We're almost off. . .

Sunday we are off to California. We haven't been back since December 2004. Our family has doubled in size since then. Many of them have had kids of their own and this will be the first time meeting them. My parents are meeting us there for two weeks. We are going to have a party for Obie, go to my grandma's for Christmas, visit Cinderella at Disneyland and have a blast just hanging out. We can't wait to see everyone! More to come when we return.

To my Obie Bubba...

November 2008

October 2008

September 2008

August 2008

July 2008

June 2008

May 2008

April 2008

March 2008

Feb. 2008

January 2008

December 2007

On Sunday, December 14th Obie will be 1! We have had him one whole year. He is the sweetest little guy over. I love his adventurous spirit, the way he hangs is head and sobs when he is told no, the way he points to tell us what he wants, his constant need to climb onto whatever is in his way, how he smiles at anyone who talks to him, his determination and lack of fear, his love for his sister, his scary roar, his love of books, his drooliness, his little sounds and fierce sounds, his flippy hair, how he splashes like crazy in the bath, his facination with Barney, and the way he cuddles when he gets sleepy. He is such a delight. His big blue eyes are to die for and he couldn't be more special. Today he weighed in at 21 lbs. 2 oz. and 30 1/2 inches. (25% weight and 75% height)

Did I Mention. . .

Christmas is so much more fun with kids. This morning our plan was to decorate the tree. We woke up and to my surprise. . .I was very surprised. . .there was snow on the ground. It was only 8:30am. but Mike and Grace pulled on their warmest clothes and rushed out. After attempting to make a snowman, digging with garden shovels and making snow angels they headed inside. We had breakfast, decorated the tree, wore Santa hats. . .the dogs even got on from Grace. . .and went to Barnes and Noble for some "out of the house" time.

Cute Story: After decorating the tree Grace told us to line up. We didn't know what she was talking about but we followed directions. Grace was in the middle and Mike and I on either side. She then insisted we sing. "Sing Tree, Sing Tree Song!" We tried not to laugh but smiled and sang "Oh Christmas Tree." We weren't sure that was what she was wanting but gave it a try. With a huge smile she chimmed in with us. . .none of us really knew the words. . .but we tried, and thats all that mattered to her. She was so proud.

My First Thanksgiving. . .

Of course I've had Thanksgiving before but this time I did it the real grown up type of way. Yup. me. I invited people over, cleaned, cooked, and entertained. Well. . .kind of. Here is the proof. . . .

We did most of the work the night before. . .Mike helped a lot. We did have on minor problem. This lovely roasting pan managed somehow to get a whole in the bottom. All the juice leaked out leaving us with a smokey mess and a yucky oven. We managed to save some of the juice for gravey and we got most of the burned juice off the bottom of the oven. No one was here yet so all was well. Mike also had a first. He carved the turkey all by himself. He did quite a nice job. I also made my first apple pie ever. The inside was from scratch and, I admit, I cheated on the crust but I was pretty impressed with my creation. So impressed, I've had a piece everyday since Thursday.

Mission Complete

We hiked up a hill, spotted a lovely little tree, cut in down and brought it all the way home. We even managed to get a family picture will all four of us. . .you can't see the real one since Christmas cards will be coming soon. Ha ha. . .you will have to wait. We have even managed to get some of our Christmas decorations up. The only problem is both kids are a little too interested in the Christmas tree, if you know what I mean. Pictures coming soon. . .I just need to get them off the camera.

Tomorrow. . .

Watch out Christmas Trees here we come. . .with a saw and a wagon. . .Ah Ha Ha HA!

Quick Update. . .

Here is just a quick little update since. . .well. . .almost a month ago. Mike's putting the kids up for bed and I just have a minute.
So. . .
Grace has started asking questions: What's that called and Why? She also walks around and says "Happy Kwanzaa!" (She and Obie just got a Barney DVD that talks about different celebrations, we will soon start working on Marry Christmas) She got her first hair cut and is very proud of herself. No screaming. We stumbled across Santa Wednesday and has a successful visit. No Screaming. She even sat on his lap which is a huge improvement from last year.

Obie has started taking a few steps at a time now. Crawling is still fast so he usually chooses that mode of transportion. He loves cars and pushes them all over the house making motor sounds. He knows where his belly is and loves to pat it. He is getting his two top teeth and refuses anything mushy. Obie also got a hair cut. He did pretty well. He was a wiggle worm but there was no screaming which everyone appreciated.

We had two couples over for Thanksgiving and I cooked up a storm. It was my first time ever to officially make a Thanksgiving meal. Everything turned out pretty good. My cheapo aluminum pan had a hole in it and just dripped everywhere in the oven and we were almost smoked out of the house. No one was here yet so it wasn't too bad. . .I guess it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without something happening. I even made an apple pie from scratch. . .except the crust. . .it actually turned out pretty yummy.

Mikes on the end of his class so that's not fun. We are off to California in two weeks for Christmas. We haven't been back since 2004. Since then our family has doubled in size. Wierd. We can't wait. OK. That's all for now. Its time to rest. Oh and just so you all know I didn't go shopping in the wee hours of this morning. . .

Today. . .with my Loves.

Today looked like fall but sure didn't feel like it. The high was around 75 degrees. We have a million things to do. . .laundry, cleaning, baths, making baby food, and the list goes on. . .but we decided to have some fun. We played in the leaves, danced to Frank Sinatra and built a super tall tower. The list can wait; the dancing cannot.

Happy Halloween

Here are our two little monsters. . .well not exactly. We had a princess. . .or according to her Cinderella. . .and we also had the cutest little lion ever. The growling completed it. Here is a little peek of the two dressed up for the nights festivities. Someone in our neighborhood we giving out free hay rides. . .yep. . .with a tractor and even Hay. Grace wanted to have a piece of candy after each house she visited. We ended the night with a second visit to our neighbors, Tom and Cindy's. Grace kind of invitied herself in for a short little visit.

A typical day in my life. . .

Did I mention,

I'm a Mom.

Tomorrow is. . .

Halloween. Every morning when I get ready Grace asks if she can put hot pink finger nail polish on. I always so no. Well, today I decided every little Cinderella needs pink nails so I painted her fingers and toes. . .she loved it.

Story

We walked down to Main Street today. We packed sandwiches and ate at the river. Got ice cream and walked home. One the way home we have to walk up a pretty steep hill. A double stroller fulled with two not so little guys isn't always the easiest thing to do. We today we almost get to the top, the back of my legs burning, and Grace turns around looks at me and says "Mama. . ." I said "yes Grace" trying not to sound too out of breath. She replies, "You sweating?" It was so funny but her concern was so thoughtful. I love my little Grace.

Mr. Obie

To be fair, here are a few pictures of Obie. He hasn't been cooking, but he has been eating. Still no walking but two top teeth are about to enter the world. He sleeps from 7:30pm to at least 7:30am and love to explore. We love his flippy hair. . .he reminds up of an umpa lumpa. . .and we love umpa lumpas. He's the sweetest little guy ever. He loves his Daddy and his new trick is feeding Juma. . .although he isn't very sneaky. He gets the biggest grin when he does it.

Miss Gracie the cook. . .

Since its been cold I've been attempting to find things to do in the house, there are only so many times we can watch Cinderella. So during Obie's nap we made some pudding. It started as simple butterscotch pudding but ended up as little jackolanterns. Basically, we just added raisins to make a face, but we were pretty excited.

Just a few things. . .

First of all the funny picture. Obie thought it was hilarious to press his face up against this rubbermaid box. . .I thought it was pretty interesting too. Next for some reason Grace and Obie won't look at me when I want to take their picture together. I finally got one but it turned out a wee bit blurry. Next I found a cool site called clearcheckbook.com. It makes graphs and all kinds of niffy things. . .you just have to put in what you spend. Thats about it. OH, and Saturday we went to a Life is Good festival with free games and stuff. Grace decided she wanted a kitty cat on her cheek. There were not kitty cats. . .just Jake the life is good guy. We tried that. She didn't like it and rubbed most of it off. . .so that think on her cheek is part of Jake. Its a tatoo. . .and we weren't to quick to figure out it wasn't going to be removed very easily. . .so there it sits, starring at us saying "Silly Parents, what were you thinking. . ."

Last week. . .

So my dad flew in on Friday for a quick visit. He has meeting in Alabama so her flew here and then drove down. Grace and Obie loved it. We got cheeseburgers (Grace and PaPas favorites), went to Target (and found a princess dress for $1.97 Yahoo Couldn't pass that up), went to the pumpkin patch, got beaten in Risk and went to Chuckie Cheese. It doesn't get better then that! Here are some pictures.