Family Get Away-ish and Dodger Game!

Okay, so it is Wednesday and the house is soo quiet because everyone is soo EXHAUSTED from our fun, quick trip! My hubby had a really important pitch for work on Tuesday so we decided to stay the night Monday night to make things easy for him. Because boy was he a little stressed! We drove down to Irvine (which is about an hour and a half away, but can be a three hour drive WITH traffic) during Miles' nap time so he slept the whole way. We got there without any traffic thankfully and checked into the hotel. Zach went into the office to work while Miles and I hung out at the hotel after being cooped in the car for so long. Miles was very excited! (Sorry for the terrible camera phone quality pictures....)

Especially once he noticed that we had a balcony...

Waiting for daddy to finished work

WOOHOO! Daddy got off work and we went to the Spectrum Mall which is HUGE! We ate dinner there, but there aren't any pictures of that because Miles was going bananas. He was literally climbing over the booth seats. I had to retrieve him so many times because he went straight ninja in the restaurant.

Once we got back to the hotel the boys watched some basketball (Miles' favorite) while mommy got to put her feet up.

After the game Zach went down to the hotel office to work a little more while I got the little one ready for bed and off to dreamland. He sure does know how to entertain himself....and me!

We all slept wonderfully! Zach got up at the crack of dawn to go over some things before the big pitch so when I woke up he had already left, but my awesome hubby left me this...(did I mention he is the best ever?!?!)

Miles and I (sort of anxiously) waited around the hotel to hear from Zach. Finally Zach called and said that he NAILED IT! He was so happy and got so much positive feedback from the client and his bosses! Off to the Spectrum to celebrate! (My boys make me the luckiest woman in the world!)

This was honestly one of the best family days we have had this year! This is such a beautiful and kid friendly mall. I would recommend coming here to any family!

We went on a ferris wheel for the first time as a family and the first time for Miles ever! He LOVED it. Although it helped that we were the only ones on at the time so we could just ask them to let us off because by our third time around Miles was ready to jump out! (My phone wouldn't let me crop out the pole...)

Then they have this cute little playground for the kids which is completely shaded and on the soft rubbery stuff. There was a cute little swing that Miles was totally into...NOT.

He made himself a little friend right off the bat. It was really cute actually because there just so happened to be three other babies his age there so they all played together. Well you know...by baby standards. (Again....couldn't crop the picture)

That little girl followed him everywhere. Miles couldn't escape! She was super cute though.

Okay so after spending FOUR HOURS at the mall. It was time to head over to the Dodger baseball game! Reliving this day exhausts me all over again.

But it was SOOO much fun!! And you know what a busy, fun-filled day equals?!!?! A baby that sleeps through the night without the slightest of peeps!

Easter

Easter time! Oh how I have waited for this day. Last year Miles was only a month old so he just slept through our family visits, but I knew this year he would be participating in the grand old Easter egg hunts! I have been practicing with him the whole month. Going on our own Easter egg hunts around the house, the Easter egg hunts at the preschool and all the fun community Easter egg hunts. I wanted to make sure that he knew exactly what an Easter egg hunt worked. He became a champ. I thought for sure that he would only be interested in shaking them or taking out the stuff inside. He did master opening and closing the eggs. Which was amazing to him. And me since he would sit there quietly opening and closing an egg for a decent amount of time. Which is precious around here these days.

Well, it was a glorious day as I had put a lot of effort into making the grandparents day baskets and I finally got to give them out! They just LOVED them and my husband was so proud of me. He kept saying that they were NOT store bought and how talented I am. Thanks for pumping me up babe!

We got to eat our traditional oyster stew that my dad makes for us every holiday. Even birthdays if requested! It is the most delicious thing. Unless your my husband...he passes every time. Picky, picky boy. Then everyone arrived for the hunt! Meaning my nephew and my brother's girlfriend's daughter. Miles got the first five minutes to himself since he is the youngest. Then came the big kids which ran around like crazy people searching for their crazy inducing eggs. Here are just a FEW pictures of our lovely hunt.

 Miles was pretty serious about finding the eggs.

 He was even putting them into his bag!

 He was doing a good job at really searching for them.

 Here is my nephew finding the really hidden eggs.

 Double fisting it.

 Ava took a moment for a quick pic.

 Ava found the Gold egg which is a lot harder to find than the rest AND has a very valuable loot inside!

 Miles was proud of finding this particular egg and had to show grandaddy.

 Adrien found the silver egg which is the same find as the gold egg.

 This is when they were down to the last few.

 Easter basket time :) and a shirtless baby. It was so warm out today!!

 My nephew and all of his Easter bounty.

 Ava and all of her Easter goodies.

 So my parents made a really fantastic basket for Miles which included this dog (Oh my gosh dogs are the key to his heart right now) with bunny ears that wiggled back and forth AND he WOOFED a song. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

He was so excited that he made my mom push the button over and over again. He will figure out how to do it on his own very soon i'm sure and boy are we in for it then.

The Easter baskets in all of their untouched glory. What a great Easter this was! Happy Easter to everyone and hope yours was just as funtastic.

GO DODGERS!

I am so super duper excited that it is finally Dodger season again! And what an exciting season we are all hoping for. It is so funny for me to look back at my first year as a mom and all that I had to give up or change or get used to doing with a baby, but let me tell you....I never gave up or changed my Dodgers games! I was at that first game, one month old baby in tow ready to support my team. We went to all of our games throughout the season and even to a couple of play off games. Boy were the play off games exciting. It was such a different atmosphere and crowd almost.

SO here we are again! At Dodger stadium, but this time with a toddler on the loose!

It was weird taking him to the play ground at the baseball game. For one because the play grounds are so new and for two because all last season we would just walk right by them because Miles was too little. Now we totally made use of them!

Miles immediately starts saying "ball, ball" repeatedly as we walk up to the entrance because it is lined with these huge balls with the players numbers on them. Of course, Miles being obsessed with any sport with a ball in it just HAS to touch one. He also made himself a little girlfriend his age. We are already in trouble!

They also had these really cute big Brooklyn apples that he didn't really have any interest in other than playing hide and seek with his grandma.

The Dodgers had a great winning game today! It was so exciting to watch and there were so many on your feet cheering plays! Miles loved it all. He got to eat a hotdog, yell as loud as he wanted and do lots of clapping. Daddy even got him a new hat for the season :)

Go Dodgers, Go!! We will be back very soon....

OH and I almost forgot to mention that the give away for tonight was a dodger mat! One more Dodger item added to our household. WOOHOO!

And here Miles shows how the mat looks with a cute baby standing on it. Perfection.

Easter Festival

With both of our parents living in the same city and a city away from us we have decided that for the holidays it's easier on us (since we are the ones with a widdle baby) to celebrate on different days. We tried doing both on the same day, but it is just too hectic and hard to maneuver an appropriate schedule. Having different days allows us to really dedicate that time to one family and not be preoccupied with a schedule and timing things perfectly. SO for Easter we celebrated a day early with Zach's parents at a local Easter festival in our neighborhood. It was super cute, the weather was great and it was easy going for us. There were great photo ops and plenty of things to intrigue Miles.

Miles loved peeking through the chicky hole. And how cute did our little family picture turn out!

Miles has a history of not liking the holiday mascot. Most of his holiday pictures with them are just of him crying hard core. Well this year my mom and I introduced him to the Easter bunny at the mall. We didn't make him touch him or even go near him, but just sort of observe. Miles just barked the whole time because I am pretty sure he thinks the bunny is a type of doggy. Well he barked when he saw the Easter bunny today as well, BUT he didn't cry and we got our first good holiday family picture! (Which to me the Easter bunny is BY FAR the creepiest)

After the bunny went on break, we went back over to check out his flower "throne". And as usual, Miles thought it was super cool to jump on it (not stand or sit). Which he did for a few times and then hopped off and onto the next big thing. Which was an actual dog at this point I believe.

Grandparents Easter Basket

It's almost time for Easter! Which means our little one will be getting adorable Easter baskets from the doting grandparents.  Last year I was a very new parent so I didn't have much mental capacity to think of anything, but making it out of the house to both of the grandparents houses (which we were very late in doing so). This year I want to do something special for them as grandparents. After much thought I've put together an Easter basket for them filled with things grandparents love most!

I found some cute jars at Joann's and decorated them up a smidge with of course yummy jelly beans inside!

These are just a couple of hand soaps I picked up and spruced up with a festive bow.

This adorable craft was recreated from a pinterest find. I made it my own and....VOILA! Cuteness.

This gem was a product of a mommy and me class craft. It was super simple to make and something grandparents (and aunties, and godparents, and uncles, and well everyone really) would just ADORE.

                        

I picked out a couple of wooden frames from Michael's and worked my crafty magic on them and ended up with some super Easter-y frames. I thought the egg (or are they jelly beans?) paper was just perfect and fun.

This frame I went a little more traditional. I gotta say that I love them both!

So here are the baskets in full force. They turned out great! I am so thrilled with them and I think our parents will be as well. 

I found some basket bags at the dollar store. Gosh I could just wander through that store and get so many neat things at such little cost! SO here they are :) ready to give. Happy Easter everyone!

TEXAS

Yes. Texas. We really went to Texas. long car rides, long plane rides and two hour time change. It was quite an adventure. We had gone before when Miles was four months old. Which was fine because at that age he didn't expect much else other than to be held. Now that he is one....he expects nothing less than to explore, explore, explore. This time we were traveling with my mom and seven year old nephew so I really wan not worried about his entertainment value during travel. Last time we went to Texas, Miles was so excited he didn't sleep or eat (I was exclusively nursing at the time so I spent the two and a half hour plane ride very uncomfortably engorged). This time he was the same way. Didn't sleep at all, but he actually did take a moment to speed nurse and snack throughout the trip. Two words of recommendation are TOYS and SNACKS. That combo made a plane ride with a one year old manageable. We left Friday evening and got back the following Tuesday evening so luckily it wouldn't be too quick of a turn around.

So the whole reason we went was because my cousin was getting married! Yayy! It was soooo much fun! And Miles never left the dance floor :) Our little man knows how to party. As long as there is ample music involved. This is his swag-tastic outfit. And seriously...look at that smug face. You are a one year old child! Where did you learn that one?!

 My grandma also lives out there so we spent lots of time with her. Miles just ran around the senior living home which was very entertaining for the residents. The boys were very well behaved and entertained themselves during the visits. Props to them.

This is just Miles being a goofball after a shower. I had to drag him out of it and when I finally did I wrapped him in the hand towel which he thought was hilarious.

Home, sweet home. The ride home Miles was EXHAUSTED so he actually napped for most of the plane ride. Except for the thirty minutes he was squirmy and fussy before hand. But he woke up just in time for landing and couldn't wait to look out of this window as we made it back to LAX.

Wow that was an exhausting trip, but I am so glad that we made it because we got to see a lot of family and had sooo much fun on our adventure to Texas!