the next chapter

A new blog

2010-04-09T22:35:00.000-07:00

I started a new blog for our new family.

darrenandalexis.blogspot.com

enjoy!

summerlin pumpkin festival

2009-11-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

in early october we attended the summerlin pumpkin festival. it was so much fun. they had bounce houses, face painting, games, food, and of course a pumpkin patch. the kids got to take a few pictures with some of their favorite characters.

sponge bob and patrick did a few songs on stage and kate wanted to go up there. i told her kids cant go on stage, and she wasn't too happy. but then she got to march around the field with them doing a train

soccer!

2009-11-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

we signed johnny up for soccer in the fall. his team is the canaries, and coach sherman is really great with the kids. he even scored a goal the first game! he doesn't love soccer, so this may be the last season for us. i think it was fun to try though..

go braves

2009-11-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

in ausust darren and i got to take a quick trip to LA. we were there for a baseball game but got to visit rodeo drive and the LA temple too

we got awesome seats to the dodgers vs braves game. darren has been a huge braves fan since childhood, so he was very happy when they won

dodger stadium has a great view of LA. it was a beautiful day

birthdays

2009-11-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

the kids celebrated their birthdays together this summer. johnny's was in july and kate's in august. i took the kids to build-a-bear for the first time for one of their gifts. kate made a hello kitty and johnny made a black bear.

i had a party for them at my parents' house. i did a hawaiian themed party. we swam and barbecued, and even had a pinata. it was a fun day.

4th of july

2009-08-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

4th of july is one of my favorite holidays because the festivities last all day. we started with the summerlin parade which was surprisingly great. we will definitely be back next year. then we went to my parents house for swimming and BBQ. the kids spent the evening with their dad, and darren and i went with my family to the amazing fireworks show in boulder city. then the boys had to light off a few more at home. we had a great time.

the kids loved all the different floats. they even had a few disney characters and passed out candy.
i love to make the kids get all festive lol

james and stephanie's wedding

2009-06-20T10:19:00.001-07:00

on june 12th we went down to la jolla to watch james and stephanie tie the knot. we all had a great time and we know they will make a great couple. we are excited to welcome steph into the family!they look so happy!
the dudes
steph and her daughter bailey
the mitchells
vaness, mom, and me

congrats!

fun day

2009-04-27T22:50:00.000-07:00

over spring break we got to spend time with darren and his daughter jules. i went to california with the two of them the first couple of days, then we all hung out together later in the week. we went to the park one day then colored easter eggs together. it was a great week.johnny, jules, and some random girl on the slide
the 3 of them

kate is crazy lol

easter

2009-04-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

this year for easter the kids woke up and found eggs, we went to church, then dinner at my parents. we had a good time and great food. kate on the lawn at my parents

johnny and i

the gorgeous spread. my mom never disappoints.

we had to wake sleepy head up. she is such a princess. she loves to sleep in.

the kids' baskets were hidden, so when johnny woke up he said "the easter bunny didn't come. because where's my basket??" so he was really excited when he found it. all he had been asking for for weeks was an umbrella. lol. so the easter bunny brought him one.

the kids looked so cute in their church clothes. i make them hug and kiss each other every day so they stay best friends.... we'll see how long that lasts, lol.

2 months for this??

2009-02-26T22:37:00.000-08:00

yes, it has been 2 months since my last post. so the few people who actually checked my blog probably already gave up. but i seriously have not taken any pictures (except these few). we have had a lot going on, and i'll update later.
but for now enjoy the blossoming 2 and 1/2 year old that is getting more grown up by the day... kate. i love this paris themed dress

i was dragging my feet that morning and let the kids head into the kitchen before me. big mistake. but she was so cute i did let her eat ice cream for breakfast.
looking so big
she cracks me up. she was actually saying "cheese" under the wax lips

christmas

2008-12-28T21:43:00.000-08:00

the kids had a great christmas this year. it was the first time they had christmas twice. they spent the day at their dad's and santa came the next night at mommy's house. about a month before christmas i started asking the kids what they wanted. their answers pretty much stayed the same until santa came. what was i to do??? johnny wanted the easter bunny and kate wanted poop.
kate helped make cookies for santa. johnny was too busy.waiting for santa

after santa came

hmmm, what else is in here

christmas sweater party

2008-12-28T21:26:00.000-08:00

this year for christmas eve we decided to have a christmas sweater themed party. i have known a lot of people to go to christmas sweater parties, but i have never been to one, and it was so much fun! my parents made great food and we had a white elephant gift exchage also. i missed the kids that night but they had fun with their dad.

2008-12-28T21:21:00.000-08:00

we took a couple of pictures in front of the christmas tree before church on the sunday before christmas. i tried to teach them a little about the true meaning of christmas.

gingerbread house

2008-12-28T20:59:00.000-08:00

this year was the first year i have ever made a gingerbread house. the kids have gotten a little bigger so i thought it would be fun. it looked easy enough. but actually it was a little challenging. in fact, the roof came very close to collapsing. so i let the kids take over while i baked cupcakes. we had a fun time in the kitchen that day.

kate eating the candy off the roof

the kids did most of the work

our lousy excuse for a gingerbread house

christmas cupcakes

johnny being a big helper

SNOW DAY!!!

2008-12-16T23:50:00.000-08:00

monday morning i woke up to the sound of what i thought was light rain outside my window. i got out of bed to look outside and was so shocked when i saw it was SNOW! it snowed all day long and we got to play around and make a snowman. johnny, being the boy that he is, threw it at us as much as he could. but i couldn't get mad because hey, i was so happy that it was snowing, who cares? right? we made hot chocolate, listened to christmas music, and had a fire going in the fireplace. a perfect winter day. it was sad to see the day end because who knows when that kind of a day will happen here again...

the snowman we built on our backyard... just ignore the fact that johnny isn't wearing shoes. lol. he had already gone inside to warm up and i dragged him back out for a picture.

at the little park across the street from our house

this post is dedicated to angie...

2008-12-06T09:49:00.000-08:00

THE ANGIE FACE

back in august angie came to visit, and we went to the paul mitchell hair show together. we attended an eighties party that weekend, so after we got ready we took a few pictures and posed kind of silly. the face angie made has made an impact in our lives, and pictures will never be the same.........

johnny calls it the angie face.
(and he started doing this pose in almost every picture completely on his own)

..... and then he got KATE doing the face

happy thanksgiving

2008-11-27T16:57:00.001-08:00

the past few years my parents have had thanksgiving dinner early because my dad works on thanksgiving, so we had it the saturday before. my parents always make great food and we had a good time with everybody.

my little pilgrim and indian!
we went over to helen and kevin's house a few weeks ago and she made us these adorable hats
on thanksgiving day we were invited to eat over a t the flynn's house. so we went over with nicole and baby kennedy and had a good time. that was really nice of patrick's mom becky to invite us!

halloween

2008-11-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

we had a fun halloween this year. johnny was mr. incredible, and kate was a bumble bee. we went to the ward trunk or treat the night before halloween, and the kids met up with alexis, the scary witch.
tommy took the kids trick or treating on halloween night. they got lots of candy, that i threw out the next day because it was a big, fat MESS!

then the kids came over to my parents house and sophie came over too. they did a little trick or treating with her.

disneyland trip

2008-11-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

the first thing i did as a single mom was take the kids on a trip to disneyland. this was their third time there. my nanny christine was nice enough to go with us, and we had a great time with the kids. it was a little hard, but worth it. we love christine.

she got the kids new jammies and gave them to the kids right before we left so they could be excited the whole way there.

johnny was afraid of pirates of the caribbean again, so we decided to have him meet captain jack sparrow himself to show that pirates are nice. kate carried around a bag of fruit loops for half the day. it was so funny because she just held on to it no matter where we went. jack sparrow wanted her to share, but that didn't fly with her.

johnny carried around these pamphlets of disneyland that had goofy on the cover. he called it his goofy book, and he managed to hold on to two of them for two days. he wanted to show the pirate his goofy book.

we got tickets to mickey's trick or treat party. they hold it at california adventure at night and kids dress up in their costumes and can ride the rides and they have candy stations where the kids can trick or treat.

kate was the cutest little bumble bee ever. she wore herself out by the end of the night.

i wasn't sure if i loved johnny's costume... until we saw all the characters from the incredibles. they were so cute with him. there was a big party and a dj playing fun music for everybody to dance to

we met up with angie for lunch and shopping on saturday. christine was nice enough to take the kids on the carousel while angie and i tried on clothes.
kate's new face

welcome

2008-11-01T17:25:00.001-07:00

thanks for all your support. i will post very soon.