Surprise...we are in Orange County!

We spent Thursday-Monday in Orange County this past weekend. We surprised everyone with the visit! Kevin didn't have any work for the rest of the week (in between projects), so we thought it was perfect time to spend a long weekend in Orange County. The only person that knew we were coming was my mom. It was a lot of fun surprising everyone!

Highlights of the trip-
La Habra Children's Museum with Riley, Reagan and Mary. This was soo much fun! I use to go there when I was little. I have memories of going with my cousin Crissy.

On Saturday morning we had a playdate at my parents house with all the cousins! Deegan, Andrew, Riley, Reagan and Lily.

Checked out Rosie Posie cloth diaper store in Anaheim. We only have one really small cloth diaper store in Vegas, so I was excited to check out this new store. I went with Sarah and Lily.

Painting Riley's nails and hearing her giggles! <3 Riley and Reagan!

Playdate with Dylan and Heather! Great to finally get the boys together.

Breakfast at Polly's Pies and visiting with Grandma!

Deegan and his Grandma. We went to visit her at work for breakfast. 

Hanging out with the cousins!

I painted Riley's nails. She let me do rainbows on one hand and then polka dots on the other!

Deegan and Reagan at the children's museum

She loved playing the piano

Kevin wanted to stick him in the toilet! Haha! Poor Deegan!

Clawson cousins - Deegan 13 months, Riley 3.5 years old, Reagan 19 months. I miss the girls already!

Deegan had enough of the girls! He wanted some boy time! Playing with his cousin, Andrew. Andrew loves dinosaurs and he likes tying a rope around his toy dinosaur, then tying the rope around his leg, then dragging the dinosaur around the house! Andrew is all boy!

Hard to get smiles from him but I finally got this shot!

Deegan and Lily. My camera died right after this picture :-(

"King's Peach" cake

This weekend I made Peaches and Cream cake from the Cake Mix Doctor cookbook. My moms loves this cookbook and when I saw it at a yard sale for 50¢ a few months ago, I knew I had to pick it up! I was going to an Oscar's viewing party and I wanted to take something sweet to share. I love to bake, but I don't like having all the baked goodies in the house because we don't need to eat it all (and I know I will eat it all because I had the one last piece of cake this morning for breakfast!)! So I knew I could make a yummy cake and take most of it to the party. I named the cake "King's Peach" for the movie that won Best Movie.

You can find the recipe here.

Kevin took this picture of Deegan this morning. He loves tucking him hands under his tummy when he sleeps and he had his butt up in the air. It was so cute, Kevin had to grab the camera and snap away. Deegan has been learning a lot lately. He has been learning how all his toys work. He has also been dancing and clapping. When he dances he just bounces. It is so cute! I love watching him grow up and learn new things!

The Clawson daycare

So for the past 3 days I have been so lucky to babysit my friends daughter. Something came up and Dorothy needed someone to watch Lilly (8 months old) for 3 days. I had her from 7:30am - 4:15pm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I told Kevin I wasn't going to be making dinner or doing any chores these 3 days because I knew it would be crazy with 2 kiddos in the house. But I actually made dinner Wednesday and Thursday night! I even did 2 loads of laundry (haven't put them away yet, but I got them washed). So, it has been pretty easy. Mostly because Lilly is should a good girl. She didn't cry when her mommy left and she was just so happy to be playing and having fun (I never even had to change a poop diaper!). The only time she had tears was when she woke up from her naps. She was a great sleeper too. I could just put her in the pack n play in my office and she would fuss for a little, then knock right out. A few times I had to go and hold her for a few minutes to get her sleepy. I remember taking Deegan to California at this age and it was so hard to get him to fall asleep. Since he was sleeping in a new place, he would just lay in the pack n play and stare at all the new things in the bedroom.

Having Lilly here for 3 days makes me want another little one! She is so little and squishy. I really just want a baby girl! My favorite part of the day was picking out her outfit! So much pink and flowers! We had lots of fun playing, listening to music, crawling thru the tunnel, making faces in the mirror, going for a walk. I have thought about starting an in-home daycare, maybe in our next house when we have more room. If I was able to pick good babies like Lilly, I wouldn't mind to do it. But on the last day I was definitely itching to get out of the house. Deegan and I normally go out once a day or every other day, either to a playdate, the park, library, Target, etc. Yesterday I went to Walmart to get a few things and I just walked around for awhile, because I didn't want to go home yet.

I took lots of pictures on Thursday when Lilly was here. Here are some of my favorites-

Deegan playing with the glue stick toy from his Grandma Clawson. She works at a school and collected all the empty glue sticks. They fit perfect in these creamer bottles. It is a great toy for improving fine motor skills. He use to not be able to put them in the bottle, but now he is a pro at it!

Lilly loved the camera! I took a ton of pictures of her because I never get to take pictures of Deegan's face. He is always crawling away!

I think her mommy has a little future model!

While Lilly was enjoying her photo session, Deegan was under the coffee table filling his diaper! Haha!

Enjoying a Mum-Mum and making a mess!

She is such a sweet girl. We were just hanging out while Deegan was napping.

Deegan and Lilly were fighting over this toy. The next few pictures shows how she started with it, Deegan took it and then she tried to take it back from him. 

What an evil look, Deegan!

I want my toy back!

Give me a kiss and you can have it back!

Deegan learned to clap and dance this week. Here he is clapping!

All 3 of us! Notice Lilly loving the camera and Deegan to busy playing.

Memories of Mum-Mums

I wanted to share this blog post. It is very sweet! I am a very optimistic person and I hope I can feel this way when I have my kids stuff all over the place and my house is a mess. Thanks for sharing this blog Jaimie!

365 Project - take a photo a day

I have decided to join the 365 Project - take a photo a day. I am using the app Shuttercal on my iPhone to upload the pictures. It is kind of like a photo journal for one whole year. I didn't start it until February 11th, but I am trying to upload a picture a day. I try to take pictures to caption forgotten moments in my life. I always have my cellphone with me and I probably take anywhere from 5-20 pictures a DAY! My subject is just too cute, so I am always snapping away!

Like yesterdays picture - a picture of Deegan sleeping on Daddy's chest. Last night Deegan had an accident and was crying for awhile and didn't feel too good. He just wanted to be cuddled. So Kevin held him while they were watching Elmo and Deegan feel asleep in Kevin's chest. I DON'T wont to forget a sweet memory like that!

Check out my photo calendar here.

Deegan's truck

Kevin's parents came into town this weekend and brought out Deegan's truck. Deegan's grandpa made this truck for him for his birthday. He spent hours and hours working on it (more like months and months) and it is one of a kind! We took Deegan for a stroll in it in the neighborhood and had one lady stop and ask "Where did you get that? That is the cutest thing I have ever seen!" No one will have one like it! Grandpa Larry is so proud of it. He really put a lot of time and effort into it and Deegan will love this toy for a long time!

Three generations!

Deegan loves kisses from Grandma

This weekend Maria also taught me how to make albondigas soup. It turned out really good. We made a big pot of it and I probably won't have to do too much cooking this week! Deegan liked it too! It is full of vegetables and meatballs.

We have been having 2 weeks of not "sleeping through the night" with Deegan. I have been so spoiled for the past 5 months because Deegan was (hopefully is still) a great sleeper. I could just lay him in his crib and he would put himself to sleep, bed at 7pm up at 7am, two naps a day! Last night he woke up at 10pm and fought it until 1am. Finally after I ran out of all my "tricks" to get him sleepy again, we went for a drive in the car. Finally around 2am he was in bed. I am hoping we get this all figured out soon.

Buy used, save the difference

One way we have saved money and been able to pay off almost $20,000 in debt in 2 years (yes we were young and make some bad choices and put a lot of stuff on credit cards) is by going to yard sales and consignment sales. We have made some really good purchases by going to yard sales. Just this past weekend Kevin picked up 9 frisbee golf discs for $9! They cost about $15-20 each if purchased brand new!

Last year we went to the As They Grow consignment sale here in Las Vegas and purchased some great stuff for Deegan. Everything there was in great condition! When most people think of buying used stuff, they think it will be dirty and not in new condition. But you would be surprised! How much baby stuff do you have sitting around that never got used too much? Last year we got Deegan some winter clothes, toys and books. I think we paid $50 and probably got $120 worth of stuff. The 2011 consignment sale is coming up again. This years date is Friday, March 18th. The sale has a new location this year. It is at 2251 N. Rainbow Blvd, the corner of Lake Mead Blvd and Rainbow.

We can't wait to check it out again. We always go with a game plan! If you go and just buy whatever you see, you will spend too much. Game plan this year is more books, summer clothes and shoes. NO TOYS! We have too many! Also maybe a rocking chair, but I am really picky, so I probably won't find what I want.