It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Oh Children and Christmas. What a delightful combination. So much joy and excitement in our home. Thank you children for the wonderful gift that you are.

Aliens

If we were aliens, this is what we would look like.

And finally, this is fat boy Blake.

When we were doing this, i laughed so hard that i nearly peed my pants.

Retro Night

My sister and I thought it would be fun to have a "retro food night" with lots of treasures from the past. We started off with velveeta cheese and crackers, little smokies, SPAM(incredibly we ate the whole can) and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon. We then moved on to dinner consisting of,
XLNT brand tamales(my mom used to feed these to us all the time),

Carrot salad(made with mayo and raisins-another creation made often growing up which I never really cared for),

Orange jello with pineapple and mandarin oranges (I only remember eating jello once a year on Thanksgiving growing up and I LOVE this, eventhough I am not a huge jello fan),

Ambrosia salad (my bro in law ate this growing up)

Tuna casserole and green bean casserole(Mike's childhood)

It was fun to walk down memory lane.
What did you eat growing up?
And let me just state for the record that food fascinates me. I have always been fascinated with what people eat and why. I love food. I love to eat it, to make it and to read all types of cookbooks.

Why did I think this might be fun????

I love how Julia refused to look at the camera in this picture. All part of the great Disneyland adventure. This year you can go to Disneyland free on your birthday. I decided that it would be fun to take advantage of this offer and bring Julia with me for a fun mommy daughter day. Since Julia is not quite 3 she was also free. Who can resist a day at Disneyland for 2 people for free. I left Cole and Blake with a friend and ventured off to Disneyland. I was looking forward to a fun exciting day with my little girl. We went to Disneyland as a family several months ago on Mike's birthday and Julia did great. What I was hoping would be a fun day turned out to be a day filled with temper tantrums (the down on the ground, kicking and screaming kind), ride issues (had a fit when she couldn't find a flower horse to sit on at the carousel), and sleeping in mommy's arms during a very long line. Poor JuJu and poor Mommy. It was almost kind of comical. I kept on wondering why I had chosen this for my birthday fun. I'm sure she was just tired and out of sorts and of course she is 2 after all. :) That being said, I sure am grateful that I have a little girl to love. I know she won't be 2 forever. I am looking forward to a lifetime of fun girl outings.

Thanks Sarah for watching my kids all day long and making me that adorable apron I am wearing in this picture.

After our very LONG day at Disneyland we all headed down to my Mom's house for some Thanksgiving fun. We had a great time with my family. Blake even went ice skating for the first time and was such a good sport every time he fell down.

My kids were the littlest cousins there and were greatly spoiled by all their big cousins. Thanks cousins!! Julia especially loved "hanging out" with her teenage girl cousins.

And yes I got a SERGER for my birthday. :))) Thanks honey!

Mike and Chad really felt sorry for the scarecrow.

Where were you at 2am this morning?

Now I can say that I have been to a midnight premiere. My sister and 2 teenage daughters roped me into going to see "New Moon" with them last night on opening night. Fun times were had by all. I have to say that it was really hilarious watching that movie in a theater packed with swooning fans.
You gotta admit that my sister is one cool mom:)

This angers me

Today I opened up my LA Times and read the following headline, "UC ready to raise student fees by 32%" Yes that is correct, 32%, not 3% or even 13%, but 32%. That is the most asinine thing I have ever read. Who does that? Great thinking California. Let's make college completely unaffordable to most people and see where that gets us. Is it really disputable that higher education brings with it better jobs and MORE TAX REVENUE FOR THE STATE. One of the things that makes our country so great is the availability of education to all. Education has always been the key to upward mobility in our society. Public institutions such as the UC system represent some of the finest universities in the country(Of course you can read my bias on that one since I did go to UCLA). Congratulations California, we are now turning into an elitist group where only the very richest can afford the luxury of an education. Too bad for everyone else who gets to look forward to low paying jobs because education is not financially possible.

Let's review. In 1999 when I started graduate school at UCLA I paid roughly $4,500 A YEAR for my tuition. So my total tuition for a 2 year program was $9,000. Pretty affordable if you ask me. Now they want to make it so that if I was to go back to that same institution as an undergraduate I would be paying $10,000 a year. Are you kidding me.

Wow, I feel lucky that I got such a good quality cheap education. Too bad for my kids or the rest of you who are under the age of 20.

Don't cut education California, because in the end it's a shot in the foot. (and the head too)

"My pretty things"

This morning, I announced to our children that we would be taking our Christmas photos this afternoon. Blake moaned and begged to not take the pictures. Meanwhile, Julia went on and on about all of her"pretty things" that she wanted to take with her ie: various bows(which she likes to hold but refuses to wear in her hair), bracelets, rings, purse etc etc. It'a hilarious how this girl likes "pretty things". She talks nonstop about how "bootiful" my earrings are or how she loves her dresses etc etc. She rarely chooses to wear pants when she gets dresses in the morning. She loves to get on the countertop in the bathroom to look in my jewelry box. Wow, girls are definitely different than boys.
I came home from shopping this afternoon with a cute new brown sweater for her. It had 3 hearts on it and I held it up to show her her new "pretty" sweater. She refused to wear it and told me it was not pretty. Why? hmmm probably because either it was a)not pink or purple or b)had no glitter on it.
So, here she is at the photo shoot, stealing the photographer's purse. Then she wanted to open it and examine everything inside.
I love my little "pretty thing" and am so amused by her:)

Sometimes I wonder

Sometimes I wonder if I can take another minute of yelling, crying, whining, runny noses and complaints. Sometimes I wonder how many times I will clean up spilled milk or cereal or any number of messy food items per day. Sometimes I wonder why I bother making my children clean up their messes at night when it will get messy again in 12 hours. Sometimes the thought of changing yet another poopy diaper makes me want to cry. Sometimes I wonder why children like to make siblings scream and cry. Sometimes I feel like I am losing my marbles. It will seriously be a miracle if I survive my childrens' childhood with all my marbles. Sometimes when I lay down at night exhausted by the full day behind me I wonder if I can possibly do it all again in a few hours.
And then I think of my mother and smile. Somehow she survived all 7 of us and still has all her marbles. I can honestly count on one hand the times I saw my mom angry or at a loss of patience with us. I know I am not as patient as Mom but if she could survive 7 certainly I can survive 3 right?????? So, I want to know your secret for not losing your marbles. Anyone have any good coping mechanisms when the circus animals(that you love dearly) get the best of you?

Mikeylocks

The quality of this picture is really bad, but I just had to post it. Sunday afternoon, Mike went to put Blake down for a "quiet time" and apparently "mikeylocks" fell asleep too-in Julia's toddler bed. So funny.

Trick or Treat

Tinkerbell Peter Pan

...and a Duck (the costume all of our babies wear)

Tinkerbell with her cousin Alice in Wonderland

All 3 kiddos

How much candy did your children consume tonight????? (and how much of your children's candy did you steal, or tax as Mike says?)

Paper or Plastic?

Last weekend we went to our friends' annual Halloween party and we dressed up as
grocery sacks. I was plastic and filled with all things healthy, including cabbage on top of my head, and Mike was a paper bag filled with "man food".

"My what big eyes you have"

This baby has HUGE blue eyes. I took the following pictures of him the other day and just had to post them. I love this little ray of sunshine. This next week he will turn 6 months old. I already feel like he isn't a little baby anymore, and the kid cannot even crawl.
I love this happy, snuggly, drooly baby. I love how he gets carted around to all kinds of strange places and is always happy happy happy. What is it about babies? Everytime I hold him I am so consumed with love. I feel so lucky to be his mommy.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I have a friend from when I lived in Michigan who is probably the most creative person EVER. I am constantly intrigued by the things she sews and I'm so impressed by how she transforms unwanted adult clothing into clothes for her children. Although I love to sew, I do not really consider myself a creative person and mainly just stick to store bought patterns and fabric. But, Al inspired me to be a little more creative. A few weeks ago Mike was getting rid of some holy khaki trousers. They almost got thrown out when suddenly I thought, I'm going to try to refashion those useless holy pants into something wearable for Julia. I figured that I had nothing to loose so I began to cut away.

I must say, it was really fun and I was pleased with the result. Goodbye, yucky pants for Mike and hello knickers for Julia complete with embroidered back pockets and flowers on the front. I have NEVER embroidered anything (outside of smocking) and it looks pretty terrible, but it was fun and made them look more feminine.

Doing this made me realize just how much goes to waste because we think of things as old and not needed. I'm excited for further refashionings.

Thanks Al, for your inspiration!!!!!

Mary Poppins Part 2

12 hours after returning home from my brother's home, Mike, the kids and I were off to my sister's for 4 days of Mary Poppins part 2.

Their kids are at great ages and we all had a great time. Andi was the master Halloween project maker and under her direction we made some pretty fun and creepy things. Most of the ideas are from the Family Fun website if you are interested in doing your own stuff.
Julia was the "helpful assistant" who often ate important ingredients right off the projects.
Homemade GAK- so gross but so cool. Made from glue, borax, water and food coloring.

Witch brooms Haunted graveyard

Scary witches

Spooky spiders (my personal favorite)

Edible eyeballs

Homemade tortillas in bat and ghost shapes. (I have never ever even considered making homemade tortillas- GO Andi)

Pizza Mummies

Monster Mouths

Cole loved all the attention from Jeffrey who was always more than willing to hold him. Cole was also happy to be upgraded to a walk in closet from his previous quarters of a laundry room. Julia's favorite ride: being pushed in the mop bucket by Jeffrey.

I am Mary Poppins

Welcome to the world little guys!!! This past week Cole and I went up to Northern California to meet my new little adorable twins and help their parents (my brother and his wife ) take care of them.

Cole enjoyed the acoustics of sleeping in the laundry room.

Big sister to the twins and I had fun making cookies.

Just a glimpse of the bottles that were washed and used, washed and used, washed and used etc etc. Wow, twins go through a lot of bottles each day.

My brother and I took the "triplets" on a sunday walk, along with big sister.

Cole was endlessly entertained.

Here I am with Cole, twins and big sister.

And here they are asleep in their carseats.

Cole wanted to be a twin too!! Too bad he's double the size of his cousin, but hey, they are wearing matching outfits. Wow, twins are a lot of work. :)