And so it continues...: July 2009

Sunday, July 19, 2009

the quota trip

ok so here's the post on the details of our recent quota trip. last year joe's entire team made it to 100% of their expected quotas so they were rewarded with this quota trip. so as a team they all decided to go to laguna beach for 4 days. they are allowed to go anywhere in the US, but the more it costs to get there, the less spending money you get to spend during your free time. so we went to laguna beach which is fairly close, only a few team members had to fly, the rest of us drove. we stayed at the Ritz Carlton and all got ocean view rooms. the rooms normally cost about 1500 per night!!! no way will we ever spend our own money to stay at a place like that, so it was fun to be a little out of our comfort zone.

each employee was allowed to bring a spouse or whatever, but no kids. we got to bring taylor along cause im nursing her. all the other moms were so jealous that she was with us, and just loved making her smile. but anyways, we were given as a couple $1600 spending money to use on food and entertainment. we were not allowed to actually buy anything, just spend it on having a good time. if we didn't spend it all we didn't get to keep it, it was strictly use it or loose it. so we decided to go to legoland one day and also went to the little aquarium that is next door to there. then we checked into the hotel which was crazy fancy. that night we had a little team dinner get-together thing at the hotel. all the employees and their spouses got little gifts from their manager. the next day we went to disneyland and had fun riding a few of the rides taylor was allowed to go on.

while we were at disneyland i thought it would be cute to try some funny hats on taylor. of course they dont make them in newborn size, so most of them were way too big. this first one was by far my favorite. she was having soo much fun! these are the other two that were pretty dang cute too

the little princess minnie mouse hat with the veil and crown and everything :)

you cant really tell, but this hat did have mickey ears on it

she really liked riding it's a small world. there were so many colorful things for her to look at. not sure why the camera didn't take a very good picture, cause she's looking kinda orange. i think it just had something to do with the flash

and of course the standard end of the day picture. i dont think it matters what age your kid is when you take em to disneyland. this is what they ALL look like when it's time to go home. we had a blast on our trip and are anxious to take landen to disneyland next month after auntie jenna's wedding. i plan to spend a little time down in san diego with joe's other sister april and take landen to legoland. so more fun pictures to come soon!!!

we both got really nice hour long massages at the spa there at the hotel as well. that was my first experience getting a massage, and i really really hope it's not my last. we also went and saw the medieval times dinner and show thing which was pretty fun.

this is us checking out the big horses before the show

i looked like a total retard wearing the crown, but i think taylor was able to pull it off :)
taylor was such a good sport not being on her normal routine of 2hr long naps three times a day. she would just take little half hour power naps here and there and stayed fairly happy the entire trip. we had her sleep in a crib at night and put the crib inside the bathroom so it was quiet and dark for her. i tried to call and check on landen at least once a day, but he didn't really want to talk to me. he was having too much fun staying at his friend isaacs house one night, then my moms house for two nights, then at his friend alaura's house for the final night. this was his first experience getting to stay the night at a friend's house and i think he really enjoyed it.

one night we just stayed at the hotel and ordered room service for dinner and then decided to watch a movie. they offered this "movie package" thing so we said what the heck. it included this little spread of movie treats along with a voucher for a free in-room movie. so we watched the wolverine begins movie and it was pretty good. all for the price of $43 LOL

4th of july party

well this year the 4th of july was tons of fun. a couple neighbors and I decided to throw a 1st annual block party. we made up cute little flyers and passed them out to every single house in the neighborhood (there's only about 30 of us) and put some flyers up on the community mail boxes too. we invited friends and family and all had a great time getting to know each other. we had soo much food, and the kids played with water balloons and jumped themselves silly in a bounce house we rented. of course had to do some fireworks too. one neighbor even brought some of those cool illegal ones that shoot up high in the air and explode all the pretty colors!!! this year landen really really loved watching the firework show. it was soo cute just watching his face as each one would go off. he kept telling me "mommy fireworks make me soo happy!". he had a rough time when the show was over and we had to go back home. and he still doesn't really understand why we cant do fireworks every night. we did save a few boxes of sparklers, so maybe some night this week we'll suprise him and let him light a couple :)

taylor didnt stay awake to watch the firework show, but after it was over and nearing time to clean up she came out and visited. landen was so excited to show her fireworks and tell her all about the 4th of july. earlier she was wearing a cute patriotic bow and little blue jean shorts, but by the time this picture was taken she was down to only the stripey onsie. it's just too dang hot in bakersfield to wear much more than that!

carianne holding one of her babies (she'll have to tell me which one it is). neither of the boys were very happy about the fireworks, so they spent most of the night on someone's lap. getting the whole party set up was alot of work (thank you carianne for doing so much of it) but it was soo worth it!

i've got to say this is a pretty dang good picture when you figure i took it myself and it was pitch dark outside so i had no idea if i was pointing it in the right direction. my sister is seriously the best at those self portraits, but ive always managed to chot half my face off most of the time. i cant believe how big landen has gotten lately. maybe's its just that i notice how big he is compared to taylor, but man he's growing up too fast for me!

here's a few of the kids all lined up to watch the firework show. notice that none of them were wearing shoes, which is not a smart thing on the 4th of july! as soon as the big stuff was done, the kids were all excited about doing sparklers, and of course there was an injury of poor isaac burning his foot. next year will definitely be safer :)

one of our awesome neighbors brought this out to the party for all the kids to play on. they just loved bouncing each other up and down. this is bubba and his little sister quinn. notice that he is standing up on his feet while launching her poor little body way up in the air. she wasn't even scared though! their mom was the saleslady in our community back when there was a model home. we invited her to the party and everyone enjoyed catching up with her since she sold us most of our homes.

i thought it would be fun to have both kids wear red, white and blue for the holiday. i found this super cute t-shirt at target for like $4. can't beat that huh!?!

quinn defintely liked the cupcakes...not that she tasted much of it though!

this is lacey and isaac with landen. these three are all so close in age, it's just perfect for them to have someone to play with. lacey is actually in swim lessons with landen this summer. so they get to swim together, while her mom and i (and both our baby girls, who are 2 months apart) sit in the heat and visit.

my two handsome boys and issac making some crazy face. the kids were all soo good about staying in their seats to watch the fireworks. and everyone who knows landen knows what a miracle it must have been for him to stay in one spot for more than five minutes. i swear that boy is allergic to sitting still LOL

summertime fun!

First off, thanx to all my loving friends who encourage me to continue blogging. im going to try to start doing an update at least once a week. its soo crazy how fast time flies by when you're home all day with two kids. even now that im done babysitting for a while i find that there's still never enough hours in the day to get all that i want accomplished done. but this summer has been alot of fun so far living in a neighborhood with lots of kids, going to swimming lessons, visiting family at the beach and watching landen and taylor play together. and of course landen constantly chasing the poor kitty around the house!

what makes summer fun without a few trips to balch park? there's lots of dirt for landen to eat...i mean play in! he even managed to kinda catch his first fish on this trip.

these two are going to grow up and be best friends. i can't wait til they can actually play together!!! i have got to upload a video of them talking to each other and reaching for each other cause its soo dang cute. it's soo fun having these cousins so close in age (only three weeks apart).

this was the ONLY picture from our trip that we took on my camera. this is the sunset deck at our hotel overlooking the beach. more pictures from the trip will be posted as soon as joe pulls them off his camera phone for me. we had a great time but i really missed landen. we were only allowed to bring the baby since she was nursing. we stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point and went to legoland, disneyland, california adventures, the little aquarium next to legoland, medieval times dinner and show, got fancy nice massages at the spa at the hotel and ordered crazy expensive room service. all of which was paid for as a reward for joe's whole team doing really well last year! hope this isn't the last one of these trips!!!

living in bakersfield isn't possible unless you are in the pool. we are soo grateful that grandpa lets us come over whenever we want to enjoy his pool! landen is also taking swimming lessons this summer and is doing really well. he can go under the water and swim a small distance. he has to wear goggles though or else his poor eyes get soo red and dried out.

my younger brother buddy came home for a very short visit from the air force where he is stationed in texas this past week. it was the first time he had met taylor and austin. it was great visiting with him and his girlfriend chelsea who got to come too. we sure miss him when he is gone and wish that he could live closer. luckily he's able to come home a couple times a year and hang out and play with the ever expanding family. landen just loves his uncle buddy!!

Monday, July 6, 2009

i NEED comments

k so i know there are ppl out there who read this
but it seems that no one ever leaves comments
please do!
it makes me think that ppl actually care what i write :)