Congrats to our little cubby!

Matthew has been in Cubbies, the preschool portion of Awanas, since the Fall. Awanas/Cubbies is a lot of Bible memorization, stories, crafts and more for kids, a really neat program. In fact, I did it myself for a year or two when I was just a little older than Matthew. It's really amazing how many scriptures Matthew has memorized, with just a few words prompting. We're so proud of our little guy for getting through book 1, yay Matthew!!

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And yes, I've gone cake pop crazy :-P Thought about something I could bring in appreciation for his Cubby leaders, and of course, cake pops came to mind. I just happened to have everything I needed already and thought I'd attempt making cubby bear himself :) They turned out pretty good, everyone loved them.

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And last but not least, I had to post this pic of my cuties enjoying their firecracker popsicles on such a beautiful sunny day :)

I'm busy and I know it. . .

Well, we got back into town mid-last week, and we've been on the go ever since! Wednesday morning our little guy had his first dental procedure - long story short, he came out of it with a new "angry bird" tooth (don't ask me why he calls it that, I have no idea haha) - but it was a hard day!! Besides that, we've been having a lot of fun :) 

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I've been doing Beth Moore Bible studies with an amazing group of women for the past several years - some of the faces change now and then, but it is always such a blessing to be in this group of God-fearing women, I love them all! Sad not everyone was able to join us at the BBQ, but these are some of my best friends :)

(Honorary future Bible study doer Kaylie), Sarah, Ana, Melissa, Ronya, Heather, Me, Maaren, Lauren

We brought drinks to the BBQ, but I just couldn't resist making some fun cake pops for the kids - Matthew's been wanting me to try making robots, so here ya go - yum!

Some of the kiddos playing - the kids are at really fun ages, so fun for everyone to play together now :) Aliya, Miles & Callie - I wasn't very actively taking pictures, so kiddos not pictured: AJ, McCoy, Logan, Aubrey, Jake, Drew, Cailin or Cole - what a fun group of kids :)

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Then Monday, Memorial Day, we went to a 2nd birthday party for Jack (in the pink pool) - Avery, Jack and baby Max are my bro Greg's niece and nephews, so I'm not sure if they're considered M & K's cousins, but regardless they have a lot of fun together - so fun to watch them play and interact :)

While they were eating dinner, just before this picture, Matthew looks over at Avery and says "You're a girl, I like girls" - hahaha, loved it. Love this pic of Uncle Greg, Auntie Kristen and most of their nieces and nephews (just 2 month old Max not pictured)

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Today we got to take Uncle Greg & Auntie Kristen to Legoland!! Greg hasn't been back since he worked there in highschool 10 or so years ago, and Kristen had never been! Started off at the aquarium, then hit up a ride or two and some splash grounds. Topped it off with lunch at In-n-Out, yum, and after naps an afternoon at the pool with Gina and the kiddos. 

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And last but not least this post has come full circle because the day ended with another night at Woman's Bible study - we just finished up the study of James, which I am hoping to repeat this summer.  Loved ending the day with some of my closest friends in the Word :)

Nashville!!

A week ago we got the chance to visit Nashville for a few days, just the two of us. It was a little bit of business and a lot of fun! Be warned, this is gonna be a long post, I want to be able to look back and remember the details :) Plane ride to Nashville we sat next to a worship pastor from Fort Worth, headed out to a conference - he used to tour musically. He was such a nice guy, great to talk to, and took some of Josh's business cards since he works with musicians. Cool. Landed in Nashville Thursday evening, drove from the airport to meet Josh's producer friend Pete at an irish pub, McCreary's, in Franklin. Met a few other people there, got lots of tips on what to do in the city. Friday was business day, so we hit the ground running - first up we met with Royce, senior VP of national promotions at Universal/MCA Records, up on the 11th floor of the SunTrust building in Downtown - his office had the most amazing view of the strip downtown, wish I had taken a picture. Josh brought his latest guitar with him, plus picked up a guitar from Pete (whom he had left a guitar with months ago). Royce loved his guitars and said Josh could leave one with him to display in his office, knowing that many popular country artists stop by and hang out there often, and they will most likely pick up the guitar and play it - awesome.  Next we drove around trying to find a guitar shop which we never found, so instead headed over to Gruhn Guitars, right back where we were in downtown earlier :) Such a cool shop - picture doesn't do it justice - wall to wall guitars, specializing in vintage guitars - in fact George Gruhn, the owner, is said to be the go-to guy in appraising vintage guitars, countrywide if not worldwide. After showing one of the floor managers josh's guitar, he showed us up to george himself on the third floor. Even more amazing vintage guitars and mandolins - josh got to play a $225,000 mandolin - insane! George absolutely loved Josh's guitars, he couldn't believe that the guitar in his hands, Josh's latest guitar, is only his 12th one. What a compliment!! He wanted to help Josh's business in any way that he could, so he started by asking us to go to lunch and we talked business. Lots of insight. 

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He then let us know he was going to the Opry that night to see his good friend, country legend Ricky Skaggs, and asked if he could bring Josh's guitar with him to get it into their hands - and he did!!! Not only Ricky, but Ricky's guitar player, the house band, and maybe others. Josh ended up leaving his other guitar with George, who will get it into any artists hands he can, and even sell it on consignment if that's what ends up happening.

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We weren't able to go to a show at the Grand Ole Opry ourselves, but we did visit it the next day, hoping we get to see a show next time we're in town :)

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 Really made some great connections out there. Besides business, we got to do lots of touristy and other fun stuff. Josh knows a guy who lives out there, so we met up with him for dinner one night and hopped around to a few bars/saloons to listen to live music which was cool. I didn't realize I had two friends from college (Point Loma), Tim & Jamie, living out there - so we got to go to breakfast with them one morning, it was a lot of fun to catch up with friends while on vacation. 

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Turns out Tim works for the Country Music Hall of Fame, so Monday we headed over there and Tim was able to get us in and showed us around the newest exhibit, Bakersfield sound, which he headed up, wrote all the text for, etc - it was pretty cool! Then he took us back into the archives, which is where they keep everything that isn't on display, tons of stuff - we signed a guest book, only 6 guests have been back there this year :) When we were pulling up to the Hall of Fame, we just missed getting to meet Tim McGraw - saw him getting back into his black Range Rover with his body guards. On our final day, we got to go to breakfast with Josh's producer friend Pete and his wife and a son, it was fun to feel like we had friends out there - we met them for breakfast in Franklin, I absolutely love Franklin - such a cute/beautiful city outside of Nashville, I would love to go back there. If we moved there, that is where we'd move :) Franklin Pike, one of the main roads to Franklin, is where many of the country stars used to (and might currently) build their homes, so driving down it you see many mansions splayed out on beautiful rolling green hills. So nice. Plane ride home we sat next to a woman named Charity and her 4 month old son. Turns out she's the significant other of Derrick Morgan, Tennessee Titans football player - she was a lot of fun to talk to, and her little boy just loved Josh, haha. She used to work for Universal/MCA Records out in LA and has several connections there, so she took several of Josh's business cards and said she;ll give them out. Such a small world, really felt God's hands throughout the whole trip. What made the trip so cool was I really felt like we were more part of the scene than tourists - got so many behind the scenes opportunities, and had more friends and connections out there than we realized, it was great - we'll be going back!

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Lots of good food, but have to admit, San Diego has amazing food - 

we really have everything , didn't feel like we got anything extraordinary 

anywhere in Nashville.

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Dinner cruise & show down the Cumberland River

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Views of downtown Nashville from the cruise. Bottom left pic, you

can see a white pole/stick down by the water - that is a measuring 

stick to tell the depth of the river - when the flood happened the pole

wasn't even visible. So much was flooded, it was crazy.

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Good to be home again, missed these silly faces :) 

The kiddos showing off their Nashville style!

M-Day 2012

Sunday was my 5th Mother's Day as a mom, I got to spend time with lots of people I love, including the special mom's in my life pictured :) 

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I'm so blessed to be called Mommy to these two wonderful, crazy, silly little people :)

Chocolate Festival 2012!

Yesterday I was able to help Heather down at the Chocolate Festival at the San Diego Botanic Gardens  (Quail Gardens) in Encinitas. It was such a great day!! We prepped for several days ahead of time, making about 1000 different pieces, give or take - cake pops, cake truffles, and Heather also made chocolate dipped strawberries. We got there at 9 (Heather a bit before) and set up - beautiful, delicious arrangement of sweet treats. There were so many booths of chocolaty deliciousness, it was great. In addition to that, there were some other street fair type booths, face painting and more - can't wait to bring the kids next year! The event was packed, we were slammed with customers from 10-4, and sold out of EVERYTHING!!!! Just check out all the flavors we had to offer - for the Cake Pops: Mango-Passionfruit, Vanilla Bean, and Chocolate-Raspberry. For the Cake Truffles (smaller cake pops without the stick): Triple Fudge Brownie, Peppered Strawberry, Pina Colada, Mocha, Salted Caramel Chocolate, and Lavender Lemon Curd. . . . all delicious, right?! And chocolate dipped strawberries on a stick to boot :) I really enjoy being Heather's "apprentice", so awesome I have such a great friend to learn from! Bring on the next event!!

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Just a little peak into the truffles process - rolling, then dipping, then toppings :)

Mothers's Day, preschool style :)

This past Friday there was a Mother's Day Tea at Matthew's preschool. It was so cute - they sang a few songs they'd been practicing (I'm a Little Teapot, Happy Mother's Day (Happy Birthday)) and then they each got up in front of the class with a card they made for their moms and said "I love my mommy because. . ." - here's Matthew's:

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"I love my mommy because she takes me to Playwerx" haha, and we have only been once in the past year!

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After the songs we got to frost cupcakes together and had some yummy raspberry white tea. It was fun to see Matthew in his element, he was so happy I was there with him, makes me look forward to open house nights in elementary school :)

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Matthew's preschool class, a delicious cupcake (of which he only at the frosting, of course), a vase with flowers he made for me, the three of us enjoying the frosting :)

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"I'm a little teapot :)"

a stroller & a haircut

Just recently I joined a stroller fitness get together, a fun way to get a bunch of us moms and our kids together for some healthy exercise, and it's a lot of fun! The first time we met I tried to do the walk with my Graco DuoGlider (regular front to back double stroller) and it was m-i-s-e-r-a-b-l-e, so after a bit of convincing, my husband agreed it was time for a double jogging stroller. It came last Thursday and oh MY does it make a difference!!! The first day we tried it I did one of our normal neighborhood walks and it was a breeze! The kids even asked to go on a second big walk later that day - they have fun (usually) being side by side :)

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Sunday morning we took Matthew to get his haircut - if you are looking for an amazing place to get your child's haircut I would HIGHLY recommend this place, Sharkey's Kids Cuts in Oceanside - it is AMAZING! Matthew definitely looks forward to going there - he gets to sit in a Lightning McQueen car/chair and watch Cars while his hair is being cut, they shampoo (which smells like chocolate) and massage his little head, then to top it off in the end he gets a temp tattoo, lollipop and a balloon - little kids dream! For little girls, they throw in a mini-manicure and pretty little bow (instead of the temp tattoo, I believe) - I can't wait to get Kaylie's hair cut there, too :)

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Sea World!

After having a lazy morning, we decided to take advantage of the sun that decided to show itself and head down to Sea World for the afternoon :) We caught the Blue Horizons show, second time, and it is by far my fave show we've seen there. It has plenty of dolphins, which is cool, but it has a sort of cirque de soleil aspect to it which mesmerizes the kids (and us!). We sat in the soak zone to one side, but the dolphins seemed to favor the other side - that's fine by me :)  Besides that we just wandered a bit and saw a few things then went home - just fun to get out for a bit :)

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Eating some snacks waiting for the show to begin!

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In the Sky Ride (Matthew's fave)