HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIKA!!

I have to give a shout out to my best friend Erika since today is her birthday. It is so great that I get to be here in Oregon celebrating it with her. We are sad to have to leave each other again. :( The boys and I head back home tonight.

I feel so blessed to have Erika in my life. She is so amazing and extremely talented. If you are wondering where all those new cute candid shots on my side bar blog came from now you know. She is an incredible photographer, video augrapher and artist!!! just to name a few of her many talents...
Our friendship started 4 1/2 years ago but I truly believe it started long before then.

It all started when our husbands were in several of the same accounting classes together. We were both pregnant with our firsts and instantly bonded. Our friendship has just continued to blossom as we have shared in each others lives. We use to hang out all the time before we moved to seperate states but the distance hasn't altered our friendship we still talk on the phone almost daily and visit each other. It is fun and a little crazy when we get together because it is like having 2 sets of twins almost... our kids are 3 months and 2 months apart....oh and we hardly get any sleep because we stay up all night talking, laughing and bonding even more. Just the other night we stayed up doing facials and drinking virgin strawberry pina coladas, and pedicures. We laughed until we were crying. In respect for her I won't post our crazy fun pictures of our green masks. :) It just isn't every day you find someone you can totally be yourself with and who knows and understands you so perfectly! I couldn't t ask for a more loyal best friend
Everywhere we go people ask us if we are sisters. I am curious to hear what you think?? We are so a like in so many ways. I couldn't ask for a better best friend. Erika I love your guts and feel so blessed to have you in my life! I treasure the memories we've created and look forward to the many more memories to come. Thank you for ALWAYS being there for EVERYTHING. I hope you have the birthday that you so deserve.

Battle of the Bens

I discovered today that Ben is quite possessive of his name...these two crack me up! It has been so fun to listen to the two of them carry on conversations with each other. They have really kept us laughing this week. :) Three year olds can be tough at times but they are SO MUCH FUN!

Oregon Day 2 ...The Bouncy Place

We had another fun day here in Oregon! We took the kids to the bouncy place and they had SO much fun! Ben was having a hay day seeing exactly how high he could make himself bounce down the slide.

Check out these little climbers! The climb up the the top was kind of steep but didn't phase these two little monkeys.

who hoo here I go!
They went full energy until they just wiped out.... they made me tired just watching. :)Just capturing this moment was worth the nice elbow slide burn...


After the bouncy place we took the kids to Burger King.
And then we went to Goodwill to find some kids books.
ok so my children can sleep anywhere as you have noticed...
ok so don't think of me as totally cruel I did manage to find a 'used' pillow to prop his head up with so he could sleep more 'comfortably'

Ben some how managed to 'share' his friends icecream...more like TAKE OVER both!

Oregon visit Day 1!

The boys and I are currently in Oregon visiting my best friend Erika. We have kids that are the same age. It is kind of crazy when we get together because it is like having 2 sets of twins...but we love the craziness. :) We flew in Monday night. Tuesday morning we headed to the Oregon Zoo. The kids loved it even if it did rain on us...after all we are in Oregon what can ya expect. :) The rain didn't stop us from having fun.

I think the highlight of the zoo visit were the Polar Bears, penguins and Elephants eating their hay.We were all pretty wet and tired by the end but the boys fell asleep in the car with big smiles on their faces. :)
Us moms were glad to have Erika's husband Joseph take the day off of work to be there with us. He was a huge help. Landon and Ben showing us the polar bears. They made them so excited! The 2 polar bears were so active and put on quite the performance for us!
I just love my sweet baby!
As you can see...the Penguins showing off got Ben pretty excited! Here he is laughing at them being 'siwwy'Here is sweet little Landon. Poor little guy is teething again with his bottom molars... so I wasn't able to get as many pictures of him smiling and posing for the camera like he normally does...this was right after his motrin kicked in. :)

A scolding by my 3 year old...

I hate when I don't have a working camera...but here is a cute little Ben story for you. The other night I finished eating my food and then went upstairs to do some work on the computer. I was only up there for a min when Ben comes in and says 'Mommy its time to eat youw food, common hurry daddy's goina eat it all gone!" So I go down stairs and eat a few bites and then come back up stairs...well a min later he comes back up and says the same thing. So...I go back down stairs and with him and eat one more bite and am now for sure am no longer hungry....and go upstairs to finish my work. Once again I hear Ben headed up the stairs. He comes in and says, 'mommy come here look at me, he proceeds to take me by my chin so that I am now staring him in the face...'I told you I'm not messing awaound! Daddy's gonna eat youw food all gone come on hurry fast." It was so hilarious I just had to laugh all the way down the stairs...needless to say I didn't get back to the computer. :)

San Francisco with the Girls!!

A couple of weekends ago I went on a trip to San Francisco. It was a Mary Kay trip that I earned with my national area. It was so much fun and so incredible! We had a private tour of the city, went on a ferry ride under the Golden Gate bridge, ate at some fabulous restraunts, fishermans warf, lombard street, Golden Gate Bride, Pacific Heights and much more!! The best part was I got to spend a whole weekend with some totally amazing women! It was just what I needed.

I took tons of pics but I am only posting a few because you would much rather look at my boys I am sure.

Melissa Chipman and I riding on the trolley.
Girls just being girls...
Me with my National Sales Director Julianne Hackett
and my adorable director Shari Kendall
Our whole group.