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.

Concrete.....

vs. Skin...............

Concrete Wins Every Time!!!!!!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago Jack came home looking like this. Apparently he was riding his skateboard on his belly and he hit a bump. The result......not pretty as you can see. I guess the helmet, knee pads and elbow pads can only do so much. A rough night followed as Jack tried to use the mouthwash before bed while I had my back turned. You probably heard his scream from your house.

It's Always Fun...

.....to visit with friends!!! We had to opportunity to visit some of our close friends before heading home from the wedding. It was so much fun to see all of the kids playing so well together. I only wish we lived closer so that we could see them more often. Here are some of the highlights from our stay:


Getting everyone to stay still long enough for a group photo was a bit challenging!!!!

The girls.

Nancy and Mark.................

........are MARRIED!!!!!! We had a blast and so did the kids. It was a busy few days, but they were filled with memories that we will have forever. Here are some of the photo highlights:


This is Claire holding Auntie Nancy's dress just before we went to the church.

Jack and Claire just before the big event. They were so excited!!!

This is all three of the flower girls with their beautiful bouquets. They looked adorable and all three of them did a great job.

The Wedding!!!!! I had trouble getting photos while watching Jack. This isn't the best photo, but it does give a good back/side view of The Dress.

This item was neatly wrapped and placed in the church pew to bribe Jack. He did walk down the isle with the ring bearer pillow, but from what I heard (body language confirmed it) he was grumpy faced about it. I could not see or take photos because part of the bribe was that I had to walk with him.

This was taken as we walked to the reception. I especially love that Jack has his hands in his pockets. He picked out the tuxedo with tails himself.

The cake was beautiful and yummy too. It was driven by a friend of the best man from two hours away. Driving two hours with a 4-tier cake on a platter in the back of your car with no box................Now that's a high stress job if you ask me.

Congratulations to Nancy and Mark!!!!!!!!!!!!! We hope you had as much fun as we did.

Funny Jack......

So tonight, as I prepared for our trip to Cleveland for Nancy's wedding (Flower Girl and Ring Bearer photos coming soon), I picked up the flip and turned it on just to make sure that there were no video clips that needed to be down loaded. Well, I found 4 videos that Claire must have taken of Jack during an unsupervised moment (I am sure none of you have ever had these moments with your kids?!). Here are a couple of the videos. I hope they make all of you LOL.

"Myself was telling me......

......that wasn't a good shirt to wear." This morning I picked out a cute collared shirt for Jack to wear to school with his school jeans. He put the shirt on and looked so cute. I left for work and when I arrived home today the shirt was on the floor in a ball and he was wearing a different shirt. I asked him if he wore the other shirt to school and he said "No, myself was telling me that wasn't a good shirt to wear." I don't know if I should be worried that he is hearing voices, or proud that he came up with such a creative way to get out of wearing a collared shirt?!

It scares me ........

...when Jack and Claire do things like this. Although, I have to say they really had a good time!!!!!!

Guess who came to our house?................

.......The Tooth Fairy!!!!! Claire's tooth was so loose that it was horizontal in her mouth. On Saturday night Elisabeth finally pulled it out.

She put it in this cute little "Tooth Fairy" box that Beanie gave her and The Tooth Fairy left her a silver dollar with a little note.

And we're Off.........

........to Kindergarten and Second Grade!!!
Jack and Claire were really excited for their first day.
Jack got a little nervous when he had to get in line with the other kids to walk into his class. But, when I picked him up he said that he had "the best day ever"!!!!
Claire locked her bike up like a pro and headed off to her class. No nerves for her, just excitement.

We are looking forward to a great year!!!!!!

"You've got to be kidding me".......

Jack saw a photo of his little friend in a cap and gown for his preschool graduation today and the conversation that followed went something like this:

Jack - Mom....has Connor been going to college?
Mom - No Jack, that is a photo from Connor's preschool graduation.
Jack - You've got to be kidding me, I have never seen that before.
Mom - LOL

Skateboards........

....scare me!!! But, we gave in and got one for Jack last weekend. He is really pretty good at it. He even has a few "tricks" and was able to eat ice cream on friday night as he skateboarded down by the ferry landing. I was impressed!