Double Blessings

a funny timeout

2012-01-29T19:14:00.000-08:00

The girls had a very busy weekend. On Friday night they stayed at their Auntie Becky's house with us and played with their cousins Kennedy, Riley and Tanner. Then on Saturday night they had the great pleasure of spending the night at their Auntie Kate's house for Zadie's birthday party (thanks Kate and Tori)!!!! Lots of fun cousin time this weekend and they are flat-out exhausted. Sophie was very crabby because she was so tired. After her bath, I was getting into my pajamas and she hit Isabelle twice in the back pretty hard. Then she said, "I like to hit people." I told her she needed to go to timeout for hitting and for making that comment. I was still in my underwear beause I hadn't finished getting my pajama pants on, so I walked her to her room half-dressed. I put her on her bed and as I was closing her bedroom door, she said, "I like your panties, Mom!!!" HA! Normally, I am very annoyed when I am putting the kids in timeout because they have done something wrong, but that made me laugh out loud.

Another funny thing that happened tonight is that Isabelle was playing around with her pillow and making a pretend bed, etc. I saw her struggling with her pillow for a while, and finally she hopped over to the couch with her legs inside the pillowcase. She said, "Remember at the Easter egg hunt last year, kids were hopping around in pillowcases like this? That's what I'm trying to do." I had to laugh because she had failed to remove the pillow from the pillowcase. No wonder she was having such a hard time! :)

These two are pretty cute!

wordless wednesday {kids sure wear you out!}

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

differing sleep needs

2012-01-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

I took this pictures on a 5 hour road trip home from Parker, Arizona where we visited my friend Jeanne's family. Since Sophie was born, she is easily lulled to sleep by the movement of a swing or a ride in the car. She will freely admit that she is tired and that she wants to take a nap. I tell her to go ahead and rest her head, and she'll lean her head against the car seat and quickly fall asleep.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the car, there's Isabelle - rambunctious, full of energy and not tired in the least. Here she is happily playing with my iPod while sissy sleeps. She's pretty good about staying quiet while her sister catches some shut-eye, and she sometimes falls asleep in the car too, but long after Sophie has dozed off and she tries to avoid sleep if at all possible. She doesn't want to miss anything! :)

quality time with mama niece

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

We are so lucky that we all get to spend so much more time with my parents these days, and the girls are soaking it up! My mom goes out of her way to find fun arts and craft projects to do with the kids, read them stories and find unique ways to make them feel special, loved and to have FUN! What a wonderful grandmother. These girls are so lucky to have the best grandparents in the world on both sides of the family!

miscellany

2012-01-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

There were many awesome things about living with my parents in May/June of 2011, but one of them was the built-in babysitter aspect. Eric and I were able to go on some date nights together and leave the kiddos at home with the grandparents.

One night we went to a really nice restaurant in Ocean Beach and then we went down to the pier to watch the sunset. I was busy taking cell phone pictures of the sun going down while Eric was busy watching all the hoodlums walking around and making sure no one was going to start any monkey business with us.

Our little family as we headed out to a bbq with some of Eric's co-workers in La Jolla.

Headed out on a date.

Our family.

the letter t

2012-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, Isabelle was sitting on one of these black chairs and put her feet on the bottom and caused this wood piece in the shape of a "T" to snap off. The girls were immediately fascinated with it even though I kept telling them it was not a toy and we needed it to put the chair back together. Well, it is now one of their favorite toys. They play with their "Letter T" every day. One day I walked into the family room and Sophie was sobbing. When I asked her what was wrong, she bawled, "Izzy hit me with the letter T!!" Ha! Last night, they wanted to put on a little performance for me. The performance was centered on the Letter T. It was all about how "teddy bear starts with T, T, T!" That's why Izzy is holding a big teddy bear. This whole letter T thing cracks me up. I love their imagination, their love of pretending, and their joy in learning the alphabet. :)

san diego zoo

2012-01-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

When Eric works on the weekend, I'm always trying to think of something to do with the girls where we can get out of the house, but it's not too much work for me to do alone. On one such weekend, I took the girls to the San Diego Zoo and we mostly rode the sky tram back and forth because that's what they wanted to do. :)

This picture cracks me up. I wanted a picture of them in front of the flamingos. Sophie was game, but Isabelle was upset because the flamingos smelled so bad, so that's why she has this sourpuss look on her face. HA!

ruby dog

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

When the girls and I moved in with my parents in May to stay with them while Eric finished up his fire academy and we looked for a home to live in, the girls were absolutely terrified of all dogs. They were INTERESTED in dogs and other animals, but only from afar. They did not want any birds, cats, dogs or other animals coming anywhere near them. This became quite an inconvenience since my parents have a dog in their house! Ruby is the sweetest dog alive. She is extremely well trained and has such a sweet, gentle soul. Whenever she would get off of her dog bed to walk around the house, the girls would run away from her, terrified and shaking. It was so crazy! We tried to talk them out of it, but it was just an irrational fear. After we had been living there for a couple of weeks, I had to go away for a couple of nights for work, and when I came back, the girls were miraculously cured of their phobia! I have no idea what happened and why they suddenly fell in love with Ruby, but it was awesome. Well, it was awesome for me, but I think it became a nuisance for poor Ruby because they wanted to cuddle up to her and boss her around all the time.

Ruby looking like "when are these kids gonna leave me alone?!"

Izzy loving on Ruby.

first trip to legoland

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

On one of our first weekends in San Diego, our friends Erin and Dan, invited us to go to Legoland with them. We didn't realize at the time that we would end up living a stone's throw from Legoland. :) The girls had a blast. It was a beautiful San Diego day and since we hadn't been able to spend much time with Eric because he was wrapped up in his academy, it was a great family day together.

Daddy and Sophie on a ride together.

Me and my sweet Izzy girl.

Erin and Doug with their boys, Connor and Ronan.

Eric riding the fire helicopter with Izzy.

This picture is my favorite. Eric looks so goofy! :)

eric's fire academy graduation - may 2011

2012-01-18T06:00:00.001-08:00

I can't believe I never posted about Eric's graduation from the fire academy! It was a HUGE deal! He spent six weeks in April/May 2011 spending 6 days a week training like crazy for his new job as a fireman/paramedic. I'm not sure how much weight he lost, but it was a lot! He had to work really hard to get through the academy in one piece - it was mentally and physically grueling, and we were all proud to show up on his graduation day and support him! I was so disappointed that I didn't have my regular camera on this day, but at least I got a few cell phone pictures.

This is his graduating class getting ready to receive their probationary badges.

This is me pinning Eric's badge on him.

My new fireman - I'm pretty proud!

Our family. :)

No surprise, Sophie didn't want to participate in the photo-taking, but Izzy and I wanted a shot in front of the fire truck.

smartphones and facebook

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

There's no doubt that having a smartphone and posting photos and comments on Facebook has resulted in a drastic decline in my blog postings. To try to catch up my blog a little, I'm going to post some of the photos that I have on my phone. I got my smartphone the day that we went moved to San Diego back in May, so I have a bunch of pictures covering our new SoCal life! :)

When we first moved to San Diego in May, Eric was still in his fire academy and he was renting an apartment in Oceanside. This is a picture I took when we went to visit him at his "bachelor pad". The girls were so excited to see their daddy after being away from him for a month and they loved that his apartment was walking distance to the beach.

ski day!

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

Eric and I just took the girls on a quick overnight trip to Big Bear to show them snow for the first time and take them skiing for the first time. I was a little nervous about the trip for a couple of reasons. First of all, I hadn't skied in 18 years and I was positive that I was going to be falling on my butt all day long and having no fun. I was also nervous that the girls were going to hate their ski class because this isn't typically their cup of tea (i.e. being without their parents and trying something new). However, we were successful on both counts! I was shocked at how easily the skiing came back to me! I felt like I skied better yesterday than I had ever skied before in my life and I had so much fun! I was on a natural high all day! Woot! Now I am super excited about our upcoming ski trip to Colorado. I was mostly doing that for Eric because skiing is one of his favorite things in the world, but now I am looking forward to it too.

The girls took a half day ski class and they didn't cry or cling to us at all when we dropped them off. The teachers said they did a GREAT job and the best news of all is that they had fun! Isabelle didn't want to leave - she wanted to keep skiing. I was SO PROUD and SO HAPPY! Now we will be able to take them to ski school in Colorado and they will look forward to it.

We stayed one night in a hotel in Big Bear, so we were all sleeping in the same room. When we went to bed, Eric and I got the giggles listening to the girls say good night to each other. This is how their conversation went.

I: Sophie, I love you.
S: I love you too. But don't wake me up tonight.
I: Why?
S: Because I'm super tired.
I: Oh.
S: Izzy. (Pause.) Izzy. (Pause.) IZZY!!!!
I: What?
S: It's okay though if you make little noises though or....or....
I: Or what?!?!?
S: I made a mistake. I was going to say something else, but then I didn't have anything else left to say.
I: Oh.
S: I love you. Good night.
I: Good night.

How cute are they?!??! I love those little turkeys!

Isabelle and Eric at dinner in Big Bear.

Sophie at the end of a long day of driving to Big Bear, checking out the snow, etc. She said, "Mommy, I wanna go home. Big Bear is too cold for me." :)

The girls after their ski class. They had a blast!

Izzy walking back to the car with her skis. She was so proud of herself, and so was I!

christmas morning

2012-01-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

Although we were far from home and out in the middle of nowhere on Christmas morning, my mom went out of her way to make it an extra special day for the kids (and grownups!). On Christmas Eve, the kids all got to open one present, which was matching jammies. There was a little drama from Sophie and Zadie who didn't get jammies with reindeer on the feet, but don't they all look so darn cute here in their matching polka dots? Santa found us at the ranch and delivered stockings stuffed with all kinds of interesting and fun toys. The kids had great fun. The most popular gift was cameras for the little girls, which they are showcasing below. We also had a wonderful Christmas meal together with the Swints and Wilsons - we all contributing a dish and it was simply divine! Yum yum!

christmas at the ranch

2012-01-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

My sister did such a great job posting about our trip to the ranch on her blog, that I've been dragging my feet to do my own post. We went to the ranch last year also, but this visit was extra special this year because we were joined by Kate's family and the cousins all got a chance to experience the rustic fun all together. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit uncooperative and we were surrounded by a big muddy mess, but we made the best of it in our high rubber boots. The kids got to run wide open and sideways (as my dad says); they saw animals like pigs, javelina and deer; and they went on countless golf cart rides with my dad. They even got to experience getting stuck in the mud!

I enjoy trips to the ranch because it's such an important piece of our family history, and I also like that we get to spend more personal time visiting with family members there as opposed to being at the family reunion where there are so many people that it's difficult to spend time visiting.

Christmas Eve was cold and wet, but we ventured across the mud alley from my parents' cabin over to my Aunt Kay's cabin and we all got together to enjoy a fabulous meal prepared by Amy's husband, Jesus. He made yummy, chicken mole sandwiches and a spicy soup, and we also had chili and tamales. Perfect! We were in tight quarters, but all the kids had a blast. It felt like a Christmas Eve just the way it should be - cozy, surrounded by family and enjoying good food.

Silly Zadie and Isabelle at Aunt Kay/Aunt Dana's cabin on Christmas Eve.

The girls miss living close to Nick and they took full advantage of spending time with him on this trip. As you can see, Nick was a pretty good sport about it.

I love this big, genuine smile from Skipperdoodle.

Me hanging out with Zadie and Sophie in my parents' cabin.

A chilly evening by the fire...with some wine to warm us up!

Beloved Aunt Dana with rodeo stickers to entertain the little girls.

Zadie pretending she is a deer.

My city boy nephews, Nick and Austin, sitting by the campfire.

My dad graciously serving as chauffer once again. This is by far the most popular form of entertainment at the ranch!

Mamas Kate and Tori with their boys.

My mom was trying to lay down and get some rest on her bed, but her grandkids couldn't stay away and felt like a dogpile was more appropriate. Who needs rest?!

I love this picture of Austin with my dad - great smile!

personalities

2011-12-15T06:51:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I wrote a post just about the girls' personalities and what they are up to these days. In fact, I tried to find my most recent post about that and I couldn't even find anything. I've really been a blog slacker in 2011! Maybe 2012 will be a new beginning for me. I won't get my hopes up though.

Over the past year I have really struggled with feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. I think all moms have it hard in different ways. The thing that I personally struggle with is that I work full-time, and I wish that I had more quality time with my kids. However, when I DO have time with them, they wear me out so fast and then I end up feeling guilty that I am not cherishing every moment like everyone tells me I'm supposed to. (I have a new thought on this. I think adults with older children tell you to cherish every moment because they didn't do it. Because it's HARD. When you're right in the middle of raising young kids, it's really hard to cherish every moment, and reflecting back on it, it's easy for them to share with you how quickly it all went by.) In addition, Eric was gone a lot going to paramedic school, etc., so I always felt like I was either working or being a single mom.

That being said, I have to say that ever since we moved to San Diego, life seems to have gotten a bit easier for some reason. I don't really think it had anything to do with our move, but more with the age that the girls are at now. They are a bit more independent and I have been able to enjoy my time with them more so than ever. This is such a relief because I really do want to cherish my time with them!

They really love the preschool that they go to and seem to be thriving there. They sometimes play together at school, but they each have their own friends there too. Isabelle is more of a "leader of the pack" on the playground and can be found running around with a gaggle of kids. Sophie tends to spend her time with a little girl, Eva, who she has taken on a mothering role with. Eva started going to the school after the girls had already been attending for several months and were settled in. Eva would cry every morning for the first couple of weeks, and Sophie would come home and tell me about it. I talked to the girls about being nice to her and reminded them how scared they felt when they first started going to the school. After about another week, Sophie started coming home and saying that she was holding Eva's hand at school and playing with her. They have a really sweet relationship. As soon as Eva gets to school, she rushes over to Sophie and Sophie guides her around the classroom and "takes care" of her. I like to see this soft side of Sophie (because she can be a bit rough at home sometimes!) and Eva's mom likes it too! She purposely times Eva's drop-offs when she knows my girls are already at the school. :)

The girls are both going to gymnastics once per week. They go to the local YMCA and have a 45-minute class where they do a variety of activities and I am pleased as punch to report that they actually participate! I never imagined a day when they would be willing and HAPPY to participate in these kinds of things! When Eric and I took them to the mommy-and-me gymnastics classes when they were 2, Eric and I would be doing all the gymnastic exercises and the girls would just cling to us. They really look forward to their classes now.

They are both difficult to dress every day, but for different reasons. Isabelle wants to wear a "dress that twirls" every day of her life, no matter how cold it is outside. We don't have that many dresses that twirl, so this turns into a fiasco many mornings. Sophie is particular about her clothes because she only wants to wear things that are comfy, and preferably not a dress. They both hate jeans. Neither of them like me to do anything with their hair, which is kind of a disappointment, but a timesaver too! :)

The girls have their moments at home when they don't get along, but overall they play together extremely well. Their favorite thing in the world is to play "pretend". They play mom/kid, grandma/kid, teacher/kid, gymnastics coach/kid and other adult/kid scenarios. :) Isabelle prefers to be the bossy one, but they do mix it up.

They both LOVE to color, draw and write words. They can't write too many words on their own without me telling them how to spell them, so they are often following me around and asking me to spell things like "I love Santa". :)

I used to despise bedtime, but I'm starting to enjoy that now too. We've read Stuart Little, James and the Giant Peach, Mercy Watson to the Rescue, and now we're reading Emmaline and the Bunny together. I love to see the girls get excited about books and say, "One more chapter PLEASE!" That pleases me to no end! Sophie always asks me lay with her for a "couple whiles", so I have to do the same for Isabelle too. Lately they want to play a rhyming game too at bedtime, where we go back and forth saying words that rhyme with each other. They are in the very beginning stages of learning to read, and I want to spend more time with that too!

I'm enjoying watching these sweet kids of mine exploring their world and learning new things every day.

the christmas performance

2011-12-14T06:26:00.000-08:00

The girls had their Christmas performance at their preschool last night, and boy did it showcase how much they have changed in a year. At last year's Christmas performance at their preschool, they clung onto my leg and refused to participate in their class's rendition of Frosty the Snowman. This year they were excited about their upcoming performance and they each picked out their own holiday dresses to wear for their performance. They practiced their song at home by laying out a big blanket on the carpet and calling it their stage. On performance night, they got on stage with their class in front of about 200 people and sang "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" complete with all the arm movement choreography. I was a proud mama. It made my heart happy to see them participating and having fun rather than me trying to coerce them into joining the group. After their class finished singing, they were both selected to be "actors" in the baby Jesus scene. They didn't have any lines, but just dressed up in costume. Afterwards I told them that they looked so cute dressed up as wise men and they were insulted and said, "We were shepherds!!!" Oopsie. I love celebrating all the holidays with the girls and watching the joy and wonder on their faces as we do our family traditions and fun activities together.

We were lucky enough to have my parents join us for the performance. We went out to dinner beforehand and the girls were sooooo excited to have their grandparents there that they could BARELY contain their excitement. They were about to explode!

My girls signing their song!
"He's got the whole world in his hands..."

Dressed up as shepherds (not wise men!).

happy thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T06:37:00.000-08:00

Day 24
Unfortunately, Eric had to work on Thanksgiving, so I took the girls to his sister's house and hung out with his family. They had a great time playing with their cousins all day, and I woke up early to run a turkey trot with his sister and mom. I did NOT want to go because I wasn't feeling well, but I'm really glad I did it because it was a lot of fun, it was a great way to start the day, and it felt good to get some exercise first thing in the morning, especially knowing that I was going to eat so much food for the rest of the day! Poor Eric got sent home from work at midnight last night because he was vomiting all over the place. He slept in the guest room. I'll have to go check on him in a minute - I hope he wasn't up all night getting sick. Doesn't sound like a very pleasant Thanksgiving experience for him.

Day 25
Today I am thankful that I am not one of those crazy shoppers who feels the need to go out in the cold, wait in long lines, and get mixed up with crazy crowds to do Black Friday shopping. I am thoroughly enjoying the coziness of my nice warm bed right now!

another gratitude catch-up

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Day 19
Today I am grateful for grandparents. I had a wonderful relationship with my grandparents, and I am enormously grateful that my girls ended up with grandparents on both sides who WANT to be involved in their lives. What a difference a grandparent can make in a child's life. Eric's parents stayed with us over the weekend and got in some really good quality time with the girls.

Day 20
I am grateful that despite the fact that Eric just got off a 24 hour shift, he saw that I was overwhelmed and skipped taking a nap (a real sacrifice!) to let me have some desperately needed alone time so that I could rejuvenate myself. VERY appreciated!

Day 21
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm grateful for red wine.

Day 22
I'm ALWAYS grateful for my two beautiful, special daughters, but what I am grateful for in particular right now is that I am getting to watch them learn to read and it is AMAZING! I bought them some early learner books and we are at the very, very beginning stages of learning, but they are doing a great job! I love to see how proud of themselves they are, how much they enjoy it, and how they love to show off their skills!

Day 23
I am grateful that I get to cut out of work early today to tie up some holiday chores, then enjoy 4 days off with family and friends! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year!!

catching up on gratitude posts

2011-11-18T12:22:00.000-08:00

Holy heck - I fell behind!

Day 13
I'm glad that practically no one reads this blog, so it doesn't really matter if I fall behind on my gratitude posts! :)

Day 14
I'm grateful that although I work from home, I am close enough to the office now that I can go in 1-2 days per week and socialize with adults!

Day 15
Today I am grateful that I AM able to work from home and hide out in my house because I have a zit right between my eyes! It's hard to be taken seriously when you have a zit in between your eyes! It looks like I have a bindi.

Day 16
I am grateful for Starbucks. I don't drink coffee, so it may seem odd, but I absolutely adore chai tea lattes. They make my insides warm and toasty and taste like Christmas!

Day 17
I am grateful for old friends. I got to have dinner with a very good friend of mine, Jeanne, this week and it was just what the doctor ordered. I love that girl with all my heart and soul! It's so nice to catch up with someone who already knows you inside and out (and loves you anyways)!

Day 18
Today I am really, really grateful that I set up a playdate for the girls with a little girl at their school who they adore, Eva. Several months ago they told me that some of the other kids at their school have playdates together, and I felt bad for them because my girls got stuck with a shy mom who doesn't connect with the other parents. :( Isabelle "wrote" a couple notes to friends' mom's yesterday and put them in their cubbies, and now we've got a playdate set. Woot!

day 12 of gratitude

2011-11-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

Today I am thankful for cold, rainy days that make you not feel guilty for staying indoors, snuggling up, watching TV, and reading. The girls woke up very early this morning and crawled in bed with me. We read a few chapters of James and the Giant Peach. I'm ready to move on to a new book now, so I'm trying to get this one over with! I love it, but we have been reading it for a looong time. I showed them some new books that I had picked out for them and they got to pick which one they want me to read next. They are now watching a Care Bear movie that Eric picked up from the library, and before long we will head out into the rain so Eric can nap since he just got off work this morning. At that time, I will probably start disliking the rain because I don't so much love to be IN the rain, but for right now I will simply enjoy it. :) I'm thinking a chai from Starbucks will help improve the outdoor rain experience!

day 10 and 11! :)

2011-11-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

Day 10 - Thankful for a Thursday off of work where I got to have some ME time even if it was mainly appointments and chores. A day off of work in the middle of the week is a GOOD thing!

Day 11 - I am thankful that I was born to best parents in the universe! They are kind, supportive, generous, loving and the best role models EVER. My kids also lucked out on this deal because they ended up with the best grandparents two little girls could ever ask for. XOXO

day 9 of gratitude

2011-11-09T06:11:00.001-08:00

I'm grateful that even though I was awake most of the night and couldn't sleep, at least I got some time this morning to myself before the kids woke up and I got to shower in peace! :)

30 days of gratitude - a bit late!

2011-11-08T18:59:00.000-08:00

I’m a little late to the game, but I LOVE the idea of writing a post each day this month about something I’m grateful for. Today I am grateful for the evening I had with my girls last night. Eric was working, so it was just the three of us and sometimes those nights can be a bit rough. It didn’t start off swell and Sophie had to go to timeout for not listening, but after her banishment to the guest room, she came out in a much better mood (surprising considering all the crying she was doing in there) and sat in her chair at dinnertime and ate her entire dinner without any nagging (SHOCKING). I was soooooooo proud of her and jumped up to reward her with the dessert of her choice. When I sat back down, she said, “Mommy, you are SUCH a nice mommy!!!” :) After dinner, the 3 of us sat on the couch and read a couple of picture books together. Then they colored for a little while and played with their Polly Pockets, and at bedtime I read a chapter of James and the Giant Peach to them. I love their wide-eyed looks while I am reading about James' adventures to them, and I don’t even mind the questions (well, sometimes) because I love to just watch them learning right before my very eyes. There aren’t many pictures in the book and I can just see their wheel turning while they try to absorb it all. I absolutely adore reading to them and I need to do it more often because it is quiet, calm moments like those that I am reminded of what a lucky duck mom I am to have this two little rascals in my life.

things i'm thankful for today

2011-11-07T07:03:00.000-08:00

1. A wonderful, fabulous, scrumptious dinner with my husband, sister and parents last night at George's at the Cove in La Jolla to celebrate my birthday.
2. The opportunity to have an adult dinner with no kids, and the girls staying home with a babysitter that they were excited to play with.
3. That my husband went very far out of his way to get a birthday cake for me that he knows I love.

Much appreciated!

halloween

2011-11-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

The girls are still at an age where we don't bother asking them what they want to be for Halloween. Whatever costume is being sold at Costco is typically the costume they end up getting. :) And we get them the same thing so that there are no fights about who will wear what. So this year they were fairies and they seemed pretty excited about it. They loved collecting candy, seeing all the houses decorated, having kids come to our house to trick-or-treat, dressing up, and going to the pumpkin patch. (They did NOT like scooping out the mushy contents of the pumpkins and I ended up doing that all on my own!) When we were absolutely SWARMED with trick-or-treaters at our house and we got completely wiped out of candy within an hour, they generously dumped their collections into the community bowl so I could keep handing out candy. Then they headed out with my mom to collect some more goodies.

I talked them into getting a sticker for every 5 pieces of candy they gave me, and once they collect 7 stickers, they get to Target and pick out a toy. Izzy immediately got all 7 stickers. Sophie needs time to think about this arrangement. She has 2 stickers right now and will think about giving me more candy for stickers tomorrow.

They are now looking forward to the next holiday, which is Thanksgiving. I've been talking to them a lot about Thanksgiving and how it is my FAVORITE holiday because it is all about super yummy food, getting together with family, and being grateful....much different from all the holidays centered around receiving gifts!

These are pictures from our day at the pumpkin patch. Isabelle had no problem picking out a pumpkin or posing for pictures. Sophie, on the other hand, took about 20-30 minutes to pick a darn pumpkin (she is the slowest decision maker EVER) and she gave us lots of super cheesy smiles. We took the kids on a little bucket ride and I swear it made me feel so sick I almost lost my cookies.

My sweet fairies ready to head out trick-or-treating!

a trip to the river

2011-11-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

A couple of weekends ago we packed up the car and made the 5 hour drive (unfortunately we got lost and it turned into 7 hours) out to Parker, Arizona to visit my dear friend, Jeanne, and her family. The girls were pretty good on the road trip and I am happy to report that I did not have to resort to playing a DVD on the way there OR back!

Jeanne's daughter, Jacee, is about a year older than the girls, but they all got along really well. It was so very, very nice to get to spend time with Jeanne - we can always just pick up right where we left off. We loved staying in their place on the Colorado River, spending a day in the boat and catching up with each other. Love, love, love good friends! (I have no pictures of Jeanne to post because she said I'm not allowed to post them!)

my first backpacking trip

2011-10-11T05:30:00.000-07:00

Since my sister and I had such a wonderful mother/daughter trip to Italy in April, she wanted to plan something for us to do with my dad so that we could do a father/daughter trip with him. We didn't go as far as Italy, but we spent 3 days backpacking and camping on Catalina Island. I was nervous about the trip because I had never backpacked before. I've only been car camping where there really are no limits on what you can bring, so it was a little nerve-wracking to only be able to bring in what we could carry on our backs. Luckily they have park rangers there who deliver water and firewood to the campground, so that was one less thing to worry about.

We hiked 7 miles from the ferry to our campground and we were soooo ready to get to the campsite that we could barely stand it. We were all feeling the weight of the backpacks on our bodies and were very happy to throw them down on the ground. Unfortunately for Kate, our site was completely covered in rocks and she decided not to bring a sleeping pad, so sleeping was a bit difficult. I loved it though because one of the things that I don't enjoy about camping is all the dirt. We had an oceanfront view from our campsite and we had the most secluded site in the campground. The squirrels were a real nuisance and I was very irritated when Kate and I took a nap in the tent and the squirrels came and drank the small amount of red wine that we had brought. That wine wasn't light and if I packed it in, I wanted to be able to enjoy it!

The second day we went on a 9 mile hike and it was DIFFICULT! I couldn't believe the steeps hills we were having to go up and down, but it was great exercise with great views and we all enjoyed it. Along the way we saw a buffalo and some foxes, and we collected some kindling so we could actually get a fire to get going since we had no luck the previous night.

Kate made us a wonderful meal on the second night - curried tuna over israeli couscous. It was so nice to have a hot, flavorful meal after all the hiking!

The third day we got up early, packed up, and hiked back to the ferry, another 7 miles. The hike back was easier than the hike in. For one thing, we knew what to expect so I think that made it easier psychologically. Also, all of our packs were a little lighter. My dad had a real spring in his step and he took off about a quarter mile ahead of us, which I wasn't too happy about because I still needed to take some breaks. :)

I'm glad that Kate encouraged us to do something none of us had done before. It was a great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with my dad and my sister, so I very much appreciate her planning the trip!

Having our last restaurant meal before heading out for our hike.

Ready to go!

Dad taking a break along our 7 mile hike to the campground...enjoying the shade and some water, and particularly enjoying not having the pack on his back.

A view from the trail down to the harbor below.

Kate and Dad hiking out to the campground.

Our campsite at Parson's Landing, Catalina.

On Day 2 we hiked 9 miles to Starlight Beach and back. This is the view down to our campground.

We made it to Starlight Beach - phew! What a hike!

Dad enjoying his tuna sandwich and taking a rest before we make the trek back to our campground.

The 3 of us at Starlight Beach.

Determined to successfully build a fire, we loaded dad's daypack up with kindling on our hike back to camp.

Kate and I brought a tent, but my dad didn't want to carry one, so he slept under the stars. I felt sort of sad for him laying there all by himself! This was after our long hike on Day 2 when we all needed to take a nap.

Day 3 - headed back to the harbor - 7 mile hike.

TGIM

2011-08-15T06:40:00.000-07:00

Things I am grateful for today:

1. Living in San Diego and being closer to my parents, who kept the girls overnight this weekend. The girls had a GREAT time hanging with their grandparents in Julian, and I think the grandparents had a great time too!
2. A wonderful night out with my hubby - a fun movie (Crazy Stupid Love) and a FABULOUS dinner (great food/great wine) at Third Corner Wine Shop.
3. Time alone to do whatever I wish!

TGIM

2011-08-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Three things that I am grateful for:

1. Red wine
2. Dark chocolate
3. Great, page-turner books

my cute parents

2011-08-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Aren't my parents the cutest? Married for 37 years and still as cute as can be.

wordless wednesday {painting in the "back-yarden"}

2011-08-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

operation chapter book

2011-08-01T20:15:00.001-07:00

I am pleased to report that the reading of a chapter book at night with the girls is going magnificently! I was worried they would be bored with the lack of pictures, but they are loving the story of Stuart Little and beg me to read every night. "Just one more chapter, Mommy!" :)

a new tradition, i hope!

2011-07-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

I received a good suggestion yesterday from someone I was talking to when I was stating that I'm not the mother I thought I would be, etc. Not that I don't enjoy the heck out of my kids, but I wish I was more patient and I want to be sure to cherish my moments with them rather than wishing their bed time would hurry up and arrive, which I have to confess I do sometimes feel! In any case, she suggested that I think of things that I enjoy doing, and figure out a way to do it with the kids. My first thought was reading! I read to them, but they are always boring picture books that I am so tired of by now. The novelty was good at the start, but I'm ready for something new.

So yesterday after we picked the kids up from preschool, we took them to the bookstore to pick out a new chapter book. I explained to them that we were getting them "big girl books" and I would read them a chapter each night. They were thrilled! Then their feelings changed when go to the store. I ran around selecting about 7 books for them to choose from, while they ran around grasping for big picture books with baby animals or dolls all over the cover. I showed them their 7 choices and they were less than impressed. Izzy chose Stuart Little because she liked the image of the mouse on the front cover. The lack of images inside the books totally lost Sophie's interest and she said she didn't want to pick one, so I picked one on her behalf: James and the Giant Peach. As I was standing in line to pay for the books, I read the back cover of Stuart Little to Izzy, and I said, "Doesn't that sound soooo good?!" And although she answered in a sweet, kind tone, her response was, "Ummm, not really." Oh dear.

When we put them to bed last night, I pretended like we were doing our usual bed time routine, which doesn't include much beyond a kiss, a hug, and little good night song. Then as I started to leave the room, I said, "Oh! I almost forgot! Does anyone want me to read them a chapter from our new book Stuart Little?!" They jumped at the opportunity to extend the bed time hour.

I realize this is a big change for them. They have to use their imagination to picture the story in their heads rather than seeing pictures laid out on the pages. I think it went really well. I read the first chapter, and they wanted me to read another, but I said we would do it tomorrow night. I hope this lasts because I would LOVE to be able to read classic children's literature to the girls, and I would LOVE for them to develop a LOVE of reading. :) If it doesn't stick, I won't give up. I'll just try it again in about six months, but I'm crossing my fingers.

TGIM

2011-07-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Thank God It's Monday. I'm going to start trying to post some things that I am grateful for on Mondays. Mondays have pros and cons. On the one hand, it sure is EXTREMELY difficult (an understatement) to get my kids out of the house and off to preschool. I sure to do love those little toots, but Sophie, in particular, makes it nearly impossible to get out the door without driving me to near insanity. It would be much more manageable if she didn't fight me tooth and nail to get changed out of her jammies and into school clothes. That girl LOVES her jammies. On the other hand, I enjoy working from home and I enjoy having a quiet house, so Mondays can sometimes be a bit of treat. Who wouldn't benefit from taking some time to specifically acknowledge some things they are grateful for? And Monday seems like a good day to do this to kick start the week with feelings of gratitude. So, my goal is to come up with 3 things I'm grateful for each Monday.

1. I had a GREAT weekend and it was unusually packed with fun things. I got to go to dinner with Eric on Friday night at a great place in Coronado while my parents watched the kids. I got to have a day ALONE on Saturday to do whatever I wished. I got to have dinner with my parents and my kids on Saturday night, and I am VERY grateful that my parents watched the kids all day and then drove them home for me. And we got to see one of my dear friend, Jeanne, yesterday who I haven't seen for a couple of years. It was altogether awesome!

2. I am grateful that this house we are renting has a gas stove. We had an electric stove at our old house, and I don't know exactly what it is, but I just LOVE cooking on a gas stove!

3. I am grateful that the girls have learned how to swim and that I get to watch them mastering this new skill, always feeling so proud of their abilities. They swam at Jeanne's house yesterday, and it is just so stinkin' adorable to watch them try so hard to swim with their face in the water, use their arms and legs properly to propel them, then reach the edge of the pool and look up at me for a reaction of extreme delight. I love it!

gratitude - three things

2011-07-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

Three random things that I am grateful for today because sometimes you just have to take the time out to be appreciative!

1. The series of events that led us to move to San Diego. I love San Diego! The weather, the people, the activities, everything! So happy to be closer to my parents, and I love our new place.

2. That I taped the Jaycee Dugard interview with Diane Sawyer and got to see that AMAZING woman talk about 18 years of imprisonment with a madman. She is really inspirational and if you ever feel like you have it tough, her story will snap you right out of it! Officials came to that guy's house SIXTY times and never looked in the backyard! The neighbors called 911 and reported kids living in the backyard! Despite being a prisoner, she found a way to have meaning in her every day life. She only had a 5th grade education, but she started a little home school for her two daughters - teaching them math, social studies, etc. Wow!

3. Watching my kids swim. Of course I knew they would learn to swim at some point in their lives, but it just seemed like such a miracle to see how fast it came about. They are decent little swimmers right now, although they need to continue to get better and better, but I absolutely love to see them swimming around the pool and the looks of PRIDE and JOY on their faces at their swimming accomplishments.

happy fourth of july

2011-07-05T08:03:00.001-07:00

Eric got forced into worked an overtime shift on the 4th of July, so the girls and I headed to Bonita to spend the day at my parents' house. My nephews, Nick and Austin, met us there and we all dined on great bbq, swam in the pool, and hung out together. It was a very relaxing day and the girls got to show off their new swimming skills. We got home in time to see Eric just as he got off his shift, and race around the corner, about a mile from our house, to see the fireworks display at Legoland.

Beautiful Sophie and her crinkly little nose.

My nephews, all grown up!

My beautiful parents!

Dining on our delicious bbq. Izzy loved the ribs!

Izzy and Ruby, best friends forever.

My creation of the day, a berry trifle. And, I must say, it tasted even better than it looked! :)

the little fishies

2011-07-04T09:36:00.000-07:00

When we arrived at my parents' house at the beginning of May, the girls couldn't swim a lick. They enjoyed being in the pool, but they couldn't swim independently one inch. They were also a little afraid of the water. They didn't like to get any water on their face and they were terrified of sinking. The got used to swimming around with a noodle or with a life vest on, and over the past two weeks they have really blossomed. My mom signed them up for swim lessons at the local YMCA. The first week was a bit brutal. They had a male teacher and although he was really, really nice and tried very hard to get them to cooperate, they were terrified of him simply because he was male. We eventually got them switched over to a female teacher and things improved dramatically. Sophie can swim the entire length of the pool. She is not afraid to jump into the pool from the waterfall or the jacuzzi, and she can swim to the surface, and then swim all the way to the ledge or a the step. She is very, very proud of her swimming abilities, and she should be! Izzy is also VERY proud of her sister and it's very adorable. Izzy is a more hesitant swimmer, but in the past week she has learned to swim with her face in the water and she can swim the width of the pool. She is not interested in jumping into the water, but she is working on becoming a stronger swimmer, slowly but surely. It was GREAT having everyday access to my parents' pool while we lived with them and we REALLY appreciate how they kept it warmed up for us!

celebrating 4 years (belated!)

2011-07-04T08:54:00.001-07:00

Sophie, Zadie and Izzy wearing their new Minnie Mouse ears (courtesy of Mama Niece) the night before our Disneyland visit! They had a grand time terrorizing the hotel room!

Slumber party at the hotel!

They all look rather unhappy here, but they were actually very excited. Don't let those expressions fool ya! :)

The day I moved to San Diego to start staying with my parents, I got a smartphone. That's also the day I started taking pictures with my phone only. That needs to change! It's so convenient and you can easily text the pictures to someone or upload them to Facebook, but the quality stinks. As such, I only have phone photos from the girls' birthday celebration.

Several months before their birthday, I asked them what they wanted to do for their fourth birthday. Sophie immediately said, "Disneyland!" At this point we were still living in Northern Calfornia, so it would be a bit of an ordeal to take them to Disneyland, and I don't even know how they knew about Disneyland in the first place because I never talked to them about it. After that day, they went around for months telling everyone they were going to Disneyland for their birthday.

We ended up moving to Southern California right before their birthday, and we were able to plan a Disneyland trip for them to celebrate their birthday. I'm not sure where they had more fun - playing in the hotel rooms with Auntie Kate and Zadie the night before, or going to Disneyland the following day. By far the biggest hit at Disneyland was getting to meet Mickey Mouse. We stood in line for about 15-20 minutes to have a private meet and greet with Mickey. We went into a little room and got to shake his hand and take pictures with him. As soon as we walked out of the room, they said, "Let's do that again!!!!" I couldn't believe how my shy little Isabelle was so taken with Mickey and yelled to him as soon as we walked into the door, "Hi Mickey!!!!!!!" They loved that more than any of the rides we went on or tasty treats they got to eat. Some of the rides were a little to scary for them, but they had a WONDERFUL time and fell asleep in the car ride home within about 2 minutes of our drive.

It will be hard to top this fun day next year! Thanks to Auntie Kate, Zadie and Grandma Denise for joining us in the festivities!!!

new beginnings

2011-07-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since I have been posted anything on this blog. Life has changed a lot over the past couple of months! Eric got a paramedic/firefighter job in San Diego and we all moved down. We stayed with my parents for 2 months while Eric got settled into his new job and finished his academy. I was able to continue to work from home. The girls went to a terrific preschool near my parents' house, and we enjoyed staying in the complete paradise that is my parents' abode. It was beyond wonderful to have the extra help during this busy time. Last night was our first night in our new place. It didn't go smoothly because the girls got up about 100 times hearing all kinds of scary noises, etc., but hopefully that will all get better. The biggest changes that the girls went through over the past couple of months is that they got over their dog phobia and they learned to swim. These were both huge accomplishments! Oh, they also learned how to write their names! Here is a family email that my dad sent out this morning.

*************************************

I left NY very early Friday so I got home at 10:30 yesterday morning. When I walk in the door and Ruby and Denise hear me come in after a trip they always give me a warm welcome home. Yesterday Isabelle and Sophie heard me come in the front door and they came running with arms outstretched yelling Papa, wanting me to pick them up and give them hugs and kisses. It reminded me of homecomings I used to receive everyday after work 30 years ago from their Mama. The Owens family moved in with us on May 1 and they left July 1. When we would tell people the Owens were living with us they would say something like "I'm sure it's nice but it must be really hard." Not. It was different going from a quiet, empty nest to a fuller, noisier nest but it was wonderful. We were already close to the girls but it was fun to get even closer and to see them grow so much. On May 1 they were terrified of Ruby. Now they love her and hang all over her, give her hugs, etc. On May 1 they couldn't swim a lick. Now they swim like little ducks. When they arrived they didn't tease me much. Now they love to tease me. They like the banter. They also tease me about letting me get the sugar under their neck and bugs under their arms. They will often look up and expose their necks to tempt me to get their sugar. When I try to get their sugar they drop their chins to their chest so I can't their sugar but I win and they laugh and squeal. I love it. Kim worked from her new home in Carlsbad yesterday while Denise watched the girls in Bonita. At 4pm we drove the girls home. They loved showing us around their new house. We then went out to dinner with Kim and the girls (Eric was on a 24 hour shift). We had a really nice evening. We drove back to Bonita and I went to bed at 9 because I got up at 1:30am pt in NY. Unfortunately I've been awake since 2:30. I woke up thinking the girls were in our house and wondering how they were sleeping. Once I realized they weren't here I started thinking about work stuff. I gave up and got up at 330. I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'm meeting Jeff for a long walk this morning. We plan to go to Julian after lunch for a couple of days. On the 4th the Owens family and Nick and maybe Austin will be back in Bonita with us. We have perfect holiday weather (in the 80s) to enjoy being in the pool or lounging around poolside. The mountains should be nice too. Speaking of summer weather, I'm enjoying the bounty from Denise's fruit trees - sweet apricots and plums. Yum, yum!

Have a great weekend.

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And more from my dad:

******************************

A couple of more things I meant to mention. Shannon Ross would have said Izzie and Sophie are "good hands", ie good workers. They faithfully performed their daily chores - feeding Ruby twice daily, sweeping up dog hair from the floor around Ruby's bed, turning the bird bath on each morning, getting the mail, etc. I was also impressed how much they learned at day care. Their printing is now better than mine and so is their singing. They frequently serenade us with many songs. Their favorite is "hush little baby don't say a word, Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird, if that mockingbird don't sing, Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring. . . ." They know all the lyrics and they sing in harmony with the sweetest voices you've ever heard. They're also artists. We have a whole new art collection they gave us. I accused them of buying it at an art gallery but they swear they made it themselves.

montepulciano, in pics

2011-04-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

In no particular order....

Here's Kate sitting in front of the church in the main square of Montepulciano.

The pool at our hotel - this was by far the most beautiful placed we stayed at during the entire trip!

Our bed and breakfast - a beautiful, old country home!

My mom in Montepulciano.

Kate and my mom standing on the main street in Montepulciano.

Our Panda - the car that Kate drove us around Tuscany in - a huge and stressful responsibility!

My mom rolling out some pasta dough in our cooking class - we made pici ("peachy") pasta and it was divine!

The cheese souffle appetizer that we made in our cooking class - it was beyond delicious!

The city of Montepulciano.

Sampling our food after our cooking class.

montalcino, in pics

2011-04-27T07:24:00.000-07:00

When we were in Siena, we took a day trip to Monalcino, where we did some wine tasting at two different wineries. It was a fun day!

siena, in pics

2011-04-27T07:12:00.000-07:00

Kate and my mom on the steps of the Duomo in Siena.

View of Siena from our hotel room.

On the very hot, 3 hour bus ride to Siena from Rome.

In front of the Duomo.

Inside the Duomo. My mom was NOT a fan of the black and white striping. :)

Kate and my mom walking through the streets of Siena.

Kate enjoying some gelato.

The first gelato of our trip! Yum yum.

We went to a cafe in the main square and had coffee, tea and cookies while we did some people watching.

A Siena street.

rome, in pictures

2011-04-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

back to life, back to reality

2011-04-19T20:20:00.001-07:00

Out Italian adventure is now over and we are all back at home. We had a wonderful trip! Once in a lifetime. After our night in Santa Margherita, we took a 5 hour fast train back to Rome, where we stayed at the very fancy Regina Hotel Baglioni once again. It was nice to finally have internet connection in our room again because for the previous 4 days we could only get online in the hotel lobbies. We didn't get into Rome until 4p, and after our adventure trying to get a taxi and then deciding to take the Metro instead, it was even later when we got to the hotel, so we didn't have much time left to explore the city. We just went to dinner, went to a bookstore that sold English books, got some gelato, and went back to our hotel to get some rest before our long day of travel.

It was a really special experience to be able to spend two weeks in such a wonderful place with two of my favorite women in the world - my mom and my sister. It was a nice break from the stresses of every day life - worrying about my job, Eric's job, the kids, our move, etc. Our days were filled with great food, wine and laughter. We didn't go to a single museum! And we were okay with that. We just wanted to relax and enjoy, and we accomplished that.

I keep wanting to capture some of the things that made us laugh during our trip, but I know no one else would think they are funny. Here are some of the ones I can remember:

- "Duty free. Duty free" - on our flight from Washington DC to Rome, everyone on the plane was asleep, but a flight attendant walked down the dark aisle and whispered right into everyone's ear, "Duty free!" I know that doesn't sound funny at all, but mom couldn't believe this crazy lady was waking people up to see if they wanted to shop, and of course no one took her up on it and it made us die laughing.

- Hooker bag - I bought a gorgeous dark red leather bag in Siena and I love it! Kate decided to get the same bag, so she went shopping alone and came back with a different bag. She decided she didn't want the monkey business of dealing with us getting our bags mixed up. So she bought a bright red leather purse with two silver zippers on it. She was very pleased with it...initially. Then she saw it in a picture on my camera and started stressing that it was actually pink (salmon). After we convinced her that it really was red, she started stressing that it looked like a purse that a hooker would carry. HA! After that, it simply became the "hooker bag". Example: "Where is the map?" "It's in my hooker bag."

- "Don't talk to me. I'm having mental issues." I already explained this one in a previous post, but I laugh every time I think about it!

- Watching Kate trek through the windy streets of Siena insistent upon finding a sandwich for dinner after our wine tour. (She'd had a wee bit too much wine.)

- Having my mom wake us up. If we said we needed to wake up by 7:30a, she'd wake us up at 7:15a to tell us it's almost time to wake up. :)

- "I don't work here." Ha! My mom's response to the hotel worker when he asked her if she wanted a cappucino. She thought he was asking her to get him one! Hahaha.

-"See you FOOLS in the morning!" - muttered by Kate after she'd taken her 2 Benadryl, put in her earplugs and put on her eyemask.

There are lots more, but I am way too tired and jet-lagged to remember right now!

santa margherita ligure

2011-04-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

On our last evening in Cinque Terre, we went to a great restaurant in Monterosso called Trattatoria Via Venti. It was located on a little side street and we ate our dinner outside. The waiter was really friendly and gave us some good suggestions on what dishes to order. We had a fabulous Syrah from Sicily, and we dined on seafood ravioli, swordfished cooked in fresh tomatoes, capers and olives, and stuffed pasta with pears and cheese (my personal favorite). It was my favorite meal of the trip so far. We also had tiramisu and chocolate souffle for dessert. Yum yum. Yesterday morning we hoofed it down to the train station with our bags in tow to catch a train to Santa Margherita Ligure, which is just 3 miles from Portofino. We checked into our hotel, Hotel Jolanda, which is a beautiful place to stay. Then we headed to Portofino to have lunch and do a little window shopping. We had lunch right on the water and watched all the rich folks walk around. :) I say we window shopped because everything in the stores was ridiculously expensive. It's only fun for a short time to walk through shops where you know you will not purchase anything because it's all too pricey. I knew Portofino was going to be beautiful, but it was even more beautiful than I thought it would be. The water is a gorgeous blue-green, the buildings are beautiful and colorful, and it was very clean. The town of Santa Margheria is also very nice and has some great shops. We walked around for a while last night going through the shops, but my mine was disappointed that we couldn't find a single thing that we wanted to buy! Today we will catch a 5-hour train back to Rome. We'll be traveling first class on the train - we'll see if it's any different than second class. We had a fun dinner last night with lots of laughter. Kate ordered a swordfish appetizer that was absolutely disgusting and I had to spit it out into my napkin. But I had a wonderful, freshly made gnocchi in meat sauce and my mom and Kate split some stuff pasta shells in a walnut sauce. I keep thinking I will write down all the funny things that we keep laughing about, but you kinda just had to be there! We've had a great trip, but I think we are all looking forward to seeing our spouses, kids, and sleeping in our own beds!

cinque terre, day 3

2011-04-15T07:57:00.000-07:00

This our third day in Cinque Terre and it was supposed to rain all day, but by the afternoon it was sunny and bright. We took the train to the next town over, Vernazza, where we had lunch at a place recommended to me by a foodie friend. The lunch was delicious - we had some seafood specialty with baked potatoes and tomatoes, spaghetti with tomato sauce and of course Kate ordered a steak with french fries. When we were in Volterra, Kate saw a woman dining at an outdoor table and eating french fries and Kate looked at the woman with scorn...how can you eat french fries in Italy?! Later that night Kate ordered french fries with her dinner - quite the hypocrite! :) After lunch in Vernazza, Kate decided to take the long hike back to the Monterosso, the town where we are staying. The shorter, most-frequented path between all the five towns is closed, which takes about 5 hours to complete. However, you can take the longer, more inland path, and that one takes 3 hours just to hike between our town and Vernazza. As she tried to find the path, she saw that some people were walking the shorter path even though it was closed. So she went ahead and walked along it herself, although she became concerned at one point that she might get murdered since there weren't many people out. She also had to climb over obstacles to get through, like a barbed-wire fence. At first I was disappointed that I didn't go because I would have liked to take the shorter path, but when she told me about climbing the barbed-wire fence, I was okay with the way things had worked out. My mom and I finished doing some shopping and then stopped at a cafe on the water for a cappucino. Yum yum. I'm going to be afraid to step on my scale when I get back home. We've been eating amazing Italian cuisine and drinking lots of great wine. Our trip is coming to close and while we have had a wonderful and relaxing trip, I simply cannot wait to see my two beautiful girls. I want to see their cute little faces, hug and kiss on them, listen to their sweet voices, and give them my full attention! We leave tomorrow to spend one night in Santa Margherita Ligure, which is about 15 minutes from Portofino. Then one night in Rome and we'll be on our way back home!

cinque terre

2011-04-14T07:36:00.001-07:00

We are currently in Cinque Terre in the Italian Riviera. We've been lucky that we've had far better weather than we expected while we've been in Italy. However, just when we hit the coast and were ready to do some hiking, the thunderstorms came. The hiking path that links the five villages of Cinque Terre together is closed due to landslides. There is only one portion of the path open, between the first two towns, so we walked that today and took the boat between towns. Just when we made it back into our hotel, the skies opened up and the torrential downpour started. Our journey to Cinque Terra involved taking 4 different trains. One of them was only taken by accident, but the ticket collector told us it was the right train, so we trusted him. We got straightened out pretty quickly and got on the right train. We all got to do lots of people watching in the process. It's surprisingly cheap to travel by train. Today we bought our tickets to our next stop, Santa Margerita (next to Portofino), and it only cost 12 Euro for our three tickets (1 hour train ride). As Kate said, "You can't beat that with a stick!" The villages of Cinque Terre are much smaller than I thought they would be. We're trying to figure out how best to spend our time here while it's raining. Our hotel is very nice, but we still don't want to be cooped up the whole time. I tried to find a movie theater, but no luck. :)

home sweet home

2011-04-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Well, over the past couple of days we went from one extreme to another. We left the gorgeous country home outside of Montepulciano for a shabby, dingy hotel in Volterra. I could have managed the hotel if I had fallen in love with the town of Volterra, but I didn't. My favorite part (sarcasm) of the hotel was that you had to get into your room using an ancient skeleton key. It was very difficult to use and required a certain finesse to get it to work properly. Kate couldn't get the hang of it initially and in frustration she said, "What is this - 1792?????!!!!!" We were supposed to stay in Volterra for 2 nights, but almost immediately upon arrival, I went down to the front desk and told them that we'd only be there for 1 night, and I booked us another night's stay at the hotel we had stayed at in Siena a few days before. It worked out well because we really liked the hotel in Siena and I had just been saying earlier in the day that I wouldn't have minded staying one more day in Siena. Plus we had to come back to Siena anyways to catch the train to Cinque Terre tomorrow.

When we left Montepulciano, we followed our navigation system to Volterra. The only problem was that the GPS was not aware of construction going on directly obstructing our route. We stopped and asked a man if he could direct us towards Volterra, but he spoke no English. He started yelling towards a nearby building, "Mario! Mario!" Mario comes running out of the building (while all the patrons at the nearby restaurant watch this interesting scene) in his U.S. Marines uniform and proceeds to give us some very LONG directions on how to get to Volterra by avoiding the construction. I understood the first part (go straight) and couldn't catch the rest of it. Even though he was talking to us in (rough) English, it just didn't make any sense. So we tried driving again, got brought back to the same place we had run into an issue before, and this time Kate and I talked to a man and asked him to point us towards Volterra. Even though this man only spoke Italian, we understood his directions WAY better than our Marine friend, and we found our way. My mother was quite proud of her daughters for getting us pointed in the right direction.

After we were sure that we were correctly bound for Volterra, we stopped at a roadside deli for some salami paninis. Yum yum. Then we finished driving to Volterra, checked into our musty, dank hotel room, and walked around the town. We had a great dinner last night at a restaurant right next to the hotel, Don Beta. Kate had an amazing pork chop, and we had delicious bruschetta and pasta with tomato/basil sauce. For dessert we had the most amazing chocolate souffle that I have ever tasted. Wonderful!

When we went back to our room, we got the giggles about the pigeons cooing, the sound of our neighbors peeing, and the drip-drip-drip of the plumbing. We had all said earlier that day that we were going to try to sleep that night drug-free (no Benadryl), but quickly decided we all needed drugs to get through the night. When we woke up this morning, I was ready to blow that popcorn joint asap.

At 10AM this morning we met up with Massimo, a local tour guide that Kate had set up to give us a tour of the area. Our first stop was at an olive oil mill. We got to see how olives get processed into olive oil. The mill that we were at was a small, family-run business. Massimo said they have about 500 customers who all come during the months of October through January to process their olives. Once the olives are picked, they must be turned into oil within 24 hours. Annamaria, who works at the mill, served us all kinds of tasty cheese, olive paste, and salami treats. Massimo also taught us the proper way to do an olive oil tasting.

Next we headed about 25 minutes down the road to a family-run dairy. At this dairy they raise sheep and use the sheep's milk to make ricotta and pecorino. We went inside the dairy operation to see the way that the cheeses are made and we saw circles of cheese in all different stages of aging, some covered completely with thick mold. The dairy didn't smell too great and Kate was having some anxiety issues about whether she was going to gag from the smell, faint, fall asleep because she was drowsy, or crack up laughing at how ridiculous my big Kuykendall head looked in the paper hat they made us wear. The best part of the visit was going to their restaurant and eating a lunch of products grown on their farm - farro, zucchini drizzled in olive oil and topped with pecorino, a cheese and salami plate, and a green salad. It was simple, fresh and delicious!

After our tour, we headed back to Siena. We ran into the same construction issue, worked our way around it, and were able to return our rental car, much to my mother's relief. She is not a fan of driving (or even being driven) in foreign countries, but I thought we made a pretty good team. Kate drove, I navigated and my mom sat in the back seat giving us various info and warnings: "Are your lights on?!" "Kate, can you see the GPS?!" "You missed a turn!!" :) We were soooo happy to arrive back to our same room at the Siena hotel where we had stayed before. I felt like I was home. Home sweet home. This is not a fancy hotel, but we each have our own bed, the room is spacious, windows surround the room and we have a great view, and it's in a great location. My mom said we should just stay here for the rest of the trip! :)

Next stop: Cinque Terre! Can't wait. Everyone we see raves about it, even the locals.

cooking class

2011-04-11T00:32:00.001-07:00

Yesterday my mom and I took a cooking class at a nice restaurant in Montepulciano, Le Logge del Vignola. Kate has no interest in cooking and would rather just eat, so she waited for us in a coffee shop. The owner, Massimo, greeted us and thankfully he spoke English very well. The chef did not speak English, so Massimo stayed by us the entire time to translate and explain why we were doing things a certain way. They put us straight to work cutting up celery, carrots and onion for the osso buco. My mom was nervous because the chef would chop everything up so quickly and then stand there waiting for us to finish, but they were really nice and we got comfortable quickly. We had to start the osso buco first because it needed the longest time in the oven. Next we prepared the tiramisu, which I've really been wanting to learn how to make. I was surprised at how easy it was, and the best part is that it requires no cooking! We also made a cheese souffle from some really simple, fresh ingredients, and Massimo explained how you can add just one simple ingredient to change it up, like blue cheese or olives or spinach. Finally, we made pasta dough from scratch and then hand-rolled it in the typical shape for this region, pici ("peachy"). It basically looks like a long piece of spaghetti and the irregular shape of it is a sign of quality because you can tell that it is handmade, so let's just say that mine looked of the highest quality. :) The cooking class was short. It was only 2 hours, but it was such a great experience and I loved every moment. It was great to see the behind-the-scenes operations of the kitchen. The sous chef was busy preparing food for their lunch menu while we were there. Massimo had great explanations for how to prepare each of the dishes, and although he says he does not like to cook, he certainly knew a lot about it. The best part was getting to taste each of the dishes that we had prepared. Kate lucked out because she arrived to pick us up right when we sat down to do our tasting, so she got to taste each of the dishes without having to do any of the work! We ate our appetizer, the cheese souffle, first and the chef topped it with a simple garnish of drizzled olive oil and freshly ground black pepper. It was light and fresh and divine! Next we tried our pasta. We actually did not make the sauce because it was a tomato sauce that they had made earlier from fresh tomatoes that they put through a food mill to remove the skins, and we didn't have enough time in our class to do all that work. However, they explained to us how they made it and I definitely want to try it sometime because it was soooo good, especially with the homemade pasta. The osso buco was good too. We prepared it by sauteing a bunch of veggies, sprinkling the meat with flour and salt/pepper, searing the meat, then throwing the meat and veggies and some diced tomatoes into a metal container. We then covered the meat with wine and water so that it could be braised in the oven. You typically want to cook it for 3-4 hours so that it will become very tender, but we were only able to cook it for about 1.5 hours due to our time limitations. The trickiest part about preparing the osso buco was trimming the fascia off beforehand. It was tough to cut through it, but if you don't, the meat closes up like a clam when you cook it. Finally, we sampled the tiramisu and it was heavenly! I would make all of these dishes again except probably the osso buco only because I'm not a veal person. After our cooking class, we walked up to the Piazza Grande in Montepulciano, which is quite a little uphill hike. There was a little street market going on, and we walked around checking out all the booths. We came back to our hotel and then lounged around reading for a while waiting for dinnertime. We are all used to eating dinner very early, so it's quite an adjustment for us to have to wait until the restaurants open at 7:30p to eat our meals. We all got a chance to speak to our loved ones again, then we went to the same restaurant where we had lunch before, Restaurant La Grotto, and had another delicious meal! Today is another beautiful day in Tuscany and we are headed to Volterra for a couple of nights. Hopefully the driving will be a little easier for us today since Kate has a little more experience under her belt!

brunello wine tour and montepulciano

2011-04-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday when we were in Siena, we went on an afternoon wine tour to go check out some Brunello wineries, which is the wine that is famous in this area. A minivan picked us up and we were joined by two other American couples. We drove about 45 minutes through beautiful countryside to Montalcino. Our first stop was at a winery where we tasted a couple of wines. Kate wasn't thrilled about this stop: she wants to fast forward through all the wine factoids - the aging process, the type of oak barrels, the grape varieties, etc - and just get straight to the tasting. She doesn't give a hoot about all that scientific monkey business. But this place didn't offer much in the way of snacks with the tasting, just some little breadsticks, so it was a beautiful spot, but just okay. The next stop was about 30 minutes away and we were greated by the cutest little Italian old man named Mario. He didn't speak a lick of English, so one of the tour guides translated for him. He had worked at the winery his entire life, and you could tell he was passionate about wine and a bit of a spitfire. They gave us 4 or 5 different wines to taste, as well as grappa (yuck!), and lots of delicious snacks - bread, salami, prosciutto, pecorino cheese from Pienza (the best cheese EVER) and biscotti. A couple of tour groups combined together, about 18 people, and we all sat at a huge table together. Once the wine started flowing, so did the conversation and it was a lively group. We didn't have lunch that day, and I could tell that the wine was quickly getting to me so I stopped drinking and just drank water. I asked Kate if she was drunk and she said, "I don't know, wait until I stand up. And pass me your wine!" My mom was busy yukking it up with the people across from us. On the way back home, Kate was pretty quiet. When we got dropped off at our hotel, Kate said, "I thought I was going to puke on the way back! I am drunk!" And then she was OFF on a mission through the crooked streets of Siena to find a sandwich for dinner (NOTHING else would suffice) while my mom and I tried to keep up with her. She said she will NOT be drinking for the rest of trip. My poor mother got stuck with some fuddy-duddies on this trip! Today we left Siena on a new adventure. We rented a car and poor Kate was the designated driver - a huge responsibility! We had a GPS, but it gives you directions in meters and seems to grossly overestimate how many meters until the next turn. We also had some confusion over the road signs, the proper way to handle pedestrians waiting to cross, getting through roundabouts without running into anyone or getting crashed into from behind, and so on. Did I mention that our little mini car is a stick shift? The best part was when the car died in the middle of the roundabout. I am sure Kate was very stressed, but she kept her cool and we took our time getting to our destination. We got off track a couple times, but found our way back again and, surprisingly, made it to our GORGEOUS bed and breakfast on a small country road outside of Montepulciano. This place is exactly what you would imagine in the Tuscan hill country. The building and room is beautiful, the grounds are amazing with vineyards and cypress trees and great views, and there is an amazing infinity pool to lounge around. After our arrival at our B&B, we headed towards town and stopped to eat lunch at a restaurant recommended to us by the hotel. It was the best meal by far that we've had in Italy. We had an amazing zucchini and artichoke tart, I had homemade pasta, my mom had a traditional Tuscan bean soup, and Kate had a flavorful steak. For dessert we indulged in mascarpone mousse with coffee ice cream, which just sounded interesting, but ended up being TO DIE FOR. We sat outside in a beautiful garden area and spent a couple of hours enjoying our fabulous lunch. We then headed into the town of Montepulciano, which is a quaint little town on a hill with narrow, steep streets. We encountered an old Italian woman who probably would have spent all afternoon talking to us if we had let her, and she was not deterred for one second by the fact that we spoke zero Italian. We were able to catch some of what she was trying to tell us when we recogized words that were the same in Spanish, and we gave her lots of nods and smiles. I think she may have invited us to her house, but not entirely sure. :) This evening we all got to talk to our loved ones back home. I got to Skype my girls, who are happily staying with their Nana and Papa and eagerly awaiting the arrival of their cousins, Ginger and Jamie, who they'll be having a slumber party with tonight. I also got to Skype Eric, which was a bit of an awkward conversation because he could see me, but I couldn't see him. And I could hear him, but he couldn't hear me. Kate got to talk to Tori and her kids...God bless Tori. And my mom got to Skype with my dad! We all felt good after our conversations and are now having a quiet evening in our country home, lounging around, reading and telling stories. Good times!

our italian adventure

2011-04-08T04:17:00.000-07:00

I've been so bad about keeping my blog updated lately that I never wrote a post about the Italian adventure my mom invited Kate and I to take with her. We left for Italy on Tuesday morning bright and early. It was a long journey to Italy because we had two stops along the way, but we weren't complaining because we got to sit in first/business class. We were so excited when we got on the plane in Washington, DC and we had our glass of champagne in hand ready to depart to Rome. When Kate sat down and found the goody bag of earplugs, eye mask, lotion, etc, she exclaimed, "Wow, they left presents for us!!!" :) We were so happy to have our reclining chairs, our own TVs, good food and wine, etc., but the excitement quickly dissipated after we'd been on there for a few hours and we were so tired. My mom leaned over and said, "I'm ready to get off of this boat!!!" We arrived in Rome at 8am, so we needed to stay awake the whole day. We checked into our hotel early, took a quick catnap, and then headed out to meet up with our walking tour guide, Ilaria. Ilaria took us around the Colosseum and Palatino, and it was nice having someone to be there to give us all the history. Not only that, but if we weren't forced to go on that tour (I had set it up before our arrival), we would have been tempted to stay in our room and sleep all day. My mom said that at points along the tour she wondered if she might fall asleep just standing up! My mom and Kate slept great the first night, but I was awake almost the entire night. I kept trying to meditate and think about things that would make me sleepy, but it didn't work. I ended up holing myself up in the bathroom to read my book and browse the internet. We left Rome the next day and took a 3 hour bus ride to Siena, where we are now. Siena is an absolutely beautiful city. I read in Rick Steve's book that his staff always says that Siena is their favorite city and it did not disappoint. Our room is nothing fancy, but it's large and we each have our own area and our own bed to sleep in, which is nice. We also have huge windows all around the room, and since we are up on a hill, we have a great view of the Duomo and surrounding area. Before leaving for the trip, I had talked a lot about how I was going to eat and drink my way through Italy. I wanted to indulge and not feel guilty about it, but I ran into a snag. I accidentally drank too much wine on the plane ride over here (the flight attendants just kept filling up my glass and I had no idea how much I was drinking) and I felt soooo sick, so I haven't wanted to drink wine since we got here. My mom keeps teasing me about how I am all talk. We went out to dinner last night at a restaurant near the Duomo. It was a tiny place with not many tables, but since it is listed in Rick Steves' book, it gets a lot of customers. We sat at a table for 8 with two other groups. One lady was an Italian professor from Finland. We didn't talk with her much because she didn't speak much English. We also sat with a young Italian couple who were visiting Siena for a 3-day vacation. They were a lot of fun and we talked a lot about Italian customs. They got a kick out of watching Kate try the grappa (some kind of alcoholic drink) and her reaction. We all died laughing when she tried it, twisted her face in a repulsed look and said, "Disgusting!" Kate decided that she and my mom should order the tasting menu, and the waitress kept bringing them out dish after dish. I thought we were never going to get out of that place and was tempted to just leave them behind! The first place was an appetizer plate and it had some things on there that we didn't recognize. Kate kept calling one of them "olive tapenade", but when she tried it, she had a funny look on her face. She was trying to be a good sport and eat it because she is embarrassed to leave food on her plate, but she was really having a hard time with it. She started to realize that it was probably some kind of liver pate, and when I tried to talk to her, she looked and me and muttered, "Don't talk to me. I'm having mental issues." Of course this made me die laughing and she said all she could think about was cat food as she was trying to get that appetizer down. We've been having lots of Kuykendall giggles, mostly at Kate's expense. :) We have been picking up a few Italian words and I was really impressed with myself today when I could order sparkling water in Italian. However, I am tempted to speak Spanish to everyone and Kate wants to speak Chinese to everyone. I think I would have a bit more luck around here than Kate. We are now lounging in our hotel room for a short time before we leave for a 5 hour wine tour. Good times with my mom and sis!!! We do, however, feel bad about the folks we left behind. Tori is home with 3 kids, she's sick and so is Zadie...tough duty. Eric is in the fire academy working his butt off physically and mentally. My in-laws are home watching my kiddos, who have no parents at the moment. And my dad is home working away and building up those air miles to replenish all the ones we exhausted on this trip! I'll have to post pictures later because my netbook won't recognize my camera. Ciao!

moving on

2011-03-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

For many years now I have dreamed of moving back to Southern California so that I could be closer to my family. A couple of years ago when Eric decided to go to paramedic school to pursue his dream of becoming a fireman, I told him that he could apply for firefighting jobs anywhere in the West Coast and I would move wherever he got a job. Well, lo and behold, he got a job in northern San Diego! Initially, we were nothing but EXCITED. We were so happy that he got a firefighting job because it's so competitive and we didn't know if he would ever get into a department at all, so the cherry on top was that it was in San Diego. Yahooooo! But now reality is starting to settle in and I feel completely overwhelmed by all the logistics of moving our family down there. We are still going to move, and we will be thrilled once it is all said and done, but the process won't exactly be fun. I will be a single parent for a while, stuck back here dealing with boxing up our belongings, etc, while Eric will be slaving away in his fire academy. I know that this a good move for all of us though.

Ever since we got the news, I've been extremely sentimental. I've started to think of all the things that I wish I did more of as a resident of the bay area. We should have made more day trips to San Francisco. We should have gone on more hikes in the great open space by our house. We should have done more wine tasting, and eaten at more fantastic restaurants.

I'm also sentimental about all the things that I will miss. We have made this little home our own, slowly fixing it up, although there remains much work to be done (the kitchen!). It's hard to imagine renting this house out to other people who won't take care of it as lovingly as we do. I will miss being able to walk to Starbucks and the grocery store. I will miss the preschool that the girls go to, their awesome Kids' Night Out and their great teachers. I will miss knowing our neighbors. But, most of all, I will miss my amazing in-laws. I cannot for the life of me imagine what the first four years of the girls' lives would have been like if we didn't have Steve and Patty a quarter mile away. They are godsends. Really and truly.

The bay area weather lately has been making me long for those SoCal sunny days, so that is a big draw. If the rain will ever stop, I plan on getting outside with the girls more over the next month before we move to capture some bay area pics. After school one day this week, I took them on a quick "adventure walk" between rainstorms. The pictures on this post are from our walk right behind our house in the open space preserve. My goal is to get a shot of the girls by the Golden Gate Bridge before we depart, although I know we will be back to visit MANY times!

my little helper

2011-03-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

Izzy is a helper like no other and this is a huge source of pride for her. She's been helping me several times now to fold laundry, but yesterday she really took charge of the whole operation and told me that I could help her if I wanted to. She explained to me in detail how the task needed to be done. She told me where I should place each pile of clothing - the jammie pile, the shirt pile, the pants pile, the towel pile, etc. When I make these piles, I am normally sitting on the floor and each pile is within reaching distance, but Izzy doesn't operate this way. She took full use of the entire family room floor and set up piles around the perimeter so that you had to get up and walk to each pile. I guess that was good for a little extra exercise. Then, at the end, she painstakingly took each little pile, one at a time, into her bedroom and put the clothes away. I praised her for her help, and she BEAMED with pride. I fall more in love with that little monkey every day.

linus

2011-03-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

Practically every morning, unless I have to set my alarm and get up at some ungodly hour, I hear a certain set of noises and know immediately that Sophie is on her way into my room. First, there's the rustling from her bed, which is just on the other side of the wall from ours. Then I hear her bedroom door open and the sound of the "music" in their room get louder. Then I hear her shut her bedroom door in her I'm-trying-to-be-quiet kind of way. Then my bedroom door opens. Sometimes I pretend that I am still asleep, which isn't too much of a stretch, but I have a small, microscopic really, hope that she will take mercy on me and go play in the family room until I wake on my own. But, no, she comes to my bedside and says somewhat quietly, "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy!" until I respond. I look over at her and every morning it is the same scene: footed jammies, mophead hair pointing wildly in every direction, her "baby" (teddy bear) and, of course, her blankie being dragged behind her. I think it's pretty cute that every morning when we wakes up, she looks around in her bed for her baby and blankie before venturing out of her bedroom. She always wants to crawl up into bed with us, and before too long, she starts telling me that she is hungry and wants some breakfast. And her breakfast of choice is usually "circle toast" (english muffins). What a cute little toot she is.

one of the (many) reasons i love my hubby

2011-03-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

Eric went out of town last night and knew he wouldn't be back before the girls' bedtime, so he decided to take the girls out for a date. He picked them up early from preschool, took them out to "Old McDonald's" for dinner and a sundae, and when he brought them back home, their sweet little cherub faces glowed with delight (as well as a ring of chocolate). He sure knows how to make these girls feel special. These little girls love their daddy, and whenever he's not home at night to tuck them in, they make me promise that I will tell him to go and give them a kiss and hug when he gets home.

milestones

2011-03-12T18:21:00.001-08:00

Today was a good day. Eric watched the girls this morning while I went on a 7 mile run. I'm preparing for the Emerald 12k in SF, which takes place next Sunday. After I was done, I loaded the girls up in the car and took them to the mall while Eric finished up some paperwork. For the first time EVER (milestone!), I enjoyed myself with the girls at the mall. The mall is normally a place I would avoid at all costs with them, but it went swimmingly well today. We started off at Nordstrom, where I bought a pair of comfy black flats for my Italy trip. Then we headed upstairs because the girls know that the kids' shoe dept hands out balloons. I bought each of them a pair of cute, sparkly Skechers that they fell in love with, and they got their balloon, which we then had to drag around for the rest of the day. They went with me to a couple more stores, then we stopped for lunch together and sat aside outside on this unusually pleasant day. We hung out by the fire pit, threw pennies in the fountain, and relaxed. They were VERY well-behaved!

When we got home, I knew the girls were tired but I also knew they wouldn't nap in their rooms, so I said, "Who wants to take a nap with me?!" Izzy took me up on the offer, and we laid down on my bed. She reminded me exactly of her daddy: her thick, jet-black eyelashes, the fact that she fell deep asleep about 60 seconds after her head hit the pillow, her deep breathing/snoring, and her twitching. She also does some smacking with her mouth which her daddy, thankfully, doesn't do. ;) Right before she fell asleep, she looked up at me with those round chocolate brown eyes and said in her sweet, little voice, "Mommy, I want to cuddle". So I put my arm around here and she fell fast asleep. These little girls make my heart melt!

nap time is REALLY over now!

2011-03-09T19:24:00.000-08:00

The girls have been excellent nappers for almost four years now, and we are eternally grateful that they lasted this long. We have been thinking naps will end any day now, and it sure is hard to say goodbye. A couple of months ago we thought they were done for sure, and then we realized that if we got them out of the house for some SERIOUS physical activity, they would take a great nap, so that was our game plan for a while. But even that isn't working anymore. I don't think we have too much to complain about. Everyone I know with young kids is SHOCKED that they have napped this long. So now we are in the phase where they aren't quite tired enough to take a nap, but they are too tired not to get cranky! I hope they adjust to their new schedule pretty quickly.

This weekend we decided not to even try to put them down for a nap because it's just a bit hellish on us all to get them to nap when they don't want to. Around 3p Izzy said to me in her sweet little Izzy-voice, "Mommy, did we miss our nap today????" I said, "Well, no one seemed like they wanted to take a nap, so I didn't put you guys down for one." And she responded, "I want to take one!" I thought this was some big joke because she said she wanted to sleep in my room, so I figured I would shut the door and she would just play in there for a while. She climbed up on my bed and asked me to set up a pillow for her and cover her with a blanket, so I did. I left the room and it was perfectly quiet in there for a LONG time. Eric peeked in after about an hour and she was SOUND asleep exactly where I had put her and she was sleeping just as snug as a bug. It was pretty adorable. She slept for almost 3 hours and I finally had to go wake her up for dinner! So, while the naps are on their way out, we still sneak one in every here and there, and we are grateful for every moment of peace in this house that we can get!

wordless wednesday {storytime}

2011-03-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

kids' night out

2011-02-28T17:00:00.000-08:00

Dear girls,

"Kids' Night Out" to you is a special thing your school does on the first Friday of every month, where you get to stay at school until 8:30p. You get to change into your jammies, eat typical kid food like hot dogs or pizza, make a special dessert like rice krispie treats or fruit loop necklaces, watch movies, and play with all your friends from school.

"Kids' Night Out" to your dad and me is "Parents' Night Out"!!! As in, the best night of the month! If we play our cards right, and I stop working early enough, we can manage to pull off dinner AND a movie, and this is a RARE treat for us! We love it. The world is our oyster for a few hours once a month. :)

We're glad that you love these nights just as much as we do. It wouldn't be quite as fun if you didn't think that it was a huge, special treat for you too.

We love you so much, Your Parents.

let me not forget

2011-02-24T15:50:00.000-08:00

Let me not forget Izzy's face, beaming with pride, when she gets herself dressed for the day. I LOVE to see how very proud of herself when she goes into her room, picks out some clothes (usually multiple layers of clothing involving some leggings and a skirt), and comes out dressed and wanting to show off her stylish self. She has such a sweet spirit, and I'm a proud mama.

i'm not the mother i thought i would be

2011-02-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

Before we had kids, I had a mental image of the kind of mother that I would be: busy making crafts all day with them, preparing unique animal-shaped snacks for them, reading a chapter out of a great novel to them each night, dressing them in cute clothes and stylish hair, a smile on my face, a sweet voice and, most of all, unlimited patience. But this is not how things have turned out. Don't get me wrong, I DO plan fun things for them to do and I DO play with them, but not quite like I thought I would. But the area that I think I am lacking the most is in patience. The bottom line is that I just didn't realize how HARD it is to be a parent. How exhausting. And how you just don't have all the answers and so a lot of parenting is simple trial and error. I thought I would be more like my mother, who is the world's greatest gift to motherhood. It's hard to compare yourself to my mother because just about anyone is going to come up short. All I can do is to keep trying, to work on my patience, to remind myself that things will get easier and easier (until they become teenagers!).

I have really been enjoying my time with the girls a lot more than I had been for a while. The constant whining and crying has died down quite a bit, and I love to listen to them have conversations with each other, to hear their stories, to dance with them, to play tricks on them, to bake with them, to watch them ride their bikes and to watch them learn the ways of the world. I love to see Eric go out of his way with them to explain things in a way that they will understand. They are really good little girls and I want to be the best mom that I can be to them, but I am learning things too, so I am a work in progress. I feel so lucky to have these little girls in my life and I can't wait to see how the future unfolds for them.

izzy's special talent

2011-02-11T17:15:00.000-08:00

Eric sent me the email below today with the attached picture and I thought it was so CUTE! That little Izzy LOVES to make her own bed and her sissy's bed, and she BEAMS with pride when you come to check out her work. What a cute little stinker she is!

From Eric:
Izzy decided to make our bed this morning. While a little messy, you have to be amazed at the pillow placement and the turned down comforter. I wasn't even in the room to direct her.

these are a few of my favorite things

2011-02-08T17:15:00.000-08:00

Sophie is much like Mama Niece (my mom). Whenever we get together for a family event, my mom loves to ask the question, "What was your FAVORITE part?" Or, "What was your FAVORITE gift?", etc. And Sophie has a real tendency to have FAVORITE things. She is very attached to her favorite things, and they are not be messed around with! It all started about a year ago when Sophie proclaimed that she had a favorite book - The Mitten. She made this proclamation before anyone had even ever read The Mitten to her. I guess she just liked the pictures. She would walk around the house saying, "Mommy, where my FAVORITE book go?!" And whenever she would stumble across it, she felt pure joy!

She has a favorite chair that she likes to sit in. Unfortunately for me, it is a very atrociously ugly, yellow, old chair that was leftover from when Eric's grandparents used to live here. I cannot imagine what she would do if I got rid of that ugly, old chair. She would be devasted.

Although she has a drawer FULL of a million PJs, she has one pair of jammies that she insists on wearing every single night - it's her footed froggie jammies. You really have to plan ahead when you are going to wash those jammies to make sure they make it through the entire wash/dry cycle in time for bedtime.

She has a favorite side of "circle toast", also known as an english muffin. She doesn't want the "sparkly" side, she only wants the plain side and don't you dare forget!

She has a favorite "baby" (teddy bear) to sleep with, and a favorite blankie. And when she crawls into her bed, she has to sleep on her favorite pillow. Not the normal pillow that everyone else sleeps on; it has to be her pretty pink decorative pillow sham. And don't you dare cover her up with a sheet. She hates sheets.

She has a favorite jacket too, and there are no substitutions allowed. It's a black fleece we picked up for her at Walmart in TX when our luggage was temporarily lost. It's a size too big for her, but that doesn't deter her - she insists on wearing that favorite jacket everywhere she goes.

Sophie has some favorite cartoons - mostly Caillou (as long as Mr Hinkles isn't in it!), Kipper, Dora and Sid the Science Kid. That girl can sit in front of TV or computer watching her "movies" all the darn day long.

I love that Sophie-Girl with all my heart, and I'm lucky I get to be her favorite mommy. ;)

lazy dayz

2011-01-30T09:35:00.001-08:00

It's a lazy Sunday morning. As usual, Soph-Bug woke up at 6AM. Luckily, Eric was awake and getting ready to head out to work, so he turned on her favorite cartoon, Caillou, and she chilled on the couch until is was over. About 30 minutes later, she crawled into bed with me for some snuggles. Her little hands were icy cold from holding on to her milk cup, but she warmed up quickly under my down blanket. She was quiet as a mouse and we enjoyed our alone time together, without daddy hogging the bed and without Izzy fighting for my attention. :)

Izzy woke up not too much later and we've been lounging on the couch doing things you are not supposed to let your kids do, like watch too much TV and eat dry cereal on the couch. It's a cold and rainy day, so we are stuck indoors for now. Izzy is very gently brushing my hair, which is one of her new favorite hobbies. Nephew Nick is still sleeping soundly in the guest room (hard to imagine how that is possible with these two gremlins around), but once he wakes up, I'm thinking some In-N-Out for lunch is in order. Yum! I'm trying to figure out how to get enough exercise in for these girls today so that they will NAP. If we don't run them into the ground, they don't take a nap. Maybe a dance party in the family room is in order. :)

On a side note, I have been meaning to write about 2 things the girls say that make me laugh. Izzy loves to sing Jingle Bells, but she pronounces it "Jinger Bells" and it makes me giggle every time.

They also both are always complaining of having a "snuffy" nose instead of stuffy nose. This is particularly funny when they are crying about having to be in time out, and they are sobbing hysterically from their room, "I. HAVE. A. SNUFFY. NOSE!!!!!!!!!!!" Gotta love these two!

the things they say

2011-01-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

The girls are really obsessed with asking for privacy, mostly when it is time to go to the bathroom. When I am in the bathroom and I tell them I need privacy, they kindly shut the door for me. Only problem is that they shut themselves inside with me! When they are in the bathroom, they often tell each other that they need privacy, so the other one will shut the door and come to tell me what is going on. Yesterday, Sophie said, "I'm going to do something bad and I need some privacy so you can't see me." What!? Well, I have no idea what bad thing she was planning to do, and I asked Izzy to go spy on her, but I never found out what that was all about. But I have to admit it made me laugh.

Izzy has a "special" way of pronouncing the 'S' sound. Her tongue goes out the side of her teeth and twists. It's very cute, but at some point it will become not cute, so we've been trying to work with her on it. It's particularly cute/funny when she says things with two 'S' sounds in a row, like boxes. She also has a funny way of saying washcloths, which sounds something like "washef-clofethsss".

They both call tortillas "tor-tor-tillas". Ha! That makes us smile every single time and we've started calling them that too. It's just too cute, we can't help ourselves.

And this isn't so much about things they say, but just about having conversations with them: they are so hard to get good info out of! They come home from preschool on Friday having had a GREAT day, so I asked them why they always say in the mornings that they don't like their school. They said it's because some people are not nice to them, so I asked who. They said a particular boy is not nice to them and he hit Izzy on the playground. I asked if it was an accident, and they said yes. I asked if he was nice, and they said yes. I asked if he was their friend, and they said yes. I asked again what he did that wasn't nice to them, and they said, "I donnnnn't knowwwwww." Geez! Very confusing conversation there!

wintry beach day

2011-01-21T23:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Eric and I were trying to decide whether we should drive up to the mountains to take the kids sledding (they have never seen snow) or if we should take them to the beach. That's the beauty of the SF bay area, you can do either! It was supposed to be a warm day, so we voted on the beach. The girls were soooo excited! The only trouble was that Eric also told them that we were going to get ice cream today, so they kept asking us the whole day to take them to ice cream, take them to ice cream, take them to ice cream! Aargh! But they had a BLAST at the beach, building sand castles, walking down to the water, and running around. Although it was SUPPOSED to be warm, it was really chilly and we were all bundled up. However, we weren't too cold to eat ice cream! Eric drove us into Sausalito and we all got a delicious scoop of Lappert's ice cream...YUM! Actually, my scoop was really gross. I got Kahlua thinking how I love coffee flavored ice cream. Note to self: Kahlua and coffee are different flavors!

My personal favorite shot of the day.

Izzy sifting sand at Cronkite Beach.

In Sausalito, we had to bribe them with their ice cream cone to get them to pose for this.

Daddy's little girls. Can you tell they love him? ;)

Izzy chowing down on her chocolate chip ice cream.

Sophie with her chocolate beard.

where they're at now: the good, the bad, the ugly

2011-01-21T17:44:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to write a post about the antics the girls are up to lately.

Sophie: let's start with the positives. :) Sophie loves to give kisses and love. She is our little cuddlebug. She LOVES to watch TV. Of course she loves cartoons, like Caillou, but she'll even get sucked into my workout video. She's just like her daddy. She stares at the TV and you can't break her concentration. She is really good at entertaining herself too. She will play quietly with her toys and think of things to do. On the challenging side, she is an absolute pain in the booty to get dressed. She wants to stay in her jammies ALL day and when you tell her she needs to change, she has a meltdown. She also will only wear certain clothes - she finds issues with most of her clothes, she says they give her owies. She hates to have her hair brushed and she will NEVER let me put a ponytail in her hair. In other words, she always looks like Orphan Annie with her mismatched clothes and mophead hair.

Izzy: she is AMAZING with pens and crayons. She can color within the lines like nobody's business. She can also write some of her letters, which she started doing back in August. She occasionally lets me put ponytails or braids in her hair, and this make me verrrry happy. She loves to help out. For example, tonight there was a bunch of sand by our front door from their shoes, so she JUMPED at the opportunity to use her little broom to sweep the sand outside. She wants to help make coffee, make the beds, put away the clothes, etc. When it is time for the girls to clean up their toys, she will take pride in doing a great job while Sophie lays around without lifting a finger. However, Izzy has a case of the whines. She can be very fussy. And when she gets her mind set on something, there's no talking her out of it! She can get a bee in her bonnet over something small, and then your life is hell for the next hour or so.

The girls have gotten a little easier over the past couple of weeks. The other night I couldn't help but smile when they were taking a shower together and I was listening to their animated conversation with each other. They love to play pretend together, like someone is the mommy and someone is the daddy. They love to be tickle-tortured by daddy, have dance parties with mommy, help us cook and bake, go for walks to Starbucks (vanilla milk!), play on the swings at the park, work on projects, and go to gymnastics. They are a LOT of work, but they can be very fun and sweet and I love to see the world through their eyes. I love my girls!

more snowy pics

2011-01-16T08:14:00.000-08:00

Next time we go to Denver, we need to spend some more time there. We have plenty of friends to visit there (Pete, Misty, Colleen, Summer!) and family (John, et al) and there are so many things to do. Eric would like to go out there this summer, and I'm game!

This is a view of the town of Breckenridge. It looks deceivingly pleasant - it was below freezing!

I loved seeing all the icicles hanging from lampposts, houses and cars.

A wrought-iron fence with snowy drifts.

I loved these little berries trying to make their way through the snow and survive the bitter cold.

our denver getaway

2011-01-15T15:58:00.001-08:00

Eric and I recently returned from a 5 day getaway to Denver, which is the longest we have ever been away from the girls. Eric's mom watched them for a couple of days, and then Mama Niece flew up to finish the last few days with them. Thank goodness for awesome grandparents!

We got here on Saturday and stayed in downtown Denver. We spent the evening with Eric's best friend, Pete, and his wife and 1 month old baby. Pete was one of Eric's groomsmen. They were college roommates and played rugby together at SDSU. Pete is one of the craziest people I have ever met. It is interesting to see him as a father to a little baby girl, but he showers her with affection and constantly talk about how much he loves her - it is very sweet. He treated us to a variety of hilarious stories from his college days with Eric, his time in Iraq, his days with the Border Patrol in SD, and the antics he is up to in his new security role at the Mint in Denver, where he has only worked for 1 month but is already causing a stir.

We also drove to my Uncle John's house to visit with his family for a while. Gregg and Nathan were there, so we got to see them too. It had been snowing all night and day and their house and neighborhood looked gorgeous. Connie treated all 10 of us to a homemade lunch, which was an unexpected treat. John's kids were their usual loving selves. Eric and I have been considering moving to Denver for a while, and Anna and Callie wanted to be sure I knew that they would help watch my kids if I would please move to CO. Lauren and Callie were physically trying to detain me when it was time to go because they wanted us to stay - so sweet. I'm sure John Hampton would have been equally affectionate had he not been glued to a computer game. I enjoyed my time with them so much that I tried to cancel our hotel res for our last night in Denver so we could stay with them instead, but it was too late and we couldn't cancel.

Eric and I then drove the snowy roads up to Breckenridge, CO where it was a balmy -15 degrees. Eric had to drag his body out of our warm bed to hit the slopes. - he had pre-purchased a lift ticket, so there was no getting out of it. The good news is that in that cold weather, the lift lines were virtually nonexistent.

Breckenridge has a really cute downtown area. We went into town for dinner one night and walked around for a while, but it was 15 degrees and a bit chilly. The altitude was getting to me - I felt dizzy and nauseous and couldn't catch my breath. Eric also had issues with the altitude - his heart was racing and he felt lousy.

After leaving Breckenridge, we drove to Vail Village for lunch. Vail looks like a cute little European town and we enjoyed walking around in the snow together.

On our last night in Denver, we met up with Pete, Misty, Pete's brother and his girlfriend for dinner at the Rocky Mountain Diner. This is the diner that my dad frequents on his business trips to Denver, and he is always raving about their black bottom banana cream pie, so we dragged the whole crew there to try it out - and it did not disappoint!

Eric and me at my Uncle John's house.

Warming up in Breckenridge after walking around town in freezing temperatures.

Pete, Misty and their newborn daughter, Aubrey.

Eric and me on the front porch of my Uncle John's house.

My cousins - Anna, Callie and Lauren - after spending an hour outside sledding down a nearby hill.

the ranch

2010-12-31T05:15:00.001-08:00

We just returned from a quick vacation to the family ranch in Tilden, TX. It was the first trip to the ranch for the girls, and the first time Eric and I had been in about 8 years or so. The girls were excited about the trip for months beforhand. Hardly a day would go by when they wouldn't ask me about all the people and animals that we would see there. They had the time of their lives - playing with cousins, tromping in the dirt and mud, riding on the golf cart, sleeping in the cabin with their grandparents. They were extremely well-behaved, but even so, the long day of travel there and back was a bit exhausting.

The family ranch is 473 acres, with another piece of property in town that has an additional 108 acres. The ranch was once an operating cattle ranch, run by my great-grandfather, Hal, and his brother, Arthur. Arthur was born and raised on the property, and continued to live there as an adult. When my dad was a kid, he would spend time with his great-uncle Arther at the ranch house and get the giggles about the bachelor life that Arthur led - dirty dishes and silverware, loud yawns, etc. The ranch house still stands on the property, but it is in poor condition and inhabited by a variety of critters. We think the house was built in 1917, and for a long time, it was the only place for people to stay when they went out to the ranch, so the womenfolk would drive about 45 minutes away to stay at a hotel. However, some of the families have now built "cabins" out of shipping containers, and we were lucky enough to shack up with my parents in their cabin during our stay.

Get ready for a boatload of pictures!

Parker and John Hampton were best buds, running around together trying to stir up trouble.

Sophie refused to get out of her jammies all day long, so she had to be carted around so she wouldn't get all dirty.
Here comes trouble!

Awww, that's sweet!

Izzy playing in the dirt - heaven!

My parents got this fancy pants golf cart and all the grandkids and cousins love going for rides around the property.

My very fashionable girls sporting some impressive outfits.

Izzy busting some dance moves.

Eric was showing Sophie the deer and javelina in the road through the telescope. The kids go out on the golf cart and throw corn in the road to attract the animals.

Sweet Callie - I haven't seen my Uncle John's kids for a while, so it was good to spend some time with them! Callie is as sweet as can be!

Pretty girls - Lauren and Halle!

This was Day 4 of no hair-washing...gross! This is us standing in front of the ranch house. Maybe you can see why the womenfolk don't like to stay there!

merry xmas

2010-12-26T06:10:00.000-08:00

I think it's safe to say that the girls had their best Christmas EVER this year because they are finally starting to get it. However, since they are so young, Christmas to them is all about spending time running around like little wild indians with all their cousins, and I just wish I could bottle that up and preserve it. This is a picture of the girls on Christmas morning. When they woke up and came into our room, they didn't really remember that Santa had come that night, so I had to explain to them again what happens on Christmas Eve and then we all walked into the living room to see what kind of loot Santa had left for us. They were excited about the little things. They asked Santa for candy canes and probably would have been content to just receive that! They also loved their $1 glow bracelets, their cheap Go Fish and Old Maid cards and their dolls from Aunt Mary Alice.

The girls have 8 cousins on Eric's side of the family. This is a pic of the girls just with their Higgs cousins, who they ADORE. Aren't they too sweet?!

I wanted to get a picture of just Eric and me, but he had other ideas. He kept trying to give me wet kisses.

Okay, that's better. Just a regular kiss.

And even better, just a regular pic!

my izzy girl

2010-12-18T06:57:00.001-08:00

A couple more pics of Izzy with my new camera when she and I ventured to the park together last weekend while Sophie stayed home with daddy. She was being a pretty good sport considering she had told me in the car that she didn't want me to take ANY pictures of her.

I cherish moments with Izzy when she is being her sweet-natured self. She can be so loving and tender. It's a lot more enjoyable than her incessant whining. ;)

Same pictures as above, but with a pink glaze. Love this girl!

just playing around

2010-12-17T21:32:00.001-08:00

I like something about this picture of my adorable nephew, Skip, but it lacked a certain sumpin' sumpin', so I played around with it a little bit tonight to try to jazz it up a bit.

I can't remember what all I did to it, but I definitely cropped it, added texture, defined the eyes, and added some creamy black and white color - all actions from Coffeeshop. I like it ~ I think it has a little bit of POP!

nine questions

2010-12-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

Since I have been lacking any interesting ideas lately, I stole these questions from another blogger's page, and will provide my own answers here!

1. What is the worst job you've ever had?
This one is easy to answer! My best friend in high school, Camille, talked me into doing some job with her where we had to go to sporting events/concerts and get people to fill in personal contact details for a chance to win a timeshare or some such nonsense. This is a very, very bad job for someone who hates talking to strangers! I did it once and never went back.

2. What book are you reading right now?
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. It's hardback and I am trying to finish it before holiday travels so I don't feel like I have to lug it around with me. It's good, but I haven't found it to be GREAT yet. But Oprah doesn't usually let me down, so I am hanging in there.

3. Keep in touch with a bunch of friends from high school (other than on Facebook) or just a few?
Not counting Facebook, I keep in touch with ZERO high school friends! Kinda sad!

4. What is your favorite vacation spot?
Anywhere warm and sunny. Although my favorite vacation I ever went on was New York City with the hubby. We went there for Thanksgiving when I was about 4 months pregnant with the twins and it was HEAVEN! My favorite family trip was when we went to Alaska - pure awesomeness and something for everyone!

5. What did you want to be when you grew up as a kid?
A teacher or a nurse. My kids are less ambitious. Sophie keeps saying she wants to be a chocolate tree when she grows up.

6. When you text, do you write out You or do you use U?
Mostly "u". My grammar is going out with window with chatting and texting.

7. What is the last thing you did out of your comfort zone?
Hmmm. This is difficult. I don't generally do things outside of my comfort zone. I guess it would be telling my husband that I was willing to go on a ski trip. Skiing is definitely outside of my comfort zone!

8. What is something you are really good at?
HA! If Eric was answering this question on my behalf, he would say my answer would be the three-legged race (which I really AM good at, btw!). But let me try to think of a serious answer. Hmmm. Why am I having such a hard time with this? I'm really good at making a variety of super yummy desserts - like baked chocolate pudding, banana pudding, homemade ice cream, buckeye candies and biscotti.

9. What is something that you see as something you need to work on/not a strength?
PATIENCE. I find myself praying for more patience almost every day. I really, really wish I could find more patience in dealing with my kids!!! I also could use some help with my social anxiety!

wordless wednesday {silly izzy}

2010-12-15T05:00:00.001-08:00

the last of fall color

2010-12-12T13:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday improved drastically after my complaining post below because I got my new camera in the mail! Woot! This morning the girls woke up bright and early, and I let Eric sleep in because I am a nice wifey, so I took the girls out to get doughnuts. Afterwards, Sophie wanted to go home to spend time with her daddy because she said she was missing him, and Izzy and I headed out to try out my new camera. Most of the fall color here is on the ground now, but I wanted to try to capture some of it. Every time I drive by this particular house on the main drag of our town, I see all these bright yellow leaves all of the front yard, so Izzy and I swung by to take a couple pics. I like the way this one turned out.

Again, since most of the leaves are on the ground at this point, you have to point the camera south to get the fall color. ;)

saturdays

2010-12-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

Another very honest post here: Saturdays are my least favorite day of the week. Why? Because for the past semester Eric has been enrolled in a class that takes place all day on Saturdays, which means I am home alone with the kids. And they are verrrrry long days. Today I planned some activities for us to do, like making a gingerbread house and getting out of the house to see some folks. The gingerbread house-making went swimmingly, but then went it was time to head out of the house, Izzy got into one of her moods and just whined and cried nonstop for what seemed like an eternity. The problem is that nothing can snap her out of these moods. I told her that if she didn't stop, I would have to put her in her room for timeout, but she didn't stop, so I had to follow through on my word. Then once she gets put in her room, she just goes absolutely bonkers. Her screams could seriously burst your eardrums and the violent way she bangs on the door is enough to make you feel a little nervous! Meanwhile, Sophie is being soooo good, although relishing a little too much that her sister is in trouble and she is not. Sophie likes to lay on the floor by the bedroom door and tell Izzy how many more minutes she has to stay in her room, and Izzy does not take to this too fondly. Ah, well, Eric only has ONE more Saturday class, so maybe things will start to improve. I really think we need to use the 'divide and conquer' technique - each take one kid and head out of the house to get some things done. Having just one of those munchkins is about 10,000% easier than having them both and it almost feels like you are on a little vacation!

winter illnesses

2010-12-11T07:13:00.000-08:00

Well, here we go again...it's winter and time for all manner of colds and other illnesses to strike the whole family. On Tuesday, Sophie woke up crying and I spent the entire night in the guest room with her while she vomited all night long. Two nights later, it was Izzy's turn. While I hate to see my kids sick and the lack of sleep is rough for all of us, there is something so SWEET about the girls when they are sick. We never sleep in the same bad together, so it is a special treat for them AND for me to cuddle up in the guest bed together. They know they are supposed to be sleeping and even though they are feeling sick, they are also a little bit excited that they are getting to sleep with mommy. Sophie would wake up occassionally and talk in a really quiet, sweet voice to me telling me, "Mommy?? I love you and I am YOUR girl!!" Then she would quietly start singing a little nursery rhyme, then fall asleep for a bit, then wake up and be sick again. My night with Izzy was very similar. She would fall asleep very soundly, snore loudly like her dada, then roll all over the bed until she was pressing her warm little body right up against me. Then she would wake up and tell me strange things like "Mommy, I see a person sitting on a chair in the closet." Hmmm, scary! But then she told me it was a "pretend" person, so then I wasn't as scared. :)

They are both on the mend at the moment, although still recovering from some terrible coughs. Hopefully the rest of the winter will be smooth sailing, but that might take some kind of miracle!

worldless wednesday {the three musketeers}

2010-12-08T05:30:00.000-08:00

my xmas card dilemma

2010-12-07T05:30:00.000-08:00

Well, I have already put my Xmas cards in the mail, so this won't ruin any surprises for my millions of readers when I post this picture. I had the grand idea of making my own Xmas cards this year in Photoshop and having them printed, but then I didn't feel like doing the printing part, so I took the lazy way out and just ordered a pre-designed card through TinyPrints. But this is what I WAS going to send and I sorta love the combination of colors even though it doesn't scream Christmas in any way! Next year, I am totally printing my personally designed cards though!!

another catch-up post

2010-12-05T19:49:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year, I took the girls to San Diego to stay with my parents for a week. Eric had to stay behind and attend class almost all week, so he just came down for a couple of days. Luckily the girls at a stage now where I don't completely dread flying alone with them. The only part that is tricky is that they totally battle me every time I ask them to go to the bathroom, and then when we get on the plane, they suddenly have to go and the three of us have to squeeze into the tiny, disgusting airplane bathroom together. But, overall, they did REALLY well. What they did not do really well is SLEEP the whole time we were there. There is something about being in a new environment that brings out their insomnia. It is completely maddening. The first night they woke up crying about 5 times and I eventually had to sleep in there with them, which is a rule I have NEVER broken before, but I was soooo desperately tired. The next night, they still woke up crying several times, but I was able to avoid having to crawl into bed with them, which is a good thing since I was exhausted from having been kicked and punched in the head all night long the previous evening. After that, they got a little bit better, but they still required several visits and threats and bribes after first putting them to bed to get them to be quiet and settle down and go to sleep. Since my adorable niece, Zadie, was sleeping in the same room with them, that was an added distraction for them. My mom told me to look at it as them making memories, and that IS a pleasant spin on it, but at the time I just felt so furious with them! They completely went on a nap strike and now that we are back home, they seem to be continuing that strike with no room for negotiation. I guess I should feel happy that they lasted 3.5 years taking naps because I know a lot of kids stop napping long before that, but it is Just So Dang Hard to let go of that nap!

Now we are into the Christmas season and it is a lot of fun to watch them learn about Christmas and traditions. They helped me decorate the Christmas tree this year - it was hysterical to see ALL the decorations grouped together on a couple of main branches at about the 2 ft level. Eric made them hot cocoa that night, which they would be happy to do EVERY night! I introduced them to the concept of the advent calendar, which in hindsight maybe should have waited another year. They were not pleased to discover that they couldn't open all 25 windows at once and I had to hear about that allllll day long yesterday with lots of whining and crying. I think what they enjoy most though is to drive around in the car and look at all the Christmas lights in the neighborhoods. I remember doing that with them a lot last year because Eric was gone in the evenings a lot for school, and it would give me 45 minutes of peace and quiet as we drove around taking in the beautiful lights. This year they aren't so quiet because they are question-asking machines.

I'm still feeling overwhelmed and I've still lost my mojo in terms of photography and keeping this blog updated (amongst other things!), but I just bought myself a new camera, so there may be some hope! I can't wait to get it in the mail and try it out!! At the moment, I feel like I have NOTHING interesting to say or post, so I have been avoiding this blog like the plague!!

catching up!

2010-11-18T16:46:00.001-08:00

Wow, it's been a month since my last post! I lost my mojo again! It must be this time of year because I lost my mojo last fall too.

The girls had a fun Halloween, although they weren't terribly excited about the idea of dressing up. They were little ladybugs and they were SO cute, but they refused to wear the headband antennae and they didn't really want to wear the wings either. They loved the idea of getting candy, but they still suffer from major 'stranger danger', so getting them to go to people's houses and say the words 'trick or treat' was a little rough. We pooped out before the rest of the group that we were with, and the girls couldn't walk home because their legs were too tired, so we ended up carrying them home on our shoulders. The Giants were playing in the World Series that night, so every house we went to had the game on and at every stop people would say, "What is the score?!" and we'd all be rooting for the Giants.

That's it for now because Sophie is standing here shooting off a question per second and I can't even hear myself think!!

let's get real

2010-10-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

I assume that my girls will someday read what I write on this blog, so I don't want to be a whiner or complain about them. However, I have to confess that there are times that I just feel so OVERWHELMED with life right now. I never have enough time to get the basics done, let alone the extras. I can't bear the thought of having to make another trip to the grocery store with NO idea of what to have for dinner. I want someone to come to my house and clean all the things I hate to do: the toilets, the shower door, the fridge, the windows. I look at all the house projects that need to get done, but know they won't happen anytime soon: organizing the garage, fixing a hole in the ceiling and wall, squeaky gates and doors, the potted plant out front. I LOVE my girls with all my heart and soul. I can't imagine my life without them, and everything has changed since they came into this world. My whole perspective on life shifted and I wouldn't trade anything for the joy that they bring us. But that doesn't change the fact that sometimes it is Just So Tiring. Sometimes I can't wait until the nap time hour. Or the bed time hour. Sometimes I hope time will just go by a little more quickly so that my ears can enjoy the beautiful sound of silence. Sometimes I put them into bed knowing that I should use my few hours of solitude wisely, but too exhaused to do anything but flop on the couch and watch ridiculous TV. And I feel really, really guilty that I am not constantly enjoying every second with them. I try to, I really do. And there are SO many moments that are wonderful and happy and funny and sweet. But I just can't shake that guilty feeling. I don't want to look back in several years and kick myself for not having a smile constantly plastered on my face rather than feeling grateful for a few moments of alone time. Eric would love to add to our brood, and I would in a way as well, but when I think through it rationally, I know I just can't add anything extra into this life of mine right now. I sometimes I feel like I am slowly sinking...just barely keeping my head above water. But I know it will get easier. (It WILL get easier, right?!)

wordless wednesday {another shot of kate's baby}

2010-10-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

pumpkin patchin'

2010-10-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

After Eric took the girls to the local fire department's open house today to check out some fire trucks, giving me a few moments of solitude, I felt refreshed enough to take them out to the pumpkin patch. I LOVE doing holiday traditions with the girls. The only part that majorly sucks is when it's time to go and they are bawling because they don't want to leave. Gotta teach these girls the gratitude attitude!!!!!!!!!!!

miscellany

2010-10-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

- The girls love it when I say things like "Okie dokie artichokey", "uh oh spaghetti-o", and "after while crocodile". These sayings elicit belly laughs.

- They use the word 'yesterday' to mean any point in time: it could be a year ago, a day ago, today or tomorrow. For example, "Momma, yesterday, after nap time, will you take us to get ice cream?"

- Holy = Really. "Whoaaaaaa, Momma! Look at that HOLY BIG black dog over there!!!!!!!!"

- Their afternoon naps are sadly going to be a thing of the past in the not too distant future. This is very sad. Almost tragic.

- They LOVE to hear stories about themselves from when they were babies. Isabelle's favorite story is the one where we gave her a bath the day that we brought her home from the hospital and the second we put her in the bath, she pooped everywhere.

-Sophie says to me nearly every day; "Momma, today I be daddy's girl. Tomorrow I be your girl." In other words, she is never my girl. On the other hand, Izzy is my girl EVERY day. That girl is definitely a momma's girl!

santa barbara camping

2010-09-30T05:44:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the girls and I road-tripped down to Santa Barbara to meet up with my parents and Kate's family for a 4-day 'camping' trip. (Eric couldn't join us because of work and school.) It wasn't REAL camping because we stayed in cabins. And we were lucky enough to have a surprise guest! Kate and Tori have a new foster baby who is (maybe) named Ozzie. He was only a few days old and quite a trooper to be taken straight from the womb to the wilderness! Ain't he a cutie?!

The first night we stayed in a hotel on the beach. Not a smooth move. We should have saved the hotel night for the end! :0) The three little girls were entertained by jumping on the beds, room service, and having their fingers and toes painted.

My girls love their cousin Skip-erdoodle and like to help him get around. What sweet cousins they are.

But they leave Skip behind when they go running wide open and sideways with cousin Zadie.

My parents enjoyed giving Ozzie some TLC.

The site where we stayed was gorgeous - surrounded by trees, but walking distance from the beach.

It also wasn 't a real camping trip because we didn't have to bring our own food. We just ate at the cafe, which made it easy peasy.

The beach was gorgeous and the only place we could get away from all the god-awful GNATS! Horrendous. Poor Ozzie looked like a little Ethiopian baby with gnats all over his eyes. :(

My dad felt sorry enough for me and the drive that I had make down to Santa Barbara that he insisted on helping me drive the girls back north at the end of our trip. What a godsend! The trip home was A LOT faster, easiser and more enjoyable than my southbound trip. The girls were pretty good on the way down, but the biggest challenge was that they wanted me to get things off the floor for them every 3 seconds. I tried to have a big talk with them about driving, accidents and death, but they were not moved by my lecture.

wordless wednesday {hope she'll be a reader like her momma}

2010-09-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

baby ozzie

2010-09-26T19:51:00.001-07:00

My sister's new foster baby, hopefully future adopted son, is as cute as can be. He's super teeny tiny and he was only 5 days old in these pictures. So sweet!

my grandmother, allie

2010-09-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

My family has something that I've never heard of another family doing, although I'm sure some do, but probably not to the EXTENT that we do. We have our "family email". We have a large family, we're spread apart, and it's something we do to keep up with each other. It's not something you do just once in a while, it's more like an everyday thing. Although you may not WRITE an email to the family every day, you're probably going to RECEIVE at least one email from someone every day, and usually it's more. In fact, if you don't receive an email for a day or two, you'll tend to send an email out to the group saying, "Did I get dropped off the family email?" Sometimes the topics are pretty mundane, like what's for dinner or a list of the weekend chores. And other times the topics are deep, like feeling completely overwhelmed with sick children who are depriving you of sleep and driving you to the brink of insanity (author: me). When making a decision, you might throw it out to the family email for input, like my uncle John did when choosing names for his children (brave soul). When I had the big news about becoming pregnant with twins, my mom would ask, "When are you going to send out the family email?" It's just something that started long ago and has become a part of our daily lives.

All this brings me to say that the family email subject recently was about my grandmother, and while she is still with us, her memory has faded and we are grieving the loss of the grandmother/mother that we once had. My Grandma Allie is a very special person in my life and I treasure my memories of her. Although my girls have met her, I'm saddened that they will never know the woman that I knew. It's really a heartbreaking situation. She fought it for a long while, not wanting anyone to know the things she couldn't remember anymore. One of the things that I'm really struggling with is that I really haven't spent any time with her over the past few years. I often think of calling her or sending her a card, but I know she doesn't know who I am anymore. I'm overwhelmed (and somewhat panicked) when I think of the moment when I find out that something has happened to her and I'm so worried I'm going to regret not spending time with her, even though she would forget about my visit the moment I walk out of the door. I'm a mess ~ I can barely see the computer screen through my tears, so I'm going to switch gears and write about my positive memories about my grandmother.

My sister and I spent many hot, Texan summers spending time with my grandparents. Our time with them was never spent DOING anything in particular, which was perfectly fine with us. They didn't take us to the movies, or to a theme park, or out to eat. An exciting outing would be accompanying my grandma to the grocery store where we could get a little bouncy ball or sticker out of the machine for a quarter. Or visiting with one of my Grandma's friends who had brought a cake over in honor of our visit. We would dig through old pictures and laugh about how different everyone used to look and the funny clothes they wore. My grandfather would take us out to the local lake to go swimming, which was always a welcome treat during those scorching hot days. Kate and I would get up early, before the sun came up too high, and we would ride our bikes around the town, exploring together. We would lay in one of the bedrooms, soaking up the A/C, and read books. And we would always look forward to our coffee cup of Blue Bell ice cream after dinner. I guess that's why I still like to eat my ice cream out of a coffee cup.

My grandma was quite a character. She was a hard-working woman, raising six children and dealing with all the cooking and cleaning that came along with that. My dad says that he and a friend used to come home from school every day for lunch and my grandma would have a full-blown hot meal waiting for them. My grandma also liked to know about everyTHANG that was going on with everyBODY in town. :) When my dad was a teenager and he would come home late in the evenings, he would come into her room and tell her everything that had happened that night while she listened attentively. She also liked to listen in on others' conversations out in public and she always enjoyed an opportunity to "people watch". Whenever Eric and I are somewhere and he notices me listening to a stranger's conversation, he will say to me, "Stop Mary Alice-ing." When we were kids, Grandma liked to give us a hard time about spending too much time in the house. "My kids were always outside running around...I don't know why y'all are always in the house all the time!" And she was always talking about how you were uncouth if you did certain things, like burp. I remember sitting in her backyard one time eating watermelon and having a seed-spitting contest with her. Hmmm...maybe that was uncouth too!

Grandma also liked to play pranks on us. When Kate and I would stay with her, along with my cousin Amy, if we started to wear my Grandma out, she would start pretending like she was Aunt Petunia. She claimed Aunt Petunia was her identical twin sister who had come to give Grandma a break because us kids were wearing her out. When we would ask why they were wearing the same clothes, she would calmly explain that they talked to each other every morning and planned their outfits. Aunt Petunia was a little more rough & gruff with us, saying things like, "I can't believe you left this mess over here...no wonder your Grandma needed to leave for a while! Don't you know how to pick up after yourself?!" HA! It's so funny to think back on it now. I may have to do this with my own kids too. While we were pretty certain Aunt Petunia was really just our Grandma pretending to be someone else, I have to confess that we wondered a little. And I remember one time when Grandma was driving Kate, Amy and I back from the lake and the sun was starting to go down. We were driving through a street that was completely canopied by trees, and she started telling us a scary story about how someone had escaped from the state hospital and she hoped we didn't run across him...and, oh no, now she was lost and how were we going to get home... We were TERRIFIED!!! So, if you didn't know my grandma and you read this, you would think she is insane, but she wasn't and I think it's pretty darn hilarious.

But my all time favorite treasured memory of my grandma is something that she drilled into us whenever we visited her. You must always put things in their PUTTIN' PLACE! This is something I think about probably daily. My grandma always had a clean home and she insisted that we always put our stuff away in it's proper place. Although I wish my home was as clean as hers, I still am always thinking about the proper puttin' place for all our stuff. It affects my purchasing too. If I see something I like but I don't know where I would put it, I just won't buy it. Simple as that.

I wouldn't say that my grandma was the most affectionate person in the world. Her affection was more of a pat on the back or the leg, rather than a long hug. But I always, ALWAYS knew that she loved the heck out of me. I remember her often saying to me, in that country voice of hers, "I LOVE my granddaughter!" (pronounced: granddaughRter). And I LOVE my Grandma Allie. Always have. Always will.

my first cake smash

2010-09-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

What fun I had today taking photos of my co-worker's daughter, who just turned one. We did a little cake smash shoot, my first ever. It was a blast! Now, if I had only done this for my own kids!! Sigh.

campfire stories

2010-09-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

When Eric and I went to San Diego last weekend, we snuck away for an evening out together while my parents watched the girls. I loved this family email that my dad sent out.

We've had so much fun this weekend with everyone in the pool, all of us going to the zoo, making daily trips to McDonald's for hot fudge sundaes, and lots of visiting. My very favorite part happened last night. After dinner and after our night swim, we gathered around a big fire at the firepit. When it got dark Denise asked me to tell some stories. I thought of a good one and started "when I was a little boy at the ranch." That's as far as I got before Zadie interrupted me and started to tell some doozies about when she and her brother and her Mom's were at the ranch. She told stories about riding horses and a pig (yes, riding a pig). Before long Izzie interrupted Zadie and trumped her with even taller tales. The two of them got into a story telling competition. Half the time they were both talking at the same time. I felt like I was sitting by a campfire listening to Clay Wyatt talk (family member known for tall tales). I couldn't have been prouder. Denise and I laughed till we cried. Sophie is a listener. After my opening sentence I was too. No one alive could compete with Izzie and Zadie's stories last night. When we put them to beg they were still talking a blue streak (just like Clay).

a sleeping child

2010-09-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

What is it about a sleeping child? One of my favorite things in the world to do is to go into the girls' room before I go to bed and check on them. Sometimes I get the giggles because they are in the strangest positions, especially Izzy. That girls sleeps in twister-like movements. Often they are laying in the exact same position, and that makes me laugh too. And it makes me think about them both being in my womb at the same time and snuggling up next to each other. They are just so peaceful and calm, so innocent and sweet. I kiss the tops of their warm little heads and try to imprint these sweet memories into my mind for ever more.

izzy in the garden

2010-09-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

There's something about this photo of Izzy that warms my heart. The two little braids that she wanted in her hair because that's what her cousin had too. Exploring in her Mama Niece's garden. Her tiny little body under the tall arch. I love that girl to pieces.

tattoo artists

2010-09-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

Here the girls are playing happily together while the work on an arts and crafts project. Looks like a good time to sneak away for two minutes and get something done.

Oops! Never trust a toddler with paint. Izzy said that they were giving themselves tattoos. Zadie was going all out - not only the face, but working on the arm sleeve too, and she's working TWO paintbrushes!

Then my mom read the paint label, saw it was made in China, and promptly made the girls clean up!

the three musketeers

2010-09-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a 4-day trip to paradise, a.k.a. my parents' house in San Diego. My mom asked us to come down for a visit because she was watching my niece, Zadie, while Zadie's mamas were in China. We had the BEST trip!!! It was so fun to watch the three little girls together playing their little hearts out. This is the first time that I REALLY felt like they enjoyed each other's company and played together rather than side by side. They laughed and interacted and talked to each other, and it was almost too adorable to watch.

I absolutely loved watching my wild and crazy niece in action. When we first drove up from the airport, Zadie and my mom were waiting for us on the front porch. Zadie came RUNNING wide open and sideways to the car when she saw us, and Izzy SHRIEKED with joy when she saw Zadie and my mom.

Zadie has a ZEST FOR LIFE!! Every time we went swimming, she would jump off the ledge into my arms and she would maniacally spin around in my arms while she laughed uncontrollably. She is DETERMINED. I watched her try to get herself out of a baby raft for a full 15 minutes and every time I asked her if she needed help, she said assuredly, "I almost got it." She is PERSISTENT. We went to the zoo one evening and on the way back to the house, she asked my parents 23 times if they could please go back to the zoo and get her old chewed-up gum that had been thrown out at dinnertime. She is a GOOD EATER! Zadie rarely had any meltdowns during our stay, but all of the ones that she did have were related to food, like when my dad tried to take her plate away at the zoo restaurant when she wasn't quite done, and she got the biggest, saddest alligator tears. And she LOVES her cousins! To keep the kids in line, we rewarded them with the occasional M&M or chocolate-covered blueberry. Zadie heard Sophie say that she only wanted green M&Ms, so Zadie only wanted green ones too after that.

Does it look like these cousins are having fun together or what???

family photo day

2010-09-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

I'm only willing to subject us to this punishment once per year. At least until the girls become hams and start loving their time in front of the camera. It was a bit of a torture treatment having these photos done. I think the worst part was just getting out the door. The girls have minds of their own (darn them anyway!) and want to have a say in what the wear and it can just make life so darn difficult sometimes. I also felt sorry for the photographer, Lauren, because she had to work very hard to get the tiniest, occasional smile out of these girlies. Can't imagine what kind of miracle it would take to get these girls to both smile at the same time - I even pulled out bubble gum and that was ineffective! I haven't posted my favorite photo since I'm reserving that for our Christmas card. :)

wordless wednesday {beauty}

2010-09-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

hide & seek

2010-08-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

My sister wrote a cute post recently on her blog about playing hide and seek with Zadie, and how Zadie's favorite hiding spot was under the couch with half her body sticking out. Ha! It made me think that I really need to post about playing hide and seek with my girls too because it is hilarious. They still haven't mastered the technique. First of all, they refuse to hide without either Eric or me. They don't want to hide alone or even with each other. So, I usually take one of the girls to go hide and then Eric and the other girl will come look for us.

One of the spots I tend to hide in is the guest bathtub with the shower curtain closed. It's very dark in there and when I have Sophie with me, I get the giggles because she thinks we're having some romantic moment or something. We are being very quiet, standing in the dark with me holding her, and she starts leaning her head very close to me, kissing me very softly on the cheek, and whispering in my ear that she loves me. It cracks me up every time.

Then as soon as Izzy and Eric find us, Izzy wants to hide in the bathtub too, which is fine except that she announces it to all of us. "I wanna hide in da baftub!!!" Kind of takes away from the whole point of playing hide and seek, but you cannot convince her otherwise.

Finally, when Eric is getting tired of playing and he wants to find us quickly, depending on who I am hiding with, he'll just say, "Sophie (or Izzy), are you in here?!" Of course we are supposed to be quiet and not let him know where we are, but the girls get overly excited and blurt out, "Yeah!!!" Ha! Game over.

regrets

2010-08-30T06:22:00.000-07:00

One thing I most definitely regret about my pregnancy and immediately after the girls' birth is that I didn't have any professional photographs taken. What the heck was I thinking?! I would love to look back at pictures of Eric and me right before our whole worlds got turned upside-down ~ when our eyes twinkled with excitement about upcoming parenthood, but we really had no clue what was awaiting us. And newborn photography is the most delightful, beautiful art form around. And TWO babies are even better than one! When they are all snuggled up next to each other and they are bare naked...it's the best!

The only newborn shot that I have of my girls is the one below, so I've just got to work with it and make the best of it. Here it is SOOC (straight out of the camera)...I've always disliked how red Izzy's (L) skin tone and all the milk crusties around her mouth.

I didn't edit the photo below all too much, but I just used some actions to remove some of the redness on Izzy's skin, smooth out the crusties and give their skin a bit of a glow. If this is all I've got from their newborn stage, at least I won't have to look at those crusties from here to eternity.