Your first garage sale purchase ever: Priceless.

Amber, Emma's friend, buying Rollerblades. These are the new and exciting things we do with your kids when they stay the night at our house.

Date Night

Our normal dates are in the middle of the week while the kids are in school and Nash is napping because it's the least amount of babysitting for my mom. For some reason Har and I got a Friday Night Date last week. We saw Ghost Town with Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni & some English guy that looks familiar. It was EXCELLENT. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard at a movie. Go see it!

Then we attempted to go out to eat at a restaurant we hadn't tried before...but the wait was over an hour and we were too hungry to wait. We realized then another bonus for our middle of the week, middle of the day dates. We found an old standby restaurant, Chili's, with a 15 minute wait and enjoyed a kid-free meal. Har only likes going there for the Chocolate Volcano Cake. I'll gladly go with him anywhere he wants to load up on junk food. He rarely does that.

A night out with my husband is always wonderful, but what we saw when we walked through the door made my heart smile. Maybe it's just seeing the boys still or sharing a chair without shoving or maybe it's just easier to see how cute they are when they aren't trying, but this is it. My joys. Two of the best things that ever happened to me.

How Nash Entertains Us

Nash being two years old - and super sassy - cracks us up on a daily basis. And you know how kids grow fast as lightening. I can barely remember Emma or Dedan being his age! I thought I'd share (and also record for my unreliable memory) some of the Nash funnies of late.


Yesterday he found the Vons ad on the table and brought it to me, pointing at the picture of Oreos he said, "Nash wants THESE cookies!" I hate smart kids.


gets stuck on a word and uses it in almost every sentence. Last week's word: probably (pronounced "prahbly") usually used with his name. Some examples of usage >>>> MOM: Who's cup is this? NASH: Prahbly Nash's. >>>>DAD: Who wants to take a bath? NASH: Prahbly Nash!

This week's word: tomorrow (pronounced "morrow"). In Nashish that means any time after right this second and is used when trying to convince you to do something. Examples >>>>I go swimming morrow. >>>>(while sitting at a red light) Mom, you drive morrow?


The other day after Emma and Dedan left for school he asked over and over again for watermelon. ("I eat wahtermelin!") We offered him grapes since we didn't have any, but that wasn't good enough. After offering grapes 3 or 4 times he came up with his own solution. "Nash go ni-nine stow and GET a wahtermelin!" Papa John's response was instantaneous, "Let Papa get his shoes on!" I'm not sure if it was the watermelon, the 99 cent store or hanging with his little buddy, but they were out the door in less than 3 minutes. Here they are enjoying the fruit.

I'm sure there will be many more Nashisms to come....stay tuned!

Seven years old!

Dedan turned 7 this week and tonight we had a party with some of his buddies. It was chaotic and messy and Dedan loved every minute of it. He got some fun presents, too! What a lucky kid to have so many people who love him, especially, Rachel & Trevor who sat in 4+ hours of traffic from Vista just for the party. That's love!

On Dedan's actual birthday we repeated last year's celebration and the whole family went miniature golfing. Could this be the start of a family tradition?

I tried to take a picture of mom keeping score, but instead she became a model for her new Miche purse with changeable outer shell/decor. If I'd been paying attention I might've noticed the gorgeous orange sunset in the background and took a better picture.

First Day (already)

Summer is over. Well, summer vacation is over. (It's still stinking hot). I drove my kids crazy the first morning of school taking pictures of them doing everything. I was trying something new! I settled on these boring pictures of them getting into line for their new classes.

Dedan in 2nd grade! I think his teacher (Mrs. Voltz) was one of my 4th grade teachers. We'll see!

Emma, and her two buddies from last year's class (but not this year), Kaylie & Amber. 6th graders. Ruling the school. Use your power wisely!

I'm not the only one

There are more people in my house getting sucked into the Twilight saga than just me... ...some need a little help figuring out how to hold the book.

Excuses...

I've been neglecting my blog again. Don't pretend your shocked. First it was because my computer was at the doctor for a few weeks, but while she was gone I became engrossed in a series of books. The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer (see the link in the right column). I finished the first 3 books in four days, but the 4th and final book took me a bit longer since I had to stop neglecting my family and steal an hour here and there to get my fix for Forks in. Seriously, best series I've ever read (yes, I have read Harry Potter).

I have the kids first day of school to blog, but that requires uploading pictures, etc. Maybe later tonight...

P.S. Happy Birthday to my baby sister, Tressa! 143

Summer of Nephews

This summer my nephew, Wyland, spent about a month with us and right before he left Garrick and Tristen came for almost 2 weeks. Entertaining all the kids has been a big part of our summer so far.

When it was just Wyland here, we went down to Redondo one day to meet up with some family friends from Vegas. The kids love searching for sand crabs. They had a whole pail full of them.

Thankfully, the lighting isn't good enough to see Dedan's tush. His bathing suit was too small and I think I told him about 24 times to pull up his pants.
The kids other favorite beach activity was boogie boarding. Below are Emma, Shelby (our friend) and Dedan. Now I need to find some garage sale boogie boards to use when I take the kids.

After Garrick and Tristen got here and before Mom & John left with Wyland we ALL went to the zoo - using our excellent membership passes. It was a little warm, but not bad. It was a fun thing for all of us to do together...without the chaos and mess of staying home. Right away Tristen and Dedan found this giant (kimodo) dragon. Cool!

We had to drag Nash away from the gorilla habitat.
Wy, the teenager, and Grandma taking a break at the playground while the little kids play.

We spent one afternoon at Marina Park beach in Ventura (where Mom took me, James & Tressa when we were growing up). As soon as we got there the boys ran into the water. Tristen didn't last long, but Dedan and Garrick stayed in the water for hours.

Most of the week Garrick tried to pretend he wasn't having fun. This picture proves otherwise. Maybe he should be covered in sand more often.
Emma and I glad we got to spend some time at the beach. Like my beach hair? ew.