everybody clap...

everybody sing...

fun for the whole family...

that's right...papa, nema, auntie kimmy, uncle john & cousin caleb met us at john's incredible pizza tonight. for those of you who might not know what that is...it's like a chuck-e-cheese on steroids. they opened a new one in town a few months ago and the girls have been wanting to go...every time we drive by kaia says "can we go now?" so, tonight we didn't have any plans for dinner so we somehow ended up there. it's definitely one of those places that's not relaxing at all and the only reason you go is for your kids enjoyment. ahhhh, the ways we sacrifice for our kids. i'm kinda kiddin'...it was fun watching the girls have fun, but 2 hours is more than enough fun.
i thought this ride was gonna be more of a slow train ride, but when it started going, it really took off...definitely more of a little roller coaster than a train...
i know this picture isn't the best...but at least you can kinda tell how fast it went...i can't believe leia wasn't scared at all! :) (thanks for going on it with her, nema)
then, it was my turn to go with kaia on this "twister" ride...can you say "dizzy"?




whew...i'm glad we got that out of our systems! :)

jazz-n-java

we went to a little coffee shop near our house this morning for a little story time and sing-a-long kinda thing they were doing. i was charging my camera since i realized yesterday that my camera was dead at the field trip so, once again i didn't have my camera (this isn't like me at all...huh dad!) :). so one of the ladies in my mom's group, vanessa, took a bunch and e-mailed 'em to everyone. thanks vanessa!
leia's really starting to want to be where ever kaia is, as you can see...
gotta love the candid pics! :)
at least they sat and listened for the first 10 minutes or so...after this pic, most of the kids were more interested in the fountain...j/k, the girl playing guitar and reading stories did a great job and they had a great time. i'm sure we'll be back next friday!

nature filled morning...

kaia's pre-school class had their last field trip of the year today...it was to the nature center and it was so cool. first off, i was so proud of myself that i remembered my camera that i almost forgot and then we get there and try to turn it on to find out that the batteries are totally dead. not even enough juice left for 1 picture...so, out comes the phone so i can at least get a few pics that aren't very good quality.
oh well. anyways, this place has so much neat stuff. they each got to make a plaster paw print of different types of animals paws with plaster...kaia made a bobcat print. then we looked at a bunch of different animals & exotic bugs...for example the madagascar cockroach. yuck! then they each got to pet a opossum (or possum as a call it). the whole time i was thinking, "usually when i see these things out at night i can't get far away fast enough"...and here's kaia petting him. i told one of the other mom's that i hope he had his rabies shots, they're usually pretty mean. i guess this one was nice and kinda cute for an opossum. however...the thought "do i have my pepper spray with me?" did enter my mind once or twice.
then, we went on a nature hike...if we had known we were gonna do that, we woulda worn something else besides flip flops. anyways...here are a few not very good pics from this morning...
check out that great picture... (ha ha)
here's kaia and mr. opossum...thank you for not attacking my daughter :)
i can't believe pre-school's over in 2 weeks! :(

waiting...

i think most of you know that derek went through chemotherapy for Hodgkin's (Lymphoma) about 2 years ago. in case you didn't know that...he's been in remission since then and now they do an annual routine follow-up PET scan for the first 5 years of remission (i think). anyways, he had his scan last thursday and we knew that we were gonna find out the results sometime this week. keeping very busy while we wait helps a lot, so we decided to go down to san diego today to find stuff to do. before i get to that, i just want to say that we got his results tonight and it's clean. thank you Jesus, again. now that he's officially been in remission for 2 years, the chances of the cancer coming back is like a 5% chance. we're so thankful.
so, here are a lot (sorry) of pics from today...we stayed very busy. there were a couple of incidents that we weren't expecting happen...for example, a poor lady got locked in the bathroom at the beach and kaia and i came to her rescue (well, all we did was go get the lifeguard)...if we can shorten and combine the 3 videos i took of that event i'll post 'em. yes, i took video and took a picture of the lady after she was freed, very discreetly...i think.

of course we tried a new chipotle for lunch...in vista. yummy as usual.
i love that the girls would rather go here to eat than some place like McDonalds!
then we found this great park by the beach...thanks dianne! :)


they loved this spinning ride...even though leia looked like a drunken sailor when she got off.


leia's very brave in the water...as long as she has daddy's hand...
little miss independent...
look how little leia looks up in the air...
kaia's airborne...
they find lot of little treasures!

more spinning!
once again...we finished the day with some more pink perry. so good!
i have to say that this beach is another one to add to my favorite beach list...Moonlight Beach!

phrase of the day #1

i've decided to start doing a "phrase/word/comment of the day" (not every day necessarily, only for the really random/funny stuff) series since it seems like kaia and leia are both really saying a lot of funny things for a while now and i think it'll be really funny for us and them to look back at when we're older. so, here's the first one:
we just got home from dinner and i asked kaia to go get her "jammies" on and she comes out of her room with this book saying, "mama, it looks like he has poop in his hat" (the poor innocent dwarf at the top with the purple hat). i don't know why she'd think that...it was so random. i guess since we talk about things like that pretty freely...that's what we get.
this new "series" is gonna be interesting...i'll just apologize now. :)

i'm a little behind...

but...better late than never!
so...saturday morning, derek let me sleep in. i needed it. he made the girls omelette's and kept them busy so i could sleep...it's hard to sleep past 8:00 or so since i'm so used to the girls waking us up around 6:00, but i managed. then, after i woke up, i quietly got up and kinda slithered to the kitchen to get my morning ritual of a coffee cup of raisin bran (hey, gotta get my fiber :) and snuck back into bed...just me and my cereal. there i sat in the bed alone, not having to share my cereal with anyone and so i clicked on the t.v. nothing was really on, and then i got to tbs (i think), the channel that has movies from the 90's on all the time. i waited for the commercials to end so i could see what was playing and it was a movie with goldie hawn and steve martin, but i didn't recognize it at all. i watched the entire thing without any interruptions and i laughed a lot. yes, i was alone in bed laughing. i think i'd say i'm a pretty tough audience, i don't laugh super easily at movies, but this one was hilarious. goldie hawn is so cute and her usual free-spirited self and steve martin's expressions are hilarious. they are a great pair acting together. if you haven't seen it and want to rent an old movie (well, from 1992), get it! hey, you might want to try tbs, maybe they're still playing it. i promise you'll laugh! :)

mr. elephant to the rescue...

again! poor leia, she gets little owie's quite a bit. she bumps her head a lot and that's what started this whole elephant thing. every time she bumps her head, we get a baggie of ice to help it feel better & then we remembered that we had this little elephant that you put in the fridge that does the same thing as ice except, it works a whole lot faster because she really thinks mr. elephant fixed it. it's gotten to where the second she gets hurt she yells, "ice!" and seriously, within a second of putting it on her owie, she's fine. thank you mr. elephant...what would we do without you?
here are a few pics after a knee bumping incident this morning...

say cheese...

pretty toes

we headed out of the house to go to the park and when we got there we realized that everything was too hot to play on...so, i thought "where could we go that's indoors and fun for the girls?" perfect, the nail salon. i wasn't sure if leia would sit still long enough to get her nail polished...not only did she, but they BOTH loved it.







good thing leia's got the flip flops down...how could we do pedicures otherwise! ;)

my sister...

a little less that a year ago, my sister, michelle, met her now-husband, carlos. it's an understatement to say that their lives haven't had a dull moment ever since! as i've blogged about before, they got married right after Christmas...
he is the BEST daddy to ashley and he is so good to both of them...
they just moved into their brand new house a few weeks ago (i took this pic of her on their land when we were there for their wedding)...
and...last week, they found out they they're pregnant...the baby's due sometime in late January (i think)! we're so happy for you guys and can't wait to come paint the baby's room! :)