A Visit from Uncle Eric and Aunt Sarah

My oldest brother Eric and his family came to visit all the way from OHIO! This was Sarah's first time to California and they packed in their days just so they could see as much as they could of Norcal in a week! We had a great time having them stay in our home. Zach and Kali loved playing with Abigail, and Ella and Madelyn seemed to like playing together as well. It was so nice to hang out and play games and really spend quality time with Eric and Sarah that probably will only happen every few years. It's tough living so far away from family! Anyways, here's a nice long recap of their visit with us...

We started the visit off with a family trip to APPLE HILL. This is one of our favorite places and one of our most favorite times of the year! We went to High Hill and had a blast!

Loving the pony ride!

Beautiful view!

Perfect weather and yummy caramel apples! Zach's favorite!

YUMM! Zach ate almost the whole thing himself!! He LOVES caramel apples and Kali won't touch them. haha!

Mark even entertained us for a good five or ten minutes in the Orbitron! haha!

After High Hill we headed over to Mark's parents' house in Camino and he took the kids on Quad rides and we let the kids play and run around for a while before heading home.

Movie and popcorn! our favorite!!

Cute cousins, Madelyn and Ella. They are only six months apart and they became quite the little buds!

A visit to Chick-fil-A! Our favorite! Especially for the free ice cream treat you get when you turn in your toy!

More pictures to come with Uncle Eric and Aunt Sarah and kids. We took a trip to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm with Kali's preschool class. Good times!

I don't mean to brag.......

BUT,......Zach scored 2 goals this morning in his soccer game!! Way to go buddy! He's #19.
(Warning: you might want to turn the volume down so you don't have to listen to my screaming.)




He has really enjoyed playing "REAL" soccer this year. He does fine with all the practices but he really loves the games! Must be that competitive STACY side in him! :-)

The big 29.

I am really starting to finally feel my age. It's taken about 10 years but I knew it would happen sometime! I turned 29 on the 28th of Sept. so this is a little late but I wanted to post about it so I would have it for my blog book. And seriously how many times do you actually get to see pictures of ME?! I had a great birthday celebrating for the whole weekend! The Saturday before I was so lucky to spend an afternoon with some of my closest girlfriends including my sister Kristin getting pedicures and then on to enjoy some yummy dinner at Macaroni grill and then on to the RS broadcast. We had a blast! Thanks so much to my awesome hubby who watched the kids and Kristin's kids so we could have girl time! Then on Sunday Kristin made us my birthday dinner of her amazing homemade Lasagna and a yummy birthday cake so we could celebrate with the family and kiddos. Thanks so much Kristin!! You are seriously the best and I am so thankful to have you here so close!! Check out that bonfire of birthday candles!

Nice job Mom! Way to keep your baby away from fire! (Kali was working on her gangsta signs...nice)

On Monday, my actual birthday, we met up with Mark's family at the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate my birthday and my bro-in-law Jeff's birthday whose is a week after mine. Sheila gave me this new cute hat that Madelyn wanted for herself. It was cute how she kept trying to get it from me and then put it on herself. Here are some pics from our fun family birthday dinner that night!

Thank you so much to all my friends and family who made my birthday one to remember! I love you all!!

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AND.....here are a few fun pics of my cute kids that I took with my new camera that I got for my birthday. YAY! Finally I have some decent pics that are actually in focus and not blurry!

Silly Zach. Can you tell what color his eyes are?

My brown eyed girl.

Happy girl.

Not so happy girl. Apparently she didn't want Kali on there with her.

Had to capture those blue eyes!

AND...my FAVORITE picture of this girl! LOVE IT!

Naptime is for babies....

Apparently Kali has decided to give up her bed so her lovely dollies can take a nap instead of her. What a nice little mommy, making sure her babies get some rest. She has decided that naps are not for her... At least she stays in her room and plays quietly so I can have some quiet time. :)

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On a side note, here's a funny thing Kali said the other day while she was painting:

"Mommy I need another one of those naked papers"

Me: "Naked Papers? "

Kali: "Yeah, like one with nothing on it"

Me: "Oh you mean a blank paper" (hahah, this girl cracks me up sometimes!)

I guess naked works too.

15 months

My sweet baby girl is 15 months old today! Where does the time go?! I swear it was just yesterday that Madelyn was my little tiny peanut snuggling in my arms. Luckily, she still likes to snuggle with me now and especially if I will read her books. If I had to sum up what her top five favorite things are right now it would be:

1. Daddy

2. her blankie

3. reading books

4. going outside to play or for a walk

5. her sippy cup with milk

HAvE JoY give away: Lush Boutique

My good friend Nikki is doing this really awesome giveaway on her blog: Have Joy. I am a daily reader of Have Joy and I love Nikki's writing style and how she just has a way with words...most of the time she's just plain HILARIOUS! She is an amazing person and has been through so much and is an inspiration to me and to so many others who come in contact with her. SOooo, go check out her blog and get a chance to win the FREE giveaway from Lush Boutique!! Look at these amazing pieces from Lush Boutique!

LOVE the ring and this awesome necklace!

I think I could definitely find something to wear with these HOT earrings!

Nikki is giving away a free pair of earrings of your choice from Lush Boutique. PLUS...Lush boutique is offering 15% discount for Nikki's readers until Friday Sept. 11th, so go check out Have Joy to get the promo code and for more details!!

Surprise!!

It's the NEW me and I'm in a little shock too! Kinda fun to make a change and I think I'm starting to like it. What do you think??



Kali said, " Mom I'm so glad you have short hair like me!!" Well, I know at least one person likes it.

Funny girl

Madelyn's new trick!! She pretty much just figured it out on her own while playing in the bath tonight with Kali. At first she started out as spitting and sticking her tongue out in the water and before I knew it she was actually blowing bubbles. What almost 15 month old can actually blow bubbles in the water?!! I think we may have a swimmer in the making!

Other things Madelyn is doing right now at almost 15 months:
*babbling all the time
*says: Dada, mama, bah(ball), muh(more), bye-bye, uh-oh, dee-dyoo(thank-you), ah-dah(all done), nah-nah(night night), dah(dog), nuh-nuh(no no)
*She loves to eat, bananas, scrambled eggs, yogurt, pancakes, cheese, PBJ, nectarines, bread, broccoli, green beans, mac'n cheese, cheerios, veggie straws, goldfish, pretzals, Milk
*She loves to eat with a fork or spoon and is starting to figure out how to actually get food to her mouth using them.
*She loves to read and look at books any time anywhere and with any one that will read to her.
*She also loves climbing up and down our stairs now that she can successfully go down on her own.
*She loves pushing around her baby stroller but with anything other than a baby in it. She puts balls, and cars and all kinds of toys in there to push around.
*She LOVES her blanky and her fingers. Yes, she is still sucking those two fingers on her right hand where two very nice calluses have formed.
*She loves to follow Zach and Kali around and be involved in anything they are doing. She thinks she is big. :)
* She LOVES her daddy. Definitely a Daddy's girl. Any mention of Daddy's name when he is gone and she is running to the door and looking for him. She wouldn't even finish her dinner the other night because I made the mistake of saying something like "Where's Daddy" and it was all over from there. Mark was working and not there and she wanted to get out of her high chair and go find him all because I mentioned his name.
*She loves putting on her shoes because she knows that means we are going somewhere or we are going outside or something that involves letting her walk around on her own.
*She loves to give kisses and wave bye-bye
*She nods her head yes and shakes it side to side no
*She loves the swimming pool and thinks she can swim. Seriously no fear. Just walks right in.
*She is just a funny little girl all around when she knows she's got the audience to entertain.

Gotta love this girl!! She is so much fun and such a sweet little angel girl! We love her to pieces and all the joy she brings into our home! I can't believe she is already almost 15 months! Where does the time go?


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Our Kali girl! Back to School!!

Kali started preschool last week with Ms. Jeannie again and she is loving it already(and so is mom...three mornings a week with only one child sure does wonders!). She loves her teacher and her little friends that are there with her too. I can't believe she is getting so big and going to be our Kindergartner next year. Crazy! Kali is a little ball of energy and definitely keeps us all on our toes. We love the energy and spunk she brings into our home(most of the time)! We love you so much Kali and look forward to watching you learn and grow so much this year!

See you later Mom...

Today was Zach's first day of Kindergarten. He was awake and dressed, his bed made and ready to go when he woke me up at 6:45 am. You think he was excited to go to school?! What happened to my baby boy?! We had breakfast which he wouldn't finish because he thought we were going to be late. So, I took him to school and walked him to his class and he never looked back.
He gave me a kiss and hug and pretty much said "bye, see you later Mom, love you." And that was that. I had to leave him and just walk away. No biggie...except the fact that I am now the mother of a kindergartener! I can't believe how fast the years have just flown by! I am very excited to start the school thing though and watch Zach learn and grow and become the big boy of our family. He is such a big kid now and he is extremely excited to be in Kindergarten at the "big school". Let's just hope the excitement stays as he gets older!

After I picked him up from Kindergarten today and asked him how it was and what he did, the first thing he remembered was, " we got to play on the playground outside!" Well, I guess we gotta start somewhere...why am I not surprised that Recess was his favorite part!?