We went to see Santa!

We got brave and dressed the little ones up and took them on the 30 or so minute journey to the mall (aka the north pole) to see Santa claus. I was actually very suprised at how good they were. I dont recall any running, crying, fit throwing, or other random embrassment. There was no wait at all to see Santa, and the boys were a little in awe of how he was just right there, so they stayed back and kind of hid behind a sign for a few minutes and just watched him. When we finally got up there, Trenton's first mission was to make sure Santa acknowledged his nice sweater. =) Then they both hopped up, Dylan rattled off his list of things he wanted, the one I remember is a dinosaur with a remote control that really walks. Trenton was awe struck after the sweater thing and couldnt make any words come out. His lips were moving, but no sound. Santa laughed at him and asked him if he liked to talk to himself. Finally Trenton spotted some big fake wrapped presents under Santas tree, and decided that he wanted one of those. Santa told him they were fake so Trent said he just wants a big pretty box for Christmas! We capped off out our afternoon out with lunch... again..I was amazed at the lack of melt downs, that almost never happens... and then a ride on the carousel for everyone. Yay..mom loves nothing more than spinning around over and over right after lunch! It was really a lot of fun though. I love spending days like that with the family!

ahh..winter!

Getting ready for the holidays this week at our house. We put up a few lights outside, icicle lights for the boys' bedroom, and of course our stockings and Christmas tree. That was an experience. This was the first year I've had TWO boys big enough to help hang ornaments. Lets just say it was rough...lol. The Trenton damage count at the end of the day was four ornaments, a salt to my snowman salt and pepper shakers, a picture frame, and a little old car with santa driving it that had belonged to my grandpa. It was more damage than I had expected, but I cant be mad, he's only two.. and most of it just needs some super glue. It turned out very pretty though. I love our new house. Christmas decorating sucked at the old house. No matter what I did it was cold, big and stark white. This house is warm and cozy and perfect. Theres a big cold wave going thtough right now, apparently it snowed here but we all slept through it. The evidence is all over Mt. Diablo. I've never seen it that covered in snow before. Very exciting! Except its bitterly cold outside all day long so that kind of sucks. Grandma Lois went into the emergency room today with fluid around her heart, so we're keeping her in our thoughts. We love you Grandma!

Thanksgivng week

One wild busy week is behind us, but I'm sure more are to come.. tis the season for frazzeling my nerves! We spent our nice quiet mellow thanksgiving with my inlaws. Nothing too big or huge, just good food and a relatively quiet day. I wont lie.. I ate and then napped on the couch like a big moo cow.. and it was good! LOL. We're not black friday people so we spent the next day at home just cleaning up and relaxing. Since we didnt make our own turkey there were no thanksgiving leftovers to battle over.. so it was just a normal day..with a ton of wind and rain. The weekend was actually pretty mellow too. Those of you that know me well know that mellow is my pace. I come with two little boys.. my idea of mellow is no smoke detectors going off or police men at my door because someone called 911! We baked more cheesecakes, and some homemade bread that well..lets just say we wont use that recipe again! Grandma Colleen and Papa Barr came over and we took Grandma on our little hike on the trail behind our house, and then got our fill of parktime at the spiderman park. We had a little bbq lastnight and had some friends over. The kids always have soo much fun together.. and I dont mean to brag but my husband does happen to be king of the grill.. so the fajitas were phenomenal. So much so our guests took a to-go plate! Good times! Todays a new day and a new week and almost a new month. We have a hot date today with some gingerbread men Trenton has special requested we make. I am really looking forward to that one. I'm apparently on a whole baking kick again. I know this always happens to me this time of year, but it is nice to focus on sweets and decadent things as opposed to soups, casseroles, and other various Amber creations for a change. The kids are totally loving seeing whats for dessert too. They are quite the little bakers. I love this part of life. Nothing fancy, nothing that cost an arm and a leg.. just me and my boys and quality time and making memories in our little kitchen.. this is what its really all about!

Everyone loves a parade!

We've had a busy week. I love that about this time of year, everything starts picking up pace a bit and our days are more full and less routine. We spent our weekend out and about. We caught up with some close old friends we havent seen in ridiculously long. Our kids played great together, thats always good to know. We also spent most of our saturday afternoon at the annual holiday parade here in downtown brentwood. Papa Barr was the fireman on the back of the old fire engine in the parade, so of course Dylan & Trenton were like little firecrackers of excitement as the parade went on. It was a little long for us this year because about half way thru my happy campers were turning less happy and getting ants in their pants that restricted their ability to sit still for any stetch of time. We ended up leaving before it was completely over, but that was fine for all of us after seeing how many people were there.

My little corner of the world

So this is my NEW blog, more family oriented as opposed to Amber's eccentric thoughts oriented. I promise to be more active on this one.. theres always some being a mama drama to post about. I am sitting in the living room of my new house, which I love, freezing my butt off because we havent got the furnace fixed so its space heaters for us for now. My littlest man is running around in a shirt and socks with the Candyland game box on his head.. my biggest little man is running laps and counting in his very loudest inside voice. And the scary thing, this is a calm few moments aroun here. Nonetheless I have plenty of other stuff to be doing. With the food holidays fast approaching I am sure I'll be here to share some yummy recipes and vent about my misbehaving monkeys or my burnt loaf of banana bread.