after and after

The coloring of the eggs. It's always a good time around here, but make no mistake about it. It's all about after the eggs are done and we pour the colors in the sink. :0

Happy Easter!

Christmas 2008

We had a pretty good Christmas here at our home. Christmas Eve was spent with Robert's mom and sister. We all went out to dinner then headed to Grandmama's for gifts. The boys could hardly contain themselves through dinner. And Audrey? Well she handled it all very well. She got impatient with me and our waitress, Roxanne picked up the spoon and started feeding her and she didn't mind at all. Heck, as long as someone is feeding her she's fine. She looked so sweet in her velvet dress that Grammie made. The only downside was that it was a long evening. We are going to have to figure out a different time next year so everyone can get a good night's sleep.

Christmas morning the boys woke us up around 8. I was thankful, I thought it was going to be much earlier. They ran into the living room to find Wall-E sitting there waiting for them. Harrison got a Nintendo Ds and Charlie got a Leapster2. We had a great time with our gifts. After opening, we enjoyed some Monkey bread.

I started the mad dash to clean up and get ready for Christmas dinner. My parents and sister and her family came over around 2. We always start with our stockings first, then dive into the gifts. The boys got the Playmobil circus from my parents. Oh boy, can you say excited? My sister surprised me with a popcorn maker. I have always secretly wanted one, and the funny thing is that I was with her when she bought it and I never would have guessed in a million years. We enjoyed a Honeybaked ham dinner and some yummy desserts. We got the giggles over my mom's frosting which had candy cane chunks in it. It always seemed to get really quiet whenever someone would take a bite and all you could hear was, "CRUNCH, CRUNCH." It was a wonderful day that ended with my niece and Robert playing a round of Guitar Hero. Maddie won too. ;) I almost forgot! Charlie's tooth fell out that night. He was so excited and relieved , it has been worrying him ever since he first found that it was loose. Just look at how proud he is.

Easter recap

We had a really nice Easter, the weather here in So Cal was gorgeous! Audrey did pretty well. She got a little fussy at church, but church was so crowded that we ended up sitting outside so the fussiness wasn't too much of a problem. It was probably a good thing that we were outside because Charlie noticed when Audrey spit up and yelled to Robert (who was behind us a few feet), "Dad! Spit up!" Yep, it's a good thing we were outside. Here is Robert with his little chunk.

We spent the afternoon over at my mom and dad's house with the usual crowd. My aunt and uncle were there, so was my cousin and her family. She has a son that is a couple of months younger then Harrison. Tyler brought his DS? (I don't know what it was) and he showed Harrison how to play it. My niece and her friend Paige hid Easter eggs for the boys.

My dad bbq'd ham and everyone brought a dish to serve. It was a very nice day. Here is the fruit pizza I was telling you about. It is so easy, and easily adaptable.

Fruit Pizza:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup {2 sticks} butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, divided
1 pkg. {8 oz.} cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 container {8 oz.} frozen whipped topping {Cool Whip}, thawed
1 pint fresh strawberries, cleaned, hulled and sliced
2 kiwis, peeled and sliced
1 can {11 oz.} mandarin oranges pieces, drained and patted dry

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, butter, and 1/2 cup of the confectioner's sugar and, using your fingertips or the heel of your hand, spread the dough over the bottom of a 12-inch rimmed pizza pan that has been coated with non-stick baking spray. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden; let cool. In a large bowl, with an electric beater, beat the cream cheese, the remaining 1 cup of confectioner's sugar and the vanilla; mix well. Fold in the whipped topping. Spread over the cooled crust, then arrange the strawberries, kiwis and oranges in a decorative pattern. Cover and chill 2 hours before serving.

* You can also use bananas, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, or almost any fruit that is in season. It will keep for several days in the refrigerator. {trust me, it won't last that long}.

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! Here we are after we opened our gifts. We had a lot of fun yesterday. I will update later. Now I am just trying to get the house in order and the gifts put away. I hope you had a great day too.

happy 4th of July!

I am done running errands, and I'm heading out to the pool. We always stay in on the 4th, Frankie is so afraid of the fireworks. Have a good day. :)

a happy mom

I am indeed a happy mom! My boys took good care of me yesterday, I even got to sleep in. The day started when I heard Harrison come into our room. I was all set to get up, then I realized that he was whispering something to Robert. They both left, and the door shut, so back to sleep I went. About 20 minutes later, I heard the front door open and I heard Harrison telling Robert to, "Cut six." Ah ha! They were cutting some calla lilies for me. A few minutes later, they came in with breakfast in bed for me. Robert told me that Harrison orchestrated the whole thing. It all started Saturday night at church, the priest called all of the moms up to the alter for a special blessing and Harrison panicked and told Robert that he didn't have anything for me. He is such a tender hearted boy, he can be very thoughtful at times. So this was his idea, dad just helped. :) I love the picture he drew of us, walking on a, "golden path". Charlie made his gift at preschool, and I love it! He gets so shy when giving a gift, I was moved to tears by both of them. I'll spare you the picture of the boys in bed with me. ;) (you are thanking me now).

We spent Saturday night with my mil, Yvonne. We went to church and dinner and exchanged gifts. She got me a beautiful Mother's daily prayer book.
Sunday afternoon the four of us went over to my mom and dad's house. My mom is a wonderful woman, and the best mom. I would never have attempted to sew if it wasn't for her. She also taught me a very important lesson about cooking that has served me well. It is, if you can read you can cook. Simple and true. She makes me laugh, and she gives the best advice. I know where to go for good, level headed advice, she doesn't let me down. She never has. I also think that she was born to be a Grammie. She is positively nuts about her grandkids, and they are about her too. Love you mom!

happy hearts

Whew, it has been a whirlwind of activity around here. I haven't been around much. We had a wonderful anniversary dinner, just the two of us. We went back to the Summit House, (where we had Thanksgiving dinner last year) and here is the funny thing. We used a gift certificate that we got for a wedding present. Yes, that would be TEN YEARS ago. I know, I know. In my defense, it was lost. Miracle of miracles, I happened to find it the night before. I'm not kidding, I really couldn't make this up. Needless to say, the restaurant thought it was pretty darn funny. Better late then never, blah, blah, blah.
Friday I helped out with Harrison's little Valentine day party. Today I helped out in Charlie's classroom, and today is my dad's birthday. :) Love you, dad.
Last night I had my monthly meeting with Harrison's school group and got to hear this gentlemen speak on God's providence throughout history and our lives. Very interesting evening. Thursday night I have a meeting for my M.O.M.S. group at church. And Friday night I'll be in bed by 8:00.
And, to top it all off we are painting our bedroom. Ask me what color. I'll let you know when we figure that out. Right now Robert is painting the primer to cover up our beautiful (trust me, it once was) coral colored wall. We are heading over to Home Depot tomorrow.
Happy Valentine's Day.

Christmas day

Merry Christmas! We went to Mass on Christmas Eve, then out to dinner with Robert's family. After that we went over to my mother in law's house for gifts. All in all, it was fun, but we need to figure out a different time for next year. We didn't get home until eleven, and by then Harrison was tired and cranky. Charlie was wired, but they still fell asleep quickly.
We had a wonderful day yesterday. The boys got up a little too early, but how can you tell them to go back to sleep on Christmas? You can't, so we all got up. I started making breakfast and after that was in the oven, we got down to the business at hand, opening presents. Everyone was thrilled with their gifts. Robert surprised me, as he always does. He got me a new lens for the camera, and it turns out a sweet little bird told him what to get. Thanks Elizabeth, I love it! :) Yep, Robert emailed my friend Elizabeth and got the info from her, all unbeknownst to me. Even the delivery was special, we have a LGB Christmas train around our tree. It was Robert's fathers, and now it is ours. Robert put the lens in one of the train cars and "delivered" it to me on the other side of the tree. He is so thoughtful. As for the boys, it was a Playmobil and Lego Christmas here. They are beyond excited, and of course, they want to open everything right now. I am just trying to get the house in some kind of order before everything is opened.
We spent the day yesterday, at my sister's house. My parents were there too. More gifts! I am especially pleased with this one from my sister, her husband and my neice:

Anyone else remember these movies? I am so excited, what a trip down memory lane it will be.
We had our traditional tamale dinner, and I think I gained about ten pounds yesterday alone. But it was sooooo worth it. We also had our Christmas crackers, or poppers. We all laughed at the corny jokes that are inside each one, and the silly little gifts. I got a shoe horn in mine, and Harrison was particularly pleased with the mini set of screw drivers that were in his. Just what he needs. You can see the cracker on the side of the place setting here:

I'll leave you with my favorite picture from yesterday, taken with my new lens, by Robert. :)

Christmas Extravaganza

No, this isn't our house. ;) This festive house is just a few blocks away and a big hit with the boys, as you can imagine. We love to look at the Christmas lights. Harrison is really into counting how many houses have lights. He is thrilled when/if they have a Nativity too. The other night while driving home, he counted 900 houses with Christmas lights. He's positive he did. :)

So is everybody ready for Christmas? I am getting there, slowly but surely. I was wrapping some presents tonight and Charlie asked me who they were for. I told him that a couple of them were for him. He got a puzzled look on his face and told me that Santa brings the presents. I told him that mommy and daddy give out presents, but that Santa will come too. He then said that Santa is going to say, "Ho ho ho, what's this?!" when he arrives at our house. I assured him that Santa is a pretty bright guy and he won't mistakenly think that he has already been at our house.
I've got some shopping to get done, but for the most part I am in good shape.
The milk bottle is from Robert's mother's family dairy. They are one of the few that still uses glass bottles. If you ever get the chance to try Broguiere's, their egg nog is out of this world. We always have a bottle filled with lights this time of year.
I have been listening to a lot of Christmas music and was thinking about what my top ten would be. So I thought it would be fun to list them. Here they are in no particular order:

Christmas Wrapping, by the Waitresses, I will forever think of high school whenever I hear this song. I still love it.

River, sung by Sarah McLachlan, originally done by Joni Mitchell. I love this new version. Travis does a version too, which isn't bad either.

Do They Know It's Christmas?, Band Aid. It is officially Christmas whenever I hear this song on the radio. I love the "making of" video too.

Happy Christmas, (War is Over), the original sung by John and Yoko still brings tears to my eyes.

Ave Maria, sung by Celine Dion. This song holds a special place in my heart, as it was sung at our wedding. Another one that makes me teary eyed.

The Christmas Song, Nat King Cole, to me the epitome of Christmas.

Winter Wonderland, memories of my sister, cousin and I singing with Nana's yardsticks for microphones, and the fabulous "shooby doo waaaaaa" ending we always added.

Silent Night, probably my number one pick

O Holy Night, a close second

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Burl Ives. A classic, it is still perfect today.


Beautiful, aren't they? This is what I came home to, after my shopping trip last weekend. Robert filled the entire window, and he created all of them. :) It's amazing what you can do with a little paper isn't it?

Christmas card photoshoot-the outakes

We headed out the other day to try and capture the elusive Christmas card photo. Ha! We went to downtown Brea where they have these giant ornaments out near the hip little downtown area. I told the boys to cooperate and in the end we did manage to get that one great photo out of the 85 we took. One is all you need right? Here are some of my favorites even though I don't think they are Christmas card worthy. Robert took the Christmas tree photo, I just think that one is neat.

Happy Thanksgiving

It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving around here without our Lego turkey. I picked that up last year at Legoland while there for their "Brick or Treat" Halloween day. That plump little pilgrim is from my childhood. She is a bank that was given to me by my Nana and Bump. She still has a sticker on her back, she was originally full of Pennsylvania Dutch Good Luck Hex Candies. :) I had her stuffed with two dollar bills and a various assortment of coins. I came across her a few years ago and thought she'd make the perfect decoration. I smile whenever I see her. And of course, I have to have the boy's artwork out too.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving that is full of good food and good company. And for my Canadian friends, I hope you have a wonderful day too. I am thankful for my friends, yes indeed.

a happy halloween indeed 11-1-06

Our Halloween was a good one. I hope yours was too. We started the day by going up to Charlie's preschool to watch the Halloween parade. There really is nothing cuter than little kids in costumes. Charlie looked amazing as a purple dinosaur, and he really enjoyed himself. After that, Harrison and I came home and did some schoolwork then made a quick trip to the market. In the afternoon, it was pumkin carving time. The boys were all set to help us carve the pumpkins, that is until they felt the inside of one. Yuck!

Robert did a great job this year carving. I got the seeds ready for roasting. I've never done this, but have always wanted to try it. I just set the oven to 300 degrees, and cleaned and dried the seeds. Once that was done I put them on a jelly roll pan, drizzled them with some olive oil and sprinkled them with some kosher salt. They went in the oven for 30 minutes. They are so good, I've been snacking on them since.

Charlie was so excited to trick or treat, he must have asked me every ten minutes from 4:00 on, "Is it time now?" At six we were ready. My parents came over to give out some candy. My mom once again out did herself with the costumes, she made all three. We had a pirate, a dinosaur and Anakin Skywalker.

Harrison's costume was from last year, I think she was quite happy about that. The dinosaur costume gave her fits, but turned out soooo cute. Charlie had a long tail. Usually someone was holding it, or we would let it drag. It looks fairly well this morning. It just needs to be cleaned. I caught him holding it himself last night.

We left with my sister's family, and some friends of ours and walked and walked and walked. The kids had so much fun and I love being part of a big group like that. We got home at 8:30, the boys have more candy then they could possibly eat, I've weeded out the questionable ones, and I know Robert and I will eat some of it too. Just a little. :)