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!