* Every day is a new adventure *

10/18/10

Giveaway!!

The Cute Cupcakesters over at Cute Cupcakes All The Time are hosting a giveaway for me!! Hop on over there and enter to win $20 to my Etsy shop!!

http://cutecupcakesallthetime.blogspot.com/2010/10/giveaway-polka-dots-on-parade.html

10/15/10

Okay, so several months ago my friend Brandy, who is a realtor, told me she was interested in buying our house. She'd told me that before but we weren't really interested. Well this time we started thinking about it. I really didn't think we could afford to buy anything else because I was stuck on the idea of having a big yard like we do now. Well as I looked around at all the happy condo people, I started thinking. How could they possibly be happy? They have no yard. And then I started thinking, but they don't have to take care of it. The husbands don't have to do yardwork, and the wives don't have to nag the husbands to do it. If any of you have seen our house it is a jungle to behold. More plants than any 5 yards need, and such a variety that we have no idea how to care for them. On top of that our house is 50 years old, and in need of some serious TLC. Well, David was more than happy to give up yardwork, so we started looking around! It turns out that when you don't have all that land to pay for, you can get a pretty nice condo! We told Brandy we would accept her offer and the adventure began!! The way to get the best deal is short sales and repos. Once we started looking, people told me all their horror stories of how long it took to get into one of these great deals. I was undeterred!! These people were wimps! They just didn't know how to stick it out! Famous last words. I have a tendency to think I'm stronger than I am. I used to mock the people who got epidurals, until I had a 20 hour labor and an emergency c-section. LOL So anyway, these people weren't kidding. It's been quite a ride with many bumps along the way. Changing short sale programs and procedures, endless documents to sign, delays upon delays, and annoying realtors (not ours.) But our house is sold now, and we are hoping to have a condo to move into sooner rather than later. We are fortunate to have family to live with temporarily in the interim. We have 1 1/2 weeks left before we need to vacate our house and I was lying in bed awake last night feeling melancholy at the thought of leaving our beloved home. We bought this home together the year we got married, brought our babies home from the hospital here, and celebrated many happy occasions. I'm excited for our new adventure though! It will be fun to try out condo life, to watch someone else mow the grass, and to be surrounded by pools and playgrounds in a community planned just for families. I wish I could savor these last days in our house but I am surrounded by things to pack and endless little things to sew for the CUW boutique I'm involved in next weekend. Wish me luck!!

10/2/10

Adventures in September

September was full of fun and excitement!

We enjoyed our Knotts Soak City passes for the last time before they closed.

Jeremy went on all the big rides!

We had plenty of free cupcakes!

And it's always more fun with friends!

We played with our newest cousin and shared pacis. Awwww...

We had fun with Grandpa.

Went to the park.

Started soccer season.

Jeremy has become a better soccer player this year and is enjoying it.

This sassy girl...

...learned to JUMP!! And she loves it!

We had to tent our house for termites. This involved extensive packing of food and anything that might go in our mouths. What a pain!!! We also had to be out of the house for 48 hours. Luckily David had a business trip to San Diego scheduled in a very family-friendly hotel the same week. What a blessing!! I decided to call it our "termite vacation!"

While we were on vacation we celebrated my BIL's birthday with donut cake! My sister took our tradition and made it her own with red velvet cupcakes on top. Oh heaven.

Kelsey had her own fun breaking my glasses in two, so it was off to the eye doctor on vacation for new glasses! Oh well, it was time to go to the eye doctor anyway. Crazy girl.

The eye doctor had a carousel right outside. This made a couple of children VERY happy. :)

Our hotel had a nice pool and jacuzzi.
I preferred the warm water.

David preferred the cold.
And the kids took turns going back and forth.

My sister and I took the kids to see my Grandfather.

Oh, and our hotel just happened to be down the street from the outlet mall. Oh my gosh!!
Nothing makes me happier than a good deal!

Last, but certainly not least, PIE MONTH started early!!!

Hooray!!!

9/27/10

Sunday Sanctuary

There are so many, many wonderful messages from our prophets and apostles. What a wonderful thing it is to have them all stored on the Internet, ripe for picking whenever I need them.
They provide a little insight and inspiration to help me be the best I can be. Now all I have to do is use them!!

A friend posted a little excerpt on her blog from this message on charity from Marvin J. Ashton. I loved it and loved the rest of the message as well, and I wanted to share my favorite parts!

“Charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever.” (Moro. 7:46–47.)...Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again...Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other. None of us need one more person bashing or pointing out where we have failed or fallen short. Most of us are already well aware of the areas in which we are weak. What each of us does need is family, friends, employers, and brothers and sisters who support us, who have the patience to teach us, who believe in us, and who believe we’re trying to do the best we can, in spite of our weaknesses...If we could look into each other’s hearts and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care...Let us open our arms to each other, accept each other for who we are, assume everyone is doing the best he or she can, and look for ways to help leave quiet messages of love and encouragement...

I hope you enjoyed this message as much as I did!
Now to go and apply it...wish me luck!!

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=5ad094bf3938b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

9/22/10

Dang Gina Giveaway!

Guess who's been featured on Dang Gina!?!? ME!!!

I'm so excited!!! Head on over there to read just what Gina thinks of my Etsy shop and enter to win $20 in cute stuff!!

http://dangginagives.blogspot.com/2010/09/polka-dots-on-parade.html

8/31/10

IUPKNPM

Last week we were at Little Corona beach with our fun friends and I saw this mixed up code for Sprinkles come up as the secret word of the day for a free cupcake!! We packed it up and headed over for PUMPKIN cupcake perfection!!

Pure Pumpkin Happiness!!

8/26/10

Party Animals!!

Last weekend we were party animals!!

Saturday was a super fun wet and wild birthday party for our little friend. Jeremy had a BLAST!!! They had a blow-up water slide, and he must have gone down 300 times! He stopped for a short food break, but other than that he was on that slide for 3 hours!!

I think we could have stayed for 3 more hours and he would have been happy!

Kelsey was happy to take it easy in the wading pool with her girls.

And dig for ice in the chest. Cuties!!

Sunday we went to the wedding of one of my Young Women.

It was blistering hot in the sun so I let the kids stand in the shade for the ceremony.

Jeremy gathered a leaf bouquet.

We were happy to make it inside where everything was decked out in pink, the bride's favorite color. I had dressed Kelsey and I in pink in honor of her.

Jeremy enjoyed the pink candy...

as you can tell from his pinkalicious tongue!

Kelsey's pacifier matched the decor.

As usual, my kids were the first ones on the dance floor! They're dancing machines! They danced with each other...

And with me...

And with other kids.

Jeremy paid his dollar and was excited to dance with the bride!

Kelsey LOVED the sparkling cider!!

And I had fun reconnecting with a girl I used to take dance classes with when I was a young girl! So awesome! Super fun weekend!!

8/25/10

Family Softball

Every year David likes to play softball with the team at work. We have been good about coming some years and not so good other years. Well, this was a terrible year for attendance! We didn't go to one single game!! There seemed to be stuff going on a lot of the nights, and they changed the rules about getting on the Naval base, so it was harder for us to get on to see the games. Well we decided to go to the last game. It was a busy night! There was a ward activity, a beach party, and Jeremy was supposed to go to kempo. We ditched it all and went to the softball game!! It was supposed to be a double header and we got there at the end of the first game. Well, it turned out that they lost that game, so there was no second game. We saw about 5 minutes of it, and it was over. Whoops. Oh well, we made the best of it! The kids played at the playground, we ate our picnic dinner, and then ran the bases.