Tis the season

We tried something new this year, we went to cut down our own tree. You would think we would've done this when we lived in the northwest, where all the trees are gorgeous, but we didn't. And I think after this year, we might end up with an artificial as in years past! The tree was a difficult decision and it's kind of a charlie brown tree, kinda bare on one side but needed a trim on another, and is a pain in the rear to get straight - but, it's unique and oh my goodness our house smells amazing - so there is that! We'll just see what the after Christmas sales hold in the way of artificial trees. I think the kids could go either way, I know they enjoyed the hunt (for awhile) but I think we would enjoy putting one together just as much. They love the decorating that's for sure.

Here we are hiking up to find a tree! Funny that there are palms in the background, so southern California.
Sarah had a knack for finding very interesting trees.

Silly kiddos (so done with me trying to get a nice picture of the two of them).
Tired and sitting in the shade. By this time we had walked every square inch of this farm to really pick a good one. They were done and would've been just as happy with a bush by now.

After getting the tree we made one of a few trips that day to Lowe's to pick out Christmas lights for our new house! Mark worked tirelessly getting them up on the house, I didn't work that hard, just threw them around the palm, which we fixed today. I think for our first go at hanging lights, it's pretty ok! Our tree is in the walkway, getting ready to be brought into the house.

Finally decorating, the kids were so excited. They had to wait to decorate until we could get a new bulb on the lights for the tree, a whole strand was out. Thank goodness for nice neighbors!
Sarah got to put the angel on for the first time - very exciting!

We ended the weekend with a surprise trip to the Del Mar race track for their Holiday of Lights show. You get to drive on the horse track and see a TON of light displays. We had the kids in their pj's in the car, guessing the whole time where they were going - we stumped them until we drove in. It was fantastic, and their faces on the kids were priceless. Sarah sat on my lap in the front and Jakob helped Mark drive around the track - very exciting. I know I will hold this as a favorite holiday memory, hopefully they will too.

A great journey with my BFF

Well really it was 3 days of walking with my "Breast Friend". I have known Aubrey for 30 years, wow that makes me feel really old! But we have known each other since kindergarten! Taking on the 3Day walk with her was wonderful, for so many reasons but really because we are like an old married couple, we can just tell when there doesn't need to be a conversation, when something is wrong, right, etc.

Aubrey was somehow inspired by me, I don't know how I could inspire anything, I feel like I can barely inspire my kids to go to school and not get in trouble and barely inspire myself to get out of bed! But, she was moved to join me and it made all the difference in the world. The last time I did this walk, I did it by myself in honor of a great friend who was at the time battling the disease. This time I did it in honor of 3 more women who were just diagnosed - 2 family members and another great friend. This disease is just becoming more common place and I am afraid of that, I am afraid that I will have to battle it, or that Sarah will have to battle it. I guess I really feel like I need to do something in the fight against breast cancer, even though it's not really fighting or curing the disease, I guess it's my own way of feeling like I am doing something for these very special women in my life.

So, we fundraised for 4 months all the way up until the day of the walk asking for donations to reach our goal of $2300. We achieved that goal and we took on the 60 miles together, named ourselves the "Breast Friends" which was just as goofy as we are. Mark so kindly pointed out that we haven't changed, "Still dorks" he said as we danced on our way - can't remember what song but it was surely some 80's or 90's dance hit. Yep, we are dorks and we are proud of it! We had a blast, we walked sometimes in silence (partly due to the fact that I didn't have a voice for part of the walk), and sometimes in nonstop chatter, we danced, cheered, moaned and groaned, laughed, and cried quite a bit. Aubs put up with my never ending head cold and nose blowing, and even slept in a tent with me and my illness! We even stopped for a couple well deserved pink margaritas around mile 50, such a great idea, our feet felt pretty great after, our bladders not so much! :)
We ended our journey by dancing our way to the finish line to "Push It", yes Salt n Pepa - couldn't have been any more fitting for us! I can not wait to do this again with my BFF!

Here we are ready to take off on Friday morning, 6:30 am, from the Del Mar fairgrounds.
Mile 11, lunch still pretty pumped up!

20 miles down, some seriously tired feet! We were in bed by 9 if not sooner. This is our tent in the background.
A wonderful pick me up, a visit from the family. I don't have all the pics, but Aubrey's kids made her a sweet poster, which of course made her cry and in turn me too. Jakob and Sarah were so cute cheering everyone on. Jakob's poster said "Three Day Walkers Rock", and Sarah's said "Go Free Day Walkers".
Mile 50, basically my wall, I was really feeling the heaviness in the feet and legs here, but with a little rest and motivation by Aubs, I got back up and kept walking. We turned the corner out of this stop and had to walk uphill, oh man that was tuff stuff but at the top were the well earned margaritas!

Finished!! Yay! It was raining and really windy/cold at this time. We are wearing all of our layers under our shirts to stay warm! What a day we had, rain in the morning, sun, wind and then rain again - kinda crazy - just like us I guess!
I can't forget to say that I really appreciate my family for all their support that went into this, the training walk time, the fundraising on my behalf, the helping me find the right socks, the cheering and making of signs, and putting up with my demands - the last minute things I needed to be delivered to camp, and just taking care of the kids during this event. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I had such an amazing time and just feel really special with all the support I was given.

Trick or Treat

We started our Halloween celebration off a little early, went trick or treating thru Carlsbad Village. It was pretty warm, so Jakob decided not to go as Batman but as a "Zombie Soccer Player", his idea, which turned out quite good I think. We had a lot of people asking what he was, but there was one man who walked up and said, "Yes, great costume, look kids a zombie soccer player!" That made Jakob's day for sure!

Batgirl and the zombie soccer player

The zombie detail up close, including the mark of a soccer ball that probably was the cause of the fatality!

We carved our pumpkins on Sunday, Sarah did her best to scoop out the "guts", but Mommy did most of the dirty work!
Some serious concentration happening on Jakob's design and cutting
Team work on the more complicated parts of Jakob's design
Thru the eye of the jack o lantern to be
Halloween night, getting ready to go trick or treat, Sarah decided not to go as Batgirl, last minute change into a fairy princess on a unicorn - girls will be girls!
The neighborhood superhero gang! We joined our neighbors, Raiden, Ryan and Olivia for trick or treating - the kids made sure not to skip one house! In fact Jakob had to come home to dump out candy so that he could carry his bin! The neighborhood goes all out with decorations, there were tons of kids, super fun!

Sarah got a bit spooked by the scary costumes and houses, so we came home to hand out candy, she wanted to hand it out, until someone came up with a scary costume. Here she is yelling, "Hey guys come and get some candy!"
The loot!

All in all one of the more memorable and enjoyable Halloween's for me. I absolutely loved watching Jakob and his friends get so excited going from house to house, I remember that feeling and loving it! Also watching the boys be brave at super spooky houses was great too, I think they looked brave on the outside with their costumes on, but inside, I know they were pretty scared! Sarah was so afraid to say trick or treat to any stranger, she took to making a weird whining noise at the doorstep, which was pretty hysterical. She eventually got brave at the "not spooky houses" and did actually mutter "trick or treat" and was so proud of herself!
Can't wait until next year!

Ninjago Party!

We had Jakob's 7th Birthday party this weekend, he chose the theme of Ninjago (Lego Ninjas). This was our first real party at our house, I mean real party, the adults had just as much fun as the kids, it was GREAT!

We had a Ninja cake, ninja head bands to make with their chosen Ninjago character, a bounce house - very exciting for Jakob and well worth the $80 - blow up ninja swords, and potato sack races! It went pretty smooth - had a few snafuus with the blow up swords - boys don't know when to stop with the swords but, with a little guidance things settled down!

Ninja cake, made by Grandma Kathy!
The Birthday ninja boy in the bounce house!
Swords and balloon game in the bounce house - they had to see who could keep the balloon in the air the longest - you can see the Birthday boy in the lower right corner - cheating?!
Potato sack races!
Sarah, poor sweet girl at the almost all boy party (one other girl). She did NOT like losing the races or games, she is pretty competitive this one! I'm thinking she is going to rock those boys later on - at basketball or volleyball maybe? Until then, she'll just look tough!
Dad's against the top boy finishers! Look at Mark - he was doing a full rodeo swing here! I so wish we had the ending of this race on video, he managed to come up right next to Jakob and push him out of the way so that he could win - HYSTERICAL!
Great Grandma Willy's first visit to our new house, we felt so blessed to have her here with us for the festivities!

One of Jakob's favorite gifts (thanks Ted and Loretta!) - a 394 piece Lego Hero Factory set - he did a lot of it on his own, just a couple hours with Daddy!

The weekend

Kids finished their soccer with the YMCA, and got some very special medals!

Sarah finally played more than a few minutes in a game, that is an accomplishment for her!
Jakob rocked his soccer game, had lots of shots on goal and played some EXCELLENT defense. He has such speed and determination. He had parents on the other team cheering him on for his speed and defense skills!


Today, we went to the pumpkin patch - it is 45 minutes from us but it took us over 2 hours to get there, apparently it is the busiest weekend of the year to go there! Won't make that mistake again. Needless to say, the kids did not want to turn around once we were 1 hour into the drive. So we tried to make the best of it - but it was about 90 degrees and past Sarah's nap time, so it was umm,.....DIFFICULT!

At least the kids had a favorite part of it - for Jakob is was the shaved ice and for Sarah is was the horse/carriage ride. I guess I would have to say my favorite part is the hunt for the pumpkin, it was a short one b/c it was so hot and it was quite picked over but it's still my favorite part. I think for Mark, his favorite part was sitting in the shade with a cold shaved ice, probably would've liked a beer instead, he did work hard hauling our pumpkins around!! I haven't taken a pic of the pumpkins we picked out but we have a "family" pumpkin that is 35lbs, it's our biggest one yet! Jakob and Sarah picked out some other interesting little ones for Nana&Papa, Grandma Kathy and for GG Willy.

Mark hauling the load!
Sarah's found one!
Jakob too
One of the "Big Mac's" as they call them in this field.

Overheard Sarah say...

"Daddy what kind of human is that over there, a boy or a girl?"

"I don't want this underwear anymore, they're too cute with flowers...I want Batgirl underwear."

"Jakob you are being really annoying" (Hadn't heard her say annoying before)

"Jakob you look like a strong man" (Jakob was in his soccer uniform)

Last week, she had a "night dweam" as she calls a nightmare and said it was about the "Big Bad Wolf". When reminded that he isn't real, she nodded and went into the bathroom. While in the bathroom she says to herself, "If I saw that big bad woof I would poke him in the paw."

I wish I could remember everything she says, seriously out of the mouth of babes!

Wow that flew by...

September came and went, and it was a busy one!

Long story short this is what happened: Jakob started first grade, doing daily homework, PTO meetings, fundraisers, Sarah and Jakob in YMCA soccer, my 35th Birthday, Ben Harper concert, Wild Animal Park, camping at the beach and now we are on to planning Jakob's 7th Birthday party!

Jakob is showing off his yoga skills, he practices at his after school program,

Sarah and Daddy at the Wild Animal Park
Sarah's first soccer game. She was not too excited about a team sport, but when she gets the ball she goes for it.
The whole family at the wild animal park! So fun!
One HAPPY 35 year old, 10-15 rows back at Ben Harper!!
You know who!!

Our big guy!

Jakob started first grade today, I feel old just saying it. He's no longer officially little, not a baby, not a toddler, not preschooler or a kindergartener - ugh. My heart hurts, the time literally just flew by and I feel like I can only remember bits and pieces. I was getting teary eyed just trying to remember what he was like at a year and what his little voice sounded like. I know that the next 6 years will go just as fast, I'll be typing about how old I feel having a teenager in a blink of an eye!
Ok enough whining about the things I can do nothing about - time, change etc.

This morning we had a first for first grade, we walked with Jakob to school from our new house! Jakob actually rode his scooter with his buddy Elias, Mom's and siblings in tow and Mark! Jakob managed to fall a few times on the scooter, I managed to yell at him once because he was riding too fast - parent of the year there! Luckily I had band aids with us in our school supply bag!

It was kind of nuts at school with people trying to figure out where they were going, including us! We found Jakob's classroom, met his teacher Mrs. Murray, very nice and he promptly found his desk. Jakob mentioned to me that he thought that some kids in his class were 2nd graders, I thought maybe they were repeating first! But no, we found out that he is in a 1st - 2nd combo class and was "hand picked" by the principal for this class (along with 8 others) because of their attention span, ability to work independently etc. So, after some shock and fear of hearing that he was in this class, I felt better when she said that. I think he was actually excited to be in class with the older kids, he told me this afternoon that some of the 2nd graders have just turned 7 - and yes he will be 7 in a month!

So, all in all a day of anxiety, tears and joy!

Sarah's obsession with getting married...

It started probably a year ago, she talks about wearing a wedding dress, getting married to her brother or Daddy, I don't know why she is so obsessed with it, but she is. Well, my parents brought my wedding dress down for me to store now, (guess we have a house and we are adults, so we have to store it) and I made the mistake of showing it to Sarah. She thought that she was going to get to wear it then, and was so upset that she couldn't take it out of the box. So, I told her that when she is old enough to get married she could wear it if she wanted to, that satisfied her and now that's all we hear about, "When I'm a growm (yes GROWM) up, I will wear your dress."

Tonight she was looking at pictures on our wall of our wedding and said, "I wish I could be at your wedding, when you get married, I want to go."

Me: "Oh yeah Sarah, I'm sorry you weren't there, but you weren't born yet, and I'm not getting married again, but you'll get to go to a wedding someday."

Sarah: "Yeah and you'll be in the back seat."

Me:"Oh, what do you mean, you are going to drive me?"

Sarah: "Yeah, I'm going to get married and you'll be in the backseat."

Me: "Who are you going to marry?"

Sarah: "Probably Daddy"

I see now where I stand!

Another day in the life of Jakob and Sarah...

Just thought I would post a few pics to keep current with happenings here:

Jakob is still loving Blaze the gecko, not as excited about him, but when he remembers him, he is! I don't have a picture of what Jakob is really into right now, paper airplanes, I really need to take a picture of the 50 or so airplanes he's made on his own and likes to leave lying around the house. He really likes to throw them from the top of the stairs and/or at someone!

Sarah, being Sarah, what else can I say. She is so lucky she is cute, she's been quite the handful these days, lots of tantrums, lots of yelling and a lot of stress on the parents. We are going to be learning how to best help her soon. Until then, we breathe, drink wine/beer and try our darndest to be patient.

Sarah's first swim lessons without a parent, she did great.

Sarah's dream of holding and caring for a real baby came true this weekend, the Heidrick family came to visit, and this is Madeleine (8 weeks), a real doll!

Saved the best picture for last, this is what happens when Mom goes on a walk! Look at my boy, what a good big brother! And Sarah, she looks about 5 in this picture - scary how he has grown so fast!

We were walking home from the YMCA last week, Jakob and I were talking about how different dogs are, how some need obedience training and some don't. I said, "Yep, like some kids are more difficult than others." Jakob, "Yeah, like Sarah." Me, "Yeah, but we just have to learn how to work with her." Jakob, "Yeah, but I hope she still stays crazy, it wouldn't be much fun without her crazy!" So true!