Awww..

Kiley just came up to me, gave me a hug, and said, "We're best friends, Mama." How cute is that?!

The Best Mother's Day Gift Ever!!!

Sometime between 11 pm Thursday (5/7) night and 9:30 am Friday (5/8) morning, our two strictly indoor cats managed to pop one of the screens to the windows in our front office out. Ryan was the first to notice that the cats were missing, and woke me up soon after. We both ran outside to start our search. Within seconds, one of the cats, Bandit, was located in the front yard. I started up our long driveway in my robe and pajamas, frantically calling for the other cat. There is a woman who lives up the road from us that owns several cats, so that was one of the first places I checked. Unfortunately, he wasn't there. I decided to head back to the house to change because I was receiving some unusual looks from the motorists passing me on the road.

By this time, Kiley was awake, so we all head out on foot to look for our missing kitty. Still no luck! He is a very skittish cat, so I was worried he was hunkered down somewhere unfamiliar and too terrified to move. We have a fairly fast moving stream through our backyard, trains rolling by at all hours of the day, and the road our street intersects with is very busy. There are a number of places he could be injured or even killed. Ryan decided to drive the nearby streets to see if there were any black and white causalities. Fortunately, there weren't.

We continued to call for him through out the day to no avail. We placed some food out for him, but there are so many cats in the neighborhood, we'd have no idea if it was him eating it.

Saturday came and went without any sign of him. I was starting to think he was going to end up like his sister who ran away a month before we moved to Roseville. We ended up finding her again, but she was too "wild" we couldn't even get near her to catch her.

So, this morning as I was getting dressed to go out this Mother's Day, Kiley was playing on our bed and Ryan was in the front part of the house. One minute, I'm picking up one of Kiley's rubber duckies off the floor, and the next, I'm staring at Ryan holding Bailey in his arms. Apparently, Ryan thought he heard knocking at the front door, and when he went to investigate, Bailey was strolling down the steps from the lawn. We were relieved and so happy he was home safely. He had sticker burrs in his fur and a little muddy, but otherwise in good condition.

Here's a picture of Ryan and Bailey relaxing on the loveseat in the office several hours after they were reunited:

After Ryan returned from Iraq, Bailey was never the same towards him as he was before. Ryan would struggle just to get Bailey to come near him to pet him. So, when I see this picture, it makes me wonder what he went through for 2 days on his own.

Caching, Tea, and Silly String!

So, today officially kicked off what I will call my "birthday weekend" even though it's not until Monday. I had a day packed full of fun with just my mom. This morning we headed to Citrus Heights (in the steady rain) to our first ever flash mob geocaching event. I've never seen so much silly string before! Too bad there weren't any muggles around to witness the whole thing!

Aftermath:


It seemed to be over in a blink of an eye, but it was unforgettable! We found a couple of caches in the same park with geo-friends from Folsom and some on our own. Soon we headed back toward our house to change into our nice clothes for afternoon tea. The warm tea and yummy food was perfect for a day like today. After chit-chatting over full-bellies, we made our way back to the house again to change for more geocaching. We managed to find 3 more in the never-ending rain. It was a great time and very memorable, even if does mean I'm one year closer to 30. :o)

Easter Basket, Egg Hunt & Mr. Quail

I'm so glad that Kiley is getting to that age where she can kind of comprehend the idea of a holiday such as Easter. She was enthralled with the idea of the Easter Bunny and was excited that he was going to visit out house and Grandma's house. My mom spoils her rotten, but isn't that what Grandmas are supposed to do? She loved her Easter Baskets (yes, she got more than one!) and the egg hunt later on. Here's a few pics from earlier today:

Then, later on, I was able to snap a few shots of the male quail of a pair that lives in my parents' front yard. I had to sneak up on him, but I got a few shots before he got spooked:

Happy Easter!

Here's a picture of Kiley with the Easter Bunny a couple of weeks ago when the weather was a lot nicer!

Daffodil Hill

We drove over to Daffodil Hill in Amador County this last week, and I wanted to share the pictures with everyone. Enjoy!

We are officially potty training!!!

After our last post and receiving a free DVD from Huggies about potty training, we (or more like I) decided it was time to start. So, Kiley has been diaper free since the evening of Thursday, February 26th. We've had 2 successful potties and 1 successful poop in 3 days. It's taking a little bit of time for Kiley to get use to sitting on the potty chair without pants or a diaper, but she's coming along. Our little girl is growing up so fast!

I WANT TO POTTY TRAIN KILEY, BUT...

she is being sooooo stubborn about it!!! She is interested in all things potty and poo-poo, but whenever Ryan or I ask her if she wants to go potty on the "big girl" toilet, she cries out a big defiant, "NO!" If she was potty trained, it would make for situations like what just happened a lot easier to deal with. I was sitting in the bathroom doing my latest cross-stitch project and supervising Kiley's bathtime antics. Next thing I know, she's saying, " Eew, gross poop! Bubbles poop!" Sure enough, Kiley had gone Number 2 in the bath. Luckily, our guest bathroom has a separate bathtub and shower! So, I throw her in the shower to get the gross water off, and drain the tub to collect her toys, which need to be sanitized now! When I'm trying to clean out the tub, all Kiley wants to do is check out the mess and cry out, "See big poop, Mommy?" Yeah, I see it all right! I just wish it were sooner instead of later!

Happy Late V-day!

I've been kinda slacking in the blog department, huh? I guess better late than never, right? We've been busy living our lives, keeping up with our eBay store (people gotta have their geocaches and travel bugs!), etc. etc. etc. We had a nice Valentine's Day together this year. We went to a late breakfast, and ran a few errands. One of which I've been nagging Ryan to have done since our external hard drive on our computer stopped working in August! We took it into Best Buy to have them look at it. It couldn't even be detected on their computers there, like at home. The member of the "Geek Squad" that helped us said most likely it was the communication link inside the hard drive that talks to the computer that had failed. So, when we got back home Ryan took the hard drive apart, and connected it into our computer. Sure enough, there were all of our (1000+) pictures and other files. I jumped up and down and breathed a BIG sigh of relief! I would have been devastated if I had lost all those pictures! Especially the ones from Kiley's birth and our wedding! Later Ryan picked up our "gourmet" Valentine's Day dinner for two, and we watched Kiley's new movie, Madagascar 2. A nice and quiet evening at home, just like we 'em.

We hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day, and were able to spend it with those you love!

Happy 2009!!!

Our 5-Year Anniversary

Ryan and my 5-year wedding anniversary was this past Sunday (December 28th). It's hard to believe it's been 5 years already! Time definitely does fly by while you are having fun! :o) We were trying to figure out something to do that involved as little cash as possible but something really enjoyable and memorable. Ryan and I were watching one of our favorite weekly TV shows E!'s The Soup (like we do most Friday nights) the day after Thanksgiving.

Here's a clip about one of Kiley's favorite TV shows, Yo Gabba Gabba!:


The Soup's host, Joel McHale, was naming off upcoming cities where he's performing at the end of the show. When Joel said December 27th at the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino in Reno a little light went off in Ryan's head. He suggested we see Joel, and spend the weekend in Reno. He didn't have to twist my arm because within minutes I had already bought the tickets online. As Christmas crept closer, the more excited I got. It was for the fact that Ryan and I were going to get a much needed weekend away, and because I have a tiny crush on Joel McHale. :oP So, December 26th rolls around (Woo hoo!), and we pack up the car to head over to my parents' house to drop off Kiley. We decided to take the scenic route to get to Reno through Lake Tahoe. It was beautiful, but a big mistake. There was so much traffic headed to Tahoe! Plus, there was lots of snow and ice on Highway 50 still. We took it slow and easy, unlike some people out there. I reminded Ryan they are job security. We did see a couple of places were people had spun out on the icy roads. Luckily, almost 5 hours after leaving my parents' house, we arrived in Reno, safe and sound. We were surprised to see how many people there were checking in, especially the day after Christmas. We settled into our room, and soon headed to the buffet. You've gotta eat at the buffet at least once, right?! We gambled for a little bit, but after losing most, okay, all of his money, Ryan was ready to call it a night. The next morning, we slept in, and slowly got around. We didn't have anywhere we needed to be until later that night. We headed over to the Grand Sierra Resort to check out where we needed to go, and to bowl a couple games at their bowling center. We still had several hours to kill, so we decided to go geocaching. Ryan detests the sport, but since I was in a different state, I had to find at least one. Sure enough, I did. :o) The show was incredible! Joel had us practically rolling in the aisles! I know a few times I had to wipe away tears, I was laughing so hard. Our seats were fantasic, too! We were in the sixth row from the stage, center stage left. As evidence from the pictures, Ryan and I actually got to meet Joel after the show. We waited in line for nearly two hours, but it was totally worth it! I bought a T-shirt that makes fun of Tyra Banks being afraid of dolphins, and Joel signed the back, making fun of Ryan Seacrest's height. Classic Soup material! Joel was really down-to-earth, and I'm so glad we were able to see him perform and meet him afterwards. This will be an anniversary we soon won't forget!

Christmas

We had a very nice Christmas this year. It was great to see how easily excited Kiley got over her Christmas presents. Santa made an early delivery to our house since Ryan had to work Christmas Day. Santa stopped by our house while we were at Grandma and Grandpa's (my parents) house for Christmas Eve. The look on Kiley's face when we walked into the house was priceless! She loved all of her "ho-ho" presents. Ryan and Kiley had a visit with Santa himself near the Christmas Village store in downtown Auburn the weekend before Christmas. I had planned to take her to see him earlier, but everytime we got near Santa at the mall, Kiley would cling to me and wouldn't let go. She was even afraid of the inflatable Santa in the front yard! So, I decided that this was the year we wouldn't visit Santa to have her picture taken. Unfortunately, I wasn't with Ryan and Kiley to see this whole scene unfold. According to Ryan, Kiley chatted Santa up, like they'd been friends forever! I wish I could have been there to see it! Hopefully, she won't be scared of Santa next year. On Christmas Day, Kiley and I played with all of the new toys she got until it was time to have dinner with Ryan in Rocklin. A local catering company generously donated an entire prime rib dinner to the firefighters on-shift Christmas Day and their families. We barely made a dent into the meal when everyone was finished! It sure was good, though! To top off our Christmas evening, Kiley and I enjoyed looking at all the pretty Christmas lights on our way home. I loved hearing her "ooohs" and ahhs" from the back seat. :o)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope everyone made it on Santa's Nice List this year!

Frosty gets Caught!

I know this comic strip may seem familiar to some of you since it's from last year, but I couldn't resist posting it again. It's too funny! Click on the picture to enlarge it, so you can read it better! :o)

Snow Day Slideshow

Our Snow Day

We woke up to snow falling the other morning, and Ryan was as giddy as a schoolgirl! It actually stuck for a little bit, but it didn't last for long. So, we decided to make a short trip up the road for a snow day in Emigrant Gap. Kiley didn't like it in the beginning, but by the time we left, she loved going down the snow bank on the snow tube, and she was an expert snowball thrower. Enjoy the slideshow!

Kiley took a tumble tonight!

Kiley and I were watching TV earlier tonight like we normally do when Ryan is working. I was sitting on the couch, and Kiley was sitting on the floor in front of the couch playing. I look down, and the next thing I see is Kiley falling face first into the coffee table! On closer inspection, I see that she is bleeding from biting her lip. After I've calmed her down from the point of hysteria, I try to put some ice on her quickly forming fat lip. She let me do it once or twice, but that was about it. Poor thing! So, this is the aftermath of her little stumble. After a few minutes of extra snuggle time, she was as good as new! :o)

It's the time of year, where we drag all of the Christmas decorations from underneath the house to make the yard and our despositions a little more festive. Of course, I'm a little more eager than Ryan to get started this year. The Christmas season has definitely snuck up on us. Although, I did start seeing fake trees and lawn decorations in stores at the end of September! Our new house's roof isn't at a 90º angle like the one in Roseville, so Ryan is more willing to climb onto the roof to hang lights. We set up the usual decorations we use every year, and some new ones! After dark, we took Kiley on a walk up the street to look at the lights already up on Black Friday. Every word out of her mouth seemed to be, "Whoa! 'Ook Mommy!"It's going to be a real treat this year to go around looking at Christmas lights with Kiley! Now that the front yard was all decorated, it was time to think about doing the inside. We needed our tree first! So, this last four-day, we decided to get our Christmas tree. It was a perfect late fall/early winter day to go looking in the chilly afternoon air. We headed out to a local Christmas tree farm in Foresthill. Snowy Peaks is a real-deal Choose and Cut tree farm. It's not like other farms we've been to in the past, where you choose but they cut it for you. Snowy Peaks hands you a saw, and says, "Good luck!" Ryan was so disappointed when he found out we couldn't go out into the woods to cut down our tree because the National Forest Service near us doesn't issue Christmas tree permits. He really wanted it to be like the Griswold's Family Christmas. :o) Snowy Peaks had so many great trees, we had a hard time deciding. We finally found "The Tree" after about 30 minutes of looking and hiking. Kiley tripped a couple times over old stumps and rocks, but was a big girl and got right back up to keep on trekkin'! It was a great family outing! Kiley truly enjoyed her first ever candy cane! She was a sticky mess afterwards, but totally worth it. Now, whenever I ask her if she likes candy canes, her answer is, "Mmmmm!" Later that night, after dinner, we all helped decorate the rest of the house and tree. Kiley was fascinated with all of the ornaments, especially her "Baby's First Christmas." She liked looking at the picture of the smiling baby. It's hard to believe just two short years ago, I took that exact picture of Kiley looking up at the Christmas tree and capturing one of her first smiles. Aww, memories!Unfortunately, Ryan works on Christmas Day this year (and, next year, too!), so we will be celebrating a day early or a day late. Luckily, for now, Kiley isn't old enough to know any different!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Kiley is too funny!

The weather has been kinda crummy here lately, so Kiley and I have been a couple of homebodies. So, yesterday afternoon while working on the computer, I looked up to see a few of Kiley's stuffed animals enjoying a view outside. It was too funny to see them all lined up perfectly on the windowsill. Then, earlier today, Kiley asked to have her sunglasses on in the house. A few minutes later, she ran into the office with one of my winter hats on. She looked so cute, so of course I had to take her picture. What a ham!