Russ, Shalae, & Kids

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

March recap

 We've had a lot of fun this month so far. First up, Russ's birthday... we had a few different parties with both of our familes to celebrate and went out to eat the night of. Looks like he loves it when I take pictures of him!


I guess I shouldn't be talking... looks like I loved having my picture taken in the one below!

What can I say about Russ at 38? Besides how much fun & handsome he is - he LOVES his new man cave.

He also LOVES LOVES LOVES his baby, I mean his "i-pad touch by apple" - and relaxing with his socks halfway off.


Next... at the end of Spring Break my mom, sisters, baby Lucy & I took a trip to California. There wasn't much on the agenda - just eating, shopping, and celebrity sighting. We did A LOT of shopping, of course we hit up all our favorite eateries, and we actually spotted a few celebrities too!

One day we went to The Grove basically just in hopes of seeing someone famous. We saw Mario Lopez and Howie Mandel on the set of Extra. That was pretty exciting but not really the caliber of stars we were looking for.



We were driving around LA, getting lost of course like we did the ENTIRE time we were there - and we ran straight into the L.A. temple. We had to get out and walk around, the grounds were so pretty. Except.... Auburn saw a rat run across the sidewalk and that combined with the cold wind made me want to get right back in the car.


My favorite place to eat when we go to California is El Torito Grill. I actually don't love any of their meals but the tortillas, honey butter, guacamole, and corn cakes are SO GOOD!! Lucy got to enjoy some of the ice cream we got out of Auburn's birthday weekend!

We were there on Auburn's birthday so we did her favorite thing all day... shopped! Of course we did the OC swap meet, but we also found Old Navy, Gap, Tilleys, Target, Nordstrom Rack, H&M (I really wish I could post the picture from the dressing room there) and I'm probably forgetting some. That night we went to dinner at Mrs. Knotts, Auburn's request that we usually don't fulfill when we take girls trips. We did it this time since it was her birthday, then the rest of us liked it better than she did! (Sadly my mom is missing from this picture because she had to leave the trip early. We all felt kind of funny that we were at dinner without her, like we were some teenage sisters out without our parents or something. Teenage sisters with a baby that is.)

Auburn was blindsided by the birthday dessert and singing - she was so embarrassed!

One of the most exciting parts of our trip was on our way home. We thought we had seen all the celebrities we were going to see but we were wrong!! We were sitting at the gas station next to this guy and all of the sudden Auburn says "oh my gosh you guys that's Gavin Rossdale!" He then opened the back door to his Range Rover and Auburn jumped from the front seat to the back, saying "Are there kids in there? I'll know it's him if I see his kids." Sure enough, it was who she thought it was. We were snapping pics through our windows and since I was the driver I was so embarrassed. I had just come from inside of the gas station before Auburn realized it was him, but I didn't see his wife who was inside at the time, dangit! He pulled up to the gas station and picked Gwen Stefani up then they drove off. It was so fun to spot a famous family!



Finally - Noah started playing baseball. Here he is in line with is team at the opening ceremonies.

At his first game, he struck out one of the two times he was up to bat. He seems too young to be sad about striking out! I liked how in t-ball, everyone got a turn to bat each inning and there were no strike-outs. But at the same time, coach pitch is much more exciting to watch. It's gonna be a fun season - he has a lot of his buddies on his team.

We also celebrated Kaitlyn's birthday this month - that will be a post of it's own!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Birthday Boy

The cute boy under the glasses is my sweet husband... at 19 years old, ready to go on a mission.

Well today he has officially doubled his age since then!
He is still so cute, even at 38 and after his 5-mile jog this morning!

I love him, everything about him makes him perfect for me. I'm so lucky to be married to Russ, even if he is a lot older than me (I'm nowhere near 38 BTW). One thing I love about Russ is that he is just as excited as I am to watch The Bachelor finale for part of his birthday festivities tonight. Seriously, we've been waiting for it all week. I love that he's as into it as I am! 

Also, today is my sweet niece Ellie's 7th birthday.... I can't believe she's so old!