Ok...so I'm obviously way behind in my blog updates! Seriously-I have no clue where my working-mom friends find the time to do all they do. I stay home & still cannot get everything done I want to.
Christmas was a little less hectic this year-but still need to fine-tune it some. I think it was made worse by the fact that ALL 4 of us came down with nasty colds shortly after Leah's birthday and wiped us out.
We saw family Monday evening, Tuesday evening, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day & Saturday!
On Christmas eve, we went to our church service and kept both kids with us. That was an experience and I think next year-they will attend the kids program! Then home to gather our food and head to Scott's Aunt & Uncle's house for our traditional Mexican food Christmas eve dinner. His cousin Katie & her friend Pete wore Leah out after dinner so that both kids fell asleep on the short drive home. (Scott's uncle lives on our street-but our driveway is maybe 3/4 mile from his house!)
After getting the kids tucked in bed, leaving a gingerbread man & some milk out for Santa, Scott & I finally fell in bed ourselves. Nolan was the first to wake up around 6am-which of course woke up Mom & Dad. Sister was still asleep-but we could see that Santa had arrived sometime during the night bearing gifts for the kids.
We spent a leisurely Christmas morning playing with the toys from Santa, checking out the goods Santa had left in all of our stockings, and Leah & Nolan opening their 3 gifts from Mom & Dad. Around 1pm we went to Scott's parent's house for an early Christmas dinner and then some more gift opening.
We then had 1 day to rest and then it was off to my Mom's for another Christmas dinner and gift exchange!
My only dilemma this year (other than being sick & having to be gone every night the week of Christmas), was Leah and her wig. You may have seen Leah wearing a blond wig at her co-birthday party with her friend Reagan. Reagan had this blond wig that Leah absolutely adored. And decided she wanted to ask Santa for "some pretend hair with curls". Unfortunatley-I had heard from an elf that Santa had already decided on what to give Leah...and it was NOT "pretend hair". My dilemma was that my poor daughter would wake up Christmas morning in hopes of getting her "pretend hair with curls" from Santa and being completely devastated that Santa did NOT bring her "pretend hair with curls" and therefore completely ruin Christmas and all future gift giving this holiday!
Luckily...Mema knew that Leah wanted "pretend hair" and proceeded to ask Reagan's mommy where she got it and bought Leah her wig. However...as we were not exchanging gifts w/Mema & Grandpa until after dinner on Christmas...I still had the dilemma of Leah being thoroughly devastated by Santa. So on Tuesday night-when Leah's uncle Mike & aunt Erica were in town and we exchanged gifts with them, Mema had asked (and was granted permission from mom) to give Leah 1 gift early. The wig...thereby eliminating all future disappointment in opening gifts that were not the "pretend hair". Mema saved the day!
After adding photos to our slideshow for Christmas-I think we probably have more video of Christmas than photos-at least that is what I'm hoping when I finally get around to converting the video to DVD!
Happy New Year all!
Leah's 4th Birthday
Well my little girl is 4 now! She had 2 parties this weekend-a "Royal ball" with some friends
and an ice-skating party with family.
Of course Me-ma did a fantastic job with both "castle cakes".
Leah loved ice skating with Daddy, her uncle Russ & Aunt Erica. Daddy skated with either a broken or very sprained toe that he smashed early Sunday morning while helping me clean house for the party. I wanted to share photos from her birthday -that is the main reason for the post.
Next edition: Christmas
Kaua'i vacation
November 30, 2008
I can’t believe it has been a whole month since I updated this blog! The most exciting thing since then is our family trip to Kauai. So the short story is that in Aug-2007 I booked 2 condos at a resort for Scott, myself & the kids plus my sister’s family, my brother’s family & my mom & step-dad and potentially my little brother to join us for a Thanksgiving in Kauai.
Well….my sister ended up having a baby in Sept. and decided not to travel with her 2 ½ year old & 2 month old, my folks decided they could not afford to go, my brother & his wife waited too long to get cheap airfare & my youngest brother joined the Marines & wouldn’t be able to go!
So we had this extra condo that we practically tried to give away for the last few months to friends, family, friends of family, & friends of friends…with no luck!
For the record, Scott & I would NOT have planned this trip with our kids so young if we knew we would only go as our family of 4! How relaxing can paradise be if you have a 4 year old & 1 year old without gramma or a nanny to give you a break to snorkel or sleep in?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The flight over was not too terrible except Nolan was a typical 14 month old boy who was difficult to occupy…Leah was a dream & watched her movie (thank you inventor of the portable DVD player) and slept. Nolan slept for 1 ½ hours of the 5 ½ hours of the flight….the rest of the time my awesome husband tried to keep him occupied with a few breaks from me.
Thanks goodness the next day, I felt 110% better! We moved from our 1 bedroom condo into our 2 bedroom condo with a view of the ocean. The kids actually were really good, but Nolan continued to wake up at about 5:30 give or take 30 minutes each morning! (Here is where we wish grandma had come to give us a break a few mornings-would have been nice to wake up after 6:30 & hang out in the bed with my husband for a bit, sipping coffee & enjoying our gorgeous view...for the record, that did NOT happen this trip!)
The first 2 ½ days we were there-it rained quite a bit-even the locals told us it was more rain than usual) So we spent these days running to town, checking out our resort etc. We did run to the beach by our resort on Monday between storms & spent everyday but one at some beach on the island for a few hours.
I can’t believe it has been a whole month since I updated this blog! The most exciting thing since then is our family trip to Kauai. So the short story is that in Aug-2007 I booked 2 condos at a resort for Scott, myself & the kids plus my sister’s family, my brother’s family & my mom & step-dad and potentially my little brother to join us for a Thanksgiving in Kauai.
Well….my sister ended up having a baby in Sept. and decided not to travel with her 2 ½ year old & 2 month old, my folks decided they could not afford to go, my brother & his wife waited too long to get cheap airfare & my youngest brother joined the Marines & wouldn’t be able to go!
So we had this extra condo that we practically tried to give away for the last few months to friends, family, friends of family, & friends of friends…with no luck!
For the record, Scott & I would NOT have planned this trip with our kids so young if we knew we would only go as our family of 4! How relaxing can paradise be if you have a 4 year old & 1 year old without gramma or a nanny to give you a break to snorkel or sleep in?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The flight over was not too terrible except Nolan was a typical 14 month old boy who was difficult to occupy…Leah was a dream & watched her movie (thank you inventor of the portable DVD player) and slept. Nolan slept for 1 ½ hours of the 5 ½ hours of the flight….the rest of the time my awesome husband tried to keep him occupied with a few breaks from me.
Thanks goodness the next day, I felt 110% better! We moved from our 1 bedroom condo into our 2 bedroom condo with a view of the ocean. The kids actually were really good, but Nolan continued to wake up at about 5:30 give or take 30 minutes each morning! (Here is where we wish grandma had come to give us a break a few mornings-would have been nice to wake up after 6:30 & hang out in the bed with my husband for a bit, sipping coffee & enjoying our gorgeous view...for the record, that did NOT happen this trip!)
The first 2 ½ days we were there-it rained quite a bit-even the locals told us it was more rain than usual) So we spent these days running to town, checking out our resort etc. We did run to the beach by our resort on Monday between storms & spent everyday but one at some beach on the island for a few hours.
We were usually back to our condo by 2pm or so for an afternoon nap for Nolan & quiet time for Leah who thought it was the coolest thing to have a TV in her room. Then we would head to the resort pool or play in the grass outside our room or poolside while Scott would BBQ our dinner. Scott or I would go snorkeling by ourselves while one of us hung out on the beach with the kids (again…we needed at least a 3rd adult!) Although a couple of times while I snorkeled-Scott came out with the kids & Nolan had a great float tube & Leah had her life vest on & he at least was able to “hang out” near me while I snorkeled.
On Wednesday we went to a great family beach that had 2 lagoons-one for small children – no deeper than 2 ½ feet & the second lagoon was probably 4 ½ feet at it’s deepest & each lagoon had a ton of fish you could swim around & was a great place for easy snorkeling
. 
We BBQ'd a fish (Mongchong) for Thanksgiving & ate well (mostly) the entire trip. The best part of the vacation was not having a schedule (which was the one benefit of NOT going with other people). We could get going as fast or slow in the morning as we wanted…hang out at the beach as long as we needed or wanted, eat dinner whenever. We usually eat dinner at home as a family & we did do this a few nights there-but there were a couple of nights we fed the kids early & then enjoyed a later dinner with Nolan usually asleep & Leah watching a movie.
Although I cannot call it a “relaxing” trip with young kids – it was a very leisure trip not to have any schedules. And we will return….when the kids are teens!
Now it’s back to the grind as I gear up for Leah’s 4th birthday party and then on to Christmas.
We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
On Wednesday we went to a great family beach that had 2 lagoons-one for small children – no deeper than 2 ½ feet & the second lagoon was probably 4 ½ feet at it’s deepest & each lagoon had a ton of fish you could swim around & was a great place for easy snorkeling
. 
We BBQ'd a fish (Mongchong) for Thanksgiving & ate well (mostly) the entire trip. The best part of the vacation was not having a schedule (which was the one benefit of NOT going with other people). We could get going as fast or slow in the morning as we wanted…hang out at the beach as long as we needed or wanted, eat dinner whenever. We usually eat dinner at home as a family & we did do this a few nights there-but there were a couple of nights we fed the kids early & then enjoyed a later dinner with Nolan usually asleep & Leah watching a movie.
Although I cannot call it a “relaxing” trip with young kids – it was a very leisure trip not to have any schedules. And we will return….when the kids are teens!
Now it’s back to the grind as I gear up for Leah’s 4th birthday party and then on to Christmas.
We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
November 1, 2008
Wow! We had a very busy day on Oct. 31st. We were offered some free Disney on Ice tickets-and I don't mean ordinary tickets-but suite tickets with free parking too. So Scott took the day off and we headed to Arco Arena in the morning-Scott, his mom, Leah, Nolan & I. The show was great-the suite was terrific!
Especially for a
n active 13 month old. In fact-Nolan actually watched some of the show and was very excited during the first 20 minutes or so-clapping and squeeling! Wish I'd had a video camera. Everyone had a great time and Dad & Mema were very excited to have finally been able to see a show on ice!
But-we'd already driven an hour to Guy's house-Mema Chris had come with us for this "special" evening...we were NOT going home. Even when Jessica (my youngest brother's girlfriend arrived) who Leah adores 
like nobody else-Leah STILL did NOT want to go in the house. Keep in mind-we were going to take her through the garage-not the haunted porch & not past the creepy guy peeking out from the tombstone.
Especially for a
n active 13 month old. In fact-Nolan actually watched some of the show and was very excited during the first 20 minutes or so-clapping and squeeling! Wish I'd had a video camera. Everyone had a great time and Dad & Mema were very excited to have finally been able to see a show on ice!After the show-we stopped for lunch and managed not to get home until close to 3pm. Which meant we had 1 hour to get all of our stuff together to head down to Elk Grove & Uncle Guy, Aunt Lyndi & Forrest's house to go trick-or-treating! We arrived in Elk Grove about 5:15 & when we pulled up to Uncle Guy's cemetery & haunted porch-Leah refused to get out of the car. By this-I mean the poor kid was paralyzed with fear, wanted to go home, did not want to go trick-or-treating......etc.
Here's a photo of what freaked Leah out:
But-we'd already driven an hour to Guy's house-Mema Chris had come with us for this "special" evening...we were NOT going home. Even when Jessica (my youngest brother's girlfriend arrived) who Leah adores 
like nobody else-Leah STILL did NOT want to go in the house. Keep in mind-we were going to take her through the garage-not the haunted porch & not past the creepy guy peeking out from the tombstone. 
Somehow-we finally
got her in the house-we had dinner-she helped aunt Lyndi give out candy (via the garage to the little kids who did not go through the haunted porch), and finally got her dressed in her witch costume to go trick-or-treating. We maybe hit 10 houses & she was ready to go back and help Aunt Lyndi pass out candy.
got her in the house-we had dinner-she helped aunt Lyndi give out candy (via the garage to the little kids who did not go through the haunted porch), and finally got her dressed in her witch costume to go trick-or-treating. We maybe hit 10 houses & she was ready to go back and help Aunt Lyndi pass out candy. Uncle Robert arrived and got dressed in his "wounded soldier" costume and Leah did NOT like his fake blood. Then of course he put on a mask to get in on the "haunted porch" action- and completely freaked Leah out AGAIN! He took off the mask & sat with her in the house for 15 minutes+
consoling her and one point I heard her say: "I don't like Halloween"....
consoling her and one point I heard her say: "I don't like Halloween"....Seriously if I'd known I would traumatize my child by bringing her to Uncle Guy's "haunted cemetery", we would have opted for our church's harvest festival instead.
Alas-Halloween is over for 2008, now we just have elections, our Kauaii trip for Thanksgiving and then our events for December will begin. Stay tuned.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)