Dis Meet @ Libby Lu

Today we had our big mini dis meet with fellow cruisers. We met up with 2 other families with children in the same age range as my daughter. To say they had fun is an understatement. As we were driving home, my daughter asked when our next playdate was! She is now more excited for our vacation. As am I. The moms bonded over the multiple dessert options on board and the drinks of the day. We are going to get a reputation for sure! Here are some pics....
The Girls...

The Moms!

New Month New Countdown

Here we are in the middle of february. It's been a while since my last post. Nothing really new has been going on, just finishing up the final planning of our May trip. School has been rolling along. Now we start getting super busy before we leave. At least it's a distraction. This month we have several events going on: Jump Rope for heart, Hundred Day Festival, Kids Dis Meet at Libby Lu and The Athenian Auction.

I spent last weekend shopping with my HS Cousin. I needed her youth and honesty to tell me if I look like and old lady trying to be in young clothes. She was very reliable and we had a great day of shopping.

We spent Valentines day (or singles appreciation day) participating in the Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser at school. It's a fun morning of jump rope and contests and prizes. It was a sunny day, but the wind was biting through us. A little too chilly. Taylor did fabulous. She jumped for her Grandma Char and her cousin Eric and made her target goal.

Getting ready to jump!

This is lily. My friend susies adorable little daughter. She was having a good time watching the jumpers!

On Presidents day we are meeting some other cruisers at Libby Lu for a playdate and Lunch. She is very excited to meet 2 other girls her age from northern california. On our last cruise, every girl was from texas to florida. No one from California.

Wednesday, it's the Hundred Day celebration at school. Lots of math games to play. Although, the kids don't realize that, so it's cool.

Next weekend, I get to dress fancy and go to Athenian School auction with a friend who works there. It's good to do some recon for our own auction.

Then March is upon us. Another busy month, but more about that later.

Vacation T-4 months!

There are 111 days until our next vacation. I have all the big stuff done. Airfare done, Hotel done, Cruise paid and done, shuttles done but changeable. I have not bought our WDW tix yet. I will do that closer to the date. In 2 weeks, I can book our excursions. We're only doing 2. Feeding and petting the stingrays in Castaway and then a suprise in Acapulco for taylors birthday. We are going to relax and be low key on this vacation. No going going going like last summer! Then we take a vacation break. I almost have 2 more tix to hawaii and dvc is opening a resort there, so I'll wait until it's open and then we'll be back there for a low cost vacation. Then I will take vacations that fit into my time share plan. Thats why I bought it in the first place....right!

Have a good day!

Happy New Year!

So it's 11:30pm, and I'm trying to stay up and watch the ball drop in my time zone. We already saw the new york time, so I believe I'm good to go. Taylor and I are looking forward to a great 2008. We each have big birthdays this year. Taylor hits the double digits and I hit the big 40! Still trying to decide what to do for my big birthday. I guess it will all depend on the finances.



Here's tay and omni relaxing watching the ball drop in new york. I still fool her with the time zone issue. She stays up til midnight somewhere!

So whats all of your new years resolutions? Mine is still the same as last year....ORGANIZATION. I want to be organized in all aspects. Home, finance, work. I have succeeded in the work one. I am on the ball there, so this year I will tackle home and finance. Of course putting the finance part last. Home is about half way there. I got started a little late this year on my home improvements but they're coming along.

Now, for the rest of this week, I need to put away the xmas decorations. BUT FIRST get over this cold! I can't believe I picked up a bug after xmas. Taylor is on antibiotics too. We just have some bugs over here.

Have a great new year and lots of love and luck in 2008!

LOVE YA
Steph and Tay

Post Holiday Blahs....

So here we are 2 days after xmas and I'm tired. My sister, her husband and son came up for a visit..jeez I forgot how a little one can tire you out. (And I wasn't even the one taking care of him!) We had a great holiday. Taylor got many of her "list" items. She's very happy with Santa this year. Now it's time to clean up. That's the blah part!
So here are some pictures from the holidays....

David discovers his love of trampolines!


Courtney volunteered her services to help make some appetizers for everyone. She was very helpful even though she was fighting a cold!

The kids couldn't wait to open presents on christmas eve. All of taylors cousins were there for dinner. We had a full house! We also met our cousin rebeccas new man, mark. A very nice guy. It was nice to see laurie and rebecca again. I'm holding mark and rebecca to my wine date in the future!


David became friends with omni. (or rather omni gave up running from david) I think omni discovered the benefits of a toddler. David was omni's little salt lick! And oh boy, when david was done with dinner, omni went in an cleaned up the high chair. What a help!
We never really saw madison the cat. She saw david and the dog and took off for under my bed and didn't come out until today. She's still mad that the dog is here but at least she's roaming around the house now.
Taylor spent christmas eve night with her dad and his GF and her son. So she had to wait until she came home christmas day to open her presents. She was very excited that her uncle got her a keyboard so she can practice her piano skills.

Taylor and david loved their christmas presents. They played with them until it was time to go to grandmas for dinner.


My sister and her husband at moms on christmas day. They do this popper thing after dinner and everyone has to wear paper crowns. It's fun after a few glasses of wine!


Me and my bro being silly with our crowns. All in all a fun few days. I'm definately looking forward to some down time. Too bad there's some cleaning that is involved in that. If only I got a merry maids certificate. I'll ask santa for that next year.

Happy Holiday and a great new year!

Cold December Weekend

Well the big game was here saturday night and we lost. It was too bad, but the kids had a great season and were proud that they reached the championship. Their first time ever. This game was televised on FSN too. We have TV time outs. My cousin and her friends were also excited to be cheering in the Oakland Coliseum. Quite different from the High School bleacher experience. It was so cold at the game, but we had a great time. Even though our football team lost, our cheerleaders were better and our band was better. SO THERE!
How cute are these girls. This was their last football game to cheer for and they are sad it's over.
Taylor and her cousin Nick, stayed at my house and destroyed it with the babysitter. They were a little miffed that they couldn't go to the game, but they would have been miserable and in the end, they enjoyed the babysitter.

On Sunday we had a piano recital at school. I put her performance on the page. My little prodigy. It was a cute performance as seen below.

We also have the house decorated and put the tree up. .

It's small but does the job. Already the gifts are under taunting my child. HAHAHAHA. So we're ready for the christmas holiday. 2 weeks of school left and then VACATION.

Have a great holiday!

Happy Birthday to me....etc...

So today is the last birthday of my 30's and what exciting thing did I do....wait for it....

I cleaned my house, oh and put up the xmas tree. Woo hoo...what an exciting day.

We've had a fun week off of work, now it's time to go back. :(

So here's a run down of the thanksgiving weekend festivities... I drove down to So Cal to see my sister and her family at her inlaws. A long drive down due to traffic in Santa Barbara. But, when you hit Pismo Beach on 101...it's beautiful. I keep forgetting that I love the beach. Not necesarily lounging on it, but I think living on the california coast would be amazing. I hope that someday I'll be able to do it. Anyways, landed safely in Ventura, CA and had a great 24 hour visit with the family. My sisters baby is so big and very cute.

He was fun to visit with and I made sure to remind him that I was his favorite auntie! So after the lovely dinner preparred by the other aunt, I loaded up my car and headed home. My friend was really wanting to get in line early to best buy and get a good deal on a computer. Well by 8:30 pm the line at best buy in 2 different cities was around the store. So she settled on Circut City and called to have me meet her there to spend the night. That's right..we spent the night in front of the store along with hundreds of others. It was freezing and I left several times to go home and get more blankets and go potty. Luckily she picked the store that was 5 minutes from my house so I could go back and forth. Here's a picture of the line around 4:30am
Now just so you can appreciate it, It went around the side and back of the building. Anyways, we found some good deals but I can't elaborate as some are xmas gifts.

After that long night, I went home to go to bed. I then called my dd's dad and said I'd come and pick her up, but they were going to the movies..yea! so more time to lounge and catch up on sleep. I felt hungover! Then saturday night tay and I went to the big California High School football game. Their 2nd playoff game against James Logan High School. We beat my local HS last week and now they were going to try again to continue on the the championship. Now, Cal was not expected to win. They were the underdogs and this was their first time in the playoffs but they totally kicked butt and won 27-9. It was awesome. My cousins BF scored a touchdown and now the kids are totally pumped as they get to play in the Oakland Coliseum against the Powerhouse that is De La Salle. I hope you'll all keep your fingers crossed and hope that Cal pulls a major upset! After all this is DeLaSalles 16th consecutive title bid...don't ya think it's time they gave someone else a chance!

Anyhoo..there's our family update. 4 more weeks of school and then we're out for 2 weeks for the xmas holidays.

hope you all had a great thanksgiving.