Engagements and Nursing school!!

So I have been M.I.A. because I just got engaged! WOOHOO! the lucky man(actually I'm a lucky girl) Is my best friend of 10 years. We dated for 4 of those 10 and took a "healthy" break. I think it was necessary to do and it ended up for the better. We both are a tad bit more mature. I've been crazy busy with the wedding planning because we are having it in January 2012 in Hawaii (no! I'm not pregnant)!! We don't need a long engagement...there's nothing wrong with that. But we do want to have more kids right away...Just after the wedding.

On top of it all...I GOT ACCEPTED to nursing school (which starts in JANUARY)!! Luckily I will be back from the wedding BUT we decided to postpone our Honeymoon until our 1 year anniversary.

I'm ecstatic!! The saying "when it rains it pours" has taken on a whole new POSITIVE meaning for me.

Check out this ring...He did a good job:)

p.s. Don't mind the yellow-ish looking skin...Im not sick. I'm just under flourescent lights! YuCk!

A Road trip and Some Ohana!

Zoie and I took a roadtrip up to Santa Barbara to visit our "hawaii" friends. Since we were in the area, another friend that I met at Duke's Waikiki came up for the day as well. We had so much fun watching our girls play. The weather was super HUMID and hot which brought back memories of the islands.

3 little monkeys


Jess & Cooper with Zoie and I

Brenna & Zailia

Z & Z

Bathtime (Cooper wasn't to happy about the girls in her bath so she showered after)

Love <3

Coops!

Pirates Booty..YUM!

Lounging in the Swimming hole

Zailia, Cooper, & Zoie

Sweet Baby Z

It was nice to get away with Zoie for a few days. We enjoyed the swimming hole, walks to the park, pizza night, bedtime, and catching up with some Ohana. Thanks Jess for having us and Brenna for making the trip up to see us. You girls are seriously awesome friends and MOMMYS! Can't wait until you head down south for HB fun! XOXO

Some lunch and a Playdate

Since we are somewhat moved into our home, we invited a few friends over for some backyard fun. We ate lunch, talked about how fast the summer came and went, and how beautiful the day was.

Princess Jordan!

Mr. Mason

Sweet Hayden and My silly Monkey Zoie!

Sisters From another mother?

If i Hadn't given birth to her myself I would question Why these girls look like sisters. One of my BFF's twins look just Zoie. Am I the only one that sees this? (Zoie, Alyssa, & Hannah)

Toddler beds and bottles?

I'm officially at war with myself. I am having the hardest time with the idea of putting Zoie in a toddler bed for many reasons and some of them are selfish ;/ Here's my train of thought. Zoie Does not attempt, nor has she ever attempted to climb out of her bed (Now that I let that out of the bag surely it will happen soon). She goes to bed so easily in her little cage and just calls for me in the morning when she wants out. Sometimes I can even turn on a "moo-moo" (movie) and she will lay there for another hour or two (so nice for mommy to sleep an extra hour). I am so afraid that if I switch her to a toddler bed she will roam around the house by herself. OK who are we kidding. I'm so afraid she will crawl in bed with me every night. I know this sounds bad. Don't get me wrong I DO love my little cuddle sessions with my favorite little person BUT as soon as she's passed out it's ME...Ashley... who doesn't get any sleep. I get little toes stuck in my nose, a foot in my eye, a headbutt(once she slammed her head down so hard I thought it broke my nose) and a full 2 year old stretched across my stomach like a baby lamb. Not to mention she thrashes, cries out, screams, calls my name, and speaks a different language when she is sleeping. I know this seems like an exaggeration but its not. People can vouch...SUSAN?! Alright I think I just made a decision. I'm not ready to put her in a toddler bed and It seems like she isn't either. Until she starts climbing out I don't think its going to hurt her by staying in a crib for a little longer.

Now onto the bottle! Where do I begin? Well many of my friends took bottles away at 1 year. I however have not. She only gets a bottle for naps and right before she goes to bed at night( yes, I am defending myself). It soothes her. I have tried many times (only because I forgot a bottle) to give her milk in a sippy cup and she refuses to drink it. The milk ends up going to waste unless I can find a bottle to pour it in. I figure, if this is the only way she will drink milk then so be it in a bottle. It's not hurting me, or you, or Zoie(some people/dentists will disagree). Here I go again defending myself. She has never been a pacifier girl AND she only has the bottle 2 times a day for less than 10 minutes so I don't see any harm in it. I know many people who took the bottle away and their kids don't touch milk anymore. I pray that this never happens! ThE EnD!

Beach Days

I'm so thankful that is has been a sunny, consistent summer. I don't know if I would have survived a repeat of summer 2010! We spend a lot of our days at the beach or outside so its nice when the weather is above 70 degrees. Here are some random beach/pool days with our friends!

Jordan and Zoie heading to the beach

Zoie, Jordan, Matteo and Elle Triple trouble with these girls!

...ahhhhh Strips with chili and cheese.

This is my favorite summer past time...Or should i say Present? I always enjoy going to our beach knowing I get to enjoy some of this deliciousness. If you are ever in the area stop by Dwight's and order some. I promise, you will not be disappointed! (My mouth is watering just writing about them:) YUM!

Last weekend we went to the beachclub in Irvine. Its a man-made pool with a fake beach and water slides. It's only a 20 minute drive and a little bit easier than the real beach because it's confined and there are no rip currents or dangerous shore break to worry about. You have to be a resident in order to use the facilities so Thank you Kim for letting us come play!

My little mermaid

Me and My Cutie Patootie

Papa Ron entertaining the kids

Daredevil Cruz!



Sports Illustrated photo shoot

We also went to Hermosa Beach last weekend to visit a friend(who used to live in Hawaii) that is moving again!. BOO hoo! We had a nice lunch on the boardwalk, watched a drumming session (which was pretty cool), and then took the girls to the beach. I only took a few photos because we were so consumed with making sure the girls didn't beat each other up, wiping tears.sand.snot.sunscreen and making trips to the water to fill up the buckets! It wasn't our best performance for a lovely goodbye visit.

Cooper and Zoie


This shot was right before a fight:)

Lip sync baby

I have a strong "dislike" for this talking book. Mostly because Zoie received it at a much younger than "recommended age" so she didn't quite grasp the concept. For months it has sang to the tune of something like this "there was a farm...there was a farm...there was a farm...there was a farm...GOODBYE" and so on. She would turn the same page back and forth and never let the song finish. Naturally, I learned how to tune this wonderfully.annoying.learning toy out.
The other day after about 30 minutes of her playing with it I realized that the entire song would finish before the next one started. When I looked over this is what I saw. Before I burst out laughing and more importantly missing the opportunity to film this gem, I scrambled for my iphone, turned on the video, and taped her as discreetly as possible. I think its a candidate for America's Funniest Home video. What do you think? (turn off volume from playlist below)

video post!

Help fellow bloggers!! I have a video that I have tried 100's of ways to upload and it always shows and "error" message. It was taken on my Iphone. Does anyone have any tips for uploading a video? BTW I have a mac computer as well:)

Thank you

4th Of July Fun!

This year we decided to do away with the bikes and keg and have more of a family/kid friendly BBQ. My day started at 5:50 A.M!! I was pretty upset about waking up this early without the help of an alarm clock. But when I looked down the street to see people staking out spots I figured I should go set one up too. After claiming my space, I grabbed a coffee and a chair and sat watching all the crazy marathon runners pass me by. Here are a few shots of my favorite weirdos

The parade was crazy and people kept creeping in on our space blocking the kids view. Once I put a stop to that we were good to go.

Loving her new red boots!

Joannah ans Teo

Love his sweet face


Simone-ie
An attempt to get all the kids in a picture.

Rayson & Scarlett

Proud to be an American!

Posing Zoie

Ray Ray & Ti Ti

The kids enjoying the parade

Lovely Simone

After the parade we headed back to the house for tasty beverages and a BBQ. Many friends stopped by on their bikes to hang out, say hi, and have a drink before they went on their way to the next party.

Mini Mason

Pool time!

Mister Mason

Yummy Watermelon(had to take the clothes off so the juice wouldn't get on them)

This girl and her poses!!

Joannah and I were able to escape for a relaxing drink at brew co:)

At 8 PM we headed down to the beach for the 30 minute firework spectacular. Only to find out Zoie was deathly afraid of them and clung to my neck like a monkey. She wouldn't even look at them she was that scared. Here are some attempts to capture the greatness of the light show. I can never quite figure out how to take pictures of fireworks. Do you have a trick?

Zoie and Addison before the frightening fireworks!

This isn't the greatest quality since she was trying to escape from the noise.

Kind of blurry but i likes the fire truck in the foreground

This was the best one out of 50 shots taken:(

All in all it was a great and mellow 4th of July. I have never slept so sound in my life after such a busy day. Hope yours was as fun as mine. XO