Grammy and Pop Pop came to visit

Yay for a visit from Grammy and Pop Pop. We love when they get to come visit. The kids love hanging out with their grandparents and Mom and Dad love the extra "help" entertaining the kiddos.

We did lots of fun things. 

BOWLING!

Out to Kisho's. I think the adults enjoyed the food more than the kids.

Toppers (we like to go out to eat).

Ice skating for the girls and laser tag for the boys (no picture of that though).

Ashlyn was kind of nervous, but she got the hang of it. I was proud of her.

Leah already had skated a bunch so ice skating wasn't too different for her. She had a blast!

Mexican (can't remember the name of it). The dessert was the best part of the meal. The kids had these awesome looking churros and I got this chocolate tortilla with ice cream and cinnamon. It was so yummy!

And then we did the CA tourist thing for a day and went down to Hollywood to the Ripley's Believe it or Not. It was really cool and it was fun to see the kids so interested in everything and wanting to read about stuff. Perks of having "older" kids.

Lunch at Johnny Rockets. It's hard finding enough space for all of us to fit, but this nice family literally moved to another table so that we could all sit together.

The Hollywood sign (way off in the distance).

It was a really fun visit and we are always grateful when they make the effort to get out here to visit us. I know it's not an easy trip, even with the convenience of planes. It's a long travel day for sure. Love you guys and can't wait to see you again!

Too funny to not post

Leah will not like me for this picture some day. But one of these girls has the flu and one of these girls doesn't. But I bet you can't guess which one really does...I'll give you a hint. It's not the one that looks like she's about to die! 

Poor Ashlyn....she's the sick one here! Actually Leah was sick too. Just didn't have the flu. Their doctor put them all on Tamiflu which ended up being a miracle worker for Ashlyn since she had her big "Medieval Times" field trip the next day and was so sad at the thought that she might not get to go. She went and even though she couldn't talk (like at all), her fever had broken over the night so she felt well enough to go and enjoy it with her friends.

Kitchen Redo

Sometimes I get crazy ideas. And sometimes I act on my crazy ideas...rather impulsively. But I got it in my head that I was completely sick of the green on the wall in my kitchen. So I just started repainting it. I figured if I primed it all, it would force me to pick a color because my kitchen was unusable and it can only be like that for so long. 

I'm quite indecisive, probably because I never really liked the green and didn't want to sit and look at another color I didn't like for another 7 years before I muster the courage to paint it again (I kind of HATE painting). After many many paint samples and texting many friends and family for their opinion, I finally found a color that I like. It was called "Grey Screen" from Sherwin Williams and in certain light almost looks like a light light blue, but I absolutely LOVE it and am so happy with how it turned out. And since my Dad is here now, he helped me with a little project while I painted and we ripped down the old lighting and put in new track lighting in the ceiling. It looks so much fresher and updated. Now I just want to change everything else in the house...but that probably won't be happening any time soon. One project at a time.

TA DAAAA....the finished look! Eek...so fun!

It was worth all the pain (mental and physical pain since I had to repaint the ceiling too and my back is not liking me for that.)

New mirror and picture frame finished off the kitchen eating area.

I actually bought this picture for the kitchen, but it looked too cluttered on the wall in there, so I put it in the Dining Room and absolutely love it. 

We also got new curtains for both sliders and it's so nice to feel like we got a mini makeover in the house.

My favorite guy

Fifteen years with this guy and I still think I'm a pretty lucky girl!

We started out the celebration at a restaurant right across from the ocean in Santa Monica by the Pier. It was a gift from Dreamworks for Paul's 10 years of having worked there. The restaurant was good, but it was DEFINITELY the ambience you paid for. I'm just glad we didn't pay for it. Two meals were about what I spend in one week on groceries. It was a good thing we don't drink alcohol. OUCH! But it made for a nice Anniversary dinner.

The next weekend we snuck away for the night (courtesy of my dad watching the kids) to Solvang. But we first stopped at Cafe Rio for lunch. Much more our style of food choice and honestly the food was just as good as the fancy shmacy place from the weekend before, at a fraction of the cost. 

It was so nice to get away for the night and get to explore the cute quaint Danish town of Solvang. What a treat! I loved every minute of it and was totally happy to just walk around and enjoy the little shops and find fun places to eat.

Love you my wonderful husband. Thank you for working so hard for us. For being a great Dad. For helping with any computer project/art project and occassional house project I need you to do, and for always listening to me ramble on about the most ridiculous things no matter what time of the day. And thanks especially for loving me even after 11 pm, which is when I turn into not so nice wifey. I need my sleep. What can I say. 

Disneyland with the Young Women

The girls all worked hard, met their goals, and got to go to Disneyland for the day. Talk about lucky Young Women. We were just missing one girl who was still out of town for Christmas Break, but she'll get to go another day. 

It was a beautiful chilly day, but we got on lots of rides, and had a great time hanging out with these cute sweet and wonderful girls! Sure love my calling.