Allie's Bridal Shower

On Thursday night, some of my dear friends threw a bridal shower for Allie.

It was such a fun night, one that meant so much to Allie.

She felt so loved!

These are the lovely ladies that organized the shower, 

Stefani Barton, Ann Marie Mullen, Julie Hansen, Karen Wilkes and Marci Martin.

They were quite the team putting on such an incredible event! 

Seriously, hands down, the nicest shower that I have ever gone to.

Julie's home looked so beautiful and festive!

Thanks gals!  You really went overboard, but Allie LOVED it!

  One of the gorgeous manzanita trees that were in Julie's entry way 
with the adorable birdhouses that my friend Karen painted that hung from the branches.

The adorable birdhouses.

The birdhouses were filled with chocolate eggs.  Yum!

 The spread in Julie's kitchen.  Gorgeous!

 The crowd enjoying all the delicious treats!

 The white chocolate covered oreo cookies decorated with zebra stripes that Julie ordered from Etsy.
  And of course, they came in the wedding colors!

Since Allie loves zebras, Julie just had to have something zebraish at the shower. 

 I love the cute cutouts with A+J and the birds.

So many cute little details that made it all so adorable!

  The bird sugar cookies that Ann Marie made.  So adorable!

 Allie and her dear friend, Lindsy.

These two have been friends all through grade school at Oakhills and Ridgeview.

They were in the same ward and were baptized on the same day.
 And they were cheerleaders together at Cavitt Jr. high and at Granite Bay high school.  
Allie was so glad that Lindsy and her sister Emily, who we also love and adore, 
and their darling mom, Deborah, could come to the shower.

Justin, or as Allie nicknamed him in high school, "Math Boy",

 wrote an adorable poem to Allie using math terms.

It was very clever and cute!

Allie, opening up her presents.

Allie, with the darling engraved cake pans given to her by Elaine Comery 
or as Tyler affectionately calls her, "Mama C."

At the end of the shower, I remembered to get a picture with my girls

 but we were missing Brooke, who had to go home to go to bed early

 because she was racing the next day.  

I thought of photoshopping her into the picture because it really wasn't complete without her 

but with my photoshopping skills...that really isn't happening.

So here is the picture and next bridal shower,

 I will have to remember to take group photos before the shower!

It really was such a lovely occasion and 

Allie was overwhelmed with the kindness and thoughtfulness that was "showered" upon her.

*Thanks Kimber for taking these photos!

She was so busy being in charge of the game, catching up with many dear friends

and trying to take pictures too! 

 I really appreciate her always bringing her camera and being my personal photographer 

but I just realized that we didn't have photos of the cake that was decorated 

with birds and some of the other gorgeous decorations.

Fortunately, some of the ladies took pictures before everyone arrived.

 So check back later and I will update this post with more pictures later:)!

Vanessa's Baby Shower!

Last week Brooke and I had the pleasure of hosting a baby shower 

for our dear friend, Vanessa Wilkes.

We came up with the theme, "Cookies & Milk." 

Then Brooke, being the party planner extraodinaire, 
was in charge of all the planning and the decorations, which included...

a table full of yummy treats...

a cute diaper cake, which Brooke designed and decorated...

a clever banner and pink pompoms made out of coffee filters...

and ruffled crepe paper, that spelled "girl."
How did she make it? 

 I'll give you a hint...Sew easy, and sew cute!  That's right!  

She sewed the crepe paper together to make the ruffles! Clever!
(Look for the tutorial soon to be posted by Brooke.)

Their were cute milk bottles on ice, 

pink cupcakes from my favorite, Icing on the Cupcake,

delicious fruit trays and chocolate cakes filled with something yummy!

Thanks to good friends, who brought all the delicious treats!

I found these cute old fashioned milk bottles on Ikea's website, which you can't order online.

So I checked our local store, but they didn't have them in stock.

And the bottles weren't in any of the West Coast stores.

 But I found them at the store in Brooklyn. 
 Did I mention, that I just had to have them?

So, what did I do?  Call Kimber and ask her to go to the store in Brooklyn, 

which she did... via the Ferry.

She bought 10 milk bottles and hauled them... via cab back to NYC.

Then she packed and shipped them to California. 

She did it because she is a good little daughter and always helps me out,

even when I get crazy ideas, which usually involves her help.

But mostly because she loves David and Vanessa 

wanted to help in some small way with the shower.

The stash of cute baby gifts and the pink clothes line

with cute baby girl outfits and even a pink tutu!

Girls are way too much fun!

We sure do love Vanessa (and David too!) and we are so glad 

that we were able to celebrate the soon arrival of their little girl!

Sections 3200 Champion!

Brooke ran 10:51 in the 3200 at the Section final 

and broke the Section meet record by 6 seconds!

It all started by a good luck hug from teammate, Natalie, who ran the 1600.

Brooke started out strong and didn't let up the whole way.

Brooke, Allison and Katie, the Granite Bay 3200 team.

Brooke and her happy parents, celebrating her victory.

Christina and Brooke, both took 1st at Sections.

Brooke was feeling like she was having a pretty successful night,

and then she hit a speed bump...

literally... in the parking lot on her cool down,

rolled on the pavement, 

which humbled her a little and left this nice battle wound!

Brooke and her adorable Segale fan club.  Love those ladies!

Brooke and Coach Kehoe.  

Mom and Dad are so proud of our little Bear!

Getting "back on the saddle"...or should I say "bike seat!"

This is me and my friends, Karen Duffey and Liz Skinner,  

riding our bikes this week around the lake.

 You might be asking yourself,
 "Why do they have your arms in the air, like they are celebrating?"

 Well, that is because...

this is me last week, right after I fell off my bike and took a tumble. 

 I was probably going a little too fast and probably talking a little too much. 

  I have found is that it is harder than I thought to bike and talk at the same time;)!

 So this is what happened, at least how I remember it.

 We were heading home, going down the switchbacks at Miner's Ravine,  

and as I was making a sharp right, I caught my peddle on the cement,

  which threw me off my bike.  

My head hit hard and for a minute or two, I was seeing stars. 

 I tried to stand up a couple of times, but felt terribly nauseous. 

I quickly realized that I wasn't going to be riding my bike home.

 So my friends called Brooke, who left school, to come and get me.

She drove me home and cleaned my wounds and stayed with me until  

Mark came home and checked on me during his lunch hour. 

He decided that I must have suffered a small...very small concussion.  

I was nauseous and headachy for days, 

but the worse part was how goofy my brain has been working.  

I mean, I'm kind of loopy on a regular basis, 

but then you throw in a blow to the head and it was down right scary!  

At least it has given me an excuse these past few days. 

Whenever I'm having a "blond moment," I just say, 

"Well, I feel off my bike last week and had a slight concusion."  

People instantly become sympathetic and give me a free pass! 

 I may be using that line for a very long time:)! 

 Thanks to my friend, Karen who took the picture above and documented the incident.

   Funny thing is that I didn't even remember that she took the picture until a week later:)!

This is me and the gals out by Folsom Lake on the Wednesday morning following my bike accident.

They were all so nice and checked on me everyday to make sure I was OK.

They called and texted me and encouraged me to get "back on the saddle" and ride again.

They knew how hesitant I was about riding in the first place,

 so they wanted to make sure I didn't get discouraged and give up.

One of the texts that I received said, 

"You are a good little bike rider and you knew how to keep yourself safe."

That made me and Brooke giggle.  

I felt like such a child, humiliated and wanting to quit.

But then I knew I couldn't.  

I knew my friends weren't going to let me and I don't want to be a quitter.

So I'm back riding again, wearing a new helmet 

and trying to talk a little less and concentrate on the road a little more.

I'm grateful that my injuries are not serious...

just a bruised ego and over time... 

even that will heal!

SFL 3200 League Champion...again!

Brooke won the 3200 at league championships last night at Nevada Union.

 This is the 4th year in a row that she has won this title, 

which means that she has won a total of 9 SFL titles during her high school career. 

She won 4 XC league titles, 4 3200 league titles 

and she won the 1600 title her freshman year! Not too shabby!

Brooke takes the lead on the back stretch of the first lap.

Brooke checking her split time on her watch.

Around the 6th lap, Brooke starts lapping some of the girls.

Checking her watch again on lap 7.

Sprinting around the last lap, heading for the finish line!

Standing on the podium with her teammates, Katie and Allison.

Brooke, Katie and Allison, who took 1st, 3rd and 5th place.  Go Grizzlies!

Katie and Brooke, running and sewing buddies.

Cute cousins picture.  Weston and Brooke.

Our dear friend and Brooke's former teammate, Annie Segale, 

came to cheer Brooke on to victory!  Love that girl!

Mother's Day

It was a lovely day!  This is what I woke up to on Mother's Day!

After only getting 5 1/2 hours of sleep, 
Brooke got up early to work on Mother's Day decorations, festivities and fun.
  She scrubbed and cleaned the kitchen and cleared the back stairs. 
She assembled tissue pom pom flowers and streamers 
and hung them from the ceiling. 
And she made me a gorgeous wrist corsage, 
using some of the beautiful pink flowers from our side yard. 
 She was busy!

On the kitchen counter was a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Mark,

 a gift from the all the kids and the gorgeous corsage that Brooke made.

Brooke had asked all of the kids to email her some words that describe me.

Of course, they were way too kind and said such nice things...

I'm sure that they had to make some of it up, but I didn't care...

It was Mother's Day, my day, all day long, and that meant that I could just pretend...

 and let my kids spoil me and say nice things and make me think I'm a good mother!
I may leave the decorations up all year;)!

The fabulous corsage that Brooke made.  

Notice the cute bracelet that she attached the corsage to?

I wore it to church and got so many compliments.

A side view of the corsage.  Love, love, LOVE the vintage bracelet!

 Thanks to all my adorable children. 
 I really don't deserve all the nice things that they said about me.  
And the sweet cards and gifts were so appreciated!

 I feel so spoiled but mostly, I feel blessed to have such wonderful kids, 
who are my best friends and have grown up to be amazing adults 
(yes, Brooke, you are almost 18 so I can call you an adult!)  
And they did it in spite of my imperfections and at times, my poor parenting skills...

 They have made my job as a mother easy
 and helped me trick fool convince others that I'm a good mother 
and that I know what I am doing, which I really don't...

But what I do know is that being a mother is probably one of the toughest jobs that I've ever had,

 and once you are a mother you will always be a mother 24/7,

and you will always worry about your children, even when they are grown... 

  But it is also one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences 

and has brought me more joy than I could ever imagine.

Thanks for the wonderful day!