Mini Daniel Ray

This picture proves that it really is possible to birth your husband in miniature form. Could choob be any more like his dad? I think not. Mouth full of food, stained shirt, all 3 light sabers in one hand, food clenched tightly in the other, wearing Dans shoes, and don't forget mini darth vader stashed in with the sabers. He even has Dans crooked toe. (I call it the piggybacker. Lets just say Lukes footprint only has 4 toes) The only difference between father and son is that I won't let Dan walk around the house without pants on. Sometimes it is freaky how alike these two are. When they play together it's like they are in their own little world. Probably making plans to overthrow the dictator mom. I see a mutiny in my future. If you ned me, I'll be practicing my plank walk.

A visit from Auntie Becky

Becky came to visit us again! I thought this would never happen b/c last time she was here she had to experience Wildefire Madness 2007 and was evacuated with us for a few days until she could make it up to LA. Worst visit ever. We were glad she came back to SD for another go.

Becky was Luke's first and only visitor (besides Dan and my mom) when he was born! She was also his first babysitter after my mom left. Becky holds a special place in my heart, not for the two "firsts" mentioned above, but because she took me out for my FIRST FACIAL ever. It was seriously one of the best days of my life. I was like eight months pregnant and fast approaching 200 lbs. and didn't want a baby shower so Becky surprised me with a spa day and it ruled the universe! Nothing like a day of pampering when you are a waddling whale of a pregnant lady. A thousand MAHALOS to Beck for that one.

We went to the beach to meet up with all of her siblings. Yup they all came from Utah and Idaho to have a little reunion with big sis. I also got to see Cassie and visit with her. It was really fun and the Choob loved it! Mostly he loved Becky's brother Jake. Then we went to eat at Souplantation because Beck & Cass had NEVER been there. I don't know what it is about Souplantation but we stayed there waaay to long, ate waaay too much and enjoyed every second of it. I have found it to be a truth that when good friends come to visit me, I don't waste precious chatting time taking pictures. As a result this is the ONLY picture I have of Becky & I during her visit.
I like to call this picture "Beauty and the Beluga." There are so many things wrong with this picture. First, while Beck looks like a hot Latin American model (seriously how hot is she?), I look like a pasty white creature that resides in a sunless cave only sticking her arms out long enough to develop the slight farmers tan shown. Second, I am wearing a MOM SUIT! One-piece, ugly print chosen solely for it's price not appearance, high back (not pictured) chosen to hide the furb, and worst of all board shorts (long ones) to cover the stretch marks. Seriously what? I almost had a heart attack when I bought this thing at target. It's just not right for me to be scaring the general public with my non-bikini bod anymore. I can't believe there was a time when I would surf in public and my butt cheeks were tan from the suits I would wear. Oh well, I guess this little gremlin was worth it. Come again soon Auntie Becky!

Girls Gone Wild

Not really but we totally could have. A whole day to ourselves with NO kids and NO time constraints and endless possibilities. So what did we do? Ummmm slept in, Obviously! Then we layed around far too long before we decided we needed to feed. A trip to the Souplantation was necessary. She's a buffet people! No Further explanation needed. Then three and a half hours went by. Where were we? Yup, STILL at the Souplantation, snacking and yakking away. When the dinner rush started arriving we decided it was time to leave. With the day gone, we went to go watch the sunset and show Heidi some seals at La Jolla Cove. Then we snacked at my favorite shop in La Jolla, The living room. Thanks for the cheesecake Heidi. After the sun went down, we got home. I don't know how they did it but these two kept me up waaaay past my bedtime. Considering I go to bed at 9pm keeping me up isn't as hard as it sounds. The next morning we got a wild hair and planned another reunion trip to hawaii. Then we headed up to LA to drop Heidi off and pick up the keiki. Thanks to Ian and Dan for battling the kids so the girls could have a day to themselves. This was the only picture I took of our alone day. I was far too busy what with all the eating and sitting around. Love you guys!

What happens when mom has 2 besties come to town

TOTAL NEGLECT! Yes that is an empty tub of sour cream and onion dip. Once the greasy potatoe chips were inhaled by me, Eag and Heidi I guess choob took matters into his own hands. Literally. He was hiding out, letting us moms yack away while he was licking his onion dip covered hands in delight.

Eag and Addi came down the day after Heidi arrived and it was AWESOME. Pretty much eating, talking, not watching out children, then eating some more. We were supposed to take the gromitz to Sea World but it was POURING rain so we just stayed inside and ate instead. The next morning Dan took both Addi & Choobers up to Huntington so we could have a girls day out just me Heidi and Eag. Isn't he sweet? Not that the all night Xbox fest with Ian and eating fast food was any sort of bonus for him.

Whenever we put Luke & Addi in the car they would hold hands all on their own! If for some reason their hands split apart Addi would go, "choobers choobers hold my hand." (Yes she does call him Choobers and Choobie. That's what everyone calls him. Get over it) Seriously I almost died from the cuteness. I hope they still love each other in 20 years and then they can get married and I will have one of my besties as my in-law. yeah. that's the plan for now.

Cavewoman Comes to Town

Myyyyyyyy Frrriieeennndd came to visit me! Looking at the above picture it is hard to believe that I shared the same sandy sheets with this one for 3 of the 5 years I lived with her. I hadn't seen her since her wedding and before that it had been five years since I last set eyes on this beauty. We celebrated our sweet reunion with a trip to the world famous san diego zoo.

We rode my brother Jeff's tour bus and got to cut in front of everyone else in line and load the bus before everyone and get the VIP seats. Yeah buddy! Jeff gave a great tour and it allowed us to see most of the zoo without exerting any energy which is always a good thing in my book. It was so fun to catch up with her! We didn't take any pictures, there was way too much talking and laughing and not really looking at any animals going on. We did however, pig out on some nachos. I was so busy chatting with Heidi that when I finally looked over to see what Choobie had been doing, I saw this little nacho cheese covered monkey throwing berries in the bushes next to the tables.

After a long day at the zoo we came home and went on our usual date. Chili's and a movie. Like old times. Heidi and I. Dan stayed home and babysat Luke. When we lived in Hawaii we seriously had date night all the time, Mililani, Chili's and a movie (sometimes we threw walmart in there to mix it up). People probably thought we were lesbians. Those were the days. We crashed when we got home and Heidi did find a few surprises hidden for her in her bed. Think fake tarantula. Payback for the very REAL dead puffer fish she put in my bed years ago. That Hedi, she's a real prankster.

Nightmares

Why is it that my 1.8 year old can watch this:

This:

and this without getting scared?

And have nightmares two nights in a row after watching this?

He wakes up hysterically crying and all we can get out of him is "crab pinch puppy tail," "Choobie sad sad,"and "crab pinch puppy." There is a scene in Milo & Otis where the crab pinches the puppy on the tail. Otis looks JUST like Luke's stuffed animal puppy pictured below. Puppy also happens to be Luke's BEST FRIEND in the whole universe. He does EVERYTHING with this puppy so I think it broke his little heart when he thought a crab was going to pinch his puppy on the tail. Ironically, it was really hard to find a picture of him with puppy since I am always yanking it out of the way when the camera is on. I guess we'll have to restrict him from watching feel good family films and stick to the action, gore-filled thrillers he so loves.

PS~ my nightmare: that we are creating our own little monster by letting him watch all this crap at such a young age!

Another Defeat

Luke Lost AGAIN! First Gap, now San Diego's Cutest Kid. I don't understand it. Those eyelashes are REAL people!!! Perhaps I am starting out too big? Maybe I need to enter him in a community based pageant or something. Just to lower the bar a little. Either way my dreams of becoming a stage mom will have to wait. I do want this kid to start bringing home the big bucks though. Hey, he's 1.8 years old, it's high time he started earning his own way. Thanks for all your voting help. The kids that won were totally UG! I think their parents were cheating by reassigning their IP address and voting a bazillion times from the same computer. Or they are way more popular than me. I like to think they were just big fat cheeter skeeters!