Monday, October 31, 2011

Pumpkin Carving

Boo!
(sorry I couldn't help myself, it is Halloween you know.)

Boy am I glad we squeezed this in!  And I'm happy to say that after seeing everyone's pictures of their pumpkins on Facebook last night, we were not the only ones that "saved" it for the last minute!

Usually we have a pumpkin carving contest.  But we didn't have the usual faces in town to do that.  So it was just Tim, me and the girls.

We had a good time.

It almost didn't happen because Tim had to go to 3 different stores on his way home from work yesterday to find some.  I had asked for 4, and after store 2 I was thinking we'd be carving watermelons instead!

But he found us 4, and we got to work.

Riley picked Ariel for her pumpkin and Daddy helped.  I helped Madi with her choice, of Cinderella.


 Madi did a great job helping me carve, and Riley did a great job of cleaning off the top of her pumpkin.

Neither one wanted to clean out their pumpkins.  They get this from me.  I even tried this year to clean out my own.  The feeling of the pumpkin guts in my hands completely grosses me out, to the point of gagging.  I know, it's bad.


On a side note, I always hate editing pumpkin pictures.  There is just so much orange.  I like orange, but not that much orange.  Probably why I got sick of my Halloween background so quickly.
 
Back to the carving...

My choice was between Captain Hook and Malificent.  The girls wanted Captain Hook so that's what I did!

Tim did his own thing as usual.  Last year he did an "O" for the Ducks.  This year he did something a little different.  And if you are familiar with our little situation, you will get a big kick out of it.  Thank you everyone for your prayers!  His first day is today and he is super excited.  What a fabulous opportunity that God has given him.

Should I get right to it? 

Should I get to those pictures of our fabulous pumpkins?

Alright, you twisted my arm....



Happy Halloween everyone!  Be safe tonight and enjoy trick-or-treating with your families!  We'll be heading out around the neighborhood and the family is coming over to watch our little Rapunzel, and Cinderella have a great evening!



Sunday, October 30, 2011

Madison's 3rd Birthday Party

First, sorry if you came to the blog and it was in disarray.  I was changing the look of it.  Do you like the one column?  Sheryl, I copied you, and a few other people I might add.  I love the clean, organized look of it all.  I took off a lot that I had in my side column.  But you can find most of it down at the bottom of the page.

Now I just need to make a new header!

But let's get to Madi's birthday party.

We finally had it yesterday.  We have so many birthdays to celebrate that this was the first weekend that I was able to do it.  It wasn't a huge party, just family.  But I think it's nice to decorate, have cake, and dinner for all types of birthday parties.  Madi definitely felt special, and loved her cake!

Let's get to the pictures shall we?

Madi decided that she wanted a Cinderella birthday party (I tried to push Little Mermaid...under the sea...but she wasn't having it) so we headed to Party City to get a few things for decorations.

And I went to work on Saturday decorating. 



I made Madi a cake.  Everything else is from what I made for my Mom's bunco the night before that was leftover.
Desserts:

vanilla cake with chocolate chips and strawberry mousse
petit fours
pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
double dark chocolate cupcakes with either peanut butter whip or coconut whip
mascarpone cheesecake (for some special guests :)




 We started our party off with some

Appetizers:

little weenies wrapped in crescent rolls
Tomato and Basil bruschetta
Mozzarella sticks


And mingling...do these not look like some serious conversations?



Really quick story that I want to remember.  On Friday, we got to my Mom's house to help with her bunco and Madi saw BaBa in the driveway.  She said, "Oh look, there's my friend Baba!"  How sweet is that?

And this...


We quickly found ourselves watching Madi open up her gifts while we waited for dinner to get done.  I really had no choice but to have Madi open up her presents first.  I mean, it was either we did it officially, or she randomly grabbed presents out of bags while nobody was looking.

And who says you have to do presents after dinner? 

:)

PS.  Special shout out to my Mom who took all the pictures that follow this.  They turned out AMAZING!  Thank you Mommy, they are so perfect!  You captured every moment beautifully!



 It was really hard with Riley not having her birthday when Madi had hers.  Wowzers.  Hoping that is the last year for that.  Or at least that she will understand more and be patient for her own birthday.  But thank you for the gifts for Riley, family.  That helped a lot!

After presents, dinner was heated up and we sat down to eat.

Dinner: (easy peasy)

ziti
salad
garlic bread

Which we then followed immediately (kind of, I washed the dishes first, quickly) with cake!

We sang to the birthday girl...

Florabella Triptych Timeline

And she blew out her candles, in one try!



And then she was nice enough to let her sister take a shot at it...


Confession:  The candle is on the back of the cake and she only got one.  I was annoyed at this point because Riley still didn't get it through her head that it was her sister's birthday, and I was so sick of the whining.  In retrospect, I should have just gone with the flow.  Madi didn't seem to mind so why did I?  Ugh, you live and you learn.  At least I didn't say no to the candle all together right?

Poor Riley, it was so hard on her.  I had gone through 2 days of it already though.  I hit my breaking point.  Okay...confession over.  I feel better, sorry my sweet Riley!  I love you!


Time to dig in!



I can't believe my baby is 3 years old.  I don't know where the time went. 


Happy Birthday Ms. Madison Rush! 

Stay tuned for pumpkin carving, which we haven't done yet...oops...will be making it an event later this afternoon!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Under Construction

Sorry, my blog is under construction.  Should be back up this afternoon.  Hopefully.... :)


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Pumpkin Patch, School Pictures, and Random Thoughts



 We went to the pumpkin patch last Thursday.  The girls and I went with Riley's friend Zoe and her Mom.  We met up at the Irvine Park Railroad.  I wanted to go there last year because I had heard how great it was, but it never worked out.

It was nice to go during the week and during the day.  It was like stay at home Mom central.  I want to be one of them, one of them stay at home Mom types, that are rich enough to be at the Irvine Railroad pumpkin patch. 

And can spend $4.00 per ticket.  Ahem, yes I'll repeat, $4.00 per ticket.  What?  Yeah, but most of the rides were only 1 ticket.  So it might have been about the same as the patch here in Corona.  Or not.  I'm not really sure and don't feel like doing the math. 


 
I tried to get a couple of cute pictures of the kids, but it didn't happen.  They were way too excited that we were meeting Zoe there.


Isn't she cute?  Her and Riley have had a few play dates, and they are in the same class.  They used to get in trouble together last year in preschool.  I'm not sure if they are causing any problems this year, I haven't heard from her teachers whether or not they have been disrupting lunch with their laughter.  But the school year is still young...



I wish we could have stayed longer but both Zoe's Mom, Despina, and I had to get back home.  I had to work, and she had to head off to work.  So we only stayed a few hours.  But it was fun, and I'm sure if we had stayed any longer I would have been tapping into my savings account for more ticket money. ;)


Before we left though, we had to have a ride on the train.

So we waited for it to roll back around.



And we're off!  What a ride it was!  Such beautiful scenery out there.  I will definitely be back next year, for a picnic lunch and with the piggy bank (Tim).


We also did the bounce house and the hay maze.  It was a fun day, great idea Despina!

*******************

So those school pictures?



Yep, she's a cutie.  See that necklace?  She hid that from me.  Had it in that really stretched out blue pocket of hers.  Along with some bracelets.  I laughed because she put it on without me knowing.  And do you see that there is a hair stuck in it?  Lovely.  But it's fun to have a story with the picture right?

My Mom said I used to match my jewelry with my outfits just like that.  And it was my idea not hers.  What happened?  I was such a girlie girl!  I wonder if my 4 year old self would come look at my 29 year old self (hat, t-shirt and jeans wearing self) and shake her head in disappointment.  Hm..something to ponder.

*********************

And to the random...

1. Someone should seriously run a 2 for 1 deal on bed sheets. And seriously like a 2 for 1 deal. Like not a mark one up and say it's a 2 for 1 deal. It's one of the actual things that we need 2 of. And they wear out about the same time. And I really need new bed sheets, so someone should do this sale now.

2.  We went to get a few things for Madi's birthday party today at Party City.  First, wow it was crazy packed in there because of Halloween.  And Second, I showed Madi all of the decorations (she went with Cinderella) and said, "Oh gosh, this is so cute."  It wasn't what she said, it was how she said it.

3.  I've had a cold since Sunday and it keeps getting worse and worse.  That's why I forced myself to do a post tonight.  Instead of sitting in my sweats on the couch covering myself with tissue after tissue and going through five million bottles of water, I'm writing, drinking sprite, and still sitting on the couch but hopefully I don't still look dead.

4.  I had to miss bunco tonight because of my cold.  I didn't want to get anyone sick.  I hope they are having a great time, it's Halloween bunco and we were encouraged to dress up.  Hoping there are pictures on Facebook later to cheer me up.

5.  The hubs made me home made chicken soup tonight, complete with homemade chicken stock.  Not really, but he did bring me home some really yummy chicken noodle from chick-fil-a. 

6.  Halloween is on a Monday.  That's going to be hard.

8.  I'm really getting sick of that orange background of mine.  I knew it wouldn't be my favorite for long, but Halloween is on Monday (in case you forgot) and that means a nice new fall background will be in order.
7.  We finally finished Lost.  Thank God, because I couldn't take it anymore.  But overall, worth the wait, good story.

8.  I'm off, because the fact that we did take like an entire month to finish Lost means that our TiVo is crazy packed, and we have some catching up to do!

Peace.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Psshhh...Three Year Olds

3 year olds know what they want when they want it.

"I want Sleeping Beauty on right now.  Go get my blankie and some chocolate milk."

Hmmmm....really?  First of all, where is the please?  And second, um, when do you get chocolate milk on demand?  And I see you've parked your little hiney on the sofa...that's not where we drink our chocolate milk.

3 year olds are big enough to get out of bed, pitter patter to the bathroom, go pee pee, and head back to bed (without heading to her sister's room to wake her up)

3 year olds are smart.  Or at least smarter then me.

3 year olds are funny. 

Me: "Okay, it's time to go."
Madi:  Grabs her essentials, the blankie, the sippy cup of juice and says, "Let's do this man!"  And heads out the door, strutting.

3 year olds think every sentence should begin with "Get me..."
(we are still working on, will you please get me...)

3 year olds don't want to snuggle anymore when you read them a story.  They get their own chair, and don't stop talking the entire time you read a story.  But don't worry, I will be forcing that child to snuggle me for story time.  In a nonthreatening type of way of course.

3 year olds bend their bodies in ways that it's impossible for you to pick them up.  I call this....'The Noodle', and Madi has it down.

3 year olds steal everything they can from their sister and "hide" the treasures in their beds....by laying on top of them.

3 year olds want to have a big girl car seat, like their sister does.

3 year olds find a way to turn off their listening skills and can get lost if you don't pay attention to them.  "Madison, let's go" sounds like, "wah wah wah wah."

3 year olds brush their teeth by themselves.

3 year olds repeat everything their sister says. 

3 year olds have a hard time sharing, and think stealing and running is the answer.

3 year olds have an unbelievable imagination.  They take make believe dresses that are invisible and hanging in the air, away from their sister.  And that makes their sister, Riley, cry.  And makes Mommy question why Riley doesn't just pull another imaginary dress from the air and say, "so there."  Hello? It's imaginary...you can pull as many imaginary things out of the air as you want.  Oop, look at that, I just pulled a Miguel's Burrito out of the air and ate it in one bite.

3 year olds are fast.  3 year olds scream out in anger.

3 year olds color on everything if you don't watch their every move.  I have the walls to prove it.

3 year olds are not too big to snuggle up with their Mommy under a nice fluffy blanket.
3 year olds still love kisses and hugs.
3 year olds love and kiss on their sister, even if her sister wasn't very nice.
3 year olds tell you that they love you.
3 year olds still need you to hold them when they get hurt and be their to protect them.
3 year olds can make you love them even more then you thought you loved 2 year olds.
3 year olds are a gift.
3 year olds make you a better person.

I couldn't imagine my life without my little 3 year old.

Happy birthday to my Madison Reagan.  I love you more than words can say.  You test me, you drive me crazy, you make me laugh daily, you have softened my heart, you have tested my patience, you have loved me, you are a gift from God that I will always hold close to my heart.

I love you and am so proud of the little girl you are becoming.  And I'm trying hard to hold back my tears.  I love to watch you get older and grow, but I want to bottle you up right now and keep you this age forever.

You will always be my baby girl.





Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The Birthday(s)

Wow, it is birthday central around these parts.

On Tuesday of last week it was the hub's birthday.  37.  Wow.  At least I'm still in my twenties.  Well, at least for another like 4 months and 6 days.  Or something like that.  I promise I'm not counting.

The girls and I decided it would be lovely if we made Daddy some home made cards.  Which we had to get done in 45 minutes.  (Which really meant that I had to get 3 cards done in 45 minutes).

They turned out so cute.  I had the girls each pick a picture out of their princess books to color, that I cut out and put in the cards.  I asked them to please pick masculine pictures, you know of like princes and such.  I think they did pretty good.


While the girls colored their pictures, I did my card first.



Then we did Madi's. 


Do you notice the green and yellow theme we went with?  For the Ducks of course.  But wait, wait...wait for Riley's card...


I tried to tell her that Daddy's don't really have pink as their favorite color. 

Me: "Let's pick a boy color, like blue or green Riley. 
Riley: "Hmmmm...okay how about like purple or something?" 
M:  "Well, that's kind of a girl color too." 
 R:  "Then we should probably do pink then.  I think Daddy will like it.  And we will put it on black.  Cause black is like a boy, dirty color."

I didn't argue.  So we went with pink.  With purple writing.  And Daddy loved it.

That night Tim and I had a little sushi date at our favorite sushi place, RA.  Yum.  Thank you Mom for watching the kids for us!  I tried to get a picture with my phone of the 2 of us but Tim was making weird faces.  It must be a 37 year old thing.  I don't get it.  I'm still young. 

Thanks again to my Mom for watching our beasts.  She's a great lady my Mom.  I was going to have everyone over to the house on Saturday for Tim's birthday and then my Grandma had the idea to celebrate all the birthdays on Saturday.  We have 3 adults with birthdays in October.  So that's what we did.

And we moved it to my Mom's house.  She has that great outdoor kitchen you know so it only made sense.  She is so welcoming to everyone and opens up her home to friends and family all the time.  She loves to have people over and spend time with the ones that she loves.  She's a pretty awesome lady and very giving of herself.  I'm so grateful to have such an awesome Mom and friend.  There is nobody like her.  And she's going to kill me for posting a picture of her on here.

Oops.


Sorry Mom, the mouse made me do it.

And she set a beautiful table.



The menu:

Carne Asada
Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad
Cilantro Lime Shrimp
Sour Cream and Chicken Enchiladas
Mexi-corn with roasted peppers.

It was delicious to say the least.

Oh and all the birthday kids got their own cakes/pies.

Baba - cherry pie
Timmy - pumpkin spice cake with a pumpkin/orange cream cheese frosting
Gi Gi - Coconut cake

78,37,79

You got to have candles

But if we had purchased 194 candles, I think we would have been broke...or possibly started a fire.

;)


Happy birthday's you 3!  It was a fun Saturday!


Thursday, October 13, 2011

Arizona or Bust


Last weekend we headed off to Arizona to go pick up my Grandma.  She had been out visiting my Uncle for the month of September and it was time for her to come home.

We (Timmy, my Mom, Riley, Madi, and Yours Truly) decided the best thing to do would be to rent a car big enough so that we could all ride together.  Then we decided the day before we were going to leave that it would be better to take the RV.  But it was too late to prep that bad boy for a voyage so we stuck with the rental car idea.

We got a minivan.  Um.  I. am. in. love.  With that minivan.  I never thought it would happen.  Folks, my next car might just be a mini.  I know, it's so uncool.  But sitting inside one of those bad boys, I realized that they are cool.  And if you are thinking that you, could never pull off a minivan and make it look cool...not to worry, I'm going to make them cool for you.  I'm going to make the mini's desirable.  You're welcome.

Any who, the drive was nice, set the kids up with movies, snacks, handhelds, coloring.  And they were back in the back.  They were excellent.  The entire trip.  Which means that I think they are getting older.  Which makes me all teary eyed and stuff.


The skies were so pretty.  I took those first 2 pictures from the car.  The clouds reminded me of the wallpaper in Toy Story.  In the kid's room, what was his name?  I can't remember.

Kasey (my cousin) had a volleyball tournament for school while we were there.  When we got into Arizona we headed straight to the school that she was playing at, somewhere near Phoenix.  Or in Phoenix.  I think.

To watch her play.


My cousin is a STUD.  Capital. S.T.U.D.  I'm so proud of her.  I know it's kind of silly but the first couple of awesome plays she made I kind of teared up.  She's amazing.  Don't tell her I said so though, we don't want her to get a big head or anything like that.


And she got taller I think.  If I was a college recruiter I'd pick her up in a heartbeat.  Because not only does she play well, she pulls her team together.  


Makes me miss volleyball so much.  I hate that I ended my career in college.  Those years sucked.  It should have just ended in club.  Haha.  My coach in college was psycho.  She got fired a year after I left.  Bummer.  Why couldn't it have been 4 years earlier?  Awe.  Oh well.  This isn't about me.  Let's get back to my stud cousin who is a junior in high school.  Which you all know what that means...  


She'll be a double stud by next year.

So proud.  Can you tell? 

Those Kiefer's in Arizona.  They are tall.  Was that random?  Well, I just thought it, so I wrote it.  You should know by now that that is how I write my blog.  Anyway, they have done some beautiful things to their home.  I am in love with it.  And they have such a huge yard to play in.  The kids had so much fun running around with the dogs, and their Daddy.


Did you gasp when you saw that picture above?  Because she's actually looking at my camera?  I did.  I totally did.  Because if you knew how quickly she was moving her head, you'd be surprised too that she paused just long enough for me to get it.  I got you Madi Rush.  You can't dodge my camera forever..enter creepy laugh here.


We had a great time visiting the Kiefers.  I wish we had at least one more day.  It's hard to drive 5 hours and then head back 2 days later with another 5 hour drive.  Plus it's just fun there.  I love Arizona.  And I love the Kiefers.  It was fun.

And don't let Madi tell you otherwise.




 

Me

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I'm Kristi, the wife of one very lucky and handsome husband, and mother to two beautiful little girls. I'm honest and sarcastic, funny and easy going. I love to eat and love to hate that I love butter. And wine. And did I mention butter? I'm always learning new things, happy to lend a hand, and love my life. This is a blog of my family and the day to day crazy that we call Rush Hour. I hope while you are here that you enjoy yourself and come back often!

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The Rush Family

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