Vday & Ballet

These pictures are a little out of order, but I don't care & I know you don't.

This is Valentine's Day, also known as Tella's birthday.

She fell asleep on the couch after lunch....

Each of the kids got Valentine mailboxes, filled with candy & nutella.

Capri assembled her Valentine colored outfit all on her own. I bought her a special Hello Kitty Valentine shirt, but she wasn't interested - AT ALL. Oh well, I should just remember she's picky & independent. Slightly reminiscent of someone else I know, ahem.... me.

Valentine breakfast!

Now, to ballet. Tella's been asking since she could talk to do ballet. Finally, the day after she turned 3, she got to begin!! Here she's showing a little bit of nerves, holding tight to her pink blanket she calls "B".

Nerves almost gone, striking a sassy pose on the dance floor.

Miss Emily & learning her plies & positions.

I love this teacher. She's the same one Capri had when she took ballet.

Dancing!

Ribbon dancing!

More ribbons!

Tella's version of a curtsy.

Another curtsy, after finishing jumping over the alligators.

Every good ballerina should take a nap. And while napping, every good ballerina should hold onto their favorite pony & stockpile the rest behind her.

The end.

The Boat

A few weeks ago, a friend from church offered us a pretty unique opportunity. Her husband is the Commanding Officer of the USS Bonhomme Richard, and he organized a friends & family day cruise aboard the Navy ship. We GLADLY accepted, picked up some motion sickness medication for James, and looked forward to it for days. Finally, the day arrived.

We heard that there would be reserved parking for us at the Navy base. Imagine our surprise when we saw our name on a cone in the very front row!

As soon as we set foot on the ship our friend (the Captain!) ordered one of his sailors to take us up to the wardroom. We were not sure what a wardroom was, but we followed willingly, and turns out it was the officer's dining room! They had an amazing spread, eggs & omelettes cooked to order, fruit, coffee... the works. One look at Capri's face and you can tell she had to get up early (4:30am!).

After breakfast, we were taken to the Captain's Quarters. No big deal. Just sitting on his bed, getting comfy!

I got a kick out of the signs posted around the ship. Like this one. Sure glad someone knows what that means.

And this one... Be very aware of this!

Us out on the flight deck.

Deborah & I, she's the Captain's wife.

James & JD with the Coronado bridge behind them. The boat fit right under it.

Playing with imaginary guns!

Cruising through the channel.

Watching the helicopters land & take off.

Two future Navy captains testing out the Captain's chair.

In the Captain's chair, with the Captain.

Getting shot by a fire extinguisher....

Denice, Deborah & I with Downtown San Diego in the background.

Back under the Coronado Bridge with an armed Sailor.

It was a great day out to sea, and no one got sick. We explored around the ship, ate great food, spent time with new friends, and got treated like VIP's. A once in a lifetime experience.

A New Year

It's been over a year since I last posted. This Christmas, after seeing my MIL's printed blog books, I have decided blogging is the best way to document our year. At the moment it seems OVERWHELMING to take on ONE MORE THING. I've got a lot coming up in the next few months. Hopefully, I'll post at least once a week. We'll see.

In the meantime, here are some goals for 2012.

1. Incorporate more of the Bible into my kids (& my!) lives. We've started reading the Psalms together and a book called "Right Choices" every morning at breakfast. I feel good about the start I've got on this goal.

2. Excercise. Which I hate. Just absolutely hate it. But I feel like I need to. Every time I pick my son up I hurt my back. Now, he is 5, and shouldn't be picked up. Especially since he's over 60 pounds. But I'm young and feel like my back shouldn't be so easily hurt.

3. Organize my time. I'm way to laid back and go-with-the-flow(ish). I need to be more purposeful with my time.

So, there you have it. The beginning of a new year, complete with a blog. Now get the cheerleaders ready in case I want to quit on blogging again.

Christmas 2010- warning- it's a long one!

This Christmas went like this:

A Gingerbread house was constructed and decorated, apparently the decorators uniform was clothing optional!

Mary made an appearance again, this time wearing mommy's sweater riding on a unicorn - uh I mean donkey.

There was an ugly christmas sweater party that either of us could have won first prize in. Can you read James' sweater? It says Feliz Navid. Clearly it's maker (our neighbor) has issues with spelling. It should say Feliz Navidad. Can you also see the burro dressed as a reindeer? Seriously, this was a quality christmas sweater.

(ummm while at this party I was talking with a few of my younger girlfriends when some dumb teenage boy walked up and asked if I was their mother????!!!?? Yup, I was having babies at 12. Maybe the sweater threw him off? )

Some of us wore wigs while pretending to be Rapunzel, courtesy of Aunt Harmony.

We put on our Christmas best and stood nice for Mommy in front of the tree.

Group shot!

Our only family shot of this Christmas.... well at least we tried.

The Grinch made an appearance....

and someone got a new bike!

Someone else's dreams came true in the form of a tower. She prayed for God to shrink her so she could go in.

This lucky boy's Christmas dreams came true in the form of dragons. He's pretty excited.

There was a wedding,

that one of us was in. Isn't he handsome?

My newest girlfriends... aren't they cute??

Our big girl lost her front tooth right after Christmas !

We spent some time listening to music....

And saw a 3D movie!

And that's a few highlights of our Christmas!

Next, Happy New Year!