Merry Merry

The Christmas decor is up...and i'm a happy christmas bound camper. Just wanted to share the good news. Now if only 7-11 will start selling the candy cane hot chocolate the season will really be in full swing.

I promise i'll do my best to be a better blogger too. There's my written goal, cause if you write a goal it's more likely to happen right? I've just been so tired lately.....really really really abnormally tired...take that for what you will :)

Good Night!

Trick Or Treat

These pictures are really out of order, but really does anyone care? Nope, didn't think so! But maybe some day i'll fix it.

Halloween kept with our traditional dinner of dinner in a pumpkin with our families, followed by trick-or-treating with some of our best friends and ending with an unhealthy amount of sugar consumption and two pooped out kids.




The A-team, Carson and Finn had endless amounts of energy and could have kept going as long as the candy kept coming. They were having a crazy fun time

Team Chill- Milla, Brynlee and Thomas were more my style, collecting a sufficient amount of candy and then hopping in the wagon, eating their favorites, and enjoying the ride.

The kids all looked seriously adorable....the cutest i've ever seen. Carson & Brynlee got tons of candy, enough to make mom happy for a while, so chalk that up to a Halloween success.....let the countdown to x-mas begin :)

Pre-Halloweeny fun

Pumpkin patches, cookie decorating, trunk-or-treat, and carving parties oh my! The days before halloween were busy and fun and hopefully all the pictures adequately represent the fun we had & I can keep the commentary to a minimum, with all the blog catching up I have to do!

We loved spending time with the Blake's in the OC for the day and ending at the pumpkin patch!!!!!
(Just a side note since my kids don't look at this blog nor can they read....isn't this tractor cute? They just might be getting something similar for x-mas this year, and Carson just might have accidently stumbled upon it in my parents garage apparently hiding not so good, and I just might have been super bummed but hopefully did enough to make him forget about it...sad story huh :( )



Costumes take 1 for the ward trunk or treat.....
We are so loving every holiday with these too!!!

I wanna be a part of it.....

N.E.W. Y.O.R.K

With the help of two sets of FABULOUS grandparents, Matt & I were able to escape to the east coast for a kidless vacation. The bulk of our time was spent in New York with the newlyweds Kaitlyn & Jordan, who were the best hosts. There's no better way to visit a crazy, fast paced city, than with your own personal tour guides.
Why did we love New York so much? GREAT FOOD, GREAT SHOWS.....and okay shopping (the stores were PACKED and huge...I guess a little too overwhelming for an amateur such as myself)...but seriously GREAT FOOD and lots of it. It's a darn good thing you have to walk so much in that city, or the food could have done some serious damage.
Serendipity, Sarabeths, Patsy's, Magnolia's, Crumbs, Shake Shack, Alice's Tea Cup, Phantom Of the Opera....there's the highlights in a nutshell.
and of course our time with Kaitlyn and Jordan....Love you guys!

Next up we rented a car and drove to Penn State in Pennsylvania to visit our good friends Mark & Natalie. Matt went to the east coast a surfer from so cal, and became a too cool for school aviator glass wearing east coaster. and that about sums up our pictures from there, So lame that we didn't get one of all of us. It is a GORGEOUS town with awesome fall colors, and we LOVED seeing Mark & Nat, it's been way too long!!!

And the final stop of our east coast journey was in D.C. We met up with Matt's cousin Eric for dinner and one of my best friends from college Ashley.
and again....we walked A LOT......


D.C is an insanely beautiful place and you kind of want to walk around and sing the national anthem....it just oozes patriotism with all it's history. We just wish we could have been there a little longer, and explored a little more, but I think the grandma's thought it was plenty long:)
so until next time....

Playlist

If Carson & Brynlee could create their dream playlist, it would look something like this: (in order of priority)

1- Black Eyed Peas: I gotta feeling
2- Beyonce: Single Ladies
3- Black Eyed Peas: I gotta feeling
4- Taylor Swift- you belong with me
5- Black Eyed Peas: I gotta feeling
6- Going to the Chapel
7- Black Eyed Peas: I gotta feeling

Repeat over and over again!!!

All's Well that ends well

For better or worse, my kids moods & demeanors seem to affect my mood a lot!!! Especially that last half of the day, during the crunch time couple hrs. before bed. If things going totally awry, I go nuts, & somehow my perception of the whole day isn't too fantastic and vice versa.

A new little gentleman entered our family tonight and he's a keeper. He started out sitting at the dinner table upon the first request (a biggie in itself) and said, "oooh mom, this looks delicious. Thanks for making it." What??? Then when he was about done, " Mom, i'm having a little trouble can you please help me with my last bites." Then at bath time, "Mom, I really love you." Oh, it goes on and on....he asked a question in baby talk (which is currently a major pet peeve...another story of the the baby talk phase that has long wore out it's welcome) and before I could say anything, "oh I'm sorry I talked like that mom." Really it doesn't end here, it went on and on until bed time, but point made. I seriously don't know what happened, but I'm LOVING this. and to top it off, I had a GREAT day!!!

A Sticky Situation

Do you ever have those moments as a mom where you decide you're going to be that spontaneous, super cool, and fun mom who decides on a whim that you'll do a fun project with your kids just because you know they will love it, even though it will probably make the biggest mess! If i'm being honest, I wish I was this kind of mom more often!!!

But, I do have my moments, and here's what came from our latest memory making project....

and it didn't dissapoint....it was messy beyond messy!!! But....they had a blast with their pudding creations!

and p.s. those chunks in Carsons pudding do not reflect my inability to make a smooth consistant pudding mix. His pictured became one with his pudding ;)
and it wasn't long before the mess became too much and the only option was to stick them on them patio and give them free reign with the hose.

Bend it Like Brown

Watch out, we've got a new soccer star in the family, and i'm now a "soccer mom"....next up, minivan-ville. Carson's an official member of the Red Tigers.....and yes, they are as tough as they look, if not tougher :) A month into soccer I think Carson has finally figured out that you're supposed to kick the ball into the goal, but does he really care? nope, not so much. He's just stoked on scoring a killer snack at the end of the game. What was once a granola bar or maybe a bag of chips, along with a juice box, has turned into a full on birthday party-esque goody bag, complete with a variety- yes variety, of chilled fruit at halftime. The snack bar has been seriously risen and it's a good thing we weren't 1st up, cause I might have missed the memo being a 1st time soccer mom.
Other than that, he is loving wearing a uniform, being on a team, running with the pack, and he's especially mastered his 360's, and various other jumps and dance moves while waiting for the whistle to blow,

but he has the biggest smile ever the WHOLE time. It doesn't get better than that!

(but no cheering allowed if you ever come to the games....that's strict orders from the soccer champ himself...and he's dead serious!)

El Rancho

Our families annual ranch trip to northern cali. in August was yet again a success!!! Maybe even a little better this year since our little nuggets are a little older and a little wiser and can really appreciate it's greatness :) It is truly heaven on earth for our crazy kids. Between Carson's new found love for skiing, fishing, chasing down the ranch cats, watching out for cows and horses, swimming, shooting, and truck rides, the kids were ready for a new permanent residence!

So many happy memories....till next year, the adventures continue.....

Back in Action

You know the feeling when you have so much to do, or in this case so much to blog, you suddenly feel completely overwhelmed, so instead of starting slow, you ignore it all together! That's the story of my blog life the last couple months. So here we go, starting slow and hopefully we'll become regular once again!

Our August flew by! Seriously flew. If I didn't have photo evidence I would demand a re-do.

The event of the month....the long awaited wedding of my SIL Kaitlyn. The events seemed so stretch over a week and was full of tea parties, dinners, family beach days, dancing, and was all around amazing and beautiful:

All the cousins where the cutest things you have EVER seen!!! Seriously, and they all matched!

All the Brownie Girls!!!!!

The key to a super amazing reception......good dancing!!! And we danced!

Lazy Busy Days

I LOVE summer. Really Love it! Not since my single, non-working, out of school for the summer, basking all day in the sun for the perfect tan glory days, have I loved a summer so much.

Between Pool Days, Swim Lessons, Beach Days, Summer Movies, Eating out, Jazzercise (yes the 80's leg warmers, sweat band kind of jazzercise....it's making a comeback and I love it :) we've been busy. My kids are the PERFECT ages this summer!

Sadly (or not so sadly) My poor house and laundry have taken the brunt of our summer fun and aren't getting the attention they should. And if i'm being totally honest neither am I. I just might not shower or actually do my hair as often as I once did! I'm just saying, why shower when you're going to the pool later that day? Right? I haven't turned into a stinky hippie at least....yet! But if you see me and I look like a scrub you know why!

My weekly target runs which I love so much, have become minimal to non-existant and apparently blogging is on the back burner too. However, in an effort to preserve our summer memories here's a quick blip of what we've been up to:

We went to visit some of our favorite people in the world, the Steimle's up in Camarillo for a weekend and had a blast!

We also celebrated both our birthdays and our anniversary in July! Seven Years and going strong!!!!!