Halloween 2008

Hello everyone,
Just wanted to write a quick blog and post some pics of all our October festivities. I took Timmy to a great pumpkin patch in La Verne with his mommy and me class. Dan and I went to our friend's the Tottens Annual Halloween Party. Katelynn had her songfest at preschool. We did our traditional Pumpkin Patch pictures at the Pumpkin Patch in Brea on Halloween. Took the kids trick-or-treating in my parent's neighborhood. For those of you that don't know yet we sold our house this month and are now living at my parent's house until we get our next house. Most of our belongings are in 2 storage units while the rest is also at my parents' house. We have found a house and are now in escrow but it won't be closing until Dec. 10th. So we will be at my parents' for a few more weeks. Of coarse I will blog and post pics of the new house when we move in and change some things. For now, enjoy the festive October pics!

The Lake House

Last weekend we took a trip out to the Lindsays' (Dan's aunt and uncle) Lake house. It was a big family gathering of about 16 people, more or less. We haven't got together at the lake house like that in 10 years so it was really fun. The kids loved it. We brought our trailer and parked it on the side of the house so they thought we were camping. Dirt and water are their favorite things. Dan got to go wake boarding. It's been a while for him but he got up like a pro. I was eventually talked into going on the inner tube. It turned out to be a lot of fun. Katelynn and Timmy loved going on the boat rides and watching mommy and daddy do their things. They also loved playing with Aunt Susie and Uncle Tom's pugs. Katelynn is in love with cleo and now wants a dog of her own. It was a great time and we need to do that more often. Thanks for having Bruce and Christy!

Princess Katelynn

Katelynn dressed up as a princess for the first time. She was invited to her friend Tiffany's birthday party that was princess themed and she got excited to dress up for it. At first we picked a ballerina dress at Walmart but Tiffany's mommy Lori said she had a princess dress that Katelynn could borrow so I took it home to show her. She was hesitant to try it on at first but once we put it on her, that was the dress she wanted to wear. You could tell that she was out of her comfort zone while wearing but none the less she liked being in it and she looked very pretty in it and had a great time at the party with all the other little princesses.

Lake Mohave

Last week we took our longest camping trip yet. We took off for Lake Mohave Tuesday night stopping in Baker to sleep and meet up with our friends the Decks. The next morning we finished the drive to Lake Mohave. The kids had a great time. We rented a boat for a couple days and took it to our own personal cove that had a great little beach area for the kids to play and have fun. On Saturday we stuck around the Resort and played by the water. The kids loved feeding the ducks and fish popcorn and sneaking in some handfuls of their own. Katelynn has established quite a rock collection that we of course had to bring home with us. We got back Sunday afternoon. It's funny because the kids did not want to come back home. They wanted to "stay at camping" as Katelynn put it. I kind of did too. ;) Anyway I have posted a few pics. Enjoy!

A Wet Day at Disneyland

Last Thursday my friend Lori and I wanted to take our girls to Disneyland as a little celebration for their end of their first year of preschool. We had planned it for over a month and kept having to reschedule for various reasons. We finally settled on a date and it happened to be last Thursday. I had checked the weather a couple days before to make sure it wasn't going to be hot since the Sunday before was hitting record highs in the 100's. I guess I didn't notice it said 20% chance of rain or maybe didn't believe it. Anyway when we got there it was overcast and it started to sprinkle a little but I was in denial that it was supposed to keep raining all day. It just didn't seem possible after the weather we've had. I had to run back to the car to get Katelynn's jacket and when I got back down it was raining harder. Lori and I decided it probably wouldn't last and we were already there so we stayed. Sure enough it stopped (for a little while) and we got into the park and got in line for a ride. Everything was fine when we got off the ride and a minute later it started to down pour. We tried to find a line that was covered to keep us dry. It was the line to the carousel and unfortunately the canopy did not hold up against the rain. When we got off we found a store to buy some ponchos (like everyone else) and we still stayed for a few more hours after that. The girls still had a great time and Lori and I just thought it was hilarious that we were there in the rain. The ponchos did a great job of keeping us all dry. I have posted a few pics from the day. Enjoy!

Mother's Day 2008

I had a great Mother's Day. It was nice and relaxing after having to keep the house clean the day before for people to come and go looking at the house. Anyway, Dan cooked breakfast (french toast) and it was tasty. Later we went to a local park for a picnic and a bike ride and I accidentally forgot my camera so there are no pics from that. Later in the evening my parent's came over for dinner and our traditional color coordinated pictures we take every year. My choice for dinner was Joey's BBQ. I know that BBQ is more of a man's type of dinner but I just love their sliced bbq beef and their baked yam. Yummy!!!!

Green Eggs and Ham

"I do not like them Sam I am" Well Actually Katelynn and Timmy did. Katelynn has been into the Dr. Suess book "Green Eggs and Ham" lately so Dan made her green eggs and ham the other night for dinner. She loved that she was eating the same thing as in the book. She loves eggs and had like 3 helpings of them. It was fun. Timmy even surprised me and ate them all up too. Dan was a sport and ate the green eggs and ham with them but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I stuck with an artichoke. It's green too so at least I stayed with the theme. Anyway I have posted some pics of them eating their green eggs and ham.

Easter

This Easter we went to Dan's aunt's house in Redlands after we had our Easter morning at our house. She lives in the historic district of Redlands and her house is about 100 years old. We love going over there and enjoying the history of the house and the neighborhood. It's really neat. This year Timmy had fun painting the Easter eggs with his sissy. He acted like he was a pro. He also had no trouble hunting for the eggs on Easter morning. I've posted a few pics of Easter. Enjoy!

Valentine's Day

Well we didn't do a whole lot since it landed on a weekday but I did want to write about how Dan got Katelynn her first bouquet of flowers. She was thrilled and she carried it around for a half hour. She kept smelling them and saying how pretty they were. She would say that my roses were pretty too but her flowers were prettier because they were colorful.

Mommy Daddy date night

Last weekend Dan and I got to go out. We went and saw Wicked in LA. The tickets were a Christmas present for me from Dan. Anyway, we dropped the kids off at my parents and went and had a late lunch/early dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and then headed out to LA. The musical was playing at the Pantages, a beautiful theater built in the 1930's. If you haven't seen Wicked yet I highly recommend it. Of course I heard it was good but everyone must experience it for themselves. It was so good it brought tears to my eyes and I was so sad it was over. It's one of those musicals you can't get out of your head days later so I bought the sound track and now I can play it in my head over and over again.

Rainy Day boredom

We have had a lot of rainy days around here. We have been trying to come up with things to do and play with. One day Katelynn wanted to play dress up so I got her box down and left the room for a little while. When I got back I found her and her brother in her dress up clothes. I guess it's all innocent now and kind of cute.

Camping at Calico

A couple weekends ago we went camping at Calico Ghost Town. It's an old Silver mining town that was thriving in the 1880's. A lot of it had burned down and some has deteriorated from weather but there are some ruins and old buildings left and an old mine shaft that you can tour. There was lot's of history there and it was really neat.

The Birthday Party

This year we decided to give the kids a combined birthday party at our house. We just had family and close friends come. Katelynn helped pick the theme out and we went with a Barnyard theme so that worked nicely for a boy and girl party.I originally wanted it outdoors but the weather did not permit that so we had an all indoor party but it turned out great. I had a few games for the kids that they all seemed to enjoy. Katelynn and Timmy loved all their presents. Now I just need to find places for them all plus Christmas gifts.

Christmas

Christmas was really fun this year. Timmy is at that age where he understands opening presents and getting new things. His favorite gift was his train table and train set. Katelynn is at the age where she understands the whole Santa Claus concept so she was real excited to put cookies out for him and was concerned about how he was going to fit down the chimney. Christmas morning she woke up and expected Santa to be at our house. She asked me if he was here. I guess she thought he would hang out and watch her open her presents. I would have to say her favorite gifts were the many frogs she received from Santa and family members.