Santa Barbara

I was born and raised in the OC- meaning Orange County- for those of you that don't watch shows based around teen angst. 
I moved here 10 years ago (Wow- TEN years ago)- If I hear one old lady joke, I swear on my Michael Kors shoes I will find an awful picture of you and post to Facebook, Don't tempt me. 

Living in Arizona has it's perks.. I should say the first is my husband and stepdaughter- but other than those two crazies, there's some fun stuff here. 
It's quite clear to me that my siblings make poor choices and they decided to move to places like San Francisco and Santa Barbara - haha- what could those cities possibly offer?!?!!

My Hubby surprised us with a weekend trip to see my sister as my school year ended. 
So Los Whiteys took off to Santa Barbara in the beginning of summer.. and it was Amazing..
Our goal was to relax, hang out with the bride and groom-to-be, and of course EAT. While we were there we listened to a reading from Dave Sedaris- who is by far my favorite Greek Gay from New York and we attempted to keep the kid out of the ocean.  Obviously, that was an impossible task.
 
These series of pictures were taken the day we were "only going to look at the ocean"  we were definitely NOT GOING TO GET IN IT.
Damn.
Score: Nadia 1, Parents 0

I just can't get enough of the hand holding pictures.

Benicio and Noli: Year 1.

You may remember that in December of 2009 I saved a doggy from being run over- and when I brought her home on that Friday afternoon, and called the Humane Society they politely told us that they were closed and to bring her in on Monday.  "
Okay, I can explain this to Larry- he won't mind- it's just until Monday." I said to myself.
I took her to the Vet that night and the vet said. "SHE'S PREGNANT" 
"I'm sorry.. what?"
"She's Pregnant, and she'll probably have her babies this weekend"
[Insert faint followed by a tequila shot before I have to explain all this to my husband, at the time- Fiance]

Well, she had puppies in my house, the next morning, on my new rug.
 Did I trigger some memories.. Remember that? I sure as hell do, because it almost cost me my marriage.. especially after the Humane Society said they couldn't take newborn puppies.. So i kept them- for 8 weeks.

Well, two of the babies lucked out and went to live in SB with my sister and her BFF fo' life, and Man of Honor Extraordinaire, Jon.

Noli and Benicio are enjoying their life in Santa Barbara being spoiled, privately trained,.eating organic food and having limited mobility of their legs.

 On Saturday we took them out to the park and I managed to get a couple photo ops of them together. 

Noli- My sister and Future Bro in laws baby.

Benicio- Jon's Baby/Noli's Brother

Happy Family

Bestest Friends

Jon and Benicio

Noli playing dead.

I don't care how tough you are.. that's cute.

In Santa Barbara you can get a mango in a park! 

We spent some time going to visit the Biltmore Santa Barbara where Maritza and Travis' Wedding Extravaganza will be on New Years Eve- we walked down to look at the beach and of course Nadia just couldn't resist the oceans temptations. She got down to her skivvies- yes, she wears spiderman underwear.  (Listen, people- we are a modern family and we don't particularly care about societies gender roles)

Jon Wang was there to supply the entertainment, and throw seaweed at 4 year olds.

Shell Hunting

Larry is holding up a Jellyfish he found.

Honey, please don't throw me in the ocean. NO SERIOUSLY.

Yeah Yeah, the ocean is pretty- But look at my awesome hat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I smell a Christmas Card

It was awesome seeing my family, hopefully we'll be able to see them soon. 

Thanks Santa Barbara for having us.. here's a couple extra pics of some other fun stuff we did.

Smartass 1 and Smartass 2.

My sister is just too pretty!

What a handsome group of boys.

Someone was cold after the dip in the ocean.

This is where I had a heart attack.  He really drove her around in this.  AND we belted her to him using Travis' belt- which then gave Travis a complex.

Until Next Time Friends,  

Los Whiteys

Spring!

I love Spring.  We have been enjoying our two weeks of fantastic weather before hell exhales its fiery breath upon Arizona's streets. 

I spent my spring break freakily OCD cleaning my house, refurbishing furniture, making random crafts, and definitely not drinking too much. 

Here are my "new" chalk labeled jars.   I LOVE THEM.

 



Stephie bought me Flowers:)



Larry, Nadia, and I have been keeping active riding bikes, rock climbing and I've been running outside any chance I get. 

A couple weeks ago, our good friends Natalie and Francisco asked us to sub in Nadia on their Tee Ball team.  She finally got a chance to use her pink baseball glove she got on her 2nd birthday. 

Lil Sophia



Las Girls



Natalie showing Nadia how to Bat

After game Snack

The kids were adorable, and they looked like scattered ants on the field.  All the dads line the edges of the "field" (It's probably the size of our driveway) to make sure the kiddo's don't escape.  Larry did a really poor job of watching first base because he kept getting business calls on his bluetooth, so I took over. I was surprised how they asked me where they had to run EVERY TIME.  haha.   But it was all good.

The lil Nugget was sure excited to play, until some speedy boys kept beating her to the ball.  She threw a couple fits and felt bad for herself but after some coaching from Dad, she got over it pretty fast.  (*Note* Coaching from dad translates to threatening and bribing, yes you can do both at the same time, it's a skill you acquire through trial and error parenting)

The next day I had a deep desire to go rock climbing, so I dragged Los Whiteys with me.  Nadia was pretty awesome! She gets so frustrated and it's obvious she has her fathers competetive traits.  After a couple hours we were all beat, and walking around like we had rhumatoid arthritis in our hands, and it was time to go. 

*Tooting my own horn here*  I climbed a rope! I haven't climbed a rope in probably 15 years, but I've been lifting alot of weights and I am strong enough to lift myself up a huge rope! It was really empowering :)



Go Nadia Go!

Our good Friend Pavan got married- and our bestie Kelly flew out from Kentucky for the Traditional Sekh Indian Wedding.  Larry and I were amazed and in AWE of the beauty of Indian culture.  Pavans family was so welcoming, and offered their home  to us.  It was truly beautiful and we were very appreciative to share in the experience with them. 

Awful pic of us!



Reunited and it feeels so goooooooood.



Us and the beautiful bride at her Henna Party

We wish them both the best! 

oops. I did it again.

It's funny that I start all my posts with an apology about how I don't post often enough.  Well you know what, NOT THIS TIME BUDDY. 

New commitment: Once a week posts? Is that too much of a commitment? That means I have to take pictures that often, and have something interesting enough to post. I'm committing to once a week, done and done. 

On with the actual reason you come to read my site: Nadia! 
So this chickadee turned 4(!) last month.  I can't believe it! By her attitude you would think she was a bitter 50 year old divorcee, just kidding....but not really.  4 comes with alot of attitude, no tantrums, not even that much whining, pure WWF style attitude.  She wants what she wants and when she wants it, and for some reason  she has inherited a head bob/wiggle and shake when she talks, with a coordinating hand on hip move- obviously not from any of her adoring, seemingly perfect parents.  It must be from one of her grandparents.  It's really cute- like raise your blood pressure, near fatal heart attack- kind of cute.

JUST KIDDING.
I'm really just glamorizing parenthood for you all- she is a pretty good kid- and she has gotten FUNNY.  Not a typical four year old kind of funny, that's too immature for her, and geniuses don't joke like that, she's witty- and has some pretty good timing.  For instance, in the car with her the other day she says "When is Daddy going to die?"
 What the hell do I say to that? So I go for the most nontraumatic response "When he's really,really, old"
Nadia: "Oh, well he is really old right now"
Me: "No he's not!"
Nadia: (Laughing)"Yeah he is- he has wrinkles and no hair"

Oh, that kid. Hilarious.



So anyways, back to her birthday.  We decided to take her to Disneyland. WE includes, Larry, Me, Stephanie and Stephanie's "Best Friend" Megan. We looked like one big happy polygamist family, and their Latina Nanny, (We all know brown people aren't polygamists.  We're too fiery to deal with that.)

Nadia hacked it the whole day, without a nap, break or tantrum. Last year was really hard because she was so little she wanted to leave at 1pm.  This year we got our monies worth.  We went on a monday, and didn't wait anymore that 15 minutes in line. It was awesome!
Blah, blah, blah, here are the pics.

It's so funny how much they look alike!

Nadia dressed up like a princess to go-

 then got sick of her outfit halfway through

Megan! Nadias really been into crossing her eyes lately.

I really wanted this hat!

!

The best corn dogs ever.

yum. 

Minnie looks pretty cute!

 We forced nadia to take pictures with us at the end of the day- and note: we all look like crap- and nadia was into jumping all over us. 

The worst picture ever taken, on one of the best days ever.