Merry Christmas!

This was the first Christmas in a long time that we stayed in San Diego. Usually we are either up in Bakersfield with my side of the family or back east with Jim's family. It was nice to not have to travel and just relax. Jen, Matt and Elijah came down and we all stayed at my parents for a couple of days...even Maddux. We all attended the Christmas Eve service at my parents church (the church I grew up in) and it was great to see so many people we hadn't seen in quite a while.


Christmas officially began as soon as Elijah woke up Thursday morning. It was stocking time. Christmas eve my mom, Jen and I decorated our stockings, the girls with snowflakes and the guys with Christmas trees...Elijah's was special with a snow man. We had brought Maddux's stocking down so she got open it with us.


Not too long after opening our stockings, we migrated to the living room for presents. There were a ton of presents with most of them being for Elijah. It was so much fun to watch Elijah open his gifts. His two favorites were the little kid laptop he got from Grandma and the ukelele he got from me and Jim. He did not want to let his "guitar" out of his sight. He even made his first music video playing along to Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours".


This year Christmas time was so relaxing. It was great to be able to hang out with family and really enjoy each others company. Elijah and Maddux were good buddies and played well together. It was fun to see Jim and Elijah interact. Elijah loves his uncle Jimbo. They would play tackle with eachother and Elijah would body slam Jim and just laugh.


Christmas reminded me how much I love my family and being able to spend time with them. We hope you had a great Christmas and made many lasting memories like we did!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well Kind of, except for the snow and freezing weather. However, it has been raining this weekend and the temperature has dropped.

I love Christmas time. Spending time with friends and family, decorating, and taking time to remember the true reason for Christmas. It didn't take much time after Thanksgiving for me to get the Christmas decorating itch. We turned the Christmas music channel on, lit Christmas candles, and started decorating.




The other night Jim let me put Maddux's sweater on her that she got for her birthday. It made the perfect Christmas sweater and I had to get a picture of her wearing it in front of the Christmas tree. Needless to say, the sweater didn't stay on too long after the pictures.




Last night was our small group Christmas party. It was a great time of appetizers, desserts and fellowship. Jim and I have really enjoyed getting involved with our small group at church and getting to meet other couples that have recently been married. It's hard to believe that out of our group, aside from Tom and Sue who lead it, Jim and I have been married the longest at two and a half years. We are looking forward to getting to know everyone better over the next year.

the girls: sue, megan, kristan, laura, me and of course Maddux

Maddux... A Year Later

It was a year ago this weekend that Maddux became a part of the family. She has brought so much joy and entertainment into our life and we couldn't imagine our life without her. She is our little girl. Here are some pictures from when we first brought her home and her now. Enjoy!

Like father, like daughter

It's hard to believe now that we brought her home in this box

Exploring around her new home

Lounging on the couch. Can you believe how big she is?

How could you not love this face?

Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving we were reminded of how much we have to be thankful for: God, family, friends, our health, jobs and so much more. Sometimes we tend to take our family for granted but this thanksgiving I realized how much I missed spending the day with family and how truly thankful I am for family. This was the first thanksgiving that Jim and I spent on our own, without either one of our families. Although we missed our families, we spent Thanksgiving evening with my friend Victoria and her family. They even let Maddux join in the festivities so that she didn't have to spend it all alone. (Victoria has a Yorkie so him and Maddux got to play together. We had a nice evening with great food, friends and wii fun.

Everyone knows that with Thanksgiving comes Black Friday. We had done our Black Friday shopping early since Best Buy's ad leaked early and the sales they had last week were going to be the same. We figured this way we wouldn't have to get up early and fight the crowds. I told Jim early in the week that we should stay home on Black Friday so that I wouldn't be tempted to buy more things. But as most people who know me know, I can't pass up a good sale so we headed out Friday morning with the millions of other shoppers. We had a plan to only go to two stores and stuck to it.

The rest of the weekend we spent resting and relaxing. It was a great feeling knowing that we had a four day weekend. Jim and Maddux took lots of naps and I got started on the Christmas cards/letters. Saturday I took a break and Maddux and I met up with my friends Vivian and Christine for a hike around Lake Poway. It was great to get out and enjoy the unbelievably nice weather.

Twilight at Midnight

I must admit that when I first saw a preview for Twilight I looked at Jim and said, "I have no interest in seeing this movie". Fast forward a few months, and I am putting off much needed sleep to attend the midnight screening. Even up until just moments before the movie started, I was wondering what I was thinking letting Jim talk to me in to coming. I figured meeting up with Andrea and Reggie would be worth it. Reggie had won the tickets the day before and Andrea figured that even though we would all be out late, we only had to get through work Friday and then it would be the weekend.

Jim makes fun of me because I tend to fall asleep through almost every movie we rent. He thought for sure I wouldn't be able to keep my eyes open. The funny thing is it was the opposite. He fell asleep and I was wide awake for the whole movie. I didn't know much about the movie and hadn't read the book. The storyline eventually drew me in and by the end of the movie I was hooked, wanting to know what will happen next. I guess to find out what will happen, I'll need to read the books. I think I'll begin Monday and become one of the many Twilight followers.

Congratulations J & Nicole!

Yesterday the last one of the girls from our our group got married. Nicole was a beautiful bride and J an excited groom. The ceremony was beautiful and you could definitely tell that Nicole and J are in love and perfect for each other. The reception, flowers and cake were gorgeous.

Our Own Little Donald Trump

This past Halloween was a little different. With it being the first Halloween Elijah could really take part in, my parents and I headed up to Bakersfield to spend some time with Jen, Matt and Elijah. Jen kept going back and forth on costume ideas for Elijah and finally decided on Donald Trump since Elijah had the hair for it...of course he had the famous comb over. He made the cutest "Donald" and was a hit with all the houses where we went trick-or-treating. One lady said it made handing out candy that night worth it just seeing Elijah.


Back home Jim's Halloween wasn't too eventful. He got to spend some quality time with Maddux. Since this was her first Halloween, I wanted to dress her up but Jim wouldn't go for it. I remember growing up there were always a lot of trick-or-treaters going around but it seems like over the years not as many people are out. Jim bought six bags of candy and had three trick-or-treaters. Guess who gets to eat all the leftover candy?


I had a blast spending time with Elijah over the weekend. He has grown up so much since I last saw him at his first birthday. He loves walking and loves his Crocs! He is the most content little boy and doesn't know how to not smile and make you laugh.

Walking with Grandpa

The Happiest Place on Earth

Last Monday Jim and I got to be kids again with Andrea and Reggie at Disneyland. Anyone that knows Jim knows that he tends to be one of the luckiest people when it comes to winning free stuff off the radio. Back in July he called me to tell me he had just won a four pass of park hopper tickets to Disneyland. Then about a week and a half ago he called me at work to tell me he just found out he won a paid day off of work. Since Andrea had Columbus day off, Jim and I took it off too and decided to spend it at Disneyland.

We started the day at California Adventure where our favorite ride was the Tower of Terror. The unexpected drops made it a definite thrill ride. We ended the day at Disneyland riding Space Mountain and Indiana Jones. Even thought it was a holiday and the park was a little more crowded than a normal Monday, the longest we had to wait for a ride was like 30-40 minutes.




It was a fun filled day and a great time spent with Andrea and Reggie. Maybe when Corban is a little older and we have kids of our own we'll all have to repeat the trip except that it will probably be a little more expensive.

Our little girl turns 1!

Maddux turned one this week and what better way to celebrate than with a birthday party! A birthday party complete with guests, cupcakes, princess party hats and presents. I hate to admit it but I have turned in to one of "those" people.


What had first started out as a "joke" turned into an evening of fun. I had mentioned to my friend Vivian that I was thinking of having a birthday party for Maddux and maybe going to the dog beach and then having cupcakes or frosty paws (doggie ice cream). One day I was telling my mom about my idea and she said, "don't you think her grandparents want to come", so the guest list grew. We went out with Andrea and Reggie and jokingly said if you want to come we are having a party for Maddux next week and they said they wouldn't miss it. So evites went out and in the end we had a house full of three dogs, seven people and a baby. There is no doubt that Maddux is loved :)

The night started out with a trip to the dog park with Roxy, Chile, Viv, Andrea, my mom and me. The guys stayed home to watch football. Maddux, Roxy and Chile all had a blast at the park and definitely got a lot of energy out. After the park we went back home for dinner, cupcakes and presents. All three of the dogs continued to wrestle and play until it was present time.




Maddux is one spoiled little puppy. The fun thing about getting gifts from friends is that they were able to buy all the girly dog stuff that Jim won't let me buy. She got a pink and black doggy sweater, pink hawaiian collar and leash (now everyone will know that Maddux is a girl!), pink dog dish and some bling for her collar. In addition she got a ton of dog treats that will last her a year and toys.


We ended the evening with puppy cupcakes courtesy of Vivian. We even went as far as to sing happy birthday before Maddux could eat her cupcake. She didn't waste any time once we gave it to her. All three of the dogs loved their cupcakes.



In the end it was a fun evening for everyone that came. I do realize that having a birthday for your dog is over the top and that Maddux really had no concept of what was going on except that she got to have "treats", but I still would recommend throwing a first birthday for your dog. If anything it is a good excuse to have friends and family over.

Jim's Weekend Renovation

When Jim and I first starting looking for our first place, I made it clear to him that I wanted a say in all of the decorating that would be done. Realizing that I should let Jim have a say in some part of the decorating of our first place, I told him that if we had a second bathroom that could be his room. He was OK with this idea since he thought a Cubs bathroom would be cool. Our first place only had one bathroom so he was out of luck until we bought our condo. We have been in the condo a little over a year and his bathroom renovation has come to fruition. The one thing I requested was that the bathroom still look classy and not too baseball cheesy. He decided to go with more of a vintage theme, incorporating different baseball memorabilia in a shadow/display box. His great ideas and hard work paid off. He did an awesome job and we both love it!

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers!

I have always loved flowers. If I could afford it, I would buy a new arrangement every week to have in the house. Fresh flowers brighten my day and are a constant reminder of the beauty God created for us to enjoy. Seeing all the beautiful arrangements in the store and at weddings I have thought to myself, "It can't be that difficult to arrange my own flowers", but for some reason when I buy flowers and attempt to arrange them myself they never quite end up looking like they did in my head.

For the past couple of years I have received catalogs in the mail for a local community college that offers a variety of classes, including floral design. Taking a floral design class has always peaked my interest but I never signed up for one until a month ago when I decided I just needed to call and register so that I didn't have any regrets. Today was the last class of the first session and I decided to sign up for the next class as well. Below are some of my designs. Enjoy!