Let the holiday fun begin!

 Once Thanksgiving had passed we decided it was time to get in the Christmas spirit!

The Friday after Thanksgiving we did not go shopping...we headed to Six Flags!

Christmas carols blared through the park and we had a great family fun day!

I took Riley to the kids area for a bit and Jason went to ride the Batman ride.  Jason wanted to see what rides Riley might be tall enough to ride and we headed to an entire area of the park I've never been to!

Her and Jason rode this "big" roller coaster and she just loved it!

Funny faces!

They ended up getting in the very front of the coaster!

 While they waited in line Miss T conked out and slept through quite a bit of fun!

Next up was these HUGE swings!

 Riley was so brave and did great riding these big rides!  I was so excited for her but a little sad at the same time realizing how much she's grown up!

After the big rides we headed to the entrance for the lighting of the Christmas tree!

Tessa woke up and LOVED seeing all the people and waving to all of them!

Loves her Daddy!

 Pure JOY!

 Getting tickles from Daddy!

 Love my baby girl!

 Merry Christmas...the tree was so pretty!

Thanksgiving

 We have so much to be thankful for.  God is good.  We are blessed.

We started off the day by meeting up with friends to go on a walk.  It was no leisure walk though...we walked up this crazy street that is a very steep winding hill!  We took Hank and it didn't seem to wear him out too much but it sure did wear us out!  Jason pushed both girls in the stroller for a while until we caught up with everyone and then Riley was off to play with her friends and walk like a big girl!  It was a great way to start the day and help with any later guilt from all the food intake!

We came home and facetimed with our families all over the place and Jason made some breakfast tacos.  I got busy cooking after that...I made PW's Mashed Potatoes, PW's Pecan Pie, and a Pumpkin Roll!

We shared this special day with a couple of other families and it was great!

Riley, Madison, and Samantha had fun playing together!

Tessa was busy checking out a new house and practicing toddling around everything!

 She discovered stairs and was in love...she got pretty angry when I pulled her off the stairs when it was time to eat...this sweet little thing has a pretty strong opinion when she doesn't get what she wants! :)

 Jessica and Me...with our little girls...Quinn and Tessa!

 Riley and Madison with their babies!

 Riley and Madison got to sit at their own "big girl" table and they loved it!

 The spread!

 We all ate to our hearts content...even Tessa who put down an insane amount of food!

Daddy loved the post-turkey cuddles!

 Tessa is so affectionate...always wanting to hug, give pat pats, and kisses!  Here she was planting Quinnie with a kiss!

 The dudes...doing the dishes...I mean relaxing! :)

 Family pic time!

 The Spurlock fam!

We hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving too!

Tea Time...

 I had been wanting to take Riley to tea at Linde Lane ever since I went with my girlfriends for my birthday!  I knew she would love it! 

I was wanting to take her for her birthday but our weekends are so busy that this weekend was one of the only ones we had to go so off we went.  I don't get much time with Riley all to myself so I ate it up!

I surprised her with a new dress and some "high heal" shoes and she was ecstatic!

We got all dressed up and off we went!

Love this girl!

 She chose a caramel tea and added quite a few sugar cubes to get it just right!

She loved having a big girl cup, her own tea pot, and the clinking of her spoon on her cup...it's the little things!

 Riley got the Teddy Bear tea which is compiled of many sugary things...a chocolate chip scone, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a cookie, and a cupcake!  This girl was in heaven!

 We had such a fun time.  Riley loved going to the table near us with the chess game on it and she was convincing me she knew how to play...I don't even know how to play chess!  A sweet older lady from the Red Hat Society was coming by throughout our meal modeling hats and that was fun to see!

I loved my quality time with Riley...she is such a little lady and I hope this is the first of many of our tea times together!

A Rockin' Playdate...

 We are pretty sad that we are losing some great friends :(  That happens too often in the military world and we learn to say "see you later" rather than "goodbye"

This family, however, is going back to Australia and that's simply a long way away.  Tahlia and her family have been in the US for three years on an exchange program and it's time for them to go back down under.   We had to get in a fun playdate before they headed back home.

Tahlia came home with us after tennis and had lunch before Makenna arrived...I was going to run these guys through a fun place to grab lunch but they wanted peanut butter sandwiches so I just took them home and fixed them lunch!

Once Makenna got here these three girls were off to princess land and had a blast with their imaginative world!  We just helped with the many many wardrobe changes!

Tessa and Lochlan had fun too...you  know those Aussie boys are quite handsome!

Love this girl's smile and happiness!

 Who knew playing under the table could be such a blast!

 Makenna's big sister couldn't get enough of Tessa and I don't think Tessa had a problem with that!

 It was a fun afternoon and a great way for these three amigas to get together and have some fun!

Veteran's Day BBQ

 While I was off "galavanting" in the city as Jason would say he was getting ready for a Veteran's Day BBQ at our house!  He had wanted to do this and had pretty much planned it with a few guys in his office and he knew I would be gone until about noon on Monday so he had his work cut out for him..but he did GREAT!

He took both girls grocery shopping the night before!

When I came home the house was spotless, tri tip and pork were smoking outside, and both girls were happy as can be!  What a stud!

Since he had done the planning I didn't really know how many people we had coming over..and neither did he!

But boy did we have a party!

There were probably 20 kids so the bounce house came in handy!

We had to separate big kids and little kids at one point because Riley came in crying saying "they are stepping on my face"...not quite her pace of playing..haha!

But they all had fun and ran around like crazies...just what kids are supposed to do!

 Everybody brought sides and we had SO MUCH food it was awesome!  Lots of people + lots of food = a good time!

 As is typical the men congregated outside and the women inside...haha!

At one point I could hear the littler kids playing but we couldn't find them...turns out they were having a party in our bed..haha!  They had headlamps on with the lights on and a princess memory game going on...love their idea of fun!

 Since the party started early in the afternoon everyone had cleared out by 7 or 8 and we realized Riley had not even eaten anything.  So she sat down for the first time all night and chowed down on some ribs!

 Had to get a pic with the rib cooker extraordinaire...Schwartzy!

It was such a fun time celebrating Veteran's Day!

Becky Comes to Visit!!!

While my mom was visiting back in September I got a text from my BFF from college Becky saying that for her birthday she wanted to come visit me!!!  It totally made my day!  Becky was a senior when I was a freshman and she was my Bible study leader in Aggie Sisters for Christ...she was and still is a great influence and mentor for me.  Her husband, Matt, is also in the Air Force and he was in the same outfit as Jason (Gator 2) at A&M.  They have moved quite a bit during their time in the Air Force...I went to visit her in California and Florida. She came to visit me in Texas and Arkansas.  The last time we saw each other was in 2009 shortly before we moved out to Cali.  We were able to spend a few days with her family on our way back from SOS in Alabama when they were stationed in Florida again.  So....that means it had been almost 4 years and that's just way tooooo long!  But she had a baby and then I had a baby and you know life gets busy.  But...she managed to get away kid free for a few days and come to Cali and we had a GREAT time!

She flew into San Fran and the girls and I went to pick her up.  She requested lunch and coffee immediately...and in that order.  So we headed to the Embarcadero for lunch and ate at Boudin...it's good and parking is easy so it was a win win!  Rain was rolling in so our front row parking spot came in handy!

We had yummy sourdough bread bowls with clam chowder...a must!

Tessa loved the bread...she's a carb queen for sure!

While we were eating the rain started to roll in and there was a great rainbow right over Alcatraz!

Riley had fun checking out all of the sourdough animals after lunch!

We headed home after lunch and we got to chit chatting and I totally forgot about getting Becky some coffee...I'm a horrible host!  About 20 minutes from our house we found a Starbucks!  Riley was such a hoot all afternoon...that girl loves an audience and especially loves a new face!  She was in rare form and making us crack up the whole way home!  She was smitten with Becky!

That night I made some PW Chili and it was so yummy!  After dinner Becky and I headed out to a little girls night at Ashley's house!  Poor Becky was a trooper because with the time change she was exhausted and up way past her bedtime!

Friday morning Riley went to school and Becky and I went to a spin class!  I joined a gym by our house back in July that is awesome!  They have great classes and great childcare...need I say more?  I tend to stick within my comfort zone but have been trying out new classes...I've done Zumba and loved it and finally tried spin.  Becky had never done it either and had been wanting to try it so off we went.  Everyone the night before had made it sound awful and quite frankly they weren't very encouraging..haha!  But we both loved it and now I'm hooked...plus it's crazy how many calories you can burn in one class!

After spin we came home to let Tessa nap and boy did that girl nap...we had planned on running a few errands but I had to wake that girl up so we could at least run one!  After we picked the kids up from school we just chilled at the house.  Riley wanted all of Becky's attention!  I think they played a little kinect and since Jason had a guys night out planned we stayed in, made some PW pasta, and watched a movie!  

Saturday was Riley's last soccer so we went to watch her and then Becky and I went to Davis.  We had Thai food at my favorite place, Sophia's, had some afternoon coffee, and then went to a cupcake shop!

We looked around at a few stores but at this time the A&M and Alabama game was going on and we saw we were winning and decided we better get home to watch the game!  Then LOTS of screaming ensued as the Aggies went on to beat Alabama...it was awesome!  Tessa would cry everytime I screamed...that girl better get used to Johnny Football! :)

Becky always makes herself a cake on her birthday and since it was her birthday weekend I decided to make her a strawberry cake with strawberry icing.  I goofed on the icing a bit but it only lacked in appearance..not in taste!  It was so yummy!

We made a big "to do" and Riley had fun singing to Becky and having her wear the birthday hat that Becky made for Riley for her first birthday!

She's 29...again! :)

 Blowing out those candles!

 Who knows what Riley was up to!

 Love my sweet girl!

 Becky and I...love her friendship!

 Sunday we went to church and then went to get Becky some Inn N Out...she couldn't come to Cali without getting her fix!  Tessa got to eat her first french fry...I think she was in love!

 After lunch we went home and got all packed for a night in the city!  Becky packed for her entire stay in a backpack...impressive!  I was proud of myself for packing in a backpack for ONE night!  

 I am a city girl and love the city!  I have always wanted to ride the BART since we lived here...the bay area mass transit system!  It's nothing glamorous but I've just always wanted to do it!  So we drove to the closest station about 30 minutes away and off we went!

 We got off at the Powell St station which dumps you right into a Forever 21 store..perfecto!  We decided to go ahead an check into our hotel so we walked to the Marine Memorial and got settled!  Then we hit the streets for some shopping...not without grabbing our afternoon coffee first!  We went to Forever 21, H&M, Ross, and then we landed in front of another Forever 21...newer and even nicer!  We had to shop again!  We got some major steals since it was Veteran's Day weekend!

I even spotted this at Forever 21...you know we are big time when they have Aggie apparel in San Fran! :)

 Love the city!

 Becky in front of Union Square!

 We decided to eat at Cheesecake Factory...the wait was pretty long but we figured we didn't have anything else to do and we didn't have kids...why not wait?  It actually went by much quicker than what they quoted us on time and we scored this PERFECT table overlooking the city..couldn't have asked for a better seat in the house!  We ate way too much food and topped it off with cheesecake!

Becky had to get up at 4:30 to catch her shuttle to the airport and it was late when we got done with dinner so we headed back to the hotel and got some sleep!  I slept a bit after Becky left and then headed back on the BART back home!  

We had a great time and thanks so much for coming to visit Becky!  I'm excited that we'll be within driving distance once we move to Illinois!