what i woke up to...

that's right...rain! this is a view from our front window...it hasn't rained in so long that when it started to rain in the middle of the night, it actually scared me for a minute...sad. when the girls woke up, kaia ran to the window with a look on her face like "what's that strange noise?" and looked outside and yelled "it's raining!" since i'm from texas & i know what real rain is, we'd call this a light rain...but she proceeds to say, "it's raining really hard!" poor girl, she doesn't know. then i pick up leia & take her to the window to see the rain and she looks up in the sky like "what in the world is that?" she's only seen rain a few times in her almost 18 months on this earth.
anyways...i love the rain this time of year!

angel face

i took this picture of kaia after she fell asleep the other night. she fell asleep on the couch while derek and i were watching Ultimate Fighter (no we don't let her watch that with us, she was already almost out when we turned it on). anyways, derek looked down at her and says, "look babe, you would never think by looking at this face that she would ever be difficult" (or something to that effect). you see, kaia's going through a number of "phases", we'll call 'em. we're calling them phases, cuz we hope that some of the stuff she's doing right now will pass...SOON. some of her difficult times start early in the morning...as she's putting her socks on. i know a lot of kids don't like this, the sock seam! why would they ever make sock with seams on kids socks??? the other day, we were at kaia's dance class and she had her tights on (which also have seams!) and she wouldn't put her ballet shoes on cuz the seam wasn't just perfect & nothing i did made it better! so after a couple of minutes trying to fix it, i walk over to the front desk, grab the scissors, walk back over to kaia, stretch her foot part of her tights where they're off her foot and proceed to cut off the foot part of her tights. just made them into footless tights, why didn't i think of that earlier (okay, i had a little help thinking of that idea from one of the other moms)...she happily put on her ballet shoes and trotted into dance class 2 seconds later. yea, we got a few laughs. BUT, you can't do that with socks...that would defeat the whole purpose! so, aunite kimmy was asking me what the girls want for Christmas and i just told her "seamless socks for Kaia...Nordstroms has 'em!"

anyways...i'll stop there, this isn't a "complain about my daughter" entry...she's a good girl, we're just having a few issues right now. i just thought it was funny what derek said about how peaceful she looks when she's sleeping. :)

Another Christmas tradition (done very early)!

they didn't really cooperate...if leia was smiling, kaia wasn't & vise versa (thank goodness for our free coupon, they're good for days like this!) :)

our tree is up!

yes, it's kinda early...but, since we're gonna be in texas in a few weeks we thought it'd be nice to enjoy a Christmas tree for a little while anyways (well, my dad will have one up in texas too). this is gonna be short, cuz i'm very tired...
leia still wasn't herself (her arm still hurt a little this morning), but she's fine now
decisions, decisions...kaia chose our tree!
here's our little petite tree :)
our little petite tree started to slide a little, so this was our solution to the problem...hey, it worked!
our tree looked even smaller once it was in the house...
the girls LOVED it!

Fesitval of Lights (that we almost didn't make it to)

just in the nick of time (if you haven't read the entry below this one...start there)




poor leia didn't feel like using her left arm at all tonight after the "incident" :(
p.s.~i don't know why i look like such a mean mom in this pic...wow, do i look like that all the time when i don't know i'm in the picture?!?

2nd trip to Urgent care with Leia in 2 weeks!

i promise...we're not abusing this poor girl, but, yes we were at urgent care again tonight. my poor baby, we were walking into a restaurant tonight before we were attempting to go to the Festival of Lights downtown. well, as we were walking in to the restaurant, i was holding leia's hand & for some reason, she tried to pull away from me very suddenly and after that, she just wouldn't stop crying (not at all like her). we noticed that she wouldn't use her left arm & after about 15 minutes of crying, we decided that something was really hurting her. so, we get our food to go & off to the hospital we go, again! i was thinking, "they're gonna think that we beat her!" so, we get there and i couldn't believe it...no one was in the waiting room, so we check in and as soon as we put the paper in the slot, like three groups of people come in...whew! so we go in & literally with in 1 minute, the doctor comes in, asks what happened, so i explain. he proceeds to start examining her, starting with her collar bone feeling his way to her shoulder. then i tell him, "it seems like it's either her shoulder or wrist that hurts". by this time he had moved down to her elbow and tells us, "nope, it's her elbow". he then does a quick movement and says, "her elbow was out of socket and i just put it back, she's fine". just like that, in a matter of 30 seconds! he said that it was very common in babies (and kids)...it's called nursemaid's elbow & that if a child ever throw him/herself to the ground, just let them fall (as long as you're in a safe spot)...don't try to pull them up cuz most likely this will happen. she was almost instantly felling a lot better, it's still a little tender, though. i think i embarrassed the doctor cuz i told him that i wanted to hug him...i was just SO thankful that he was able to make her feel better & that it wasn't that serious and didn't have to get X-rays.

the funny thing is, that, we were still able to barely make it to the Festival of lights...as we walked up to the spot we stood to watch the fireworks and the Christmas lights turn on, they instantly started the countdown. that was a close one!

our little "ring-bear-ette"

kaia is gonna be the girl version of the ring-bearer in my sister's wedding, so we went to get her dress today, isn't it cute. michelle has to plan her and carlos' wedding in about a month...well, really, she had to plan it this week (her week off), since she's a teacher & she's off for Thanksgiving and they're getting married right after Christmas. well, michelle, you can scratch one more thing off of your list! kaia's dress...CHECK! ;)

congratulations!

my sister got engaged last weekend (i just now posted about it, cuz she just sent me pics from the proposal day)...i haven't met carlos yet, but from what i have heard about him, he's a great person (for michelle and her daughter, ashley). they're actually getting married right after Christmas (yes...in 1 month!) so, we'll be in Texas for Christmas this year. we've never been out of town on Christmas day since having kids. i can't wait to meet her fiance, visit with my family and watch them get married (and be her matron-of-honor...i guess it's not called maid of honor, since i'm married) i told her that "matron" makes me sound like i'm 90 years old...i know, we're weird. anyways, we'll see you guys in about 30 days...we're SO excited for them!

Thanksgiving at the Bennett's house...

we had a great Thanksgiving at my sister-in-law's (derek's sister, kim), in-laws house. they always make delicious food & we go home so stuffed. hey, that's the way it's supposed to be, right? the kids had a great time, they loved the green beans, mashed potatoes (kaia) & corn the best. yes, our girls LOVE most veggies & they had a fun time on the rocking horse John's dad (kim's father-in-law) made...YES, he makes these horses. they're amazing!
here's our annual tradition...taking a picture in front of their orange tree

leia was getting tired (and teething...6 teeth are coming in, 4 of them are molars!!!), but justice was wide awake! :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

CPK is awesome!

today, the mom's group i'm in had a fieldtrip to California Pizza Kitchen (we went last year too & remembered how much fun it was so we went again). i can't believe everything they did for the kids! first of all, every kid got to make a personal pizza, then they got a tour of the kitchen, then they each got a drink, then all the mom's got a drink & THEN when they brought the kids pizza's out for them, they had big salads, pizzas and bread for the mom's...after the kids were done eating, each one got a popsicle and last but not least a coupon for a free kid-sized pizza for our next visit there! they were so good with the kids, very patient. if you ever get the chance to do a CPK fieldtrip, you HAVE to go!
here they are starting to make their pizzas...
look at all of those little faces :)
well, at least some of the pepperoni made it on the pizza (and she usually doesn't even like it!)
leia was busy doing other things :)
always time for a sisterly hug...
checking out the flour
here's kaia getting her juice...
yum!
she was SO funny...she kinda got the hang of it after a while. my sweetie!

thanks guys @ CPK!

Justin & Heidi's wedding...

here are the beautiful newleyweds...
yes...kids were invited, i know...crazy!
leia's on a mission...
here's kaia and her new friends
derek played a few songs
another friend they made

leia hugs every dog she meets (with our assistance) and every dog's name is "bubba" :)

bye-bye pismo!

Pismo Beach...

we drove up to pismo beach yesterday for a friends wedding & we stayed at our favorite hotel on the beach there...the Cottage Inn. it's right on the beach, every room has a fireplace, and for breakfast they have an area where you can make your own homemade waffles (i don't know why i think that's so cool, i just do...and they were SO good!). anyways, i know that i got carried away with pictures, but here they are:
the girls are enjoying the view
walking down to the beach with daddy...
almost there!
leia always spots the dogs :)
family pic "op"...
why do kids love to throw sand in the air???
she loves it!
this is SUCH a typical kaia pic (especially when she's been in the car for 4 hours!)
so loving!
it was getting SO cold and kaia would NOT admit that she was cold!
leia always spots the birds too! :)
start the walk back up to the hotel...
kaia's giving a quick "art lesson" before dinner
another favorite...Del's Pizzaria, everything is SO good here (especially the rolls!)
leia always eats her pizza backwards (so cute)
they loved the spumoni too...
ahhh, our cozy room!