Birthday surprises...

I've now been 28 for a week (crazy how fast the years creep up!) and today I was thinking about the fun birthday surprises Kevin gave me this year. My birthday was kind of a crazy day, but he still managed to make it special and give me some nice gifts.


As always, one of my favorite treats is a Mrs. Fields cookie. This year not only did he get me a cookie sandwich (looks like a cookie ice cream sandwich but instead it is filled with frosting), but he also got me a Mrs. Fields Happy Birthday cookie card. Imagine a cookie about the size of shoebox with loads of frosting on top. It was perfect!


Kevin also gave me a cover for my cell phone. This was the best gift ever since I just got a new black LG chocolate phone and dropped it on the first day I had it! I basically drop my phone every day at least once when I'm running... so now it will hopefully look a little less abused.


My other favorite gift that I got from Kevin is a Saturday breakfast in bed coupon. I am hoping to use it this weekend. He bought the most INCREDIBLE waffle mix that he's going to use for my breakfast- Williams Sonoma Chocolate chocolate chip waffle mix. I am very excited!

All in all, it was a good birthday! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful and thoughtful husband!

Wedding Bells

This weekend we headed to Utah for Thanksgiving and for Elise and Dan's Wedding. The ceremony and reception were both beautiful!


Here are some pictures of the gorgeous reception at Sundance. Elise and my mom put together an incredible party. This is a picture of the table I sat at. Kevin and I had so much fun chatting with our friends at our table- Regan, Miranda, Liz, John, Becky, Nate, and Jeff. It was so nice that Jeff, Liz, and John could come from Cali to celebrate with Elise & Dan.

Before the reception we threw a little bridesmaid party to honor Elise. It was a nice little break for her from her grueling photo shoot. We had some chocolate truffles, sparkling cider, and of course we brought her a large diet Coke to help her get energized for the partying.

Here's a picture of Elise with the girls- from left to right is Elise (of course), Jessie, me, Colleen, Anna (Dan's sister), and Kathy. Don't our bouquets look beautiful?!


Kevin and I enjoyed a great evening talking with friends and family and dancing. I also got to be the official videographer for the night and as the Maid of Honor I got to give a speech in front of all the guests (about 200). It was definitely nerve wracking!


Here's a pictures of the beautiful wedding cake and the grooms cake. Both turned out perfectly and it was awesome when Dan smashed some of the chocolate cake in Elise's face :)

We feel so blessed to have Dan join our family!

Rock Launchers

Today was one of those days where I felt like I got to have small glimpse of what it's going to be like to be a mom of an 8 yr old boy and to be honest with you... it was pretty funny. After spending about 20 minutes talking with my four favorite hooligans in my class about the importance of not "play fighting" on the playground (they all admitted to having seen too many Cops shows where the police brutalized people, kicked them, yelled at them, etc. and had then chosen to act out their favorite scenes during lunchtime)... I sent them on their way to afternoon recess. When the bell rang for the kids to return to class and head to library I discovered I was missing my boys. As I headed to the front of the school, several teachers stopped and told me that my kids had gotten in trouble. When I walked into the main office, I saw all four boys sitting in the chairs outside the principal's office. Their heads were hung low and I had to give some sort of speech telling them how disappointed I was in them...when really I was cracking up inside. They had decided that since they got banished from playing in the back field, they'd move to the front field and find some new sticks/rocks to play with. Today the activity they came up with was throwing rocks over and through the school fence. Unfortunately, the fence separated them from Stanford Ave. by only a few feet... so instead of just launching rocks over the fence, they were launching rocks into oncoming traffic. Witnesses (other busybody kids who like to get my guys in trouble) said that they heard the rocks smashing into cars that were driving by. As usual, the yard duty teacher was called and all four of my boys tried to run... but since we're on a closed campus, there wasn't anywhere for them to go... so they were herded to the office where they got to meet with the principal. They all ended up getting sent home, so I ended the day having only 3 students in my classroom. I know that I should feel more disappointed in them, but mostly I think their antics are somewhat entertaining. Rocks, sticks, and dirt are their favorite toys... so of course it would make logical sense to try and launch any number of those objects over a fence. I'm just surprised that they didn't think of it sooner. These are the kids that decided three years ago that it would be fun to launch little mini cherries through my classroom window (leaving my floor blanketed in mini-cherries)... so of course as they get older they'd obviously move on to bigger, louder, and more destructive things. I only hope that about 8 years from now I have as good of a sense of humor/positive attitude about my own little guy and the crazy things he gets involved in.

United We Run

Today a few of the girls in my ward and I headed up to Chrissy Field in San Francisco to participate in the 7th Annual “United We Run” RadRockyD 5K Fun Run. We ran from the Yacht Club in the Marina up to the bottom of the bridge and then back. The race was more like 3.5 miles and was awesome. At the finish line we we got Jamba Juice, Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, and granola bars. I was pretty proud of myself for keeping up a decent pace and finishing within about 32 minutes- a much slower pace than usual, but still ok. It is much easier to justify running a little bit slower when you're pregnant and about 15-20 lbs heavier, but it felt so good to be out by the water and running hard! Unfortunately the weather wasn't as idyllic as the picture above- it was overcast, foggy, and probably in the 50s/60s, but perfect for running!

Afterwards we headed to Plutos on Chestnut Street for a light lunch. What a great way to spend a Saturday! I love living so close to SF. I wish I had time to go up there every weekend!

A Night Out At Google

Our friend Jocelyn flew in yesterday and we were excited to spend a little bit of time with her on her whirlwind trip. We headed to one of our favorite dinner locations- Google. Kevin gave us a tour of the Googleplex and then we ate dinner in my favorite restaurant there, Charlie's. Here are some pictures of us posing in front of Kevin's building.

The girls- Jocelyn, Karren and I

Jocelyn w/ Kevin & I

We are excited to hang out again on Sunday for dinner on the opposite coast. I'm counting down the minutes until our trip to D.C. I am hoping we get a little bit of East Coast fall weather. I've missed that this year!

Halloween Pics

Here are some pictures from Halloween. The best part about my costume this year was that I didn't have to do anything! (except wear black... which is what I do everyday anyway). Two of the fabulous third grade teachers made my costume for me. I have a great team.

Kevin's costume was awesome- Mr. Incredible (a perfect fit for him since he is so incredible). If only he would've worn the speedo like his co-worker... :-)


Everyone on Kevin's Google team dressed up like a super hero.


Here is half of my staff (Simeon was a Tae-Kwon-Do instructor and Ashley was a Spice Girl). Yvette was a flapper and John B. was a cowboy... unfortunately I couldn't find them for pictures!


Here is one set of parents from my class. They dressed up for the parade too! The entire family was part of Lord of the Rings, I think?
Here's the great spread of goodies we had at our party and the beautiful Halloween table my fabulous room mom set up. We have several kids with special diets, so everything was basically gluten free, high fructose corn syrup free, and peanut free. My favorite things were Boo Chips and the healthy rice crispy treats!