Monday, December 26, 2005

Whew...Christmas is finally over!

....though there is a bit of sadness, Christmas is finally over! We had an incredible time these past few days visiting with family and friends. Aaron did work Christmas Day but we managed to see him for about an hour when him and the other guys stopped by my Mom's house with the engine for dessert. Of course they had to abruptly leave when they got a call of a fire! Such as the life of a fireman....


I hope everyone had a wonderful and joyous holiday!!


Check the photo album for some of our Christmas pictures!


or copy and paste...http://lisaski.typepad.com/photos/christmas_2005/index.html

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Busy time of year...

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas and enjoying all that that brings...panic attacks in Target, obnoxious lines at the post office, jeans that seem to have gotten tighter, disappearing money in the bank...you know that kind of thing....  Just thought I'd share a picture that I love....  Merry Christmas....2

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Playgroup Christmas Party

We hosted this year's Playgroup Christmas Party Monday morning.  It was a beautiful day so the kids were able to play outside as well....it's a good thing because we had a houseful, close to 40 moms and kids!  We enjoyed an enormous and delicious spread of goodies and then decorated sugar cookies and enjoyed hot cocoa.  Click for Christmas Party Photos

Our weekend on the coast

Img_5254 We headed to McKinleyville this past weekend to go to a Christmas Party/Going Away Party at Aaron's brother's house Saturday night.  We also visited the zoo in Eureka...it's a really cute zoo that has some great monkey exhibits.  Bill the Chimp is over 50 years old!  Sunday afternoon we celebrated Grandma Lee's birthday with cake and presents.  Click for Coast pictures

Monday, November 28, 2005

Woo hoo, it snowed today!!

Img_5067See how happy Jacob is!  Right after we got home from playgroup today, it began to snow.  I didn't think much of it because it was so wet on the ground from raining all morning, that I didn't think it would stick.  Well it kept snowing harder and bigger flakes and within about an hour it began to stick. We now have at least a few inches on the ground!  The kids had so much fun playing in it all afternoon.  Or I should say chasing us around with snowballs!  Here's some pictures... Snow Pictures

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Our Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving and another year's Turkey Trot is now in the past.  We started the day early in the morning getting ready for the Turkey Trot.  I was going to attempt to compete in the 6 mile race this year, the kids were signed up for the Diestelhorst Dash.  Aaron had to work yet another Thanksgiving, but he was able to join us for the kid's portion of the race.  Jacob was all pumped up and had a great time competing, Ella not so much...Daddy had to carry her across the finish line.  For my race, my finish time was 1 hour and 15 minutes!!  Not bad I think for a first time.  My goal was under an hour and a half, so I was pretty happy.  Next year I might strive for under an hour, we shall see!  It was a lot of fun and everyone was so supportive. 


Our great friend Richelle came up from Sacramento to spend Thanksgiving with us too and she was such a welcome addition to our family.  We pigged out royally for the day, visited Aaron at the fire station, and came home and fell asleep to movies...way too early! 


Click for Thanksgiving Pictures


I hope everyone had a wonderful day and makes it through this crazy shopping weekend!


Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Weekend in San Francisco

We just got back from a mini vacation to San Francisco.  387722r104923 We had a great time and had some beautiful weather.  Because it was such a beautiful weekend, there were many people in the city as well so we had our share of some great people watching!  We arrived Saturday afternoon and after checking into our hotel we headed out on a little walking tour of the city.  We had a delicious Italian dinner at a very kid friendly place on Market...can't remember the name now!  Sunday we spent the day at the San Francisco zoo.  The kids absolutely loved every minute of it!  Jacob's favorite animals were the giraffes.  Here's a link to some of the many pictures we took...  Click here for San Francisco Pictures!  Jacob loved "San Cisco" as he called it, he didn't want to leave and said more than once that he wants to live there.  It'll have to be when he's older because I certainly don't want to!  Maybe we'll get a place there when we hit the lotto and can afford a chauffeur, among other things. 


While we were going to be in the Bay Area, I somehow managed to convince all involved that it would be a good idea that Aaron and I head out to see another Rob Thomas concert.  Hehehe!  Grandma planned to stay back at the hotel with the kids.  Since it was a pretty last minute decision I wasn't able to get very good seats.  We got to the show and were very disappointed in just how bad the seats were....last row, balcony...as in like 4 flights of stairs up.  We sat there pretty discouraged through Anna Nalik's set.  After she preformed, while waiting for Rob to come on, a man came up to us and said something about how we looked to be big fans and would we like to trade seats with him...he said he had better seats than way up here and he'd like us to have them.  Uh, yea...we love you!!!  We thanked him extensively and headed to our new seats.  They ended up being 10th row, center!!  Not sure who that ticket fairy was, but he saved our night.  The show was absolutely incredible!  Here's some pictures of our night... Rob Thomas in Oakland Pictures


Sunday, November 13, 2005

A great weekend!!

We're now back from our weekend with Rob Thomas and it was WONDERFUL!  Pb110008crop_1 We started out by having dinner at PF Changs, we were starving which resulted in us ordering a ton of food and all of it was so delicious.  We ended up having dinner at 4:30, which was a bit too early because by the time we were done, we still had about 2 and a half hours to kill before the show....which by the way, was directly across the street!  To pass the time (and work some of our dinner off) we walked around the block quite a few times, including a couple passes around his tour bus....hey, we were just exercising, not stalking. 


At about 7:15 they started letting people in.  I was all set to buy some souvenier goodies, but a t-shirt for $45 was too much for me.  We found our seats...3rd row center (!!)...and talked to the people around us.  Aaron made a couple beer runs too.  I'd say on the average it was an older crowd and the venue was rather small...probably the size of the Convention Center with the look of the Cascade.  At about 7:50 the opening act, Anna Nalick hit the stage...10 minutes early, that's cool...at first I had no idea who they were but then they played "Breathe (2am)" which I recognized from the radio.  They do have some great sounding songs....I really liked "Satellite."  I came home and bought a few of her songs from i-Tunes.  About half way through her set I looked to the side of the stage and Rob was standing there watching smiling...everyone around started glancing over and giggling.  Hard to miss him there with his diamond earrings sparkling in the dark! 


At 9 pm, Rob hit the stage and it was such an incredible excitement and energy.  Everyone jumped to their feet and started dancing and singing along.  We were so close to him that a few times we made eye contact which was so surreal.  The show was so good and he not only played all of his solo album but a lot of his Matchbox 20 hits plus a bunch of cover songs.  He added his own special twist to a lot of them which was great. 


The show was over a little after 11pm and we were so ready for the party to continue!  We got a few drinks afterwards but apparently weren't looking in the right spots for the happening places.  Next time we'll have to plan that part better! 


The next morning we met our good friend Richelle for brunch and did a little shopping.  By now we were eager to get home and see our children...they had a great time at Grandma's.  Great weekend for us all around! 


Click here for some pictures of our weekend!


Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Rob Thomas...woo hoo!!

In 2 days Aaron and I will be going on a mini trip to see Rob Thomas in concert!!  We can't wait!  I think this is the first real concert the two of us have gone to together.  I don't think the free acts at the county fair count, do they? 


Monday, November 07, 2005

Funny little comment

We went to playgroup this morning at Sara’s house.  It was a cold, rainy day so the only one’s who made it were Tara (with Alex and Nicholas) and us.  We were there about 10 minutes and Jacob comes over to me and whispers, “Mommy, where are all my friends?”  The way he said it was really cute but it kind of took me a minute to process....Alex and Zachary (Sara’s son) are Ella’s age and Nicholas is a couple of months old.  It was really funny that he recognized them as Ella’s friends and that his friends are older and weren’t there today.  Once we got home though he said, “I had a really fun day today.”  It made me really happy to hear.  Jacob always knows how to have a good time…even if he’s playing with ‘babies’!! 




Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Turkey Trot Here I come!!

OK, I officially did it.  Last Friday I actually signed up to RUN the Turkey Trot this Thanksgiving.  6 miles at 8am on Thanksgiving morning.  What was I thinking? 


Wish me lots of luck...I'm gonna need it!! 


Lisa



Our Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween this year.  Unfortunately Aaron had to work this year, but we visited him at the station.  We then headed to a fun Halloween party at our friend's house and did some trick or treating.  Afterwards we headed to Grandma's house to show off the kid's costumes and do some more trick or treating.  Once the sugar high wore off, we all slept very soundly that night! 


Here's some of the pictures... Click to see Halloween Pics!

Monday, October 31, 2005

Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

Sunday we had our annual family Halloween party.  We headed out to the pumpkin patch for fun then came home to a yummy dinner of homemade macaroni, salad, carved pumpkins, and topped the night off with a yummy dessert.  Here's some pictures of our festivities....Click here for Pumpkin Patch Pics

Saturday, October 29, 2005

A fun Saturday

We had a fun day today!  This morning Jacob and I went to a local nursery where they put on a Halloween planting party for kids.  Jacob put together a basket of flowers decorated for the season.  Here he is showing off his creation!  Img_4528edit


Afterwards we took a road trip with Ella, Grandma, and Uncle Jeff to visit a Wildhorse Sanctuary.  It is a beautiful place and such a peaceful setting...well when the donkey's aren't HEE-HAWING that is!  Here's a link to some of the photos we took... CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Almost there!

Our home remodel project is slowly getting done, we're coming into the home stretch now.  The tile flooring is 90% done and we are VERY happy with it.  SO VERY glad we chose not to do it ourselves!  We're told the countertops may be completed by Friday but it's looking more like Monday or Tuesday.  Img_4469 Img_4470

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Playgroup visit to Bella Vista Farms

A yearly tradition we have with playgroup is taking a trip out to Bella Vista Farms.  It's an animal rescue facility but during the fall they offer hayrides, petting zoo, hay maze, and everyone gets to pick out a pumpkin.  We always have a really fun time, just wish it was a little cooler.  We need some of that crisp fall weather to hit us to get the full experience! 


Click here to check out some of the pictures we took....Bella Vista Farm pics

Thursday, October 20, 2005

49ers VS Steelers

We had a 49ers VS Steelers match-up this afternoon in the backyard.  Ella playing for Pittsburgh, Jacob for San Francisco.  It went back and forth but ultimately looks like Ella won with a little help from a 4-wheeler!  Img_4292


CLICK TO SEE THE PICTURES!!

May the Force be with You!

We did a trial run of Jacob's Halloween costume this afternoon.  Jacob thinks Star Wars is too scary to watch but yet he wanted to be Darth Vader for Halloween.  Go figure!  Img_4266crop


The mask has a voice changer option and a breathing button so it's quite scary to see Jacob wearing it, yet hear Darth talking or breathing from beneath the mask!   Img_4270crop







Oh, that's who under the mask!! 


Img_4280crop

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

I'm going to be famous!!

Awhile back I had submitted my picture to be used in the production of a computer comedy cartoon called a Jib Jab.  Last week they contacted me to fax in release forms because I was chosen to be in one of the more prominent roles. 



You can check out other Jib Jabs at www.jibjab.com


Well I just found out that they will be world premiering the skit on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno this Thursday, October 13th!!  The skit is called "Big Box Mart" and it is a parody on how the big chain stores are taking over the Mom and Pop shops. Not sure what my role will be exactly or how well you can actually see my face but thought I'd pass the info along so you could tune in!! 


Lisa

Sunday, October 09, 2005

HOME REMODEL

Our summer has been consumed with a home addition and remodel.  We are slowly coming to a close with everything and since I've gotten so many questions about it, I thought I'd share some pictures of the progress so far. 


I'm really, really hoping this time next month we can say we are DONE with the house and then we can FINALLY relax and enjoy it!! 


LISA

Thursday, October 06, 2005

My First Post!

This is a test

Cambria Vacation

Last week we took a much needed vacation to visit my Mom at her beach house in Cambria, California.  We took many walks, read many books, did some shopping, saw beautiful sights and just relaxed and did nothing. 


Aaron, Jeff, and I took a tour of Hearst Castle 5 miles north in San Simeon.  What a beautiful "house" and location!  I just can't imagine actually visiting the castle back in it's glory days.  It must have been incredible.


Please check out some of the photos in the Cambria photo album. 

My First Post!

Wow, I have my own website!  I've often thought of doing this but just put it off for whatever reason.  (Mainly time!)  I figure this will be a fun way to post pictures and info to share with family and friends and a place to enter random info of my life.


I'm doing this on a trial basis so wish me luck!