Thanksgiving~~

Thanksgiving was a hectic one for me so I didn't get to do any pictures but a few of Ava which I could not even get any good ones of her. I had Thanksgiving at my house and had a houseful of people.

I tried to get a picture of her with her cute headband and she HATED the headband
Fighting to keep it off

Holding down her hands to prevent her from taking it off

quick!!

Ally and Ava..with the twins being there all Ava wanted to do was run around with them. It was hard to keep her in one spot.

I was busy cooking,and making drinks,and chasing kids and trying to socialize with everyone that I just did not have the time to take photos. I think next year I may have to go to someone else's Thanksgiving dinner...our family is just growing to big to have family dinners at my place these days..or maybe next time set up a big table outside..hmmmmmmmmm

Do I dare??

go out and do Black Friday shopping?? See if I had a small family to shop for never in a million years would I imagine going out in the crack ass of dawn to fight off the crowds for a couple of bucks..well...the family is expanding and with all the new cousins,and nieces and nephews and spouses..the family is a big one. Let see I have 15 kids to shop for and 10 adults. ( In Gabe's family cause it is SO BIG everyone usually just shops for the kids)

Last year I did my first black Friday shopping and met up with my brother at Toys r Us at 4am and already the line was all the way around the building and down the block. We waited for about 40 minutes and I sent my brother to hunt down a shopping cart since they were limited. Once we got in it was a complete madhouse!! My shopping cart was SO full I could not see where I was going so I had my brother steer the front while I steered the back. It was great though cause I got all the kids gifts knocked out in one shopping trip.

I been thinking about doing it again but checked out the black Friday website and there are a few places I want to go..The toys r us deals are not as good as last years but Old Navy has some pretty great deals going on so it looks like I will be spending black Friday there this year.

The Road to Health

Ever since my co worker Josh brought in his Jack LaLanne power juicer I have been hooked on wanting to get a power Juicer. WELL..for my birthday my dad pitched in with me and I bought the Jack Lalanne power juicer. I got it on my birthday and been juicing ever since. (this thing is not cheap!!)

Friday night I made a Vegetable juice for Gabe and a apple and pear juice for Parker and Ava. Ava's I diluted it with water cause it might be too heavy on her little stomach. I made myself a carrot,apple and ginger juice.

The benefits I have seen so far from having this juicer is My digestive tract has been awesome, I feel a curb in my appetite when I juice in between meals and I have tons of energy and feel overall fantastic!

Yesterday my Mom and Dad and Brother and his GF came over and I had a little juice party.

I made them the carrot apple and ginger juice.
Then I made a mango,papaya,pineapple and orange juice which was a little pulpy so I put the juice in a blender full of ice and made smoothies and they were awesome!

I then ofcourse had to make another vegetable juice. It had all kinds of veggies in it such as carrots,tomatoes,spinach,beets,celery,cucumbers.little piece of garlic,little piece of lime,tiny bit of green onion and half of a bell pepper. When I was done making the juice I added just a little pinch of salt and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce and it was DELISH!

My mom took the remaining pulp from the vegetable juice I made and is making a face mask with it. There is so much you can do with the pulp! We saved some of the veggie pulp and Gabe is going to added it to some eggs and make a veggie omelet with some melted cheese.

You can do some much with the pulp...add it to eggs or meatloaf, make sorbet, add it to plain yogurt, add a little strawberry pulp and juice to plain cream cheese for s tasty spread, add it to breads,pancakes,muffins, make soups..the list is endless.
Anyway..My Jack LaLanne juicer ROCKS!! Best birthday present!

A Disneyland Birthday

For my birthday I took the day off work to take advantage of my free pass to get into Disneyland. Since I am a passport holder I got a birthday gift card to use in the park.
Gabe had arranged his mother to come over and watch the kids so we could have the day to ourselves.

Gabe surprised me with a birthday present of my favorite perfume in the car before we left.
We left early in the morning but first thing was first..we stopped to get Mc Cafe's at Mcdonalds.
We went to California Adventure first and walked around and went on Soaring then we headed over to the wine area where Gabe tasted some Whites

and I tasted some reds. The lady that was pouring was very generous with the wines since it was my birthday and it happened to be her birthday as well. after wine tasting we went to the tortilla factory so I could pick up my free little package of Birthday tortilla's and then went to the bakery tour and got some free sourdough breads shaped like little mickey heads. We went to Toy Story where I beat Gabe on the game score on that ride then had one more glass of wine and headed to Disneyland.

Gabe had made lunch reservation for the Blur Bayou at Disneyland but they told us it would be a 40 minute wait to get a seat by the water and I didn't want to wait and I was really not too hungry and neither was Gabe so we decided not to go eat and just go on rides.

I love Main Street

This guy always makes me think about my dad and what he will look like when he gets older.

I love Pirates!

After a few rides in New Orleans Square we watched the show on the Mark Twain that was promoting the Princess and the frog.

Gabe and I decided to go to Downtown Disney and get a cocktail at the Uva Bar..then it was back to Disneyland to get on our final ride of the evening..SPACE MOUNTAIN

I swear Gabe has that same look on his face EVERYTIME we go on a ride that takes your picture..too funny

We left about 6pm and hit up Jack in the box to eat for the drive home. It was a great day.

SURPIRSE!! CUPCAKES

Since tomorrow I am taking the day off to go to Disneyland for my birthday I thought I would do tomorrows blog today!

Today Ally emailed me to see if I could take some time off to do a birthday lunch with her so when she came down to take me to lunch she surprised me with some Homemade Birthday Cupcakes! They were so pretty I thought I better take some pictures before they were all gone.
These ones were Strawberry shortcake. They had some tasty strawberry preserves in the middle with a Whipped cream frosting. You can't tell in the picture but they had this very pretty pink pixie dust on them. It was very shimmery.

These were the first to go. The raspberry chocolate cupcakes with raspberry filling.

And you never can say no to those oh so tasty chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles.

We went to Taco Mesa for lunch (which we brought back to work here) since the place was packed for Taco Tuesday.

Thanks Ally!! You really made my day. You are such a great friend!!

Pre-Birthday Tiki Celebration

This Past Saturday Loryn and I decided it would be fun to have Cocktails at Don the Beachcomber's for a little pre birthday celebrating. Our birthdays are both on November 18th.
Since we LOOOOVE tiki we thought why not check out Don's. None of us had been there (I got married there when it was Sam's and I had dinner there when it was Kona's so why not cocktails!)
Since it was a very last minute decision we thought we would just post up that the two of us and our other half's were going for happy hour and anyone who wanted to come join us we will see ya there.
Well some of our friends met us there and it was tiki drink after tiki drink the whole night long.

This is the drink I loved! It is called the painkiller. It was like a CHI CHI. Coconut drink. very good!
It was a favorite of everyone!

Gabe got the Navy Grog..the guys always get the grog...I hear it was not too good.

Besides happy hour cocktails we got happy hour appetizers..food was awesome!

The guys hanging at the booth

Time for presents..it was very nice that our friends got us gifts which I was totally not expecting.. Loryn got a bottle of booze, and a compact and lipstick holder set and Arnold got her a Vogue Magazine with a gift card to Macy's

I got a few nice gifts too.

Ally got me a Wine Decanter set with glasses and a bag of bubble baths and lip balms

Thelma got me a Betsy Johnson Leopard printed jeweled watch

and Arnold got me a Wine & Spirits magazine with a gift card to Bevmo..Awesome gift

and Monica got me some really nice pearl polish with pearl frost eye make up.

I can't forget the dress to That Holly got me that she ordered from France. I cannot WAIT to wear it!

Time for more cocktails

Umm yeahhh...maybe by this time I should have been cut off....This started off as a joke then ofcourse the guys were like do it again do it again

Holly giving Michael a lesson..this is him shedding a tear over it

My Gals!!

Cheers~~ This was the one that set Michael over the edge..

I look pretty wiped out

Awe..Thelma my buddy!!

Ahh yes one of the many classic Michael Burns ( I'm really waisted) faces. I think at this point we let him sleep in the car.

My exotica Photo

Ally was able to hold her whole rum barrel in her shirt!

After awhile Loryn, Ally , Gabe and I went to check out the Hidden Village (where we got married at) and it was Dim and exotic tiki music was playing so we decided to do a photo shoot in there..I have a ton of pictures but I choose this one cause Gabe was like Raise your arms up and to me it looks like were in a canoe going down a waterfall or something.

HAHAHAHA ...all three of us gals posed with this tiki but I think Loryn's came out the best!

This really kick ass Surf band played and they played all the Surf hits..there was a lot of moments where we felt like we were in the movie Pulp Fiction. Chris was digging it..He was Air surfing quite a bit

Well the band was over and we had been at Don's since 4pm and it was about 12am so I think it is time to call it a night..After Saturday night us gals decided yep Don's is going to be our new happy hour hang out!

Preview to Wine

Last Friday Gabe and I had plans with Sean and Julia to have some cheeses and wines and we had Chris and Holly and Toni come over as well. It was a little preview to what my wine pairing party on December 5th will be like...boy we had a BLAST!!

On the menu was~Julia and Sean brought over a tray of cheeses,little toasts,sun died tomato pesto, Vinegar and oil, crackers, salami's and berries.

Gabe made Poached pears, caprese, smoked salmon on toast with sour cream, raspberries over mini chocolate cakes

and Holly brought over a cheesecake.

On the menu for wine we had Moscato,rose,pinot Grigio, A Moscato Blend, Grenache,3 different Cabs, a Pinot noir, raspberry dessert wine and a port. Needless to say I think everyone had quite the wine buzz going on..I know Gabe and I both had quite a wine hangover the next day!
Now I know how to brace myself for the party.

The Gals~~
The Guys~~

Gabe Poaching pears..they were delicious!

Yeah at some point we were making faces..we were trying to get Sean to learn and do it ..Toni helped him.

Man...I don't even remember this picture...I think Sean or Toni may have taken this.

Toni and Julia

Chris and Gabe

Sean and his Girlfriend Julia

Umm yeah I was 3 sheets to the wind in this photo

It was such a great time...the things I learned what to do for the party.

1. Have a glass of water with each glass

2. Smaller Portions

3. slowing down

4. Be choosy...I don't have to TRY them ALL.