Nito...

By now most people know about Nito...(he is all she talks about) so I am posting some pictures of Em and the reason she gets up every morning This was our first lesson a few weeks ago so she looks a wee timid

Em in her height of glory

Legoland (I promise this is the last vacation post!)

This was our first trip to Legoland and if you have small children it is a must, we had a blast! Everything is made out of Lego's (Pam, we feel that Bryan should get a job there!). Em taking on Darth Vader (or Dark Bader as she would say)
Grandma being a good sport and riding the coaster with Abby
Em was a little excited for this ride, does it show?
Em just wanted everyone out of the shark so she could have one on one time with him...

at last.

Treasure!

While at Huntington Beach (thanks largely to Jill) the kids were fortunate enough to dress up like pirates and dig for treasure

Abby, Emily, Gill, and David dressed in their pirate getup
Jeff teaching my innocent children how to flash "west coast" gang signs
way to go Em! Way to make your mother proud!

Darran told this funny story of his great great great grandpa the pirate (which was hilarious because his Australian accent reminded me of captain Feathersword on the Wiggles)

ahhhh...the treasure was found!

(okay, this is the second post of Gill and his crack but it seemed as if every time we went to the beach his pants would get wet at the bottom and they would slowly drift south, and as we all know, Gilly doesn't have much of a bum to hold them up, thus leading to constant crack exposure. Besides, who could resist putting a pirate flag there?)

the views of California

This post is dedicated to the views of California......Thanks to Gilly and Jeff we could see out the front windshield.
This is what we saw when we stepped out the door facing east
and this is what we saw facing west

and this is the full moon rising.

we are HOME!

Between Disneyland, Legoland, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Long Beach Aquarium, the Beach and swimming pool there is much to post and many pictures to go through so I am just going to start out with some of my favorite highlights: This (by far) is my favorite sign

This is Jeff warming up a hotdog on the tailpipe of the car...yes, Gilly was that insistent on a hotdog and we were in no mans land!
How we spent our Thanksgiving after the feast
Darran and the girls jumping from a small sand dune on the beach less than a mile from the condo

Things were so busy that I got a picture like this everyday of Gill. He caught naps whenever he could.

Em's stories....

Em tells some pretty great stories (she gets it from her dad) and she is constantly telling them. Yesterday she was telling the little Vietnamese guy who was painting her toenails (brown like a horses hoof) all about her horse experience that day when we fed Nito gummy bears. The guy just smiled at her and nodded because I'm sure he didn't understand her. Anyway, here are some of her stories from school (don't fret, I'll interpret).... A scorl (squirrell) named chipy at my cabin, it dit (bit) my pece (pinky) and i wuss (was) bleding (bleeding).

Once upon a time in hors (horse) land ther was a mad hors (horse) and it was bucing (bucking).

I just love little treasures like these!

Faker!

So this morning rolls around and Em wakes up acting very lethargic with no appetite. She is complaining of a sore throat and says she just doesn't feel good. I did what any mother would do, I called her school and told them that she would be staying home today due to a sore throat. I believed her because Gilly and I have had a bit of a cold lately so its logical to think that maybe she had caught the bug. Yeah the jokes on me....
I told her that we couldn't go horse back riding tomorrow if is she was sick. The next thing out of her mouth was this "oh, I'm not really sick mom, I just needed a break from school. Now, can we go visit Nito (the horse) after we drop Gilly off at school?" (since its early out all week I'm not going to march her into school, besides, who doesn't need a day off every once in a while right?)

WARNING: a picture in this post may be offensive to some so read at your own discression....

So my mother is one of the most thoughtful people I know, she prepared this big Thanksgiving feast a week and a half before the actual holiday so that her kids wouldn't feel obligated to choose which house to go to for Thanksgiving. It really worked out great for all because all my siblings (minus Rachel) were there and we had a fabulous feast for she is a superb chef. My kids of course ate only little smokies but we did catch Gilly doing this to her famous "Chocolate Lush"...

And then this.

(he actually uses that finger as his pointer finger but it drew such a reaction that he just kept on flippin). Bad Gilly.

Just a little note about the music I've added.....

So I have a few friends that have music on their blogs. Okay, no biggie. But after a few times pulling up blogs and having the music blare at me it started to kind of irritate me. I gave my BFF a little grief over this but then I pulled up her blog and it was the sweetest entry and to go along with it there was a song that really added some emotion to it, yeah I was touched. So I spent the majority of my day making a play list and I had a wonderful, fun time thinking of all this music that just goes along with my life. You see, I can mark periods of my life with music, as probably most people do, and it was fun flashing back to the days where Heidi Cottle and I would be waiting for a patient to come out of surgery (at the ugly hour of 3am) and we'd listen to Dave Matthews and laugh about putting the wrong dentures in someones mouth after surgery. Or the time when I worked at South Davis Community Hospital and met some of the funniest people I know who introduced me to Radiohead and Ben Folds Five. There are songs that remind me of Jeff and the concerts we used to go to before we had kids(Beck and U2), songs that we would hear over in Europe driving through Belgium while I tried to read the map (Will Smith..eeek), songs that remind me of Tonya driving with JT blasting out of her van, songs that remind me of my kids. And there are songs that just simply speak volumes to me. So if the music bugs, just hit pause and you can still read along or you can be brave and listen.
j

round em up

As some of you may know, we have turned into quite the horse enthusiasts (thanks to Em). We decided to take them for some short rides before we started lessons to see if they would like it. Well they did so guess what we start tomorrow....yup, horse riding lessons. yipee! Em (who thinks she is a horse) enjoyed it the most.
Gill could barely see what was going on because his helmet was falling over his eyes
but he still loved the horse
And Abby was just a little timid. I can bet you that after a few lessons she'll say that it "kinda, ya know, gives me a headache" as I'm sure the price for the lessons will give me.

not my kid part 2...or is he?

When I was about 5 years old my dad took us to Disneyland. Four children (2 age 8, 2 age 5). We ate at this really fancy restaurant in the park and everyone was so tired that they all fell asleep at the table...but me (well, and my dad and step-mom). As the story so fondly goes, I sat and picked at every ones dinner and ate just about every morsel of food I could get my little hands on while they slept at the table. This is us at the park today....
Gilly, just picking through every ones food. I would say that maybe the apple doesn't fall so far from the tree but the next post would contradict that.

not my kid..

There are several times that I think in my head "where did he learn that?". This is one of those times. Yes he is peeing at a pubic park. I won't name the park however.

Having a 'moke

'tis the season! Its that time of year again where we are all starting to gear up for cold weather and to us that means nightly asthma treatments for Gill. Only he doesn't call them treatments, to him it is "having a 'moke (smoke)".(I actually just wanted to post this picture so you could see how my kitchen table is all cleared off)

He actually asks to have a 'moke because he thinks its cool to put his finger over the little blue thingie so it sounds like he is having bowel problems. Or maybe he's just asking for one because he is having a hard time getting oxygen to his lungs.

tagged

okay, I was tagged. Yipee! Now you get to read 7 things about me that you probably already know.

1. I am a 16year survivor of Crohns disease. Survivor is putting it boldly because not many people die from Crohns but trust me, I feel like slitting my wrists every morning. What is Crohns disease you might say...well my immune system gets its signals mixed up and attacks my colon causing ulcerations throughout my digestive track. I won't go into detail about what those ulcerations do but a song comes to mind from my childhood days when we would go up to the library and put marbles in our pants and dance to the BeeGees singing....Diarrhea ptttt ptttt! There is no cure but reduced stress helps.
2. I am an avid reader. I love love love books. If I could picture the perfect day it would involve a really good book, a bag of chips and my fantastic king size sleigh bed. My library card is sacred to me since I'm too cheap to actually buy books. My favorite quote by Emerson is "Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them". (I even have a sweatshirt that says that).
3. I am a Pisces. I love astrology. Now, I don't live my life according to what the newspaper says a Pisces is but I like to read about personality characteristics. Maybe they are right, probably not but its fun.
4. I love old people. There has always been a soft spot in my heart for old people. When I was a kid my step brother and I would ride our bikes to the nearest rest home and go visit some of them. Now, I don't love all old people, just certain ones. My carreer in the Heathcare industry kind of jaded me on old people but now that I don't have to watch them walk down the hall while their depends falls off I really enjoy being around them, listening to stories.
5. I am all about laughing. Because of my #1, laughter is important to me. I can't take life too serious. That is why I love my husband and my kids so much, they make me see life in this light where laughter is much more important.
6. I hate politics.
7. I have a dog but I am not one of those people that goes to Petsmart to get pictures with Santa and their dog. In fact I don't really like my dog too much, we just keep her because the kids are attached.
So there you have it. 7 things about me that will probably change the minute I post this. I guess that could be #8, I can't make decisions.

Is it over yet?

Em in the Halloween parade, trotting by Hermoine with her book bag
and the finished product of all our carving
Now I am going to go raid the candy and gorge myself until my blood sugar shoots through the roof. Happy Halloween (and thanks to all my fantastic neighbors who gave Twix).

Halloween Halloween.....

I think the only "redneck" thing about us that I go along with is....(note:Jeff has lots of redneck in him...right now he is watching a video on black powder guns, something I am highly opposed to.)we carve our pumpkins with an electric saw!
Everyone hard at work
the bottom one is mine, Abby's is smiling happily above it
Jeff's(top step), Garrett's (half happy, half sad, kinda like him), and Emily's (it took her 20 minutes to draw that mouth)

Batman, Hermoine, and the Horse