Getting Settled and Valentines Day

Life has been crazy ever since we left Utah to visit family and play over the holiday season. What exactly happened is a whole other blog post that probably will never happen because I seriously don't want to re-live it. What is important now is that we are more than excited to be here n Arizona enjoying our first home. They say that an individual is lucky to find a home that is about 85 percent perfect or 85
percent of what they hoped for, well I feel like I've won the lottery because our house, to me, is 100 percent perfect. I have been absolutely enjoying the work of settling our little family in our house. It's been a ton of work but its been so fun at the same time. We bought a new couch, entertainment unit and dining room table all of which we are anxiously awaiting to arrive which wont be for another 5 to 6 weeks, total bummer but more than worth the wait. I can't wait to post pictures.
So now that most of the work is done I can get back to blogging more frequently. I woke up this morning to a beautiful bouquet of roses and breakfast from my sweet valentine Bryan. I'm such a lucky girl! Enjoy the pics above and Happy Valentine's Day! xoxoxo

My Birthday Princess

Yesterday we celebrated Brooke's birthday with our families. My sweet girl turns 5 a week from today and with our upcoming move this coming weekend I'm not sure I'll be able to do a blog post on her birthday. I hope I can but we will see so just in case here goes...
I can't believe my firstborn is turning 5. It can't be. It seems like yesterday she was born, my healthy 7 pound 7 ounces 19 3/4" long baby girl that was born on 2/7/06 at 4:37pm. Yes I remember everything, how could I not? I was so happy she was here, healthy and safe. Can it be that she will start kindergarten in September? Time is flying by way too fast for me and I wish it would just slow down.
Brooke loves anything pink, princess, and sparkly. She's my girly girl. She was elated with all of her birthday gifts which mostly consisted of Barbies, Disney Princess things (mostly Ariel from The Little Mermaid her favorite), her first bicycle (Princess of course) and a pink princess portable DVD player. When I ask her what is her favorite birthday present she replies with an excited "All of them!"
My sweet girl was so thankful for her little party and kept thanking me all day for making her "beautiful pink princess cake."
Brooke your mom and dad love you so very much. We are so proud of the smart, witty and beautiful little girl you have become. You have the most outgoing personality of any other person I have yet to meet. Though I'm excited to see what choices you make and the strong woman you will blossom into I pray these next five years will come a bit slower...ok a lot slower.
I love you my Brooke Claire! Happy 5th Birthday!
Love,
Mommy

Dig It!

Yesterday while watching the KTLA morning news, I saw a segment about this new place for kids called Dig It. It's located at the Valencia Town Center Patios. Kids can go on three different adventures and learn all about rocks and minerals and lots of other fun stuff.
I took a mental note of it but really had no intentions on jumping out the door and going. The weather was gorgeous today and I decided to take the kids to explore the patios at the Mall and just hang out and enjoy the sun. Well sure enough we ended up right in front of Dig It. It looked kinda quiet so I decided to go in and explore a bit. At 10 dollars an adventure I thought why not Brooke was already begging to go dig up some fossils and pretty rocks.
We spent well over an hour there before it was time for lunch and it was worth every single penny! She had a blast, picked out an awesome amethyst rock that she dug up herself to take home which was part of the 10 dollars. Brooke even used some "power tools" to polish up her treasured find.
This place is awesome and I fully intend on taking her back!!

A Visit from Santa Claus!!

Santa Claus dropped off some pretty awesome stuff for Brooke and Brody! She, I mean he did a great job. Brooke is obsessed with Ariel from The Little Mermaid so I did a complete Disney Princess theme for her with lots of Ariel stuff, everything you could find that had Ariel on it was under the tree. She was so elated, the day before we went to see Santa Claus at the mall and she told him she wanted lots of Ariel stuff.
Brody loves cars, and trains and anything with wheels so that is what Santa brought for him, his favorite thing though was his Thomas train that you shake and it speeds off. Brody loves chasing after it.
It was quite the challenge to take pictures that morning, I kept going back and forth between the two of them. It was fun though and to see them so happy and excited just melted my heart and brought me great joy.
Bryan and I didn't exchange gifts this year since we bought a house. We have lots of fun grown up purchases coming up like a new refrigerator, and furniture and fun stuff for the new house. I'm super excited to go shopping with him, and even more excited to make our new house our home.

Christmas Eve Gift Exchange

Growing up as a child Santa Claus came after midnight or before bedtime in my family. I never had the "typical" American Christmas where Santa came at night while you were sleeping and I had no idea what stocking stuffers were until I married Bryan, I had always thought Christmas stockings were just for decorations. Anyways my family and I still hold our gift exchange after the big Christmas Eve party or try to at least. Brooke and Brody were WAY spoiled this year. There was plenty of Ariel dolls and Barbies, cars, trains, clothes and a scooter..the list goes on. My mom and dad gave me this awesome mirror that showcases all of your wrinkles, beautiful new flatware for our new house, shoes, and lovely throw blanket and my sister gave me a beautiful new jacket, iTunes gift card, and a travel mirror that showcases all of your wrinkles (is everyone trying to tell me something?? Kidding!! I love them both), and an iTunes gift card. I love my family so much! I'm so blessed!

Christmas Eve 2010

Ever since I was a child my family, along with my large extended family celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. We have a huge Christmas Party with such yummy food. Everything is usually Chinese food except for my mom's turkey and potato salad. Everything was delicious especially my Aunt Ling Ling's sticky rice, (she makes the best). The house gets loud, and the presents tumble up the stairs because we always run out of room under the Christmas tree. We had a great time as always. Here are some photos I took of the kids. Enjoy!

I'm Still Around

I'm still here. I have 3 more days of fun until it's back home to pack up our house in Utah and start up some fun new adventures in home ownership in Arizona. I'm super, super, super excited but a tad nervous about all the work of packing and moving that lies ahead but I'll survive...I've done it before, I'm pretty much a pro.
I have super cute pictures to share from Christmas~ look for them soon!