She's 21 now

My baby sister (well one of 'em), Emily, turned 21 on April 25th. She decided on Easter that she DID in fact want a dinner party with family & close friends. So me, being the super rad sister that I am who has absolutely nothing else on my plate, offered to put it all together for her :) We reserved her fave restaurant, coordinated decorations with her outfit, she asked my mom to bring an album of baby photos and we invited guests. It was a really nice fun evening that I know meant alot to her. I was so happy to be able to help and happy to be a part of her big day - I left the REAL partying to her friends ;)

I made those table runners! This was actually at the end of the night after the parents and grandparents and kids had left haha SIBLING SHOT! :) Buttery nipples MMMMM

The REAL sibling shot :)

Auntie with her niece and nephews

Her fabulous friends

My nephew was macking on one of the waitress. He is too much in his lil undershirt!

Birthday cake

Birthday margarita!

She got carded when she was ordering her drink haha

Pretty soon I'll be celebrating her 21st *tear

She and her friend went and got matching tattoos.

Christmas with my family

I'm not sure if I had mentioned yet that I got the greatest Christmas gift ever when my mom agreed to come to MY house for Christmas. This is a HUGE deal people! Since I was 7 or 8 I have always shuffled around houses on Christmas day between parents. When I got married that added yet another house to visit on Christmas day. It wasn't THAT big of a deal until we had kids. Well I should say until we had Colby. Shuffling 2 kids aged 1 and under and their normal baby loot PLUS all the Christmas loot got to be quite a feat. Our families and our home are spread out along the four corners of Kern County. Oh it can be exhausting and really can take the fun out of the holiday when you're just running around all day. So since last year when we got our own home I've been begging my mom to let me host, at least once. This year, I'm still not sure exactly why, she relented. It was the BEST gift ever! Add to that that we talked my inlaws AND my dad to come over for our Christmas time with them. So we didn't have to go ANYWHERE this year! Oh my it was amazing let me tell you! Not sure if it will happen that way ever again but for just this one year I got my wish :) Thanks again Mom! Ok so more than a week later here are just a few of the pics from our Christmas day. I didn't really get to take that many since I was the hostess :)

Here is Lacie giving her Auntie the presents she picked out.

These raincoats were inspired by that chilren's book that Madonna wrote. Given from Poppie & Mammie.

Auntie gave Colby a gigantic stuffed dinosaur! So cool!

My mom was reading Beverly Cleary to Lacie and she fell asleep!

Up next, Christmas morning, a couple videos, and the gifts I made :)

Thank you Auntie!

Thank you for french braiding my hair Auntie! I love you! Love, Lacie

Decorating the tree...twice, and an early present!

Last Tuesday we got our Christmas tree. It was kind of a downer because we weren't really happy with any of the trees in the lot (that weren't $100, oy!). We were spoiled last year with the monstrosity of a tree that we were lucky enough to find for only $30. It's a tree, that's going to die in a few weeks time, we're cheap! So anyway, we got our tree home and as we were enjoying our pizza, before decorating, the doorbell rang. Surprise! It was the delivery man delivering my very early Christmas present - a new purple camera!!!! Eeep! I love it!!! Thanks baby!

I was so excited to get to try it out right away with pics of us decorating the tree! So this post is a wee bit more image heavy than it would otherwise have been! haha It's no SLR but it's gorgeous, sleek, and definitely an upgrade from my previous camera!

So here are a few pics of me just playing around with it. It doesn't hurt that my kids are gorgeous ;)




That first night with the tree we actually only put up a few decorations: the lights, our Hallmark ornaments from last year, and the star. It was late and a school night so we just did that with the promise to finish decorating the next night. The star was a big deal. For the past 3 or 4 years, Lacie has been the one to climb up on Daddy's shoulders to put the star on top. Well this year, for the first time EVER, Colby announced that he wanted to! Lacie wasn't too happy, but we let her have the job of plugging the star into the other lights :)

The next night, David was at work but my sister surprised us with a visit. It was fun having her here when we decorated the tree. Reminded me of our childhood :)

a partial view of the tree. ignore the mess. and i plan on adding bows to the tree so it's still not done ;)

Kern County Fair Part 1

We LOVE the fair. It's just so much fun (even if it has gotten a lil ghetto LOL) but dang is it expensive! Luckily these year we got in free both times we went!


The first time was just David & I, with my sister and her friend. She works at a local hospital that has their big company dinner there every year. So we got free admission AND free dinner (THE BEST DEEP PIT EVER!). And the best part was that this was all on the night that BOYZ II MEN were performing!!!!!!!



I was so stoked to see them! But when we got to the concert area the place was PACKED! I could not believe how many people were there! But we still got to hear them and kinda sorta see them.







All in all it was a really nice night and I am SOOOO thankful to my baby sis for getting us such a screamin' deal! :)