Day 71 - Saturday March 12

Such a beautiful day today so we headed out for lunch at Steve's Burgers in town and it was warm enough to sit outside in the sun and enjoy the day! I loved it! I love Spring time weather in Southern California! Days like this make me happy! While the girls took a nap I hoped on my bike and rode to Starbucks for a drink and a treat (which was free for a promotional weekend) and then took an extra long ride home for a mini workout... loved it! It was just what I needed to have an even better day!

This morning I caught Karlie climbing into the rocking chair and rocking herself while drinking her milk! These chairs are perfect!

Day 70 - Friday March 11

Happy Birthday to the most beautiful little sister I could have ever had! Kara Marie Copeland would have been 25 years old today! She is forever in my heart and thoughts and I miss her every day. I was lucky enough to have two daughters so that I can pass on her name to them. And I hope that I will be able to one day tell them all about their amazing beautiful stubborn brat of an aunt they have watching over them from Heaven. I love you so much Kara and can't wait til the day I get to see you again!





This morning Makenna enjoyed watching her cartoons in her new rocking chair! Turns out my consignment find just might be a big hit!



Today we went to Micheals and picked up a roll of paper for the easel so the girls could color on it. And it's a huge hit with Makenna! She loves to color all the time but we have to limit how much and when because Karlie eats the crayons and Markers are super messy. But when we have time to sit down and supervise the two kids fighting over paper space and color supplies... Makenna is beyond happy to color! This $5 art easel is a perfect find!

Day 69 - Thursday March 10

Shopping day!!! Today the consignment sale opened and those who volunteered were able to shop early before the public! YAY!!! Christine, Kristy and I headed down and snagged up some great deals. All I knew that I needed was some summer dresses for Makenna. Karlie has all of Makenna's hand-me-downs and really doesn't NEED anything but just in case I found something I really liked I would get it. Like possibly a fourth of July outfit or something. Anyway, I found 6 or 7 dresses for Makenna and a couple new outfits for Karlie, also new swimsuits and easter dresses for the girls! And my 3 awesome finds were an art easel for $5 and two matching rocking chairs for $35 each! I am so happy with what I got today! And I am so thankful that Mima came over to watch the girls with Chad so that I could shop in peace and have some nice girl time with friends!

We also had dinner guests tonight! An old friend of Chad's Mike Madril and his two daughters came over and hung out with us! I absolutely love having other kids come over and play and giving both my girls new experiences and new people to play with! It was so nice to have them over and be able to catch up!

Day 68 - Wednesday March 9

Unfortunately Gramma has to go back to Oregon today! We've been so lucky the whole time she was here with the weather so today we spent another day out in the sun! Late morning we headed to firefighter park off Cawston to meet up with Amber from my MOPS group and her kids. It's so nice to see the ladies outside of mops and get to know them a little bit better! As always at the park Makenna wants absolutely nothing to do with the entire park other than to play on the swings! If I could just get her to figure out how to pump her legs and swing herself than everything would be fine... but she cant and Karlie is NOT happy to sit still for more than a few minutes on the swings! Park playtime is quite challenging unless there is someone with me!

Anyway, Today was a great day and I loved having my mommy here with us over the weekend and I am sad to see her go and wish so much she could stay longer! The comforts of being with mommy and feeling her love and support for us is one of the best things in life. Yes I admit her and I can only take so much of each other all at once and we have our time limits (about 2 weeks I think) but I wish so much that we could see each other more often! Being so far away and not being able to just run over for a quick hug when needed is hard... but we manage and the time we have together is precious and I love it!

Day 67 - Tuesday March 8

Sister... it's time to wake up!!! I can hear you talking in there! Karlie cracks me up to no end! She is so in love with her big sister and I can only hope that they both love each other this much forever! This morning Karlie woke up first and after a diaper change we heard big sister starting to wake up... so Karlie crawled over to her door and pulled herself up and waited to hear anything more! It was absolutely the cutest thing I had seen!

Chad was able to come home this morning and spend some extra time with Gramma since they were doubled up at the station! It's so nice to have him home! And extra nice to have his help tonight to load up and drop off all my stuff for the consignment sale! This weekend coming up there is a consignment sale in Temecula run by "3 Ring Circus". I've been selling stuff for a year and a half now I think. Only stuff the girls no longer use and I have no need to store and we are running out of room to keep storing stuff we don't use! So... long story short we drove down with the car packed full and dropped everything off then headed to Soup Plantation for dinner! Just about my favorite place to eat with children! It's an all you can eat buffet of salads and pasta and other stuff and the kids can make a disaster and all sorts of noise and get up and down and no one ever seems to mind! And it's pretty cheap too! The five of us were stuffed full and only spent $30! Of course we were too full for dessert there but by the time we got home and got the girls into bed we were ready for our banana splits! YUMMY!!!

Day 66 - Monday March 7

Chad headed off to work today for his regular shift so Gramma, Mommy and the little girls get to play all day and do whatever we feel like! Which ended up being a whole lot of fun play time and nothing else! Tonight we ended up in the Play room / Guest suite (complete with air mattress :-) ). I don't know what it is about an air mattress... but it was the highlight of the entire weekend to be played on and jumped on and pretend sleep in!

Makenna was quite hilarious... she has been found several time over the last few days pretending to be asleep in Gramma's bed with her babies laying next to her under the covers and all! The imagination of a two year old and how they play never ceases to make me smile and be in awe to be so innocent and pure!

While I had the camera out the girls decided to be goof balls and not hold still of course! Karlie jumps up and down and squeals and Makenna laughs and hides and then jumps on me and giggles and then runs away... I've got to be super quick if I'm going to catch anything! After 15 minutes of playing and trying to take pictures Makenna came up and snuggled with me on Gramma's bed and I managed to snap a quick one of just the two of us and show it to her... then it was a game to keep taking pictures and showing them to her. I snagged up Karlie and caught one good one of the three of us!

Day 65 - Sunday March 6

Well... the rice trick didn't work for Chad's phone! I gave him permission to get the new phone he really wanted even though it's more than what we should be spending... but it's what he really wants and he will be happy... so it's worth the cost! Verizon opens at 10:00am so he was in the parking lot waiting at 9:55am! Boys and their toys.

Today is Kristy's birthday so since Gramma is in town we took advantage of the free babysitter and headed out for dinner and drinks with our best friends! It was a much needed break from the kids and a fun evening with great friends! After dinner at Outback we headed to Pechanga Casino to try our luck... none of us were lucky at anything but Chad and I only lost $60 so we figured we did pretty well!

No pictures today... sorry.

Day 64 - Saturday March 5

My mommy is here!!!!!!! Just a quick visit for a few days but this time we have absolutely nothing planned but fun play and hang out time! I am so so so so so happy to have her here and I know how much fun the girls will have to have her here also!

We had a full house for dinner tonight with Gramma, Mima and Pipoo. The girls were absolutely loving all the attention they were getting!

After dinner we watched the supercross race and during a commercial break chad accidentally dropped his phone in the toilet! I'm a skeptic if this truly was an accident or not... he really wants a new phone just like mine!Anyway, we will try letting it sit in rice overnight to see if we can soak out the moisture and get it to work again in the morning? In the meantime he is like a lost little puppy without his phone!

Not a great picture of Makenna but this goes to show how much she is into her baby dolls and playing with them. Here she is rocking them to sleep I think on the rocking dog. 

Day 63 - Friday March 4

To start off the day I headed to the gym for a much needed stress reliever workout! But of course after the workout I was quite tired so I headed to the gas station and bought my very first Monster drink ever! As everyone knows Chad is a monster guy to the core and has to drink at least one every single day. We've been together for 5 & 1/2 years and I have yet to find a flavor I enjoy for myself... well the wait is over and I finally found one! It's a zero calorie drink that is extra strength... and I have to admit... these drinks sure do the trick if you need a pep of extra caffeine! Time to stock and keep some on hand for me!

We were lucky enough to have Megan and Madie for a few hours today after they got out of school! These two little girls are so much fun to have around and they are a huge help for me! They play non stop with both my girls which gives me a small break to at least get the dishes done or even just sit down and watch them play without having to play myself! It is so refreshing to have them over! And Makenna and Karlie both LOVE to have them here and to play with them! It was such a nice day we all had lunch outside and played for a while until nap time

While my little girls napped the big girls wanted to watch a movie. Makenna woke up early enough to catch the last little bit of the movie and wanted to snuggle on the couch with Megan... which Megan loves to snuggle with Makenna so it was quite alright! So cute to watch Makenna love her friends!

And... the computer update! After Megan and Madie left for the evening we headed down to the Temecula Apple store to get the computer looked at and figure out whats going on. I have to say that the apple store and the apple companies policies are truly amazing and I am a fan for life! There is no charge to come in with your computer and have it looked at and fixed... all you have to do is make an appointment with a "mac genius" and they take care of everything! We showed up handed over the computer... bought an external hard drive. They moved everything over to keep it safe... we went to the mall for dinner. We came back the hard drive was done and now the install issue. I don't have a clue what the problem was but an hour later the guy installed the new software without losing anything we had on the computer like our photos and videos... and we were on our way home! No charge... they did all the work... and everything was better! So amazing!

Once home and the girls were in bed... hooked up the new I-phone and it works instantly! Now time to play with the new phone and figure out how it works! Oh and to enter all my contacts also... oh well small price to pay!

Day 62 - Thursday March 3

Update from the computer drama of yesterday. I called best buy and told them the error message and situation... they suggest a complete new install of the system which will erase everything on the computer... every photo and video and song and everything... I am very upset with them for saying that so I hang up. After cooling off I decide to call the apple store in Temecula and see what they say. Long story short they feel they can fix it at no cost just bring the computer down tomorrow night and we'll take a look. Hallelujah! There is hope that they can fix any and all issues I have!

Meanwhile throughout the day we played and I rearranged furniture in the playroom. While cleaning I found the tunnel that the girls love and set it up! If the tunnel wasn't so big I would have it set up more often but it's just in the way most of the time so when it comes out it's a pretty special thing! I managed to catch just about the cutest picture of Karlie! This little girl has such a wonderful smile that makes me smile!

And in other news of the day... I finally got the meltdown from Makenna from not being able to find ANY of her princess dolls! I knew that at least one of them was hidden inside the subwoofer due to miss Karlie stuffing it in there but I wasn't sure where the other 5 had gone missing to. Karlie is NOT a very good listener when it comes to telling her not to do something! I personally don't understand the fascination with stuffing million of small objects into a container that is not meant to house a single object... but for Karlie it is her favorite activity! So today I took apart the subwoofer and found the following hiding inside!

6 princess dolls
3 balls for the pop up machine
1 bouncy ball
2 puzzle pieces
7 pieces to put the shape in this hole toys
1 plastic cookie
3 rolly balls
and 3 fish

Yes this was a persona; record for Karlie to have stuffed in there! And yes we have tried to block the hole with tape but she just tears off the tape and then stuffs it in the hole... she is a heck of a lot smarter than I want her to be in this issue! Makenna is elated to have her princess dolls back... until Karlie snags them again and stuffs them into the subwoofer! Silly girl!

Day 61 - Wednesday March 2

Mops this morning! YAY! I so so so enjoy my Mops ladies and having them in my life! I hope to build lasting relationships with some of them outside of the twice a month meetings. There is rarely a Mops morning that I would rather stay home and relax than go!

Did I tell you that I had to buy myself a new phone? Yes my old phone was working just fine and I've never had an issue with it and I actually kinda liked it! BUt... Chad has been wanting me to get the new I-phone since it came to Verizon and has been bugging me non-stop for over a week so I finally just said "whatever" and ordered the phone... and today it came. I'm a little nervous and excited... excited since it's suppose to be a really cool phone and then nervous because I hate learning a new phone!

So... with this new phone came a bag of problems! First off I couldn't figure out how to backup my contacts or to export them somewhere so that I wouldn't have to hand enter each one on the new phone. Next one the new phone came all you do is plug the phone into your computer with your I-tunes account open and wham... phone works... well... not for me... our I-tunes software was outdated... needed an update... no problem... do it... still doesn't work because the operating system of the whole computer is outdated and needs an update... okay no problem easy fix... no updates available... time for an actual upgrade of the operating system... okay fine not a problem... just have to go to best buy and purchase the latest operating system and plug it in.

So after naps the girls and I headed towards Menifee which I had to drop stuff off at the station anyway so no big deal. Luckily Scott was at home and offered to watch my kids so I could shop for an hour without them... heavenly!!! Long story short get home get the kids to bed and time to figure out the computer. Put the disc in and follow instructions... another long story short it doesn't work after several attempts and I hate technology... I tell the computer a few choice words that make me feel better and decide to go to bed! Tomorrow will be a better day I promise in regards to the technology in my life!

Day 60 - Tuesday March 1

This morning we had an early (9am) "playdate event" at I-hop with the HCM group for free pancakes for anyone and everyone so I was up extra early making sure I got myself and everything ready to go before the kids woke up around their normal time of 6:30am. And of course... figures... they both slept in until 7:30! So as I am sitting on the couch downstairs drinking my coffee and enjoying the silence all of a sudden I hear Makenna shouting "happy birthday" and then a few seconds later "to you happy" then "birthday to you. I guess that meant she was awake? Not a clue whose birthday it was... I'm sure she was just singing to her babies but non the less it was such a cute way to start the day! And she can't sing the whole song correctly and just pieces it together but it was still cute!

I-Hop was super packed and took forever to seat our big group and then to even serve us... but we had a nice visit with all the ladies and kids and got free breakfast other than the apple juice Makenna wanted. The rest of the day was just play time and lounge time at home. No pictures for some reason... sorry!

Day 59 - Monday February 28

Busy busy busy and yet we managed to fit in a playdate at the park with my HCM group. Of course I went no where and wasn't able to talk to anyone since Makenna will ONLY go on the swings and never leave them! This girl swings for a half hour every time and throws a fit when it's time to leave. Karlie on the other hand enjoys the swings but would rather just explore everything and roam around... which is not possible since she isn't walking yet and would eat all the bark chips on the play ground! 

Day 58 - Sunday February 27

SNOW DAY!!!!!!! This weekend it drop a couple feet of snow up in the "mountains" of Southern California... and yes I say the term mountains loosely! The one and only mountain up here really isn't much for me compared to where I grew up... oh well non the less it's a mountain and there was snow! I personally had an extremely busy day today and not a lot of room to play and have fun... so we were up early and headed out of the house around 8:30 for Forrest Falls. Took a heck of a lot longer to get there than what I had expected... part was traffic, part was it's a ways up there, and part was my fear of the snow/ice on the road which lead to Chad driving 10 mph and being honked at by everyone... he is such a wonderful husband to put up with my terrors and fears. Long story short... we made it to the park at the end of the road and there was a ton of snow and since we were so early there was only a few other people up there. We bundled up the girls nice and warm and dry and dragged them in the sled in the parking lot for a little while until Makenna wanted out and never wanted back into the sled. Both girls were tired and they really weren't old enough to figure out how to play in the snow quite yet so we tried our best to sled down a small slope and to eat fresh snow and to toss it... nothing worked! So half an hour maybe 45 minutes tops we were back in the truck headed back home and both girls fell asleep the whole way home. 

I'm glad we went and gave the girls their very first snow experience... but I am thinking in the next few years they will really understand the whole snow thing and want to go and play and have fun. For now we might just look at the beautiful snow and not venture into it. 

The girls looked super cute in their snow suits though and I am tempted to dress them up again just because... even inside the house... Karlie especially! She reminded me of Ralphie's little brother on the movie "The Christmas Story". I can never remember his name but the part where he has so many layers on and falls over and can't get back up. At one point I put Karlie down in the snow to see what she would do... she sat there for a little bit and then rolled over to crawl away... and she just fell flat on her belly and kept trying to get up on her knees but couldn't... too much snow suit all bunched up! It was funny for me but she got frustrated pretty quick!

Day 57 - Saturday February 26

Playtime with Makenna can be quite entertaining for us! Today she decided to load up her back pack diaper bag with all of babies goodies and slip on her high heels and walk all over the house! She carried her baby for a little bit since she was "taking baby for a walk" and put baby in the high chair and in the shopping cart and then put baby to sleep... It's just so cute and fun to watch her imagination grow and to watch her play by her self and tell stories!

Day 56 - Friday February 25, 2011

In case it hasn't been made obvious by my lack of "blogging" lately, I'm not really blogging on the day I said it is in the title part above... Today is actually March 16... It's been nearly 3 weeks and I am way far behind! UGH!!! Long story short life has been busy and at the end of the day I just wasn't up to blogging. I've been taking pictures almost everyday and will do my best to re-create the magic of the day's events!

Karlie is so curious about everything in her little life. Mostly she is curious about everything that big sister touches and wants to explore all of that toys possibilities for herself! And of course nothing can be more fun than one of mommy's old cell phones! As I've said a million time before and will say a million more... why on earth do I ver spend money on "toys"! All they ever want to play with is what I have!!!

Now that daddy is home he gets to take Makenna for a surfing ride!