Sunday, February 27, 2011

"B" and "C" Dates

Alright, so here we go on our B and C dates. This seems to have only turned into us eating something that starts with the letter and then watching something with the letter, but we have fun and that's all that matters! haha
Our B date consisted of us getting take out from one of favorite places- On the "B"order, love their food!! Yum!!
While eating dinner we watched the "B"ack up plan, with Jennifer Lopez, which I don't reccommend to anyone really, it was pretty cheesy so we had fun making fun of it! haha
Here's the hubby enjoying his enchiladas.....

Part of our date was putting our sweet girl to "B"ed, while we ate she was upstairs in our room watching a movie, if we get our date nights started too late we just won't last! hahaThen we made ourselves a yummy "B"anana split, it was so good even though I was stuffed from dinner!
See, we were pretty excited about our dessert... :)
Then the next weekend we had our C date and I was super lazy and didn't really plan anything! Ooooops! The hubby had the idea of "C"lam "C"howder which I love, so for the first time I made homemade clam chowder and put it in bread bowls- oh man it was so yummy!
Here I am slaving away at the stove- it really didn't take too long to make, I'll definitely be making it again!
See even the hubs liked it!
Dishes were super easy to take care of.... it was soooo filling with all the potatoes and bread!
While eating we watched a "C"omedy show- my favorite, Friends dvd's! And that was pretty much our date, kind of lame but we enjoyed our evening together!! Let's see if this actually continues, it's kind of hard to think about new stuff to do for an at home date, but we are having fun trying!









Saturday, February 12, 2011

It's Summertime!!!

Wait a minute... it's only February???!! Well, don't tell this girl because she won't be hearing any of it! haha


I just ordered Hannah her bathing suit for the summer and it came in the mail yesterday and she could not wait until the weather was actually hot to start on her tan! It was nice outside today so she HAD to put on her suit and catch some rays! It was so cute!!

And here is my precious little girl showing off her pouty face! I even love this attitudey face on her!! hahaha
Here's to summer coming soon so Han's teeth won't chatter the next time she gets the desire to lay in the sun!



ABC Dating and Valentine's Dinner

My parents were nice enough to watch our little angel last night so Nick and I could celebrate Valentine's and go out to dinner. Of course we had to go to our favorite expensive place to eat, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse- such yummy food!!! But along with our Valentine's dinner we have decided (well I pretty stole this idea from another blog and am dragging my husband along for the ride) to start our ABC dates! What is that, you might ask?? Well, each week we will take turns planning date nights and they will include activites/food/movies that start with the same letter. For instance I planned our first date, which had to do with things that all started with the letter "A" and next week it will be Nick's turn and our date night will include "B" things. Understand? Good! Most date nights will probably be spent at home after we put the munchkin to bed but it's an excuse for us to spend quality time together and maybe doing something new! Since we already had our Valentine's dinner planned, I figured we could also just start our ABC dates the same night! SO after dropping Hannah at my parent's here is what our night looked like....
Started with us driving to dinner... don't worry we were at a stop light when the driver had his eyes closed kissing his wifey! :) The dinner place or food didn't start with "A" but I just could not pass up the opportunity to go to Ruth's Chris! I had come up with the idea that we could go to an "A"rcade after dinner, but by the time dinner was done and it was a Friday night we were both kind of tired and just went home! hahaha We are such an old married couple and I LOVE it! I didn't get any pictures at dinner but here's to prove we had an "A"mazing dinner out:
Then we came home and enjoyed an "A"fter dinner drink together!! :)
We started watching the "A"ction/comedy movie Knight and Day, which was totally lame but the genre started with "A" and I like Cameron Diaz so I figured we could give it a go, I won't be putting that on my Christmas list though! While watching our movie I made us a baked "A"pple and I topped it with dulce de leche ice cream! It sounds like it would be amazing, but the apple was not soft enough and the ice cream immediately turned to soup, but it was fun trying something new- we barely ever eat dessert and when we do I never make something like this, so it was fun!
Right after putting the ice cream on before it melted... It tasted ok I would have preferred the apple be softer though.
"A"fter all that it was about midnight so we figured it was time to call it a night. We had so much fun just being together and it was fun trying to think of things to do that started with "A". I can't wait to see what Nick comes up with for next weekend for our "B" date!






Sunday, February 6, 2011

Love This Girl!!

Hannah is seriously the light of our life! She's so goofy and silly, we just can't help but laugh with her everyday! She is almost 4 1/2 years old and I can't believe I am saying this but next month we will be registering our baby girl for kindergarten!! How have we gotten this FAR already?? She's just growing SO fast and refuses to slow down, she's just like her daddy and is constantly saying how she can't wait to grow up! Which in turn we tell her, to slow down and enjoy her young life- probably something we should also do at times! :)
Hannah truly has a zest and excitement for life that is just amzaing to see. Everything is WONDERFUL or AWESOME no matter how small the event might seem to us. Getting donuts on a Saturday morning?? She's thrilled and can't say thank you enough! January turning into February? "Oh, my gosh that's so cool that's it's going to be February!!" This girl also says some pretty funny things... Gina is now very visibly pregnant with Lily and they were over one night when Hannah is feeling the baby move she says "I'm going to have a baby soon.", we respond "really? When?". Han: "When mommy gets one in her tummy!! And I'm going to have a sister just like Emma!!" Me: "Well, we don't get to decide if we have a girl or a boy, God decides that. What if you get a brother and not a sister?" Han: "I don't want a brother I want a sister though!!" Gina: "Well then you gotta talk to the big man upstairs!" A couple days later Nick and Han are driving past the new church that is being built down the street from our house when she says "Look, the big house is almost done!" Nick: "That's not a house, that's a church where people go to pray and talk about God and stuff." Han: "Oh, then I need to go there and talk to the big man upstairs becuase I want a baby!!" hahaha The things our little girl says are so funny we can't belive what she comes up with sometimes!!

Some of her favorite things to do these days include: coloring, playing outside on her play structure, riding her scooter, playing with her art easel that has a white board, playing her video games on the x-box, or just running around the house with daddy while he tries to tickle her! She also LOVES when we can go play at wacky tacky or Bounce-U, and as of now she wants to have her birthday party at wacky tacky, so we'll see if that's still the case when October rolls around!
Climbing the HUGE slide at Bounce-U, she will go on this over and over and over again!

Being the teacher and telling us about days of the week- notice how she spelled January below?? So maybe she can't QUITE spell correctly yet, but she's getting there :)
Our girl loves to strike a pose and she is constantly dancing- no matter of where we are she's either bustin' a move or twirling like a ballerina!! I LOVE the innocence of a child, she doesn't care if people watch her when she dances in public and I hope she keeps that innocence for a long time!
Yup- just a little dance before going off to school in morning, it's GREAT way to start the day!
Now that the weather is teasing us with Spring-like sunshine we have been playing outside whenever we get a chance! This happy face explains just how exciting the sunshine really is!
Striking a pose with her favorite "animal", a ladybug!
Love these family weekend days! It's so nice to run around and watch Han have fun outside!



We've been really enjoying this beautiful weather! Not looking forward to when the rain comes again, so I better get out there and enjoy it some more!













Saturday, January 22, 2011

We are still here!!!

Well, it seems that only a little time has passed but it turns out I haven't posted anything in 4 months!!! Where have I been you might be asking, well I've been working! Shortly after my last post, in September, I interviewed and was offered a medical assisting job at Auburn Medical Clinic, which is where I had done my externship over the summer. I luckily kept in contact with an MA there and when she decided to leave and accept another position she told her Doc that I was still available and looking for a job and he instantly wanted me there to work for him! It seemed to take forever to apply for the job and interview, but in reality about 2 weeks later I was "interviewed", legally they HAD to ask me questions even though the Doc was already decided and actually didn't even want to sit in on other interviews because his mind was made up on me! I started all the training classes in early October but since they were so spread out I would work in the clinic some days then have a class here or there so finally in November I was finished with the courses and was able to get settled in my new position. The whole staff has been amazing and SO very helpful, I'm lucky that I went into this job already knowing the people so it made it a much easier transition. Being away from Han during the day has been pretty difficult, but now that I've been working for almost 4 months we have gotten into a great routine, and Nick has been so incredibly awesome- it wouldn't have been this easy without all his help too! Once I accepted the job Hannah also switched schools, which we were worried would be too many changes at once for her but she has adjusted like nothing ever happened! It's really nice that she is such a social butterfly and can get along with anyone. Her first school, La Petite, was wonderful to get her used to the idea of school slowly but it was about 20 minutes away from our house, which was no problem when I wasn't working but now that my days are about 5 hours too short, neither of us want to spend unnecessary time in the car and away from eachother so that's when we decided to move her to Childtime, which is literally 5 minutes away from home and on my way to work! Which is a double bonus! Another change that has occurred with all this was Nick getting his old job back at RCRC! He worked at SEIU for about 10 months and was completely miserable, but luckily he would still go to lunch with co-workers at RCRC and he told them that he would go back if certain things had changed- example: not reporting the manager he used to for reasons to long to go into here.... well then the president of the company asked Nick to lunch and lo and behold offered him his job back with more money and not reporting to the old manager! Um it was pretty much a no brainer, so he started back September 1!
Along with all these changes in September we were quickly planning a birthday party for our amazing 3, almost 4, year old! She had a total blast at her princess party, which also entailed a huge princess castle bounce house! Needless to say I barely saw my birthday girl the entire party, she and her friends were out of the bounce house only long enough to open presents and eat cake- then back in they would go! The whole party was a total success and our princess had the best time! All her friends and family were there showing the love to our little girl, it was so much fun!

The big gift she got this year for her birthday from mom, dad, and grandma and grandpa was a new play structure! But by the time we actually got it and dad and grandpa put it together the weather started turning cold so she hasn't been able to use it very much, but I know come Spring and Summer she will be out there all the time!


Shortly after the birthday celebration came the holiday time! Thanksgiving was great- we spent the first part of the day at Nick's family's house in Newcastle then went to my parents for the latter part of the day. The next weekend we had an ugly sweater holiday party which was a total success! It was awesome to see all our friends participating and showing up in the ugliest sweater they could find! Me and Gina ended up having the same sweater, so I guess that means we both have the same ugly taste! haha We had lots to eat and drink and it was great getting together with everyone before the craziness of the holidays!

A couple weekends after that was Hannah's holiday performance at her school! It was the cutest thing we had ever seen, all these 4 year olds singing their hearts out to Christmas songs!

Of course Han was the perfect preformer and made every hand gesture and new every word to the songs- we were so proud of our little starlet that night!
Then a very short week later was Christmas! Santa was very good to our kiddo this year, she got everything she asked for plus WAY more!! She was one happy, overwhelmed girl all day. In the morning we had our own little family Christmas, then around 10am all the grandparents came over for a yummy brunch and more presents!
Even mommy and daddy got something they really wanted :)

This year we told the grandparents to just focus on Hannah and let's not worry about getting eachother anything... well I guess that translated into spending ALL the money and Hannah and not saving any, which was I thought would be the idea in the first place! There were presents literally filling the living room and flowing down the hallway- all for Hannah!! She was in heaven!
After a nice relaxing New Year's Eve, with Nate, Leslie, Ari, and Jessica, lots of snacks and playing, it was time for our cruise! We have been thinking of going on a cruise for the last 6 months or so but weren't sure if it was going to work out or not since I had just started work, but I had accrued PTO and my work was super flexible so we were able to go on a nice 3 day cruise to Ensenada. All we did was eat, drink, gamble, nap, and relax- it was so nice to spend some quality time together since during the holiday's it's crazy busy and I feel like we don't even see eachother! Hannah stayed with my parents during our cruise, and she had her own vacation over there with Grammy and Great Grandpa in town, she had a blast!


Ok, SO I think I got us all up to speed on our life! I didn'tinclude too many pictures because 4 months of photos would have overloaded this post! I look forward to this new year and everything it will bring us! I look forward to family time, maybe a family vacation this summer, meeting all the new babies our friends are having, and who knows what else! My plan is to update the blog more often, we'll see if that will actually happen but I will try my best!
Question to those who also blog- how can I upload pics easier, and have them in the order I want when I upload. As of now I upload pics backwards of the order I want and then they will show up on my blog in order, but I don't want to do it that way, I want to be able to upload in order... does that make sense???









Sunday, September 12, 2010

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Oh I am so excited!! It has been decorating central over in the Walter pad! No major projects but just a few things I have been wanting to do to personalize our already awesome house! The project we started and finished today (oh, that's the best feeling, to get something completely DONE!) was framing the master bathroom mirror.
Here is the before- I love how HUGE the mirror is and we just needed to spruce it up a bit:

So, we headed on over to Home Depot and purchased three 8 foot pieces of dark cherry colored finished wood moulding and a saw thing-a-ma-jig that makes cutting at an angle easy. We prob should have just spent the extra money on an electric saw since they weren't too expsensive and I plan on framing the rest of the mirrors and putting up more chair rail, but it still did it's job!

Oh, how I love my hubby!! He's totally the best- he does not really care too much about doing these projects since we live in a brand new house, but he does them anyway since I want them done!

All the cutting of the edges was supper easy, but then we had to cut notches in the top of the wood to make room for the things that mount the mirror to the wall. I know there's a way to get back mounts for a mirror but we didn't want to deal with taking the mirror down and all that junk.
Once the pieces were cut to size we used some of this stuff on the backside to glue it to the wall and mirror:
Hard at work, with my little helper supervising
See how we had the liquid nails on the top and bottom? Well, once it put it on the mirror you could totally see glue reflecting back at you, so we had to take it down and wipe up this goopy mess
Here our little helper was photographer as we were cleaning the mirror:
So once we figured that out, we put the liquid nails on the rest of the pieces and stuck them to the mirror.
And now for the finished product!!!
Before:
After:
I think it turned out so good!! I totally love that it matches the cabinets perfectly and it just adds that extra something!!

Now, it's not totally perfect, but what DIY project is?? Especially since this is the first time we ever attempted something like this.

The bottom didn't go flush on the mirror because of the bottom of the mount for the mirror made it stick out a little, so the edges of the wood didn't match perfect, but a little wood marker over the glue once it dries should work.
And the notches we cut out at the top actually turned out great, just looking at the mirror looks like that's how it should be!
One more project down, a couple more in progess! Keep posted if you're interested in our pantry and laundry room spruce up!