Visit from the East Coast!

Angela, one of our good friends we met in playgroup, moved to New York/New Jersey last year and came to visit us all last week.  So good to see her and hear of her New York life!  We got to enjoy a Mom's Night Out with her, as well as a playdate with her and her boys. (Thanks for the pics Angela!)

New Rob tunes!

It's been a bit since I've posted any updates, nothing much new going on around here...day to day living.  Jacob starts back at preschool next week, finally!  Since I don't have anything new to share in the way of pictures, videos, etc, I thought I'd talk about my other favorite topic to post about...Rob Thomas!  He just released a new song for radio airplay this morning and I caught a bit of it to record from an Internet radio stream....

New Rob audio clip

The song is called "Little Wonders" and will be part of a new Disney movie coming out this spring called, "Meet the Robinsons."   Hopefully it'll be another big hit for Disney....and Rob! 

Skiing, sledding, ice skating and... bowling?

I got a chance to go through our Lake Tahoe pictures from last week so here's a link to the album of some of them. Lake Tahoe Photo Album

Sunday we went up skiing with some friends.  It was a beautiful day and not as cold as we thought it was going to be.  Aaron thought he'd get a little tricky a couple of times and I think is now paying the price for it. 

I also put together a video of a couple of ski trips in the last week.  I'm really bummed though because I had some great action clips of us skiing at Northstar and I accidentally deleted them before transferring.  Errr!  I managed to save a couple of them that are on this video.  Guess that just means there will have to be a 3rd installment to the skiing/snowboarding series!

And finally....this morning's playgroup was bowling.  Jacob and Ella really like bowling and Jacob takes it quite seriously!  I had gotten a couple of strikes right at the beginning so I thought I was doing pretty good, Jacob still ended up with a higher score than me. 

 

We're back!

We got back last night from a fun family trip to Lake Tahoe on the northshore, Kings Beach to be specific.  In a word.  It was.  COLD!  Not a whole lot of snow yet, but there was enough to have some fun.  Grandma Jeanne came with us so Aaron and I were able to ski one day at Northstar.  Some other activities we did were sledding, ice skating, a little shopping and just lounging around the cabin.  Here's a small sampling in pictures of what we did.  I'll post some more later, as well as another video installment of the Lee's on the slopes!  :-) 

What's happening lately

I wanted to post a collage I made of a photo shoot I did last week.  These are some of our bestest friends and they had their oldest son visiting and wanted to get some family shots done.  We had a lot of fun with this and met at one of my favorite spots to take pictures.  The bricks make an incredible backdrop and the lighting is usually perfect no matter the time of day. 

A monumental occasion happened yesterday...I got new skis!  OK, maybe not that exciting but for someone who has had the email "lisaski" for 15+ years I have a reputation to uphold!  LOL!  My last pair I have had since I was about 17 or 18 years old and I FINALLY got rid of them on Saturday at a yard sale....fact I had to give them away.  My skis were neon orange and neon yellow, boots were white and purple and poles were aqua blue.  Yeah, I was quite the 90's sight!  So in anticipation of a few upcoming ski trips, we decided to bite the bullet and get me all new gear.  No sense getting rentals everytime, not only does it cost us money, but we waste time when we could be skiing!  I found these beauties at the first store we went to....black with pink-perfect!  So onto picking out the boots...none in my size.  Great.  You'd think the second week in January would be a great time to find stuff...nope, they're clearing everything out everywhere.  So finally at another shop we find some that fit me, they're comfortable, they have great features, they have Recco installed (it's a tiny electronic transponder that will help me be found in an avalanche.  Percect for me and my kind of skiing.  Ha!), price was right....but the drawback....they're black (good) AND have touches of neon yellow and neon orange (bad...aww the 90's are back again).  Oh well...as Aaron says, maybe I can get out my acrylic paints and touch them up a bit!    

So that leads me into where I'll be the next four days.  We're taking a family trip to Lake Tahoe and planning on getting in some skiing.  I won't have a computer so there won't be any updates until we're back.

One last thing I thought would be fun to post.  A few years back my brother worked as a Production Assistant for the TV show, Power Rangers.  After a couple of years working for them, they moved the show to New Zealand and he had to find another job.  While finishing up production, he wrote and directed (and even acted a little) in a mini-movie entitled "Diary of a PA."  Recently he and I were trying to figure out how to get the DVD he made onto You Tube, the disk was protected or something and I couldn't figure it out.  A couple days ago he stumbled across the whole thing already up on You Tube!  No idea who put it up.  It's only been up for 2 weeks and already has a ton of views.  So crazy how this whole computer thing has revolutionized everything and made this world seem so much smaller.  So if you have time to kill, type Diary of a PA into the search field at You Tube and check out a movie he made.  It's been split into 4 parts.

Have a great week!
 

 

Jacob snowboards video!

Tearing up the mountain

We went up to Mt. Shasta Ski Park this morning to have some snowboarding fun (not so much for me, but that's another story all-together)!  Later I'm going to attempt to put together a jazzy video of the kids boarding but for now I'll share a few pictures.  (Something is wrong with my little digital pocket camera so they look really blown out...but I kinda like that look sometimes!)

Happy New Year!!

We hope everyone is happy and healthy in the upcoming New Year.  It's been awhile since I've posted any updates I see so thought I'd better start the New Year off right!  We've been busy doing all kinds of things around town in the last week...one big thing being furniture shopping.  Since doing our home remodel over a year ago we have been meaning to actually get some new furniture but have had the hardest time deciding on our plan of action.  We finally just decided to just jump right in and go for it and had to get it going before the big budget crackdown '07 started today! 

Let's see what else?  One pretty big change was Ella got about 7 inches of hair cut off!  I had grown tired of fighting with her on the daily hair brushing so I took her the day after Christmas to get her hair done.  I thought she'd be a little trumatized by it but not in the slightest, she got to sit on a pony and watch Dora so all was well.  She looks like a different girl to us!  Oh and the daily hair brushing fights still continue. 

We rung in the New Year last night with some co-workers of Aaron's.  We had a good time and stayed out WAY too late, fortunately Grandma had the kids so we could kinda sorta sleep in....does 8am count as sleeping in?

Best wishes in the New Year and keep checking back for all kinds of changes here in the coming weeks!

We made it through Christmas!

Aww...it's over.  Not sure how I feel about that, it's such a build-up of excitement and activity and that's it over in the blink of an eye.  We had a wonderful day yesterday filled with family time, lots of yummy food, and a fun round of gift opening.  Jacob says his favorite gift was the "Rock'em Sock'em punching game."  Ella's says her favorite was all of them, the princess stuff, pony, kitchen...everytime I ask her, I get a new answer!  My favorite part was all of us being together.

As always, I took way more than enough pictures but here's a few showing our day....

Christmas Eve

Almost time for the big day!  We had an event filled Christmas Eve and I'm just winding down getting ready for Santa to make his/her appearance.  We spent the afternoon at our great friend's, (more like family!) house making gingerbread houses and all around fun.  We then headed over to my Mom's house for the traditional crab dinner.  After that we stopped by the fire station to hang out with Aaron and do our annual PJ exchange.  As soon as we got to the station however, they were heading out on a call.  They left us alone in the station for about an hour, unsupervised and with a camera! 

Check out this crazy gang!


Our masterpieces...



Goofing off at the firehouse...



Us in all our new jammies....


Superman's here to save the day!

I think I hear Santa coming so I'd better get to bed!
Merry Christmas!

Bend Recap

Finally got a chance to take a breather and post a recap of our trip to Bend, Oregon.  We seriously love that area so much that we already have plans to go back 3 times in the next year.

Saturday - We headed out Saturday morning.  The weather was beautiful but cold.  We had a bit of drama on the way up because of icy roads on Highway 97, a rent-a-truck crossed over into our lane and flipped off the side of the road right in front of us.  We immediately pulled over and while I called 911, Aaron ran over to help the person inside.  She was not hurt, just understandably quite hysterical.  Pretty darn scary for all involved and we definitely went slower after witnessing that.  After getting to Bend and checking into our hotel (Riverhouse), we headed out to get something to eat.  We found an excellent Mexican restaurant called the Ranchero.  It was only about 4pm but already it was getting dark which was kinda weird.  We then hit the outlets across town to find Aaron a new ski jacket and some boots.   That evening we took our first of a couple dips in the hotel pool.   Unfortunately to get to the pool we had to head out of our section of the hotel, outside, across a snow covered bridge, across an icy parking lot and into the pool house....it was C-O-L-D!

Sunday - We cruised around the Old Mill District, which is actually a newer area of town and really beautiful.  It was really, really cold but we managed to get some fun pictures along the Deschutes River.  We then headed over to the shopping area where there was an interactive children's museum we wanted to check out.  It's called Working Wonders and the kids loved it so much that we ended up staying there all day with a break in the middle for lunch at Red Robin.  It's like a miniature town inside with grocery store, construction area, post office, pizza parlor, pet hospital, simulated outdoors, etc.  The kids can then pretend to live in that town and become the different professions or people involved complete with outfits and all the props.   For dinner we hit a Food-4-Less for a take and bake pizza to take back to our hotel.  As a special treat we also consumed about 4,000 calories and $20 worth of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory treats after dinner!  Ooo...but it was good!

Monday - We headed to Mt. Bachelor and the kids got to try out snowboarding.  Jacob is a natural!  His short time skiing is now over and he wants to only snowboard now.  Look out world, he might be in a future Olympics!  Again the kids ended up loving hanging out on the mountain so much, that we ended up staying up there all day.   That evening we had dinner at one of our favorite places up there, Izzy's Pizza, ....lots of food and for cheap! 

Tuesday - We cruised around the town for a bit and then walked around the Downtown area before heading home.  All in all the trip was perfect and so nice to have a relaxing carefree few days in the midst of the December holiday craziness.

Check out just some (and there's still a lot!) of the pictures we took....Photos from Bend, Oregon

Hehehe

Aaron said I should post this so I think I will.  :-)  Rob says he loves me....awwww.  Well it's not just only me, but I'll take it....hehehehe!

(Click it to read the whole thing.)

We love Oregon!

Just got back from an INCREDIBLE 4 days in Bend, Oregon...we love it there so much.  To say we'd move there in a heartbeat is not an exaggeration.  So much to share and so many pictures to upload but that'll have to wait a bit...too many other things to do right now.

Can't believe Christmas is just 5 days away! 

We're off to the snow!

We're heading off to Bend, Oregon for a few nights vacation in the snow.  A time to relax and be together as a family without obligations.  So looking forward to it! 

I leave you with some fun videos to check out from my pals at Jib Jab....

http://www.jibjab.com/watch/331620

Nuckin' Futs! The JibJab Year in Review | Send To Friends | Funny Animations at JibJab

http://www.jibjab.com/watch/331576

Deck The Halls | Send To Friends | Funny Animations at JibJab

Holidays Lights

Thursday evening we went out to do a city tour of different holiday displays and lights.  We started out at Turtle Bay's Winter in the Woods.  There were lots of holiday fun and crafts for the kids including a Polar Express train exhibit. 

We then headed out for....ice cream!  You'd think hot chocolate would be more appropriate but no, ice cream won out.  With ice cream in hand, we visited a drive through nativity and holiday traditions show at one of the local churches.  It was really well done and they even handed out CD's so you could follow along the story with words and music.  Really cool.  We finished off our tour by hitting up some of our favorite household light displays. 

The elves were really busy too...check out the photo album to the right! 

Holiday fun

Yesterday we made a couple of gingerbread houses from kits.  Those Costco kits are getting better and better each year.  We only had one minor collapse this year.

Here's Jacob and I's creation....

And here is Ella and Aaron's....

We are still having lots of fun with our adopted elves, Izzy and Rose.  This afternoon we made them sleeping bags and pillows out of scrap pieces of fabric.  This evening after they were fed and tucked into bed, Jacob suggested we make their reindeer pal a sleeping bag too.  Uh, no.


Jacob also said that now they might decide to get into a pillow fight now that they have pillows.  We shall see!!

I also added a clickable photo album to the right so you can keep up with the nightly adventures of our little friends. 

Blast from the past

On Sunday when we went to Aaron's Mom's place, she gave us a
bunch of boxes of photos and memorabilia from when he was younger.  Been having a kick going through those! 

As much as I'd like to post some nice embarrasing photos (and there are a lot!), I will refrain and just share this one that's perfect for the season...

Lot's of stuff

Tis the season...we've had a busy few days.  Sunday we drove over to Willow Creek to visit with Grandma Lee.  The kids love her Chihuahua pups.  Their names...Taco and Bell.  We celebrated her birthday a couple days early and took her out for pizza and pasta. 

At this morning's playgroup we went to Alicia's house and made graham cracker houses and playgroup ornaments.  Lots of fun, we love all the Christmas activities!  Click here for more pictures from playgroup.

ELF ADVENTURES

So we've had Rose and Izzy, our adopted elves for a few days now and they are just getting into so much trouble.  The other morning we woke up to this scene....

Jacob's response was a bit 'annoyed,' "Aw man, they got into the cereal and made a mess." 

Then this morning we found them here....

When the kids woke up the elves weren't in front of the fireplace where they had been put to sleep and Jacob was convinced that they just left.  He looked around and couldn't find them anywhere.  About 30 minutes later they went to take a bath and Whoa! the elves were taking a popcorn bath! 

This evening after feeding them their crackers and water then sprinkling on their magic snow, he said, "They better not get into mis-cha-vous again tonight!"  Let's hope not...we'll keep y'all posted.  :-) 

Now I'll leave you with this recipe.  I'm in the process of making my 3rd batch so that tells you how good they are! 

 

OREO BALLS

1 package Oreo cookies, crushed

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 package white almond bark

 

1 package chocolate almond bark

Using a hand held mixer, mix Oreos and cream cheese together.  Roll into walnut size balls.  Chill for an hour.  Melt approximately 3/4 package of chocolate almond bark.  Dip balls into the melted bark.  Allow to harden on wax paper.  Melt about 1/4 package of white almond bark.  Decorate with drizzles of the white almond bark. 

ENJOY!

 

Aaron's got a problem....

He seems to like to show his butt on TV! 

This is no where near the first time he's been on camera in this *position* and I'm sure it won't be the last either!  The name across his back is really quite helpful for accuracy too.  We'll always know it's him....LOL!  (Thanks Mom, for the reminder to TIVO the news tonight!) 

Jacob's elf arrives!

This morning Jacob's elf arrived on a reindeer!  His name is Izzy and Jacob is so excited to have his very own elf for the season.