California Fun...a sneak peek!

 Here is a little sneak peek of all the fun we've been having in Cali! We had a great time at Sea World and the weather stayed sunny until we were ready to leave, lucky for us!

 The kids had a blast riding the rides and we got to walk on each ride since no one else was crazy enough to go in the predicted rain!

 I looooooooooove the tea cups!

 Family Shot:)

 All the cute cousins at the beach, minus Ben because he refused to be in the picture!

 The newest life guards in Carlsbad!

 We visited Grandpa Fred at his new home!

 We shopped at El Paseo and felt super fancy!

 We've become obsessed with Justin Beiber and we drew BB in the sand for him since his last name has two B's in it (she even asked me to send him this picture!)

 The amazing view from the golf course we are staying on.

 We've made new friends and been swimming like fish as much as we can!

And we've had a great time visiting with Oma & Opa! We still have 5 more days, yahoo!

More swimming fun

Swimming in the bathtub has become a regular activity these days. They crack me up with their matching outfits! 

Palm Springs here she comes!

Not sure if Palm Springs can handle this?! 

Sleepover!

 Lauren & Ben had a sleepover with Hadley &  Carson the other night and they were soooooooooo excited! They looked pretty cute with their backpacks and pillow pets! 

Happy Valentine's Day

We started off the morning with a fun Valentine breakfast with Braelyn and Bennett, they had a sleepover!

 The girls were excited to go to school for their Valentine party! 

 After lunch we exchanged our Valentine gifts, so fun! 

 One of the kids in Lauren's class gave these out for her valentines, how cute is that!? 

 Ben was THRILLED to get this umbrella and it's all he can talk about. He wanted it SO bad the other day at the store. So bad that he threw himself on the floor and had a huge tantrum. I refused to buy it for him. But of course I went back the next day without him and bought it for his Valentine gift. The guy at the store remembered me too, which was pretty funny. As he was ringing me up he said, "I remember you, your little boy really wanted this yesterday and your daughter was yelling at you telling you to buy it for him, I didn't know whether to think that was cute or not." Aww, It's so nice to be recognized:) 

And this was the cute card Lauren made for us at preschool. I had no idea she loved doing dishes so much, but I was glad to see she loves Mommy most:) 

Happy Valentine's Day, a few days late:) 

xoxo

Happy Birthday Kevin!

 Kevin's party started last night with a surprise party at the race track! I rented the track for an hour and he and 5 friends got to race on electric go carts, I hear it was really fun! They even had a medal ceremony at the end and the top 3 guys got medals, the birthday boy even got 1st place:) 

*Race pictures courtesy of the one and only, John Palacios!

We started off the morning with Kevin's favorite, French Toast made with Cinnamon Swirl bread and a caramel macchiato! 

 Then we ended the day with a not so relaxing dinner at The Spaghetti Factory with Ryan, Meg, Hads, & Carson. Let's just say the children weren't at their best, but we did get in some time with Carson so that was pretty great! 

 Thankfully for all of us, Ben fell asleep in the car and went straight to bed. Lauren, Kevin, & I topped off the night with some birthday cake and a song! 

And here we have some more random pictures in random order because blogger is cooperating with me tonight. Anyway, all in all it was a great birthday for a great guy! 

We love you so so SO much Kevy Poo!

**Seriously, I have no idea what is up with this post. Odd captions, strange box around a pic, and pictures all out of order. Whatever, you get the idea, it was a good birthday:)

New "Bemote" car

So, Kevin's birthday is in a few days and I have a fun surprise planned for him and a few of his buddies tomorrow night. That was basically going to be his present. But then a week ago he starts telling me how much he really wants a remote control car, and not the ones you buy at Target, but the 'real' ones you buy at hobby shops. I wasn't going to get him one but then he tells me this story about how he ALWAYS wanted one as a kid but never got one. But his neighbor got one, had him build it for him because he couldn't figure it out, but then wouldn't let him drive it. Apparently this scarred him for life, so I couldn't let his 35th birthday go by without getting him the car. 

I made a mistake though, I took Ben with me to buy it. What was I thinking? We talked all about how it was a surprise and it was for daddy's birthday. So as Kevin walks in the door that night Ben says, "My buyed you a new car today." I just ignored it and assured him we did not buy a new car today and let a few days go by with Ben continuing to tell Kevin that he bought him a car. Today, Ben randomly starts crying. When we ask why he says, "My want to play with dada's "bemote" control car." Kevin looks at me and says, "That is what he's been talking about!". We couldn't possibly let Ben be sad a second longer, so Kevin got his present early:) 

It actually was pretty fun to play around with tonight, who knew a remote control car would be the perfect gift for a 35 year old's birthday! 

No one sees him, right?

Ben is "hiding" because he did something he wasn't supposed to. We hardly knew where he was! 

Barbie

I collected Barbies growing up and have a lot of them saved. They are all in their boxes still and are practically brand new. I decided there was no point in having them saved anymore so I gave her two tonight and figure I'll slowly pull them out over time. It sort of killed me to see her taking them out of their boxes since I'd kept them in there so long but at the same time I was excited to see her enjoying them. She put on her cinderella wedding dress so she could match them. Pretty cute. 

So Fancy

 Lauren & I went on a little spring clothes shopping spree yesterday. She got this dress, which is supposed to be worn on your shoulders, but in true Lauren fashion she has to add her own touch to it and prefers it off the shoulder. 

When it was time to go leave the house today Ben did not want to take the bow tie off so he wore it with his fleece. He could be in one of those Pemco commercials, he sure knows how to dress up a fleece. 

Dizzy Gillespie eat your heart out!

 Kevin's parents brought down his trumpet a few weeks ago and Ben loves it! He cracks up with his cheeks, he can actually make some half way decent sound with it, which shocks me because I think it's hard! 

 We were dying that he insisted on wearing this bow tie while playing! He kept saying, "look mama, my wearing bow". 

Lauren has to try too of course, but she can't really get the hang of it. And while it looks like Ben is clapping for her, he's not. He's clapping his hands in protest because he wants the trumpet back! 

Who knows, maybe we have next trumpet prodigy on our hands, or not:) 

Sick Boy

This poor little guy got the nasty flu bug that is going around. Around 2:30am he started getting sick. We've done loads and loads of laundry and gone through lots of cleaning supplies cleaning the couch & carpets around here. He's so darn sweet though, after he threw up for the 4th time this morning he looked at me and said, "My sorry my keep throwing up mama." He just woke up and seems to be in decent spirits so I'm hoping he's on the mend, and really REALLY hoping no one else in our house gets it!

Almost done!

 Lauren helped Kevin put the finishing touches on her new nightstand tonight!

Can't wait to get her room all put back together, I will post pics once the makeover is complete!

Alien Sighting

 I thought Lauren totally looked like an Alien when she walked into the room with this getup on!

 Riding their "hog"

Ben insisted that we buckle his helmet before he got on and he actually said, "My need to be safe". Oh Benny, Mama is so proud to have my own little clone:)