Ab's B-day

Ab's turned 6. We had a little party at home. What she really wanted was chocolate cake and so that's what she got. It was a 2 layer chocolate with ganache and whipped cream. Very Yummy. We gave her some HSM3 dolls for her birthday. Most of the presents that she got were art supplies, which is wonderful because she loves to draw and be creative.

I took treats to her school also. It was another girls birthday that same day, so the class got an extra shot of sugar.For the party we borrowed a jump house from a friend. We jumped and had bubbles and side walk chalk and the sand box. Everybody had a great time. Even with all the fun things to do I still found that girls in the room playing Polly Pockets.

Wicked!!!

Erick and I took a short trip this past weekend to celebrate our 12th anniversary. (It's in Dec. but who has the time, or money, then???) I few friends volunteered to watch the kids. We dropped off the kids and the dog at 12:30 on Friday afternoon and drove down to San Fransisco. We road the BART into town and walked to our hotel room in Union Square. We went out to sushi and then headed to the show WICKED. We got to the theatre a tad (hour & half) too early and found ourselves walking down in a pretty crazy part of town. We found the City Hall and took a few pictures. We also found a crazy lady who yelled at the top of her lungs for 4 minutes a string of incoherent mumble jumble. (Erick and I swear we did hear the word ninety-two inserted in there). SF is great, where else can you yell incoherently (or play America the Beautiful on your trumpet from the rooftop at midnight) and no one even blinks an eye. Wicked was great. Our seats were good. The costumes were amazing. The actors were phenomenal. If you have the chance to see it, go!!! We didn't get back to the hotel until late. The next day we walked around, and ate, and walked around and ate, and walked around and ate...you get the picture. We were back home and to our normal lives by 8:00pm on Saturday.

AHHHHH.

BART!

View from our hotel (I should have opened the window to take the picture, but you get the idea).

Sushi Rocks!

Yeah!!

City Hall, if you look closely you can see Venus and the Moon right above the spire.

In front of City Hall.

I left my heart in San Fransisco.

I swear I'm going to throw this jacket away, it ruins every picture.
Interesting side note: there is a man being arrested for public drunkenness just outside the picture frame.

Chinatown

We found this street and had to take a picture.

Exhausted, and happy, and heading back home.

Misc Pictures from Feb.

We had our Blue and Gold Lunch this month. Tyler earned his Wolf. The boys also gave us flowers (it was on Valentines Day)

Tyler played basketball this year through the Rec Center. My camera didn't take great pictures in the gym, but here is a picture of Tyler shooting a basket.End of season party. Oh yeah, another trophy to store :0

Our neighbor stopped me a few months ago, and asked me if the girls would like a dollhouse. Sure, I said, I had no idea it would be so incredible. He is retired and makes these dollhouses as a hobby. It took him about 4 months to complete it. He brought it over for the girls on Valentines day. It really is amazing.

My hair is getting longer and so I've needed to get some hair "equipment" (is that what you call it??) Emma saw me wearing these and of course she had to try.

This is the hairdo that we did for Abs on Valentines Day. Once in a while she wants to try new things with her hair and so we will look at some hair blogs to get some new ideas. Here is our favorite one. http://cutegirlshairstyles.blogspot.com/

Em's hair got a little static on the trampoline. The camera really doesn't do it justice. It was so out of control hilarious.

Lost tooth

Abs, finally, lost a tooth, right before her 6th birthday. I love how she talks now. It is so cute. She really wanted to keep her tooth and so she wrote the tooth fairy a note explaining that she wanted to keep her tooth, and get the money, Luckily the tooth fairy was in a good mood, and obliged.

I want a princess dress!

Emma is a girly girl and she loves big frilly dresses. The only problem is that Abbie despised frilly dresses when she was 3 years old. That being said, all we have for hand me downs are plain overall type dresses. Emma keeps begging for a "princess" dress to wear for church. She was shopping with me at Costco the other day and we passed these beautiful poofy dresses. I bought her one, and she has been in heaven ever since. She hugged and kissed me right there in the store.

We'd like you to meet Jonesy.

In January we got a dog. Jones is his name, and this is his story. We had been looking for a dog for several months. We wanted a Labradoodle, but always found them to be way too expensive. We were regularly checking Craigslist and the local animal shelters for a dog that fit what we wanted. We wanted a dog that is great with kids, a bigger dog that likes to run and be active, a non-barker (we have too many of these in the neighborhood), and one that was hypoallergenic (Erick is terribly allergic to animal dander). That being said, we thought that we might never find the dog for us. January also turned out to be a very hectic month due to some medical problems that I had. On Monday we were looking on the shelter websites and found 2 Labradoodle puppies, that were brothers. We decided that we would go to the shelter the next day as soon as Erick got off work. Well Tuesday morning, after taking Abbie to school, I decided to make a quick trip to the shelter with Emma, just to check things out. The first thing that you notice is the smell. The second thing that you notice is the noise (all the barking). Emma and I walked through the shelter and really didn't see any dogs that we were interested in. On the way out I asked if they still had the Labradoodles and she said that there was one left. He was in the first kennel, I just didn't see him. I was able to take him out on the lawn. All he did was snuggle in close to me, he wouldn't leave. I knew right then that he was a keeper. I took him home right then and there, and surprised the kids when they got home from school. He has been the sweetest dog that you could ask for. He lets the kids (Emma) maul him. He is about 6 months old, and is 45 pounds, so we expect him to get quite a bit bigger. We love our big boy, he really is the sweetest thing.

Taking the doggies for a walk.

Our friends also got a dog (around Christmas time). Indy & Jones (get it....Indy Jones) love to play together. They can wrestle for hours.

A bath at home.

Hiking with Jonesy.

Christmas 2008

On our way to the Victorian Dinner

Ringing the bell (It doesn't get too cold here, but this particular night was freezing!!)

Sledding (Tyler found his own little hole to hang out in.)

Abbie went nonstop

Emma enjoyed the hot chocolate

On a hike with our Fresno cousins

At the top of the hike (what a view)

My boys playing Mario Kart on Christmas morning

Abbie playing with some new dolls

Emma snuggling her new Care Bear

Erick juggling the Christmas oranges

Christmas Eve (practicing their angry faces.)

Christmas Eve (in their new PJs)

Emma was a angel in the Christmas Eve play

Tyler was Joseph (and a star)

Abbie and her friends are angels and wise men

I was in charge of decorations for Christmas Eve dinner. This was the adult table.

Tyler and I worked on this ginger bread house (this year we used hot glue to put the houses together rather than royal icing, it worked so much better)

This is Abbies final product

Abbie at the Ward Christmas party (Mommy why does Santa look like Brother Goldsberry??) Abbie asked for Legos

Tyler asked for a bike with gears. NOTE: No pictures of Emma, she refused, maybe next year.

Tyler class Christmas party

Abbie was a reindeer in the Kindergarten Musical.

Here are some other things that we did in the month of Dec.

Carolling (this has been a long time tradition we go with our friends and have a blast, we even have guitar accompaniment)

Teacher and friend gifts (we made brownie mixes and chocolate dipped pretzels and hot chocolate mixes)

Secret Santa (we gave a Christmas sock filled with goodies for the 12 days of Christmas, we also did it to a family that lives in a private cul-de-sac and has a big picture window. It was tough but we had such a great time. I think that it was the highlight of our Christmas season. We also did this for the kids and hung a sock filled with a treat every morning for them>)

Cub Scouts make display for Creche Festival (I'm the Den Leader)

Cub Scouts ride in Christmas Parade

Seeing and hanging Christmas lights

Christmas cards

New Years Eve party
ect...ect