{Cali. Snow Storm}

It rarely snows here in California. Actually, only once since we've lived here in the last 8 years, have I seen it actually stick to the ground for more than a couple of hours. I just realized we have lived here for quite awhile! Much longer than we had anticipated.

Anyways....last night it started snowing around 5:30pm and kept going into the night. My kids were so excited to see snow, which Kenny, who grew up in Colorado, and myself from Kansas, didn't understand. I realized that my kids have only seen snow a handful of times, when traveling to visit family, and that indeed snow in California, was something to celebrate! So we ate a quick dinner, bundled up the kids, and joined the rest of the neighborhood, no joke, everyone was outside, to play in the snow! The snow was pretty wet, so it made perfect snowballs! Ian beamed me several times.

Mya was trying to throw snowballs too!

As soon as Owen got outside, Ian threw a snowball and hit him right in the face. He only lasted another 2-3 minutes and then he was back inside! He truly is our California boy.

Drew was on a constant run, chasing kids through the culde-sac, so he is not documented in a picture, but he did have a blast. The boys were sad to have to come in at 8pm, but were praying that school would be cancelled the next day....it didn't happen!

Ian took this picture himself, first thing in the morning.

We woke up to the sun shining, but the snow was still covering the grass and trees. The snow had already melted off the concrete, so we knew we had a short amount of time to enjoy the snow, before it all melted away. My friend down the street texted me at 8am and asked if we wanted to go outside and play. We threw on clothes, didn't even take time to brush teeth or comb hair, and we were off!

First we built a snowman!

Mya, Mr. Snowman, and her sweet little neighbor friend, Elliot

Isn't he cute! We even gave him eyebrows. He was leaning a lot by the time we left the park.

Then we went sledding!

Last, we warmed up with hot cocoa at Julia's House

Like I said, we didn't even take time to comb our hair!

The girls sharing a hot cocoa!

By the time we left their house and headed for home, the snow was almost all melted. My older boys were very disappointed when they came home to green grass once again. I guess we need to take the short jaunt up the mountain to play in the snow there.

{100 days}

Ian recently celebrated his 100th day of school. He was asked to bring in a bag of 100 items, so that the class could practice counting to 100. Last year he took pennies, but we thought that was kind of boring, so we decided to get creative this year.

Thanks to his veterinarian daddy, Ian was able to take something no other kid has taken to school before...

100 doggy bladder stones!

They did have a slight smell to them, but Ian didn't care!

He was told by a couple of teachers that he had the coolest 100 items of the whole school! Next year we have to do even better, so I have Kenny collecting dog teeth now!

{Ian's Teeth}

A couple of weeks ago, as I was rubbing Ian's back before he went to sleep, he asked me if he could get some gold teeth! I asked him why he wanted gold teeth and he replied, "They look cool mom!" I told him that people who have gold teeth are usually people who have bad teeth and that we like white, shiny, teeth. Seriously, the next day in the mail, he received this belated birthday card in the mail from my sister Carmin.

He opened the card and he was beaming! He brought it over to show me and said, "See mom, look how cool this looks!" I was shocked that we had just had this conversation the night before and then he received this card. I didn't even want to discuss it, so I just agreed that the man in the card did indeed have cool teeth....thanks Carmin!

So more about his teeth....Ian started complaining of his mouth hurting, so I looked inside his mouth and was shocked to see an adult tooth coming up right behind his baby tooth. The baby tooth was not even very loose. Ian is 7 and hasn't lost a single tooth yet.

I scheduled a dentist appointment, with Dr. Knight and we decided to have Ian's baby tooth pulled.

The very big needle he deadened Ian's tooth with...ouch!
Dr. Knight handed Ian the tooth extractor and told him to pull. Ian pulled out his own tooth!

He was very brave and so excited to have lost his 1st tooth!
Here is proof of the tooth he lost. Unfortunately, as he was racing Kenny outside, he lost the tooth. Kenny helped him look for it outside with flashlights, but then it started to snow, & the tooth was not found.

Ian pulled me into a room and shut the door behind us last night and said, "Mom, I know the tooth fairy is not real, but can you please just put the money under my pillow, even though I don't have the tooth?"

He was pleased to wake up to $5 this morning & couldn't wait to go to school to show his friends!

I hope the rest of Ian's teeth do not cost as much $ as his first tooth! Plus I hope he never has a mouth full of gold teeth!

{Glen Ivy}

Being a mom is hard work and every once in awhile you need to take a day for yourself. I very much needed a day to rest and relax, so for my friend Darcy's 30th birthday, I thought it would be great if we could get away to celebrate and get a little pampering. I am so glad my husband didn't mind me sneaking away on his day off, leaving him with the 4 kiddos for 9 hrs, so that I could have a day to rejuvenate and enjoy quality time with a dear friend.

Our perfect day in paradise, could not have been better! First off, the weather was gorgeous for February, gotta love California! We got checked in and climbed into our comfy robes and then we started our morning with a full body massage!
After being rubbed down for an hour, we decided to "work" a little and joined in on water aerobics! It was a lot of fun and actually did burn...a little! My kind of work out for being at a spa!

Then we floated around the lounge pool for an hour. It was so quiet and peaceful. We listened to the waterfall and kept saying, "This is Amazing!" We also decided when our kids are older, that we are going to be women who own a membership to the spa and go at least once a week!

We met up with friends, Anna and Collette, for lunch at cafe Sole'. The food was delicious and we each ordered something different and tried each other's dishes. I had a shrimp/orange salad and chocolate cake, because a woman can't enjoy the most relaxing day without a little chocolate!
Next we soaked in the mineral baths, which smelt like eggs, but is meant to help heal any ailments one might have.
Then we purified our skin, by covering ourselves in mud! We were not apprehensive at all to jump right in and get muddy!

Look how revitalized we look!!!!

Next, we went down into a cave known as the Grotto, where an attendant painted onto our skin a deep moisturizer made of aloe vera, shea butter, and coconut oil. **Note: this is not us!** We could not take cameras with us, this is a picture from the spa's website. However, this is how green we looked!


We sat on rocks in a warm room, listened to a water fall, and dined on lemon water and apples.

We got a little adventurous and stopped at the terrace pools next. We took the challenge and plunged into a 55 degree pool and then into a really hot pool. We were screaming as we went from one to the other 5 times, trying to stay in the cold pool for 30 seconds. It was intense and my whole body was tingling. I really did enjoy it and have learned that it is really good for your circulation.

Later, we laid in the steam room, soaked in the saline pool, and sweat in the steam room. It was the perfect day and I am so glad to have spent it with a great friend!

{Firefighter}

Among my mommy list of things I do, such as: nurse, nutritionist, maid, taxi driver, chef, etc. I can now add firefighter! My sweet 2 year old girl, who I have decided has just as much energy as my boys at this age, decided to see what would happen when you cook a book in the microwave! You might ask, "Where was her mother?" I promise I was not intentionally not watching her, but she is quite speedy! I was in the front room, holding up my cell phone to the piano, while Drew played a song for my parents that he had just learned. I did not hear the microwave running, but I did smell the burning book, which sent me running!

Mya scaled the counter by hoisting herself up with her little toes on the lip of the cabinet drawers. Unfortunately it was not one of our own books, but a library book.

It burnt a hole all the way through the book!

THE CULPRIT!

We did have to pay a $10.00 library fee for damaging the book, but at least she didn't ruin the microwave since the book had a metal detector on the sticker or burn herself!

{On my toes}

I love having my two little ones home with me, however, they are keeping me on my toes! Everyday they seem to get into something they know they shouldn't. It usually happens while I am taking a shower. I guess the t.v. is not enough excitement to keep them busy, so that I can have a few minutes. The last two days I decided to document the craziness they are putting my through and the reason why I am getting more grey hairs!


I came downstairs to see them both jumping off the couch to "crunch" the cereal into the carpet.
I asked them what they were doing & of course Owen says, "Mya did it mom!" He then told me that Mya was eating all the strawberries out of the cereal.
I of course got after them, then got out the vacuum cleaner and told them to get to work. Mya does love to clean, so she was actually excited.
I had to dump the canister twice with cereal....what a waste!

The very next day I came downstairs and didn't see them on the couch. I called out to them and I heard them both giggling. They were trying to hide from me, which meant they were up to NO GOOD!

They mixed Kix with applesauce on their own. This means the climbed the counter to get their own glass bowls and the fridge to get their supplies.

You can't see in the picture, but there was applesauce spilt all over the floor. Sigh....another mess! I guess its back to locking the pantry.

{Won't You Be My Valentine!}

Happy Valentine's Day!!!! Our morning started off great! Powdered donuts were devoured by everyone, plus eggs & grapes, I had to have something nutritious before I sent them off for the day. I then gave Kenny and the kids a Valentine's gift from me.....Perplexus Epic! Drew received a Perplexus for Christmas and it is a family favorite. Kenny and Drew have mastered it, so now they have a new more challenging one to master their skills of speed and balance.


Drew concentrating as he rolls the ball through the 125 challenging obstacles.
I have never bought these yummy, addictive, powdery donuts before. My kids were double fisting them and covered in white!

The boys are having Valentine's parties at school, so I'm preparing myself for some major sugar highs today! I love my little family so much and am pleased to have a special day out of the year to show them a little extra love!