Happy New Year!

From us to you!

I skate...

At some point in the last couple of months (maybe the last month) Noah has started to use the "I" and "me" in his sentences when he refers to himself. "I want drink of water" or "Help me"... It is so amazing to watch him learn how to talk. He uses full sentences and wants to do everything himself. They just grow up so fast!!! He isn't a baby anymore, he certainly doesn't weigh as much as a baby, I can barely carry him across the street.

He was trying to ride a skateboard today ("I want skateboard"), he was so engrossed with figuring it out and trying to get on it that he didn't realize how far he had walked down the sidewalk. He turned around and was a little surprised at where he was. He would put it down, put his foot on it, then stomp on it and sometimes he'd hit it right on the tail and make it flip over, then he'd pick it up and step his foot on it and start the cycle all over again. All the while he would be walking down the sidewalk away from the house.

Ah well, it's fascinating to watch him (& the other kids) grow and learn.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yep today is my birthday. I had a fabulous day (really, it was!) I went to IKEA by myself and got to walk around without rushing and racing through the store. I sauntered through the store picking out the things I went there for. It was great! Then I came home to spend the rest of the day with my family. My parents and brother and sister, and Corey's mom came over and we had dinner. I got presents :-) and relaxed with my family. It was a great time.

Noah is sick with a fever and cough. He is miserable. I hope he gets some sleep tonight because he didn't sleep well last night at all. Looking forward to 2 or 3 days from now and everyone should be feeling better...I'm sure we can make it to then!

Party...

My sister hosted a kids Christmas party a few days before Christmas. She went all out for it. There were loads of crafts to do, Santa letters to write and gingerbread cookies to decorate. She had kids food (chicken nuggets) chips, cookies, candies and apple cider. Our cousins and their children were invited to come and everyone had a blast. We got there a little late but still had fun and got to mingle with family. Ben and Hannah had already written letters to Santa (never mailed but still they wrote them) so we skipped over that part and the dove right into decorating gingerbread cookies. They were really interested in playing with their cousins so that is what they spent most of the time doing.

Another thing that my kids got to do for the first time was get their height measured onto the family board. When we were little and growing taller we would always go to our Nana's house and put our little mark on the door frame, marking how tall we were and the date. I'm sure many of us do this with our kids. We have done this for our kids but they have never done it on the original board from Nana's house. So that was a treat!

Here are some pictures of the evening. 

All the kids

Ben's cookie decorating

Hannah being measured

Crafts with friends....

The week before Christmas we invited our playgroup over to play and do a little seasonal craft. My kids love to have everyone over and they are really good at sharing their toys and finding some for the younger kids to play with.
We were making snowflakes for hanging on a tree or just to have hanging around the house somewhere. Not many people came but that made it more fun because we didn't have to limit the number of snowflakes the kids made. They could just make as many as they wished! Another activity that was going on was in the wagon. One of the Dads came with his two kids and pushed his kids (& others) in the wagon around the backyard...at one point he had 4 children in the wagon as he zoomed around the backyard with them. Then the kids were tired of playing in the house so they went inside and played in bed, where they pretended to nap. SO cute!

Noah...

on his new Christmas present. He's pretty good at it and now he can keep up with everyone. We have to run after him instead of having to hang back with him as he rides. He is so happy. Thank you Granny and GranDad!

Finished!

Santa brought Ben a Lego crane this year. He asked for it last year and...well Santa didn't bring it AND Ben remembered that he didn't bring it. So this year that is all he wanted Santa to bring. He got it and started building it on Christmas day around noon. He worked on it diligently until he finished it today. What a builder! He loves it and has ben playing with it all evening. Hannah even got a little time with it while Ben was in the bath. The crane itself is so well put together that it won't come apart easily. It's reinforced pretty well. We don't have to worry about Noah pulling it apart, and that is a good thing.

I have pictures but am still trying to figure out how to upload them with my new computer...I may have to go to the old one to do that for now...

Family photo...

Just wishing you a happy holiday...whichever one you might celebrate!
With love from us,
Jen, Corey, Benjamin, Hannah & Noah

Merry Christmas!

What a wonderfully busy day! I have done the same route around the county every year since I was a little girl. We have added a little since we've had children so it's even busier!

Last night our families came over to our house and we hosted our 9th annual potluck style Christmas Eve dinner. We roasted a turkey and everyone else brought the sides and salads. It all came together and was delicious! Best of all, I don't have to do all the work! We went to mass at the Mission San Diego de Alcala at 4:00 and then came home to finish up with dinner and then open presents. Boy what a task it is to wait for opening presents for children! They asked every couple of minutes about when they could open presents and then when they finally could, it was a little bit of organized mayhem. Paper flying everywhere and presents being torn open. Everyone was happy. We also made some sugar cookies for Santa, because we hadn't made any yet, why not in the middle of things, right? The kids didn't mind, they actually liked it because they really needed to do something while they waited to open presents.

Today started out with Ben waking up early to find that Santa had come, eaten the cookies and drank the milk we left for him. He also discovered all the presents that Santa left unwrapped by the tree and scoped everyone's out. When Hannah and Noah woke up he told them all about what they got. We started opening presents at 8am and were finished at exactly 8:25am. This was Christmas present opening #2. The kids played for a while with their toys and Grandpa came over around 11am to give his presents (money :) ) but this was a quick stop (opening #3). This afternoon we went to my aunts house in Coronado and exchanged presents with them, we will open them tomorrow. And after that we went to my Granmothers house in La Jolla for the crazy present opening frenzy with my Dad's side of the family. It is crazy and the kids were exhausted. They opened presents threw them into bags and we loaded them in the car. They'restill in bags and now the kids are sleeping. I am on my new computer enjoying the quiet and looking forward to tomorrow...a day full of doing nothing but hanging out at home, or perhaps we'll go for a hike. We are not going anywhere near a mall or a store!

I have pictures, but I'll have to get those uploaded tomorrow... I'm headed off to bed!

Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful day!

Monkeys...

We are not the only monkeys in our family. There are lots of us in the area. The ones we see the most are my family (parents, sister, her kids, & my brothers). We love to go and visit for the day, or for dinner, a party or just to go and hang out. They have a great house and there is lots of things for the kids to do and explore. As we leave though is the most fun...for the kids to get a great goodbye like the send off they give us is really fun. We get into our car and the kids get all buckled into their carseats, we open the kids' windows and start to drive off ever so slowly to watch. As we start to go, my family starts to "ooo-ooo" and "aaa-aah" like monkeys and dance around waving their hands in the air. Everyone gets into it and we all end up laughing. We do it when anyone (family) comes to our house, we try to give them a big send-off too. Here is a picture I took of my family on one such nights...doing the "monkey dance".

Snore...

As I was putting Noah down for a nap today he decided to snore and pretend that he was sleeping. He rolled over and squeezed his eyes shut to show me that he was sleeping, with a little noise going in and a little squeak coming out. Then he'd roll over again, fiddle with his fingers and snore again. He finally did fall asleep after about 20 minutes of this...an no he wasn't snoring when he finally did. Funny little monkey.

Park day...

When we got to the park today my kids were all playing in different areas, they needed a little time to warm up to being there, I guess. They were also very near each other but not playing together. Needed some time apart too, I guess. A friend of ours (& fellow bloggin' mama) from our Thursday playgroup showed up with her daughter and they started to play together. They played very nicely and I caught them on camera going down the slide together. Ben said that they were on a rocket because they were counting down from 10 and then sliding down. I love it when they play with the other kids that we know, it makes me smile.

Being loners...

Hannah (in pink) Noah (almost behind the pole) & Ben (on the twirly thing in yellow)

Ben, Hannah and Eliza

We're ready...

We bought a tree last night and today we decorated it. Ben and Hannah have been asking us for weeks about when we are going to get a tree, when we're going to get the decorations out and today we finally did it. We have all the decorations out that our little house can handle. We were quite busy for several hours putting all the balls on, the ornaments on and the lights. We went with LED lights this year and we are feeling pretty good about it. We have them outside too. Oh we also finished our tree and snowman and they are outside for all to admire. I think we did a pretty good job at them! The tree lights up with the house lights at night.

So the questions have stopped for tonight. I'm sure the questions will change to "When is it going to be Christmas?" in the morning.

Snowman and Christmas tree Decorating together
Noah checking out Snoopy hanging from the box

Beans...

A few months ago Ben planted some seeds in a little pot and then transferred them to a larger pot. It has taken a while because the weather is much cooler now, but the plus-side of it is that there aren't any bugs or critters to worry about.

Today we picked some of the beans and tonight we ate them up. Delicious! Ben was so proud of his beans. He left a lot on the vine so that we can have some another day, so we ate 9 beans tonight. They are french beans, long, fuzzy and the beans themselves are dark purple! So yummy from the garden. And we have more for another day!

Sewing…

A couple of months ago I taught Ben how to sew with a needle and thread. He was very excited to learn since it is something that he sees me do a lot. We cut a few pieces of scrap fabric and sewed around the edge to make a little bag. Hannah was napping but when she woke up she wanted to join in. So we sat and sewed some little bags that they play with.


The next day we got a bigger piece of scrap fabric, drew an outline of a bear on it and then we started with making a stuffed bear. We picked buttons out for the eyes, nose and mouth then sewed them on. Then we started the outline and went all the way around until we got to the point where we could stuff it. I helped along the way and now (after a couple of weeks of hard work) they have a homemade stuffed bear. Hannah’s is named ‘Helena’ and Ben’s bear is named ‘Paint’. They want to learn how to embroider now… I am planning to get them sewing at a machine when they are ready.

Day 1 - small bags

Day 1 - concentration

See it doesn't hurt my thumb...

All done!

Tree trimming...

We joined my cousins tonight for the church's tree trimming celebration. St. Nick was there too. After the prayers the kids got to help decorate the tree with balls and apples. Ben was so excited to be a 6 year old because the 6-8 year olds got to help put the pieces of the creche together. They were old enough to be big helpers. Then we were all invited to the hall for dinner: sloppy joe's. We knew the kids wouldn't eat but went over anyway. They ate the carrot sticks and the cookies. Then they hit the craft table. Our kids were so busy that they had to kick us out of the hall, because it was time to leave! It was a fun night for the kids, we may go next year too!

Tree is all decorated!

Ben's snowman is jumping rope

Old-fashioned Christmas...

Every year, since Corey and I have been married, we have gone to the old-fashioned Christmas in La Mesa. It is much more low-key than the December lights in Balboa Park so I think that is why we go. Much easier to keep track of 3 with little crowds. They usually have carolers, puppeteers, Santa, rides, vendors and more. This year it rained. So we went hoping to spot Santa and go home. But there was no one there. And if they were there, they were packing up to leave. We didn't leave empty handed though. We headed in to Java Mama and hung out until the rain stopped, enjoyed a cup of hot cocoa and watched the children play together in the play area. Too bad for the rain. I am so glad that we went to Coronado last night, at least the kids got to see Santa!

Kids in the rain Hannah riding on the little roller coaster

Open house...

When I was a little girl, when we were in town, we would go to the Open House in Coronado. A night when all the businesses on Orange Ave stay open later for the festivities. Some shops would serve egg nog or warm apple cider and offer candies to the kids. Santa Clause rode down the street on a fire engine and would stop and hand out candy canes and other candies to the long line of children.
Tonight I took my children to the open house and they really enjoyed it. I don't know why we haven't been with the kids. It is bigger and better than before. There is a nice sized parade (I had thoughts of the 4th of July parade), Santa still comes down the street on a fire engine but doesn't hand candies out and the stores were open late offering egg nog, cider or cookies. He lit the giant tree on Orange Ave and everyone cheered. We found my cousin and her children, then my sister and Ryan. We walked around and enjoyed the night. On our way home we spotted the balloon buy and waited in line for balloons. Hannah got a flower and Noah and Ben got swords. The boys' balloons popped by the time we got home, Hannah's is still alive.
I'm sure we'll go again, tonight was so much fun!

Watching the parade

Isaac in the parade (my cousins son in blue)
Levi and Ben being monkeys

Friends...

We met with our friends today. We won't see them tomorrow at the park for our playgroup because they won't have transportation. So we met earlier! The kids have so much fun together. Today they ran around the playground structures, shared oranges, threw branches in the little stream, played "mommies and babies"...

Tiger...

We went to the zoo today. We were treated to a very close view of one of the tigers on tiger river... What a tiger!




OK the video doesn't all come up...I'm trying to get it to upload on another clip spot...

A hike...

We took the day and went for a hike in the mountains near our home. We figured that everyone in the county was off shopping and we didn't want to go anywhere near the malls or stores so we headed for the dirt paths. It was a beautiful day for a hike. The kids were in a mood to hike so that made it even better! We explored the dam a bit and took some little trails leading to a larger one. We recognized this area to be where we played with leaves some time ago. There were still a bunch of leaves on the ground but they weren't in the mood to toss them in the air today. We continued on our trek while we were all still happy. We climbed up and down steps and the kids took shortcuts using another trail nearby. We headed back to the car and had to stop at the big rocks. We really can't go on a hike here without stopping to climb on the rocks. We had fun. It is all about the fun.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Today we celebrated cousin Ryan's 2nd birthday. Exactly 1 month after Noah turned 2. It is so neat that they are close in age, I wish we lived a little closer (like within blocks) so that they could grow up and know each other even better, but we will take what we have. Happy Birthday big guy!

Happy Thanksgiving...

We celebrated with 40 adult family members from in town and out of town and about 10 children. So much to be thankful this year....

Second section....

Over the weekend, Ben took his 2nd section test for karate. His last test was at the end of July. There were so many moves, much longer than for the previous test. We practiced and drilled him to make sure that he knew what he was doing. He didn’t want to practice and show us what he knew, but he did. He was really nervous and kept looking around at the kids next to him to make sure he was doing the right thing. They didn’t like that he kept looking around. It makes him look like he was cheating. They knew that he knew the moves, but still. He will have to work on that for his next test because even with all the look-y-loo's… He passed!!!! Here he is receiving his newly dyed belt from his head instructor.
He is so proud!! Go Ben!!!

Woodworking....

Every year we go to a nearby neighborhood and walk around the couple of blocks to look at all the Christmas decorations and lights. I am always wishing that we could do something that is half as good as what we see at our house. But we are always broke at this time of year.

So, the time is upon us again, we decided to make some decorations for our house for this Christmas season. We had two pieces of plywood laying around the house, so we drew a snowman on one piece and a Christmas tree on the other. We used the jigsaw to cut the shapes out, then sanded them down. In the next few weeks we will paint them (have to buy paint) and decorate them to put outside. We want to have them last a few years, so we will protect them with some sort of non-toxic varnish. Here is Ben working hard at sanding the snowman down. The Christmas tree is about the same size as the snowman.

This type of activity is great for the kids because they take such pride in what they do. They will choose the paint colors and how they figures will look. Usually they are working together at the project and not bickering about who is doing what to them. Anyway, they have told our neighbors about the project already, we can't wait until they are done and it is time to put them outside. We will wait until December 1st.

Pictures of both (finished) will come soon!

Fire Station...

We met with some other families and headed to a fire station for a tour today. We went to the Firehouse Museum a few weeks ago so the kids didn’t quite know what the difference was but they understood when we started the tour. The official tour guide assigned to our group was called out to a fire so someone else took over. I’m sure they do tours for young kids all the time, he was so good with them. All of the firefighters were nice to the kids and helpful…part of their job. They got to see all around the firehouse and then all over the trucks, he opened all the doors and compartments so they could see everything. It was great.
After the tour we headed to a nearby park to play. It’s such a nice way to continue the field trip. The kids get to play together and get to know each other a little bit better.

Experiments…

We were waiting for Daddy this evening in the front of the house, so the kids got their toys out. They love to wait for him out front because I open the car and they can play with all the toys in the garage. They get bikes out and ride them down the street, they do chalk outlines, they play on our neighbors’ driveway and run around wild. Today was no different. They decided to get the chalk out and destroy it. They chopped it to little bits and then got it all wet with a sprayer. They watched it run green down the driveway. I don’t think they expected it to ‘ooze’ green, they thought it was interesting because they all stopped what they were doing to watch. They were mesmerized.

First haircut…

I got out the shears again today but this time it was for Noah. His hair was getting long and we were a little tired of hearing that ‘she’ is so cute…even when he was wearing his football shirt and cammies. Another reason was that one of his ears was getting real irritated and infected with his hair sticking in it…so we thought it was time. Hopefully this will help it heal.

So, we got all ready with a video on TV that we thought he’d enjoy and all my tools nearby. He sat on the stool and didn’t budge the entire time. I think he was really excited about getting his own haircut. He has watched Hannah and Ben get theirs done all this time, it was finally his turn! So our baby is now a big boy…how grown up he looks!

Hannah giving Noah a before haircut hug

During

After! Not bad...if I do say so myself :-)

Spider cake...

and the bakers...

Birthdays…

My kids love birthday parties. They don’t have to know the child very well to have fun. We went to a birthday party today and they had a blast. It was themed Star Wars and while my kids don’t know who Darth Vader is and what he did in the movies, they know him by sight from other parties and invitations they’ve received. They also know that he is related to light sabers somehow. The boy who’s party it was had lots of swords and sabers, toys and bikes to ride too. Noah also found a toy chainsaw and kept going after people with it.

Darth Vader favors

Chainsaw boy

Light saber-boys

Sea World…

We went to Sea World with a group of homeschoolers today. It was great. The weather was chilly and in my opinion perfect for the trip. We walked around with 3 other Moms and their children. We went to the dolphin show that Sea World offered us as part of our day and cruised around the park together.

Orca tank

Dolphin show

Catching sea stars

Shark teeth