My most exciting Christmas gift

I have never owned a pair of these, I mean like the real things but for Christmas this year, Bryan pulled out all the stops and these ugg boots are on their way in the mail, actually coming from china, oddly not Australia but oh well. I can't wait to wear them in Tenn. next week.

Families growing up!

so I was thinking today that it is so strange to see my family (my sisters) growing up. I don't feel I am getting older with each passing year but for some reason in my head my 11 year old sister is pregnant and my 13 year old sister is getting married to a man who has two children that will be living with her full time, she too will be a mom. But honestly they can't be growing up because I am not getting older right? We are all still young in our heads how time does fly. I can't imagine how fast it will go with my own children. Here is a picture that was taken just 'yesterday'

Christmas 1991
I was 11, sarah 8, rachael 6, Jessie 3

P for Pass!!

Big news...Bryan passed his first Architecture exam. He did it on his first try, no one else in his office has passed this test on their first try. He is brilliant, I am sure. The exam is the first of 7 that he has to pass in order to get his California Architecture License. His goal is to be done sometime around the end of 2010. So now he is going schedule his next one for sometime around march and study study study until then. So I am free for the next 3 months after 8 pm :) .

Cabin Fever

So it has been almost two weeks since I put our family in a sort of quarantine. Sadly we are still dealing with coughs, only now with different people. Kevin and Adam have come down with Cabin Fever, me too actually. and we are losing our minds. The whining at my house has reached max capacity and I can't wait for Christmas b/c cough or not we are going to see family so we are getting out of the house regardless. Here is what it looks like today. Yes that is a Costco bag of croutons.... They are watching Rudolph.

To go for #3 Right Now or Not!

(there are 8 years between my youngest sister, Jessie, and I. We were 12, 14, 16, 19 in this picture)

Reasons To Go for it:

close in age

getting it over with sooner

hopefully they will play together better

There will be extra eyes in middle school and high school if they are closer

I could be done having children by 32ish even if I end up with 5

that whole be happy and multiply thing (truly there is no greater blessing/gift than children)

When all the people that have asked me if I am expecting ask again I could say, yes 3 days...you noticed?

or Not:

being pregnant is not fun especially with two little ones

getting pregnant in the near future would put all my kids birthdays in the fall, near Christmas in a clump.

People will start wondering if I just make babies and that is all.

3 is the giant leap, I have heard.

HHHHMMMMMMM................................................................

a Blessing at Costco?

Tuesday I was to make a salad for 80 people, a ceasar to be precise. I was going to take the easy way out and buy the already made ones at Costco, throw it all together, add extra lettuce, they always give too much dressing and call it good........Ha ha ha, this falls into the best laid plans...blah blah blah.

In reality they had none of the salads this week that they ALWAYS have. So here I am, not a salad person, without a clue. I go to where the romaine lettuce is and throw 5 bags into my cart and stand there thinking what am I going to do????? Along comes another woman with 4 bags on lettuce in her cart. So I stopped her. "Are you making a huge Caesar salad by any chance" I ask her. "yes, actually" she replies. So I pick her brain for 5 minutes getting an idea of how much lettuce I need and ending up getting a recipe for Caesar dressing. Apparently she has made the Caesar for their family Christmas dinner Party for 50 people for 10 years. So I take the recipe and decide to buy some dressing at Ralphs. Whoa, show up at ralphs and it is like 10 bucks a bottle for the cheapest big bottle (best price per oz) I need 4 bottles, "oh, no" I think. I was supposed to be doing this for relatively inexpensively. So I take out the recipe written on my supercuts value card and start buying the ingredients and got them all took them home and made my first ever dressing. People even said they liked it. I don't know what I would have done if I had not run into that super nice lady. She could have said yes and went on with her shopping but she stopped and gave me all her tricks. I hope when someone needs me I don't feel overwhelmed by my children and brush them off, or rush away. I hope I am like this lady and make someone else's day a little bit easier.

Knotts Merry Farm

We had such a blast at Knotts last week. We went with the Cooke Family and all the boys got to ride lots of rides and I even attempted one roller coaster with Shel (and had a good time doing it) Here are some highlights in pictures.

(This is the only ride we could get Joel to ride)

We finished the night with a game of air hockey which Bryan and I miserably lost and some dance dance revolution and so as to not to get off my losing streak, I totally got beat by Joel... GO JOEL

Papa and Mima

Saturday was a fun filled day with really no naps to speak of. We went to OC to visit Mima and Papa. We all went on a bike ride to the beach and then to lunch then to a park and back home (papa and mima's home) where we got some more play time in. The kids always have a blast with their grandparents here are some cute pics from our visit.

so proud to do it all by himself

a good book for all

Trains, always a Kevin fav.

It's Beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!!! My most favorite time of the year has arrived. On Friday we set up the tree and got out the Christmas stuff (the fabulous part of a fake tree is that you can put it up so early) We got some help from the boys with the deed and we also had Nana here to help.

This does not have anything to do with Christmas but, Adam is always doing things he knows he is not supposed to and looking at us with his mischievous smile. It was finally cought it on camera.

Day Two...

Today I woke with the feeling of misery for what was to come. Yesterday was Day 1 without a pacifier at nap time for Kevin. He has gone without it at night now for about 6 weeks and all is fine but naps, I need his naps, was another story and I caved after two days of no naps, but now we are trying again and yesterday was a good two hours before he fell asleep for his 1 hour nap :( . Today, though, I planned ahead. I took the boys to the park to make them extra especially tired and waited to make it a little bit of a late nap (even more tired) and I must say that IT WORKED. I never heard a peep out of either one of them, what a relief

( Yes there is snow on our hats if you look really hard :) )

That being said...what everyone really wants is pictures so here are some shots from our trip to Tenn Last week. It snowed so the boys had a blast playing in the flurries (it never stuck). We made wedding invitations and hung out with my sisters and mom and dad it was lots of fun although I am totally exhausted.

During our Layover in Memphis my Dad's sister visited us at the airport. We had lunch and the boys got to Meet Aunt Sharon for the first time. I had not seen her in nearly 9 years. It was so fun to catch up with her a little bit.

My Eskimo child. the temperature never rose above 37 the entire week we were there so every time we went outside it was bitterly cold. Luckily Adam was appropriately dressed

Leaves, leaves, leaves...I take for granted some things in my childhood and leaves are one of those things. My boys have never played in giant piles of leaves until now and they had a blast.

the boys were great on the airplane. I was so worn out, though from entertaining them during the 3-4 hour flights, but no meltdowns or ear problems, just irritation especially from Adam on not getting to walk around for that long.

Thank you Emily

Yes, Thank you, Emily, for giving me this opportunity to tell things about myself that would make others laugh. So apparently I have been tagged and told to write 6 quirky things about myself so here goes...

1. I love wearing hats, any kind of hats. I like small hats , big hats, funny hats, cute hats, and colorful hats. I even wore a hat at my own wedding. I am very jealous that Emily gets to move to England where they have the best hats. I was watching a PBS special on the Monarchy last night and saw some awesome hats. I was born in the wrong time period to the wrong family in the wrong class...apparently (by the way... I love my family)

2. I smile even when I am angry, I even laugh when I am angry, a coping mechanism maybe, I don't know but it is true and goes to show I am almost always smiling.

3. I LOVE cartoon musicals, like Anastasia, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty and too many others to count. I like to sing along, my sisters and I used to pick parts (different characters) and go through the entire movies saying every line and singing every song...

4. I get depressed and sometimes cry if my Christmas tree is not up by the weekend after Thanksgiving. I love Christmas and want it to last as long as possible.

5. I love buying organizers to organize my stuff in. Somehow organizing is just more fun with new organizing material and I love to organize as long as I have something cool to put it into.

6. I never buy make-up. All my make-up was either bought for me by my mom or sisters or handed down to me by the same people. (When they don't like it for themselves)

Familial Shower

My sister is having a baby in January, I decided to put my skills to work to make her a bunch of things. Here is what I am bringing with me to Tenn to give her, she never reads my blog so it is safe to post the gift, some of you wanted to see my diaper bag, I love it and can't wait to make myself one...

Aaaahhhh!!! there it is

Ugly dolls, one for Kyah and one for my boys...

The goody bag...

Bowling, Bowling

On Tuesday we went bowling with some of the Cooke family (sadly Shel and Caleb had to stay home to reduce the spread of germs) But the big boys had a blast bowling for the first time. Bowling has come a long way in the last few years. They now have computers that make the bumpers go up and down depending on who's turn it is...so Kevin and Kien got bumpers while the rest of us just wished we had them

(The Technique)

The what seemed like 3 minute wait for the ball to reach the pins. We actually made them wait a couple of times even though they showed very little interest on where the ball went after it left their hands.

Very funny pic of Bryan that I just had to share with everyone

Kevin Turns 3!!

Today was Kevin's big day, although his birthday is actually next Wednesday, his party was on Saturday. He had so much fun playing at the playground with all of his friends and making pudding masterpieces (that were yummy too). He had a blast getting to see his Nana and Mima and Papa as well. Here are some pics of all the happenings.

We used food coloring and flavored pudding to make an array of colors, to cut down on the spreading of too many germs (ha ha) we had separate plates of "paints"

Hard at work

You gotta try this!!

cupcakes for all!!

Hanging out with my best bud...

Craft Time

So for the last month or so we have been trying to do some sort of craft during Adam's morning nap. It has been working fabulously because Kevin is having fun and is relatively quiet as well, letting Adam get his much needed rest. We have done fun stuff such as painting, finger painting, drawing, making painted noodle necklaces, making cards and yes sometimes we make cookies and treats as well (that is crafty right?) Kevin is having a blast. Today we made goggles out of an egg carton. He got to paint them and help me string them and voila goggles.

Of course, I under estimated what a hit these would be and had to whip one up for Adam as soon as he woke up.