An Early Valentine's Gift ...

As said before, I had a big surprise planned for Scott for Valentines Day. Since Scott has been traveling so much, it was a lot easier and FUN to plan. Here is how our date went ...

Saturday, February 7, 2009 I flew Scott home from Los Angeles and picked him up at the airport at 3:00pm. Of course, as soon as he got in the car he asked "where are we going?". I told him it was not time to tell ... so we went to an early dinner. Before we got out of the car at the restaurant, I gave Scott his present ...

(tickets to the Carolina vs Phoenix game that night)

We ate at Maria Maria, a restaurant owned my Carlos Santana (the musician) and enjoyed the beautiful weather by sitting on the patio, in the sun, almost entirely by ourselves (that's is what you get when you eat dinner at 3:45pm).

Then off to Glendale we went, to the Carolina Hurricanes vs Phoenix Coyotes NHL Hockey game ... a good 40 minute drive. Now, for those who don't know already, we are huge hockey fans and the Carolina Hurricanes are OUR team. We were engaged at a Carolina Hurricanes game, so this was a night to be almost as special as that ... almost! Needless to say, we were pulling for Carolina to win.

We got there and walked around the arena before the gates opened. We met a lot of fans of Carolina who flew in from Raleigh just for this game ... what great fans the Hurricanes have! Then when the opened the gates, we went in and stood down at the ice to watch the players warm up. We were standing right by the tunnel where the players come out, so we got to see them up close and get a couple good shots of them warming up. It brought back so many good memories of all the old games we used to go to in Raleigh ... for those of you who know this man ... we even saw Tripp Tracy, the broadcaster from Raleigh.

(Eric Staal, coming out to warm up)

(again, Eric Staal)

(Cam Ward, the goalie ... Scott got this picture for me, he knows I have a thing for all the goalies)

Then the game started ... we had seats about 8 rows off the ice, down where Carolina shot twice. By the third, we moved down to the first row and sat directly behind the goalie and got to see Carolina score some goals ... it was awesome.

(face off)

(this is how close we were, once we moved seats to the glass ... it was so cool)

(what is a hockey game without a fight)

(We were so excited to catch this picture ... you can see the puck in the net, right above the goalies skate)

(Final score ... Carolina 7, Phoenix 2 ... GREAT GAME FOR US!)

After the game, we went home and to bed. The girls woke up very early and were SO EXCITED to see that Daddy was home. They did not even say good morning to me, they were all over Dad! Scott said that this was an awesome present, he could not have asked for anything more fun and exciting. We went to lunch with Scott on Sunday and then took him back to the airport ... we were all so sad to see him go again, but we will see him next weekend.

My Valentine's gift to Scott was a big success ... it stayed a surprise and he was beyond excited. I am proud of myself! Thanks for sharing it with us!

Up and coming ...

I know I have not posted in a while, but things have been so busy with Scott being gone. He is officially on his last trip for now, in Los Angeles for 8 weeks. He will be coming home for about 24 hours this coming weekend, to celebrate an early Valentines Day (I have something really cool planned for him ... shhhh, it is a surprise ... I will post more on that after the fact).

Then the following weekend, the weekend of Valentine's Day, Reagan and I will be adventuring out to California to go to Disneyland with Scott. Poor Riley, she will get left at home with Grandma while we are having a blast ... more to come on the whole Disney trip after that happens too!

As for the mean time, we are home trying to nurse Riley back to her normal healthy self. She has had a sinus infection for 33 days now. We went to the pediatrician for a follow-up today and of course, she still has the same old sinus infection. So, another round of antibiotics, plus more decongestants and even an allergy nose spray ... lets hope this does the trick. If after 20 days, she is not "cured", then it is off to get a CT scan and another visit to the ENT. Let's hope and pray that all these medicines will help her so we won't have to do any more surgeries on this

baby!

Sorry, no pictures this post ... like I said, we have been so busy that we just have not taken any pictures worth sharing. I promise we will get some good photos over the next few weeks and have some posts for everyone to see!

Til then ...

For those of you who were concerned ...

Riley's curls are not gone ...

After nap today, Riley woke up with some massive bed head. For a quick fix before we had to leave to meet our friends, I wet her hair and scrunched it up with some hair gel. I was so pleased to see that her curls were still there, they just needed some extra help. Even after her hair dried and she played at the park for an hour, her haid held the curls! YEAH!

Riley's 1st official Haircut!

Well, I did it. I got Riley's hair cut. It took me until Reagan was three years old to get her hair cut for the first time, but Riley's hair was in need. She always looks cute when her hair is fixed, but her hair was starting to break from being "put up" so much. So, I got her hair cut. Ms Jackie did a great job and had an extreme amount of patience with us even though Riley did better than I expected her to do. She was a little wiggly, but for the most part sat pretty still and did not cry too much. She did have a sucker in her mouth most of the time, which helped. I am pleased with the end results ... even if I did just cut off all her curls. I think she looks much older now with her little "bob"!

And kudos to me for remembering to take before and after shots!

BEFORE

AFTER

Big Day ...

Happy 5th Birthday Reagan!

It is so hard to believe that I have a FIVE YEAR OLD! It is so sad. We had such a great day today, except for the fact that Daddy was out of town and missed it all.

Her birthday celebration started last week, while Daddy was still in town. We had a special day for her lined up ... we took her shopping (alone, without Riley) and bought her a special birthday dress that she could wear the day of her birthday (the one in the first picture). Then we took her to a lunch where we ate yummy food and enjoyed just talking to her.

So then today, her actual birthday, our day started off with the girls both sleeping until 7:30 (yeah me). We got dressed up in our birthday clothes and headed out the door at 8:00. Off to Krispy Kream for a dozen of glazed doughnuts (by the way, you get them for free on your birthday). The girls enjoyed their doughnuts very much ... it is not very often the get that much sugar in the morning.

They spelled her name wrong!

Yummy!

Then we headed off to school. Reagan was so excited to tell her teacher it was her birthday but she had a hard time sitting through school, knowing her birthday party was just right afterwards. So, school got out and all her friends (yes, all of them which totaled to 26 children) headed over to Chick-fil-A for the party.

It sure is difficult to get a picture of 26 children ... but here they are enjoying their lunch.

Reagan was just so happy to have ALL her friends together.

They even got to visit with the Chick-fil-A cow ... he was really cool!

I got her cake at Walmart, and it was a total nightmare. I ordered this Butterfly Cupcake Cake two weeks ago. I called this past Monday to confirm and add just a few more cupcakes and everything was set to go for Thursday. So, 9:30 this morning, I went to Walmart to pick up the cake and they did not have it. "Sorry, but we don't have an order for you for today". WHAT! I was not happy, but they luckily baked me another one that was ready for pick up at 11:00 (just 30 minutes before school was out). They did a fast and sloppy job, but at least we had a Butterfly Cupcake Cake, per Reagan's wishes. It was their choosing to use black icing ... not mine!

And of course, with the hectic morning I had getting the cake, I forgot to get candles ... so we sang Happy Birthday and pretended to blow out the candles.

After cupcakes and ice cream, the kids all played in the play area. It was a small area for that many kids, but it was so fun for them. I did manage to get most of them together and still enough to get a group picture.

Their favorite thing to do was make a train, count down from 10 to 1 and all slide down the twisty slide together. I managed to get some of them in the picture. They all had such a great time.

Riley was at the party, but pretty much stayed to herself. She still has a sinus infection and is just wiped out. I think the party was a little too hectic for her tired self!

Since there were so many kids and so little time ... we decided to take all the presents home to open them. We had just a few neighborhood friends come over to help open presents and play for the rest of the afternoon.

Thank you everyone for making Reagan's 5th birthday so special. She had a wonderful day and hopefully she will enjoy being 5 (probably not so much after tomorrow morning when she goes to the doctor for her 5 year old checkup and shots!).

Sisters and the Diamond Castle

Reagan (as Alexa) and Riley (as Liana) were out picking flowers in the garden when they came upon a mirror. This mirror contained Melody, who lives in the Diamond Castle, and was stuck in the mirror. Reagan/Alexa & Riley's/Liana's mission was to save the Diamond Castle in order to release Melody. They did such a great job on their mission, working as sisters to get the job done.

GIRLS ARE GREAT!

Their make believe skills amaze me everyday. It is so funny to watch them together, playing whatever it is they come up with. I am so glad they have each other as sisters!

Our beautiful Alexa & Liana

Silly Girls!

Feels Like Fall?

We fianlly are getting some cooler weather (high's about 60) around here and with that, some color on a few of our trees. Of course, with colorful trees, you also get messy yards. The girls and I spent part of our afternoon today blowing the leaves into two piles. After five lawn bags, most of the leaves were picked up. Now, we just need to wait for the other half of the tree to lose it's leaves to do it again!

Our day trip ...

was the destination for today. Daddy is leaving on Wednesday for a long three months of work related travel. Therefore we wanted to do something different and fun before he left.

So we left the house at 9:30, stopped and picked up some breakfast and drove a good hour to visit the Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium (which the aquarium part just opened a few weeks ago). It was a gloomy, rainy day ... therefore lots of mud and puddles. We had a good time though despite the weather and wore ourselves out. We got back home around 3:00 all tired, muddy, and ready to clean up! We are going to miss Daddy while he is gone, but we had a lot of fun today to hold us off until next time!

Reagan is being adventurous and touching a starfish! Very uncharacteristic for her!

Reagan & Riley enjoying running around the aquarium ... this is on the stairs to the Penguins.

I tried to get a picture of the girls posing with the Albino Alligator, but Riley wouldn't stay still and Reagan was afraid to take her eyes off of him ... I guess she was afraid he would get her!

There was a neat tower where you can feed the Giraffe's from, however, my girls were apprehensive to feed them. So we just got some good pictures of the other people feeding them.


These monkey's were all huddled up together sleeping. Riley loves monkeys and enjoyed all the different ones we saw today.

Of course, we had to ride the carousel and who would of thought that this old carousel would have a Dalmatian to ride on! What Luck!

Riley was very concerned about the turtle eating the "apples". I told her they were tomatoes, but she did not care ... "Apples Mommy Apples".

The Albino Peacock was really cool too! I wish he would have opened his feathers so we could have seen them.

We got to go and feed the birds apples ... Reagan was not enjoying this at all. The birds were everywhere and would land on your head, shoulder, anything to eat.

Mommy even was brave enough to go in an feed them ... and for those of you who know Mommy well enough know that this was not easy for me to do with a smile on my face. What mom's do for their kids! Riley wanted to pick them up, she had a blast!

To end our day, Reagan and Daddy got to ride the new log ride. This little ride goes through part of the aquarium and then does the usual log dive. Reagan was so excited that she had her raincoat to keep her dry. She got on the ride willingly, but when they got to the "climb" part, she started to get nervous. Scott said she wanted to get off, but there was no way off. She hung in there and had a great time. When it was over, she asked to do it again. And she just got a little bit wet in the seat, not much though!

To close out the year ...

Goodbye 2008!

What a busy day to close out 2008. We started our day off by taking Riley to the ENT for another "tube" checkup. Her tubes are in place and doing their job sufficiently. She has not had an ear infection since she got her tubes back in February! Unfortunately for her, she did get diagnosed with a sinus infection ... so off to the pharmacy for some antibiotic.

Next, we took Reagan to Cool Cuts to get her a much needed hair cut. It is not very often that I want to cut Reagan's hair, as I love her long hair. But after a year of putting her hair up in cute hairstyles, her poor hair was all broken and damaged. So, we got a cute haircut to start off our new year. By the way, her face is healing well ... it looks much worse than it did, but that is just the healing process!

Then we came home and put all the Christmas stuff in the attic and cleaned out the car and the garage. Reagan enjoyed riding her bike around and playing with the neighbors cat while Riley took a nap.

Then, SURPRISE! Dad came home from work early! Yeah!

Reagan went to Rylee Crum's house for a much needed play date, since we have not seen Rylee Crum in FOREVER! While Reagan was playing "girlie" things over there, Dad took us to play some golf. Riley had a blast running around the golf course and "playing" with her daddy.

After golf, we picked up Reagan and headed out for some yummy Mexican food at Macayo's. The girls had so much fun and were in a great mood.

We came home and played Wii games until bed time. Riley went to bed about 8:30, Reagan ended up falling asleep on the floor while we played Guitar Hero, which Mom & Dad ended up playing until are fingers were cramped up!

What a great New Year's Eve for us. We had a good 2008, very quiet for us, and hope that 2009 will be the same!