San Fran & Seven Years Ago . . .

Hello, San Francisco!

Have you ever been . . . if not, it's a must! It's a fabulous city and it has some of my most favorite people in the world! 

The Tidyman's! 

This wasn't just a spur of the moment trip (who am I kidding, nothing is spur of the moment anymore!), we were celebrating! 

Mark and I were celebrating our SEVEN year anniversary.

We are so lucky to have these amazing friends who opened up their amazing home to us, allowing Mark and I could spend a romantic weekend together. 

Us . . . Seven years together, pledged for a lifetime. 

There is no one else I could, or would want to, do this with. 

You are my stronger, better half 

and 

I am eternally thankful and blessed 

to be with you each and every day. 

Meet The Tidyman's . . . they are the bees' knees!

(Chance and Sara)

First night in town, seafood at Yabbies. Just a big ole' bucket of goodness!

Friday and Saturday, Mark and I explored. Lots of coffee and food, we also visited an aquarium.

We're not big on touristy locals, 

we like to dig into a city . . . wander . . . and discover on our own . . . 

find little areas that fit us. 

So much fun!

Saturday night, dinner with Saguaro High School friends. I have three of them now living in the San Francisco area!

Thanks to Steven and Paul, who hosted, a wonderful night full of fun and laughter. And great food! 

I don't have as many pictures as I should . . . sometimes I'm having so much fun, I forget to take my camera out! But you'll have to take my word for it, I had a great time and I love, love, love my fantastic friends for putting us up and showing us such a great time! 

And thank you to my husband for loving me how you do . . . you do it perfectly!

Jon Brandon's Baptism

What a special day we had! My cousin Shauna baptized her son, Jon Brandon, and my sister and I were his god-mamas! So cool! So all our little ones were in attendance to celbrate and that spelled T-R-O-U-B-L-E! Actually, they weren't too bad, they were so fun and cute together, it's hard to stay mad at them when they are running around loving each other; even though it is in church!

Here's Ava, Karsten, Isabella and Ella

Karsten with his Great-Grandpa, Papa. I love this picture - look how Karsten is looking up at him, with such love and awe. I am so happy they have such a great relationship.

Brandon (Dad), Shauna (Mom), Lauren (God-father), Me and Megan (God-mothers). Karsten snuck up with me and was able to share a wonderful moment with us. 

The little one, being baptized, blessed by Pastor Steve.

I guess the service wasn't quite exciting enough for Ella, she needed to take a little snooze.

This warms my heart, my little man, not old enough to receive communion, but being blessed by Pastor Steve. Karsten thought it was so cool! He told his sissy all about it; as soon as she woke up!

The Nordling Family

The parents and the god-parents.

Back at the Gleason Family Home, lots of T-R-O-U-B-L-E! The kids had a whole room of toys to play in, and it got a little crazy. I think some of the other adults were scared to go in there! Ha! Don't let those smiling, innocent faces fool you.  I'm so incredibly happy that they have each other. My relationships with my cousins is a huge part of my life; having them around, enhanced my life immensely. I hope these little ones find the same friendships in each other!

The sweetest, little cuddle bug, Mr. Jon Brandon. He is so loving! After Jon was born, Marky was so smitten with him. Mark even wanted another baby! Crazy man. I told him we could get another puppy. Congratulations Jon! We love you! 

Private

I have decided to have my blog go private. I'm sure everything will be and is fine, but I want to make sure I am doing everything I need to keep people in my life safe. So, just email me your name and email address so I can send you an invite for when I go private. Send to lizyoriATyahooDOTcom.

Yori Kids Go Camping

Mark took the kids to "The Ranch" over the MLK holiday weekend. "The Ranch" is a piece of property the Mark's dad owns. The property is located just outside of Wickenburg. Mark and his siblings grew up going camping out there, and now our little muchkins will too!


Funny story: When I heard about this magical place called "The Ranch", I was thinking rolling grassy hills, a big main sprawling house, horses and stalls. All the wonderful things that I think of when I think of a "ranch".  Not so much . . . "The Ranch" is a deserted desert with nothing on it. Ha! So funny! But they all had a great time. Mark keeps assuring me that the travel trailer they stayed in has all the amenities I need . . . I'll get there sometime. 


Since it was just Mark and his dad and the kids, I only have three pictures of the entire weekend - so here you go!

Happy Camping!

Olivia & Sebastian Kwiej and Piper Freeman

Today was a good day! I was able to spend time with three amazing new friends! Meet Olivia (in the pink blanket) and Sebastian (wrapped in brown). 

And then my favorite part of the day happened . . .

 I got to hold all THREE gorgeous, cuddly, lovely babies! 

Piper is up front, in all her wonderful glory 

and her baby cousins are wrapped in my open arms. 

They are all soft and sweet and full of promise and hope. 

I am looking forward to being in these beautiful babes lives

 for ever and ever!

 Thank you to my two awesome friends 

who are the mama's of these amazing little ones. 

They are more precious than words can express!

xoxo

Field Trip to Stuffington Bear Factory

I had the pleasure of accompanying Karsten and the entire Kindergarten grade of Carol Rae Elementary to the Stuffington Bear Factory in Phoenix. Stuffington is a lot like Build a Bear, but they also have a working stuffed animal factory. We first sat through a presentation about how the teddy bear came about, then we toured the factory, then the kids got to make their own bears to take home.

There were so many volunteer chaperones, they couldn't fit all of the parents on the bus. I was one that didn't fit on the bus, I followed in my car, behind the bus. This was fine by me! I was able to leave when the kids boarded the bus to go back to school and pick up Ella - that saved me a lot of time. Another bonus with all of the parents - I was only in charge of three munchkins, and one of them was Karsten and another was our next door neighbor, Taylor. Super easy, because I know them so well. The other boy in our group was David S.

We had a lot of fun, as always, and I am a really lucky working mama that I get to spend so much time with Karsten in his class. I hope they let me volunteer next year too!  I wonder if they do in first grade? Hope so! :)

Here is Louis, he lead us through the factory.

Watching and listening . . . 

Happy kids with their bears!

Sedona 2009/2010

We decided to take a little vacation to Sedona for the New Year's. We also got to go with our favorite neighbor's EVER - the Giglio's. We got to Sedona on New Year's Eve and spent a wonderful evening having drinks and playing Scrabble. The kids found a pile of snow outside our hotel room and got all bundled up to play with it.









(You'll be seeing a lot of this hat this trip.)


Scrabble! Does this make me old, cause I'm really getting into Scrabble? :)


The Yori's . . .


The Giglio's . . .












So the next day, we found REAL snow. As we drove up to Flagstaff, we found some fun trails off the Highway on our way up to a sledding hill.





Mark's Cock


We made it to Flagstaff; my brother-in-law's parents live next to a school that has a great hill to go sledding on and were gracious enough to let us borrow two fun sleds! We all had so much fun, especially Karsten - he took to sledding like a fish to water!














That evening, we went to Tlaquapaque to see the Red Rock Fantasy Lights. This is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time! There is a huge condo resort at Tlaquapaque, Los Abrigados - they host a contest of lights every year. Teams get together to transform different spots around the resort with Christmas lights. Each spot has a different theme and then you get to vote at the end of who was your favorite!


Lizzie at the psychiatrist!


Here are the munchkins in front of an "Ocean" theme.


Marky always has to get into the displays and pose. This is usually frowned upon . . . but that doesn't seem to deter him!





The kids are playing "scared" at a Mario Brothers theme - making sure one of the bad things doesn't "get" them!


I love this - elegant and simple - "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"


The Yori Family in front of the "Mr. Men" display. (Can, this is for you!)


The next day, we stayed in Sedona and walked around the downtown shops. Mark took Karsten to get his first set of magic tricks (he was beyond excited)! E and K each got a magic wand and T got a magical unicorn.


Some of my favorite men . . .



We drove up to Chapel Rock - if you have never been here, you need to make this a priority to see. It's really beautiful, Sedona itself is so beautiful, and this church, is an amazing piece of architecture!




Mama and Rich


The Giglio Family


A treat for good kids at the end of the day - they were just a little bit happy!


We had such a nice time, we really crammed as much as we could in a little bit of time, but I wouldn't trade any of it for anything! It was a great New Year's and I can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us . . . I hope all of you had a special and fun New Year's and here's to a great 2010!