Abel's Apple Acres

My mom & I took Brandon & Olivia to Apple Hill on Saturday to check out the pumpkin patch (Olivia's first), and to have some apples! The lines were long, the kids got cranky, but it was gorgeous & hey, it's fall!

Brandon wasn't too sure what to do with the pumpkins, and Livi wasn't too thrilled at all...I think she thought she was going to be held when I took her out of the stroller, not plunked on top of some pumpkins! After the pumpkins, we drove up to a winery to feed Olivia (not with the wine! just needed a place to park so I could nurse!) and let Brandon run around. He had a blast "driving" an old tractor...thank goodness!

Yee-hah!

First, I swear I'm into more than clothes! But...

I just caught a sneak peek of the new gymbo line. The one that I have $125 of gymbucks for. And a $25 store credit. The one I can "spend" over $275 for $125.

Oh. My. Gosh.

Lately I haven't cared much for the boys' lines, but I heard this one had trains. I think I might have to return some of his baby gap stuff to justify this!

Score!

Last night I was on Gymbohaven's chit chat forum & someone had a 20% off code up for grabs & I got it! Yay! I re-ordered everything I got last week (and added a little more in!) & got $75 Gymbucks for not too much more than I spent last week :) Now I just have to return everything I got (not looking forward to that!). Between my 20% off score & the haul I got at Baby Gap outlet for Brandon...we are set! Yee-hah!

What I got last night:



to go with the striped hoodie & tee


At first I wasn't sure if I really liked this line, but I *love* this purple outfit! So different for Livi :)


For Brandon


to be worn together like this

Minus these particular pants (got him some cute cargo ones at the baby gap outlet) & the backpack. I thought he'd look adorable in these for his 18 month portraits that I need to get done soon.

Fun new clothes!

Some new outfits I got for Olivia over the last month or so...

Sugar & Spice (from ebay)




My Best Friend (from ebay). The yoga set is velour & looked so warm & cozy, and I thought I matching onesie for underneath would complete the set.




Primrose...just a tee & leggings, but how comfy! I'm planning on getting her another A-line tee & leggings during the next sale too ;)



Outdoor Whimsy...had to do the cute overalls! Nice for the holidays, and she has a hairbow to match already :)




Mix & Match: my mom got her the cute kitty cat jacket, and then I figre the tee & sweater can go with any jeans...although today I found out that they accidentally sold me a onesie that was supposed to go back on the shelf. So, if I exchange that & get some bottoms instead...we'll see :)

Here it is

My new minivan :)

So pretty! So nice & comfy & spacious & full of areas to keep things. Yay! And I can put the kids in separate rows so I can hop on back & sit by one of them if I need to.

I'm so happy.

I never dreamed I'd get this giddy over a minivan :)

We did it!

We got a minivan! It's too late to do much other than post a pic from Toyota's website, but I just had to announce it! We totally thought we were going with the Honda Odyssey, but we looked at the Sienna's & fell in love. And I did NOT like the features (or should I say "lack" of features) on the Odyssey.

So now it's official: I'm a suburban minivan mama. Oy vey! At least I'm not a soccer mom....yet!

Summertime

Mom was so excited when we told her that Dave & Nicole were coming up to meet Olivia over 4th of July weekend. She'd wanted to host a family party for quite sometime, so this was perfect! Unfortunately Dad's new barbeque hadn't arrived yet, but that didn't stop us. We invited everyone!

Dave & Nicole came up with the kids, and Kathy was her for the week anyhow. Dad's cousin Marsha drove over from Roseville, and Brenda came up with her gang from Oakdale. Michael couldn't make it, but his daughter Danielle & her son James accompanied Brenda & Sabrina. It was great to have so many kids together. We didn't even notice that they were there; they were having so much fun! And since everyone wanted to hold Olivia, I was able to enjoy myself as well.

It was a wonderful afternoon & evening and we can't wait to see everyone again.

Under the Sea

Well, I still need to paint, but here are some pics of the kids bathroom. I know David wasn't too thrilled with me changing the bathroom, and I did love the tropical/palm tree theme we had going, but it's now a kids' bathroom & I thought it should look that way, you know?

It started out innocently enough; we needed "stickies" for the tub so Brandon wouldn't slip. I originally picked up the palm tree ones from PBK. Well...after I got Brandon the sea critters sheets I knew I had to get him the cute stickies. So I went with my mom to exchange the stickies. But the collection was big time on sale, so...







All I have to do now is paint the bathroom, remove the palm tree pics from the wall, & put up the new decos. I got the wallies from this collection at PBK & I'm going to put them on wood plaques painted white & then lacquer them.

yay!

I did it! I customized my header! I feel so proud of myself!

The Deal

Well, I went to Gymboree today & did my return (top & socks). They didn't have long sleeve body suits for Olivia because we're a "hot" store. Oh well. Guess they won't get my money...time to order online.

Though it was nice to be able to see the clothes up close & personal, you know? Did change my mind a bit. And I talked to my mom on the way over to the mall & she wants to get Brandon his yellow fleece jacket again. Yay! And even if she doesn't, I still have a $30 credit that I can't use online. And I think I'm going to return something else too (maybe) for another $17-18.

Anyhow, I got this jumper & onesie from the new Pretty in Plums line


And I still got the long sleeved ivory onesie. Mostly for her Cherry Pie jumper once it gets colder.

Then, I was good. I got only stuff on a good sale for next summer. So I paid $5 shipping, $4 tax, and $61 total for the above items (which cost that much on their own) and the following from the Island Fun line:





Liv's gonna be stylin' next summer! And I'll get to order some bows for this as well. But I'll wait on that since I'm sure her hair will be a lot longer next summer. Hopefully long enough for pig-tails!

Happy shopping!

Gymbucks!

Okay, so I don't have all the gymbucks that I should. But I do have 2 (thanks Kathy!), and I do have a $24.50 return to make. So I can go shopping for some stuff. And then I'll be good & wait (as best as I can!) until the other stuff goes on sale.

But...I do want to get some things! Like this fleece jacket for Brandon. I got him the orange fleece one last year from the Construction line, & it was the perfect weight for all winter. So this year we'll get yellow. Cool. I'm not diggin' the Dig Dig Dig line (ha! pun intended!), so I'll wait to get him more clothes when the new athletic line comes out & goes on sale. Patience....

As for Liv, well, of course I'll have to get her something. I'm not sure which I'm going to get her now & which I'm going to wait for. Darn gymbucks! If I had all of mine I'd be good. This is the outfit I love It reminds me of something I had as a child (I think). The other is a few things put together. This jumper is cute & I like it better than the brown one. I need to buy Livvie more dresses since I can! And then of course the cardigan, onesie, & tights to go with it. And the crib shoes would work with it too.

I can't believe I want

A minivan.

Yikes! What have I turned into? A mom, and not only that, a mom with two kids. Two kids in carseats. Which makes it very hard to park (both doors have to be able to open ALL THE WAY), and very hard to go anywhere with more than one passenger, as both of my backseats contain a carseat. We do have a third row in our Buick Rendevous, however, you can't fit a stroller behind it (or anything else for that matter), so using it is out of the question.

I'm hoping to get a Toyota Sienna

or a Honda Odyssey


I got to look in Stephanie's Odyssey today after leaving playgroup. Very nice...

GRRRRR!

I'm so annoyed! I bought Olivia too many cute outfits at Gymboree a couple weeks ago, including the cute cherry jumper outfit I posted. I earned 2 gymbucks, but had decided to return the tee shirt & skirt (total of $46), knowing I would lose one gymbuck. So I put the clothes & receipt back in the bag. I put the Gymboree bag in a PBK bag because I did. And then I put it all in the car. No big deal, I would return it as soon as I could.

David saw the bag in the car last Sunday & made a comment about it, to which I replied it was just returns. On Monday we went to Tahoe, so he took the bag out to make room for everything. The trash went out on Monday night & was picked up on Tuesday. I'm sure you know where I'm going here....

The bag is missing!!!

I have looked high & low for it, and I can only assume that David set the bag in the garage, & then stupidly grabbed it when he took the garbage out! Ugh! And if it's not frustrating enough to have lost the clothes that were to be returned, I had 2 gymbucks in there! And I never put receipts in the bag. The only reason this one was in there was that I had already taken the receipt out of my wallet so I threw it in the bag so I would have it with me (instead of having it in our bill holder).

At least I didn't really need the gymbucks, although I would've used them. But there went $46 down the drain...

Just $30 million...

I still can't help thinking about this.

At church on Sunday the Pastor mentioned a real estate ad he'd seen during the week. For a lake front home on Lake Tahoe. With 11 bathrooms, and 2 half-baths. For $30 million. Wow. Just wow.

His point was to illustrate what else could be done with that much money. Opening 30 medical clinics in Africa. Providing 38 million children with AIDS meds. Etc.

I mean, I do spend money. On unnecessary things. But I still can't imagine spending that much money on a house when you could do so many other things. And heck, if you're that vain, you could name all the clinics after yourself.

Day Trip to Tahoe

Yay! David got today off as a reward for working over 4th of July weekend. He said to pick something fun to do, so I picked going to Tahoe. He was a little miffed that I invited my parents too, but having more adults than babies just makes life easier!
Can you see the snow on the mountain tops across the lake? Amazing! I feel so blessed to live this close to something so wonderful. It's awesome living only an hour & a half from this!



We went to our "usual" location: Jason's at Kings Beach. There is a wonderful beach there, and we LOVE to eat at Jason's. We were able to sit outside today, which is a new thing since we're usually there in the summer. Brandon & David splashed in the water & played in the little park there too. I think the coolest thing is that because we always go to the same spot & take basically the same pictures, someday I'm going to have a whole collection of our family chaning & growing, with the shores of Tahoe remaining relatively unchanged.

After spending some time at the lake, we headed back to Truckee. Mom wanted to stop at the cooking store there, and DAvid wanted a caramel apple. I just liked being able to walk around with Olivia & Brandon.