My New Nephew

My sister Leslie had a baby today! She and Carl welcomed Bryant Maxwell Stratton into this world at 8:41 a.m. He weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and is 20 1/4 inches long. This is my and Steve's first nephew! He is a cutie. For pictures and more info go to Leslie's blog (on the left under family blogs) I just got to talk to Leslie on the phone and she is doing great and Abigail is loving being a big sister and all she wants to do is hold her baby brother!

Shopping (again)

Steve and I went to Ross tonight because after looking at ads earlier I decided this was a good time for him to buy a couple new ties, so after talking about it we headed to Ross instead of a department store because they are so cheap. We bought Steve two new ties, and I, being the impulse buyer I have been lately, bought a new apron (I'm addicted, I now have 6!) and a cute pair of shoes I accidentally found in the kids section. They are supposedly size 4 1/2 but they fit on my foot normally a 7 and Mel put them on too, normally an 8 I think. Interesting. Good thing I bought them or some little girl would have found them for back to school and cried when they didn't fit her. Things I love about my new stuff: the rick-rack on the apron, the beads on the bats eyes, and the heart-shaped buckles on my shoes!

Swimming in the Ocean

On Sunday Steve and I flew into Ontario, California, got a rental car and drove to the ocean. We drove to Newport beach and then drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to Laguna Beach where we stopped to go swimming at Crystal Cove State Park, it was a blast! The temperature was in the upper 70s, it was a little hazy in the morning, but it cleared up by afternoon and we got to enjoy the beautiful mild Southern California weather! We had tons of fun, had a little picnic on the beach, swam in the ocean, and then drove back to the airport and flew home. We left at 7 am and were back home by 8 that night. It was soo much fun, and the most relaxing day we have had for a long time, and well deserved especially since Steve starts the toughest semester of his college career today. It was the perfect ending to summer! We might do it again next week!

The beach we normally go to- Lake Tahoe
While we were flying, Steve said we should flying over Yosemite soon, we looked out the window and right then, sure enough, we were flying over Yosemite, Half Dome was underneath us, but you can see El Capitan in the pictures, it's on the right side of the canyon.

Rich people's houses in Laguna Beach

Steve getting ready to go swimming

The Pacific Ocean

A really cool house on a bluff above where we were swimming

More rich people's houses

The beach we swam at, the house pictured above is on the cliff where you can see the top of a big rounded tree

Steve after we went swimming

Pretty flowers on a tree

More of the flowers

Esteban!

Me all pregnant and windblown

Me

Some really nice car, not sure what it is

Another picture of the beach where we were swimming, this one taken from the car while driving

Palm Trees!

More Palm Trees and the Pacific Ocean!

I went shopping today...

I went to Ross today to kill time after work and bought a few new tops for myself, one outfit for baby, some cute Wilton cookie cutters for Halloween, and this fabulous pitcher that was only $4! I only took pictures of the pitcher and cookie cutters. Maybe someday there will be pictures of me and baby in our outfits.

Steve's 27th Birthday

August 19th was Steve's real birthday, but the 20th is when we had the party. I got to be in charge of it, which makes sense because I am his wife, but I wasn't expecting to because normally Steve's mom does everyone's party. So I planned his party, wasn't so sure how it was going to turn out, but actually was fun. I brought him home balloons as a surprise on his birthday since we didn't do anything really that day! And his birthday party was pirate-themed complete with pirate-ship pinata!

Steve in his pirate mask with balloons I brought home to him on his b-day

Another picture of the balloons, I was really excited about them

Some decorations (they weren't as cool as I wanted because I ran out of time decorating, there were supposed to be crepe-paper streamers everywhere)

Me working on the cake. I made a German chocolate cake (per Steve's request) and it almost was a disaster. My first real cake experience, the first layer split into four pieces when I took it out of the pan and flipped it (I didn't cut the top off to make it flat first). Then I started the second cake for the top layer and forgot to grease the pan, whoops. It actually did come out of the pan, in one piece, just had a crack down the middle, but turned out nice, then I covered it in frosting and no one could even tell I screwed it up so bad! Next year's will be better.

Me in my cute apron Mel gave me for my birthday, and Grandma who kept me company in the kitchen while I was destroying the cake.

The cool pirate-ship pinata and the pirate masks

Steve with the pinata

Most of the family on our new sectional!

Steve's presents and the awesome parrot I bought for decorations!

Steve's cake, see it turned out okay... right? The frosting was really darker green.

Renee and I bringing the cake to the birthday boy!

He got them all in one breath, hope he wished for something really good!

Wok and kitchen tools from Melanie and Jared

Root Beers

Crayons, Indiana Jones coloring book, and pirate sword and gun

Most of the family in our intimidating pirate masks!

Mike and Melanie

Amy, Renee, Melanie, and Me. Scary pirates, don't mess with us!

Me getting the pinata ready to get busted open!

Steve ready to attack the pinata and get his "booty" or loot.

There he goes, he actually had his eyes closed and everyone in the house was scared because were doing the pinata in the house (it was too dark out and we wouldn't have been able to see the candy when it broke)