Catching up

Life has been busy. I have been spending countless hours on the computer editing Holiday pictures for families. I try to be up around 5 am so I can get 2 1/2 hours in before the kids wake up. By the time I am finished with editing, the last thing I want to do it blog. However, there is a light at the end. I am almost done.

Everyone is asleep this morning. I left my bedroom after Clara made her way under our covers to seek warmth. She is currently sleeping with both legs over the top of Steve's neck. I would go take a picture but I don't dare take a chance on waking her up.

Life has been great these past few weeks. November is awesome. The school district here has a habit of tacking on extra days-off to holidays, so the kids only go to school a few days a week when you factor in Nevada Day, Voting Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. I don't know what's going to happen when we have to go back full time next week.

We took a fantastic trip to California. We went to Disneyland and then drove down to Encinitas to stay at my Aunt Mary's beach house. It was awesome. The trip took place over Halloween so we found events going on around town and crashed them. We even crashed a Ward Halloween Party! We were looking for a "Halloween Activity" to do with the kids and decided plug in the LDS building in Encinitas on our GPS and drive by to see if they were having a Trunk-or-Treat. Sure enough, they were. We pulled into the parking lot and both Steve and I just looked at each other. We couldn't believe we were going to crash a party. We didn't really have a choice. There were 2 kids in the back seat grasping their costumes and pumpkins. We had to do it.

It turned out to be a lot of fun. The ward was very welcoming. While we were there I even ran into someone I knew in college. I went up to him to say hi and tell him we were crashing his ward party. Wouldn't you know it...he was crashing it too! His family was camping on the beach and decided to do the same thing we did. It was nice knowing we weren't the only ones!

Halloween night we went down to the little shops on the 101 and went trick or treating with the rest of the community. It was odd to be trick or treating to store fronts, but that's they way they do it there.

We spent the rest of our trip hanging out at the house, spending time at the beach and exploring San Diego. I could spend the next hour uploading pictures from our trip, but instead I am just going to post the vacation video.

My favorite things in the video:

-Thomas giggling on the tea-cups

-Steve's fancy Disneyland Hawaiian shirt, you need to watch the video just to see how snazzy it is.

-Clara's diva attitude - in pretty much the whole thing, not just one part.

-Clara screaming with terror when the waves crash on her feet

-Thomas dancing on the beach,

Kindergarten Picture

Guess who's getting retakes?

(You can only imagine the amount of joy this picture has given me today.)

Daily Vocabulary Lesson

Multifunctional
mul-ti-func-tion-al
— adj
1. having or able to perform many functions
The potty seat is multifunctional.

image.

Dare to Dream

I love to pick Thomas up from school. I always look forward to seeing him walk out of the classroom in his line and am always anxious to hear how his day went. Today I was standing at the gate waiting when his class came out wearing these hats. I figured they must be some kind of prize from the treasure box.

No. It seems like Hot Dog on a Stick is trying to recruit future employees. I found out that they are now making visits to elementary schools and teaching them how to make lemonade. It's so nice to know that if the dream of being a vet, race car driver, astronaut, doctor, chef, fireman, policeman or black guy that runs really fast doesn't work out, there's always a job at the mall to fall back on.

Ultimate Hand-Me-Down

A couple months after Clara was born my mom handed me this dress. She has kept it since I was three years old, hoping one day I would have a daughter who would wear it. I hung it in her closet and didn't think much about it.

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A couple of weeks ago we were getting ready for church. It was the typical Sunday. I was up early and wasting time, Steve was sleeping in. When it was time to get ready to go I realized I didn't have any cool weather (upper 60's - brrrr!) dresses for Clara that matched any tights that didn't have runs it them - a typical problem around here.

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I grabbed this dress thinking that it would do. It was clean and long enough to cover the run in her tights. I thought it may be a little big, but it fit perfectly!

After she put it on I pulled out my childhood scrapbook and showed her a picture of me wearing the same dress. I asked her who was in the picture and she insisted it was her. I tried to explain that is was me but she wouldn't go for it. I finally just agreed with her.

Maybe I will hold on to it for her daughter.

Nature Walk

On October 23, we took a little hike for our Family Time. I have lived in Las Vegas my entire life and I had NO IDEA that this place existed. I have been to Red Rock, but I didn't know about Calico Basin until I read an article about it in the neighborhood paper. It was a 1/2 mile boardwalk that surrounded a meadow. The weather was perfect, the scenery was beautiful and we had a great time.

Clara fell asleep in the car about 10 minutes before we arrived. Lucky for her one of us wasn't recovering from 2 broken elbows and was able to carry her.

Thomas was so excited to take off. It was the perfect hike for a nervous, over-reactive mother. There was nowhere for the kids to run off to. They had to stay on the boardwalk, therefore I knew where he was at all times.

Then she woke up.

and started to have issues with her pants.

Thomas even tried to help her out, but it was no use. She has been blessed with my log-like-no waist body. Too bad for her.

She was so excited to smell the flowers...until she actually did. She thought they "tmelled 'ike poop."

How cute is this??? I think I smell a canvas print.

A perfect end for a perfect day.