Christmas Lights!!!

Now this is a Brother & Sister moment if I've ever seen one! Here they are being so quite and watching a movie together as I cooked dinner. Isn't it so cute how cuddly they are... Kira lying on Logan's lap and Logan holding his sister?! I'll have to show them this picture when they are teenagers trying to "kill" each other!


For some reason they wanted to pose with the Christmas stockings and Santa's that are on our fireplace. Silly little kids!


We finally went to look at the Christmas lights around East Lake. We do this every year since it's right next to our house (even though last year we went after Christmas). The kids look all bundled up for snow yet it really wasn't even that cold out, LOL! It was the effect we wanted though!




I must say it was beautiful but we could totally see that it's a lot less spectacular than last year or the years before. I wondered why and Vic reminded me of the economy so I guess so???







After Christmas lights we decided to go get ice cream. They didn't really deserve ice cream because they were acting up earlier but Mom wanted some so that meant we were going! On the way there we past by Logan's preschool and he got to see his school with their Christmas lights on. He was so excited and Kira says, "Wow, it's AMAZING"! I've never heard her say that before so we started cracking up laughing because it sounded so cute! Then we went to Rite Aid and got Thrifty's ice cream. I haven't gotten ice cream there in soooo many years. My ice cream was just "ok" but the kids sure enjoyed it!

Kira's 1st DANCE Recital!!!

Tonight was Kira's very 1st dance recital with the Freckled Frog dance studio. Here she is backstage with her dancer friends. All the girls were having fun and being super hyper backstage! I think Kira was the leader to alot of the chaos going on!


Some of the girls watching Act 1 on the carpet. Their dance was in Act 2. Go figure.... who the heck makes 2-3 year olds wait to go on in Act 2?! They were all so cute!


She's looking directly at me, Vic and Logan because she finally found us out of the entire audience! She was so happy, excited and NOT even scared at all! She did sooo good and remembered the entire dance!


She even tried to curtsy at the end and fell! It was so cute but also hilarious! Vic got it on video and were all cracking up laughing while watching it!

Here's the little girls in Kira's dance class. All are age 18 months - 3 yrs old. Kira is the 2nd tallest in the bunch. It was an evening to remember. We were definitely the proud parents!

Hair Cuts!

So today's Hair cuts was a special occassion so I brought my camera. What special occassion you ask.... Kira's 2nd hair cut! She's only had ONE hair cut when she turned ONE year old! Her hair has gotten soooo long it started to look a little "worn" on the ends so I decided it was time for her to have a trim. My Mom's been bugging me for months but I've always dreamed of having a daughter with LONG hair so I just couldn't do it any earlier. Now I think her hair is long enough that a trim won't matter.

Since she is such a "girly girl" she had no problem going and getting her hair washed by the lady. She actually enjoyed it so much the hair lady even made a comment. I told her she was very girly and even only at almost 3 yrs old, she loves being pampered (mani-pedi's).

Kira gets to take her first "ride" in the car seat!


This was Logan's first time getting his hair washed at the hair place. Even though he's been coming her and getting his hair cut like every 2-3 wks since he was 9 months old! He is such a wimp when it comes to things like this. We had to talk him into doing it and I had to stand there and hold his hand. The only pictures I got were these and I was a mean Mom as I sat there cracking up laughing at him. He was NOT fond of this at all as you can tell!


The hair lady (Lynn) did Kira's hair in a side french braid. I too do this for Kira but not this fast nor this neat and tidy! WOW! Amazing! Then she curled the bottom of her hair.


Showing off her new hair cut and pretty hair! Very pretty and girly! The braid was perfect since Kira had her 1st dance recital this night.





Smiles for Mom!

Winter Wonderland at East Lake

Trying to play catch up with our Family blog.... We went to the Winter Wonderland at East Lake again this year. It was a last minute decision or at least a 2 day before decision. Wasn't sure if I was going to go since my Mom was out of the country and Vic always has to work on Friday nights. We ended up going anyways, me the kids and my poor Dad that already had to watch them by himself ALL day for 11 hours!!! We decided to knock out the things that we knew would have the longest lines. We did Santa which was a pretty short line as well as the Pony rides. Much smarter to plan out your time there!


The kids got to play in the snow, eat hot dogs, popcorn, cookies and hot chocolate as well!


They both once again LOVED the pony rides! This year they also had a petting zoo with tons of little animals.

Vic finally showed up toward the end to relieve my poor Dad from such a LONG day and night! The snow slides is the most FUN I think! Even I went on it again this year. Your never too old to have fun right? Why not be a kid if you can?!

Hope to go again next year. Hopefully I'll plan it better and bring along some of our family and/or friends!

Family Photos Just Because...

This November we finally had family photos done! TWICE too! I am always behind the camera capturing what I like or think looks good and finally I get to be in pictures with my family. First we had an "amateur" photographer do some for us. She's just now getting into this so she charged me practically chump change in exchange for ALL photos and I would edit and process them myself. Well disappointingly out of 200-something images taken I only ended up liking these that you see here. She said she mainly does weddings but from looking at her stuff I see NO WAY how that would be true. Anyhow, here's the bunch that I edited and that I do like.

Then we had our 2nd session in mid-November with an AWESOME professional photographer! (I'll drop the name later after my Christmas cards are out). We traveled all the way up to Oak Glen (Apple picking country) because that's what I had envisioned. Her photos came out FANTASTIC and I was soooo very pleased! Can't wait to share those.

Now after 2 family photo sessions this past month... according to Vic we are DONE doing that for life, LOL! Yeah right! Maybe again in another 2 yrs or so.

Kira's Room (Duvet)

Giving some "love" to Kira's room on this post. Finally we got her a down comforter to put in her Duvet. I bought her this fairytale theme bed set from Pottery Barn in the summer but didn't get a chance to use it since I didn't have a down comforter for her yet. The other night she woke up 3 times to come in my room and tell me she was COLD! She's so weird and sleeps upside down meaning where her feet are suppose to be is where she lays her head. She also is ADDICTED to her bumper from her crib days so we have had to attach it to her bed rail. She LOVES it so much, loves to smell it, rub on it, hug it... you name it, everything! It's seriously like she's ADDICTED to it because all thru the day she will need to go in her room and take a "hit" (smell or feel) of it. It's quite strange but hilarious. Neither of my kids have every had a pacifier or a blankie so I guess this is her thing! (Sorry, her room is pretty messy as always).

Oh and she is ADDICTED to that crib aquarium music thingy you see above! Can't complain though. Since she was a baby she's been an AWESOME sleeper. Just turn on the music and that's it!


Here's her duvet cover. I think it's cute... Fairytale theme and the colors match her room well.
:)

A Visit to SANTA!

Santa is already at the Mall! We go to visit Santa every year around this time to beat the LONG lines! Surprisingly this year Kira wasn't scared at all. Last year was a whole different story! She was terrified of him and wouldn't go near him. I had to hold her. I love dressing the kids up in Christmas attire! It just makes it that much more "Christmasy"! I admit, I can't stand it when I see kids going to visit Santa and they are dressed in regular clothes, I don't know why but it totally bugs! (Sorry if your one of those people, LOL!)

Above is the shot I paid for! It's cute but quality is terrible, oh well!


I just realized that Kira's hair is really LONG!!! I think I'll finally get it trimmed soon!

Here they are picking out their lollipops. It was funny because Logan said no thank you to Santa's lollipop and told him he didn't need one because we were going to the candy store next door, LOL! Santa insisted they both take one anyways and save for later.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week and Christmas (Logan's Bday) is right around the corner!!!

Another Reason Why I LOVE Christmas!

I LOVE Christmas because Santa decided to give us the most unexpected gift in 2004! LOGAN! Whenever this Holiday season comes around we tell him that all the decorations, all the lights, all the trees, all the music etc. is everyone also celebrating his birthday! He LOVES it so much! The other night he peeked out his window and saw the neighbor behind us had their Christmas lights up already. He came to get me so that he could show me and the next question out of his mouth was, "Is my Birthday tomorrow or in 2 days"?! So CUTE!

The following day he was so excited he told Vic that they had to put up the lights already. When I was at work they did put up some lights but they also did lights in Logan's room. That little Christmas tree in his room, he's had since he was a baby. We put it in his room every year and tell him it's his Birthday Tree! He was so excited about the lights! Lights equal closer to Christmas which means his Birthday! He "gets" it! :)

ONE Year Later... A New Beginning

Today is the "anniversary" of the horrible fires we had back in 2008. It started out a really good and normal day. Went to the gym with the kids and when we came out it smelled like smoke. It looked like it was far away from us so I went about my day as I normally would. (Fires in CA happen all the time and you know once or twice you've changed the channel when the news would be talking about yet another CA fire, I'll admit I did before). Then next for our day was a shower and taking the kids to my first spray tan. My good friend Jules was nice enough to meet us there with her 2 girls so she could watch my kids for the 10 minutes I was being sprayed. Next thing we new the smoke had come closer, fire trucks were driving by even tactical weapons specialist trucks. All this had us alarmed. We decided to go up to Jules parent's house (which happens to be up the street from my parent's house) to see if anything was visable from the 2nd story window. We were there for quite a while pacing back and forth, phone calls and texts here and there while the news was on TV. It just came to a point when we all decided, "We need to get the heck out of here"! I put the kids in the car which turned their mood from having fun playing all together to pretty much sheer panic. Probably didn't help that I was panicing and crying. It was the middle of the day yet the sky made it appear dark and RED! I drove down the hill to my parents house, left the kids sitting in the car alone and ran in to find all 3 cats and grab whatever I could. I didn't even know what to grab or what to do. I just remember literally pacing back an forth in the house like a dumb idiot not knowing what to do. It was a really bad weekend for us and I'm actually really glad my parent's were out of town. I wouldn't want my Mom to experience all this being that it was her own house with all her beloved memories inside. And the fact that if my Dad, Colin and Vic had been home they would of been up there with hoses until the last minute! (The photo above was taken by a Firefighter photographer. That is Colin's work truck in the driveway).

Here's the aftermath. A shot from the backyard looking forward. Unbelievable how fire demolishes everything. There was nothing left.

My family standing next to the American flag that remained in tact even with the raging fire burning our house down... go figure!

The new house.... The house they are building this time around is a 2 story and double the sq/ft. It's suppose to be completed sometime in January and we all can't wait for it! To new beginnings!

THANK YOU to ALL of you who were so supportive for me and my family and donated your time, food, money etc. to my parents and other fire victims! We are greatly appreciative!