Christmas Eve 2011

In January I was distraught over the loss of an SD card that included all pictures post my birthday-mid January. The devastation was huge and I searched everywhere even going through the trash piece by piece to ensure it wasn't thrown out. I was convinced it accidentally got sucked into the housekeepers vacuum cleaner. A couple of weeks ago David found the card stuck in the dryer! It was washed once and it's gone through the drier probably 60 times but all the pics were there! With that, I bring you Christmas Eve 2011 :)

The La Brea Tar Pits

Despite reports on "Who Has More Fun" I thoroughly enjoyed the La Brea Tar Pits! I will plead ignorance as I always thought it was just some smelly Tar Pits and I didn't know it was an archaeological treasure trove. It was fascinating-mom has been trying to get me there for awhile and I will admit I wasn't looking forward to it but I will likely go back! See Who Has More Fun for details.

The Culinary Tour of LA

You can find it....right here :)

Tourists Are Us

I have been a poor blogger the last few weeks and will be posting some "catch up" posts. I had the BEST visit from the Adams girls! On Saturday we went to Hollywood and took a Hollywood Homes/Hollywood sign tour. This has been blogged very well (with better details) over at Who Has More Fun-Hollywood. I'm going to let Miss Andrea give you the full run down of the Hollywood trip.

PS Gotta love our California/Hollywood hats which were a last minute purchase when we realized we were taking a tour in an open top van.

Scary Girls

Yesterday at Grandmas the girls all made scary paper plate masks. They all thought they were very scary!

I Think Phoenix FSO Rocks!

20 Year Reunion

We had our 20 year reunion last and it was great! With the exception of missing a few key people it was perfect. Great night of catching up, Lisa and Mary really did an amazing job of pulling it together. From the awesome name tags to the slideshow and tribute to Shawn-the entire event was very well done. Loved coming home with the class picture too-Thanks so much!

Seven, Seven, Seven (Wow)

Joshua turned 7 today! I still can't believe this boy has been with us 7 years but at the same time it's hard to even remember life before him. You're Aunt Shi loves you very much!

Thanks for letting us crash your house and spend a few minutes of time with you on your birthday!

Happy Birthday, Micah!!!!

I can't believe it's been 3 years since this cute boy was born. He is such a looker and growing to be such a big boy (Can't believe he is going to preschool)! I need to have a date to come see him very very soon! I love you Micah!!!!

October Has Arrived

The girls and I decorated the house tonight for Halloween. It's sooooo scary ;)

Loving Her Aunt Becca

I Love Lucy (I Really Do!)

Hollywood Here We Come!

Andrea, Amy and I headed to Hollywood on Saturday (and Sunday twice-but thats another blog) and really did the tourist thing. We took the Metro to Hollywood and Highland and then went to Graumann's Chinese, and the Walk of Fame before deciding to take a tour. 

We hopped onto Starline Tours and went to a bunch of Stars homes, Rodeo Drive and the Hollywood sign. We had a great time and then ended it at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum (but thats another blog)

Love My Girls

The Last Dell Supper

I am always very careful with my expense spending-ALWAYS. I usually pay for many meals myself, I rarely submit mileage expenses or get rental cars and at all times I try to be economical and fiscally responsible. 

Last month I was in Phoenix on a Sunday for an early morning Monday meeting, I had a ton of work to get done and I decided to order in room service. I decided to get a steak and it was super good!!! (Just a note-even with the steak I was under my meal allotment for the day).  Coincidentally this was my last traveling meal as a Dell employee.

The Dome Lid....

I noticed a few weeks ago that Starbucks is now selling the Dome lid to go with their plastic cups. Honestly, I can't imagine anyone ever buying this, I hate the Dome lid so much. (I know this is not a surprise to most). One thing interesting though, I have always called it the Dome lid and never realized that it should have been the domed lid.

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

I love this picture of Rachel and Brooke! We love you so much and hope that you had a great birthday today! I'm so sad that I just got your voicemail.....this is the first birthday I haven't talked to you on :(

P.S. What a trooper Aunt Rachel is, Kiersten was born two days after this picture was taken at California Adventure on Brooke's birthday.

"It's What We Saw"

Today Sydney took a bite of her chicken star from Carls Jr and said "Look Mom, it's a plane", then she took the bite of another chicken star and put it on top of the first and said  "Look mom it's what we saw". Yep, it almost looks like a space shuttle on top of a 747.

The End Of The Shuttle Program

Brooke was enthralled with the last flight of the Shuttle program and we decided to go up by JPL to watch Endeavor fly over Pasadena. The view was decent but when I got home I saw the pictures my next door neighbor took right out on her front porch and the view was pretty darn good there too.

PacMan Arcade At Work? I'm In.

Google shared some pictures of their new office in New York. Pacman Arcade? I am SOOOOOO in. See all 22 pics and read the article. Here

Mom and Daughter Date

Last week Sydney and I took the train and went down to the El Capitan theater to watch the new Tinkerbell Movie, "The Secret of the Wings". It was a great movie and Sydney had a good time. Afterwards we went to the Disney Diner next store before heading home. It was great just spending time with my big girl.

Sydney's Hair....RO

New Shoe Rack

Last week Jane and I discussed the fact that I don't have very much space to store my shoes. Today when I was cleaning the closet I was going to remove this pant rack from the closet and then had the idea of putting my shoes in it. I now have a spot for 10 pairs of shoes in a space that normally would hold 4. Very pleased.

Brooke Goes To Church

Brooke went to church for the first real time today and I was expecting a full meltdown when I left her. To my surprise, I signed her in and told her "Go play with your friends" and she walked right in without a tear and she had a great time. Afterwards we had a couple of conversations about it:

When I picked her up:
Me: How was church honey?
Brooke: Good
Me: Do you want to go again?
Brooke: Yes
Me: Did you play with your friends?
Brooke: Yes, and boys!

At the dinner table:
Me: So Brooke what did you do at church today?
Brooke: I played with the boys!

I Am So In