happy halloween

we had such a fun halloween. miles and i drove the kids to orange county to go trick or treating at my mom's house. mason dressed as captain hook and dahlia was tinker bell. they looked great. mason screamed when we were getting him dressed, and i wasn't sure if he would calm down enough to leave the house. giving him a sword seemed to help and then he stopped crying long enough to realize candy was involved with this plan. ohh candy. my niece zena came with us, and she kept us going at a fast pace. miles and i dressed up with them to make it more fun. my sister christina even dressed up her new puppy. the kids got tired pretty quick, but not before getting lots of candy that miles has claimed to be his. my favorite part of the holiday was when we got home and the kids were all tucked in bed. miles and i made cocktails and popcorn and put on a scary movie. yay.

the jack-o-lantern

we finally carved our pumpkin today. we were sitting in bed tonight at 7:30 reading books, when it became clear to miles and i that the kids were not sleepy. so what to do. ah yes. lets carve the pumpkin. we all scrambled out of bed and headed to the kitchen for our project. miles did the carving and mason was the art director. i think he turned out so cute. best of all the project made the little ones sleepy so they were finally ready for bed.

11 months

my little girl is 11 months old. she has been making me laugh lately. she has started to point at things she wants. my doll is getting quite demanding. this last month she learned how to stand. she can now stand pretty well and doesn't always fall down. she can now gracefully sit from a standing position. such control. i weighed her this morning and she is 20 pounds. oh my. i think it is time to shop for a new car seat. no more baby seat for this girl. she is almost a toddler. yikes.

lunch with jen

we went back to my favorite lunch spot in the marina yesterday. tony p's. jen now has mondays off so we get to hang out. i had some clam chowder and a yummy salad. it was a perfect day. it would have been so nice to go sailing. hmmm. when am i going to get that sailboat?

pumpkin patch

i took the kids to a pumpkin patch on saturday. my sister christina brought zena and her new dog roxy. i was so excited. a pumpkin patch! just like on the charlie brown special. well it turned out to be not so great. it was so hot out. it was 90 degrees. that is one thing about living in southern california that sucks. you have to wear shorts to the pumpkin patch. we were so sweaty, and there was a super long line for all the fun events like the pony rides and balloon animals. i think the kids had fun. we got to bring home a free pumpkin, and they each got a balloon animal. christina announced it was time to go home when they started the screaming contest into the microphone. what was that guy thinking? we decided to skip the pony rides, and go out to lunch.

new puppy

my sister christina got a new puppy. we were so excited to meet the little girl. we drove down right away to see her. she is a puggle. a puggle is a cross between a beagle and a pug. she is so cute. my sister bought her online and had to pick her up at the airport on friday. they named her roxy stella. she is of course adorable. she will only get to be about 15-20 pounds. right now she is soo tiny. we all fell in love immediately. cheers to the newest member of the family.

haircut time

we took mason to get a haircut yesterday. people were starting to comment on how cute my daughters were so we thought maybe it was time. i was under strict orders from miles to not tell the hairdresser to keep his curls. i was good. i silently said my "it will grow back" mantra as i watched his hair get shorter and shorter. mason surprised us by not screaming at all this time. he sat quietly and played with the toys. when we got back to the car we both thought she cut it a little too short, but it will grow. he is so cute. he looks like a little man now.

disney with dad

miles went with us to disneyland. he never wants to go so it was a real treat for the kids to have him come. we had such a fun day. it was a slow start, but the park was not crowded and we got on lots of rides. mason has reached the age where he has an opinion about which rides he would like to go on. this was cute when he wanted to go on the jungle cruise and not cute at all when he didn't want to go on pirates of the caribbean. what little boy doesn't love pirates? the kids were so well behaved. i think they were trying to impress their dad. thanks miles for spending the day with us. we love you.

i miss tuesdays

my sister's daughter zena started a new tutoring schedule this semester and is busy on tuesday nights. how sad. we used to go visit my family in orange county every tuesday. now i just stay home. my sister and i are trying to find another night during the week that will be good for visits. they are just so busy.

one of the last tuesdays we hung out i took the kids to the park to fly their kites. i thought this would provide hours of fun for them. they were so excited and screaming with delight as their kites rose in the air. then, after maybe five minutes they were done. they threw down the kites and announced it was time to head to the swings. humph. i did get some cute pictures of them though.

parade

we had such a great weekend. on saturday i took the kids to the heritage day parade near my parents' house. it is a really small parade that i remember going to as a kid. the parade consists of local high school bands and marching girl scout troops. so cute. when the parade ends there is a celebration in the park. we walked around the park looking at all the old cars in the car show. my dad usually brings his restored 1932 ford roadster there to show it off. it was very sweet. my sisters christina and sue went with us along with my brother jon. i was immediately transported to this small town that seemed a million miles away from los angeles.

sunday i took mason to the library book sale. we got a super cool dinosaur book and some disney books for him. i also bought gone with the wind and a stephen king novel for me. six books in all for under $10.00. i just love the library book sale. i am going to go again next month.

thanks

oh good. i have been meaning to clean out my purse.

3 years old

mason turned three years old yesterday. we had a small party with the family at our house to celebrate. it was so fun. we were actually celebrating four birthdays since jen and miles' birthday celebration was postponed due to sick kids, and my mother's birthday is today. mason had a great day. we were so excited about his birthday. i definitely get more excited about my kids birthdays than my own. we did a thomas the train theme. thomas is very popular at this house. miles stayed up until 3 am decorating a thomas the train cake (later making me promise to stop him from making a fancy cake again). it was so nice to have everyone over. the party was super fun.

i can't believe that my son is three. mason is such a sweetheart. he is really a good big brother. he is still learning the alphabet and numbers. he does well with counting up to ten, and can recognize some of the letters. he tries to name colors, but usually gets them wrong. he is talking a lot and forming somewhat full sentences. lately his favorite words are no and mine. he still is sleeping in our bed (i have no idea how to get him out), and still has not quite figured out the whole potty chair thing (we are working on this one). we did manage to get rid of his bottles and pacifiers so i don't feel like a total loser.

an apron

i am sewing again. yay. i made this cute apron for my mother's birthday. she is russian and loves these matryoshka dolls. all the girls have at least one set from my mom. when i saw this fabric from purl i knew it would be perfect. i used a pattern from amy butler's in stitches book. it was so easy. i finished it in two days. considering this is the second thing i have ever made, i thought that was quick. i think it is the cutest apron ever.