3rd times the charm???

Today I had the honor of becoming an Aunt to my 3rd Nephew (on my side of the family. We also have 3 nephews from Haws' side) This was of course from a different brother... my younger brother became a daddy today! Koko and Brad welcomed the birth of their first child, Tanner Robert
Little Tanner was born at 3:20 am after all long day of labor for Koko. He was 8lbs 4oz (ouch!) and 21 inches long. The family is doing well.
I lucked out when I went to visit this afternoon because Tanner was awake and alert the whole time! He is such a beautiful baby and I am not just saying that because I am blood. The pictures don't do him justice... but check out the video :)
We are so blessed to have him join the clan and are so happy everything went well with both Kori and Tanner.

The little kid is pretty stoked he has such good looking parents... he was destined to be adorable. He really came into this life under great circumstances...

He's got a hot bod...a nice tongue...

An Aunt who strains when she holds newborns... jk (what is up with my neck!?!)Good looking Grandparents...

good hands...

A sweet beanie...

and a dad he can have a deep conversation with.

I think the kid is a pretty lucky.

A peak at him in waking hours. I think he looks like Brad did as a baby, but you never really can tell when they are so young.

Funky Toenails

For the past few weeks... I decided to get adventurous with my pedicure. I usually go for the straight up polish with no upgrades or designs. Being a yoga and pilates instructor, I see a lot of toes. A girl I work with had the cutest polka dot design and it inspired me to try it the next time I went in to do my toes. (I think back now and it was more of a black with gold polka dots) Unfortunately, I combined the new all white look with polka dots and it turned out looking more like funfetti cupcakes!!! The only upside was that Haws wanted to suck my toes! I am totally kidding. Every time I looked at my toes I would laugh and think about how much extra it costs to get them... ridiculous!

I tolerated the toe nails for 2 weeks and then tried a new nail place called Surf City Nails.

I loved it!!! My nail lady was Kathryn and she did a great job. Wonderful massage with even some reflexology... no extra charge!!! She recommended trying a plaid design and I had seen it on a friend before and liked it... so I figured why not? Nothing can be worse than sprinkle frosted toe nails.

This was the result. She even put in some polka dots for fun. I am thinking I will let her try something else fun next time. There are only a few weeks of summer left, so might as well get "crazy" with my toes until then.

Rescue Me!!!

I have to say that I am not a HUGE dog person. I would choose them over a cat... but would much rather own a horse :) I like to take them for walks and enjoy the ones with fun personalities... but I am not what you would call a dog lover. When I go to someones house and the have dogs in the house, I usually shy away from having them jump all over me. There is something about having dog slobber on my leg that just does not appeal to me. Yes... there are some exceptions like my dog Kiya and a few others owned by my friends... but you get the idea. So today I had a random opportunity to "rescue a dog". I had just finished with an appointment in Costa Mesa and was on my way to visit Mandy who just had her little girl (sorry I missed you today... I will get there soon). As I was on the phone with Haws (on the u-connect of course!) I was stopped by a small Rat Terrier just standing in the middle of the street. Cars were going around him, but for some reason he stopped in front of me and just stared. I didn't see any sign of his owner and I figured he some how got out of his home and was just roaming around.  He started coming towards the drivers side door and he looked friendly and had tags, so I opened the door and he jumped right in! He got right on my lap and laid his head down. I felt an instant bond.  I checked the tags and called the number... no answer. So I called the CARE tags and tried them. She said she would try to call the owner again. Long story short... I hung out with the little guy for about 15min and then the owners fiance came to get him. He said that I "saved his butt" because his fiance would have ended it if something happened to her dog. I felt like I did my good deed for the week... but somewhere in the middle of it all I was thinking how I could take this little guy home if the owner never called back. Maybe there is a dog lover in me after all. How could I resist this face???

Trying out the Ice Cream Machine

Haws and I got a ice cream maker for our wedding... we never used it and then I got another ice cream/ frozen yogurt for my birthday. This one had a soft serve handle to dispense the ice cream... so that feature won us over and we kept it.

After almost a year of sitting in the box... I decided it was time to bust it out. So one night while Haws had late night hockey I started to make some frozen yogurt. I had to put it on hold when I got some visitors. Cinnamon and Monica came over with Monica's new little boy, Achim. He is adorable and looks like a little male Monica!

After my guests left, it was getting late and I wanted to get my yogurt done. I hurried and poured the mix into the maker not noticing that the spout was still open and this is what happened...

This was not the worst of it. It had spilled off the counter into the drawers and all over my pants. I was able to save about a cup of the mix and it was good!

The next two days I spent trying to redeem myself for my late night spill. All of the recipes were a success!!! I even tricked Haws by making the mint cookie ice cream reduced fat. He never would have known if I didn't tell him.

This is a horrible picture of me trying to be sexy. I know... it's not working, but this is the only picture I have of my new hair color. Yes... it's brownish. You may not even notice, but I do!!! I feel like it is a little dark, but it has already lightened up a bit and this is much closer to my natural color.

2nd try: Mint cookie Ice Cream. Haws gave this one a big stamp of approval.

Now this one is for me: Vegan Banana Ice Cream

It is made with Coconut Milk and is surprisingly creamy and delicious!

Needless to say, I put this machine to good use over the weekend. I really want to experiment with using greek yogurt as suggested by my friend Janna. I think I might try that once we eat our way through what I already made. This could be a bad hobby to get in to :)

Twilight Movie Update!

Looks like we won't have to wait quite as long for the movie to get here. I am still reading Breaking Dawn... taking my time and trying to soak it all up until the movie gets here :)

From the Twilight Saga website:

"We learned over the weekend that the Twilight movie has been moved up. It will now arrive in theaters on 11/21/08 – just in time for Thanksgiving. Now you have something to be thankful for around the dinner table."

Put it on your calendar girls!!!

Lemon Cookies

Haws and I went to Tae and Dana's last night for a little BBQ, get together. It was a fun night and unfortunately I didn't bring my camera to document any of the festivities. There was a lot of prego talk considering Liz (and Derek) and Dede (and Andy) are both due to have their first babies mid-late February. We are so excited for all of them!!!
Haws made our friend's lemon cookies and I promised to post the recipe here for everyone to enjoy. These were really a hit! Thanks Kirsten :)





Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix (Betty Crocker-Super Moist)
1/2 c. cool whip, thawed
1 egg, beaten and mixed with 2 teaspoon lemon extract and then added to dough
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in cool whip, egg and lemon extract mixture, and oil until well blended. Drop tablespoonfuls of dough into a bowl of confectioners' sugar. Roll them around until they're lightly covered. Once sugared, put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake for 13 minutes in the preheated oven. The bottoms will be light brown, and the insides chewy.

John Mayer

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure to join a group of 10 girls to go see John Mayer along with Colbie Caillat and Brett Dennen. It all started with a trip to Chula Vista for the John Mayer concert with these girls. We had lawn tickets so we cuddled up in blankets and listened to the tunes. It was very romantic :)
I purchased the most expensive chicken sandwich ever (a house of blues exclusive... wow!) and Robin helped me by eating the bun (I gotta give away the gluten) and fries.
Our view was a little far off. Luckily we brought binoculars to get a good look at John's new hair cut. I must say he is a extremely talented guy and not bad to look at. Although I find him somewhat repulsive when he starts talking... a little too full of himself for my liking.
I missed seeing Brett Dennan... but could hear him from the snack stand and he sounded great! Colbie Caillat was adorable and sounded great. I was pleased that their live performances sounded so good!

This is what happens when I try to take a picture myself... frightening!
Ali kicking back and relaxing to the music.
These were our "neighbors". I think the guys were high on something. They couldn't get their hands off each other except for when they were vigorously clapping along and singing. It was almost more entertaining to watch them than to watch the stage!

First Song

My sister in law, Noelle sent me this link to see what was the #1 song on the day you were born. They say that music is the soundtrack to your life... so this would be the first song on your playlist. Kind of fun to see. You can find yours here: http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm

Mine was "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" by Barbra Streisand & Neil Diamond.
Not the most exciting song, but you have to love the duet between these two. Maybe this is why I am not that big on getting flowers?

And Haws' was "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" by K.C. & the Sunshine Band.
I think this is very fitting, don't you? He loves to shake it!

BOOKED!!!

We booked our trip last night to PUERTO RICO!!!!

This will be our first big trip with just the two of us. I am so excited to go. Neither of us have been there before... so it will be a fun adventure. We leave mid-October, so if anyone has any tips on things we MUST do... your suggestions are welcome :)

"Matsen" madness :)

DJ and Kristin came with the kids last month for a quick surprise visit. It was such a treat to get to see them while they were here. The twins are growing up so fast! They will be one this month!

Proof that DJ really does have "dad's special touch".

I wish I could remember which one this was... Sofia?
When I first got there, Dalton was trying to hide from me. He was even hiding from the camera. That is him hiding behind his hand... can you tell? By the time I left, he was wrestling with me and trying to give me "killer whale kisses". It was kind of scary to tell you the truth.


Kristin's sexy look. Two babies trying to pull off her clothes :)
The 3 girl cousins. This was the best it got trying to get them to pose for a picture.

Some sad news...

For those of you that read this on a regular basis... you may know about the horse I was helping to care for, Savannah. This morning I got a call to inform me that she was put down last night. When I talked to her owner yesterday, she told me that Savannah was showing signs of Colic, a common intestinal disorder that happens with horses and can cause death. We were hoping it was just a belly ache, but as it turns out... it wasn't. The poor thing was in a lot of pain and considering how old she is (over 20) there wasn't much they could do for her. She was a sweet horse and I wish I could have had more time to get to know her. I guess my horse care taking days are over for now. I am just glad it was nothing I had done that made her get sick. That would have been horrible!