Time Flies When You're a Working Mamma

My poor little blog has had a spot on the back burner for a few months, so one of my goals over this Christmas break is to do a little catching up. Are you ready to see a ton of pictures? We just got back from vacation and I have a lot to share : )

We took off for California the Tuesday before Christmas (that was also our last day of school, so it was a bit chaotic for me to try to be ready). We drove halfway to Mesquite and spent the night there. The next day we drove the rest of the way to Carlsbad. They had had a lot of rain and we were very lucky to have the storm clear up just in time for our arrival. We headed straight to the beach. It was low tide and we were able to find all kinds of cool things in the tide pools. These starfish were amazing.

There were tons of these little hermit crabs too.

With the sunset and the clouds, it couldn't have been more beautiful.

There was a photographer there from one of the local papers. He was doing a story about the rainstorms and took some pictures of us enjoying the evening.

That night we had dinner at the Old Town Cafe in San Diego's Old Town. We met my long-time roomie Stefani and her family there. Delicious. Afterward, she and I went to Chocolat for some crepes and scrumptious Nutella and cream gelato. Mmmmmm. More, please?

The next day was Legoland. It was fun, but I think we would have enjoyed it much more if it hadn't been so crowded. It was Christmas break and everyone was coming out of the woodwork after all of the rain. The rides at Legoland aren't very conducive to getting people in and out quickly. Anyway, we rode a couple of different plane rides:

The girls rode the horses:

And we pulled ourselves up a tower with ropes. H3 was not wanting to go all the way up though!

And check out this creepy elf that we saw on our way out of the park:

The apple fries were delicious. If you ever go, you've got to try them! We also enjoyed the mini-cities built of Legos. We bought several mini-figures in the gift shops. They're fun because you don't know what's in the package until you open it. I got a little skier and a gladiator.

The next day we went to a Japanese import mall that I wanted to go to (pretty much a waste of time, except the girls got a few cute things there). Then we spent the afternoon on the beach playing in the sand and the waves. It was a nice, relaxing day.

The hotel we stayed in was fabulous. We loved it. Each night at 8:00 they put out fresh chocolate chip cookies and milk. It was especially convenient on Christmas Eve. We went and got some and extras for Santa and his elves. In the morning they were mostly gone and Santa had filled our stockings!

After we checked out our stockings and slept in, we headed out to the Wild Animal Preserve. The first portion was a lot like a zoo, except prettier and with only African animals. These little guys were my favorite:

And these little guys were pretty cute too:

The kids enjoyed the petting zoo:

The second portion of the park was a tram ride through a wildlife preserve.

As it usually goes on vacations, especially during the winter, we had a sick kid. H1 had a cold and a fever, so he was not a very willing vacationer. We had to pretty much drag him everywhere, but it worked out ok. Luckily, it was a laid-back, relaxing kind of vacation. We had a lot of fun, but also a lot of rest.

That night we went one last time to the tide pools. A few more fun little sea creatures. A cute little starfish and a sea snail:

I had to get this picture online because we didn't have our camera when we found a guy just like this. It was a sea slug that easily weighed a couple of pounds. Totally cool!

The morning that we left, we stopped by La Jolla cove to see the seal beach. It is such a beautiful area. I love the way the waves splash against the cliffs. There were groups of pelicans flying right past us as we walked along the cliffs. Super cool.

Now we are back home and I need a vacation from the vacation (and from my children, who will not stop fighting!) More to come later once I locate my camera with pics from October and Halloween.

Birthday, Baptism, and More

Our cute little H1 is not so little anymore (but he's still cute, of course!). He had his 10th birthday a couple of weekends ago. It was mostly all about video games. He also got a skateboard and a Lego Pyramid game. For his birthday treat he wanted homemade pizza and brownies.

His game was a little hard to figure out, but it's sure cool looking!

He also had a party with his friends. They played his new video games and decorated sugar cookies. And there were presents, of course : )

I would guess that the best thing that happened on his birthday was his Nanna coming to town.

We had a great time visiting with her. The first day she was here, she took the kids to Build-A-Bear Workshop to make animals for their birthdays.

During her visit, she also took them on a special "Nanna date" to the temple grounds and then lunch at Wingers.

Our sweet little H2 got baptized this same weekend. She looked so beautiful in her pretty white dress. It was a great family day. After the baptism, the family came back to our house for a Cafe Rio style lunch. I was so busy that I had no idea that my kids had eaten nothing but chips, dressing, and rice until I looked at these pictures to choose which ones to post here. Bad mommy! Oh, well. It was her day, right?

I was lucky to receive these beautiful dishes (the blue ones) from my dad and stepmom just in time to use them at the baptism. They were great!

Nanna was able to stay for a week, which was fabulous. We went out to eat a lot, saw Toy Story 3 together, had a backyard cook-out for Labor Day, and had fun in general. I love this picture that she took of us down by the lake on Labor Day (the mosquitos chased us away pretty quickly!) I already made a page with it so that we can have it in our album.

Smuckers enjoyed it too!

Since then I have been trying to catch up on work and sleep (I had a nasty cold to deal with) My new job at the school is absolutely fabulous. I love it. Just the right amount of work to be enough without becoming overwhelming and taking away from my "being a mom" time, which will always be my first priority. I have finally found someone to take over my position at Walgreens too, which will make life a little less hectic.

Yesterday we took a little family hike up the Nebo Loop. My friend Christina had blogged about this location a while ago and we finally decided to go. It's called the Grotto. The hike itself is only about 1/2 mile, so it was perfect for the kids. The fall colors were absolutely gorgeous!

We had a yum-o lunch at Smokehouse barbeque afterwards. Mmmmmm.........

Another Birthday at Our House!

Two down, one to go! Plus a baptism : )

Our cute little HBoo turned 8 on Thursday. She is such a joy in our lives with her sweet, calm (usually), personality and her big brown eyes. We started the day at 6 a.m. so that she could open all of her presents before school.

She got a kareoke machine, a Baby Alive with an outfit, an Easy Bake oven, and a Fur Real kitty.

For her treat that night she said she wanted blueberry pie. They weren't a hit, but oh well.

Her "candle" was a sparkler shaped like an eight.

The next night was her birthday party. It was music themed. They had a great time.

After cupcakes and presents, they made i.d. tag necklaces.

School has started for us and it's been great so far. I've taken a job at the school as a teacher's aid in the 6th grade. The hours are great and it's been a lot of fun. I really love the kids and the teacher is great to work with. It is all the fun of being a teacher without all of the stress and long days.

My friend Kari got me into Japanese bento lunches. I've been having fun packing cute meals for my kids to take to school on the days that they don't want school lunch. Here are a few that I've done so far.

I love this quote that I found on one of my favorite bento blogs Obento Lunch 4 kidz. "It is said in Japan that when you eat a bento lunch prepared by a loved one, the preparer's feelings for you are transmitted through the food. What could be better than sending a bit of love and cuteness with your children to school everyday?!" I also like the fact that it encourages a wide variety of foods and a more nutritious meal that the kids are more likely to eat.

Wish me luck as I head into the next week with H1's birthday, birthday party, and HBoo's baptism. Oh, and my mom arrives on Thursday. Whew! Life as usual at our house. And I love it!

My Sweet Little Jy-Jy Turned 6!

She sure did. She was so excited that she was in our room at 6:30 am to open her presents. Our tradition is to let the kids come into our room the morning of their birthday and they get to open their presents on our bed. Ok, so the root of the tradition is my laziness, but the kids like it.

Her most treasured gift is her Baby Alive. She fed it all four packs of "food" the first day, changed it's diaper about 20 times and never let it out of her sight. The batteries were going dead after about 24 hours, probably due to her constant playing! The building blocks behind her in this picture have been a big hit too, even with my older kids.

During the day we had an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party. We started with our tea party. Heart shaped sandwiches, fruit, and kool-aid. H2 had made little place cards that were really cute. I love the one in this picture that says "Mad Hater".

We opened presents and the kids played for a little bit. Everyone was very interested in H3's new baby.

Then we did a craft project and made Alice in Wonderland ID tag necklaces.

Then it was cupcake time! H3 is very bugged that you can't see her in the picture. She's hidden in the back there. Oh well.

We saved the cake for dinnertime. Here's a close up:

She blew out her candle : )

It was all a lot of fun. I have another 2 parties to plan in the next month when H1 and H2 have theirs!

I've also made some dresses these past couple of weeks. The first one I did was for H3:

Then I made one for H2, but don't have a picture of that one yet. I had a bit of leftover material and decided to make one for this cute little girl. Love it!