Merry Christmas!

Yes, spending time on the beach in December. Actually it was perfect weather, and we are so lucky to live where we do. We have a huge Christmas Tree at the end of the Hermosa Pier and everything looks so beautiful and festive.

Shaina is off to her dads house in WA and that means we've already celebrated our Christmas. We opened all our presents and we've had a great, great holiday. I made a nice Turkey and a big dinner and it's just been so nice to sit back and watch everyone else rush around to get done. Jaeli does not seem to know that we celebrated early! :) Merry Christmas to my loved ones, friends & family. We're so fortunate to have each of you in our lives and as busy as thing are and as little as we may show it, we love you.

Benadon

WOW! Ryan and I went out tonight on a date night and met up with some of his law school buddies. These are very close friends and our entire gang loves to spend time together as much as possible, which unfortunately is not often. Well tonight, we rented a limo party bus and made it happen. SO fun. We made stops and breweries and had a nice dinner and danced on the bus. I can't say SO SO fun anymore because it just sounds stupid, but omg SO FUN.

WE must do that more often. Next get together WILL be a poker night at our place. I can't wait.

Rockin' around the Christmas Tree....

I wanted to write baby it's cold outside as my title, but it's been pretty darn warm and sunny. I guess that's the ONE downfall to living in So Cal, and honestly - it's not that bad a downfall! :) We sure do love Surfin' Santa.

We are all ready for the holidays (pretty much) for us Christmas is TONIGHT! WOOOO i'm the most impatient person so the holidays that allow us to celebrate early is a great treat. I just can't wait for Shaina and Ryan to get home so we can begin. TO pass the time, i'm going to play w/ the neighbor boys ... maybe even go to the park, and then i'll bake. I was going to make this big Turkey Dinner tonight but i have not even purchased a Turkey so that just might not happen. Ryan is trying to talk me into it, but I think i'm flat out of time.

Sat. we get to hang out with some really wonderful friends at a birthday event that has evolved into something so fun it has it's own title. "The Benedon" Well be heading on a party bus to San Diego Breweries and having a great time. I can't wait. Jaeli will be with her grandparents driving them batty for the day. It's for Ben's birthday, I swear these boys will be having these grand birthday parties until they are 80, plus! :) Which if you THINK about it... the adults are the ones that need those parties much more than the 1 and 2 year olds ...

Merry Christmas friends, we miss everyone so much. I started this blog to keep you all up to date, and I'm doing a terrible job.

OH a couple things going on in our life:

• Ryan's office is moving, this is a huge ordeal they hired movers the entire deal. I don't know how these guys took the time to pack when they never have their noses out of work longer than an hour. :) I can't wait to help my hubby decorate his new office.


• Shaina will be gone for Christmas but home for New years Eve. It's wild here on NYE so i'm not sure if that's a good thing.


• Jaeli hates Santa but looooves to say HO HO HO. It's so funny. HO HO HOOOOOO SANTA but if we go see him in person she says, "nooo?" I didn't have the heart to force her on his lap, what's wrong w/ me? I've gone soft.


• We are BOOKED for our trip to Mexico for Jaeli's 2nd b-day (now that's a party) We will be in Cabo and I just can't wait for it. We're trying really hard to coax the Kimball's into joining us. I think we might have them hooked.

Saturday night Shaina went to her first concert! She went to see LMAFO wait, no LMFAO (I always get that wrong) and she not only got to get in the front row, but she MET the group! Why didn't stuff like this happen to me when i was younger? Oh to be young and carefree again.

Jaeli has a double ear infection and eye gunk. Poor babes. We've got her on Amox and she should be better in a couple days! :) yay.

Ok - more lately, I feel boring.

loves me not clothing

loves me not clothing

I just got home from Amy's house! We had such a blast and it was so good to see her again and just hang out. She paid me back, when she was here Jaeli was really sick. And when I got to her place her lil Savvy got sick :( Lucky it was a quick one that seems to have passed by quickly.

We got a ton done, lots of packing from her Holiday line. We stayed up late and pushed it all out in two days! We had quite the assembly line going...

I sure will miss Denver, but not as much as I missed my sweet Hubs and Shaina bear. Shaina is at a concert tonight and I'm anxiously awaiting her to get home so i can give her a huge hug!!!

Happy Birthday to my SWEET hubby!

Today is my husbands birthday, which is really fun! I made him cupcakes starting with cinnamon sugar mini cupcakes and then went for the vanilla w/ cream cheese frosting. Of course I colored the frosting blue his favorite color! Then I was rushing to get Shaina from school and was carrying Jaeli down, and we fell down the stairs. (she's ok. I'm ok. nothing to see here folks, move along) I dented the breadbox on our way down and knocked over all the cupcakes so they were not as pretty.. BUT i did manage to get them loaded up into the car (baby and all) and got Shaina (a little late, but not bad) and her friend Danielle and we headed for downtown. I managed to miss the exit to his work, which is REAL bad because you are DOWNTOWN Los Angeles and ummm yeah, not good.. BUT we made it before he left work thanks to the fabulous female attorneys he works w/ helping me out by stalling him and the fake meeting we held in the conference room to yell SURPRISE Happy Birthday!

He said it was the best birthday ever! That made it all worth it.

We then went to the sports store and picked up a new softball bat. We came home and I made Lemon Herb Chicken over spaghetti noodles and french bread and now he's off for a Wed. night softball game!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie. We love you!

Lift me up!

Jaeli LOVES the doggies! She wakes up first thing in the morning and says, "Doggie" and looks for them. Usually they are in Shaina's bed, but she still looks each day. She loves to pick them up and Lance, well let's just say he's a trooper! :) I love the look on her face her while she's picking him up. She's just so proud of herself.

Halloween is here...

What a fun weekend we had! Sat. morning we took Jaeli to Fort Lots O fun, our local park. Our park put on such a fun time. We had a puppet show, toys to pick from, pumpkins to decorate, cookies to frost, family photos, cute witches, pumpkins and Halloween fun to color & more ALL FREE. Jaeli was going to be a Monster but it was boiling hot so we put on her dress up clothes and she was adorable and not drenched in sweet like some of the other kids.

Isn't she just precious?

Daddy had a great time too.

After the park we went home for a nap and then we went for a run on the green belt.

It was lots of fun and a good way to get all that energy out after a nap!

After we went to dinner with Shaina and Conor (her boyfriend) I wonder if it's one N or two? hmmm I'll have to snap a cute photo of them...

Sunday we woke up and went to daddy's softball game! So fun! Jaeli loves to stretch, too.

And Sunday night I got to go hang outwith my girlfriend Kelly. :)

where's my HUG?

So, I was doing dishes this evening like the good house keeper you all know me to be. Jaeli was being really demanding and just wanting to play, which is cute and all but I really needed to get this stuff done. Ok - truth, the house keeper had just done it all and I was cleaning up after myself trying to KEEP it clean, I can't take her credit for it being clean in the first place. This entire house would look like my teenage daughter's room if it were all up to me.

anyway, Jaeli wanted me to play with her - I really was only ignoring her for a small amount of time. Well she came up behind me for what I THOUGHT would be a hug. She does that, she walks up and hugs tight and goes, "awwwwwweeee". I love it, it's sweet and loving and yes, she learned it from moi. But guess what? She's mad, she wants to play and she didn't hug me from behind as I was putting them pans away... she BIT MY ASS H.A.R.D ! Who does that? Oh yowza.

So yeah, I think I have teeth marks and the first thought from my mind was that I hope Ryan does not think it's the mail man that bit me, although with all those packages he has to deliver all the time I'd sure he'd like to slap me.

Anyway, I'm better now for those inquiring minds and tomorrow I plan to fully play with Jaeli all DAY. NO DISHES. We're going to wake up and hit the local park for a little Halloween fun and a puppet show (no not the little finger puppets) and then the day is open for all day Jaeli fun! :)

I didn't think Jaeli would get her hands on this little sweetie for a very long time! Do you have any idea how hard it is to score a Bamboletta Doll? Really, not easy! I had to buy this one from someone who bought it, who knew someone, who knew someone.. ok, not really but it was not easy and a vey special someone did think of Jaeli to help us get her.

Bamboletta Dolls are all unique one of a kind, and hand crafted. They are stuffed w/ wood and will absorb the smell of your home and are comforting to your little angel.

Jaeli just loves her, she's so adorable and her name is Jentry. I knew it was Jentry when I saw the package, and so i let Jaeli help me open it. She took her out of the packaging herself and said, "oooooooo baby" and has been toting her around every since! It's just too precious for words. Thank you, Valerie for thinking of Jaeli.

If you're interested in trying to get one, she releases new dolls on her site each Friday. They usually sell out in a matter of minutes so there is not a lot of time to think. Right now Jaeli is feeding Jentry Cherrios and reading Where Is Baby's Bellybutton to her. SO CUTE!

http://bamboletta.com/

The sun it out today, which i'm a little sad about... I really wish it was raining again so i was not more tempted to hit up the park then do this pile of laundry.

So, have i mentioned that Shaina has a boyfriend? last night Ryan came up and asked if i knew my daughter was on the phone at 11:30pm. I asked how she was all of a sudden just MY daughter? Then I asked if he took the phone from her room, of course he said no - rookie.
Shaina asked me a couple days ago if i liked having a teenage daughter. Is that a trick question? Really? My answer, "I do. I like seeing the decisions you make and I love to be around you. I love it that we can talk and get ready together. But it's hard too because I want to protect you from all the hard things that teenagers endure".

Jaeli is starting to tell me when she goes potty, but everything is poo poo. LOL She's growing up way to quickly and I just know she's going to be asking me if i like having a teenage daughter before I know it!

First blog ever...

Hello! Wow -my first ever blog!!! I've wanted to set up a blog for a very long time. I'm creating this when I should be doing so many other things. Getting my screaming toddler out of her booster seat, doing laundry, dishes, all those things in life that seem to build up faster than I can keep up and still, I'm blogging away happy as can be.

So I'm uploading photos right now and I have some really good memories, I remember before we had digital photos i would hold photos in my hands and just sift though them time and time again. Look at each detail so close and over and over.

So, I'm Stephanie. I have a happy family (well speaking for myself) I have a very loving husband, Ryan. A level -headed and beautiful 15 year old teenager, Shaina. And an ever so adorable and active, charming toddler, Jaeli. Life with them is wonderful.

So, I'm not sure what to really say. I just wanted to get this off the ground. Hoped to be able to keep my family and friends updated on our life in this busy world. So hopefully you enjoy it.

Is anyone else really worried about swine flu and to vaccinate or not to vaccinate? I am. I really don't like feeling confused and not knowing what is best for my own children. That is something i'm just not used to feeling and to be quite honest, I don't like it. I know that was random, but that's what is going on in my mind - all day long.