Monkey, Snakes, and a Pumpkin Patch Oh My!!!

A couple weeks ago my best friend and I took our little rugrats to the pumpkin patch. When I arrived at my friends house I realized we were also bringing her two nieces, which brought our rugrat head count to 6. Wow were we out number by the little people 3 to 1. But the more the merrier and all they kids adore each other so this should be fun.

I took a pic of them after we arrived just in case we lost one, we knew what they were wearing.

Crystal and I wanted to go straight to pumpkin picking but our kids were easily distracted by all of the animals. So we decided to head over to the petting zoo and pony rides. First up pony rides.

While my son was waiting in line for the pony rides he noticed there was a man holding snakes next to us. I was not amused and kept telling Aidan don't even think about it you know Mommy is afraid of snakes. Well he wasn't buying it he wanted to go and touch those snakes. So I finally gave in and after a nice pony ride my son paid a dollar and went into the snake pit. And no I did not join him he was on his own at this point lol.

This damn Monitor scared the crap out of me when I was trying to take a picture of Aidan holding the snake.

The snake man tried to tell me the monitor is like his dog. I beg to differ lol

Ewwww it's the momma snake

Tell me why my son has a snake around his neck. Oh the joys of having a boy.

Finally the reptile torture was over, I was very happy and so were all the girls. They were all huddled together screaming in the corner. Poor Aidan was the only boy in the group. Next up was the petting zoo which had cute little fuzzy animals and a little monkey that danced and shook your hand for a dollar.

This little monkey reminds me of Pippi Longstockings

Ashlyn already made friends with the goats.

My poor BF and some of the girls wanted nothing to do with the furry friends.

Finally after petting, riding and visiting all of these wonderful animals we were so exhausted and had no desire to actually pick a pumpkin. So we cheated a little and went to the area where all the nice pumpkins were sitting and waiting for someone to take them home. All in all we had a great time even with people staring at us like we were nuts to take so many kids. We came with six kids and left with six kids, 8 pumpkins and memories to last forever.

My two beautiful babies.

Of course Aidan had to be silly in this picture. I think he was going crazy with all the females

He found his pumpkin

The whole gang with all there pumpkin finds.

Our family trip to NYC/Jersey/D.C. Part 1

This past week we went to visit my folks in Jersey. We try to make it out there at least once or twice a year. Having parents that live on the east coast is a great benefit. There 5 mins away from Manhattan where some the greatest shopping and amazing restaurants can be found. Then there's Jersey (aka Joisey) where you can GTL it up with Jersey Shore kids and throw a good smack down with the RHONJ ladies LOL. Just kidding to all you Jersey folks out there. But Jersey is pretty amazing too my parents live in a great area and have some awesome neighbors that have become family to them.

On this trip back east my husband did not want to do the Manhattan shopping rendezvous we drag him and my poor dad on. He wanted to visit and do things we have never done before. So we decided Washington D.C. is a great place to check out. After a 3.5 hour ride we were finally there. We got in late at night so decided to get some sleep so we can get up early and start exploring. Now if only my kids thought that was a great idea, but since they napped on the way out there they were wired beyond belief. Yay for me =( finally by 2 am they feel asleep and then by 8 am my mother's lovely alarm clock went off. We only had a day and half in DC so we needed to get up to make the best of it.

First stop was the Arlington Cemetery. We bought tickets for the tour around the cemetery. We visited the Kennedy Eternal Flame, Tombs of the unknown soldiers where they have the change of arms ceremony. This ceremony is done every 30 mins, 7 days a week rain, snow or shine. It really is an amazing show to watch and great respect to those who have lost there life fighting for our freedom. Last stop on the tour was Lee's house. Here are some pics from our tour.

My two munchkins and I

Taking cover from the rain

Change of Arms ceremony

My hubby was seriously like a kid in a candy store he loved D.C. so much

Don't the look so studious studying the map

Next up was the Smithsonian. Now I thought the Smithsonian was one big museum little did I know there were like 10 different ones. So first up was the Natural History Museum and then my hubby and sons fave Air & Space Museum. That's about all we got to before we were starving and headed out the Georgetown for some great food. But before we went out to eat I need to find DC Cupcakes since I love watching there show I needed to try there cupcakes. And if you know me you know I'm a cupcake fanatic. Of course I got my favorite red velvet and have to say it was pretty amazing, not as good as my Sprinkles Cupcakes but it's pretty close. Tomorrow I will blog more about our trip and about my daughter's poopy situation in Bloomingdale's.

My little pilot

My little family at the Smithsonian Garden

These two are always entertaining

Wordless Wednesday!!

My Little Diva

The Pocket Protectors to the Rescue

Well folks I did it I ran my first race ever, and my body is asking "what the heck were you thinking". The Great Urban race was absolutely so much fun and amazing. It's a great way for couples, family and friends to bond. You really learn that you have to work together in order to succeed. At the beginning of the race I was full of stamina and excitement I was ready to go and find clue after clue. Then about 1 hour into the race my asthma started acting up and my body was giving up, I had no clue how I was going to finish this race. But my sisters constant support (and yelling) kept me going. I knew I had to finish, I teach my kids never to give up and I had to do the same.

For those of you who do not know what the Great Urban Race is, its pretty much a scavenger hunt between downtown L.A and West Hollywood. You are not allowed to get a taxi, ride a bike, roller skate or hitch a ride from anyone, you have to use your own two feet or public transportation i.e bus or subway. You have 12 clues that you must figure out within 5 hours the team with the shortest time wins. Our first clue we tried to complete our tic tac toe which was pretty much finding people with certain clothes, hair do's, or posters. Some were easier than others and some people were down right rude and refused to take pictures with you because they were scared there wife would see this pics and wonder why he was in LA. Well hello wanna be Tiger Woods don't lie to your wife idiot. Ok I got off course a little then we had to donate either 2 pairs of new socks or 3 toothbrushes to a shelter that was set up on our course. Well thank goodness I had bought some extra socks at Target the night before and didn't have to run around town finding a store that sold these items. So that was a score for our team. Then we found a nice group of gentlemen with ties to take a pic with us. As you can see this race will take you way out of your comfort zone. Then we hopped on the subway to WEHO and finshed 4 clues there.

We we're making good time until we got wrong directions a few times which cut into 30 mins of our time. After that back to Downtown LA we went heading to the Staples Center, PAWS, Nokia Place and finding some mysterious statue that no one has ever seen before. Which was up a pretty steep hill and at this point I was really done I can feel my feet we're wet which I knew was blood in my shoes and I just wanted to sit down and cry I was in so much pain. But we were almost there and I couldn't give up and we did it in 3 hours and 50 mins. I was finally done I did it. I might of had 2 bloody toes, a rash down my leg and a pretty good bruise but I finished. I know next year that I will be in better shape and get a decent pair of running shoes.

Here's some of pics from the race.

Life is too short....

Well it's been awhile since I've blogged, I went from working 6 days a week and having no time to blog to being laid off and having all the time in the world but too lost to blog. And what I mean by being too lost is that when you go from being in a routine everyday of going to work, coming home making dinner, getting the kids off to bed and the husband out the door to work and when one of those elements is taken away you become lost. The first two weeks I didn't know what to do with all the extra time I had in the day and I started to become somewhat depressed and wished I was back at work. Some of you are thinking you should be happy your at home with your kids and should being spending all your time with them. Don't get me wrong I was loving every extra moment with my kids, but then you start to think all the extra money from your paychecks you were receiving to pay bills and put food on the table will no longer be coming in you go into panic mode. How will we survive was the big question. My husband is the ultimate optimist, saying we will just have to spend less, cut down on things that were luxuries to us and not to worry. On the hand I'm the ultimate pessimist always worrying and stressing on what will happen. (opposites really do attract, we kind of balance each other out)

So here we are going on week 4 of being laid off and I've come to term with things and enjoying my moments with my kids. I get to be there to make breakfast, lunch and dinner for them, we go to the park, I even to get to visit friends and have play dates which I never was able to do before since I was working all the time. As I see it this was sort of a blessing in disguise, since my grandmother (Oma) can also have time to relax since she was the one watching my kids everyday. And it's not a easy task for a 78 year old lady to keep up with a 4 year old and a 2 year old. But she has managed to watch kids for the last 18 years and I think it is what keeps her going everyday. But now it is her turn to relax, visit her friends and go to her favorite place the casino.

Now that brings me to why I titled this blog "Life is too short". A few months ago I stumbled upon a blog called http://laylagrace.org After reading the stories of this beautiful little girl, I became so touch and admired by this family. Layla is losing her battle to Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. I started to cry as I read each blog post and wondered why God does such things to children. I can only imagine what these parents are going through to have to watch there child pass away right before there eyes. Everyday I think about this little girl and her family and how incredibly strong they are to share there journey with the world. After reading there stories I don't take anything for granted anymore. I make sure to kiss my kids 10x more each day, hug them tighter and know that everyday they are blessing to my husband and I. I want to thank Layla and her family for touching my life and making me stop and think that life is too short and we never know when our journey here will end. That we should take nothing for granted, spend less time in front of our computers and TV's and more time living our lives with our family and friends. Those are memories you will cherish forever.

Now that it is way pass my bed time I'm off to sleepy land and before I do I'm going to give my kids one last kiss good night. Before I go here is some pictures of what we have been up to the past few months.

Disneyland with the Tombs Family

New Years Day with family and great friends.

Ashlyn's 2nd Birthday Piggy Style

Christmas 2009

Aidan's 4th Birthday...vrrroooom Race Car style.

Turkey Dinner and some Paranormal Activity

Well Thanksgiving came and went..wow is time sure flying fast these day. It's exactly 24 days til Christmas are all of you ready, because Im sure not. I think I really need to sit down and create a list of everyone I need to buy for and what on earth to get them. Then on top of all that I have 2 kids birthdays to plan. Aidan's happens to be 2 weeks before Christmas and Ashlyn's is 2 weeks after, can you tell we did not plan to well the birth of our babies. But that's ok because we have decided even though there birthdays fall so close to Christmas they will still have there own special day. Ok now that I totally detoured off topic. So 2 days before Thanksgiving my hubby and I decided that we were going to hold Thanksgiving dinner at our house, since there had been some unforseen events happen. We did not want my MIL to stress about Turkey dinner on top of everything else she had on her plate. So needless to say I was a total stress bucket, I have never cooked a darn Thanksgiving dinner in my entire life. WTH was I thinking when I agreed to this, someone surely must of spiked my drink. So the day before Thanksgiving Im sitting at work thinking about what side dishes and appetizers to make when it dawns on me how the heck do you clean a turkey. First thing that comes to my mind was soap and water of course that will clean the turkey for sure. Well my mexican mommies at work informed that this is not how we clean a turkey and thank God for them they came to my rescue and gave me step by step directions. And even when I couldn't do it all by myself Alba came to help me clean it out and season it the night before..oh how I love those ladies. Now to backtrack a bit when I was washing the turkey I saw a long meaty thing inside its cavity I pulled out and Aidan was like mortified by this. He was like mom what is that..I responded son it the neck of the turkey. I should of never said that, because then he proceeded to tell me I killed the turkey and I need to bring him back to life. He was very upset so I finally sent him upstairs with his dad who was also disgusted by this whole process.

So Thanksgiving morning I got up pretty early and started to prep everything, and boy was that a task with a sick 1 year old needing you to hold her while you peel and mash potatoes. At that moment I was so ready for my Oma to come home, she has been away visiting my mom in New York/New Jersey for a week. So needless to say I made it through all of that and the in laws showed up and my MIL helped me with the Sweet Potatoes and Green Bean Casserole. Finally it was time my turkey was ready and I was so so nervous that it wasn't going to taste good or worst yet not be cooked all the way thru. But low and behold it was perfect, it was really juicy and the meat was falling off the bone. I was so estatic I made my first Turkey dinner ever. Yes mom you would be proud and thanks for all your help via the telephone.

Later that evening we decided since we have a viewers copy of Paranormal activity that we would all watch it. Wow was that a bad idea, especially since my hubby had to work that night and I was going to be home alone with the kids all night. So I pretty much did not sleep very well that night every little noise I thought the demon was entering my house trying to get us. LOL

Next up is Aidan's 4th birthday party this weekend. Its race car themed and he is so excited. The place that made my wedding cake is making his race car themed cake and I can't wait to see what it's going to look like. I do have to say having a race car party was a tricky one and thank goodness for internet shopping, I found everything I needed even down to the plates. Tomorrow Im off to find a pinata wish me luck.

The turkey is done. Gooble Gooble

All the side dishes

Turkey is carved anf ready to eat

My cute lil family except my children were not so happy to take a pic

All of The Gandy's

The Scout and Lil Red Riding Hood

Well Halloween was a much anticipated holiday in our house. Aidan was so very anxious to put on his costume. He like I mentioned earlier was going to be The Scout from Team Fortress 2, and did it take me awhile to find everything for his outfit. I went to several different stores before heading to a Army Surplus store in Hollywood. That place was a one stop shop, thank goodness. They had everything we needed to make him his favorite character. Then there's my lil Ashlyn, oh she was the sweetest lil red riding hood that I ever saw. My friend Crystal's mom made a beautiful costume for her. She even made her a matching basket, which was perfect for holding her Halloween candy as she walked door to door.

Trick or Treating was great fun, the kids did about a block and half by our house. Ashlyn is still learning not to run away from mommy when we walk together. That girl gives me my daily exercise. She seems to think its quite funny when she runs away. Little does she know she's giving me mini heart attacks. After we trick or treated in our neighborhood we went to my friend Cindi's house for there annual Halloween celebration. It was great fun to see everyone, especially since I don't get out much. We went trick or treating again with the kids there Aidan was pooped out after 2 blocks. Go figure, I remember trick or treating for hours seeing how much candy we could collect. Well he's still little, I'll give him a few years to catch up. LOL

So without further ado here are some Halloween pics.