Caught in the Act

The proof...three cookies with huge baby bites in them.More proof...A chocolatey smile on his face and cookie crumbs everywhere.

Should I be concerned? Is it normal to find that your 17 month old baby has found a stool and pushed it across two rooms in order to eat the chocolate chip cookies on the counter? At first I thought that maybe someone had left the stool there and he just climbed up. But no. After I put the stool back, there he was again pushing it across the floor, heading right back to the cookies. Crazy kid!

How do you spell relief?

Sorry for the weird title, but really, it was such a Relief to have two of my nearest and dearest's come down and visit me for the weekend. Rachelle and Danee left their kids and hubbies up north and flew down for a WONDERFUL girls weekend with ME! I can't begin to explain how great it was to see them after moving away this fall. It was like a comfy blanket, a tall glass of water on a hot day and a See's Candies Scotch Mallow all in one and somehow going together.
Our weekend was complete with everything a great girl's weekend should have. We shopped, ate at yummy restaurants, went to the beach a couple times, listened to inspiring talks -thanks to Mary Ellen Edmonds speaking in my mom's stake and a Family Symposium in another. We also squeezed in a sewing project and making toffee and still managed to get to bed before two in the morning each night. OOOh, it was so fun.
It seemed so natural to be with my pals again. After I took them to the airport on Sunday morning, I half expected to hear from them later that day asking if they could borrow something, offering to drive my kids somewhere or letting me know about a sale I just couldn't miss. But alas...
But thank goodness I didn't move to ____ (fill in the blank). San Diego has a draw all it's own, and although my friends will protest and say they'd come visit me anywhere if they could, I know that with the beach and sun in my favor I will see them again and again!

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!!!

Apology

Well friends, I just couldn't let my no-blog streak continue. We have been doing great, but I have just been too lazy or distracted or something to sit down and record what's been happening around here. So let me do a quick "sum up" of the last 6 weeks. House hunting, house "offering" (8 offers to be exact) and finally, house BUYING! We have finally, after seeing a trillion houses, bought a home and close escrow TOMORROW! We love the neighborhood, the yard, the proximity to school and shopping, the extra 20 minutes Mark will have each day of family time, and the closeness to the beach (two miles). Although we get the keys tomorrow, we won't move in until Christmas. I'll post some pictures soon, and you'll see why.

It feels so good be a blogger again!!!

He's A-Walkin'

Here's a quick little video of Matthew walking around. Usually he is a little camera shy and falls to his hands and knees whenever a camera comes around. So this is a treat!!

Election Eve

Can you tell what that little bumper sticker on the middle of my window says? Well, I'm not going to tell you, but I will tell you how it got there.

This afternoon, I took my kids with me to do some friendly YES ON 8 sign waving. When we got to the street corner we found that no one was there. Confused, I drove on to a much larger intersection where I have held signs before to see if I just got the location wrong. When we got there, to my dismay, there were a lot of Noers but not a lot of YESSER's waving signs. I drove around not sure what to do. I REALLY wanted to stand with my sign and felt that more bodies in yellow were needed, but I felt uncomfortable taking my young kids with me into an environment where we were outnumbered (those of you who have been doing this can imagine why).

Then I remembered Abbie's yellow car paint. A few weeks ago Abbie asked if she could paint our car windows with YES on 8 slogans. Today I had bought the paint! So I pulled into a neighbornood and we went to work painting five of our van windows. When we finished, I turned up the music in the car (again, if you have been doing this you'll know why) and drove back to the busy intersection. I drove around and around, honking my support for Prop 8.

Finally after a few go 'rounds, I decided that we could get out and join the others. In the time it took us to paint our windows and return, Prop 8 supporter numbers had swollen into a very large group and there was a section of mostly families. We stood shoulder to shoulder waving our support amidst more craziness than I have ever seen on the eve of an election. I felt like I was part of something historic.

After a while it was time to take my kids home. As I approached my "freshly sloganed" minivan I noticed a new sticker on the back window. "Oh, puleeeze!", I thought, but I wasn't surprised. While we were away, someone had slapped this sticker onto my car. Maybe to get revenge for my stand for truth? Who knows. All I know is that the "Goof off" I'll have to use to remove it (the left over sticky stuff at least) has been very well named.

Weekend Update...

I just wanted to update a few pictures. Last weekend we discovered Imperial Beach in Oceanside. It's a great "all day" kind of beach. It is very accessible, has good bathrooms, a HUGE playgound on the sand, and the best part is the PIER--complete with a Ruby's Diner at the end. I'm not sure what I loved the most...watching the surfers, fishermen and sunset, or enjoying fries and shakes with the kids. It's a toss up.

These other pictures were taken at the Dana Point Harbor--the fresh sea air enhanced Matthew's walking ability!!

...To Grandma's House We Go!

On Sunday we had such a fun visit with Grandma Bird. For those of you who don't know my grandma, let me tell you a little bit about her. First of all, she is 95 years old, though you would never know it by looking at her. In her 95 years she and my grandpa have travelled all over the world--inspiring the adventurous spirit in me, to be sure. She has had many friends and an interesting family , but has lived in only a couple of places. Grandma is known with love for her generosity towards all of her grandkids. We love grandma!!

With this little intro, let me tell you of our fun visit. Grandma greeted us at Freedom Villiage and invited us to her home with lots of kisses to go around. We visited for a while about our moving down here, the kids transition, and about my mom's recent travels. Then she got up and began making delicious ice cream sundaes for us. I got up to help her because I didn't like watching her go to all of that trouble by herself, but she insisted on working alone, so instead I just admired her work. She pulled out five pretty glass dessert bowls and carefully loaded them with strawberry ice cream, bananas, whipped cream , two cookies and a cherry. My girl's large eyes were priceless. Once she finished the sundaes, Grandma served us one by one and we continued talking in between bites.

Grandma probably doesn't have too many opportunities to make sundaes anymore. She probably doesn't have much chance to serve at all. At 95 years, people are usually looking after her. I thought about that as I watched her work and felt grateful for Margaret. I remembered the stories she's told about raking pine needles off of the roof in her high heeled shoes, while enduring her neighbor's complaint that Mr. Bird wouldn't like it. Grandma was a hard worker (some things don't skip a generation) and I'd imagine she still wants to feel useful today.

So...my point? Go visit (or write) your grandma. I 'll bet that she's a lot like mine. She'd love the company and might even have some morsels of wisdom (or an ice cream sundae) to pass along--who couldn't use some of that.

Two all beef patties, special sauce...

Great news for all of you McDonald's boycotters out there!!! Because of efforts from families like yours, McDonald's has announced that it will remain neutral in regards to same sex marriage in California. Prior to this, McDonald's had officially offered support to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
Events like this really get me excited. When people take the time to call companies or governments and express their opinion, things change. Not only as an indivual can you feel better knowing that you are taking a stand, but your voice, banded together with others can promote change.
The only problem is that I enjoyed having McDonald's off of our list of fast food choices. I didn't have to say "anything but McDonald's " anymore. My kids knew that we were boycotting the golden arches and never asked. But after the good news of today, I suppose I need to tell my kids the news. I mean, I'd really be missing out on a good teaching moment if I didn't tell them that their efforts (and sacrifice) paid off. Right????? I guess we'll be getting shakes after school today.

A Step in the Right Direction

Oh, this feels good. For me, this is kind of like a confession, and it has been long in coming. FIVE years in coming. These shoes. I know. They are terrible. In fact, I'm not sure that terrible is an adequate word to describe my fall/winter boots of the last half decade. I want to say that I don't know why I still have them--and worse yet still wear them, but I do know why. I know exactly why. In fact, these shoes actually say a lot about me. I'm cheap.

Of course, I liked them when I bought them and they were probably in style at the time too. Or at least only out of style for a little while. The problem is that I held on to them for so so long. Maybe it was the cushy sole, or the slick side zipper. Maybe I just liked the worn out toe or the fact that my socks didn't have to match my outfit when I wore these. But mostly, I just never wanted to spend the money when I went out shopping for shoes.

Today I bought a replacement (on sale of course) and I think things are going to change for me. My new shoes are black leather ballet flats-- the cute kind. I got them at Anne Taylor Loft when I was in there looking for something else. I've got a new spring in my step. It's a great feeling to let these shoes go! Talk about starting out the season on the right foot.

Happy Birthday Buddy

Here is our birthday boy!!! I love this little face and what a sweet boy too!!
Higher dad!!! You should hear the giggles from Matthew when Mark throws him up in the air. He loves it. I, on the other hand, don't usually like to see him hurled up in the sky and have to leave the room. But today, in the pool, it was a lot of fun.

After swimming and pizza, it was cake time!! Mark was close by to give Matthew some encouragement.

He started with the Junior Mints.

A little encouragement went a long way!

Beach Day

One of the things that I love about the idea of living close to the beach again is being able to go at a moment's notice. Saturday afternoon, after we had finished working around the house, we headed over to enjoy eating sand, chasing birds and riding waves.

Moonlight Beach

After four hectic days of moving in to our home, starting a new school and living in relative chaos, we took the kids to the beach with some neighbors (who happen to have kids our kid's ages AND who go to school and church with them) for smores and night time fun at the beach!

Commentary on Moving Day

Emma's last day of school was also the day that our movers were loading up all of our belongings--including the last of our food. At the end of the day, the kids in her class were able to choose ANYTHING they wanted from the kindergarten treasure box. There was enough toys, play makeup and fake jewelry to fulfill any kid's dreams. So when Emma came home with this bag of microwave popcorn, I just had to know what she was thinking. Emma replied, WE DON"T HAVE ANY FOOD AND I WANTED A SNACK! Poor kid.