Darda Racetrack

This might be a little late for all you organized people out there, but I thought I'd share something my boys got for their birthdays from Grandpa and Grandma that would make a great Christmas present. The Darda Create a Course building system is available on Amazon and you have 5 more days to still use free super saver shipping :). It is really great. You can build a million different layouts and then you just rev the cars and let them go...no batteries required. From our one set, we currently have 2 tracks built. A big shout out to Brandon for being my demonstrator in the video. Check it out!

The boys have played with it a lot since they got it in August and we've set up 5 or 6 different courses. I definitely give this one 5 out of 5 stars. Happy shopping everyone!

Junction Holiday Sing

Junction put on a great Holiday show last night! Each grade sang 2 songs complete with hand actions...they did a great job. Brandon and the other 2nd graders did "Frosty the Snowman" and "All I want for Christmas". That was perfect for them since most of them ARE missing their two front teeth. Zach and the Kindergarteners sang "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph". Sadly, the sound system ran into a glitch for the Kindergarten and they had to sing a capella. I think that threw them off their game a little, but they were still so cute! The evening was topped off by cookies and hot chocolate and a visit from Santa. What a fun evening! Too bad we did NOT have great photo angles on either kid...





Brandon has the Santa hat on with the black and red shirt.


Zach has the black and red pajama top towards the top,
behind the kid in Cars pjs.


Nate and Zach with The Big Man. Brandon was off somewhere...

Christmas at Disneyland

Disneyland is so amazing at Christmas! We love the way Small World and The Haunted Mansion get completely redone. The parades are great and it even snows after the fireworks! We had a blast down there for a few days after Thanksgiving. It was fun to meet the characters all dressed up for the holidays. Nate is so big now...he got to go on the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Where did my baby go? Only 4 more inches until we're all on Space Mountain together! Here's a few shots of the trip (and yes, the first 2 our camera was in the wrong mode).

Nate's Day at the Train Museum

To celebrate Nate's birthday, we all went to the train museum...probably the favorite place of many 2-year old boys. He was so excited. He just kept saying, "Look at that train!" Of course the Thomas play tables were the biggest hit...you'd think we didn't have one at home!

It was a perfect outing to go along with getting his new Geotrax set for his birthday!

Grandma's Birthday Weekend

Back in October, we had a great weekend with Grandma and Grandpa for Grandma's birthday. They came over on Friday for a birthday dinner at Claim Jumper and then came to Brandon's baseball game. Saturday morning we went to Zach's soccer game and then played a raucous game of haunted mini golf. Thanks for a great weekend!

Brandon's Fall Ball Season

I didn't get any great pictures of Brandon playing baseball this fall. The light is kind of weird and the fence gets in the way. But for posterity's sake: He played on the "Hooks" in the Farm Divison (half coach pitch, half machine pitch). At the end of the year banquet his coach commented on what a consistent batter he is. He got a hit every time he was up, most of the boys couldn't say that. Great job Buddy!

The End of Soccer Season

Zach just finished his first season of soccer. His team was the Dolphins and he had a lot of fun. He got to play with 2 of his friends from church, Tanner and Rebekah, and have his Dad coach his team. His favorite position was defender where he did a great job either kicking the ball back the other way or forcing the dribbler to go out of bounds...he was particularly adept at that one. They had a hard time getting around him! He also played offense sometimes and scored a goal! He's excited that next season he'll be the oldest/biggest kid on his team since his birthday falls just on the other side of the deadline to move up divisions. Congrats on a great season buddy! And he is the one with the ball in the photos :)

Zach's Thanksgiving Program and Feast

All the Kindergarten classes at Junction put on the cutest Thanksgiving program yesterday. They dressed up as Pilgrims, Indians, or Turkeys and sang some really cute songs. My personal favorite was "I'm a Little Pilgrim...here is my knife and here is my gun. When I go out hunting here me shout, deer and turkey better watch out!" And here I thought we lived in California, the land of political correctness. It was pretty fun to watch all their songs.

After the show, we all headed to the classrooms for a feast. They actually said a blessing. My favorite part of that was, "Thank you ecosystem for growing this food...". They went on to thank their parents for preparing it and their friends for being there. It was a nice day to hang out with my little Indian.

Happy Birthday Nate!

Nate is 2 years old today! I'm really sad that I don't have any more babies. We love Nate so much and his personality adds so much to our family. Here are our 2 favorite things about Nate:

1. This kid is so confident. He is absolutely sure he can do ANYTHING his big brothers can do. We've seen him try to shoot baskets on a 10-ft rim and get really mad at the height requirements on amusement park rides.

2. Nate is also very loving. He runs up and gives you hugs just because he sees you.

Happy Birthday Buddy! We love you so much!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun night trick or treating with our friends, the Jones.

Trunk or Treat!

We had a great time at our Ward Trunk or Treat party! Thanks Jen for all your work! Our boys had fun playing all the carnival games and especially going around to each car to get candy! Nate was so cute as Woody and I also loved Brandon's skeleton pirate. Zach, on the other hand, insisted on being Luigi. Which I had serious reservations about. But his buddy Scott was being Mario and so I let him go for it. They did look pretty cute and they won the award for "Best Couple". I warned Stacey those costumes weren't the most, um, manly.

Zach's Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

All the Junction Kindergartners went to the Pumpkin Patch today. It was fun for Zach to hang out with his friends and the bonus was riding a real school bus to get there!


Getting ready for the train ride!


Mom and Zach find the perfect pumpkin.


Hayride time!

International Night

Our school had an International Night tonight. Each class represented a country and they made a display and served a food from that country. Everyone got a passport to get stamped as they "journeyed" to the different countries. Zach's class did Italy with meatballs and Brandon's class did Canada with Nanaimo bars. They each had a shift to stamp passports. Overall, a fun evening.

Fall Family Fun

Every year we take the kids to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm for a day of harvest fun. This year was a blast as usual. We're getting smarter every year. We got there at opening time on Saturday morning and did the hay ride and train ride first before the line. Then we did the corn maze and all the play areas when it got a little more crowded. Everyone had a blast and we got some good pumpkins!


Getting ready for the train ride.


The boys with their pumpkins.


Zach on his way down the slide.


Nate leading the way in the corn maze.


Hanging out in wagon full of pumpkins.

Happy Anniversary Jerry!

Has it REALLY been 9 years? Has it ONLY been 9 years? Time is a funny thing, but I'm so glad I got to spend the last 9 years with you, babe. You are an amazing Dad and Husband and I couldn't ask for more. I love you!

Third Time's the Charm

We have tried 2 other times over the past year to go to the new California Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park. Both times, tickets were sold out for the day when we arrived.
Since the kids didn't have school Monday, we decided to give it another shot, especially since not all schools were out for Columbus Day today. We finally made it in! Brandon and Zach loved the planetarium, and everyone loved the 3D Bugs show, the aquarium, and the huge dioramas of all the African animals.



Brandon thought it would be cool to be stuffed after you died like these lions...um, ok, weirdo.


Fish keep all 3 boys entranced for quite a while.


One of the new features...a rainforest sphere. It was humid in there!

We last went to the museum in December 2003 on the last day it was open before closing for 5 years...that was a pretty busy day there too. Sarah T. and I went with our 3 kids, now we have 7! The renovations were great and it's definitely a worthwhile trip!


I couldn't resist posting this pic from our previous trip to the museum. Brandon and Elle T. are about to pass out on the way home! Brandon doesn't look anything like Nate, does he?

My Friends Rock!

We won't even go into how behind I am on the blog...
But I just had to post this one.

Several of my friends are VERY into holiday decorating...and somehow they still let me hang out with them, despite my lack of motivation in this area. I always love how their decor looks, but just haven't gotten around to getting a whole lot of great stuff myself (besides Christmas decorations of course). So last week they gave me a birthday present...my birthday is in January by the way, but they wanted me to get full use of it....


These blocks have six sides with greetings for Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, Easter, 4th of July, and a birthday. Very cool. I might talk about getting bang for your decorating buck! Thanks so much Laurie H., Steph, Laurie C., and Stacey. Like I said, you guys rock.

Labor Day in the Gold Country

This weekend we discovered a new spot. We were camping at Collins Lake but took a ride up to South Yuba River State Park. What a beautiful place! We spent a little time hiking but the kids mostly loved tubing in the river. There was a nice channel with just enough fast water. It could totally be a day trip, so next year we'll have to head up on a really hot day and try it again.

Happy Birthday Zachary!

In honor of Zachary's 5th birthday...here are 5 of the many things we love about Zach!

1. He is the BEST brother...being in the middle has helped him learn to be loving and kind to Brandon and Nate.

2. He says the funniest things, for example, "Brandon, can you read this? I guess Dad can't read directions."

3. He's a really good athlete. The soccer and baseball fields have just been WAITING for him to turn 5.

4. He's really good at Wii Sports Resort swordfighting, he can beat Jerry in under 10 seconds and the rest of us in under 5.

5. He loves to learn new things...he is just giddy about starting kindergarten.

Happy Birthday Buddy, we love you!

First Day of School

My cute boys went back to school today! I can't believe I have a second grader and ANOTHER Kindergartener! They both had very good days and love their teachers so we're looking forward to a great year. My eyes got a little teary dropping Zach off, but I didn't let him see. He was so excited! He barely even looked up from his activity when I was waving good-bye. The only hitch we had was when I went to pick up him up from AM Kindergarten...he apparently didn't realize Brandon wasn't coming home too and it took some convincing from me and his teacher to get him to leave. I really don't think he wanted to stand around and wait for 3 more hours!



Walking to school...they were so excited to be together!


In the courtyard waiting for the bell to ring.

Zachary and his friend Zachary settling in with an activity in Mrs.Lemos Kindergarten.

Brandon walking into Mrs. Williams 2nd grade...she wanted the parents to stay out :)