Enjoying Christmas

Here are a few photos of X-mas at our house.

The boys decorating the tree...



The boys unwrapping their presents at our house on X-mas day.



We also enjoyed visiting my grandma and aunt on X-mas Eve morning. And then in the evening we hosted X-mas Eve dinner for hubby's family. On X-mas morning we opened our presents at our home and then had breakfast and gifts at my parent's house with my side of the family. It sounds busy but boy was it a fun time!

When I have a few more minutes, I will be back to share more stories. Just wanted to get a jump start before the clock changes to the new year!!

Fast forwarding through Fall

Fall was lovely this year. The weather was just beautiful. Of course we really need the rain but it was hard not to appreciate the great weather. With fall comes pumpkins. Having 2 children in school gave us the pleasure of 2 school outings to the pumpkin patch. This is a great patch for variety of pumpkins. Who knew there are so many pumpkins and not all pumpkins are orange..they can be white, yellow, red, even green. The beautiful view of the ocean is also another perk of this patch.

So..what did the boys end up being for Halloween? Even though the boys really wanted to be airplanes I just couldn't get it all done in 2 weeks. Especially since we were on the east coast for a few days meeting with our adoption placing agency and I was still scrambling around trying to get last minute documents inorder. So the boys...being the troopers they are very graciously and happily agreed to be something else. We looked through a catalog and they chose to be matching dalmatian dogs. Very appropriate I thought, as BW loves to play fireman. Actually Bubba first wanted to be a spider but unfortunately that costume was already out of stock. Geez, mom..get your act together. :-) BW says to Bubba, "Be a dog like me Bubba." And he said "okay brother." What sweethearts I have. So here they are in their costumes at another pumpkin patch. We have a tradition of visiting this pumpkin patch to take their photos in their costumes. It's quite a theme pumpkin patch with 2 trains, tractor and hay rides, haunted house, live bands, food booths, arts store and the beautiful background of marigolds.

Here are the boys scooping out the insides of their pumpkins. They also drew their own faces and even used the saws to help cut out their faces. We were surprised at how long and hard they worked on their pumpkins this year.

After carving the pumpkins, it was time for trick or treating. The boys had a great time. We trick or treated with their cousin, my sister and parents. We decided to turn out our lights this year and just enjoy being with the boys. All three boys really got into trick or treating this year. We trick or treated in my sister's neighborhood. It was a lot of fun and the kids were just too cute. A lot of times when the door opened they were ready to just walk right in people's houses. They soon got the concept down of knocking, saying "trick or treat" and then "thank you" and running to the next house. BW and cousin leading the way. Bubba always had to stop to look at what he got. And then he would have to really run to catch up to the other two boys. Hubby, being a teacher wore the costume that he had worn to school that day. The theme at his school that day was 70's dress.

Here are the boys' pumpkins all lit up. BW has the orange light and Bubba's is the green light.

**I had said I would post pictures from last year's Halloween decorations. I seemed to have misplaced a compact card or 2. I'm trying not to panic, as I haven't downloaded all my photos yet. I'm sure it will turn up and when it does, I will post them.

I promise to update later today!

I can't believe how fast the days are flying by. It's been ages since I have had a chance to sit down and blog about the boys. Although good news...I've been scrapping again and working on Bubba's scrapbook for school.

I promise to sit down later today and do some updates. I have a lot to catch up from and want to share Halloween and X-mas pictures too!!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!! Hard to believe we are just days from a new year! Looking so forward to that new year...so many exciting changes for our family is coming this year.

We just had an Earthquake!!

Wow!! At 8:05pm we just had a 5.6 magnitude earthquake. I haven't felt one that strong since the big one in 1989 at 6.9. I had just walked downstairs after kissing both boys goodnight. The whole house just shook very fast and very strong. I almost lost my balance and just saw all the pots on my potrack swinging back and forth. I yelled out my husband's name and ran back up the stairs to grab my boys out of their beds. My youngest was face down in his bed...he thought he had caused it. My other son thought it was fun and wanted to do it again!! Ugh!! It's funny, I had so much to get done tonight and was thankful that the boys were in bed so I could get started. And now...still a little shakey, I'm glad we are all fine and we are huddled around the TV to hear more and wait out all the aftershocks.

The Month of Halloween

I love Halloween. I'm not sure what it is about Halloween I love so much. Is it the pretending to be anything other than yourself? Is it the girl in me wanting to play dress up? Is it because deep down I just love to decorate? Or do I love to be a little scared? I'm not sure what it is but I love Halloween!!

We live in a small community that is made up mostly of young children and dogs. So you can imagine how busy Halloween is in our area. For the past 6 years I lived on a block that really decked it out for Halloween. Neighbors dressed up the yards, we would all hang out in our yards from 6-8pm passing out goodies, taking lots of photos, and just having fun. Our neighborhood was so popular that people would drive over in cars. Last year we had close to 500 trick or treaters in 2 hours. It was insane and oh so right up my alley. The theme of our yard was Alice in Wonderland. We had the spooky forest with the cheshire cat and the rabbit hole, tweedle dee and tweedle dum and the Mad hatter's tea party that included a 2 foot teapot with bubbles pouring out it's spout and a lovely set of chinese lanterns that were lit. We opted to hand out bubbles, mini flashlights, decks of cards, rings, nail polish, and other small games. It was oh so fun. I gladly played the role of Alice and hubby was the Madhatter.

So..here we are in my favorite month and I have done nothing to prepare for Halloween. No new theme, no costumes, no fun handouts, nothing, nada. To make matters more difficult, we have moved to a new neighborhood since last year and we are set back far on our property. It's not exactly at street level like last year, which presents it's own problem for trick or treaters. I have also been way too busy. I have been over the top totally and passionately involved with our upcoming adoption and we are traveling back east for 3 days next week to work on adoption stuff. I'm also still trying to get a handle on all of the craziness that is school...carpooling, schedules, fundraising, cooking projects and hosting this month's class meeting. I just haven't had any extra time or energy to focus on Halloween and I'm a little saddened by it.

The boys really want to be a jet plane and an airplane this year. I've been trying to figure out how to make this happen as they are very specific about how they want their arms to be their wings so they can run around and "fly" very fast. I'm a little worried I won't have their costumes done in time and this of course is much more important than my Halloween fun of decorating. What I wouldn't give for a little sprinkling of magic so that I can pull it all together.

And if time gets the better of me this year, and there is no chance to get to our decorations, to order our loot, I will survive. Perhaps there is a small gift in that for me too. The boys are older. I have a feeling they might really enjoy trick or treating this year. Maybe by taking this Halloween year off, turning our lights out and just being together to trick or treat as a family in our new neighborhood, I will discover an even better way of enjoying Halloween. At least for this year, anyways. I can always dream about next year.

Those unexpected moments...

So today we have a field trip to the Firestation with Bubba’s class. BW was so excited. Field trips could include siblings and BW loved the firetrucks and helicopters. My boys are not the crack of dawn risers, they prefer 7:30/8am time frame. It’s now dark in the mornings, throw in an early start time and we have a hard time moving on school mornings. I slowly creep into BW’s room this morning and get his clothes out..he rolls over, looks up at me and then immediately jumps up. “Today is firestation day, right mom?” “That’s right,” I say. Up he flies…so excited to get going, dresses in seconds he's downstairs in a flash.

Fast forward to the firestation. So here we are at the firestation. We are the first ones here…20 mins early with my sister, nephew and my 2 boys sitting in the car drooling over the rather large red firetruck parked in front. Out of nowhere I hear from the back row, “Mom, I have to go the bathroom.” The dreaded sentence when you are out, especially when you are no where near an easy restroom. “Didn’t you just go at home?” I ask. “Yes, but I have to go the other. “ Oh, that’s great. What to do? “Mom”…a little more urgently. “Alright…let’s see if we can find a fireman to help.” Never thought I would flag a fireman down for that request. A friendly fireman, seeing my young man’s contorted face quickly ushes us into the bunk house. As we step inside, he says, “Everyone dressed?” Oh great, I think…this is more tour than I’m prepared for. He ushes us into the back and points to the bathroom. I thank him we step inside. BW and I peer into the toliet…hmmm..it’s been used. “Let’s see, flush first?” Quickly the toliet bowl fills. “Oh great…that’s not good.” “Let’s get outta here,” panics my son. We step back in the bunk room. “Excuse me, excuse me”…I quickly call out. That nice fireman is gone and to our surprise so is everyone else. That’s just great…now they are going to think we did that.

Okay, back to present problem, son still has to go potty and we are up in the mountains not too close to anything other than this firestation. I remember I have a travel potty in the car that we have never used. Back to the car we go. BW won’t go outside on the potty because he doesn’t want anyone to see him. A few people have pulled up by now since we strayed from the car. My sister suggests putting it in the back row and letting him go there. “Okay. While he is doing that,” I ask her "should I sign us in?” “Great idea,” she says. I leave BW in the back and the other 2 are still strapped into the middle seat carseats and my sister is upfront. I go sign in and of course start talking. A few mins later my sister comes running back…”We need you. Help.” I come running..”What happened?” I know what’s going through your minds….pooping in the car is probably not the best idea. “It’s the smell…we are dying in here." My poor family… I left them strapped in their seats tortured by what BW was creating in the back. Everyone quickly abandons ship. My sister grabs the toddlers and makes a beeline for the car behind us. I’m quickly thinking I would like to run too. Instead I bravely climb in the back to very quickly help BW dress and dispose of the bag. Never a more grosser moment in my mommyhood. I’m sure it won’t be my last gross moment. So lucky are we …a trash can right across the way. Hopefully the rest of the day will go much better. Hopefully, that nice fireman won’t use the bathroom until after we leave. Gotta love those unexpected moments.

Dining with Dogs

I love being outside and one of the things I love about our new house is we finally have a patio table set. I'm not sure why I waited so many years to buy a patio table set. It's great to be able to sit outside. The kids have discovered eating outdoors and they ask at every meal..."Can we eat outside?" The weather has been so great so of course I say "YES!"

We recently enjoyed eating dinner outside and the photo below just cracks me up. When we sit down at the table to eat there is the four of us but if you look under the table you will find our 3 dogs. Every meal, there they are..waiting. Our dogs...they are like sharks circling their prey...or more like laying sharks. They patiently camp out their spot around the kids and wait for them to accidently miss a bite that falls to the floor and whatever dog is laying closest reaches his/her nose out and gets the bite. It really is too funny because they are the ultimate couch potato dogs...just patiently waiting, quietly nearby. I never have to clean up..inside or out they lick the floor clean. I miss them when we eat out at a restaurant because I have to clean up the mess, and I'm always shocked at how messy my boys can be.

So thank you my dogs, my first 3 kids for helping me clean up after the boys...all three of them! And if I could squeeze you all into my overflowing diaper bag I would bring you with me everytime we ate out too.