Bounce U Fun

Today we visited one of my girls favorite places! What else is better than giant inflatables and bounce houses? Well I'll tell ya... when they turn out the lights and give you glow in the dark necklaces to jump with!!



My kids also got to go into the Hurricane similator with a bunch of other kids to have their hair blown straight up on its end ;)

Happy 30th Birthday to Me ;)

I had a great birthday this year! Which is fitting since it was such a big one :) First, some of my best girl friends came over with their kiddos to spend the morning with me and have coffee. It was so nice to catch up, since we hadn't seen each other much in the last couple weeks due to the Holidays. The kids played great (for the most part) and we hung out till after 1pm!

Afterwards I had some errands to run, and when we got home Daddy had a surprise waiting for us :)



The girls had never seen a balloon that big and they were thrilled. I told them not to hold it or they would float away and they believed me ha ha! He also had these beautiful flowers waiting for me :)



And this yummy Oreo Cookie Cake :) (more for the girls sake then mine)



My babies were so excited to sing me Happy Birthday and all three of us got a turn to blow out the candles.




Our babysitter was there to snap this picture before Daddy and I snuck out the door :)



Daddy and I headed off to Cantina Laredo at San Tan Mall for some appetizers.



Then we headed to FROST (my new addiction)



MMMMmmmm... Sea Salt Caramel (amazing)



Here was my FREE gelato for my birthday! How cute with 4 cookies to look like candles :) (PHONE PIC SUCKS)



Next we were off to the movies to see New Years Eve! It was so cute. We both really liked it. Made me laugh, made me cry. I loved it!



The next night I went out with some girlfriends and we decided to hit a karaoke night at a restaurant. I had not been to Karaoke in years and thought it was something different compared to what we usually do :) It wasn't a big turnout but it never is with a Christmas time birthday. Oh well. We had a great time anyway!



We did some singing and got two scared to death karaoke rookies to get up and sign.



And boy did they! :) (check out the fist pumps)



And can we talk about this girl for a minute? She is such a good friend to me. She showed up with a gift, cupcakes, Happy Birthday crowns for everyone to wear and just the best attitude ever!



She is so good to me and even brought me her daughter's tiara and forced me to wear it for most of the night! :) I just love her. Thanks to EVERY one of you beautiful ladies who came out to help me celebrate!! You guys are awesome! And now let's talk about my karaoke experience shall we?? ah-hemm...

First I get up to sing one of my favorite songs Lucky, by Jason Mraz. The KJ asks me if I want to sing it as a duet (Colby Collait style). I say sure, but shortly realize that I always sing it alone and couldn't remember what was the boy part and the girl part. So of course I start singing over the wrong parts. But whatever. It was because I need to get glasses and couldn't see the screen from so far away so I also couldn't see the blue and pink that distinguished the two parts. Oh and did I mention when I got up to sing this (shaking like a leaf) I had to follow my friend Sarah who sang a song from the Broadway hit show Chicago. This song was theatrical, belted out, and reminded me of Mother Knows Best from Tangled. And she killed it. And I had to follow her???... awesome :/

Then for my second song I chose Telephone from Lady Gaga which was fun until I ran out of breath cause I thought I could sign and dance. Nope. Now I know why they lip sing in concerts. ha ha.

My last song was 'Criminal' by Fiona Apple. It was actually my best, and I am pretty sure I killed it. BUT, I had to go after this girl Amanda that joined us later. I asked before she went up if she was any good, since I knew I was going after her. She says "I like to sing". Well she gets up and sings 'Someone Like You' by Adele. Not only does she sing the CRAP out of this song but she completely changes parts of it. Adds her own melody to it, changes notes. So much so that I liked her version better than Adele's. $%^& balls. While I am listening to her cringing over the fact that I have to sing after her, a friend tells me from across the table that she auditioned for American Idol. Yeah you know, that girl that "like(s) to sing". FML. Anyway, long story short, having to follow Adele, gave me the courage to step up my game and the end result was my best performance of the night. Maybe that is the secret to Karaoke? To just belt it out, be brave, no that it is ok to crack your voice or miss a note, cause hey professional singers do too don't they? Isn't that why they have to record the same versus and chorus over and over and over in the studio till they get the perfect one. Well she may have gone home with the Karaoke Crown that night, but thanks to Trish's daughter Summer, I had a REAL one for my birthday. Take that Adele!!!



Anyway, can't wait to go out again to Karaoke. I am going to start practicing and upping my game ASAP, ha ha ha!!! ;)

25 Days of Christmas- Christmas DAY! We made it!!

Well the big day is finally here!!! It seemed to come fast and furious. But that's what happens when you are so busy with this countdown. Must have been busy since I fell a week behind in my blog post and never managed to catch up! :) We decided this year for the first year to have everything that came from Santa NOT wrapped. This idea came from my friend Jackie, who told me she does with her kids. And I liked it. The kids were able to see some presents right away and got so excited!! In fact they were hula hooping when we came out in the morning! LOL



These were the rest of the items Santa got them :)






Of course Mamarazzi has about 1700 photos from Christmas morning, but these are my favorites!











This was the chaos after! :)



Good thing Daddy and I donated at least half our kids toys to local families in need this Christmas, cause this chaos didn't stay long. We actually had places to put this stuff when they were done tearing through it all. So Daddy hopped in the kitchen to cook round 2 of breakfast while I cleaned up a bit.



The girls both settled in with the Leapsters and their new games :)



Later (after Ella asking again and again for hours) it was time for stockings.






Ella had been saying for weeks that the MOST important thing she wanted from Santa was a photo of him. She didn't care if it was under the tree or in her stocking, as long as he left her one. It was really quite cute. :) So of course after she was done opening her stocking, her face fell and she said, "Santa didn't leave me a photo??" She was so sad. So I told her, "Ella, Mommy and Santa are FACEBOOK friends, so maybe he put a picture there?" Daddy jumped in and took her to go look.

Here they are heading to Mommy's page...




And there it was on my wall!! And this was her reaction...



Here was the photo of Santa in OUR living room!




Ryen got a kick out of it too!!




This made Ella's Christmas for her!! I was so happy for her. :) Our last order of business was to give the dogs their stockings and their presents.




Mandy sticks her head in the stocking every year and we get a big kick out of it. :)



By the end of the day my kids were like tweakers from being overstimulated and overwhelmed by all the new toys and the fun they had. They passed out cold :) Merry Christmas to you all and I hope your Christmas was just as good as ours.

xoxoxoxo