I made it to the front page of Etsy!

A mini-milestone...

Mini Photo Shoot

Playing around while on a walk...

Ella is much better at model poses then Jacob...here's the type of pose Jacob gives me!


And here I was playing around with a Christmas gift, the Gorillapod.  The absolute coolest tri-pod...it
turns anything into a tri-pod!  Here I used a tree...

iPhone pic round up for the last week

Cub Scouts

Ballet/Tap Class

An incredible moment

Hip Hop Class

Steeler's in the Superbowl!

Take that 49ers!

Guys Days

While Ella and I were on the coast with Grandma last week, Aaron and Jacob had a bunch of fun of their own.  Golfing, football playoffs, video games, McD's, nachos, Globetrotters...I'm sure there was more and I'm sure some of it was "secret" but maybe Aaron will enlighten us with what else they did!  Fortunately Aaron took pics too...

Girl's Trip to the Coast!

Ella has had an extended holiday break (which lasts for another couple of weeks!) so we decided to take a little vacation.  We debated for a long time on snow or beach and ultimately decided Fort Bragg/Mendocino would be our destination.  We also invited my Mom to come along and make it a real Mother-Daughter-Daughter trip.  The weather was absolutely unbelievable.  Sunny and 70 degrees, not even a breeze...it's January people!  It's the coast in January people! 

We did a little window shopping, whale watching, treasure searching and eating among other things.  One restaurant we found that we highly recommend was D'Aurelios.  It was such a treat to find and a real locals place with the best Italian food.  My Mom and I each got pasta and Ella got a pepperoni pizza...the salad, the bread, everything was SOOOO good.  Click here for some photos from our trip.

It was a beautiful few days.  Coming up soon...what the guys did on their days without us!

Afternoon on the slopes

We had another beautiful day up on Mt. Shasta today.  We took only Jacob this time--to work on his skills and take him up the chair lift for the first time.  He did incredibly well!  I think Aaron was jealous because Jacob is already skiing better than he ever did. 

It was such a proud moment watching him and a moment I thought would never come, seeing him up on the mountain skiing with us....so exciting!   

I did have a slight incident and have a mild concussion at the moment.  I don't really know what happened.  Last I remember is skiing down a pretty wide, fairly flat run and then next 'WHAP!" my head slams into the ground.  I'm OK now with an all over headache but it was scary at the time.  Jacob is smart, he has a helmet.  I think I need to invest in one for myself now. 

I don't think we'll go back up until they get another storm.  The snow wasn't too bad but there wasn't a whole lot of it.  And as for taking Ella up the lift...just not sure she's ready we're ready for that yet!  She has a need for speed and her idea of skiing is who is going to catch her.  I think a few more times on the bunny slopes for that girl!

Another day on the slopes

Edited to add later in the day:
It was a very successful day on the slopes! The kids are really getting this skiing thing! Jacob is doing incredible and is able to make it down the bunny hill without
assistance. He's got stopping and turning down and just needs to refine it.
He said now that he knows how to do it he LOVES it. Ella is doing well too but I still fear she's about to bust out 
of the "pie" formation and go full speed ahead at any moment. We're planning to go again next weekend and take Jacob up the lift.

Gratuitous Rob Post

It's been awhile since I posted anything about Rob Thomas so I think it's time!  Here he is on last night's Kennedy Center Honors with an incredible performance.  He was there as part of the performers honoring The Who and I must say his portion of it was the most powerful.  He closed with 150 NYFD and NYPD members singing backup to thank Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend for playing at a concert in New York City to honor 9/11 responders. 

Mini Ski Trip

We made a semi last minute decision to take a couple days and go up
to Mt. Shasta for some skiing and relaxing....turned out to be a great decision.  We were a little worried because the weather forecast was iffy and Monday was pretty ugly but Tuesday was absolutely gorgeous.  We toured the town of Mt. Shasta and it is really such a cute town I don't know why we don't do it more.  The weirdest thing ever is we ran into an old friend and co-worker of Aarons on a street corner...he worked with him down in Concord and he now lives in Napa and just happened to stop in Mt. Shasta to stretch their legs on the way home from Oregon.  So weird! 

We had a great dinner at our hotel and did some swimming and hot-tubing in their indoor pool.  And guess what?  At dinner we ran into another old co-worker of Aarons!  This guy he worked with doing water testing on Iron Mountain.

Today we enrolled the kids in full day ski school and got to ski on our own...it was great!  The kids had a busy and productive day with 2 lessons, lunch, and fun time with their instructors.  Ella had a blast and didn't want to leave, Jacob had fun too but got a little upset that we weren't going to come back.  He said next time he doesn't want to take a lesson, he says he's got it down and just wants to stay with us.  We shall see.  Next time.  Ella need to works on her stopping...she just wants to to go FAST!  Jacob needs to work on his turning.  His idea of stopping is to fall down.  Oh and guess what?  Aaron ran into more co-workers, on 2 separate occasions on the mountain!  This time current guys he works with now.  Can't take Aaron anywhere, I tell ya!  Click here for pictures from our adventures in Mt. Shasta

Guess where we are?

Christmas Festivities

Whew, another year of Christmas has come to a close!  All month to prepare and bam, it's over.  It was definitely fun while it lasted!  Let's see a brief synopsis...Christmas Eve was spent at my Mom's house.  Aaron was working that day so it was the kids and I, plus Grandma and my brother.  We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of crab, salad and sourdough bread.  Pizza for the kids.  I let the kids each pick a present to open as well. 

On Christmas Day, the kids were up before 7 and begging to open the Santa gifts but they had to wait for Aaron to come home around 8am.  After the first round of gift and stocking opening commenced, we prepared a big breakfast and Uncle Jeff and Grandma also came over.  The rest of the day was spent opening gifts, playing with toys, and watching movies (Fred Clause--skip it, Enchanted--a favorite, Step-Brothers--inappropriately funny)...there was also lots of eating going on.  Jeff made the entire dinner and like all his dinners, was completely gourmet and delicious.  He made a Tur-duck-en which is a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey.  Each bird had a different stuffing that went with it and it was quite an ordeal!  Grandma made a DE-licious peanut butter and chocolate pie for dessert.  Needless to say bootcamp plans are in the works and starting SOON!

Click here for more photos

Merry Christmas to All!

Ella's turn to be a SUPER STAR!

Last night was Ella's Christmas dance performance and it was a great success!  This was the 3rd show she's performed in and is becoming more and more comfortable with everything.  This time her class performed a ballet to "Where Are You Christmas?"  I wasn't able to get photos at the show but I did take some at rehearsal.  I'll post video and professional photos here in a couple of weeks. 

Ella's Big Day!

On Friday Ella did something she's been wanting to do for quite some time...got her ear's pierced!  She was so excited both before and after the big event and has been proudly showing off her pink diamonds to everyone she sees.  Afterwards we celebrated by getting a pink donut with sprinkles...could life be any better?!

Here's some video we took of this milestone event in a girl's life:

Jacob's a star...SUPER STAR!

Thursday night we attended Jacob's school play, The 12 Days of Christmas.  It had to be the cutest thing ever!  All the first graders performed and the teachers kind of kept the details a secret from the parents so we didn't fully know what to expect.  Boy did we get a treat!  Jacob not only sang and had lines, but he danced too!  We were so proud and impressed at how great he did. 

We ordered the professionally recorded video but I couldn't wait to share.  This is a Flip video recording off the TV from the video that Aaron took with our camcorder.  Not the best but hopefully you get the idea!  Jacob was one of the 'six geese a laying' and was the one in white sleeves and black pants. 



Christmas Cheer

Wednesday night I hosted a Christmas Party for my friends and had plenty of fun and a lotta Christmas cheer.  I had the most Christmas cheer of anyone and hope I wasn't too embarrassing!  None the less it was really fun...everyone brought an appetizer to share and a white elephant gift to exchange.  I had a couple different games to play for prizes and there was lots of good conversation.  Oh and don't forget that Christmas cheer!






Remember the Christmas Cheer!