Grandma's Chicken & Noodles

Several nights ago I got a craving for my grandmother's homemade chicken and noodles. Off to work I went to make the meal that contains the most amount of carbs. that anyone has ever had. Because it makes so much I called up my friend Tricia and told her what I was making and not too much later after getting off of the phone, she and her husband were at my door ready for her big helping. Needless to say, the kids enjoyed the meal because it had noodles in it - what kid doesn't like noodles? Well, after completing his meal of baby food, Jacob anxious looked at what we were eating and starting whining quite a bit. So, Mike and I decided he would be treated to this special meal. As you can see, I think he enjoyed it quite a bit - what do you think?


And no - AJ was not locked outside - he was just playing outside while we were eating. :)

Weekend Getaway

Well, I know the title makes it sounds like Mike and I got away but instead I was able to take the kids down to my mom and dad for a few days and let Mike get some studying done without the pressure of us being around. We had a lot of fun while we were there and the kids got to do so many things.

Our visit to Chuck E Cheese - the kids had fun seeing how many tickets they could collect.

Elizabeth found a caterpillar that she named "Sarah". She took care of this caterpillar all day long as if it were her baby.

The kids played in the water at a little water feature in a shopping center. It had what Elizabeth called "popcorn water". The water popped out of the ground. Jacob seemed to enjoy it as well.

Jacob watched at Elizabeth and AJ rode the carousel at the Irvine Spectrum.

AJ and Elizabeth rode the "Polar Express" with Gamma and Pappy while Jacob and I shopped at the Spectrum. AJ is still talking about the choo choo train.

Elizabeth posed for her pre-surfing picture. She was very excited to go to the beach and was ready hours before it was time to go.

A Day At The Beach

Yesterday, Mike and my dad took Elizabeth and AJ down to the beach for the first time. The kids seemed to love it and I have now been told that I need to get over my dislike of the beach for the kids sake. AJ was a little scared of the water but the surf was really loud so we will give him the benefit of the doubt. He had a blast building sand castles and of course being buried in the sand by Daddy.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, was a little fish and loved the water. She "surfed" on her boogie board with Daddy and wants to go out again. I guess it will be off to the beach again for us.



Oh yeah - Mike surfed for the first time this weekend and according to my Dad - he is a natural. He keeps saying he is going to retire and spend the rest of his days in the water. (I didn't get any pictures though :(

Splash Night

Every Friday night we load up the clan and head over to the O' Club for Splash Night. This includes "cook your own steak" and open swim for everyone. My favorite part is the entertainment that the kids offer.

The little boy with all of the moves is Elizabeth's new found "boyfriend", Camden.

We Love You Moe!

Our first "baby" Moe, passed away this morning. For the past 10+ years he has amazed us with the ability to meow at you in such a way that you can't ignore his desire for more food (even if his bowl is already full). His ability to be social with you even if you aren't ready to be social with him was quite funny. You have made our lives a lot of fun Moe and we will miss you a lot!

What a view!

I thought I would share the view of the sunset from our driveway last night - what a beautiful sight. I guess there are advantages to living in what seems like the hottest place on earth!

Jumping Apparatus

Well - we have given in a gotten the kids a trampoline (thanks Mom & Dad). They have a blast on it. Every morning after breakfast and every night after dinner they ask to go out to jump - it is a great bargaining tool these days. Mike and I have taken to calling it a jumping apparatus when they are around and we don't want them to know what we are talking about - they haven't figured that one out yet :)~

Cookie Monster

My little man, Jacob, has decided that jarred food is slowly becoming a thing of the past and that feeding himself is quite exciting and entertaining. The best part for us is watching him talk to his food. I think he is becoming quite the cookie monster.

TPS Road Rally

Yesterday, the senior TPS class put on a Road Rally for us so that we could get acquainted with the base. Seeing as how Mike and I have been here before, or course we thought we had the advantage. Here's how it went:

We dropped the kids (Elizabeth & AJ) off at the Jungle Zone - a play center for kids on base - promptly at 8:30AM and proceeded over to TPS for an enlightening video about TPS and what we should expect. Of course the video was a little outdated (c. 1950) so us wives had a hard time relating to Helen - the perfect housewife. Once the video was over we were given out teams, told the directions and sent off on our journey through the desert.

We departed shortly after exposing all of the wonderful stuff that grows under a car seat when we had to remove it so that our partner could ride with us. I bravely decided to take that seat as to not expose anyone else to the mess. Once we were situated we took off with our first check point in hand. Each checkpoint had a box placed somewhere that had another card in it that gave you your next destination.

Each one of the cards had "trivia" on it along with directions to do challenges. My job entailed getting the answers to the trivia questions. Well, since I was the driver, I promptly put my bluetooth in and called my Dad to look up the answers on the internet. You have to use your resources - right?

Mike's job was to jump out of the car and run to get the next card. He got his fair share of running through the desert that day - it was kind of funny.

Our partner was our navigator and our head guy for the challenges. Mike dutifully watched as the paper airplane contest commenced.

Upon completion of all of our tasks, we turned in our cards and were off to the conference center for a wonderful lunch that was put on for us by the seniors. As we all anxiously awaited the results of the Rally, we socialized with all of the other families that we will be spending the next year with.

The results are in - we were in . . . last! ( We won't discuss the details behind that - hmmmm! But, I must inform Dad that we did get all of our trivia questions correct - thanks!) FYI - we got a can of Raid as our consolation prize - it will come in very handy!)

A Boy In Love!

Well, for those of you that haven't had the opportunity to spend quality time with AJ, you haven't had the experience of his infatuation with lawn mowers. We tease that he is going to be in Mowers Addicts Anonymous - it is to that extreme. Today he exhibited his love while we were at our friend's house, dog sitting. He went on an excursion to find Adam's lawn mower and then once we found it, he touched it gently and showed me all of the different parts. Of course once we got back in the car to come home, he told me about Daddy's mower. Knowing that Mike was planning on mowing, I let AJ go out and ogle over Daddy's mower - where he proceeded to spend about 20 minutes just looking at it. Once Mike got into mowing mode, AJ promptly got his play mower out and followed Mike with a very serious and focused look on his face - he had work to do.



I figure at least we will know who will be mowing the lawn when he gets older.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!

Summer Bash 2007

On Saturday, June 30th Edwards AFB had it's annual Summer Bash - a Fourth of July celebration. (I am not sure why it wasn't done on the fourth this year.) It included rides for the kids, lots of food and beer, live music, and of course lots of fireworks. We didn't think the kids would make it for the fireworks but they never cease to amaze us - they were great!


AJ took Mike to the kiddie swings MANY times. I think he is going to have a lot of fun at amusement parks when he gets older.



Elizabeth enjoyed the many foods offered at the Bash but her favorite was the slushie - especially when she figured out that it matched her dress.

AJ was unsure of the "booms" that the fireworks made so he climbed on our friend, Adam's lap and was "protected" as he watched the rest of the show.

When the fireworks started, I told Elizabeth that the rules for watching fireworks were to look up and say "ohh ahh". Well she took this to heart and said "ohh ahh" to every single one that was shot. She LOVED them!!!

Bizzy's Room

When we moved from Dayton, Elizabeth requested that she have a surfing room. I believe her motivation behind this was that we were going to California and my dad surf's in California (she worships him, by the way). Anyway, so I set off on a quest to decorate her room as a surf room. I did find myself changing it to more of a beach theme though because it was hard to find girl surfing decor. Anyway, this is how it turned out. She loves it and I think it is pretty cute. The only problem we have is that there is this strange pink glow that radiates from her room . :)