The Earthquake

I actually felt the earthquake yesterday! I was with some friends at The Lemonleaf, my favorite restaurant in the area. I don't know if it is the food, the atmosphere or the cheesecake that they have, but I really like it there. Anyways, I walked in and saw some of my friends. I took Joey over to the table and then got inline to order. As I was standing in line, I felt a little shake and then we rolled! Seriously, it was like we were in a fun house with a rolling floor! I only felt it for about a minute, but some closer to LA felt it longer. According to the news(that took over every channel all day long. They even cut into the Young and the Restless) it was a 5.4. They keep talking about "The Big One" that is going to happen in LA. So, yesterday I decided that I would go to the store today and buy lots of water canned goods because now I am paranoid.

Hello?

I don't have anything to write about today, but I took a really cute picture and thought that I would share.



Really, I don't tell him to smile for the camera or anything. Something about it makes him smile and laugh. Maybe it is the light? Maybe it is the fact that since he was born, we have put the camera infront of our faces and made the stupidest faces and acted like idiots to get him to smile. I don't know. Whatever we did, it works, because when he sees the camera, he gets so excited!

Jethawks Game

Last night, Joe and I went out while my mom watched Joey. We went with our friends, Rav and Nancy, to the Jethawks game. The Jethawks are a minor league baseball team here in Lancaster, CA. The game was seriously the most boring thing that I have done in awhile and I like baseball. The innings took forever and the players aren't very good, but they had some good nachos at the stadium and it was pretty cheap. Oh and the giveaway last night was Arnicare Pain Relief Gel. They gave us each 4 bottles. Kinda odd.

Fudge Bundt Cake

Holy cow, this is one of the best cakes that I have ever eaten. It was delicious! I made it on Sunday, because we had Joe's single classmates over for dinner. Every month, a married couple has them over for dinner. Thankfully, Joe cut them all small pieces so we had a lot of cake left over:) If you want to make it, here is the recipe. If you want to look at it and drool, here is the picture.

6 Month Appointment

Joey had his 6 month appointment today. He weighs 20 lbs and measures a little over 28 inches. He is a big boy!

Two Peas in a Pod

Last night I co-hosted a baby shower for my friend Mindy. She is having twin boys! They are due in September, but with twins, they can come whenever they want! We had a great time and lots of Mexican food. It was so good! Here is a picture of the cake and the cupcakes. We all had green mouths!

It was a family shower, so the husbands and kids were also invited. Because the guys never get to play games at these kinds of things, we had two games that were for the guys. Joe played the "guess what kind of baby food this is" game and he won!

Finally, here are two pictures of us with our Joey:) He has become such a ham for the camera! When he sees it, he starts to laugh!

6 Months Old!!!

I can't believe that my baby is 6 months old today! It has gone so fast! Joey has his 6 month appointment on Monday at the doctor. He will get more shots and get weighed and measured. In the past few weeks, we have been introducing him to lots of good foods. His favorites are bananas, squash, pears, applesauce, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans....notice anything? HE LIKES EVERYTHING! If I let him eat the whole baby food jar, he would. Infact, I think that he would eat a hamburger if I let him. He has an appetite like his daddy. Here is a picture of him eating his breakfast yesterday(actually, it is after he ate and I gave him his spoon to chew on.)

Here is Joey this morning with his spoon and sippy cup. He doesn't want to drink out of it, he just wants to chew on it. Maybe some teeth are coming?

The next picture is of our little midget, CeCe. She had a friend over to play yesterday. Louie is a 60 lb golden retriever that CeCe owns. Seriously, she growled and attacked him when he tried to take her ball. She just doesn't get it. Here she is lounging on the couch after a hard day of...nothing.

And finally, the best for last. Joe and Joey took an early afternoon nap together on the couch.

It's Monday Already?

This weekend flew by! Probably because we were so busy. When Joe got done with work on Friday, we went to the club for "Grill your own steak night" and swimming. Joe took Joey into the pool for the first time. He enjoyed it, kicking his feet around and splashing in the water.

Our day on Saturday was busy with TPS stuff, including something called The Road Rally. That was in the morning and then in the afternoon, Joe had to go to a work party that was only for the guys. The wives decided to suprise them with water balloons and hoses. Unfortunately, it rained at the same time as we attacked. It never rains here, but it just happened to rain when we were planning to soak all of our husbands. So, I had a million women and children at my house with wet shoes.

On Sunday, Joe had to go to work for a few hours, so Joey and took some pictures of him sitting up to show all of you.

Welcome Coffee

Last night, our TPS class hosted a welcome coffee for the new spouses in the next class. I was one of the people incharge of it and my job was to make cupcakes. The theme of the coffee was "Welcome to California" so we tried to make foods that are from California. The cupcakes that I made were Sprinkles Cupcakes made from a mix that I bought at Williams-Sonoma. We had a great time and ate some good food. Here is a picture of the table:

I made two kinds of cupcakes, red velvet and vanilla. They looked pretty and almost looked exactly like the ones that you get at sprinkles.

Here are some pictures of my friends and I at the party:

Edwards is the best place to live...EVER!

I know, you are all jealous because I get to live in California, in a warm climate with the sun shining 95% of the time. Yep, we are so lucky to live here. Especially when the power goes out at 5:00pm and stays off until 3:00am in 100 degree weather. I know, you all wished that you were here with us to swelter for 10 hours. It was a lot of fun, really(that's sarcasm.) I kept thinking about this commercial from when I was younger. That was not us last night for many reasons including the long sleeves and heavy clothing that they were wearing. Obviously, that commercial did not take place in the middle of July in California.

My New Countdown Clock

I am sooo excited for the Olympics. Joe is so sick of hearing me talk about how I am going to watch the Olympics all of the time. And since it is sports, it is ok for Joey to watch:) Infact, I told Joe that for my birthday (Aug. 10) I want to be able to watch all of the Olympics that I have DVR'd all day with no baby interruptions and that could be my gift. Then I re-thought that and changed my mind. Anyways, I am very excited for the Olympics and I watch everything, even the sports that are televised at 2am--that is what my DVR is for! Go USA!
One of the best athlete stories that I have heard so far is a story about an ex-refugee named Lopez Lomong. Click here to read his story. It will make you want to cheer for him!

The Kennel Diet

If you want to lose weight in 2 weeks, go stay at a kennel. Apparently that makes you lose fast. We got home yesterday to a super skinny CeCe. It was obvious that she hadn't eaten in close to 2 weeks. After the excitement of us being home went away, she ate her whole bowl of food. At about 12:50am, we realized that letting her eat all of that food wasn't such a good idea. She kept us up all night with what we assume is an upset stomach. Lets just say that we kept trying to get her to go outside to go to the bathroom, but she just couldn't go. I started her on a chicken and rice diet for a few days until she gets better.

She missed all of us so much that I found her in Joey's room, laying next to his crib at around 5:30am when Joey woke up(he went to bed at 7pm last night which was really 10pm because we are still on Eastern time.)

Here is a picture of our skinny little midget:

Seeing some good friends...

Yesterday, we met some friends(the Hounchells) that were visiting family in Ohio. It was so good to see them. We met them while living in Minot. Jerry was Joe's commander and when they deployed last year, I became good friends with his wife Jana and thier boys, Thane, Ian, and Duncan. It was a long 5 1/2 months of deployment, but having good friends made the time go by faster. After finding out that Joey was going to be a boy, I realized that God made us become friends so that I could see what it would be like to have boys! I had a lot of fun torturing the boys and they had some fun doing the same to me.
They live in Alabama now and we were so
lucky to be visiting our families at the same time!

Joey is hanging out with the boys. He tried to talk to them, too, but the words just wouldn't come out...only blabber.

Sunday Dinner

Since growing up, my family has always had Sunday dinners. These dinners include my mom's siblings and their kids. We used to always have Sunday dinners at my grandparent's house and we always ate pasta. It was great in the summer, because they had a swimming pool. But, even in the winter, we enjoyed going to their house. It was a chance to get together with all of our cousins to play, fight, tell on eachother, etc. When my grandparents sold their house, the dinners moved to my parent's house or my aunt's house. There aren't many people around anymore for Sunday dinners, but since I was in town and my cousin, Tina, was in town, we had a Sunday dinner at my parent's house.





This is a picture of my mom, me(with drool on my shirt, of course) Tina, and my Aunt Joanne. We took the picture because we all had green shirts on (although in the picture, Tina's looks blue.)








My friend from high school, Aimee, her husband Ryan, and their 2 month old baby, Mia came over for dinner, too. This is a picture of Mia. Isn't she cute?






Here are some more pictures of the past few days in Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Pictures.