50 facts about Rebecca

I was sent an email encouraging me to post 50 truths about myself that people who know me might be surprised to learn. I now encourage all of you to do the same, it was kinda fun!

~5o truths about me~

I love my children more than these words you are reading could ever convey

My Mom and Dad are great and I love them

Travis and I dated only 6 months before we were married

I see the world through my camera lens

Cleaning, organizing and planning is in my blood

I was born in Orange County, CA

Landon always makes me laugh at everything

I love Tulips and if I could afford it I would have them delivered fresh every day

I love sitting outside and watching the birds

I am much older than I look

I don't really have a favorite food

I am very thankful for the things in my life

I know more than you think about life

I would read every day if I had the time

I have a very hard time understanding/accepting death

I wish it would rain more, but when it does I crave the sunshine

I could eat graham crackers all day long

I love to go to the beach but rarely do

I would love to be a wedding/party planner

I take my own bags to the market

I wish Travis would go to church with me like he used to

I HATE living on a dirt road

I need to workout, but never do because exercise is my least favorite thing

I am related to one of the Backstreet Boys, he is my cousin

I always watch TV before bed, no matter how tired I am

I love Diet Pepsi, but not Diet Coke

I actually really like my husband

I am always made fun of because I LOVE reality TV

I am fearful that my children may not grow up happy

I really don't have any secrets

I am very judgemental

I hate it when people dress themselves better than they dress their kids

I wish Travis would stop riding his dirt bike

I get really irritated when people say something to me and then don't follow through

I am growing my hair long because Travis likes it that way

I don't think Tom Cruise is weird or crazy

I feel stressed if I don't clean the house every day

I feel sad that Brynne gets less bonding time with us than Landon did

I want my children to have opportunities that neither Travis or I had

I want my sister to have a stress free life

I feel sad that I don't have a close relationship with either of our nephews or our only niece

I want my kids to attend private school

I will walk on eggshells around anyone just to avoid conflict

I don't like flying, but love airports

I work nights at Red Lobster but HATE seafood and will NEVER eat anything there but chicken

I will never drink alcohol

I hate it when women talk about how fat they are but then eat like shit

I am bothered by the need people feel to ask Travis and I if we 'planned' to have our children so close

I love to travel by car

I HATE staying in hotel's

Yummy!

Brynne turned 4 months old on Sunday and we've had so much going on that I am just now able to post the pictures. She also had her first taste of real food on Monday night! We gave her rice cereal, and she LOVED it! She is a natural eater and did much better than Landon ever did. She was so happy and ended up much cleaner than Landon did! What do you expect, she is a little princess (: (Just look at her cute bib from Auntie Clair!)

Ready for my first taste~

What's this?~

Yummy~

I LOVE it~


18 Months ago we were giving Landon his 1st taste of rice cereal~




Landon~




Brynne~




Our Sweet Kids~


Happy 4th Month Brynne!~

Too Close For Comfort

After the wedding shower on Saturday, we took the kids home, as we were all exhausted! Travis and I were talking on the couch and suddenly I saw smoke out the window towards the back of the property. We rushed outside, and sure enough there was a fire! Travis grabbed a shovel and ran out back to help the other neighbors who were already trying to contain the fire. The sirens were wailing in the distance so we knew that help was near. I stayed in the house with the kids trying to decide if we should go to my sister's house just in case. Luckily the fire was contained quickly and we ended up staying put. I managed to take a few pictures right after the fire was contained. It was SO scary and made us re-think our plans for future evacuations. Living in the foothills of Southern California you need always be prepared to leave at a moments notice. This is sure to be a HOT summer so next time I will be ready! We ended up having no power Saturday night into Sunday! We weren't complaining though, it could have been much worse! We were VERY lucky!

After the fire was out~



Travis workin' that shovel~

Wedding Shower

As I said in my last entry, we had a very busy weekend! On Saturday we spent the afternoon at the Wrightwood Country Club celebrating with friends and family. My sister Amy is getting married June 7th and we had a wedding shower for Amy and Nathan. The weather was wonderful, a little warm, and we had so much fun! Unfortunately my camera battery died like 10 minutes after we got there. So I only got 2 pictures. I will post more later after I get them from everyone else. We had about 50 people show up and everyone was so happy to help Amy and Nate celebrate. The got a lot of very thoughtful and really nice gifts, we played some games, but mostly just talked and hung out. It was so great to see everyone. The wedding is only 3 weeks away! Congrats to Nathan and Amy~

Adrianne and I~



Amy's Wedding party, minus Dina who lives in Oregon!
Kay,Clair,Amy,Me,Maile,and the flower girls Madelyn and Savanah


Too much excitement for Brynne~


Landon~

Big Boy Bed

The Staley's had an exciting night last night! Our 22 month old son Landon made the transition from his crib to a 'big boy' bed. Sunday afternoon we set up a brand new twin bed for him, in his room, on the floor. We added a toddler bed rail to prevent him from rolling off in the middle of the night. I bought him the cheapest twin sheets I could find and Landon 'helped' me set it all up. He also got a new pillow which he was most excited about. He played in his new bed all night and took time to get used to it before bed time. We made a big deal about it and took a bunch of pictures. We even encouraged him to say 'bye-bye' to his crib, and explained that it was for a baby, and he was now a BIG boy! By the time 8:00 rolled around we were prepared for the worst! We were determined to make this work and knew that we may have to put him back in his bed numerous times before he'd stay there. We made sure to give him all of his ni-night items...and there are a bunch of them! Before he'll go to bed Landon must have 5 things in bed with him, EVERY time. They are : His Binky, His Baby, His Baseball Blankie, His other Baseball Blankie, and his small stuffed Elmo. He won't go to bed without all of these things and checks every time he goes to bed to make sure they are all with him! We read him a story as a family, all laying in his new bed. Then we tucked him in and gave him kisses, knuckles and high fives...3 other things we have to do every time he sleeps. We turned off the light and closed the door, then we waited. We didn't wait long. Within 2 minutes Landon was out of bed, had the door open and was running to the living room to play. Travis grabbed him, put him back in bed and told him it was time to go ni-night. He fussed for a few minutes and then...silence! He fell asleep, in his big boy bed and stayed there! He slept fine all night long and was up bright and early this morning to tell Mama all about it. Landon has always hit his 'milestones' with no stress, complaints, or problems. We feel so blessed to achieve success on the first try, and SO FAR Landon always makes transitional periods easy and does so with excitement and pride. And on a side note, he stayed dry all night long in his new bed, and didn't go potty until he woke up and went to the toilet! This is the first time he has held it all night. I am so proud of my little man and so sad at the same time. This is a huge step and it makes it hard to see my baby growing so fast. Hard to believe in a year and a half we'll be experiencing these things for the last time, as Brynne grows up. I wanted to share the pictures we took, so enjoy (:



Helping Mama get the bed ready~





So excited to have his own pillow~





Such a big boy~





Kissing his crib bye-bye~





Giving his crib Knuckles (Landon's trademark way of saying hello and bye-bye)~





All ready to go to sleep~





We snuck in to check on him before we went to bed, seems he has plenty of room to sprawl out!~





We had a super busy weekend, check back later today for another entry!

Sunday~

Happy

Mother's

Day!

Quiet House!

I have hoped for an afternoon like this since January when our baby girl was born! Being the mom of two kids under 2 I seldom have quiet time before 8 pm! Well today, my friends, my afternoon was lovely! It is 1:30p and BOTH kids have been asleep, in their own cribs, at the same time for over an hour now! I am so relaxed! I got so much done! I guess the stars were aligned for me today!

In honor of Mother's Day I am posting some pictures from this time last year. Landon was 10 months old and we had just found out that I was pregnant with Brynne. I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day with your families~


Landon May 2007, 10 Months






Landon's First Haircut


At 10 months Landon had already been walking for over 2 months! We had our hands full!

Happy Routine

Our baby girl Brynne was born January 18Th of this year. She is almost 4 months old now and changes so much each week. Our son Landon is 22 months old and the two of them could not be more different! We have struggled to get Brynne to sleep through the night since she came home from the hospital. Landon was not even 7 weeks old when he starting sleeping through the night. At 3 1/2 months Brynne is just barely starting to get the hang of it. She has started to eat more with each feeding and I am sure that has a lot to do with it. We have her on a system now that seems to be working so well! The first 3 months of her life she was 'colicky' and would cry each night for at least an hour at about 5:30 or 6. There was nothing we could do to comfort her, so we learned to deal with it and tried to never be out after 5pm, for fear of public humiliation (: For whatever reason Brynne has not had her 'meltdowns' for almost a week now. I guess she is growing out of that stage and seems to be so much happier lately. Every night at 6:15 we give her a bath. She has always loved her baths and it ends up being one of our favorite parts of our day. After that we lotion her up, get her into her Jammie's and her sleep-sack and usually let her have some quiet time on the floor with Landon. At 7 she gets her nighttime bottle and then we lay her in her crib. She falls asleep on her own now, and we seldom hear a peep out of her. For the past week she has slept all night long!! I am SO excited and so appreciative of the extra sleep that I get as a result. She is usually awake and STARVING at 5am. She eats again, gets her diaper changed, and falls back asleep until 8 or 9. As soon as we lay her down at night a little after 7, we have the same process with Landon. Bath at 7:15, quiet time and a story at 7:45 and almost every night one last snack at 7:55 for the little piggy boy then bed at 8. Landon sleeps all night and usually wakes up at 8am, loud as ever, hungry, and ready to play! It is such a relief that Brynne seems to be thriving with the new routine and we have hopes that each week her morning feeding will happen a little later!
Here are their newest pictures~

Always kisses for sister

Brynne is almost 4 months old

Landon is 22 months old

Always chewing on her hands

Mama's Boy

So happy

Have a good day everyone!!

Hall Bath Remodel

We bought our home in October of last year, but did not actually move in until November. When we bought the house it was an absolute, neglected, disaster and was totally unlivable..although the previous homeowner was living here with 7 children! Before we could even move in we had to replace carpet, tile, windows, doors, faucets, appliances, walls, fixtures, toilets, sinks, closet doors, sliding glass doors, vents, smoke alarms, various parts of the ceiling, etc. These were the things that needed to be fixed before the house was even livable, in our opinion. Travis has worked so hard, and tirelessly to make sure the house gets better and better. It didn't help our remodel efforts that I was 7 months pregnant when we bought it. We knew when we did this that we would spend thousands of dollars and countless hours fixing, remodeling, and tweaking many things to bring the house up to our standards. The process has been dirty, hard, tiring, and slow at times. However, the house had great 'bones,' as they say, and sits on almost 4 acres! The people in the area seem warm and welcoming and the local school district is one of California's best. We bought the house with plans of living here for 20 + years, and raising both our children here. I could do without the wind and the dirt road we live on, but the quiet, calm, and nature that surround us make it worth it!

Our latest project is the hallway bathroom. This house only has 2 bathrooms, 1 hall, 1 master. Ideally we would like 3. We have plans to do an addition in the future, but for now have decided to do a major makeover on the hall bathroom...it needed it! Travis has been working so hard on the bathroom and is now in what he calls "the fast stage." The rest of the remodel will go by easily and quickly if all goes as planned. Below are some pictures of our latest project.

Bathroom #1
Before

Disgusting, right?

This is a picture from this past weekend. Travis spent most of the day Saturday doing drywall, and most of the day Sunday re-doing the plumbing


Then yesterday he was able to finish the drywall


This morning Landon and I cleaned up the mess and took new pictures. Landon can't wait for his new bathtub! Neither can we, because we have been giving him baths in our bathroom every night. That bathroom will be next!


Travis will mud the drywall today and texture it tomorrow! He thinks the bathroom will be ready to paint on Thursday and we plan to install the sink/cabinet and various fixtures by Sunday! Hard to believe we may have a fully functional bathroom by next week! I will post more pictures in a few days.

I have decided to create this blog, after a friend suggested it, to keep our friends and our family involved in our busy lives! I love to write, and seldom have time to do so anymore, so maybe short entries in my blog is just the way to do it! Thanks for checking it out, and be sure to check back often!