Skyanne...

She is growing really fast and is in to everything.

Monster Truck, redo...

We got our money back from the whole monster truck fiasco. So, we decided to go up to Anaheim and try again. The drive to Anaheim is about an hour and a half. Here is the sun setting as we were on our way there:

We stopped at Carl's Junior for dinner. Lil'D had a nice setup in the backseat watching movies.

Here is our exit...

Anaheim Stadium...

Ready to find our seats...

Panoramic view from our seats...

Yes, you understood correctly, we had seats!!!

Grave Digger and Monster Mutt racing...

Monster Mutt and Iron Man about to race...

Lil'D really enjoyed his cotton candy...

Blue Thunder... he was the racing winner.

Air Force Afterburner...he was the freestyle winner.

Grave Digger...freestyle.

Grave Digger...crashed!

We had a great time. We arrived just before all the trucks came in the arena. We found our seats right away and enjoyed the entire show!! Lil'D had a blast! He slept happily all the way home.

A new addition to our family...

Her name is Skyanne.

She is 2 months & 24 days old.

She is an Australian Cattledog.

She was born November 4, 2009.

She was born in Blue Jacket, Oklahoma.

She is AKC registered.

Her dad's name is Fitz's Stan.

Her mom's name is Houston's Rhinestone.

She came to live with us on Saturday, January 16, 2010.

SHE IS AWESOME!

(if we could only get her potty trained faster)

Giveaway...

Today I found: Jonquils & Ladybugs (what is a jonquil?)

jon-quil [jong-kwil]

-noun

a narcissus, Narcissus jonquilla, having long narrow, rushlike leaves and fragrant,

yellow of white flowers

Origin:

1620-30; jonquille junquillo, eqiv. to junc(o) rush, reed (juncus) + illo dim. suffix

(from dictionary.com)

Image:

Perdy!!

(image courtesy of Flower-cs.com)

She is opening an Etsy shop: Stiching in Striped Socks (how cute is that?)

And this is what she is giving away today:

Hope I win!!

a thought...

a thought...

Monster Jam...

On Saturday night we went to Monster Jam. It began great, but didn't end well. We have been anticipating Monster Jam coming to town for the past year!! Lil'D has quite the monster truck collection! Jeremy got tickets and went to every Ford dealership in town to get free pit passes. So finally the big night arrived!! We got there at around 4pm and took pictures with all the trucks. Lil'D got more excited at seeing each truck. Here are the pictures from the pit party:

...standing in line...

...meeting the driver of Blue Thunder...

...Grave Digger!...

...Outlaw...

...Bounty Hunter...

...El Toro Loco...

...Monster Mutt...

...Iron Man...

...El Toro Loco in the background...

...Grave Digger...

...Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle...

...Here we are before it started, when things were still good...

These were the best seats for Monster Trucks. They were the nosebleed cheap seats, but it was the best view of the field and it wasn't as noisy as being down below. I walked up about 40 or so steep steps with Dash on my hip and turned around to see this view...perfect!

...our tickets were labeled Section 37, Row 18, Seats 6,7,8...

We had hot dogs, nachos and diet pepsi for dinner. Did you know that 2 hot dogs, 1 nachos grande and 2 sodas = $27.00. C.R.A.Z.Y! (Lil'D had peanut butter & jelly) About 30 minutes before the monster trucks were to come in Lil'D got a little upset. He was getting scared that the monster trucks were going to be really loud. He actually started crying, which is so unlike him. I walked down 40 or so steep steps with Lil'D on my hips and took him for a walk and watched the trolley bring hundreds of people into the stadium. He kept saying he wanted to go home, that he was scared. I finally convinced him that momma would work her magic and make the noise go away. In addition to having headphones on his ears, I pulled his hood over his head and he looked at me and said "Let's Go!" I had worked a miracle. I thought for sure we were going to have to leave. I walked up 40 or so steep stairs for the 3rd time with Lil'D on my hip. We got there just in time. They turned out the lights and announced each truck and their driver. The first two drivers were lined up for the first race when someone leaned over to us and said "excuse me, these are our seats."

It turns out we were in the wrong section. Our seats were in the next section over to the left. I walked down 40 or so steep steps with Lil'D on my hip walked over to the next section and went up 40 or so steep steps with Lil'D on my hips. This was my 5th time. My legs were starting to shake. When we go to the top where our seats were supposed to be there was a large concrete box taking up rows 16, 17 & 18, seats 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. So...we were sold seats, from Ticketmaster that were not there. It wasn't just us it was 27 other people also. I went back down those 40 or so steep steps with Lil'D on my hip for the 6th and final time. My legs were jello as we searched for an usher to make sure that we were not crazy. I finally passed Lil'D over to Jeremy. I was sweating and my muscles were shaking and aching. I really don't remember what happened for the next half hour or so. We were missing the monster truck show and waiting to see if the ushers could seat us somewhere else. It turns out that the show was sold out. If there was a seat in the house empty you couldn't find it. So we finally gave in and went down to Guest Services. There were no steps but we had to go down 4 floors to get to the bottom. Thank goodness Lil'D didn't have a problem walking.

So we told them our dilemma and they said they could put us in seats in plaza. Which was the very bottom and were probably too loud for Lil'D. We asked for comparable seats to what we had. They had nothing. They didn't even have seats together in plaza. We looked at each other exhausted and frustrated and asked Lil'D what he wanted to do. "Let's go home," he said. So they gave us a refund for the face value of our tickets and parking. We were really disappointed after so much anticipation for this night.

But, during the ride home Lil'D said "That was fun!" That made us feel a little better. Jeremy got on the phone with Ticketmaster as soon as we got home, but their customer service closed at 8pm. So we are still trying to get all the extra fees and handling that we paid for the tickets with the seats that didn't exist.

All day Sunday Lil'D played with all 13 of his monster trucks announcing each one of them, just like the only part of Monster Jam that we actually saw.

Catching up...

I have a lot of catching up to do. I have several projects that I have been working on and have now completed two of them.

First project is a slideshow that recaps everything we did in 2009. All I need is the music and I will be done. All the 74 or so pages are done. Hopefully, I will post that tomorrow!

The second project is redesigning my blog again. The last design was just so busy. I was over it. I really like this new design. I started with a free template called Colored Paper. You can get it from here. I have tweaked it a bit to make it mine. I'm happy, but for how long I don't know. This is how I got into design. When I was little I would move the furniture around in my room almost every month or so. It drove my mom nuts. My blog is like my home and I am always changing the wallpaper and flooring!!

NOW, on to my next project. Catching up for the month of January. Afterall, it is already the 22nd of the month. Better late than never.

We have a tradition for New Year's Day. We go to Knott's Berry Farm with Auntie E and her family. This is our 3rd year to go. Here is a recap of the photos from New Year's Day...