Such an unfortunate nickname... and I guess it is stickin'

Most of you know, my nickname is Weener. I know, pretty bad huh? Not only that but other forms of it like, Weenie, Richard, Dick... ect. Most of the time though, it is Weener.

Kirk and Julie have been talking ever since they got married that when they have kids they are going to tell them to call me Aunti Weener. Easy to say, I was not thrilled at this idea.

Ever since high school I have heard this wonderful nickname called out, even across the quad at school or in other awesome public places. I mean really, who would not want to be beckoned in a public place with such an awesome term of endearment, right?

Well, I was thinking, no way. It won't happen. Well, I was wrong. It has started!

Today I met Mariah and Dub A (Isaac) for lunch. It was fun times. He is getting so big! Talking a lot and bunches of new words to say for me. MaMa, WaWa (water) and then Mariah said...

"Isaac, who is that?" and pointed to me.

"Is that Aunti Weener?"

He looked right at me and said, "WeeWee!" with a big grin on his scrumply little face!

Are you kidding me?

Mariah said that on the way down to meet for lunch, she said "Isaac, we are going to see your Aunti Weener."

And he responded with Wee Wee. So yup... it has stuck... I am Aunti Wee Wee.

Oh Lord, I can just hear it now. So many kids coming up with their own versions of it...

Aunti Wee Wee

Aunti Weenie

Aunti Weene

All I can say is, you better believe my kids will be calling Kirk, Uncle Kirkerman or Uncle Kirkker.

ummmm.... eeeewwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I love to cook... despise cleaning up the kitchen, but LOVE to cook. Although some nights I get home from work and all the sudden I look at the clock and it is already after 8pm and I have not even thought about dinner.

This has never been a problem before, mainly because I have the most easy to please hubby when it comes to food. He is happy with anything, so I would usually do Kraft Mac and Cheese with kielbasa or taquitos with cheese and salsa or quesadillas... are you sensing a theme?

CHEESE!!!

Every easy, fail safe, quick meal ideas I have are cheese, milk, cream and more cheese. So, while David can still eat quick, I being off dairy have a harder time. You can only have eggs so often.

So on my last trip to Whole Foods I picked up a few dairy free quick meals and was looking forward to the next late night mad dash to the kitchen.

The 1st was a couple weeks ago. I went for my Soy Cheese Dairy Free Pizza... I ate about 1/4 of it and gave up. My jaw started to hurt from chewing the nasty fake cheese and cardboard crust. Thanks for nothing but taking my $8 bucks Whole Foods.

Well, tonight was one of those nights again. Julie had a CPK frozen pizza for one and David went for taquitos... I pulled out my dairy free Veggie Meatloaf frozen meal.

It was soooo wrong you guys! I took one bite and could not bare another. Just look at the picture... and ask the twin, this picture makes it look like a stinkin' 4 star meal... it was not!

I ended up eating some beef jerkey. :) Go figure.

New Jam's... for Addie Loo-Hoo

Ok... as you know, David and I are yet to have children of our own. Although, when that day comes I have a feeling the economic downturn will rebound a bit :) Until that day comes I have been and continue to be blessed with so many little one's to support my "gift" of shopping. This was something I always knew the mom's were appreciative of, but last week I was enlightened to find out that some of the little one's have come to learn of my gift giving habit...

Last week, Sarah Fitz and I were in Addie's room after her bath, getting her ready for bed. Sarah was putting her jammies on (you know, the Carter's, super soft, zip all the way up, one's with the feet). Well, this particular jammie was one I had given to Addie almost a year ago when I was actually picking a few out for Caleb from Costco (I shop a lot, but I am almost always getting an amazing deal!). They seemed a bit too snug and this is what transpired:

Sarah: Addie, I think these jammies are getting a little too tight, you need some new jammies.

Addie: (without skipping a beat, turns her head to look at me and says) Wenny... I need some new jammies, you get me some, ok?

Me: (without skipping a beat) You got it Addie! What color?

Addie: Pink

Me: Flowers or animals?

Addie: Flowers

Me: You got it! New jammies coming right away!

Sarah and I burst into laughter. It was sooo funny! I did not find it rude or assuming in any way. The girl is awesome, she remembered who gave the too small jammies to her and so when she needed new one's, she went straight to the source. Addie-Loo-Hoo, you are a girl after my own heart!

As promised, she got her new jammies from Costco... they did not have any pink with flowers, but I think I made some great choices with what I had to pick from.

Our New Home... part two

Here is the built in office area for David's many computers and monitors :)


The cozy room as I like to call it...

Down Stairs Bath

Front room

David's window... my fun floor rug :)

Lots of lighting in this house

I love this kitchen!!!

Double oven... you are all welcome for Thanksgiving!!!

Love having pictures up already!! Thanks David!

The main guest room... waiting and ready for anyone who wants to stay... Caruana's??? :)

For some reason when the movers were moving our stuff in, David started referring to this as the "baby" room. No babies to put in it yet, but more sleeping room for visitors.

So that is it, minus the master and another room we are making the music/workout room.

We thank God every day for the amazing blessings He has given us, and we are so excited to share this blessing with out loved ones! So come on over!!!

Our New Home...

Ok... so yes, this did take a really long time, but here are the 1st pictures of our new home :) To be honest, part of the reason it took so long is because we were renting until escrow closed, and I felt weird putting pictures up of a house we did not even own yet :P But since escrow finally closed and I finally got my act together, here are the out side pictures... inside are to follow.

So here is the front... David's favorite part... the Bay Windows, my favorite part... the driveway!!!

Here are some of the super fun roses blooming right now. Good thing we have a great gardener, because I do not do well with living plants! They involve bugs, and I am not a fan of those little creatures.

Here is the back yard... David loves every bit of it! Built in BBQ for some fun grillin!

Fire place for some Smore fun!

Pool and Spa... We are pretty excited to have such an awesome party back yard.

So there you have it... feel free to come and play any time!

Never to feel left out...

The twin thought something very important was missing from this picture... and so she did something about it:

Just something fun till I get my act together and get pictures of the new house up...

THREE OF MY FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1. Caedmon's Call
2. Rascal Flatts
3. Bon Jovi

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE:
1. I am preggers
2. I dream about eating cheese
3. I tivo and watch DOOL every day.

THREE OF MY FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Eating
2. Talking
3. Taking pictures of all the little smushes in my life.

THREE THINGS I WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Eat ceddar fries with ranch at Islands
2. Have all the things we have not hung up yet in the house magically appear on the walls.
3. Go to Burke Williams with Sarah, The Twin and Lolly

THREE CAREERS I’VE CONSIDERED:
1. Event/Party Photographer
2. Model Home Decorator
3. Chef

THREE PLACES I WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Sea Shell Islands
2. Boston (in the Fall)
3. Ireland

THREE KIDS NAMES I LIKE:
1. Karis
2. Avery
3. Nolan

THREE WAYS THAT I AM STEREOTYPICALLY LIKE A GIRL:
1. I cry... A LOT
2. I nag my hubby... or as I like to look at it... give him pleasant reminders to make sure he remembers :)
3. I love movies like Steel Magnolias, Center Stage, A Walk to Remember... the list goes on.

THREE WAYS THAT I AM STEREOTYPICALLY LIKE A BOY:
1. I NEED to have control over the remote control
2. I get ready really fast.
3. I can out eat most of them :)

A really fun weekend in the midts of chaos!

All this house stuff has been a lot for us this past week, and so we decided to head north for some weekend fun... and we found it!
Woke up Sat morning and did my Shred (I am on day 9 now, of my 30 day shred with Jillian Michael's from the Biggest Loser... it is awesome!) while David went to Starbucks for his weekend ritual of Starbucks and the Bible :) Then we got ready and headed to Taluka Lake (near Burbank). This is where D's best friend Nate is now living, and since we had not seen his new diggs yet and wanted to get together with him for lunch we met him at his place first. His place was great, very simple and typical bachelor pad, but I this is the 1st time I have seen a rented apartment with granite counter tops and base boards and crown molding... talk about high falutin' :)
Nate took us to this place called The Counter for lunch. Let me tell you, He knows his audience. He told us he wanted to bring us there bc he thought I would love it, and Love it I did! Pretty much build your own burger with some of the yummo fixin's! And I got Onion straws and fries with a garlic aoli dipping sauce. Good thing I did the Shred that morning :)
Then it was up to Camarillo to visit our friends Jon and Kimi. Kimi is very close to her due date and we were hoping to make it up there to see their place and hang out before baby girl Marshall made her debut appearance. (and no, all of you who know me so well, you are thinking... Camarillo... aren't there amazing outlets in Camarillo... well yes there are, in fact they recently added 125 new stores. But I had self control, and not like I was going to ask the 9 month along preggo friend to go walking around outlet shopping for hours on end. Even I have boundaries.)
There house is awesome! They found a great deal on a 5 bedroom 1 story house in a cute neighborhood. They are taking things slowly to get their house together, but it had real potential and I thought it looked great already from what they have already done.
Here's the thing though that is weird about Camarillo though. We decided to walk to dinner and the 1st three places we attempted to eat at were closed already... we are not talking 9pm on a Sunday (which was hard to find in Indiana when visiting the Caruana's) but no, we are talking 5pm on a Saturday in So Cal... it was so strange. We kept walking and found a place that was not bad at all. And Kimi, what a trooper... she only had to stop once for a quick rest because of those pesky "squeezy things" as she calls them, otherwise known as contractions :)
Then they told us about how when they moved to Camarillo everyone they met would ask them two things... Did you know that Camarillo has the 2nd greatest climate in the nation (and no, not one person has ever told them which city has the best :) and the other one was... so are you guys going to be going to the Summer Concerts in the Park?
Ok people, we have all heard of something like this in our community or surrounding ones... but we have never seen something quite like this. We happened to be there on the 1st concert of the summer and we decided to head out and see what it was like. It was packed, must have been bc it was the World Classic Rockers concert:
former band members from all these bands: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Toto, Steppenwolf, Journey, Santana and Boston. It was awesome, Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama sent the crowd singing and dancing.
But this was not just a few hundred people coming to enjoy some music. I think the entire city came out... there were soooooo many people there, and the park etiquette rules state that seating is 1st come 1st serve. You can start reserving seats as early as 5pm on the Thursday before the event. And I guess that's what most do!!! Starting on Thursday night chairs and blankets started amassing over the park. And no one touches them, apparently, Camarillo is a really safe place to live, people do not even lock their front doors most of the time.
It was crazy fun, D and I are going to come back to meet the Marshall's for the Sept 12th concert in the park where it will be a tribute to Elvis :)
After the concert we went back to their place and roasted some marshmallows then made the trek back down south.
It was a great weekend and a great escape from all the house stuff going on... but now back to the work week grind, and the potential move :)

Apparently... we are in ESCROW...

Well, that did not take long! The last 3 days have been a whirlwind of emotions and all I can say is, When God chooses to move, watch out!
We are in the start of a 35 day escrow with the people who are purchasing our house and we will see what happens with when we will move into our new place. If we have to we will store our stuff and crash and Julie and Kirk's I guess, no biggie.
But looks like we will need help moving... so all our friends who are so young enough to help, please come on out! We will provide beer and food! That's all you need right? :P
And Lolly, looks like you and the kiddos will get to see the place before you head back to Indy! Our escrow closes the day before you leave. Too bad Josh will be gone already :( Maybe she will let us take a peek before we move in so he can check it out too!
Oh the BBQ pool parties to come!
Please pray for smooth escrows, appraisals, loans and anything else that could go wrong with all parties involved!
Love you all!

House For Sale...

Yup, our house is officially for sale. It was put up on the MLS this morning, and we already got a call that someone is going to look at it today :) Hope that means good things are to come.

Here's how it all started...

The Fitzpatrick family lives on this wonderful cul de sac in Mission Viejo and we spend a lot of time visiting this wonderful street. Mark and Sarah have always said, "You guys should sell your house and move onto this street... which neighbors can we get to move out so you can move in?"

None of the houses have ever been up for sale on their street since we met them, but to amuse them and David, we said the only house we really liked on the street and would consider moving to was the one 2 doors down from them. Beautiful bay windows in the front :) But of course what would the likelihood of that house going up for sale and even if it did, the likelihood of us liking the inside of it?? Well, Mark was told a month or so back that the owner was wanting to sell in the near future.

And so we got a call from the Fitz's telling us that we better get ready to move because the house we like is going on the market. :)

This coming only a few short weeks after the twin and Kirk moved into a house 3 doors down the other direction. Thus making the appeal even greater for moving.

So, Mark set up a time for us to check out the house... we went and David fell in Love :)

I love many things about the house, but of course I also see $$$ that I would want to spend in order to make things more me :)

It is awesome though,

pool, hot tub, outdoor fireplace, BBQ island with built in grill and fridge, redone amazing kitchen (huge points there for me)

But I will be leaving my house in Ladera that I love. My master bedroom and bathroom from heaven :) the front that D and Kirk built with their own two hands, the 10 degree cooler weather and breeze that Ladera pumps in throughout the city... yes, that is why our dues are so much money!

We decided to go for it, throw out an offer we did, and found out yesterday she accepted. Signed papers and now the buy is contingent on us selling our house. So we will see where God takes us!

Pretty excited but pretty weirded out about having strangers in my house when I am not there.

In a few weeks, we will either be starting to gate off the FitzSnellSon Estates or we will remain in our house in Ladera, which we LOVE. So we will be happy either way, it will just be interesting to see where God wants us.

So pray with us if you will.

Thanks all! XOXO

I got me some TOMS!!!!

Ok, so many of you blessed me so much for my birthday with wonderful cards and fun gifts! Thanks so much.
One of these gifts I received, I have been wanting for a long time. I have almost purchased some a few times... but they never had my size in the ones I wanted and so i kept putting a purchase off!
Well Ladies and Gentleman... I give you my First Pair of Toms!
In all their Glory!

Thanks to the FitCar Families (Josh, Lolly, Mark and Sarah)! They are BEAUTIFUL!

I love them, and my reasons are 3-fold:

1. Tom's donates a pair of shoes to someone in need of shoes when each pair is purchased... so I received an awesome gift, and some one else did too!

2. Some would say, "Wendy, the last thing you need is another pair of shoes!" To that I say... True if we are talking about Flip Flops or other open toed shoes... but NO! These are close toed and very hard to come by in my world! :)

3. I know that the color was a little tricky for the peeps to pick out, and that they even entrusted the Twin to help pick some out... well AMAZING JOB LADIES!!! They even match Marc!
(see picture)

So there you have it! Job well done guys... and so many people say I am hard to shop for :P


I love my Tom's!

May Birthdays...

Happy Birthday Month to me... and to many others in my life!

May Birthday's are pretty big in my life. Not only do I share mine with my wonderful Twinner(and with our cousin Tim), but I also share the month with so many others. Everyone in the picture above holding a birthday candle in fact :) (not Russ... he is holding a table candle, his bday is in Sept.) :P

The list is as follows:

Me

The Twin

Cousin- Tim

Sister-in-law- April

Cousin-Eric

Nephew- Jacob

Father-in-law- Rod

Mother-in-law- Ann

Sister-in-law- Neeley

Niece- Jessica

Niece- Ashley

Niece- Hannah

Niece- Grace( Ash, Hannah and Grace are in June, but since it is so close to may we celebrate them with the may bdays most of the time).

That is 13 just in the family alone... if I forgot anyone, sorry :) there are so many it would be easy to do.

Then I have 5 friends with May bdays and there is Mother's Day thrown in!

All this to say...

Happy Birthday all you May babies! Hope your Birthday, or month :) is amazing!

XOXO

Fun in Indy!!!

So, David and I headed out for a quick trip to Indy to visit the Caruana's on the 30th. It was such a great way to kick of the awesome time of year that is Birthday Month! (If you don't celebrate a birthday month... you should! It is great. No reason to celebrate only one day a year... when a month is so much more fun!)

Any way, it started out in the early AM... when we got there, the screen was showing a 15 minute delay. To this we thought, No Biggie. Our layover is a little over an hour in Chicago, so we should be fine. :)

Then the voice comes over the loud speaker telling us, we will be boarding the plane in 10 minutes, but due to bad weather in Chicago, we could be sitting on the tarmac for about 1 hour and 20 minutes before we are cleared to take off. So now, we are sitting on a plane that might not take off for another hour and we are thinking we have slim chances of making our connection unless that flight is delayed as well. Which is actually not that uncommon in Chicago airports :P
So we text Josh, Lolly and Sarah (oh yea, the Fitz Family was already in Indy with the C-Fam) what our issues are, and they start praying that we get there quickly.

We ended up pnly being on the plane about 30 minutes and we were cleared to take off. We landed in Chicago about 50 minutes late and got off the plane only to see that our gate had changed, so we ran to find the new gate and luckily it was delayed 50 minutes as well... ended up being delayed about 1 and 1/2 hours, but we finally landed in Indy with Josh waiting curb side to pick us up.

It was so great to see him. It is weird, that even though we have not seen him since Xmas, it feels like it was just yesterday.

We made it to the house and we were greeted with lots of hugs and love! Lol had made her yummo stir fry and the 3 boys headed out for a much anticipated sushi dinner.

The kids are getting so big! All of them have such distinct personalities!
Hannah, with newly missing teeth, is amazing. She has such a caring spirit and she is so brave.
Jon, I cannot get enough of what comes out of this kids mouth! Every thing he says seems so thought out and so genuine. What a helper too! He kept picking things up that David was leaving around and saying "here you go uncle David, I don't want you to forget this," or "I don't want this to get lost." Too stinkin cute. He gave us a bunch of laughs.
And Caleb... he is So Big. There are no more babies in the Caruana House. :(
I Love that Caleb is a food lover. He wants healthy things too... this kid goes crazy for hummus and Veggie Straws. Pictures to follow :)

On Friday we went to this fun park... even though the clouds were looming... we wore hooded jackets incase there was a down pour. It was lots of fun. (see pictures)
Mark ended up pulling a dead snake from the river for the kiddos to check out. And as we walked through the trails in the woods, it started to pour! It was super fun, we all ran back to the car and we were soaking wet. And because Josh and Lolly are so amazing, they did not even bat an eye when 12 rain soaked people cramed into both their cars.

That night there was a date night planned, a babysitter showed up and it was 6 adults out to dinner with no babies, no toddlers and no kiddos... this is pretty common for David and me, not so common for The Fitz and C-Fam... which is what made the night so fun.
FitzCarSon night was here!

We went to dinner in Down Town Noblesville (which Lolly and I returned to the next day and hit up a cute, but huge, anitique store(found something so cool for Mariah for her bday) before everything closed... yup, there's a shock when you are not in So Cal anymore... places close freakishly early). The resteraunt was called Matao's and it was AMAZING! Great food and Great service! And Dairy Free, fresh baked bread!

Then back to the house for a FitzCarSon Settler's game. Josh brought the victory home! But that is where his winning streak ended! Lolly and I whooped on the boys in card games the next 2 nights. They never stood a chance... cards are in my blood ;)
The Fitz Fam, left the next morning and then there were 8 :)

Fun times were had... Hannah and Jonny were across the street playing with friends and so we had the little man out on the deck enjoying the day... which brought on a nail-biting game of Bocci Ball... not with me so much (I only had one point when all was over... I am sticking to cards) but Josh, Lol and David were all soooo close the whole way through.

We woke up for the early service at their church. It was awesome... the Pastor is amazing and being able to capture me for that long when it was 6am Cali time... let's just say... The Holy Spirit is speaking through this man. Awesome!

Come Sunday afternoon we were thinking of what to do and David had an idea about this trip before we left, that he wanted to do something with the kids that they had not done before... So they had their 1st ever Reggatta Race of Carmel Indiana. To read about this and see the fun pictures please check out David's Blog http://thelongwinded.blogspot.com/

At 4PM that night they had their life group over and David and I got to sit in. It was a great time for me. The Lord was speaking through Josh and Lolly and I was hearing His word for me. And the couples in their group are so great. As much as we miss them out here, the Lord has put them in such an amazing place with so many awesome people.

After that the babysitter Ella (Ella... under my umbrella...ella... ella... ella... eh...eh...eh...) Sorry I could not help myself Sarah :) stayed around and we got to go to the movies... Worverine!!! Loved It! Then to an amazing dinner, where they presented me with the best Bday card for me of all time. Poking fun at my "correcting grammar" habit and some spicey language. It was classic!

Then came Monday! Boo Hoo... time to go home. We met Josh for lunch and then it was off to the airport. When we were walking towards the doors we hear Hannah and Jonny yelling, "We love you in Abundance!" It was the perfect ending to such an amazing weekend! It was sad to leave... I am so happy to be home, but so bummed to be away from them :(

We are just happy that they are set to come to Cali in June! Something great to look forward to!
Sorry for such a long post... but it was a fun time I wanted to get down in text. :)

Here are a bunch of pictures... you know I cannot help myself!

There you have it... be sure to check out David's blog to see some other fun times :) He has not blogged it yet... but soon :)

Weekend with the Prescott's... aka... Kami Kami Kami

My mom and I went up North last weekend for a few days of fun with Michele, Tony and Kami. It was lots of fun... minus the bugs... I could never live in the woods :)
Kami is getting soooo big. And let me tell you she has some awesome little quirks and sayings. Here are a few of the things that tickled my heart...

Kami, just like all of us, has to pass gas from time to time. Most little kids say something like Excuse me and give a little giggle... not Kami. She passed gas and whispered... oh... it's a barking spider. I cracked up... Tony taught her that one.

She learns a lot of stuff from her Dad since he is such a hands on dad. When Tony answers the phone with some of his friends he says "Peace and Love, Peace and Love" Well Kami tends to walk around the house chanting "Peace and Love, Peace and Love" It is soo classic.

Our Niece Hannah loved Sleeping Beauty when she was little and she called her Sleeping Bluuty... it was super cute and when that happens there is no need to correct them, because it is just so stinking cute. Well, Kami calls her Sleeping Booty. Awesome

Kami has struggled a little with hitting and biting at daycare... what can I say... she is a tough kid! Well they have been working with her on this, and I found that out when we picked her up from her friends house and we asked what she did with her friend and kami responded with "No Biting No Hitting Nice Hands"... Apparently, that is what they tell her to remember when she goes to day care and to friend's to play. And she sure remembers it.

It was a great time... here are some fun pictures of our time there.


Kami played at a friends' house while we went out to dinner. Fun adult dinner time.

Kami loves going to Kaitlyn's house. Daddy put her in this awesome outfit... Oh... the 909 is still alive and well.

Kami could not bring her self to see Grandma CeCe with her Bling on... she made her take it off very quickly.

She came up to me and said "Aunt Wendy, check out my bling"... too cute.

She LOVES being with her dad!

Kami trying to convince me that she should eat another hard boiled egg... I said no... she was not a happy camper. shortly after this picture was taken.

She loved them... Calls the eggies... not eggs... she told me they are eggies.

She really got the hang of it.

Grandma CeCe teaching her the art of egg coloring.

Fun times.

Grandma CeCe surprised Kami with a Snow White tent and sleeping bag... she Loved it as you can see.

This girl Loves the park... this crazy big green slide is her fav. she is such a big girl.

I was the lucky one that was picked to go all the way up the fun playground maddness.

The girl loves to wear princess crowns

She was beating up on dad...

Who knew... cheerleading... hmmmm.

This is the outfit she picked to jump on the tramp! I LOVE IT!

She is a crazy chic.

Blowing bubbles Grandma CeCe brought for her.