Pinewood Derby time!

The highlight of the year for the Cub Scouts is the Pinewood Derby event.  You purchase a kit (consists of a block of wood and some plastic wheels) and then construct it into a cool looking car and try to win the race.  Jacob and Aaron had a lot of fun making the car and went with the theme....wait for it....wait for it....Star Wars.  Of course!  Tonight was the big race and Jacob was in 2nd place in all of his races so unfortunately he didn't get to the finals but he did manage to get voted "most unique" car and won a big trophy!  He was so excited to race
and really, really wanted a trophy.  He kept saying he was so excited and afterwards kept saying he was "freaking out" that he won a big trophy.  To celebrate his win we went to McD's and to visit Aaron at the fire station.
 

Way to go Jacob!  We are so happy for you and proud of you!!

I'm Rob Thomas's Favorite...

Ahhhh.....long story short--I'm on Twitter, Rob Thomas is one of my Twitter friends, he likes to do this photo scavenger hunt thing, I've been giving him a hard time about it but today decided to play, sent him a picture of me in my Mrs. Joker costume, got a response from him (nice.) AND MOST IMPORTANT he put it in his favorites.  Yeah, he loves me. 
 

Bottom line...when I run off with a rock star I'll be sure to write!  I already ran it by Aaron, he's totally OK with it. 

Interview with a 5 and 6 year old

There's a fun little questionnaire going around Facebook I thought I'd share. I interviewed Ella (5 years old) and Jacob (6 years old) and here are their answers....

1. What is something mom always says to you?
(E) - Be nice to your brother.
(J) - To behave

2. What makes mom happy?
(E) - Giving her presents
(J) - Kissing her

3. What makes mom sad?
(E) - If I am mean to her.
(J) - Seafood

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
(E) - Being silly
(J) - Saying funny stuff

5. What was your mom like as a child?
(E) - She was just like me.
(J) - Just like me

6. How old is your mom?
(E) - 12 years old
(J) - 35

7. How tall is your mom?
(E) - 10 inches
(J) - 60 inches

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
(E) - Make some jewelry
(J) - Work

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
(E) - Makes some jewelry and talk on the phone too.
(J) - Take Ella to fun places

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
(E) - Bookclub
(J) - Singing

11. What is your mom really good at?
(E) - Making some jewelry
(J) - Work

12. What is your mom not very good at?
(E) - Doing some art, maybe clay.
(J) - Starting fires

13. What does your mom do for her job?
(E) - Makes some jewelry and gets some money.
(J) - Jewelry

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
(E) - Seafood
(J) - Seafood

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
(E) - Helping you make jewelry
(J) - Work

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
(E) - Maybe a dog.
(J) - Godzilla

17. What do you and your mom do together?
(E) - Playing
(J) - Watch movies

18. How are you and your mom the same?
(E) - We both have polka dot dresses.
(J) - Nothing

19. How are you and your mom different?
(E) - Both of us have different hair.
(J) - We don't have the same hair.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
(E) - Cause she gives me kisses when it gets dark.
(J) - Because I kiss her.

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
(E) - Going to her Mom’s house.
(J) - Hawaii  

The main themes seafood and me working.  The seafood is interesting because I'm really not a huge fan.  And apparently I work too much with my jewelry!  I'll have to do this every couple years to see how the responses change as they get older.

It's been awhile!

Again, I keep forgetting I have this blog...oops!  The older the kids get, the busier it gets around here.  We've been doing a bit of house redecorating too and that's kept us busy with cleaning and researching/browsing the stores for future household purchases.  We've been in this house for 9 years now and I'm finally getting to the point where I'm loving just about every room and feel it reflects us and fits our needs....just took close to a decade years and gutting and remodeling just about every room of the house we watched being built! 

I wanted to share about a new blog I found through my recent fairly 'Twitter' obsession. 
It's a brand new blog that launched this week.  It's called Parenting Tips Daily and you can find it here. Today she is having the first giveaway (a cute children's book) and it's the first of what I would imagine be many giveaways.  Please go check it out!

Birthday Ski Trip

Saturday was my birthday (oh and the 2nd day of Ella's as she frequently told us) and we headed up to Mt. Shasta for the weekend.  My birthday wish came true...my whole family can now ride the chair-lifts and ski/snowboard down the mountain!  We had so much fun...the Nostrands joined us for the weekend also and in addition to skiing we hung out eating, drinking and swimming at our hotel.  Such a fun weekend! 

Click here for some photos!

Here's some videos....

And this last vid shows Jacob skiing off the main trail. It's his new favorite thing...not too sure how I feel about that. I'm thinking I don't like it.

Ella's Birthday

Friday was all about Ella!  She started the day with the "Birthday Bucket" of goodies....
 

She then had a full day of school where I'm sure she let everyone know it was her birthday all day long!  Afterwards I picked her up and we grabbed a smoothie and a cookie then headed to the beauty salon for some pampering. 

 



She ended up getting a pretty drastic cut...10 inches cut off!  She had enough to donate to Locks of Love which she was very happy about to have her hair eventually used for children's wigs. She loves her hair now...especially now that it doesn't tangle and she can brush it all by herself. 


After a quick powernap, we then met up with Grandma for Chinese and then Coldstone. 



Such a fun day!  Thank you for turning 5 Ella and letting me join in your celebration...you only turn 5 once!

Birthday trip to Mt Shasta

Ella's first time up the chair-lift!

My baby girl is 5 today!

Then:


Now:

Happy Birthday sweet Ella...I love you!!!

Way to go Slumdog!

I predicted it!  In honor of their many Oscar wins I bought the soundtrack music from iTunes!  

Hi y'all!

So I kinda keep forgetting I have a blog and thought I'd post a little something while I remember!  We've been busy with the usual daily stuff and kids activities...there's been a little sickness that has hit our household and now I'm stuck on jury duty for the past couple days.  For fun stuff we have managed to see a lot of movies both at the theater and at home (we recently joined Netflix which has been great!)...some we've seen recently: Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Definitely Maybe, Underdog, Zach & Miri, The Women, Gran Torino, Coraline, and Slumdog Millionaire.  I'm voting for Slumdog in next week's Academy Awards.  (Shh...don't tell I haven't seen most of the other nominees!)

I also wanted to share a new local blog for the Redding peeps.  It focuses on locally run business in the area to help out our own local economy.  I think it's a great idea and am all for supporting the local business owner!  Check it out here.... IheartRedding.com

Until next time!

What is it?

Updated 2/12/09: Ooops sorry, Jeff! I had forgotten I had a blog for awhile! So this picture is of the Sundial Bridge from underneath it looking up.  Took it with my iPhone on a walk with the kids.

Blast into the 1970s!

Saturday night we hosted dinner club and went with the theme of the 1970's...it was crazy!  Everyone dressed up and looked so good.  Well I didn't, I looked like Mrs. Roper in a very unflattering outfit with too much blue eyeshadow, but it was all fun!  The dinner we served ended up being a little scary however...for appetizers we went with salami rolled around pickles and cream cheese, deviled eggs, and crackers with Easy Cheese.  Dinner was crockpot chili (made in an authentic 70's olive green crockpot), cornbread, green salad with ranch, tater tots and orange jello salad (we forgot the frozen peas and carrots).  Dessert was chocolate fondue.  We played a game with 70's trivia, ouija board, had disco and rock blaring...I just realized we forgot to bust out the Twister!  Probably a good thing though...my skirt and Alicia's dress would have been challenging!  That and Aaron mighta busted a hole in his pants...LOL!    Click for more pictures

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!