Bachelorette Party Weekend in Santa Cruz

One of my best friends all growing up, Emily is getting married in a month so a bunch of her HS and college friends got together for a weekend in Santa Cruz to celebrate. We rented a house just two blocks from the beach and had a blast. It was my first time leaving Libby overnight, so I was a bit nervous, but it was so fun and I'm so glad I went!

This was the EKO Bachelorette Party group. (It was "early" in the morning on our way for a little walk to the beach where we got to experience first hand the "Ukelele Club of Santa Cruz" - apparently the biggest one in the world!)
A picture of our darling little house! It was soooo cute! Quirky, but definitely cute.

My cute bed - my roommate, Celia and I had a great time together.

After getting cleaned up, we all decided to walk to the Greek Festival that was going on downtown. This is the LH contingent - friends since Elementary School - how fun to be together again!

I even managed to sneak in some one-on-one time with the guest of honor! I attribute it solely to the convertible my mom let me borrow (thanks, Mom!). We went for a little drive along the coast and cruised the boardwalk for a bit. I love Em and I am so glad I got to spend time with her!

Emily was totally embarrassed by my tourist-ness, but honestly, how could I pass this up?!?

When we got back from our little adventure, the troops were ready for the festivities!

While the rest of the group was hitting it hard (ok, not really, but compared to me), Joanna made me my own "mocktail" that was fantastic! Everyone was eager to try a sample and all thought I got a pretty good drink out of the whole experience. Thanks, Baby Jo - cocktail waitress extraordinaire!

The next morning we lounged around for awhile before I decided I'd better hit the road when everyone else went shopping. Julie joined me for one last cruise along the coast before I had to go. It was GORGEOUS weather and I totally fell in love with Santa Cruz!

I missed Brad and my baby girl a ton, but I can't wait to bring them back and show them around. It was super fun to catch up with old friends, meet some new ones, and enjoy some "girl time" that was totally different from my regular life. Can't wait for the wedding! :)

Libby's Actual Birthday

On September 8, 2011 (at precisely 3:41 pm), Libby officially turned one! CRAZY! I guess what they say is true - time flies when you're having fun! ;) In her short little life Libby has managed to develop a knack for the extreme when it comes to holidays. Her birthday was no different. At about 3:30pm the power went out all way from Mexico to Arizona to (wouldn't you know it?!?) Laguna Niguel, CA. We were without power for over 11 hours and it certainly made for a VERY memorable birthday!

The power outage didn't put too much of a crimp into our afternoon plans since we were already planning on spending some time at the pool.
It was a great reprieve from the heat and we had a wonderful time - Grammy even joined us for the fun!

Some post-pool lounging before heading home for a nice long nap before dinner.

We had originally planned on going out to celebrate and didn't think much of it. Well, it turned out that the power went out up through our city, but not the neighboring ones, so we headed to Aliso Viejo for dinner....So did everybody else. My mom was smart enough to call ahead, but we still had to wait 20 min to get in (a heck of a lot better than the hour and half most people were waiting!). Yeah, you could say they were severely understaffed for the onslaught of craziness.

After dinner we headed back to my parents' place for present opening. We got out just about every candle in the house for the big event!

Here she is surrounded by loot and light - she was loving it!

It was pretty hard to see things well, so as soon as she'd open a present we'd take a picture and then look at the camera to see what it really looked like. It was certainly a fun way to do presents. Like I said, she's got a knack for unique! ;) Happy birthday, my Angel!

Libby's Ladybug Party

Libby is one of four girls in our ward that were all born within 2 1/2 weeks of each other. So, since they were all turning 1 at the same time, we moms decided to do a 4-in-1 birthday party. We did a ladybug theme and had so much fun with it!

Jen arrived just in time to help me do the finishing touches on my 4 dozen ladybug cupcakes that I made.

We had a great turn out at the party! Despite being right in the middle of the crazy flooring project, the troops broke away for a bit to be a part of the fun. A welcomed reprieve, I'm sure! ;)

We had several games planned for the kids. Paige did a really cute "Ladybug Hunt" where the kids searched for cute little wooden and wind-up ladybugs in the grass. It was harder than you'd think, but the kids loved it!

My mom put on the "Diaper Derby" for the girls, complete with buckets for submitting your vote, balls to entice the contestants, and a prize for the lucky winner. I have to say...the vast majority of the votes were for Libby (and not just because we had the most family there!). Turns out she's a speedy little demon.


Here she is, about to hit the finish line. Notice there are no competitors anywhere in sight. Yeah, she schooled the competition! That's my girl! And, Ty was the winner, by the way.











Then we had a pinata for the kids, too. We made sure they went youngest to oldest, so Libby was the first to get a whack at it. I think that thing was made of pure steal because it sure seemed to be a hard one to crack. But it finally gave and the kids went wild!








We finished off the big event with the much anticipated eating of the cupcakes. After blowing out their candles (with assistance, of course), the girls were welcomed to go at it. Well,....they didn't. They were all quite dainty through the whole experience.








But Libby did find out that she could yoink the cupcake right out from under Amelia and ended up enjoying two of them.

All in all, it was a huge success and I'm glad we don't have to do it again for at least another year! (And hopefully then it won't be in the middle of a crazy project!)

Flooring Project - Phase 3

As it turns out, when you decide to do a massive flooring project, it opens the door to a myriad of other prospective projects. You find yourself saying things like, "Well, while we have the toilet out, it only makes sense to..." or "We might as well re-do this, too, so it doesn't look outdated...", etc. So, Phase 3 is really just all the "extras" that go along with it! ;)

While my mom, Jen, and I worked on painting the baseboards, the kids were the best babysitters ever! Libby got to go to the park on numerous occasions and loved getting to spend time with her cousins.
Once the baseboards were painted and the floor was set, it was time to replace them. My mom became the expert caulker - she was a champ!

My dad got to whip out his nail gun for the project and had a hay-day. He said this was definitely the BEST part!

And, while the toilet and sink are out, why not repaint the bathroom?!? We chose a green-grey color that I think turned out GREAT!

Jen was a fantastic painter, and master of the touch-up brush. She even matched the scene. Again, thank you to EVERYONE who made it all possible! We can't thank you enough!

Flooring Project - Phase 2

We were finally able to start laying the first planks by Saturday afternoon, after Libby's party (more to come on that later!). Though not terribly difficult, it sure did take a LONG time!

The MEN! Setting the first row is the most important of all and they did a GREAT job!
My dad enjoyed being the designated measurer and saw-man.

After about half way through the laying, I became the designated glue-girl. I've still got glue stuck to my arms and legs to prove it! :)

Jason was an AMAZING worker! We never could have finished it without him!

Brad doing some of the odd jobs necessary to make it all fit. He was definitely the brains and brawn behind this outfit.

After the rest of the "hired help" left, I really got to do it all with Brad. I can handle a saw like nobody's business now! ;) Notice the pitch black sky. Yeah, I don't think we finished up for the night before 11 pm any of the days we worked!

We're almost done! Second to last row going in!

The champion of our cause! So tough, so dirty, and so glad it's over! (Well, almost!)

Flooring Project - Phase 1

As the ultimate gift for achieving my Masters, my parents decided to get us new hardwood flooring for our downstairs. I was blown away, to say the least! But the catch: we had to install it ourselves. (Fortunately, with lots of help from loved ones!) So, on Thursday night, Brad and I commenced Phase 1: Demolition.

After putting Libby to bed, we moved all the furniture to the garage and started in the entryway. Once the first tile was out, the rest actually came out pretty easily. Brad did the outside pieces...
and I did the inside ones. It only took 2 hours to do that much, so we thought we had it made for the rest. WRONG! Turns out the kitchen tiles were laid right on top of old linoleum, which also had to be ripped out - not fun! So, Friday night and all day Saturday were spent getting rid of the old stuff.

Once the carpet was rolled out, ripping up the tagboard wasn't too bad. If only the whole thing had been carpeted, this whole demo thing would have gone a LOT faster!

Fortunately, the troops came to the rescue! Here's my mom shoveling up old scraps of tile and linoleum in the kitchen - what a trooper! (This is after the biggest dilemma of them all - the refrigerator. It was too big to fit between the counter and the wall, so after putting a nice ding in the wall and fridge on the first attempt, the doors had to be removed and we had to frantically throw all our food into icechests. Gotta love those unexpected issues that are bound to occur on home renovations! Good thing we've watched plenty of episodes of "Renovation Realities" on DIY.)

And the biggest helper of them all goes to...Ty! The Stewarts were AMAZING! They drove into town late Friday night and were at our door early Saturday morning to help. The kids were such troopers! Babysitting Libby, ripping up floors, scraping cement, the works! Jason was Brad's second set of muscles and Jen was our designated do-it-all woman. We never could have done this without them - THANK YOU! Let's hope we didn't scare them off completely and they'll actually come back to visit on occasion!

2nd Annual Mustache Party

Our friend Jake just had his birthday and Cindy decided that the Mustache party from last year was such a hit that she did it again. We were thrilled! She went all out this time and we had a blast. Along with the "Stache-Station", she had a photo booth, complete with stache-type props, and a cute "Name-that-famous-stache" game. Super fun! Libby won the award for best Kiddie-Stache and got a little trophy and everything. She looks so Hitler-esque it's actually kinda scary! She was also totally petrified of Brad all night long. She wouldn't go to him at all and would cry when he'd reach for her. It was pretty funny, really.

A slightly better view of Libby's lip-broom. ;) I won a prize, too. I was the closest guess for the world's longest mustache. I guessed 10 ft, 7 in, and the answer was 12 ft, 6 in. CRAZY!!!!