A "Grace"ful Thanksgiving

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Jeff and Julie drove into town to stay with us for the weekend. We decided to take advantage of having our house guests and do Thanksgiving, round 2! Steve and Liz came down and we all headed to Old Town for dinner and a trip to the bakery afterwards!

The sons and the granddaughters...

Liz and Steve with the littlest "jewel."

Officially now, Aunt Julie and little Buggy...

All warm and ready to brave the cold...

Cool girl, Ryan, loves to put together the perfect outfit!

Sleepy girl is as happy as can be with her "Jeffy"

Charlie "milking" the snugglies from our guests... (above and below!!!)

Stay tuned for pictures from the USC game...

A Kudron Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we celebrated with the Kudrons. The three F's are what Thanksgiving is all about... food, football, and family! We had a very relaxing day remembering all we have to be thankful for.

Ryan started off our dinner with a special prayer that she wrote in her SRE class (aka "Catholic class").

We got the kids all set up at the kid table before the grown ups settled in to their meal.

The grown up table...

I loved my centerpiece but the best part was how I had to talk to Steve throughout the dinner! It makes me laugh out loud even now... haha!

After dinner and dessert, we celebrated Nonna's birthday.

Cameron had a big smile for the camera.

Nonna with all her grandbabies... I'm sure her favorite part of the night!

Momma looks tired... getting Thanksgiving dinner out on the table is hard work!

Getting everything out hot (or at least warm) is the most difficult task in the world... even with one of my famous lists! Whoa!

Luckily for tired momma, Ryan had a surprise homemade pumpkin bread ready for us to have with our coffee the next morning! She made it with her Daisy troop and cleverly hid it in the fridge so that it would be a big surprise! It was yummy!

So many things to be thankful for...

counting my blessings this wonderful weekend!

Lucky Number 7

7 years of marital bliss...

Steve and I celebrated our anniversary this week with an overnight trip to "The Beach House" in Hermosa Beach. Steve loved being in his old stomping grounds. We took our new bikes and rode down "the Strand" all the way through Manhattan Beach. We looked at the beautiful houses, people watched, and made some stops along the way at the local pubs. It was a great, much needed, night away!

The view from our hotel room.

Steve checking out our "digs"

And mommy too.

And then the bellboy delivered our luggage so we were able to have him take our picture together.

We locked up our bikes at each spot.

We watched the sunset from Hennessey's and froze our butts off.

Steve had some refreshing cocktails.... yummy!

Steve gets so embarrassed when I get out the camera because it makes him feel like a "tourist!" haha... sorry Steve, you don't live the bachelor Hermosa Beach lifestyle anymore!!

We went to the Chart House next, sat at the bar, and ate clam chowder and sushi. And then... we ended up here at Sharkee's with all the college kids. We met this guy (in the picture) who is a pilot for United. We asked him to take our photo and he said sure. Little did we know, his plan was to get in the picture too. Too funny. I will say... I don't think I would want to be on this guy's United flight the next morning. Ugh... I think he might have been feeling a little "rough" for that morning's flight!

I took a picture with a pilgrim! Ohhhh, I felt so old at this place!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Cheers to 7 more years like the first 7!

My New Camera

So, another camera crapped out on us! We've had some bad luck with cameras in the last few years. Today, we purchased our new camera (which explains the lag in blog posts). I am so very happy with it! We took a few random pictures of the girls today to test it out!

Isn't the quality of these pics so great? I'm very happy since I keep a photo blog and I'm the worst picture taker ever... those two just don't go together... LOL! Hopefully, I will "instantly" improve in my picture taking skills!

Halloween Cuties!

Ryan and Charlie had a great Halloween! We had a very scary black cat and a cutie-pie fairy from Sesame Street! Ryan and her best friend, Kendall, wanted to have matching costumes so one black cat easily became two. And then Charlie's best friend was also a cat... so meow x 3!! Charlie picked the "Abby Cadabby" fairy costume from Sesame Street. I'm sure you have no idea who Abby Cadabby is so check out my comparison photos...so cute!

My forever sister!

Best friends!

Charlie wanted to take a picture with the boys sooooo bad! She was so embarrassed by soooo happy at the same time.

3 cats and a fairy!

Posing for all the mommies!

Charlie and best friend, Addy!!

Little Miss Abby Cadabby! Charlie got a little sad at first because the other girls were all kitty-cats but she hit her stride as homeowners started to comment on her "fairy beauty." Her confidence took a swift turn upward! She loved being the "queen of the cats." LOL...

Each year, we celebrate Halloween at our great friend's house, the Scotts. Next door to them is the famous "Pirate House!" People come from all over to see the pirate show and the decorations! It really is such an amazing Halloween display! The girls get a little "scared" but they love it!

Charlie poses with "Captain Morgan!" Haha, do you think the kids understand the irony there?

Our little black cats with the pirates.

Since Halloween was on a school night this year, the party and trick-or-treating ended early! We came home and the girls got into their candy stash and gave out candy to our very few trick-or-treaters!

Gigi and Papa got the girls activity books for Halloween. This was the perfect pasttime while we waited for trick-or-treaters!

The girls were in charge of giving out the treats to the trick-or-treaters! They loved acting like "mommies."

What a good night!