It's been awhile...

...since our last blog post. Here's a quick update of what's been going on since this summer.

In August we flew back to California for the wedding of our friends, Jon and Cynthia. We won't be going back to Cali for awhile so it was nice to get to see everyone. We squeezed in a trip to see Ben's parents, Leah/Dan/Gabe, Bubba, all of my family, Quentin/DiDi, and of course Jon and Cynthia. We managed to do a lot of stuff in one short week. Click on the pic below for some pictures from our trip.

I originally started this post in October but never got around to finishing it. It's now December and I've realized that I haven't posted anything since August so I'm just going to post some more pics (click on the pic below) of some things we've been up to the past couple of months.

Quick Update

I started this post awhile ago but never got around to finishing it. I've given up! The past couple of months have been crazy busy. Here are some pictures of Nolan's train birthday party. If you click on the last picture of Riley in the wizard hat it will bring you to an album of pictures from all of Riley's birthday celebrations.

If the picture above doesn't bring you to the album....try HERE

In other news.......we're very excited to announce that Riley will soon be a big brother!!!

Like a sponge....

It amazes me every day how Riley develops from one day to the next. His language skills amaze me sometimes and we often forget that what we say can come back to haunt us if we aren't careful. Of course that being said that has not stopped his daddy and his aunties from teaching him silly and sometimes bizarre (usually from daddy!) things.

Some of the funny things he is often saying nowadays:

"Don't worry, I'll be right back"

"There's my lady" (usually this is shouted at the top of his voice when I am clear across the store)

"Jewelry Daaaawg" (unfortunately there is a weird jewelry store in a not so nice mall that we often pass when going to Chinatown called "Jewelry Dog" and once Ben told Riley that they were going to go there to pick out a Mother's Day gift for me...ever since Riley thinks it's hilarous to break out with that at random times)

"No thanks" (he is incrediably polite and whenever we ask him if he wants something or wants to go somewhere he often answers with that!)

"I'm too busy" (this is something else he always tells us when we ask him to do something)

"I'm freakin' out"

"Daddy, I'm going to sell you to the gypsies"

"See, it's not so bad"

There is so much more but it's so hard to remember everything that comes out of his mouth. Most of the time Ben and I just look at each other in shock and wonder where he comes up with these things.

Here are some pictures that I haven't gotten a chance to post 'til now (click on the picture).

A Trip to Orlando

Since it's been awhile since we've gone on a real vacation we thought it would be fun to take Riley to Disney World. My friends and I are horrible at planning and actually going on vacations together but this time we actually got our act together. Ben, Riley and I left here from Houston on Saturday and met up with Dan, Leah, and Gabe in Florida. It would take me forever to tell you everything we did (plus, I'm not even sure I could remember everything -- I'll leave that to Leah and Ben who seem to remember everything always!) so here are some highlights:

• Ben getting heckled by people as he tried to get out of the parking lot to go back to the hotel to pick up Dan.


• After swearing to never wear a poncho after being forced by my parents to wear one the first time we ever went to Disney World I had to breakdown and wear one on this trip. We would have drowned without one!


• Ben making up "uncle ray ray" to cover that we were going back to the Magic Kingdom so that Gabe wouldn't be upset that we were leaving. Not only does Uncle Ray Ray live in Orlando but he also makes fantastic lightsabers!!


• When we asked Riley what souvenir he wanted from the Magic Kingdom he pointed to the lightsabers that every kid had in the park. He made sure that we got Gabe one also....very sweet and thoughtful.


• Riley breaking his lightsaber and then spending the entire ferry ride telling the girl sitting next to us about it in the most heartbreaking voice and puppy eyes.


• Riley's favorite ride was the Jungle Cruise at the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Safari at the Animal Kingdom...big surprise there!!


• The boys having meltdowns when we made them eat lunch first before going to play on the beach.


• Watching the boys wrestle in the hotel room (see video below)

Of course I took a ton of pictures as usual.....click on the picture below for a slideshow summary of our trip!!

Once again....

....it's been forever since I've done a blog post. I wish I could be good like some of my friends that post every week. I'm going to have to work on that.

As I was deleting the pictures off my camera to get ready for our upcoming trip to Orlando I realized how long it's been since I've posted pictures on the blog and how many places we've visited during my blog hiatus. My sister, Cindy, was out for awhile recently and we visited a whole bunch of fun places while she was here (at least when it wasn't raining and freezing - although we did venture out to the zoo one day when it was in the 30s...not a smart idea!). It's always great when one of my sisters is here with us, especially since Riley loves being with them and they are always willing to go on the crazy rides or crawl through the weird little tunnels with him!!! Unfortunately Cindy left the day before the Houston Rodeo started so she missed out on that. The Rodeo is a huge thing here....it lasts for almost a whole month....the crowds are unbelievable (I think the attendance this year was 2.1 million people)....and the size of it is amazing. When Riley gets a little bit older it will be fun to take him to the actual rodeo rodeo to see the bull riding and other events. The way the rodeo works is that during the day they have the livestock area open (animals, shopping, exhibits, etc) and the carnival going. Then in the evening the events happen then after that there is a big concert (I'm always amazed at the line-up of artists they have -- from country (keith urban, rascal flatts, kenny chesney, etc) to teeny bopper pop (justin bieber, jonas brothers, etc) to more mainstream pop (black eyed peas, mary j blige, etc). I love country music and can't wait to see some of the concerts in the upcoming years.

Click on the picture below for some pictures of the past couple of months. I'm sure I'll have tons of our Orlando trip soon after we get back.

Whirlwind of a Vacation

This was our first Christmas that we would have to fly back to Cali and we had 12 short days. We already knew that it was going to be tough fitting everything into such a short time but we didn't realize how exhausting it was going to be. Here's a summary of our wild trip (this is really so I don't forget all of the stuff we did!)

We arrived in Fremont late on Wednesday. Riley was so excited to see his gong gong (grandpa), paw paw (grandma), and aunties that I couldn't get him to calm down to go to bed until after midnight (2 am Texas time!). He still managed to wake up early on Thursday though so he could go to my parents' favorite place for breakfast. Ben had to go to UCSF that day to meet with a collaborator and I had some christmas shopping to finish up so we both spent the day running around. Friday afternoon we headed over to Sac to meet up with Dan, Leah, and Gabe. The boys got along great and had such a good time together. Friday and Saturday was filled with wrestling, Ice Age, yummy food, christmas lights, the park, Leatherby's (yum yum!!), the Eco Station, more wrestling, and just a good time hanging out. This visits really make me miss living close to all of my friends. After Dan made us a yummy breakfast of beignets we had to head back to Fremont. We met up with Matt later that day and hung out. It still amazes me that he's all grown up. I still remember meeting him for the first time when I picked them up from a karate lesson. So long ago! On Monday morning we headed over to Rohnert Park to see Ben's dad. Unfortunately it was rainy and cold so we ended up staying inside all day. Last year when we were visiting for Christmas I had the best fish and chips for lunch and we decided to do it again this year. I was so excited!!! Riley had a lot of fun running around the house and Ben's dad made us a delicious tri tip dinner. The next morning we headed over to Ben's mom's house. We watched one of Riley's many Land Before Time movies and then walked across the street to a restaurant to have a nice cozy lunch. We had a good time hanging out and enjoyed a homemade dinner that Ben's mom made. Even though it was freezing outside we decided to brave the cold and drive down the street to get an ice cream cone for dessert. There's nothing like a little strawberry ice cream with sprinkles!! We left the next morning back to Fremont. I still had a whole bunch of last minute errands to run and we still hadn't figured out all of the snacks and desserts that we needed to make for Christmas. We spent the rest of Wednesday running all over town to get everything we needed. Thursday morning (Christmas Eve) we headed over to Stockton to visit with Dre, Suzy, Zen, and Langdon. It's been awhile since we've seen everyone and I am so amazed how big Zen and Langdon have gotten. Langdon is a little more than a year younger than Riley but he is already a little bigger than him. He is such a big boy with the most adorable grin! We hung out, the boys bbq'd, we opened presents, and just had a good time catching up. Can't wait to see everyone again this summer. We left that afternoon back to Fremont. Like every Christmas Eve, Shirley and Linda came over for dinner and we had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner......homemade eggrolls, crab, and whole bunch of other Chinese dishes. My mom always goes overboard and makes enough food for an army. Unfortunately, Jamie and Ben did not feel up to having the eggroll eating contest they both promised us last year. After dinner we had yummy pie for dessert -- Riley loved going from person to person getting a bite from everyone. Then it was time for presents!! Riley once again made out like a bandit. I swear if there is a dinosaur toy out there we probably own it. The boy got so much stuff. My parents decided to get him a bike for Christmas this year but thankfully only bought him a helmet so he would have a present to open and gave him a giftcard so that we could buy it when we got back to Texas. Packing a bicycle on the airplane would have been really interesting! I forgot to mention that Riley and Ben had been sick up to this point and I was really hoping that it would pass me somehow. Well, merry christmas to me.....I woke up Christmas day with the same cold that they had just gotten over. I felt horrible but since it was Christmas I had to get up and get to it! We spent the morning getting things ready before all of my family arrived. There was rousing game of Apples to Apples, lots of snack eating, a short nap, lots of Riley being crazy and dragging everyone into the hallway. I guess I should explain that a little. For some reason, Riley thought it would be a hoot to drag people one by one into the hallway and have them sit down. By the end he had most of the people in the hallway and if you looked down it looked like the back of some truck with a whole bunch of illegal refugees. My son is crazy!! Of course so is everyone else for letting him drag them into a dark hallway! Again, lots of presents and more food. We had prime rib, turkey, ham, and all the fixings for dinner. For dessert, we made crepes and we had a nice assembly line going!! By the end of the day I was so tired and really not feeling well. On Saturday, I was still feeling awful. However, my sisters and I wanted to go with my parents so that they could pick out the dryer we were going to buy them for Christmas. We went to Sears, picked out a dryer, and then spent over 30 minutes with a incompetent sales person as he tried to ring us up. I swear it was awful. Just as a comparison....when we got back to Texas we went to Sears to go and buy a new fridge for our garage. There is an old asian guy that works there that has helped us everytime we've gone. We literally walked into the store, picked out a fridge, paid and arranged for delivery and were out in less than 15 minutes. He was so efficient! Anyways, we picked out a dryer and then decided to go and get some lunch. Since none of us were starving and when we asked Riley what he wanted he said pizza we decided to take him to Chuck E Cheese. Had some okay pizza and spent a lot of time trying to win enough tickets to get a decent prize. He had a blast! On Sunday, we headed over to Concord to an indoor playground called the Jungle to meet up with Dan, Leah, Gabe, Jethro, Michelle, and Cambria. The Jungle is made up of all these twisty tunnels and slides and tubes that are perfect for little kids to climb and slide around in. Not so much for grown men as Dan and Ben found out. The guys were so exhausted after going around that thing with the boys. We decided to leave and go and have lunch after Cambria woke up from her nap. After lunch we weren't ready to leave yet so we decided to walk around the area in the freezing cold. After we all froze our tushies off we all headed off in different directions. We spent the rest of Sunday in Fremont. Then it was time for us to head back to Texas. We spent the morning packing and getting things ready to go. Cindy did an amazing job of fitting all of our gifts in one large bag and we managed to get everything home without breaking anything! Riley did so well on the plane ride home -- he slept for 2 1/2 hours of the trip and spent the rest watching some Kung Fu Panda.

Below are some videos and pics from our trip. If you click the last picture it will bring you to a very large album of pictures from the holidays.

Feeding the hungry elephant with Auntie Cindy and Gong Gong

Tumbling with Gabe

The infamous takedown that Ben is so proud of

Click on the picture below for pictures from our trip

Getting Ready for the Holidays

Once again we decided to forgo turkey for Thanksgiving and instead did the prime rib and all the trimmings. Two of Ben's buddies from UCLA (Steve and Rafe) came out to Texas to join us for Thanksgiving. We started off Thanksgiving by going to the tree lot and picking out our Christmas tree. It was great....there was no one around and we had the pick of the whole place. I think we may have started a new tradition!! We spent the rest of the day hanging around the house, relaxing, eating, and relaxing some more. Very nice!!

I spent the rest of that long weekend getting the house ready for Christmas. I was on a tight deadline since we were having Ben's lab party the following weekend (we were only going to be in Houston two weekends in December so we had to have the party earlier than later). Riley helped me decorate the tree. He loves to go up to the tree and point out all of the different ornaments and tell me their colors. His favorite is a red and green birdhouse. He keeps looking in the peephole for the bird!!

Ben's lab party was the following weekend and can I just say that our son is not shy at all. He had a blast running around the house and talking to people. At one point during the party everyone was sitting in the living room and chatting and Riley proceeded to jump up onto the couch and commanded everyone's attention. He had everyone saying "shark in the water" for the rest of the night. He is nuts!!

We're off to California tonight for the holidays. Can't wait to see everyone!!

Here are some pictures of Thanksgiving and getting our house ready for the holidays.......