A Camera Download

I really should just give up on this whole blog idea. I am TERRIBLE at keeping up with it. But I love looking back at the old posts, and I actually like writing them. Anyways, when I plugged my camera in to upload pictures from Liz's baby shower I realized how many pictures I had taken and not blogged/facebooked. So needless to say, I am catching up.

Steven and Sammy were in swimming lessons at the beginning of the summer and did really well. This was the first formal swimming lessons either of them had and they learned so much. Steven went from not swimming at all to almost being able to swim without floaties. He has so much confidence, and will even jump off the diving board! Sammy did really well too. His class was more of a water safety class, where they taught them what to do if they fell in. And with only a few more lessons he would probably be not too far behind his brother.

Harvey took me to the beach on a whim. We talked about going at lunchtime one day and after dinner he rented a car and we left the next morning. It was so nice to get away and have a relaxing weekend. We hung out at Bubbe's beach house (eventhough we never actually made it to the beach), went and checked out the stores from one of my favorite shows, Storage Wars, and even went to Disneyland and IKEA. And what beach trip wouldn't be complete without a donut or two...God I love him!

best.donuts.ever

Then little Nathan, Harvey's youngest nephew, turned two! He is the cutest little thing EVER. Still refuses to talk, but can hum and mumble with his mouth shut like nothing I've ever seen before. He loves Katy Perry on the radio, the clicker for the fan, and can find lost cell phones like it's no one's business. He adores his older brother Steven, and has to do everything just like him. Nathan is growing up way too fast!

Fresh out

Natey turns 1!

Look who's 2!


We had alot of birthdays to celebrate! Katie turned 13! I can't believe that the littlest Lee is finally a teenager. She has grown up to be the most caring, good natured and fun loving kid I know. She will help anybody whenever they need it and loves to help out with kids. She is such an amazing diver and does great in school. I know that she will go far in whatever it is she chooses to do in life. Harvey and I both couldn't be prouder of her!!!


Steven graduated Kindergarten is year. Anybody that knows anything knows that Steven is Harvey's favorite little person in the world, so this was something that was very emotional for Harvey. He was so proud of Steven, as was everyone else. I can't believe he is getting so big and smart, and it is so much fun to be involved in his life. His graduation ceremony was so cute. They sang a bunch of little songs, with corresponding hand motions, and then got little diplomas. Harvey videotaped the entire thing if anyone cares to watch... He stood on the stage like a soldier, and was so serious when they called his name. We just love that little man!


Steven getting his diploma.


Steven and Mom.




Fourth of July was eventful to say the least. Between swimming, eating, and setting the neighbors bushes on fire with stray illegal fireworks, we had a fun filled evening. Good thing the fire chief was there to supervise aka sit in his chair and watch the rest of us scramble to find a hose that would reach...





I was crazy nice enough to volunteer to watch my friend Emily's 2 kids while her and her husband went out of town for their anniversary for the weekend. No big deal, you say? Try, I had my nephews during the day, on top of my grandma's dog while she was in Pennsylvania. My house was a crazy house, and I'm quite certain at least one of the days I didn't brush my teeth until I went to bed. But when the only people I talked to all day had an average age of 3, I don't think anyone noticed.

Bubba liked the pickle.


Modern day Lady and the Tramp?


And then for Father's Day we spent the day at Lake Las Vegas with Harvey's family and the boys. It was nice to get down to the water, and the kids loved the sand. So nice to have something like that so close to Vegas!



And to cap off the MOTHERupLOAD of an update, I can't resist posting these random but.oh.so.cute pictures...

All the toys at my house and he insists on playing in the basket




So stinkin' cute


The shirt says it all...


Steven at the "midnight" premier of Transformers 3 in "free-d". He stayed awake the entire time, eyes glued to the movie screen. He loved it!


They all dressed themselves. I have a witness, ask Emily Leavitt.


Sad thing is he loved it. And he rocked the sh*t out of the unitard too!


See that long skinny piece of plastic on the floor next to him? It's a cabinet lock. Useful, eh?

Spring Celebrations

Harvey and I are so blessed to be able to celebrate two religious holidays around this time of year, however, it makes us two very busy people. Last Tuesday and Friday we celebrated the Passover holiday with Harvey's side of the family. It is so nice to be able to be a part of such a wonderful celebration, one that is cherished and so nicely celebrated by both sides of Harvey's family, each in their own way. Both were full of Jewish traditions, great food, and family. And call me a terrible person, but I got NO pictures of either one!

And then came the Easter festivities. Boy did we celebrate. First, was a little party we had for all the little kids up at Kayla's house. Mama Bear, as all the kids lovingly call my mom, had a little Easter egg hunt, we ate some grub, decorated some cookies, and dyed some eggs. The kids had SUCH a great time, as you can tell by the pictures I actually did take ;)

Kayla just moved into her house, so she doesn't have many toys for kids under 3 to play with. Nothing a doggy door and kennel can't fix.

Ka-doodle, Angelica the Diva, Bubba, Mikey, Sam-a-loo, and Na-fer
aka Kadaj, Sadie, Brody, Steven, Sammy, and Nathan

Sammy and Mama Bear decorating cookies.

Then Sunday, Easter morning, Lauri, Jhonna and the boys came over for breakfast. We had usual, pancakes, bacon, sausage, and some OJ. Oh, did I mention they were "bunny pancakes."


Then Harvey and I got ready and headed to my grandparents' house for Easter lunch. My Baba always cooks a big meal and the whole family comes over to eat and have an Easter egg hunt. I will never get too old for Baba's egg hunt, wanna know why? Cuz all her eggs are filled with money. She saves her BINGO winnings all year to be able to fill the eggs. And the best part is that when we find them all, there is a bonus egg. She puts 6 eggs out on the wall, one for each granddaughter, green, purple, pink, blue, orange, and yellow. Five with dollar bills, and one with a twenty.

Now this is when the sweet Easter celebration turns a little bit sour. I have been known to have a stroke of great luck when it comes to sniffing out the extra loot. Like, I've won 4 of the last 5 years. One of the years I was in college and wasn't able to come home so everyone else picked their egg first and I got what was leftover. What was inside? The twenty, which my grandma shipped to me, egg and all. Last year, after being accused of cheating, I let little Sadie pick for me. What was inside? The twenty. And this year... After the wind knocked the eggs off the wall and Baba had to mix the money up and restuff the eggs, I went with my favorite color, yellow. I'll give you one guess as to what was inside.



Overall, we had a wonderful Easter celebration that we were able to enjoy with our family and friends. And I think Pap had a good time too!

The Cake Test

I am so excited to finally be able to publically announce that I am going to be an aunt again. No not Lauri, or Kayla, at least that I know of... But Liz. Liz and I go way back, like third grade back. She played soccer with me, was a roommate of mine in college, and a bridesmaid in my wedding. I couldn't be happier for her and Tony, and I know they will both make the most amazing parents. And of course, I can't wait to snuggle the little nugget. But of course we had to have so fun predicting if it was a boy or girl. It all started with my friend Emily...

So last year when Emily found out she was pregnant with Baby #2 people immediately started taking bets on the gender. I had been looking around online for old wives' tales to have some fun and see if they really worked or not when I came across this little ditty. It seemed like a good time so one night we invited everyone over for dinner and decided to give it a try.

The basis was simple. Bake a cake, half pink, half blue. Ice the cake. Spin the cake. Cut into the cake. And see what your little bundle of joy will be. This was Emily's test:

Much to my dismay, as you can tell by the screeching voice on the video. But I still had hope for a little girl, so on ultrasound day I made this for Big Sister Sadie to wear, hoping the pink fairy would grace us with her presence:


And like the cake, the nice ultrasound lady, and their Daddy all thought, in August we were graced with this:


Anyways back to Liz. So tonight we decided to give Liz a cake test. Her doctor's appointment to find out is tomorrow, so we literally waited until the last minute to do this. But we are all going to have to wait until Saturday to actually find out because Liz has a little something fun planned to reveal the surprise. So we started with white cake mix and mixed it to the directions on the box. Then we split the batter into two bowls and dyed one pink, and one blue.

Then we very carefully poured the batter into the baking pan, making sure we got as close to even as we could. Eventhough, I think I secretly wanted there to be more blue ;)


We popped the little bun into the oven, pun intended, and 35 minutes later it was done. I iced it in white icing and added a yellow ? for fun.

Then she gave it a little spin and decided where she wanted to cut it.

My reaction was a little different this time because I kinda want it to be a boy. So I guess we will have to see on Saturday how well the test works. So far, our odds are 100% correct.

Stay tuned.

Blender and the Diva go to Disneyland.

Sadie has been begging her mom, Emily, to take her to Disneyland. So when Emily finally decided to take her, she asked me if I wanted to come along because I have a season pass. And who doesn't love an excuse to go to California for the day. After contemplating for awhile, I decided that I would take Sammy with me. Whenever we go, we usually take Steven and Sammy is the one that gets left home. But because Steven had school this week, and I was feeling extra gracious, I decided to brave Disneyland with the little terror. We had to sneak him in using Steven's season pass because I was too cheap to pay for him. I just made him wear a hat and sit in the stroller facing backwards. The silly little Disneyland ticket taker didn't even question it.


And once we broke through the gates, it was on. The dynamic duo was in full force.

Aren't they just the two cutest things you ever did see?

First up was the teacups. For a 3 year old, Sadie sure does remember Disneyland. She had set out quite the itinerary for us. And to her request, "Alice" was first. The teacups really make me nauseous, especially when I am trying to take pictures the whole time. Then we made our way over to Toon Town so Sammy could see Mickey Mouse. Sadie was having no part of the characters. She would look at them from far away, but no way was she getting close. So Sam-a-loo and I waited 45 MINUTES to see Mickey. When it was finally our turn, this is what we got...

It was like he didn't know what to do. He wouldn't smile. He wouldn't talk. He wouldn't look at Mickey. It was like he awestruck. But it did make for a cute picture. So presh! :)

After lunch, we made our way over to Pirates. After some candy bribery, Sadie agreed to go. She is quite the Diva, and doesn't particularly enjoy Pirates. It was evident when she requested to ride like this...


The rest of the day's events are somewhat of a blur but that's what we get for leaving Las Vegas and driving to California at 6 in the morning. I give ALOT of credit to people that have twins. I was exhausted by the end of the day. And even though these two weren't even related, they sure acted like siblings. Every time I would turn my head Sammy was pulling Sadie's hair or stepping on her toes or just giving us "the look" like he was plotting to figure out a way to do something he wasn't supposed to. And then we would catch them like this...

Proof that even Princesses have meltdowns.

But every Princess needs her picture taken with the castle, and Sadie was no exception. I got about 15 cute shots of her just beaming, knowing she was in front of the castle. She loved it!


And this is the best that Sammy would give me. About 10 seconds after this was taken, he chucked those Mickey ears that he HAD TO HAVE over the castle walls. I could have killed...


Emily insisted that we stay and watch Fantasmic because she had never seen it before. The kids were exhausted but actually stayed up and watched the whole thing. Once it was over, we started to brave the crowds to leave the park. Before we even got out of Frontierland, Sadie was out.


And right before we left the gates, Sammy was a goner too.



This was the first time Sammy had been old enough to actually realize what was going on and I think he really enjoyed himself. Of course, the one thing we didn't do was ride the big train and that's the only thing he keeps talking about. "Wee ngo to De-ne-land and wide the twain Ka-wa?"

When we got home Harvey was asking him about his trip and Sammy told him that he rode a boat and saw the animals (Jungle Cruise). Harvey asked him what animals he saw, and Sammy told him, "Sharks." Sharks, Sammy? Sure you were on the same boat as me?

One happy Disney family.