Disneyland should be fun!

Oh the weather outside is frightful.....especially when you will be spending the next several days at Disneyland.
Wish us luck as we battle the rain!!!
Family Reunion here we come.

The Evil Villains & Damsel in Distress

Do these pictures even need an explanation. Anyone with sons and daughters will quickly understand how a furry little puppy got stolen from a pretty little damsel and strung up on a curtain rod by evil villains. The damsel was then lured into the villains' lair where were many obstacles(involving lots of tape, ribbon and string) stood in the way of getting the precious puppy. Cries of despair were to be heard from the poor little damsel, while shouts of joy and jubilation came from the pair of evil villains.
And the Queen Mommy just wanted to laugh at the whole scene.

Oh it's fun to be a boy! So little time, so many ways to annoy your sister.

Blake's First Report Card

Don't worry, this is not a post where I brag about how smart/cute/clever and or great my child is. (although I do think he is all of those things)

If you know about what I did in a previous life before children you will uderstand why the above numbers are my favorite part of Blake's report card.

Crafting with kids

Can I just admit that I really do not enjoy doing crafts with my kids. There I said it. We made some Thanksgiving Indian Feather headbands the other day but soon after completing the project the feathers ended up all over the kitchen floor. Cleaning up a billion feathers is not really fun. Most projects start out fun enough but after literally 5 minutes or less, somebody is crying and there is a huge mess to clean up. If there is a craft fairy out there who likes this type of thing please come to my house once a week to do fun things with my kids.

This is the after picture.

Birthday Cake

This year my birthday was on Thanksgiving. We celebrated a few days before at my sister's house. I have to say that I am very impressed with Mike's cake making skills. He made me the most delicious chocolate pumpkin cake complete with cream cheese frosting topped with chocolate ganache from scratch. Yes we have come a long ways since the last time my birthday fell on Thanksgiving and my dear husband didn't see the need to provide a cake since we were having so many pies. (please note that I am not a huge fan of pie) I laugh about it now but it was kind of traumatizing to me way back then as a newlywed. So if there are any newly married husbands reading this please make a mental note that your wife needs a birthday cake even if her birthday happens to fall on a major holiday. :)

We then spent several days in San Francisco at Mike's brother's home. We had a great time with family. The kids were in cousin heaven. On our way home the two older ones fell asleep within 5 minutes of getting into the car. Talk about worn out from playing.

If left to our own devices

If left to their own devices these 2 crazy women will spend 8 consecutive hours on a Friday night (and the wee hours of Saturday morning) making 3 Merry Christmas banners. Unfortunately I don't have the finished product to show you because even after all those hours the project still lacks the ribbon to hold it all together. The idea is a banner that says Merry Christmas. My friend Brittany gave me a really cute felt happy birthday banner and I love it. So why not have a merry christmas one too that I can use year after year. Of course as we all know I don't have good cutting skills. So Rebecca did all the cutting and I did all the sewing. Good team:)

A baby in a sweater

I can't think of very many things that I like more than my baby in a sweater. I love love love this little guy.

Happy Halloween

We had a scary dinner tonight. Orange mashed mush (potatoes) with spiders, bloody green eyeballs (deviled eggs) and mummy and ghost meatloaf.

Julia has worn her Halloween costume EVERY SINGLE DAY this past week, and wouldn't you know it, I somehow don't have a picture of her in it. Here is Ironman Blake with his little friend "Daphne".

Mike and I were candy bars this year.

And Cole was a cute little doggy. (with a very dirty face-geeee what a surprise)
I just had to dig this one out of the archives. It is of Blake in the same doggy costume 4 years ago. HE screamed and screamed until we took it off. Cole on the other hand was very happy to be all suited up like a doggy.

Pumpkin Patch

What happened to you, sad little pumpkin?

Saturday was the perfect day for a trip to the local pumpkin patch. IF only I had someone there with a good camera and good skills. IT was perfect picture taking weather. I love this picture of Cole.

Thank goodness our friend gave us free passes and lots of tickets for the pony rides because that place is expensive!!!! Thanks Rebecca. We all had a wonderful time.

Dancing in the Rain

Try to pretend that Julia is wearing pants/skirt/shorts. She kept taking them off when they got wet. This picture cracks me up. It speaks volumes about Julia's personality. Don't worry Jeffrey is safely tucked into her jacket.

It was been a rainy week down here in Southern California. One evening right after I left the house for a run it started raining then hailing on me. I almost turned around....but it was kind of fun running in it.

The 2 older kids were dying to play in the wet wet rain so I let them during one afternoon when it was pouring. They had fun and I had fun watching them from my dry dry doorstep. (also try to pretend in the above picture that Julia's clothes actually match....of course Jeffrey had to come out and play in the rain as well)

Jeffrey

My child is strangely attached to a small pink flamingo puppet that she named Jeffrey. Everywhere that Julia goes Jeffrey is sure to follow. We have found that sending Jeffrey to time out is a good punishment when Julia does something naughty because she hates to part with him.
She feeds him, talks to him, loves him and even makes sure to snuggle him in her sleep.

These chairs make me happy

I bought our kitchen table and chairs about 10 years ago for $90 from my roommate who was moving out. They have seen a lot in 10 years. The table is still functional but the chairs had to go. Each of the chairs had been repaired various times and were wobbly. When a loose screw ripped a hole in a freind's pants a few weeks ago we knew it was time to say goodbye. So off we went to Ikea to purchase 5 new chairs. But I didn't want boring white, black or wood. I wanted Pizzazz.

And pizzazz is what I got. Mike happens to know all the right people and borrowed a paint sprayer thing which basically lets you pour your paint into a machine that acts like a spray paint bottle. He whipped those babies out for me yesterday afternoon. Thanks Mike.

Oh they make me happy!!! I love them.

Pupusas

About 10 years ago someone introduced me to the lovely taste of pupusas. Originating from El Salvador, they are made of corn masa with cheese, beans and pork inside and topped with a cabbage concoction on top. (kind of like a quesadilla) I used to work right by a pupuseria and would go once a week when they had their $1 pupusa day. For some reason I never thought of making them. Finally last week I decided it was finally time to download some recipes and try my hand at them. Gotta love the internet.

They turned out ok but trying to keep the filling inside the masa was very difficult. Thank goodness Tiffany was a willing participant in this project when she came up to visit. She did a much better job forming those guys than I did.

November 13th has been declared national day of the pupusa by the nation of El Salvador and so maybe I'll try them again then. Wanna come over?

Cole liked them. He also liked his giant serving of black beans on the side. He loves beans.

Please explain this weather

Last Monday it was so hot that I felt like I was living in Las Vegas. That's right 105 degree weather. We went swimming on Monday morning and even walking on the pavement right by the pool was hot.

Today it is 65 degrees outside and raining.

That's a 40 degree difference. This is California. We usually don't see things like this.

Go Cougars

WOW- BYU was ranked 11th in the schools whose graduates were top rated by recruiters. (that sentence sounds really awkward) See the WSJ article here. Considering all the wonderful universities out there this is really cool if I do say so myself.

UCLA was ranked lower, still in their top 25, at 17th.

Proud to be a Cougar and a Bruin today :)

Of course none of this applies to Social Work graduates........"Recruiters" what's that? Foreign concept to people like me.

Treasure Hunting

I love going garage sale shopping. There are few things as enjoyable as finding "treasures" and great deals. I always go with a few specific items in mind and then find many more treasures once I am there. I limit it to just a few a year and only go when it is a community wide sale. That way I can roam the block looking at all the stuff for sale. Lots of junk but lots of treasures amidst the junk.

Yesterday was a gold mine.

Cute little cabinet for my kitchen $10

Camelback hydration system $5- I almost died when I saw that gem laying beside some junk. Mike has a camelback for when we go mountain biking and I have been wanting one for a while but couldn't justify the large price tag. This looked like it was only used once or twice and it still had the instructions with the price tag on it. $70. Yup I got a $70 piece of equipment for $5. What a deal. Can't wait to go mountain biking and use it. :)

Maxi Dress $4- I used to not even bother looking at clothes for me because most garage sale adult clothes are tattered, torn, stained or very out of date. But after looking through plenty of junk I have decided that there are treasures to be found.

The list goes on but I won't bore you with more. We dumped out our change jar the night before and counted and then rolled $96 worth of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. I took about $30 of it with me. The rest can wait for another yard sale. There's nothing like paying someone in rolls of dimes. kind of embarrassing I admit but hey I am buying their "junk" that's one step away from the goodwill.

The majority of my Christmas shopping for my kids is done. I love how they are too young to care whether something is new or used.

Goldilocks and the Chocolate Cake

Once upon a time there was a cute little girl named goldilocks. She was very hungry one afternoon so she sneaked up onto the counter and with 4 of her fingers clawed a nice chunk of frosting right out of that delicious chocolate sour cream cake. No matter that goldilocks had already partaken of 3 pieces of cake a mere 2 hours earlier, she needed more. Goldilocks tried to run away but alas Pappa Bear caught her (and hid the cake).

Thou shalt not covet

I can't help it. I am coveting my friend's bike. We borrowed it a few weeks back for some serious beach cruising and i have been coveting it ever since. Is there anything cooler than riding a pink bike with your baby in the back along the strand at the beach. Does it get any better than that?

Has this ever happened to you?

I was in the dentist's chair a few days back getting 2 out of my 7, yes I said 7, cavities filled. She finally finished and told me I could close my mouth. But the problem was that I COULD NOT CLOSE MY MOUTH. My jaw was locked open. Has this ever happened to anyone? I started laughing while drool was escaping my numbed up mouth because it really was quite comical that I could not close my own mouth. The dentist had to fiddle with my head/jaw to get it to close. For the rest of the day I was terrified to open my mouth very wide for fear it would be stuck that way.
Lucky me, next week I get to go back for the third and final session of cavity time with the dentist.
I am starting to feel a little old upon realizing that both my dentist and family doctor are younger than me. And then I think about my OB and I feel young again. The man has a full set of dentures.

p.s. Mike does not really believe that I could not close my mouth. (Literally not figuratively mind you) Will you please tell him that this DOES really happen.

Happy Rosh Hashanah.. a little late

Ok I know I'm not Jewish but why not celebrate the Jewish new year with a Rosh Hashanah feast. I read an article in the food section of the LA Times last week about traditional foods for Rosh Hashanah complete with recipes so of course I had to try them out. Above is a picture of our chicken thighs with oregano, honey, capers and green olives. (and a bunch of other stuff not worthy of mention) Kind of a weird combo but it was soooooo good. As a kid I detested green olives. My Dad used to eat them strait out of the jar and he was the only one in the family who could stomach them. But I have to admit that in the last year or so I have come around to liking them. I also made a leek soup with apples and potatoes. (cole really liked it but the rest of us not so much.)
I love finding new good recipes to make. Sometimes I get stuck in a rut where even new recipes taste like all the other stuff I already make because there are just certain ingredients that I'm attracted to in recipes. Are you with me??? And since green olives aren't normally something I cook with (except when making spanish tortillas) this was definitely something different for me.
Have I mentioned before how much I love food. I was at the park last week and was chatting with an old Armenian grandma who was tending a small child. What I really wanted to say was "Can I come over to your house to learn how to make Armenian food". Of course I refrained from actually saying that but I swear that is what I am fixated on anytime I meet someone from a different country.
So if you come from another motherland, please send me all your cooking secrets. :)

p.s. I recognize that the food looks gross in the picture, but really it was good.

Lego Club

If you are 5 and a BOY and like Legos you just may be invited to the Lego Boys' Club. You can play with lots of legos, have fun conversations, chase Julia around the house and yard and run around like a chicken with its head cut off.

How did Blake get so old all of the sudden?

I really love it when his little friends come play at our house. It's so amusing to watch them all interact. I hope that our house will always be a fun little hangout. I love making little treats for the kids. Well in all honesty I just love making treats period! This way I can justify doing it without feeling too guilty because half of it goes to the kids right??????

FINALLY!!!!

Mix the following ingredients:

-One bachelor's degree in accounting

-4 LONG exams on various accounting subjects

-2,000 hours of supervised labor

-One torturous ethics exam

-One dedicated man

Mix well for 5 years and out will pop

ONE CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT

Congratulations Michael Adams, CPA

The real question is how long will it take the state of CA to process the paperwork and send him his license number.

Today is a great day for the whole family. Good job Honey!!!! I'm so proud of all the hard work, the hours and hours and hours of studying, and the diligence towards meeting this goal.

One last beach day before school

We decided to go to the beach one last time before school started. The kids had a blast as always. I can't believe how tan Blake's body is and how white his hair has gotten from all of the sun exposure. Every time I see him get dressed I have to laugh at his tan lines. Blake loves nothing more than spending time with his BFF Lucas. Julia had a ball playing in the sand and dipping her feet in the water and then running away. Cole enjoys trying to get sand into every crevice of his entire body. This time I thought I would see if leaving him fully clothed helped. Nope.

The best part of the day was the GIANT dead jellyfish that washed up on shore. IT was huge and so beautiful. I spotted it just a few feet away from us when Cole and I were wading in the water. We also saw the lifeguards spring into action to rescue some kids that got caught way out in the ocean and couldn't get back.

Exciting day.