Fun with Books

My kids have always loved going to the library, so we try to go every week to check out new books. The last couple of times we've gone Grace has been fascinated by non-fiction. She thinks it is the coolest thing to sit at the library computer and think of any subject she wants a book about, type it in, and then go find it on the shelves according to the number! Her favorite topic is animals, and we have checked out books about beetles, butterflies, lady bugs, dogs, and cats (to name a few.) Today when we were at the library, she insisted that the books she wanted to check out had to be about animals that make her laugh. So she flipped through a few before deciding which animals were funny enough for her. Guinea pigs were first on her list today!

Winning Streak

Just after the new year Aaron and I decided to play Stratego (the game I gave him for Christmas.) It's a strategy game and he's very good at strategy. In fact so good that I hardly ever beat him when we play anything. Since this was both of our first time playing Stratego I knew that if I was ever going to beat him at it, I had to do it now...before he had a chance to master it. It was really fun...and I did beat him! I was so excited when I captured his flag. He's says I get giddy when I'm winning...and it's true. I have a hard time hiding my excitement! I even insisted on taking a picture of the game board because I didn't know if it would ever happen again. As you can see above I was red, and pretty much wiped him out!

My good fortune continued last night when we played "Rook" with Aaron's brother Brad and wife Callen. Callen and I were both new to the game and were teamed up against the guys. The girls ended up stomping (is that nice to say?!) the guys! I guess you can say I'm on a roll (pun definitely intended, although neither game uses dice!)

100th Blog Entry

In case it's not clear, the girls are forming the number 100! Pretty cheesy, but I'm just so excited that I've kept my blog going this long! I really enjoy writing now and then, and I even consider "blogging" one of my hobbies!

Little Visitor

My best friend Julyssa and her husband Adam went on a long awaited trip (they've been wanting to go ever since they got married) to Guatemala. While they are gone we get to watch their darling little baby, Dylan for two weeks. He is such a good baby! He hardly ever cries and is such a delight to have around. We've had him for a week so far and the girls just love him. Eve had a really hard time sharing her mommy the first few days (and still does on occasion) but now she seems to enjoy having Dylan around. She asks where he is when he's asleep and then insists that it's time to wake him up. She also makes him laugh harder than any of the rest of us can! From day one Grace has taken on the job of little mommy. Whenever we go somewhere she tells people that we have a new baby. I have to then explain to my puzzled friends or acquaintances that we are just babysitting. Both girls love coming with me to get Dylan out of his crib after a nap, feeding him his bottle, and taking turns holding him.

Even with him being such an angel baby, it is still quite a challenge to take care of three kids! I have such an appreciation for people who have three...or even more..wow! How do they do it?! I do know we're given the capacity to do things when we need it. Even in just a week's time it has gotten easier (having said that I'm afraid that I've just jinxed myself and tomorrow I'll pay for it! j/k) I'm actually really grateful that I have this opportunity to do this for my dear friend. I hope she's having a good time!

Christmas Morning

We had such a great time Christmas morning with our little family! The girls acted amazed by everything and reacted with gasps, giggles, and "wow"s. Not only did they have a ball seeing their gift from Santa, going through their stockings, and opening presents from family and friends...but they also delighted in the giving part. Grace was so proud of the present she made for me and Aaron at preschool and was thrilled to have us open it. We were just as thrilled to unwrap a beautifully painted pinecone in a just as exquisitly painted pot...all done by the hand of our darling four-year-old!

We also had a wonderful Christmas Eve with Aaron's family at his parents' home. The girls had a lot of fun playing with their cousins that were visiting from out of town.

Eve on her new "car," in her new outfit from Grandpa and Grandma Parkin

Grace digging through her stocking

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

The kids (including me...a kid at heart) are really enjoying the sights, sounds, tastes, and activities of the season. Not only are we having fun with making gingerbread houses (or graham cracker houses at least!) and putting up decorations in our home, but I'm also loving being able to witness Grace's understanding of the true meaning of Christmas! She absolutely loves to hear the story of Christ's birth. She also frequently acts it out. At least once a day she comes up to me and says, "Come visit baby Jesus and bring Him a present." So we find something to bring Him, and make the "journey" to the playroom where she has one of her baby dolls bundled up, lying in a manger.

Pickles are for the Birds

As I was preparing tuna and pickle sandwiches for lunch today, Grace stared at the big pickle jar for a moment and then said, "Mom, did you know that pickles come from birds?!" I gave her a questioning look and she said, "See!" and pointed to the picture on the jar!

Getting Our Christmas Tree

Last night we went on a family outing to get our Christmas tree. The girls had a fun time walking through the rows of evergreens. After picking out our tree we went to a neighborhood known for it's amazing light displays and walked around. This neighborhood has an elevated mini Santa train that goes around the court. It was fun to see. As Grace paused in front of a dancing Santa decoration while on our walk , she looked up at Aaron and said, "this is the best night!" Eve's favorite word of the night was "cocoa!" And of course we went home afterwards and had some!

Photo Shoot

Here are some of the fabulous pictures Julyssa took of our family when we visited her last weekend. I think she did an amazing job...I love them!

Weekend with Olivia

My niece Olivia came to stay with us this weekend while my brother and sister-in-law went up to Sacramento to take part in a marathon. We had a lot of fun with an extra girl around! Olivia was so helpful to me, and the girls just loved playing with her.

The girls snuggling up with popcorn to watch Hairspray

In the car on our way to "Journey to Bethlehem" (it's an Christmas event that a local community church puts on this time of year in which you go on a walking "journey" to see a live Nativity scene...along the way you encounter the Roman soldiers, the wise men, shepherds, and the angel. It's pretty neat...but it was oh so cold!)

100th Birthday Celebration

For Thanksgiving we traveled to Arizona to join over 100 other relatives from my mom's side to celebrate my Grandpa and Grandma Westover's 100th birthdays! Neither of my grandparents are alive, but if they were they would have been delighted to see so many of their descendants together for the occasion! It was fun to take part in this huge family reunion. Even with as many as are pictured above, there were still many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great, great grandchildren who could not attend. All of my grandparents' five children and their spouses were present: Joan (blue t-shirts are her kids, grand kids, and great-grand kids), Jim (turquoise t-shirts...a lot of his couldn't be there), Nancy (yellow t-shirts are her kids and grand kids), Carol (red t-shirts are her kids, grand kids...including us, she's my mom!), Bruce (brown t-shirts are his kids and grand kids.) What an amazing legacy!

Aaron, the girls, and I traveled Thanksgiving day, arrived that night and had dinner with my parents at my Aunt Nancy's house. The rest of my siblings arrived later that night. The next morning the reunion officially began. We enjoyed seeing aunts, uncles, and cousins we hadn't seen for years! There we activities like volleyball, basketball, humanitarian projects, and lots of display tables with old pictures and grandma and grandpa's memorabilia...but mostly we just visited. We had a big turkey dinner and later that night the celebration continued with watching a DVD that my dad had created on the life and heritage of my grandparents, followed by birthday cake and games. The next morning we had breakfast and said good-bye. What a lot of fun!

Me with my siblings who were there: Shawn, Tausha, Jason, Jeremy, me, Jonathan

All of my parents' grandchildren

Grace and Eve were obsessed with their new baby cousin, Savannah (Jonathan's little girl)

After leaving the reunion we had the privilege of visiting my best friend Julyssa and her family who happen to live only about thirty minutes away from where my Aunt does! We spent Saturday afternoon playing with them until early evening when Julyssa took our family portraits (she's a photographer.) Afterwards we had dinner and continued our fun. Their little girl Nyomi got along so well with Grace. We hardly saw them because they were off playing in Nyomi's room most of the time. They even had a slumber party that night in sleeping bags! We spent the night at their house and headed home the next morning after going to church with them. What a long drive home it was!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving

Here's Grace posing in her "Indian" vest and headband that she made in school today.

We had a pretty busy day. After dropping Grace off at preschool, Eve and I headed to the gym for my step class and then directly to target for some things we needed. Then we went home for fifteen minutes so I could take a quick shower, and by then it was time to pick Grace up from school. Minutes after leaving the school Grace realized she desperately had to use the potty...so we made a quick stop off at home (literally minutes...Eve stayed in the car) before heading to the park for Grace's friend's birthday party. We left the party a little early so I could drop the girls off at my friend's house so they could play with their buddies while I went visiting teaching. We were essentially gone from about 8:00 this morning until just after 4:00 p.m.! I'm so glad every day is not that crazy.

On our way home from my friend's house at the end of it all, Grace said (in reference to her buddy Jake who she's been playing with since before they were both two)"When I'm a mommy (that's what she calls all grown up women), maybe I'll find him and marry him!" That made me laugh!

A Few of Grace's Thoughts...

On our short drive home from the park this afternoon, Grace was rambling on and on. Her monologue went something like this, "I wish I could have a cat instead of a sister, because I don't like children. But I like myself. I like girls, but not boys...I don't like boys. Except some boys...I like some boys."

10 Years Later...

This past weekend was my high school 10 year reunion. It doesn't seem like it's been that long! When I first got the invitation I was hesitant about going, but now I'm so glad I did. It was so much fun!

Aaron and I drove down to L.A. Saturday morning (leaving the girls at my brother's house in Clovis...thank you Jason and Becky!) We took our time and enjoyed the peaceful drive (no kids screaming in the back :)) We met Charlotte, Chelsea, Julyssa, and their husbands down there before we actually went to the reunion that night. We all traveled distances to be there and it was so much fun to be all together again. It was just like old times! It was also great to see people that I literally hadn't seen for ten years! There is something so cool about reuniting with an old friend. A lot of people looked the same, but apparently they thought that I'd changed the least...because I got the award for "Changed the Least." I'm not sure how I feel about that...I don't exactly like the way I looked in high school, hee hee!

We had so much fun talking and dancing. I haven't danced like that in a while! I was even outlasting Aaron...and he's the one that is usually dragging me out onto the dance floor! The fun continued after we left the reunion at midnight. We went to "Norm's" (a diner) for a late night snack...we just didn't want the fun to end!

Some girlfriends from GHS: Ailin, Risa, Julyssa, me, Faarnaz (I've known Risa and Faarnaz since kindergarten!)

Julyssa and me dancing the night away!

Travis and Chelsea, Brady and Charlotte, Julyssa and Adam, Maren and Aaron

If you want to see more fun pictures from that night click here to visit Julyssa's blog. She took more pictures than I did...and she got some really good ones!

Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween. Grace was the fairy godmother from Cinderella. She came up with the idea on her own, and over a month ago! At first I was worried about coming up with a costume, but after my mother-in-law found the dress and wand all I had to come up with was the hooded cape, which was a lot easier to make than I thought it would be! Eve was an adorable Annie (from the musical "Annie"...you know...the sun will come out tomorrow...) I just had to change a few things on her little red dress and spray her hair red and we were set! No curling required!

We did some Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood and went to a Halloween party at the church. The girls had a blast!

I think Aaron looks really cute in this picture, and here are our Jack-o-lanterns in front of our house!

Happy Birthday Eve

Today is my baby's second birthday! We celebrated on Sunday Evening so Aaron's family could be there. It was a lot of fun. She loved having the birthday song sung to her and she even knew what to do with the candles! Click on the play arrow below to see a clip of Eve blowing out her candles.

It was all so exciting because she didn't even realize that her birthday was coming. There was no hype beforehand, just all of the sudden it was her birthday...and boy was she thrilled. I just love the innocence of a two-year-old!

It was the "year of the baby." Eve is so into babies right now and everyone is aware of this. That's why she not only got a baby from Mommy and Daddy, but from Grandma and Grandpa as well! She couldn't contain her excitement and released a high-pitched giggle upon seeing the babies...she was beside herself!

Here's Grace and Eve trying out the new Mr. Potato Head from Uncle Brad and Aunt Callen.



Grace helping her sister open the present Julyssa sent her.

Eve's Shirley Temple Pout

I made Eve a caterpillar cake.

Its been a pretty normal day so far. Eve is napping right now (no, she can't even get out of a nap on her birthday!) We plan on carving pumpkins when she wakes up, and then later tonight after Aaron's home from work we'll go out for ice cream to once again celebrate Eve!