having fun together and angels

I found these angels with my great great aunt's name on the bottom and am posting this pic for G. Joyce so she can let me know if they're worth keeping... I put the chapstick in to show relative size.

Alexey gave the play hut to the kids as a coming home from the hospital gift. We haven't had it out for a while and the kids had a wonderful time together crawling through it!

love those big blue eyes!

It is fun to see Alexey play more with the big kids. She loves to be a part of it all and can almost keep up (if the kids move on the floor with her)!

PS. Today is Dave's birthday. He is on call tonight so be sure to wish him happy b-day :)

disneyland

When Dave woke up and said good morning to Calvin, Calvin said, "Dad, I'm not 6 yet, I haven't blown out my #6 candle." (the night before I had made a good dinner and planned to have a family b-day dinner and party at home but our power was out all evening so we ended up having to go out to eat and Calvin fell asleep at the dinner table)! So, on his birthday the first order of business, before we could go to disneyland, was to blow out the #6 candle so Calvin could be officially 6. And hey, what's better than cupcakes for breakfast on your birthday?

Blogger is being a little fussy this afternoon so bear with me as all the pics are out of order.

This was the last night of the night, on Dumbo. Alexey loved all the rides! On this ride I was snuggling with her and trying to hold her close and she was pushing my hands out of the way so that her view was unobstructed!

Dave waited in line with Clare for over an hour to meet the princesses. They saw snow white, cinderella, sleeping beauty and got to wave at Belle. Clare was distressed that she didn't see Jasmine (don't' know why, she has never mentioned her before....)

Dave was really impressed with the princesses. He said they were much more than girls wearing dresses. They looked and acted like the sweet princesses from the stories and were great!

We went to a place called Club 33 for a fancy lunch. It costs a lot of money to eat there (like $60/person) but then the disneyland tickets are free. My dad LOVED it! And wished we could have stayed there all day instead of trooping around disneyland.

Clare ate her weight in watermelon (a special treat since it's out of season now). Also, you might be able to make out the mickey mouse pasta in her bowl.

waiting in line for a ride. when we got to the front of the line, clare threw a fit and didn't go on the ride so alexey came instead. Clare hated all rides and attractions at disneyland, except for meeting the princesses!

The entrance to club 33 is just a door. You knock on the door and then enter to the lounge....

and take the elevator up to the restaurant.

best we could do for a family photo. Calvin refused to be in it.

grandpa babysat Alexey when we were on rides that she wasn't able to go on.

Overall it was a GREAT b-day for Calvin. He is still talking about it. He loved space mtn., big thunder railroad and pirates.

We were so glad that Dad and Kari and Shi and Dan came with us. We could not have handled three different age kids without them.

It was fun to rendezvous with Dave's bro joe and family.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Even though my valentine (pictured above) forgot to shave, he did remember to plan a great Valentine's outing for us. We went Whale watching off the coast of San Diego. Whale watching season is Jan-March so it seemed like the perfect weekend to go, right in the middle of the season. The pacific grey whale migrates from the north pacific down to Cabo to breed and give birth in the winter. So early in the season you see whales traveling south towards Mexico and later in the season you see whales moving north back home. We hit the unlucky day where all the whales were already there but not yet traveling back so....not much whale watching for us.


we wanted to see this (stolen off of a whale watching website)

but instead saw this!!

all joking aside I really love the ocean! The swells were pretty big and it made for a really fun ride.

actually we did see one juvenile whale , too young to reproduce and not traveling all the way to cabo.
we also saw a super pod of dolphins....100's of them swimming and playing all around our boat! it was very neat.

our version of a SF pier.


next time we go out we want to try a smaller sail boat like one of these.

this one is called stars and stripes and won the america's cup a few years ago.


we had a lovely day on the water! San Diego skyline behind us. Dave decided to leave his coat in the car and that was a big mistake. IT was a beautiful day but windy on the boat and in the 50's so dave was freezing, espeically on the way back as the sun was setting!

I love San Diego.
I love Dave too!

NOT Guilty!!

Dave is amazing. Today we found out that he is not guilty of running a red light as recorded by the red light camera. For the record, he was completely guilty but apparently his 2 page letter convinced the judge that there was not sufficient evidence with the picture they took to know for sure if it was dave "or any number of people who drive the car including friends, family and my mechanic." (ha ha) I am very proud of dave and owe some thanks to the ticket assassin as well. (http://www.ticketassassin.com/ -- it costs $25 to join).

Here is a picture of Dave that he mailed in with his letter to court to show his cute face!


And here is that same cute face running the red light.


When Dave got no christmas presents for getting this $400 ticket we made a deal that IF he got his money back he'd be able to spend the money how he chooses. Of course I made this deal sure that we'd never see that $400 again. So, today was a good day! Though I hate to be wrong, I have to admit that I was wrong to nag, complain and make fun of Dave for this ticket since he was able to get out of it in the end. Way to go babe, you're awesome! And what great timing to have a little extra cash . . . just 2 days before Valentine's Day!!






PS. I'll try to post some pics of Disneyland soon. I didn't take very many so I need to gather up a few more from Kari. Calvin had a GREAT b-day!

Also, thanks for all the great comments about hair. Good tips. I recently got something that seems to be working really well, it's a leave in conditioner by Garnier Fructis.


And Em was right about preggo people and disneyland -- they can go on most stuff there. It might be different for a big roller coaster park like Cedar Point!

Have a good weekend!

questions....

Don't you think pregnant people should get into amusement parks for free? I mean they can't ride the rides and surely they'll off-set their admission cost at the concession stands!!? (no worries, I'm not pregnant but I was remembering the last time I went to an amusement park I was pregnant...)

now this next question is for those of you with little girls. How do you do their hair every day? What products and tools do you use? Clare wakes up with tangles in her hair and HATES for me to touch it. I was wondering what your secrets are to making your children presentable without the fussing and crying. I wonder if there is any spray in dangler? Help me out, gals!

one of those days

My grandma says that the years go by so fast except for those days when the kids are sick. Well, today was one of those days. It all started last Thursday when Dan called and said, "I have a stomach bug. Try to prevent the kids from getting it. I went home to Dad's house" (loved that he went home to Dad's house instead of to our house where he actually lives when he is sick so that he can spread his germs all over...). Upon receiving this message I Lysol the entire house and waited with baited breath over the next couple of days to see if we'd get it too. It has been going around schools and families mercilessly over the last month or so. Anyway, by Tuesday I figured we were in the clear, but then Tues. night Alexey had it. It wasn't too bad -- she threw up twice and then slept all night and woke up fine. Hasn't really eaten much all week but is eating and drinking enough to stay energized and happy. Wed. morning I had it. And today Calvin and Clare had it. Not that great of a day but to be honest I was glad that they both got it on the same day and that they did get it today because we are going to Disneyland on Tuesday and I have been worried like crazy that someone would be sick that day. Dave is the only one who hasn't gotten it and let's hope one of two things happens -- 1. he hasn't been home enough to get it. or 2. he is sick tomorrow or Monday and ready to play on Tuesday :) As far as stomach flu bugs go this one hasn't been bad. It is really just a few hours of sickness and then you're all better. The kids just ate a snack and have been begging for food all evening but just to be on the safe side I told them they can't have a real meal 'til breakfast. As I am writing I am thinking that this is probably not the least bit interesting to many of you but hey, it makes a good journal entry, right?

Here are some pics from our grey day. And, by the way it was raining cats and dogs so it was a great day to stay in. The kids spent most of the day -- starting at 5 when clare woke up on the WRONG side of the bed -- watching TV. They watched Kung fu Panda (BTW, awesome movie) a couple of hours of backyardagins and then horton hears a who.

Here we are all decked out for a sick day in the living room.

Clare was feeling better an hour or two before Calvin and she got really into a KUMON tracing book I got her. She did almost the entire book this afternoon. I had never gotten her a little workbook like that I hadn't realized she'd be so into it!


Alexey crawled around, took a couple of naps and got held a lot b/c I didn't want her to be right on top of the sick kids. She loves to pull herself up to standing position and is so proud of herself when she does so.

Alexey - 10 months old

smiling. laughing. talking. entertaining. mimicking. crawling. scooting. kneeling. standing. singing. playing. kicking. eating. imitating. darling. growing. dancing. clapping. signing.

100% pure joy.

clare bear

Yesterday Clare decorated the back of the couch with washable marker. Not sure yet how to wash it. Usually the marker comes out great in the wash but can't very easily throw the couch in the wash, can I? A couple of the smiley faces look a lot like the kind Calvin likes to draw but he says he didn't do it. I haven't thought of a good punishment for either one of them yet.

Clare is in the terrible toddler stage. she can be quite a handful! One of the funny (or not so funny depending on how you look at it) things that she does is over dramatize her "owies." She currently has an invisible owie on her foot which sometimes causes such excruciating pain that she can't walk to the car .. . .then just a few short minutes later when we are at the playground it is suddenly feeling all better and she runs around fast as lightning. In spite of her toddler quirks, clare does have a couple of things going for her. 1. She's a good sleeper -- no naps anymore and she does often resist bed time but you can definitely count on her to sleep from 7-7, or 8-8. A lot of nights she stays up reading 'til 9 but I don't really care as long as she stays in her room! 2. She is dang cute! She has the sweetest little voice and says darling things. we sure love her to pieces.

I have noticed that on the days when she is the most difficult if I just take the time to sit and hold her she will calm down and then behave much better. She isn't a cuddler and is quite independent so I forget to think of that as the solution. She is typically pretty good at entertaining herself and happy to go about her own business.

favorite things:
-barbie and princess movies
-yougart
-water by her bed
-sleeping in a sleeping bag
-bedtimes stories

necessities:
-princess dresses
-shoes when we go outside
-daddy
-bandaids on owies

things she'd rather live without:
-primary
-being told no
-clothes