Status updates from facebook this past week...(reverse order)

will--"mom, i need you to come kiss my face." (i did.) will--"don't i smell like yummy chocolate and peanut butter?" yes, he sure did. i guess he found the valentine's candy i hid but how can i possibly be upset about this?

after our yummy vday dinner @ macaroni grill we dropped off my car for service at the toyota shop down the road. following conversation ensued...syd--"who has the fastest car in our family?" katie--"probably dad." syd--"well, God's in our family and i bet His car is faster AND bigger." katie--"yeah, i bet God's car is silver and gold and has pearls on the wheels." syd--"yeah, and i bet every seat has it's own dvd player and there's probably pretty jewels on the lights." katie--"cool, i wish we could have a car like that!"

and finally...

me to kids--"okay guys, time to clean up so we can go to dinner." syd--"where are we going, mc donalds?" me--"no, somewhere nicer for valentine's day." syd--"chick-fil-a?" ha ha...we have our kids well-trained.

Merry Christmas, 2 months late!

My sister in law and I made this collage to give the grandparents for Christmas. We had a lot of fun with the kids--the dads helped--and it was a very memorable gift!

A first for our family...EVERY kid WANTED to see Santa and all were smiling!

One of my Christmas highlights was going out to a fabulous dinner with some of
my favorite people. Last year we did pot luck...having someone fix it and clean it up
is going to be a new favorite tradition! Love you, girls!

NEW MOON

I love Twilight. I am not ashamed of it. I went with about a dozen of my favorite people to see the "New Moon" premier at midnight opening night. We had a wonderful dinner at Cheesecake Factory beforehand and then loaded up and all of the wonderful movie treats while we sat in our seats for 2 hours before the movie started. At least we were sitting in the warm theater and not standing in line outside where it was freezing! It was an awesome girls night out, absolutely no calorie counting! Only 131 more days until "Eclipse" comes out!

California

I do believe it is the happiest place on earth. Especially as the kids get older
we can really go and have fun with fewer meltdowns and more rides together!

Katie LOVES the dolphins. She got to touch one which was super exciting
and she is hoping to swim with one in Hawaii...stay tuned!

Will practiced building sand castles (as opposed to stomping on them last year!)
Coronado is our favorite beach in the continental U.S. We absolutely LOVE it here!

Syd was Mom's sand dollar buddy. We spent several hours over the course of our time
there searching for them, I think we have figured out how to get the best ones!

The last 4 years we have visited San Diego I have wanted to rent the surrey and ride
around Coronado with our kids. This was our lucky year!
Umm...I would not recommend this activity unless your kids are old enough to help
pedal (none of ours had legs long enough to reach the pedals!) It was very fun
(we stopped halfway around the island for ice cream,) but a
LOT of work! PS. A Chinese tourist stopped us and asked if he could take a picture--
for himself--he wanted to show his friends back home an American family. He
kindly offered to take one with our camera, too. I hope we don't show up on
some billboard in Beijing!

Well, here we are just 45 minutes after school got out...we are in for the night, wearing our pajamas, and sipping hot chocolate--with marshmallows, of course!
Bring on the snow!

(Actually, I could do without the snow for a bit longer; but I am definitely a fan of pajamas during the day and chocolatey drinks!)

Oh boy...

And now it is SNOWING! Will just declared, "It's Christmas!"
If so, then where's my peppermint white mocha?

Rain, rain, go away!

I have no idea where the summer went? We had a lot of fun this summer, mostly stuck close to home and played outside with friends. The kids had a blast and I pretty much collapsed into bed at the end of each day--exhausted from the exertion from entertaining three small, busy children. Right before school started we took a last minute trip to OKC to meet up with some of my family, as I had a cousin competing in the AQHA Junior World Championships. We only had one full day there, so that meant a good portion of the 5 days we were gone were spent in the car. The kids did super--we did give them the incentive of hotels with pools for their good behavior--and it worked! On our last night we were blessed to find a BRAND NEW Holiday Inn Express in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma. Not kidding, brand new! Love this picture of the kids all sharing a bed!
Sometimes Lance asks one of us to walk on his back, it cracks a lot but he insists that it feels good. I guess on this particular morning one chiropractor was just not enough.

Katie on her first day of 2nd grade. Where does the time go?

Syd & Will on the first day of preschool. Fun times!

Up until this morning, we have had consistently beautiful weather. We didn't have one single day in triple digits this summer, what a nice change! This morning at about 4 am it started to rain. It is still raining and it is only forty degrees outside; it was 75 yesterday. I'm not quite ready for fall...