Our latest dream

This is a lot we are looking at. We can't afford to build a house on it, but someday we might be able to. It's amazing! I go every day and walk around and dream.

incredible views

It's at the end of a court

Daddy Daughter Dance and Braces!!

They had a Daddy Daughter dance at Ivy's school. What a cute idea! They had so much fun and Ivy felt so special and pretty. Too bad we couldn't get her to open her eyes. Here are the pictures we took at home. I will try to scan the photo they got from the dance.

So, also...Ivy got braces!! She turned into a teenager overnight. Braces are great at this age because they think it's cool; it makes them feel old. She suddenly spends a lot more time looking at herself in the mirror. So cute! I can't believe how good her teeth look, too. I was skeptical, but, wow! There has been so much improvement in just a couple months--no more snaggle. She is so cute--honestly, the sweetest kid on the earth.

Lane is 5!!!

Lane wanted a How to Train Your Dragon birthday party so we made viking hat cupcakes to take to pre-school. He was so excited that he got to go to school on his birthday. When Jude got home from work we went to The Spaghetti Factory for dinner (Lane's favorite spaghetti with meatballs) and then to Chuck E Cheese to play games for an hour and then came home and had cupcakes. What a birthday!




On Saturday we had a party at the house with Lane's friends from preschool, t-ball, and church. I made a dragon cake. What??? It's so unlike me...so crafty. To my untrained eye the cake and the cupcakes were pretty awesome and Lane loved all of it which is really what I care about. Cheers!

Jack, Lane, Gabriella, Sterling, Joshy
Braden, Chase, Eli, Ivy, and Clark

I promised detailed pictures for auntie Megan...




They made shields and then we played a game where they had to block the ping pong balls we threw at them. That doesn't sound very good, but trust me, they loved it!


Lane is such an awesome kid. He was so happy at his party. He was either hugging someone or had his arm around a friend or two. I just love him! He is such a good kid and so much fun to be around. He is such a boy--he loves wrestling and playing rough, swords and dragons, super heroes, sports, tackling and shooting dad, all of that stuff--but he's a lover too. He is so sweet--hugging me all day long and trying to take care of Scarlett. He has a special voice (really high and sweet) that he uses only when talking to Scarlett. He told me the other day his favorite part of the whole day is saying goodnight to Scarlett because she gives him a hug and a kiss. How did I get such amazing kids?

My birthday

So I forgot to blog this....For my birthday this year Jude got me a day at the spa. It was so nice and super thoughtful. He wanted to make sure to send me to a really nice place and so he asked our resident spa expert, Maria, and she totally hooked us up. She researched it and found a really nice spa in Napa. So on Saturday morning Maria came and picked me up and drove me to Napa for our spa day. It was so much fun! Just the drive alone was awesome. It was so beautiful and relaxing and so fun to sit and chat with Maria all day. We stopped in Sonoma to eat before our massage appointment. Such a cool place! I loved it! We had brunch at a cute little cafe right in the heart of Sonoma. We sat outside under the trellis and ate our avocado pepper jack omelets. The spa was really nice and we had a fab time. Thanks Jude and Maria!!!

Driving to Napa

Cafe in Sonoma

Dinner at Cheesecake with the ladies

Chiapelli in CA

Carrie came out to visit for her birthday. She had never been to California before, so it was so much fun to show it off to her. Jude had Friday off and so I was able to take her on a little road trip to San Francisco and then up the coast a little to Muir Woods and Stinson Beach. She loved everything so much that it made for a really fun trip for me, too. She was so happy to see and do just about anything--just to get out of icy PA weather was a treat, I guess. It was so good to see her and we had such a great time!

We drove to Sausalito and took the ferry across the bay to the city.
The ferry went right past Alcatraz

We ate lunch somewhere around Pier 10ish overlooking the water. It was the most beautiful sunny perfect day.
We took the trolley from Ghirardelli Square to china town. It was so much fun going up and down the steep streets of San Francisco on the trolley. We both decided we need new sunglasses after seeing all these pictures.





We found this awesome little alley of restaurants somewhere close to Union Square. It was so cute--a lucky find--for sure a highlight of the day! It was all these little restaurants with seating in the alley under umbrellas with outdoor heaters. Little authentic Italian and French kitchens all connected but with their own individual store fronts and their own outdoor seating. It was seriously so cute. I loved it. We went with Italian and our waiter was straight from the boot. He was awesome--helped us figure out the ferry back to Sausalito and told us how to hail a cab back to the port.

Crazy eyes on the ferry. This was the best I could do.

Our hotel in Sausalito
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View of the Golden Gate Bridge outside our hotel room

Schmancy breakfast on the veranda at the hotel

Our view while we ate
The Ferrari club

Driving up Hwy 1 to Stinson Beach

Stinson Beach

It ended up being 75 degrees and sunny so we dug through Carrie's suitcase and laid out on the beach in tank tops and leggings. We were schmegly but it was awesome! 75 degrees in February!!

Muir Beach lookout-so beautiful!

On the way back to Rocklin we drove through wine country so Carrie could see the vineyards and stopped at this winery.

Carrie soaking up some CA sunshine in the backyard before going back to freezing PA. She seriously lucked out with the weather. It hasn't been that warm since she left.