Just a Reminder...

FYI. Does life slow down?

A Day Trip

I love this time of year...and dislike it because we are so busy (yuk) doing fun things (yeah)! This past Saturday we went to Apple Hill with our friends the Cooks. They were experienced so we tagged along. We had lots of fun. I can't help but love chilly fall pictures. We visited High Hill Ranch, Fudge Factory Farm, and Kids Inc. Apple Hill is a plae where there are about 35 growers of produce, mostly apples of course but some wine and other fruits too. If you know us at all our favorite place that cost us the most money was the Fudge Factory Farm. Jeremy got what they called Bear Crunch, it is caramel corn and peanuts covered in chocolate. If you are lucky I might be able to duplicate it before Christmas. Anyways here is a little video of our day. We had blast, and are talking of making it a family tradition!

Lauren has two teeth!

Just a little note that our happy girl...
...has another tooth

Ratatouille

We bought the movie Ratatouille and decided to have a family movie night and watch it together. To keep with the chef theme I decided to cook omeletes. Then a friend suggested crepes. So we had omelets, fried potatoes and crepes. It was a fun evening. Here are a few pictures of our event.

Feeling Toothy?

After all these months of blaming teething for the runny nose, no longer sleeping through the night, fussy spells, constipation, diarrhea, clingy-ness, not wanting to nurse, only wanting to nurse and anything else that is unbecoming of an infant, Lauren's first tooth has broken through. Here is a picture so the untrained eye can see it too! It is her front right tooth for all recording purposes. Needless to say she is still a dream baby. She only woke up one time last night and is still smiling. Well as much as can be expected. (You can double click on the picture to make it bigger.)

One WICKED Trip.

OK I have waited to post this because I want it to represent the awesome-ness of the trip. We drove down with the intention of driving at our leisure. We stopped by the Jer's work and it turned out to be For Good! (Wink, wink) The drive went perfect. We got down to LA at about 7:00. All the kids were so glad to see each other. Especially the toothless duo, Miranda and Gwen. On Saturday we lounged around in the morning and then we took all the kids to see Bee Movie. Super cute. We came back and relaxed. Then Jeremy and I went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was a first for Jer. The food was great but the company was better! We came home and got dressed up in a fancy clothes (not recommended on a full stomach!) Then headed to Hollywood to see Wicked at the Pantages Theater.

We had a great time. The cast was awesome. I am probably partial because I was in the audience, but in comparison I loved Eden Espinosa and Megan Hilty. They did an amazing job, all notes on key, and the humor was great too. I can't say how good it was, it would never do it justice. I have been lucky enough to see a few musicals but this one takes the cake, I would see it again in a heartbeat! For those of you who have not seen it here are a couple performances here are a few of my favorite songs: Popular, Defying Gravity, and a short trailer to tell the basis for the story. Youtube has tons of clips mostly illegal copies... anyways, it was a fabulous trip. I would turn thirty again anyday to be treated this well....wait I am treated this good everyday! (That's for you Jer XOXO!)

Here is a little slideshow of our trip. (Note: Click pause on the music player on the right column towards the bottom)

Lauren's Blanket

We got home Monday from our trip to LA to see Wicked (A Wicked cool slide show will be posted soon!) and there was a large box on our porch. It was Lauren's blamket and bumper pad made by my mom. It is gorgeous. Here are a couple of pictures.

That was Wednesday this was Thursday!

Thursday we went to the Hannah Montana concert in Oakland. I think rumor has it some insane person spent over $1000 to see this concert. I kind of hoped they would call that person on stage so I can say you are CRAZY! Anyways it was fun. Miranda and I went with our super amazing friend Teri and her family. It was so fun watching Miranda dance and "rock out" to the music. I think she only hit her neighbor once while dancing. Here are two pictures taken from my cell phone.


You can't tell but that is the Jonas Brothers at the end of the catwalk.


This is the bus of Miley Cyrus in the background.

It was hilarious when we got home. Miranda ran in to her daddy and said: "Daddy I met Miley Cyrus." That alone was worth the price of a ticket. She was so thrilled. We are very blessed!

Playing Catch up...watch out!

I have so many things to blog about in such a short amount of time. Life is great.

Let's start with Halloween. We had a great day. We started by baking up a storm. I made some cute graveyard cupcakes, spider cupcakes, and ghost cupcakes. I worked fairly hard and I forgot to take a picture. Oh well, there is always next year. Then I picked Miranda up from school and we headed to Jer's work to show off my 5 lovely kids. Here are four of them:

Then we headed to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm where we took some pumpkin pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:



After we went to the pumpkin farm, we headed to the Preston's for a fabulous halloween party with home made scones (which may now be a halloween tradition) and a fabulous pinata. It was lots of fun. Then we headed home to Trick-or-Treat. We mad one pit stop at my uncle's house where I made the treat providers come to the car so I didn't have to unload the treaters! We go home and ran the little ones for about 1.5 hours. We knocked on all the doors with lights on from here to Grandma June's and Grandpa Ralph's. Where the had a special treat for the kids. We came home and Grandma Bev had her traditional home made donuts. We get to frost them and top them as we please. It was so late we made the kids save theirs until the next day. Jer and I enjoyed at least for each that night!

And that was our

It was about ice cream!!!!

OK so Brittany found a quiz that labeled you as ice cream...of course I had to take it. I think I answered some of these questions in the wrong way here was my answer:

You embody the perfect blend of sweetness and seduction. You personality is just as luscious and irresistible as chocolate ice cream. You have a flirty, melty attitude that's easygoing and delicious. You appreciate luxurious, extravagant things, like the way ultra-soft fabrics feel against your skin. Some people want to hog you all to themselves, but you find ways to make everyone feel special.

Another Awesome Gift!

The gift's keep coming! Hannah is my favorite child for the hour. She is I would say 90% potty trained. She wakes up dry and has one accident in 3 days. Here is a picture, I wanted to show her big girl underpants, but I thought that may be inappropriate. So I kept the picture but edited it. Just so you know she is not wearing a diaper or pull-up. She is officially the youngest to be potty trained! Yeah for me...I guess she did some of the work too...OK Jeremy gets a little credit also!

I also get to go see Hannah Montana with Miranda for my birthday and I am also excited about a gift card to Home Depot. I am torn between several projects right now, oh the decisions!

This really has been birthday month. I have been able to go lots of places, be treated fabulously by a multitude of people. Life at 30 is good!

Haylie if you are reading this birthday month is not over. You have 1 day to be potty trained! I guess if you are reading this I will let the potty training slide for a little bit longer and celebrate your (fictional) amazing milestone of reading at age 2.5!

Grandpa

Last night for Family Home Evening we went to Jeremy's grandparent's house. We wanted the kids to hear a few stories from Grandpa from when he was a kid and to share his testimony with us. It was so cool to watch the kids listen to their great-grandpa tell some stories. They were truly enthralled.
Thanks for letting us come over and sharing your stories with us. More importantly thank you for being such a wonderful example to us in so many ways.

I am offically 30!

In honor of turning 30 I thought I could share 30 great things that have happened in my life. Lucky for me I have 6 right off the bat.

1. I married the best husband of all time in May of 2000.


2. I have a beautiful, kind, sweet daughter, Miranda who is now 6.5


3. I have a superbly handsome son (who looks like his daddy I might add), Logan age 4 and 5/6.


4. I have an energetic, gorgeous twin daughter, Haylie who is 2.5


5. I have a super cuddly momma's girl, twin daughter Hannah who is surprise 2.5 (and Potty trained...mostly


6. I have a dream baby, Lauren who is 5 months old, by the way she is beautiful too.


7. I own my own home (well we own it together.)


8. I get to be a full time stay at home mom.


9. I graduated from DVC with my Associates degree.


10. I was able to spend a semester of college away from home. It was a short stint but I got to try real college life. I totally recommend it for my kids.


11. I have been to Disneyland lots of times, again thank you Honey!


12. I can cook way better than I could 10 years ago.


13. I am the aunt to 8 soon to be 9 and hopefully 10 not too long after that!


14. I drove with my kids to Ohio and back to visit family.


15. I have worked at the following places, Nature Company, IHOP, Going to the Game, Wells Fargo, Ross Gordon & Associates, Vinyl Specialists, Blanding Boyer & Rockwell, LLC, Aqua Products Group, and sorta CD Federal Credit Union. BB&R was where I met a great friend!


16. I became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Where I met the rest of my great friends.


17. I have completed scrapbooks of my wedding, and Logan & Miranda's first year. As for Haylie and Hannah I am up to two months and Lauren well that's another decade away!


18. I was able to give birth 2 times with only the lamest drug ever given to anybody, Demerol, and my biggest baby was without any drugs what so ever.


19. I have beaten Jeremy in Lord of the Rings Trivia (he edited to add once).


20. I have been labeled the "Best Cooker in the whole wide world"


21. I am, for the most part, sane with lots of youngin's running around!


22. Although this is a repeated accomplishment, I go food shopping with all the kids in tow!


23. I am co-room mom for the second year in a row.


24. I have single handedly fattened up my husband with lots of love and cooking.


25. With the help of friends and family I am able to work in the classroom with Miranda once a week.


26. I have not had a moving violation in several years. I did go through a bad streak for a bit though.


27. I have read ALL the Anne of Green Gable Books and they are Grrreat!


28. I can spend hours on the computer, my new fascination besides blogging is making slide shows to music.


29. I have made my own television debut on The Concord Channel in an Adopt-A-Street commercial.


30. As of next week I will have seen the following musicals: Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast, The Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked.

I am so grateful for the life I have and the wonderful friends and family that surround me near and far. I feel I am abundantly blessed.

Halloween recipes

I went to allrecipes.com and they had a download-able cookbook of Halloween recipes. I thought I would share the link here. Maybe you are going to a Halloween party and are looking for some spooky yet savory treats!

Wa-hoo!

I just can't stop smiling. Last night we celebrated my birthday with family. It was a fun evening and as always I am truly spoiled. I am not going to list the gifts but I am going to brag about what my awesome husband did for me. He told me about three weeks ago that he was done shopping for my birthday. Since then we have bought a few things to put away for birthday or Christmas. The kids gave me a few smaller but equally desired things. Then Jeremy handed me a box and told me to open it from a certain side. I opened it and it was a two pack of Barbies, if you know me you are probably thinking "I didn't know she collected Barbies. Well you would be right. These Barbies were Glinda the Good Witch and The Wicked Witch of the West (there was a little Munchkin one too). As I opened them I thought "I know I wanted to see Wicked and love the music, and these collector type dolls are pricey but I don't collect Barbies" So I tried my best to fake happy but I was waiting for the "punch line." Then Jeremy said turn it over and on the back were two VIP tickets to see Wicked down in L.A. We are driving down next Friday and staying with Jeremy's sister and her family. They will babysit our kiddos and we will see Wicked Saturday night relax with them on Sunday and then drive home on Monday. Needless to say the Husband of the Year Award has been won by my husband so I wish your hubby better luck next year!

Here is a video of the evening. As always I am not thrilled with me but hey I am what I am. As you watch the snap shots make note of Logan, he cracks me up.

Thank you to the rest of the family and the wonderful gifts, as always you made me feel especially spoiled and special.

Jane Austen Fan???

OK I am totally a follower not a leader. My friend Tammy had this on her blog so I, of cousre, wanted to see which Jane Austen character I would be most like. Here is the answer:
:: E L I N O R ::
You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.
It would be interesting to know what you thought so here is a quiz

Lauren and her buddy

Lauren and her buddy Tyler had a great time playing around. Here is a cute video of their friendly ways.

They were so cute. Although we didn't get it on video there were other cute moments. Tyler tried to kiss Lauren in the form of a bite on the head and Lauren tried to unbutton Tyler's pj's. Fortunately Tyler is an upstanding young man and put an end to that behavior! All the while Ethan was enjoying the swing without a care in the world.

Girl's trip

A few (ten) of us try to get together at least once a year and have a great time. We call it scrapbooking, but we usually don't get too much of that done. This year we kept it close. It worked out well in that a few people's circumstances changed and they wouldn't have been able to come at all had we needed to travel far. One gal was not able to come because she is expecting her first boy but child number three in a few weeks and her doctor said she can not fly to get here. Another gal flew in from Arizona, it was great to see her too. I always get so caught up in my life I forget other people are living their lives too. We missed one friend but another came for dinner it was a nice addition.

A little about us is that we have had no fewer than three babies on each trip. This year there was five (including the "newbie") and there was one preggo mama with us this trip.

Anyways, we had a great time. I got to stay Wednesday through Friday. Acquiring a whopping 6 hours of interrupted sleep. I brought Lauren so she woke up twice in that three hours each night. I am not sure how much I can share but it was lots of fun, and a nice break. I look forward to a trip next year.

She makes me proud.

This isn't my story to tell but I will share it anyways since it is about my daughter. Jeremy had this week off and spent a couple hours alone on a father child date. This is about Jeremy and Miranda's date. They went to McDonald's for lunch (that in itself is amazing since he doesn't like it at all, the sacrifice for kids). As they were standing in line there was a young mom and daughter behind them speaking in Spanish. Jeremy speaks Spanish so he could understand what they were saying. The little girl wanted a happy meal so she could get the toy. The mom basically said we are only getting the food. It was a My Scene toy. So Jeremy asked Miranda to think about something. He said the little girl would really like the toy so if Miranda wanted to she could give it to her. I think more was said but I don't want to embellish the generosity of my little girl. As they were leaving Jeremy asked Miranda if she thought about what he had said, she said yes and she wanted to give the toy to the little girl. She walked up to her by herself and handed over her new toy. She walked out holding Jeremy's hand. She said it felt good to make that little girl happy.

When Jeremy told me about it I asked if Miranda was sad after she gave up her toy. He said no, she was too happy that she made this other little girl happy. I am proud of her for being so generous. I can learn alot from my children and this is one of those times. Not only that but it shows that we are doing a good job raising our kids, we all need a little reminder every once in a while.

Halloween 2007

We have this phenomenal group of friends that we hang out with once a month for "dinner group". One couple will host and provide the entree and the rest of the couples will bring the rest potluck style. We rotate the job of host every month. Jeremy wanted to do Halloween so we threw a Halloween party. It was a ton of fun. We ate Chicken Cordon Blue Mummies, Mummy toes, Graveyard Dirt, spider web cookies and other equally yummy dishes. Following that we had a pumpkin carving contest. In while our guests were armed with carving knives in walks a police officer...well she's actually my sister-in-law. It turns out I have some shady friends that she was following...just kidding. She had to work so she wasn't able to come but wanted to stop by and say hi. We have some super talented and creative friends. A tarantula pumpkin won first place, followed by a pumpkin with the A's emblem (there were lots of fans there), and third prize was a more traditional pumpkin face. Although all the pumpkins were great. After that we did a mummy wrap. The first person to wrap a whole roll of toilet paper around their "mummy" wins. One guest fell to the floor! Lastly we gave out ribbons for costumes. It was a lot of fun. Here is a slide show of the evening.

As always I want to brag for a moment. We have a harder time finding sitters on the weekends, and especially one when we are home. So we decided to keep the kids here and have them stay in their room under the supervision of Miranda (age 6.5). We did bribe them with a small gift if they were good. With all the commotion and fun they stayed in their room, and played so well together. Miranda read them stories, and they played a card game or two. I still feel a little guilty "locking" the kids up while we had a party. They were awesome, I have the BEST kids ever!