Girls trip San Diego

I had such a refreshing weekend with some girlfriends this weekend in San Diego. It was just what the doctor ordered for all of us. There was me, Ashely,Kelli I., Cindy, and Sara. We had such a great time talking,talking, talking, seeing movies, laughing, eating, sleeping, game playing, and more talking. I LOVE these girls. It is funny because we all went to college together at the same time but (besides Kelli I. and Ashley) none of us were really friends. I love how God has knit us together to be so close.

I looked around the room at one point and thought about what God has brought us through. Cindy and Ashley have both lost children. Kelli I. and Sara were both adopted, I have adopted... we have all been through all of these trials with each other. HAHA...Sara and Kelli I. being adopted was not a trial like I just made it out to be. I just mentioned that because I thought here are two women that I can show my daughters that were adopted just like them! :)

Kelli I. (from Tennessee) and Sara (from Sacramento/Roseville) flew into San Diego and Cindy, Ashley and I went to pick them up. Here are some highlights....

We ate lunch at a great restaraunt on the beach.
Ben Garate gets the special husband award for having snacks waiting for us in our hotel room when we got to our room! Props to Benny!
This is the view out of our hotel rooms. We had two rooms that were ajoining. Kelli and I stayed in one room while Ash, Cindy and Sara stayed in the other room. (because Kelli and I worked out in the moring.)
The view is at the front of the hotel.

Eating lunch at my favorite restaraunt...The Cheesecake Factory
The girls talked me into playing games. Ugh! Phase 10
It took about 65 games and 4 hours to finish! 2AM! Towards the end I was just asking what cards Cindy needed so she could win the thing and I could go to bed. Sshhh...Serect....I didn't hate it as much as they thought I did. I loved the company, just 4 hours is a little much don't ya think? Ben's candy basket kept me going. :)
Found this sign and made me miss my girl even more!
Ended the trip with some Captain Crunch french toast that I split with Ashley. Hello! So good!
We missed our families, the time went by fast but I love these girls and am so thankful that they are in my life. They are such a blessing to me.

Well Hello There....

Sorry for the long absence. We have had a whirlwind month so far! Here are some highlights. Snuggles with Lulu....My in laws were here for the Shepard's Conference at Grace Community Church. My Sister in law,Esther, came for the first week. Ivy and I took her to Disneyland. Here they are planning their next route.
Ivy and I ended up on a ride with Larry King's wife and family. They were so sweet. They put Ivy in their family video! Here she is with her oldest son.
Mrs. King (aka. Shawn King took this picture of Ivy and I.)

Ivy and I also took Esther to the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena. I took these pictures for my friend Tiffany. I knew she would love this set of spices.
The whole set was $375....so I didn't buy it for her.....sorry Tiff!
The girls snuggling with Daddy.
Fun day at the park.
I stopped into Tori Spelling's store "Inventori" on Ventura Blvd. LOVED IT!
Matt and I got to go on a date while the in laws babysat! Yummy food at Salt Creek Grill, movie, and sipping Starbucks while we walked around Barnes and Noble. That reminded me so much of college date nights!
I couldn't find Lucy and she was in a tent "reading" a book.
Taking the girls to Scooter's Jungle to play.
Ending the day at Ivy's favorite place to eat, Panda Express, to celebrate signing her up for Kindergarten. She's so happy and I want to cry about it. Where did the years go?
So...what have you been up to?

I had been wanting to get Lucy a Baby Be Blessed doll when she was officially adopted and part of the Elliott family. I finally ordered it right before Christmas. You can get a doll that looks like your child. I chose the Maria doll (named after Maria Sue Chapman, Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter that had passed away) That one is for Hispanic or Asian children. I got to choose the clothes that I wanted and choose what I wanted the label on her belly to be. I love it and so does Lucy. Ivy has a doll named Sissy Babes so we call this one Lulu Babes.
Her doll says..."Lucy Ann

Great is Your faithfulness. Lamentatians 3:23

Gotcha Day August 18,2010"
The girls with Lulu Babes and Sissy Babes.

The Smokin' Joint

As usual, my pictures stink! Haha but I wanted to tell you about this great place we went to eat at last weekend. I have had this Groupon to a place called, "The Smokin' Joint" across from the Beverly Center down in LA. It is a yummy BBQ place where they play blues music the whole time. I think they have live music at night but during the day they have concerts on big screens playing. They played alot of BB King and Eric Clapton. They have a lot of sign guitars from rockers. It is a SMALL restaraunt but the food was AMAZING!B.B. King

My beef brisket sandwhich.
This amazing number was an onion with bacon and BBQ sauce baked in it!
This is what we ordered the girls and they didn't love it. Ivy ended up eating half my sandwhich. This was Mac and Cheese with a hint of jalapeno in it. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!
Did I say the word amazing too much? It was really good. Being that I am trying to watch my portions, we left the rest of the mac and cheese there and I went without dinner that night. Well worth the sacrifice!

DIY Project

My sister had given me a black frame a while back. I knew that I didn't want to keep it black but wasn't sure what to do. I tried to brank out and make it pink. Matt voted a big no! He was like," Enough with the pink!" Haha I thought it turned out a little too "crafty" so I went on to paint it white.When I distressed it, the pink poked through which I thought was fine.

Pardon my pictures! I know nothing about taking pictures and all of these were done on my I phone. I don't know if I will keep things like this (in my master bathroom) as my whites don't totally match. But for now.....

Wordless Wednesday

Vivian's Cafe

I had bought a Groupon to this fun little breakfast place on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City. It was so yummy. We were out the door by 7:45am to go eat!
The place was sooo small! Here is their little wall of celebs who eat at Vivians. ( Janet Jackson, the cast of "King of Queens", Smokey Robinson,etc.....)
Here is my yummy scramble (so yummy, I ate it all, so no lunch for me!) and Ivy's Mickey Mouse pancakes. Ivy cracked me up as she also ordered a hard boiled egg.
Matt and Lulu were there too. :) Then we drove around and looked at houses in Encino. Ivy bought some sand toys for the beach at a garage sale. Then we headed over to a music store in Sylmar. Busy morning but fun times being together!