Advent Mischief

I realize I was tempting fate when I put our advent calendar house on the counter right near where Summer eats her breakfast each morning. But I decided to tempt fate....and lost. Summer took full advantage of sneaking the chocolate out of each of the doors. This is her, "I'm cute so don't get mad at me face":
And her cranky "mom isn't falling for it face":

And finally, her "wait a minute, mom isn't too mad at me so I'd better work with it" face:

It's kind of hard to get mad at a cute little three year old when chocolate is within easy reach. Lesson learned: Just put chocolate in one day at a time, rather than fill the whole thing up at once!!

First Lost Tooth!!

Ben lost his first tooth!! His tooth had been loose for a little while and so when he bit into a particularly hard apple it fell out. He was pretty surprised and super excited. His dentist gave him this little tooth holder to put his tooth in so it wouldn't get lost when he put it under the pillow for the tooth fairy.

The tooth fairy gave him $1 and he couldn't rest until he spent it. He chose a santa pez dispenser at the grocery store and was very cute about paying for it with his tooth fairy money.

Santa Girl

Ben's amazing preschool teacher from last year offered to take all of her last years students to the movies to give all of us mom's a few hours of free time to get a little Christmas shopping done. So Summer and I did a little Christmas shopping and took a pit stop to Sees candy while we were at it. She wanted to wear this little dress because she loves it. She calls it her "Santa Girl" dress. Kind of ironic since she is totally afraid of Santa!! Here's the two of them goofing around by the big outdoor Christmas tree by the theaters:

Really?

This is what Summer did to her room while she was suppose to be taking a nap......Fiesty and Troublemaker don't even make a dent in describing her little personality on this day.

Thanksgiving 2009!! Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. I love all the menu planning, cooking, and baking that is involved. I love having family visit and make a point of making everyone's favorite pie. It's a time to feel so grateful for what we have. I am so grateful to have smart and fun husband that provides us with a warm home, food and love. I feel so lucky to have two gorgeous kids that are so much fun and make me feel so loved. I am so grateful to have an amazing family that is so loving, generous and supportive....and to have my sisters as my best friends. I feel lucky to also have such wonderful in-laws who I enjoy spending as much time as possible with.

This Thanksgiving we talked Brian's parents into visiting, as well as Shannon, Katie and Emma. We had so much fun together. Here's a few pictures of our Thanksgiving feast:

Here's Ben watching me carve the turkey:
Here we all are getting ready to feast:

Another group shot:

And then of course it was time for pie. I think I made about 5 or 6 pies for all of us. Yum!

We definitely had tons to eat and it was a fabulous day to spend with family.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

We had a fun weekend spending time with Brian's family. Summer loved her "Pa" and brought him book after book for him to read to her. She was in heaven. Summer was also able to talk her Aunt Shannon into reading to her as well. Here they are "reading" on of my Hershey's cookbooks:

Bonnie, Summer and I went on a little girls lunch and shopping trip, which was lots of fun!

We went to Corner Bakery and around South Coast Plaza.

We had such a fun time with the Weber's and really hated to see them go. It was so nice to have help with the kids, dishes, and just doing fun stuff together!!

Drill Boy

I needed to install some curtain rods, which is tricky when Ben is around. Ben loves to use my drill. I love my drill, it was a gift from my friend/former boss and her husband when we bought our first home. So I have a hard time sharing it with Ben....but, under close supervision, I let him drill holes in a cardboard box. Look how excited he is!! Such concentration!

Family Time on Balboa Island

One of our favorite family activities is driving to Balboa Island. It's really close to our house and it's something all of us love to do. We usually walk along and look at the boats and then take the ferry over to the fun zone. Here's Ben checking out the boats. He is really loving boats right now. He calls us all "captains" (captain mom, captain Ben, etc.) and he pretends his bike is a boat. So he is in heaven when we go to Balboa because he gets to ride the ferry and check out all the boats. Summer just has fun doing anything. Every night before bed she asks, "Mommy, what are we doing tomorrow?" And then she likes a run down of our day. It's cute. So of course she loves to go to Balboa because it means she gets to do something!!

Time to get on the ferry!!

The ferry ride is super short but lots of fun!!

The kids love to play on the playground right by the pier. Summer especially loves to swing so she thought it was fabulous to swing with Brian!!

Balboa Pier

We also walked along the pier. The water was really clear so it was fun to see all the little fish. But my favorite was seeing the kids having so much fun together. It looks like Ben is choking Summer but he really is hugging her.

Walking Gear

Summer and I take Abby on almost daily jogs (or powerwalks) together, after we drop Ben off at school. Summer picks out toys and books and we put a little cache of snacks together and off we go....she can last about an hour in her jogger before she gets fiesty and that's only because I usually bring and emergency snack (sucker, candy, etc.) to make it home . Today she wanted to dress herself too but since I already had put her clothes on she at least had to add a hat.

Fun with Bandaids!

Summer is fast. She can get into mischief faster than anyone I know. While I was busy making the beds she got a hold of a box of bandaids, opened each one up and was busy sticking them on the floor! Needless to say, all bandaids are not on the top shelf of my linen closet.

Halloween - October 2009

Halloween 2009!! We had a fun Halloween week. First we carved pumpkins. Both kids picked out the face they wanted me to carve in their pumpkins. They were both grossed out and fascinated by the inside of the pumpkin. Emily told me about this cool little dessert....it's just two different kinds of pudding, topped with whipped cream. It totally looks like a candy corn and the kids thought it was so fabulous!

On Halloween we went to Main St. in Huntington. The street is closed down to all cars and the stores pass out candy to the kids. Ben and Summer loved their costumes so much last year that they wanted to wear them again this year - awesome! Summer was a litttle freaked out by the adults that were dressed up but overall we had a great time.

The police department and fire department let the kids sit in their vehicles. Ben wants to be a policeman (on a motorcycle) when he grows up so he thought it was awesome to sit in the police car.

We had some dinner at a BBQ place and then went back to our neighborhood to trick or treat. The kids got sooooo much candy!! Luckily we were able to convince them to give up more than half and Brian took it to work. Whew! Who knows how much I would have eaten if it was in our cupboard!

Beach Day at HB

Okay, yes, we go to the beach alot. It is an activity we all love and since we are so close we like to take advantage of going any chance we get. This time we are at Huntington Beach. This beach is super close and a great place to go to surf (Brian, not me). I love this picture of the kids following Brian: It is so relaxing now that Summer is 3 and Ben is 5. They play and run together and I'm able to relax and watch them. We have fun building sandcastles together and the kids love it when I bury them.

Here's Brian catching a wave:

Summer is pretty fearless of the water so I stay close by....but the great thing about the fall is there aren't many people around so I can put my beach chair right up to the water without getting tripped over.

Summer and Ben love it when Brian chases them around.

A Warm Day at Crystal Cove - October 2009

We decided to take advantage of the warm weather and head to Crystal Cove. It was warm enough to go in the water in swimsuits! I love OC in the fall!!! Summer is loving all of the ladybugs. For some reason there were alot on the beach this time around.

Brian had a great time bodysurfing:

Here's Ben playing in the sand:

Ben and Summer can run in and out of the waves for hours! It's so great.

Tinkerbell and Hollywood

We met my mom and dad in Hollywood to watch Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure. I told Ben we were going to the movies with Mormor and Pa and he was sooo excited. He asked what we were going to see and when I told him he said, "Oh Man, that's a GIRL movie!!" I assured him that this one had a lot of boy fairies in it so that made him happy and of course he loved the whole thing! Afterward we went to Mann's Chinese Theater to check out the famous hand and footprints. The kids thought it was sooo cool to fit their hands into the different prints.

Summer also got into the spirit of things:

It was sooo hot - in the 90's. So it was a little tricky getting Summer to cooperate on taking a picture. Ben thought it was so cool to see so many people dressed in costumes....it's a very unique place to visit.

Crystal Cove - October 2009

We love spending time at Crystal Cove. The water is sooo clear and beautiful and the beaches aren't crowded at all in October. The kids love writing and drawing in the sand.

One of our favorite weekend activities is going to the beach and we are lucky to live by so many beautiful beaches.

Plus, it wears the kids out!