L.A.

I LOVE L.A. 

 I went from New York to L.A.all in a week and it was fun to see the contrast. 

I love the size of it, I love the speed of the freeways, I love the malls, I love the the food, I LOVE the SUN, I love the museums, I loved it all.  These are just a few photos from my trip to

Newport Beach California. I went to In and Out  and Sprinkles Cupcakes enough times to make me gain a whopping 10lbs. But it was awesome. I loved it.

Things I'm Afraid to Tell You

A lot of bloggers are participating in this theme for a post this weekend and I thought it was really cool and interesting. I applaud their honesty and creativity.  The original idea comes from a blog called

 "Make Under My Life".

So Here are some Things I am afraid to tell you:)

• I have no idea how much money is in our savings account, it could be $3,000 or $30,000, seriously, not a clue.  The really sad part is that I'm not even sure what bank the money is in but I'm pretty sure it's in a different one than my regular checking.  Oh, and I really don't even care...
• I don't ever want to be good at cleaning.  One of my biggest goals in life is to make enough money to hire a cleaning lady and tip her really generously for her birthday and Christmas. And what I'm really afraid to tell you is that I have taken a muscle relaxer just to clean my boys bathroom.  But yes, it is that gross.
• If I don't hold another baby again for 3 years I'll be o.k. with that.  I am still traumatized from having my own children, (my youngest is 4) the thought of holding someone elses overwhelms me.  Sometimes just looking at another baby stresses me out.
• I take 1 sometimes 2 naps a day.
• I haven't finished a book in over a year. They are too LONG!  I read 3-5 news magazines a week and I get impatient with books for not getting to the point. A magazine article can do it in 4 paragraphs, why does a book need 400 pages?!?!? It's a problem I know.  And not one that I'll ever share with my kids.
• I am painfully insecure about how people see me. My hair looks AMAZING in the morning at the gym(because I sleep with it twited in a bun so when I wake up it is perfectly curled and full of body.) and I feel like the other women are judging me for it, thinking "she gets up early and does her hair to go to the gym" 
• I am insecure about the way I look, the way my house looks and the way my kids look, I'm not sure I measure up the the general population.
• 99% of the time, after I leave a lunch or something with my friends or family I think to myself "probably shouldn't have said that".

Mother's Day tea with Auri

It's my favorite day of the year!  My Mother's Day Tea at the pre-school.  We had tea, I got sung to, I got a plant and had scones. 

Mother's Day is fast becoming one of my favorite holidays.

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful Mothers.

In a New York Minute

Spencer and I took a little trip to New York City and we took full advantage of the city and the fact that we were without kids for a couple of days. I saw more of that city in those 3 days than I did when I lived there. If you are ever taking a trip to New York, call me, I'll tell you how to cover a lot of the city in 3 days.

Here is what we did it bullet form.

Friday:

Empire State Building,

Rockefeller Center

Park Avenue

5th Avenue

Madison Ave

dinner in mid-town

dessert on the upper East Side at Serendipity 3

View from the top of the Empire State Building, we tried to go to

"Top of the Rock" but it closes early, the Empire State Bldg. stays open until 1a.m.

Rockefeller Center in my super cool sweatshirt;) It was just so cold, I couldn't help myself, I had to get one from a street vendor or walk 20 blocks back to our hotel to get my jacket.

One of the highlights from my whole trip. The frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity 2 on the Upper East Side, it claims to have 18 kinds of chocolate in it. AMAZING!

Spencer's lemon cream pie, also to die for.

SATURDAY

Saturday

We walked the Brooklyn Bridge,

Had pizza near DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) park,

Jacque Torres Chocolate and cookie place in Brooklyn

Went to Canal St. and got 3 Michael Kors purses

Dinner in the West Village at the Spotted Pig (Jay Z's favorite)

Magnolia Bakery also in the Village

I have this cookie recipe! I used to make 3 dozen every Sunday night.

Greenwich Village

Waverly Place

The Spotted Pig in the West Village

Magnolia Bakery

SUNDAY

We went to Church on the Upper West Side

Spent about 3 hours in Central Park

Visited TIME Warner and CNN

Walked all up and down the Upper East Side

This is my old apartment. I lived on the 3rd floor on the right,

although I distinctly remember a homeless man living on my steps some nights:)

The Bakery at TIME Warner

I'm a sucker for a bakery, I plan my trips around them.

The church is on the right. This is the Upper West Side.

Sunday in Central Park

What I'd do if I won

Warren at about 18 months.

There are so many things going on in my little life right now. Spencer and I are taking a trip to NYC and I can't find my battery charger for my NIKON camera. I started tearing apart closets and my office in an effort to look for it and this started a massive project. Which leads me to my next point.

Rachael D. and I stopped at the gas station on Friday and it was packed! Presumably to buy the power ball lottery tickets. I think the jackpot was over 300 million? I'm not really sure, I don't pay much attention to those things. But today, in my crowded office, just for a moment I found myself wishing I had won just so I could hire a professional organizer to come in and clean up my office. She would need to come with a dumpster in tow, and she'd be annoyed with me for about the first hour for hauling things around for 10 years that I haven't used once.

I'm a simple woman, in the past 3 years not once have I wanted a bigger house, a better car or nicer stuff. I have, however, wanted no house, to use less of my car and to get rid of over half my stuff.

So today I started in my office and what I have found is that I take too many photos. I have more than (no exaggeration) 50 photo albums. I have an album for each of my siblings weddings, every trip, college, and the kids, don't even get me started on the number of albums I have for the kids.

So these photos are some that I came across that made me smile today.

Holly's wedding in Laguna Beach, CA

Auri got Beauty and the Beast for her Birthday(more on the birthday later)

She has watched it once or twice a day ever since(Thank you Grandma Hansen, we love it!)

When it came out originally I was down in California with my grandmother (above) so every time I watch it and hear the songs I have vivid memories of her, her house, her yard, and all the things she used to take us to do in L.A.

I'd post photos of my office, but you'd think we were robbed.