Happy Baby Stace!

Saturday morning a friend and I hosted a baby shower for my wonderful friend Stacy. She is expecting her second daughter, Addison, in January. I am always so thrilled to see my friends and their ever expanding families. Congrats Stacy. Adddison, can't wait to meet you.... :)

OMG! The toys are multiplying.....

or maybe it's Christmas. I swear the sheer number of toys in our household tripled overnight. Me thinks it's time to weed out the toy closet. How blessed my kiddos are that so many people love them! We spent Christmas morning at our house opening and playing with our Santa gifts. Then we went to brunch/opening insane amounts of gifts at Jeremy's mom's house. We ended the day with dinner and more gifts with my parent's and Jeremy's dad. Our day was relatively low stress (no small feat for a holiday) and the boys held up great. I love Christmas (I really do) but between you and me- I'm kinda glad it's over!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Every year on Christmas Eve we go with Jeremy's family to dinner at the Mission Inn, followed by a gift exchange at Jeremy's parent's home. It is always a lot of fun to get all dressed up and walk around downtown. The lights are breathtaking and it is a great start to Christmas.

Cookie Exchange #2

Wednesday night my friend Lisa hosted a cookie exchange for kids. The little ones decorated cookies , drank hot chocolate, had a book exchange and listened to her son Hunter "read" The Night Before Christmas. Ok, mostly they ran around and played with all of Hunter's toys, but regardless of how they spent their time they had a ball!

Want to have a good laugh?

Click here to have a good laugh at my family's expense!!!!

Cookie Exchange #1

Today was the first of two cookie exchanges I was invited to. Today my friend Jill hosted twelve of us at her home. We each brought 3 dozen homemade cookies. We laid them out on a big table and went around with platters collecting a handful of each type of cookie. In the end we each had a big plate of assorted Christmas cookies. It was fun and sure beats making all those cookies myself. Now if I can only resist sampling all of them!

Portillo Family Christmas Party

Today was the annual Portillo family party hosted by Jeremy's mom. Every year the "newest" daddy gets to dress up and be Santa, having each kid come sit on his lap and hand out gifts. This year's Santa was Jeremy's cousin Vince who welcomed twin boys into his life this summer. I only got a shot of Gavin because my camera conveniently ran out of batteries by the time it was Derek's turn. Trust me when I say he was terrified of Santa and didn't sit there long enough for a picture anyhow. The funny thing is, he adores Vince. Of course the little ones never figure out that is just their cousin/uncle/dad in that costume!

A Little Monkey Business...

Today was Gavin's "Curious George" birthday party. It was a FULL house and he had a really good time. Thanks to all who came to help make his day so special. You always make our family feel so loved and we are blessed to have such great family and friends. And a special thanks to my folks, Devon, Tim and Sarah. Boy, is this mommy pooped!

Happy Birthday Tim!

Friday night we celebrated my little brother Tim's 27th birthday. It is so hard for me to grasp how old he is. To me he is eternally my "baby" brother and thus can't possibly be a full fledged adult, much less 27! In reality though, he is this totally successful, happy, handsome man who I am so very proud of. Happy birthday Tim. I think you are just wonderful!

My Baby is Four Today!

Well, my first baby that is. Gavin Jeremy was born four years ago at 6:25 in the morning. Time sure flies. We celebrated by having lunch at the restaurant of his choice- Carl's Jr. (what sophisticated taste) and a trip to the Disney store to pick out a toy from my mom. Happy birthday Gavin. I love you beautiful boy......

I've Been "Tagged"

There is a little blogging game called 10 things and apparently I'm it. Before I begin let me say- I have LIFTED the restricted comments from this site, meaning all of you can leave a comment WITHOUT a password. If I am going to bare my weirdness to you, then as my friends and family, you better gimme some love!!! (Seriously if only 2 people leave a comment I'll be a bit hurt) SO LEAVE A COMMENT (I am so curious who's reading)! Ok, now that I've gotten that out, here we go"

10 Things About Me You Might Not Know:

1) I hate watching TV. I could actually live perfectly fine without a television set. I much prefer reading.

2) Speaking of reading, when I was in the 3rd grade my teacher had a speed reading machine. I used it so much I can now read so fast I can finish entire novels in 1-2 hours.

3) I am a compulsive list maker. All over my house are little to do lists. I make them for myself, for Jeremy, even the boys who can't read yet. I get a strange satisfaction from crossing things off my list. It doesn't really bother me that no one else pays any attention to them.

4) When I was a sophomore I was on Good Morning America. My cheerleading squad went to cheer camp at UCLA and they were there doing a segment on the whole experience. They followed me around for much of the day and a few weeks later there I was telling the whole U. S of A to "push 'em back."

5) I hate Halloween. Always have. I only wanted to dress up if I could be something pretty. Guess I have always been vain. I try really hard to enjoy it for my kids, but truthfully.... I still don't like it much.

6) I love a clean house but I detest doing any of the work to clean it. If only I had that robot from the Jetson's.

7) I can't watch horror movies. Even the kind that are so bad there isn't a chance in heck they're real. When I was in 7th grade I watched Nightmare on Elm Street One and Two and they scared me so bad I couldn't walk by my own swimming pool at night alone ever again.

8) I am obsessed with all things fertility. Seriously! Maybe I was a midwife in my past life. I can answer almost any question on babies and all your business "down there."

9) I LOVE crackers. I don't mean I like them once in a while. I mean I cannot buy them at the store because I simply can't resist eating the whole entire box. As a kid my mom knew this so she would never buy them (or if she did she hid them from me and snuck them over to my little brother), so I would go to my friend Colleen's. Her mom always had the good ones!

10) In college I worked for a long time in the campus vault. It was basically an underground safe where all of the money from the campus was filtered through. I seriously loved that job. It was quiet, but fun. Easy but you had to concentrate. No pressure, just CASH! If I ever win the lottery I'm opening me up a vault. Devon- are you in?

So there you have it. Hope you all still love me! Now I tag Stacy and Lisa!