It's a Girl!

It's official, we are going to have a little niece in September. We are all so excited for Jen, Matt and Elijah--their little family will be complete with a 'lil prince and 'lil princess. Congratulations Jen and Matt. We can't wait to meet Miss Elsie Riess Prince!

It's about Time

It is crazy how time passes so quickly! Here are the highlights and some pictures of what we have been up to the past couple of months:

-Jim had the opportunity to go to Austin, TX for three weeks to assist with claims after a bad hail storm. Maddux and I managed to survive, as did Jim, working 12 hour days for three weeks, but are glad to have him back home. He's ecstatic to not have to live out a suitcase anymore or eat every meal out.

Maddux loves lucky the longhorn...her gift from Jim

-One of the nice things about having Jim away for three weeks is that I was able to feed my twilight addiction without him giving me a bad time. This led to many late nights, followed by sleepy days at work. My friend Nicole is also hooked on the Twilight Saga and I spent one evening watching Twilight with her and her husband while our puppies played. We both can't wait for "New Moon" to come out in November.

-I spent Easter with my family in Bakersfield and was able to watch Elijah take part in his first Easter egg hunt. He was soo cute. They said "ready, set, go" and Elijah took off running, throwing his basket down. He thought he was in a race! Once he realized he was suppose to be grabbing eggs, he made up for lost time and was picking them up two at a time.

even the puppies had an Easter basket :)

-Jen and Elijah came to San Diego to visit for a weekend, along with her two dogs Duke and Maggie (Maddux's mom and dad). Needless to say, it was a full house at my parents with Maddux and I joining them for the weekend as well. I know I say it all the time, but after spending time with Jen and Elijah, I wish they were closer. We were able to meet up with my friend Andrea and her son Corban so that Elijah could have a play date.



-My mom and I made a trip in the middle of March to Bakersfield to visit family. I realized it had been almost five months since I had seen my grandmas. I want to do my best to see them as often as possible since I don't know when I might no longer have the choice. To see their faces light up and get a great big hug, makes me wish I lived closer and could see them more often.



-For my friend Vivian's birthday, we had a girls weekend at Disneyland. We were able to be kids again and spend some quality time together making many memories. It was a great weekend with two awesome friends!

Go Cubs, Go! Hey Chicago, What do you say, Cubs are going to Win Today!

One of the many things Jim misses about Chicago is being able to go to Wrigley Field to watch his cubbies play. So the next best thing is go watch them at their second home in Mesa, HoHoKam Park, during spring training. We have kept up the annual spring training trip tradition for three years now and I am sure we will continue it for many years to come.

This year we were able to watch the Cubs slaughter the white sox, 9-0, while spending time with our favorite Arizona couple, Ryan and Theresa. After the game Ryan and Theresa took us to a cool outside shopping mall in Gilbert where we grabbed dinner then went to play some mini-golf and grab dessert at Culvers (another place we miss from Chicago). As good as Jim and I thought we were at mini-golf, both Ryan and Theresa beat us.

Sunday morning Jim headed back out to HoHoKam to watch some batting practice and catch some of minor league players that had reported to camp early, while I stayed home at Uncle Will's visiting and relaxing.

Theresa (and baby Killebrew) & I

Ryan & Jim

We wish we could have stayed longer but unfortunately we had to head back home until next year's spring training comes around.

Birthday Surprises

People have asked "how does it feel to be 26?". To me its just another day and I really don't feel any older. Maybe one of these years it will hit me but until then I won't let it bother me that I will only keep getting older. This year I could put a little twist on my usual non-reaction to "how does it feel to be another year older?", and respond with "loved and blessed".

Jim and I had been planning on going to dinner at PF Changs for my birthday. It is one of our favorite places and it had been a quite some time since we had been there. He made reservations ahead of time and made comment that they wouldn't seat us until our reservation so there was no need to get there early. I didn't think much of this. It was now close to our reservation time so we made our way into the restaurant. Jim gave our name and the hostess responded with "Your party is already seated" and started leading us to our table. Again I didn't think much of this except that they must have confused us with another reservation but Jim just kept following the hostess. As I was walking I looked up to see my best friend Andrea and her Husband, my good friend Vivian and our friends Laura and Godfrey from small group. They were all there to surprise me for my birthday. Jim had been successful at planning and pulling off the surprise. At that moment I felt so loved and lucky to have such a great husband and group of friends. All I could do was smile and smiled through out the rest of the night. Our friends Brooke and Hon came too and we actually walked right in front of their car as they were getting ready to park. Brooke was worried if I saw her that it would ruin the surprise but in reality I would have just thought her and Hon were on one of their last date nights without baby since she was due any day. Dinner was a blast!


The next day my mom and I had planned to celebrate my birthday with lunch and shopping. Before meeting up with my mom I treated myself to a new hair-do. Little did I know that since it was the first time I had been to the hair salon I was able to pick another complimentary service so I chose to have my make-up done. It was so much fun to have a new "birthday" look. I had a fun time shopping and hanging out with my mom.


To top off my birthday, the previous weekend Jim had taken me to the Coach Outlet in Carlsbad to buy my birthday present. I thought I was just getting a new clutch/wristlet purse but when I couldn't decide if I wanted a black or brown one and he saw me eying another smaller wristlet, he surprised me and told me I could get both. I couldn't turn that down :)


This was one of my best birthday weekends, filled with love, friends and suprises!

Puppy Days

I decided to make this a Maddux post today.


I love how Maddux can be so easily entertained. The other night Jim and I were talking about the stuffed frog toy she loves to play with and how we hadn't seen it in a while. It turns out froggy was left and grandma and grandpa's. Today we went down to my parent's and after lunch Maddux came running in with her favorite toy. The one bad thing is that froggy squeaks...and Maddux loves to squeak it over and over and over again. I figure though if she is having fun and entertaining herself with it, I'll put up with it for a little bit. Being a puppy is such an easy life.


In addition to her favorite toy, she has a favorite friend, her best friend Roxy. Maddux and Roxy play so well together and if you could watch them, you would be able to tell almost immediately that they really are best friends, even though they are just dogs. On Tuesday nights we go to Vivian and Roxy's for a play date. Maddux perks up in the car when we turn in to the drive way and can hardly wait for me to let her out of the car. Roxy knows Maddux is coming and will wait at the door until she hears us pull up. The minute the door opens, Maddux and Roxy play not stop for the next couple of hours. Vivian and I only found it fitting that Maddux and Roxy should have BFF charms for their collars.


It may be ridiculous but they are just too cute with the BFF charms.

An Early Birthday Surprise

Last night we went over to Andrea and Reggie's for what I thought was just going to be dinner and game night. We were due for one of our hangout nights. I knocked on the door and when Reggie opened it, I noticed there were balloons all around and happy birthday streamers everywhere. It took me a minute to realize we were going to be celebrating my birthday (which isn't until the end of the month). We both have plans on my birthday weekend and they still wanted to be able to celebrate. To make it even better, Corban was wearing a onesie that said "Happy Birthday Auntie Jac". I am so lucky to have such great friends.

Thanks Andrea and Reggie for the early birthday surprise!

Happy New Years from the Rose Parade!

I have come to realize that there are many things and places I take for granted having been born and raised in California. We have talked about going to the Rose Parade ever since I was little but just never quite made the two hour drive north to take in the parade in person. This new years we made the parade a reality.


Jim's parents came out to visit from Chicago and the Rose Parade has been on Bev's life list of things to do or places to go. My mom has also always wanted to go so we decided to make it a big family outing. Early Thursday morning Jim and I, my parents, and Jim's parents left San Diego headed north while Jen, Matt and Elijah headed south from Bakersfield. I was amazed at how crowded the parade route was at 6am. We made our way to the grandstands to take our seats and wait for the parade to start.


After the flyover by the B-2 bomber, the first float came into view. The view from our seats was great. The floats were incredible. I never knew such a variety of flowers, plant materials and organic materials existed. The designs and detail were impressive. My favorite floats were the ones with all of the vibrant colors. Jim's favorite float was the surfer float. The whole experience was a little surreal.

Vera Bradley float- I love purses!

The detail was amazing

Jim's favorite float

We all had a great time watching the parade and listening to the bands. Bev is already talking about coming out for the parade again...she loved it! I'm glad that we were able to play a part in making one of her "dreams" come true. Although we probably won't go back to see the parade in person for some time, it was a great experience and we were happy to share it with family. Next year we will probably watch it on tv and remember the fun time we had the previous year... and then maybe brave the crowds the day after to see the floats up close and in person.

This was a great way to start off the new year. Happy New Years!