Haulin'

Here we are gearing up for our big Memorial Day weekend plans. On Monday we are planning a bike ride down to Huntington Beach for breakfast with some friends, so we needed a bike trailer. Pictures of the ride will follow, but here's Wes and Daddy assembling our new toy!

"Ok Wes, insert double-winged lugnut washer screw 'A' into rounded square intake valve 'X' and tighten with single pronged air-powered ratchet gun (not included)."


Daddy is an expert assembler, so we were ready for a test run in no time!

It's a pretty comfy ride!

I made it around the complex, but the 8 mile round trip ride on Moday will be the real test!

Uh oh.....

we have a climber!!!!

Cousins

We spent last Thursday with Cash and Haley. Cash and Wes are five months apart and before we know it Cash will catch up to Wes and they'll be wreaking havoc together!

Cash loves playing in the laundry baskets!

And we all went for a nice walk around the Lake.

Wes loves his cousins so much!

An Obligatory Photo

Doesn't every mom have a picture of her kid unraveling a roll of toilet paper??!!

It's amazing how quickly they take advantage of a door accidentally being left open. I'm actually really happy that he stopped at the toilet paper and didn't head straight for the toilet!

Birthday Bonanza!

On Saturday May 15th we had a fun filled day of celebrating our friend's birthday's! We started out in Irvine for Mattie's 3rd birthday party and then headed to Murietta to celebrate Uncle Nathan's 30th! We were even invited to Wes' second cousin Camden's 5th birthday party but unfortunately we weren't able to make than one. What a popular Saturday for celebrations!

You can't see them too well, but Wes got a new pair of Rainbow flip flops to wear for the summer. They have a heel strap so they even stay on! They are the cutest things you've ever seen!

Mattie had a bounce house at her party and while all the big kids were eating cake, Wes got a few minutes to bounce by himself. He thought it was so much fun, he just cracked up the whole time!

Mommy got some bouncing in too, those things are really fun!

Playing with Auntie Caitlin at Nathan's party.

Wes got in some pool time with Daddy and Auntie Madison.

Wes is really into "fill and spill" right now. He loves to put things in and then take them out of just about any container. This fish bowl that he got from Grandma Susie has been so much fun!

Wes and his friend Gianna had lots of fun playing together. Remember her first birthday party? I can't believe Wes' is right around the corner!

Unfortunately we didn't get a single picture with the birthday girl or boy! Oh well, Happy Birthday Mattie and Nathan and thanks for the fun parties, we had a blast!

A Few Things I've Been Making

And it's not just baby food this time!! But I will start with the baby food to get it out of the way :) Here's some great double duty recipes we're enjoying right now:

Broccoli Pancakes : http://www.takebackyourtable.com/2010/03/broccolie-and-cheddar-pancakes.html (We both loved these, I might try half bread crumbs/half whole wheat flour next time)

Turkey Veggie Chili : http://weelicious.com/2009/02/03/turkey-veggie-chili/ (this is really delicious, I did change it a little though. I used black beans instead of white, added corn, and substituted 1/3 c. pureed butternut squash for the diced tomatoes. I also cut down the spices a little and used half chili powder and half taco seasoning. I pureed this a little for Wes so it wasn't quite so chunky and he gobbled it right down!)

I've also been making some recipes from Deceptively Delicious that my friend Sarah gave. Wes is loving the Chicken and Rice Balls and Baked Spaghetti. And I'm having fun adding vegetable purees to my tried and true recipes.

Ok, moving past baby food:

Some new bibs for Wes' cousin Cash

A few '50's inspired aprons for Mike's sister Madison's engagement photo shoot. Thanks to my mom for sewing the blue one for me!

Some blue and pink Cake Pops a la Bakerella for Baby Nora and Baby Nathaniel's families.

I'm glad I gave most of these away or I would have eaten every single one!

Psalty the Singing...

If you grew up at Calvary in the '80s you know exactly who I'm talking about! Psalty the Singing Song Book, oh the memories I have! Before I continue with where I'm going, I must stop and mention how extremely sentimental I am. Those of you who know me, or perhaps just those who read my blog (remember this Morning Sickness post?) know that I can hold on pretty tight to my stuff, my memories, and my need to remember it all. To my husbands great irritation, I will tell him of childhood memories I have and then demand he recreate them with me. This includes dragging him to the pumpkin patch. Since most adults sans-children would pick up their halloween pumpkins at the supermarket, it was a little awkward for him following me around the pumpkin patch and seeing how excited I would get pointing out all the pumpkins. He was very greatful to be holding Wesley this year and I know he was thinking, 'now I have a kid, so it's ok to be here'. Apple picking in Julian was also another wonderful memory I have from my childhood. This one wasn't so hard to convince Michael to do, since apple pie a la mode is a good bargaining chip. Unfortunately in 20+ years things can change a little, so I often end up dissapointed when reality doesn't match up to memory. But I'm going to try to hard to create memories with Wes that he will remember and cherish when he's an adult. Plus if he inherits some of my sentimentality and some of Michael's amazing memory, he's bound to remember it all. It's ok if you want to laugh at me or cry for me, I usually do both!

Ok, back to Psalty. And I do have a point. I grew up with Psalty's Kid's Praise music and now that Wes is loving music (he bops his head when I sing to him) I have little bits of songs running through my head, but I can't quite remember all the lyrics. And since I'm so sentimental (ok, point made) I had to try to find some of those songs. So I googled Psalty and their website is up and running and you can purchase all the kids praise albums and dvd's! I bought Wes Kid's Praise 4, Singsational Servants. It's crazy how I haven't heard these songs for 20 years, but as soon as I heard the tune, all the words come right back to me!

http://www.psalty.com/

Pimp my Ride

I know, I know...totally inappropriate title for a blog post, but it was the first thing I thought of and I just had to go with it. It's actually pretty fitting since whenever grandpa comes to visit he brings along some pretty spiffy wheels!

Grandpa Al has had this bike since Mike was a kid. He said Mike used to ride on the handle bars, but I think riding around the complex without a helmet is as crazy as we're going to get.

Grandpa came to visit again on Thursday and he brought his Harley. He also brought his pair of cool Elvis shades. I love these handsome men!

Grandpa's showing me all the gears and buttons and my mom has a feeling he'll be showing me how to ride before too long.

Long Live the King!

I have been an Elvis fan for as long as I can remember. I was probably one of the only 12 year olds (of my time!) who knew much about Elvis, let alone loved him and his music as much as I did. I even had an Elvis scrapbook where I kept any memorabilia I could find. That included stickers, cards, and the album covers to all the CASSETTE tapes I owned. And there was actually quite a bit in print about Elvis back then, remember the "Elvis is Alive and spotted at a Dunkin' Donuts in Toledo" conspiracy craze. Glad that's over!! I even made a pilgrimage to Graceland with my friend Sarah after we graduated high school. One of my favorite all time trips!! The pictures from that trip are in my Elvis scrapbook in my mom's attic and when I get time to rummage through my stuff up there, I'll post the pictures!

Anyway, the whole point is there is a new Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas called Viva Elvis at the Aria Hotel and Michael got me tickets for my birthday. Wes had his first sleepover at Grandma's house and we enjoyed our first night away. It was just a quick trip, but so much fun. The show was amazing and a wonderful tribute to the incredible artist that Elvis was.

I got Wes this onesie at a little boutique in Long Beach before he was even born. But these glasses are a souviner from the show! He'll be wearing them all summer.

Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of ourselves while we were there, but as an afterthought I snapped this picture for this blog post!

Wes also got this cool lunch box. We listen to Elvis Radio on XM in the car, so I know he's going to be a big fan too!

Just so I can remember down the road, Wes did really well at Grandma's house. He wouldn't nap or drink much milk, but he slept all night in the pack and play and had lots of fun playing and going for walks with grandma. When we came to pick him up, he was so excited he started crying a little! But the poor kid was delirious from not napping, so it might have just been the lack of sleep :)