Look Who's 7!!

7 years ago it was Easter Sunday. Mr. ESPN and I were supposed to be hosting Easter dinner for my parents and our friends.  However those plans were changed because this person decided it was time to make her first appearance!

1 month old

You were kind enough to your dad to wait until the Master's Tournament was over to arrive - much to his delight! 

Chatty you keep us on our toes every single day.  You are a loving, smart, talkative and stubborn (so much like your mama that it is scary sometimes!) and your dad and I love you more than anything in this world.  Thank you for teaching us that being a parent is the hardest and best job in the world!  We love you Lacey Lou!

excuse the goofy grin ...

Birthday pics coming soon ....

Spring Break Part I - Bia's 4th Birthday

Ok - so here is Part I of our Spring Break ... Bia's Birthday.  Well actually it was Mr. ESPN's birthday but I didn't get any pictures of him opening his cards/gifts.  Great wife I know! We met Nana and Poppa at our favorite restaurant - Oregano's for a birthday lunch.

Bia and Nana

Bia and Poppa

Enjoying some pizzookie!

We were all decked out for the Arizona game that afternoon

Look who's 4 (the morning of her birthday)

  

Lots of princess stuff

And then we left for Disneyland.  After we checked into our hotel, picked up a birthday cake for Bia.  We celebrated again late that night in the hotel room!

Next up our visit to Disneyland ...

Hello ... Is this Thing On?

Yes I am here and alive and bad about blogging ... sorry life has been crazy busy.  Here are some updates from the ESPN household ...

• Annoying co-worker somehow got his nail clippers unglued and started using them Monday, lucky for me I was on a plane to NJ and wasn't there to here it.  Next week I will be taking those clippers and putting them in the trash.  Maybe he will get it, then again based on who I am dealing with I doubt he will and it may take several pairs in the trash before he gets it.  Stupid people!
• Speaking of NJ - I have been here all week and got to experience a spring snowstorm!  Pretty but cold - I am ready for some sunshine!
• Tonight my Wildcats are playing in the Sweet 16 - BEAR DOWN ARIZONA!!  Beat Duke!

• Saturday is Mr. ESPN's birthday - he is picking me up from the airport tomorrow and then we are going to enjoy a nice kid-free lunch to celebrate a day early!  He is probably more excited that I am bringing him his beer than our kid-free lunch! 
• Sunday my little Bia turns 4!!  She is so excited because on her birthday we are heading here:

Yep we are heading to Disneyland with our neighbors!  We are meeting up with my Favorite Cousin and Casey ... can you say chaos at Disneyland ... my 2 kids, my neighbor's 3 kids, my cousin's 3 kids and Casey's 2 (of 3)?  They won't know what hit them ...

I'll be back late next week to fill you in on our adventures ...

A little Behind

I can't seem to get ahead this week - or any week for that matter.  It's Thursday already and this is the first time I have posted this week.  Not sure what I have been up to (work, sick Bia, soccer, etc.) but I haven't had much time to blog and/or post pictures.

Last weekend we were supposed to have our good friends (AZCottrells) over to watch the GO CATS (as Chatty refers to them) pound the Huskies. Unfortunately Bia woke up with a fever on Friday that lasted through part of Sunday. So instead of getting together for the game we cheered them on in separate places and Mr. ESPN and Matt texted each other during the game!  Afterwards we had a family night of Wii bowling.

Chatty started out happy and dressed for I am not sure what

Then she started losing and looked like this

And this

This is how Mr. ESPN bowls

Bia can now bowl (yes another fashionista in the house)

"Come on Strike"

"Woo Hoo I got a strike!!"

Puppy played too

Sunday we celebrated our neighbor's 3rd birthday ... the weather was a little cool (for desert standards) but we had a great time.  Luckily Bia was feeling better and was able to join in on the party ...

Self Portrait

Chatty Played some hoops

Check out that concentration

Bia showed her silly faces

All in all a pretty good weekend - especially since we had Monday off!  This weekend - lots of soccer practice and a Girls Night for me on Saturday night!

Sweet Little Biaisms

Yeah so I know Biaisms isn't a real word but it is my word

Yesterday after work Mr. ESPN picked up Bia and Chatty.  As they were riding in the car Chatty is talking (non-stop - nothing new here).  Bia turns to her and says "Chatty STOP - you talk too much!"  Oh my sweet little Bia - you are sooo smart! 

For anyone out there who doesn't know, Bia is 4 years old now (according to her anyway - but according to her birth certificate she is actually 3).  She moved up to the 4 year old classroom at school and now insists she is 4 years old.  Since she has a birthday in March, she thinks she will be turning 5.  I keep telling myself Pick Your Battles, it is not worth it!

Bia and Chatty were supposed to stay at Nana and Poppa's house the other week but Nana and Poppa were sick.  I told her we would reschedule.  With that in mind she packed her two little backpacks for Nana and Poppa's house (blankies, stuffed animals and two pairs of flip flops - just the necessities for her).  I kept telling her it would be several weeks before they were able to have their sleepover but she kept insisting everything stay packed and ready to go.  She got mad anytime I pulled something out of her backpack.  Then she convinced her big sister to pack her backpack too! 

It's Not Christmas Yet

I know everyone says it is the Christmas season but to me it doesn't officially begin until December 1 (however with that being said I already decorated my house) ... because today is my birthday!  I had grand plans to write a nostalgic post about turning 36, but no one wants to hear that crap - plus who has time? 

Seriously I have never seen my phone buzz so much - between texts, phone calls, e-mails and facebook messages.  Thanks to all of you who sent me one!  I really appreciate the love!  But one question for you .. don't you think it's weird when random people from high school or college send you HAPPY BIRTHDAY notes on Facebook?  I think it is a bit odd, especially from those people who I barely talked to in high school and are friends with on Facebook but never correspond with.  Maybe it's me but it's a bit weird!  It does make me look super popular though!

Mr. ESPN wanted to make me cake balls for my birthday with the assistance of his two little sous chefs.  We discussed it briefly and I told him (very nicely) that cake balls were a little advanced for the three of them and suggested the box of funfetti cake mix and frosting in the pantry.  I could sense the relief in his voice.  Anyway Mr. ESPN and the little sous chefs made 19 funfetti cupcakes (which I iced b/c well Mr. ESPN isn't so good at that part).  Yes the box makes 24 - I am not sure what happened!  In addition to that lovely dessert, my buddy the Kingston Queen made this for me (from my post last week):


(although her white chocolate snowflake broke!).  Can't wait to dig in - she is an awesome baker!

OK - I better get back to work because unfortunately I can't slack all day, even if it is my birthday!!  Enjoy the last day of November!!

A Tale of Two Bowlers

Let me introduce you to bowler #1 - aka Chatty.  Chatty thought that if you are a good Wii bowler then you would be a good real bowler ...mmmm not so much.

Now onto her form - not too bad but not enough power behind the throw...

   As evidenced here by the remaining pins...

Now let me introduce you to bowler #2 aka Bia.  She required some assistance from her Momma

And for awhile seemed pretty into it ....

But her interest faded quickly as she proceeded to mess up the scoreboard numerous times

Jumped off the ledge ....

Danced ...

And whatever this is???

And that's how it ended

These photos were taken at our buddy Shaun's birthday party.  My good friend Laurie made these cute shirt for the kids!  Aren't they awesome?  We all had a great time.

Sorry for my lack of blogging but I have been teaching VBS to K/1st graders each morning and then working in the afternoon while entertaining my girls - I am exhausted!  I feel like I am going nonstop.  Tomorrow is the last day of VBS - yeah!  Hopefully I can catch up on life and blogging next week!

Party Time

A quick little recap of the girls' birthday party ... all of the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and Mr. ESPN and I enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to clean up after everyone left.  We had the party at our local train park.  Casey - Jack would love it!  For an extremely reasonable price you can rent the party train car for 1.5 hours.  The staff plays games with the kids, feeds them cake and ice cream, takes them for a ride on the train and also a ride on the carousel.  Pretty good deal.  Plus after it was over all the kids played on the playground for another 30 minutes.  So here are a few pictures ..

First off cupcakes - I made grass cupcakes with little soccer balls.

The sign in the Party Train Car

The Parachute Game

Bia and her buddy A taking a break

The Big kids playing Tug-O-War

Chatty and her buddy L were excited about winning

Her buddy S looks beat in this picture

Time for cake and ice cream

My girls love cake!

Time for the train, both Chatty and Bia elected to sit by

two of their favorite boys - S and S

After the ride they got to sit in the conductor's seat for a photo

When we arrived home we found this ...

and this ... (she gets that look from me) 

Birthday Overload

This weekend we had birthday overload at our house.  Warning - there are a lot of pictures in this post.  Mr. ESPN's birthday was Friday.  We went to dinner at a nice "kid-friendly" restaurant that had the basketball games on so everyone was happy.  After we got home we dug into Daddy's cake.

The next day was my little monkey's 3rd birthday.  When we got up she told me she wanted to go shopping at Costco and the gym ... my kind of girl! (As you can see my girls are big fans of their Christmas PJs and are still wearing them even though it is almost Easter).  Since it was a birthday weekend and we had an abundance of cake, we broke all the rules and had cake for breakfast! 

Time to open a few presents ...

Even the Philly Phanatic knew it was her birthday and sent her a card!

After we obliged Bia and her request to shop at Costco we headed to her buddie's birthday party at the train park.

After the party we met Nana, Poppa, Uncle Greg and Mrs. T at our favorite restaurant - Oregano's!  Nana and Poppa bought Bia a singing/dancing monkey.  It is a lovely annoying monkey that sings to Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus ... and it took all of 5 minutes for the girls to learn the words.  Nothing beats being serenaded by Miley and the girls!  

Monkey was thirsty so Bia shared her water

Since we had cake at the birthday party (and for breakfast) and had pizza cookie at Oregano's we saved Bia's monkey cake for Sunday and invited our neighbors over for cake and ice cream.

Two down, one to go ...Chatty's birthday is in two weeks and so is their joint birthday party.  After that I am on a cake baking vacation for a while!