California Trip/ Fourth of July

Hey, I am backlogging a little bit here. Because this blog was so much Twilight themed (not that I mind that!), and not enough family...plus this is importanat stuff! This is from our vacation in July when we went back to my hometown of Seal Beach, CA. We went for several reasons, 1) to see family, 2) to just get out of the heat in Utah for a while , and 3) to bless Rebecca. (P.S. Not all of my posts are going to be this long or full of pictures! Promise!)

This first set of pictures is from our trip to the beach with Rebecca on July 3rd. It was her first time at the beach. She wore a little swim suit and everything! The water was pretty cold and so I was worried that when we stuck her feet in she wouldn't be happy, but she didn't really respond much at all! Her little feet almost turned purple they got so cold, and she just did not care. It was a fun day! (Gotta love my tan lines...eek!)

Isn't she just the cutest thing ever?

This next set of pictures is from the 4th of July. Rebecca wore her adorable sailor outfit for the first time. We went to a church breakfast at my parent's ward, then had a parade at the neighborhood park in a decked out umbrella stroller (Becca was entered in the 3 and under category, her cousin Christian was in the 3-6 year old range and drove a tricycle) and then went and saw fireworks at the Los Alamitos base later that evening. It was lots of fun! Becca got very tired by the end of the day, and she slept right through the fireworks!

This is our family that went to the breakfast...(Back)Tyson, Me, Rebecca, Grandma Bowen, (Front) Christian, my sister Wendy, and her hubby Sean.

These next pictures are from Saturday when Ryan and Natalie arrived at the Hotel California (Otherwise known as my parent's house) with their three kids James, Sophie and Maxwell. Maxwell loved Beccan and wanted to grab her a lot. Sophie kept announcing that "The baby is so toiny!"





Then later that day we went to Tustin to see Jen, Nathan and Katelynn. Jen was my roomate in college and they were living in CA for the summer while Nathan did an internship. It was good to see them again! We spent time hanging out and Katelynn loved playing with Becca. Then we went to Wahu's for dinner. YUM!



Katelynn is such a cutie! Gotta love that smile!

Then on Sunday we went to church in the morning then did the blessing in the afternoon at my parent's house. This way some of Tyson's family could drive down from Ridgecrest and not have to wake up super ealy in the morning. Rebecca wore the dress that I wore when I was blessed and a little gold ring that I wore as well. The family members that came down from Ridgecrest were Grandma Ratliff, Trent & Sabrina and thier four kids, Rees, Caden, Page, and Tricia, and Torri & Scott, and their three kids Victoria, Sirus, and Logan. The members of the circle for Becca's blessing were Tyson (daddy), Grandpa Bowen, Great-Grandpa Riccilli, Uncle Ryan, Uncle Sean, Uncle Trent, and my parent's bishop, Bishop Shaw (not pictured). Rebecca was so worn out she was not happy, and cried the whole time, but regardless it was a very emotional and spiritual experience. We felt the presence of her Grandpa Ratliff, and we know that he was there to be part of our baby's blessing. It truly was wonderful.

This is Rebecca with Aunt Brina, cousin Sophie, and cousin Rees. This is before the blessing so she's just in a onsie and not her dress yet.

Becca and her cousin Victoria


This is just a really cute, happy picture of baby Maxwell from that Sunday.


Becca and mommy's rings.



Rebecca and Grandma Ratliff

This is Becca and the participants of her blessing (minus the bishop, he already left). They are (L-R) Sean Morris, Grandpa Riccilli, Daddy, Trent Ratliff, Grandpa Bowen, and Ryan Bowen. (Sean had already changed his shorts, and Ryan was helping with dinner...thus the apron).



Our happy family on Becca's big day!

This is Becca with Torri and Scott and thier family, she didn't stay happy long so we needed to end the picture taking after this.

These are some pictures we took of Rebecca in her dress after we got home, since she was so unhappy that day. She is laying on my baby blanket too, that her Great Grandma Riccilli made for me when I was a baby.




Then Monday Tyson and I went to the beach with Ryan, Natalie and thier kids, and Wendy and Christian, and left Becca at home with Grandma B. Good thing too, cause Tyson and I got fried! We drove back on Tuesday and that was our big vacation. It was a great trip! I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Girl's Night Out/ Breaking Dawn Release Party

Hey! So my book club (and otherwise good friends) and I all got together for a Breaking Dawn release party. Angela and I were the brains behind the madness. It began as come on over to make T-shirts, and turned into this big thing! It was so fun! We made T-shirts, played a few games, had good food, took pictures with "Edward" , etc! There are LOTS of pictures from it, so enjoy! (P.S. if you read Angela's blog then there might be quite a few repeats, but since there are lots of people (namely family) who read mine that don't here they all are)

The two masterminds behind the madness....me and Angela.

This is just a picture of the books and some flowers we had set up. If you look closely there is the wristband we used to get our books at Barnes and Noble. We also downloaded Stephenie Meyer's playlists that she listened to while writing the books and played those for background music, and burned some CDs of them to give as prizes for our games.

This is our "Edward" if you look closely he is even sparkly. Tee Hee!

Angela and Sara just hanging out. I thought it was a really cute picture of them.

Angela and Mandy doing iron-ons for thier shirts. We found this really cool paper that you can print on and then you can iron that on a shirt! It was great!

Erin with Edward....gotta love it!

This is just a really cute shot of Courtney while she was deciding what to do on her shirt.

Tyson was helping me figure out what to do on my shirt, and generally just walking around while Rebecca was asleep (Thus the moniter hanging on his shirt).

Me and Angela with Edward in our Twilight shirts. We both did the sparkly red apple, with twilight over it, and OCD on the back. (Pics of those up close are below)

I just HAD to put this on my shirt cause (well as you can tell by my background...) it is SOOO me! Some of the other shirt sayings were "Bite Me", "It's always darkest before the dawn...Breaking Dawn Midnight Release Party", and "I didn't get my letter from Hogwarts, so I'm moving to Forks to live with the Cullens". I wanted to use all of them! Really, it took me forever to decide what to do!

Just me and Edward!

All of us showing off our shirts. (Top) Jena, Theresa, Courtney, Angela, (Middle) Ellise, Sara, Mandy, Erin, Emily, (Bottom) Me...don't ask me why I sat there all by myself!

This is all of us showing off our rings as well. Angela and I made a version of Bella's ring for everyone. Angela's was the best, but her fingers are so tiny that the ring she made would not have fit anyone else's. Mine had a little extra special something on it to make it a little more similar, then we had fun ones for the rest of the girls. Angela, Erin, and I also made a replica of Bella's bracelet (without the wolf...cause 1) I couldn't find any wolf charms, and 2) who wanted one anyway?). I don't have any closeups of them yet, but I plan on getting some.

We made it to Barnes and Noble in Sandy!

Working on the Trivia at Barnes and Noble...it was super hard! Do you remember what Bella was wearing on her flight to Forks at the beginning of Twilight? Or the name of the designer who Alice had make Bella's wedding dress? I didn't think so!

This one needs some explaining....This is me, Sara, Erin, and Angela posing with Ben Barnes (The one in the picture)....yes we are at a Breaking Dawn party...BUT we saw this poster book for Prince Caspain. Now...Sara (the lovely lady in the middle next to the magazine) is a WONDERFUL Author herself. She has written an AMAZING book named Hidden. Hidden's main male protagonist is Gareth. Gareth is HOT! And we have decided a while ago that Ben Barnes would be perfect for the part. So here we are oogling at Ben/Gareth. SO MUCH FUN!

Barnes and Noble had a boquet toss, and whoever cought it won! This is me eagerly waiting for the bouquet to be thrown...if you can pick me out of the crowd...Erin is in there too on the left side.

After all is said and done, this is us waiting for our number to be called. This is (Top) Theresa, Courtney, Mandy, Sara (Bottom) Erin, Ellise.

This is Jena, Theresa, and me.

This is all of us in line once our number is called. We were in group 8. This is (Top) Mandy, Angela, Courtney, Erin (Middle) Me, Emily, Sara, Ellise, Theresa, (Front) Jena.

I got a picture of all the girls paying for thier books, but I'll just post mine, and let them post thiers on their own blogs. Notice the bracelet. ;)

Since there were 10 of us, it was the perfect amount for us to be handed one box of books! Here we are with the box DYING to open it! This is Ellise, Sara, Mandy, Jena, Courtney, Angela, Emily, Me (with the box), Erin and Theresa!

We got it open and we are so EXCITED! (Top) Ellise, Sara, Mandy, Jena, Courtney, Angela, Theresa, (Middle) Emily, (Bottom) Me, and Erin.

Me and my book! I've been waiting for this one for over a year!

Angela, Erin, me and Sara...the midnight release party was originally going to be us four, but then the news spread to the rest of our book club gals and boom! You see the results!

Me pretending to read my book...in reality I got home and read the first 3 chapters before going to bed. Then I read all day Saturday (with some breaks for napping and hugging my baby girl...if you've read the book you'll know why) and finished it after church on Sunday.

This was just a FEW of the pictures we had! It was such a fun night! One that I will never forget! Thanks so much to all the gals who made it so great! I hope you loved the book! I sure did!