Today was terrific...

At the Aquarium of the Pacific... Today Victor had off so we decided to make it a family day out in the beautiful sun! It was a bit chilly, but warm in the sun. We headed out to the LBC with a free ticket to the Aquarium!

Alana got to watch the birds feed really up close!


I didn't get a lot of face time from Alana today with the camera because she was more intrested to see what was going on, of course. She was scared of the Sea Lions at first, but then warmed up to them once she realized there was glass between them and her.


She was able to touch and feel star fish, and all the fun little creatures in the tide pools.


Jelly Fish are mommies favorite!!

Not sure if you can read this sign but it was SOOO intresting and makes so much sense. Basically it says that some of these fish start out as females and when they get stressed out they turn into males... hmmmm.... It just makes sense and made me laugh so hard!

After hours at the Aquarium we headed out to walk around the bay, Alana was up and running around the entire way. The sun gave her energy I swear!

A quick break.

The sun was shining so bright out today, it was a very pretty day out!

We saw birds and Alana went running towards them. You can see her behind all the birds, she LOVED to make them fly around and she was so happy every time they flocked around her.

Too many to count!

Amazing day with my great family! I am a lucky girl. Thank you babe, these are the days we live for!!

Long weekend...

We went to a 4 year old Birthday Party this weekend! Alana had so much fun! She was in love with Victor's friend Alvin that was behind the camera, so he was able to get some great pictures of her! She would smile so big for him, it was crazy! I need to bring him along with us everywhere!


My sweet family!


Yes, she's on a motorcycle! She loved it and wouldn't get off of it.


Alana and I collected candy from the Pinata. Great birthday party with great people!

Most of you already know, but my dad had a bit of a scare Friday night and Saturday. He was in the hospital (for the second time in a month). He was in a lot of pain but wasn't sure why. Finally with a KAT scan they were able to find out it was Gall Stones. What would normally be a simple procedure wasn't going to be with my dad. With previous surgery's my dad's had, he would be at a much higher risk. They might even have to open up his chest if they had to. The doctor had to tell us worse case senerio, but really, none of us really wanted to hear that kind of stuff just coming off the heels of my mom dying. Of course we all think the worse and pray for the best. It was a very emotional, draining day for the whole family. But dad went through surgery and a few hours and lots of nailbitting later he did just fine. They didn't have to open him up so the surgery wasn't as risky. THANK GOD! Can I just tell you how scared all of us were, and what crazy thoughts were running through our minds? 2 hospital visits in the last month... Please just keep my dad in your prayers. I know he is going through a lot right now as we all are, but it's just hard for him. Waking up in the middle of the night and reaching over to the other side of the bed and my mom not being there like she had been for the last 35 years. I can't even imagine. Just keep him in your thoughts please. Love to all!

Friday I'm in love!

Friday Alana and I went over to Grandma's house to help decorate the Christmas tree! It's Alana's first she's helped to decorate! She loved it! Lights are her favorite to look at!


She helped Grandma get the top of the tree!


Then Friday night after some shopping we had some friends come over! This is Lennox who is only 5 and rocked out singing all night! A new Rock Star is born!


Then the girls got their chance to play the Guitar! It's amazing how much these girls love to be involved and play everything!


Phoenix and Alana are great buds!

CHEESE

Alana's "cheese" face is just that... so cheesy! I say cheese and she just hams it up for the camera! Today we spent the morning with Alana's newest friend Phoenix and her mommy, they played and had lots of fun together, (Didn't get any pictures, sorry, next time). On the way back from the car she had so many little Mickey Mouse dolls, and loves to carry them around with Minnie and her Rally Monkey! She takes them back and fourth from the car to the house! She's pretty crazy with her babies.

What's not to love?

Since I was old enough to earn my own money and buy my own things, I LOVED Roxy! They make the cutest things! At Alana's baby shower I got a baby tshirt that said Roxy and she has worn the heck out of it. I had forgotten until then that they made baby stuff. I don't often buy Alana Roxy stuff because it's a bit pricey and I hate spending that much money on things she'll grow out of in a month. But when I found these cute Roxy shoes the other day for a great price I couldn't pass them up! She loves them because they are the same name as her doggy! Aren't they so adorable?!?!!

Happy Birthday Dork!

I LOVE YOU!!

Disneyland soon?

It's a beautiful day!

Alana and I spent hours at the park today out in the beautiful sunshine!

She doesn't want to be in the baby swing anymore, she only wants to swing on the big girl swing now.

Alana amazes me every day with some new word that she's learned or some funny look on her face. She sings her ABC's so cute and seems to be learning the letters pretty fast! Her favorite songs to sing are Twinkle, Twinkle, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and knows all the hand movements. She has just started to rock her baby dolls and sing Rock a by baby to them. She loves to try to sing "hey Jude" by the Beatles. She's learning so much so fast! 1 1/2 years old this week! 2 will be here before we know it!

Thank you Jennifer!

My friend Jennifer gave Alana some crayons for the bath! We tried them out this week and the girl was IN LOVE with them!!! Thank you so much Jen, she needed some new bath toys and crayons are right up her ally right now! You can't really tell, but the bath says "Thank you Jen".


When Alana's cousin Ellie was little, one of my favorite pictures of her was from the bath tub when Jacquie wrote her name on the bath and got a great picture of her smiling... I told Jacquie I was gonna copy the picture, and it came out SOOO great!

Here is Miss Ellie a few years ago! They really couldn't look more alike!!!

New Movie, old friends, yummy food!

No we didn't stand in line to watch it at midnight like lots of crazy fans, but we did stand in line for a long time to get a great seat Saturday night!

My niece, Hailey is a really big Twilight fan so we surprised her with tickets to go see New Moon! I haven't read the books, but I took Hailey and Crystal to see the first Twilight movie last year and I really loved the movie. I hear the books are a lot better, but I just haven't had time to get into them at all. So I guess I'll just stick to the movies for now! Crystal, Hailey, Melissa, my sister Julie and myself all headed out Saturday night to join millions of screaming tweens to see New Moon. We stopped at Miguels first to pick up some dinner, and we sat at the very front of the line, ate dinner and waited for the movie!



Me and this crazy Twilight fan


Although we had already celebrated Melissa's birthday, Saturday was her actual birthday, so Happy Birthday again!

I had fun with you girls... Movie was ok, not all that I had expected. Like I said, I didn't read the books so I really didn't know what to expect from the movie. There were a lot of great parts to it, but when the movie was over, I thought, really? Of course I'll buy it when it comes out on DVD and I can't wait to go see the next in June. But just hanging out with the girls, waiting in line to see it was pretty fun!

Happy Birthday Melissa

This weekend is Melissa's birthday! Melissa is my other sister, has been since she was born. She grew up across the street from us growing up and Jacquie and Melissa have been best friends since they were both born. Melissa has been a God sent in the last year. She has been living with Jacquie and my parents and has been so much help! She was a lot of help when mom needed anything at the house or just to watch Jacquie's girls while she helped mom. Since mom's been gone, Melissa has been doing a lot at the house and has been so helpful to everyone! I think we are all closer to her right now then we have been in a long time.

We decided to take her out dancing for her birthday, so all the girls came over to my house to get ready to go out! Alana LOVED hanging out with the girls watching everyone do their make-up and hair. She soaked it all up! She's been a crazy coloring girl lately. She LOVES to color. She doesn't eat the crayons, she colors! So I put her on my bed with her crayons and coloring book in her cute jammies and she entertained the girls by coloring with her toys! She's crazy!


I think she's part Monkey... And I think her father taught her how to do it!


Finally we got out of the house and went to have a few drinks before heading out to dance! We've never been to Pierce Street on a Wednesday night.... obviously there is a reason for that. The place was empty so naturaly we took over! The 6 of us girls had so much fun!

Me and my sester!


Crystal, Ashley and Melissa **Birthday Girl**

The usual suspects

Dancing Queens

My best sisters EVER!!!

Jacquie and her husband Melissa!

Me and the Birthday girl dancing

Drunk dorks!

Best Friends for Life... awww!

We had such a great night, love you girls! Can't wait to do it again soon!!!

Dinner and Monkeys?

Victor and I took Alana to walk around at DownTown Disney. She loved that place with all the trees decorated and so many shops to walk around and touch everything in. We took Alana into Rain Forest Cafe for dinner for the first time. She loved the fish and all the animals hanging around. Made monkey sounds when she saw the monkeys. She loved it all until the room started their thunder storm. The room gets loud and the fake animals around the room start to make lots of noise and go crazy. Needless to say by this picture, Alana DID NOT like that at all. So every 30 minutes when it went off we had to take her out of the high chair and hold her. Sadly I thought she'd like it. Not so much!


She did love Down Town Disney though and had a great time, it was nice and cold out, great fall night out for the family! Looking forward to many more!


Love Bug and her daddy!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The last picture with my mama

Everyone keeps asking how everyone is doing with the loss of my mom... it's barely been a month and a half. It seems like it's been a lifetime without her now. Unless you've lost your mom, it's so hard to understand the feeling of loosing her. Your best friend in the world, just gone. We've all been putting on a pretty good act. But man, underneath it all I'm dying over here. I miss calling her five times a day, I miss her being the first person to know any kind of news thats going on. I miss her hugs and her love. The love of a mother is really unlike anything else in the entire world. It's a love that no one can replace. I have a lot of love in my life, great family and great friends, but it's just not the same. I think about her 24/7. Every fricken TV show that I watch, someone is dying of Cancer, or someone has liver cancer, it's always something... dying mom's... cancer... It's all over and I can't get away from it!

The other night I was dreaming... my phone rang and it was her. I knew she was dead and didn't understand how she could be calling me. I clearly heard her voice, she told me she was doing great. I made her promise she'd call me back, she promised, told me she loved me and then I woke up balling my eyes out. Damn it was SO real. I heard her speak and spoke back to her. It freaks me out because of course I woke up and looked at my phone and looked at the call log, just in case. Man, what I wouldn't give to actually speak to her again. I miss her today, as always. Everyone keeps asking about the holidays this year... I really want nothing to do with them. I know for everyone's sake that we'll do what we always do, but it just won't be the same. Please keep us all in your prayers, we need them.

Saturday Night Fever

There were no bell bottoms or disco balls Halloween night, just a Saturday Night Fever.

Alana woke up Halloweeen morning with a 100.2 fever. She wasn't feeling so great and kinda grumpy. The only trick or treating we did was at Victor's hotel. They had a nice event for the kids staying at the hotel. Alana dressed up in her "Little Red Ridding hood" costume and her and I trick or treated for a bit, while daddy helped run the event. Crystal and myself ended up helping run the event as well. It was fun, short and just enough for us. Victor started to feel sick that day and the next week was full of fevers, runny noses, and coughing from each one of us. First Alana, then Victor and then myself... Tuff week! But in the midst of Alana not feeling well I was able to get a few pictures of her dressed up!

My Rock Star

I know I've said it before, but this girl is such a Rock Star! Any time she gets a chance she sneaks in my bedroom and starts drumming on RockBand. Well today she grabbed the mic and was singing with the drum sticks in her hands, and then once she was done she rocked out on the drums! I swear I have a Rock Star in the making over here! She loves her music, singing, dancing and playing instruments! (Please ignore the crazy "I just up from a nap" hair she has going on)

Birthday's... a time to celebrate?

Today would have been mom's 62nd birthday. So far all the first's this far have been pretty hard. The first month, her first birthday, not looking forward to all the holiday's this year without her. Hopefully next year will be a bit easier? I can't believe it's only been a month and a half.

The last two years in a row I've had the pleasure of celebrating with her in Vegas! For her 60th us girls (my sisters and myself) surprised her and took her to see LOVE at the Mirage in Las Vegas. She was the biggest Beatles fan I know. The four of us sat in awww of the show the entire time! We all clapped and sang along and even teared up because it was just such an amazing show!! The second we were done with the show we all said we wanted to see it again! There was just so much to it there is no way you could see it all in one time!

So then the next year, after Victor listening to me talk about how great it was for an entire year... He decided we would go again and take mom for her birthday again! Victor, myself, Crystal and mom packed up and headed out to Vegas to see it once again! Worth every penny AGAIN!

I really thought about going to see it every year in her honor :) But I'm pretty sure that would be more for me then her. I miss her today, like every day. But I couldn't send a card in the mail like I do every year... I couldn't take her out to dinner. I can't just wrap my arms around her and hug her and say Happy Birthday! It's so fricken sad.

Tonight my sisters and I are going to take my dad out to dinner to celebrate all the wonderful birthdays we did get to have with her. We were able to celebrate 29 birthday's together. Love you mom, Happy Birthday to the woman I admire and have always looked up to as my best friend and my mother! Thank you for all the love and strength you've given me my entire life to be who I am today! To be the mother I am and hope to be to Alana. I learned from the best!