Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our little monkey Shayla!

This costume suits our little girl who loves to jump around, climb on everything, and loves her bananas too!

We hope you have a fantastic, fun and safe Halloween and hope to see your costumes too!

In the spirit of the holiday I always dress up too - this year I am dressing in the context of Shayla's costume (i.e. last year she was a caterpillar, I was a butterfly) - any guesses (from those who don't already know) as to what I am dressing up as? If you are lucky I will post some photos of me in costume to answer your guesses...

Jon's ultimate ride!

Jon has always wanted a Hummer - not the plain old "Civilian type", but a real military, bare bones, tank of a hummer! He wishes he would have bought one as his college ride and is now afraid he may never get one. Anyway, this past weekend, I think I made his Hummer Envy much worse! As part of his birthday present, we went on a hummer ride at the Pismo Beach dunes. It was pretty fun and crazy as you are riding sideways, backwards, and all over the place on these dunes of sand. Jon loved it of course! We didn't get a good photo of the actual hummer (I guess our guide thought we wanted a photo of ourselves and not just the hummer). If you are in that area - you should really take a ride for yourself! Anyway, so if you are looking for Christmas gift ideas for Jon - now you know (:

Anyway, we also had our first overnight get away without Shayla at a beautiful place in Avila Beach, CA (near San Luis Obispo). A gorgeous place and you can rent out door mineral hot tubs to soak in and we had our own hot tub on our patio, too! A perfect weekend - dinner in San Luis Opisbo, hot springs at Sycamore Mineral Hot Springs, getting goodies at Avila Barn farm, and a hummer ride!
Avila Beach, CA

Shayla is 17 Months Old!

Another month has flown by and Shayla is now 17 months old! Here are a few little video tidbits of the last month - the last 60 seconds are my favorite - she is a crack up!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday Jon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JON!!!
My wonderful husband is turning another year older today and I must say he is getting better with age!

I LOVE YOU & HERE'S TO ANOTHER WONDERFUL YEAR WITH YOU AS HUSBAND AND FATHER!
Love
Larissa & Shayla


Jon as a baby!

Jon as a daddy!

Jon as a husband!

Chocolate Lovers Alert!!!

Okay, I had to try this and it was SO good I am sharing this with you - however, beware, this is not LOW FAT or for the faint of heart (:

It is the new drink Starbucks Salted Caramel Signature Hot Chocolate - ON ICE

I am sure it is good hot too, but I had it on ice and it was oh so good! I tried to pretend it was healthy by getting it with non-fat milk and no whipped cream, and hey, it has 30% of your daily calcium needs. So there you go - check it out at a Starbucks near you!

Description: This delicious sweet and salty combination brings together our rich, indulgent Signature Hot Chocolate and the flavors of buttery caramel and smoked sea salt. It is topped with whipped cream, a swirl of caramel and a sprinkle of our sea salt topping - a combination of artisan sea salt and Turbinado sugar from Hawaii.

Pumpkin Patch Time!

Yay - it's fall! Although last week it was in the 90's still - we enjoyed welcoming fall with a trip with our friends Kellie and Hank to one of the many nearby pumpkin patches in our area - Underwood Family Farms. We were able to play in the pumpkin patch, take the kids around in the wagon, take a tractor wagon ride and see many fun animals too!


Shayla and Hank riding in the wagon.

Look how big she is getting!

We love pumpkins!

Mom and Shay on the tractor ride!

Fun Sunday!

This past Sunday Shayla and I were able to visit my cousin Cliff from Japan (who came to the US to finish his junior year of high school in America) at my Grandma Betty's. It was great to see him and my grandma and my parents and brother's family!


Shayla and Cliff -
Cliff was so good with the kids and had lots of fun playing with Shayla and entertaining her!

Larissa & Cliff

My dad and Isaiah

Grandma Betty gave Shayla her first ice cream cone ever! Shayla loved it as she is her mother's daughter (:

My own personal rainbow...

So I know I blogged about this before - but the photos are all done so I wanted to share the final spread with you! Our moms group did photos of each kid surrounded by a different color so we could make a photo book of our babes to help them learn the colors - here they are (I was gone for the purple/green day!)...

I am amazed we got all 9 crazy walking toddlers to sit still long enough for us to take this photo - but here are the color kids!