Now that's something to smile about!

My blog posts usually consist of what Ashton has been getting into lately, but this one's going to be all about ME ME ME!!! ...and my sister, Jeanette. =) This has been an exciting week for the two of us because we have entered into a right of passage that most people complete by the time they are graduated from junior high school, or even sooner. Yes yes, we are no longer teenagers. Because we in fact, GOT OUR BRACES OFF!!! HOORAY! It was definitely more fun (if having braces consists of any fun at all) having someone to share the agony and pain with. Someone to tell you when you have broccoli or an entire chinese food noodle stuck in your teeth (it's happens). Someone to tell you, "hey they already look straighter." And someone to cheer you up when you look at a photograph of you and your metal mouth, because soon enough, you'll have perfect teeth. So here we are, 2 years in the making, with our PERFECT TEETH! Don't be jealous, you too can have a noodle stuck in your teeth to have straight pearly whites in the end. C'mon, everyone's doing it!

So come with us, through our journey, of the "before, during, and AFTER!"



BEFORE PIC:
Now normally, I would NEVER show a picture like this to anyone. Because these are the ones that captured that horrible angle of my smile that I would always try to avoid in photos. It really accentuates the reason WHY I decided to go through with the braces. Over the years, I became very good at camouflaging my teeth issues. My poor friends and family would always have to deal with me saying, "no no, take another picture, there's a weird shadow on my teeth." Fear not my friends, those words are now in the past. Now you'll just have to endure me saying, "ooooh look at those teeth, do you want an extra copy?" hahaha. Click on the picture to see a close up of what my poor orthodontist had to deal, if you dare...



DURING:
This picture was taken in June 2007, at my baby shower. I like to call it, "the brace face sisters."
This is the most recent picture of my brace face. Taken just 2 weeks before I got them off. It was "married girls night out" with my beautiful Regis (the salon I worked at pre-Ashton) girlfriends, Elena and Raeanna.



AND AFTER:
Quite an improvement, don't you think?! We can't stop smiling!!!


P.S. My other ME ME ME thing is that I am also a "blonde" again. After 2 years with my natural hue, I decided it was time to spice things up again. Many thanks to my good friend Raeanna (the beautiful blonde in the "with braces" picture above) for my lovely blonde locks. It definitely pays to be friends with awesome hairdressers. And being one myself, I'm fortunate to know so many. =)

SPLASH!!

Chuck and I took Ashton to his first water park the other day. Well, it was more like a mini water park. We went to the new SPLASH Rec center in La Mirada. It basically consists of a few rec swimming pools and some kiddie water slides, a lazy river, and some shallow wading areas. Perfect for little kids. We went with Jeanette's family and we had a great time.




Ashton absolutely LOVES the water at home (in the bath or the hot tub... he's spoiled!). But we weren't so sure how he would react to the colder water in a much bigger setting. Fortunately, he LOVED it! When we were in the wading area, he kept crawling away, deeper and deeper into the water. He loved the lazy river as well.

Chuck FINALLY graduates.... to a 40 hour work week!

After 7 years of hard work, (11 if you count college as well) Chuck has finally completed all of his medical training. Last night was the graduation dinner for all of the graduating residents of the Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital, Family Practice Residency Program. We had a really great time celebrating with all of his other friends and colleagues and we are going to miss them very much. It's been very rewarding to get to see him enjoy going to work every day. Well, ALMOST every day. haha. Chuck is so sad to be leaving that hospital, as he has grown to love the staff and facility very much over the last 3 years as a resident. But he's also excited for his new job ahead in Temecula.

He makes me so proud every day, but I was especially proud of him last night. He is such a wonderful person and it's so nice to see other people giving him recognition for all of his hard work and accomplishments.

Here is a picture of Chuck and I with our friends Maly and Dan Willis. Dan is also a resident as Pres and he will be graduating next year. Yay Dan! You're NEXT!


All of the '07-'08 Presbyterian Hospital Residents, including the 5 graduating residents.


Here is a picture of Chuck and his good friend (and co-chief resident for the year) Ben Birdsall. They were handing out awards to the faculty members. Sorry the picture is of such poor quality. My flash apparently doesn't work very well from across the room.
Proud wife and hubby.
The three Fraleys.


Chuck was very honored to receive two different awards last night. The first one was for the Resident that went "Above and Beyond the Call of Duty." We were so very proud of him. Here is a video of Chuck receiving that award.



None of the residents knew ahead of time who was getting which award, so Chuck was very surprised to receive both of these awards.

Here is the video of Chuck receiving the "Resident Teaching" award. I missed the first part of the presentation so it starts right before they call his name. And yes, that's Ashton crawling around on the floor at the end of the video.




This last video is of Chuck receiving his "Completion of Residency" diploma. YAY CHUCK!! We're all so proud of you!

Randomness...

Here are a few pictures & videos that don't really fit into any particular category, but I thought that they were either cute or random, so I wanted to share them.



This picture falls under the "random" section.
I was at the DMV last month and as I was waiting for my number to be called for service, I took a stroll with Ashton around the facility a few times just to make the time go by. As I was passing by the driving test waiting area, I noticed this sign. I just love the first statement. Although, I feel it would be better off if it said, "Hey dummy, some of these people can't drive worth crap, so unless you want to get hit, don't stand any where near them." But that might be a bit too harsh. It would get the point across though, don't you think...


Ashton enjoying some form of chocolate goodness with Daddy. The chocolate pattern around his mouth reminds me of the Joker from the Batman movies. Can you see it?



Ashton and I having some fun at the park.

MOVING day is near!

So, with all of the packing I've been doing lately, Ashton has been feeling out his options of how he is going to choose to "make the move."


He's contemplating just doing it the old fashioned way and hoping into a cardboard box along with the rest of his things...




...or perhaps he'll make the trek in the dog crate so he can have a bit more breathing room.




...this laundry basket could even be a viable option. Plenty of leg room, and nothing above your head so you can enjoy the view.



...he may even hitch a ride with his friend Jacob. His mom said he could borrow the keys. These boys will be riding in style with his mom's Coach purse and HOT leopard car seats. Watch out ladies!


...but I think the boys would rather do some girl watching instead. I'll be sure and let you know what he ultimately decides.


Speaking of the move, here are a few pictures of our new house. These are off of the internet so they're pretty limited, but I made sure to include the important features!
...like the view from our bedroom. (the previous owners built this cool platform thing in the backyard so you can walk up those stairs and check out the view.)

...and MY new kitchen.
...and MY bathroom.
...and MY vanity! (Don't worry, I let Chuck have the garage.)



And here is Ashton's new room. He's taking a look to see how he is going to arrange his furniture.
We can't wait for all of you to hopefully come see it in person.




*As a side note, I just wanted to show proof that I don't randomly torture my kid by sticking him in dog crates. He crawled in all by himself, I just closed the door so I could get a picture. haha

Farewell Whittier Mommies

In February I joined a local "moms group" and Ashton and I were lucky enough to meet some really nice moms and kids/babies. I'm sad to be leaving this group, but also anxious to join the new group that I have found in Murrieta. Yes, the count down for our moving day is just 4 short weeks. It's a very bittersweet adventure, as we are so excited for what lies ahead, but also sad to leave the very close proximity to some of our family and friends. It's only about an hour from where we live now, but with gas prices, it'd probably be cheaper to charter a private plane out of the French Valley Airport into the Long Beach Airport and then take the city bus to our destination. (I think I'll look into that.)


Here are some pictures from our last play date with the Whittier Moms. This isn't the entire group, but actually a pretty good turn out.



Ashton's "praising" whoever brought the chocolate pie! "HALLELUJAH!"



This slide was deadly!! The nice little curve looks very innocent... Until you're sliding down it with a baby on your lap (or 2 in Karen's case) and it JOLTS you from one side back to the other and instead of a fun trip, you end up with a crying baby. Needless to say, we went down more than once. I'm a terrible mom, I know.

Although I'm smiling, Ashton didn't like this one either. I think he prefers the slides that are less than 4 ft in length.

I thought the middle spot would be better on Ashton, but I was wrong. Instead of jolting you back and forth, it would thrust you up and down like you were riding a horse. Again... Ashton ended up crying. So I immediately made Karen go on it so she could experience the terror!

YUMMY! Cookies!!