Exciting Things Are Happening Around Here

In the coming weeks, this "little blog that could" is going to have some extremely exciting things going on.  It may or may not have some flying pigs and one remarkable little boy stopping in, all I can say for now is "Pig Up"!!!  Don't know what that means?  I think you will soon and I am sure you will be saying it yourself.  Stay tuned!!!!

Let's Laugh A Little

Things on here have been kind of serious lately.  Between my friend being stuck in Japan during the radiation nightmare and the government shut down, it is pretty serious and depressing and that's not at all what I am about.  So, to lighten things up, enjoy this video of my cousin.  He is a fun, free spirit who can always make you laugh and an amazing guy.  Enjoy :)

Ultimate Blog Party

What is going on?  I have been blogging for a while now and today I get on and check some of my favorite blogs and everyone is talking about this Ultimate Blog Party.  After watching a little brief tutorial, I think I might be able to handle this.  What better way to connect with others and fulfill my appetite to read more blogs?  So, here it is goes........

My name is Kaleena and I am a mom to 3 beautiful little girls.  We have been down a long and windy path these last couple of years but we are forging through it with grace and dignity.......some might say with laughter and little bit of absentmindedness <-------- is that even a word?  Anwyas, what you will find here is stories of my girls as they grow into amazing women, fun outings with friends, freak out moments and just plain fun.  I have also started my own small business making cupcakes and custom order cakes, you can find that link on the left, Lovin Oven Bakery (my fourth baby).  I hope you find this blog fun and uplifting and maybe even sometimes inspirational, however, I ask that you do not quote me on any of this :)  Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to "meeting" you!!!!

Baby Shower Fun

Last weekend I had the pleasure of throwing a baby shower for my friend and fellow leader Amanda.  For over a month I schemed and lied and sat through a dinner where her sweet daughter wondered why no one would want to throw a shower for her mom and new sister.  Ugh, I wanted to scream, "I care!  I promise that you will have a great shower and feel loved!!!!!"  Needless to say, when the preggo mama went to the potty, I told her daughter who was sworn to secrecy.  Her husband dropped her off that morning, she thought she was going to a Girl Scout meeting, but she had so much more fun in store.  We started by eating, what would a baby shower be without food?!!  Following the food, we played a couple of traditional baby shower games, the "smell the chocolate in the diaper" game which was a ton of fun to watch.

We also had some cake, made by me, yes, I just promoted my self but this is my blog so I can do whatever the heck I want to do.  Here is the link to the baby shower cake or you can even just check out the whole site here.  All in all, it was a wonderful day and I was so happy to see her happy.

Now, if that sweet girl would just hurry up and get here so I can hold her and snuggle her, the world would be alright :)

The Next Big Thing

Yep, those are my irresistible little ladies playing with the youngest ones new toy.  They are so amazing that I just know they will be the next Jonas Brothers!!  I may need to yank the lollipop out of the middles mouth and possibly not have my youngest make her new "cheese" face, but I guess until that happens I will just sit back and try to not get a headache with the amazing music being played around here.

When Spaghetti Attacks

Uh Oh Momma......

Look at that face!!!  Gotta love this girl!!!

Squeaky Shoes

A guy that Will used to work with gave us an extra pair of shoes that they had for their daughter.  They were brand new with tags on and super cute.  They were way too big when we got them so we put them away in her closet.  Well, the shoes are the perfect fit now and everyone within ear shot will hear her coming.

The good news is that the squeak part can come out of the shoe.  The bad news is that she loves the squeak part and if it doesn't squeak when she stops her feet, she gets ticked.  It may be annoying to some but I still find them super cute :)

Dance Class

Our sweet middle child is feeling depraved and non-sociable.  She always wants to go to someones house to play or just "dooooooo something!!!!!!!"  Since she isn't in preschool, we decided to enroll her in dance.  She is having a blast!!!

What is sweeter than a little one in tights and a leotard?!!!!!!

Summer Splashin'

What better way to cool down during the summer heat than a day playing on the slip-n-slide.  Not that the weather has been horridly hot by any means but we do get some days where it is nice and warm in the sun.  So, our neighbor got out her slip-n-slide and my girls had some fun.

I don't think Hayley knew what to think at first.  But after getting her toes a little wet, the girl was in love.....

She stayed down at the pool end for the most part but there was also some crawling and slipping which brought on tons of baby giggles.  And of course, the sisters had to get involved too.

Do you notice my horrified baby covering her face so as not to get splashed by her crazy sisters?  Do you also notice the heavy artillery being held by the oldest sibling?  Poor baby girl never saw it coming!!! 

 And now I pose a question.  Has anyone ever had their child break out in a horrible rash from being in the grass?  The first day we were on the slip-n-slide the baby was napping but my two oldest has a rash all over their legs.  Theirs looked like blade marks though so I knew exactly what it was.  The day the baby was out there, she got red bumps all up and down her legs, some on her arms and some on her back.  It was just bumps and I was so close to taking her to the ER for chicken pox.  I did give her an oatmeal bath and put soothing lotion all over her and it was better the next day but the girl looked infected for a good 2 days.  Is that normal?

Engagement Celebration

Over the weekend I got to celebrate the engagement of one of my very best friends.  Her name is Bre and I have known her since high school.

She recently got engaged to her amazing (now fiance) Chuck.  He gave her an amazingly gorgeous ring and makes her happier than anything money can buy.  The party was a luau and was filled with great people, food, drinks and dancing!!!!  I got to see her parents that I haven't seen in a while.

This is Bre, her sister Allie and her dad.

This is Bre with her mom and sister, plus her new fiance.  I love how she would look at him!

And this is me with the gorgeous bride to be.  I love and don't love this picture.  I love that I am back in California and can see my friend and celebrate with her.  I love my dress I picked up the day before for only $10!!!  Seriously, $10!!  So excited.  What I don't love is how I look.  I swear I always say I will have my pre-baby body back by the following summer.  So, last summer I vowed and his summer, I think I am 4 pounds lighter, which could be because I don't eat a meal.  4 pounds is nothing.  I felt so jiggly.  Mostly just in my crazy flabby arms that have no tone whatsoever in them.  And it doesn't help that I am vampire pasty, I seriously would fit in with the Twilight crowd.  The rest of me was sucked in by spanks and thank the Lord for those!!!  But I am waiting for someone to make invisible arm spanks.  Or some device that would make my arms looked toned and tan.  I know, the device exists and it is called a push up every now and again but I don't like them and don't want to do them :)  But I swear, by next summer I will be back to my pre-baby body...........I wont laugh until next summer when I see that I am down another 4 pounds.  But if I lose 4 pounds every year, by the time my kids are in college, I might be back to my pre-baby weight, woo hoo!!!!

Weekend

Over the weekend, the girls and I packed our bags and spent the weekend at my Aunts house.  It is always good times at her house and we were planning on having a BBQ at my sister-in-law's house that weekend as well so we just stayed for 3 days.  Hayley hates her pack-n-play with a passion so she didn't sleep at all the first night.  Kendall slept with me and with only that being said you should already assume I didn't get much since I had feet in my face constantly and she refuses to sleep anywhere except right up next to me.  The next night she was trying to be nice and sleep in her side but kept falling off the bed and hitting her head, which I would need to wake up and get her back in bed anyway so I just let her sleep right up on me.  I was so tired I was fine sleeping that way!  Saturday was fun, that's the day we had the BBQ at my sister-in-laws house.  We spent some time swimming, and I actually wore a suit, thank God I was the one with the camera so no one was able to capture that nonsense.  Cass made no progress on her swimming.  She freaked anytime she had to get off the top step.  I swear she could have been strapped to me with rope and still wouldn't trust us not dropping her in the water.  I guess it is a blessing since she isn't supposed t be swimming anyway.  Kendall had fun and swam on her own for a bit with floaties and Hayley completely enjoyed the raft.  She was almost asleep just floating around the pool.  After we got out it was time to BBQ and for the kids to play.  And what else is there for girls to do but dress up?

Since Cass was bigger than the other girls, she got to dress up in Auntie Brandi's clothes, she felt very special. 

I went inside to change Hayley and caught Kendall playing golf in her outfit.  I just thought it was so cute to see my little fairy playing golf.  I guess that encompasses so much of her personality.  A little bit girl with a love for guy stuff and sports.

Then it was time to push baby cousin Hayley around the pool.  Hayley loved it and so did my niece and of course Kendall got involved.  When they were done my Aunt took over for a little bit and I kept trying to get the face she was making.  she had her tongue stuck out with a little smirk, it was super cute.  She kept pulling her back and rushing at me so I might be able to get it, which I didn't but I did get this super happy face.

Overall it was a fantastic, relaxing (somewhat) weekend.  I love spending time with family!!!!

Friends

A couple of weekends ago my dear friend Daniela invited us over for a BBQ at her house.  I met Daniela when we were living in Illinois.  We became instant friends, but of course, the Navy moves people and we were the first to go.  Well, besides Julie who had to move way the heck out of state and she now knows that she needs to come home because she is missed way too much!!!  The good news?  Daniela and her family received orders to California and have moved out here!!!  They aren't super close, about 45 minutes away but close enough to see.  We had a fun girls night a couple of weeks ago, we met halfway to see Sex and The City2 and had yummy cocktails before.  This time we went to her house.  Her hubby grilled up some burgers and dogs while we drank high school alcohol, otherwise known as Boone's.  I know, we are so super classy.  I believe she has a nice blackmail picture that hasn't surfaced yet and it never will because she knows I can take her down :)  Now, my dear friend is originally from Texas which I have always accepted, however I was a little nervous how deep her roots go when my sweet girl came down looking like this.

What the?  Guess it will come in handy when all them darn yeller bellies come to take down San Diego.  Ok, so I forgot to mention we worked at Cracker Barrell together out in Illinois and well, they carry stuff like this.  If you have never been, please don't be alarmed or judge, they have yummy food and the store is a country store filled with old time candy and cute stuff for the house.  And of course the outfit in question.  Not only did I get to visit with my dear friend but I also got to spend some snuggle time with her newest cutie Arabella.

How sweet is that little face?  Her momma kept telling me the light makes her looked shocked, like the first picture, I personally think it is because she doesn't like me.  I wanted to snuggle and take in the little snuggly sweet smelling baby that I miss and she just cried and cried until her mom or dad took her.  The girl liked being alone in a swing or her bassinet more than being in my arms.  I told her she better wisen up because with an attitude like that, there will be no coach purses from Auntie in her future.  I will get my snuggles in, by george, I will get my snuggles in!!!

Febreze Fun

I don't know if many of you know about House Party, but it is a pretty cool website.  It is basically big name companies who have new products coming out and send products for you to display in your home and have a party to get the word out.  My good friend Amanda had done it before and had given me some cool stuff to try.  So, I went to the website and signed up.  It is all free.  There will be a list of "parties" that you need to apply for.  I guess after applying they look for people who fit the description of people they are looking for and if you win, you get the stuff.  I had been applying for numerous things and recently was told that I wont the Febreze house party.  I was super stoked.  A couple of weeks later, a FedEx man came to my door with a large box.  What was in that box you ask?

This is not a picture from me.  I got it from someone elses page because I was too excited to take a picture of all my stuff before it went away.

I actually think that I received more of the boxes to the left.  How cool is that though?  My house smells amazing!!!!  Most of the scents were pomegranate mango, but I think the new stuff, to the right, is Hawaiian and Laundry.  They are the new things Febreze was excited about.  They are called Set and Refresh.  Basically you insert the yummy smelly thing inside the container and it smells the area up with an amazing fragrance.  I currently have one in the laundry room.  Not because laundry doesn't smell good to me, our lovely black lab sleeps in there and so it smells more like dog.  I knew this all along but my good friend Pattie would always let me know when she came over :)  So, if you ever have a chance, I suggest you go over to House Party, register (for free) and apply.  You never know what cool stuff you may get!!

American Girls

Today Amanda and I took our girls to the American Girl store in Los Angeles to celebrate the amazing job they did during cookie season.  And not just in Los Angeles, the store was in The Grove.  I don't know how many people are TMZ watchers but I am and Cass sits next to me quite a bit so she knows all about The Grove.  I think from seeing it so much on TMZ, she assumed it was going to be filled with nothing but celebrities, and not just any celebrities....Hannah Montana!!  Her reasoning?  Hannah Montana lives in Los Angeles, therefore she shops The Grove all the time so we have to see her!!!  It only added to the excitement of the day so we went with it :) 

The Grove ended up being a really nice shopping mall!!!!!  It was all outdoors, had a cobblestone walk and fountains, it was a nice place to walk around!!!  But we didn't want to just walk around, we were on a mission. 

Isn't it a nice building?  I think I was more excited because the last one we went to was in Chicago and it was right off a busy street, don't get me wrong, it was a ton of fun but this one seemed nicer from the outside.  The girls were stoked from the second we walked in.

We needed to check-in for lunch so they knew not to give away our spot so we quickly ushered our girls to the nearest elevator.  While we were waiting we discovered the magical world known as personal shopping.  I thought that only happened in high end stores and for millionaires or celebrities!!  Near the elevator there was a separate room that occupied desks and dressing rooms filled with little girls and their personal shoppers for the day.  Luckily the girls were on a "whats coming next" high so we didn't get to hear "wheres my personal shopper, why I am not as lucky as that little girl dressed in the Louis Vuitton frilly dress who has 20 gazillion boxes of things?"  Can I get an amen for girls being grateful?!  We checked into the reservation desk and had some time on our hands so we did some window shopping.  It was actually pretty neat.  They have a whole section with a museum type feel of each girl and the time period they are from.  We even met a girl who worked there who was herself a former Girl Scout so she took to our girls and gave them a personal tour of all the girls and all about their stories.  Then it was time to dine.  We walked through black and white double doors into our perfect lunch cafe.

The decor was simple but having it black, pink and white made it super girly and fun.  I think I want to do Cassie's room in those colors now.

The table had these cute pink sunflowers in a watering can, along with a small black pinstripe box filled with conversation starters.  Can I add that on the way home my sweet daughter leaned into her friend next to her and in a not so whispering voice uttered "look, I stole one of these" (holding up one of the convo starter cards, which were for sale in the store actually so totally not something they wanted you to take).  Good job on showing my lacking parenting skills.  However, I could swear we have had the no stealing convo, I guess not enough.  Anyways, back to our great day.

My favorite decor were these mirrors.  They lined one side of the cafe and I love them!!!  I want to make some!!!!!  After oooohing and awwwing, the girls sat down for their lunch.

If they didn't bring their own doll, they were allowed to borrow one, along with its own highchair so you can sit next to your new friend of course.  The meal consisted of yummy little cinnamon rolls as soon as we sat down as well as drinks (pink lemonade of course). 

Our appetizer was fruit kabobs, veggie sticks and pretzel bites with honey mustard and ranch for dipping.

My lunch was a spinach and sauteed mushroom burger.  Some others a salad, pizza and chicken fingers, yumm!!!!!!

For dessert everyone a chocolate mousse/oreo cookie crumb flower pot, a cookie and some cake.  It was so cute!!!  Even some of the girls who had fruit with their lunch found it cut into hearts and stars, they really know how to make little girls happy!!!!!!  After we ate we walked around The Grove and found the trolley.  After much begging and pleading, we climbed aboard and sat on the upper deck.

It took us through the whole mall until it ended up at the world famous Farmers Market.

I think I may need to make a trip just for that place!!!!!  On our trip back to the other side of the mall, our lovely trolley driver got the girls all sorts of excited.  He had been telling us jokes over his microphone and updating the men folk on who was winning in the World Cup so far.  Then we heard, "ladies and gentlemen, we may have a Justin Beiber sighting".  What?!!!  Where?!!!!  We informed the girls it was just a kid who resembled him, otherwise we would have heard a million girls screaming and the trolley would probably have come to a screeching halt.  But mister trolley man, never say such things around six 8 year olds who love the Beib and have had their heart set on seeing a celebrity.  I think the hearts were thumping for a good minute or so.  All in all, we had a great day.  The sun was shining and our girls got to relax and enjoy themselves after pounding the streets selling calorie filled goodness.  They have already made plans for next years trip.  I feel like a proud momma times 6 :)