Overscheduled

Preface:  My children are allowed to have "Treat Cereal" on days when they don't go to school (mainly Saturdays).

Kiera:  Climbs into bed with me when she wakes up.  (Clay is already out on his early Saturday morning ride)  Mama, what day is it?
Me:  Yea!  It is Saturday today.  Daddy doesn't have to go to work day.
Kiera:  Oh, good.  No school today.  Lucky charms for breakfast.
Me:  Did you know that we don't have school today, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  Can you believe it.  We can do whatever we want to.  Doesn't that sound SO nice?
Kiera:  Mama, can we please stay in bed all day and stare at each other?  Please?

I am ready for some down time, some good food and family.  And I think my kids are, too.

Las Trampas

We usually go to church from 12:30-3:30 on Sunday's, but because of Stake Conference, our afternoon was free for some good clean family fun. Can you believe this place is only 15 minutes from our house? I love living here.

Stake Conference

I love it when we have Stake Conference (churchy area conference). I love to go to the temple grounds with the kids.



Sometimes it is SO nice to be off for a week.

We even get to see all our friends from church, no matter what ward (congregation) they are in. We all get to come at the same time, same place.



I wanted to get a shot with all their friends. This one is cute, but you can't tell we are at the temple, so I decided to get a better angle...



Look, ma! I went to Stake Conference in Oakland.



OK. So I love to get the shot. Am I out of control?  Thanks to Rach for this shot of the Mamarazzi in action.

A Decade

On Saturday my first born turned ten.



On account of the special day, we got our shirts on.



Got our chocolate ready to roll.



And readied the cake.





Took a bunch of kids on the train into San Francisco.









Then we did some wicked photo scavenger hunting.





We spelled words.  Hi!



Funny.



We found statues.



We posed by man in uniform (we passed on the rent-a-cop only to find a bona fide SFPD Officer stocked with honorary officer stickers).  Way to go Miss M for being brave enough to approach.



We danced with our shadows.





We all fit in here!





We did as we were told. "No Stopping"



"Touch"



Each team found almost all the items on the long list. A ferarri, fire truck, an animal, a yellow car,  an empty cable car, spelled out names, and posed with street performers.  The only elusive item:  Hello Kitty.



We worked up an appetite and needed some Blondie's pizza to get us ready for the super slide.









We didn't even loose anyone and safely got back on the train home.  Hallelujah.

I can't believe she earned her double digits. Happy birthday my darling baby girl.

Happy Belated All Soul's Day

Isn't that what the day after Halloween is called.  And I still couldn't make that.  Must get personal assistant...



We bought this costume last October as an incentive for her to stop sucking her thumb. She isn't quite there, but is oh, so, close so we let her have it for this year's Halloween. Lovely isn't she. That fair skin is so authentic!



Neve had a hard time deciding on a character this year. She decided on Emily from Tim Burton's Corpse Bride about a week before Halloween. No pressure for me to come up with a costume.



I think it ended up being fairly accurate and she was in love with it (except that the wig was pretty hot!).



Happy Halloween, even if it is halfway to Thanksgiving.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

For Halloween this year, Maren decided she wanted to be Miss Violet Baudelaire (made famous/infamous by the Lemony Snicket books). The girls is very clever and loves to invent things.  She is sort of a female teen MacGyver.  She and her siblings somehow can't catch a break though and go through a long spell of bad luck.



Clay can relate.  On September 30th, I received a phone call before 7 am.  You know that is never good.



"Baby, I crashed my bike and I need you to pick me up"

End result:  one totaled bike, one cracked helmet, road rash on ear, face, shoulder, elbow, hips, hands, thigh, and knee (as shown), holes in one jacket and one riding jersey and both gloves.  One cracked tooth and one crown being crafted this week.




On October 9th I came down with a brutal case of the Swine Sniffles and felt horrible for at least 10 days.  After being ill for over a week, I was looking forward to the weekend so that I could stay in bed and kick that thing.  Friday October 16th here I come!

On October 16th, I received a wake up call before 6 a.m.  You know that is never good.  "Baby, I am having a kidney stone and I need you to take me to the Emergency Room".  End result:  three days of excruciating pain, but no baby yet.  Side benefit, we now have a supply of narcotics in the house again.  It had been 11 years since the last kidney stone, so our supply was running low.

On October 26th I received a call from Clay in the middle of the afternoon.  Very strange indeed.  "I am getting on the train.  I need you to come pick me and my bike up at the station." (It was the first day back riding to BART after the crash.  Yes, he rebuilt the bike and healed most of the road rash). " I might not make it to the station because I am having a migraine and am mostly blind.  I will call you if I don't think I can make it all the way to my station."

Very unfortunate indeed.

A couple of rounds of imetrex and he is all better now.  I am writing this in the hopes that Clay's run of tough luck is over and I will have nothing further to share.

Just in case, I have asked one Miss Violet Baudelaire to invent a Turn of Bad Luck Crushing Device.  I will keep you posted on her progress.



(p.s.  When Violet invents things she ties her hair up with a black ribbon)

Snap Pea Christmas Cards

Just posted some Christmas card designs over at Snap Pea...

Laguna Beach

After finishing up our perfect day at Knott's, we were lucky enough to be hosted by our dear friends the Yen's in their amazing new home.

We met up with Rick and Marie and posse in San Clemente and boogie boarded for hours.

Maren said that this was the first time she can remember trying to get wet at the beach. (The Southern California beaches are a bit warmer that those round these parts.)

The kids were seriously so adorable.  They would all catch a wave together and then just giggle and laugh with each other all the way in.  Can they just stay this age forever?

We hadn't been able to spend much time with the Yen children for a while and it was fun to see the kids just fall into playing with each other without any drama. 

On Sunday morning we took at walk at one of my all time favorite places:  The Montage.  Heaven.



This place has the best landscaping ever.  I {heart} succulents and this is paradise.

We were having an enjoyable laid back morning watching the kids play on the beach, when along came...

Bill Gates walking right into my frame.

We flipped him the big apple and went on our way. The girls were clueless, until much later when we told them that one of the richest men in the world had just passed us on the beach. I wish I could say they were unaffected, but they were star struck. Of all the "celebrities" we could see in Laguna Beach...