Rachel's Baby Shower

My good friend Rachel is pregnant with her first baby boy due at the end of March. Last Saturday her friends hosted a baby shower for her. It was so cute!! My friend Patty, (pictured below) made all the adorable party favors and my friend Jessica made the deliciously adorable cupcakes. I can't wait to meet baby Jacob. Congrats Rosh and Rachel!

Here is the gift I made for Rachel. I think this has to be one of my favorite collections I've made to date.

Big News!!

After being married for 5 1/2 years, Kyle and I recently purchased our first

HOME!!

We are SO excited!! It's it adorable! Wait till you see the pictures after the work we are doing in the home and outside in the yard. Even after 2 days of work, much improvement has been made. The home is in Costa Mesa, on a great street and is sitting on a 10,000sq foot lot. For my favorite readers who don't live in Ca, that's a lot of land.

The Story:

Kyle and I received an email about this home on Friday, January 22th. We drove by it on Sunday, January 24th to preview the outside and decide if we wanted to see the inside. Upon peering over the side yard fence and seeing the backyard, we knew we had to see the inside. On Monday, January 25th we had the chance to see inside the home and loved it. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and an enclosed patio addition that was not apart of the original square footage inside the home. It's the perfect space for a play room for the kids and a craft space for myself. YEAH! Moving on... On Tuesday, January 26th we wrote up the purchase agreement and it was accepted on the spot. Over the past two weeks we have been waiting for the tenants to move out, the loan docs to be drawn up and escrow to close. The tenants moved out this past Monday (2/22), we tented the home on Tuesday and work on the home began Thursday. While we are scheduled to close escrow the first week of March, God blessed us with this home and due to special circumstances I won't go into we were able to get the keys to the home already. Once all the work is done, I'll post some before and after pictures. In the meantime, Kyle and I are busy working at the house, which is interesting with 2 kids, (thanks Jan for watching them for me!!) and anticipating our move in on March 13th. By the way, that's a Saturday and we'll accept all the moving help we can get! :-)

Thank you to everyone who has prayed along side us for a home. We are so grateful to our faithful savior for giving us this gift. I'm also so thankful that the home is in Costa Mesa, which is still close enough for me to still go to Bible study and Kids Klub, but is closer also for Kyle to get to and from Los Angeles for meetings. The biggest bonus is that we no longer need to take the toll road so frequently anymore!!

Here are some pictures of Kyle and I signing the purchase agreement:

Celebrating Dad's 60th Birthday

My Dad's birthday is actually not until March 20th, but we decided to have a small family celebration here at the house last night. It was so much fun! There was plenty of laughter, good conversation and delicious food. Happy Birthday Dad, we love you SO much and we're so glad we got to celebrate with you while you were here!

Josh and I gave Dad a framed photo of his kids and grandkids for his birthday. He loved it!

We ordered a delicious Tuxedo Chocolate Moose Cake. It was so good!

Katelyn helped Pappi blow out his candles.

Fun times with family

Well we took so many pictures while my family was here and I wanted to share them all with you so I made a couple collages so you can see all the fun we were having. I'm so thankful to have had this time with my family and I was really sad to see them leave today! It's always hard to say goodbye, especially when you're not sure when you will see one another again. But enough about goodbye's.... this first collage is more pictures from our day at the Spectrum walking around, riding the carousel and then lunch at Cheesecake Factory.

This second collage is filled with pictures taken at the house while were hanging out at home inbetween outings and such.

Family Lunches and BBQ's

While everyone was here we were able to get together with Kyle's family for a luncheon after church on Sunday and a BBQ on Wednesday. So fun!! I'm so glad that my Dad, Siobhan and my Grandparents were able to spend some time with Doug and Jan. Since my family is all spread out and lives far from me I cherish every moment I can get our two families together. The weather was beautiful both days! Thanks Doug and Jan for having us over and cooking some delicious meals. We love you guys!!

Here are some pictures from our Sunday Lunch

Here are some pictures from our Wednesday BBQ

Brendan and his fiance Ashtyn were able to join us for the BBQ as were my cousins Jamie, Andrew and Audra. They drove up from Carlsbad to hang out as well.

Brayden is 3 Months Old!

I cannot even believe how fast time flies and my little man is already 3 months old. We love him so much!!

Family Pictures