discouraging, especially since 1/2 way through the week I gained 2 back...? But then lost them again. I don't know.
Our scale isn't very reliable so that could be the problem.   However 153 sounds a lot better than 157 right?!

So here's my plan.
1 - Never do that diet again.
2 - Have a boiled egg, a piece of whole grain, and glass of milk or juice for breakfast
3 - Work out for a MIN of 30 mins every morning, I figure I can do this because Greg doesn't have to leave for school or work till at least 8.
4 - Portion control!!!!
5 - If I'm craving something sweet, have 1 or 2 bites.
6 - Don't eat past 8:30pm

All healthier eating/living habits I wasn't doing before. I have a goal, it's tapped to my elliptical, which I cleaned off and pulled out. It seems Girly and Vein but I don't care, THIS is my goal! If I can make it down to 135, I'll even take 140. I'm going to buy myself that swimsuit!
So Here's weight loss and having a "Summer body" but more importantly, a healthier mee!!!!

Birthday's and Diets

WOW these don't go together!!
As far as Bubba's Birthday goes, it went really well!! We had his party the Saturday before his birthday and had Daddy's family over (since they only life an hour away and mine are 5 hrs...) and we did "make your own pizza" and then played Rock band while we waited for our pizza to come out of the oven. We had cake and Ice Cream and He loved Every present he got!!  
Then ON his birthday we had our neighbors over to make pizza and have some more cake and Ice cream. He loved it and he loves being able to tell people he is 4!!
here are some pics...ok, a lot

He told me he wanted a Monster Truck cake!

So that's what he got

I LOVE having a house that I can really decorate for holidays and special occasions!

I did all of it after he went to bed Friday night so he woke up to a decorated house Saturday Morning.

Bear waited at the table for most of the morning waiting for the party

Grampa Rockin out on the Drums

Bear and Grama Getting a little practice in

Daddy's Sister and her Hubby

Happy Birthday Bubba! Look forward to what age 4 brings us!

From Grama and Grampa

From Aunt, uncle and cousins

From Mommy and Daddy

Sid the Science kid is one of his fav, morning shows

From Daddy

a Fishing pole, he LOVES it!! He begs me everyday to take him fishing.

From our neighbors

He wasn't very happy that I made him stand still for a picture

It's not very fun to sword fight by yourself, so they got one for Bear too!

Books from Nana and Papa!

He loves them all!!

All in all it was a very successful Birthday.
Although we did spend the day of his birthday at the Dr. because his brother was having an allergic reaction to the meds he had been on for an ear infection.  But at the end of the day he said he had a really great day and "I'm happy to be 4" 
Mee too Bubba! Mee. Too.

*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~~*

On his birthday it was day 4 of my diet, which means Banana's and Milk...YUCK!!! I really don't like bananas and I really don't like Milk!

I had to eat at least 3 bananas and drink as much milk as I could. So I stuck 2-3 bananas in the blender with 2 glasses of milk and a cup of ice, a dash of vanilla (it doesn't count as cheating because vanilla doesn't have any calories in it.....=)  right?!) It ended up being pretty decent, as far as a banana milk shake goes (The boys loved it) and I drank 4 glasses (2 blender pitchers) So by the end of the day I had 5 bananas and 6 glasses of milk!

Yesterday was Beef and Tomatoes. I was STOKED for this day!! Finally some protein! However, yesterday was the first day I was tempted to eat everything I saw!!! I made it through Bubba's Birthday with out being too tempted, It was pretty easy to resist. But yesterday I was so cranky over what I couldn't eat. I wanted a fruit smoothie, I wanted some berries, I wanted a turkey sandwich.....But I resisted and didn't cheat!

Today is Beef and veggies, I'm getting burnt out on the soup. But today I put in some chunks of steak (from yesterday) and squash, and mushrooms in with my soup and flavored it with curry and it is super yummy!!

Tomorrow is Brown rice, juice and veggies. It is also the last day! 

So far I've lost 4lbs. My goal was 8.

So here I go. To eat more soup and snuggle my sick kiddos =)

Birthday Time!!!!

4 Years ago Today I was in a hospital, 11 days past my due date, waiting for this little guy to make his grand appearance

At 8:14pm he did just that.

11 days late and 15 hrs of labor.

He is Totally worth every day and ever hour and every minute!!

Today my Little Man turns 4!!!

He is 4 years older, 20 inches taller and 26 lbs heavier

Happy Birthday Bubba!!!!