Afternoon Snacks II

This week's completely unhealthy snack was not Chris' fault this time. Shea saw some character on the Disney channel making smores - and wanted desperately to try them. So we did! Clare picked hers apart and just ate the chocolate (a girl after my own heart) but overall they were a sticky, yummy HIT!

Rainy Days

Are so much fun!! Look at those faces! That's pure joy!
We puddle jumped to our hearts' content yesterday.
It was a little hard for mommy, who's not a fan of doing extra loads of laundry, but I took Jaime's advise and just let them be kids! It was so so worth it, they had so much fun! Clare kept telling daddy later on, I jump puddles!!! We were soaked to our waists, I've got a whole extra load of laundry and I'll do it again tomorrow!!!!
Happy SoCal rainy days!

Superhero II

We added a mask to our superhero outfit. Yeah, he thinks he'd bad! :-)

Cool homework assignment

One of Shea's homework assignments this week was to find his favorite books, spread them all around him and take a picture. It warmed my heart when we were pulling out his favorite books and we had about 30! I made him put some back so we could fit them all in the picture, but I LOVE that my kids are readers and love books as much as I do!!! :-)

Afternoon Snacks

For us an afternoon snack is usually some nuts, a banana, some fruit snacks, pretzels, edamame, fishies, yogurt or something like that. This semester Chris is home on Thursdays. I think it's definitely going to be the kids favorite day of the week as this is daddy's idea of afternoon snacks:



They're only a tiny bit excited! :-)

"What is..."

Occasionally Shea still takes a nap. And when he does he gets to stay up a little later. Yesterday he napped and last night he got to stay up with mom and dad and watch Jeopardy. One thing Chris and I love to do together before we go our separate ways for the evening to work. Last night Shea was killing us. He kept hollering out answers before the contestants could answer, the problem was, his answers had nothing to do with the questions or the categories. Some of my favorites from last night were: "What is a tree!" "What is an elephant!" "What are dinosaurs!" We tried to explain how it all works, but then gave up, because his "answers" and enthusiasm for the whole game was too much fun!
Our kid is cool. :-)

Superheros!!!

Jaime made the cutest superhero capes for her boys for Christmas. Mine aren't as cute, but I'm in LOVE with them. Shea asked for his own cape every. single. day. from the day he saw Bentley and Gaige's capes until yesterday when I finally made his. We made Clare one too. They are having so much fun with them. I made them reversible and Shea has decided that the black side is for when he's the bad guy and the green side is for when he's the hero!


Introducing SuperShea and SuperClare!!!





The bad news is that apparently apparently a rad superhero cape still doesn't protect you from skinned knees. :-(

My favorite Christmas gifts

My two little chefs LOVE to help in the kitchen so I made them these this year for Christmas. They were super easy and quick and they love to wear them. Tonight they were my little chefs and they helped me make rolls. I think they look adorable in their giant chef hats. I love it! :-)

(Oh, and I know ladybugs is way too girly for a four year old boy, but he picked them out. What could I do?? He was with me when I was getting the fabric and I said if I were making something for a four year old boy who's favorite color was green what fabric should I get? And, yep, ladybugs was his choice. He could not be dissuaded. I'm sure had there been a Disney print or an army print around I could have skipped the ladybugs, but nope, my Joanne's was cleaned out! So there's the story of the lame ladybugs. At least he loves them! :-)

The many faces of Clare

I adore this girl! She is sassy and sweet and everything in between!! Excuse the falling out hairdo and bad lighting, she was just being so funny we got all these faces in about 1 minute the other night. Love you Clarey!!




:-) :-) :-)

Shea exercising!

A while ago it was raining and Shea couldn't play outside so after a few hours of boredom we found some kids exercise shows on demand. It was so stinking hilarious!!!! Shea just kept going and going and going even though he was totally uncoordinated and couldn't do most of the moves. It was really funny but he loved it. We'll definitely let him do it again. You should check them out if you haven't.

Happy New Year!

While we were in UT for Christmas our good friends the Ellingson's had us over for dinner. Alisa made the most delicious homemade chicken noodle soup I've ever tasted. She's apparently one of those talented, no recipe type of girls, so I did my best to duplicate it and it turned out pretty darn good. I will tweak two things next time and it'll be perfection. Considering how my kids would eat soup at every single meal, we're all pretty excited about the freezer full of this stuff we've got!
She also made homemade rolls. My sweet friend Lauren also does delicious homemade rolls so I thought I'd try too. They were yumster! I think I might make this an annual tradition!!!

Momma's Lap

Yes, this is my lap. :-)
I've been thinking a lot about my lap lately. I know that sounds bizarre, but it's true. "No! My lap!" is screamed at Shea (and sometimes Chris :-), by Clare at least 20 times a day, as one of them tries to claim "her" spot. They fight over my lap (luckily, when I can get them to share, it's big enough for both of them!! :-) -A good excuse not to diet I say!-
My babies want to sit in my lap to watch cartoons in the mornings, to read stories at bedtime, to eat snacks in the afternoon, to cuddle in when they wake up from naps, to sing songs, to cuddle in when they're tired and ready for bed, and especially when they're mad, sad or hurt. Sometimes I find myself thinking that I just want one minute to myself! But most of the time I just feel lucky. To me, my lap represents everything good about being a mother. I think about all those moments that they just want me! to hold them. To hold them tight and smell their sweet clean smell and experience all those moments with them. My lap and I are so very blessed!!

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas! After Thanksgiving we decorated the house. I loved my tree this year. I didn't put any of the family ornaments on, just these awesome striped and polka dotted balls Shea and I found at Costco. I loved them! So fun. And this year I added the angel stand, angel, stars and an ox to my Willow Tree Nativity. After 6 years, my gorgeous nativity is complete. I love this set, it makes me happy and I didn't want to put it away after only a few weeks. And my parents gave us this spectacular Christus this year. I love it.
We worked until the Wed before Christmas and then drove to UT. We had fun with Chris' family but it was cold, cold, cold. It made me miss gorgeous LA. I don't know what I'll do when we have to leave here, I've never loved living somewhere so much!! Shea and Clare loved spending time with Kim and Reilley and they definitely loved their dog. I think I'll for sure get outvoted when we have space and the "dog" conversation comes up.
We hope yours was as happy as ours!

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!!

In November Chris and I went and saw a live taping of the NPR news quiz show, "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" with our friends Aaron and Jessica. We had so. much. fun. We've been listening to and loving "Wait, Wait" for years now and to get to go was amazing. It was so much more fun live, as are most things, I guess.

We also went to dinner before at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. I've seen chicken and waffle houses on the Food Network and always wanted to try it, but didn't know they existed outside the South. IT WAS DELICIOUS! I've even dreamed of it since!!! :-) We can't wait to go again, anyone wanna try it out with us? So good!