My Mom's 50th Birthday.

Let me start this blog off saying that I can't believe that I am 30 years old and that my mom is now 50 years old. She is so young at heart and in my eyes I don't think she is a day over 40 years old. Regardless, she turned 50 years old on Saturday. And she embraced it with wide open arms. When Chelsie and I heard she wanted to go sky diving (We were on the phone when we got her email "Suggestion") neither of us thought she was serious. But after we both talked to her and found out how excited she was we new this was not a joke. Apparently she has always wanted to do this! Oh the things parents hide from their children.

So on Saturday my parents headed out to Davis in the morning to take their class. Justin, Paige & I picked up Mikaila and Chelsie about an hour or so later and headed up to join them. We had no idea when they would be jumping. When we got there, we hung out in the parking lot and watched some other people land. The Kaufers showed up with some snacks and we all had a lot of fun while we were anticipating their turn.

Finally, they called their name. Both my parents had a shirt my mom had made that said- Look out- Pidgeons Dropping on it. They looked so cute. They got their gear on and we waited to see if we could find them in the sky. As they got closer we were able to tell it was my mom because she flapped her arms like wings. My dad was right behind her. They had a blast.

We all headed back to my parents house and then went to PF Changs for dinner. Then we went back to their house for cake and presents. It was a fun day. Below are some of my pictures and a video that we took. I tried to shorten the video so it may be a little choppy.

3 Sisters- We are getting so big.
Paige found the ice while waiting.

Mom & Dad

Mom- Coming in for a landing.

Landing

And we have touchdown

Talking with her instructor and camera man

Mom & Dad after they landed

Champagne to celebrate

A Day At The Farm

We went with my parents to Ardenwood Historical Farm. It is a real working farm that has been around since the early 1900's I believe. We had a picnic lunch, and then went to enjoy all this farm has to offer. One of those things was the corn fields. One side was popping corn and the other was Indian corn. You pick as much as you want, and just have to give 1/2 of it to the farm. The rest you keep for free. We actually got to keep all of the popping corn because the container was full.

We all had a good time picking the corn, even Paige. But it was really hard to get some of the corn off of the plants. And Kayla did not use a glove because she wasn't going to pick any corn, and she ended up getting some paper like cuts on three of her fingers. We had to pay a visit to the first aid center.

After we got our corn we explored the farm and saw the animals. They have people dressed up like they did back in the day (Kind of looked Amish). It was a big festival so there was lots of music and cider and other fun stuff. When Paige was getting close to nap time, we headed over to the pumpkin patch. Paige has been talking about pumpkins ever since we turned to the October page on the Calendar. She sees her picture in the pumpkin patch from last year and wants to keep going back. She fell a lot in the corn fields and the pumpkin patch, but she is such a trooper. It was so cute seeing her go from pumpkin to pumpkin trying to pick them up. Of course they were all two big.

Getting ready for our picnic.

After picking the corn

Shucking corn

We got quite a bit of corn

Looking at the animals

At the pumpkin patch.

Baking Day

I was looking for something to do yesterday afternoon. Someone had thoughtfully suggested baking cookies to me. I thought that sounded fun and Paige had been asking for cookies (A treat that she only gets every once in a while). So I found an easy sugar cookie recipe that I had all of the ingredients for. I cleared off the table and Paige and I put on our aprons.

Then it became a little harder than I thought it would be. I envisioned Paige helping me put in the different ingredients and letting me do most of it while patiently standing by. But of course, the vision was shattered. She was about to dump the dry ingredients bowl so I took it away from her. With the spoon in her hand she threw a fit and followed me into the kitchen, proceeding to put whatever was on the spoon on the ground.

After a few minutes of quiet time in her room (Which I used to finish making the dough in peace), she returned to help me ball out the dough. Sometimes she just put piles of the crumbly dough on the baking sheet. And sometimes she took my ball and turned it into crumbles. But we did it! We managed to make some good cookies. I may attempt this again, but will probably do some of it myself before letting her help me for a while. Below are some pictures.

The result of her temper tantrum.
After she helped me with the dough.

Playing with the flour

Our cookies before baking, you can see the crumbs I couldn't pick-up

Baking in the oven.

San Diego Trip

Paige, mom & I headed down to San Diego Last Friday to spend a night with Chelsie. It was parents weekend and the trip I was planning the weekend before did not work out. So I joined my mom for some fun. We took an early (7am) flight and Chelsie picked us up at the airport. Paige did pretty good on the plane. We managed to keep her entertained most of the flight.

We went and saw Chelsie's school and visited her dorm. We were able to attend a chapel service why we were there. Her school is beautiful and when it is not foggy, the view from her dorm is amazing. She is starting to find a place there and I think she is going to make it through graduation.
We found this funny little blowup toilet in her dorm hall. So we could not resist asking Paige to sit on it. She had a good time. We headed to lunch at The Pita Pit which is something I have been trying to go to for a while. We have something called Extreme Pita, but I don't like it as much.

After leaving lunch, Paige insisted pulling her own suitcase (Our diaper bag for the weekend). This was a trend that continued throughout the weekend. It got a lot of attention from people passing by. We headed to Balboa Park. Unfortunately the Train and Carousel were both closed. So we walked around and saw some cool trees and a fun squirrel who was eating the sunflower seeds someone had put out for him. Paige kept telling him to "Drink" the water that was there. But I think he had a mind of his own.

We had dinner at a nice pizza place, and then ice cream. We spent the night in a hotel. Paige did not sleep that well, but we made it through the night.

The next day we went to the aquarium in the morning.

Paige loved all of the fishes. I think she could have stayed there all day. There was also the tide pools and a display that shows how tides work. We played with that for at least 20 minutes alone- Pictures below

After the aquarium, we Drove around while Paige took a nap. Then we met up with Chelsie's friend, Candace and her dad at a Mexican restaurant in Old Town. When we finally found the place, Chelsie was surprised by her friend Kelly and another guy friend/his mom who were in town looking at colleges. After lunch, we took a scenic drive looking at the ocean and ended up at Ocean Beach. Of course Paige ended up playing in the water some (She is such a beach girl).

After the beach, we went back to Chelsie's dorm and gave Paige a bath with a wash cloth, and changed her into her PJ's. We stopped at a yogurt place for some frozen yogurt (I had red velvet which was amazing!) and then headed to the airport. Our plane was delayed, but we knew that ahead of time so we did not show up too early. Paige got to sit between us since there were extra seats and she fell asleep right after take off. She slept all of the way home and through the night for me! It was a great time.

Paige at 22 Months

Let me start this off with a funny story from today. My mom calls me at work to tell me that my daughter is definitely a lot like me. She had shoved red playdoh up her nose. I used to shove peas. I asked her what we should do, did I need to come and take her to the hospital? My mom said she would sneeze it out and she would be ok. Eventually her nose naturally helped it out and was dripping red for a while. But she is pretty much playdoh free.

At 22 Months old, she is really a toddler.

She has a mind of her own. She will tell you no. She can pick out what books she wants to read, what cup she would like, whether she wants milk or water. She is testing the waters. She has had to be taken home from the park several times recently because she tries to step off the play structure where she could get hurt. I tell her no two times and then tell her that if she does it again, we are going home. She almost always smiles and does it again. And I get to take her home screaming "PARK".

She says more words every day. She has a lot of two word phrases and is starting to put some 3-4 word sentences together. "Mommy do it", "Cloe's here", "Mickey Mouse Please or Tigger/Pooh Please". She loves to play with her toys, and she still loves reading books. She reacts with an enthusiastic "Oh No" when something is wrong like she dropped something.

You have to watch her closely because if she finds a pen, she will use it. She loves to color, and some days that has not been such a good thing.

One day, we were watching a show called Bounce. The theme was emotions. We were singing a song about being sad and she started crying. And she wouldn't stop. There was nothing wrong, I tried to comfort her but she just kept crying. Finally, I said to her" Paige, it is OK to cry, but if you are going to keep crying, please go to your room and cry". She actually got up and went to her room. Unfortunately, that doesn't work every time. She loves to fake cry too.

It is so hard to believe that our little girl will be 2 in 2 months. Time really does fly.

A fan in the Making

Monday was the first official football game of the season. Ok, maybe not the official start of the NFL season, but the official start of my Season. The Patriots were playing at 4PM our time and I was going to watch the game. Of course, I only 1/2 watched the first 2-3 quarters because I had to make dinner, etc. We paused the game to eat, and then started watching more focused. However, I have an adorable almost two year old. She walked up to me, remote in hand, and said "Mickey Mouse please- PLEASE- PLEEEEEESE". I almost gave in, but I said, "No hunny, Mommy is watching football. After a little while she started paying a little attention the game. She crawled up on the couch, and was yelling "RUN, RUN, RUN" at the TV. I had to explain her that we were telling the Patriots to stop the run, but she is not even two yet so I can't complain. She started saying whatever I was yelling at the TV. And she would say, HI Tom when Tom Brady was on the TV. She was awfully cute in her Patriots Cheerleader outfit cheering on her team. Here are some pics of us in our matching gear (Thanks for the cheerleader outfit, Grandpa & Doris).

Justin's 30th Birthday

Justin turned 30 on Sept 4th. He was not looking forward to this birthday and told me he did not really even want to Celebrate. We keep it low key on his actual birthday and I just made a nice dinner at home. We had my family over for dinner on Sunday. I made corned beef & cabbage (His favorite meal) and a wonderful cake. My parents gave him a telescope for his birthday. It could be the most perfect present for him ever (Besides the Colts Game I took him to the 2nd year we were married). I have lost him to the stars.

Freecycle and more

This year has not exactly been an easy one for us. Lets just say money has been "tight". We have cut back expenses where possible, and keep trying to earn some extra money. Business is starting to pick-up, but who knows what next week brings. So I have been cutting coupons, and finding new ways to save money. I have been checking craigslist, freecycle and other similar places where people give stuff for free or sell them for less. People have been so generous. We were able to get a gas powered lawn mower (Which actually cuts our grass unlike our push mower). Someone also gave us this great playstructure for our backyard and a plastic red wagon. These have been great gifts. We were able to give some things away too which helped temporarily cut back on clutter in the garage. I am so Thankfull that there are these ways to help us get some things we need for Paige, without having to spend money we shouldn't be spending. Here are some pics of the new playstructure (The nice lady who gave it to us said it was faded, but I can't even tell the difference).

Oh- August- Where did you go

I realized that I had not posted in a month. I am always waiting for other peoples blog updates, so I am so sorry that you had to wait for mine. Funny thing is that I am having a hard time remembering what August was all about for the Huffman Family. But let me give it a shot.

We started out the month in celebration (Or at least I did). I made it through another fiscal year end with Sun-Maid and it was a good one. We put in a lot of hard work in July, but we closed the year in great shape. The first week of August, I went to Kingsburg for a retirement dinner for one of our salesmen who I had grown close to over the years. A few of us from Pleasanton had the priviledge of being able to attend and stayed overnight.

After returning to my normal life, we were able to go to Santa Cruz to celebrate our good friends' daughter, Maelee, 1st birthday. It was a beautful day and it was so much fun. Mikaila joined us for the day which is always so helpful when it comes to mingling. We were also able to see another friends baby, Landon, for the 2nd time. He is such a cutie too.

My Mom & Dad finally went to Spain after a horrible last minute ordeal that caused my mom to have to stay home last time. They had a great time, but keep forgetting to show me pictures. During that time, Mikaila took her first trip to Boston all by herself. It was fun being the one to take her to the airport & pick her up. She is really starting to grow up a little.

Chelsie moved to San Diego a little over a week ago. She started at a new college, Point Loma. This was a very emotional transition for all of us. It was hard last year, moving her into Bethany which was an hour away and she came home every weekend. I was not able to go with the family to move her in and have only seen a few pictures of her dorm. Mostly she has showed off the amazing sunset ocean views from her room. I know she is going to do great, but it is hard to know that I will only see her a few times a year. I just hope she comes back after college, I don't think I want to do this long term. We are already planning on going for a visit in about 3 weeks. we are planning on visiting my Aunt Cheryl & her family also. It will be exciting. I can't wait.

During the weekend Chelsie was moving into college, we stole our nephews Joseph & Tyler for the weekend. We were taking them shopping for school clothes (Thanks to their wonderful Grandma!). We had a great time. While I was shopping with the boys, Justin & Paige were at the Good Guys car show. I think a fun weekend was had by all. Here are the few pictures we took in August to share.

Joseph & Tyler with all of their school stuff (We made a fun Thank-you card for Grandma using this pic)