Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all my friends a Happy Thanksgiving. We had two great dinners and are feeling the effects of the feast. Thank goodness for stretch pants!

Family Photos at the Beach

The day before Veteran's Day we had someone shoot some family pictures of us at Crystal Cove. We had never been there before. I never knew we had a treasure of a beach so close! The kids had a great time after the photo shoot looking at the tide pools. Even though it is November the day was beautiful, sunny and the temp in the 70's. It was a great day.

Pumpkin carving

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


Here is our little family carving pumpkins a few days before Halloween. We probably should have waited a day due to the hot weather we've been having. Oh well, instead of our pumpkins looking young and scary, they are going to look like they are aging and trying to be scary.

Tyler and his funny face, Me and Mikaela.

Chris trying out the black and white feature on our camera.

Chris and Cameron posing for the camera.

A Day at the Museum

We enjoy free things as a family and a free day at the Childrens museum is rarely missed. At first glance the La Habra's Childrens museum looks small and you can't imagine there is enough inside to keep a child entertained for more than an hour. I was totally wrong.! This little museum is awesome. It is like a magical little place that transforms as you enter. It is the little museum that could (and does)! Inside you'll find a hands on dinosaur dig, a huge shadow box, a theatre room, a toddler room, train room, the changing exhibit room and a taxiderm room full from top to bottom. There is more to it that I could tell you about but you really have to be there to appreciate it. Oh I must mention the carousel. Tyler LOVES the carousel and I think Mikaela is following in his footsteps. Here are some pictures of our latest trip to the museum.

Cameron finding a bone in the dig.

This quarters exhibit is about the human body and the senses. Tyler is having fun in the touch sense.

Forgot to mention the half bus in the museum. Cameronwas pretending to be the bus driver. He was pretty demanding! He wouldn't let us on the bus unless we paid the fare.

Little Mikaela goofing around in the bus.

Cameron's a First grader!

Cameron started first grade this year and he is loving it so far. He is happy to be back in California close to family and familiar friends. He started school not a day too soon. Towards the end of summer break he start to keep a count down. Every morning began with the same question, "how many more days until I start school?" After about 10 mornings of the same question, Cameron and I made a count down on the calendar. It helped him out with his count down and Mom & Dad got to sleep in a bit more before
Cameron would come in after checking his calendar and exclaiming "Mom, Dad only 5 more days and I start school!" I hope this excitement lasts all the way to Senior year.

In the month of September they learned about Johnny Appleseed. They had an outdoor presentation and got to eat apple goodies, make apple crafts and eat apples grown on thier own trees on the school grounds. it was delicious.

This is Cameron and his buddy Owen. When we moved to NY for a while, he missed his buddy Owen and Owen's older brother Ethan. We were pleasantly surprised when I found out they would all be in the same school district and going to the same school. Sure, there are a few schools closer to us and I pass a few on the drive to drop him off but it's a small sacrifice Chris and I are willing to make. As you can tell he is happy to be with his friend again.
P.S. Owen is 1 1/2 months younger than Cameron, difference is his parents are much taller than Chris and I.

Little known facts about me.

My friend Tiffany tagged me:

Three Joys
1. My Family and friends
2. Blue Skies and sunshine
3. Fancy desserts

Three Fears
1. child predators
2. my life flashing before my eyes
3. death of a loved one

Three Goals
1. have more patience with my children
2. becoming a black belt
3. instead of a fancy vacation, I want to do a humanitarian vacation withmy family.


Three Current Obsessions/collections
1. cleaning
2. gardening
3. being frugal

Three Random Surprising Facts about ME!
1. I don't know what my talent in life is, (except piss people off).
2. I want to go back to school for business or dentistry.
3.I've always wanted to learn how to play base guitar and rock out with Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Now I tag.....everyone who reads my blog!!!

Summer fun

Cameron was brave enough to ride his bike again. We live on a slope and our driveway has a small grade to it. It didn't take long for him to get his confidence back.

Tyler is my daredevil. He'll go down the driveway without flinching. I have to close my eyes sometimes because I'm afraid he's going to hit a pebble and crash. Dad says I worry too much.

I guess Mikaela was thirsty. Mikaela and I were sitting on the edge by a leaky sprinkler watching Dad, Cameron and Tyler go down the driveway. She saw the sprinkler and began to play with it and splash. A few momnets later she's taking a sip. Don't worry I only let her take a few sips before I stopped her. Chris has since fixed the leaky sprinkler, we can't waste water here in California!

Lipstick Jungle

This never happened with my 2 boys. My lipsticks never had to suffer the wrath of little fingers poking at it and turning them into complete mush. This is the work of our daughter Mikaela. She has somehow managed to ruin all but one of my lipsticks on different occasions. Once in church, during sacrament, a couple time when I carelessly left my purse within reach and the last one was when I was putting on my makeup. I guess she wanted to be like mom and put lipstick on her lips...and clothes...and floor...and a little bit in her hair and randomly on her face. I wish I had a picture of her face. I'm sure it will happen again, she's a sneeky little girl.

Yes I do Blog, just not often....

My friend, Tiffany,  makes fun of me because I rarely update my blog.  I try, really I do.  Often though, I get online and quickly check my e-mails, after that I stare at the screen for a second and think about where I want to surf the world wide web.  That's usually when chaos breaks loose ( the kids go Lord of the Flies on me and I realize I DON'T have time to be playing on the web.  Anyhow, here are the latest pictures and adventures.

Enjoy!

Mikaela

I am testing a movie clip here. It's Mikaela in her crib when we lived in NY. Nothing too exciting, just a test run to see if I've figured out how to put a movie on here. :-)

UPDATE: yeah I know It didn't work. :-(

HOT HOT HOT!

It is a hot Sunday afternoon. We were trying to be frugal and avoid turning the AC on but we had to give in since we are all home. With 5 bodies in the house it makes the house warm. Before you call us cheap, let me explain why we don't want to turn on the AC. First, we still haven't sold our house in NY and we are still paying the mortgage and bills that go along. What a pain but I am grateful we are in a circumstance to be able to pay the bills and live in So. California.
Second, I've been reading the Tightwad gazette and have found it addicting. I got the complete volumes I-III. I'm almost half way done and I find it hard to put down. Most things we do as a family are already pretty frugal. Some examples are, we avoid eating out and I try to make 91% of our meals from scratch. I've started line drying the laundry to avoid using the dryer (why not it freaking hot out here, clothes dry faster and I get my daily dose of vitamin D!) and I make sure we are not wasting electricity by leaving lights on around the house. I've also learned if I made a weekly menu of dinners and lunches and go grocery shopping for the items needed for the menu I save money on the grocery bill. Pretty simple idea but I wasn't doing it. I am guilty of going to the grocery store and buying what I needed but also what looked good and hmmmm, maybe I'll try this and buying things on sale just because. I've tried doing coupons but making my menu and going accordingly is what is working for me.
Anyhow, that was my little tid bit of what I've been reading and doing lately.
To all my NY and PA friends...I miss you guys a ton! Someday in this lifetime we will have to have a reunion of friends. Please keep in touch.

Back Online

YAY!!! We are back onlone now. Since we arrived in California almost a month ago, we had 2 major problems. 1. the transmission on the Odyssey broke and 2. our computer died. We are fortunate to have savings to cover the expense of each item but receiving the extra $$ tax relief check was a blessing. Now all we need to do is sell our house in Seneca Falls. Any buyers out there???

More Niagara Falls

Cameron and Tyler playing underneath one of the observation bridges. Cameron said that was his favorite part of Niagara Falls.

Dare you to go down in a barrel!

Niagara Falls

It is getting close to our departure from NY and we had not seen many of the surrounding sites so last weekend we went to Niagara Falls. It was amazing to say the least. I am always in awe at what Heavenly Father created.

Cameron, Tyler and dad.

Gone bowling.

I think this ball weighs as much as Mikaela.

Cameron, my happy bowler.
We were happy to get out go bowling. We had the bowling alley all to ourselves that morning. It was really nice because the boys could run around and get some energy out before it was their turn to bowl again.

Chris and his crazy hair.

Mikaela's Hair

Some pictures of Mikaela for the family to see. I love her hair! I've only cut her bangs a couple of times to get it out of her eyes.
Mikaela is a joy to have in our family. Her brothers love her very much.

Finally the sun came out!!!

The weather has improved and we finally got to go outside to play. Mikaela had a wonderful time sitting on the grass next to me. Cameron and Tyler were excited to be outside after a long winter. They immediately were drawn to the water and mud.

Ice Storm

The wonderful weather of central NY. Ughhh :-(
We had an ice storm in late March. It was not fun. We have a lot of tall thin pine trees around our house and thought a few of them were going to break and fall onto our house. We were very fortunate, no fallen trees. One neighbor had 2 tree fall, one on their shed and another neighbor had a tree fall on their fence. The forces of nature, do I need to give another reason why I want to move back to California? I'd rather put up with an earthquake than extended winters and ice storms.

Happy Easter 2008

Happy Easter!

My Handsome boys.

Still very cold out but at least the sun is shining!

My beautiful family.