Playtime

Alright, so everyday, all day is playtime for Caitlyn, but I put together a video of pictures of her doing what she does best, PLAYING!! HAPPY SUMMERTIME! Enjoy!

Paisley Party Concert

I just experienced one of the best concerts in my life! If you read my previous post you'll already know that I went and saw Brad Paisley this past Saturday. My childhood friend Michelle, myself and 4 other friends (Lisa, Malissa, Allyson and Michelle) went together. Michelle is a Brad Paisley fan club member so she was able to get VIP seats for the 2 of us. Unfortunately fan club members are only able to purchase 2 tickets, so the other girls had lawn seats. However, as they were heading to the lawn, they were approached and told that if they sang a Brad Paisley song they could get an upgrade to seats. They then moved from the lawn to the 200 section level, not bad! Michelle and I had to pick up our tickets at will call and found out that we were in Row 9, YIPPEE!!! We parted from the others and made our way to the VIP seats. We were shown to our seats, which were in the section away from the catwalk. We sat down and waited for the show to get started.

Julianne Hough took to the stage first. I was already a huge fan of hers from Dancing With The Stars and am now becoming a big fan of her music. She sang a handful of her songs, my favorite being "That Song In My Head."



When Julianne had finished two ladies came and told us that we were in their seats. The usher was with them and she said that she has made a mistake and our seats were at actually the seats right next to the catwalk. There were no words to express how excited we were. We literally jumped for joy, hollering and screaming, like little kids in a candy shop.

Chuck Wicks took the stage after Julianne and again another great new artist. My favorite song of his is "Stealing Cinderella." Chuck was nice enough to shake our hands as he was leaving the stage.



Up next was Jewel, it's great seeing her break into the country music scene. She sang some new songs and some of her old ones. She even yodeled for us. My favorite new song of hers is "Stronger Woman In Me."



And finally the real reason we all came, BRAD PAISLEY!! Michelle and I were standing right at the catwalk and from about 5 feet away the man of the show came right up through the floor and started singing. Unfortunately when he was singing on the catwalk, we were behind him, but it was still an incredible site to have him so close to us! He sang so many of my favorite songs from "She's Everything" to "Wrapped Around" to "Online" and so many more. He probably played for about an hour and a half. I even took a video of him singing "Mr Policeman" (Greg - especially for you, as I know that you like this song a lot!). The quality is not too bad. And he debuted a new song, which I found the video on youtube. His sense of humor is so great and it really shows through his songs.

Here's my video I got from the show: Mr Policeman



And here is the new song that he debuted:



He wasn't much for shaking hands with the fans, but as he walked by I was able to touch is cowboy boots and pant leg.

Brad put on such an AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, FABULOUS, UNBELIEVABLE show. I can't wait until next summer when he comes back to town!

I thank Michelle so much for coming along with me, or I guess that I should say that I went with her, since she is the fan club member and we got these seats because of her! It was so much fun sharing her first country music concert with her and I look forward to many more. It's amazing that we have been friends since we were three and this was our first country concert together. We were talking and laughed about the fact that the last concert we went to together was back in junior high and we saw the New Kids On The Block. I look forward to seeing Brad again with her next year!

Enjoy the slide show of my pictures!

Brad Paisley's Coming To Town

I AM SO INCREDIBLY EXCITED ABOUT SEEING BRAD PAISLEY IN CONCERT TOMORROW NIGHT! I AM GOING WITH A FEW GIRLFRIENDS AND WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BLAST! MY FRIEND, LISA AND I SAW BRAD IN CONCERT LAST SUMMER AND HE PUT ON A GREAT SHOW. WE HAD GRASS SEATS LAST TIME, HOWEVER TOMORROW NIGHT, 2 OF US, MYSELF AND MICHELLE, ARE LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE VIP SEATS! SHE IS A MEMBER OF HIS FAN CLUB AND WE COULD GET 2 VIP SEATS! WE SHOULD BE IN THE FIRST COUPLE ROWS. I WISH AT ALL OF US COULD SIT TOGETHER BUT FAN CLUB MEMBERS ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO PURCHASE 2 VIP SEATS. BUMMER! SO STAY TUNED FOR SOME AWESOME PICTURES!

San Diego Part #2 - The Rehearsal

The wedding rehearsal....

Todd and Erin picked a beautiful garden setting for their wedding, a location called Paradise Gardens, in Oceanside, CA. My parents, Caty and I arrived at the location and it gave me chance to look around, as I hadn't seen the gardens except in pictures. My parents had visited the location back in February, when they made a trip down to see Todd and Erin.

As for being one of the two flower girls, Caty has been practicing at home, along with reading two flower girl books - The Little Flower Girl and Flower Girl. She was ready for her part. Erin's niece Sydney (who is 2) and her parents were stuck in traffic and couldn't make it to the rehearsal, so Caty got the stage to herself. She walking up the aisle, just smiling away. Todd scooped her up and we had to make sure that she understood that he wouldn't be picking her up at the actual wedding.

Todd had just 4 groomsmen (Paul, Ryan, Landry and Brian) while Erin had 11, yes I said 11!! Todd's best man was Paul - they have been friends for 25 years; they met when they were 3. Erin was so well prepared that the rehearsal ran very smoothly. Todd proposed in December of 06, so they have had plenty of time to plan the wedding. Erin's dad, Don, had a heart transplant during that same December and they wanted to make sure that he was healthy enough to be at the wedding.

So, like I said the rehearsal went well. Caty got to practice her flower girl walk a few times and of course loved being the center of attention.













From the rehearsal we all headed to the Ocean House for a beautiful dinner hosted by our parents. Since Friday was Scott's last day of school, he caught a flight down, supposedly arriving around 5:15. However there was a short delay in Sac, which put him getting in about 30 minutes later than expected. Todd and Erin had left him a car at the San Diego airport; also waiting for him was Paul's sister, Taryn, who had flown in from Paris. Scott and Taryn actually showed up at the Ocean House at the same time all of us arrived from the rehearsal. Perfect timing. We went on to have a wonderful dinner, followed by toasts and gifts. I love the gift that Erin got all of her bridesmaids - personalized robes. Todd's gift was a mug with they guys names on them (typical) and a bottle of Jack Daniels. The kids got different gifts, Caty's was a personalized nap mat, very cute!

Here Caty is with her soon to officially be Auntie Erin

And this is Erin's sister, whom Caty calls Auntie Amy

Now after the rehearsal dinner was over, the party just got started. I spent some time texting my cousins Greg and Jeff, who were in town for the wedding. We got the plan into motion to meet them out at the bars once Caty was in bed. We brought Caty back to the house and put her to bed (it was already close to 10:00), then since my parents were also in the house with us, my dad (chauffeur Rod) was nice enough to drop us off at the bar. WE GOT AN EVENING OUT!! I got in touch with Paul, the best man, and told him where we were at. So, Scott, myself, Greg and Jeff were hanging out in this little tiny bar, when at least half of the wedding party showed up, along with a few other friends. This little tiny dinky bar got so packed very quickly, but we had a BLAST!! Taryn took some pictures which I have been waiting to get my hands on to include in this post, but she hasn't sent them my way yet, so they might show up at a different time. We ended up closing the bar down around 2:00. My dad said to give him a call when we were done, however I'm not sure if he realized that it would be so late, or early, whichever you want to call it. So again chauffeur Rod came and picked us up and drove us one. We had a great time out with family and most of Todd's friends. We conked out quickly knowing we were in for a long day ahead of us with the wedding.

The next morning - we both woke up with hangovers, who would've guessed. My parents hosted an early (10:00) get together for family and friends that were in town. My mom was determined about getting everyone out by 12:00 (which she succeeded in doing) because Caitlyn needed a nap and we would need to leave the house around 2:45 as the wedding was starting at 4:00. So Caty got her nap in and we all got ready....

Stay tuned for my post about the actual wedding. I know that I have been making some of you wait for the pictures and such but I have a lot to share about the events leading up to the BIG DAY!

San Diego Part #1 - Visiting the Beach

I am going to have to split this blog up into 4 different parts, or else I could get an award for the LONGEST post ever! So there will be San Diego Part #1-#4.

My brother got married this past weekend to the love of his life, Erin. They live in San Diego and the wedding took place in Oceanside. We rented a house with my parents in Carlsbad, which turned out to be the best idea every, seeing as that meant that Caitlyn would get her own room. She is quite a loud sleeper.

SO THE TRIP BEGINS.....

Caty and I drove down on Thursday (the 12th). Scott's last day of school (he's a 3rd grade teacher for those of you that don't know) was Friday and he couldn't exactly take the day off, so he caught a flight after school. Anyways, Caty and I met up with my parents about 2 hours into the drive. At that point my mom hopped into the car to help entertain Caty. According to Google maps the drive would be about 8 hours, and with a potty trained 3 year old I knew that we would be making a couple of other stops along the day. We drove and we drove and we drove some more and finally crossed over the Grapevine just before lunchtime; we left Sacramento around 6:45 AM. After lunch, Caty was somewhat ready for a nap and my mom needed to get into the car with my dad so both our cars could use the carpool lane for the remainder of the drive. If you aren't familiar with Southern CA carpool lanes, they are AWESOME! They are for 2 or more people and are enforced all day long. You are not supposed to go in and out unless you some upon the entrances and exits (however I saw several cars pass over the double double yellow lines. Some of the areas even have barriers so there is no coming or going. With having such an early start and the use of the carpool lane we didn't have to deal with much LA traffic. We arrived in Carlsbad around 3:45, meaning we made it in 9 hours, with our several stops. Not bad at all. We settled into the house for the night.

The next morning (Friday) my mom had some shopping to do for various get togethers during our stay, so my dad and I took Caitlyn to the beach, which was a little over a mile drive from the house. Okay, so I know that my daughter is smart, but sometimes she just throws me for a loop. A little background info here - my parents have a condo in Maui and Caty has made two trips there; the first when she was just a year old the second 6 months after the first trip. She's 3 now. Back to present day - picture us playing in the water, it's not exactly warm water either, and she says to me "the water in Maui is warmer that this water." Now tell me how many 3 years olds have a memory that can go back almost 2 years. She amazes me! She had a blast making sand castles and chasing the waves. The video that I got is cute, however the waves crashing are fairly loud so it's hard to hear what she says some of the time.

(Checking the waves out with Papa)

(Building sand castles)

(Doing The Beach Dance)

(My Beach Baby)

(Me and My Caty)

(Caty playing in the waves)

Please stay tuned for Part #2 - The Rehearsal (I'm just waiting on some pictures from the second half of the rehearsal evening - a night out at the bars)

Caitlyn's Music Videos

As you all know Caitlyn loves to sing. She is always asking me to video tape her while she sings her songs. So for your enjoyment here are a few more music videos by none other that Caitlyn Murphy!

Baa Baa Black Sheep In Fast Forward

No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed

Old MacDonald & Rain Rain Go Away

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and her own version of
The Itsy Bitsy Spider

You're All In Trouble

So this morning I figured out that there are sites out there that supply me with an endless supply of layouts for my blog. Trust me, I will be changing the layout ALL THE TIME! I love to have new looks on my page. If you've been to my MySpace page, then you will know that I like variety and change the look often.

Hope that you have a great day! I know that I will.

What Happens At Bedtime?

Bedtime can be an interesting time for Caitlyn. She has no problem with being in her bed, it's what happens when the lights are off and the door is closed that cracks us up! She will sometimes spend an hour talking, singing, counting, you name it.

So I was taking some video's of Caty one day, and in between singing songs, I asked her what she does at bed time. We started in the living room and with the second video we ended up in her room. Scott and I can hear most of the things that she does while she is SUPPOSED to be falling asleep, but it was funny to actually see her show me. Enjoy!

Now come into her room and see what happens: