Ryanism

I know there are a lot of people on this earth because of all the buildings and there is a lot of people where we live so there are more people everywhere.

Ethan

While going through Martinez at night he sees all the refineries all lit up and telling us how amazing it was that Edison invented the light bulb and there were so many lights to be seen. It was beautifully lit up.. great thought..

Ryanism

Asking about the sun and moon Ryan thought the sun was bigger because it was in the middle of the atmosphere and the moon was farther away.. good thought..

Katilin and vintage playing cards

I found this lady who was selling vintage playing cards in a variety of everything imaginable from flowers, to people, mini cards, dragons, and animals. I thought they would be fun to get so Katilin could practice her drawing and have a few fun pictures to try to copy and maybe spark some new ideas to draw. I love the seashell one and the little girl feeding the chicks..

Mountain View Mervyn’s

A time of sadness has arrived when the Mountain View Mervyn’s closed it’s doors. Many great friends made for life there as well as both Elizabeth and I met and married our husbands who also worked there at the time. At least we didn’t have our weddings at Mervyn’s in which someone actually did there. I will have to come back to this and write more …

So many good and bad memories here..  great management in the first 5 years of me working there.. the worst management ever in the last 6 years of when I worked there.

So far I have heard that Kohl’s or JcPenney’s may replace Mervyn’s but I am hoping for Old Navy

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/18/BU3U13JKLR.DTL

Michael and his cuteness

Just thought I would point out that Michael is cute… blue eyes.. handsome.. hot.. enough said..

YUP.. even when he is being silly.. still cute..

I will come back to this subject after I finish updating the blog of the last month I have lost.

New Year’s Eve with Aunt Deanna

Aunt Deanna joined us for two days playing games, watching movies, drinking, watching movies, more drinks.. lol.. We had found Ryan’s favorite game of Parcheesi in Lego.. How cool is that?

The perfect picture.. Aunt Deanna had just sent one of Katilin’s guys ‘back’ home to start over and she is comforting Kate while Ryan shares in the ’sadness’ with his laugh.

Ethan’s Christmas present to Mom and Dad

Ethan brought home this gorgeous narcissus flower in this pretty pot and added a little gingerbread on a popsicle stick. He had carefully wrapped it in a bag and just couldn’t wait to give us this gift he had been caring for at school. He waters it and measures it all the time letting me know how much it has grown in a day or a few days. The difference between these two pictures is just two weeks!!

Thank you E .. love you … xoxo… mommy & daddy

Well, as he measures the flower today it is topping 33 1/2 inches ( 2 feet 9 1/2 inches ) Wowzer

Christmas ornaments with memories

I have a lot of ornaments.. too many in fact, but over the years I have gotten them for one reason or another. The kids have made them, I have received them for friends, gotten them on travels, or revisited my childhood AND ebay to rekindle memories of some of the ornaments we had when we were younger. Tried to get personalized ones for the kids or at least a special ornament each year for the kids. I think I have enough for each of them to have a tree.

This sheep was from Dads nativity set when he was younger. He gave it to me wrapped in foil and it always makes me think back to how his Christmas’s would have been and what the rest of the nativity set would of looked like. He always talks about the candy his mom would make giving them a shoe box full each of ribbon candies, divinity, fudge,

Mom had a set of 40 or so lace glass ornaments of all styles from a Christmas tree to bird cages. Over the years they seemed to have dwindled due to the slippery hands of us kids over the years. I think she said the set first came from Cost Plus which was in the Mayfield Mall many years ago. I had been looking all over to replenish her set and was having a heck of a time finding them for her and then one day she gave me this set of nativities. She thought I was looking for me and found these at one of the shops she goes too.   Of course I did eventually find some, at the Santa Cruz Mission, and was able to give her 6 angels for her 6 grandchildren and some angels which I was very happy to have found.

When we were younger we had this little 2 inch white and pink glitter Cinderella looking carriage that I just loved. I stared at it as a child and always wished it was big enough for me to ride in. Well on one of our Disney trips Michael’s mom bought this carriage for me giving me new memories to think about Dis-neyland.. I love this ornament and always think of Jan and our trip together that year.

With our wedding in November we were lucky enough to have friends gift us with a tree topper, stockings, and many ornaments. To this day we still have most of them and I think of the people who have given them to us every year

I bring them out. This is one of the ornaments Alicia gave us for our wedding, a wooden yellow Santa. It puts a smile on my face bringing me back 13 years not only to our wedding but the friendship Alicia and I have… good times.. good times..

One of the 3 little kittens with mittens this lady made for the kids.

I have so many ornaments that have sentimental memories that I will have to start to catalog them.

Christmas Day

Well, I wrote a whole speel about the day but it became erased .. AUGHHHHH!!  LOL .. So I must begin again.

Once upon a time.. Oh, that is not how this is supposed to start. On a cold winters night we were visited by Santa and his reindeer.. we didn’t put out the reindeer food we had bought in these little tubes… didn’t make or put out cookies.. and Michael had drunk all the eggnog *gluck gluck gluck – if you know what I mean (wink). The stockings were hung on the cabinet with care in hopes that the kids ..errr…would fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow so we could getta stepping and get ourselves to bed.  Head.. bed.. it rhymes..

Michael had made us a nice breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausages and bacon, with juice and the kids enjoyed opening their stockings and gifts from Santa first.

We relaxed and let the kids play till 2 then headed over to moms for her festivites. Lots of food.. presents handmade from Elizabeth.. and good conversations. Camden has grown so much and is quite the talker now and seems to have grown a few more inches since the last time we saw him.

Mom had a really great beef dish with french fries shallots, baked potatoes with the works, her spicy sausage mushrooms and her blue cheese stuffed mushrooms, popovers, and Christopher made a green bean hazelnut dish that was amazing as well. Mom made a pear tart and Maria made a pecan cranberry pie.

I love this picture of the boys. ( Camden, Joel, Christopher, Ethan, Michael, Ryan)

Michael, Dad, Christopher

Maria’s pecan and cranberry pie

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77120&l=91e17&id=538489427 Christmas morning

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77126&l=7bad9&id=538489427 Christmas day

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77138&l=cc244&id=538489427 Christmas evening