A Day in the Life of the Meyer Family

Our Family of Four

2012-01-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

I had a friend of mine take some shots of our family for our Christmas cards so I thought it would be fun to end my official 2011 Blog with some snapshots of our family. They were taken in October so the kids were exactly 3 and 5. Our last formal family shots with the four of us. Hard to believe that next year at this time we will have a 9 month old little girl with us. How exciting!!!

Christmas Eve/Morning at the Meyer House

2012-01-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

Our neighbors brought over Ziploc bags for Cole and Olivia filled with oats and glitter to feed the reindeer. Apparently the kids are supposed to sprinkle the food all over the grass so that the reindeer can make sure they see your house and make a stop. The glitter gets their attention from the sky and while Santa is busy doing his work inside, the reindeer can munch on the food on the grass. I had never heard of doing this before but the kids loved it and they sprinkled it all over our grass. And guess what? Santa came! So it must have worked!!! By the way - how do you like Olivia's snow white outfit paired with her raincoat and Ugg boots? She couldn't even keep her clothes on Christmas Eve!!

Olivia and Marina

Cole and Enrico

Getting the food ready for Santa and his reindeer

Daddy reading the kids "The Night Before Christmas". This has always been a tradition in my house growing up. My dad still read it to us once we were in college:-)

Time for everyone to hang their stockings

The kids putting out the food for Santa. Apparently this is serious work!

Christmas Morning

Random Christmas Pictures

2012-01-11T20:39:00.000-08:00

Mommy pregnant @ 27 weeks-getting ready to head to our neighborhood Bunco Party!

The house all decked out for Christmas!

This little guys is "Elvis," our elf on the shelf:-)

Preschool Christmas Performance

2012-01-11T20:21:00.001-08:00

Ahhhhh...... Tis' the season for those cute little Christmas performances and what parent doesn't love them! The kids get so excited and I love seeing them all dressed up. This year we got to enjoy BOTH of our kids on stage. Unfortunately Olivia was crammed down on the first level and managed to hide herself in between the girls on either side of her (a little stage fright, I suppose) so we really didn't get to see or hear much from her but we still enjoyed it. Cole was able to find us in the crowd right away so he kept waving and waving and waving over again. So cute.

And here are some great candid pictures :-)

San Francisco

2012-01-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

Oh how I love this city. Could be the food, the shopping, the crowds of people,the people watching!, the Starbucks on every street corner, and the sites or maybe all of the above, but I just love visiting San Francisco. Pretty sure I could never live there, at least not with kids, but we do love visiting with the kids. We've tried to make it an annual thing to go at Christmas time and see the city all decorated and coming alive with the festivities. This year the big highlights were staying at the hotel and riding the cable cars. Funny how kids LOVE hotels. It was nothing fancy - a Courtyard Marriott, but as we were in our room staring out at all of the lights in the city, Cole asked me if we could move here. Wonder how long it would take for that excitement to wear off? We weren't able to get in any swimming time at the pool - which is usually what the kids love to do, but we were only there 2 days and had a lot of stuff we wanted to get in. We also got unlimited passes on the cable cars on Sunday which was pretty cool. Cole loved hanging off the side of the cars holding the pole (see pictures below). Made me kind of nervous but Jim was there with him. The cable cars were all decorated with Christmas lights and garland and looked so pretty cruising around the city at night. We ate dinner in China town and it was really yummy, did some shopping, took the kids to their favorite park (funny how you take the kids to an entirely new city and all they want to still do is play at the park!)and of course did lots and lots of walking, which was tough on this prego mommy! We also met up with one of Jim's high school friends, Angie, her husband and their two adorable children, Lucy and Charlie. All in all a super fun weekend! I didn't have the camera with me so these are all iPhone pictures :-)The Christmas tree outside of Macy's in Union Square

Cole, Lucy and Olivia

Polar Express

2012-01-09T19:54:00.000-08:00

We took the kids on the Polar Express train ride in downtown Sacramento to help us get us all in the Christmas spirit. Thanks to a friend in my playgroup, we were able to get the tickets (which usually sell out before they are even open to the public). We headed downtown a little early and ate at Joe's Crab Shack in Old Town. Cole was so excited to order crab - he loved it. We are beginning to think his eating habits may be a little on the pricey side, but we are glad he will eat pretty much anything. After eating our dinner, we changed the kids into their pajamas and headed over to wait in the lines for our seats. It was much better organized this year and we had a great train car with plenty of room. The kids were super excited, and so was I. I just love experiencing things through their eyes and seeing the cute little expressions on their faces. 5 and 3 are definitely fun years to celebrate the Christmas Holiday with the kids. They start out the ride but having the conductor come through the car and punch everybody's ticket with the word "BELIEVE" on it, just like the movie. Then they play some of the songs from the movie and have characters dance up and down the isle as the train starts up and heads out to the North Pole. They pass out cookies and hot chocolate to all of the passengers as they begin to the read the story of the Polar Express. This is the second year that I have forgotten to bring our book for the kids to look through as they read it.... bad mommy! Really need to work on that for next year. It takes about 20 minutes to arrive at the North Pole, which is all decorated with Christmas lights, wrapped presents, elves and of course, Santa Claus himself. Santa then jumps on the train and passes out bells to each of the kids. Jim and I always laugh at this point because the first year we went Cole's bell actually DIDN'T ring. He kept saying that he couldn't hear anything and we thought it was because the music was just too loud. But sure enough once the music was off, we rang his bell and heard nothing. For those of you familiar with the story, this is not a good thing. Only those that believe in Santa Claus can hear the ringing bell. We were able to get him a new one that worked, but only something like that would happen to Cole. We were in luck this year and all four of our bells rang! We are all believers in this household :-)Eating dinner at Joe's Crab Shack before our adventure.

Celebrating Millie & Tony's 50th Wedding Anniversary

2011-12-04T21:06:00.000-08:00

Jim's parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on 11/11/11!!! How cool is that? Since we weren't able to make it down to Orange County on their actual anniversary, we celebrated it while we were down visiting for Thanksgiving. Jim treated us all to a very nice dinner at a restaurant called "The White House" in Anaheim. It was a really unique place to eat and we had our own dining room to ourselves which was pretty cool. It was all decorated for Christmas and looked really pretty. Olivia was still recovering from the stomach flu so she managed to fall asleep on our way there and slept through the entire dinner, which made it all the more relaxing for Jim and I! Happy Anniversary Millie and Tony! Cheers to 50 years of wedded bliss!!! xoxox

Pictures with Santa

2011-12-04T21:01:00.000-08:00

So every year starting with when Cole was 2 months old, we have done a picture with all of the cousins and Santa. Thanks to an idea I stole from one of my friends, I've kept them all and hang them up each year at Christmas time. It's amazing to see how many kids we have added to the pictures (there were 4 this year) and there will be 6 next year, as well as to see how much their cute little faces and bodies change in such a short amount of time. We usually try to get them taken at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa during our annual "girl's shopping day," but since that didn't happen this year, we met up with my sister and her 2 kids at the Mission Viejo Mall. So here are all of the kids.Alec (almost 4), Liam (1 year), Olivia (3 years) and Cole (5 years). So cute and all so very precious to me!!

Disneyland

2011-12-04T20:35:00.000-08:00

Finally.....our family trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. What a special day! We headed to Disneyland on Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) with Jim's parents and two sisters and had a blast. I think I actually had more fun than the kids did :-) They were a little overwhelmed by it all, but still had a great time. It was really nice having extra sets of hands to help carry the kids, push strollers, etc.... The lines were all pretty long but Jim's dad needed a wheelchair which opened up a lot of doors for us - literally! We got to go in the handicapped lines on most of the rides, which meant we got on a total of 12 rides for the day. Not too bad for our first trip. We got there around 9:00 in the morning and the kids hung in through the end of the day with the evening parade show, followed by the fireworks at 9:30 and then they both literally passed out as we shopped down Main Street. We didn't leave the park until 10:45 that night! Man, were we tired but it was such a fun and magical day and we were so happy we had the chance to share it with Jim's family. Thankfully we had the next day (Thanksgiving) to sit around and recover because as our luck would have it, I woke up to a little girl with the stomach flu at around 5:00 in the morning and managed to stay pretty sick all day long :-)

Thanksgiving in Arrowhead

2011-11-29T20:55:00.000-08:00

We headed down south the Friday before Thanksgiving since the kids were all out of school the following week and we wanted to spend some time with our families. Jim was up in Seattle for work, so I packed up the car with just me and the kids and headed on down. Jim got us a hotel in Bakersfield which really helps break up the drive, especially when you are driving by yourself. The kids seriously get so excited to stay in hotels - it cracks me up. We hit a lot of traffic on the way down and the kids were killing me with the bathroom stops, but we made it nonetheless, had a super healthy dinner on the road at Taco Bell (Blah!) and then they wanted to head straight to the pool and go swimming. So on went the maternity bathing suit (another Blah!)and we all swam for about an hour. We woke up the next morning, had a yummy breakfast at the hotel and hit the road. Jim flew into Ontario from Seattle, so we picked him up and headed up the mountain to Grandma's house! We had a fun visit with all of my side of the family. The kids were running around like crazy and it's always fun to see them play together. My mom cooked up the full Thanksgiving Feast and we had a fun night catching up with everyone. The next day, my mom had all sorts of arts & crafts prepared for the kids - Christmas advent calendars, gingerbread cookies to decorate and turkey's to make from rice krispie treats. It kept the kids busy and gave the adults time to hang out. On Monday, we took the kids to Jensen's for our donuts/coffee treat and then headed off to the village for some shopping (got myself a new Coach purse!) and so the kids could get rid of some energy and run around.Here are some of the highlights:

Cole, Alec and Olivia decorating cookies

Enjoying donuts from Jensen's!

Yummy. Chocolate and sprinkles, just the way her Mommy likes them.

Olivia enjoying the beautiful day at the Village

Our girls trip to Seattle

2011-11-29T19:23:00.000-08:00

My mom, sister and I have been making "girls weekend" trips to Seattle on and off since high school, however, now that my sister and I have kids, they are becoming harder and harder to make happen. We were able to pull one off in November and it was so much fun. I managed to leave both kids at home with Daddy and Kristen, just brought her youngest, Liam, who was a perfect angel the whole weekend. We all flew up there on Friday and home on Sunday, and with the exception of my sisters luggage getting lost for about 8 hours after she arrived and me getting the stomach flu in the middle of the flight home, we had a fabulous time! We always stay with one of my mom's good friends, Sabina, at her house on Mercer Island. It's the perfect little getaway and makes for a fun-filled weekend. We ate some great meals, got lots of sleep (at least I did), did lots and lots of shopping and did some sightseeing downtown. We all love that city and have great memories of our trips up there. Thank you Bini for letting us all stay with you! Sabina's son, Ben, works downtown and this is the view from his conference room in his office. Not too shabby, huh?

It's a GIRL!!!

2011-11-15T21:00:00.001-08:00

That's right folks! Our third child and second little girl will be making her appearance sometime in March. (Official due date is March 20, 2012). Jim, of course, is really hoping she comes on St. Patty's day as he happens to believe that St. Patty's day and Cinco De Mayo are two of the coolest birthdays. Why you may ask? Because everyone is out celebrating and drinking on your behalf of course! I told him that she will come when she is good and ready :-) After a somewhat rough first trimester, I have definitely turned a corner and I'm feeling pretty darn good. No more nausea, no more feeling like I need a nap everyday. Just enjoying feeling her move around and watching my belly grow. Sometimes it makes me sad to think this will be my last pregnancy (YES, we are done after 3!) and the last time I will experience this little miracle and feel the baby move around and sometimes I am very happy that this will be my last pregnancy. It definitely gets harder the older I get :-) So we are in the process (sort of) of picking out names and getting ready for her arrival. I think the kids finally understand that there is actually a baby in there and she will be making her appearance shortly. Cole loves to rub my stomach and give the baby hugs. I'm hoping he will be much more help this time around, considering he is now 5 instead of 2! So only about 4 months left and she'll be here!! Yikes!!Pictures from the ultrasound to follow. Jim is traveling and has his computer so I can't scan them tonight :-(

Halloween 2011

2011-11-15T20:30:00.000-08:00

Ariel and Luke Skywalker. That sums up our Halloween this year. No creative costumes from Jim as the kids are getting older and getting opinions of their own...boo!! We of course, still had a great time hanging out with our neighbors and trick or treating around the neighborhood. The kids got loads of candy and had a great time dumping their bags on the ground each night to pick out that "one" special piece they are going to eat!!

Trunk or Treat

2011-11-15T20:14:00.000-08:00

We went to Bayside Church "Trunk or Treat" for the first time this year. They were hosting it the night before Halloween and I thought it looked like something the kids would enjoy. There were over 5,000 people there - talk about crazy, but it was a lot of fun. They had probably more than 100 cars all parked in the parking lot decorated with completely different themes from firefighters, to Disney movies, to Hello Kitty and there were people sitting in each of their "trunks" handing out candy. Amazing - the kids probably could have filled 3 bags with candy, but we called it quits after about 25 cars as we kind of figured that was about enough as they needed. Then we went inside and played carnival games, got their faces painted, played on the playground, ate and left with some fun balloon characters. A perfect family night!!
I didn't want the kids to wear their "real" costumes in case they messed them up so Cole dressed up as Spider man(his costume from last year) and Olivia picked out one of her new dress up outfits she got for her birthday, we threw on some fairy wings and her rain boots and called her a "fairy princess". The funny thing is, she got the most compliments on her costume and of course, her "beautiful eyes."

Bishops Pumpkin Farm with Adventure Christian Preschool

2011-11-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

Cole and Olivia's preschool had their annual field trip to Bishops Pumpkin Farm, only this year was better than ever because Jim got to join us :-) His travel schedule changed last minute and so he was able to make the trip with us, which made this mommy very happy!! As I discovered last year, hiking through a pumpkin patch carrying two pumpkins by yourself is NOT easy! And this year, being pregnant, I knew it wasn't going to be any easier. Of course this year, the kids decided to pick out small ones, where last year they insisted on buying the largest ones I could carry :-) The kids got to ride the train, pet the animals (and even get to see baby pigs that were literally minutes old), watch a pig race, eat caramel apples and run around like crazy with all of the their preschool friends. All in all, another great day!

All of the neighborhood kids: Charlotte, Olivia, Marina, Cole, Sydney and Gavin

Cole's 5th Birthday Party

2011-11-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

Cole turned 5 on October 24th, and this birthday hit me hard for some reason. My little boy is growing up and as exciting and proud as it makes us to see him grow and learn, it also makes this mommy very sad some times. Why is it that the hours in the days sometime seem to creep by at a snails pace, but the weeks, months and years somehow fly by? I completely remember every detail of the day he was born and have a very hard time believing that that was almost 5 years ago. I love this little boy more than I ever thought I could love someone. He is such a sensitive and emotional boy and yet these are the qualities I love most about him. He tries so hard to take care of me when Jim is traveling and even at this young age, it's almost like he realizes he is the man of the house when daddy is gone. Yes, he fights with his sister non-stop and sometimes it drives me so crazy, I just want to scream (and of course I do!) but I guess that is just what siblings do sometimes. I know he will eventually grow out of this and be the best big brother who always watches out for his younger sisters. Your daddy and I LOVE you sooooo much Cole Meyer and we are so proud of the man you are becoming!!For his birthday this year, we decided to have a party at our house and invite the neighborhood friends and families. I bought little pumpkins for all of the kids and had them decorate them in the garage with paint, stickers, feathers, etc...We also had a pinata which is always a hit with the kids. Cole received lots of great gifts and was so happy for his big day. Thank you to all of our friends and family for making his birthday such a special day for him.

Apple Hill

2011-11-14T18:44:00.000-08:00

We took our annual family trip to Apple Hill in October and managed to pick an absolutely perfect and gorgeous day! I love this family tradition and look forward to going every year, but this year, being pregnant, I was REALLY looking forward to it? Why you may ask...two words.....Apple Donuts! Seriously since August I have been craving these apple donuts and there is only place you can get them - High Hill! They were so good, we bought a dozen of them and I enjoyed eating each and every one of them :-)The kids also had a great time picking apples and feeding them to the goats, going through the hay maze, running around in the fresh air, and going on a hay ride. Look at how happy they were!

Olivia "I'm not going to smile for you mom!"
Olivia: "I'm serious Mommy, stop pointing that camera at me!"
So if I flash you a fake smile will you stop, please!!

Olivia turns 3!

2011-10-04T17:55:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, October 2, our little baby turned 3!! She was so excited for her birthday this year and couldn't wait for her party. She kept asking me what time it was all day long in anticipation of her 3:00 party. We started out the morning with some birthday donuts and she opened up the gifts from the family. Our "big" present for her this year was an outdoor playhouse. Jim made the kids close their eyes and walked them outside to find the suprise. Both the kids love it and have spent several hours outside the last few days playing inside (with hopefully many more to come!)

Her birthday donut - chocolate with sprinkles :-)

Getting ready to open her gifts. The nightgown she is wearing belonged to one of my best friends growing up, Jennifer Drozd and is over 30 years old. So precious!

Jim leading the kids outside to the new playhouse.

Suprise!!

Do you think they were excited??

\

My dad and Carolyn came up to visit us and the kids the weekend before her birthday and brought her some presents to open a little early. We had a fun filled couple of days with the both of them. Thanks for making the trip! xoxo

We decided to have her birthday at the "Little Gym" because she had been taking classes there all last year and loved it. She would get so excited on "Little Gym" days. I really need to get her back into some classes again but just haven't found the time now that she is in Preschool. Anyways, they did a great job of hosting her party and she had about 15 of her friends from our neighborhood and playgroup to join her in the celebration. She picked "Hello Kitty" as her theme and I had a fun time buying and making the decorations. Hello Kitty brings back a lot childhood memories for me!!

The party room

Cake Pops! My friend from college has her own cupcake business and made these adorable Hello Kitty cake pops for us. The tasted soooooo good!! Thankfully I ordered extra so we have some leftovers :-)

The Birthday girl!

Gift Bags!

Our (almost) 5 year old. This was his first time there and he had such a fun time.

Ryan hanging around

Preston

More cake pops!

Brooklyn

Gavin

The kids loved bouncing around

Brother and Sister :-)

The group shot!

Time to sanitize those hands before we eat

Olivia bit right into her Hello Kitty cake pop

Bubbles.....

Time to open presents :-)

Grandma and Grandpa Mike sent her a Disney Belle costume complete with crown, light up shoes and light up wand. She was in heaven!

I like to call this shot the "Birthday Hangover". We came home from preschool the day after her birthday party and she totally lost it. Crying, screaming, a tantrum in the kitchen - followed by this. She totally passed out on the kitchen floor by the sink and slept for 2 hours!!

Birthday Hangover Part II

It's time for some soccer!!

2011-09-26T15:47:00.000-07:00

This year Cole was FINALLY old enough to start playing soccer. Not sure who was more excited - Jim or Cole!! He is on the "Skyhawks" team and Jim is one of the assistant coaches. Our team record is not so great thus far (0-3) but we are hoping for a come back :-) The days have been so hot lately that I feel bad for the boys playing in the heat, but they are still running around doing the best they can. Hopefully fall will come one of these days and the weather will begin to cool down. It is almost October after all :-)

Cole and Jim getting ready for the first big game.

Happy Boy

Cole and his friend, Nolan

The Cheerleader!!

Game #2

Let school begin!!!!

2011-09-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well with what ended up feeling like the looooooongest summer ever I was very very excited for preschool to start this year. I decided to put both kids in 3 days/week from 8:30- 11:30. It gives me just the right amount of a break and I try to take advantage of every minute to run errands, make appts. and go to the gym. I really like both of the kids teachers this year and I'm so happy for them. Cole is having a hard time at drop off (what else is new?), but Olivia is doing great. She gives me a kiss and she is off and running. I love seeing all of the fun arts and crafts they bring home and hearing about all of their fun preschool tales. Here are some pics from our first "Meet the Teachers" Day and their first official day of school.

And these are pictures from their first "offical" day:

Picture Day!!!

Rollins Lake

2011-09-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

In August, we went camping for the weekend with our neighbors, the Cukjati's, to Rollin's Lake. The kids had a blast and so did we! We rented two very small cabins but it was just enough to make a huge difference between traditional tent camping. The weather was perfect and Jim brought his zodiac up there so the kids all went out fishing on the lake with the daddy's and lots of fish were caught!! I forgot to bring my camera so here is what I captured from the iPhone!

Even though it may look like a playhouse, this was our cabin for the weekend :-) It was small, but did the trick!

Cole's first catch of the weekend!

The second big catch!

Camping in Tahoe

2011-09-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

In August we went on our "second" annual camping trip with my mom and Mike to Lake Tahoe. This year we decided to tent camp since the trailer last year was overrated and the kids had a blast. They love to camp, of course, what kids don't love to camp? Olivia was disgustingly (?) dirty all weekend and loved every second of it and Cole was very excited to go fishing! We were able to meet up with my cousins and their kids from San Diego and we all had a great time hanging out.

Grandma and Olivia taking a dip in the cold water.

Jim and his "manly" princess fishing pole.

Our tent with the lake in the background

Yes, I made Jim bring an aero bed for us!

Breakfast from Grandma - Cereal, Hot cocoa and a chocolate donut = YUM

Out little dirt ball :-)

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Jim's 35th Birthday

2011-09-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

For Jim's birthday we took him to the Yard House that recently opened up here. After a very long hour++ wait with 2 little kids, we finally got a seat and enjoyed a fun family dinner. The kids enjoyed making their own cards for daddy as evidenced in these shots. They were so excited for Jim to open them.

Daddy with his favorite little guy in the whole world. These two are so much alike it's crazy :-)

Daddy's little girl (well sometimes!)

Someone was over the wait time. Stop taking my picture mom!!

Love this kid!!

Cole's card

Olivia's card

Happy Birthday Baby! We love you xoxo

Napa Valley :-)

2011-09-07T20:37:00.000-07:00

In July, we took our annual trip to Napa for the weekend and had a fabulous time! My mom flew up to watch the kids for us and let us escape for some R&R. This year, our neighbors, Mike and Leslie Brown joined us for the trip. We went wine tasting the first day, ate lots of delicious meals, had a few cocktails here and there (wink, wink) and relaxed by the pool. A completely perfect and relaxing weekend - Oh how I love Napa!!

The one and only!!!
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Wine tasting with the Browns

Mike sampling a small bottle of wine

The coolest bathroom ever

Thanks to the Brown's and their school silent auction, we had the opportunity to wine taste in style with a jaguar and a driver :-) Not a bad way to go!

Dinner at Mustard's Grill = So Yummy!!

This picture doesn't do it justice, but these are the vegetable garden's outside Mustard's and they taste twice as good as they look:-) Fresh green beans picked that day.

Thanks for a great time Leslie and Mike. We still need to finish our Phase 10 game :-)

4th of July Block Party

2011-09-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe this was the 4th Annual block party that we have been around for! Where do the years go?? It's an event we always look forward to. The kids have such a blast and they look forward to it every year.

As usual, we started out with the annual bike parade. Here are the kids decorating their ride!!

Our little 4th of July gal :-)

Olivia and her friend, Marina

My daughter and her favorite shoes! Rain or shine or 104 degrees outside, she will still wear these boots :-)

Via Las Vegas

2011-09-07T16:20:00.000-07:00

In May, Jim went out to Vegas and stayed at the Mandalay Bay for a work convention and thought it would be a fun place to bring the kids to. They have a really big outdoor pool area - complete with a lazy river and a huge wave pool, as well as several other pools. The kids had a great time swimming. Cole was pretty much in the water all day long, but man was it HOT!! Mental note: when you live in Sacramento where it's a 100+ degrees in the summer - don't take a vacation to Vegas where it's 110+ degrees :-) Heat aside, we had a fun time. We had a great room and Jim got me a massage at the spa as well as several hours away from the kids to relax. We ate a lot of good food (how can you not when you are in Vegas?) and enjoyed seeing all of the sights of Vegas!!

Messing around with the new camera. Our kiddos getting ready to go out for Mommy's birthday dinner.

Birthday dinner

The best part about the hotel according the kids - the TV in the bathroom

The jacuzzi tub made for some fun entertainment as well :-)

We got to the airport a little early and on top of that our flight was delayed, so Jim had plenty of time to mess around with the camera and take some pictures of the kids. Here is our "airport photo shoot."

Ahhh where did the summer go?

2011-09-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

So clearly it has been a very hectic and busy summer because I am 2 1/2 months behind on my blog!! I HATE when this happens! One of my last posts in June was Cole's last day in preschool and they both started preschool for the Fall last Friday! Yikes!! Not sure where the summer months went, but they are gone, gone, gone! It's okay though because I am ready to say goodbye to this heat and hello to the Fall and some cool, crisp mornings - even though I don't think that is going to happen for at least another month of so.I guess the bulk of the summer was dedicated to remodeling our house! We finally purchased the house last April, but after living it in for more than 3 years, we knew exactly what we wanted to do it and it was just a matter of finding the right people. So I can sit here happily and say that it is 90% complete ( we are just waiting on picking out paint colors) but it was about 8 weeks of hell to go through! I didn't enjoy it one bit and I seriously underestimated the impact it would have on our lives! Olivia stopped napping in July :-( :-( :-( (mommy is very very sad about this). There was just too much noise and hammering going on and after about 2 weeks of her not napping and me giving up trying, there was no way she was going to start again (we've tried putting a lock on her door, buying her a new bed and emptying every toy out of her room) . So this has been tough on ALL of us because she is still really needs her naps and has complete breakdowns at nighttime, but such is life and we are learning to deal. Back to the house..... we ripped out the majority of the downstairs carpet and put in 1,000 Sq. Ft of hardwood floor (love it!), we took out two windows and replaced them with doors so the kids have better access to the yard, we opened up the wall between the family room and the downstairs bedroom and it's now the "family office", re-did all of the landscaping, removed all of the grass in the backyard and put in artificial grass (again...LOVE it) and finally we got a jacuzzi for backyard. And the best part is that the trampoline and FINALLY out of our house and in the yard where it belongs!! Unfortunately, I wasn't very good at taking pictures of the progress so I will have to take some of the "after" and post them here!We did manage to sneak in a few trips here and there as well. We took a family trip to Vegas in June, and "adult only" trip to Napa Valley, two camping trips in August (one to Lake Tahoe with my family and one to Rollins Lake with our neighbors) and Jim went spearfishing down in Mexico for a few days with his friend Steve and brought home 60 pounds of fish with him. Pictures and posts to follow ;-)And now we are back to school again! Both kids started Pre-School at Adventure Christian this year and are going MWF from 8:30 -11:30. I am LOVING the little break, although so far my mornings have all been pretty jam packed with errands and appointments. Today was only day #2 for them, but so far they are both enjoying it and I really like their teachers. No tears so far and no accidents (from Olivia!). I'm looking forward to all of the fun they are going to have and the good stuff they are going to learn!The last few pictures of the kids and Jim on the "indoor" trampoline. We had to move it outside so that wood floors could go in. Thank goodness :-) It was fun while it lasted.

My Birthday

2011-09-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

For Jim and I's birthdays this year, we talked about going in on a "joint gift" and getting ourselves a new camera. Our old digital had seen better days and I wanted a nice one to capture all of the moments with the kids. Jim surprised me and brought one home from Costco. We love it and are enjoying taking pictures with it. One of these days (if I can ever find some free time), I'd love to take some classes so that I can actually use all of the cool options it has to offer :-)Our neighbors, the Brown's invited us over to their house for my birthday dinner and we had a great time hanging out with them. Leslie made a delicious dinner and we all enjoyed some yummy ice cream cake. I opened my camera at the their house, so here are some of our first shots, right out of the bag....literally!!!

These next 2 are my favorites. Note our four kids - Bailey, Olivia, Cole and Sydney (ages 2-6) and all 4 of them are playing on their own iPhone :-) Hey - it keeps them busy,so us parents can chat!!

Little Gym

2011-06-26T21:30:00.001-07:00

I signed Olivia up for "Little Gym" back in January to give her and I something to do together. We went every Monday while Cole was in preschool and oh my goodness did she love it!! It's basically an hour long class where she works on running, jumping, playing, tumbling, balancing etc... Every morning when we would get in the car, she would ask, "Mommy are we going to little gym today." It was really cute and I'm excited to start her back up in the fall.

On the last day of class they had a little "performance" so Daddy came with us and took some shots.

Random

2011-06-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

Summer is finally upon us!! Yay for being able to sleep in and have lazy mornings around the house and yay for the warm weather and lots of pool time. So far we have been having a great summer and keeping busy. Both kids are in private swimming lessons this summer and are really enjoying them. Cole is learning freestyle and backstroke and learning how to take breaths. He loves his lessons and has a smile on his face the entire time. Olivia, on the other hand isn't as excited about the water but she is becoming more confident and learning to stick her head under the water.

Cole is also in a 5 week long Karate class thanks to a smoking deal I got on Groupon. He's going 1-2 times per week and really enjoying it. He also went to his first VBS camp last week at Bayside with two of his friends (and neighbors), Nolan and Enrico. They had a great time and I enjoyed some one on one time again with Olivia.

So below are some random shots of our summer thus far.......

Olivia and Marina enjoying some time outside

They found Cole's set of knee pads and elbow pads for his skateboard and were very excited to play dress up with them.

Cole and his friend Enrico on their way to the first day of camp. This is how they both showed up...same exact shoes, pirate bathing suits (in the same color) and t-shirts. So cute!!

Nolan, Enrico and Cole on their first day of VBS camp

My little crazy girl! I've been trying to listen to music more on the TV instead of watching shows, and every time I turn on the music, Olivia starts dancing and insists on dressing up. Here she is dancing to Lady Gaga :-)

Olivia's new trick = not sleeping in her own bed at night!!! About 2 minutes after we put her down at night, we hear her throw all of her baby dolls and other random toys from her crib and then she wonders around the upstairs until she finds a place that she wants to crash for the night. If Cole is asleep, she will usually go into his room, but if he is awake, he won't let her :-( So then she tries out our bed and we usually find her there. So the other night, when I went to check on her, I turn on the light, attempt to run up the stairs during my commercial break and accidentally step on this sleeping child. She knew better than to come all the way downstairs because Daddy or I would have put her back into her crib. Crazy girl!!

Jim tore his hamstring playing soccer a few weeks ago and picked up some ace bandages to wrap his leg in. The kids think these are the coolest thing ever and ask us to wrap their arms, legs etc... Fortunately he bought 2 so they can each have one. Jim got the idea to wrap them around each kid like a baby bjourn and carry their baby's in them. The kids thing this is pretty funny!

Cole's last day of Preschool

2011-06-26T20:02:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe Cole's first year of preschool has come and gone. My little boy is growing up :-( He had a great first year of school at Adventure Christian Preschool and I am so proud of the little man he is growing into. We love you Cole!!

Olivia, Mrs. Restori and Cole

Cole and Mrs. Schmidt

Cole and Dylan

Cole with his friends, Ketcher and Bianca

World's cutest catcher!!!

2011-05-17T21:58:00.000-07:00

You gotta click on this picture (to enlarge it) to see this kids smile! Melts my heart!! Go METS!!

Here we go again.....

2011-05-17T17:29:00.000-07:00

With all of the excitement surrounding our trip to Florida, I somehow managed to totally forget that Cole had Spring Break a week after we got home and that we had absolutely nothing planned for the kids to do. After asking around it seemed like the majority of our friends already had plans or were taking trips somewhere else so I decided to pack up the kids and head down south to spend some time with our families. Because of Jim's work schedule, he couldn't come down with us, which meant that I had the pleasure of doing the 10 hour drive with the kids all by myself :-) Lucky me, huh? I decided to break up the drive into two days, and stop in the lovely city of Bakersfield. It was perfect!! There was a "John's Incredible Pizza" directly across from the hotel so the kids and I had dinner there and played some games for about an hour and then we headed back to the hotel for a swim. We all slept great and had breakfast there in the morning and then headed to SD to see my family.
We were greeted at my dad's house by my sister and her kids and took the kids all out for dinner that night at Liberty Station.

The kids were so excited to see be together and this is them jumping up and down as the airplanes were flying overhead.

Hanging out with Grandpa at my sisters house

We decided to take our four "animals" to go see the other real "animals" at the San Diego Zoo. Kind of a crazy busy day with 4 kids, but we had alot of fun!

Cole (4 1/2), Alec (3), Olivia (2 1/2) and Liam (7 months)

The animals :-)
See the turtle at the top (#5) - they estimate that one to be a mere 150 years old!! How about that!

So after spending three days in San Diego, we were off to Lake Arrowhead to spend the easter weekend up there, with a stop off at Ontario airport to pick up Daddy.

The Village had their annual easter egg hunt that the kids got to participate in. For some reason I didn't get any pictures of Cole, but both the kids did one for their age group.

Cole and Olivia with Aunt Michelle and Uncle Eric

On Friday, we also celebrated my Grandpa's 86th birthday. He recently moved to California and this was the first time he had ever met Olivia. So here is Grandpa with all of his Great Granchildren

And here he is with Grandchildren:-)

Time to dye easter eggs!

Easter morning (kinda looks like Christmas,huh?)

The kids racing up the stairs to see if the Easter Bunny came

Look Mom, "Megamind"

And Olivia got "Tangled"

After the kids went through their baskets, the easter Bunny let us know that he hid all of their eggs at our good family friends house, the Drozds. They have a perfect backyard for the kids to run around in and here they are searching for the 75+ eggs as well as the special "golden egg" that the EB left for each of them. They had so much fun.

My mom put an amazing meal of honey baked ham and lamb with all of the fixins for a mere 12 adults and 3 kids, so the kids got booted from the dining room table to the kids table. That's okay though, kids tables are usually much more fun!!

Things got a little crazy after dinner when Alec and Olivia thought it would be a great idea to take all of the grass out of the Easter baskets and start throwing it around. Ahhh what a mess they made in all of about 5 minutes, but they thought it was hilarious!

So after a fun filled weekend up in the mountains with my family, we headed down to Orange County to see Jim's family and celebrate his Mom's 71st birthday!! We went to Balboa Park at Newport Beach and it was serioulsy the most incredibly beautiful day. Absolute perfection - really made Jim and I miss living in Southern California. We took the ferry over the island, walked around the island to check out the mega million dollar homes and had a great lunch.

Cole in front of the ferris wheel in Newport Beach

Aunty Lisa and Cole on the ferry to Balboa Island

Jim's family

I couldn't get over the flowers on some of these houses and since we were about to do some major gardening of our own, I had to snap some pictures.

I found this little cuttie walking along the sand :-)

There's that choke hold again

This house was adorable and the pictures don't do it justice but apparantly they go all out for every holiday. They even had their dock covered in Easter decorations.

The kids had a blast playing in the sand and Cole was practicing writing his name.

My little photo shoot with Mr. Cole Meyer. He is growing up into a handsome little dude :-)

Do you think Cole was having fun??

The view from the ferry ride

COle with his one and only Nanna!

Happy Birthday Millie!!

Thank you to both of our families for an amazing week! We love you guys. xoxo

Kelsey's 1st Birthday Party

2011-05-17T15:24:00.001-07:00

Back in April this little cuttie turned 1 and the kids were invited to her party to help her celebrate. Her mom Monica, worked so hard on this party and all of the details and it showed! She puts me to shame and she has 3 little ones all 5 and under - how do you do it girl? The party was at a park by our house on an amazingly perfect day and the kids all had a blast - thanks for inviting us Monica.

Little Miss Kelsey!

Somehow both my kids have this crazy ability to hang from things for long periods of time...strange I know! Olivia does this on the bars at Little Gym and will just hang out like this :-)

Some shots of the amazing food table

The kids getting ready for the Easter Egg hunt

Cole and all of his loot

I love that Olivia just pops a squat in the grass, legs wide open and goes through each and everyone of her eggs. The innocence of a 2 yr old :-)

Thanks for a great party Monica and Kelsey!!!

Cole's Preschool Easter Party

2011-05-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

Olivia all dressed up for the party

Cole and his friends

The kids saying their prayers. I love their little faces, it looks like they are trying so hard to close their eyes :-)

My loves :-)

Olivia and her friend Brooklyn (isn't she adorable?)

So so so behind

2011-05-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhh! I just down loaded 300 pictures to my computer and really need to catch up on our blog (thank you for reminding me Millie!). There is just too much going on right now for me to stay on top of this :-( We FINALLY closed on our house back in April and since we've been living here already for the past 3 years, you would think there wouldn't be that much for us to do, right? WRONG! Seriously, it's funny how much changes when you go from being a "renter" to a "homeowner"! I've been trying to work on the outside of the house and have been spending a lot of time trying to plant flowers, and praying that I have a green thumb. Now I remember why I never did this in the past - so much money and yes, so much time. They look really good, but I hope they survive the 100+ degree heat in the summer. We've also been busy meeting with landscapers, waterfall guys, design build companies etc... I didn't realize how time intensive all of these little "projects" we had in mind would take and how many options there are for everything. The backyard needs some love and some new plants and we have to decide if we want to put the money into fixing the waterfall/pond or pulling it out. We also want to put in an jacuzzi and possibly some artificial grass. Jim has spent the last few weekends removing all of our planter boxes and moving them to a different location so the kids can have a larger play area. In terms of the inside, we have turned the bedroom in the downstairs (which was previously the kids play room) into my office and I am so LOVING it. I spend all of my time in here and love having a place for MY stuff :-) But now we want to put in some new wood floors in most of the downstairs, a sliding glass door from my office and take down a portion of the wall between the family room and office to open that room up. We also ordered some new family room furniture last weekend (a new sofa and coffee table) and that should be delivered in the next few weeks. FUN!! Our last one we bought in 2002, so it's seen better days!

I finally got our windows professionally cleaned after living here for 3 years and they look amazing! What a difference that makes and now it has decided to rain three times in the last week all in the month of May...WTH???
Anyways, we have several meetings scheduled in the next few weeks and hopefully we cans start making a dent in all of the things we want done.
Other than that, I've just been keeping busy with the kids and taking care of everything while Jim is gone. He is definitely traveling a lot more with this new job, but he is enjoying it and getting to travel to some cool cities. Cole is going to wrap up T-ball in the next few weeks and I'm actually going to really miss it. He is on a great team, with an awesome coach and I love watching their games. He just started swimming lessons and is loving those as well. He is becoming quite the little swimmer and I'm really proud of him. Olivia is still in "Little Gym" and loving it. I need to remember to take my camera next week so I can take some pictures. I'm trying to cram in all of our makeup classes from the ones we missed while we were on vacation, so we've been going twice a week now. She loves them and although I've decided to hold off signing her up for the summer because we will be gone so much, I can't wait for her to start up in the fall again.
Cole is also in his final few weeks of preschool. Can someone tell me where in the world that year went? Crazy! But I am so proud of him and am truly amazed by how much he has learned this year. Next year I will have them BOTH in preschool at the same time......YAY for me :-) So so so excited!!
Well that is our little recap for now. Hopefully this post will be followed by a few more - meaning I am trying really hard to catch up on our blog!!

Key Largo Florida - A little piece of Heaven!!

2011-04-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

Jelly Belly Factory

2011-04-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

Well what do you do on a cold and rainy day in Rocklin? Head down to Fairfield to the Jelly Belly Factory! We got to go on a tour and learn all about how the jelly belly's are created as well as have lots of free samples!

Trampoline Fun!

2011-04-14T15:08:00.001-07:00

Jim decided to buy the kids a trampoline last month and then had to take it one step further and set the darn thing up in our dining room! The kids and I went to bed one night with a dining room table and 8 chairs and woke up to a trampoline. Needless to say the kids have been having a blast and I have to admit that so have we! I don't plan on this being a permanent fixture in our entryway but until we get the backyard fixed up, it looks like we will be jumping indoors :-)

Time for some T-Ball

2011-04-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

We signed Cole up for T-Ball this year along with some other boys in the neighborhood and we are all loving it! I didn't think I be this excited about his games, but seriously enjoy watching every minute of them play. He is on a team with mostly 5 year olds and he is still 4, but he is holding his own and I am so proud of him. He has a great coach and really fun team! The games are so entertaining - the kids get distracted so easily at this age that is makes it all the more fun to watch. Cole is starting to understand the fundamentals of the game and it's great to see him learn.

Opening ceremony (and yes my lens was all dirty....arghhhhhh!)

Practicing at the park before his first big game

Hanging out with the boys

Our cheerleaders, Olivia and Marina

My boys :-)

Cole lost his first tooth!!! :-(

2011-03-06T14:23:00.000-08:00

On our way home from Disney on Ice, I gave Cole a piece of gum and he started crying that it hurt his tooth when he chewed on it. Not thinking much of it, I told him to chew on the other side. Great advice, I know :-)The next night he woke up crying complaining of a tooth ache and at that point, I knew we had to go get it checked out. So after dropping my sister off at the airport, I ran him into his dentist and they did an xray. They told me he had an abscess (infection) in one of his molars and my two options were to 1) extract the tooth (NO THANK YOU!!) and he would have to then wear a permanent retainer until his adult teeth come in to hold the back tooth in it's place or 2) perform a pulpotomy, which is essentially a root canal on the baby tooth.
After talking it over with the dentist we decided to try the pulpotomy at which time he informed me it had about a 70% success rate. Cole did sooooo well during the procedure and I was so proud of him. After the dentist was done, he said that once he got in there that the tooth looked a little worse than he had first thought, but we would wait and see. So he gave us some antibiotics and sent us on our way. The next day Cole's face started to swell, which I thought was just a reaction to the procedure and he no longer complained of any pain, so I thought we were in the clear. Wrong! When the dentist called the next day to check on Cole and asked how he was doing, I told him he was swollen and he wanted to see him right away. So I rushed him over there at 4:50 (they close at 5:00) and he told me the infection had gotten worse and that the tooth needed to come out immediately. Naturally, I started to cry! I felt so sorry for the little guy and what he was having to go through. He also thought that it would be best if we took him downtown to an oral surgeon (even more scary!) and of course, as my luck would have it, Jim was out of town for the night.

We woke up bright and early the next morning and I packed the kids in the car and headed down to his office. Cole couldn't get an appointment time because we had called so late the night before, so the doctor was going to try and "squeeze" us in between his surgery's and on top of that Cole was not allowed to drink or eat anything because they had to give him a general anesthesia. Poor guy! He was honestly so so so brave though. The girls were all commenting what a great little patient he was. To top it all off, they had a super hard time getting the IV in and he had bruises all over his arms and on both hands and I guess once they finally got him sedated and were ready to start, he got a really bad bloody nose and sprayed blood all over himself and the doctor. Lovely!! I should have taken a picture of him in the recovery room - he had such a hard time coming out of the anesthesia and was seriously acting so drunk. If had been a different situation, I probably would have been laughing hysterically, but I was there by myself and kind of freaking out.

Once Cole was conscious enough for us to leave, the ladies helped me carry both kids out to the car and on our way we went. Cole cried for about 20 minutes - he was so upset about loosing his tooth and was very concerned about what was going to happen to it. He finally passed out about 10 minutes before we got home and slept for almost 3 hours after that! Amazingly enough, he woke up around 3 and was a little out of it, but as soon as I gave him some food, he was good to go. By the next morning the swelling had gone down and he was back to eating normal again.
We had an unexpected visit from the tooth fairy on Thursday night and she left Cole $10. Probably not what he will be getting for his other teeth, but he had to go through quite a bit of work for this one, so she left him a little something extra.
Tomorrow we go in for his fitting for his retainer. The fun just never ends around here. Whew....I'm exhausted just thinking about that week. Glad it's behind us and hope we never have to deal with that again!

Cole passed out on the way home. Can you see how swollen his left side is?

Olivia was there too, sucking her thumb as usual. She was very concerned for Cole. When we were waiting in the recovery room, the nurse pointed out to me that she was holding his hand and rubbing it. So cute!

Still sleeping

The tooth!!!

A visit from Tia, Alec and Liam

2011-03-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

My sister, Kristen was brave enough to fly up here for a visit with her 3 year old and 5 month old boys. Cole and Olivia were so excited to spend some time with their cousins and I was excited to see my sister! As a special treat we took all of the kids to see Disney on Ice. They had a great time at the show and enjoyed seeing all of their favorite Disney characters. We had a great (and at sometimes chaotic) visit with all of them, but I guess that is what happens when you have a 4 yr old, 3 yr old, 2 yr old and 5 month old together.The highlight of the weekend was when we got a babysitter for the older 3 and left them at home so that Kristen and I could do some shopping and go out to lunch together. Thanks for making the trip up here - we wish we could see you guys more often :-(

Cole with his cousin, Liam

Cole chillin with his cousin, watching some TV and enjoying a yogurt :-)

Some bath time silliness

Disney on Ice

Happy Valnetines Day

2011-03-06T13:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day from Cole and Olivia :-)

Pajama Day!

2011-02-27T21:22:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Cole's preschool had Pajama Day. From the moment I told him about it, he was so excited. And so the countdown to "Pajama Day" began :-) Here he is with one of his buddies Dylan. The kids all looked so cute dressed in their Pajama's and then they got to eat Pancakes and make Puzzles. Can you guess that the letter of the week was "P"!

A Big shout out to Jim!!!

2011-02-27T20:59:00.000-08:00

So as I mentioned in my earlier post Jim has at an eventful couple of months. In January he was promoted to HSE (Health Systems Executive!) We are so excited and so proud of him. He has seriously worked his tail off this past year and it's so nice to see that his hard work is finally paying off. He essentially has the same job except that instead of covering Northern California/Northern Nevada, He now helps support other AE's in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and all of California down to Fresno. So the bad news is that it means alot more traveling but he is so excited about his new role and is really enjoying this job and on the bright side he is racking up a ton of southwest rapid rewards :-)
On day he found out about the promotion, the kids and I went out and bought balloons and decorated the house.

These are my two little "Star War characters" all dressed up and waiting for Daddy to get home!

So in addition to his promotion, we just found out this weekend that he made "Champions Club" for his Company, which is basically the top sales performers for the year. We are still waiting to hear what is final ranking is, but we know he made it in the Top 5!!! All of the employees that make the top 5 also get a fully expense paid vacation to Florida!!! Woot Woot! So Jim and I are off to Key Largo in April for 5 fun filled days! How cool is that? We snapped some pictures of Jim opening up his invitation.

Here's the little Fed Ex package he found waiting for him at the door.

Champions Club!!

The official invitation to Florida

We had to celebrate with some champagne :-)

And of course Cole wanted to help open it!

Another Grandma original

2011-02-27T20:57:00.000-08:00

My mom made Olivia this cute little hat and scarf and sent it to her in the mail a few weeks ago. So cute! Thanks mom!

Sacramento Zoo

2011-02-27T20:42:00.000-08:00

The kids and I ventured downtown a few weeks ago to check out the Sacramento Zoo. It's a perfect little outing for us and they always really enjoy it. They had a fun time running around and seeing the animals (the giraffes were the big hit this time) and then we stayed for lunch. The big highlight for the kids was that they used their very own money to buy these stuffed animals. Cole picked out a tiger and Olivia wanted a purple giraffe. Cole had been bugging me since we walked in the door to buy him one and I kept telling him "no!" While we were eating lunch he kept asking and I finally told him that if he used his own money, he could buy it. We ended up sitting in the store for 20 minutes while Cole weighed his decision. He was soooooo concerned about using his own money and kept asking me over and over again if it was alot of money. While Olivia made up her mind in about 20 seconds. So true to their personalities. Any hoo here are some pictures of our little adventure!

The infamouse stuffed animals!

2011

2011-02-27T20:28:00.000-08:00

Well apparantly it's been a somewhat slow start to 2011. I went to download the pictures off of my camera the other day since I haven't updated my blog since Christmas and there wasn't a whole to download :-( We've just been keeping busy with our normal routine and activities and hanging out locally on the weekends. Cole has been keeping busy with preschool and really starting to enjoying it. It's no longer a tear fest when I drop him off, which is really nice. We've also decided to start Olivia in preschool next year so she will be joining Cole 3 days/week which leaves me KIDLESS for 3 hours on those days :-) He also started T-Ball about a month ago but since the last 2 weeks have been rained out, he hasn't had a whole lot of practices. Their first game should be interesting!

Olivia is still my little shadow. I seriously can't leave the room without her yelling, "Mommy, where are you?". She likes to help me with the laundry and the cooking. She usually goes to the gym with me while Cole is at school and has done really well with the daycare there, so that gives me some hope that she will do just fine at preschool. We also enrolled her in Little Gym in January and we go once a week while Cole is in school - she LOVES it. She loves the bars and the balance bean and gets the biggest kick out of playing with the bubbles and receiving her stamps at the end of each class - it never seems to get old to her. Maybe we have a little gymnast in the family??

As for me - not much to report. The weeks seem to come and go faster than I can keep track. Jim has been traveling quite a bit this year so there is never a dull moment for me!

The only person that seems to have had an eventful kickoff to 2011 is Jim! And he has had so many things happen that he is even going to get his first official "blog post", so stay tuned!

New Year's Eve

2011-01-12T19:16:00.000-08:00

We decided to host a last minute New Year's Eve party for some families in the neighborhood. Somehow I took my camera out once in the beginning of the night, snapped a few pictures of the kids and never took another one. It could have had something to do with the amount of drinks I was drinking :-) We had a great time hanging out with our friends and ringing in the new year! Here's to 2011!!

Sydney, Bailey and Olivia

Will! So cute!

Bailey and Cole

2010 Christmas

2011-01-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

We decided to spend Christmas at our home in Rocklin this year for the FIRST time ever. We are at the point we want the kids to be able to wake up in their own home and see if Santa came. It was so nice to stay here and the kids loved being able to play with their toys all day long and unwrap everything. Unfortunately they both got a little sick with fevers on Christmas Eve/Day so they weren't 100%, but we still managed to have a great time. Jim's family drove up to spend a few days with us and were able to see the kids open up all of their presents Christmas morning.

The kids with Aunty Kathleen on Christmas Eve

Olivia and Aunty Lisa

A toast to Christmas Eve

The kids putting out milk, cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer

Cole hanging up his stocking

Nanna hanging up her stocking

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

Our family tradition....Daddy reading "The Night Before Christmas" to the kids

I totally forgot to take a picture of all of the loot Santa brought everyone and I could shoot myself. So here are the pictures I got after the kids starting going through their stuff.

This Christmas was all about STAR WARS for Cole

Love this one!

Thank you to all of our friends and family for your beautiful Christmas cards and letters. We loved seeing your pictures and hearing about your year. Keep them coming!

Pajama Party

2011-01-11T20:48:00.000-08:00

We had our annual pajama party/book exchange party with our playgroup in December. The kids were very excited to wear their pajamas out of the house and into the car and were even happier that I let them stay in them all day long. The kids came home with some great Christmas books and had a fun time running around with all of the other kids.

San Francisco

2011-01-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

Jim had some free hotel nights that expired at the end of year so we decided to pack up the car and take the kids to San Francisco for the weekend. We had a great time - how can you not in SF?? It rained on and off pretty much the whole time but we still had a blast shopping, eating and taking in everything that city has to offer during the holiday season.

Cole's Christmas Performance

2011-01-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

Cole's preschool put on their annual Chrismtas performance in December and it was the cutest thing ever!! Imagine 200 adorable 3 and 4 year old's dressed in their Christmas best, singing their little hearts out to songs they have been practicing for 3 months.....just precious. It seriously brought tears to my eyes. One of those "defining" moments as a mom. He was able to see us as he walked down the isle to the stage and was so excited! He just kept waving to us and giving us thumbs up throughout their performance. What a special day!!

Santa's Adventure

2011-01-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

I wasn't able to get our family tickets for the Polar Express this year at the time I wanted, so we decided to go check out "Santa's Adenture" at a local ranch nearby. It was a little pricey for what you got and I definitely like the Polar Express better, but the kids had a fun time none-the-less. The place was decorated beautifully and we were able to make it on a pretty warm night and the kids were beyond excited to visit with Santa and sit on his lap. The hightlight of the night was when Santa asked Olivia what she wanted for Christmas and wasn't able to understand her response, so Cole gladly helped out and managed to come up with two things: 1. A lollipop and 2: Christmas lights. What? Totally random but I think Santa can make that happen this year!!

Decorating the tree

2011-01-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

I managed to snap a few pictures of the kids decorating the Christmas tree. They had such a fun time and were so excited to get the tree and house all decorated for Christmas. They are at such a fun age for all of these holidays :-)

This was Olivia's foot 2 years ago. Such a tiny little thing :-)

Christmas Caroling

2011-01-11T19:37:00.000-08:00

Some of our friends in our PG got together to sing Christmas carols at a local nursing home. They were so cute, all dressed up with their reindeer noses and jingle bells and I think the audience really enjoyed watching the little ones perform.

Thanksgiving in beautiful San Diego

2010-12-03T14:17:00.000-08:00

We decided to spend Thanksgiving with my family in San Diego since we are going to spend Christmas up here this year and we haven't been able to spend a Thanksgiving with my dad since we moved up here in 2007. The whole family flew down on Monday evening and we almost didn't make it. I realized the night before we left that somehow I never remembered to buy airplane tickets for the kids. Jim and I had used our frequent flyer miles on Southwest and I totally spaced on the kids. So several $$$$ later, I was thankful that they still has 2 seats available on the same flight and it was a mistake I will not make again. Jim can assure you all of this :-)

We spent the majority of the week at my dads house in Point Loma and we had an amazing time. Such a beautiful house and a beautiful city! We were able to spend a lot of time with my sister and her 2 sons (including my brand new nephew, Liam) and it was go much fun to see the cousins all playing together. Jim's family came down the Friday after Thanksgiving and took the kids for a day (and night!) which gave Jim and I some time to relax, catch a movie, and even sleep in. All in all it was a great trip! Thank you dad and Carolyn for your great hospitality and all of your amazing cooking, as well as putting up with us for a week :-) Love you guys xoxo

The first picture of all 4 cousins together (Alec - almost 3, Olivia - 2, Cole - 4, holding Liam - 2 months). They are all so cute!!

The kids with Grandma Carolyn at the Midway in San Diego

Daddy fulfilling his flying dream! Flying a fighter jet simulator all throughout San Diego and attempting to land it on the aircraft carrier. Not sure his experience flying airwatch for so many years paid off :-)

Mommy with my kids while Daddy and Grandpa were busy flying

Making a gingerbread man (and woman) and Grandpa and the kids. They found these great kits for the kids for $3 at Trader Joe's. So much easier than making them from scratch and just as much fun. They loved it!

The cousins at my sisters house playing around. It was a rare occurence to find them all smiling, having fun with no one in tears!

Here they are showing me how old they each are.

Uncle Jim bonding with little Liam.

Cole holding his cousin

Thanksgiving Day at my Dad's house

My handsome little dude

My two handsome men

Mommy, Grandpa and Cole

The view from the "kids" Thanksgiving table.

The cousins with their second cousins

The kids "toasting" one another

The Hotel Del Coronado ice skating rink at the beach, sooooo pretty!

More of the cousins

They were playing ring around the rosey.

"And they all fall down!"

The kids getting ready to go swimming in Grandpa's jacuzzi

Daddy and O walking around Seaport Village

We went to Seaport Village and went on the San Diego Seal tour, which is basically a boat with wheels. You get to go on a 45 minute driving tour around the city, followed by a 45 minute boat ride around the bay. We got on the boat at 1:00, which is Olivia's nap time so she fell alseep about 5 minutes into the ride, but Cole and the rest of us had a blast. It was so cold, but so much fun! I'd definitely recommend going on it if you ever go to San Diego.

The whole crew: My dad and his wife, Carolyn; my brother, Eric, and his wife, Michelle, my sister, Kristen and her husband Enrique with their two kids, Alec and Liam.

The kids getting ready to go see Santa with their cousins and Grandma (our annual tradition)

A "Ward" family Christmas Tradition

2010-12-03T14:03:00.000-08:00

As a child, we always looked forward to making these advent calendars every year. This was the first year I thought Cole was old enough to actually be able to cut 24 links and glue them all together and boy was I impressed. He whipped out 2 of these chains in less then an hour (he made one for him and one for his sister). He was so excited and couldn't wait to start tearing a link off each day of December. I hope this is a tradition my kids will carry on!

The finished product

Snip, Snip

2010-12-03T13:57:00.000-08:00

Time for Olivia's first haircut. I've been wanting to get it trimmed for awhile now, but Jim wouldn't let me. I think he was afraid I was going to have it all cut off for some reason. A friend of mine recommended a fun, kid friendly place to go. I wasn't overly thrilled with her haircut, but at least she stayed still and let them do their job :-) I still think she is one cute kid!!

On our drive over there.

Doesn't she looked thrilled to be there?

Ta da

Our Halloween PG

2010-11-11T16:46:00.000-08:00

The PG had our annual Halloween party and this is now the 4th year we've gone to. It's amazing how quickly the kids have grown up and how big they are getting. I always look forward to seeing the kids all dressed up in their costumes...they look so darn cute. This year Cole was Spiderman and Olivia was Minnie Mouse. They were both so excited to dress up and get some candy.

Here's my little man!

Minnie Mouse or in Olivia's words, "I be the pretty dress!"

Cole decorating his pinata bag

Some of the kids. There were so many there, it was hard to get a group shot and fit them all in!

Love these two!

Can you tell Cole was freezing?

Here are all of the kids in 2009. Olivia is the fairy in the front that is screaming and Cole was the one and only Michael Jackson.

And in 2008.
Here are the babies who were all 2 now. Olivia was just 29 days old. Look at all of that dark hair.

These are the "big" kids in 2008.

Bishops Pumpkin Farm

2010-11-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

Cole's preschool had their field trip to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm in Wheatland. We usually make this a family tradition to go each year, but since Jim was out of town, I took the kids. He has a great class and the other moms and kids are really fun. We all had a great time riding the train, picking out pumpkins and eating all of the yummy treats.

Going down the slide

Watching the puppet show

Riding the train - he loved it!

Mommy and Olivia on the train

Cole picking out his pumpkin. He wanted this HUGE one but since daddy wasn't there to help us carry it and I had to carry two, he had to settle on a smaller one!

Olivia spent the most time picking out her pumpkin. She kept walking and walking farther and farther away picking up different ones until the preschool teacher ran after her and brought her back. I finally convinced her that smaller was better, especially since she was also convinced she was going to carry this pumpkin by herself and wouldn't let me help.

Riding the tractor back

Wearing his preschool T-Shirt

Cole's Birthday Weekend

2010-11-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

We kicked off Cole's birthday weekend by celebrating with the family on Saturday night. Jim's family made the long drive from Southern California to be with him on his special day. I made dinner for everyone and we had cake and opened presents. Unforunately it was pouring rain (and I mean pouring rain) all weekend so we had to change his birthday party on Sunday from the park to Chuck E. Cheese. I was thankful they still had an opening on the same day at about the same time and Cole was very excited. It worked out great and they had plenty of entertainment to keep the kids busy on a cold and rainy day. Cole had a wonderful birthday and thank you to all of our friends and family who joined us!

Getting ready to open the family presents

Not sure who was more excited, Cole or Olivia??

Gifts from Aunty Kathleen and Aunty Lisa

A motorized F150 from Mommy and Daddy

Look at that face, he was so proud to be behind the wheel!!

Hanging out with Aunty Kahtleen

Boston Creme Pie. Yummmm!

Make a wish!! Happy Birthday Cole! We love you!!

Time for the Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheese!!

Cole and Enrico

The Birthday boy wearing his "token crown"

Olivia and Marina

The Meyer Clan

Olivia Shin

Emmy Fowler

Let's Dance!!

Bailey Brown

Daddy getting ready to go in the ticket tron...those goggles bringing him back to his lab days. Safety first!!

By far my FAVORITE picture from the night. If you could have seen the excitement on his face once he was inside.

Daddy and Cole getting ready to go win some big time tickets!!

Olivia standing close by wondering what the heck was going on:-)

Jim told Cole his technique for catching the most tickets was to lift up his shirt and let the tickets blow inside. It must have worked because they got over 1300 tickets!

Go! Go! Go!

Mr. Gavin Wood!

Apple Hill - 2010

2010-11-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

Our annual family trip to Apple Hill. We managed to go up there on a perfect fall day. It started raining in the afternoon but we all enjoyed it. We had a fun time eating lots of apple donuts and apple cider and checking out all of the cute handmade items. Love this tradition.

Here were are riding the train.

I thought these ones of the kids on the horses were hilarious. They must get their riding skills from their mom (because I have none!)

Look how tiny she looks on this big guy!

Olivia's 2nd Birthday Party

2010-11-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

Since we were already in Southern California for Noelle's wedding, we decided to have Olivia's birthday in Orange County so she could spend it with all of our family and friends from down south. We had it at a park by Nanna and Nannu's house and it was a perfect sunny day. She played at the park with her friends and enjoyed her "Minnie Mouse" themed birthday party. Thank you to all of our friends and family that were able to join us!
Our visit was made extra special by the almost month early arrival of my sister's son, Liam. He wasn't expected to be here until the end of October, but decided to come a few weeks early, weighing in at 5 pounds 11 ounces!! We were all excited to get to see the little guy and spend some time with him.

Grandpa Mike, the birthday girl and Nannu

Dana and Brennan Sullivan

My cousins children, twins, Megan and Nicole and my nephew Alec (2 1/2)

My sister Kristen and her 2 week old son Liam with Andrea.

My best friend from college, Lindsey.

My mom and Jim's mom

My brother, Eric and sister in law, Michelle with the newest addition to the family.....Liam

The pinata!

The loot!

CANDY!!!!

Her Minnie Mouse Cake

Jen holding Liam

Grandma with her grandson

Aunty Lesley holding Liam for the first time!!

Cole with Liam...look at that smile!!

Olivia giving some love to her cousin Liam

Noelle's wedding and our visit to Arrowhead

2010-11-02T19:22:00.001-07:00

We flew down to Lake Arrowhead to go to one of my best friends from highschool wedding, Noelle Swedlow. It was a beautiful fall ceremony and she looked radiant. We've been friends since the 7th great and been through lots of highs and lows together. I'm so thankful we still keep in touch and I'm so glad I got to be there one of the most important days of her life. I love ya girl! Congratulations Noelle and Tony!!

While we were there we managed to to squeeze in some boat time on that beautiful lake. Here is Cole testing his driving skills.

Olivia was nice enough to take an 1.5 hour nap on the boat while we anchored in the a cove and enjoyed the beautiful day. Daddy and Cole were even brave enough to go for a dip in the cold water.

Cole hanging out with Moose