Day 3- The Hills

Thursday began our 4-girl trip.  The whole trip was such a wonderful, relaxing, bonding, strengthening time.  I love my mom and sisters!  After our road trip from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, we wanted to do a little sightseeing.  Our first stop, the famous sign in the Hollywood hills.

My picture looked more like this.  It was fun driving up the winding streets and looking at the pretty little houses.

Posing with my lovely sisters, Erika & Amanda.

My favorite picture of my mom & me.

Yeah, I'm a touristy dork!

Next stop a drive through Beverly Hills.

 

My picture looked more like this, ha!

 

We drove through some gorgeous neighborhoods.  The homes were lovely, but my favorite were the trees and thought it would be quite nice to live on this palm tree-lined street.

Until we drove down this tree-tunnel street, then I decided I'd rather live here.

We also stopped at the Beverly Hills park.

The park had this crazy tree with the names of dozens of lovers carved into it.  So romantic!  If I were a Sylvan I would make my home here.

We made another nearby stop to Diddy Riese for the best ice cream sandwich I ever had!  There were a dozen flavors of freshly baked cookies and another dozen flavors of ice cream.  You could mix and match to make your favorite combo.  I chose mint chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate chip cookies.  It was so good!  But next time I'm getting the peanut butter.  Guess how much this lovely confection cost?  Just a buck seventy-five, that's right only $1.75.  Can I open a Diddy Riese franchise please?  Now that would be dangerous!

Day 2- Model Homes

On Wednesday, I went with my mom to her office and to show one of her clients a few homes.  We stopped for lunch at Luv-it's.  Frozen custard is my kind of lunch!

My mom is a Realtor, so one of her job duties is to preview new model homes for clients.  Actually, we've been touring model homes since I was 11.  It's one of our favorite things to do together.  What fun to get decorating ideas and to dream of our ideal floor plan.  We visited 3 homes this day.  I really liked the elevation on this one, not your typical "Vegas" house.

"We think in generalities, but we live in detail."

--Alfred North Whitehead

The first house- the blue house, had this amazing kitchen.  I think I  might cook more if I could do it in this space.

I loved the size of its living room.  My whole family could sit in here comfortably and watch a movie together.

One of the cute bedrooms.  I really liked the contrast of the dark navy and bright white.

This house also had an awesome nautical bedroom with ship wheels, model sailboats, and old maps.

Next up was the green house.  Another good-sized living room.

From another angle to see the fireplace.

Notice anything unusual about it?

The fireplace is used inside and outside of the house.  I love it!

It also had a nice eat-in kitchen.

With this darling built-in computer desk.

The master bedroom at the orange house was my favorite.  I love the warm colors and all the natural light!  I love the Las Vegas sun!

The en suite had my dream vanity/sink combo for her (as well as another sink area for him).

This home had 5 bedrooms and 4+ bathrooms.  I say 4+ because this bedroom shared a jack-n-jill bathroom with another bedroom.  The jack-n-jill bathroom was in 3 parts though, each bedroom had its own sink area, then there was a shared shower & toilet area.  The other 3 bedrooms each had their own bathroom- nice!

"If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor."

--James

After a long day driving all over the city we met Poppa at Baja Fresh for some dinner.  I love me some fish tacos, with freshly made tortilla chips topped with 5 kinds of salsa and guacamole- olé!

Mothers and Daughters- Day 1

I flew home the last week of April for an impromptu trip with my mom and sisters.  I got in on a Tuesday night.  Mom and Poppa picked me up from the airport and we drove straight to the Temple.

Poppa was proxy for Grandaddy and I was proxy for Granny.  My mom was sealed for all time and eternity to her parents.  Hooray!!  Now we have 6 generations of daughters sealed to their mothers (and fathers of course!).  I am excited to continue in our Family History work and serve in the House of the Lord for my own dear family members.

Mandy and Coleman were also there for the special occasion.  I wish all of our family could have been there.  I look forward to the day when I can go to the Temple with all of our Lee, Pittl, and Reil families!

Brought to you by the letter "T" and the number "4"

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

Sure!  Come to Teague's 4th Birthday Party!!

I love decorating my "mantel" up party style!

I found these for a good deal while I was shopping for our Harry Potter party.

My kids love balloons!  I love that you can get a dozen for a buck!

I planned 4 games for this 4 year-old's birthday party.

(Note to self:  4 year-old's don't care about structured games, they just want to play, ha ha!)

As the children arrived they colored while they waited for the rest of the guests to come.

Our first real game was Pass The Parcel to a medley of Sesame Street songs.

Next was Dress-up Elmo.  I love him as Mr. Noodle!  He can also be a chicken, pig, or elephant.

Ball toss wrapped up the games, then off to lunch.

We had Elmo's Goldfish Crackers, Abby Cadabby's Cheesy Magic Wands (string cheese), Cookie Monster's Cookies & Milk, and Big Bird's Chicken Nuggets (a little creepy, but Teague didn't want the mini-quiches that I suggested, ha!).

Lunch was followed by cupcakes!  Even though it took me most of the day before to make these, I had so much fun!

 

Make a wish!

 

 Hiram sure loved them!

 

Teague was definitely spoiled this year.

 

His gifts from his family (notice a theme?).

 

And his fun new things from his friends.

 

It's fun to be 4!

 

The little friends at the party.

 

And the big friends too.

 

Loot bags.

 

Inside was an assortment of books, stickers, Elmo eggs (with more goldfish inside), and who doesn't love a kazoo?!

 

The party was the day before his actual birthday, so I made him another cake to celebrate on his real day.

(And use up all the leftover frosting from the cupcakes.)

We sure love you Teague!  Have a terrific year being 4!!