Deal of the Year!!

My niece, Amanda, has a company that produces the most adorably soft sleepers and blankets on the planet. Her company is called MyNochi. Her peoducts have been sold in specialty boutiques and at Nordstrom. To simplify her life, she now sells them direct through this website.
http://www.mynochi.com/

For the next two weeks, all of the blankets and sleepers (my personal favorite), will be sold at drastically reduced prices for all family and friends. Check it out!!

Birthday Man

Well, this was the best I could do tonight on the eve on MArk's birthday. WHY WOULDN'T HE SMILE FOR THE PICTURE? He should know by now that I don't give up so easily! So, with or without a fancy picture to go along with this, I want to say that I am thankful for this wonderful man whose birthday is tomorrow. He is the man of my dreams, my best friend in the world. Mark is kind to everyone, he's a loving father, a wonderful provider. I count my blessings often, and he tops my list. How did I get so lucky!!! Happy birthday, love.

Watch for Her Name in LIGHTS!

Do any of you remember being in school plays in elementary school? Ohh, I do! I lived for them. I recall playing everything from a cooky, meditating lady in a play about garbage to an old granny with a dying horse! I loved practicing the lines and learning the staging and choreography, but I especially loved the day of the performances.

The apple doesn't fall from from the tree, so they say. And that is true with Abbie. The drama club at her school preformed the Wizard of Oz on Thursday. Abbie played the scarecrow and was brilliant. She acted with enthusiam and sang her little heart out in her solo of "if I only had a brain." Watch out Broadway, here she comes!

Hidden Treasure

Tuesday was a BEAUTIFUL day around here so after school we headed to the beach. To our amazement this is what we found. STARFISH EVERYWHERE!!! The end of the jetty at Ponto Beach is usually 20 feet under water, but thanks to a very very low tide, we had all this fun..

Emma liked "looking with her eyes and NOT with her hands!"

Abbie, on the other hand, was in starfish handling heaven.
Matthew was just happy to be there!

A great Reason to Miss School

Our friends were in town today. The Neilson's were in Newport Beach enjoying a week of fun with their family, and this afternoon we crashed the party!! Since I didn't bring my camera, you'll just have to imagine the girls faces as they squeezed their friends tight, swam, smiled from ear to ear, made up water dances and squeezed their friends some more. Though I refrained from the water dances etc., I was equally as happy to see Leslie and Dave. After spending the last few months now trying to "make friends" it was so great to spend time TALKING to friends. No questions about where we were from, what brought us here, or where MArk and I met. Just talking, laughing and me trying to convince them to move down here--something that anyone who comes for a visit will have to endure--sorry.

Catch Up

Here is my attempt to catch up on reporting the events of our lives. As anyone knows who has moved (and who hasn't moved) it's an all consuming affair. Not only did we have to pack up again (after just four months in our rental), but we also had the complexity of doing some cosmetic work to the house before we could move in. Add replacing all of the existing flooring in the house, repainting it AND trying to have it all ready by Christmas Eve, and you've got quite a production on your hands. At times we thought we were crazy, but in the end it all worked out great and we are settling in just fine!!

Our home...before replacing the yucky tile and blue grey carpet with doggy hair accents.

The same room on Christmas Eve after Santa worked late into the night transforming it from a construction zone into a family room complete with a new Christmas tree, some furniture and all of the decorations and presents!!

The kids enjoyed decorating this gingerbread house this year, though we all really missed our traditional gingerbread house making party with our Rocklin neighbors.

We didn't chop our tree down by ourselves this year, but I have to admit it was the cheapest and best looking tree we've had in a while--and it only took about ten minutes!

A new tradition... a local church in the area presents a "living nativity" each year. They invite the whole community to enjoy a re-creation of the events leading to Christ's birth. The church property is transformed into the old town of Bethlehem complete with Roman soldiers collecting taxes (actually giving kids chocolate coins so they can pay taxes), free camel rides and a mid-eastern baazar!! What fun!!

I love my boy!!

The other day Matthew and I were playing upstairs. He wanted to ride on my back as I crawled around and pretended I was his horse. No problem. So up he goes and I start crawling around while trying to keep him steady at the same time. We tried this a few times. I thought we were having fun until he got off, looked at me--making sure he had eye contact, and then got down on HIS hands and knees, crawled, then LOOKED at me again (driving in the "do you get it now?" look) and hopped back on my back. After his brief tutorial we were in much better shape. Thank goodness for his 15 months of experience!!!