Cookie Christmas Pig Out Party

A few friends and some family came over last night.  We ate a bunch of food, decorated cookies, and spent some time together.  It was definitely one of the calmest parties we have held at our home, and I was pleasantly surprised.  It was still alot of fun :)

We had a total of 11 kids at one point that all sat around our table and frosted cookies.  We had some laughs because the kids took everything overboard - excessive frosting, sprinkles, etc., but it was fun.

Bobby was so excited that all of his friends were coming over to play. I can tell he misses having friends to see daily, so I know we'll be enrolling him in pre school again, just not sure how much longer he can go without it :)

Family Portraits Sneak Peek

Loved everything about today.  Shayna is one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life and she was able to get the kids to work with her so much.

Kids naps suffered so I made sure they ate their omega chewies before leaving the house to help boost their moods (and of course give them the vitamins they need but they do help with crankiness, that and cod liver oil but i'm out of it).  Worked.

I cannot give enough praise to her work. This link should take you to our 1 photo that's available for viewing.

Awesome.

Halloween in Review and November 2012

Folks, I had the chance to have Mr. Justin Bieber at our house on Halloween.  (Hate to break hearts all over the world that he is mine for now til forever haha)

Brooklyn was supposed to be "Milli" from Team Umizoomi but refused to wear the mask I made so I guess we can just say she was a clown? Whatever...

  Bobby is supposed to be Gio as pictured left...

and I'm supposed to be "Bot" as pictured here...

Close enough on our costumes, right? Cheap. I spent maybe $10 total on their costumes...and they still play with the mask today and the clothes we reuse. Sweet.

So, our carpet for Bobby's room is installed tomorrow - YAY! Time to get a "big boy" bed.  Bunk Beds?  Twin with trundle?  Dont know what we will get but that is the mission this weekend.

In other news, last night Brooklyn cried alot when I went to put her to bed.  Not sure why.  Sick or scared hard to tell.  So while Derek was at his game, I put her in bed with me.  Every night Bobby spends about 5 minutes in bed with us snuggling and saying good night then we transfer him to his own bed.  Well last night we all fell asleep (or I should say I FELL ASLEEP) and didnt wake up til 2 hours later.  I put both kids in Bobby's bed - - toddler bed, so it was a tight squeeze, and I think they LOVED IT!  Only problem is Bobby rolls around like a freaking worm, so toward early morning today he was really squishing her out.  I might try it again - depending on how Brooklyn is tonight when its bed time. I need to start implementing a sleep plan for Bobby because as of late he is really fighting me on naps.  If he falls asleep in the car for 20 minutes he fights me to the death about that being enough sleep. So tonight, both rascals are going to bed at the same time.  It actually may work out better for me and Derek so we can watch all of our R rated stuff and have some alone time at night before bed.  Wish us luck.  First go at it happens tonight.

In other news, our family portraits with Shayna San Nicolas are next tuesday, I can hardly wait.  Hope our outfits look nice together.  Hard to match and not look to overly matched (like how we all wore white shirts last year, I just found out Derek doesnt really like that look).

I had my first test in my 2nd class, felt like I did well.  Dont know the grade as of yet hopefully soon.

Started doing some running and lifting again to just firm up some of this flab that's over taking my butt... and tossing around the idea of buying a treadmill.  If we were to purchase it, I would cancel the membership, and we have all the free weights at home so it would eventually save us money.  I think the kids get a little bored going to the gym and I do not go as often as I'd like to go - aside from receiving a smoothie afterwards, I think they'd rather stay home.  The people there are sweet as pie, but there's only so much you can do there (space is kinda small) and the kids would rather be home anyway.

FINALLY!!!!!

Finally!! OMG I cannot even tell you how awesome it was yesterday to have no more construction actively happening (but the house is NOT done yet).  It was such an invasive project - I was overwhelmed last week with trying to stay out of the house ALL day, get the kids to nap, keep them happy and do this all without spending money. I did pretty well, thanks to family letting us use their homes like our own.  Kids were MONSTERS because of the lack of routine that happened last week and so we are all very happy to be tucked back into our own home.  The majority of the living room, and dining room (is that what I should call where the table is? I guess..) is done.  We are going to do a small remodel on our kitchen - new lights, new cabinets. Which hopefully will not kick us out of the house like this last project did.  Our guest bathroom is going to go under remodel as well. But I think we feel the #1 project next is the kitchen - afterall, the tile we put down is beautiful and the kitchen looks in dire need of some TLC when compared to what we have right now.

Bobby's room - we ordered carpet and of course I picked something popular so hopefully we can get the stuff in by Thanksgiving - cross your fingers.  Today I meet with Costco's rep for interior design for window coverings.  I really want shutters but they are outrageous in price ($500+ for one window :( ).

So nice to have a normal home again.  I am in love with the way everything turned out.

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!

We have been kicked out of the house for nearly a week now.  Saturday we had the interior painted so we decided last second to take our trip to Disneyland.  Finally.  It was good timing anyway since we needed to be gone.  Then starting on Monday, prep for our tile has been done and installation of the tile we hope starts Thursday.  Our poor kids, Bobby yesterday looked at me while driving to Grandma's house and said "Mommy I want to go home." Aw kid.  Soon enough.  I can finally start making a "girl's room" and a "boy's room" now.

Back to Disneyland.  So, basically once your kids reach 32" there's stuff for them to ride.  42" inches even better.  Brooklyn measures 33" (maybe 1 inch more with shoes), Bobby is 41".  So this time around we threw Brooklyn on nearly every ride we could stand in line for.  We bought park hopper tickets because CA Adventure has roller coasters etc., more for an older kid.  The lines there were RIDICULOUS.  Once we made our way to Disneyland, the most we ever had to wait was 20-25 minutes. CA Adventure was at least 50 minutes for most of the rides.  One tire ride there was super lame and had a 1 hour wait.  The most exciting ride (this was all in "Cars Land") was a racing type of ride (or something near that) and it was a 2 hour wait!  Yeah.  I dont think so.  So we rode these and had as much fun as I could squeeze out of Derek & the kids:

CA Adventure:
*Mater's Ride (lots of fun!)
*Luigi's Tires (sooo stupid)
*Ariel's Ride (me and Brooklyn rode this while the boys ate some food, Brooklyn LOVED this one)
*Toy Story Mania (LAME only because it was not really a ride, and you have wear 3d glasses to see anything. The kids liked it, but I was disappointed that it wasnt much of a ride)

Disneyland:
*Buzz's Ride (cool as usual)
*Autopia (Brooklyn LOVED this, this is Bobby's favorite we think)
*Pirates of the Carribean (kids did good, but when I looked at the decorations I thought it would scare them - skeletons with knives in their chest..etc....lol but its a nice long ride and kids liked the pirate song)

We stayed only til 8pm (we arrived at like 10am) and I bet we could have stayed a little bit longer but before the kids got cranky and started freaking out I wanted to head home.

Here's some photos from our trip.  We were able to see a Parade at Disneyland - REALLY CUTE and worth the wait, the kids loved it! And by accidental perfect timing, Brooklyn and I ran into Minnie Mouse and got these up close pictures with her.  Brooklyn ran over to her and gave her a big hug and kiss...I couldn't get my camera out fast enough.

And for Brooklyn's birthday we didn't do a party this year, just because of all the other stuff we've been doing. But we did get her a little cake to sing to her (her actually bday was Sunday).  Despite it being alot of work for us to take the kids to Disneyland (or really anywhere), I had so much fun with them.  Brooklyn is animated, and she has no problem letting us know when she is happy (or mad lol).  She adored seeing the characters, giggled on the rides.  Some rides (according to Derek) Bobby didnt like, and Bobby liked watching some of the rides more than even going on them.  All in all, I would go again but only go to Disneyland until the kids desire the fast rides.

Here's a video of the opening to the Parade, it was really cute, and not even that long - maybe 15-20 minutes:

Opening to Mickey's Soundsational Parade

Favorite time of the year

October - December are my favorite times of the year.

On Friday we went to Raven Hill Orchard up in Julian.

One of the prettiest places I've seen in San Diego.  Rows and rows of delicious apples....

The kids had so much fun running around and just picking straight off the tree whatever they wanted to eat.  One small bag was $10 to fill up but each bag probably held 30 small/medium apples.

I cant wait to go back there....

:)

Not much to report.  Kids are growing and learning new things everyday.  Today Brooklyn was dying to get her little wanna be crocs off and I had my hands full. I asked Bobby to help her - he took off her shoes, and she said "Thank you Bobby." HA Dang she talks alot.  She is constantly answering her phone and saying "Hello Mommy." Really really cute!

Even though I really want to send the kids to school - just out of sheer boredom I feel like they get during the week, we just cant do it yet.  Our house is a big mess.  Some of you have seen it.  We keep trying to get our painter over but he's been busy.  Our flooring is still out for another 3-4 weeks.  But today we didnt do much of anything. We ran to 2 stores (both kids were so behaved - it was great), but sometimes I feel like all they want is me to sit with them and play legos, trains, heck anything.  I stress all the time that they are not getting what they need, but they are....all they want is mommy and daddy to play trucks.  Some days are easier than others (not gonna lie here, there are days I want to lock myself in the shower for 3 hours) but when I just focus in on what they want - its usually just me sitting there with a book or puzzle helping them along.  I cant believe Bobby is 3 &1/2 and Brooklyn nearly 2.  These precious years have gone so fast.

Yesterday I woke up with a pinched nerve (or something) and have had muscle spasms in my upper neck/shoulder area. Went to the doctor yesterday and received pain meds and muscle relaxers.   So painful, I'm still in a ton of pain but taking the meds makes me so sleepy (have to wait til naptime for relief).  Even though it helped me sleep last night I'm still in pain, so something else is wrong - my pillow? our bed? I'm not sure.  I think we may need to consider getting a new mattress.  This is the 2nd time its happened in less than 2 years and its just not making sense to me.

A friend of mine has been using coconut oil for LOTS of stuff. She puts it in her coffee with a little bit of butter and grinds it up. Sounds nuts but it actually tastes pretty good. (I just dont like the idea of butter but IDK). Anyway, coconut is a great oil for lots of things - one of them - making your own deodorant.  I saw her homemade thing, and thought I had to try it - we hear so many negative things about today's deodorant - whether its the clear stuff or the white stuff - plus, if the kids were to 'accidentally ingest' this stuff, it would be safe to eat.  Here's the website I went to for the recipe - they even have a thing about making your own baby wipes (I'm tempted to try once this brand new box I just bought dwindles down).

In November we are doing family portraits just us 4 and the dogs.  We are not sure how much time we have left with our oldest dog, and she has been in our lives for nearly as long as Derek and I have been together so I think it would be neat to have her in these pictures.

Have a great rest of the week...