My birthday weekend

Today I am 28! I've had a great birthday day and look forward to my birthday weekend!


I woke up to a cute note left by Jake next to my purse: "Happy B-day, Love You!"


And a cute gift bag was left on my chair at work by my co-workers after I left the office yesterday...so that it was waiting for me when I arrived this morning. They know me well - the gift bag included Bath & Body Works lotion and shower gel along with some cute new earrings and a necklace! Love those girls -- thanks, girls!


A few hours into the day, I was called to the front lobby and a delivery person was standing in the lobby with an adorable gift. It was from a local Candy Boutique and there were 2 cupcake candles inside with some Hershey's Kisses sprinkled throughout. Thank you Debbie!


I LOVE my birthday! And, as Michelle reminded me, it is sort of a funny joke that it usually rains on my birthday! There is rain in the forecast for late this evening and the weekend - but it's held off so far today.


Tonight Mom, Dad, Doyle, Arline, Jake and Ryan took me out to dinner. Mexican food is my favorite so today has been my idea of perfect!


Tomorrow evening we are going to have a few friends over to watch Supercross. It will be my birthday weekend all weekend long! Hopefully I will get to sleep in a little and enjoy some family time this weekend.

Thank you, everyone, for all the birthday wishes on Facebook, e-mail and text messages!

Look out for the crazy driver!

A little public service announcement to all our neighbors who like to enjoy outdoor activities that may involve walking and/or standing on the sidewalks:

Look out for the crazy driver!

Beware of sudden stops...

And reverse driving...

And for the next 14 (or so) years, the streets will be safe while Ryan drives on the sidewalks!

Valentine's Day Weekend Recap

Our Valentine's Day celebration started a little early, on Saturday! Jake asked if we had any plans for the night and my usual response, "none that I know of." He informed me that we did, in fact, have plans and that I should be prepared to go somewhere. I was wearing my pajamas still and asked if I could go like that or should I take a shower and get "ready?" A little later that morning, Jake took Ryan with him to his parents' house to help replace a washing machine while I ran into town.

I met Jake and Ryan at his parents' house after I ran my errands and while there his mom asked if Ryan could come back later to have a slumber party with all his cousins. They had plans to order pizza and hang out playing games and watching movies. Of course that sounded like a fabulous idea so Jake and I could go out on our date.

A few hours later, after Ryan had a bath and we were all ready for our date, we dropped Ryan off with Nanny and Papa and headed to Hanford for dinner. We tried out the new Restaurant, Luna, and thought the food and the atmosphere in the restaurant were fabulous! Then we headed to the movies and watched Dear John - loved it! I decided I wanted to pick up Ryan and bring him home instead of leaving him to sleep there because I wanted him to be home on Valentine's Day morning to open his gift from us and to eat a big breakfast with us!

Sunday morning I woke up early, laid on the couch for 45 minutes reading my book and enjoying the quiet, still house. Before Ryan woke up I made breakfast - French Toast, bacon and sausage - and an English Muffin for me! Just as we finished eating breakfast, Ryan woke up and was sweet as could be!


Ryan opened his Valentine's Day present from Mommy & Daddy. Then Jake opened his gift from Mommy! (Jake had given me a Rose on Saturday.) Ryan finished off the sausage and spent the rest of the day playing with his toys and playing outside - the weather was beautiful this weekend!

Today, President's Day, was a nice, lazy day at home with Ryan. Jake had to work til early afternoon so Ryan and I hung out doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen and playing. I had to make a run to WalMart this afternoon and Ryan came along. While we waited in the checkout line Ryan wanted a bag of Doritos. He was so good in the store, not begging for anything, that I bought the bag for him. He started eating them in the car and as we were almost home I asked him if the chips were good. He didn't answer. I asked him again if he liked his chips. Again, no answer. I turned around and found Ryan sound asleep in his car seat with his hand still in the bag of chips!

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day with the ones you love! I'll be sure to add pictures to my next post - these picture less posts are getting boring!

"You're Here!"

Last night I went to play Bingo with some gal pals for our February birthdays! Jake kept Ryan home while I got some much needed girl time in.

This morning when I went into Ryan's room to get him up, this is the conversation that occurred:

Me: (Not turning on the light because every morning he requests only the hall light be turned on!) "Good Morning Sunshine!"

Ryan: "Mommy! You're here!"

Me: "Yes baby, I'm here!"

Ryan: "I miss you!"

Me: "Awe, I missed you too!"

Ryan: "I love you!" (always with emphasis on the word love!)

Me: "I love you too baby!"

Ryan: "Me not a baby!"

HAHAH!!! I love him so much - he just melts my heart with the sweet things he says these days.

And that's all I've got for you today.
Happy Thursday!

Does that make me a bad Momma?

Ryan decided to start potty training ALL ON HIS OWN last night - used the toilet 3 times before he went to bed, even! Today I am told he only used the toilet once while at his Nanny's house. Since I've been home from work this evening, Ryan has not asked to use the toilet at all. I asked him several times and he finally agreed that he needed to. THREE TIMES we have gone into the bathroom and waited, and waited and he still did not go. Five minutes after finally getting a diaper back on him, he decided he needed to go and my response, "You're wearing a diaper Ryan - I'm not playing around with you on the toilet!" HAHA. I feel terrible now that I think about it and can't believe I'm blogging it but I like to be honest!! :) I know we have a long way to go in the potty training adventure - I'm just looking for someone to be honest with me about how difficult it really can be.

It's about 45 minutes before Ryan's bed time - think I can convince him to go to bed early so I can go to bed, too?

Welcoming a Nephew!

Kevin and Shannah are having a Boy! They invited the family down to Round Table Pizza yesterday afternoon for a Gender Reveal Party. We arrived to find pink AND blue cupcakes decorated on the table, with pink AND blue jelly beans to snack on as well. They had each of us hold either a pink or blue cupcake (depending on what we thought the baby would be) and take a picture as a group for the baby book. Then they told us we had to wait until after lunch to find out girl or boy. When they brought out the pizzas, we quickly saw BOY spelled out with tomatoes and olives on each pizza! (I forgot to take my camera - sorry, no pictures from me!) It was a cute way to reveal the sex of the baby. And they wrote down their top boy names and let us give our input on what names we liked and which ones we disliked, OR to give suggestions of spellings or our own name ideas for Baby F.

We look forward to Baby F's arrival in June.

Congrats to Kevin & Shannah - boys are lots of fun! :)

Movin' on up!

For the past week or so, Ryan has been napping at Nanny's house on the big kids' beds. He comes home in the evenings so excited to tell me that he's slept on the big bed! So Jake and I decided that we would finally take the front crib railing off Ryan's bed and replace it with the convertible rail. He can now climb into the bed by himself and he actually got in the bed several times this evening to play!


We gave Ryan very firm instructions that he can sleep in the big boy bed as long as he stays in bed all night and only gets up when Mommy or Daddy comes in to get him up. Tonight was the easiest bedtime routine in a long time. We brushed our teeth together, I changed him for bed, he gave his bedtime kisses and then climbed in bed and told me "goodnight". When I closed the door, for the first time in weeks, he did not cry! And 30 minutes into bedtime, he didn't get up even one time.


Our little boy is growing, growing, growing! Now that he's into his big boy bed - well, not technically, it's still the crib but now he's not "locked in" - maybe the next big step for me will be removing the changing table from his room that he outgrew a long time ago!

If I didn't have bad luck...

...I wouldn't have any luck at all!

One day last week on a trip to JoAnn's to purchase tulle for Kinedy's first birthday tutu, I found a cute Valentine's Day mug that I wanted to pick up for my Bonco secret pal. It was on sale and I only paid $3.00 for it! On my drive home I was imagining that I would fill it with Hershey Kisses and wrap it in clear cellophane wrap and take to our next Bonco in February. I was also imaging that on my way to the front door of Bonco, it would be my luck that I would drop it on the sidewalk and the mug would shatter and then my secret pal would find out who I was!

So when I pulled my car into the garage that evening, I opened the back door of the car and grabbed my shopping bag from the floorboard. No sooner did I grab the bag, it slipped out of my hand and landed on the cement, breaking the handle off. I'm not even making this stuff up! I was so upset. After I finally decided that spending $3.00 on a mug was a good idea an entire month before Valentine's Day - I dropped it on the ground and it broke!

Moving on to Friday after work. I'm at WalMart picking up a few things and happened to walk by the Valentine's Day aisle. I ignored it at first but then turned my cart around to check out what items they had and to see if I could find a comparable mug for my secret pal. I found a mug! It was $5.00 but it had a stuffed dog in it that I could take out and give to Ryan and use the mug for my secret pal. I purchased the mug along with all my other items, loaded my groceries into the trunk and drove on home. Forgetting about the mug completely - I grab all my grocery bags from the trunk and lug them into the house. I place all my bags on the kitchen counter and hear a loud shattering noise. Yes, I broke the mug! Can you believe it? $8.00 on 2 mugs that my secret pal will never see!

I've decided I will not buy my secret pal a mug and fill it with candy. Instead, maybe I will find a plastic container to fill with candy! Ha!

New Addition

My brother and sister-in-law, Kevin & Shannah, are expecting their first child this summer and we are so excited to meet him/her!

Kevin & Shannah --

When I asked Ryan, what do you think the baby will be, a boy or a girl?" he responded, "Yeah!" So I rephrased the question, "do you think it will be a boy?" to which he replied, "Yeah!" And then, "do you think it will be a girl?" and again he replied, "Yeah!" So apparently Ryan is still undecided on the decision! I, however, think we will be welcoming a nephew! Jake, on the other hand, thinks we will be welcoming a niece!

So will it be a a boy?
Or is it a girl?

Will we be buying trucks and tractors?

Or buying hairbows and tutus?

Whether we are wearing blue and welcoming our new nephew...

Or wearing pink to welcome our new niece...

We love you guys and can't wait to meet your bundle of joy!

Using his manners

I am so thankful that Ryan is such a polite little boy! This morning as we backed out of the driveway and neared the end of our street, I reached down and turned up the heater and Ryan must watch everything I am doing because as soon as I turned up the heater he said, “Thank you Mommy” and went right back to drinking his juice! Every morning when I strap him into the car seat he says, “Brrr, its cold. Turn on the heater!” Haha!

A little Night Cap

I wanted to share a few funny stories from Ryan over the last 2 days. He's so funny in the evenings when we get home from work.

Lately I've been giving Ryan a countdown (20 minutes, 15 minutes, 5 minutes, etc.) until bed time. By the time 8:30 rolls around, he's ready to lay his head on the pillow! Last night I was telling Ryan that he had 20 minutes before it was time to go to bed. Now, obviously, he has no sense of time but I literally laughed out loud when he responded, "No, me go to bed in 2 minutes" because he thought that was longer than 20 minutes! Haha!

Today I looked into a local preschool to get Ryan on the waiting list for the 3 year old class in September. When I got home tonight I was asking Ryan if he wanted to go to school and make some new friends. He was so excited, wide-eyed and asked, "Me wear helmet to school?" He is really into wearing my old quad helmet and apparently thinks that not only do you wear a helmet while you're riding quads but also that you wear a helmet to school! I laughed and told him that he won't wear his helmet to school but that he can wear a backpack. He thought that was pretty cool. I mean, what 2 year old doesn't want a "pack pack"?

I look forward to Ryan's first day of preschool this fall - I know, I know, it's only January - but I don't want him to miss this class! And this means potty training is now my goal for Ryan by the summer.

Up in the gym just workin' on my fitness!

So today was an extremely busy day at the office and then my friend (and co-worker) and I finally got back to the gym tonight! It felt really good to get back on track and start working out today. The plan is to hit the gym again tomorrow night and then pick back up on Thursday. We're shooting for 4 days this week and the only reason I'm blogging it is to hopefully hold myself accountable to the workouts. It's a slow start but I'm feeling good about it tonight! Here's to hoping I keep at it this time!

This week is Bonco at my house so I'm planning on taking some photos and blogging about our Bonco group later in the week! I love Bonco night - it's a fun, one night a month where the girls can get together, eat yummy food, catch up on the girl-talk and try to win $30!

Sunday Drives

A few weeks ago while Jake was on a two week vacation (must be nice!!) we took a nice, leisurely Sunday drive. Can you guess where we were?

Although there is sand in this picture, we were not at the beach!

Ryan was pointing the direction he wanted to keep exploring!

We loaded up the car and headed towards Kaweah Lake and past Three Rivers. We drove to the gate at the Sequoias and then turned around and ate lunch at a nice little restaurant with a creek running along side of it. The picture above is of the blow-up Santa and friends across the creek at the restaurant.

We took a little photo shoot of Ryan hanging out on the rocks before we ate lunch.

We sat on the patio of the restaurant so Ryan could watch the ducks playing in the water and still see Santa and friends as well. For the most part, Ryan walked around the patio, climbed the stairs and hung over the railing while we ate our lunch.

After lunch we drove back towards Kaweah Lake and stopped to play at Slick Rock Recreation Area where we climbed the rocks and played in the water. Ryan LOVED splashing in the shallow puddles in his rain boots!

I was trying to explain to him why he couldn't just go run out into the water, he wanted to go in deeper.

He got to walk through the water between Jake and I and he had so much fun!

It was difficult to drag Ryan away from the water but I think we had just as much fun as he did! Next time we venture out for a Sunday drive, I think we will head for snow!

Did you know?

Today, as I wait patiently for Blogger to cooperate in uploading my pictures, I thought I'd share some information you may find useless but nonetheless information about me that you may not have ever known! Sounds fun, huh? So here we go:

• I am still afraid of the DARK!
• I have good intentions of cleaning the kitchen and running the dishwasher every night but usually I'm too lazy and let the kitchen stay dirty for a night (or two)!
• I love to wear cowboy boots and own both a black and brown pair.
• I have no intention of ever going back to college - should have done it right after high school but wasn't too interested then either.
• I used to want to be on the reality show, Real World.
• Driving sometimes stresses me out - I am definitely a road rager!
• I wonder if it's normal to remember phone numbers of friends from high school, 10 years later? And am I the only person who still has the same cell phone number 10 years later?
• I used to always have a pack of Big Red gum in my purse. I wonder when I stopped carrying it and chewing it?
• I laugh at something Ryan says or does everyday.
• I love to experiment with my hairstyles and color. In fact, I'm having it cut tomorrow and will probably dye it soon after.
• I am obsessed with checking Blogger and Facebook as soon as I get to work everyday (shhh, don't tell) but hardly ever comment on my friends' blogs or Facebook status.
• I am so glad my kid likes to go to bed at night. At least we only have to fight him on what to eat for dinner and not when to go to bed.
• As I type this post, Ryan is sitting next to me flipping through the channels on the tv, stopping on ESPN of all things (just like his father!).

Hope you've enjoyed getting to know me a little better! As soon as I can get my pictures uploaded, I'll post about our recent weekend Sunday drive. Stay tuned...

A late gift!

This post is brought to you by MY NEW LAPTOP COMPUTER! Yay! Our friends were here celebrating New Year's Eve with us last night and their daughter brought her laptop to keep her entertained. I told Jake this morning that I was a little jealous that she could sit on the couch and surf the net and that I wanted to be able to blog while laying in bed at night. SO, Jake did some research and we headed for Best Buy earlier today. The end result, my brand new laptop! It's actually our little Christmas present to each other - since we didn't really buy each other gifts this year. I Love It! We're laying in bed, Jake is watching ESPN and I'm clicking away on the computer - I love technology that lets me be comfy in bed and stay connected to the world! Haha!

Happy New Year all!

Vacation Fundraiser!

Please go visit my friends, The Buitenwerf's blog post today. They are the family trying to raise funds to assist in their adoption of a 2 year old boy from Ethiopia...they need our help! I've purchased 4 of the vacation raffle tickets myself (they were stocking stuffers for Jake's Christmas stocking!) and I urge you to take a look and see if it is something you may be interested in for yourself!

Thanks all and best of luck to all of us in the drawing!

Christmas Recap

Oh how we love Christmas at our house! Christmas Eve is traditionally spent with the Fagundes clan! Christmas Day with the Avila's always changes location - this year was our turn to host Jake's family on Christmas Day.

First things first, we headed to Mom & Dad's (without a nap for Ryan) pretty early in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. David, Michelle and Natalie had drove in earlier and were there to greet us when we arrived. Later, Kevin, Shannah, Bruiser, Porky, Doyle and Arline joined the fun and festivities. The day was spent with lots of laughter, food, pictures, passing Natalie, watching Ryan dance and playing pool. Oh, and we let the kiddos open their Christmas presents! Ryan (and Natalie) were blessed beyond belief with thoughtful and wonderful gifts. Ryan's room and my house will never look the same! Here are some photos of the fun:

We capped off the evening with dessert before heading back home so Ryan could get in bed at a reasonable time and so Santa could get busy setting out Ryan's gifts!

Christmas morning was SO MUCH FUN! We had to wake Ryan up so we could open our gifts as a family before Jake's entire family came over for the day. Ryan was so excited to see what Santa had brought for him, sleepy-eyed he ran to the living room and opened his stocking. Our Christmas Day celebration began around 9:00 a.m. and lasted through the evening, I believe our guests left at 9:00 p.m.!

It was fun to watch all the kids opening their gifts and Jaylynn and Ryan playing with their toys together all day. My Mother-in-Law and I sat in the house and played several rounds of the board game "Sorry" while everyone else played washers out in the back yard. I started getting a head cold so I didn't want to be out in the cold all day. It was fun to sit back and play some board games, I wish we would have taken more pictures (I should not be in charge of the camera!).

Happy New Year!

Something interesting

I've been thinking about something interesting to post today -- I WILL update on our Christmas once the pictures are uploaded - but I wanted to say something funny and all I can think of is Ryan's bedtime routine the past few weeks. It will make you smile!

Normally Ryan does not put up a fight when it's time for bed. We ask him if he's getting tired, he usually says, "yes" or shakes his head in that direction. I tell him to go give daddy kisses (because I like to be the one to lay him in his bed) then if he hasn't already, he grabs both his blue blankets, I pick him up, give him kisses and tell him I love him, lay him in the crib and turn off the light. Then before I close the door he asks, "raining outside?" and I usually answer, "no" and he asks, "cold outside?" and I usually answer, "yes, it's cold outside" and he says, "love you!" and my heart melts and I say, "love you too. Good night."

I Love my sweet little boy!

How can it already be December 13??

I seriously have not bought 1.single.Christmas.gift.YET! Sorta waiting for that money tree out front to sprout new branches and start blowing dollar bills instead of leaves!

Anyway, I've been getting the e-mails recently asking what to get Ryan for Christmas. I really have no clue. My son is a die-hard quad and dirt bike fan! His new favorite activity is to sit on mine or Jake's lap and watch quad and dirt bike videos on YouTube. How did this new-found love of YouTube start, you may ask? Good question - he is only 2 years old and no, he does not control the computer on his own, but if he continues to beg and cry every time he wants to watch videos on YouTube, I might just teach him how to navigate the internet next week! I think it was an attempt by Jake to get Ryan to calm down one night when we couldn't decide what he wanted to do and offered to let him watch quads racing! That's where our mistake began, because the kid is smart! He knows that he can sit here for 20 minutes each day and never have to watch the same video twice!

Anyway, back to Christmas gifts...Ryan's birthday was only 3 months ago. He was stocked up with winter clothes and enough new toys to fill his already full toy box. So if I'm hesitant when I respond, "Not sure what he needs, really." it's not because I don't know my kid well enough to know what he likes, it's because I really do not know what he needs for Christmas! Fingerpaints, Playdoh...something fun!

I also decided today, December 13, that I would order some photo Christmas cards to get out in the mail approximately sometime before Christmas morning. Another reason I need that money tree out front to start branching out - so I can afford postage!

Happy Christmas shopping everyone! Who else will we see Christmas shopping at the mall next week??

Who wants a FREE Computer?

That's right, I said a FREE Computer! Head on over to BooMama's page to enter a giveway for an HP Touchsmart 600. You have until December 24 to enter and will receive an extra entry if you blog about it! This computer looks like the coolest thing since sliced bread, I would love to win - Merry Christmas to us!! I can't even remember how long has Jake been dreaming about a new computer monitor. We can share!

So what are you waiting for??? Go...now...

OH, and cross your fingers that I'm the lucky winner!! haha!