Blueberries make great war paint

Nov. 29, 2010

Caleb dictated his first "Dear Santa" letter to me and I wrote down everything he said even if he said it incorrectly. Like "millenial" instead of Millennium Falcon.

The kids love to eat frozen blueberries and today they really loved eating them.














Caleb and I made sugar cookies during Hannah's nap today so we could decorate them tonight for FHE. Caleb dumped half of the green sprinkles on just one of his cookies. But clearly it tasted just fine and dandy. Hannah used pink sprinkles and red hots. The red hots were so hard I was afraid one of us were going to chip a tooth. We will sleep well tonight with all of our teeth brushed and un-chipped. ; - )

"O" Week

Nov. 29 - Dec. 3, 2010

This week is the letter "O"
Monday: Animals - Octopus and Ostrich
Tuesday: Social Studies - Oxbow Lake
Thursday: Craft/Activity - Opposite game

Composer: Offenbach (the Can Can)
Poem: The Octopus (Original Author Unknown)

With a Smile

Nov. 27, 2010

This morning we cleaned the house together. It goes pretty fast with everyone chipping in. We went to the church and played inside the cultural hall while Cory finished up a few things in the clerk's office. Afterward we came home and set up the tree. I'm sure most LDS Mom's are really on top of the Christmas season and have had their trees up for days (and if your Amber Cola it's been almost 3 weeks). For me this is record breaking. I typically have the tree up near the end of the first week of December. Yikes! Oh well. Let bygones be bygones. Cory said as the kids played by the tree, that most of his childhood memories involve Christmas and the feelings he had at Christmas time with his family. He added that Caleb and Hannah were in under our family tree making their own happy Christmas memories. Memories that they would keep and recall as they grew up. It was a neat perspective.














The tree was done and Hannah was in bed. Cory, Caleb and I turned on the tree lights and off all the lamps and stared at the tree together. Cory and I sat on the couch and talked, and Caleb fell asleep listening to our voices and looking at our tree under a bed he had made on the floor.

Turkey Day - P.M.

Nov. 25, 2010

Thanksgiving was at my parent's house this year. Hillari was home for the week and it was like heaven for me. She is a fun and loving person...I'm so glad were sisters.
Dinner was seriously amazing! My mom loves to cook and it shows.







This is my family. My Dad (at the head of the table), Uncle Bill (his brother), my Mom , Cory, Caleb(unseen), My spot, Hannah, Hillari, Uncle Timm.

Hannah loves salad.





























I had to take a picture of my plate because it looked like it was right out of a magazine. Green beans with bacon and caramelized onions, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with a few potatoes mashed up together, yummy salad with green olives, homemade cranberry sauce, and the turkey.
After dinner we played a card style scrabble (I think it's called SLAM) and then Apples to Apples. Cory's being silly and Hillari is too.

Turkey Day - A.M.

Nov. 25, 2010

This morning we went to the Monica ball field and watched a little tag football. Caleb was so excited to play but all his hopes and dreams were dashed to pieces when he realized the game was just for the Daddy's. Caleb was crushed. I tried to distract him with a little game of our own but he knew the difference and he knew where he wanted to be: with Daddy!
AS the game went on my fingers were numb and I kept the kids moving to stay warm until the sun came up a little higher and warmed everything and everyone up. After the game Caleb and Cory played football together and all the disappointment was forgotten.

In the country

Nov. 23, 2010

I went to work with Cory this morning. I met a lot of really nice people that Cory works with and I also watched him work. He seems very comfortable there and really enjoys what he's doing (I also read about 2 more planets). After lunch Cory and I drove up to Springville to meet with a Real Estate person to check out the listings up there. We have heard really great things about Springville from really great people. We found Springville to be a very quiet and nice place. It would be a great place for raising a family. We checked out 4 listings. The first 3 were around the golf course and really fancy and nice. They seemed a little too fancy and nice for me. One house was 4 bedrooms 4 1/2 baths! I don't want to clean 4 and 1/2 bathrooms! The last house was the furthest away. It was 1 acre and the neighbor had a pond with ducks and cattle. This property had huge boulders and trees for climbing. A potting shed, chicken coup and deck. The inside floors were knotty pine and the kitchen, bath and laundry room had all been updated. The dinning area was large enough to fit 2 our kitchen tables with room to spare. It has a lot of windows and is country living which suits me just fine. I could just see us living there. It isn't big and fancy or even impressive to the modern eye. But it looks like "home."
Two problems : 1) It is an extra 20 minutes from Cory's turn off, making the commute 40 minutes. 2) It's small.
Maybe there is something just like it only bigger and closer. I LOVE this house!

The Baking Adventure

Nov. 23, 2010

Amber Cola and I planned to make two Creamy Pumpkin pies and two Spiced Carrot cakes with Maple frosting at her house today but she called at 12:30 this afternoon and said her oven wasn't heating up. NOOOO! So we were trying to figure out what would be the best alternative...my house? Connie's? In the end we went to my Mom's which isn't very far from where Amber lives and baked the afternoon away. The pies and cakes looked delicious but I won't be able to give a full report until Thursday.








While at my Mom's house Roegan and Caleb dumped every toy out of my Mom's toy boxes and went to work to make the biggest and best castle they could. The finishing touches included small pumpkins, autumn corn and a Mylar balloon.

Mostly Happy

Nov. 22, 2010

Growing up Cory read from a series of Book of Mormon books with his family. They were a treasure then and are even more now that he can share them with Caleb and Hannah. Caleb loves to look at the pictures and ask questions. Sometimes he even "reads" to himself.
This morning Caleb and Hannah were sitting on our bed "reading." From the kitchen I heard Caleb say, "Hannah, this is Jesus on the cross. He was there for 8 weeks!"


We sat on the bed together looking at the pictures. Caleb was not in the mood for a picture and made his mad face for every one I tried to take. So Hannah and I made a mad face to match his. Soon after this picture Caleb was smiling again.














Connie took Caleb to school and then Hannah and I to my Mom's before she did her errands in town. It was great to be at my Mom's. Hillari's in town this week for Thanksgiving. On Thursday I am determined to get her in at least one picture.














My Dad brought us home and played with Caleb and Hannah in their room. He is a silly and fun guy. He hates to see the kids in timeout and he is always passing out sweets. Before we left their house I Hannah went into timeout. She cried and cried. Dad brought her a toy drum and drum stick to cheer her up. "Dad... She can't have that she's in 'time out.' " I said. He made a face like the one above and walked away.

"N" School

Nov. 22, 2010

The Letter for the week is "N".

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday the Preschool days are switched. This week Preschool is at Jen Kilmer's house and is on Monday and Wednesday.
Tuesday: Animals- Narwhal and Numbat
Thursday: Social Studies - Florence Nightingale
Friday: Numb chucks (just kidding)

A new game

Nov. 20, 2010

I love Saturday's. With Cory being gone most of the week Saturday feels like a special day. We made pancakes this morning and Caleb flipped them all by himself (with supervision of course). Afterward Cory took the kids exploring outside despite the sprinkling. He thinks it's a good idea to expose the them to the elements a little every day so they stay healthy. After exploring Cory made up a game called, "Chasing Tail." He hung a sock from the backside of his pants and from Caleb's. the object of the game is to keep the other person person from grabbing your "tail" while trying to grab theirs. Caleb loved it. How do guys come up with this stuff?

A walk on the Rez

Nov. 19, 2010

Cory took the camera and captured a few beautiful scenes during his lunchtime walk. Cory isn't the type to stay indoors on his lunch break. Even when he was working at CBIZ and at A&P growers he would eat his lunch quickly and then step outside and let the sun warm his face.






This is the bridge he walks on. Think Indiana Jones...



















This is the Tule River. It runs through the Reservation.














One day this week Cory was walking on this path reading a note card. A girl yelled at him asking, "Are you a Preacher?" Cory said, "No. I'm just walking here." She said, "Oh." and drove away. Cory wondered what made them think that he was a Preacher. He was wearing a tie but had a jacket over it. He didn't have a Bible in his hands. Does Cory look like a Preacher?

Park and the Lake

Nov. 18, 2010

We walked to the park late this morning and met a woman for the first time who has lived in Tuscany since 2007. It seems like I am constantly meeting new mom's at the Park. We must have all been coming at different times.
Before dinner we took a walk around the lake by our house. The coots have returned and were skipping across the water making a lot of noise. They seem like a teasing type of bird. Half way around the lake we stopped to have races and put Eucalyptus leaves into a metal box. Caleb said it was a ship and that the leaves were the gas to make it go.
The best part of the night was when Alison, Sara, Connie and I met up with Trish Neville and her cousin Christy at the Maya theatre for a movie. We saw, Morning Glory. I like the story and characters but the content was not great. I would only recommend this movie if it were "clean-flicked." I guess I'm a prude. Oh well

Pilates for two

Nov. 17, 2010

I like to exercise, shower and read my scriptures before the kids wake up so I don't have to try and squeeze it in during the day. But lately Caleb has been waking up at about 6am every morning for 2 weeks. This morning I put in my Pilates video and instead of watching it like usual, Caleb got down on the floor and did it with me.
At 10 the kids came to my house for preschool. Every week they are here we play Star Wars together before lunch. I always play Darth Vader (black cape included) they hide and I search for them throughout the house. Once found the light saber battle begins.















After Hannah's nap and before it was too dark (you know like 5!) I said, "Let's go to the park!" I grab the diaper bag and Caleb's T-Ball set and we ran to the car and drove (I know we should have walked but there was only about 45 minutes of day light left and I wanted to run around and play for every minute of day light left). Caleb hit the ball on the T and gave Hannah a try. She did it literally twice and then ran off to the sand to make "cupcakes." We move the T out of the way and I threw the ball to Caleb instead. To be honest I have terrible aim. He only hit 1 out of 3 pitches because my aim was either too high or too short. Yikes! Caleb kept saying, "Mom, it takes a lot of practice." When he did hit the ball I screamed and cheered (for both of us).

A blue room and Wishing...

Nov. 15, 2010

My sister is at S.F. State University. She is studying Art History. Hillari has always been interested in Art. When she was in kindergarten she saw the painting of Van Gogh's Sunflower. She painted her own version of it and we all thought it was so good that my parents had it professionally framed and it hung in our dinning room until she graduated from High School this year. The purple one is a self portrait of her she painted 2 years ago when she was Junior at Garces. She was invited (along with only 15 other Juniors in Bakersfield) to have an Art exhibit at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. She also designed two Christmas cards for Memorial Hospital and both were presented and picked by the Hospital board. All profits made from the card went to the Hospital to buy supplies or beds or whatever. She's very talented and had expensive taste. My Mom has wanted to redecorate her bedroom for years. Hillari would pick out a bedspread or quilt that was $$$$! Since they could never agree the bedroom sat undone. Well this week my Mom painted the room a really pretty blue, bought a new ceiling fan, and put on the quilt Hillari picked that was reasonably priced and my Mom liked. Mom hung up Hillari's art from the Museum show and now the room is complete.


We went to Target and after the shopping was done I took the kids to the toy aisles and watched their faces light up with excitement. I watched them play with the boxes and pretend the toys were theirs. I brought a notepad and paper and wrote down the things they were most excited about.

We drove home and I asked the kids to help with the Grocery and Target bags. Hannah thought it would be easier to walk up the dirt hill by our house with the bag then to walk on the grass. Maybe not easier but definitely more fun!

"M" and the Park

Nov. 14, 2010

This week is the letter "M." (click here)
Composer - Mozart
Poem - "Mice" by Rose Fyleman
Monday: Animals - Howler Monkey and Manatee
Tuesday: Social Studies - Mexico
Friday: Craft/Activity - Marching with Maracas








We walked to the park after lunch. Caleb and Hannah wanted to explore everything along the way, including the trash cans.















We walked passed a Grandma and Grandpa with their grandson playing Crockett. They invited us to join them in their game. Caleb and Hannah played a few games (the four year version of Crockett) and then we said goodbye. As we left Caleb informed me that he wanted that for Christmas too. The Grandma informed me that Santa could find it at Target in the sport section.
Last year we met a man who claimed to be Santa at Target. He had a long white beard and a happy, kind face. At first I was nervous because he was very friendly with Caleb and Hannah but he turned out to be a very sweet man who just wanted Caleb to feel special. He opened his wallet and pulled out a picture of himself as Santa and gave it to Caleb. He said he had to get back to the North Pole and check on the elves. He reminded Caleb to be good and left. Caleb kept the picture on his bookshelf until all the Christmas decorations were put away. I wonder if he'll remember his encounter when he finds it next month in the box among the ornaments .

We pulled these beautiful leaves off a tree and carried them home with us.