Noble Novel

We had a fabulous weekend! Jen, Curt and their baby Cache were visiting from Colorado (or "the OC" as Jen refers to it), hence the naming of this blog in honor of them. They came on Thursday and left Monday. I already miss them. It is fun having a friend to talk to 24/7. Hopefully one of these days we can go visit them in Colorado. On Saturday we went to the Whipples to visit Roni. She loved Cache and Clara and I'm pretty sure they loved her. How can you not love a Whipple? Kind of like Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, Whipples are the happiest people on earth. Trevor visited with us for a bit too but we didn't get any pictures of him... next time... Happy Roni with Cache and Clara. They are happy as can be in this picture and have their little arms interlocked. And then about two seconds later, Clara decides to scream and poke Cache in the face. Sorry Cache! I will work on teaching Clara how to play nice. She likes to bully the little kids. Insteat of crying, Cache just got a look on his face like, "What in the world is going on"?After we made our Whipple stop, we went to lunch at Rosa's. We went here last year when they were in town and they wanted to go back. I guess there aren't many good Mexican food restaurants in Colorado. Clara started getting a bit restless so I was feeding her some ice (Curt got this great picture of her with a little chunk of ice in her mouth). A bit later I realized it had been a while since I fed her so she was probably starving.After that we went to visit Beka and her twins. Our four babies are all very close so it is fun to have that in common. Especially since we are best friends from HS. Here we are with our kiddos. Clara is 6 months, Cache is 4 months and the twins (Braden and Landon) are 5 months. It's fun to see what you learn about your kids personalities as you take pictures of them. Clara can't keep her hands to herself, that's for sure! We decided Jen needed to see what it was like to have quadruplets, so we piled all the kids on "Aunt Jen". The twin on the left is about to lose it, Cache can't figure out what is going on and Clara her mouth open wider than I thought possible. And Jen is just calm as ever.

We had to take one of just the kids, no adult supervision. Clara was posing for every picture. It helped that I was dancing around making a fool of myself trying to get all of the babies to look but also making sure Clara didn't attach any of the younger kids.
On Sunday, we had what few friends from HS that have stuck around AZ over for dessert. We all at a little too much sugar and started acting, well, a little like in HS. Trevor doesn't seem to like to take serious pictures. After I gave him his plate of treats, I tried taking a picture and this is the look I got. Maybe once he realizes how many pictures I post on my blog he will start smiling at the camera. :)
Here's me with Beka, Jen and Amy. It's a little weird to think we are all moms now because it kind of seems like we just graduated from HS. It's always fun to get together, reminisce about the good old days and talk about our crazy lives.This is when the night started getting out of hand. Beka put her twins on the pillows and they looked so cute. So I get this great idea to get a picture of all the babies together doing it. The problem was it was late so they were all hungry and tired. But we all know how much I like pictures! So we snapped a few, none of them turned out well, and then they all started rolling off their pillows and SCREAMING (see next picture). It was funny. We were all just laughing at the chaos we created. What was really out of control was the idea that we could all lay on pillows like the little kids. Sure enough, we did (hence, my previous post). I was looking at the picture realizing how dumb we look, but hey, what is life without moments like that? :) I'm just glad we are all secure enough to post things like that online. HA!
Here's everyone. We miss all of our friends that are away at schools out of state. Top L-R: Trevor F., Danny, Curt and Jason. Middle L-R: Beka, Amy, Jen and Anna. Bottom L-R: Braden or Landon, whichever one the other isn't, Cach and Clara. Clara in her pretty little nightgown before bed. And some random thoughts about Clara's sleeping habits for the record. Up until last Monday, we swaddled Clara to go to bed and she would never cry herself to sleep. If she fussed, we'd just give her her pacifier and to sleep she'd go. So last Monday, she was SO fussy. I put her to bed and she wasn't swaddled and I just let her cry and after about 8 minutes, she was fast asleep. Tuesday, she was asleep within just 2 minutes or so. So the swaddling days have come to an end after six months and so has not being able to cry herself to sleep.
On Monday, we tried out Shabu Fondue in Chandler. We just got the cheese and chocolate courses and I was less than impressed with the cheese. It was not good and I will probably NEVER go back again for that. The dessert was a little better, really, how can you screw up chocolate? Although the chocolate didn't seem anything more than semi-sweet chocolate chips you can buy in the store. I would probably go back for the dessert, but mostly it would be because of the atmosphere. Anyway, I didn't think it was great. I've never eaten fondue in a restaurant, so I have nothing else to compare it to though. But at least it had neat decor and I was with Jen and her family to keep me entertained! :)

After that, we went to the Temple so Jen could get some pictures and we took some in front of a cactus. That's right, there are Sagauro all over, but I doubt I have a single picture in front of one. Well, now I do and so does Clara. Jen 'needed' to go to the scrapbook store so Curt patiently waited in the car while we shopped. Curt and Jen left that afternoon. They are such great house guests. Jason wasn't able to do much with us, but Curt was always helping me out with Clara. Thanks for staying with us and remember, you are welcome anytime!Oh look, Jason does exist... :) I'm telling you, I am curious to see what's going to happen when Jason is done with school and he's around us more. Now, there are some days Clara never sees him. When he is home, he is usually doing homework so we don't see much of each other. It'll be like falling in love all over again...