A Fantastic Thanksgiving Week!

Sorry for the delayed post, we have been travelin' all over the place for the last week and I am ready to put up the Christmas decorations and snuggle indoors for awhile. Well, picking up where I left off...the day before Thanksgiving Violet "chose" to spend some time with Charlotte Wiens. So she went to visit for the morning, and then we came home for the afternoon to prepare for Thanksgiving Day! The kiddos coloring "fall" pages to decorate the table for Thanksgiving!
With the kids coloring, I was able to get in my pre-Thanksgiving baking!

We enjoyed spending Thursday over at Randy's mom's house, along with his brother and grandma. We ate our turkey meal at noon and spent the rest of the day relaxing, playing in the park down the street, eating some more, and playing Wii into the late hours of the night! Great-Grandma Lena (Arlene's mom) with the kids. After dinner and bath-time, we enjoyed playing Wii as a family! Arlene "bowling".

Friday Randy had to work; but I took the kids down to Visalia to see my Grandpa and Grandma Meredith and their "cousin" Haley (my cousin Gina's daughter). The kids love going out to the "country" to visit my grandparents and aunt...they played outside pretty much the entire time we were there!Audrey, Haley, Violet, and Isaac with apples off of Aunt Jane's tree!

Saturday was a relatively normal morning, but that afternoon we attended a wedding in town while the kids were with a babysitter. Sunday morning we went to church, came home to eat lunch, packed our bags, and got in the van to head to DISNEYLAND! We have been saving cash in a jar for three years and finally had enough for a family trip to see Mickey! Randy's mom came with us too! So Monday and Tuesday were spent in the parks (a little bit of California Adventures...but mostly Disneyland). We had a GREAT time! Audrey and Isaac are both over 40 inches tall...that's tall enough to ride most of the rollercoasters! So they got to ride Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Matterhorn, and even Space Mountain! This ride proved to be the favorite as they asked to go on it again, and again, and again! The rode it once Monday, the first thing Tuesday, and back in line again (with Grandma Arlene this time)! And then a fourth time just for fun (considering the line was about 3 minutes each time, this really didn't take long at all)! Oh, and let's check on our way out of the park on Tuesday night too...yup, no line! So for our FIFTH time in two days, we rode Space Mountain. It was our last ride, actually, before we exited the park and drove all the way home! Randy and Audrey both stayed home on Wednesday to "recoup". On Wednesday afternoon, during naptime, I heard a faint wimpering from Audrey's room where she was laying down. I went in to check on her and she's laying in bed, just sobbing. "What's wrong sweetie?" I asked. "Looking at Lady (a stuffed dog she got as a souvenir) reminds me of Disneyland. And thinking of Disneyland makes me miss Space Mountain! I miss it so much!!!" she says between sobs. I had to work really hard to not laugh. WOW! What do you say to that? Violet did great too...she loved everything she got to ride, the carousel, Dumbo, Peter Pan, the Bug's World train and flyers, and especially Small World! She danced through almost the whole thing! She really loved the parade too! It was so much fun to be in Disneyland with our family and to get to see the kids having so much fun! With the hectic nature of the holiday season...it was worth every penny to slow down and just be a kid with my kids! The kids with Mickey Mouse! Violet and Grandma Arlene on the Dumbo ride! We ate dinner in the French Café and sat down with our food just in time to enjoy a show by the Royal Street Bachelors. Audrey and Isaac enjoyed being on the stage for the "Mardi Gras Mambo" and playing their tamboreen and kazoo with their beads on! We even went back again the second night for an encore! Waiting to ride the monorail, overlooking Nemo's submarines, and the Matterhorn behind us! Violet LOVED the Christmas parade! She kept gasping, giggling, waving, and yelling "HI" to all the characters as they passed by! The end of a wonderful two days in Disneyland!

A trip to the Zoo!

So...last week each person in the house took a turn getting sick. Just a fever and stuffy nose/head, but because of it, we missed out on quite a few activities during the week and over the weekend (the kids' last soccer game, 2 birthday parties, and church). I am happy to say, however, that everyone is healthy as we enter this Thanksgiving week! And with Audrey having the entire week off from school, we decided to do some "special" things to occupy our time. We started off yesterday (Monday) with a trip to the zoo, at Audrey's request! Audrey wanted to invite her friend, Lindsey McNeely, to come with us...so we were joined by Lindsey, her sister, Alyssa, and mom, Julie. Christa and Charlotte Wiens also joined us for the morning! Today, at Isaac's request, we went to the park to play in the morning and then had a picnic lunch in the backyard (sorry, no pictures). Wonder what Violet will want to do tomorrow?
Enjoy the pictures from the wonderful Chaffee Zoo!Isaac, Lindsey, Violet & Audrey on the sculptures in front of the Reptile House.Alyssa and Charlotte.Julie helping Violet see at the tiger cage. The tiger and leopard were both out, roaming around in their cages, even playing in their pools!Charlotte likes something she sees!Audrey and Lindsey (note: Audrey was very proud to tell everyone she did her ponytails all by herself that morning).The girls roaming around in the park after our picnic lunch. Isaac, being the only boy, decided to play monster and chase the girls and roar at them pretty much the entire time.

Good job girls!

Audrey has been improving sooo much in her reading skills! She has always loved to look at books and be read to (especially since she prefers books with a good storyline, not just easy, board books)...but now she is taking off with reading on her own! Last night she read our Bible story for us before bed! And she is proud to tell most people that walk through our door that she is now reading level 2 readers. Way to go Audrey! Another big accomplishment...today, for the first time, we walked to school sans stroller. Violet made it all the way to school and back without sitting in a stroller or being picked up once! That's almost 2 miles! Someday soon we'll all be doing our morning jogs together!

Violet's Week

So this past week we had fun celebrating Violet's birthday! Monday was her actual birthday...and we had Grandma Arlene and Uncle Kevin over for dinner to celebrate. Randy also had reason to celebrate that day since his luggage finally made it back to Fresno! His connecting flights were so quick on his way home from Orlando that his luggage didn't make it onto the plane, and as Randy started realizing how much he had in that one bag (both pairs of work shoes, a couple nice pairs of pants and work shirts, his cords and chargers for his laptop and iPod, his REI One jacket, etc.) he started worrying about replacing the items that were in there. But, thank the Lord, his luggage was, indeed, simply delayed, and not lost. So Randy got his bag on Monday afternoon and that evening got out a bunch of goodies he'd picked up for the kids at his conference. Above is a picture of Violet with her pirate eye patch (not exactly sure why they were giving away pirate paraphanalea at a hemophilia conference, but, whatever). She insisted on wearing it wrong side out, in the middle of her forehead and RUNNING from room to room. All the while, she made this great little growling noise to try and replicate the "aargh" of a pirate, but it sounded nothing like it. Here's another pic of all the kiddos on the Uncle Kevin ride! Friday night, Violet had her birthday party! We all had a fun time with friends and family as we ate dinner together, let Violet open her gifts, and had birthday cake. Enjoy the pictures!Opening gifts with Daddy.Violet with her new baby, Emma.Violet blowing out the candles on her cupcake.What a big 2 year old!

Happy Birthday Violet!

Hard to believe that Violet is so big already! She was so tiny, and quiet, and content two years ago. Now she's loud, fast, and daring (she has scabs on her forehead, and a blue lip to prove it right now). We thank God for every day we have been able to spend with her...and pray that she may have many more wonderful years to come. We love you Violet! Happy Birthday!

Our Halloween week

What a fun week! We have been busy, but GOOD, FUN busy! Randy left early Wednesday morning for four days at the Annual Hemophilia Foundation conference in Orlando, Florida, so Tuesday night we planned a fun night with the Wiens family (click on their link for more good pictures). The kids and I made zwiebach. Christa made soup. And after dinner, all of us made our Halloween pumpkins. Aaron and Christa chose to carve their pumpkins. Our family bought some small gourds and then gathered twigs, berries, nuts, and pinecones from around the house to make some gourd people. It was a lot of fun! Halloween night Randy's mom came to help out with the kiddos. Thanks Arlene!!! We trick-or-treated up and down our block and then headed to the church to say hi to some friends and enjoy the carnival for a while. The rest of the week slowed down quite a bit as we stayed close to home and tried our best to relax and enjoy our routine. Thanks to all the friends and family that helped me out with the kids while Randy was gone! I really appreciate it! Enjoy all the pictures!Isaac pinching off the zwiebach.Audrey poking the "dimples" into the zwiebach.Charlotte Wiens' first zwiebach...YUM!Audrey's excited to make our gourd-people!Isaac's got all the twigs for the arms and legs!The kiddos watching "Uncle" Aaron carve his pumpkin.Our finished people...aren't they gourd-eous? (click on the photo to see them closer-up)Our little monkey (she insisted on bringing her baby with her).Aargh! My little pirates!Our attempt at a family photo.YUM! A whole ball of cotton candy all to myself...and, yup, he finished the whole thing!Violet loved the M-n-M's!
Pirate Audrey and Princess Lindsey McNeely

Green Idea of the Week

Did you know that the temperature of the water you wash your clothes in can matter on your energy bill? I use cold/cold cycle pretty much all the time...unless it's all whites (warm/cold) or diapers (hot/cold). Less hot water means your water heater doesn't need to work so much! And the hot water you save is money in your pocket!