I don't do New Year resolutions.......

...but this year it kind of seems like I do.  I've always been resistant to make resolutions. Maybe because no one ever seems to finish them. So I've never made them. This year tho I've just happened to start things around that time of year. So does that count??

For example - I've started blogging again. I actually started doing it again because I recently read Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson. You know - the survivor of a plane crash. Anyway - loved the book and I know she is a blogger so I logged onto hers and started reading it. Which then led me to go back and check on mine. Then I started reading thru and was so happy reading and seeing my family grow. So I decided to start it up again.

Second - Sam asked me a few weeks ago if I would try something with him.  I was hesitant to even ask what is was. Then totally against it once he told me his plan. A month of no dairy, no flour, and no sugar. No sugar!!  Ahhh.  I thought it was a good idea for him but not for ME! haha. But after I thought about it and thought about it I decided that I would give it a try. I need to be a lot better at being aware of what I am putting in my body. This is helping with that. We also started taking fish oil. It is helping both of our eczema and my skin all around. Well I actually I am not sure if its the fish oil, the no sugar, the no diary or no flour that is making the difference. But something is doing something. Plus I've already lost 4 pounds, which was not really my goal but still is fine. So at the end of the month we can add things back in and see what effects it has and if we need to keep it eliminated or not. We can also have treats every once in a while after our month is up. Before I had at least one treat every single day. Treats were pretty much my main food source. So I thought this was going to be extremely hard but so far it really isn't too bad. It's far from over so we'll see if I still feel like that down the road.


I have been finding that eating things without a bun is super messy! A bun does so much

Third - I've started going on bike rides every week with my friend Carley. We've had some interest from other friends in joining us so we might become a bike gang pretty soon. We started by just biking around our neighborhood loop which is around 5 miles. Then jumped right into a 23 mile ride that goes from our house out to Newport Beach around the back bay. It's a beautiful ride and I am really enjoying it.

So I guess - Happy New Year

here we go....

 I realize I haven't blogged for a long time. I actually have avoided it for quite some time because of the guilt I felt for neglecting it. Before we moved from Oregon I didn't want to blog until I knew where we were going and what job Sam would be doing. Then once Sam did get a job I was so overwhelmed with getting the house ready to be sold, packing, plus since Sam moved a couple months before we did, I was a single mom. I stayed behind so the kids could finish the school year. Now we have been living in Irvine, CA - Orange County- for a little over a year and a half. I was a little nervous to move to "LA" -- but I was so pleasantly surprised. I love it here. The people are so, so nice. I knew the weather would be great and it has not disappointed. The traffic really isn't that bad. I just avoid the freeways during rush hour and always try to avoid LA - the real LA - which we don't live in. We live in Orange County which I have concluded is a whole different world.
Its overwhelming to try to cover everything thats happened in the last year and half - 2 years since I've blogged. So I decided I just will do some quick overall highlights of what we've been unto here and then start fresh.
When I did finally log back on - I started reading my blog - all of our old posts and looked at all the pictures. I loved it and was so grateful I had done it.  My memory is terrible and seems to only be getting worse so the more I can document the happier I will be in the future. I don't want to forget these awesome years. They have already gone by sooooooo fast.  Fresh start. Here we go.

We've done a lot of this...............

And this..............

                           

And this..... 64 trips in a year to be exact

We've had 2 Halloweens here so far...............

 We've done 2 commercials. Kind of by accident - still fun. 

 Gwenny girl got baptized................

 Our beloved Peazy Lou passed away at the age of 12. Still hurts..........

 And we had our very first Christmas on our own, no family. It was different but we tried to make it special. 

 There are so many more things that happened - like birthdays, teeth lost, making friends, school, gymnastics and more. One of my favorite things about living here is that even tho we aren't lucky enough to live next to family anymore, we DO live 13 miles from Disneyland and THAT means we get lots and lots of visitors.  We've had a pretty steady stream of family and friends come visit the whole time we've been here. And that makes me feel more connected which I'm so grateful for.

I am also grateful to be so close to the beach - it is my happy place. How could it not be. Beautiful.

Spring is Here!!

It's March 21st - yesterday was the first official day of Spring -- can't you tell........

I believe this is the first snowman I've ever made. Sad but true. And it was a lot more work then I thought. And so... it is tiny. And... I was sweating when I was done. That is sad but true as well. (oh and Gwenny helped too. And Jackson threw snowballs at us while we worked. And Addie stayed inside watching tv in my warm bed)

The (new) tradition of making Sam pull them on a sled behind his bike..

Addie trying to catch the snow flakes.....
Caught one in her mouth -- it must have been a yellow snow flake because she clearly was disgusted ;)
And as exciting as snow is to my children for the first 5 minutes of play -- it always turns to this..........
I wonder where they get their aversion to cold from????? ;)

hanging around

Since Sam's current full time job is searching for and applying for jobs - he is home a lot. It's pretty fun to have him around. He'll say "want to go do this or that" - and I'll say "yeah" and then we do. We've gone to lunch. We've gone shooting. We've gone to Portland. We've surprised the kids at school and had lunch with them. We've gone on lots of walks with Jackson - since he is usually home with us while the girls are in school.

This no work thing is kinda fun. A little stressful sometimes - but we are enjoying our time together.

So to update you - still no job (obviously) - but he has been getting lots of phone interviews set up lately and more things seem to keep coming along. So we aren't discouraged. We know the right thing will come along - so we are just waiting. And having some fun while we wait.

Here is a picture of Sam and Jackson from one of our adventures. I love them.

Disneyland 2012

We started our week at Disneyland by starting it off with a run for the whole family. On Sat. morning they held a kids fun run in California Adventures. I ran with the girls and Sam ran with Jackson. I'm so sad that Sam did not think to take any pictures of him. :( But they all loved it and did such a great job. They all got little shirts and plastic medals too.

Here is Addie and Gwenny by the starting line of their run.

The next day I ran the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. I loved it! It was my very first run to run alone. I've always had a running buddy with me. I was supposed to have my friend Carley with me - but due to stupid work stuff - those plans fell thru. Then I was hoping to get Sam to take her spot - which he was willing to do. Some friends from church were actually there at the same time (she did the run too) and offered to let us drop them off at their hotel before the run. The problem was - the run began at 5:45 AM! I had to be there by 4:30AM - so there was no way I was going to do that to anyone or my kids. So I ran it alone. And it really was great.

I had worried because my knee had been giving me a lot of problems in the weeks leading up to it. But I just took a bunch of ibprofen - put on a knee brace and I was good to go. I felt great running. I think it must be the magic of Disneyland. :)
Our hotel was around mile 8 of the race. So I ran with my cell phone and just called to wake up Sam and the kids about a mile before I got there. I can't tell you what a boost it is to have a familiar face cheering you on in these races - so to have 4 loving faces out there cheering for me (bedhead and all) - was awesome!

Then Disneyland begun.

The girls were able to ride on every single ride! Gwenny really wasn't actually tall enough (just by a tiny bit) to go on California Screaming - but they let her ride. And she rode as many times as her little heart desired - which was a lot of times! :) And Jackson could go on everything except 2 - California Screaming and Indiana Jones.

The weekend there was more crowded of course - but once Monday came - it was so great. No lines!! We'd just walk right onto most of the rides. Never want to go when I have to wait - got to spoiled that way.

Have I mentioned how much I love Disneyland. I really do. It just makes me happy to be there.

We met up some some of our favorite friends.....

Addie got over her fear (with a little bride of a $1) and volunteered to get up in front of an audience - that was her fear over fighting the dark side.
She fought a good fight and won! So proud of my girl.
The best part was - we just got to play together for a week - it was fantastic!!

And this is just my favorite picture of the bunch. I just love the look on his face standing there with his buddy Lightening McQueen.
Can't wait for our next trip....although I'm pretty sure Sam can ;)

January's crazy weather

January's summary has to do with the crazy weather. Where we live it doesn't snow very often - but it sure is exciting when it does.

Here is Sam pulling the kids on a sled behind his bike on all that snow! We make the most out of it when it's here. I took a turn pulling too - it was quite a work out.

3 days later - this happened. This is our street. It was crazy. People died from swollen rivers, people were evacuated, even our church building was flooded. It still is not in full use. Hope that does not happen again.

Dec. 2011 catch up

My brother in law - Paul - works for Pepsi in Corvallis. Pepsi had a float in the Christmas parade and wanted "Who's" for their Grinch inspired float. My nieces were in it so my sister - Misty - invited the rest of the cousins to join in. It turned out so cute -- I still am mad they didn't win a prize for their float - they were definitely the cutest - by far. :)

Here they are in action ( I tried to get the red eye out - but wouldn't work - but they still look cute - just a little evil.)

We did a little ice skating. Well the girls and the dad's (and uncle Tony) did. Alicia and I sat out with Tori and Jackson. It was fun to watch tho. Especially watching Sam and my brothers trying to do tricks on the ice.
Then there was Christmas. I was really horrible with pictures this year. Only took a few on Christmas morning when the kids opened their stockings.

Here is Jackson with his Santa present -- another Light Saber
Gwen got her special secret diary that she asked for. The writing only shows up under a special light and the diary only opens up to Gwen's secret word - voice activated. She shows me what she writes in there. It's pretty juicy stuff like "I love mom" and things like that. :) She's pretty cute.

And Miss Addie got her hearts desire. A jewelry box with one of those spinning ballerinas in it. Plus it had a bunch of cute jewelry inside. She is so my mom. :)

And of course - we had our neighbor Shirley come over for Christmas morning to be a part of all the excitement. We love her.
Two days after Christmas - I turned 32. We partied at the roller skating rink. It was really fun! This is the only pic I have from it - it's off my sisters cell phone - so it's not the best. OR we were just skating so fast - we were a blur. Yes, lets go with that.
And lastly - we rang in the new year at Keith and Alicia's house. The kids loved being able to stay up so late AND bang on pots and pans. We are wild and crazy (if it were up to me - I would have been asleep for hours by then - but I'm the party pooper and didn't get my way;)
Good month.