Craft night

Darn blogger. Why is my text underlined??? I can't figure out how to fix it.

Anyhow, last weekend me and a few friends got together to get our craft on. It seems that I just about have to have people with me, otherwise I always find something else I need to do instead. So it was SO fun to all hang out together and work on our "craft". Tonight we were all doing jewelry. I actually got some good work done and was fairly pleased with the outcome, until the next day that is, when I went to a craft show down in Burbank. There were a couple of jewelry stands with AMAZING handmade jewelry. All the sudden, my stuff looked pretty darn LAME! But oh well, I'm still gonna work on it. I may never get as good as those people, put it makes me happy to have something that is all mine to work on. And like my friend Brooke said, "it's cheaper than therapy!" Ha. That girl cracks me up on a daily basis.

See those little red things. Beads right??? Nope....They're Hot Tamales. Perfect place for my snack while working on my bracelet.

Too much

There is too much to blog about right now. But I am tired, so I will just start with one. The girls got BUNK BEDS!!! Hooray. Yes, I am embarrassed to say that Ashlyn has been in a toddler bed since she was 2 years old. I know....I know....that's bad. But hey, she's small. And technically, she still fits. But we found a good deal and we took it. Here they are in all their glory. The girls, of course, got to pick out their new bedding. "Hello Kitty" for Ashlyn and "Princess and the Frog" for Leah. And the best part about it all is there is actually MORE space in their room than with the two toddler beds. Go figure. And I told them if they get scared at night (which they do....a lot), that they can now climb in bed with each other, instead of coming into our bed. (That's the real reason we finally got the bunkbeds. It's all about me and my sleep! ha....I'm so bad.)

Thanks to a wonderful hubby who spent all morning putting the darn thing together, and with "help" from his girls who were eager to lend a hand. We all know how "helpful" they really were to him. It's a good thing Paul is such a good sport about things like that.

A must do Christmas Tradition

We use to live a LOT closer to this place. But as we have moved, it seems to have gotten further and further away. We love it so much though that we still manage to come back here every Christmas to see the lights, get some yummy hot chocolate and wait for the "snow". If you've never been to The Grove, you HAVE to go at Christmastime. It's so much fun. This year we went with the Tait's, but unfortunately got NO pictures with them. I guess we were both busy snapping pictures of the kids that we forgot to get one together. Well, we always have next year right Beth? And if you choose to head over to their Farmer's Market, the Brazilian place is the yummiest!

When we lived closer, I got to actually watch them put this tree together one year. It's massive.

The water and lights actually dance to the music. It's so fun to watch.

Some shots of me and the kiddos. I guess Paul didn't want to get in any pictures this year cuz he didn't end up in a single one of them. Sorry honey! He was a great camera man though.

Turkey Day

What a fun day and a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving. We got together with two other families that, like us, had no other extended family to get together with. We ended up with 6 adults, 8 "big" kids(ranging in age from 1 1/2-6), one in a highchair and one in her momma's arms. It was crazy busy, but so much fun to combine together. We started out our day with Paul playing in our ward "turkey bowl" at a local park. Then we rushed home and cooked and cleaned up all the rest of the morning. Three o'clock rolled around, the turkey came out of the oven, and friends showed up. All of the sudden, we had GOBS of food and not enough room to put it all. Brooke had the brilliant idea to bring butcher paper to line the kids tables with. The kids thought it was SO cool that they could color on the table and not get in trouble. And it allowed us a little bit more time to eat....sort of. Kids eat fast and are on to the next thing. We ended up putting on a cartoon, so the adults could enjoy their feast too. Everyone left a little before 8 o'clock, Paul got the kids to bed and I literally fell onto the bed and crashed for almost two hours. I know...pathetic. Paul cleaned up the whole kitchen without me. What a man I have!!!! 10 o'clock rolled around, I pulled myself out of bed, put on some more comfortable clothes and woke up a bit. 11 o'clock, Becky knocks at my door and it's time to head out with Brooke to Toy's R Us for some midnight black Friday shopping. The lines were INCREDIBLY LONG, it was cold and I was SO tired, but something about being with friends made it all okay! We laughed about how stupid we were for even being there, and wished we had all dressed a little bit warmer. By 12:20 we made it into the store and proceeded to fight the crowds, all in the name of "saving". I actually did get some good deals, mostly for Brandon. By 3 am we all got home to get some rest (some, more than others, as I think Becky went to Target at 5 and Brooke headed to JoAnn's at 7). I slept until 9:30 and then showered and headed out again. All in all, it was a fabulous day! I just love Thanksgiving. Such a wonderful time to remember all the many big and small blessings I have, which are many. Gobble gobble!

Paul and Ashlyn playing a little bball while waiting for dinner to get ready.

Jason showing the kids how it's done.

The table setting. You'd hardly be able to tell the plates were plastic. Gotta hand it to Costco.

The spread of yumminess!

Chillin' on the couch watching a Christmas cartoon after dinner.

Brooke was the only one that smiled when I told her to. Good girl Brooke. hahaha....

Thanksgiving at Dreamworks

We're so lucky to get to go and visit Daddy at work from time to time. Dreamworks has definitely cut back on the "Family Friday" lunches, but they still do have them on holidays and then randomly throughout the year. This past Friday we got lucky and Ashlyn was out of school, so she got to come too. They had a big Thanksgiving feast complete with Turkey, stuffing, and all the trimmings. It was yummy! It got me all excited for this Thursday to come. I love Thanksgiving anyway. It's one of my favorite holidays (as it is for most people I know). But still. It's a great time to remember all the many many blessings we have been given. Here are some photos from our walk around campus after we ate a big ole yummy lunch! These were all just taken on my phone since I forgot my camera at home, but I think the last one with Paul and the kids came out great. If you look closely, I bet you can guess what is in Brandon's little hand. hehe....that funny little guy! I'm gonna get him a big old basket of balls for Christmas.

My Day

Everyday Paul gets home and asks me how my day went. I pretty much always say the same thing....busy. And it's true. Kind of. Because I am usually busy, but I often get to do fun things. Like today for example. It was field trip day for Leah's preschool. This month's theme is Transportation, so we went to Travel Town. I call my cousin on the 30 minute drive down there. She just had a new baby. She tells me her sister is pregnant. And then she tells me she'd be ecstatic if she were pregnant again in the next six months. All I'm thinking is about my doctor's visit yesterday when I asked for some stronger birth control (ha). I missed my exit because I was on the phone, but I turn around pretty easily and manage to only be 10 minutes late to meet up with my preschool mommy friends. Travel town was fun. We walked around, ate lunch, rode the train. Leah and Brandon fall asleep on the drive home. Brandon's nap is now shot. Oh well. I guess it doesn't matter because about 15 minutes after getting home, my friend drops off her three kids so she can run back to school for parent/teacher conferences. The kids run around for a little over a hour. The house is crazy. I keep a pretty close eye on them and pick up the house as much as I can. But somebody inevitably ends up hurt or upset for one reason or another. After my friend picks up her kids, I head over to the park to hang out with some different friends (I know what you're thinking. My days aren't always filled with nonstop friends.) We let the kids run around and play until it's almost dark. I take my friend home. It's five o'clock and a new cupcake shop is opening in town. It's owned by a friend of mine, so OF COURSE I had to be there to "support" her (and get some delicious cupcakes). My brother texts me and asks me to run over to his house and feed his dog and bring him inside. I do that real quick. The kids are hungry, so we end up at....bleck.....McDonald's. My mom calls me while I'm in the drive thru line. I tell her where I am. She preaches to me about how awful that place is for you. I told her I don't ever order anything for myself. She's talking about the kids of course. I know that, but I had to be a stinker back to her. Why couldn't she have called me yesterday as I was making homemade lasagna with salad and fruit? The kids eat and we head over for the Grand Opening. The former mayor of our town is there to present my friend with a plaque. She cuts the ribbon and the doors open. I am THIRD in line. Score one for me! I get home with a dozen yummy cupcakes (of which there are only 4 left. Hey, we're a family of five. Don't judge.) Paul gets home, eats dinner(of leftover lasagna I might add), changes and heads out to a meeting for church. I bathe the kids and get them to bed....only 15 minutes late. Ashlyn doesn't have school tomorrow. I'm babysitting for a couple of hours in the morning and then heading to Paul's work for a "Dreamworks Thanksgiving feast" lunch. And so here I am, sitting at the computer at 9 o'clock at night, blogging. For posterities sake. That's what I tell myself anyway. I think I'm gonna go finish that necklace I've been working on since I got back from Iowa. Once I get it done, I'll have finished....wait for it.....one, since returning from our trip almost two months ago. It was a good day. I can't complain. I have a good life. I love my kids. I love being home with them. And I was just joking about the stronger birth control.....kind of....gotta keep 'em guessing right?

Progress

I'm not sure how I feel about this. When we moved up to this valley, almost 3 years ago, this exit was my favorite one. Why? Because it reminded me of a small town and made me feel like I really didn't live in busy LA anymore. You could only turn one way off of it. It had no traffic lights, or street lights. Just a stop sign. There were no stores around and it was quiet.

Well, as you can see, things have changed. They put in a road which leads to a huge shopping strip mall. They changed all the lanes up and added street lights and stop lights. It's a regular old intersection now.

And I'm not really complaining. Really. I LOVE that I don't have to go to the other side of the valley to get to Target anymore. Kohl's has become my favorite place to find clothes for the kids (and me too most of the time). McDonald's is a little TOO convenient on a busy night. All the restaurants and frozen yogurt shops are yummy. And the gas station and carwash (complete with a Subway) will definitely be used frequently by me, I am sure.

But it still makes a little sad to see the quiet intersection go away.