Happy Blog Birthday!

Our blog is officially three years old! I started this blog December 30, 2004. I didn't get my Christmas cards out in time that year, so I started the blog to have a way to show family members the Christmas picture I took.

In 2004, Kevin was 4 years 8 months, Michaela was 2 years 9 months (McKenna's age now) and Kyle was 14 months. I was pregnant with McKenna. We were in Lake Forest and none of the kids were in school! The time has flown by.

I went back and read some of my older posts and it was really fun to read. This blogging thing is a great way to record memories!

Merry Christmas!

Our Family
Christmas 2007

Here is this year's family picture. This is all of us before heading to the Children's Mass on Christmas Eve. It was the first time in several years that we didn't attend Midnight Mass all together. We decided (Maria, Keith and I) that the kids would probably enjoy the Children's Mass instead.

We, of course, spent Christmas at Mom and Dad's. They had their annual Christmas party that was filled with the usual family and friends. The kids, 13 in all (under age 8), had fun running around and playing together. The kids only get together like this once or twice a year, but each year they pick up were they left off.

My sister, Maria, and her kids came on Saturday evening. On Sunday, we spent the day at the Wild Animal Park. We had fun walking round seeing all the animals and when it got dark, we got to enjoy the Festival of Lights the Park puts on every year.

Monday was pictures, Mass and then we took a walk around Christmas Card Lane. Christmas Card Lane is a local neighborhood in which almost everyone in the entire neighborhood has some kind of Christmas display. It is very lively every night with hundreds of visitors. We are lucky to live so close to something so fun! As we walked all the kids saw a class mate or two. Even I saw some moms from school.

Well, I know that was a brief synopsis, but I'll try to post more pictures soon.

Michaela and Cupcakes

So Michaela thinks that it is funny to get frosting all over her face when she eats a cupcake. No fail, the frosting ends up all over her mouth and nose. She dives right in, and it goes every where. It's kinda gross if you ask me, but she likes it. She also manages not to get it all over her clothes. That's a good thing! This picture was taken of her last week as her friend celebrated her birthday with the class.

O Holy Night

Christmas is less than a week away. To slow us all down and to remember the meaning of Christmas, take a moment to listen to Celine Dion's live version of O Holy Night. This is my favorite Christmas song, and I always tear up when I hear it. Merry Christmas!

Here the lyrics to help you reflect:

O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Til He appeared and the soul felt it's worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morne
Fall on your knees

O hear the angel voices
O night divine!
O night when Christ was born
O night divine!
O night, O night divine!

And in His Name, all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we
Let all within us praise his Holy name
Christ is the Lord!
Their name forever praise we

Noel, Noel
O night, O night Divine
Noel, Noel
O night, O night Divine
Noel, Noel
O night, O holy Divine

McKenna

McKenna
taken on 12/10 by her Daddy

Kevin at Cub Scouts

Kevin at Cub Scouts

Kevin had a pack meeting tonight. He earned a Gold Arrow Point and a Silver Arrow Point. He also earned two more belt loops - Geography and Collecting. He is really enjoying scouts and is working hard to achieve his Wolf rank, Arrow Points, belt loops and pins. He's doing a great job!

Christmas Cookie Cocoa Party

We've had rain for a couple of days now and it has been gloomy. The sun is out today and it is very pretty out. But, we are all doing our best to keep warm. I myself am freezing. My hands and feet especially, even though I am wearing slippers. Yup, it is a COLD 60 degrees here in SoCal. Brrrrr!

So to warm us up, Keith made us all some hot cocoa. And so I decided that we would have some Christmas cookies to go with them. They are snowmen sugar cookies. Pillsbury. My cookie friend!

We had fun drinking cocoa and eating cookies. We had Christmas music playing. It was really fun! We don't have our Christmas decorations up yet. I've been too busy to dig them out of the garage. I am not really sure where everything is because of the move, so it's not going to be an easy task. Although I love decorating for Christmas, I am not looking forward to digging for the decor! One consolation of putting up the decorations late is that Karen (my mother-in-law) will be with us for a few weeks starting January 8. So, we will keep the decorations up until she comes.

Here are single shots of each of the kids

What's Your Grinch Name?

Here's a fun little link to try. I saw this on splitcoaststampers.

What's Your Grinch Name?

We're the Crankynoodles
Me: Grimfrown Crankynoodle
Keith: Miserlybeast Crankynoodle
Kevin: Miserlygrinch Crankynoodle
Michaela: Grimtroll Crankynoodle
Kyle: Wretchedgrump Crankynoodle
McKenna: Gloomywhiner Crankynoodle

I don't think Keith or the kids really match their Grinch name. Kyle does when he's woken up. The scary part is that I think *my* Grinch name fits!

Our Thanksgiving

**I am trying to upload pictures to an album, but it isn't quite working! I'll post the link when I can get it to work!**

So, there are all the kids the day before Thanksgiving. Maria and her kids came down for the holiday and we all had a lot of fun together.

They showed up on Tuesday evening and the next morning we met my parents and other sister at Panera Bread - my new favorite place! Then we went shopping!

We spent the rest of the day just hanging around the house. Well, Maria watched all the kids while I went out to lunch with my BFF Julie.

Thanksgiving was spent at Mom and Dad's house. It was really nice. We had turkey, steaks, broccoli (Kaela's fav), squash, mashed potatoes, French fry yams. For dessert we had Tom Selleck cake - a holiday tradition!

The day after Thanksgiving we actually went shopping. Maria, mom and I went. We went to one store and to a bead store. It was fun. We didn't really buy anything, but it was fun.

I'll have more details in the description of the pictures. I hope I can get it to work!

I did it!!! Here is the link to the album: Thanksgiving 2007

My domain mapping isn't working correctly, so I am not too happy about that. Just ignore that last comment if you don't know what domain mapping is. lol

Tanks

So Maria, my sister, finally got around to telling me about this Filipina-American, Christine aka Happy Slip, who has some *hilarious* videos on YouTube. She pokes fun at the Philippine culture. She currently has 38 videos posted, and I about peed my pants from laughing so hard. This video is about a typical Thanksgiving with her family. By the way, she is #5 Most Subscribed to YouTuber of all time. Pinay Power!

Rain Rain Rain

Wow, It's raining. We haven't had rain like this in forever. It has rained non-stop all day. Seriously. Non-stop. ALL day. It is 10:05PM and it is still raining. Since I woke up at 7:00AM. *Still* raining.

Can you tell I'm not used to rain?

Here's Our Kyle!

Kyle, Age 4

I really like this picture of Kyle. His little smirky smile. He always gives me this smile. It shows up when he is about to do something silly. Or when we thinks something is funny, but doesn't want to laugh out loud about it. He flashes it at me when we both notice something that no one else notices. Oh my sweet Kyle. I love him so much!

Gotta Love SoCal!

It's mid November and the temps around here have run in the mid-80s most of the week. Some parts of the county have even hit 90. It has cooled down on the weekend, but still warm and sunny. Gotta love it!

Kyle is Four!

To view Kyle's Birthday photo album, click here

So my baby boy has turned four on October 17th! I can't believe he is only four. He seems so much more sophisticated than that to both Keith and me. He had a birthday dinner and cake and ice cream.

He wasn't too picky about dinner and said that Pat & Oscar's was fine. It made it easy for me because now that we have moved back to our old neighborhood, there was more family to invite. His Godmother lives here, so we couldn't *not* invite them. And her parents live here, so we couldn't *not* invite them either. Not that we didn't want to *not* invite them, but it was a bit bigger than we are used to for our birthday dinners.

Kyle had a good birthday. He brought cookies to share with his classmates and was happy to celebrate with them at school. He got to wear a birthday crown and the kids got to ask Kyle questions about his "favorite" things. According to his teachers, he had big smiles all day long.

Take a peek at Kyle's birthday photo album. The link is above.

Southern CA Wildfires

That weekend there were several fires throughout Southern California. The fires caused the largest evacuation in California history. Over one MILLION people were evacuated. 1,000,000! Some fires were started by accident, but sadly enough some were started on purpose. The fire that directly effected us was the Witch Fire. It burned 197,990 acres and destroyed 1,040 homes, 414 outbuildings, and 239 vehicles. It damaged 70 homes and 25 outbuildings. It caused 2 deaths and 39 injuries to firefighters and 2 to civilians. This is the damage from just the Witch fire. Here is a Wikipedia page that has some very through info on all the Southern California fires: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2007_California_wildfires

It all started on Sunday the 21st of October. The day had started out like any other. We slept in, the kids had breakfast. They ran around the house. The played in the backyard. Then at almost exactly at 2pm smoke rolled in and the sky turned orange. We were surrounded by smoke. The kids came inside and we shut all the windows. It was hot that weekend, in the 80s and it was windy, our infamous Santa Ana winds. We found out later that the fire was in Ramona, located about 30 miles northeast of here.

By that evening the wind was howling and reached speeds of 30-40 mph. I don't remember the winds being this strong and steady since I was a girl. The house was whistling with the winds and woke Michaela. She was scared and ended up sleeping in her room. By the time I went to bed that night just before 1 am, the fire had caused the evacuation of Ramona and there was threat of fire in the northern part of Poway. I went to bed knowing that school was canceled due to the poor air quality. Never in a million years would I have thought to prepare to evacuate. Those kind of thing never happen to us personally. It's only something you see on TV.

Although Keith had to go to work on Monday morning, he kept turning the alarm off. We finally got out of bed because my Dad called us at 7am. I was a bit annoyed because I *already* knew that school was canceled. So, I answered and boy did I get the shock of my life. "We are evacuating. Turn on the TV!" he says. The last time he called me saying to turn on the TV, the Twin Towers were on fire.

I whacked Keith and told him we had to evacuate. My parents live within walking distance of us, so if they were leaving, I guess we should too. We turned on the TV and I was shocked to see that the fire had reached the community just 2-3 miles away as the crow flies. I watched in disbelief as houses in Rancho Bernardo were burning down.

I quickly realized that we had to go. The news was saying that our area was on mandatory evacuation. Our community has almost 60,000 people in it and only five ways out. I remembered that our Expedition had no gas in it and I told Keith to leave to get gas while I packed us up. Keith wasn't gone long. He came back after seeing the lines at the gas station were a mile long. We decided to head to Mom and Dad's to try to syphon gas from Dad's Expedition to ours. We decided to leave Keith's truck behind, mainly because he didn't have gas either, but also because I didn't want to be separated form Keith.

We packed each kid a backpack. They had a weeks worth of clothes. They also brought three of their most favorite toys. We brought their blankets and pillows too. Keith and I each had a backpack. We grabbed the computers and the external drives with all our pictures on them. I grabbed our important documents. That was it. We didn't grab anything else. By the time we left, the roads were booked solid. Mom and Dad's were in the opposite direction, so we had no trouble getting there.

Mom and Dad were packing up all three of their cars and had Tasha in the cat carrier and the four dogs on leases. We tried to syphon the gas, but just could not get it to work. So, we left without them and tried to get gas. We didn't get far. Not more than 10 minutes on the road and our low fuel warning light was on. We bought a gallon of gas from a landscaper that was in the lane next to us. He had a little bit in his tank for his lawnmower.

Mom and Dad and my sister managed to get to another road and phoned us that it was free and clear there. The gas stations were open and had no lines. The Interstate was closed earlier and not many people headed that direction. Good thing my parents did. That's what saved us having to push our car. Imagine the move "Deep Impact" when the asteroid is going to hit and there is a mass exodus to leave. Streets packed, not moving. Cars loaded to the brim with possessions. That's what is looked like. It was not a good feeling.

Anyway, we did manage to get gas and although my parents headed to Qualcomm stadium with the rest of San Diego, we headed north to Oceanside to stay with Keith's boss. We never made it there. It seems everyone was headed north. We turned around and started to head south. On our way, my parents called and said they decided to leave Qualcomm and head to the beach. The air quality was much nicer there and that area was largely unaffected by the fires. We ended up meeting them there and spent the day in Mission Beach.

We had blue skies most of the day and the smoke stayed away from where we were. Throughout the day, RVs and other car loads of people showed up. After chatting with some of them we found that a lot of them were from our area. Here's a picture of us at the beach. It is a candid shot.


That evening we traveled further south and stayed at my Uncle's house. As you can imagine, we were glued to the TV with news. One of the biggest worries of this fire was that it would come over the mountain, the one that my parent's house is on, and come right down on our community. That's about 10,000+ homes right in the fire's way. There were numerous websites up and the county had an official site that gave news on the latest or evacuations and where the fires were.

We ended up staying at my Uncle's until Wednesday. We got back home Wednesday evening. School was canceled the rest of the week due to the cleanup of the schools and the poor air quality. Keith workplace was also shut down because of the fires. Most of Northern San Diego County was shut down for the week.

Although the fires are all contained, it continues to effect a lot of people. Please pray for all those who lost their homes, their livelihoods and their lives.

Halloween

To view our Halloween photo album, click here

Halloween was fun this year. But when is it not fun? The kids had been anticipating Halloween for weeks. I guess that's a bit of my fault because I was excited for Halloween to come! I love decorating for Halloween and I think it is a fun time. It is kind of the start of the Holiday season and I always look forward to this time of year.

We decorated early in October and the kids all had their costumes picked out shortly thereafter.

Here they are before school. Kyle was Captain Jack Sparrow. McKenna was a black cat. Michaela was an Angel. Kevin was a SWAT officer. Kevin and Michaela had a Halloween parade at school and I dressed Kyle and McKenna in theirs too. The parade was really fun to see. The whole school joined in on the parade. I'd say about only a handful of kids were not in costume. The rest of the almost 800 kids were. It was neat to see all the different costumes. Some of them were pretty clever. I wish I could post them, but I hesitate to post other people's kids online.

After the parade, the two little ones got dropped off at Grandma and Grandpa's. I went back to the school and help out with a party that Kevin's class had. Michaela's class also had a party, but hey were already covered for volunteers. Both kids fun at their parties. Kyle's preschool had their party the next day, so he got to enjoy it with his friends too.

That night, Keith took the kids trick or treating through the neighborhood. I stayed home and passed out candy.

When they came home, they had a few pieces of candy. They had glow sticks with them and we turned out all the lights and the kids played with them, drawing designs in the air. I snapped some pictures with the shutter forced open. I got some really neat shots.

Shortly after that, we sent the kids to bed and Keith and I watched TV. All in all, it was a fun day.

Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park

To view to our Sequoia Photo Album, click here

The kids were off from school because of parent teacher conferences. So, we decided to make a long weekend of it and travel north to King Canyon/Sequoia National Park. We rent a "Rustic Cabin" through the National Park system. It was a cute one room cabin built in the 1920s. It was very cozy. We spent two night there.

The National park is huge and we needed several days to see it all. We will probably go back in the near future; there was so much to see.

We started out going to Grant's Grove, where the General Grant tree is. It was a short hike around and there were place markers along the way. It was interesting to read about the different trees and about what made for good habitat for Sequoia growth.

We went the first weekend in November and it was considered the off season. There were hardly any people there - which we liked. It wasn't as cold as it historically was. We were able to manage with just our fleece pullovers. I read in the guidebooks that the area is quite crowded in the summertime and to avoid it if at all possible.

We explored the northern part of the park up to almost what is quite literally the "End of the Road". The road stopped at a certain point and to go any further, you had to back pack in. Near the end was Boyden Cavern. Since it was the off season we ended up practically have a private tour. It was our family, an older couple and two twenty-something hikers. It was really interesting to learn how the caves formed and to see all the different formations. The kids enjoyed it and were pretty good on the 45 minute tour.

We also explored the Giant Forest and the learning centers. Seeing the big trees was truly amazing and to know that these tress have been about for at least a thousand years is mind blowing to me.

It was nice being out in the peace and quite of the forest. I'm sure this isn't our last trip there.

November Already!

So, where does the time go? October came and went and now we are 7 days into November. I think an update is in order! Let's see, what are some of the things that have been going on? I'll list them here and then create new posts per topic. Then I'll bump this one back to the top. TMI, I know.

Let's see, here are the BIG topics...

• Kyle's Birthday
• Craft Fairs
• California Fires
• Halloween
• Sequoia National Park

And the Winner Is....

Deborah! She wins the retired "Basket Full of Fun" set.

Thank you to all who played and scoured my blogs. Thanks for all the lovely comments! I had a lot of fun with the blog candy. Keep reading, I may do this again sometime (or two or three!).

The correct post I had you all search for was dated October 21, 2006. There were 26 comments made. I used a random number generator and up popped 11. So counting down 11 comments, we get...

Deborah said...

WOWZER! You are doing great! Congrats on 10,000 big ones! Deb

8:30 PM

Deborah - I followed the link to your blog. I used the email address listed. Please contact me for your blog candy.

Almost up to 10,000 - blog candy alert!

So this little family blog that I started the second to the last day of 2004 has grown to almost 10,000 hits. The first year around this time we were just at about 2,000. Then the second year around this time we were at just about 6,000. And now, well, you've seen the title!

I do know that we do get a few random hits from people googling certain words, and we just pop up. About a fourth of the hits are close friends and family. The majority of the hits are stampers brought here from splitcoastbloggers.blogspot.com. This a HUGE listing of blogging stampers that read and post at splitcoaststampers.com. I know a lot of them are expecting to see a stampin' blog, so that's why I added the link to my stampin' blog up above. (Check that one out too! It's been averaging about 1,000 hits per month.)

So if you ARE a stamper, here is your chance for some blog candy. Here's the deal. Find the post on this blog where I originally posted about this blog reaching 6,000 hits. Post a comment in *that* thread. I will randomly choose one poster to receive last Stampin' Up! catalog's retired Level 3 hostess set "Basket Full of Fun". (Sorry there is no picture, you can find samples in the gallery on splitcoast or in last year's catalog.)

Here's a bonus. Go over to my stampin' blog (see link above). If you post a comment over there AND are the winner over here, I will throw in a few extra goodies with your stamp set. Happy posting!

Kyle Goes to School!

So my baby boy is officially a preschooler!

One of the things that I was bummed about when we found out that we were moving was that Kyle was going to lose his spot in the school district run Preschool. This preschool was very affordable compared to what private preschools charged. Around here at our new place, people put their kids on preschool waiting lists before the kids turn one year old, so the chances of Kyle getting into an affordable preschool was not looking good.

So when we get here, I start calling around. I can find space at Preschools, but I am getting ridiculous quotes most of them were anywhere from $106-119 per week for part time two days a week. Eight hours total per week. That comes out to be roughly $13-15 per hour. Well, I thought that was just a bit too pricey for us. I had resigned to the fact that Kyle was just not going to be going to preschool and next year would have to go right into Kindergarten without any kind of social prep. Of all my kids, Kyle is the most clingy to me and the slowest to warm up. He is constantly attached to me in social settings, such as picking up Kevin and Kaela from school or at family parties where there are lots of unfamiliar Aunties, Uncles and cousins. Not to mention all the Lolos and Lolas.

Anyway, I see an ad for a preschool that is run by the Parks and Recreation department. It isn't an academic program but rather a social program. Perfect! This is exactly what Kyle needs. So of course when I call the first week of September to inquire, there is no space available, but if we wanted to be on the waiting list, we could come by and have a tour. So, I tell Kyle that we are going to look at a school that he might be going to. He is very excited so I have to explain to him that there isn't a space for him and that we were only going to look. Kyle says, "Maybe we can ask a kid to move over so I can have a spot to sit." Too cute. I had to explain to him that I didn't mean that kind of spot.

SoO, we get to the school, and he is all excited. But, as soon as the door opens for us to go inside, he immediately super glues himself to me and won't let go. I try to encourage him to play with stuff while I talk to the teacher, but he just isn't having it. He wont talk to the teacher or to any other kids. He doesn't utter one word the whole time we are there. So, now I am totally worried that he won't do well at parting at school and if he did get a spot, he would be crying every morning.

So, the teacher is nice, the school is nice and on we go to the waiting list. I'm thinking that he'll never get in. BUT, not two weeks later, the new session is starting and they have an opening or two. So, we go back to fill out the paperwork and to pay the tuition, VERY affordable at what works out to be $5.50 an hour. Kyle still does not want to talk to anyone and is definitely not straying from my side. The teacher explains to me that when Kyle starts it'll be fine. There will be tears, but they are experts at handling it. Some kids cry for a week every morning, others cry everyday for the whole year. I thought, "Great. That'll be Kyle."

So, Kyle starts that following Monday, the 17th. One of the forms I fill out is a list of Kyle's favorites and one of the things that was asked was his favorite color. I wrote down blue. So, the teacher reads the list and knows from the times she's met Kyle that he would have to be coaxed into letting go of my hand. Let me back track here a bit... the weekend before he started school, we went to pick out a lunch box and a water bottle. I had run through different situations with Kyle on what to do at school. What if you have to go to the bathroom? Tell the teacher. What if a kid is being mean? Tell the teacher. So, he knows he is going to school Monday and is very excited about and he is talking all about how he is going to be in Preschool. Totally looking forward to it.

We get to school and yes, he is attached. And no, he won't say a word. So back to the list. The teacher reads that his favorite color is Blue and totally gets him with that. "Kyle, we need to get you a cubby (a container where they keep their stuff). What's your favorite color?" Silence. "Is it blue?" she asks. Kyle gets a big smile on his face and nods. She takes his hand and leads him away. He waves at me. Whew, he's going to do fine. But, McKenna is now following them. "Kenna come here. We are going home. Only Kyle is going to school." So, McKenna crumples to the floor and cries. The teachers thought it was cute. She was upset because she didn't want to leave her brother. Um no, not cute. Baby crying!

So, one last thing about this list. They had asked if there was anything in particular to know about Kyle. Well, they wouldn't have guessed this because Kyle appears at first glance to be extremely shy. When he is comfortable, he is LOUD. He is my loudest child. When I went to pick him up from this first day, I could hear him through the door. When I saw his teacher, I say, "I see he warmed up." "Um, yeah he did!" she says with a disbelieving look on her face. He is now in his second week. He loves it. The teachers never would've guessed he was the same kid they met before school started.

Keith

Keith doesn't like to get his picture taken, but he does indulge me every once and a while. He'll even crack a smile! He probably won't be too happy about me posting this picture, but I really like this picture. I took this while we were at the Zoo with Dad and Mary...

A Bit of Silliness

So, it was HOT here a few days ago. VERY hot. It was in the high 90s for several days and the nights were even in the mid 80s. This is not fun weather for us spoiled SoCal people!

Well, since it was so hot, we didn't really go out. We all just tried to stay cool here at home. Our new house doesn't have AC and there wasn't much of a breeze. I ended up buying two more fans. We have 5 free standing floor fans. They really did help.

Anyway, this is what we did one day when it was HOT. I took out my camera and was just fooling around taking pictures of the kids and me and Keith. So, since we were all kind of in the picture taking mood (everyone except Kevin), I wanted to do a family picture. This is what we got...

Falling into a Routine

So school has been in session for just under three weeks, but it seems to me that three months have gone by. Our schedules are jam packed and the kids aren't in any activities yet other than school.

I keep my calendar in Outlook. It is a very neat program because you can assign a color to each person and then keep it all on the same calendar. When you look at the month view you can see who has what going on just with a glance. It works really well for us. Anyway, my calendar is blocked solid for the next few weeks. Kevin is starting up scouts this week. Michaela has gone on a play date already and has a birthday party coming up. Not to mention all the swaps that I have to finish off and mail.

I need a vacation!

So my last post talked about the traffic around the school. Well, last week we tried walking in the morning. It worked out pretty well. It has been Africa hot (as my friend Julie says) for about a week, but it has cooled down considerably. So, walking in the morning is quite nice. It takes about 15 minutes to get there are a nice pace and 20 minutes at a leisurely pace. McKenna is in the umbrella stroller and Kyle walks like the big kids. Kyle does pretty good!

Michaela started with home work two weeks ago, but Kevin brought homework home for the first time just today. The school Open House was last Thursday night. Keith went to Kaela's class and I went to Kevin's. I was pleasantly surprised that Kevin has less homework here than he did at his other school. Kevin was happy about it too.

At Open House, there was a call for Room Moms/Dads. Since I was a Room Mom for Kevin last year, I decided to do it for Michaela's class this year. Well, seven other Moms had the same idea. For Kevin's class there was only one volunteer, so I decided to step away from Michaela's class and help out with Kevin's.

We will see how busy all the school stuff keeps me! I'll keep you posted.

Summer Vacation Ends, School Begins!

So since most retail stores consider it the end of summer and the beginning of fall, all the summer stuff is going on clearance. Well, lucky us for living in SoCal. We are going to have summery weather through October. We got this pool (nice sized at 12' X 30" - perfect for us) at a great price and we couldn't pass it up. So, up it went on the weekend and the kids have been playing in it every day since. I even ventured into it yesterday!

I thought it would be fitting to post a picture of them in their swim wear. Since it is an end of summer vacation post. This was them just before we all hopped in yesterday. I don't know how they can stand the water. I was freezing!

So along with the pool, they each got kickboards on sale. Kevin had his from last year, so really only the three youngers got them. Kaela is continuing to swim well. She taught herself last summer and can now swim underwater the length of our tiny pool. Kyle still refuses to get his face wet. He even dislikes baths and showers! lol Kenny is right in there, thinking she's swimming, but really all she is doing is bending over with the kickboard in front of her as she walks along the bottom. Kevin of course is all over the place in the water. He has always loved the water. He was less than 24 months old when he started submerging and kicking to propel through the water. Well, even though school started today, the pool is still up and they went in as soon as Kevin came home from school.

So here's some first day of school pictures...

Here is Kevin at home before we left. His clothes are to big, but his normal size is getting a hair small. I didn't want to have to buy him new clothes again in a few months, so I just went with the bigger size. He's so grown up!

So the one thing I worried about with Kevin and a new school was that he would have a hard time breaking into groups of kids that have already formed friendships from previous years. We are lucky in that Joshua, the son of my good girlfriend from high school, is in Kevin's class. Even though Joshua and Kevin haven't grown up seeing each other all the time, we have throughout the years had chances to see them at family parties. So, I told Kevin that Joshua would probably hang out with him, but in the off chance that Joshua didn't (because he was already familiar with his other friends), he could find other little kids to play with. All he had to do was ask.

So, as soon as I picked him up, Joshua and Kevin were near each other but weren't really acknowledging each other. So, of course, I asked Kevin if he played with Joshua today. "No, not really," Kevin says. So then I ask him who he played with, "No one." Kevin says. Hmmm. Not making for a good first day of school. I think to myself. So then, since Kevin really doesn't offer up any info without my prompting, I ask more questions. Who did you have lunch with? - Joshua. Did you play with Joshua at recess? - No. So, you had lunch with Joshua, but afterwards he just went and played with other kids? Kevin doesn't respond. Okay, so now I am feeling really bad for Kevin. How come you didn't play with anyone? - It was too hot. I sat in the shade. What did you do in the shade? - We talked. Who did you talk to? - Joshua. You were with Joshua? - Yeah. I thought you said you didn't play with Joshua? - I didn't. We sat in the shade and talked. We did Rock, Paper, Scissors and talked about what we did this summer. We did Rock Paper Scissors with Nicolas and some other boys too.

Point of story. So no, Kevin did not play with Joshua. They talked. They talked with a few other boys too. Kevin was not lonely and left out like he made it seem. I just didn't ask the right questions. *sigh*

So here's my Kaela. This picture is deceiving. She looks happy as she waves good bye on her way to her class. Her first day of Kindergarten. But here's what happened before this picture.

In the car Michaela says she is nervous about going to school. I reassure that everything is going to be just fine. So we get to school and as we all pour out of the car, she latches onto my hand. Ouch, she has a strong grip. The whole time we are walking, I am trying to walk with McKenna and Kyle holding my other hand. No one wants to let go, except McKenna, who is the one kid whose hand I want to hold! So we get to the inside of the school, and she is squeezing my hand harder. Didn't know she had it in her. She is also now somehow superglued to the side of my leg. So now we are where she is supposed to line up. Glued to my leg and my hand in a vise, I have carry/drag her to the end of the line. Her teacher suspects that Michaela might be having issues so she helps us to the end of the line, talking to Michaela and letting her know how much fun they will have. I give Michaela a big hug and a kiss. Then another hug and another. I am trying to slip away as the line in front of her starts to move. Finally she lets go, gives me a big smile and turns to follow the line. I snapped this picture as she turned back to say one last goodbye. Ah huh. She will go when *she* wants to.

So the kids both said they had fun their first day. Kevin already has a new best friend and Michaela was pleased that the songs she sang in class were ones she already knew from preschool. The traffic around their school is horrendous. There is a middle school right next door. So picture about 1600 kids getting released from school within a half hour of each other. About a third of them walk, bus or bike. The rest get picked up. The traffic around there lasts a good solid 45 minutes. We'll have to get used to that.

Well, off to bed. Good night!

School Starts in 3 Days!

Here's a pic of the kids after dinner today. I had wanted to get a picture of the boys to show off their new haircuts, but then of course the girls wanted to be in the picture. Well, to get these four to pose for a picture is not the easiest of tasks. I do all I can not to lose my cool. I envision this cute picture, but of course there is always someone making a funny face (usually Kevin), or someone trying too hard to smile (Kyle) or someone who acts like they just don't know what the heck I am talking about (McKenna). Michaela is usually the only one who knows what to do.

Anyway, my two oldest are off to school on Wednesday. It's really been a fun summer for them. I think Kyle is going to take the big kids gone especially hard because he does almost everything with Michaela. When Michaela doesn't want to play with him or just needs some alone time, Kyle gets very upset. McKenna is still at that stage when she doesn't always play with the other kids. Hopefully he falls into a routine to entertain himself when his big sister isn't around.

Packing is still going slow. We've been here just over four weeks now. Most of the boxes are still not unpacked. Oh well. Someday! I plan on working on my craft room today. Maybe I'll be able to get it done. On that note, I am headed to bed! Good night!

Still Slow Going

Well, we've been here for three weeks now. It doesn't really seem like it's been three weeks. We have been busy here. We got all new screens on all the windows that needed them (probably about 3/4 of ll the windows), then the windows were fixed (they didn't lock or slide well), then we got new sliding screens for our two sets of sliding glass doors to the patio, then we had three different plumbers come in and look at what needed to be done. The bathtub in the kids side of the house was sagging. As it turns out the floor was totally disintegrated and was perched precariously on a support beam of the house. Then there were problems with the sprinklers. Oh man, this poor house has seen better days. The dishwasher is only 5 years old and is caked with calcium deposits. I tried scrapping some of it off, but it didn't help. I think there is calcium buildup in the pipe. Oh well, there are a few other little things, but I guess I'll stop complaining. It really is a nice house. It just needed some TLC. We are definitely giving it that.

We aren't anywhere near being unpacked. I still can't fin half my kitchen stuff! Oh well, as long as it is done by the time school starts. School starts in two weeks!

So, I got a new phone. A Samsung Sync. I am having fun playing with it. It has a 2.0 MP camera and can play MP3s and videos. I took some pictures of the kids last week. The camera has built in frames that you can add to the picture. Here's what we did the other day...

All Moved In - sort of!

Well, I am happy to say that we have moved into our new house. Our stuff is there and the kids finally got to see their new house. They are excited about the back yard and all the space they have to run around in. They can now move freely around the house and make as much noise as they want. No more worrying about the downstairs neighbor because there isn't one! lol

The kids were wondering why, if it was a 5 bedroom house, did they not each get their own room? Well, one room is being used as an office for Keith and one is a guest room. The boys in one room and the girls in another. They are young enough to be sharing rooms still. Our master bedroom is the rear part of the second story and the kids' rooms are way on the opposite side of the house over the garage.

Where is my craft room you ask? Well, when you walk in the door, there it is. I am taking up the entire huge living room! The TV/family room is fairly large and in the rear of the house with the kitchen next to it. I get the living room which is next to the formal dining room. I had wanted that area also for stamp classes, but Keith nixed that idea. My new craft area is big enough he says.

Okay, so in reference to the title - the "sort of" part. Well, let's just say that we are renting a UHaul for tomorrow. We had so much stuff that the movers couldn't get all of our stuff into their truck! They took all the boxes and the furniture, but had to leave behind the bulky items like the kids' plastic drawers where they keep their toys, the bikes, some of the bigger toys, Kaela's dollhouse. Everything has been moved to the garage and once we get the UHaul, we'll fill it up and drive it to our new place. A pain in the butt, but apparently we have too much stuff for the average three bedroom home. I guess that's why we had to move up to five bedrooms!

Well, good night for now. I will update in a few days with my unpacking saga!

Moving in Soon!

Keith started working on Monday. We are staying at my Mom and Dad's house until we can move into our new place on Sunday. I have been driving back and forth from here to our old place everyday to pack. My parents and sister have been watching the kids and we are so thankful that they are so close and can help out. I was starting to worry yesterday about the progress I was making and took my dad up on his offer to help. He packed up the entire kitchen and saved me a whole day's work. Things aren't looking so bleak now! Well, I am off. I'll update more later when I have more to report!

We Have a New Place!

I am SO happy to report that we now have a place to live. We are frantically packing and trying to get things squared away. We found a place not too far (walking distance) from my parents house. The kids will be going to the same school I went to when we (my parents, sisters and I) moved to the area some 30 years ago.

It is a 5 bedroom, 3 bath house with a nice big back yard (well, nice and big for Southern California). We are moving in on the 15th. There is so much to do! Yikes!

So, when things settle down a bit, I will try to update you! In the meantime, here is a picture of Kevin. Please excuse the blurry picture and the messy hair! lol Kevin finally lost his two front teeth. They came out two days apart.

The Search Continues

Well, we are really busy. We are packing, and we are still looking for a place to live. We thought we had a place lined up, but it fell through. We ended up giving notice here as Keith starts his new job on the 9th. We have to find a place to live. Ack!

Michaela's Last Day of Preschool

Today was Micaela's last day of Preschool. It was sad in that she was with a lot of these kids for two years and with the same teacher. Many of them would be going to different elementary schools, but with us moving now it's hard to know that Michaela won't be able to see her friends anymore.










The end of the year picnic was fun though. They had yummy food and all the kids played in the park.


Later, her teacher presented each kid a book of some of their school work form this year and a bag of goodies. I got some very cute pictures of Michaela with her friends. There were so many cute ones. I think I might make Michaela a scrapbook of all her friends. I did want to post this picture of her though.

This last picture is a picture of Michaela with her "boyfriend" Ryley. Most of the school year, they played together and hung out with each other. Whenever they stood in line, they held hands. I think this picture is adorable!

Good News!

Just a few months ago, I was feeling really down that Keith and I just couldn't catch a break. It felt like these past four years or so there had been a lot of obstacles. Financial problems, a couple of car accidents, having to move (again and again), job worries, health issues (mine), etc. We did have some really nice times, but it seemed like when something was going good, something else would come along and complicate things.

Well, I am very thankful that things seem to be going very well for us right now. Some very wonderful things have been going on and the not so pleasant things are not around.

Anyway, Keith is going to be changing jobs. This will be his ideal job. His interview went very well, and the formal offer is being overnighted to him. We are moving back to San Diego. On top of all of that, Keith is getting a substantial pay increase. We found the perfect house for us in my parents' neighborhood. The house is within biking distance to Keith's new place of employment.

We are so excited! With this new house and me being in a more familiar area (to me), I am looking forward to stepping up both my Stampin' Up business and my Taste of Home Entertaining business. (I just had my Taste of Home Entertaining open house, and it went very well!) There is so much more I can gush about, but I think I should head to bed for now. Good night!

The Stars of the Show

Pre Ballet/Tap Combo Classes

Here is Michaela (2nd from the right) with some of her classmates. Michaela had her very first recital on the 9th and absolutely loved it. Oh, she was SO cute. It was a wonderful performance with about 130 students. Michaela was the youngest dancer in the entire show. Some of the teachers and alumni performed and of the students, the oldest were Seniors in high school.

Michaela was asked to dance with both her regular "younger" girls class as well as with the "older" girls class (aged 6-8). The older class was short and needed one more dancer. So the studio's owner asked if Michaela could do both classes' performances. She danced in a total of four numbers. She said that she loved being on stage and had so much fun.

She loves to dance and just can't seem to get enough of it. She is constantly asking if it's Saturday yet (the day of her lessons). Because she danced with the other class, she has been taking two hours straight of lessons for about three months now. But, even after her class, she still wants to stay to watch the teenagers dance. I think dance is going to be Michaela's "thing".

Always and Forever

Today is our 8th Anniversary. I surprised Keith by arranging for Ris to watch the kids. I picked Keith up from work and let him pick out a restaurant for us. We ended up going to the Rusty Pelican and had a table right by the water. We indulged in some very yummy Calamari and some garlic bread for an appetizer. We both got Crab Bisque and then both ended up ordering a Salmon dish. Keith's was crab stuffed and mine was broiled and was served with shrimp in a lobster cream sauce. Oh it was SO good. We got a yummy mudpie for dessert compliments of the restaurant.

After dinner, we went to Ikea and looked at all the fun furniture and things. We talked about all kinds of things and were we would put it. It was fun walking around and just looking and dreaming. We closed down Ikea and went to see if there was a movie we'd want to watch. We didn't find one, and so we went to the bookstore instead. We had coffee and browsed the books.

On our way home, our wedding song, "From This Moment", sung by Shania Twain and Bryan Adams, was playing on the radio.

We had a nice evening out. Not too exciting for most people, but it was just perfect for us. We look forward to the rest of our lives together.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Yesterday, we all took a day off from reality and went to Disneyland. It wasn't exactly a spur of the moment kind of thing, but up until the night before, we weren't 100% positive if we were going. We had been trying to go for about three weeks now.

We had a lot of fun. We spent the entire day there (around noon to midnight) and still did not get to do all we wanted. The weather was nice. Overcast and cool and in mid afternoon the sun came out. It never got too hot.

The crowds were not so bad either. We didn't go on any bigger kids' rides, so most of our wait times were 10-15 minutes. We did Fast Pass a few of the more popular rides and that sped us through the lines.

All the kids did really well. We took our time doing things and had fun going here and there. Kaela got to meet Aladdin. Kenna and Kaela met Tigger and Eeyore. The boys didn't want to meet any of them! They did get to enjoy a Star Wars Jedi Academy performance. We saw Darth Vader, some Jedi masters and Imperial Storm Troopers. We watched the parade and had lots of yummy food to eat. We had fun browsing the stores. We found a Disney Princess Store that we didn't know was there. An entire store filled with Disney Princess stuff. Very fun!

As for our favorites, I think Kevin liked Star Tours and Autopia the best. Keith seemed to enjoy the Astro Blasters ride inspired by Toy Story 2. Kaela liked the Tea Cups. She, Keith and Kyle were in one Tea Cup and Kevin, Kenna and I were in another. Kevin spun us around at his leisure. The other half of the family (the thrill seekers) were in their cup spinning as fast as they possibly could. My favorite part was It's A Small World. I would have to saw that Kenna and Kyle probably like that the best too. We closed down the park. Kenny started to fall asleep around 10pm. We woke her for the Teacups and after that we headed to the gift shops and then home.

I Belong In...

Check out this fun blog quiz. Here are my results...

You Belong in 1981

Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day.

What Year Do You Belong In?

5 Things I Love About....

Keith

1. No matter what I look like, or how fat I feel, he always makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.
2. He always does whatever it takes to make to me happy.
3. He knows my deep dark secrets and still loves me.
4. I sometimes catch him looking at me with a silly grin on his face.
5. He enjoys playing with the kids and loves them to no end.

Kevin

1. He is a kind, sensitive soul, but is still all boy.
2. He watches over his sisters and brother. He is the big brother to a T.
3. He hugs me for no reason and will hold my hand when we walk together.
4. No matter where we are, he always sees something beautiful.
5. He is respectful of the Earth and does not disrespect it.

Michaela

1. She is strong willed and knows what she wants.
2. She is willing to try anything at least once.
3. She is a girlie girl, but is definitely a Michaela and not a Makayla.
4. She already understands that a woman has power over a man.
5. She is not one of the mean girls.

Kyle

1. He always has a smile on his face.
2. He brings a fun presence to our family. Everything is funny to him.
3. When he does something bad, all I have to do is look at his face and I'm not so angry.
4. He is a momma's boy.
5. He is only 3 and a half but has a wise presence about him, almost as if he's done it all before.

McKenna

1. She commands attention when she is in the room.
2. When she is around other 2 year olds at the park, she seems much more sophisticated socially and developmentally.
3. She thinks she is five.
4. She is a troublemaker (yes, I love that about her!).
5. She knows her smile can melt anyone's heart.

Oh I could go on and on for each of these lists. I never knew that I could love so much.

Pictures for You

Kevin and Michaela on a train tour at Calico Ghost Town. We went with Kevin's Cub Scout Pack. I forgot to mention that Kevin received his Tiger Rank! He is now on his way to becoming a Wolf. He loves cub scouts. He looks forward to every meeting and wants to be an Eagle scout someday. We had fun at this campout. Keith and I went as did Kevin and Michaela. We left the babies with my parents. This was the same weekend as my birthday (April 21). Happy birthday to me!




This picture cracks me up! This is Kyle in McKenna's Barbie Fairytopia costume. I dared him to put it on. Well, it wasn't much of a dare. He thought it was funny. He is such a joker and seems to find humor in everything. Michaela thought Kyle looked good in this. haha I think I gave Kyle an extra cookie for being a good sport and making us all laugh. ------------>







<----------- Here's my cute girl! This was on Easter (obviously). All the other cousins were waiting patiently by the side gate to come running into the back yard, but someone (Grandma Tessie) brought Kenny to the backyard. She was all over those eggs and her bucket was almost full before the other cousins even made it into the back yard! Not to worry though. There were 9 cousins and they each got at the least 20 eggs. They all had a great time at the Easter egg hunt.

Almost Two Months

SO yes, this is the longest I've gone without updating this blog. There is so much going on right now and we just seem to keep getting busier and busier. I will try (like I always say) to update more. I have so many projects right now. Let's give a brief recap...

So, our lease is up at the end of June. We have no idea where we are moving. We are in limbo. Me might stay here, we might move back to San Diego. We just are not sure.

We are not sure because Keith may be getting a new job in San Diego. Five minutes from my parents house. There hasn't been an offer yet and the deal is still getting worked over. I just wish we knew for sure what was going on. I want it all to fall into place before school starts. We are just on hold right now. There are so many things that will be effected by this. Kevin is supposed to start summer school in July. Kyle is signed up for a preschool here for the fall and Kaela is supposed to start Kindergarten in the fall. All this is on hold until we know. If we move, Kyle might not be going to preschool in the fall. The waiting lists are a mile long.

Kevin and summer school. Well, we've talked about it, and we've conferenced with his teacher. He is being held back and will not promote next year. Although his math is right in there and very strong, his reading skills are not quite where they should be. We figured that it would be better to hold him back for first grade as opposed to later. He is fine with it. He says, "There's nothing wrong with that. When I get to second grade, I'll be super smart!" He's so sweet.

Michaela and her recital. Michaela's first recital is coming up. She is in the 3-5 year old ballet/tap class. She had missed a few lessons and she was allowed to do make-ups with the 6-8 year old class. Well, the "older" girl class didn't have enough girls for the recital, so they asked Michaela to dance with the older girls too. So, she has been having two one hour classes every Saturday for about two months now. She has done really well keeping up with the girls, but she looses focus after about and hour and a half. She is dancing to "A Whole New World" from Aladdin with the younger girls (ballet) and doing "Beauty and the Beast" with the older girls (ballet). Both classes will be combined for the tap portion. They are doing "Singing in the Rain". The numbers are cute, but they are all over the place. That's fine though. They are young and for most of them, this will be their first recital.

Kyle is potty trained. He potty trained himself. He decided one day (about two weeks ago) that he was going to wear underwear. He's had one accident since. He does his business and I don't have to do anything. It is so nice. He has it down pat and even wakes up dry. He all of a sudden is a big boy! I don't have to dress him, put on his shoes or change his diaper. Three down one to go!

McKenna. Oh man. What can I say about my trouble maker. She is certainly my handful. She isn't wearing earrings right now because she decided that it was fun to stick her earring backs up her nose. The first time she did it, we couldn't find the earring. So, we took her to her doctor so they could explore up her nose. What led us to the doctor was that she said "Nose!" and I looked at her nose and saw the earring back. I used tweezers to get it out. I couldn't find the earring and she kept saying it was in her nose. The doc couldn't find it, so he had us go get x-rays. So, after it was all said and done, the earring is still missing. It wasn't up her nose, she didn't swallow it. So you'd think after all that poking and probing, she would never stick anything up her nose again. So wrong! The next day it was an unpopped popcorn kernel. I worked for 30 minutes to get that sucker out. So after *that* you'd think she'd learn her lesson. No, not our dear Kenny. A few days later up went another earring back. My daughter no longer wears earrings. I just poke the holes every few days so that they don't seal up.

Let's see. What's new with me? Still stamping and swapping. I have a new venture. I am now a consultant for Taste of Home Entertaining. I have a cool website, but I am not allowed to post the link on my personal website (or blog). But in case you are curious it's my first name, middle initial and last name (all one word) at tohe dot com. There is an online register in under my last name in which you can look at all the cool products. Better yet, send me an email (CreativeStamper@sbcglobal.net) and I will mail you a catalog.

So, that's us in yet another nutshell. I shall try to post more. Maybe the saga of our move...

We Remember

My April Fools

So yes, my oldest and my youngest were born on April 1. Kevin is now 7 and McKenna is now 2. We celebrated their birthday's much the same way we celebrated Michaela's. Kevin requested pizza which was so easy! We ordered from our local fav and got some salad to go with it. Here's us looking much the same as we did last week! We had the same guest. We had balloons. We had FUN!


Kevin got a scooter and he has been whizzing around the neighborhood on it. His best buds Eddie and Danny also have scooters and they cruise around. They have a lot of fun riding together.

As expected, Kevin also got a HUGE Lego set and some Bionicles. He got some cash, some clothes, a great marker set from Aunt Karensa and Uncle Paul. A gift card and a magazine subscription from Mom.

I think he had a fun birthday. He was excited about his dinner. Oh! I almost forgot! Keith took Kevin to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They had fun seeing that together. Afterwards, they went to Target and Kevin picked out t gift for Kenny. He is really proud to be able to share his birthday with her!


Kenna is so cute. When you ask her how old she is, she holds up both pointer fingers and says, "Tew".

Here she is with her cake. It is actually a Mocha roll, but Yummy all the same! She is intently staring at her cake. She was very eager to blow out her candles. We had to relight them twice because she blew them out before we finished singing to her!

Michaela is Five!

My girl is now five! Today was her birthday, but she "officially" turned five just about half an hour before I wrote this. It was a good day. It was filled with fun and special treats. I have some great pictures too!

The day started out with Keith making us a yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs and O'Brien potatoes. Yum! After breakfast, Keith made the kids some hot chocolate. Then we straightened up a bit and Michaela opened a few presents from us.

She was so excited and wanted to open up all her presents, but we were having a family dinner for her that night and wanted her to be able to open more later.

Here are the kids posing for the camera before she opened some of her gifts.

After this, they got dressed and we cleaned up for our dinner guests. They played outside and then Keith took them all to the park later in the afternoon.

We had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Ris, all of us and my Aunt Faring. Michaela requested spaghetti and meatballs for her birthday dinner. We had that and salad, garlic bread and I even made Minestrone soup for scratch. I am quite surprised how yummy it came out! Of course we used Kaela's birthday plates. For her dinner plates she picked an Ariel design. The dessert plates were Belle and the napkins were Barbie 12 Dancing Princesses. We added the extra table so that we could all eat at the same table. It was tight, but it was so nice to be all together!

We were all stuffed, but still had cake to devour! Mom brought - per Kaela's request - a chocolate cake from Red Ribbon. This cake seems to be a tradition as far as birthday cakes goes with our family!

Here's Kaela after blowing out the candles. We all enjoyed our cake and ice cream. We even had fresh cut strawberries! After cake, the adults had strawberry Margaritas - Tequila compliments of Aunt Joyce and Uncle Orv!

After cake and Margaritas, Kaela finally got to open up the rest of her gifts. She had a nice round of gifts waiting to be opened. All week we received packages. She got gifts and cards from Aunt Julie, Grandma Fischer, Grandma Karen, Aunt Karensa and Uncle Paul, Grandpa Dennis and Grandma Mary and of course the gifts that her dinner guest brought. Oh, and a couple more from us.


She received some really nice gifts including an Easter dress from Grandma Tessie and Grandpa Manny, a pretty blanket from Grandpa Dennis and Grandma Mary and a really neat hand sewn sundress from Grandma Karen. Here she is modeling her new sundress. She, of course, wants to wear it to school tomorrow, but it looks like we might have to hold off a few days. It is supposed to rain!

Well, I'd say all in all Michaela's birthday was a good one! She had a great day and was showered with gifts from her loved ones. So, off until next weekend when I can report on Kevin's and McKenna's birthday days!

ETA: Okay, so I edited this on 3/26. As my good friend, Julie, pointed out, Michaela is not six (as the pre-edit stated). Michaela has turned five! She just seems like she's six!