Saturday, July 24, 2010

Pics!

Up late, fun night at Bunco with some Moms from my Mommy group- SO much fun! Ari is doing ok, running a fever for the last few day, we think its just teething :( poor baby! Brett is good, tired from hard work but enjoying being home. Enjoy these pics from the Colordao leg of our trip and a couple bonus pics from home! :)

xxooo Michelle

CO with the Bayers

Friday, July 23, 2010

Also fun

Two more

And another

And another

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Another on the list

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Birthday wish list

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Best way to break a fever! Teethng we know how to fight back

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Ari's new indoor pool/Ball pit/psychidelic mushroom? lol Complete with detachable butterflies and mushrooms. possibly the best eight dollars I'Ve ever spent. warning do not attempt to blow up with assistance lol could lead to temporary blacking out.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I LOVE mystery shopping.. but unfortunately so does my thighs..

If I havent told you lately, mystery shopping is the best!!! We've been doing it almost 2 years now and love love love it!
What is this you speak of??
WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Mystery shopping is basically going into businesses and secretly rating their customer service, food quality, cleanliness, ect.... For the person who ALWAYS has an opinion (what?? me??? noooooooooo) its perfect, you know your feedback is actually used plus you get FREE food and paid?? sounds great right? whats the catch?
none
nope
no
negative
there isnt a catch! For the REAL companies its FREE to sign up and after a while they start calling you! Thats right, about 2 times a week I get calls to do shops, not too bad!

Heres some fun things we've done:
stayed in a hotel for FREE plus paid
Went to an amusement park for FREE plus pay
pizza, movies, fast food, drain cleaner (LOL- sometimes you're required to make a purchase), movie rentals, the list goes on and on...

Its fun to go out with Brett and know that we're eating, but its free and we both enjoy rating our service- Brett is QUITE the food critic, imagine that?? ;)

Tonight we went to a casual dining restaurant, spent $30 reimbursed on food, plus got paid $13.. it was a fun night... If you're interested in getting in on the action email me, post a comment, anything and I will hook you up with a referral!

I cant name the places we've done because its against mystery shopping law, but trust me its YUMMY!

In other news, we are probably joining 24 hour fitness very very soon... that or stroller strides for me- any opinions on either thing?

xxxooo
your "finally gonna get that baby weight off"
friend and family member
Michelle
(Brett and Baby Ari- sleeping)

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Hello old friends....

Well its been WAY way too long since I updated, I thought once Ari was out of newborn-hood that I would have more time on my hands.. WRONG!! LOL! With more joys, comes more challenges and as a result.. less less less time....

Today I am thanking God for the cool weather, we got back from a family trip on Wednesday and it was HOT here (85 is not hot I know, but for here its miserable!), the worst part was the heat didn't let up too much at night which doesnt make for sound sleeping babies :(- throw in teething and a VERY dirty house and you've got a recipe for a headache. Thankfully today I was able to do some cleaning, the heat is breaking tonight (Ari's room temp is 78 but it feels much much cooler)and we are making it through the teething process.

So I mentioned a family trip, heres an overview- Ari and I flew into Tulsa OK July 25(yes our little one is a frequent flyer- this should be her 7th flight?) then stayed at my Dads for a week. Jen came up one weekend and we got to spend time with her very VERY sweet boyfriend Josh, she'd probably kill me for this but I think there may be another wedding in the next 5 years ;).

Brett flew in July 2nd to Tulsa and Jennifer, Ari and I met him at my Aunt Annas house, stayed the night, then the whole group of us including my Uncle Donnie, Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Jane, headed to Lake Texoma. Quite a roadtrip!! We arrived at the lake and spent the weekend of the 4th at the Tanglewood resort and lounging on my Uncle Neals yayght (I feel pretentious saying that, but it really is a yacht and quite amazing at that). We met some new friends of Neals and got to see my cousin Alex, shes such a beautiful girl and her and Jen had a lot of fun on jet skis! Too soon we weekend ended and we road tripped back to Kansas then on to Bolivar Missouri to see Bretts parents.

HEres some pics from the lake:

4th of July Texoma

Just a day to rest there and see our favorite Gramma Betty before we took another road trip across Kansas to Colorado! 4 adults, 1 baby, enough food for a week all in 1 highlander??!! We did amazing- plus pulling Sherrie and Bings pop-up!! It was quite a trip and Ari did fantastic. We arrived at Aunt Janice (bretts aunts) house in Colorado springs and basically fell out of the car and straight asleep! LOL We got to see the court adoption process for Nathan and Michael (Danny and Angie, Bretts aunt and uncle's little boys) and spend some time in lovely Colorado Springs, including a Rockies game! It wasnt too friendly for a few Padres, but we had fun, and it was Ari's first, she really enjoyed it.

Our convoy continued to grow as we went to Turquoise Lake Colorado- now we had:
2 pop-ups
Danny uncle
Angie aunt
micheal and nathan- baby counsins
Janice aunt
Dania cousin
Sherrie and Bing - bretts parents
Ari - our baby of course :)
Me and Brett
and
2 friends of Danny and Angie!!
TRUE MADNESS and LOTS of fun!!! To add to all this my wonderful Aunt Sue, Uncle John and cousins Christie and Michael joined us- although they stayed at the hostel in Leadville (AWESOME- a must see). We had lots of fun, Colorado is truly beautiful, my uncle John mentioned that he thinks Heaven looks like Earth and I truly hope so, mainly colorado, its so beautiful. We went hiking with the amazing Danny, saw some gorgeous mountains, ate some delicious food at camp (not so rough after all!), braved mosquito's, went white water rafting and all together had a fantastic time! It was good to come home, we are still recovering! :)

People updates:

Ari: 9 months now! can you believe it? No crawling yet, but sits well and reaches. She still loves the water, eating people food, clapping and starting to really wave. Everything is DADADAD or Dis or Dat LOL! I realize we ask her is she wants "this" when we hand her an object, now when she wants something she reaches for it saying "dis dis" or "dat dat" LOL!! ohh my cuteness.... Teething has struck and we are in the midst of some sleepless nights... She had another kidney infection right before we left but has been infection free through all this travel THANK GOD!!! She is a blessing from God and is truly becoming her Lioness of God namesake (and to think I was worried she wouldnt talk??!!??) Pray for us as parents that we may raise her in the way God chooses.

Brett: Wonderful as always! He's facing some pretty crossroads right now as we wait to see if he will be selected for the new SRO class. As some may remember he chose not to go in the first one so he could be there for Ari's first year, now we're not even sure if he will get into this upcoming class. If not then he may get a SRO certificate versus a license, but thats only temporary and will still pursue the license even if that means a move :(. Pray for him and his walk, theres some big decisions coming up that only God can help us with.

Me: Well everything's the same pretty much.. I love my baby and my husband and love this life! California has great weather overall (ask me again in August) and I joined a Moms group via Meetup.com that I REALLY LOVE! I host a music and rhythm playgroup in my house every other week where we sing songs with the babies. I will probably be joining MOPS this semester at our church and am applying at our church's new preschool to work part time, the income would be GREAT and would allow Ari to socialize which she REALLY loves... Im still experimenting with homemaking and all that entails and it seems my list is never done :).

Well I better stop rambling.. Im sure most of you are sleeping by now as I shoud be!!

Love you all! Come visit soon, we can't ever have enough guests!

Love
Brett Michelle and Baby Ariella