Erick and I are enjoying Superbowl Sunday at our clubhouse here at The Madison Apartments. It was completely different without our great friends back in NH hanging out, watching the guys go crazy making their "wings" and drinking lots of beers. Erick still made the wings but it wasn't with the same enthusiasm. The weather was a balmy 82 degrees and it was only 3:30 in the afternoon when it started....like I said, completely different this year but we ended up enjoying ourselves with some friends here more than we thought.
Our friend Andy & Erick with the remnants of what's left of nachos, wings, chips n dip and plenty of beer for the guys. Andy has never watched a Superbowl game in his life, never been interested. I think Erick enticed him with the "wings" and Andy couldn't resist and stayed. Andy & his wife Tina moved here from Connecticut a month before we did. They were are very first good friends here. Tina was nursing a cold back in her apartments and the kids were playing in another room here at the clubhouse.
This must have been late at night. These days I'm not sleeping very well so I try to stay up as late as possible to the point of exhaustion in hopes of sleeping most of the night. In this picture I'm 7 months along and counting on only about 6 weeks left. I'm always early so we're hoping for around March 13th date. This belly of mine is taking up too much space on my small frame and making it quite uncomfortable for me and besides that Blake kicks constantly but mostly when I lay down. We have to get that boy on a better schedule when he comes into this world because mama aint gonna like being up all night!! (like I have control of that)
We wanted to show you some pictures of a home in Westlake Village that we love. These are the type of luxury homes we're looking at and cannot wait to move into in less than 6 months. We absolutely love the master bathroom in this home, the shower as you can see is huge like the one in our house we built in Merrimack. If only the prices of the homes were the same:)
Here's the foyer with the staircase . This room had 20 foot ceiling, lots of windows with incredible light coming through, even though it was a rainy, cloudy day.
This is the type of backyard we absolutely "have to have". We want to be able to entertain like we're at a resort with all our friends, have parties and "wing fests". There is actually a fenced in full size basketball court behind the pool area. How cool would that be that I could let Blake ride his bikes and stuff back there. The gazebo has a firepit which would be great for roasting marshmallows and warming up around the fire on a cool winter night (50 degrees :).
There's "The Man", checking out one of his favorite parts of the backyard, the bar/outdoor kitchen area. A nice fireplace with outdoor furniture is another fun place to hang out with our friends and family. "Anyone need a beer? Hey who needs a cheeseburger. And when are those wings done? Let's get this party going right?"
This is to the left of the previous picture which has the grill, outdoor keg and 'fridge. The outdoor keg is a nice feature in that it gives you ice cold beer all the time and it never ends. Never! It's like hooked up to the budweiser plant or something and never ever runs out. There are munchkins that patrol it to make sure it keeps on working. Kind of like the electric company. You just use what you need. It's very convenient.
Alexia received Art Classes from my dad for Christmas at a wonderful school within walking distance from out home. It's amazing what they teach her in just over an hour. She's already learned how to use texture and tones in her pictures. She's picked it up quickly and they are actually using one of her pieces (fruit basket) in a new art gallery they just opened. Here she's working on a bouquet of heart shaped balloons as her next project.
Alexia's house was her 3rd picture she made at the art studio. It took her about an hour to complete it. I'm so happy she's enjoying herself, stretching her imagination and growing. I've noticed her work improve over just a few weeks...great job, peanut!
Alexia's playing a game of Sequence with a new friend she met here at the apartment a few weeks ago. Kristen is also in the third grade but has a different teacher. My dad's girlfriend, Diann, bought us this game when were were in Arizona with Ashley & Amanda the beginning of the month. We played it several times there and loved it. Thank you for your thoughfulness, we enjoy playing it almost every other night (Alexia's really good at it too). We even let Erick win once.
Alexia's buddy Mariah also live in our complex. She's in fourth grade and also takes art classes with Alexia on Saturday mornings. Here they are enjoying a playful game of tennis at one of our incredible local parks. Mariah has a baby sister who's only 5 months old. We enjoy hanging out with Mariah and her family on Saturday nights or during the day at the park. Her dad is an actor who's been in movies and CSI episodes. Ashley & Amanda recognized him from the movie "Disturbia" when they were here. Super nice people who are down to earth and not "Hollywood".
Playing Mario Kart with her friend Hope after school one afternoon. They get a lot of half days here, not sure what that's all about. Hope is actually the very first friend Alexia made. When we came out here last April to go apartment hunting and checking out schools. Hope's family lives in the same condominium complex as Diann (dad's girlfriend) where we stayed for that week. Her family was the only one we saw outside so we went over to introduce ourselves and what a sweet family they are. They have 3 daughters and Hope & Alexia are the same age. Just so happened that when Alexia was assigned her third grade classroom, Hope was in her class. What are the chances?
Ashley took this stunning picture from my dad's neighborhood in Arizona. The sun was beginning to set and the mountains were a glowing red, just beautiful!
The Valencia Community Center is a wonderful recreation center, where Erick played Volleyball. Here they offer The Wii games, pool table, ping pong, air hockey and many other activities. It's a great place to come and have some fun and it's free. Erick usually takes Alexia here on their Friday "Lexi Days". Its another way Valencia gets the community together. They do a lot of that here. It's really nice. Lexi and I still continue to have our own day one on one and do something special. She really looks forward to them and so do we:) Ashley patiently waits her turn while Alexia and Amanda rock with Guitar Hero. The girls pretty much spent their Christmas break here in CA "mastering" Guitar Hero.
Ashley captured this gorgeous sunset in Arizona.
Ok, you & I know how in these 55 yr old and older communities they have all these people driving around the neighborhood with their little golf carts, well, my dad's not any different. He picked this one up and he & Diann tool around in it to get from place to place when they have packages to carry to functions and parties (yes they are actually more active in that respect than most of us) They never stop! Apparantly all the driving practice Alexia received at John & Judy's in Merrimack paid off, here she is giving Ashley & Amanda the ride of their lives...hold on Ashley. It was pretty strange to see Alexia "driving" her sisters around for a change:) :) She did well but I did hear she almost lost Ashley on a turn.
The crew at dad's house in Arizona, Dad, Amanda, Ashley, Alexia, Diann and Erick. This was during one of our card games that dad and Diann taught us. We spent about 4 days there in the beginning of January and had so much fun. It's such a pretty state (in the winter) too hot in the summer. We went to Prescott, AZ to visit Embry Riddle, a school Ashley is seriously considering for next year. It's an aeronautical school, probably one of the top in the country, right Todd? For those of you who know Ashley, she's wanted to fly since she was about 11 yrs old and now she's thinking of flying helicopters or possibly majoring in airplane crash investigation or even Homeland Security. This school only has about 1800 students and everyone there is going for the same thing so how cool is that to go to school with people all interested in the same thing.
