Pickle........

will be here in six weeks!!!!!

It has been about 2.5 years, but with Pickle's arrival coming, I thought blogging would be a fun way to keep everyone updated with our crazy "always something" lives.

So, to get us started......below is a photo of Pickle at 32 weeks.

Christmas Morning...........

........was a blast!!!! If you look closely at this photo, you can see that Claire is running so fast that her hair is streaming behind her. The excitement was out of sight.


This is Jack with his Bakugan Battle Pack. No, no spelling error. These creatures are all the rage this season. Jack LOVES them!!!!!

My little Diva with her make-up kit.

There's a story behind the Nerf Gun. I am not sure how I feel about it, but Jack was over the moon about it and has not put it down.

The Christmas MESS!!!!!!!

These Sticky Buns have become a Christmas morning tradition at our house.....Yum!!!!

Merry Christmas Daddy!!!!!! We misss you lots!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Operation "real" Christmas Tree 2008

I told John that I was going to buy a fake Christmas tree this year since he was not going to be here to help us with a real one and .....................he was not ok with that idea!!!!!! So, I enlisted the help of our friends Matt and Melissa to get a "real" Christmas tree. We got all bundled up in our Southern California "winter gear" (shorts and t-shirts) and picked out our tree. The kids had more fun climing than anything else.

Claire wanted to get this cute little tree, but in the end..................

............we ended up with this one. It is a beautiful tree and most of our visitors this year thought it looked so perfect that it must be fake (I promise John, it was not).

Christmas Recital

Claire performed in the Christmas Recital for her dance studio at the beginning of December. And, despite a wardrobe malfunction where the red ribbon halter on her costume broke, she did a great job!



Here they are playing with the tutus from Claire's costumes. Leave it to Jack and Claire to have fun playing dress up with what ever they can get their hands on.

School Pictures.......

I wasn't crazy about Jack's school pictures that came home this week. The school had arranged for any re-takes to be done this Wed Nov 5th. I thought about taking the company up on their offer but decided that I might take the kids to do pictures of together and did not have the pictures re-done. Today I came home to this............

I guess the pictures I was going to have done of the kids together will have to wait!!!!!

Disneyland.............

.........was so much fun!!!! When Jack was two and Claire was four, I took them to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World. The hot, humid August weather was quite sticky and I am not sure who was more tired at the end of the day...the kids or me and Beanie. Jack has no memory of the trip and I am not sure if Claire really remembers or if she just thinks she does because of the photos she has seen.

This trip was much better. For starters, John was able to be there to share in the fun as well as Auntie Carolyn who spent a long weekend visiting with us. The weather was much better this time around. We did have a few sprinkles on Sun morning, but it was nothing compared to the heat and humidity in Florida.

Claire is turning out to be quite the thrill seeker. She even went on Space Mountain and LOVED it!!!! Jack did like the HUGE drop on Splash Mountain, but is still not so sure about the quick, jerky turns and sudden drops of the roller coasters. He went on the Matterhorn but that was just because we were deceived by the minimum height requirement. Jack said he will "never go on that one again!!"

Happy Halloween.........

The wig and helmet didn't last long. Claire said the wig was itchy and Jack said that there wasn't any air for him to breath in the helmet.