And it Begins...

The other day, I was getting the kids dressed in our bedroom while Chris was getting dressed. I was putting Katelee's dress on and Ethan was jumping on the bed. By this time, I was already exhausted with Ethan, and was just letting him jump. He wasn't bothering any of us so I figured "why not?" Well I go into Katelee's room to get something and I hear Chris tell Ethan to stop jumping on the bed and this is Ethan's response................"Mommy Let Me!" I just had to laugh! I guess the days of playing his mother and father against each other has begun!

Katelee is 9 Months Old

It's hard for me to believe that my little lady is already 9 months old! Seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital! She is a lot of fun to have in the house and definitely has her own personality! She is very opinionated and likes things her way. Ethan was such an easy go lucky kid, Katelee is the complete opposite!

Katelee official has two teeth. She also has less hair than Ethan did at this time! By this time for Ethan he had already had a haircut and was probably in need of another one! Katelee still cries in the middle of the night. Most nights I just let her cry, unless it is a scream that isn't normal for her! Ethan was a very good sleeper at this age... Katelee is finally getting an appetite, however she is still picky with her bottles and who feeds them to her. There can't be much going on around her when it's time to eat one or it's just not going to happen. Katelee is an early bird, you can count on her being up around 6:15-6:30 every morning, but sometimes she is sweet and goes back to sleep! (this is very rare, but happens everyone once in a while) She has started army crawling, and loves to bounce on her hands and knees, but when she wants to get somewhere she will pull herself around on her belly! Keeps the wood floors clean, but gets her clothes all kinds of crazy dirty! She loves her binky, she can even scream and cry bloody murder with her binky still in her mouth! It's quite amazing. She loves to have her legs crossed at her ankles, many nights we find her asleep on her belly with her ankles crossed, or even with her butt in the air and her ankles crossed. Katelee still adores her brother and especially loves to chew on his shoes that he throws at her in the car! Overall Katelee is a happy girl most of the time. She gets grouchy when she doesn't get her way, but what girl doesn't?
I decided to add a picture of Ethan at the age of 9 months. They have the same cheeks and nose!

This Could Top the List....

So I have written about a Proud Mom moment and I have yet another one or two, I'll let you be the judge of the last one. Yesterday at church there was a kid named Ethan that got baptised. Of course when they said his name, Ethan got excited. So they were giving the other Ethan a blessing and they said something to the effect of Ethan your Heavenly Father is proud of you for getting Baptised and our Ethan looks up at me and says, "I got baptised!" It made me smile, Ethan knows that he has to be 8 to get baptised and when you asked him what he is going to do when he turns eight he will say be baptised! But that is not the only Proud Mom moment for yesterday. I go to pick Ethan up from nursery and his socks and shoes are off. I ask him why he took them off and the nursery leader says "well Ethan is pretty wet. He went into the bathroom and put paper towels in the toilet and flooded the bathroom." I would have loved to see my face, I'm sure it was quite funny. My son at the ripe old age of 2 1/2 has plugged his first toilet! Congrats on the achievement son... You have many great accomplishments ahead of you, I can just feel it! So I guess my son is the "kid" that every nursery leader dreads having in their class! But we love him to pieces!

Our Fourth Anniversary Part #3

So at Lovers' Pointe we climbed out on some rocks and actually got someone to take our picture. This man had a beautiful accent, which we found out was from Germany, close to the Austria Border... Any who side story on that, I find it so amazing that most foreigners, (except the majority of those from Mexico), can speak such good English. This man and all those with him spoke perfect English... Any who, if you are even in the Lovers' Pointe area I recommend not wearing a skirt to go climbing around on the rocks, it was a little troublesome at times.

Our Photographer even moved around so the backgrounds would be different... Picture of my Studly Husband. This picture is an exact replica of one of our Wedding photos. I wish I could scan it and put them side by side... Just me...
Another picture of us, notice the different background! :)
Chris posed me for this one, I really like it. I had to wear my glasses all weekend because my allergies actually got worse in Cali. So in this picture I'm squinting because I took my glasses off and I could barley see Chris. (I'm quite blind)

Another picture of my studly guy with the ocean in the background...

On our walk after Lovers' Pointe we ran into all of these pink flowers. They were all over the place and beautiful! I wish flowers like this grew here in Vegas so abundantly....

The pink flowers up close!


And Chris made me stand here for another picture!


After walking most of the day we got into our car and started driving around. We turned down a road to look at the houses and look what we found? There was a mother deer and her two children just munching on some lawn! We drove by and I made Chris turn around so we could get a good picture. They looked up at us and kept eating. I would love to walk out of my house one day and see this... Perhaps one day....

We got onto Highway 1 and drove for quite a while. The views from this highway is AMAZING and so gorgeous! We stopped at one location and took these pictures!

After our drive we headed back to the hotel and relax for a while. Then Chris started looking up some restaurants and trying to find a good one for us to have our Anniversary Dinner at. I got really hungry and opted for the closest location instead of the one that seemed the nicest. So we went to Willies Bar B Que. I love Bar B Que and carbs so of course it was a good choice. The food was okay, we wouldn't recommend this restaurant to anyone and probably wont go back, however we were able to have a nice dinner with out Ethan banging his fork on his plate and yelling... So it was nice, however a couple was seated next to us with a young boy and it reminded me of Ethan... Chris noticed and offered to call Ethan so we could talk to him. So we did and Ethan talked for a little while until I told him to be good for Grandma and Grandpa and then he was off the phone! After dinner we walked around trying to find a cheaper place for Ice Cream and then headed to the bookstore for a good hour and then back to the hotel room. Once again we missed free breakfast on Sunday morning, but I didn't mind. I was able to sleep in again... Until we were woken up by our neighbors... (this is a funny story, but not worthy of blogging about it) We checked out of the hotel and did some more walking and ran into...A beach full of seals. We stood there and watched them for a while, they are so cute... But ugly at the same time. I think their faces are cute, but they don't match their bodies! After walking for quite a while we went to get some ice cream and ran into a bike race. We ate our ice cream and watched the ran for a while and then we decided to drive around again... This drive was beautiful once again, we got to see a beach with bigger waves and even more beautiful house. We even got to see where I would love to live one day, or maybe just my summer house! :) Then we headed to the airport.

We noticed when we landed there was a restaurant with all windows so you could see the planes and the ocean... We decided for dinner we would just eat there. We got up to the restaurant and had to wait for a seat. Apparently this is the place to go to Celebrate in Monterey! Then when we were seated we noticed that the cheapest thing on the menu was about $17... So Chris and I split the Spaghetti and Meatballs, which was heavenly and then went and waited for our flight to leave. This trip was very relaxing and much needed, although I wouldn't admit to that before we went.... I love spending time with my husband, just the two of us. It reminds me of the times we were dating and just confirms the reasons I married him. He is still the same guy I knew when we were dating and I love him so much for that! Thanks babe for a great weekend!

Our Fourth Anniversary Part #2

Okay, so our plane got into California around 7:30. We went to the Rental Car location and were given a choice between five different cars. This really threw us off, what rental car company give you a choice. After about 10-15 minutes of deliberation I made the split decision to take the Dodge Calibar(sp). When we walked out Chris went to the car he thought we had picked and I had to inform him that we had picked a different one. So needless to say all weekend he keep making comments on how a different car would be driving, have leather and on and on... But it was pretty funny that we made a decision and he didn't realize what it was exactly! How our minds work together after 4 years! :) We drive about 5 minutes to our Honeymoon suite at the Econo Lodge! We checked in, looked around and decided to go drive around the neighborhood to find something to eat and something to do. We stopped at a little Mexican restaurant and had some dinner that was DELICIOUS! These Mexicans knew just how I like my bean/cheese burrito! Yummy, yummy. Chris and I kinda have a tradition when we take little trips like this. We haven't taken very many but the few we have we always do this. We find a bookstore and just walk around and usually buy a book or two. Luckily there was a Target and Borders in the same parking lot about 1 minute from our hotel. We hung out in the bookstore for a little while and then headed back to the hotel. (Funny side note about the bookstore. We don't ever go to them here in Vegas, only when we go out of town! Silly right?) We get ready for bed, I read some more of my book and Chris watches TV. After midnight I decided that I'm tired, I put my book down and lay down. Then I start missing my kids, this is the first night without Katelee in the other room and I actually start crying. (I know I'm crazy!) I know I'm not a bad mother, but at that very moment I felt like one....Abandoning my children so I could have a good time without them... I was very tired so I quickly fell asleep. The hotel offered a Continental Breakfast from 7-10am... We didn't make that either day! Chris and I slept in till around 9:30 each morning! Wow wasn't that nice... So we got up, got ready and headed down toward the "Cannery Row" area. We walked around and took quite a few pictures.....Here is Chris at one lookout. The weather was beautiful the whole weekend. During the day it was in the 60's and at night it got pretty cold, down to the 50's. Chris loved the weather the entire time... I liked it when the fog lifted in the early afternoon....Here is me at the same lookout. The only thing that sucks about going on vacation just the two of us is we are pretty much by ourselves in every picture! But oh well...This was outside a hotel that we walked by. I thought it was pretty... Too bad we couldn't both be sitting on the edge, that would make a really cute picture. I tried to show Chris the crack on the inside of that fountain but he wouldn't fall for that one. (Sorry Anna, I tried) After this little area we walked on down to Lovers Point. We actually walked on the beach here and I touched the water with my feet and I think they are still blue from how cold that water was! I love the ocean. Story Time: I didn't get to see the ocean until I was 20 and in Hawaii! The water was an absolutely beautiful blue and felt like bath water. So any time I see the ocean now, I'm always a little disappointed... It's never been as beautiful as Hawaii! Anyways, we took some pictures down at the beach....This is Chris contemplating his purpose in life.... (okay, really I made him sit there so I could see if I could get a good picture of him, he is a good husband and did as I told him)
And here is Chris' immature wife chasing this little bird around the beach. He wasn't very fast, but when I did get close he'd run and then fly... Cheater! I know I made Chris proud to call me his wife as I chased the bird around on Lovers Point Beach! Finally he told me to leave the 'old' bird alone, so I did! After this we walked around some more and I got a big old pickle. Yummy!To be Continued....

Our Fourth Anniversary Part #1

Chris graduated from UNLV on May 9th, technically! We were too cheap to pay for all the stuff that goes along with graduating so we just celebrated with his parents at Olive Garden. I love my husband because he was okay with that. I told him when he graduates from Physical Therapy School we can really Celebrate then! We did mail out a few home made announcements, but that was all. Chris' family was going to go in on a laptop for Chris, however my boss gave him one she had been working on, so when they asked him what he wanted instead he said a trip to Monterey! I told him that was a gift for the both of us and it shouldn't be his graduation gift from his parents and sister. We had been considering a trip to Monterey for a while, since Chris will be starting school soon this was our last summer to do anything since he will be in school pretty much non-stop for 3 1/2 years! I finally Veto'd the trip because it was going to take too much, much needed, money from our savings. I know Chris wasn't really happy, but he understood. (This subject has been a huge contributor to my stress level, and Chris was well aware that this trip would just have upped that level even higher!) On Our Anniversary Eve I called Chris at work and asked him if he had gotten me anything. I simply asked this so I could have a measure of what I needed to get, or if I needed to get anything. Chris told me that he hadn't and that maybe this weekend we could go to the mall and get each other something. This put my mind to ease, since I had NO idea what to get him! Well our Anniversary comes around, I'm doing my hair before work and Chris hands me an envelope! Of course I get a little miffed at him, since he told me he didn't get me anything. I made a few comments until finally Chris says, "Just open the envelope, Hilary." So I open it and find a picture of a beach, under the photo it says, "Lovers Point, Monterey California.... LETS DO IT!" Then I see the airplane reservations.... We leave the next day at 5pm. At first I was so surprised that he had made all of these plans without me knowing... I'm pretty good at catching on to things, but he kept this one a secret! I think the first question out of my mouth was.. "Do you have someone to watch the kids?" He did, His mother would take Ethan all weekend, and my mom would have Katelee all weekend! His parents paid for our rental car, and his sister paid for our flight! This helped make the trip more enjoyable, since I'm very stingy with our money! We paid for the hotel, food and the kids' souvenirs! I hate leaving my kids and this was the first time being away from Katelee overnight, ever! She has just started really sleeping through the night... I was really worried that this trip would mess all that up, but Chris knew the only way to get me out of town was to purchase the tickets and just tell me about it. (he knows I wont pay extra money to reschedule or cancel!) So Friday I took the day off, got the kids where they needed to be and we headed to the airport! Our flight was an hour late, however I didn't care! I had borrowed a new book from my friend and I was with my husband, I had all weekend long to do absolutely nothing, if I wanted to.......To Be Continued.....