comment of the day #9:

we're getting to leave to go to a friends New Years Eve party (there's gonna be like a bazillion kids there) & when we were done getting ready, i asked the girls, "are you ready to go see your friends?" and leia said, "yeah!" and kaia said, "yeah...i wanna see the boys!!!" with a big smile on her face. really. this is already starting?" Lord help us.

p.s.~Happy New Years everyone!!!

and...they're off!

kaia's training wheels, that is. :) she saw a little boy about her age the other day riding his bike without the training wheels and said, "mama, how's he doing that?" so, i told her that i'd teach her how to do it if she wanted & she did...so, today we headed up to the park where there is a lot of short grass so if she fell it wouldn't hurt too bad. she did pretty good, a couple of times i let her go and she was riding all by herself for a few seconds. not bad for a 30 minute lesson.
as you can see in the pic above, she wasn't too happy here. the time before this one, the bike tipped over. no, she didn't get hurt but it made her mad & she wanted to quit. so, i told her that i didn't want her to quit "on a bad note", so i asked her to try 1 more time for today. to say the least, she reluctantly went for one last ride & she did great. she seemed SO much happier after this one! :)

little sis was there supporting her...
this was when we first started...
she needed a little persuading...
leia was having a great time running down the big hill too :).

i'm a nerd.

one of the girl's Christmas gifts was a HSM soundtrack c.d. & i think my favorite song right now is "can i have this dance" from the movie: "High School Musical: Senior Year". i know, it's a tini-bopper movie and i should be listening to a lot more mature songs, but i promise you, if you haven't heard it, it's a really good song (derek thinks so too :). take a listen & tell me if you agree.

our Christmas...

a little Christmas Eve cookin'...



Christmas morning...











the first Christmas dinner at our house...
checking out the Mission Inn before our hike...

check out the snow behind us...

comment of the day #8:

my dad (texas papa) was in town visiting for Christmas this week and when he got here, he was asking the girls if they had been good this year so santa will bring them gifts. leia replied with a "yes" and kaia replied with, "kinda". hey, at least she was honest. just kiddin', baby, you're a good girl. :) she's pretty funny.

after all...it IS winter!

i know it's supposed to always be hot & sunny here in california...even in the winter. and, it's been raining a little which i love. no, i wouldn't want it to rain all the time & i wouldn't want to move to a place like Seattle...that's too much rain. but, it's been so nice actually feeling like we're having a little change in seasons. i think it's kinda funny how all i hear on the news every time they talk about the weather here and the word rain comes up...they use the phrase "bad weather". i know, there are a lot of flights canceled in alot of places & i really do feel bad for all the people who aren't gonna be able to spend Christmas with their loved ones...that sucks. but, as far as us "SoCal-ers"...really we don't have anything to complain about when it comes to the weather. my dad (a.k.a Texas Papa) would beg to differ, i'm sure. he's coming in town tomorrow to spend the week with us for Christmas & he'd be more than happy if it was 80* the entire time. so, how many of you like it to actually feel like winter in the winter & how many of you like summer weather all year 'round? (btw...i definitely AM more of a hot weather person, but not during like nov.-jan).
p.s.~i'm sure that pic above is not one that was takes in cali., i just liked it. :)
Merry Christmas to everyone (if i don't blog again before Christmas) !!!

yes...they're spoiled!

we ventured out to Disneyland again yesterday. i know we were just there on Sunday, but that didn't really count cuz we weren't there very long since it was SO crowded. anyways, we wanted to really have a chance to go for a few hours before Christmas & it was so much fun. we met our good friends, the Kuderman's there. our girls are great friends and they all get along great...
waiting for the Christmas parade to start...
(wow...i just realized that these pics are WAY out of order and i don't feel like fixing it)...anyways, this was later in the day when we met up with our pals...look how happy they all look!
while the big kids went on Splash Mountain, jennah & i took fiona and leia on the winnie the pooh ride and took this cute pic...
here's ari and kaia having the time of their lives! :)
they were SOOO excited!
yet another (out of order) "waiting for the parade to start" pic...
leia was quite the little entertainer before the parade started...
she was loving all the smiles she was getting as she danced :)
then once it started the girls waved at every single character (not exaggerating)!
see......
they were in awe...


once the sun went down, it got cold real quick, this was on the tram ride back to the car....brrrr!
i promise, i'm not gonna blog about every D-Land trip...but i had to since it's Christmas! :)

what???

i couldn't believe my eyes this morning when i looked out the window & saw this on the usually brown mountain. crazy!

family night #15: "hands only night"

okay...things have been a little busy and to be honest i feel kinda lazy lately (in face we skipped family night last week...sorry girls). it's so much easier to be lazy when it's cold outside, all i want to do is put a fire in the fireplace and hang around the house and eat! anyways, i'm getting side tracked. back to family night. all we did last night was make these cute snowmen (i found this idea on the internet about an hour before we made 'em) and i asked derek to pick up a pizza on him way home. so, there you have it..."hands" night...get it, a craft where you only use your hands and you eat pizza with your hands?! i know...just call me martha stewart! :)







the girls weren't complaining...anytime pizza and paint is involved, it's fine with them.