The Blanchards

Family Pictures 2011

2012-01-02T21:34:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!!!

NEVERLAND

2011-10-31T23:12:00.000-07:00

Ella..."But Peter, how do we get to Neverland?"

Cole..."Fly Of course!"

Back and Forth all night.

I don't know why I even try to get a normal group shot every year...it never works.

This is me getting serious.

p.s. The only reason you do not see Brian in here dressed as Captain Hook is because he faked strep throat. I am pretty sure he felt better a few days ago but somehow it held on until Halloween night?????

The sheer joy only trick or treating brings to my kids.

I really went out of my area of expertise and tried making some monster fingers and eyeballs this year for Halloween. The eyeballs actually looked semi like the demo picture so I had to document it...I ate about 40 doughnut holes in the process and made myself sick but other than that it wasn't so bad.

Schnepf's Farm...the Disneyland of Pumpkin Patches

This is actually a historical carousel...

Cole was so proud of himself when he finally made it through the hay maze.

Petal push cars. I unfortunately had to petal through the track twice for my kids. My legs were dying after I got off and I was breathing really hard...the guy running the course asked me if I was alright. Haha

Boy smiles...got to love them.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday Cole Monster

2011-10-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

Cole is 4!! What a fun kid...I spend most of my day trying not to laugh at him because I still think everything he says is so cute and funny but he gets so mad now because he is "NOT CUTE!" and "THAT WAS NOT FUNNY!" Most common phrases I hear from him...

Mom, let's wrestle.

Mom, are you serious.

Mom, I'm Wolverine and you're the bad Spiderman.

Man I love this kid. House pictures coming soon!!

Homesick for you

2011-08-29T16:02:00.000-07:00

Wrapping Up

2011-06-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

We are slowly saying goodbye to the place we have called home for 5 years. I feel like the last few months have gone by so fast trying to get so many things done at once. All I know is Goodbyes are awful in Manhattan Beach.

Goodbye beautiful scenery ...

Donald Trump's Golf Course. We finally did a hike here and it had the most beautiful views of the ocean.

Goodbye Disneyland...

We went on the last day our passes expired. I will always think you are magical even though my husband does not.

I let the kid's play with my camera while waiting for the fireworks. We were all laughing obnoxiously loud.

Goodbye Dance Forever Studio...

My last recital...these are all the teachers, some of my best friends.

I totally tripped right after this jump and did not recover well. I had a little too much adrenaline but it did make a good picture.

More to come...

Leprechauns

2011-03-08T22:06:00.000-08:00

Our new home...

2011-02-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

So, we just found out our new home will be Phoenix Arizona!

It came as a surprise since it wasn't where we had originally been told we were going but of course, we know by now you have to be flexible, nothing is ever a guarantee in the Air Force. We are excited about Phoenix though. There is only one minor detail that is concerning and it is the fact we will be moving there in the middle of JULY! So we will get a nice warm welcome into the desert. I am not sure how I feel about such extreme weather...every time I think of Arizona I think of Bella holding a cactus in the beginning of Twilight. We have lived in extreme bitter cold, rain almost all year round, 75 degrees year round, and now we will see how we handle extreme heat.

Just a random guess but I doubt we will get the number of visitors we have had here with the beach and Disneyland around the corner. I think in the 5 years we have lived here we have had 60 visitors come stay with us (that is not a joke) So basically Brian and I have been on 60 vacations in 5 year because you know when people come to visit us we act like we are on vacation too....stay up late, eat out, skip school, treats, toys, needless spending...wait, I do that anyway...

I still do not know how we are going to leave a place so beautiful and full of so many happy memories. Wow, it already makes me sad to think about...we have been happy here, it is hard not to be.

Happy Birthday Ella. 6 years old going on 20. She had a pajama party with all her girlfriends and of course Cole. She would not have her birthday party without him. I just barely noticed this but he looks like a pimp in this picture with that look on his face.

Disneyland with our family from Idaho. We got to meet Buzz this day because it was January and you don't have to wait a lifetime to get your picture with more than likely a short woman in a Buzz suit...I MEAN the coolest space hero ever.

Cole's sports class he just started. He happens to be the oldest and tallest in the class by a mile and so he out runs, out throws and out kicks all the other kids. He is in heaven during this hour and thinks he is the greatest that ever was!

It was so nice last week, we had to take a beach day. This is the aquarium at the end of our pier. I have given up trying to keep my kid's hands out of the contaminated touch pools. Gross.

Cole found two sand dollars at the beach that day and was so proud of himself.

This is the first time we tried body boarding with Cole. He was so happy and didn't really want to be bothered by anyone that day. He kept telling everyone, "I have to go surfing."

Disneyland with my brother and his family from Utah.

Karman, invite me to your Blog! Love, Rach

Family Pictures 2010

2010-12-08T00:13:00.001-08:00

Thriller

2010-11-05T18:50:00.000-07:00

We were all going to go as superheros this year and then at the last minute Ella decided she wanted to be a My Little Pony....

Cole kept lifting up his mask and saying, "It's me Mom....it's just me." Thanks Cole

These only took about 50 man hours to finish...whatever happened to a happy face????

Reason I love the Fall

2010-10-27T05:21:00.001-07:00

Disneyland is so fun at Halloween time, all the villains walk around the park. Cruella DeVille is my favorite, she is always talking about how horrible children are...it makes me laugh every time. (My niece Abby came to visit us for a few days)

The beach is deserted in the Fall.

I love Fall weather. This year we actually had some...I had to force my kids into long pants. Cole still refused to wear a coat though.

Cole monster's birthday is in the Fall. He turned 3 this year!

The Pumpkin Patch...even though ours is in a parking lot between 2 extremely busy streets. (Cole took a good hour deciding which pumpkin he wanted...Ella and I tried to help him but after a half an hour we just sat down and watched him walk from pile to pile.)

Deciding

The people running the pony rides reminded me of Santa's elves on "The Christmas Story"

This was the largest face painting I have ever seen.

Manhattan Beach

2010-09-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we like going to the beach in the afternoons. We have Brian meet us down there after work and just relax together. I took these pictures a few weeks ago, my kids love the beach especially in the Fall when there is not many people there. But what's not to like about the beach??? I get to soak up a little sun and my kids are completely zapped of energy when we get home. A win win situation.

I will tell you one thing, leaving Manhattan Beach is not going to be easy. We have about 1 more year before we move and we are trying to enjoy it as much as we can. Ella and Cole might have to be dragged kicking and screaming. Ella was shocked the other day when I told her there is only 1 Disneyland on this side of the country. (A fact that brings sheer joy to Brian's heart...how do you not like the happiest place of earth???)

10 years of bliss

2010-09-08T21:32:00.000-07:00

Brian likes to joke and tell everyone this when they ask how long we have been married. However, most people know I am Italian.

We both decided that we needed to do a trip for our 10 year. We have wanted to visit Hawaii for a long time and this gave us a good reason to finally do it. We were a little in shock as to what to do with ourselves when we got there with so much time and no kids but it didn't take long to become completely selfish again.

We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I kept on trying to get a zoomed picture of this kid that I swear looked exactly like Jacob the werewolf. Brian was super annoyed.

This is the only hike we did...it was on a paved path for about 3/4 mile through a botanical garden...pathetic but we did swim in the waterfall which was so cold I almost died. Brian was waiting a good 20 minutes in the water before I was able to get in all the way.

Shaved ice is a weakness of mine. If Brian would have let me I probably would have gone back to this place 3 to 4 times a day. It was heavenly.

Sharks Cove...snorkeling there was like swimming in an aquarium.

There were a ton of these turtles in the water too. Some people snorkeled with them, I thought it looked fun until Brian reminded me of the special on Discovery where these turtles snap pieces of wood in half... and then said that could be my arm.

Pearl Harbor survivors...it was incredible to meet these men. p.s. I am wearing this hat because my forehead got so incredibly sunburned the previous day it was painful.

Cole Learned a New Trick

2010-06-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap

2010-06-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry, I just didn't know what else to name this entry. We have been going from one thing to the next lately...I actually really like to look at blogs every once in a while to see what people are up to so here's what we have been up to....

My little sister Brittany got married in the SLC temple. When we were younger I used to pretend she was my daughter. I can't believe she is married now. I am so happy for them, they are both the kind of people you just always want to be around.

I did not see Cole and Ella for the next week of our vacation. They were in complete heaven with so many cousins to play with. Ever since Christmas, EVERY DAY, Cole asks for his cousins and constantly prays for them. It was so nice to finally get to see them. Now all we have to do is endure another 6 months of constant praying and pleading.

This is my family and my cousins, we haven't all been together for about 10 years.

This is backstage at my studio's dance recital. Ella had so much fun with her friends...she is such a show off. She gets that from Brian. My costume was too embarrassing to blog this year but a few choice church members got to enjoy the show:)

These are my Goldilocks girls, our jr. company team.

Memorial Day was so fun this year. We stayed at the beach for a long time and played a little beach volleyball with our friends...it was a pretty sorry sight, but entertaining.

This is at Pixie Hollow...Terrence borrowed Cole's golf club he randomly brought to Disneyland that day. He kept on trying to hit a pine cone with it, he was pretty bad at it but Cole thought it was the greatest day ever when he gave him the pine cone to keep.

p.s. we still have that stupid pine cone floating around our house.

The sheer joy Disneyland brings to my children.

Cole was not so sure about Sulley so I had to pose in the picture with him...he looks pretty uncomfortable.

Cole with his pinecone. Ella couldn't stop laughing at Terrence.

This is at the Getty Museum, it overlooks L.A. Two of my best friends came out to visit me. We took them here to see the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit. They had a bunch of his sculptures and sketchings. It was incredible.

We also went to the fashion district and the star walk. This was my favorite thing we came across. I still love Harry Potter.

Random people dress up on the star walk. It is pretty entertaining to see. We both thought our boys would love it if we told them we ran into Spiderman. This dude had a lot of trick up his sleeves, he was more flexible than me.

They Love to Laugh

2010-04-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday

2010-02-27T14:52:00.000-08:00

For my Christmas present this year Brian bought me a trip to New York to visit one of my dearest friends Erin. It was something I will never forget. First of all, I have never done so much walking in my entire life... which was great because most of our day revolved around food. We fit about a week's worth of activities in about 2 and a half days...a concert at Julliard (with a lot of inappropriate giggling), Cafe Lalo, Central Park, FAO Schwartz, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice's Tea Cup, Patsy's Pizza, shopping in the West Village and SoHo, Magnolia's Bakery, Times Square, and dinner at the Ocean Grill. It was enchanting but the best part was spending time with a friend who is about as amazing as they come. I am so thankful for our friendship and so thankful not to be in cold weather anymore. I don't remember Idaho being that cold. Holy crap!

Jonah and I at the most romantic part in Central Park. I'm pretty sure I kissed him more than he would have liked but look at his face...I couldn't resist.

Some of my favorite pieces at the Met.

Our stroll in Central Park. We wanted to take a carriage ride together but ran out of time. Erin says her husband refuses to do this with her...that reminds me of someone I know.

Time Square was crazy and had such a cool energy. We were lucky enough to be the recipients of a free gift from a music group called the Self Made Husslers who were handing out there cd trying to "live the dream." Classic.

Ella decided for her birthday she wanted to go to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique at Disneyland. We took her friend Natalie and after much deliberation, both girls decided to be transformed into twin sister Ariels...of course. It was a lot of fun and the girls got to pick out everything from nail polish to their crown. I will never forget the look on Ella's face when they turned her around to look at herself in the mirror. It was like she had never seen anything more beautiful in her life...I can't believe she is 5!

Ella with our landlords who our kids love. Papa and Peggy.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

2010-02-15T22:58:00.000-08:00

The Ultimate Sword Fight

2010-01-05T20:52:00.000-08:00

I don't want to hear it!

2009-09-02T20:12:00.000-07:00

You do not have to tell me I am a lousy blogger, I already know. But you are going to appreciate this one because not only did I post a photo journal of summer 2009 but I also included a video that is truly for your entertainment. I almost feel bad posting it because everytime we watch it, we laugh hysterically at our little girl who has been living in LA for a little too long. Enjoy... Hope everyone is doing well.

Of course, life would not go on in our house without our visits to the see the Princesses...my children will happily wait in the 10 hour line it takes to get to them. (Cole is in love with Jasmine!) However, trying to get them to sit through a 1 hour sacrament meeting on Sunday is almost cruel and unusual torture.

We had some visitors this summer...My brother and his kids, Maddy and Luke and cousin Lydia came to spend a week with us.

Seth came too! He flew all by himself...we picked him up at the airport and after a few days of nonstop entertainment, we sent him back home to Utah. Brian says if anybody needs a little break from their kids, just send them up...we would be happy to take them. Brian just told me not to write that...people might think I am serious.

The animals at the LA zoo are really friendly!

Are you kidding me?! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree in this family. Hopefully he gets Brian's temperament too.

So this is my one and only picture that I got from going to the finals of So You Think You Can Dance at the Kodak Theater...the sign says no cameras!? What!? And I was so excited to get a shot of me and Nigel...how disappointing. But what really ticked me off is when I got into the theater I found out everyone except me had smuggled their cameras in and where snapping shots left and right.

Ella learned how to swim this summer thanks to Tami! She loves her green googles.

The next series of picture took place within a time span of about 2 hours.

Ella's end of the year Preschool Party.

Owen, one of Ella's best buds...don't be decieved by the cute faces. They are Bonnie and Clyde when you turn your back.

How we do weddings here in California. After the ceremony, everyone was invited to strip down to their swimsuits for some sweet volleyball. Awesome!

Our summer gym class...Superkids. Cole's favorite thing to do was swing on the rings and give no one else a turn. It was awesome!

So You Think You Can Dance!

2009-05-27T20:16:00.001-07:00

This year's dance recital theme was "Toyland." Miss Cari went all out as she does every year...her opening speech was done in a full sized barbie box!....it was out of control. Definitely a crazy week but so much fun. I was so proud of my students and especially little Ella who thought she was the queen of the recital. The kids were so happy...it was a great night. Thanks to everyone who came and supported me. Here are some of the pictures.

The "Wind it Up" dolls

Backstage at dress rehearsal...Ella got to watch from the side and get out of the kid's room for a couple hours...200 hundred kids...those poor volunteers...usually to never volunteer again.

p.s. This is the first picture I think we actually look alike??

This is Ella and Bailey...she was a jump rope girl. I love her!

This is me attempting to take a picture with Ella and Cole after the show.

The teacher dance this year was Pinnochio's I've Got No Strings. I was a dutch puppet with Miss Sabrina, Miss Carina was the russian, Miss Courtney and Nastasha were the can can puppets and Miss Cari was of course Pinnochio. We laughed so hard choreographing this dance...Cari was hysterical. She is now 5 months pregnant...is that carma or what?!!!! Ella got to be the fairy who turned her into a real boy.

By the way, in case you are wondering, this is the lipstick I wear on a daily basis....

Ella awaiting her big moment.

This was the boys Power Ranger break dance. They are actually really good...the little one is so cute...his name is Dunkin and I want to take him home. I told Brian I wanted to put Cole in something like this one day...pretty sure that's not happening.

The Rainbow Bright girls

Ella was a Jack-in-the-box this year. I loved this class and the song. I got it off Party like a Preschooler...so funny, you have to check it out.

ALASKA

2009-04-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to do a Humanitarian trip to Alaska with the Air Force this March. It was a great trip. We sent medical teams of 8-12 people to a lot of the eskimo villages on the coast of the Bering Sea. It was a huge change in weather from southern CA to say the least. It hit 50 below with the windchill at times. We flew in black hawk helicopters...a couple of times the pilots would fly about 20 feet off the ground so they could follow the snowmobile trails because it was so hard to see from the blowing snow. We rode from the gym to the hangar in this cool looking cat track mobile. It could go surprisingly fast in really deep snow. I wanted to take it out for a test drive but of course they wouldn't let me. The medical team I was on consisted of a Navy Medical Doctor, Navy Nurse, Army Dentist, Air Force Dental Tech, an Air Force Optometry Tech and myself. We had a good team. We were able to treat a lot of patients that really needed some care. Some common themes regarding their vision: glaucoma, excess sun exposure problems, and lots of uncorrected near-sightedness. Most of the patients hadn't worn glasses for 5-10 years and when I checked their vision they were 20/400 without glasses. (20/400 is Extremely blurry) The village I was in was Newtok, they are Yupik eskimos. Most of what they eat they hunt themselves and almost all the women wore really cool fur coats that they would make themselves. One of the pictures below is a fur coat made entirely from squirrels. The other coat below has a fur hood made from fox, wolverine, and raccoon. Eating MRE's on the trip got old in a hurry. Although, one day out of nowhere I got a package of cherry nibs in an MRE, I could have sold them for good money but I like them too much and ate them all myself. The principal of the village school took the kids out at recess and made them chase the golf ball (colored black with a marker) he hit with a 3 wood. He liked giving the kids exercise. In the picture where I'm golfing I'm standing on about 6 feet of snow. The golf ball just rolled right on top of it. Although the principal had never golfed on a real course he had a pretty good swing. It was Muskox season while we were there. I had an emergency patient come in with a bleeding/black eye. She had just shot a muskox and scoped the heck out of herself. I told her I would fix it for her only if she let me take a picture of her muskox.

Ella's Big Haircut

2009-03-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

We were wondering if this was a good idea when the whole next day Ella kept saying, "I don't like my hair...I want my old hair back." I kept reminding her that Snow White has a great bob. I also told her that I used to get my hair cut when I was little and before I knew it, it would be long again. The next morning she suddenly remembered what I told her...went straight for a mirror, looked in it with hope and finally said as she slumped her shoulders..."Still short." I don't think we will ever again be able to convince her to cut her hair. I had to do it though...it was taking as long as mine to do in the morning...that's just not right.

Redondo Beach

2009-03-05T20:35:00.000-08:00

Ella took a fieldtrip with her preschool to the Redondo Beach Pier last week. This is one of my favorite areas where we live...right next to the pier there is a farmer's market and a really nice park for the kids to play at. We got to play around for awhile before meeting everyone on the beach for lunch. All the kids brought kites to fly...even though we don't have seasons, we still like to celebrate them for those of you who are curious.

Cole was really excited about the whole kite flying business...he would get mesmerized by it and forget he was holding on to the end. I had to run after it like a fool a few times.

Cole loves the beach...I think this picture is so funny. He looks like he is just chillin

This is Ella's friend Natalie. They took turns holding our $1.00 kite from Target. These pictures make it look like I am a kite flying genius...turns out flying kites by the beach is really easy (no running involved)

Ella calls this thing the twisty turny. It is so funny to watch kids get on this...all you have to do is give it a little turn and it somehow goes faster and faster. They are always laughing as hard as they can and trying to hold on to it at the same time. This is them in action

People at the park call Cole Little Romeo. He is crazy about little girls his size. He can't get enough of them and will follow them around relentlessly trying to hug or kiss them. Most of them push him away and cry and then he starts to cry. I don't get it...he just loves them and won't give up. He is going to have a couple hard lessons to learn if he can't cut this habit. This little girl on this particular day happened to not mind all the attention. He was all over her...the only time I really had to intervene was when he went for the open mouth kiss. Her mother did not like that.

Ella

2009-02-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

Ella sang in sacrament today for the first time. We sang together I am a Child of God and Brian played the piano. We were worried she might get nervous and not want to sing but she ended up leading the way and pretty much running to the podium...it was really cute. She must get that from Brian's side :) Anyway, this is the outfit she wanted to sing in.

Never ever let your husband go to purchase something at Best Buy ALONE

2009-02-11T23:34:00.000-08:00

So hallelujah, we have a camera! And I would like to take a minute and address all the harassing that went on during our blog break. I am not a deep thoughts blogger, I need a picture...I was waiting patiently for my camera to get started again and you will never believe what actually took so long. So we sent our camera in to get fixed thinking we would have it back before Christmas (bitter subject...I had to use the disposable cameras for Christmas this year where all you can see is a face...half the pictures are so dark we can't even figure out what gift the kids are holding up...that's okay, Christmas 2008 really wasn't that important) Anyway, the camera's warehouse happened to burn down! We couldn't get a hold of them for weeks because of the fire and once we did it took them forever to find out that they had never received our camera. So then we had to deal with the post office who decided they didn't have it either. We luckily put insurance on the camera but by the time this process was over and after a million phone calls, I was so irritated. Brian could not have been happier. He loves electronics and as he was searching for a new camera he also decided we needed a new computer. So last Saturday I sent him to Best Buy to look.............He came home with a new Apple (that I do not know even how to attempt to work and consumed 30 minutes of my day yesterday trying to figure out how to turn on the internet), a new printer, a camera, memory cards, cords that I am sure are not necessary AND he told me he almost decided to throw in a new LCD TV while he was there. On his behalf, I did tell him to just get what he wanted BUT I did not mean for him to get everything in his heart's desire. Anyway, I learned a lesson and a couple of things were reinforced to me.

I still hate the post office

Disposable cameras should be illegal to sell

Never ever let your husband go to Best Buy alone

Cole loves to play in the car

2009-02-11T21:46:00.001-08:00

One of these days he going to drive off and leave us. Up side to this...entertains Cole for long periods of time. Down side... when I go to drive my car it is all jacked up and takes me at least 10 minutes to figure out how to get it back to normal.

Some photos from the Beach

2009-02-11T21:38:00.001-08:00

These are the Christmas pictures we took at the beach this year. It happened to be one of the most windy days of the month. Ella's hair looks like a lion's mane and for most pictures all my hair is stuck to my lip gloss. Poor Jonathan trying to get us all looking decent at the same time.

Red Capet Twillight Premiere

2008-11-25T21:34:00.000-08:00

Okay, first of all, my camera is broke. I don't know what happened but I can't post my Halloween or anything else until I send it back...which requires me going to the post office...my absolute worst chore (if you get a package from me this is a big deal). This could take weeks, months...it just depends on how long I procrastinate. Anyway, I will have nothing new for awhile, which should not be anything new but I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving in the meantime.

So I went to the Twillight Premiere with my girlfriends...yes, we did scream along with hundreds of teenage fans and yes, I felt a little nerdy but it was so much fun and I figure I better do some things like this before we leave. And what better premiere to go to than that of my beloved Twillight. I still haven't seen the movie but it was interesting to watch how premieres work.
p.s. I now really want to be famous. I was so tempted to jump the fence and go running in the theater. One girl was actually picked from the crowd to see the premiere for having a Twillight tatoo...which she proudly displayed for all to see (yikes)...another was picked for her awesome vamp outfit. If only I would have known... Anyway, it was a fun night, as if I needed to be more star struck.

Access Hollywood

Laurent

Jenny Garth who is the wife of Charlie

Stephanie Meyer, who by the way is the cousin of one of our best friends from Portland. I wanted to shout that out to her when she walked by and see if she might invite me in.

Jasper

Jacob Black

James

A sobbing Twillight fan who had us in tears explaining how much she loved Twillight. I am not kidding when I thought Rachel Riley might have to recess her from hypervenilating. This is after she got Edward's signature.

Esme

Edward

Emmett

Edward

Denny from Gray's Anatomy, I love him.

Bella

Some wild fans

Charlie

Tagged by Mowrey's and Brandon's

2008-10-18T21:35:00.000-07:00

5 joys, 5 fears, 5 obsessions, 5 suprising facts, 5 tags

Brian...

Joys (this is the order Brian told them to me)
Food
Baked goods
Louis L'amour books
Alone time with Rach
Kids

Fears
Death
Heights
LAX getting bombed
Kid's choking
Starvation

Obsessions
Fantasy football
Golf
Watches
Military garments
Napping

Suprising Facts
I like some chick flicks
Used to wear cowboy boots to church
Can't stand milk
Used to have a tail (a hair tail, not a real tail, but that would even be cooler)
Slept naked from Freshman year until I got garments

Rachel...

Joys
Brian
My kids
Getting my back scratched
Fall time/ Halloween
Dancing /Singing

Fears
Saying my fears out loud (more likely to come true?)
Major disaster happening in LA while we live here (just to name a couple since we live minutes from both LAX and the beach...tsunami, terrorist bombing, earthquake, the city being swallowed up by the earth)
Getting locked in a bathroom (I had a bad experience with this when I was little and it makes me panicky everytime I go in a bathroom that you have to lock the door)
Walking to Missouri
The dark and possible ghost in the dark

Obsessions
Analysing people's relationships
See's candy
Reading love stories
Vacuuming
Good music

Suprising Facts
I actually dread singing in church. (There is something so awkward about walking up to the stand in total silence, singing, and then smiling at everyone as you walk back to your seat in total silence.)
I am extremely clumsy
I can twirl a rifle like nobody's buisness
I lost my first wedding ring
I am shockingly good at the game show Family Feud

5 TAGS
Brody and Kenz
Erin and Mike
Shane and Kim
Dave and Kirsten
Angie and Nick....you will need to start a blog for this but you have two kids now...it is a requirement.

Partners in Crime

2008-10-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

This was the box from Cole's new chair. It kept them entertained for days.

Of course Ella gave Cole the broken pair.

Ella and Cole really do love each other...I think it is so funny to watch them play together.

Happy Birthday Cole Monster

2008-10-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

Cole turned a year on Sept. 27! I honestly think that was the fastest year of my life and it makes me somewhat sad because Cole is such an enjoyable little baby. If all babies came to earth this way I think people would have more children. I still would like to have 4...Brian's count went down to 3?...

Almost 1 year

2008-09-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

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I can't believe Cole is almost a year old...he is growing like a weed and has changed so much (he came out with jet black hair) I actually got asked the other day if I bleached his hair!?? Only in L.A. would some nut job think I actually bleached my 1 year old's hair.

Summer Loving

2008-09-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

Naughty

2008-09-05T20:26:00.000-07:00

Cole is pretty much drawn to whatever is naughty. I honestly am exhausted after a day with him....wires, outlets, blinds, standing on unstable objects, crawling into spaces he can't get out of, toilets...I don't remember Ella being like this. We have roughly 100,000 toys laying around our house at any given moment and Cole consistently goes for whatever is off limits. This particular day Cole took all our toothbrushes while I was cleaning the bathroom and dragged them all over the house. Disgusting

Poor Cole

2008-08-13T21:16:00.001-07:00

Lately Cole has been falling asleep in some of the most uncomfortable positions. He keeps himself awake until the last possible second then collapses from sheer exhaustion. Most of the time we go to check on him after he has been sleeping a long time, he will just be playing in his crib not making a peep. He's a pretty content little baby (unless he's hungry).

Manhattan Beach

2008-08-11T22:19:00.000-07:00

Ella and Cole love the beach...they have sand on every inch of their little bodies after about 5 minutes or so. Cole is really funny, he just scoots along the sand letting the waves hit him...he loves to try out all the different rocks and shells as he explores.

Oh How We Love Disneyland

2008-08-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

Mom and Brittany came out to visit us last week. It was so fun to have them here as always. Brittany got out-shined by Aurora this Disneyland trip. If you can't tell we are on a first name basis with the princesses...if you had a dollar for every minute you spent waiting for the princesses you would be one rich sucker.

10 Year Reunion

2008-08-11T21:45:00.001-07:00

These are the only pictures I have of my reunion...ofcourse my camera battery died. I wish Brian could have been there but I really had fun seeing all my high school friends again. First trip without my kids...my favorite part? Reading my Twillight book without interruption. However, I didn't escape motherhood entirely because Meckenzie's baby spit up orange crap all over my shoulder at the picnic. She's cute, I'll forgive her.

Recent Pictures

2008-08-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

The Army Crawl

2008-08-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

Cole loves to Army Crawl everywhere he goes.
The only time we have seen him crawl normal is
when he is on grass because he doesn't like how it
feels.

Who Let The Frogs Out?

2008-08-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

Waiting back stage with her friends.

This year's theme was "It's a Jungle Out There" I know, my tribal outfit is awsome...I actually had to dance in that thing.

This year Ella was in her first dance recital! She danced to "Who Let The Frogs Out?" She was so cute to watch and apparently has no reservations about being on stage. There was about 750 people at our recital this year and I was a little nervous she would freeze...but she shook it like her mama. I teach Ella in my youngest dance class which always proves to be a little tricky...she thinks she is entitled to everything and has to be first to do anything. I try to talk with her and help her understand...we obviously still have a ways to go!