Alfrey Slice

Ritz-Carlton baby!

2010-01-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

This year for our anniversary, I wanted to surprise Justin by stealing him from work Thursday morning and taking him down to one of our favorite breakfast restaurants over in San Clemente, Fisherman's. The restaurant is on a pier and you can sit out on the patio, eating seafood eggs Benedict and watch the waves roll under the restaurant. So I emailed his boss two weeks ago and got permission have Justin miss that morning of work...

Little did I know, my Dad had a surprise for us. He had obtained a night at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel (Dana Point). So Justin asked his boss for the rest of that day off and we set off to Dana for our first ever (and hopefully not only ever) Ritz-Carlton experience. Everything was perfect! We had a breath-taking view of the ocean. We left the patio doors open all night so we could sleep to the sound of the waves rolling onto shore.

Another really cool thing about the Ritz in Laguna Niguel is that they have their own private beach. So it's never crowded with people. There are a few surfers in the morning, and a couple walking at sunset every now and then, but for the most part, all you can hear is the water. It was wonderful!

Really the pictures speak for themselves, we had such a wonderful time.

Happy 4 years to Justin, the man I love! Honestly it has been so much fun being married to you, that I would gladly do the four years over again! I wouldn't change a second!

Look kids, a deer!

2009-11-29T15:10:00.000-08:00

Lets catch up shall we? Right before Halloween we went to the huge Pumpkin Patch out in Yucaipa. For Halloween Cade was a pirate, Tess a caterpillar. We went trunk or treating over in Rancho Cucamonga and on Halloween night we stayed home and carved pumpkins. From Halloween up until now it's all kind of a blur... We combined our families for thanksgiving, making it the best of both worlds and the day after that we were among the loonies to go black friday shopping. To get into the true spirit of Christmas we recently watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. "Where do you think you're going to put a tree that big?" (I forgot how stinkin' funny that movie is!) And there you have it.
Pumpkins

Sunflower Tessa

Cade and the Goat

Cade at petting zoo

Justin and I

Cade with the missionaries

Tessa

Tessa-Bells

2009-08-22T23:26:00.000-07:00

She's just so stinkin CUTE!

It's been a while, yes, I know

2009-08-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

So here's what's new with the Alfrey Fam....

My Brother Conrad just got home from his mission in Russia. He's a cutie huh?

My Sister Stacy, her husband Kent and their daughter Andi came down to visit. We took them to the Farmer's Market here in Redlands.

We took them out to Red Robin (thanks Katie, now I'm addicted) which happens to be Caiden's favorite Restaurant because it's full of "boons" and "pies" (balloons and French Fries).

Grandma Jacobs (Justin's grandma) came down to visit Jesse for his Birthday!

I put together a baby shower for my dear friend Katie, who decided to go into labor three weeks early on the day OF her shower, so it got cancelled. These are the invitations I made.

This is a picture of Caiden channelling Draco Malfoy from the 6th Harry Potter movie which, by the way, was so stinkin awesome!!!

Tessa turned 4 months old today!!

Does every mom think her daughter is the cutest baby in the world or is it just me?

She's just sooooo cute!

THE END!

Malibu Baby!

2009-06-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

Every year we have a family reunion at Carpinteria State Beach for a week. This year the camp was full so we went to Leo Carrillo in Malibu. It was so much fun because almost everyone was there! My sister Stacy who lives in Idaho and my brother Conrad on his mission in Russia were the only ones we were missing.

It was great for Justin to have some time off from work... he's been working super hard.

Thank Heavens I remembered Cade's dump truck! It was a "must" at the Beach!

Everyone who knows my dad, knows that he has magical powers when it comes to babies. Here he is burping Tessa!

Here is Cade with his cousin Ashley... and his other cousin, Ashley! (It's a very popular name in our family)

When my cousin Spencer was little, the big boy cousins always took good care of him and made sure to play with him. It's so neat to see him doing that with Cade now that he's the little guy in town.

My Malibu Baby Girl looked more like an Alaskan Baby Girl! (You know me, I am always afraid my babies are too cold!)

One picnic table and a pothole and you too can have a son that looks like this! He's tough though.

Caiden sure loves driving in a car. He wishes that Malibu was farther away just so that we could all sit in the car longer... Come on Cade! Tell us how you really feel! (I hate traveling too!) It was only 2 hours, but I felt the same as Caiden looks in this picture.

Come on, don't be a Sissy!

2009-05-11T16:57:00.000-07:00

So... I just had a baby, and I feel fat, how about you? I was thinking that it would be fun to see how many of you are up for a little challenge...

It's time for me to get into shape...meaning a different shape than I am already in... less round to be exact! So I have decided to get my booty in gear for the 2010Camp Pendleton Mud Run! This is the World Famous Mud Run! The Mud Run is a challenging 10K run with hills, tire obstacles, river crossings, two 5-foot walls with mud on both sides, tunnel crawl, slippery hill climb, and the final 30-foot mud pit. Along the course there will be 6 water points with personnel staged at each. Doesn't that sound awesome? If you want more info go to www.camppendletonraces.com.

So who's in? I know that most of you are pregnant, or like me just had a baby. But you have no excuse because it's over a year away! I think it would be so fun if we could all run this together! If you live in another state, you are more than welcome to come and stay with me and we can all drive down together! I know my Fisher girls will be down, probably Katie too! Wendy will do it I'm sure. Jenny will say yes and it would be great to get Shelby out here... the Murphy twins will be due for a visit anyway (Michelle this is right up your alley!)... Ashley is probably already on line registering...Summer? Charis? Stacy? What do you guys think??? (Brandy, you are mega far away, but it would be greatness if you came too!!) And anyone else can come too, even those of you I dont know who are way into blog surfing!

(by the way, the pic is from a fabulous night of mud football when I was up at School)

Sleep...Who needs it! Not me!

2009-05-06T12:20:00.000-07:00

I'm too sleepy to write anything really deep... sorry. Not only have I been up with the baby every night, but Caiden got really sick, threw up 5 times, and I have been helping Leo save the Unicorn (Little Einsteins) ever since. My poor Bubbas! (The song of the Unicorn is Caiden's favorite episode... at this point I'm not sure if DVR is a blessing or a curse). Maybe I can talk Cade into rescuing the instrument fairies (also little Einsteins) after this episode, just to switch things up!

P.S. "There is no charge for awesomeness!" (Name that quote!)

Our Easter....

2009-04-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

Tessa's Easter

Caiden's Easter!

Justin's Easter!

MY EASTER!!

Introducing....

2009-04-04T23:21:00.000-07:00

Miss Tessa Isabel Alfrey!

E. T. Sullivan once wrote these beautiful words:

“When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn’t stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother’s heart, and she puts it into the baby’s mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies.”

These words discribe how I feel about my little Tessabel. She's absolutely perfect! We had a girl's night on her birthday and became good buddies. She and I already have a great deal in common. She's a binge eater that loves to sleep... need I say more? One of my favorite things about her is that she is such a lady! Everytime we get her to burp, it's so quiet and petite that I often ask Justin: "Does that even count?"

PS: Congrats to Jessica for her whitty guess! Tessa was born April 2nd, year of our Lord 2009 (that's how Justin announces the date sometimes:)

Wanna Bet???

2009-03-20T13:42:00.001-07:00

Alright Ladies and Gents! Will you play a little game with me? I was wondering if any of you had any predictions as to when I am going to pop! Right now it feels like it's never going to happen! April 9th (my actual due date) feels so far away! So here's what you need to do: See if you can guess the day that little Miss Tessa Isabel will be born into the world! Whoever gets the closets to the actual date, without going over it (yes, some of the rules originated from the Price is Right), will win a prize! I will send the winner their favorite candy bar! (I thought about Rascal Flatts tickets, a free car, or a life size cardboard cutout of me with my huge belly as seen above in this post...but a candy bar sounds way better to a pregnant chick...) So, before you guess, here are the facts: Caiden was due the on the 12 of January, he came on the 4th. This baby is due on the 9th of April, but the doctor said that the way she measured, it could be more accurate to make her due on the 5th of April. One last rule is that you can't guess a date if someone else has already claimed it! Good Luck! (spouses may participate too!) If I were going to place my guess, it would look something like this:

Christy's Guess:
Reason:
Favorite Candy Bar:

Good Luck!!

Hiyah!!

2009-03-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

So my mom has always played this "hiyah!" game with us since we were kids. If she was going to attack with a pillow, she would say "hiyah" before it hit us. Well, she taught Cade the phrase and he has gone to town with it. He will go grab a towel that I am going to grab and before he releases it to me there's a "Hiyah!" in there. If we have a pillow fight, many "Hiyah's" are said. Well, the other day, Caiden was in the corner of his room and I heard him saying "Hiyah" with a little more emotion and feeling. When I took a peek at what he was Karate chopping, I noticed he was bearing down and that his face was red... (yes, you are reading this correctly) apparently saying "Hiyah" helps Caden go pooh as well!

Now if you have noticed, I like having theme songs to match my blog. Unfortunately, the Diarrhea song is not offered on the playlist.com website. So as you read this, you can just hum to yourself "when you're walking down the hall and you hear something fall, DIARRHEA! DIARRHEA! When you're sliding into first and you feel a big burst DIARRHEA, DIARRHEA!" (sorry, that's the only song about #2 that I know of). So you'll have to settle for Brad Paisley's "I'm still a guy."

(gross! Who puts stuff like this on their blog??)

The Great

2009-03-10T17:14:00.001-07:00

My Grandpa Hodge is a Great Grandpa Hodge almost 3 times now. He sent me an email telling me that such a title was much to long and confusing, so we should just call him "The Great." At first I thought he was joking, but he came down to California for a visit and tried to convince Caiden that "Great" was really his name.

I took this picture of them when they were walking through Ford Park on their way to the duck pond. I love it. My Grandpa together with my Son, separated by two generations.

It's a party in your mouth...seriously!

2009-02-18T18:54:00.000-08:00

For those who have known me a while, you know why I get especially excited this time of year. As soon as Valentines day is cleared off the shelves of supermarkets around the US, they make way for the real Holiday that's approaching...Easter. With Easter, no one commercializes the giving of gifts. Oh, no, Easter is all about the Candy (yeah baby)! The greatest of all Easter candies being... Brach's Chicks and Rabbits. They are the upper class representation of Circus Peanuts. I guess the best way to describe them... sponge-like cotton candy. Although they come in three colors, the flavors are the same. However, I do for some reason prefer the blue ones, for me the texture is the best out of the three colors. My BFF Jenny prefers the yellows. My Hubbie eats them all equally.

Seriously Brachs should cut me a check for all the chicks and rabbits converts I have gained throughout the years. This picture is from when I was at BYU-I. I am at Harmony House #104 with my roomie Liz Lee (now Dixion). We binged on a bag of Chicks and Rabbits after she either 1. just finished a 4 plus hour phone conversation, 2. talked a friend out of committing suicide at some cabin somewhere in Utah or 3. just threw a her shoe at the window causing it to shatter. Liz is one of my dearest friends. Ricks Roomies are the best!

Marshmallows for Breakfast!

2009-01-31T10:16:00.000-08:00

Do you ever have one of those days.... where your house is a mess, your child a pill and you feel like people should be carrying you around on a fluffy pillow because you feel too pregnant to function? You know, those days where you have to call your neighbor to come help you push your car to the nearest gas station... it's one of those days...

So, while my cute work-aholic hubby takes off to an extra Saturday training (yippee!) I get to stay home with Monster Cade who has decided that he's going to have a bad day today too. What's a alcohol free mom to do? After Caiden had cried for 20 minutes non-stop, I decided it was time to have marshmallows for breakfast! Don't worry, I made it healthy...I threw some craisins in there too, and some watered down pomegranate mango 100% juice with anti-oxidentes or whatever... see, healthy. Just watch how Caiden's frown turns upside down...

So what do YOU do on days like this???

Splish Splash I was takin' a Bath!

2009-01-23T16:02:00.000-08:00

Since Justin took 2 dates to his senior prom, I guess Caiden feels like it's ok to take a bath with 2 girls! These are our twin neighbors, the Kinsers, Morgan and Madylin. Caiden calls them the "Doe's"... don't really know why. You will notice that this is a top of the line storage bin serving as Cade's bath tub. You have to fork over another 85 dollars a month to have a bath tub in our apartment complex. So we improvise :)

Birthiversary

2009-01-13T14:57:00.000-08:00

Cade's Birthday was on the 4th of January! His favorite part about Birthdays is spitting on the Birthday cake (aka blowing out the candles). He didn't even want to eat the cake, he wanted to re-do the candle part mostly...

So, we let him!

On the 7th of January, we had our three year anniversary! I made Hawaiian Haystacks, Justin's fav and made (ok, bought) molten chocolate wonderfulness cake from Chili's. (Just add some raspberries on top of that and it's a party in your mouth!!)

Next up, the Honeymoon. I guess you are really suppost to call it an anniversary trip... but that makes me sound like a blue hair (an old person) so we called it a honeymoon again. Justin got us a great deal on a villa at the La Quinta resort and spa over in Palm Springs. It was really really nice, and so needed. We haven't really celebrated our anniversary by going to a fancy resort. A buddy of Justin's got us this fancy Villa for only 89 bucks a night! AND they paid for our dinner at their fancy steak house! It was so much fun.

We even had our own private hot tub! No, we didn't use it, my doctor says it will cook the baby....but we had our own! Neat huh?

They had really neat flowers all over the grounds.

Have a funny Christmas!

2008-12-12T18:48:00.000-08:00

Even though he has an ear infection and pink eye, Cade-er-aid is not letting that stop him from having fun! This picture makes me smile!

Here's a picture of our little family at the Redlands Parade! I think it's so cute to live in a town that has a Christmas Parade! Put some twinkle lights on the local high school bands, a few boy scouts, and some fancy cars and that just about sums up our humble parade here in Redlands!

Don't laugh at me K?

2008-12-04T12:34:00.000-08:00

I think you'll find this funny too....Last night, for the first time i succumbed to a pregnancy craving! I have not had an appetite since I got pregnant, making me loose weight and have dizzy spells. So at 9:00 last night, I started to crave pineapple (ooh), and peanut butter (yum, I thought), maybe a little bit of chocolate (pineapple and chocolate are best friends practically). I would need a staple to put it on. That's when I came up with French Toast! So I rushed over to the grocery store to purchase an out of season, over priced, pineapple and then came back home to start my master piece. I sliced up my fresh pineapple and whipped up a quick chocolate ganache that I learned how to make working at an Italian restaurant. The French toast only took a moment to make. I layered all of my ingredients making it look like a culinary idol. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.

At about 4 am this morning, the oil from the peanut butter and the acid from the pineapple got into some sort of a disagreement and they began to rage a war in my tummy. After a good deal of "up-chucking" as my dad calls it, I felt much better. I saw no signs of chocolate...chocolate must be like France or Canada to my body...always neutral. The worst part about it all is that it still sounds great to me! If I hadn't gotten sick this morning, I would probably still be feasting on my pineapple peanut butter french toast with chocolate syrup! Ah, the joys of pregnancy!

A real pal tries the food that you make... as you can see, my husband is a somewhat hesitant, but loyal friend!

Merry Christmas!!

2008-11-30T18:52:00.000-08:00

Alright, I confess that my apartment has been decorated with Christmas stuff for simply weeks already, but we haven't yet added and decorated our Christmas tree. We like to get a live tree, so we wait until about 3 weeks before Christmas to get that. I guess I don't have anything against other people having a fake tree, I get a fresh tree only because it's one of those things that my family always did... and I like it. Besides, what is Christmas if not vacuuming up pine needles everyday!

If you are struggling to get into the Spirit of Christmas, I will tell you what you should do. You go to Starbucks, get yourself a nice venti hot cocoa. Then mosie on over to the Crate and Barrel at Victoria Gardens. It's my favorite Christmas store mostly because of all the baking things they have and the ornaments that they come out with every year. Just buy a few ornaments and with the combination of the cocoa in your tummy and the crisp, plastic, credit card in your hand, you will recapture what Christmas is all about!

If for any reason you have buyer's remorse, just go home and watch "It's a wonderful Life" gosh that's the greatest movie!

I was tagged!

2008-11-23T23:18:00.000-08:00

Katie tagged me. I don't know exactly what that is, but she said that this tag ment that I had to go into my file of pictures and pick the 4th picture in the 4th file I have. This is that picture. I don't really remember what was going on. It was taken in September of 2007. All I can say is that it makes me so baby hungry! Look at how chubba chubba my baby Cade was! (ok, Chubby for a spawn of Justin anyway!) I choose to tag Jenners to...you know.. do this tag thing...you're it Veev! (fourth pic in your 4th file, no nudies please!)

Take the test and let me know who you are!

2008-11-12T16:34:00.000-08:00

A Home Alone Halloween

2008-11-02T17:15:00.001-08:00

Greetings! I know that all of you are dying to know what Caiden was for Halloween! He was a Nascar Race Driver! Isn't he cute? In Redlands there is a festival in Old Town Redlands on State Street. It's one of those cute places that you see in movies where the trees are so big and tall that they canopy over the streets. There are cute Delis and Stationary stores- great for window shopping. They keep twinkle lights on the tress year around and hold a farmers market every Thursday night where you can buy fresh fruits, vegetables and all kinds of stuff! The City gives candy to all of the little shops at this time of year, so that they can hand it out to the trick-or-treaters. My good friend Katie and I took our kids this year. It was really nice because they get everything started at 3 in the afternoon, so we didn't have to take our toddlers out at night time. The array of costumes was fabulos! We had a lot of fun, and Caiden has enough candy to last him till Halloween of next year! Katie's twins, Madylin and Morgan, were M&M's...cute huh?

Home Alone

2008-10-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

Justin went to a training in Minnesota for 2 WHOLE WEEKS and left Cade-er-aiden and I to fend for ourselves. It was no fun! He's back now and life is going back to normal (at least until he leaves for another 2 week training in November).

Ni Hao!!

2008-08-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

Ni Hao (pronounced Knee How) means "Hello" in Chinese, for all you people out there where the closest you've been to a chinaman is Fong's Restaurant in Rexburg, Idaho. This is the first edition of our blog, yes we are finally giving in to peer pressure and creating a blog for your personal delight. The question now is...What do I say on this thing??

We'll start with the Patriarch of our Home, Mr. Justin. Justin is working hard at Fastenal. He's the General Manager and stinks like a goat when he walks through the door each night. He works at a store in the desert that doesn't have air conditioning!! Yes, he still continues to call people "Brother" and "Sister" even if they are not members of the church. I was recently informed that "Sister Kidman" had her baby with "Brother Urban." He's so spiritual...sigh.. We just celebrated Justin's Birthday on the 8th of August. He's 25 1/2....and so am I. (wink, wink)

Caiden is 19 months old and has developed his first crush. Who's the lucky lady? Ms. Cat Deeley, the host of "So you think you can Dance." Caiden stands right in front of the television whenever Cat is talking and will not be moved. Our Morning routine is as follows:

7:30 Rise and shine: Cade has breakfast and watches Elmo's World and then Curious George
8:30 We get ready and go to the gym
11:00 Lunch time: Cade's favorite is a Quesadilla
12:00 Daily PooPoo (He's very good about his schedule)
12:15 Nap

Can you imagine a more perfect child than that? I mean, Chinese food... He's fabulous!

Ok, now ME. I just finished Breaking Dawn, the fourth book of the Twilight series. Caiden and I hang out with a gal and her twins down stairs. I try to keep busy with church stuff and errands. When all else fails, there is always "I love Lucy' reruns that I haven't seen. My favorite episode is Veta-vita-vegamin.

2008-08-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

Caiden on the 4th of July!