Limo Day- October

Our crazy, wonderful friends Bob and Joy came from Kansas to visit us and Joy decided she'd like to take a shopping trip to Palm Springs in a Limo. As cheap as I am, that's really not my thing, but it ended up being a blast. Once I made the connection that you can drink wine in a limo while someone else drives, I was all for it.  

Sara and India Came to Visit...

and of course we had a fantastic time! I was so excited to show them our desert, and share in all the fun we've been having. We went to the beach, to Disneyland for TWO DAYS, and to a rock concert in Hollywood. We hiked the National Park, ate yummy Thai food, explored LA at midnight, and shopped in Palm Springs. To top it all off, the day they had to leave... I got to see Stevie Wonder perform at Disneyland for the Disney Christmas Day Parade special!

It's too bad they missed it.

So, look out for me and Anna on TV Christmas Day :)

And BTW, Stevie is the MAN!

Pool Party!

Our best friends Jennifer and Maryam returned home Friday from a 3 week long intensive feeding clinic at Children's Hospital of Orange County. We're so proud of the progress Maryam has made! So to celebrate, Jen's parents hosted a pool party. We had a blast!

Here's Maryam cheesing it up in the swimming pool!

Here's Anna cheesing it up in the pool! This day was also remarkable because it's the first time Ian has EVER let me take him into the water. Well, the first time since he's been aware of his surroundings and has been old enough to protest. He's generally terrified of the water!

The girls also had fun playing ballerina...

and eating together at the table...

and playing basketball...

and cuddling with Auntie May May...

and here are the rest of the pictures! (sorry about the duplicates!)

I'm so thankful that Anna has such sweet little friends to play with :) 

Kelly's Baby Shower

Kelly had the baby shower of all baby showers on Saturday. Seriously. It was huge. It took an SUV and my mom's Mitsubishi to get all the swag home. I had a great time drinking Emily's signature frozen concoction, Peachy Keen, which consists of lemonade, orange juice, a crapload of peach schnapps, more calories than I care to count, and ginger ale. I will reiterate... yum. So much for watching my weight over the weekend. These pounds aren't going to come off if I keep going to Emily's house. It was so nice to see everyone come out and party in honor of Kelly and her babe. Enjoy the pictures.

And seriously, the amount of gifts she recieved was UNBELIEVABLE. She won't have to buy a diaper for MONTHS.

BTW, Kelly and I made the cupcakes and favors. 

EAT YOUR HEART OUT MARTHA STEWART.

I can't wait until he gets here so we can dress him in all the cute outfits!

The Connoisseur

We always enjoy it when Jen comes over to play :)

Edited to add- I always hate it when I spell words incorrectly... like connoisseur. No more tired blogging!

Thank You!

This beautiful and talented lady sent my family the NICEST card today! I think we're the lucky ones after having spent time with her charming family :) 

And Tasha, if you're reading this, feel free to correct my grammar :)

The Rehearsal Dinner

This was by far the best wedding rehearsal dinner I've EVER been to! We went to the Deer Park Tavern in Newark, Delaware and fell in love with the place. We also fell in love with the people! Suzie and Shawn have AMAZING friends! They were so much fun and they were awesome with our children. We started out by eating chicken cordon bleu, prime rib, roasted potatoes, salad, tomatoes with mozzarella, and more goodies that I can't even remember now. We didn't know that we were going to need that energy for dancing afterwards! After dinner, someone started the rounds of Irish Car Bombs. Being a McGrorty and very Irish myself, I was surprised that I had never heard of this delicious drink :) I learned the fine technique after the first round and quickly became the queen of the bomb. Yum! We all stumbled onto the dance floor and had a fantastic time dancing and chatting. Good drinks, good food, and good company! That's starting to become our family motto :) 

Happy Anniversary to Us!

We didn't win anything (I guess you have to play to win?) but we had a fantastic time playing in Vegas. I had my makeup done by a MAC professional, met Elvis, and dined with Nine Fine Irishmen. Happy Anniversary to all of us!

Wish us Luck...

Sunday is our 7th wedding anniversary. I know! I can't believe it either! Since we never went on a honeymoon and we've never properly celebrated our anniversary, we're taking a 24-hour whirlwind trip to Las Vegas tomorrow with our friends Jen and Brett, whose anniversary happens to fall on the day before ours. I realize that we were just in Las Vegas two weeks ago, but for a 2 hour drive and a $50 room we figured... why the hell not?

More Pictures!

...courtesy of our good friends, the Ricards family.  I hadn't seen their kids since they were little (12 maybe?) and now they're both high school teachers. They're also cute and witty :) It was really nice to talk to them and hang out even though our plans to drink beer after the reception back at the hotel were cut short due to their passing out before we got there. Maybe next time! 

Happy Birthday Baby!

We had such a good time at Anna's birthday this evening! We sang, had pink and brown cake and pink and brown ice cream, and then sang some more. We even danced a little bit :) Anna was so damn cute when we sang to her, check back later for the video!

Weekend Vacation

So we spent the weekend with our good friends the Langdons at a friend's cozy condo in Big Bear, CA. As if breathing the fresh mountain air wasn't enough, we thought it would be fun to go to the annual Oktoberfest. We planned on having a few drinks, doing the chicken dance once or twice, and checking out the men in Lederhosen. We had no idea that Kelly and I would soon become the Women's Log Sawing champions! What an ironic thing to happen to two desert girls. Logs are few and far between out here:) I went on to place 2nd in the Stein holding competition, and then Kelly and Brett won the Hansel and Gretel log sawing competition as well. It was hilarious. We seriously couldn't stop laughing at the ridiculousness of it. The contestants were other unsuspecting people from the audience so it's not like we were up against pros. 

The weekend continued with shopping in the Village and pine cone hunting around the condo. Ian said "These pine cones are as big as my head!". And indeed, they were. And if you know how big Ian's head is, that's really saying something!  We had fun dressing the girls in matching outfits and jammies, and Brett made us an amazing breakfast both days complete with homemade waffles. Kelly and I of course supplied the mimosas. I think that Shawn even had fun, and with him it's always hard to tell! I'm sure that meeting the Jagermeister girl didn't hurt his feelings in any case. I'm so excited for October, we have fun-filled plans for every weekend beginning with Anna's birthday party and PJ's coed bachelor poker party. We'll be visiting Disneyland, traveling to Phoenix for PJ's wedding, going pumpkin picking in Oak Glen, and possibly returning to Big Bear for the log sawing championship. Kelly and I decided that if we win we'll join the professional log-sawing circuit and possibly be on log sawing TV :) The last weekend we'll be hosting a Halloween party and taking the kids trick-or-treating in their Alice in Wonderland themed costumes. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures!

How Anna Spends Her Days...

B-I-N-G-O

Who would have thought that a 32 year old would enjoy bingo so thoroughly? Tonight I sat through 5.5 hours of Catholic church bingo with two of my best friends from high school and I had a fantastic time despite the fact that I only won $3. I was doing really well until asked to pick numbers between 1-75 and I somehow chose an 86. 

Yep, that's me... book smart, yet lacking common frickin' sense. And I'm still laughing at the "Blessed Ball". WTF?

Spitting Images of their Mommies!