THE NAJERA FAMILY

christmas time is here!!

2011-12-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

this week and next week, the kids are on winter break. we have been relaxing, eating cookies, watching movies and packing! we are getting ready to leave for the lake tahoe area tomorrow. the whole family will be spending christmas together up at my sister in law's house in nevada. the kids are so excited to be going on a road trip. hopefully, it won't take so long for me to post about our vacation. i am sure there will be tons of fun times and great memories.

before school got out, i was again, able to spend time in both kids' classrooms for their christmas parties. in ellie's class, the gingerbread man and the grinch made appearances, and in jj's class, they did poems and played fun christmas games and did crafts. everyone had lots of treats and goodies. so much that they didn't want to eat lunch or much dinner that same day. that's when you know your kids have had too much sweets.

i hope everyone has a very merry christmas and has a wonderful vacation with their friends and family!

cancun!!

2011-12-22T11:09:00.000-08:00

this year to celebrate our 10 year anniversary and my 30th birthday, we set up a little vacation with good friends of our in cancun, mx. we used my in-law's time share through palace resorts and stayed at the moon palace. it was absolutely amazing!! it was the best vacation we have ever taken. plus, i loved the idea of going someplace warm while it was windy and cold back home. it really felt like christmas wasn't around the corner.

we had a busy week while we were there, mostly filled with relaxing and fun things. we ate like queens and kings and had the best service of our life! we were pampered and spoiled because of the all inclusive resort. we used our resort credit to the max and had a fabulous week.

the boys golfed twice, we all had massages, mani's and pedi's, we went on an excursion to isla mujeres, swam with dolphins (except jesse, more about that to come), had a spa day filled with facials, wraps, and hot stone massages, we laid out by the beach and the pool, ate and drank ourselves silly, danced until our feet ached, had the hotel turn on the jacuzzi just for us, had a romantic lobster dinner by the ocean, spent an entire day offroading, zip lining, swimming in caves, and enjoying amazing friends!

we saw crocodiles on the golf course, just chilling next to the tee. kind of scary but cool at the same time. we had a minor traffic accident with the golf carts.

when we went to isla mujeres, we signed up for swimming with dolphins. we paid and were getting ready to go when i realized that jesse's swim trunks were not in the beach bag. i could've sworn i remember putting them in there that morning, but nope. nothing. so jesse wasn't able to go swimming with dolphins. i am not a snorkeling, swim with fish/dolphins, kind of girl. they freak me out! as excited as i was to be able to do this, i was extremely nervous and scared to be touching this 600 lb animal. the water was freezing, but i definitely warmed up to them once i got close to them. we had a boy and a girl there and the boy was too lazy to do most of the tricks. of course, we couldn't take our own pictures, so we relied on their photographer. end result was that the pictures were ridiculously expensive and therefore we have nothing to show of my time with the dolphins. maybe next time...

another great day was explor. it is a mini adventure park. we were able to paddle in boats inside caves with stalagmites and stalagtites, swim inside the caves and through waterfalls with real bats flying around and also sleeping on the ceiling (eww disgusting!), drove off road vehicles through the jungle, through rivers and inside pitch black caves. the highlight of the day was definitely the zip lining. we did 7 super long lines. it was scary bu amazing at the same time. our last zip line ended us in the water. such an amazing day!! again, no pictures to show because that's how they want to get your money at the end of the day.

we are so thankful to have been able to go on such an amazing trip with awesome friends. we are thankful for awesome family for helping us watch the kids while we were away. we are truly blessed to be living such a beautiful life.

thanksgiving!

2011-12-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

both of the kids had thanksgiving feasts at school this year, so that last friday before break, i was running back and forth between the schools. jj needed to bring in stuffing, and ellie was bringing the turkey slices.

ellie's feast was so cute. each kindergarten class did turkey slices, pumpkin pie, cornbread, vegetables and fruit salad. they each were dressed as either a pilgrim or indian. then all the classes ate together at the feast. it was adorable to see the kiddos in the costumes.

jj's feast was pretty awesome too. they focused on food rather than the costumes. they had roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, cranberry sauce, veggie tray and pumpkin pie. a very traditional feast. each grade level had their feast together. before their feast, the 3rd graders did their native american indian presentations. jj did a great job on his! it was so nice to be able to be there for both of their events.

i love that each of the kids in their classes already know me by name and are so happy to see me. it makes my day when they go out of their way to say hi!

my big 8 year old!

2011-12-22T10:43:00.001-08:00

this year, my baby boy turned 8!! i absolutely can't believe it. he is growing too fast for me.

this year we celebrated with a low key party at red robin. we just had family and a few close friends. this year, jj was very blessed with the presents he got. he is still saving his money up from his birthday and christmas to buy something special. i don't have any idea what it could be, but obviously he does.

we love you so much baby! we are so proud of you and can't wait to see what God has in store for your life!

happy birthday!!

the pumpkin patch

2011-11-21T20:36:00.000-08:00

every year, we go to the pumpkin patch by our house. it is a very large patch that lots of people travel far to get to. the main attraction for the kids is the corn maze and the rides. of course, they cost an arm and a leg, but we don't buy our pumpkins there. we get them cheaper at stater brothers. that way, i don't feel like i just lost my life savings when i leave there. this year, the maze was much easier than last. maybe because the kids are older and have a better idea of where their location was inside the maze. it was still kind of hot here when we went. it normally doesn't get colder here until right at halloween. we had a good time and can't wait until next year!!!

gaga's birthday!!

2011-11-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

this year, my mom turned 55. yes, she is officially a senior citizen. whenever they go out to eat, my dad insists she order off the senior menu, or pay for a senior movie ticket. i would!! i would take advantage of every discount i could get my hands on.

she requested that we do an amusement park extravaganza for her birthday this year. we would go to disneyland for mickey's halloween party from 4pm to 12am and then get up and go to knotts berry farm all day. sounds like a great idea to me!! i was really excited since we had never done the mickey's party before. it was really nice. everyone was in costume, not too crowded and you got to go trick or treating at the park. you have the opportunity to get some serious candy!! disneyland doesn't skimp on candy. they've got the good stuff. snickers, m&m's, skittles, kit kats, etc. good chocolate candy. yummm. the kids wore their halloween costumes and they actually lasted all night long. my brother met us there and it was nice to see him. it had been a while since i had seen him. the kids love their uncle trevor. we saw fireworks too and got our pictures with mickey and minnie. ellie even went on splash mountain!! granted, she had no idea what the ride entailed, but she did it and says she won't do it again.

the next day, we went to knotts and had a great time too. the park wasn't too crowded, but a lot of rides were down. we stayed mostly in camp snoopy and the kids got to trick or treat there too. they didn't get as much candy as disneyland, but it was fun!! jj and i went on pony express and we had a good time. we were a little tired from the long night before, but overall, it was a super fun weekend!! happy birthday gaga!!!

ooooooo!!! halloween!!!!

2011-11-21T20:06:00.000-08:00

this year for halloween, the kids were jango fett from star wars and a witch. we went on a hayride around our friends' neighborhood. they have really big houses where they live, so walking is completely out of the question. it was a lot of fun, and these huge houses also gave out huge candy!! needless to say, we are still nibbling on halloween candy.

recycling your husband's old t-shirts

2011-09-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

i got this great idea from pinterest.

here is the LINK to the original post on how to do this, but i will give you my take on it.

my husband is the absolute, pickiest person to buy t-shirts for. i can't just walk by a nice shirt and go "oh that would look good on him". absolutely not. the collar has to be just right and the length has to be just right and the width has to be just right. he is a certain size in some styles and another in a different one. super annoying.

anyway, he ends up giving lots of t-shirts away to people or goodwill because of shrinkage. it is such a shame and a waste of a shirt. well, i shouldn't say a waste, because i'm sure other people are getting good wear out of them, just not people in our household. so this is where this idea comes into play.

take your husband's old t-shirt and alter it to make it fitted for your body style. NOTE: this is a no-sew project, but it would probably be easier to just sew it. just saying.

1. try on the shirt to see how much to cut off.

2. turn the shirt inside out and starting cutting. i cut along the bottom hem and cut the sleeve hems off too. you can always end up cutting more off later if it's too long or if the sleeves are too long.

3. now, cut a curve out of each side, starting on the bottom part of the sleeve. keep cutting until you have reached the very bottom of the shirt. yes, cut through the armpit seam.

4. now cut little slits/fringes on the cut edges. NOTE: if you have ever made those non-sew blankets. you know the ones where you tie them together. you are going to do the same exact thing. once the slits are made, tie the top and bottom slits into a knot and proceed to the next. i did about 1/4 inch slits. that might take you awhile, if you decide to go that small, but you can really do as big or small as you like.

5. once you've finished turn it back inside out. now for the moment of truth, try it on...now here is where you can alter it a bit. i ended up cutting more sleeve off. you might want the length shorter, so just cut a strip off the bottom.

i give a huge thumbs up to this craft. granted, you might find it way easier to just go and buy a woman's t-shirt in your size than rather alter it this way, but i loved my final product and i plan on doing it to a few more. it's way cheaper to make my own than to buy them. :)

sorry, for the lack of pictures. if you want a step by step, go to the original site HERE.

rocky, the hamster

2011-09-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

jj is the student of the week this week. the biggest perk is being able to take rocky, the class pet hamster, home for the weekend. so, this past weekend was our weekend.

jj was over the moon excited to bring rocky home with us. after learning about the tips of caring for rocky, we headed home. of course everyone wanted to hold her immediately. she really loves her ball. the biggest downside to have rocky, was that she is nocturnal. so when everyone is sleeping and the house is quiet, she is running like crazy in her wheel. charlie even got to smell her while she was inside her ball. by sunday, she was just another member of the family.

jj was so happy to have been able to bring her home and of course, wants his own pet now. umm. maybe in a few years...

reno/lake tahoe/minden

2011-09-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

this past week, jesse had a conference in lake tahoe and since it is so close to his sister, we decided to make a family mini-vacation out of it. the kids and i flew up late thursday night. we were able to do a few fun things in tahoe before we headed down the mountain to where his sister lived. we went up the gondola to the top of the mountain, to see all of the lake below. the views were amazing, but the ride was a tad on the scary side. definitely not my cup of tea.

my sister in law and her hubby's home is beautiful. they have a litte rock fountain in their backyard where frogs and toads like to hang out. we don't get frogs and toads where we live, so the kids loved this. they were able to finally catch one tiny frog. they were in heaven, i tell ya!

as jj's reward from his tutu and uncle chris, he and ellie were able to go to circus circus in reno and play on the arcade games and carnival games. it's so funny to watch my very competitive husband play these fixed carnival games as if his life depended on it. first try=no win. second try=no win. so what do you think the third try is going to be?

by far though, the most difficult game to win is the ring toss on coke bottles. the concept is super easy and it makes you think that you will get it the first try, but that's how they suck you in. $8 later for over 100 rings does not equal one measly stuffed animal. we didn't get one ring on a bottle. stupid game.

i think the highlight of the night was the fact that jj beat everyone in our family, on 3 different occasions, on playing a specific game. it's the one where you make your horse move by rolling a ball in to a hole. the further the hole, the further the horse moves. when you see the pictures, it will make more sense. he beat us all. every. single. time.

they have an aquatic center there that is awesome! i have never been inside an aquatic center before. i guess, living in southern california with it's great weather doesn't require an indoor pool/splash area. it was really fun. the kids loved it. jj especially loved the water slides. ellie was too small. :( my eyes were burning though by the end because of the chlorine fumes.

one of the nights, uncle chris took us in his parents' backyard to do some shooting. jj had been dying to shoot his pellet gun since hearing that he had gone hunting the morning before. he set up two paper targets and let him go. the gun was so heavy that he needed help holding it up, but he actually has a really good shot. made it on the target all the times he shot. jesse even tried, me too!!! even ellie tried. yes, my sweet 5 year old girl got down and dirty and shot her first and probably only gun. the gun had a little kick back and since she got a little too close to the scope when she pulled the trigger, she got nailed right in the eye. just a little bump on her eyebrow, but a few days later, it turned black and blue and it currently looks like she is wearing eyeshadow on her left eye. poor baby! :(

we had a great time and are so excited to go back for christmas!!!

back to school 2011

2011-09-02T21:11:00.000-07:00

it has been 2 weeks since school has started and we are finally in a groove!

i think i was just as excited for them to go to school as they were. it did feel a little weird to be driving back home by myself. i stopped by the grocery store and it was definitely odd to not have a little one trailing behind me.

i think jj was most nervous because he was at a new school and he really only knew a few people from playing sports with them in years past. he did really well on his first day. i really love his teacher! she seems like she will really push him and expect great things from him. i think the school will also pull some amazing work out of jj. i love the way they run their academics. if your child is performing at a higher grade level of work, they will put you in that level of class, rather than hold you back. i think for jj it will be the best thing. even though he is young for his grade, when we expect much from him, he steps up to the challenge.

ellie was over the moon about starting school. she had never been to school before, since i had homeschooled her for preschool. she immediately made some friends and is doing really well at school. i think her biggest problem will be talking with her friends when she isn't supposed to. i have already volunteered a few times in her classroom and it is great to be in there. i already know her classmates and i love seeing them grow. diego, her cousin, is in the same class as she is. it is so funny because they have spent the last 2 years spending every weekday together, and they hardly interact in class. he hangs out with his friends and she with her friends.

i can't wait to see how much they have grown from the first day of school to the last day. i am so glad they both are at inland leaders!

the rest of the summer

2011-08-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

i was looking through the rest of my summer 2011 photo album on iphoto and realized that i didn't have anymore. i guess i didn't take any more photos of what we did the rest of the summer.

we didn't do too much, mostly local trips and other fun things.

the beach, knott's berry farm, roller skating, swimming at friend's houses, watching movies, playdates at the library, and mcdonalds pretty much sums up the rest of the summer for us. the kids had a blast. in fact, jj doesn't want to go back to school at all, while ellie is counting down the days. we have definitely been enjoying sleeping in and staying up late, but school starts next week!!! these kids better get used to getting up at 6:30 from now on.

for the record, i am counting down the days too, quite possibly the hours...

i took some pics and video on my phone, but they are not the greatest quality. if some day i ever figure out how to get them from my phone to here, i will do it.

also, some bad news. our precious dog, charlie has cancer. my hubby found a spot on her that didn't look too good and i took her in and they tested it and it is a mast cell tumor that is malignant. the vet says that it is small and everything should be ok, but she goes in on monday to have surgery to remove it. so please pray for charlie girl!!!

san diego and bakersfield

2011-08-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

the very same day that we got back from sequoia, we (jesse, me and the kids) left to go start our next vacation visiting college friends and their families.

first stop was san diego. we stayed with our good friends, wes and brittany. we were even able to bring charlie along to play with their dog, zoolander. they were great pals by the end.

we had a ton of fun. jesse got to play golf, the girls got to hang out, the kids went to the beach, the pier, the san diego county fair, and swimming in the mayer's pool. we stayed through the 4th of july and watched some fireworks from the car as we were driving. it was really nice to relax and see old friends and just visit with them.

next stop was bakersfield, where we stayed with logan and rebecca. we always love visiting them because our kids and their kids play the whole entire time. they are like long lost cousins when they see each other. our visit their was nice too because we just kind of vegged out the whole time. the kids played outside in the afternoon when it started to cool off. it was a great visit with great friends.

sequoia national forest

2011-08-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

well, well, well

it hasn't been that long has it!!! ummm, yeah. so i have been procrastinating just a bit on my posts for the summer. in fact, i haven't posted one single one. eeeeek!

let's see if i can pick up where i left off...

we went on our sequoia national forest vacation. it was AMAZING!!! the drive wasn't too bad either. it took about 4 hours to get to our hotel at the bottom of the mountains. from that point, it was about an hour to get up in the thick of the giant forest. we got there early enough that we were able to go see some things that same day. the main road leading up into the forest had road closures the entire time we were there. they would only open the road going up on the top of the hour and the road going down 15 after the hour, so you were constantly racing against the clock to make it through the construction zone.

to describe what we saw there is almost impossible. the trees are HUGE!!!! almost to the point of looking fake. something else that i discovered is that this was not a "relaxing, let's stroll through the sequoias kind of trip", it was a "hiking, trekking, going on adventures kind of trip". the kids loved it, none the less.

we saw everything that they had to offer for us up there. we hiked to the very top of moro rock (SUPER SCARY!!!), hiked through streams, rocks, and the forest to see a beautiful waterfall (we only had one major meltdown), the kids became junior forest rangers, we saw deer and bears eating in the meadow and we saw God's beautiful creation close up. the kids were able to swim at the hotel pool and we got to spend some good gaga and pop pop time together. the only bad part was that jesse wasn't able to join us because of his new job.

i took way too many pictures, but here are a few of my favorites!!

jj standing on the big stump (this trail was the most rugged and kind of scary)

me and the kids at panoramic point

going into crystal cave

tokopah falls

huge pinecone

hiking to tokopah falls

we made it!!

the view from moro rock

my little tree huggers

gaga and the grandkids at round meadow

hiding inside of a tree

bits and pieces

2011-06-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

last week was pretty busy.

monday was my cleaning/laundry day. i think i ran some errands and mostly did stuff around the house.

tuesday was my day with my niece, sienna. she is 11. i called our day, "shake it up", because that is where we were!!! yes, we were able to see a taping of the hit disney show, "shake it up!". on her birthday in march, we attempted to see another disney show taping, but were turned away. they told us that we would be able to get priority seating for another show taping in the future. sienna's favorite show was "shake it up", and so we arranged to get tickets for that day's taping. when we show up we are told that the VIP production list is very long and if everyone on the list shows, there will be no extra seats for anyone. that includes us.

so we wait.

we are praying that not all the guests on the list will show, but so many do, and they don't let us know until 15 minutes before the taping starts. they said that there are 5 seats available and that we will be able to get in!! wooohoo. we were very hot and sweaty from waiting outside in the sun, but it was worth it when we stepped onto the air conditioned set. our seats weren't in the audience, but in an area called video village. it's where the monitors are set up with all the different camera angles. the great thing was that all the parents of the actors and actresses were in video village. occasionally, one of the actors would appear out of nowhere and call to their mom or dad. sienna got to wave and say hi to zendaya (rocky on the show). we also waved to davis (flynn on the show). after a few hours, two seats opened up for us in the audience and they were great! we saw the whole set from there and sienna got a poster and a backpack! right after they wrapped the episode, which happens to be the halloween episode, the cast were available to sign autographs. it was a mad dash to the front by a ton of screaming girls and somehow sienna squirmed her way down to the front and got autographs on both the poster and the backpack!! we left there with high spirits and a huge smile across sienna's face!!!

wednesday, my mom and i took the kids to knott's berry farm. it was HOT!!!! stinky, sweaty, hot. we stayed in camp snoopy mostly and watched the cowboy shootout and ate lunch in the saloon. nothing too exciting, except that is where ellie declared that she wanted to be a vegetarian. she knew what it meant and her reason for wanting that is "to let the chickens be free and not be killed". she doesn't really eat much meat to begin with, so i knew it wouldn't be hard for her, but the following day when i started naming things she couldn't eat anymore, hamburgers, hotdogs, and then i said it...bacon. her expression totally changed and she thought for a second and said, "well, maybe i will be a vegetarian on the days i don't eat bacon". LOL that girl is a riot!

update: she ate a hamburger yesterday so i don't think becoming a vegetarian is in her near future

thursday we had a pool party play date with one of ellie's friends. ellie is getting better at swimming. she is able to swim with only floaties in the pool. i think she might actually be getting it!!!

thursday was actually our 10th wedding anniversary!! yay us!!! we originally had planned to go to dinner and a movie, but jesse didn't feel well and so we postponed it for another day. we still haven't gone, but that's ok. :)

friday was a relax day. so many busy days before that i needed a break from the heat outside. the kids played games and watched tv while i cleaned around the house.

pet peeve: i straighten up a room and pick up the mess and two seconds later, the kids have completed messed up the work i just finished doing. ahhhh!!!!!

this coming week is very exciting!!! we leave for our sequoia national forest trip tomorrow morning!!! we have a busy schedule and hopefully we will be able to fit it all in. the hotel we are staying at has a pool, so that will nice since the high there will be in the 90's. the forest is about 20 degree's cooler, so that will be a relief!!!

please pray for safe travels and for fun and that i don't go crazy, type A, planner perfectionist mama on my family. sometimes it is about the journey, not the actual stuff!!!

but deep down i really do want to fit everything in!!

swimming lessons

2011-06-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

hopefully ellie is learning a lot from her swimming lessons this year. i don't think we will have time the rest of the summer to sign her up for more.

from now on it will be swimming at open pool time or in a friend's pool. so far, she seems to be getting the idea....hopefully.

school's out and it's time for fun!!

2011-06-12T18:38:00.001-07:00

well, this is only a week late, but school is finally out!!! yay!!

we had our first full week off of school last week, and it was super busy!!

ellie started her swim lessons, which are going pretty well. she is doing much better than i thought she would, but she still has to get much more brave to make it, though. i will post pictures next week. she has one more week of this session left. it seems like she enjoys it, but she is still very scared. my goal for her is to get her to swim around the pool with floaties on. that would be success!!!

since our library opened back up after being remodeled and upgraded, they have a lot more kid activities and programs for the summer. we are excited to be reading and hanging out at the library. i will miss the weekly preschool storytime next year. :(

also, ellie had her tball team party last week and she got her very own trophy!! that's what she keeps telling people. i made cupcakes and a team slideshow for the kids.

jj had his baseball tournament this past week too. their first game was last friday and they won. their next game was on the next day, saturday, and they won that one also. since they won both games they stayed in the winner's bracket, but it was going to be a tough next round because we were missing one of our major players. even with the change in positions, the boys did great and won that one too. that game was a little dramatic because our umpire ended up ejecting our head coach from the game. the boys kept on going and finished well, but the bad part was that since he was ejected, the rules are that he can't coach in the next game. the next game just happened to be the championship game!!! what a bummer!! jesse took over for him and again, the boys played amazing!!! their defense is so solid and we also have some great hitters too. as soon as the game was over, he came running out on the field and they tackled him. it was a great time. at closing ceremonies, the boys got first place medals!!!

that brings us back to today. as the second half of jesse's father's day present, i planned for us to go have a stadium tour of dodgers stadium.

years ago, when my mom and i went to new york, we went on a tour of the old yankee stadium and got to go inside the clubhouse and dugout. it was awesome. so, when i heard that the dodgers offered this i couldn't wait to surprise him. we were right on time as far as getting there, but then we get pulled over. great! the good news is that it was just a fix it ticket for the tinted front windows, but he was taking forever and we needed to go!! so we finally get to the park and make it just in time. the tour lasted about 90 minutes and was amazing!!! we got to see the press box, a suite, walk the halls of the suite level, the dugout club, and finally we made it to the field. it was great!!! we got to go inside the dugout and take pictures. we weren't allowed on the grass, but on the warning track was ok. our guide gave us a ton of cool trivia and info.

do you know how the dodgers got their name? what year was dodgers stadium built in? why did they leave brooklyn?

we saw lots of memorabilia and the 1988 world championship trophy!! i think it was a win for a great father's day present!!

first dodger game of the season

2011-05-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

we went to the dodger game tonight, it was part of jesse's father's day present. just a little early though.

it was a 5pm start time which means sun, and if you know my husband at all, you know he hates the sun. despises it. wishes he lived in the northwest.

anyway, it wasn't too bad, but it took until about 6 before we wound up in the shade. we got there about an hour and a half early for batting practice. i took ellie to the bathroom first thing and when i met the boys at our seats, jesse said that they already got a ball. it was a ground rule double from who knows who from the rockies. then jesse tells me that ubaldo jimenez (the starting pitcher at last year's all start game) is standing right in front of us on the field. for the next 10 minutes of the kids and jesse yelling his name, he finally agrees to sign our ball!! yay!! jj was REALLY excited!

it was also $1 dodger dog day. that made me REALLY excited!! not that i love food or anything.

so then the game gets started and matt kemp (dodger centerfielder) is very close to where our seats are and between innings, he warms up with andre ethier. after warmups are over, the players throw the ball into the stands for the fans. after the first inning, kemp throws the ball straight to us!! jesse catches it and gives it to jj. prior to this, jesse talked to jj about giving a batting practice ball to someone else, if he happened to get another one. well as soon as jesse handed him the matt kemp ball, he offered it to the boys next to us and the dad said, "no, it's yours. you keep it". jj replied with, "no, it's ok, we already have one". AWWWWWWW.

that is what the whole section of people around us said. it was so sweet. jj didn't even bat an eye. he didn't complain or whine about giving up a ball. i was so proud.

another time, ellie kept saying "hi, matt!" in between pitches in her little girly voice to matt kemp. probably 10 times. after a batter struck out, matt kemp turned around and we waved and he gave us the "head nod" meaning hi. ellie got all shy and happy that he actually acknowledged her. she couldn't understand why he can't hear us, because when she plays, she hears us say hi to her. so adorable. so glad there are nice people in this world.

overall, it was a great game. the dodgers won 7-1 and the kids did great too. i even got a good picture of the kids smiling acting like they actually like each other. who knew?

this was the ball ubaldo signed for us

the race

2011-05-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

this one makes me laugh. it's like they are both saying to each other, "bring it!!!"

well, i finished it. my time was not as good as i had hoped, but i felt like i ran a good race. i couldn't find my watch, so i had no idea what my pace was, so i just ran like i normally do, and ran up all the hills, just at a slower pace. i felt good during it and felt really strong, so i had really high hopes as i was getting close to the finish line.

as i turned the corner right before the finish line, i finally saw the time clock. as soon as i saw it i mouthed to myself, "crap", because i was a full 3 minutes off of where i wanted to be. they had a photographer there, so i hope he didn't get me mid-crap.

i was the first in our group to finish, so i ran back and cheered on the rest of our friends and family. i ran back with my niece the last little bit before the down hill finish. she did good. i am so proud of her!!

you feel so accomplished after you run, i swore i didn't want to take off my bib number all day.

jj's race wasn't until a few hours after ours ended, so we ate pancakes at the pancake breakfast and waited. there was also a 10K, a 2 mile, and jj's race, the 1/2 mile. there were people of all ages there. there were these two older men (probably in their 80's) who ran the 10K. they were amazing!! a couple minutes after i finished the 5K, we saw a 4 year old finish the 5K with his dad. it was so adorable.

so back to jj's race, he was definitely on the older end of the racing age, so he was one of 5 or 6 bigger kids that were there. honestly, i didn't have high hopes for him, since he didn't do well when i took him to the track. he lined up at the front while they gave the instructions. the two pacers for his race were 5th graders who my niece knows and who jj has heard of. well, that is all it took. the pacers got a head start and then they were off. we couldn't see them the most of the race because of where the route took them. as i hear them getting closer, my niece yells, ''jj is in first place". what??!!! impossible.

coming down the hill, i see the pacers and then not far behind them is jj flying down a dirt hill. i literally thought, he was going to crash and burn. we yelled for him to slow down. there was no one in sight behind him. he was very much, out it front. i cut across the lawn to meet him at the finish line. he beat everyone by a long shot!! this kid amazes me sometimes, but really i know he is just super competitive. like to the extreme. he can't let anyone beat him at anything! afterward i asked him how he ran so fast, he said, "i was trying to beat kyle and kurtis". of course! trying to be the pacers is a great motivation, at least for my son.

so, we had a great race day. i was bummed about my time, but happy with how i ran. there were times where i wanted to stop and walk the hills, but i pushed and my body responded. that was a great feeling!!

weekend update

2011-05-20T15:52:00.001-07:00

tomorrow is the big day!!

the 5K starts tomorrow morning and i am a little nervous. i know it isn't that far, but for me, it is. i definitely had to train and work to get up my endurance. normally running for over 5 minutes required me to stop, but now, my legs are much stronger and my breathing is better and i am ready!!

i think my anxiety is more about me reaching the goals that i set for myself and failing. you know i am a perfectionist and it would bum me out to not do as well as i would like. i just have to keep telling myself that it is for fun and you have come so far already and anytime you come in at is good!!!

i am setting an example of health and fitness for my kids and letting them know it can be fun. in fact, they went on a walk/jog with me last week and actually lasted the whole time!

tonight is a luau/festival at jj and ellie's new school. ellie is very excited. she has had her outfit set out for days waiting for this moment. jj on the other hand is going, but isn't allowed to participate, since he is in trouble and on restriction. i tell ya, this boy!!

yesterday, jj had his spring sing at his school and all the second graders sang, "toy story/cowboy" songs. "we belong together", "woody's roundup", and "happy trails". of course our son is too cool for school and barely made any of the movements. you could barely make out if his mouth was moving either. summer fever has definitely set in for him and he only has 5 full days and 3 minimum days left. please pray for my sanity this summer!

i think the kids and i and my parents are going on a road trip this summer for a couple of days. we want to make our way up to the sequoia national forest and see the huge trees. i have never been and i know the kids would love it. they even have a cave to explore there and other fun trails and things to do. the break in the heat will also be nice too when june and july come.

have any of you readers been to sequoia before? if so, i would love some advice and tips on what fun things to do while we are there! here's to a busy weekend!! wish me luck.

trash the dress

2011-05-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

our 10th year anniversary is coming up this year in june. i thought this would be the perfect time to do something like this.

i have been holding on to my wedding dress in storage for the last 10 years and suddenly realized, what in the world am i going to do with it? save it for ellie? what if she doesn't want it or it doesn't fit her or it's not her style. i had heard of this idea for a while now and decided to be brave. i emailed my friends who do photography and makeup and we set up a date to trash the dress.

here's the background on our wedding pictures. our wedding photographer was arrested shortly after he shot our wedding. at that time, he didn't use digital photos, he had negatives and 4x6 proofs to give us to choose our favorites for our enlargements. all that we got back was our 4x6 proofs, stacks and stacks of them. nothing was edited. i chose our favorites and put them into an album and those are our wedding photographs. he didn't shoot many bridal shots, lots of family and bridal party, but hardly any of me in my dress. so long story short, i had been missing the beauty of me in my wedding gown and needed to make it up.

i was pretty lucky and managed to squeeze into my gown. it definitely took some work, but we made it happen. brittany did an amazing job on my makeup. she is super talented and i had colleen do lots of "before" shots so i could make up for what i had been lacking 10 years before. her creativeness is amazing and i had such a great time. we had the kids come with some paint to do the trashing. they were so excited they couldn't believe it when i told them what i wanted them to do. the whole afternoon was exhilarating and i was absolutely floored with the results. the photographs were beautiful!! see for yourself...

i even threw one in from 10 years ago

p.s. the girls did such an amazing job that it was featured on rock n roll bride's website!!! click HERE to see it!!!

click HERE to go to colleen's site
click HERE to go to brittany's site

summer is almost here!!!

2011-05-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

baseball season is starting to wind down and we might actually have a free saturday coming up soon. jj's team has been doing really well lately and they start playoffs in 2 weeks. ellie's team only has 4 more games and she can't wait until it's over. she was over baseball since the beginning, but we wanted her to stick it out and now we know that she isn't a baseball playing type of girl...at least for now.

on the 21st, i am running in a 5K. i have been training for a couple months now and i feel amazing. i am so much stronger now than when i started. normally, when i go for runs, there is a spot in the middle of my run where i get exhausted and my body feels like quitting. now i can feel the power in my legs, and i just keep going. my goal for this 5K is to beat my time of my last race, a couple years ago, and to run the whole time. i am pretty confident that i can do it, but still nervous. jj is running in the kids' 1/2 mile race that same day. that boy loves to run and has so much energy, so we'll see how he does that day too.

jesse got a new job!! he is now the executive director of human resources for silver valley unified school district. his commute is a little further, but the payoff now is that he gets a company car and gas!! he doesn't start for another couple of weeks, and he is very excited and nervous at the same time.

the school year is finally winding down. these last couple of weeks are filled with performances and field trips. i can't believe there are only 10 full days and 3 minimum days left. this will be jj's last year attending this school. he and ellie both were accepted at our local charter school, inland leaders. we are very excited and lucky that they both were able to get in at the same time. i put their names in the lottery and ellie was accepted. she was spot 68 of 80 and there were over 200 applicants, just for kindergarten!! jj was put on the waiting list and was "sibling status", which bumps him higher on the list. their school board just voted to open another 3rd grade class for next year and so he got in too!!!

summer is coming and i am trying to find some things for the kids to do that is inexpensive and fun. i have a couple ideas already and we will need to fit swimming lessons in there somehow, but overall i think the break will be full of excitement and fun. these next couple of months will be filled with lots of change, but we are looking forward to it and to the adventure that lies ahead.

i did an amazing thing last month and i can't wait to share it!

our sweet girl ellie

2011-03-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

ellie,
today is your birthday. you are 5! i can't believe how big you are and how much time has flown by. you are so beautiful inside and out. i love you very much and am so happy that i am your mama! you make us both so happy and although you are extremely stubborn, we love you with all our heart! next year you will start school! you are growing up too fast. i wish you could stay a baby forever. you will always be our baby girl. forever and ever. we love you muchos.

happy 5th birthday baby girl

march birthday madness

2011-03-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

this month is filled with a ridiculous amount of birthdays in our family. every weekend is filled with stuff to do and parties to attend. my nephew's party was this past weekend, and so was my niece's. my mother in law's too. not to mention that ellie's birthday is tomorrow. i made the cake for my nephew's party and took pictures for my niece's slumber party. earlier today, all the women in our family had a girls' day for ellie's birthday party. i took her to american girl store and cafe in los angeles. i had never been there before and it was amazing. ellie was giggling the whole time and couldn't pick which doll was going to be her birthday gift. she finally chose kanani, the girl of the year. she looks like her too, except she has super long hair. we even got kanani's ears pierced. at one point, ellie says to me, "mama, i want a doggie for kanani". i say, "no, not today. she doesn't need a doggie." ellie responds with, "but, kanani really wants a doggie." i guess kanani now has a mind of her own and can tell ellie what she wants and what she doesn't want. we had reservations at the cafe for lunch and had the balcony area all to ourselves. i had a great time and ellie had the time of her life. it was amazing having all her aunts and grandmas there. she is a very blessed girl. i will forever remember the time we had today and i hope she will too.

abuelita

2011-03-26T23:44:00.000-07:00

we had a surprise visit from jesse's grandmother from mexico. we hardly ever see her, so it was a big treat to see her and to let her see how big the kids had grown. i took some pictures of her. something that i have been wanting to do for a while of some of the people in my life. i love these. many years from now, when she is gone, we will have these pictures to look back on and remember her by.

hollywood adventure

2011-03-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

on thursday, i took my niece on her birthday present adventure day. she has been, and still is, fascinated with hollywood. i took her to the heart of hollywood to see the major hot spots and as a bonus, i had gotten two tv taping audience tickets for the disney channel show, "pair of kings". she was super excited about the whole day. i had it all planned out for fun and food and to make it in time for the taping.

we ate lunch at mel's diner and we went to the hollywood wax museum and to the chinese grauman's theater (where the hand and footprints are). we saw a lot of stars on the hollywood walk of fame. we also saw our fair share of crazies too. we saw elvis, transformers, darth vader, the black swan ballerina, and many more. hollywood is known as hollyweird...

the highlight of the day was seeing the harry potter cast's handprints and footprints in cement. she said that it almost brought tears to her eyes when she placed her hands in their hands. we saw flowers and candles at elizabeth taylor's cement spot. we saw the el capitan theater and the pantages theater. we saw the hollywood sign and capitol records. we even had time to spare as we made our way to the tv taping, or so we thought.

we get there at 2:30 for a 5:00 taping. we were #26 and #27 in line. the way it works is they take all the VIP's that come for the taping and however many seats are left are what the rest of us in line get. let me set this up for you. we are waiting in line in the cold and windy and rainy weather. i didn't bring our jackets because it was sunny when we got in line. i didn't want to get out of line to get the jackets so we made due. sienna used her umbrella to block the wind and cold. her and the girl in front of us, both 10 yrs old, started chatting like they were old friends. we were trying to keep warm and just counting down the time until we could get inside. the workers told us that they couldn't guarantee us a spot, but that it looked good. the line starts moving and wouldn't you guess that they stopped at the group of 4 in front of us and said there was only 2 spots open and that they would have to rotate 2 and 2 between shots to be able to get in. that means that the line officially stopped right in front of us. i was speechless. i wanted to cry because i was cold and frustrated and so sad for sienna that she wouldn't be able to get in. on the walk back to the car, she just stopped and started bawling her eyes out. poor thing. it was definitely emotionally draining on both of us. i even tried to get us cheap last minute tickets to see beauty and the beast at the pantages, but they only had $100 tickets left. things weren't looking good.

we decided to just have a nice dinner and take our time home to avoid the downtown LA traffic. we ate at CPK and were joking that as we ordered our food, the waiter would say, "i'm sorry, but we just ran out of that". he didn't though and we had a great time together. it was cold and rainy, and we definitely had stories to take home with us. an unforgettable hollywood adventure.

knott's berry farm

2011-03-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

the day after we got back from arizona, my mom, the kids and i went to knotts. we got season passes this year to knotts instead of disneyland. they were WAY cheaper. the total cost of all four was the same as one pass at disneyland. :s

we got there right after they opened. the park was not crowded at all. the kids got to ride all the rides they wanted to ride in camp snoopy and we even rode some at the big side of the park. we got to ride the train and it was hilarious when ellie and jj realized the train was being "robbed" by "bandits". they wanted to jump out of their skin and hide. it was sheer terror on their faces. i don't know why this amuses me, but i think it was the funniest thing ever. i guess it was the fact that i knew it wasn't real and the fact that they started laughing and joking around with the robbers. jj even thought it would be a great idea to tell them that "my mom has the money!!" LOL

the ghost town part of knotts was pretty awesome. we missed the part where they have the blacksmith out making stuff. next time we go i think we will hit that part first.

dodgers spring training

2011-03-26T18:31:00.000-07:00

jesse, me, and the street family all drove out to glendale, arizona for two dodgers spring training games. we stayed saturday through monday and had a really great time. it is definitely a tradition from now on. none of us had ever been before and it was amazing. you could get to the fields early and watch them practice, run plays, and batting practice. they were very close and the best part is that you can line the walkway leading to the clubhouse and hopefully get autographs of your favorite players. it was a great experience. it definitely brought out the kid in me and the competitive nature too. i was very determined to get the autographs that we had wanted. i succeeded!!! i asked jesse if you could only get one person's autograph, who would it be? he said clayton kershaw (the dodger's young gun pitcher). so we watched the players before the game and i got a great spot on the walkway. i saw him coming and i literally pushed the ball and pen in his chest and basically forced him to sign the ball for us. i know i was a little crazy paparazzi-ish. i did thank him very much afterward though... we also got a lot of great photos too.

one we got into the park, i wanted to go down to the dugout and wait for more autographs. jesse was too tired and didn't feel like going. so the crazy paparazzi went and came back successful...again. i waited patiently and ended up getting coach don mattingly, matt kemp (rihanna's man), and upcoming pitcher rubby de la rosa. i felt very accomplished for the day. although, i was very close to getting james loney's autograph, but the game was literally about to start. they had already sang the national anthem and announced the starting lineups. so i went back to my seat and smiled the rest of the game. i came and conquered!

on the way home we stopped for breakfast at the cracker barrel. i had never been there before and it was GOOD!! i loved the little cozy country store and country food. i can't wait to go back next year!!

photo shoot part 2

2011-03-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

photo shoot part 1

2011-03-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

spring break is over! :( back to school on monday, but i can say that we were very productive in getting things done and doing fun things this break. lets start from the top...

first, i let the kids make cookies. super fun and messy but worth it.

the next day i decided to make aprons for the girls and pajama pants for the boys. they all turned out pretty good if i do say so myself. i don't have a picture of the finished products, but i actually impressed myself a little bit.

the next big thing we did was have a mini bday photo shoot. my niece had been begging for a photo shoot for her bday pictures and since she turns 11 tomorrow and ellie turns 5 on monday and my nephew turns 5 in april, it was the perfect time for updated pictures. it also gave me a chance to be a little more creative in my photo taking skills. i am NOT a photographer, i just like pretending i know what i am doing. the practice helps me and lets me try new things and new editing options. i do think the pictures turned out awesome considering i did them. i'm sure they could be better, but i am happy with the results. here are some of my favorite pics of the day.

spring break 2011

2011-03-14T15:24:00.000-07:00

yay!!! it is finally spring break!

our family has lots of fun things planned for these next 2 weeks. some of them involve the kids and some are just jesse and i. this week, i have my niece and nephew along with jj and ellie here at the house. i am trying to find things for them to keep busy and out of trouble. i decided to be brave and let them make cookies from scratch and by hand. the plan was to photograph the process, regardless of the mess. they actually did pretty good except for one giant spill on the floor.

the boys were pretty much over the whole thing soon after they started. the girls were the ones who did most of the grunt work. isn't that how it always is? i took a lot of pics and actually got a couple really good ones. i am still learning a lot with my camera and am really excited to try new things.

on wednesday, i am taking the kids out to get their pics done. i need some new portrait pictures of them for their books. i am hoping i found some greats spots and that i can use my creative side to make them awesome! keep your fingers crossed!

hodge podge

2011-02-15T11:02:00.001-08:00

I need to catch up on our family’s current events, so this post might be all over the place.

it is no secret that I LOVE the library. for being the cheapskate that I am, I love the fact that I can read as many books as I want and not have to pay for it! the downside is that sometimes you have to put a book on hold and have to wait your turn to read it. occasionally, I will actually buy a book. I know, what a crazy idea!

the latest book I read is “Heaven is for Real: a little boy’s astounding story of his trip to heaven and back”. it is a great book. it makes you look at heaven in a different light, at least it did for me. I highly recommend this one. this was actually my first book that I bought and read on the kindle.

another reason that I love the library is all the free programs and activities they have for kids. occasionally, the friends of the library have a monthly book sale to raise funds for the library, and this past monthly sale, I bought a bag of books for $3. they had all kinds of books there. if I do say so myself I got a huge bargain! check out the books that I got. super deal!

jj is almost finished with his first harry potter book too!

last week, I was able to chaperone jj on his field trip to the living desert. there were so many chaperones to children that we were each in charge of 2 kids. they saw all kinds of plants and animals that live in the deserts of the world. here is a peak of what they saw and did.

jj holding a butterfly in the butterfly/hummingbird pavilion

jj and his friend got to ride a camel!!!

when we got back from his field trip, jj starting complaining of a sore throat. the next day I had to keep him from school because he got a fever. he was so sad because he missed his valentine’s party. the next morning he still had a sore throat and fever. by early afternoon he developed a rash and then I took him to urgent care. 2 hours later, the doctor tells me he has scarlet fever! I was thinking WHAT!!!! isnt that what people died from way back when? but when I got home I realized it is just strep throat with a rash. all weekend he was on antibiotics and is feeling much better now. crazy though, huh!

every time a pro-activ commercial comes on and they talk about how their product will take away your acne, ellie chimes in, “mama! you need that! you need that to take away your red spots!” thanks ellie. thanks a lot.

p.s. here is the picture from the newspaper of me and my kindle

yesterday was valentine’s day and I decided to try a new cake out. my attempt was to copy bakerella’s box of chocolates cake, without using fondant. it didn’t turn out bad, but the fondant would have made it awesome. the cake balls were amazing though!

the only difference I did was that I didn’t use melting candy to coat the cake balls, I used chocolate. I melted chocolate chips with some oil and covered the balls in it. it is not as hard on the outside, and they taste a little sweeter, but they are still amazing, even if they don’t look so neat. mmmmm

hope everyone had a great vday!!

turkey fried rice- meal #4

2011-02-03T10:14:00.001-08:00

one way to do this is to follow the recipe below, or an easier way is to order two orders of fried rice takeout and mix it with your last bag of leftover turkey.

my way, I think, is WAY more yummy!!

this meal requires a little foresight. it is always best to use cold/leftover white rice when making fried rice. so for lunch this day, I made 4 cups of cooked rice and put in the fridge for later. it’s something about the cold when it hits the hot skillet. the rice doesn’t become mushy, but it keep is form. I don’t know, but all I do know is that it works. so I listen.

I kind of made this up along as I went, so I am sorry if the measurements aren’t exact.

2 eggs

salt/pepper

frozen bag of peas and carrots

1 bag of leftover turkey

4 cups cold white rice

soy sauce

sesame seed oil {I told you, you would get good use of this}

start by heating a skillet or a wok on medium heat. throw a chunk of butter in to coat the bottom. while the butter is melting, scramble two eggs in a bowl. once, the butter is melted, pour the eggs in the skillet. add salt and pepper for taste. scramble the eggs just until they are fully cooked (not runny, but not solid on all sides). remove from skillet. put about 1/2 cup of frozen peas and carrots in the skillet. cook for a little while, then add the turkey to the skillet. cook some more until warm. then add the rice to skillet. stir around until heated through. add the eggs back to the skillet. keep stirring. at this point, is when you will add the soy sauce and sesame seed oil. I just drizzled the soy sauce on until the rice was all brown. it was about 1/4 cup. I added maybe a 1/2 tsp of sesame seed oil. you will want to add slowly and taste as you go to find the right taste you want for your fried rice. keep stirring to mix all the different flavors together and until it is hot all the way through.

note: this serves my family of four and 1-2 lunches portions. you could substitute different veggies if you like. make it unique to your family’s likes and tastes. this will not disappoint you. I promise.

this is my last turkey post. I think I did good with my leftover meals and I definitely stretched my dollar.

turkey tortilla casserole- meal #3

2011-02-03T09:39:00.001-08:00

this might be one of the easiest dinners to put together. it uses leftover refrigerator items and pantry items. super easy!!!

I originally saw this used by a friend of mine right after thanksgiving. she used some of her leftover turkey to do this and so did i. you could also use chicken too, or make it vegetarian and omit the meat all together. whatever floats your boat.

here is your recipe:

tortilla chips

1 baggie of leftover turkey meat

1 jar of picante salsa (I used medium)

shredded cheese (any kind)

heat the oven to 350 degrees and grab a 13x9 pan. line the bottom of the pan with tortilla chips, then spread half of your turkey meat on top, then pour half of your salsa on top, then sprinkle some cheese on top. repeat. cover the top very loosely with foil. put in the oven for about 30 minutes or so.

note: this fed our family of four plus an adult portion for lunch the next day.

and that is it! easy, peasy. it’s like a mexican version of lasagna. the torilla chips on the inside become soft and the ones on the edges become really crispy. it is a nice balance of the two. you can add sour cream and guacamole if you like. or if you are like my hubby, you can add some more spice and add hot sauce/hot salsa on top too. my kids even liked this meal. so easy!!

did I mention it was easy?

white bean turkey chili-meal#2

2011-02-01T08:53:00.001-08:00

friday night for dinner I made white bean turkey chili from scratch. I had never made a white chili before so I was a little nervous.

whenever I make chili it is all tomato based and I throw a little of this and a little of that in. I use canned beans and ground turkey meat.

this time around I decided to use real dried beans. I found a really great recipe from the one and only, paula deen. I have a calendar of hers and it was february’s recipe. I followed it to a tee and it turned out really good. not too spicy, but enough to make it chili.

my kids wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole, but if you follow the recipe you will get about 5 adult dinner serving sizes. I served it with a loaf of french bread. it also reheated really well. I think I might add this to my list of regular dinners. enjoy!

1 lb dried navy beans

5 cups chicken stock

1/2 stick of butter

1 tblsp minced garlic

1/2 onion, diced

1 1/2 cups green chilies (fresh or canned) {I used both. I had one small can of mild chilies and one fresh green chili. it worked well}

1 sandwich baggie of leftover turkey meat, chopped {you could also use 1 lb chicken, that’s what the original recipe calls for anyway}

1 tblsp ground cumin

1 tblsp dried oregano

1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp white pepper

red pepper flakes, to taste

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

wash beans, cover with water and soak for 2 hours. drain. place beans in large pot with chicken stock. bring to a boil. in a saucepan, heat butter and saute garlic, onion and chilies for 5 minutes. add to bean pot. add turkey, cumin, oregano, black pepper, white pepper, red pepper and cilantro. lower heat to low/medium and cook, stirring occasionally for 1 1/2 hours.

note: after the 1 1/2 hours of simmering, it was REALLY thick, so I added some water to make it the consistency that I wanted. I also served it with sour cream, salsa, cheese and fresh cilantro for those who wanted it. that tones down the spiciness too. which I liked. others may want to add more spice while it simmers, and no toppings. it was a super easy recipe.

turkey sesame noodles-meal #1

2011-01-26T19:01:00.001-08:00

I just finished eating this and I was dying to write this post to tell you all how AMAZING this meal is. I mean it. a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

to start, here is the link for the original recipe for “simple sesame nooodles”. I have made this recipe probably 3 or 4 times so I have adapted and changed some things along the way. so for better pictures and the original recipe click on the above link. otherwise keep reading for my version.

let’s start by saying that I am a wus when it comes to spicy food, so this meal is adapted to my taste. I will tell you later on where you can add more of this or that to make it more spicy.

another note: the turkey in this dish tones down the asian flavor a lot. so if you don’t necessarily love asian cuisine, then add chicken, turkey or beef to it and you will love this. I promise. if you are an asian food lover like my family, then the noodles by themselves are fantastic. they will rock your world. jj loved them!! he had seconds and was making “mmmm"’s and “oooohhhh”’s while he was eating.

last note: I doubt most you will have all these items in your pantry or fridge, so you will definitely have to plan ahead and buy them at the grocery store. it is an investment for some of the ingredients, but you will get so much use from them, that the cost will even itself out in the end. find them on the international food aisle. they run about $2-3 a bottle, some might be a little more. trust me. just buy it. you won’t regret it!

RECIPE:

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 cloves garlic (finely minced) {unless you want your 4 yr. old daughter to chew on a big chunk of garlic and proceed to scream that her mouth is on fire and drink all her drink}

3 tblsp white sugar

2 tblsp rice vinegar

2 tblsp sesame seed oil

4 tblsp canola/vegetable oil

2 tblsp hot water

1/8 tsp hot chili oil (for extra spice, make it 1/4 or even 1/2 tsp)

1 lb angel hair pasta

boil the pasta. while the pasta cooks, measure soy sauce into a large mixing bowl. add the sugar and whisk until dissolved. add rice vinegar, sesame oil, vegetable oil, hot water and hot chili oil, and whisk well. the smell will rock your world! when the pasta is done, drain and add to the bowl. mix all together.

at this point I added one of the ziploc baggies of turkey meat, which is probably about 1 lb. then I mixed it all in.

the original recipe calls for sliced green onions on top, which would make it tasty, but since I don’t normally have green onions on hand, I didn’t add them.

that’s it. super easy to put together. whenever I make this I feel like a super chef. it is that good. this amount of food feeds our family of 4 with 1-2 lunch portions for the next day.

I hope you try this and tell me how you liked or didn’t like it.

a turkey post

2011-01-26T10:49:00.001-08:00

one of my favorite and most money saving things I like to do is to buy an extra turkey at thanksgiving time and freeze it. because I buy it at thanksgiving it is on sale and I get a great bargain. I paid $5.02 for a 13.5 lb turkey. what a great deal!!

a couple of months later I thaw it out and bake it. it is amazing how much meat I get out of it and how many dinners I can stretch from a turkey too!

yesterday I roasted my turkey. for dinner we had turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans. after we ate, I pulled all the rest of the meat from the turkey bones and was left with 4 ziploc sandwich bags full of mixed turkey meat (dark and white).

I have big plans for those bags. I am planning to make sesame noodles with turkey tonight and the other nights, white bean and turkey chilli, turkey tortilla soup, and either turkey quesadillas or turkey tortilla chip casserole.

I am excited to see how far this meat will take me and how much money I would have saved if I had to make different dinners for these nights. it’s like a challenge. I know, I know. nerd alert.

as I post the meals, I will also post recipes for those who are interested in them.

I typically ALWAYS, ALWAYS roast my turkeys in a bag. these bags. this day, I didn’t have any on hand, so I was forced to look up a good recipe to roast a turkey the old fashioned way. it was the pionner woman’s recipe, but without the brining before hand. I just added herbs, salt and pepper before I covered it with foil and then followed the recipe from there. it was so good.

next thanksgiving, you should try this money saving tip.

it’s basketball season

2011-01-26T10:25:00.001-08:00

a couple weeks ago, ellie started her biddy ball basketball classes. it is a 9 week session that includes instruction, t-shirt, mini basketball and pictures.

so far she is enjoying it. she really isn’t the sporty type of girl, so this is kind of surprising. I think the next couple of years will be filled with mainly gymnastics and ballet/tap classes.

she is actually doing very well, too. I think by watching jj do the same stuff, she gets the idea of dribbling and shooting and passing. we just had picture day last week and she looked adorable.

jj started his youth basketball games a couple weeks ago. he is still in the 1/2 grade division, so this year he is one of the older ones on the team. last year, he only shot the ball once and missed, but at his first game of the season, he scored three points. his second game, his team got killed on the court. we couldn’t even get up the court because of their defense. we didn’t score any points. his third game was this past weekend and he scored 2 points. their team played much better than before. jj still needs to get better at dribbling and passing to teammates. I am excited to see how much he will improve by the end of the season.

he has two games this saturday and he has little league tryouts saturday morning. his best friend’s birthday party is on saturday night, so he is going to be VERY busy this weekend.

road trip

2011-01-04T10:43:00.001-08:00

jesse and I joined some of his family on a road trip to gardnerville, nv. gardnerville is right outside of lake tahoe. we were visiting my brother in law’s family there and seeing the area.

it took us about 7 hours to get there. we drove through mammoth mountain and it was gorgeous. there was snow everywhere from the last storm that hit. the roads, thankfully, were clear. once we got there, it was c-c-c-cold! we needed lots of layers to keep warm.

we ate VERY well while we were there, too. they fed us until we almost popped. one night we went to a local restaurant called jt basque. the food is served family style in many courses. each meal consisted of soup, salad, lamb stew, ranch style beans, choice of entrée (sirloin, lamb chops, etc.) fries, coffee and ice cream. it was soooo good. the history of the building is that it was originally located in virginia city and was taken down to the valley on stagecoach. it was originally a brothel and when they took down the wallpaper they found the walls filled with bullet holes. on the ceiling of the bar area, it is tradition to write on a folded dollar bill, put a tack in it, and use a silver dollar coin to throw it up and make it stick on the ceiling. if you catch the silver dollar after the dollar sticks on the roof, then you get a free beer. jesse was the only one in the group to catch the silver dollar on the way down, all on the first try. a lot of people in our group tried to get the dollar up and everyone got it. most of them on their first try. the people working there said they have never seen so many people get it on their first try. ever.

the next day we had reservations to go snowmobiling up in lake tahoe. we are NOT used to cold weather, so we don’t really know how to dress. they told us to dress in layers and we ended up having to borrow and rent some items.

I can say that it was an amazing time riding through the trees all the way up the mountain to the ridge. we stopped to take some pictures from up there and I tried and realized that my point and shoot wasn’t working. I thought my batteries died, but I later realized that they just froze. my camera started working again, once we got down off the mountain. I had to “borrow” some pictures that the others took with their cameras, so I can have some of the view. I can also say that I have never been so cold in all my life as I was up there. I had two pairs of insulated gloves on and my fingertips were frozen. my nose and cheeks wanted to fall off. any bare skin that was showing started to tingle and burn. someone had said that with the wind chill, the temperature was in the negatives!!!! we were up at about 10,000 ft. there was between 2-3 ft of snow up there. afterward, we were able to thaw out in a local restaurant. we were exhausted when we got back down the mountain.

new years eve we went to my brother in law’s brother’s house. hopefully that makes sense. we had a really laid back time and when we were counting down, we were able to talk to ellie on the phone. jj was sleeping. as we were counting down, I could hear ellie counting along, but when we got down to 0, she kept counting and then all of sudden, she screams, “it’s time, it’s time”. it was so cute.

it had only snowed in flurries the first couple of days we were there, and of course, the day we were planning to leave, it starts dumping snow. there was at least 6 inches of snow on the ground when we were leaving. we had to put chains on some of the way and we had to take a roundabout detour to get home. it took us about 2 hours out of our way to get back home.

we couldn’t wait to see the kiddos and give them big kisses. once we got back home, it was cleaning time and trying to get back into the swing of things. jj starts back at school today. there are lots of things to do to get ready for the new year.

p.s. here is some cool news, I just found out I won a kindle!!! our local library is getting new e-readers to check out to the public and for publicity, they were giving away a kindle if you filled out a survey online. I actually won!!! I was so happy. I go this weekend to pick it up and they said that the local newspaper will be there to take my picture. so I will scan the picture in to show you all when it comes out.

christmas eve and christmas morning

2011-01-02T10:24:00.001-08:00

I don’t think this post requires much commentary. the kids were very blessed this christmas. I think they both got mostly everything that was on their lists.

santa left some great gifts and he ate almost all the cookies the kids left for him. we had a great couple of days with friends and family.

we are very blessed to have such a great family.

disney on ice

2011-01-02T10:07:00.001-08:00

the wednesday before christmas, jesse, my mom and I took the kids to see disney on ice in anaheim. we purposely didn’t tell them what we were going to do. they knew they were getting their christmas present that day but we wanted to keep it an adventure.

we ate dinner at chilis near the honda center and they finally figured it out.

of course, as soon as we walked in the doors, they wanted to buy every disney toy, clothes, food and drink known to man. those vendors know what they are doing. show the kids the coolest stuff and they are bound to whine and complain to their parents until they get what they want. my kids were no exception. in fact, ellie and jj both declared, “I wont take any more pictures unless you buy me something.” ummm, ok. they didn’t get anything and they still took more pictures.

the show was awesome. both kids loved it, but I think it was geared more to ellie. jj seemed to have the “I’m too cool for school” look on his face. during the show, two performers fell during their jumps. ellie couldn’t understand how they could see where they were going when they skated backwards. she thought they were going “to crash into the people”.

the kids were really happy, but I think they would’ve enjoyed opening an actual present rather than a trip somewhere. this was proven on christmas eve, when they didn’t have as much to open as the other kids.

merry christmas 2010

2010-12-20T17:05:00.001-08:00

it’s raining, it’s pouring

2010-12-20T16:48:00.001-08:00

we are getting drenched here in southern california. it has been raining non-stop for the past couple of days. the forecast predicts it should stop on thursday. it is about time.

this past thursday was ellie’s pajama christmas party at the library. she had a great time. santa made a surprise appearance. the parents brought wrapped books for their own kids and put them in santa’s sack for him to pass out to the kids.

it was nice because I didn’t have to take her to the mall to see santa. jj hasn’t asked yet to see him. I guess he figures that his letter did the trick.

I love this picture because it shows her first reaction to santa coming in the room

we had a great day with santa and today we have stayed in our jammies all day long. I made real hot chocolate on the stove, not the powder kind you just add water to. it was so good. the kids watched a couple of movies and now we are currently listening to the news and the rain outside. it is really coming down!

I am curious to see tonight’s football game in the snow. it is gonna be crazy!!!

wednesday is a big day for the kids. they will be getting their christmas present from us that day. we are keeping it a surprise for them until later in the afternoon. we are taking them to see “disney on ice” in anaheim at the honda center. jj has seen a disney on ice show before, but we have never been. jesse, myself, my mom and the kids are all going. I really can’t wait to see their faces when we tell them. I will plan to take lots of pictures.

we are hosting christmas eve this year. we will be having over 20 people here at our house christmas eve night and my parents and brother are staying the night too, to see the kids’ faces on christmas morning. it should be a busy time, but I am looking forward to spending time with family, eating, relaxing, playing games, and watching the room fill with joy as the kids open their gifts.

we are very blessed this holiday season, and are very lucky to have amazing friends and family to celebrate with.

christmas fun

2010-12-15T11:00:00.001-08:00

over the past week or so, we have had a california christmas. which means if we want some snowy goodness, we must go elsewhere. the weather has been so hot (80’s) for december, but that hasn’t stopped us from trying to get some christmas fun in.

one of our local churches had a winter wonderland for the residents of yucaipa. they trucke in some snow and had a snow hill for the kids to slide down, a meet/greet with santa, some crafts, cookie decorating, and some bounce houses. they had carolers and lights and some “snow” falling. it was really just soap.

it was a lot of fun for the kids. the “snow” was the biggest hit.

this past saturday was our local christmas parade. it was really fun. I think the best part was the fact that the floats threw candy to the watchers. it became a contest of who can get the most candy. the juan pollo float was throwing soccer balls and teddy bears. jj chased the float down the road until he got a soccer ball. the cold stone float was giving away mini ice cream cups. that one had kids and adults chasing it down the road. amazing what people will do for some free stuff. our local newspaper photographer was sitting right next to us, so maybe the kids’ picture will be in the paper. we shall see on friday. yes we have a weekly newspaper, not a daily. weird I know.

nothing says christmas quite like shorts sleeves, shorts, and 80 degree weather.

on saturday night, we went to go see some christmas lights. we went to the alta loma lights on the corner of thoroughbred and carnelian rds. it is a LOT of walking, but worth the experience. it seems like a rule that if you live on that street, then you must put up christmas lights and I mean a lot of christmas lights. the houses sold popcorn, water and hot chocolate. if you are local and in the area, check them out, they are great. it was super crowded on a saturday night, but I would guess not so much on a weekday night.

yesterday, I finally finished up my christmas baking. every year since I can remember we have baked christmas goodies to pass out to the neighbors.

this year I made gingerbread cookies, peppermint bark shortbread, toffee bars, harvest loaf cake, fudge, chocolate chip cookies, and M&M pretzel bites. yesterday afternoon, we had a gingerbread cookie decorating session. me and my neurotic self decorated my own set and gave the kids their cookies to do. let’s just say that their cookies are full of flair!! lots of it. you might just fall into a sugar coma if you eat one.

next up…pajama christmas party at the library on thursday. a certain bearded man might show up as a surprise too.

on friday is jj’s pajama pancake breakfast at school. pictures to come soon.

10 on 10

2010-12-14T20:19:00.001-08:00

I am so done with doing this 10 on 10 stuff. it started out great, but I lost steam about half way through. I would forget to post for a couple of days or I would forget the 10th all together. it was way too much pressure. I think I will stick to the regular updates thankyouverymuch.

jj studies his spelling words on friday mornings while he eats breakfast and then I quiz him on the drive to school. he hasn’t missed one spelling word since school started.

holy christmas cards batman!! these are only what jesse took to work. these don’t include the ones we mailed. I think we are going on 275.

this is the cutest craft that ellie made at the library on thursday. it is mittens cut from old christmas cards and glued on a paper plate with the middle cut out. super easy and would be really cute with wrapping paper.

quesadillas for lunch

charlie girl

I have scenty’s christmas cottage scent in here. it smells oh so good.

I wrapped our hall closet door in wrapping paper and this is where I am putting up all my christmas cards. I have added about 10 more cards since this picture was taken.

I bought my two sisters in law their bday gifts from here. they have really cute gift card holders this year.

ellie wanted to take a picture of our tree, and this is all she got.

ellie taking another picture of uncle chris and tutu vero.

I have some fun christmas adventures coming next…

wait…what! it’s december already!

2010-12-05T19:10:00.001-08:00

I checked and the last time I posted was right after halloween!!

november flew by so fast. I will try and cram as much of our goings on in this post so I can catch up at least before Christmas comes.

jj and ellie finished up their winter baseball season in november. they both did really well. jj improved so much and ellie decided that she never wants to play baseball again. well at least she knows what she wants.

we had our parent/teacher conference with jj’s teacher and he is doing very well. he got all 3’s and 4’s. she also said that because he is in a 2/3 combo class, he is doing all 3rd grade level language arts (he got 3’s in that) and doing 2nd grade level math (his 4’s). we couldn’t be more happy with his grades.

over thanksgiving break, we went and saw megamind in 3D and loved it. the kids really loved it. jj and ellie also had a sleepover at pop pop and gaga’s (my parents) house for a couple of days right before thanksgiving. it was a nice relaxing time for jesse and me. one of the days, I went by myself to the movies to see the new harry potter movie. it was awesome. I really loved it. I cant wait for the second part to come out next year.

we went to my parents’ house for thanksgiving day and had a really nice time with family and friends. we spent the night and me and my mom went black friday shopping the next day. we got pretty much everything that was on the list. we got to target at 5am and it was very crowded but we just walked around and got as much done as we could until the lines went down and then we left. it really wasn’t as bad as some of the years that we have gone out in the past.

my mom had shoulder surgery at the beginning of november, so her arm is in a sling the majority of the time and she is doing physical therapy once a week.

we are done decorating for Christmas. we have all the lights up and the tree and the ornaments. the kids and I decorated while jesse was getting his car fixed.

it started out all, “it’s the most wonderful time of the year…” and ended more like, “how the grinch stole christmas”. they fought over who was going to decorate this and help with that. whose turn it is and two broken ornaments later I had had enough. I finished the rest and sent them to their rooms. I let them out to see the finished product. maybe we will try again next year.

fighting is all they have been doing lately. it is driving me crazy!!! when I have alone time with each of them, they are fine by themselves, but when they are together it becomes wrestling, elbowing, fighting, whining and crying.

we just finished our letters to santa and he might be bringing some of the things off their lists. only if they are nice and not on the naughty list.

I have ordered our christmas cards. they should be here tomorrow. then the addressing and stamping will begin. all 250 of them. yes, you heard me. 250 cards to family, friends, and jesse’s coworkers. I like them this year. I will post a copy in about week.

I just wanted to say that jeggings are my new favorite thing. I love them. I know, that’s kind of random, but it was on my mind.

blogging lately has been very difficult for me. I want to keep my blog updated, but when I feel like doing it, I don’t have the time and when I have the time, I don’t want to. I think I might just post when I feel like it and still keep it fun. I don’t want this blog to become something that I dread doing. I even missed my 10 on 10 for november. I completely forgot until the 13th or so. when I forgot, I felt awful and mad. posting shouldn’t be that, it should be fun and a memory for my kids for when they are older. so I might post a lot or I might post once a month. it all depends on my mood.

I just found out that my brother is going on a mission trip this coming summer. he will be going to morocco for 3 weeks!!! please pray for him and his group, and for their safety and that they meet the funds they need to go.

here are some pics from the last month.

p.s. I got bangs!

trick or treat

2010-11-02T19:54:00.001-07:00

how was your halloween?

did you trick or treat?

did you dress up?

did you carve pumpkins?

pumpkins, cornfields, and parties

2010-11-02T19:44:00.001-07:00

this last month was very busy!!

we had a pumpkin patch visit, halloween party, and a birthday party.

our local pumpkin patch was super busy the entire time they were open. this year they added a new and improved cornfield maze. of course, the rides and games were highly overpriced, but the kids still had a good time. we got some great pictures and also got yelled at by the workers for sitting on an off limits pumpkin. the cornfield maze took us about 20-30 minutes to get through. they gave us cards and we were supposed to find 4 posts to hole punch our cards. when we turn in our finished cards, we get halloween beaded necklaces in return. I let the kids pick which path to go down until we were going in circles, and then we started asking other people we found wandering about. it was perfect weather, cloudy, but not too cold.

last week, ellie and diego had their library halloween party. the kids all dressed in their costumes and went on a parade around the library. they also were able to trick or treat at the reference desks.

jj had his own halloween party on friday. which also happened to be his birthday. he had a great time playing with all his friends. at one point they were jumping and wrestling on the trampoline. I heard jj cry and new he was hurt. I went to him and saw him with his hands around his nose and mouth. he said it was his nose that got hit and as I opened his hands, all I saw was a bloody, horror of a mess. blood was EVERYWHERE. it would have made a great costume, but it wasn’t fake. it was real. he got cleaned up and didn’t get in the trampoline again. they kids there played pass the pumpkin, freeze dance, and they bobbed for apples too.

I really cant believe that my little baby boy is already 7! his birthday was friday and his bday party was on saturday night at a local pizza place. he had asked for a dodger party, so my creative wheels started turning. I had got this cake idea from a friend. she saw this idea online and shared it with me. it looked so easy and fun that I had to try it. I think it turned out fantastic. what do you think?

jj had asked for money this year because he wanted to save it up to buy himself a nintendo ds. he got mostly money and he was able to buy himself the ds and 5 games. he is obsessed now with his new toy. the excitement on his face when he bought it was priceless. I am so glad you had a great birthday. we love you so much!

last trip to disneyland

2010-10-20T20:46:00.001-07:00

we have decided to not renew our season passes to disneyland. even though we went enough times to get our money’s worth, it still was very expensive to go.

i knew i wanted to go one last time before the passes ended and this time i wanted to take jesse along. jesse has been on fall break this past week and we picked wednesday as our big adventure day.

since jj’s birthday is coming soon and he was still going to be in school that day, we decided to take him out early. we didnt tell him about it and he was super surprised and happy that we ditched school and went to disneyland!

we hit all the main stops at both california adventure and disneyland. we got as much in as we could. the kids were so happy that dada got to join them in their disney adventure for the day. we even took a great family picture. it is a possible christmas card, so i cant show you guys that one yet.

we went to eat dinner outside of the park and then started on our way back home. while we were on the freeway, there was some traffic. jesse braked fairly hard and we came to an abrupt stop and then 2 seconds later, BAM!!!!!! someone had rear ended us on the freeway. we were driving my parents’ denali, so it was big and sturdy. the kids were scared and shaken up, just as the adults were. jj had hit his head on a plastic piece and had a small bump. he started crying because he was scared and ellie was fine. we made our way off the freeway and to a gas station. the girl who hit us was so distraught. she was so sorry and shaken up. it was her first accident and she felt awful. jj was a little traumatized. he kept looking back at the cars behind us worried that it would happen again. he is doing better now. at the time, no one had started to feel any aches or pain. later that night and the next morning is when everything started to set in. nothing bad, we were just really really sore. i am sure the girl was in major pain the next day.

my parents’ car is getting fixed on monday and the insurance company has already contacted us, so it should go pretty fast.

we had a great day filled with lots of family fun and a terrifying experience on the way home.

jj and dada riding the toy story mania ride

going up the big hill on big thunder mountain. jj has a nervous/excited smile.

the haunted mansion has been taken over by “nightmare before christmas”.

10 on 10

2010-10-20T16:37:00.001-07:00

i know i am a bit late posting this, but i promise that i did take these pictures on the 10th of october. my computer hasnt been cooperating lately, but now it is all solved. thanks to the hubby!

we were in bakersfield on the 10th and then we drove back home later in the day.

this is baby will. he is one month old.

the kids were playing on the computer this morning.

we ate at denny’s for breakfast.

driving back home. this was taken around where jesse’s school is.

we made a pit stop in victorville. we had to pick up charlie and in the mean time the boys were watching football.

while the boys watched football, we ordered pizza from pizza hut. normally i love pizza hut, but this pizza was not good. at all.

driving back home after the raiders beat the chargers!!

yummmmm. this is pumpkin spice syrup!!!

the kids brushing their teeth before bed. jj was annoyed that i am taking pictures.

i took this earlier in the day, but i wanted to make it the 10th picture taken on 10-10-10 at 10:10am. i know, i am a nerd.

concerts and such

2010-10-19T21:50:00.001-07:00

it has been a while since my last entry. i had been having trouble posting pictures for quite some time, but i think i might have it figured out now. which means i should be posting much more frequently.

over the past couple of weekends jesse and i have gone to 2 concerts. the first one was darius rucker and brad paisley.

for that concert, we went with a lot of our san diego friends and jesse’s sister and husband. we had a lot of fun there.we had grass seats which were cheap, but we had to stand the whole time. the grass seats were more of a party atmosphere.

right before the concert started, the ticket sales people were offering upgraded seats for $5. at the time we didnt take it because we had so many people with us, but we vowed to do it next time we came. the ticket sales people were also selling tickets for the rascal flatts concert in 2 weeks. we got them for $12 a ticket!!

2 weeks later we came back vowing to pay for the upgraded seats so we wouldnt have to stand the whole time. we did it and got great seats with cupholders for a total of $17 a ticket. it was awesome. jesse and i went with wes and brittany. it was really fun to see rascal flatts. we had never been to one of their concerts before, so we were very excited. they have so many great songs!!!

the concert was just as amazing as everyone had told us. chris young and kellie pickler opened for them. rascall flatts played the majority of their greatest hits. what’s funny is that even though we had seats so we didnt have to stand the whole time, we ended up standing the whole time.

the batteries died in my camera that night so i only have these ones that jesse and brittany took.

pictures from baseball

2010-10-16T15:24:00.001-07:00

it's baseball season...kind of

2010-09-14T21:00:00.001-07:00

winter baseball season has officially started. this is the first year i signed the kids up. normally, i sign them up for spring ball, not winter ball, but all the parents said how beneficial the season was during a transition year.

next spring, jj will be playing in the farm league. they use a pitching machine and it is more like real baseball.

jj came up to bat twice and both times he didnt get the bat on the ball. he was really frustrated and disappointed. we just want him to get one hit, to show him that he can do it. jesse said that fielding-wise, he did ok. he missed a pop fly and bobbled a grounder. hopefully he does much better next game so that he can boost his confidence up.

i signed ellie up for tball, since she has been dying to playing baseball like brother does. i figure this is the perfect opportunity to see if she really likes it or not. we have taken a break from ballet and tap to test her sports skills.

her coach called to say her team was the dodgers. she was so happy. she kept going over to jesse and telling him, "dada, i am on your favorite team".

jj is on the reds, with a lot of his school friends. he was so eager to get out there and start playing.

winter ball season only does games on sunday with no practices. the season is only 10 weeks long. super easy and laid back.

sunday rolls around, and i still havent been able to find ellie some baseball cleats. i had to resort to soccer cleats because it is not baseball season and they dont have their bball cleats in stock. ellie liked them because "they were shiny".

both of their games were at 12:30, so we were going to have to split going back and forth between the two games. ellie was cracking me up the whole time. when she was playing catch with her teammate (i use "playing catch" very loosely here), i saw she kept taking off her glove. i told her that she can't keep taking off her glove, she needs to keep it on, in case the ball comes to her. she says that her hand is sweaty. i say that i know it's hot, but you still have to keep the glove on. she then thinks for a long while and hands me the glove and says "i dont want to do this anymore". i inform her that she will do it and she will keep her glove on. she marches off to keep playing catch.

another time, right before the game is going to start, she raises her hand to ask the coach a question. i am thinking what in the world could she have to ask right now? finally he calls on her and she says, "ummmm...what are we doing?"

LOL

it's as if she is looking around at how hot it is and thinking what in the world are you people doing out here?

we will see how much she improves at the end of the season. hopefully she does well. if not, then she is a dance type of a girl. not a sporty girl.

really funny story

2010-09-14T13:58:00.001-07:00

i just got this as an email, and thought it was hilarious. i was literally laughing out loud.

Man driving down road.

Woman driving up same road.

They pass each other.

The woman yells out the window, PIG!

Man yells out the window, BITCH!

Man rounds next curve.

Man crashes into a HUGE PIG in middle of road and dies.

Thought For the Day:

If men would just listen ...

moving=death

2010-09-14T13:52:00.001-07:00

we have finally finished unpacking and getting settled. it has been 2 1/2 weeks since we moved. we decided to pay for movers and boy, was that ever the right decision. i cant imagine how long it would have taken us to move by ourselves.

you dont realize how much crap you have accumulated over the years, but it is a lot!!! we had a big yard sale the weekend before we moved so we wouldnt have to take it with us. i wasnt sure how much traffic we would get, so i put out our signs on thurs. night for a saturday and sunday sale. i made sure to put them where i would get jj's school traffic.

i started setting up at 630am and i didnt get a chance to sit down until 9am. we were packed!!! i had old baby stuff and other knick knack things. just when you think, "who is going to want this!?" someone buys it. crazy!

or you get the lady who in the midst of a crowd of buyers asks me, "does this sewing machine work?" me: yes "can you show me?"

REALLY!!?? right now while i have a dozen people around me asking how much stuff is?l!! the stinkin' mini sewing machine is only $3!!!! it's not a make or break situation. holy moly lady!!!

after all was said and done, we made over $600 and had a couple huge donations to the library and the salvation army. we got rid of stuff that wouldnt fit in the new house and used the money to buy some things we will need in the new house.

our new house is really nice. much smaller. we went down about 1000 sq ft. its kind of weird how much nicer it is when everyone is closer together. we went from 4 bathrooms to 2!!! hallelujah!!!!

the backyard is so nice. it has full grown trees and bushes. flowers here and there and everywhere.

the kids love their new rooms. they are way smaller than what they were used to, but everything still fit. in fact, the kids havent had any sleeping issues since we moved.

in the other house, they might make their way down the stairs at least twice after been put to bed. here they havent done it once. why is that? a smaller, noisier house =less bedtime distractions. maybe the old house was too quiet??

i think my absolute favorite part of the new house...no stairs. growing up, all i wanted was a house with stairs. we only had a one story. all my friends had two stories, and i so wanted a two story.

yeah, not so much now. its exhausting!!! when you forget something upstairs, it seems like a lifetime away to go get it. one stories are much nicer and easier. i can vacuum the whole house with only two outlets!!

charlie is getting used to the neighborhood dogs. she was very spoiled before. she had no dogs on either side of us for a couple houses. here, she has two on one side, and one on the other. she doesnt know what to do with herself. she is constantly running back and forth barking and smelling and showing them who's boss. the house straight across from us has a dog who just sits on their driveway all day. he doesnt move or bark or chase people. he just watches the cars and the goings on of the street. he is so good.

i just saw a coyote the other day in the wash directly behind us. it was 10 am too. i figured by that time they should all be hiding somewhere or sleeping.

i will post some pics of the new place soon. :)

10 on 10

2010-09-14T12:59:00.001-07:00

i really didnt forget to take pictures.

i promise

this is a picture of our living room/dining room area in our new house. the house is much smaller than our last one, but it is much nicer to clean. ;) charlie is looking at me like i am crazy.

i was currently reading this book. i finished it later in the day, and now i am on to a different one. can anyone say, lisbeth salander?

here is ellie drawing one of her many monsters in her notebook.

ewwwww. my darling husband got a speeding ticket the day before. hopefully it wont be too much.

i took ellie and diego to the park today. we brought a picnic lunch and the kids played for awhile.

here is ellie in one of the tubes.

jj was watching tv at the time. i had him turn and look at me.

cookies. i could eat these kind all.day.long.

we got a babysitter that night and went to el torito for dancing.

this is a really bad picture. sorry. jesse's little sister just got a new car. well, a new used car. it is a toyota venza. it is loaded to max inside. the rear seats are nice and spacious. i had really liked them before and now i think i want it to be my next car. it is really nice.

that's all. nothing much really. just a normal day in our life.

back to school

2010-09-14T11:33:00.001-07:00

i really cant believe it.

sometimes, i really have to do the math.

i cant believe my son is in the 2nd grade!!!

he is still so little. i still see him as a toddler running around like a crazy man. well, he still runs around like a crazy man. he is just bigger now.

when the list of teachers first came out, we put in for a transfer for another teacher. so for the first two weeks of school, jj had one teacher. then after two weeks, he got transferred to a different class. it is actually a 2/3 combo class. we were a little nervous at first because of jj's age. he is still 6 (until oct.) and he could possibly be in there with 8 year olds. we talked to many people and they said that he will be fine in there. so here we are 2 weeks out from the transfer and we are loving his new teacher and he is doing very well in class. except, with the occasional warning here and there for talking too much.

he is a great reader who is devouring the a-z mysteries by ron roy. we had asked if jj could start taking the AR tests for his books, but his school doesnt use the AR program.

jesse had jj's name added to one of his 2nd grades and now jj takes the AR tests at home after he reads his books. we have a point system with rewards lined up for him for his AR tests. just for kicks, jesse gave jj the STAR reading test to see what his reading level is. we were all blown away. this kid is so smart. his reading level is 4.2. that means 4th grade, 2nd month. the boy is only 6!!!

our only problem we have with jj so far is his need to rush through everything!!! it's like he is a man on the go, and has somewhere to be, that isnt here. i am constantly reminding him to slow down and reread the instructions. write slower, so somebody can actually read what you wrote.

this year should be so productive for him. he has a GREAT teacher and he will be challenged a lot, so i am hoping his behavior will have no chance to act up.

i still cant believe he is in the 2nd grade...

i am really going to lose it next year when ellie starts kindergarten!!!!!

kill me now...

breann's wedding

2010-09-14T10:58:00.001-07:00

my cousin got married towards the end of august. it was a very hot day, but the wedding was in the mountains and we were a bit cooler up there, which was nice.

she was beautiful!!!

the kids had a good time, too. my mom and i hosted her candy table. all the candy matched her colors and it was a HUGE hit (as candy always is...). my cousin got married on her parents anniversary. so now they share the same anniversary date. it was really special how they honored that at the reception. my aunt and uncle danced by themselves to their wedding song. it was sweet. :)

the colors were so vibrant and bright. i loved it.

me and my dad

here's me and the bride. i am a moron and wore a white top to a wedding.

i'm baaaaaackk!!!

2010-09-14T10:37:00.001-07:00

sorry for the absence, but i just wasnt feeling like the blogging mood. we have been so busy this last month and when i finally found the time, i didnt feel like making an entry, or when i was super busy, i really wanted to post something.

so here i am.

the only bad thing about taking a vacation, is all the work you have to do when you get back. i have sooo many things to post to be caught up, its ridiculous!!

i have a wedding to post, jj starting 2nd grade, our move, 10 on 10 and winter baseball. my goal is to be caught up by this weekend, because i will have another thing to post on sunday or monday.

we are going to the brad paisley H20 concert in san diego on friday night. we have grass seats, so the view wont be fantastic, but we are going with A LOT of friends, so that will be awesome. i cant wait. i have my hat and my boots all ready to go!

i will whipping out a butt load of posts here soon, so be prepared.

questions, questions...

2010-08-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

As I went over to Domestically Challenged to visit, I saw she TAGGED me for this cool award! Here are my answers!

My Questions…

1. What is your signature color?

i LOVE green, but i probably wear more blacks, whites, and blues. i dont know why?

2. Your most embarrassing moment?

i am a pretty shy person, for the most part, so i typically lay low in a public situation. i cant think of one that only pertains to me, but a more recent moment was when my darling son started acting up at his classroom's award ceremony, really bad!!!! i wanted the earth to open up and suck me in.

3. Would you ever get anything pierced other than your ears? If yes, what?

well, i did have my belly button pierced when i was in college, but that has since closed up. no, i wouldnt get anything else pierced.

4. Are you a social butterfly or a homebody?

homebody, for sure!!! i do force myself to interact with other parents at my son's school, so i am not a complete hermit. i love blogging because it lets me be a social butterfly without being seen or possibly embarrassing myself.

5. Are you done having babies or do you want more?

we are definitely done...unless a miracle happens.

6. Are you loyal to your hairstylist or are do you tryout every salon in town?

i normally go to fantastic sam's. i do have a favorite stylist there, but if she is busy, i wont wait for her. i dont know why, i just want to get in and out quickly.

7. How many times have you moved in your life?

that i can remember, 5. it's funny that you ask this question, because we are moving again in a couple weeks, so 6.

8. If you could plan your dream vacation with just you and your love where would it be?

if you ask him, he would say somewhere tropical with a golf course and great food. if you ask me, i want to spend many weeks in europe traveling. he would NEVER go with me. i even offered to just do a 12 day italian city tour. still no. i think i will have to take my mom or a friend on that trip, or take my hubby kicking and screaming. i will take that trip before i die, though. unless i die young or unexpectedly.

here are my tags:

deep thoughts from the shallow end

josh and carri

running through my mind

i, uh, think i killed my muse

the inspired organizer

the ramblings of a disgruntled secretary

dreams of naps

answer these questions and pass on the fun!

recipes

2010-08-13T14:15:00.001-07:00

i have been trying a few new recipes this week for dinner. new recipes are always a little scary. even though, i am fully capable of following a recipe, it doesnt always turn out well. i have had many a disaster dinner in my house.

the first one was a recipe for shrimp fried rice. i didnt have shrimp, so i used chicken instead and i also added a few extra veggies too. besides, those tweaks, i followed the recipe exactly. i knew the recipe's creator was well known for her asian dishes, so i figured she couldnt be wrong.

it was AMAZING!!! even the hubby liked it. he is a picky eater when it comes to new things.

chicken fried rice

the next recipe was for an italian sausage pasta bake. this was super easy and a one pot/pan dish. i doubled it and it served our family of 4 plus leftovers. i used sausage, but if you dont like sausage, i am sure you could use ground beef or ground turkey. i also didnt have any canned tomatoes, only premade sauce. it worked fine. this recipe was AMAZING. it definitely was gourmet quality.

when i served the kids this, they finished it faster than any other meal they have ever eaten. i am serious!!! they even asked for seconds. that NEVER happens. i even had it for lunch today, and it was just as tasty reheated. i highly recommend this pasta dish. SO YUMMY!

italian sausage pasta bake

the last one is for the peanut butter frosting is made for my brother's birthday cake. i found a couple recipes for this and they all were practically the same, so this is pretty easy to find. you really have to be a peanut butter lover to like this. i frosted the between layer of two round cakes and the outside of both. someone gave me the idea to put strawberry jelly, or your favorite jelly, jam or preserves between the layers and frost the outside with the pb frosting. i think i might try that next time.

this recipe will give you a lot of frosting. i actually ended up throwing some out.

peanut butter frosting

let me know if you tried these and how they turned out. until next time...

dad's 70th

2010-08-11T19:22:00.001-07:00

last saturday, we threw my dad a bday party. he turned 70. can you believe it?

we had lots of family and friends over to our house to celebrate. i made shrimp pasta, garlic bread, pasta primavera and hotdogs. try and guess which one we ran out of first? yes, the hotdogs! even when you try to go fancy, some good ol' fashioned hotdogs always do the trick.

i made cupcakes, a cake with peanut butter frosting (for my brother's bday) and brownies for dessert. all were a huge success. the peanut butter frosting was a first for me. it turned out great and it was super easy. it is definitely for the peanut butter lover (i am talking to you sara :)). we had TONS of leftover pasta. i made way too much and i ended up sending everyone home with some doggie bags full of pasta.

we had loads of fun visiting with friends and laughing. the kids loved playing with their pal, rachel. she is way too good to them. uncle trevor even got in on the action. the kids would take turns tackling him to the ground.

there was only one bad part to the party...flies!

the party was outside, so i figured we would be attracting some flies, just not the entire fly population of southern california. i had citronella candles and a fly trap bag. it did nothing to deter them from our food. me, being the neurotic and perfectionist that i am, was having major anxiety issues with this. it was one of those things that was out of my control and i couldnt do anything about it. all in all, i think my dad had a great party with great friends and family, despite the flies.

we love you dad!!

we love you pop pop!!

10 on 10

2010-08-10T22:00:00.001-07:00

today was so busy. i am absolutely pooped!!!

i was up by 6am, which is WAY too early for me.

i still have my dad's bday party pics to post. it was loads of fun. that post will be next.

but now, i have these to post:

when i got up this morning, i realized that i again forgot to get milk. so i ran out before jesse went to work and grabbed a couple gallons.

i have been listening to go country 105 lately. they are giving away rascal flatts concerts tickets to the 25th caller when a RF song comes on. so, being the competitive person that i am, have been calling when i hear the song, but every time it is busy!!! so annoying. i will not give up, though.

i took the kids to see $1 summer movie series at victoria gardens in rancho cucamonga today. we saw "how to train a dragon". it was super good!!

after the movie, we did some school shoe shopping. try saying that 3 times fast. then we ate lunch at johnny rockets. here are the girls.

and here are the boys.

the best part about johnny rockets. the nickel juke box on the wall.

the last stop of the day at victoria gardens was the water fountain. 3 of the 4 kids i had were soaked after some play time in the fountain.

i made homemade chicken fried rice. it was my first time. so yummy. i got the recipe here. i made chicken instead of shrimp and added red bell peppers and mushrooms to it too. you could make your own variation. super easy. some hints to great fried rice: use day old rice and cook every item separately, or else they will all end up tasting the same.

for the heck of it, i decided to make whipped cream from scratch. i had some cream in the fridge that was going to go bad and decided to go for it. it was my first time for this too. at first i forgot to add sugar and it tasted disgusting. after i remembered, it was heavenly. i highly recommend it.

i think i was feeling extra ambitious today or something. i decided to go for a walk outside, by myself (something i havent done in a LONG time). at some point on my walk i decided to try jogging (again, something i havent done in a LONG time) and wouldnt you know it. i made it the whole way to my half way point and back, without stopping! yay me!!

how was your tenth?

some useless information: did you remember that yesterday was 08-09-10?

the black hole

2010-08-05T15:39:00.001-07:00

i saw this idea on a blog that i came across and i thought it was an interesting concept.

some people think that seeing the contents of a woman's purse really defines her as a person. others may think it is completely intrusive. i think it is kind of fun. i dont have anything to hide, plus you never know what you will pull out, of my purse especially.

around this house, it is known as the black hole. things go in and never return. i also find the most random things in there with no idea how they got there.

i consider my purse, organized chaos. i know that certain things are for sure in there, where, is the question.

without further adieu...

i bought this purse a little over a year ago and i still love it. i do need a new one though. i got it here.

wallet, small zipper pouch, checkbook, jj's spiderman wallet, phone, point and shoot camera, measuring tape, assorted papers, coupons, and receipts, 2 bottles of lotion, 2 hand sanitizers, bottle of pain relievers, tums and rolaids, pencil, chopstick helpers, car keys, assorted toys, carmex, lipgloss and lipstick, mirror, 3 pairs of sunglasses, kids' immunization records, floss, gum, moist towelette, house alarm key chain, 2 eyedrop bottles, two AA batteries, 3 tissues, more keys, breathmints, paper clip, 2 hair barrettes, children's tylenol, 3 pennies, a disney trading pin and a small pile of crumbs and dirt.

dont ask me why i have some of these things in my purse. i told you already, it's the black hole. things get sucked in there.

playing catch up

2010-07-29T21:18:00.001-07:00

i am sick. i started feeling sick on monday and today i am full blown sick. i currently have tissue stuffed in my nose and my eyes are watering (as ellie would say, "ice water").

i had to renew my driver's license this year. i had to actually go in to the DMV to do it. i didnt make an appt, i just bit the bullet and it wasnt too bad. from start to finish, it took about 2 hours.

this week we bought jj his backpack and lunch pail for school. we also bought him a couple shirts and some shoes. he also informed us that he wants "a hat that is straight and not curved". which translates as the brim of the hat is to be straight across, not curved. my son has grown into a surfer/skater boy. he also informed us that "my friends have hats like that and they look cool". ahhh, peer pressure starts so young.

jesse goes back to work next week. it has been very nice having him home this past month.

as many day trips as we had this month, i still felt like we had a nice, relaxing, lazy month. we got to pretty much stay up late and sleep late every day. by sleeping late, i mean 8am, and thats only because the kids would wake us up saying, "i'm hungry" "can you make us breakfast?".

jj starts 2nd grade in a little over 2 weeks!!! 2nd grade!!! what has the world come to? my little boy is going to be in the second grade!!! this is same boy who at night still likes to "play with my hair" but refuses to hold my hand in public. he says, "mama, i am big enough to walk by myself". oh ok. no problem. tear, tear.

i am throwing my dad a party for his 70th bday this weekend!!! as stressful as it is planning a party, i love it. i wouldnt have it any other way. i love making sure that everything is just perfect and as it should be. i am doing the cooking and the baking for the party. i have a busy week ahead of cleaning and cooking and making the house look great. of course, i will be taking the pictures too. :)

this past month i have forced my husband to watch the twilight movies. i told him they arent as bad as they sound. the story is very good. so he watched the first one. he liked it. he watched the second one and he still liked it. now on sunday we are going to watch eclipse. he is actually looking forward to it. who would have thought?

jj has his first loose tooth. because it is his first tooth, he is scared to death to let me touch it. he is afraid of it hurting. i can literally bend the whole tooth forward and backward and he still wont let me pull it. my mom even tried bribing him with money, staying up late, other stuff, and he still said no. most of the kids his age already have their permanent two front teeth in. he is barely losing his bottom teeth.

now, because every night i want to see jj's tooth, ellie is convinced that she has a loose tooth too.

jesse got his school's scores in from the CST. as a whole, his school did very well. they went up 18 points. certain classes and certain subgroups didnt do well at all. so, he is happy they went up, but disappointed that they could have gone up higher. his school is only one of three in his district that actually improved their scores. when jesse arrived at his school 3 years ago, his school was 12th place out of 12 schools. yes, his school had the worst scores of the entire district! now his school is 5th place of 12 schools. 4th, 3rd, and 2nd places are only within 10 points of him too!! what an amazing jump his school has had the last 3 years. we are so proud of him and his school. his teachers work super hard and the kids are pushed to their full potential and now it has paid off for them. great job adelanto elementary school!!! wooohooo!

i think that is all from us! have a great weekend!

Untitled

2010-07-22T12:06:00.001-07:00

these last couple of weeks have been very busy!

we had another trip to the regional park, my cousin had her bridal shower, ellie had her tap recital at concerts in the park, nightly trips to the park to play , and last night we went to the dodger game.

jj and ellie love going to the regional park here. they have two water slides and jj was just tall enough this year to ride them. while jj is busy with that, ellie is building sand castles by the water. we pack our lunch and just let the kids play the day away.

my cousin is getting married next month and she had her bridal shower last weekend. she got so many great things. my mom and i are making her a candy table for her wedding reception. we finally got all the candy and are figuring out how to set it all up. her colors are pink, tangerine, and white. i think it will turn out reallly beautiful.

my cousins. the one on the left is the bride to be.

ellie had her tap dance recital on sunday. her group danced to "locomotion". i was kind of nervous for them and hoping they wouldnt get stage fright and freeze up there. they performed during the intermission for concerts in the park. there were a good amount of people there, but when the time came, they did amazing. i was so proud of her!! she smiled the whole time and only got distracted once. they got a huge applause.

ellie is in front with the music note shirt on.

this week, we have been taking the kids to play at the park by our house after dinner. the sun has gone down behind the mountain and the weather cools off a lot. they play on the playground and jj and jesse get to play catch. we bring charlie too and let her run around.

yesterday night, we all went to the dodger game. this was ellie's first dodger game and our first as a whole family. we lasted the whole game too! i was afraid that the kids would get bored and we would have to leave early. the game went fairly quick and the kids had fun. i packed ellie a backpack full of stuff for her to do. we had front row seats in the left field pavilion. we got there early to see batting practice. the kids each got a ball!!! they were so happy.

jj was dead set on buying something there with his money. we tried telling him that things at the stadium are super expensive and that he should save his money. oh no!! he couldnt possibly do that. once the souvenir man came around selling things, it was over. "i have to have a rally monkey" or "i NEED that". we asked how much the baseball cards were and he said, $10. i told him that we could buy them for $2 at target. his response was, "but we arent going to target now!". that one got a good laugh from the lady behind us. needless to say, he got his baseball cards. the good thing is that they are all of the 2010 dodgers. he was and is still obsessed with rattling off the stats of every player he comes across.

the dodgers won and we even were on tv for a split second. we had a great time!

matt kemp (rihanna's man) and andre ethier

some of the dodger pitchers

chad billingsley (he pitched a complete game last night)

this weekend is going to be fun too. the kids are staying with gaga donna and pop pop for 2 nights. jesse and i are going to las vegas for some fun.

10 on 10

2010-07-11T19:35:00.001-07:00

i know i am a day late, but i did take pictures yesterday to document my 10th day of july. we were out of town this weekend and just got back a little bit ago. jesse and i went to the san diego area to visit friends. on saturday (the 10th) we went wine tasting with a bunch of friends. we had a limo take us to the wineries so no one would have to sit out of the fun. it was a blast. we had only been wine tasting once before, and it was only to one winery. yesterday, we went to 4 different wineries. i had to sit out for two of the stops because it was a lot to handle and i had to pace myself. here are our pictures...

this is zoolander, our friends' dog. everyone calls him zoobie. he is adorable!

before we met everyone, we had a big breakfast. that was a really good idea!

our ride for the day

jesse with his boys!!!

brittany and i sipping one of our many tastings for the day.

the girls at the first stop, south coast winery

i found out the key is getting the ride pourer. matt, shown here, was great. he didnt take any of our tickets for our tastings. he was also very generous with his pours.

this was our second stop. apparently the guy who took our picture didnt know how to work the zoom, so he cut out three people from our group. :(

our third stop

brittany and colleen. colleen and kyle met up with us here. we were so glad they came!

there were no pictures from our last stop. we had an awesome trip with our friends. great memories, for sure!!!

fourth of july

2010-07-05T23:19:00.001-07:00

sunday was my niece and brother in law's joint birthday party. he was turning 30 and she was turning 1.

i made the cakes for the party. i finally finished the night before around 9pm. i was pooped, but it was nice sleeping in the next day and not having to do any last minute things to the cakes. we had a really good time at the party. the kids played in the water and we ate hotdogs and hamburgers. afterward, we played "just dance" for wii. that game is awesome! i am currently undefeated. the kids got to break open a pinata and eat more junk and then it was cake time. by the time we left, they were exploding with candy, cake, sweets, and other junk. luckily no one puked.

while the kids napped, i took my first opportunity to go see eclipse. it was sooooo good. i loved it. i think it is my favorite. i really like twilight too, though. new moon was my least favorite. i can NOT WAIT until breaking dawn is out. it was my favorite book, and i am anxious to see how they put it onto film.

to wrap up our fourth of july, we were able to see some fireworks in the distance. we also watched some on tv too. it was such a nice day with family and friends.

another hair masterpiece that i got from here.

bakersfield vacation

2010-07-05T18:17:00.001-07:00

we just got back on saturday from a great few days with our friends the streets. they live in bakersfield. it is about a 2 1/2 hr. drive from our house to theirs. i picked jesse up from work on wednesday and we took off. me and the kids slept the whole way there.

on the first day, we just stayed in. the kids had snow cones for dessert while they played outside. they were filthy! after the kids went to bed for the night, the adults finally got to catch up and talk. it was nice. i dont think we went to bed until almost midnight. that is not the normal for us...well maybe during the summer, but still, we were tired!

second day, we took the kids to see ice age 2 at the movies. it was a summer $1 movie. they also had $1 popcorn and hotdogs. the kids loved it!!!!! we came back for naps and then they played outside some more. we also got to go swimming for a little bit in rebecca's brother's pool. it was a nice break from the heat. for dinner, the streets made us bbq chicken and broccoli salad. i have never tasted such a yummy salad in my life. it was amazing!!! i got the recipe too. that night, the kids had ice cream outside. then jj wanted to show off his new found skill of bike riding. he is getting much better at turning and being more comfortable on his bike.

third day, we took the kids to murray farms. it is a u-pick farm on the outskirts of bakersfield. it was awesome. i loved watching the kids pick their fruit from the trees and bushes. it was hot outside, so after the first stop, the kids were tired, hot and cranky. the good thing was that they let us eat any fruit we wanted off the tree or bushes. that was fun. it was a taste and pick adventure. we ended up getting blueberries, pluots, some apricots, some nectarines, and blackberries. they took us down to the picking area on a hayride. afterward the kids got to pet some goats and see llamas, peacocks, ducks, a pig and some chickens. we had loads of fun, but were pooped on the way home. after naps, we went out to eat for rebecca's bday and then bought fireworks for nighttime. jj and ellie had never done fireworks like that before. they loved them.

the next morning we left. i had to get home and start baking two birthday cakes for the following day. i started a book on the way there and finished it on the way back. the kids had tons of fun playing with their friends, jackson and brooklyn. the adults had a great time catching up with great friends. thanks, street family for such a great couple of days!

brooklyn hiding from the camera in the background.

the kids picking blueberries

i didnt get any good ones of jj holding the sparklers. he was moving too fast!

pillowcase dress and headbands

2010-07-03T17:15:00.001-07:00

this past week, i was busy being martha stewart.

i had a friend, whose daughter's birthday was coming up, so i had a great idea for a present. i decided to make her a couple of headbands and a pillowcase dress. i had bought 2 pillowcases a while back and got the stuff for the headbands at michaels. i just wrapped and hot glued a ribbon around a plain headband and hot glued a fake flower on the side. you can do any color and any flower you like. i did a couple for ellie and it is her favorite accessory. she loves it!!!

my next project was the pillowcase dress. i googled it and found many different ideas and patterns for the dress. i finally ended up going with this site. it was easy and straight forward. the only exception i made was that i brought in and hemmed the sides of the dress before i cut the armholes. it made it look more like a dress and less like a pillowcase.

i was very pleased with how it turned out. you never know with me and sewing machines. for some reason, just when i get the hang of it, the machine starts to misbehave.

i gave the dress and the headbands to my friend this weekend, for her daughter. i hope she gets good use of them.

weekend fun!

2010-06-27T21:11:00.001-07:00

this past weekend we did lots of fun things. on saturday, jesse and two of his brother in laws went to the barrett-jackson car show/auction at the oc fairgrounds. the boys loved it. they even got to see some of the live auction going on. it's the same one they televise on the speed channel.

while the boys were out, i met one of my best friends for lunch, carri smith. she was visiting from washington. i brought the kids and we met at in-n-out. so good! we get so spoiled here in california. i guess because i know we have in-n-out here, i really dont go to eat there much. i feel bad for former californians who have tasted the goodness, but arent close enough to go. i really feel bad for out of staters who have NEVER tasted the in-n-out goodness. especially when it's animal style!

i had jj take this picture of us. this was probably take #14. with some editing, it actually turned out ok. :)

jesse's dad came to visit this week with some of his family. the kids and the adults had a nice time with "papas". he got to see jj practice at his baseball camp and spend a lot of quality time with the grandkids. i am sure he was exhausted by the end. they started the 19 hour drive home today. we will miss you papas!! come back to visit soon!!!!

during the week, while papas was here. each of the kids hosted a dinner for the family. our night was wednesday. i had a great menu planned bbq chicken, mashed potatoes, and veggie stir fry. while i was using the oven, something fell to the bottom of the oven and started smoking. so my bright idea was to take it out. i almost got it out, until...i burned my arm. really bad. the bottom of my forearm hit the door of the oven and my reaction was to lift my arm and since my arm was still in the oven, i burned the top of my forearm too. way to go me! i have three burns total. i figured that since all of them blistered, they were probably 2nd degree burns. today i accidentally scraped the forming scab off one of them. bad news. the skin is light/bright pink. gross. here are my burns before today.

today we celebrated father's day with my parents and brother. we went to the discovery science center in santa ana. we also met our good friends the street family there. the kids were so happy to see each other. even though we are going to visit them in 4 days.

this weekend, the center had a special exhibit from "walking with dinosaurs". they brought out a baby t-rex for the kids. jj even got to touch it. the t-rex was 6 months old and actual size. all the kids loved it. some of the kids loved it from a distance...one of them being ellie. whenever the t-rex came close to her, she hid and tried desperately to disappear into the ground. at the end, she started to cry because the t-rex came too close, too many times.

the center had a tinkertoy exhibit, hockey exhibit and a grossology exhibit. the kids had a blast! the adults were tired and ready to go. afterward, the adults went to eat at a great seafood place called the rockin' crab house. sooooo good! it was a very nice day with great family and friends. we are so lucky to have them in our lives.

jj getting to pet the baby t-rex

a not too happy ellie

this was awesome. it was a huge pin art toy.

jj laying on a bed of nails! he love it. ellie did not. surprise, surprise.

pop pop showing ellie what happens to your food after you eat it. the grossology exhibit was very...interesting. it talked about gas, body odor, poop, boogers and zits. they even had a playground that imitated the digestive tract.

jj pulling his own weight. LOL. i know i am a comedian.

after we got home, we had a HUGE milestone happen in our house. jj finally learned to ride a bike without training wheels. it literally took one time of pushing him to get it. turning is a whole other issue. braking too. he just needs some more practice and he will be a pro.

he told us last week, that he wants to save his money to buy a dirt bike. a motor dirt bike. we informed him that he has to first learn to ride a regular bike before we set him on a motor bike. wouldnt you know that the first thing he said to us after he rode his bike today, "now i can get a dirt bike!" ummm, i think that is a long, long time from now, son. but we still love you and are very proud of you!

how was your weekend?

tent camping

2010-06-22T17:11:00.001-07:00

the saturday before father's day we went camping. tent camping to be specific.

i used to go camping all the time when i was a kid, but havent gone in years. i dont think jesse has ever been. last summer, i slept in our tent in the backyard with the kids just for kicks. the kids loved it, but my back was hurting from sleeping on the ground. so needless to say, we were somewhat prepared for what we were about to do. at least i was.

our tent, is a backpacking tent (2-3 person). i didnt see a need to buy a slightly bigger tent when i knew this would probably be the last time we would go camping. we brought our air mattress too for a little bit of comfort. lots of pillows and blankets too.

we checked in at our campsite at lake perris around 2pm and we started unloading and setting up our tent and bedding. our small little tent looked so puny among all the other monster tents and rv trailers. before we left i measured out our tent with masking tape on our carpet to double check that our air mattress would actually fit inside. it would. the only thing i didnt take into consideration was the small task of getting it in the door. our pump was electric, so we had to go someplace else to pump up the mattress and then bring it back to our tent. we couldnt blow the mattress up all the way, because we knew we would have to fold it a bit to get it in the door. i am sure that the people around us, were laughing at us. oh, i forgot to mention, that while we left our tent to go blow up the mattress and borrow a hammer for our tent stakes, our tent started to blow away. our kindly neighbors had to put a huge rock inside to avoid us being without a temporary home. we really were being laughed at.

once we finally got everything set up, the fun actually started. we ate hotdogs and carne asada. the kids rode bikes and played catch. jj brought his latest obsession, a bird guide book from the library. he was convinced he was going to see a ton of birds and then he could identify them all with his handy book. i got to read in peace and quiet for a little bit. jesse and albert rode bikes down to the lake and back. it was very relaxing, but just really dirty. the entire time i felt dusty and grimy. after dinner, we roasted marshmallows, the kids did a talent show for us, and the kids told "ghost stories" to each other.

as the kids were getting their jammies on, i was setting up their small areas to sleep in. jesse told me that as he was carrying ellie over to the tent, she said, "i cant believe we are sleeping in a tent tonight!!!!" they both were so excited to be camping. once we all got in, we zipped up the tent and within 10 minutes, the kids were out like lights and we were staring at the ceiling of the tent. we couldnt sleep AT ALL!!! it was either car alarms, other people laughing or fighting or yelling, babies crying or squirrels running around our tent. by 2am, i dont remember getting much sleep. the temperature wasnt too hot or too cold, but a couple hours later, it was freezing! i kept trying to make sure jj was warm enough. that boy could sleep through anything, except the garage door opening (inside joke). he squirmed his way off of his pillow and his cushion. he was only sleeping on the liner of the tent, but apparently he didnt mind. all night long all i wished was that the sun would hurry and come up so that we could get on with the day. i was up and dressed by 630am.

at breakfast, all the adults shared that they didnt sleep either, but the kids all did. they were all bright eyed and bushy tailed. we pretty much ate breakfast, talked a little bit and started packing up. it was a super quick trip, but the kids loved every second of it. i guess that is all that matters.

once we got home, we showered and took naps. we then went to the movies and saw toy story 3. it was awesome!!!! i had heard great things about it. towards the end, i started to get choked up and teary eyed. i looked around me to make sure i wasnt the only one, and i didnt see anyone else crying. i felt like a nerd. then i saw a mom get a tissue out and wipe her eyes. yes!! i wasnt the only one. i really tried to keep it together, but i just couldnt hold back my tears.

by the sounds of it, i think jesse had a really good father's day. i think i will ask him to blog about it on the next post. you know, from the guy's perspective.

i hope everyone else had a great father's day and had a relaxing weekend.

our teeny tent

jj and jimmy researching the birds they think they will find

this shot is WAY overexposed. the lighting was off so i had to edit it so that i could see the bird. the story here is this, we went on an animal hike. we saw rabbits, quail, squirrels and a ton of birds. after we got back, jj says, "in a little bit i am going to start to search for the birds of prey". sure honey! whatever you say. like we are going to find a bird of prey out here. no joke, an hour later he says, "mama, come look a golden eagle!" so i walk over and sure enough, the boy found a bird of prey. incredible. i cant tell if it is a hawk or a golden eagle. i think its a hawk though. there were two. the other is behind the first one. you can only see it's claws.

jj's baseball camp

2010-06-22T13:58:00.001-07:00

i know i have already told you about the baseball camp, jj is participating in, but i took some pictures last week, and forgot to share them.

on thursday, the boys split up in two teams and scrimmaged each other. dodgers vs. angels. jj was on the dodgers. :) he is definitely the smallest one out there, but i noticed that it doesnt detur him from giving it his all. he might not be able to throw as far or hit as far, but he gave it everything he had. he really impressed me. the game ended in a 12-12 tie. i think it was better that way, the boys are really competitive.

he is really enjoying himself and is learning a lot from the other players and the coach. it was a great choice to sign him up.

and of course, little sister watching on

Untitled

2010-06-16T17:17:00.001-07:00

sorry, i posted without uploading the pictures, duh!

here you go

this might be one of my favorite pictures of all time of the kids. she was just a little upset, can you tell???

jj taking pictures. he wanted silly faces.

taken seconds before she dropped her drink on the ground

i felt like a paparazzi taking so many photos. i really felt bad for them. if i were a celebrity, i would never want to go to a public place like that. too many people.

i was just thinking, in just the last few years of us having annual passes to disneyland, we have seen quite a few celebrities. halle berry, geena davis, sean astin (the goonies, rudy), valerie bertinelli, mariska hargitay, holly robinson peete, rodney peete, and their kids.

the start of summer

2010-06-16T17:00:00.001-07:00

summer has officially started.

we have been staying up late and sleeping in (as much as possible). we have started to plan out our summer and all the trips and mini vacations/excursions we will take. i have made a dent in my summer reading list and it is HOT outside.

jj started a baseball camp on monday. it runs mon-thur for two weeks. it is sponsored by the local high school here. the varsity coach is heading it up along with some current players. the varsity team went to CIF finals this year. there are about 19 boys and 1 girl. 10 and under. they split them into two groups, minors and farm. i am hoping jj will learn a lot from the coach and the other boys. it actually turned out that he has 4 boys from his class in his group. tomorrow is a scrimmage. i will plan to take pictures to share with all of you. wish him luck.

ellie and i have been enjoying the alone time. she helped me clean the house yesterday and is helping me do laundry today. we ran some errands today too. tomorrow is library day. she LOVES when we go.

i finished another book and have one more from the library to finish before turning them back in.

this weekend, jesse's sisters and their families and our family are going camping.

yes, you heard me correctly. we are going camping. i know for those of you who know my husband, thought this day would never come, but he agreed. he will say that he was pressured and threatened by his older sister to go, but i think deep down he really wanted to go

...or maybe not

and when i say camping, i mean REAL camping. like in a tent camping, not in a rv trailer. no hookups. granted we are only going for one day and one night. it will be less than 24 hours that we will be there, but it will probably feel like 100. the kids are SUPER excited and cant wait to go set up the tent, cook hotdogs, make smores and put on a talent show (their idea). sleeping arrangements might be a bit tricky, but we will survive. worst case scenario, jesse cant sleep and he comes home on father's day and sleeps most of the day. you wont want to miss my post on that little adventure. in fact, maybe i will do one post and i will make my hubby do one from his perspective. that would be pretty funny.

dont you think, babe!?

in closing, tomorrow is a very, VERY important day in our household. our happiness for the rest of the summer is resting on tomorrow's big event. so please, please, pretty please, lakers, you need to win. you MUST win. YOU HAVE TO WIN!!!! you have the home court advantage and phil jackson is 47-0 in playoff series, when his team wins game 1; and what do we know, lakers won game 1. lakers, we will be watching and praying! we both know that tomorrow, the celtics will be back with a vengeance, after their pitiful loss yesterday. you guys better bring your A game.

the end

p.s. here are some pictures from our recent trip to disneyland. we went, we saw, we conquered. the new water/light show was VERY crowded and we didnt have good seats, so we left early and watched the fireworks instead. oh, and we saw a celebrity!!! halle berry was there with her baby girl and her ex-beau. they make a gorgeous family.

and

10 on 10

2010-06-10T21:54:00.001-07:00

today is the 10th, and so here are my 10 pictures taken on the 10th of june!

some of jj's pokemon stuff. he has books and cards galore!

i went to the library and picked up 2 books that i had on hold. i am currently reading "the last song". i

ellie had picked out a completely different outfit today, but knew that the lakers played today, so she changed her shirt to kobe's jersey. i later found out that she thought we were going to the game.

today was the day to shave off the mohawk. i was VERY happy!

the finished product!

we took a little trip to blockbuster today and i went a little crazy. the kids each got a movie. i bought 3 previously viewed dvd's and we rewarded jj with a pokemon book for getting good grades. he had his best trimester yet. all 4's and only one 3.

most days, charlie just sleeps or lays around the house.

we took a little walk to the mailbox today.

i got my instyle magazine today. i am very excited.

LAKER game!!!!!!! too bad they lost. :(

well...that's it. nothing too extravagant. this was the first day of our summer vacation. we just sort of vegged out and relaxed. i am sooo looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. hopefully me and the kids are on the same page regarding this subject. ;)

tomorrow is ballet/tap class for ellie and on saturday, me and my mom are going to see "a chorus line". we are very excited.

what do you have planned for this weekend?

summer reading list and a cake

2010-06-09T09:24:00.001-07:00

last post, i told you i would list my summer reading list. as i keep going to target, my list grows. i also havent read a whole lot of classics, so i think i might add some on there too. i dont know, i guess we'll see how long it takes me to get through these first.

SUSAN'S SUMMER READING LIST:

the short second life of bree tanner- stephenie meyer *
the last song- nicholas sparks *(reading)
the forgotten garden- kate morton
LA candy- lauren conrad
sweet little lies- lauren conrad
mommywood- tori spelling *
the carrie diaries- candace bushnell
the girl with the dragon tattoo- stieg larsson
the girl who played with fire- stieg larsson
the girl who kicked the hornet's nest- stieg larsson
the lovely bones- alice sebold *
no wonder my parents drank- jay mohr

* = have already read

i that is it. i have a couple classics that i might add like "to kill a mockingbird" and "jane eyre".

please comment with any other suggestions you might have. i always love a good book, much to the dismay of my husband. ;)

oh....

remember when i said i had a BIG cake project coming. well i am just about to leave to go give it to the person. it is for jj's teacher. it is her end of the year thank you present. i think she will love it!

there is a story behind this cake too. this is actually the 2nd cake i made yesterday. the first was 4 layers tall, and one of the middle layer decided to disintegrate on me. i screamed and then tried to save it my smashing it up and together and pasting it with frosting, but no go. then i sat on the couch and cried. 3 hours down the drain. so i went back to the grocery store and bought more cake mix and more frosting and i am much happier with cake 2. oh, and i forgot! two nights ago i decide it would neat to make my frosting this time, instead of using the stores. WRONG IDEA!!!! it was a simple recipe, so i tripled it. yes you heard me, tripled. so here i am mixing and stirring away and it is a MESS!!!!!!! i followed the recipe exactly, but it turned out like clumps of butter sitting in milk. totally gross, so i threw it out. again, hours waisted!!!!!

but it was all worth it, because look at my final product!!

what do you think?

just some random thoughts

2010-06-02T11:29:00.001-07:00

next week, i am taking on another HUGE cake challenge. i will take tons of pictures and please pray that it turns out as good as i hope it will.

i went to look at our family scrapbook,so i could add to it. i discovered i am more than a year behind. sad, i know. i went to target and developed 200 pictures. now i just need the time to put them in the scrapbook.

i hate laundry. i am on load #6 now. ewww.

jj's animal project is due today. he did a great job. he hates to write, so that part was not fun for him. i think he ended up crying at least once each time i made him write. the clay model we made looks pretty cool too. notice i say we. that stinking gila monster model has broken into more pieces than i can remember. i have used so much hot glue on that thing to keep it all together. it was a nice idea to use clay, but not again.

he gives his oral report today. ellie and i are going to watch him.

ellie is clothes obsessed or maybe neurotic is more like it. she puts on an outfit. likes it at first, but if the shirt doesnt lay flat and straight with no wrinkles. forget it. the meltdown has begun. she convinces me she needs another shirt, so i let her pick it out. she picks out a different shirt that does the same thing. she complains it is too long and that you cant see her shorts. which you can, by the way. she marches to the bathroom and spends the next 5 minutes (i kid you not) ranting and raving to herself in the mirror, about how "i hate this shirt" and "this is yucky for me" and "i need to roll it to make it short" all while crying, screaming, and stomping around. full blown teenage meltdown.

jesse and i have a wedding to go to this saturday. she is one of our babysitters, even though she is 22. we love her. she started watching jj when he was a itty bitty baby. she is the most responsible person i know for her age. her wedding venue is AMAZING!!! i will take lots of pictures.

the following saturday (the 12th), me and my mom are going to see "a chorus line" at the pantages theater in hollywood. we are SUPER excited. i cant wait. ONE, singular sensation...

later this month, my hubby and i will be celebrating 9 years married! craziness!

i had made my summer reading list, but continue to add to it. i already finished 3 books off it. i think next post i will list them. i usually only read books that are from the library. it gets expensive buying them. so far it has been working out well. only problem is that sometimes i put a hold on a really popular book and i end up waiting weeks for it. i am still waiting for "the last song" and it has been almost 4 weeks. some of the books i will end up buying just because i dont want to wait.

i am obsessed with the redbox dvds. $1 a movie! cant get much better than that. blockbuster just raised their prices too.

i still need to see sex and the city 2. cant wait for eclipse!

summertime is almost here!!! yay!!!

memorial day bbq

2010-06-02T10:59:00.001-07:00

on monday, our big extended family all met at the park and had a fun filled day together.

the kids got to play on the playground, play t-ball and golf, and ride their bikes. the adults had horseshoes, badminton, and lasso golf to entertain them. the highlight of the day was without a doubt, the water balloons. the kids took such pride at chasing each adult down and trying to get them with the balloons. i was safe, i had the camera. those kids are sneaky though, they did take some of the adults off guard.

the food was amazing! we had plain ol' hotdogs and hamburgers, but the fixings were awesome. bacon, bleu cheese, avocado, pepper jack cheese, and all the traditional stuff. we had grilled corn on the cob too! oh so good. i think the best part though were the desserts. two types of brownies and 4 types of cookies. my favorite was the peanut butter cookies. i dont have the recipe, but i am sure i can get it for those who want it. they are amazing!!!! the best pb cookies EVER! and they are huge. they are 4-5 inches across.

all in all, it was super fun. nice and relaxing. by the time we got home, everyone in our house was ready for naptime.

what did you do this weekend?

winding down the school year

2010-05-28T08:24:00.001-07:00

we are down to 7 school days left before summer officially begins!!! wooohooo!!

jj has a field trip today to riley's apple farm in oak glen. this is his first field trip and he is VERY excited. i just hope he can control himself today and behave. he has one last project due before school is over. he has an animal research project to do. his animal is the gila monster. of course, my son, the animal lover, doesnt pick something normal like a lion or giraffe. he picks a gila monster. his written report is almost done and his visual representation is all done. we used clay and molded the lizard and let it harden and then he painted it. it looks pretty darn awesome if i do say so myself. the only problem is that the fingers and legs keep breaking off. i have the hot glue gun handy and use it almost daily. june 2nd cant get here fast enough. chances are though, as soon as he turns it in, the whole thing will fall to pieces.

ellie has her last day of biddy ball tball today. they finished their 9 week class and are having a pizza party to celebrate. she couldnt be more excited!!! her first team pizza party. she always tags along to big brother's and never gets her own. i think that this next year, she will change a lot. she isnt into her dance class as much and is more interested in sports lately. this summer we will sign her up for swimming lessons and see how that goes. i am guessing not so well. she isnt a huge water person, but she will learn anyway.

yesterday, jj had his spring sing musical. his class had two international songs to sing. one in an african language and the other in spanish. of course, he didnt really know all the words, but it was still the cutest thing to watch. i was forewarned that my son really outdid himself at the practice session the day before. i was prepared. jj is a complete class clown and wont turn down an opportunity to show off or make people laugh. especially a whole school's worth of parents. he literally made everyone i know laugh, even his teacher and classmates. i love that about him, but that same quality gets him in trouble A LOT!!!!!!! i will never forget the words of his kindergarten teacher on his report card, "JJ's desire to entertain others, often overpowers his desire to learn". that describes my boy to a tee, but we still love him for it!!! he always makes us smile. :)

whose kid is that anyway?!

iris festival

2010-05-15T14:42:00.001-07:00

today, jj had a baseball game and then we went to the yucaipa iris festival. jj played really well. he had 3 doubles and did ok on defense. for after the game snack, the boys got a hot dog and an icee from the snack bar. they were super excited about that!!

afterward, we went to the iris festival. actually, we only made it as far as the kid's zone where all the rides and games were. jj and ellie both got their faces painted and jj climbed the rock wall. at first he was completely confident, but about 2/3 the way up, he began to shake and panic. i could feel his fear. the entire wall was probably 50 ft high. he got stuck and the man operating the wall had to talk him through getting to the top. once he reached the button, he just let go and his fear went away. you would think that repelling down would be the scary part, but no. he just wanted to get back down to the ground as quickly as possible.

jj won himself and ellie some bubbles and candy at the balloon dart game and then i ran out of $. jj responds with, "what?! why cant you just go get some more?" sure...after i just spent $20 on useless games, let me just go get my money tree and we'll be all set.

even though, they didnt get to do everything they wanted, they still had a good time. they are playing with the bubbles outside now and actually being nice to each other. shocking!

this picture makes me laugh every single time i see it. jj is playing first base, waiting for the batter to hit. see the kid in the outfield...HILARIOUS!!!

daddy and ellie

playing the dart game. watch out!!

10 on 10

2010-05-10T21:29:00.001-07:00

on the 10th of every month, i take 10 pictures of what my day was like. sometimes they are interesting, and sometimes they are not. at least the pictures are true and real of what our family is doing.

here is this month’s:

here are some flowers that i picked up for myself the other day at trader joe’s. every year at mother’s day, they have THE BEST arrangements for a fairly good price.

i just finished my next obsession. i am on a reading frenzy. i saw this movie a couple years ago, but i finally can say that i read the book. it was a really good read. a little different than the movie, but good.

ellie was dying to send a letter to her friends jackson and brooklyn. so i let her make them something special and we mailed it today.

ellie and i went for a walk today to the grocery store. this is her, mid-skip. :)

why are kids so fascinated with pine cones?

during our grocery store trip, i rented this movie for the kids from the redbox dvd rental machine. such a great idea. $1 a day rentals, even for new releases!

i made steak for dinner tonight, along with scalloped potatoes and spinach salad.

jj was playing catch with jesse outside today. he really needs practice catching the ball. i got some really good action shots of him throwing the ball.

this is our life. we CONSTANTLY have to tell him, “stop biting your nails” or “get your fingers out of your mouth”. every.single.day. he has ugly fingers and nail beds and he just can’t stop.

jesse has really been into deadliest catch lately. it’s such a crazy yet interesting show.

that’s all for this month’s 10. see you all soon.