Merry Christmas!!!

We hope you all have a great Christmas with your families and a Happy New Year!! We love you all and are so grateful to have you all in our lives! Even if it's only through the blog! :) Merry Christmas From the Bishops!!!

What a life!!

There is nothing like Saturday morning cartoons in Mom and Dad's bed!!!


Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

Princess Maddness!!!

My final is over now so I can reconnect with the world and what better way to do that than to blog!! Maddy's 1st Birthday was on the 7th, so I'm a little behind, but I'm all about stringing on Birthdays for as long as possible! Anyone with me!?!! So our little monkey turned ONE!!! Already!! We still can't believe it! She seems so little still. I remember thinking that Kaden was such a big boy at one, but then I look back and nope, he was a little guy! So we had "Princess Mania" at our house. Besides the lights of the Christmas tree, our house glowed a pretty pink! We enjoyed the company of our family and friends, ate some grub food and enjoyed Maddy in the spot light. Now for the best part...pictures galore!! Bear with me, she only turns ONE once! :)Our Princess decor. It was hard to capture all of it, but you get the point, PRINCESS!!
She got this chair from Justin, Andrea and McKenna and immediately she started kicking her feet and rocking out. Who needs music! It was the perfect 1st gift because she had a darling chair she could open her presents from. Thanks guys!This present opening is serious stuff Maddy!! She ripped some of the packages open with lots of help from her cousins and big bro. Thanks!

I made my first Birthday cake, and I have to say, I was pretty proud of it! It was red velvet with cream cheese frosting. It was completely gone by the end of the night, so I think it was a hit! (And yes those are jewels! Like I said, PRINCESS!!)
I also made Maddy her own personal cake. Not as cute, but made to destroy!! She seemed to like it! It was a perfect size to dig into. I love how she is showing off her Princess Birthday big perfectly! Gotta love girls!!
Yumm!! She was so funny, at first when she touched the frosting she put her hands out to me to clean them because they were messy. So what did mom do, shove them further in the cake!!
I thought this was such a cute picture of everyone crowded in my kitchen watching the birthday girl eat her cake. What great family and friends we have! I wish you could have all been there!!
All done!
Thats my girl!! Just messy enough to get cute pictures, but not covered from head to toe!!
Of course Kaden couldn't miss out on the cake! He actually did really well. I wasn't sure how he was going to be with all the attention of Maddy, but he did great!! Just wanted some cake! He's not afraid of a little pink!!Grammy and her little Mads!
Happy 1st Birthday lil' mis! You are such a sweetheart with the cutest little personality and determination. You truly are our lil' Princess! We love you!!!

And the Critics Say.....A-MAZING!!!!

Twilight was AWESOME!!! Not only was it an awesome movie, it was such a fun night. Friday night Andrea and I drove down to Oceanside to join the Twilight Pre-movie Party at Felicity's friend Leanne's house. (Thanks Leanne!! We had a blast!) We indulged in yummy snacks and some fun trivia. Then about 40 of us headed to the theatre for some VIP treatment. Due to another friend's hookups, we got into the movie without waiting in line, and had roped off seats waiting for us!! Thanks again Ashley!! I had purposely set my standards a little low so that I wouldn't be disappointed but it blew them out of the water!! Of course books always have more detail and more insight to emotions, however, I thought that the movie was extremely well done!! LOVED IT!! Only complaint, it was too short. It definitely left me waiting for more! Can't wait to see it again!!Us girls partying it up, Twilight style! The group before we headed out to meet Edward!Do we look a little excited!?! Can't wait!!

Thanks Bryce for being Mr. Mom for the night! The kids had a fun night with their Daddy!!

Date with Mom and Dad!

For the first time since Maddy was born Bryce and I took Kaden out on a date by ourselves! We have been so excited for the past month waiting for Madagascar 2 to come out because we knew Kaden would love it! Bryce ended work early today so we decided we would take him to the "Big TV" to see Madagascar. This is the first time he has ever gone to the movies, and he was awesome! He wanted to sit in his own seat and not on our laps! He looked so cute in those big ol' chairs. It was so funny because I didn't realize but when you only weigh 25ish pounds, your legs are not heavy enough to hold down the seat. So he watched most of the movie almost folded in half, but he wanted to sit by himself!! It was such a cute movie and very enjoyable for Bryce and I. Kaden was pretty sad when it was all done. He kept saying, "more big TV, more big TV!" I'm glad there were other kids there (of course it's a kid movie) cuz he kept saying "oooh Alex and Melman and Goria and Marty!" He can't just say one, he has to name them all! It was pretty priceless! Bryce and I really enjoyed the time together with him. Although we were in a movie the whole time, it was nice to be focused on him and how much fun he was having. I do think it is really important to have one-on-one time with your kids individually, especially as they get older and as you have more. Because we were always so busy and there were 4 of us, I rarely had individual time with my parents, especially my dad. But I do remember this one time, and I think I always will, where my dad took me to a UCSB Girls Basketball game. It was so much fun, just he and I especially watching something I loved! I also felt special because we went in the porsche!! Years later, I still think that it was such a special outing we went on just the two of us! Anyways, we had a great night and I thought I would share it!!
P.S. If your wondering about his cut, he got stitches off on Wednesday and it looks great!! It is just a thin line that in a couple of years will probably have disappeared! He's doing great!

Poor Little Guy!

Kaden had his first major injury the other night! Besides bumps and bruises nothing serious has ever happened to him. But it was just a matter of time, and unfortunately, he fell and busted his eyebrow open! Poor little guy! With much deliberation about whether we thought he needed stitches, we decided to ask a pro. Luckily our friend Dave who is a PA was able to come to our rescue. He assessed Kaden and let us know that stitches would be the best route. So 5 stitches later, he is on his way to a full recovery! We can't express our appreciation to Dave enough!! We owe you BIG!!Our little Frankenstein!! He is actually doing really well. It doesn't seem to bother him that much only when he need to clean, neosporin, or band aid it.
Poor guy had to be restrained to be able to stitch him up. His Daddy was very brave and held his head in place to ensure he didn't move. I was proud that I was tough enough to also be there trying to calm him down. I knew that it would be better if he could see both Bryce and I, so I mentally prepped myself for painful screams from my baby and stood by his side. Bryce was much stronger than I, and was able to be by his side the whole time to help his little buddy! Good thing kids are so resilient! We love you Kaden!

Halloween...A little late!

I'm finally getting to post some Halloween pictures! We had a fun Halloween night full of trick-or-treating and partying it up at Bryce's parents house. We figured we wouldn't get any kids at our house so we helped hand out candy at Bryce's parent's house and also enjoyed a little of Jamie's party. Bryce, his brother's, and Eric all made a haunted spook alley for Jamie's friends to freak out in. It worked really well with the girls! And some pics...For all of you Madagascar fans, Kaden was Marty for Halloween. This was the only time he would keep the head on. It was the best part, but we should have known he wouldn't be a fan. He looked awfully cute though! Mommy's little lamb! Of course Maddy had no issues with her hood, except she got hot. That's Cali for you, hot on Halloween!Yes, that is my man cub! I didn't know someone so handsome could get so...well...scary! Check out those teeth! Somehow, I had a different vision of a vampire...Edward!! :)I tried to be scary! I have to admit, I felt much more scary than now I can see that I looked. It was the first Halloween in my life that I dressed up as something scary and not cute and girly! Bryce and I were discussing our past costumes and I found it hilarious that everything he was it had to be dead. Like if he wanted to be a...clown for example, he had to be a dead clown. What a difference between girls and boys huh! FYI this is the best way to trick-or-treat with little ones!! It was perfect!Maddy loved the ride! She sat in her seat the whole time, just content with the ride!Eric and Harmony came up to join in on our Halloween fun! Skye was a cute little dragonfly.Kaden kept checking on his treats to make sure they were still in his bag. I think he was in shock at how many treats he was getting and that Bryce and I were excited for him to get them. He was so much fun to take and said "Trick or Treat" (with emphasis on the TREAT) to every house! What a fun night!

All Things Shrek!

Our little guy turned TWO!! We had a great party with our family and friends. Shrek has been a favorite of Kaden's for quite some time now so only appropriate to have a Shrek party. I had been prepping him all week so when you asked him what kind of party he was having he knew, "Shrek parrrtyyyy!" Allow me to narrate the day through pictures...Shrek has some competition...he's pretty cute!!Our wonderful Chef Felicity made both Kaden's mini cake on the right and the big cake. Both a huge hit!! The big Shrek cake was the most amazing carrot cake! YUMMM!! Kaden's cake was fun-fetti giant cupcake with worms on the top and his face connected to a lollipop. She is way too creative!! It was awesome, thanks again!! Shrek decor...and the entertainment in the background!Harmony and Skye enjoying the festivities.Our friend Brittany and Maddy's future husband Oliver! What a cutie! The Grandpas! At one point in the day Kaden came up to them and pointed to one and said, "Grandpa" then looked at the other, paused for a moment and then said, "More Grandpa!" It was one of my favorite lines of the day!Kaden's Loot! Can we say spoiled or just really loved?! Bryce, Ryan and RobTearing into his presents. For the week after his bday he kept asking to open more presents! He would say, "Mom, more presents!" Like he didn't get enough! :) Not the greatest picture, but it showed a lot of Kaden's loving family.Our little guy...or not so little anymore! (Also kind of a blurry pic sorry!)He took one bite of his cake and said, "Yummy!!" He ate a good portion of it and loved every bite!Kenna your too cute!! This is her "cheese" pose, I love it!This is where I found Kaden part way into his party. He had to take a rest from all the fun!Kaden scored with all kinds of adorable clothes and awesome toys. He is way into figurines especially of animals. So we decided to line up all his animals/dinosaurs that he got from his bday and let him pose with them. What a big boy! I still can't believe our little guy turned TWO. It is also quite scary to think that Maddy's 1st birthday is in a month! Where has the time gone. I guess it really does fly when your having fun! We love you Kaden and hope you had a fun birthday!!

Words, Word, Words...

A new word for Maddy!!

Maddy's vocabulary is growing fast! Her list of words include Mom, Dad, Hi, Bye, Uhh-Ohh, good girl, and now duck!! I realized I tell her "good girl" a lot and she has seemed to pick up on it. Kaden and Maddy were having their bath tonight and Kaden handed Maddy her pink duck to play with and as clear as day she said, "duck." I would have to say that she was born into the right family because besides her words we can understand, she chats it up all day long! She has to compete with Kaden so sometimes their volume gets pretty loud. Another reason she was born into the right family!! Can't wait to hear what her next word will be! Oh our little monkey is growing up too fast!!

More than just Pumpkins!

There was a "Fall" feeling in the air on Saturday so we decided to embrace it and visit a pumpkin patch. I have been anxious to get some cute pumpkin pictures this year and Saturday turned out to be the perfect day. We went to Peltzer Farms with Bryce's family minus Grandma and Grandpa. There was so much to do than just play with pumpkins! It was such a fun day with lots of cute pictures. I always appreciate Justin and his willingness to take pictures with his awesome Cannon Rebel (I try not to covet but it's hard). After the day ended, we realized we took 450 pictures in a few hours of pumpkin patchin'!!! Here are a few, well quite a few, brace yourself...They had a really nice and clean petting zoo with very calm and friendly animals. I was suprised that all the kids were so excited with no hesitation about petting and feeding the goats, even Maddy. I love this picture!! What a cutie pie! The goats were really excited about her food!SQUEEEEEEZE!!! Kaden gave lots of love to the goats!Poor goat! Kaden decided the goat was a perfect height to ride! Maddy didn't exaclty "pet" the goat, her "pets" turned into "pulls", but the goat didn't even flinch.Kaden is slightly obsessed with animals and has a slightly larger obsession with horses so when he saw the pony rides he was in heaven. He kept tell us,"riiiide horse". It was perfect, they strapped him in nice and tight so we didn't even have to walk around holding him. He was definitely in his element. At one point he even asked for a cowboy hat. I guess we weren't fully prepared with all the gear! There were some big tears when it was time to get off which then earned him a free ride! Lucky boy! Before the day was over he rode the horses 3 times, but could've stayed all night long!Never too young to ride a pony! She is quite a fearless 10 month old. She loved it!This picture perfectly describes their relationship. So cute!!Don't get lost in the corn maze boys!!Maddy was the perfect model! This age is great where they smile on command but stay where you pose them; 2 year olds are a different story!I LOVE pumpkins!!!Pumpkin-head!Hey there girlies!! "The Brotherhood" Finally, all the boys together at last!And of course we can't forget the girls!Buried in straw, how fun!!It is getter harder and harder to get a family picture where both kids are smiling and happy, so this is as good as we got. Then finally a picture of Bryce and I! Usually one of us are on the other side of the camera and the other holding a child! So it was nice to finally get a picture of the two of us.

Thanks for the patience with the endless amount of pictures, I was really excitied about all of them so it was hard to choose a few!