Happy Birthday Madison!

So unfortunately, this year, Madison's birthday fell on a weekend when she was with her dad so we didn't get to see her on her birthday.  So we celebrated a day early with a girl's day!

First, we started with haircuts at Studio B!  She actually got an a-line cut.  Looked really cute!

See what I mean?  Totally cute!

Trip to Target to pick out the birthday gift she wanted.  She picked out a razor scooter with a Spongebob helmet.

Then her first pedicure!  She laughed hard the whole way through because she said they were tickling her feet.

Matching Mommy and Daughter toes!

Lunch at McDonalds

And finally back at home to try out her new stuff. 

Our Hayes Weekend

On September 4th we finally got to go and pick up my engagement ring and wedding band.  Since we were in Walnut Creek and half way to San Jose anyway, we decided to check out the hotel in the new company we are managed by.  Hayes Mansion.

Our arrival at the Hayes Mansion.  Since we are now employees of Dolce Hotels & Resorts we get to enjoy places such as these for the employee rate of $25 per night.  Pretty awesome perk!  What a great place to celebrate our engagement.

 My ring!  Lovin' it!!

We were pleasantly surprised to be upgraded to a bigger room and we had this waiting for us upon our arrival! We got settled and then ready for our couple's massage.  

After returning from our massage we got back to our room and received this along with a note that said to please enjoy champagne brunch for two in the morning.  Honestly, I don't think we have ever felt so taken care of by a hotel ever!  They were outstanding.  They knew we were celebrating something special and took it to the next level!

Bruce loves when I take pictures and he isn't ready.  This was our room service dinner that night.  

All in all we had such a fun and relaxing weekend!  We haven't had one of those in a while!  Nice to go a short little getaway once in a while and we will definitely be back!

Sorry

Yup, I had said I had more pictures and things to put up and got lazy and decided not to blog and here we are now almost to October with no new anything...so here you go....

Hayes soon to come

We just got back from one of the best weekends ever!  I will post pictures soon...of the ring I am so very much in love with and more...

The Rock

My beloved engagement ring I have actually yet to wear...oh how I cannot wait until Saturday, September 4th.  I can't wait to put this on for real!

Inside the Kindergarten classroom....

I love this picture because it really shows her emotion...she was so excited yet at the same time so nervous and that to me is exactly what her face is saying...that and maybe, "no more pictures mommy!"

I asked her to show me her new nametag and this is what I got.

And this is where they said goodbye to mommies and daddies...she was excited to move on, I tried to keep the lump in my throat from suffocating me.  Tears in the car...but a good first day for all!

First day of school!

While I am so excited that they  are starting school, it is so bittersweet...this is my baby's first day of kindergarten!  Insane how quickly these (almost) five years have gone by.  I remember taking Aidan to kindergarten and Mad was almost 2!  Crazy!  They both had a great day at school.  Mad loves her teacher, Aidan loves his and so far so good.  Well, except Mad had a little incident with trying to jump the swings and scraped up her knees pretty good...you live and you learn.

Luke wasn't with us this morning so we had no pictures of his first day, but he said he had the nicest teacher there was at Browns Valley!

Yippee!

One of our most favorite shows comes back on tonight!!  I can't wait!!  And just think...we are only about a month away from our FAVE show Dexter!  Love Showtime...

It's Official!

Yup, the two dorks in this picture are now officially engaged!  Yippee!!!  If words could describe how I feel about this guy, I would do it...but nothing I say will ever come close.  So excited for the future with our family!

Happy Birthday B!

Without a doubt one of the most amazing guys I have ever met!  Caring, loving, funny, pain in the butt sometimes...He is an amazing Dad and the greatest best friend I could ever ask for.  I am happy I get to share our lives together!  143!!

My new desk

I know you can't really see my desk and understand how in love with it I am, but at least you can see the color.  Matches perfectly with that "hotel" carpet.  Yeah, and that keyboard will be off my desk in the keyboard drawer.  Many thanks to my Bruce, who is the only engineer that I trust to have put this desk together in the "right" way.  Next week,  I actually will get drawers for the desk!  Wooo!  LOL.

Let me tell you a little about this....

So I have been trying my best to make sure the family is eating better.  Still doing things they like, but in lower calorie versions.  This I got from www.eatingwell.com.  Twice Baked Loaded potato.  It had ground turkey, lowfat shredded cheese, lowfat sour cream and broccoli.  When I gave it to Lukas, he gave the old "I'm not very hungry" speech, but he tried it, LOVED it and now has asked me to make this as his birthday dinner.  That along with a dance party and flashlight tag of course....Sounds like a fun filled night to me!

Crawdad fishing at Conn Dam

Okay, so before we went to Conn Dam, I wasn't even positive I knew what a crawdad looked like.  After this day, I can be sure.  I must say...this was SOO fun.  The kids loved it, we loved helping them and it was just an outstanding family outing.  We will do this again!

Lukas, our "seasoned" crawdad fisher with the first catch of the day!  This kid could find the crawdads even if they were hiding...

Aidan and his first catch.  I have to say...Aidan, a couple of years ago, was the type that didn't even want to get near to these thing and now he is totally into all of this stuff.  Note:  Please view the background of this picture with Lukas' Hawaiian fishing shorts, and one on the line.  :)

Mad wasn't so sure about this at first and did a lot of "log sitting" with mommy before she asked Brucey to make her a pole.  This was her first catch.  She then proceeded to tell Bruce to take it off her stick.  He told her if she was going to fish that she needed to do it herself.  She basically said fine and flung it off the stick as hard as she could.  Guess that works...

The "Golden Crawdad"  or as Bruce told them the "Big Kamama" - (forgive me for my Hawaiian spelling - sounds like "Kay -may-uh-may-uh".  They spent a good half an hour trying to get this thing to latch on to their homemade fishing poles with old salami as bait!

Happy 6th Birthday Matilda and Good Luck Dakotah!

Last night we went back to Corning to celebrate my niece, Matilda's 6th birthday and also bid farewell to my little brother, Dakotah.  He is headed off to Kansas on Monday!  Crazy.  A good time was had by all.  It was just way hot there!  We were happy to get back to our 65 degree weather.  LOL.  Actually, for Corning...the weather wasn't too hot at all!  We'll miss you Dakotah!!

 Madison, chillin'.  this is just before she sat up a little higher on the chair and flipped it over...and yes, her zipper is down.  Nice.  :)

How cute is my nephew, Kort?  He and Mad could actually be brother and sister they look so much alike.  The camera loves this little guy!

 My sisters and brother

Yes, this would be the side of that Madison decided to cut her hair.  Not braidable!

Future WWE Wrestlers!

My love bug!  heehee...I know he secretly loves that I call him that.

Yeah, I know

My newest guilty pleasure is that stinkin' show Betthany Gets Married.  Have you seen it?  Love it!  Check it out.  I love that she seems so normal, well except that she has a ton of money...I love her!

Check out the view

So this is the view from my desk in my new office at work.  I am already finding myself staring out the window a lot.  Today, there was a couple that just got married and were taking their picture right out near the palm trees....yeah, that consumed 10 minutes of my time.  heeehee. 

Crazy Days

So it has been quite a while since I last updated our blog and lots of changes have happened since then.  The Resort that Bruce & I work at was sold.  A lot of our friends lost their jobs, including my boss, the General Manager of the Resort.  It was very hard to say goodbye to all of these great people.

The Resort was purchased by Johnny Miller (yes, that one) and a couple of his friends.  Now known as "Silverado Investment Group, LLC".  We are now managed by Dolce Hotels & Resorts.  I now have a new boss and things seem to be going great.  I have been completely busy, not much time to catch your breath anymore.  We are currently moving offices and will be located upstairs in the mansion.  I must say, the view from my desk is pretty awesome.  Hope I will be able to focus on work and not on the view!  :)

As for the kids, the boys finished up baseball season at the beginning of June.  All of the kids are now focusing their energies on trying to run the household.  We get in a lot of pool time, but it actually hasn't been much of a summer here.  We have maybe had a week where it was in the low 90's, but lately it has been in the low 70's.  The pool is too cold for me and actually we laugh because the kids now jump in saying the water is freezing.  I think Bruce's words were "it is like jumping into a glass of ice water".

Happy August everyone!!

Another one of our favorite places to be

We took a quick trip to Bodega with the kiddos. Their new favorite thing is this big log that sticks up from the ground. Always have to be climbing! 

Love this picture of the kids...

Mad's Grad

Last Friday, my youngest graduated from preschool.  I find myself pretty sentimental about it.  How did she get here so fast?  It seemed like just the other day, it was Aidan graduating and Mad was just 1!

 

What happened to this chubby cheeked girl?

I am so very very proud of my Mad girl...I know that these next few years are gonna fly past and I know she will take it all in, exemplify expectations and do it all with a bang.  This girl is a little firecracker...look out world, Mad's in school!

Just one of the reasons I love Napa!

 

Mother's Day

Had a fantastic Mother's Day complete with these gorgeous flowers

Bruce brought me, awesome kiddos and Bruce's ribs.

Couldn't have asked for a better day!

April Showers bring May flowers...

How pretty is my mom's garden?

Totally...

KIDDING! But hey, a girl can dream :)