Christmas Time is Here

We started decorating the day after Thanksgiving for Christmas. I would have posted sooner but with Kevin gone in East Asia for a week and me alone with the kiddos we were in survival mode around here. And now that Kevin is home we are in full swing celebrating this Christmas season. We try to go to as many the local holiday festivals as we can, which I'll post about soon.
As we were decorating the house, Abbey decided to decorate herself. She is constantly making us laugh.
It was the first year Abbey was able to help decorate the tree. A couple ornaments were broken along the way but our favorites are still in tack. My favorites are the old fashions glass ornaments from Kevin's mom. Kevin likes the silly ones, such as a sheep that says "Fleece navidad". And Abbey loves all the snowmen. I think we have 5 or 6 snowmen that she plays with. She carries them with her where were she goes, she lines them up from biggest to smallest, she has them talk to each other, and they each have a role: one is a mama, a daddy and the babies. I love watching her make up stories and play pretend. So what are your favorite ornaments on your tree?

Happy Turkey Day

know it has been a week since Thanksgiving but I had to share. Our holiday was a mix of high and lows. Our high was celebrating Thanksgiving a couple days early with Kevin's sister Denise.
As you can see Davey was a fan of his 1st Thanksgiving.
We had fun making an apple pie. Abbey loved sprinkling the flour on the dough. I of course made the pie for my mom's recipe and the result was heaven on a plate (thanks mom).
The low was Abbey getting the stomach flu. We had just been to a conference the weekend before where the stomach flu was going around. It was just the worst seeing her so sick but I loved snuggling in the rocking chair as she slept in my arms in between puking. Kevin and I were up all night with her but thankfully the worst was over by morning. So we spent the rest of the week taking it easy: watch Finding Nemo and Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, fed the ducks at Lopez Lake, napping and we decorated for Christmas (more on that tomorrow).

A is for Apple

I just love U-pick farms especially when they are pesticide free. It is apple season so we checked out SLO Creek Farms. We had so much fun picking apples and playing in the fields. Abbey was a natural at apple picking. Which is good since she eats at least two apples a day. For days after this trip I kept finding half eaten apples all over the house. At least it is a healthy addiction.

We will definitely be going back. And maybe and I mean maybe I will consider canning some apple sauce. Anyone have any great applesauce recipes?

Monterey

This past weekend we went up to Monterey to visit the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The best thing was having Matt and Lauren Thiede join us. They came all the way from Chico to spend time with our family. And we are so glad they did because it was a blast staying up way to last catching up on life and then exploring the aquarium the next day. The sad thing was I left the memory card for our camera at home. I am so bummed because we saw some amazing things. So we made do with Kevin's camera phone.
There was a touch and feel tide pool section.

There was an amazing kids section. We had to pry Abbey away from there so we could see some real fish. But doesn't she look cute is her fish outfit.
Dave joined in the fun and decided to be an octopus.
Abbey loves the scuba divers cleaning the tanks.

The jelly fish and the sea horses were my favorite. The jelly fish are so beautiful but scary. And the sea horses are so interesting; they can be supper tiny or look like crazy leaves. Did you know that sea horses are the only animal were the males carry the babies and give birth?

1st Food, Crafts and Pies, O My!

Yesterday was the best. Davey had his first bite of real food, smashed banana with milk. He loved it! I like making baby food and having them try new things but what I don't like is the extra time and mess involved. That is why I have held off as long as possible but with a week of him waking twice a night I thought we better get this show on the road.
The highlight of the day was making crafts with some friends and our kids in the morning. It was so fun but wild with 6 kids, hence no pictures of the actual craft making. I think it is better to enjoy the moment then capture it. At least that is what I tell myself.

We did start the morning off right with coffee and blueberry scones. yum!
Then we were off on an adventure with the kids to find colorful leaves. With our baskets full of leaves we headed back and made these beautiful turkeys. and of course we made colorful hands prints of turkeys too.
The kids had a blast! And I so enjoyed spending time with other moms. Our conversations don't get to go super deep. We are lucky if we can finish a sentence let alone a conversation without a little voice yelling; "I got to go potty", "she took my toy", "i want juice", "mom, Mom, MOM!". But there is something about going threw this crazy stage of life together that is encouraging.

Continuing on with the best day ever: the kids took a nap at the same time (first time in a month, yah!) so I made apple pies for Kevin's Bible study. That's right not one but two apple pies. You wish you were in Kevin's Bible study now don't you? Anyways,I had bought one of those apple peeler, slicing, coring gadgets after my friend Cara convinced me that it would change my world. Well, I loved it. You end up with all these pretty apple peels.
So, I tried sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar and baking. The result was a failure, oh well. If anyone has any tips on how to make them crispy just let me know. After cleaning the house, getting dinner on the table and kids into bed I felt like June Clever. Trust me that is not a typical day for us. I promise, I can prove it to you with my messy house today. But it did feel good to spend time with friends, be creative with the kids and be productive. What a good day.

6 months

Davey is 6 months old to day. I can't believe how fast these months have gone by. It is definitely not easy. I get frustrated, sometimes angry with my lack of sleep or I wish I could wear a shirt that doesn't have baby puke on it or I want to cry sometimes cause I don't feel like I know what I am doing with these contantly changing little ones. But then I look at my baby with his toothless wide mouthed smile it just melts away any feelings of frustration . And when I hear the unhindered, out of control, roaring laughter of my little girl brought on by simply watching the rain run across the car window, it wells up this joy inside of me that pushes out any feelings of inadequacy. Yes some days are hard but I love life with my kids. So today I have overwhelming feelings of thankfulness and I feel blessed. So glad you are in our life Davey!!
At 6 months Davey likes

• jumping in the Johnny Jumper
• loves and I mean loves Abbey
• cuddling
• his orange monkey
• being on his stomach

He is rolling over, pushing up on his hands, still waking up once a night, and puts anything in his month that comes near his hand.

We love you Davey!!

Trick-or-Treat

We had a lot of treats this weekend and I am not just talking about our obscene candy consumption. Our good friends Ricky and Cara Williams came to visit this weekend with their adorable kids; Clair and little Ricky. It was also Kevin 34th birthday and Abbey went Trick or Treating for the first time. What a fun weekend!

Our wonderful friends the Williams who travel every year to come for Kevin's birthday. We love them!
Clair and Abbey playing at the park after the SLO kids costume parade at downtown farmers market.
Abbey twirling in her Dorothy costume. She LOVES her Dorothy costume. She literally lived in it all week, twirling where ever she went.
Carving pumkins.
Of course we had to have a Dora pumpkin.
And last night we went trick or treating with some friends.The kids had such great costumes: from left to right Steward is a monkey, Abbey is Dorothy, Davey is an elephant, Wyatt is a garbage man (don't you love his trash bin that his dad made for him:) and little Huck is a hamburger. Such cute kids!!
The first house: I think both Kevin and I had this moment as Abbey was walking up to the first door of, wow she is growing up fast.
Davey said if I can't have candy I'm gonna sleep.
brother and sister picture. We're thinking maybe next year we'll dress them up as lambs and we will be shepherds, since they are the little Lamb kids.
What did you dress up as for Halloween?

3 Speckled Hens

I am finally getting to post about one of my favorite antique fairs; Three Speckled Hens. It is an outdoor fair with antiques and old stuff that happens twice a year. The prices are decent. They aren't garage sale price but definitely better then what you would find in an antique store. Usually I drag Kevin along with me but this time Kevin watched the kids while my friend Amanda and I were in heaven looking at all the beautiful old things.

Here is Amanda modeling the new hat I got for Abbey's future dress up box. Isn't so fun!
I also got a great deal on an old trunk. You can see a corner of it by Amanda's hand in the picture below. But when I got it home it doubled in size. Definitely didn't realize how big it was. woops. There was great vintage Christmas stuff. I just loved the holiday feel.

So many fun vintage things! Do you want to come with me in May!

Banana or Blueberry Crumb Muffins

I have made these muffins twice and everyone in the house is in love with them. The real test is Abigail, she ate 3 in one day.
She must think they are junk food to eat them like that but I am here to tell you they are good for you. Especially if you use sucanat instead of brown sugar and use apple sauce instead of oil. One thing I did was use bananas and blueberries and I didn't even bother making the topping but I'm sure that makes them extra yummy.

Check out the recipe over at Passionate H0memaking. Enjoy!!

City to Sea

Today Kevin ran the City to Sea Half Marathon with his sister Denise. The race starts at downtown San Luis and ends at the Dinosaur Park in Shell Beach. This is the pre-race picture which of course they are being all goofy. These two are crazy when they are together, can you tell?
While Kevin and Denise where hitting the pavement Abbey painted a sign to congratulate her daddy and Aunt. This girl loves making in her words, "paint hands".
Post-race picture: don't they look good for running 13.1 miles.