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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Ryan Turns One!

Ryan turned ONE on Sunday (October 27th). He is an absolute delight and seriously the happiest little kid. We LOVE him and enjoyed celebrating his birthday as a family doing his favorite things... eating food, playing with balloons & balls, and driving toy cars around. He is really easy to please.


Ryan would've been totally fine with just a balloon as his only birthday present, so we made sure to blow several of them up for him. He also had a birthday waffle that Kevin made him that he loved.


He looked so handsome in his special birthday shirt from Grandma Shari and loved the wrapping paper that came with the puzzle she sent.


The big kids had fun opening all of his presents and helping him play with them. They were actually really good at letting him have time to play with his toys too. He loved the puzzles, cars, and clothes that he got from Grandma Shari and Grandma Julie & Grandpa Kim. He felt very spoiled!





Sunday was a busy day of baking because I helped with a church event in the evening. I made probably 4 dozen pumpkin bars and pumpkin cookies and also made some mini funfetti bundt cakes for Ryan's family birthday party.


We made sure to give him the chocolate one so that he'd be extra messy... because first birthdays are way more fun with a mess!


Sampling...


Yum! Little dude started shaking because he was so excited about his yummy birthday treat.


He was such a cute birthday boy!


Sunday, October 20, 2013

2013 Girls Trip to San Francisco

Over the summer when I was sleep deprived and dreaming of the days when I could go on a little getaway without my kids, Elise and I hatched a plan to have a short twinner girls trip to San Francisco. Kevin was super supportive and his mom even came into town to help him out a bit, so last Thursday night Elise arrived and we headed off to have fun!

Thursday night we picked up Jessie and headed to Cream in Palo Alto for some ice cream sandwiches. This was my third visit but the cookies tasted way better this time than the previous two times. I think being able to sit down and enjoy them without little people begging for bites of mine or dripping ice cream everywhere made the experience a little sweeter.

Friday morning we woke up and hiked the Stanford dish with Jessie. 


Then we got dressed & packed and headed up to SF for an afternoon of shopping and lunch and treats in the Marina. We ate lunch at A16, had treats at Susie Cakes, and then shopped till we dropped on Chestnut and over by Union Square and the Westfield Shopping Center. 


I had a mini cupcake and part of a brownie. Both were delish!


After all that shopping, we checked into our hotel down by Fisherman's Wharf and had a quick dinner at Boudin before heading on a walk down for dessert at Ghirardelli.


Elise and I are big fans of walking and working out on vacation so that we can eat loads of our favorite foods and not go home 10 pounds heavier :)


On Saturday morning we met our favorite friend (and old roommate) Liz for a run across the Golden Gate Bridge. The run was about 6 miles (to the bridge, across, back, and back to our cars) and my rock star sister ran the whole way at 30 weeks pregnant. We loved catching up while we ran.


Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with another trip to Susie Cakes... this time for the whoopie pies that Liz had been raving about. Yum Yum!


After our run, we went back to the hotel to drop a few things off and rest for a sec and then we walked down to the Ferry Building for the Farmers Market. I had never been to the Ferry Building, so had a blast roaming around. We had lunch at Gotts and then trekked back to our hotel. It was a three mile walk round trip... so I made sure to use my Charity Miles app so that I was earning $$ for Parkinsons every time we were moving.

After the farmers market we went over to Lands End for a hike. The weather in SF was seriously gorgeous all weekend. I got a little carried away hiking since the weather was so pretty and we probably hiked another 4 miles up and down hills/stairs... glad I didn't put Elise into early labor!


We finally showered and relaxed a bit around 5pm and then headed to Indian Oven for dinner with Jessie. We hadn't been to Indian Oven in over 10 years... but it was just as good as I remembered it. MMMMMmmm! Kevin and I will need to go back there again soon.

We rounded out the night with a trip to The Ice Cream bar for dessert. It was adorable and our sundaes were delicious. I think I might make it a new goal to try out all of the ice cream places in SF. 


The other highlight of the weekend was scoring a free bib for the Nike Womens 1/2 Marathon. We were chatting with a lady in line at Gotts. We were friendly and helpful and she offered Elise and I her bib for the 1/2 marathon because she wasn't going to be able to run after all. Elise wasn't sure her prego 30 week self was up for it... I am lazy and not in good enough shape... so we passed it off to Jessie who is in much better shape and she used it well!

I had to post these pics of Jessie because she is absolutely a running rock star and just cracks me up. Love having this adorable little sister as my friend. So proud of her for completing the 1/2 marathon!



I ended the girls weekend with an amazing 10 hour night of sleep... and then drove home this morning in time to see Andrew in the Ward Primary Program. So grateful for my super star husband for keeping the kids so happy all weekend and not destroying the house. :) Can't wait for our next girls trip!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Partying for Jessie's Birthday

Last weekend my parents were in town for General Conference and to just hang out with us... but also to celebrate JESSIE! We had a big crazy family birthday party for her on Sunday that was way too much fun.

We started off with some balloon volleyball.







Then we hung out and waited for Cat, Sophie & Scott to arrive. Andrew learned how to play checkers.



Mom made Jessie a super yummy cake. I used my polka dot serving plate that I made for the first time. I love it. It is perfect for birthday cakes.


Then we got ready for the games... first up Booty Bingo!


Everyone had to go around and say their favorite thing about Jessie. Everyone drew a picture on their bingo board for each thing that was said. We wound up with each board looking very different... but all telling about Jessie... and then we played BINGO! Apparently my family doesn't know how to play bingo though... there were a lot of laughs in this game... and a lot of kiddos sneaking M&Ms. It was perfect.

Next up we played a new game I invented. It is called "Where in the world is Jess?" I took photos from her instagram feed from the last year (plus a few FB photos) and printed them off. Then we gave everyone a band for their hand with a photo on it. It was kind of like Headbandz. You had to ask questions from everyone else to try and figure out which photo you had on your head and where Jessie was in the photo. 


World traveler Jessie had some great photos we got to use!





After a few games we watched a session of conference and then we continued the party afterwards with cake & ice cream!



After that we whacked the pinata for awhile... till we finally got it to break








The best part was when Jessie got whacked in the face by the pinata


Scott finally destroyed it




The last game we played was called "Dress like Jess." I had Jessie bring up some accessories from her house. Then we got into two teams and had a relay to see which team could dress like Jess the fastest. You had to put all the items on, pose for a picture, take them off... and then the next person in your group had to go... until everyone had a turn. It was so funny! Here come the blackmail pictures




Scott looks pretty good in heels




All in all the party was a blast and it was so fun to spend time with our family celebrating Jess!! We love her!