cousins at the zoo

we all went to the zoo today. what a fun time we had. miles and i with our three kids, ray with their two, and our friends kim and sammy with their five kids! we had a huge crowd. it was great. kim and sammy are so nice and we don't get to hang out with them very often. it was nice to catch up. they are super laid back and it made the trip extra fun.

after the zoo ray stayed for dinner with his kids. we had a delicous salmon dinner with couscous and carrots. a staple around here. it is nice to have miles home with us for a while.

christmas at the beach

my very good friend rebecca has been renting this amazing place on the beach for the last year and i finally got to see it. my sisters and i all met at her place today. her house is right on the sand. she has an amazing view of the ocean from her kitchen and living room. i took the picture above from her balcony. it is so nice. i would love to live there.

we had a delicious lunch of salad, soup, and wine. when we were done eating we went for a walk in her neighborhood. she lives in seal beach and there is the cutest little street with seashell shops, coffeehouses, and other cute stores. i bought some sea shell ornaments, and a lavender olive oil lotion that smells amazing. i felt like i was on vacation. i can't wait for our next get together. it is so fun to hang out with the girls.

merry christmas

this christmas was a blur. i am sick. i somehow got a terrible cold. i ended up missing church and miles' family christmas party on christmas eve. after five glorious hours of sleep i got up on christmas morning feeling much better.

the kids woke us up at nine am and were so excited. santa brought connor a tricycle, dahlia a baby changing table, and mason a tie fighter lego set. we opened up some more gifts and got to spend a little time playing together before it was time to go to christina's house.

christmas at christina's was very relaxed this year. she served italian food. we left for a bit to stop by our friend rebecca's house. it was nice to say hi to friends on christmas.

the kids had fun playing with their cousins all day and enjoying their new toys. miles spent most of the time building lego sets with mason and connor. i didn't take very many pictures. i didn't even get one of dahlia in her pretty christmas dress. ugh. despite my disappointment at being sick for christmas i had a nice holiday and am happy to finally be able to rest.

christmas eve

it's six am. christmas eve. what are you doing? miles and i are baking cookies and making candy. this is not the romantic storybook kind of baking that comes with christmas but more of a super tired i just want to be finished kind of baking. we again decided to give homemade gifts for christmas and this year it is just too much. we woke up at 2 am to finish baking and are still at it. ugh.

we are supposed to be delivering christmas gifts to all his family tonight. lets see if we can get it done. i swear next year we are buying gifts.

christmas card

we finally got our christmas cards out today. the 22nd of course. luckily most of the people on our list live super close so they will get them before christmas. the others are most likely used to getting the cards late from us.

we were terrible this year and basically ripped off a design i saw online. so bad i know, but i did not have any time to design something myself. next year i swear i will just order cards from somewhere. it is just too much work to design, print, and cut them. i even think we would save money having someone else do them. printer ink is so expensive. am i complaining? bah humbug. i think i am just a little bit too tired and starting to get a cold this year.

at least the card is cute.

christmas card photos

this year i do not have a theme for the christmas card. am i losing my touch? i usually have a very clear idea of what i want to do but this year i am just drawing a blank. i did manage to buy them matching pajamas that were simply adorable but that was it. i told miles to just "take some cute pictures of them by the fire."

he took all these great pictures tonight. thank goodness. the kids are really good together. i think you can tell how much they like each other. i am so relieved. now i just need to come up with a design for the card. yikes! what day is it?

we picked a shot and just for fun here are the outtakes.

decorated

i finally got around to decorating the christmas tree last night. yes, yes, i know we got the tree three days ago. man. i have just been too busy to get it done. so last night was the night. the kids helped to unwrap the ornaments and put a few on the tree but it wasn't near being done by bed time. after they fell asleep i stayed up late finishing decorating and cleaning up.

this morning they were all excited to see the tree done and couldn't help playing under it. they were so silly pretending to sleep under the tree.

gingerbread house

mason and dahlia decorated their gingerbread house today. i tried to not intervene and art direct them so they ended up with a very random design. i am pretty sure a lot of the supplies ended up getting eaten before they made it onto the house. it is cute though. it is all them.

connor missed out on the fun because he was taking a nap. i didn't really want to wake him up to feed him candy though. the kids have been so tired lately. me too! there is so much to do before christmas.

picking a tree

i am still buzzing from the excitement last night and keep singing it's a holly jolly christmas. we went to our local home depot and picked out our christmas tree today. our schedule this year is crazy busy. we had an hour to go pick out our tree and get it home before i had to leave for a luncheon. we just made it.

mason picked the tree this year and i think he picked the best one. it is so perfect. we got it home and set it up. it still has to be decorated but it makes me so happy to see it in our living room.

christmas party

after the busy day with two dance recitals i was sure the kids would want to go straight home and relax but no. we had been invited to an annual christmas party that is a favorite of theirs and they did not want to miss it.

miles decided to stay home with connor because it was so late and the party is an hour drive from our house. i took mason and dahlia with me. with the long drive i was sure they would fall asleep on the way but they surprised me and stayed awake the whole time chatting with each other. once we got there i was glad i went. it really is a fun party. there is always lots of food and a band playing music.

the kids love to play in the pretend fifties style soda shop and saloon. there is lots of fake food that they find fascinating to look at. their cousins were there so they had a blast running around and laughing. i had a great time. of course they fell fast asleep on the way home.

christmas recital

dahlia was in her very first dance recital this weekend. oh my gosh. she was crazy cute. i was so proud of her. she did great. i was so nervous for her but she didn't get scared up on stage at all.

her dance studio puts on a christmas recital every year and i signed dahlia up. it is an extra class that you take for eight weeks on saturdays to learn the routine. she was in the youngest group of girls. she did a tap performance to a song called christmas in the ocean. all the little girls were just adorable and i was beaming to have her up there.

she did get sad before and after the performance while she had to wait in the back with the teacher. they called me back there to sit with her. she was crying because she missed me. i think at the next recital i will volunteer as a stage mom so i can be back there the whole time. they did two performances and it ended up being a long day for her. she was great on stage though. she did her routine and was just beautiful. most of my family came to see her. it was so fun to have everyone there.

painting

we are making big changes here at our house. yay! we have finally decided that the kids have outgrown their current bedroom and we need to move the boys into their own room. all three of them have been sharing the smallest room in the house. our plan is for dahlia to keep the small bedroom for herself. we are going to convert the bedroom next to it that we use as a tv room into the boys room. then we will move the tv into our living room that really doesn't get used much.

we are so excited about this idea. we ordered bunk beds for the boys room. they should be here soon so miles started painting this weekend. he painted dahlia's room pink. it looks so cute. dahlia was a great helper. now we will have to find her a bed. she is so excited to get her own room.

the next step will be to paint the boys room blue and move their dressers in there. we also have to get rid of a set of couches and miles is talking about buying a bigger tv. i am so excited about the change. we have been talking about how to give the boys their own room and i am so happy to see us finally making a decision.

i plan on posting pictures of the before and after when we finally get it done.

the circus

the circus came to our town. what? how crazy is that. this is the first year ever that we had a circus come to our town. the kids and i were so excited. how fun! a circus! we passed by it every day while i picked up mason from school and dahlia would ask when we were going to the circus. of course we waited until the final weekend it was here to go see it. christina and zena went with us.

honestly it was not what i was expecting. they didn't have an elephant. they had llamas and camels and little dogs. i am not sure why i was expecting them to have an elephant but i was really bummed that they didn't. this was more of a low budget circus. that fact made it fascinating and at the same time kind of sad. i kept thinking about the circus family that ran the show and traveled from town to town. how weird. what a strange life they must have. anyway, the show was ok. it was super expensive for what it was. adults were $25.00 but the kids were free with a coupon. free that is until they wanted a $5.00 popcorn, balloon, cotton candy, and light up wand. the kids loved it. they thought it was the best thing ever. miles and i were kind of saying never again but i bet if it comes to town next year you will see us there. the dog act was very cute.