Happy Halloween!

The Halloween festivities begin tonight! Grandma Ly made spaghetti dinner for everyone that wanted to come over to join us in the Summerlane Halloween. Our neighborhood is a great family friendly area for little trick or treaters. There's one block where the homes are really, really decked out for Halloween with all kinds of things to see. We started the evening by having dinner and then Makayla really got the hang of handing out candy to all the trick or treaters that came by our house while we waited for everyone to come home from work and have dinner. Grandma Jennie, Grandpa Stan, Uncle Alan, Auntie Som and the Bui's all came over. When it was time for us to go out and get our treats Makayla didn't want too. She was enjoying the handing out process so much that she didn't want to go out. Good thing her cousin Alyssa was able to talk her into going out. Once she started she couldn't stop and had such a good time. How fast they pick up and figure out what to do. She knew to go up to the houses and hand her pumpkin bag to get treats. She even started saying "Trick/Treat". So cute!

Here's Makayla in the middle as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and her two cousins, Alexis as Tinkerbell and Alyssa as Mulan. What cute girls they all are!

Makayla's so happy with her Toto basket and all ready to go!

Here's our family portrait for Halloween. This was big! We were sportin' the Wizard of Oz theme alright! Yes, can you believe that, that's Ryan as the Tin Man and me as the Scare Crow. We had such fun!

Makayla at her friend Zoe's house getting treats. Just Zoe's mom Steph was there since Zoe was having fun getting her own treats all around the neighborhood with her dad. They came by to see Makayla already and she was dressed as a cute little Tigger!

Makayla's other friends came by a little later once we were all done trick or treating since they did their trick or treating in downtown HB. Rachee in the middle as Glenda the Good Witch from Wizard of Oz too and Mia as Elizabeth Swann from Pirates of the Carribean. Thanks for coming by so we could all see your cute costumes! What a busy, busy Halloween filled with so much fun!

Carving Pumkins

We finally carved my pumpkin tonight. Started off with Daddy drawing the perfect pumpkin face for me!

Let me observe and supervise your work Daddy since it is my pumpkin!

I think it's got my approval for carving! Say "Cheese" for the camera!

Maybe I can make some improvements on Mr. Pumpkin's face after all. Just some minor finishing touches with my marker!

Carved away! Here's the front of Mr. Pumpkin's face and the back was my nickname "MAK".
Fun times carving tonight with Mommy & Daddy.

Pumpkin Patch

Tonight we visited our regular pumpkin patch spot The Johnson Brother's off of Goldenwest & McFadden. This is where Mommy & Daddy use to go even before I was born for their pumpkins. Since Tanaka Farms was so windy when I went with my playgroup and we only came home with my itty bitty pumpkin we went back for more! Mommy & Daddy wanted at least one more to carve......so much for that plan. We got there and we wanted Makayla to ride the ponies. We asked her and she said "yes" so we stood in line for about a 1/2 an hour. Then when it was our turn to ride she had a fit and cried and cried. Big crocodile tears and all. That kind of ruined the entire evening and we had to go home. Oh well, maybe next year will be better with the ponies.

Here's Makayla at 2 1/2 feet tall with The Johnson Brother's ruler! Our tall girl!

Not so ready for the pony rides tonight!

21-Months Old w/ Mr. Bear

Here's our big girl at 21-months old with her Mr. Bear.
Weighing in at 24lbs and 30 1/2 inches tall. Boy is she talking up a storm. I can't really name words anymore since there's sooooo many. She started putting two word together like "Bless You" and she absolutely understands everything you say. She also a super monkey climbing everywhere too.

Just chillin' with my Mr. Bear.

All relaxed with Mr. Bear!

Tanaka Farms

We had a trip to Tanaka Farms in Irvine today with Makayla's playgroup. They have an awesome pumpkin patch.....field of pumpkins! We started the morning off pretty early by meeting there at 9am. It was a really, really windy day. The Santa Ana's were in town! After everyone showed up we all gathered and headed to the wagon ride that took us to the petting zoo. There we all got to feed the animals. Mostly goats...they were pretty aggressive when we had food but once the food was gone they were fine and Makayla finally got down to go pet them. After everyone washed their hands we headed back on the wagon ride though the farm. We saw pumpkins, pumpkins, sunflowers, veggies, fruits and all sorts of farm stuff! It was a nice ride! Then we ended by the corn field maze. We all went through that successfully and then headed to pick our veggies! Once we finished picking our veggies it was time to pick out our pumpkins and then everyone headed home since it was so windy. Thanks Amy for putting this all together for us! We all had lots of fun!

Makayla is brave and petting the nice goat....as long as she didn't have food they didn't jump up and she was fine.

Makayla sitting like a big girl and holding on tight on our wagon ride around Tanaka Farms.

Makayla and her Daddy getting ready to head into the crazy corn field maze.

Here are some of her girlfriends from her playgroup...from left to right,
Annbelle, Makayla, Carter & Zoe. I think they're trying to come up with a plan to finish this crazy maze!

The cute girls holding hands through the maze, there's Carter, Makayla and Annabelle again. Too cute!

Yay! We finally finsihed and found the center flag pole of the maze! All the girls and their Mommy's!


Makayla picking her veggies. She got to pick 4 each of radishes, carrots, onions & green beans. She did a great job and really dug and pulled!

The field of pumpkins! She's carefully picking out the perfect pumpkin.

I think she found it! She had to be able to pick it up on her own in order to take it home!
What a fun day even though the winds didn't cooperate! We all had a blast! Can't wait to visit Tanaka Farms during strawberry season. Head that's lots of fun too and we love strawberries!

Flu Shot

Makayla got her flu shot today. I had to blog it since I couldn't believe how brave she was. The flu shot was in her left arm. She watched the nurse poke her with the needle and she didn't cry at all! We just couldn't believe it! We went out and they gave her 2 stickers because she was such a good girl! I think maybe she was just in shock. She didn't have any reactions to the shot either. Thank goodness!

This is a picture of her before the shot, not looking so happy and wanting down from the table. She came down and just roamed and played until the nurse came in. So restless lately.

And here she is right before the shot. Happy as can be!

Kloe's 1st Birthday Party

Today Makayla attending Kloe's 1st birthday party with her Daddy. It was at a cute little place down south that had a petting zoo, train rides and lots of fun stuff for the kids. I couldn't attend because I already had another commitment with my girlfriends. I'm glad Ry took her because she had so much fun and it was good father/daughter bonding time. The started out gloomy and wet from the rains the evening before but then it all cleared up and ended up being a nice day. They arrived a little late since Makayla went to her tumbling class in the morning and then had a nice nap afterwards, then headed to the party. At least they made it!

Makayla is feeding the bunny rabbits some carrots. She so brave! What a girl!

Here are some girlfriends that she hung out with. To Makayla's left is Kloe the birthday girl! I think Makayla wanted Daddy to hold her and didn't really want to sit with her new friends.

Boy oh boy, such a big girl riding the train all by herself!
Happy Birthday Kloe and thanks for inviting me! I had such a fun time!

Disney's Halloween Treat

Here we are at our 2nd Annual Disney's Halloween Treat! We started the evening by having dinner at Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney. We celebrated Auntie Stacy's 31st birthday too! Right after our nice dinner we headed into California Adventure where our evening of Halloween fun started. There were block parties with all the Disney characters dressed up in their costumes and dancing all around. There were also a bunch of treat stations for us to get our treats too. The evening was so much fun with Mom, Dad, Auntie Stace, Uncle Naters, Rachee, Mike, Tara, Mia, Uncle Alex, Auntie Patty, Alyssa & Alexis! We had a blast all evening! Can't wait until next year!

Rachee & Auntie Stace blowing out her birthday candle at Rainforest Cafe. Don't forget to make a wish!

That's Mia, Rachee & me. Don't we all look so cute dressed up in our Disney costumes and cuddling for this picture!

Our family photo in front of the giant candy corn before entering California Adventure.

This was the parade that wrapped the evening up. Good times and memories. I think Makayla understands trick or treating because of this event now. Good practice before the 31st.

Ducks Opening Game

We can't believe it's hockey season again! Time sure does fly by. Tonight was opening night for our Stanley Cup winners, The Ducks! It was a great game to be at where they showed off the Stanley Cup and raised all the banners. Very emotional if you're a real hockey fan! The presentation show was just fantastic! Ducks won their opener against the Boston Bruins 2 to 1! Great start of the season!

I don't know if this pictures represents what we really saw but the lights were all turned down and they presented the Stanley Cup with a light right on it coming down from the top of the Honda Center down onto center ice. I think you had to be there to feel how awesome it was!

All three trophies are represented, from left to right, The Presidents Trophy, Stanley Cup & The Conn Smythe.

This is the actual engraving of the Ducks players on the Stanley Cup. You had to play 40 regular season games or at least one full game in the Stanley Cup Finals.

This was the introduction of the team for this year also! They look good!

This was one of the banners that were raised up in the Honda Center. They also gave us a mini give away replica of this banner. Fun evening at the Ducks home opener game! Another great experience!

Halloween Portraits

We took Makayla to do her 2nd annual Halloween portraits today at Kiddie Kandids. She was great for the photographer except for she wouldn't wear the Minnie Mouse ears. We hope you enjoy them! Let me explain why we have 2 costumes. The Minnie Mouse costume is actually a handy me down from her friend Rachael and it happened to be Disney so that she could wear to another annual event at Disney's Halloween Treat. Thanks Rachee! I love all your clothes that you've let me have! Then the other costume is her actual Halloween costume this year.

Here's our little Minnie Mouse. She's even has the matching little pumps to go with it. So cute to see her walk in them! She did this pose all on her own too!

....and here is our little Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Sparkle red shoes and all to walk down the yellow brick road!

Dorothy having a little picnic with her buddy Toto!

San Francisco Trip

We did our annual trip up to San Francisco again this past weekend. We switch between baseball and football games and this year decided to see a Sunday NFL game. We flew so it was Makayla's 2nd trip on an airplane. She was a good girl as usual! Smooth flying for us! We got up there really early on Saturday so that we would have the whole day to roam around the city.......

Makayla is literally smelling the roses here! We stayed at the Hyatt Embarcadero which is where we always stay since it's right off of a BART station from the airport and a super nice hotel in the middle of almost everything so that it's convenient. There's a whole shopping center called Embarcadero Center that is right outside our hotel which has a bunch of restaurants and shops and this is where Miss. Makayla stopped to smell her flowers. Too cute!


Waiting in line so patiently for the cable cars. This was going to be our ride back since we already rode it 1st thing this morning to get to Fisherman's Wharf. We had no idea why things were so crowded.........there was a special Naval Show with the Blue Angels and performing in the sky. It was sooooo awesome and Makayla absolutely loved the jets flying around doing their trick and so did we! It was fantastic what those pilots can do! Amazing! During our wait in line for the cable cars, Makayla had a big accident.....she had been playing with everyone in line and running around, mostly in circles and then all of sudden she threw up everywhere! It was so bad that we had to get out of line to find a place to get her all cleaned up. We felt so bad leaving the big mess in the line but what were we to do....One of those things to get used to as a parent. We're not sure if she just over did it but then afterwards she was pretty much fine and we ended up walking all the way back to the hotel which was a really, really, really walk and she pretty much slept the entire time! I guess we got some good exercise in.

Just thought this was a cute photo of my Makayla and her Daddy! Can't really tell but it's in front of a really nice huge water fountain at our hotel. Cheese!

Well here we are the next day at the 49er game! SF has a great public transportation system that bused all us fans right to the stadium and right back! We had one of the ushers take a family picture of us all ready to cheer in our niner gear! We had great seats right on the field level! Ryan did great with getting us such great seats, it was a nice surprise since I'm used to us sitting in the nose bleeds and that's where I thought we were headed. They played the Baltimore Ravens and boo hoo we lost! The score was a huge 9 Ravens and 7 Niners.

Here we are back at Fisherman's Wharf on Monday morning before we head back home. Makayla didn't get to see all the Sea Lions because of the crowds with the air show on Saturday so we made time to take her back before our flight home because we know how much she loves animals! And sure enough she loved the Sea Lions. They smelled and they were loud and she really enjoyed it! We're glad we did it eventhough we thought we might be cutting things close to get to the airport. Overall our trip was awesome! We had lots of fun! We have to thank Daddy for planning all of it!

The Stanley Cup!

We got to see a private Stanley Cup viewing at the Honda Center tonight. The viewing is for season tickets holders only. We're not season ticket holders so thank goodness for ebay! This is Makayla's 1st ever viewing. We were a little disappointed since we couldn't get right next to the Stanley Cup like we were able to a few years back when the Ducks went to the finals. We actually got to touch it. So this time we just got close enough for some pictures. I guess it's better than nuttin'. This might be a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Our Stanley Cup family photo.

A close up of the cup!

Daddy testing the camera out to make sure we have the right setting as we get closer in line. There are three areas to see the cup so three different opportunities but then they started rushing us and Mommy wasn't happy......We still took our time and got our photos since we paid $$ to do this right?!

Big Preggie News!

We just got found out some really BIG news! We're expecting again! Makayla is going to have a brother or sis next year! She's going to be wonderful big sis at 2 1/2 years old! Looks like our due date is June 5th, 2008! Wish us luck with another little one in the oven!