Hug Them Tight.............

I meant to write my post earlier today, and share with you all our new journey of teaching Madeleine "Sharing means Caring," but I received some sad news right after my run this morning. One of our Marine/Texas friends, Rich, lost his seven month old daughter last night. I don't know any of the details, except that it was sudden. With that being said, I found it a little inappropriate to talk about how we are "struggling" with the sharing game.

I cannot imagine what him and his family must be feeling today, tomorrow, the next few months, and the rest of their lives. My heart breaks for them and I hope that at some point they will be able to heal as much as they can. There aren't any words that I could express that would make them feel better, but they will be in my thoughts and prayers tonight.

To be honest, I have felt a sadness all day from learning this news. Now that I am parent and I hear gut-wrenching stories, like this one, it makes me feel all the emotions! It makes me look at life and cherish all the things that I might take for granted some days. It made me stop in the middle of doing the dishes, and have a jam session with Madeleine on the bongos. It made me let her stay up a little later than normal so we could play longer. It made me give her more kisses than usual. It made me rock her until she fell asleep in my arms.

So, for all you lucky parents out there, hug your kids extra tight tonight because there are some parents that won't get to do that tonight.


For any of you that knew Rich or are feeling generous here is the link to help them during this difficult time. Thanks!

http://www.youcaring.com/memorial-fundraiser/in-loving-memory-of-e-lynn-marie/195387

Soaking Up Daddy.........

This was our last weekend before Morgan starts some intense training. He will pretty much be busy during the week and some weekends. Boooooo!!! But, no complaining, he's doing something he's been wanting to do for a while and he's happy.

We tried to soak up as much time with daddy as we could. Meaning, mommy got a little break ;) HAHA. On Friday, we had mom's night out with the ladies from our play group. We went to the Cinepolis in Laguna Niguel to watch 22 Jump Street. This place is awesome but a little pricey! First, we had cocktails in the bar before the movie. Those cocktails weren't cheap, $15 for a small margarita, that was filled with tons of ice! Don't try to fool me!! The theater was nice and the seats were comfortable, and they reclined! We proceeded to have more cocktails during the movie. Why not! This also highlighted the fact that mommy can only handle about three cocktails before I want to go to sleep :) The movie was OK, but nothing that I would recommend people paying to go see, but at least we had Channing Tatum to stare at for two hours.

I may never go to a normal movie theater EVER! I have a kid so I don't get to the movies much, so I'm sure this is not a problem for me.

Saturday morning I watched Morgan make his weekend "blockbuster breakfast." I'm not a huge breakfast person, I like breakfast foods, but I'm more prone to make a big bowl of fruit and call it a day. I'm glad he enjoys cooking it on the weekends. After breakfast we packed it up and headed down to the beach. We packed up the cooler with lunch and snacks and hoped that Madeleine would cooperate and let us stay down there for a while. She did!! She's becoming quite the ocean lover. She runs to ocean and get about waist deep and then runs back to the sand. It's pretty darn adorable.

After naps were taken we grabbed dinner, because I wasn't about to cook! After dinner daddy wanted to grab froyo. He just learned this term and has used as often as he can <eye roll>. This chick was happy about her froyo.......

Sunday was spent relaxing, listening to music and grilling out. Oh, and watching the USA vs Portugal game.... WOW! It was the perfect weekend before the madness starts. See y'all tomorrow!

We're back............

We're finally back into a groove of our normal routine, since being back from Dallas. Madeleine had no problem getting back to a routine. I on the other hand felt like I needed to sleep for at least two weeks. But, Morgan and Madeleine insist on me being awake....bleh.

Our trip was great and successful! We saw tons of family and friends and I still fell like we didn't get to see everyone (I told Morgan I needed a whole month in Dallas, and he just looked at me like I was crazy). I was a little nervous that Madeleine was going to be super shy around everyone, and basically attached to my leg or hip, but she surprised me. She let people carry her, hold her (for as long as they could, she's a wiggle worm), and even let people take her out of sight range from mommy. Hallelujah!!!

One of our main highlights was going to Klyde Warren Park, in downtown Dallas. If you haven't gone, GO! It's a great park for kids of all ages and they have food trucks! Delicious ones! They had the fountains/splash pad open and I completely forgot, so we went a little hillbilly side and let Madeleine play in her clothes. Thank goodness I brought an extra set! Homegirl had a blast! I used to take her to the splash pads in Austin every week since she was about 9 months and I think she misses them! Oh well, she has the beach here :)

Besides seeing family, two of the main reasons for going to Dallas were for my best friend's baby shower and wedding dress shopping with my bestie. Both were great! I'll start with the dress shopping. We started off our day with getting our hair and make-up done for the day. We didn't want to spend an arm and leg to get it done, so we went to the Ogle beauty school. The hair part was great, some curls and we were good! Then, we got to the make-up..........It took FOREVER!!! Now, I understand that they are in the process of learning and aren't professionals, but good lord, 1.5 hours for make-up! I really wanted to ask the girl if I could do it myself because she was so slow and wasn't exactly the best. At the end I found out that I was her second person EVER <side eye>. Anyhow, after we were finished, Lindsay's mom, Cyndi, picked us up in the "bride-mobile." She decorated her SUV  with cute paper wedding decorations and played "Here Comes the Bride." HAHA. Cute! She also had champagne! HALLELUJAH!! From there we went to see the top contender for her wedding venue. I won't give it away because not sure if she wants me to share that, just yet. Lets just say it was beautiful and I hope she picks it!!!

Now, for the most important thing..... dress shopping. We went to this cute little boutique called, Patsy's Bridal Boutique. It was just the right place to slowly let the bride dip her feet in. She tried on about 10 dresses, and I fell in love with two, or at least the style. And there were a few times that I definitely teared up as I saw her standing there. I'm going to be a hot mess on the wedding day! She did not find THE dress, but I think she got a sense of what she liked and didn't like. Success!!!! It was the best bestie day!!!

The next day, we were on our way Austin to celebrate baby girl Rojas and April. I will admit I was a little concerned about how this was going to turn out. There were 5 of us that were hosting the shower and we were all planning this via text and email. I'll admit that there were two of us that were a little more controlling and the other three were more laid back. I won't mention names ;) However, it all balanced out! It was fantastic and most importantly, mommy-to-be was happy! We had it at Z-Tejas and they served us appetizers and cocktails. The food was great and did I mention they had queso...... lots and lots of queso!!! So much queso that I took a to-go container, hahaha. Here are a few pics....

I do have to do a shout out to Reel Popcorn for providing the strawberry and vanilla flavored popcorn for the favor bags. People were breaking into them before the shower ended! I even saved me some while I was filling the bags, haha. Also, Batters Up Cupcakery for the awesome cupcakes. She made some that were banana pudding flavored and they had real bananas in the middle!!! OMG.DELICIOUS.

Before the shower we had all been trying to get out of April what the baby's name was going to be. The only thing she told us was the middle name, Grace, after her mother. So a few weeks before the shower I asked her, "If Madeleine wanted to get her future best friend a monogrammed gift, what would be the initials?" I am not above using my daughter! She replied "K." I immediately replied back, "Kennedy is singing to me." Her reply, "Keep singing." So, I started calling the baby Kim Kardashian, hahaha. Fast forward to April opening her gifts at her shower. She pulls out a blanket that she had made with the baby's name, and it's, Kenadee Grace Rojas....... I WAS RIGHT!!!!! I got the spelling wrong, but I was right!


I wish I would have taken more pictures but my phone was running out of space and I kept having to delete pictures. UGH! Next time I'll back up my pictures before I leave.

I'm going to wrap this one up because I need to shower because we have mommies night out with the girls from play group! See ya'll soon!

We're going to Texas............

So, yeah, I've been slipping on the blogging for the past month! I always say I'm going to be more diligent about writing a post, but then life happens and you catch yourself curled up on the sofa with the husband watching Mad Men (He finally caught up and I feel a little lost without it, hahaha.), not wanting to power on the laptop.

Life has been chugging along as usual. Morgan has started with his new unit, and of course, he gets all secretive, and won't let me tell you guys! BLEH! I think he believes he is Jason Bourne and he is saving America from the terrorists. I like to think he spends his day jumping out of airplanes, climbing mountains, and has a direct number to the Commandant of the Marine Corps. But, who knows what that crazy guy does. He could be sitting at his desk playing solitaire. Ok, enough with the ranting.

Besides the normal day routine, we have all been sick. It started with Madeleine, then me, and eventually Morgan. I'm convinced that Madeleine has super powers, because she was only down for two days and Morgan and I have been down for a week and still counting!I have been scrubbing everything down and spraying it with lysol. I've also been extra careful to wash Madeleine's hands. Although, the girl loves to play with dirt. Give her a bag of dirt and she's in heaven! Such a lady....

Tomorrow is a big day..... We are coming back to Texas for a visit! I'm so excited for salsa, queso, bbq, food trucks, etc. Oh, and my family an friends ;) I'm super excited to see everyone. I feel like we need a month to make sure we see everyone. Besides being excited, I'm super nervous for our airplane ride <doom, doom, doom>. Madeleine has been on an airplane before and she did fantastic! But, these days homegirl is constantly moving, feisty, and kind of a toddler mess! I have bought all the snacks, coloring books, new sippy cup, and the hard stuff..... M&M's. We will be cracking those bad boys open if she starts to become a disaster. I ask that you pray for my soul and my nerves tomorrow!! And if you could say a prayer for us to be seated next to some nice passengers because I don't want to have to cut someone if they talk about my kid!! <Deep breath!!!!>

Well, I'm off to finish some last minute details. Maybe I'll update on our trip, but no promises!!

See ya'll later!