Goodbye 2014, Hello '15!

The past few weeks have been packed with stuff. Good grief.

On December 17th was Brooklyn's preschool play and it was cute and fun to watch as usual. We invited grandparents to come see her this year and to our delight they all came. I think it made Brooklyn proud.

Tuesday before Christmas Eve we celebrated with my Dad and that side of the family and went to Wonderland at Petco Park.  This place was LOADED with Christmassy stuff; jumpy, giant slides, a merry-go-round, snow playground with sleds.... I would do it again but just go earlier in the season. It was SO busy the night we went and it was cut short because Brooklyn and Tommy fell ill with the stomach bug. (On a side note, I am happy to say both her and Tommy caught it the same night, both barely vomited - only 1x - and I attribute this to our regular intake of Amazing Meal. No one else in the family caught it which is very rare; this is the one sickness that I dread most with the kids.)

Christmas Eve Derek had to work and because the kids weren't feeling 100% we stayed home and rested.

Christmas Day we spent the morning at home, the afternoon with the Roeds. We went easy on Christmas Presents this year because we decided as a family to take a trip to Disneyland for a few days instead of buying junk. (I'm trying to convince Derek to take us to Florida. The cost to go to Florida for nearly a week, stay at a Disney Hotel and visit 1 park 1 day in Florida is only ~1000 more than going to Disneyland staying for 2 nights and doing 1 park 1 day and staying at one of the Disney Hotels in Anaheim. WHATS UP WITH THAT?).

Friday after Christmas I went and spent some of the day with my mom.  She sure misses seeing our kids and my brother's family often, so I need to try and make it a point to visit her more. I talk to her most everyday but the kids are growing fast and she is missing out. Very hard to juggle her and my life demands.

We have family in from Washington (my nephew) and so the kids demand to see all of their cousins regularly (since most of them live about 100 feet away lol). So we have.  Most of these vacation days have consisted of waking up, playing at grandmas house or in the street, eating lots of food and then playing some more. We've had some great days of just staying in PJ's all day, playing Uno, Old Maid or Candyland together and have read some great books. I hope the past few months of kinder hasnt been washed away from all the relaxing at home so I've been trying to quiz Bobby here and there to make sure he doesnt forget. Above all, while I have permitted the kids to play the Wii, I drastically notice behavior changes in Bobby and have to be very strict with game time play. I cannot believe the changes it does to him. He goes from being his sweet loving self to a real jerk and a pouty kid. (Anyone out there relate?)

Last night we had some of our closest friends over to celebrate the New Year (early party I suppose). We had a total of 12 kids +1 baby running around in our house last night!! Its always great to see everyone and I know our kids really look forward to having friends over at the house.

Haha here are the photos of trying to get everyone in the photo at once, to smile and sit still!

2014 was a busy, crazy but fun year. I do not know sometimes how I managed to juggle so much at once, ultimately alone. Yes, I am happily married but like many families out there, my dude works long hours, weekends and then likes to have some time to himself leaving very little time to have an extra set of hands to help with responsibilities. Shuttling the kids to and fro - school, activities, doctor appointments; finishing up college (yay I am in the home stretch!), naps for baby (they always conflict with school times! grrr!) , and some time to work out (which is rarely done these days, booo) leaves very little time for anything else - like cleaning (gross I need to bleach this!) lol... Tommy is older so things are much easier to get done now (whew). And since the other big kids are older as well, I expect help from them regularly as well. They are pretty good at doing their chores, and other little tasks as I request, so I cant complain all too much.

Wishing everyone a safe & happy New Year!

More Christmassy Things

On Sunday we were fortunate enough to be invited to join the Bryants on a sleigh ride through Coronado.  We went down the main streets of the town and above is video from riding through Hotel Del in Coronado.  The sleigh is most definitely an attention getter and we were so fortunate to be invited to ride on it.  The sleigh plays cheery Christmas music and the Bryants have it completely decorated with cushy Christmas seats, sleigh bells to hold and rattle to the tunes playing and even Rudolph is in the front leading the sleigh.  This was one of the top memories I have with our family.  Awesome Christmas Magic for sure. :)  

Before and After - 2nd Try

Here are the unedited photos I took today. This was the 2nd try at Dos Picos today (the temptation to run with friends was gone lol) even though the sun was more overhead it seemed like the lighting was better - bet at 1pm-2pm its ideal since the sun goes behind the hills over there so early.  We arrived at Dos Picos around 11am.

Below are the edited versions of the same photos. Amazing. Thank you Photoshop.

First Attempt

First attempt at photography. I decided to take the plunge and get a nicer lens for our camera, and the lens is great but my subjects are another story ;) . If the kids would just sit still! I'm going to try again for a nice photo of the kids when we go get our tree. And maybe take some bribes in my pocket to get them to sit still too..

Oh well, the pictures are still pretty cute. 

Lots of Stuff

Here is a warning, down below are a few pictures from Brooklyn's injury. Not terribly gross but just warning...

Yearly Pumpkin Patch trip with Family & Friends

Pony Rides this year! Bobby had no interest in riding...

Tell Tommy to say cheese and he really does! Ha Ha

Preschool pictures with our BFF - such a sweet surprise!

Halloween 2014 

I'm batman, Bobby is a skylander named Jet Vac, Brooklyn was Princess Anna, and Tommy was Incredible Hulk who refused to wear the beanie that made the costume funny. 

So, Sunday is my grocery prep day for the week. NORMALLY Brooklyn comes with me to Albertsons and uses a small shopping cart, but we had made plans to go see Annie & Logan, and I only needed a few things so we decided she was going to stay home while I was gone "real quick".  One hour later I get a panic phone call from Derek telling me to come straight home. In the background I hear someone** hysterically crying. It was Brooklyn.  

I get home, and there was blood everywhere (ok not really but on the floor, on the wall, and the napkin used to stop her wound from bleeding was soaked.) All of the blood on her forehead - I was unsure how many wounds, where the cuts were etc.

We make our way to the "Urgent Care" in Ramona only to find it is closed on Sunday. THIS PLACE SUCKS. YOU'RE AN URGENT CARE!!!!! Ugh, so down the hill we had to go to her regular doctor's office for their urgent care....

Lost count of the inside stitches, 9 total on the outside. I had started to feeling sick to my stomach half way through her surgery. So gross. Stitches come out tomorrow - - - WISH ME LUCK!! LOL

Bobby seemed to have an off morning yesterday so me and the kids headed to Target in Poway, and stopped at Silverset Park in Poway. Enjoyed some fresh air and much needed giggles.