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Family
10.13.08

Dayna’s Shower!

MOMS & DAUGHTERS

My mom, sister and I threw a bridal shower for Dayna and had such a fun night. We played a fun game that helped us get to know a little more about Dayna and Austin, ate delicious food (thanks again Jen, Nancy and LeAnn!) and had a great time getting to know Dayna’s cute friends.

Car and I with the chefs…they know better than to leave the food up to us!

Dayna got so many fun gifts! Made me want to have another bridal shower myself. Isn’t she beautiful! Austin is one lucky guy.

xoxo, Erin
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Family
10.13.08

Good Things

Happy Birthday Claire! My sweet niece turned one on September 28th. What a little doll! Love the homemade butterfly cake Car. Very impressive. Can I hire you for Ellie’s birthday in January?
Its been a busy/fun/stressful/emotional/crazy/sleep deprived/exhausting/exciting week…

MONDAY – spent all day running last minute errands and packing…packing our whole house and then some. I have developed a finely tuned skill for over packing. Really – I’m famous for it.

TUESDAY – regular morning of running the girls around to dance/gymnastics, etc. and then headed to St. George, UT. Arrived at 3:00 am Wednesday. Sleep deprivation now begins.

WEDNESDAY – fun day with family. Kenny and I went through the temple with Austin and Dayna for their first time. It was a special day and I’m so glad we were there with them. Late night hanging out with family.

THURSDAY – Threw a wedding shower for Dayna at my mom’s house. Fun girls night!

FRIDAY – Lots of last minute wedding preparations. Dinner that evening at Dayna’s with her cute family. Addison had an allergic reaction and broke out in a rash. Note to self: no eggs for Addie.

SATURDAY – Dayna and Austin’s wedding! Temple ceremony in the afternoon and a fabulous reception that evening at my mom’s house. (pics to come soon!)

Also enjoyed lots of cousin time.
Love spending time with little Claire. Love that Addison is past this busy stage.
xoxo, Erin
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Good Things
10.05.08

Good Things

Happy October everyone! My pumpkin lights are up and glowing! One thing I absolutely love about having little ones is that I now have others to share my excitement for holidays and lights. I love holiday lights. I’m always the first one in my neighborhood to put up Halloween and Christmas lights. I do it early because I love the lights so much and want to enjoy them as long as possible. I like to add a little something each year to the outdoor decorations too. My goal for Christmas is to someday seriously resemble the Griswolds. (I drive Kenny nuts with this goal since he ends up helping install the plethora of lights) So now the girls are into lights too and this week we started a fun tradition. After baths the girls put on princess dresses like always and then run outside in the dark to turn on the lights and twirl around them. They look so happy and carefree spinning around the lights laughing and singing. I love watching them. Happy October. Happy lights.

Another good thing this week has been my “FOUR REAL” CD. Since our So You Think You Can Dance concert Angie and I have been a little obsessed. She burned us a CD of all of the music from the show and it has been so fun dancing around my kitchen to it. We were also so inspired by the dancing that we decided we needed to start dancing again on some level (regardless of what we look like!). So last Wednesday I went to my first Jazzercise class (combination of aerobics and dance). I’d been hesitant to try it because when I hear Jazzercise I think of leg warmers and jazz hands – it sounds so 80’s! But the class wasn’t 80’s at all. It was really fun and a great workout. Nice break from step aerobics and the treadmill which is my usual gym routine. We’re also interested in trying out an adult hip-hop class. Any San Diego friends want to join us??? Yeah…next year Ang, it’ll be us dancing on TV… (or maybe we’ll stick to the kitchen!) :)

I found this today when I went to walk up my stairs during Addison’s nap. Apparently Ellie decided to put all of her “friends” down for a nap too. Each stair does make a perfect little bed…doesn’t it.

I’m normally not that into Saturday Night Live, but it has been so hilarious during the election! Tina Fey imitates Sarah Palin so amazingly well and is such a crack up! Love her.


Kenny had a slower day at work Friday (shock!) and came home around 2:30 to work a little from home. He went to pick Ellie up at preschool so I didn’t have to wake Addison up from her nap. I suddenly found myself with an unexpected half hour all alone in my house. Instead of cleaning or tackling one of the many things on my to-do list, I plopped down on the couch to enjoy my latest edition of Creating Keepsakes. I so love this magazine. It is full of bright colors and happy photos and scrapbook pages. Very inspiring. Always makes me want to create something. It is a total treat when it comes in the mail each month.

This smile is always a good thing.

So this week Kenny has been spouting off a few of his own “good things.” His list for the week includes: his Chargers season tickets, his NFL Sunday Ticket on DirecTV (complete with the “Super Fan” package that makes all his games in HD), the “red zone” channel that instantly takes him to the most exciting football game on at any given moment, the “Game Mix” channel that let’s him watch eight games at the same time, the MountainWest Sports Network that finally lets him watch all the BYU and Utah games (yes, he’s a fan of both teams), his DVR that records all his games so that he can be an attorney, dad and husband during the waking hours, the sleep he was able to get during the offseason to build up enough stamina to stay up late every night to watch his games, oh… and let’s not forget his incredibly cool wife who still tolerates his football addiction (the season is still young). He is a happy man.

xoxo, Erin
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Fun with Friends
09.30.08

So You Think You Can Dance Live!!!

So You Think You Can Dance live!!! What a total blast! Kenny and I went with our friends Angie and Eliot (also major fans of the show) to see the dancers on tour. The show was INCREDIBLE! The crowd was going crazy, the music was so loud, and the dancing was AMAZING! I LOVED IT! It was hard sitting to watch the show without wanting to jump up on stage and start dancing! The dances were even more fun to see in person and I loved the dancers this year. They have such fun personalities and are so talented. We had a great time and I’m already looking forward to doing it again next year! It was “buck y’all…for real!”


Added bonus: getting to meet Judge Mary Murphy. Can you say “AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” What a night!
xoxo, Erin
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Good Things
09.30.08

Good Things

Finally good stuff on TV! Fall line-up has begun and our DVR is smokin‘! Wasn’t Office the best? Love that show.

My pumpkin spice candle. May not look like fall outside, but it smells like fall inside!

Healthy Choice Chicken Chow Mien. I really like this meal. Aside from it being so tasty, I feel like I’ve cooked because I warm it up in a pan instead of the microwave.

I’m really liking the picture at the top of my blog because it is such a good representation of my little family at this moment in time. I’m wearing a favorite green shirt. Addison doesn’t ever go far without her blankie. Ellie is always clutching onto her “friends” (a few princesses and her bunny and dog. The bunny is named Hallah. Huh?) The girls ALWAYS want to be wearing their princess nightgowns and if we’re home, they’re in them. And… if you look closely, Kenny is holding his blackberry. Of course. Very us.

We had a great weekend. So You Think You Can Dance was the highlight, but we also went to Sea World for a few hours Saturday morning and had a lot of fun with the kids. It was great because it wasn’t busy now that school has started. We walked on to all of the kiddie rides and the girls got to ride them again and again. We usually have to bypass this section because the wait is so long. Still had time to visit some favorites – dolphins, flamingos, sharks and Shamu. We were home by 1:00 for Addie’s nap. Great morning with the little ones.

xoxo, Erin
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Fun with Friends
09.21.08

Good Things

Lots of good things this week! First of all – a new blog makeover! Change is always a good thing. I finally figured out how to design the header (are you impressed Heidi?) – Kenny still had to help with the technical HTML codes (putting said header on blog). Thanks babe – I know how you just LOVE to spend your evenings helping me with my blog. :)

I had such a great “mom moment” this week. One thing I love about my gym is that I can see into the windows of the kids club (where my kiddos play while I workout) from the treadmills. Every once in a while while I’m exercising I see the top of their heads running around. Last week I saw them run by and for the first time, Addison looked up and saw me through the window. She got so excited and she ran to find Ellie and they both stood there waving and blowing kisses to me with the biggest smiles on their faces. I started frantically waving back and blowing kisses to them and everyone on the treadmills lining both sides of me were looking at me like I was a total idiot. I didn’t even care. For some reason it just hit me and I was so overwhelmed with love for my two girls. I got a little teary eyed and just thought about how much I love them and how much I really do love being a mom. It was the highlight of my week. (Now I just need to remember that moment the next time they paint all over my carpet)

Another VERY good thing is the Waldorf Chicken Salad at California Pizza Kitchen. I love this salad! It has chicken, grapes, apples, walnuts, and my favorite – Gorgonzola cheese – covered in the best vinaigrette. SO GOOD! Of course dinner with friends is also the best. Happy Birthday Angie!!!

I’m a list maker. I LOVE to make lists. I make to-do lists every night (sometimes twice a day). I make lists for things I need to get done, projects, goals, recipes, scrapbook/blog stuff, ideas/ activities for my kids, etc. I hardly ever do half of the stuff on my list and sometimes I make them and don’t even look at them, but there is just something wonderful and therapeutic about making a list.
Last Wednesday (my one free morning w/o the girls) I headed to the UTC mall in La Jolla and had some fabulous alone time. I love San Diego malls! They are all outdoor and full of beautiful vines, flowers, and palm trees. It’s so fun walking around surrounded by so many enticing stores all in one place, feeling the sunshine and the ocean breeze…just makes you in the mood to shop! UTC is also fun to take kids to because they have a kid area with a jumpy, train, and little toys to play on. But I do have to say…malls are always more fun without the little ones! Speaking of lists and malls…is it too early to give Kenny my Christmas list? He just loves that every year I give him a list of things I want and then say “and don’t forget to surprise me too!”
Lastly, a good thing for my girls. They had such a great time this afternoon helping daddy pick lemons off of our lemon tree. The tree gets so covered in lemons that we have to keep picking them before they are even ripe. Kenny throws them off the hill and the girls love to pick them up and play with them and put them in bags to throw away. We don’t even eat lemons. We call the tree my mom’s “diet coke tree” because when she comes to visit she’ll pick a lemon for her diet coke and that’s the only time they get eaten! The girls also had fun playing with a snail they found among the tree trimmings – kept them entertained for an hour. That was a good thing for the whole family!

xoxo, Erin
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Ellie and Addison
09.15.08

Good Things

My girls and the color green – two very good things.

Move over Addison! So when I had baby #2 I lost my scrapbook room. That was a sad thing for me, but at the time it didn’t matter too much because I was so busy and overwhelmed with baby #2 that I didn’t have time to scrapbook anyway. Now that my baby isn’t as much of a baby anymore (Ellie will tell you – she’s a toddler) I’m finding I actually have a free minute or two every once in awhile to (gasp) do something for me!??!! I decided to do some rearranging in Addie’s room and make it into a nursery/scrapbook space. Turned out better than I thought and I’m hoping it will inspire me to start scrapbooking the countless number of pictures I’ve been taking.

What was life like before i-pods? They really are such a good thing. They can make anything fun…cleaning, exercising… also a great way to tune out fighting children.

Ellie has been really into favorites lately and we’ve had this conversation countless times this week:
Ellie – “mom…guess what!?? My favorite color is pink, my favorite animal is a unicorn, my favorite food is cupcakes, my favorite friend is Amy, my favorite dress is my blue one, my favorite place to be is a swimming pool with a slide, my favorite princess is Pocahontas……..
What’s your favorite color mom?” (FYI – that would be green)
She’s a girl who knows what she wants.

My husband is having a great time right now (despite the Chargers loss this afternoon!). In fact, I’d say he is having the weekend of his dreams. It consists of football, football, and of course – more football. Kenny met my brother, dad, and brother-in-law in Denver Sat. morning for a guy weekend. They go each year to see the Chargers (Kenny’s team) play the Broncos (Austin’s team). The game was so intense! They are having a blast and I’m happy that Kenny is getting some much deserved down time. (Don’t get too cocky Austin…Chargers are gonna come back strong!)


So while Kenny was having a great time at the Charger game, I was busy with my triple action Resolve Carpet Cleaner. Moved all of my scrapbook supplies into Addie’s room….forgot to move my Color box ink pads high enough that the girls couldn’t reach them. Yes – I walked into quite a sight last night. I was downstairs unloading the dishes and I had the monitor on so I could hear the girls playing upstairs. I was just thinking wow – they’re playing together so nicely…haven’t heard anything for awhile. Then I heard Ellie say “Oh Add – I love that color on you – purple is so pretty.” Huh? I walked upstairs and into Addie’s room to find everything COVERED in ink. Their bodies, clothes, and worst of all – my carpet. It was a rainbow…pink, purple, green, yellow. I was livid. I chewed the girls out and threw them in the tub (both crying) and then went to work with my Resolve. I thought we would for sure be replacing that carpet, but amazingly enough, after about 30 minutes of scrubbing the carpet looked great. I can’t count how many bottles of this stuff I’ve gone through since I’ve had kids. I love it – I should do their commercials.
***funny side note – when I was scolding Ellie and horrified that my carpet was forever going to be a rainbow of colors she said “sorry mom” and I answered with “sorry isn’t good enough! You know better!” Then when I was scrubbing the floor and they were in the tub I heard Addie say “sorry Lolly” and Ellie answered with an angry “sorry isn’t good enough Add!” Despite the situation I had to laugh.
xoxo, Erin
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Ramblings
09.11.08

IF

If… I loved my thighs in skinny jeans

If… I didn’t spend the majority of my days at the park

If… I had an extra 300 dollars to spend on whatever frivolity I chose

If… I lived in a place that was actually cold enough in the winter to justify warm foot wear

…then I would have to have these

xoxo, Erin
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Ellie and Addison
09.07.08

Good Things

Text me baby! My two years with Verizon was up (go “New every Two!”) so I got a new cell phone. It’s flat and opens up to a keypad so I can actually type my text messages. I’m excited -I feel so hip and cool and new age. I’m going to be a texting machine. Translation – now I’ll text ten messages a month instead of five.


Mercer Mayer books are simply the best. Loved them when I was little, loved them as a teacher, love them as a mom.

After being in St. George for a week I’m so happy to be back to San Diego freeways. I have a bit of a lead foot and a need for speed – lucky for me so does everyone else in this city. I love getting on the freeway and cruising everywhere I need to go. Nothing against St. George, but driving in that city drives me CRAZY! Stop…start…stop…start…pass retiree moving at 13 mph…oh wait…can’t pass because there are only 2 lanes…stop…start again…slow down because speed limit is 30 (30????? Are you kidding me?) I actually like to get where I’m going. Love San Diego freeways.

Night at the beach with girl friends. Girl friends are always a good thing.

Pre-school started! Yea! Ellie went back to pre-school this week and the really great news is that Addie started a little ‘pre‘ pre-school. It’s only one day a week for four hours, but she loved it! She had so much fun and loved that she was a big girl going to pre-school like Ellie. Kept saying “Lolly (Ellie) goes to pre-school and I go to my own pre-school!” The best part is that I had four hours (FOUR!) all to myself. No kids. It was magical. I was so efficient! Unpacked from our trip, cleaned my house, went to the gym and still had time for a quick Target run! (It usually takes me a week to unpack alone) Three cheers for pre-school!

(The girls on their first day of school)

Last good thing for this week: Kenny and I celebrated our 11th Anniversary yesterday (Sept. 6). I can’t believe we’ve been married 11 years! I met Kenny when I was 15 (he was 17) so now I’ve known him for over half of my life! I love our old high school pics when we first started dating because we were such little kids. I remember that before this picture we were BOTH so excited because I had just gotten my braces off! ;) Love you babe – Happy Anniversary!

(Nice pic Kenny – way to stake your claim. When is this hair style coming back??? I have big hair and love to rat!)
xoxo, Erin
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