Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I know, I know, it has been a LONG time since I have posted anything but I figured since I just sent out my Christmas cards (late of course) with this blog address, that it was time.... also when I told Marlina that I was putting my blog address on them she said "Oh that's great, the blog you haven't updated since SEPTEMBER?!?!?" Love her for keeping it real! In my defense, I lost my camera for over a month and after searching and searching figured I left it somewhere (along with my head if it wasn't attached.) Then one morning I miraculously found it down into the sides of Jack's little fabric covered "lounge" chair in the family room. So it is really his fault.... wink, wink, ha ha.

We have been busy over the last few months - soccer games galore, a 1/2 marathon, Halloween, a trip to Oregon for Thanksgiving, a new sewing project, Christmas activities and preparations, Christmas itself here with my parents and now a few days of recovering before packing up for a week in Mexico with my whole family -PHEW! Here are a few pictures from a fun last minute overnight trip we took with the kids into San Francisco just before Christmas. We stayed at the amazing Marine Memorial Hotel right in Union Square. We had such a great time going to the Exploratorium all day and then back to the hotel for "happy hour" on the 12th floor overlooking the city. The kids gorged themselves on snack mix and Sprite before a dinner out in Chinatown. The next day we did the cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf. It only took 2 1/2 years of living here to finally do that...

Just outside the Exploratorium. When I asked Jack what he was doing for that picture he said "Max do's that" (His friend who he idolizes....)
Emma and Jack playing with some cool thing at the Exploratorium. This makes it seems like they were sharing nicely but I am pretty sure seconds after this one of them was crying.

That is one BIG chair....

Patrick and Jim built this arch and were pretty proud.

self explanatory....

The hotel was right by this Academy of Art but since Patrick is a 10 year old boy.... he spent the whole time reading that as "Academy o fArt" instead. He never tired of it and laughed heartily every time. Gotta love it.

the thing about birthdays...

I seriously can't believe that Jack just turned 3. The other day Jim held him in his arm like he did for his "birth" photo - back when he literally fit into the palm of Jim's hand in his scrawny little 4lb. 10oz state when we brought him home from the hospital. Things have certainly changed.... he is gigantor now and Jim could barely contain the sprawling arms and legs. He is talking up a storm with his favorite line now being - "I do it myself - I a big boy now, I three." Each birthday makes me ask "where did the year go". I have lots of other things to post - like first day of school and still pic's from our trip out East but this will have to do for now.....

Jack turns 3

A busy July....

It has been a fun filled July and here are a few pic's to show what we have been up to....

We took a quick trip to my sister's house on the CA coast in Point Arena for our now "traditional" 4th of July visit. Her cute little eclectic town has a fun celebration the Saturday after the 4th with street vendors, music and fireworks. This year marked the 100th anniversary of Point Arena so it was a bit more wild and wacky than the past two years. Our friends came along and we camped out in Sarah's yard at the Ranch she lives on. We had lots of laughs and the trip will be long remembered as the one where Jack woke the rooster who in turn woke everyone at 4am, the "transgender" marching band and the never ending parade with skinny-dipper's! As I said - wild and wacky....


Sarah was a bit hit with the kids when she busted out the fresh strawberries!

A few days later we got a short but fun visit with our long time friends the Robinson's as they were driving thru CA down to their home in San Diego. We stayed with them for 5 weeks the summer of '03 when they lived in Spain. I blame them for introducing Emma to dogs as she bonded with their black Lab Stitch while we were there and has been a dog-crazed loon ever since!! We got a quick photo of the kiddo's here - Patrick, Andrew, Emma and Kate (who was just causing her mother morning sickness while we were Spain!)

Emma getting some "QT" with Stitch before they took off. She is standing here next to me as I type and just sighed and said "I looove Stitch"

The kids finally got out of school July 18th. They were excited to be done and both had great years and grades. We are proud of them both! Here they are posing on their last daywith our most wonderful crossing guard Mr. Benny. We all honestly love this guy. He is the best and at 82 he amazes us with his love and dedication to keeping our kids safe as they cross to school each day.

Here is Emma getting ready to race at her swim meet - go girl!!

Playing catch up...

Cheers!

My adorable cousin Kate with her adorable baby Josephine

some of the cutie kids

My mom actually being allowed to operate an ATV with my cousin's son Nick -who authorized that??

Dave and Corinne - now and 50 years (actually 51 1/2) ago - Way to go!

It has been awhile since I posted anything new but we have been busy being busy.... Here are a series of posts of the latest and greatest - or the latest at least.... Earlier in June I was thrilled to be able to sneak away for four days to attend my Aunt and Uncle's 50th wedding celebration in Colorado. Lots of my cousins and all the Aunt's and Uncle's were able to make it and we had a wonderful time hanging out and catching up with each other. It was of course ironic that I was able to take a "getaway" from kids but wished they and Jim were there the whole time because they would have loved my cousin's ranch. Horse's, cabins. ATV's, incredible scenery. lots of other kids, great company, food and festivities, etc.... I managed to enjoy myself nonetheless - and Mr. Mom did a great job holding down the fort. Thanks

Summer swimming....

The kids are doing the summer "fun" swim team this year again and are loving it. It is laid back but fun and since they are in year round school they at least get a little swimming in. Emma missed the first meet since she was camping with her Girl Scout troop but Patrick was there and by the end was a little exhausted... as you can see.

Just call him Mr. Saxophone

Yes, Jack is wearing a swimshirt and goggles and watching the concert like that atop Jim's shoulders. Believe me you wouldn't have wanted to try to convince him otherwise either.... he is a fiesty one

Last week was the Spring Concert at Patrick's school and he got a chance to play in front of people for the first time. It was adorable hearing the beginning band play BINGO and some other tunes they have been "mastering". He has taken off and actually sounds good when he plays - much to our amazement and enjoyment! Way to go Patrick!

Mom & Daughter camping

getting ready to leave...

Emma taking her dog for a hike
Emma and friends trying out the rope swing

Emma and I went camping last weekend with a couple other moms & daughters from her girl scout troop and had a blast. Here are a few highlights...

Karma??

Emma's new walking cast

Five days after doing something nice (donating her hair) Emma was jumping on the trampoline and injured her foot. She complained that it hurt right then but within a few hours she was running around our court with a rope around her waist and pulling Patrick on his Heely's. Soon afterwards she complained that it hurt again. I, being the compassionate mother that I am, told her that if it hurt so much then why was she running around pulling Patrick??? And so around and around we went for several days. She would run around and play on it and then complain that she couldn't walk on it to do things like... set the table. clear her dishes, so on and so forth and I would in turn tell her I didn't believe her for a second because she obviously felt good enough to do all sorts of other fun activities - like running at the park, family fit night at school, etc... So finally on Sunday I couldn't take her complaining anymore and Jim agreed to take her into the hospital to get it x-rayed. (They get to bypass the ER and go straight to Radiology - FINALLY a perk after all these years!) After 2 hours he called and said that it was indeed broken. She actually pulled a ligament which in turn pulled off a bit of her bone on the top of the foot. She had to use crutches for 8 LONG days and we had to practically duct tape her down to get her to stop walking on it. The hospital does not stock the walking type boot cast that she needed in her size so had to order it. Makes perfect sense right since kids NEVER hurt themselves?!?!?! Needless to say. we were all very irritated. At any rate the boot finally came in on Tuesday (Jim's birthday) so we got to have an excuse to go in to the hospital and embarrass him with birthday treats. She is now free to walk again and has decided that crutches look way cooler when someone else is using them and they pretty much stink when you have to use them!! Maybe she was just getting paid back for all the times she locks Jack out of her room! hee hee

She did it!

Emma (8 years old)

"before"

"during"

"after".... with 10 inches to donate

Her mommy when she was 8 years old

Honestly, I can not even describe how emotional I have been over this event but my sweet girl just chopped off 10 inches of her hair to donate to "Locks of Love". She has been growing it for the last 2+ years because we realized that by the time her hair would be long enough she would be the exact age I was when I lost all of my hair due to chemotherapy. Back then, wigs were awful and I refused to wear one but now they have much better technology and thanks to everyone who is willing to donate hair, kids today can have much more real looking wigs. Her Girl Scout troop was doing a community service actiivity on Friday night so she decided the time was right and she did it! It was amazing and I am so incredibly proud of her. It meant so much to me to watch her do it. Plus, she looks darling and it will be much easier for the summer!! I LOVE YOU EMMA!

Check out my new blog....

I just spent WAY too many hours tonight working on a new blog dedicated entirely to my freckly face fabrics and blanket sets. I have had people wondering what fabrics I have so this will hopefully be an effective way to let those who are interested know.... Check it out and let me know what you think :) I have other posts I will try to do tomorrow. The kids were so excited that they tried sushi for the first time today and we got pics to show it! The new blog link is
http://frecklyfacesusan.blogspot.com/

Been busy....

The littlest climbers - Jack and Hailey

Patrick "feeding" the giraffe

The Green Goblins - won first place!

Showing off sand dollars at Pacific City

beach crusin'

beach relaxin'

hiking with Grandma Marilyn

The kids have had off the last month from school so we have been busy keeping ourselves well.... busy. We have had lots of adventures - like indoor soccer championship games, a trip to the Oregon coast, a road trip back to CA with Grandma tagging along, hiking, visiting the Jelly Belly Factory, a trip to the Oakland Zoo, indoor rock climbing with the Edmonds and spring cleaning - just to name a few. Here are some picture highlights...

No kidding...

Oh, no it's Darth Vader....

Wait, it's just Jack....

The shirt says it all... he is loud, he is stubborn, he is busy, he is adorable, he is two....

Rockin' the 80's

Jim and Emma recently attended a Daddy-Daughter dance for her Girl Scouts troop that had an 80's theme. We walked in the door from soccer games at 4:25 pm and by 4:50 pm she was showered and outfitted as best we could do - complete with the sweet side pony-tail. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it...) Jim decided to leave the mullet wig at home.

My current obsession...

A few years ago I discovered minky fabric - the most amazingly soft fabric ever and have from time to tome made a few blankets with it paired with a fun or funky fabric on the other side. Recently I had some requests for me to make them for others so I did and it was so much fun that I started obsessively buying fabric that I didn't necessarily "need" and starting making a bunch of them along with matching burp cloths. After some convincing from supportive friends (thank you - by the way :) ) my new line of creations called "freckly face" (appropriate, yes?) was born and off I went to Davis to a darling boutique and the owner bought 10 sets and a bunch of individual burp cloths to sell at her store! Who knows what will come of it but if I can support my fabric "habit" then I will keep on making them..... here is a sampling of blankets that I sold to her. Thus, the reason for my "mad" sewing experience last friday.

freckly face creations

SEW painful....

Talk about creating more chaos... Minutes before the the "big" kids were getting out of school this past Friday I was madly trying to get some sewing done while Jack napped and before the after school chaos began when I had myself a little run in with my sewing machine,,,,Yes. that is my left index finger and yes. that is the needle from my sewing machine sticking directly thru it!!! OUCH! Don't ask me how because I can not figure out what was going thru my head but for some reason I had to reach for the fabric I was sewing and neglected to take my foot off the pedal. I was in the zone until I felt a sharp "stabbing" pain, ripped my hand away, breaking the remainder of the needle off the machine and thought to myself "I just cut the tip of my finger off". When I finally looked at it you can just imagine how thrilled I was to see that it was just the needle sticking thru my finger! No blood and surprising little pain. I did not hit the bone which apparently involves alot more pain. Off to the ER I went where they numbed up the finger, took some x-rays to document my stupidity, yanked it out with a Leatherman type tool, put some neosporin and a band-aid on it and sent me home with 10 days of antibiotics. There is one small piece of needle that broke off and remains in my finger but going in to retrieve it would be too invasive so hopefully it will heal and I will have the piece of "shrapnel" to always remind myself to slow down........(or Jim may read that - to remind myself to not talk on the phone while sewing..... I can not and will not confirm or deny that I was actually on the phone when it happened!)

Patrick turns the big 1-0!

Time flies....

It is so hard for us to believe it but Patrick turned 10 years old yesterday. Double digits now.... I put together a little slideshow of his birthdays so far in honor of his day. He got his traditional birthday "breakfast in bed" but all the kids are either sick or recovering so it was a low-key day. Party next weekend. ...

A little love... and candy and flowers on Valentines Day

In honor of Valentines and because I am still trying to figure out what I am doing here, I am changing the background color to PINK. I have to admit I do like Valentines Day even though it is mostly a silly holiday. How can you go wrong? Telling the people you love that you love them and eating sweets.... Sounds good to me. It was a fun day even though nobody is feeling great around here. Patrick is still getting over being sick - he is coughing almost constantly and wanted to go to sleep at 7:30 PM tonight. That is NOT normal. Jack has had a fever the last few days and Emma slept on the couch for an hour after school even though their good friend was over to play with - again so NOT normal. We have a 4 day weekend and Patrick has a BIG day coming up on Sunday..... the big 1-0. We better rest up. Happy Valentines to all

"Patricki" - the Great Magician

So, after a bit of cajoling Patrick agreed to take his "act" to the school Talent Show. He got a magic set for Christmas and has put on a few very entertaining shows for us here at home and even one at Emma's birthday party. We convinced him all of his school needed to see this... The show was last Thursday night and did a great job - as did his lovely assistant - his very own sister - Emma. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a very good shot of them onstage but this was the best I could do.