Christmas....

I love how Luke's in the background intent on prying open some toy. It captures a parents Christmas morning so perfectly! This begs the question... why oh why do they practically cement the toys to the boxes??

Christmas morning: Logan playing his "tigar" as he calls it. He likes to play with our Rock Band guitars and "rock out" with me so I figured this would love one his size. 

This is the table Santa brought him. He loves art so it will be nice for him to play on. The yellow thing spiraling down from the top is a race car track. It's pretty cool!

Since Alicia and Ben were headed off to Thailand on Christmas Day, my family opened our gifts on Christmas Eve. My mom cooked steak and shrimp and we had some sushi from Osaka (delish!!). After dinner the gift extravaganza began.... as you can see, Jesse got a nice guitar. He's learning how to play and is already pretty good. He must have a natural talent like my dad. On Christmas day my parents came over for our traditional breakfast. That afternoon we headed over to Luke's aunt Charisse's house for yummy enchilada soup and more gifts. Logan loved opening his presents and everyone else's. We had a great Christmas. Thanks to everyone for the gifts and company!

HELP!!!

My family has decided to rent a beach house in Oregon this summer. The only problem is... I'm not sure which coastal town to choose. I've read about a few beaches on the internet but how much can you really tell from a few pictures and a paragraph?? This is where you come in!! If anyone has any recommendations on which town to stay in, I would be forever grateful. :-)

Big Boy Bed....

Shooting his webs.

Luke and I have been thinking for a while about getting Logan a "big boy bed." It was becoming apparent that he was quickly outgrowing his crib. I was really worried that he wouldn't want to sleep in a bigger bed.... like me, he fears change. We decided to take the plunge a few days ago. We really talked up sleeping in a big boy bed and I got him a Spiderman sheet set that's reversible so he could choose "black" Spiderman or "red" Spiderman (as he calls them). 

I didn't have anything to worry about! He loves his bed. For the first few days it was hard to get him to sleep he was so excited. It does make me a little sad to see the crib go... he's just growing up too fast! 

Very excited about his Spiderman bed.

Alicia & Ben.....

Alicia wanted me to take some pictures of her and Ben on Sunday. I haven't really taken any pictures for a while, but I think they turned out OK. I really don't know how people do this for a living. My head is aching from spending so much time staring at the computer! 

Funny or Embarrassing... I can't decide....

The other night I was watching TV waiting for Luke to be finished on the computer so we could watch a TiVoed episode of The Office together. I was watching Access Hollywood or Extra or one of those dumb "news" shows. They showed a clip of an upcoming story about a woman with enormous breasts. I'm talking watermelon huge, people. I was so astounded, I couldn't help but exclaim, "Holy crap, that woman has the biggest boobs I've ever seen!" to Luke (of course he turned around to look, the pervert) :-), totally forgetting that an impressionable little 2-year-old was sitting next to me. Then Logan says "That lady had big boobies, mom!" Luke and I burst out laughing because, let's face it, a 2-year-old saying "big boobies" is pretty funny. 

Fast forward to today. Luke and I were shopping at a furniture store and we were standing talking to the sales lady when Logan decides to announce, out of nowhere, mind you, "You have big boobs, mom!" As if the world can't see this for themselves, my son feels the need broadcast it to everyone within a five feet radius. Nice.

Our New House.....

A few of my out-of-town relatives have requested pictures of our new house. Sorry it took so long... if I'm going to post pictures of my house on the internet it's got to be very nearly spotless, which doesn't happen very often! 

It's 3 beds, 2 baths... about 4200 sq feet.

Front of the house: it's got a pretty high daylight basement because we're so close to the river.

Master bath: tub and shower

Another view of Master Bath

Master Bedroom: yes, our TV is giant... it's called compromise!

Master, again

Kitchen

Kitchen, again

Dining room off of the kitchen. My pans are still in boxes because there's not quite enough storage. I ordered this Amish made pantry but it takes 6 weeks to make!

Great Room

Another view...

Basement: it has a walk-out to the backyard. It's only 50% finished so we have room to grow.

More basement and yes, another large TV. Luke likes his TV's huge!

Logan's room, he just woke up from his nap

Logan's bathroom

Loft area on the second floor

The Twilight Movie....

I'll try not to put any spoilers in here but if you don't want to hear anything about the movie, don't read any farther!!! 

So, I went to see the midnight showing of the Twilight movie with my friends on Thursday night. I thought it was OK, maybe 6 or 7 out of 10 with quite a few points taken away for extreme cheesiness. I thought Robert Pattinson did a good job with the Edward character... it seems to me he looks better on film than in a photograph! I thought the story seemed a bit rushed and I didn't like the way the vampire speed was portrayed. I also thought they ruined the meadow scene. I pictured it differently. I would have liked to have seen more of Alice and I thought Jasper was just plain weird. Whatever!! I guess the movie is never better than the book because Hollywood can't reproduce what's in our imaginations. 

All in all, they stuck to the book.... even including actual passages from the book as dialogue. I would watch it again and I'm planning on buying it when it comes out. What did everyone else think?

--- I read an article today that the studio is in talks to make New Moon with Robert and Kristin in the same roles but maybe not using the same director. Hopefully the Twilight movies will be like the Harry Potter movies... each movie getting successively better!  

Tagged....

I was tagged by Brooke Prothero to list 6 random things about myself.

The rules:
Link to the person who tagged you
List the rules
Tag six fellow bloggers.
Leave them a comment so they know they've been tagged

1. I have an incredible weakness for shoes and purses. I really have to control myself so it doesn't get out of hand. I have a 1 purse every 6 months rule and I try not to go into shoe stores too often!

2. I have this weird symptom left over from my pregnancy.... I dry-heave when I brush my teeth. I have to really concentrate when I brush my back teeth and tongue not to vomit! I started when I was pregnant with Logan and it hasn't gone away. :-(

3. I suspect I'm a little OCD about cleaning. I'm not one of those people who has to have everything in it's place (who can be with a 2-year-old???), but I do need to have things clean and organized or I feel out of sorts. Honestly, I get this strange pleasure from cleaning... it makes me feel better.. almost peaceful. I know, I'm weird.

4. Like Brooke, I'm not really good at things that involve style. My usual uniform is jeans and a tee-shirt. I don't know how to do my hair... it's usually straight down or up in a ponytail. I have no idea how to apply make-up so it looks good. You know those girls that you see... their faces look like they stepped right out a makeup ad??? I desperately wish I could do that! I can't decorate my house. I'll go to Hobby Lobby or Tai Pan with these big ideas, then I get there and I can't make a decision, get frustrated, and leave without buying anything. 

5. I like to cook. I think it's fun to pour over recipe books to try to find new things to do in the kitchen.

6. I love to travel. I'm always excited to go any new place. I would love to travel across Europe. It's my dream when I'm old to buy one of those huge RV's and travel across the US and Canada.

Halloween Festivities.....

Logan was Spiderman for Halloween this year (obviously). He loved walking around in his costume and shooting his webs at people. We only went to relatives houses but he was all about yelling "Trick-or-Treat!" when they opened the door. The only thing was, he wanted to eat all the candy immediately. We had a lot of fun... I think next year we'll be ready to trick-or-treating for real.

Shooting his webs.

I realize I cut the pumpkins off. Oh well, I can't do anything about it now!

Logan thought it was great fun carving pumpkins. He also loves hamming it up for the camera, if you couldn't tell!

Witches Night Out

On Saturday, my friends and I went down to Gardiner Village to Witches Night Out. If you've never been, it's really fun!!! Everyone dresses up like witches and there's entertainment and shopping. This was the first time we've been but we had so much fun we're going to make it a yearly tradition.

Homecoming....

This is my beautiful sister-in-law, Kristin. She recently went to Northridge's homecoming and we went over to take pictures of her before she left for the dance. Let me tell you, this picture doesn't even do her justice, she looked so gorgeous! It make me want to get all dressed up and go somewhere fun! Too bad adults don't have an excuse to that!

Washington DC.......

Luke recently had to go to Washington DC for a series of meetings and, as usual, I went along to make the flight a bit easier for Luke. I absolutely love the East Coast... it's so green and lovely. There was an awesome rain storm one night... lightening every 5 seconds... pouring rain. Luke and I ran from the car to the hotel, we were in the rain for probably 4 seconds, and we were completely soaked. I just love storms like that! Anyway, here are some highlights:

The White House (obviously)

The Washington Monument. We didn't have a chance to ride up to the top. We only had one day for sight-seeing so we wanted to get in as much as we could. 

The view looking across the WWII memorial and reflecting pool to the Lincoln memorial. 

WWII memorial again.

WWII memorial pond. The pillars with wreaths on them behind me each have the name of a state on them.

View across the reflecting pond to the Lincoln memorial.

Looking the other direction across the WWII memorial.

The Vietnam memorial. This wall was huge, pictures just don't do it justice. For those who don't know the names on the wall are those KIA or MIA. There are so many names... as Luke and I were walking along the length of the wall, I couldn't help but get a little choked up contemplating the price these men and women paid for our country.

The Capitol Building. As this picture was being taken our Congress was inside debating the bailout. So you could say this picture is a little piece of history! :-)

JFK's grave.

The Grand Canyon....

My wonderful hubby surprised me with a trip to the Grand Canyon for our 6th anniversary. Neither of us had been and we had a great time. It's a really awesome sight, if you've never been you have to go! Here are some highlights: