Kiddos

My super talented friend Susanne took these for us this week. You can view more of her stuff here.

Carmel Photo Shoot

What do you get...

...when you ask the kids to take a picture of the moms?

After many failed attempts, success!

Cambria's new picture

Tagged by Sarah

I'm not much of a tagger, but you know I can't resist a blog challenge!

What I was doing 10 years ago...
1. Crying over the 7 pounds I gained after 1 year of marriage
2. Bowling on a league with my MIL, cause I'm a super champ bowler
3. Trying to wish the snow away so I wouldn't have to dig out my car
4. Still figuring out how I was really supposed to be in charge of making meals
5. Watching network TV on our 23 inch console, because we were way too broke for cable

5 things on my to-do list today...
1. Get all my stuff done for Super Saturday
2. Finish my Prop 8 calls
3. Figure out how I am really supposed to be in charge of making meals
4. Sweep and mop the entire house...I miss carpet!!!!
5. Perhaps find a last minute babysitter and sneak a date with Clint

5 favorite snacks...
1. Garlic bread
2. brownie sundaes (I know it's not a snack, but it's delicious)
3. dark chocolate cherry granola bars
4. popcorn
5. cheese

5 jobs I've had...
1. Babysitter extraordinaire
2. Farmers Insurance
3. Accounts Payable - Kitchen and Bath Ideas
4. Domestic Engineer - Hoskins' House
5. Blogreader - I do it like it's my job, so don't knock it

5 things I would do with a million dollars...
1. Buy my dream home in San Diego, I already know the address
2. Vacation all over the place...Hawaii, Australia, Jamaica, Virginia...
3. Buy some awesome cars, a house cleaner and laundry folder
4. Share the wealth with my friends and family who need it
5. Make a time machine and go back and invest in Microsoft

5 things that made me laugh this week...
1. Watching Cambria flex her butt while laying on her tummy at the beach
2. The dog chewing up the book on how to train your dog (more to follow)
3. My fabulous experience at the hotel
4. The fact that I still think I am young enough to stay up till midnight
5. The fact that I slept till 7:15 a.m. and smiled that I got to sleep in

5 people I tag to answer these questions...
1. Aundrea
2. Katie
3. Ginny
4. Chrissey
5. Sarah B. (Can you feel THAT love??)

Grandpa the Great

Clint's Grandpa is our last link to that generation in our family. We love him and wish we could be with him! Thanks to the techno age we live in, we can send him this message instantly! We love you Grandpa!!

Pumpkins and such

Last Monday night we went to the Pumpkin Patch. The kids picked out all different pumpkins and had so much fun!

Wildfires

I dropped Clint off at the airport this morning at 5:00 and headed home with the kids. We had to stop and be redirected because of this. It must have just flared up because we watched it go from pretty mild to crazy burning! It was a little scary! I think my picture is better of the actual flames than the one on the news website. I should sell it!

Loads of DisneyLand Fun

Going during October was so so festive! They had pumpkins everywhere and I do NOT envy the crew that has to pull that off every year. I imagine a similar decorating extravaganza occurs at Christmas time. Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters was one of our favorite rides... ...but Woody's Rootin' Tootin' Shootout was the best!

DisneyLand

You may say, why would they all dress alike? I wasn't trying to be cute or matchy-matchy. I'll tell you it's one of our best tips from the trip. I read that you should color coordinate small children so they are easy to spot. Well, by color coordinating our whole family, it was absolutely fabulous. If Clint and Gavin went on a ride and had to come find us, they looked for the red shirts. I also looked for their red shirts and it was so easy to spot. I wouldn't recommend white or yellow, well, I actually wouldn't recommend any other color at all, but it was such a great idea and I am so glad we did it!

Hotels.com, friend or foe?

Just thought I would pass along some quick information on our hotel that hotels.com forgot to post about it, a Ramada. Keep in mind, all this is completely complimentary!

1. "Language Immersion Program" -For one square mile you will not find anything on a sign that is in English. So whether you need a dry cleaner or a place for breakfast, you better bone up on your languages, because this program is not for wimps.
I am sure glad they translated that, or I would have NO idea what that meant.

2. "Live Nightly Entertainment" -Each night you will have the opportunity to listen to some fabulous karaoke tunes belted out by some local vocalists. This will be located directly below your room in the restaurant portion of the hotel. It goes until 1:30 am, so sing as loud as possible! Oh, and did we mention, there won't be American songs to choose from, you're in Little Saigon, so the local muscial selections reign.

3. "Friends to Last Longer Than you Could Hope" -When you are ready to jump in the shower, meet and greet your new friends. They're tenacious little fellows, so don't even bother trying to wash them down the drain. Luckily for you, they will gladly come home with you and be week-long companions.

We enjoyed all these little perks, we hope you can too!

Hittin' the beach

We went out to Lover's Point on Thursday and had so much fun! We didn't stay too long, but it was a great time!

Children's Museum

This was our little trip to the San Jose Children's Museum. It was loads of fun!! We ended at the Cheesecake Factory. Yes all 4 of us, with our 11 children. It was a pretty exciting venture. We shall not discuss it any further.

Conference

This Sunday was General Conference for our Church. Twice a year, our church leaders speak to us as an entire LDS people. It's so great to hear from them and to top it off, we get to sit on our couch and watch it in our jammies. That's right, people, church on TV. Love it! Anyway, it gives us about 8 hours to sit and listen without running around in and out of the house. We try to think of something that we can do while we sit. Usually laundry tops the list, but since that was all done we were free to occupy our sitting bodies otherwise. I worked on my Christmas cards for card group and Clint mastered the Rubik's cube. All in all, a pretty productive time. Plus, the speakers were amazing which was the best part of it all.

Fall Break Fun

The kids are on their 2-week fall break right now. Which basically means, mom is going to go crazy all over again. We are trying to keep super busy, and I mean SUPER busy, so we won't be bored. Here's our schedule so far:

Monday

8:30-11:00 - YMCA

11:00-12:00 shoe store and lunch

12:00-12:45 pharmacy for prescriptions

1:00-3:00 swimming with friends

3:00-5:45 showers, clean up rooms, and dinner

5:45-7:00 pumpkin patch with friends

7:00-8:00 In-N-Out for some delicious neopolitan shakes

8:00 BED

Tuesday

10:30-3:00 Aquarium Mystery Shop

3:00-4:00 Piano lessons

4:00-5:00 get home, change for soccer practice and grab snacks

5:00-6:00 soccer practice

6:00-7:00 grab some fast food for dinner and bring it home so Clint can eat before mutual

7:00-7:30 fit in 30 minutes of wii and then BED

Needless to say, we're tired. Tomorrow is the Children's Museum and Cheesecake Factory! Two days down, so many more to go...

Arts and Crafts part 2

Oh, and this was what Cambria looked like at the end of our painting session.

Arts and Crafts

The kids love to paint. I rarely indulge them , but I decided to let them go for it. I just had to smile at Cambria's selection of paints. I didn't know I had 6 different colors of pink. I guess she needed to coordinate with her shirt, pants, socks, paintbrush and shoes...she's such a girl, no doubt about it!