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!