California Trip Day 1

It is 6:30 am and my kids are up and wide awake. Now i realize that I am lucky that they slept in that long with the time change but still...it's 6:30! Everyone else is asleep, Shane and Steve are golfing. So I figured I'd update you all on our trip. The girls were really great. We got them up at 5 am and told them that they were going on an airplane! They were so excited. We got to the airport an hour early and didn't board till our plane was supposed to be leaving. While we waited the girls ran around in circles, did yoga poses and made everyone smile. The first flight was on a tiny plane. One seat, aisle, two seats. They wouldn't let me hold Heidi on my lap cause the one seat didn't have enough oxygen masks. Shane had to sit by Nat and have Heidi on his lap. He's such a good Dad! I brought little things of Play Dough and that was a hit! They played with that almost the whole time!

We had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Dallas but it was nice. We walked, had lunch and even found a kids play area. The kids had a blast but Natalie kept asking when we could get back on the airplane. On the second flight, while we were waiting to get to our seat, the pilot door was open. We told the girls to say hello and the pilot invited her in! How cool is that?? Natalie got to sit in the copilot seat, wear a pilot hat and touch all the buttons. Such a treat...for me too! Wish I would have had a real camera instead of my iPhone! That flight was much nicer too. We all got to sit together. Shane pulled out his laptop and we let the girls watch a movie. Natalie fell asleep about an hour from LA and Heidi fell asleep a little after. Shane and I got super mini naps while they were sleeping. They were not happy to be woken up after such a short nap! Once we got our luggage and got to go on a BUS...they were happy again. We rented our car and realized we had forgotten the girls car seats in our car. Too many things to remember!! We rented them from the car place thank goodness! From there we headed to In N Out. Always our first stop! The line was  wrapped around the building and out into the street! So worth it! After lunch we drove down to Camarillo. We didn't hit any traffic and made great time! We got to Steve and Melissa and for the rest of the day, Natalie, Heidi and their little girl Madison played together. It was so nice! The girls were so happy and they didn't go to bed till late...for their normal time zone. :) Heidi went down in Maddie's crib and she was out right away. Nat went to bed with us at 9 and did great till about 3. Then she started coughing like crazy and woke up Heidi. Let's just say the rest of the night was REALLy long!! Hopefully we'll do better the rest of the trip. :)

Date Night...or should I say morning??

Shane planned a surprise date for us yesterday. He has really been getting into golfing lately so he took me to the golf course and I got a golfing lesson. It was so much fun! I wasn't so sure about it at first.  I couldn't even hit the ball! But he wanted me to learn so that we could golf together. The trainer was really nice. He watched me hit or try to hit the ball a few times and then he started giving me tips. Golfing is nothing like baseball! I'm so used to that type of swing that it takes a lot of concentration to golf the right way. These are my main points to remember...

Keep both feet flat on the ground and your weight balanced.

Keep your left arm straight and your right arm tucked in. 

Don't choke up too much on the club.

Keep your wrists straight.

Keep your eye on the ball until AFTER you hit it. 

Twist your shoulders and stomach, not your hips and legs.

Follow through with the golf club and twist your hips to follow the ball.

And you have to remember all this stuff every time you hit it!! By the end I was doing pretty well. I'm excited to go again. I honestly didn't realize how much went into golfing. And it's a great workout. You wouldn't think standing still and swinging would do much but this morning when I woke up I could barely move!! My arms, shoulders, back and stomach are all killing me today!! 

After my lesson, we went shopping together and then had lunch at the Carolina Ale House. It was the first time we'd been there and we ended up liking it. It was a nice sports bar, which I didn't know before hand but the food was really good. Especially the french fries. :)  It was such a nice morning! A great surprise and a perfect date. :)

Happy Birthday Sabrina!

 We celebrated Sabrina's birthday today. It was so much fun! We had everyone over to our house and Shane grilled ribs and corn.  Everyone brought food....7 layer dip, chips, salad, and baked beans. I made a cake...chocolate with chocolate peanut butter frosting. Everything was really yummy! Sabrina opened presents first, cause the food was taking longer than expected. Then we had dinner and dessert. After we put the kids down we decided to play Trivial Pursuit on the Wii. So much fun!!! We split into two teams...Shane, Rose Marie, and Bronwyn against Me, Sabrina and Jim. We killed them! They got one wedge of their pie and got every wedge. Woo Hoo!! It was a great. :)

 Grandma and Heidi

 

Natalie helping Sabrina feed Kingston

 Opening presents...this was from Jim and Rose Marie

 

 Ava's gift to Sabrina

 Kingston hanging out under the chair while Sabrina opened her gifts  

 Jayden blew out Sabrina's candles before she had a chance so Shane lit them again

 Shane held Jayden back so Sabrina could blow out her candles

 Thinking of a good wish

 Happy 24th Birthday Sabrina!!

 

Hope you get your wish!

 The girls did not want to take a nap today. Usually Heidi will nap and Natalie will just play in her room but today Heidi was not having it. She did not want to take a nap! She was yelling at me from her room. Not crying just yelling. "Mama! Mama!" Then she would shake her crib a bit. Finally I just got the girls and we went for a drive. Such a waste of gas...but it worked! I had two sleeping girls after driving for about 20 minutes. Then I just parked the car and read a book. So nice! Peace and quiet.

Sick as a Dog!

This has been such a long week! I had bronchitis and didn't gotten off the couch for a week! I still feel week and get tired really easily. I've taken at least one nap every day and I've been loading up on medication and cough drops. Mom took the kids for me two of the days and that was a HUGE help! Thankfully Shane has been off work the last couple days too so he's been taking on all my normal jobs. I am so thankful for my family. I don't know how I would have gotten through this week if I hadn't had the help! They are all amazing!
Now that I am feeling better and finally able to get out of the house...the first place I went was Target! Yay!! Just walking in Target made me feel better. :) Didn't really need anything but definitely found stuff to buy. This afternoon Shane and I took the girls to McDonalds to play. Poor things have been couped up in the house all week watching tv. Not fun for two active little girls! So we let them run and play and they were soo happy!

If These Pictures Had Sound!

Let me just say it has been a long week! Make that couple of weeks. Shane has been working crazy hours so it has been just me and the girls.  It's been over 100 degrees all week unless of course we are having thunder and lightning storms. Either way...we haven't been playing outside much.  All that equals to...my girls are driving me CRAZY!!! They are so silly and have SO much energy. Neither one took a nap today so they were running all over the house, chasing each other and tackling each other. The house was filled with screaming and giggles and "mommy, mommy, mommy" whenever one got pushed too hard. Not really a moment of peace for me but since there is an end in sight...Shane's long days should be over soon...I decided to go with it. I just took pictures and tried to get them to act goofy for the camera.  

This is Natalie's new thing. She'll be sitting on the floor and just throw her legs up to her forehead. How cool is that? I totally wish I could do that!

She likes to just hang out like this and watch tv. I don't know where she got it from...I'm not flexible in the slightest!

Natalie and Heidi chasing each other around the house. Or racing...I'm not exactly sure. :)

 Natalie is only 3. It looks like she is trying to do a handstand or something. Actually I taught the girls some yoga poses that are supposed to help them sleep or stay calm. This is what came from Down Dog/Donkey. It seems to have the opposite effect. :)

 

Heidi does Down Dog too but she just rolls onto her back when she's done...she doesn't try the whole kicking both feet in the air yet. I'm sure it's coming soon!

 I love this girl so much! How can that smile not melt your heart?

Ring around the Rosie turned chasing each other in circles. Do you hear the laughing and screaming??

Did I mention they like to jump? Natalie will jump off of anything. The couch, stairs, playsets...she just loves jumping!

Park Day

Dana and I took the girls to the park today. We went early because it has been so hot and still we were sweating as soon as we walked outside! The girls didn't really care. They got to swing and play on the play set. We walked over to the pond and saw the turtles. They have so many turtles and they are huge. Compared to pet turtles at least. :) 

Natalie and Heidi playing on the swings

 Natalie and Nokie climbing the rock wall. Nat got scared about a foot off the ground but Nokie went all the way up!

 Heidi loved having the freedom to run around! The picture on the right is of her on the teeter totter. I'm on the other half making her go up and down. :)

 So funny! The girls were too scared to go down the big slide by themselves so for a while I was going down with each kid, one at a time. Dane decided to take Nokie and Heidi down at the same time...it was so funny to watch!!

My girls playing together on the teeter totter.

The park here is really neat. They have this water feature that the kids love! So we let the girls play and get soaked. I was happy getting splashed with the nice cold water too! It was a great morning. 

 

Natalie was jumping in the puddles...Heidi liked to stand in the spray of water :)

 Heidi was totally soaked! She had so much fun playing in the water!

 Natalie getting splashed by DeDe

 Happy Girls

The only shot of all three girls. Nokie is in the background with a little boy. 

When we went back to my parents house to drop of Dane and Nokie we saw this... 

This butterfly was on my dad's shoe. We was hosing down something, spraying water everywhere and this butterfly was just hanging out on his shoe. He said that it had been on his arm and shoulder and foot for a while. Just hangin out. :) I thought it was pretty cool.