Our Little Hockey Star

Stinker loves playing hockey or golf whenever he can. Speedy and Stinker play in the living room and use the back hallway corner to practice "checking" - its hilarious! They also go outside in the afternoons to practice.

He uses everything from the plastic play-set of golf clubs he got for his birthday to Speedy's real set of golf clubs. Stinker also loves to play with his 2 hockey sticks he got as a present he is really not picky :)

It Took Us Long Enough...

...to finally organize Stinker's new nursery! We have lived at the "Q" for just over a year now, and not knowing how long we would live here made it hard to really make this room organized. But we finally decided that it was time, so we got new sticker decals (that keep peeling off the walls), a new dresser to house Stinker's massive wardrobe, and a new (to us) rocking recliner for those oh so fun bedtime stories :)

Take a look!

It is now by far my favorite room in the house - so when I get overwhelmed with other rooms I stop by for a quick look.

Fall in San Diego

I love fall: cooler weather, the colors, warm coffee, sweaters, the really good smelling candles, trips to the pumpkin patch, ugg boots, the chance of rain...ahhh the list goes on and on!

This past Friday, we went with the neighbors to Bates Nut Farm to feed the animals and catch a sneek peek at the pumpkins and tractors getting ready for the opener weekend. Stinker and I rode with Sarah and little O - it was the first time Stinker rode in a carseat next to another kiddo in a carseat, it was so fun they laughed the whole trip there!

Aimee and F, O, and V met us there. Stinker LOVED feeding the animals especially the chickens (and himself). While I was holding the bag of corn and taking pictures, Stinker was busy shoving corn he was supposed to be feeding the animals into his own mouth!

(the three 1 yr olds)

(thats right Stinker, you throw the feed in for the chickens...)

(you hand the feed to the goats and sheep)

We had so much fun, it truly is a blessing to live in a place with so much to offer. Of course my camera card only had space for a few pics - if its fully charged then I forget about the memory card its always something :)

Clean Eating

Here is a pic of a recipe we got out of "Clean Eating" Magazine:

It was called "Potato Crusted Veggie Pizza" and was delicious!! However after seeing it finished it really resembled cheesy hash-browns with some veggies on it. This was totally my kind of receipe, 5 ingredients or less. It was shredded potatoes, mozzarella cheese, red bell peppers, eggplant, and some seasoning.

This was my first time trying eggplant and both Stinker and I love it!

PWACC 2nd Annual Meeting

Well we ventured over to Arizona for the 2nd Annual PWACC meeting over Labor Day weekend and this year was similar to last, on the agenda was golf, card games, good food, pool time, but new for this year was wii tournaments and massage appointments for the chicas!

Stinker did great sleeping in the pac-n-play in one of the bathrooms. He really liked to "help" Speedy bowl on wii. Stinker also got 2 new teeth bringing the current grand total to 8. He has the four on the top/center and one on his left side upper too. He also has the two middle on the bottom and one more on the right side.

Uncle Dutter had the paparazzi snap a pic of him while showering and he administered personality tests to each of us to be analyzed. Out of all 9 of us Speedy was the only one to not be "judging" on the myers-briggs test instead he was "perceiving"; there were 4 introverts and 5 extroverts. Uncle Sallad's personality is found in only 1% of the entire world and our group had 2 sets of twins: mom and Dutter / me and my dad.

After everyone departed from the weekend we stayed on a couple days, Stinker loved to help Poppa take the dogs for walks...

Next year looks like the meeting will be in Vegas!

4th of July and Other Random Summer Shots

Once again we spent the 4th of July with Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. We spent the day eating and hanging out. For fireworks we headed to the Great's for a hot dog BBQ and to watch the fireworks from their deck. It is the perfect place to see fireworks - especially with small kids b/c you have an unobstructed view, bathroom a just inside and no traffic on the way home!

New this summer though was what we affectionately referred to as the "Lido Deck". Our neighbors got a large pool for everyone to enjoy - it was so refreshing during those warm summer days :)

Also this summer Speedy and I built a fort with a tent Speedy got from work outside our neighbors door. We thought the 4 and 5 yr olds would have a blast with it...so late one night we went out and set it up only to discover that one of our neighbor's cars was gone.

When Brandon got home at 11pm he called Aimee and asked: "Who is on our porch?" To which Aimee got freaked out and Brandon repeated: "Aimee is someone...sleeping on our porch??" She peeked out the front window and saw the Nabisco flag flying high and knew who the culprit was. So Brandon had to walk through the tent to get in from work and out to work the next morning. When the kids saw it in the morning we brought it down to the yard to play in. I know Speedy and I are weird, its truly the little things for us :)

Frog & Water Birthday Party

Auntie Snack flew in for the par-tay as well as my parents who were joined with Speedy's parents and a great gathering of friends. We asked if anyone who felt so inclined to wear green. We had a wading pool, water table, sprinkle mat, and little sink for the kiddos to play with. The weather was perfect and Stinker had a blast.

Some of the kiddos

Some of Stinker's buds and their mamas

Snackie mixing the Mac

Mom and I decorated

Our finished product

So, I made my baby's first birthday cake with the help of our pastor's wife and it turned out too cute! We had green froggie jello jigglers, mac-n-cheese with cut up hot dogs, meat-cheese-n-crackers, and a veggie tray.

He also had his first taste of cake and he hasn't been the same since :) The party was short (2 hours) and sweet (with 30 people) and perfect. We felt so blessed by everyone who came.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY STINKER!!

(a quick visit from grandpa and grandma g that morning)

We have a party planned for next week to celebrate with friends and family but on his actual birthday we wanted to do something special just the 3 of us, so I took the day off and we headed to the beach that afternoon when Speedy got home from work. We have taken Stinker to the beach many times but he has never been in the ocean water before so we thought it would be fun to dip his little toes in the water to celebrate his officially turning one. So we upgraded him to the next carseat, spun it to face forward and off we went!

(clearly he was thrilled about what we were going to do)

We drove to Del Mar visited the water and then ate dinner at Cafe Americana. It was a really fun simple memory. Stinker cried when his toes hit the water - its really loud by the water and it is "June gloom" so it was a bit chilly but we had fun anyway :)