Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it STOP!

About a month ago the kids had their first snow day for this year. For someone who detests snow, I for some reason LOVE snow days. How fun is it to wake up and find out there is no school? I would have loved that as a kid. Since there was no such thing in Southern California, I am living out my snow days vicariously through my children.

So here is what we did...

Made doughnuts for breakfast

Practiced making the ornaments we were making the next day for Breakfast with Santa

And if you noticed that Alex is thus far absent, it was because he took a Sharpie to Chloe

And then took this to the computer monitor which we will now have to replace, so he sat out for a couple hours

Then we put Chloe to nap

And the rest of us went and played in the snow

WOO HOO!!!

We even built a snow man. This happens to be the first snowman I ever built.


And of course we drank hot chocolate

And had Burger King for dinner

We even finished the day by making and frosting cookies.

But now, one month later I am getting really sick of this view.

But here are a few views I am loving today...

Our cleaned off driveway. Seth has done 100% of the shoveling this year, I mean this marriage, so I decided to shovel today. I did half of the driveway and I thought I might die so I came in to take a break and when I went back to finish our neighbor had just finished snow blowing...THANK YOU!!!

Chloe's door closed tight because she is taking a long NAP!

And Alex and Alyssa cuddling under the electric blanket.

Risky Business

I noticed that a few of my blogging friends have decided to adopt one word to focus on for 2009. At first I was not going to play along because, come on, you all know I am not a "one word" kind of a person. However, as I thought about the idea of embracing a single word rather than setting a lengthy list of resolutions to be broken, something about the idea appealed to me and got me thinking.

What one word would I pick? Since I am a word junkie this was not an easy task but I did decide on the word RISK.

Feel free to laugh if you know me.

I am a total play it safe kind of a girl. I still hope to stay that way for the most part. I will not be bungee jumping, sky diving, or heaven forbid, singing karaoke this year. Those things are beyond risky. Those things do not even exist in my world.

I was thinking of risks like, say...opening the door when someone knocks, calling someone to see if they want to hang out. Things that normal people already do but that I find terrifying!

So, why at this juncture in life do I wish to take more risks?

Because there are things I have wanted to do and never been brave enough to try.

I want to get in really good shape but I don't try because I would be so embarrassed if I failed.

I want to start writing again. Not just casual sit down and type something, blog writing but serious brainstorming, proofreading, editing, writing. I have even had a few ideas over the years but I have always been so afraid that I might be rejected or that someone might tell me that I'm not that good.

Last year I wanted to take a cake decorating class but I know that I am not very artistic and I was embarrassed to have to put that on display in front of professionals. It is much easier to just be praised and adored by my little fan club (AKA my sisters).

Before I had Chloe I worked at home doing inbound telephone sales. Although it is not a talent I would have chosen, I seem to be quite good at sales. I thought about branching out and applying to be an Agent Facilitator (someone who helps other agents with sales) but I would have been mortified if they hadn't chosen me so I didn't apply.

I want to go back to college but the idea of being that old lady, technologically challenged "non-trad" student that I used to make fun of when I was in college is way too scary.

You might be thinking right about now, this nut is afraid of everything. Not so! I am not afraid to speak in front of an audience. How funny is that? I have heard that is the number one fear and that most people fear it more than death itself and it is one of the few things I am not afraid of. I am not afraid to cook for people. I am not afraid to plan events. I am not afraid of Sales.

I am not afraid to do things that come easily to me. So I basically just contribute to the world in ways that I know are safe, offering only what I know I will succeed at. But is it really success at all if you do not have to stretch yourself to achieve it?

According to Garth Brooks, "Life is not tried, it is merely survived if you're standing outside the fire." I am not planning to jump head first into the fire this year, but I will possibly stand close enough to at least feel its warmth.

I am not sure what risks I want to take. The moment is past for some of the things I used to be interested in and I am sure there are other potential risks just over the horizon. So I will see what this year brings and when I want to do something but my fear of failure is holding me back, I will at least try. I will probably fail a few times but maybe, even just once, I will succeed. Not because it was easy, but because I took the RISK!



In the Spirit of taking risks, I stepped way out of my comfort zone and took Alex to school in my glasses. Have any of you ever seen me in my glasses? I doubt it! I am so insecure about the way I look in glasses. My contact lens tore and since it was my last pair I have to wait 10 days for a new one. I was going to wear the one good lens and wear one of Seth's in my other eye. Nevermind that his prescription is only half as strong as mine. But I decided to just wear the ugly glasses. Was I self conscious? Oh heck yeah! I don't have the whole "sexy in glasses" thing going for me like Sarah Palin but I did survive.

I gave birth to my parents...

How creepy is that?

I have always thought that Alex and Alyssa looked like little clones of my mom and dad so I thought I would let you all be the judge.

We have also always said that Chloe looks like a combination of Alex and Alyssa and since I look like both of my parents (although more like my mom) maybe Chloe will look like me. I doubt it though because I am suddenly starting to think she looks a lot like Seth.

Here is my mom at age 6 (on the left). Alyssa definitely inherited her sass, check out that pose. Alyssa is probably half the height of my mom though.

And here is my dad at about the same age as Alex. Me and Seth both did a double take on this one. Alex insists that this is him, but he also thinks the animated elf, Hermie from Rudolph is him.

Happy Birthday Chloe

On December 28th our little caboose turned one! And this is how her first year went down...

It all started early in the morning on December 28, 2007. My contractions woke me up. They had already been 3-5 minutes apart for 8 weeks, just like they were with my other two babies. They had already monitored me at my last doctor visit to make sure the baby wasn't in danger. The baby was fine but they said my contractions looked like those of someone who was about to give birth. The doctors are always baffled by my silly body. It never does what the charts say it is supposed to do, but on the morning of Chloe's birth my contractions finally felt like the ones that were spiking off the charts.

I woke Seth up at 4AM and told him I wanted to hang out for another hour or so and then we could head to the hospital. Then I started getting nauseous so Seth told me we were leaving for the hospital immediately. Luckily my sister, Kelly arrived in town on the 26th because we would not have had time to drop our kids off at a friends' house.

We arrived at the hospital at 4:20 AM and I was dilated 7cm. The nurse told me she would be right back to admit me to the hospital. The door had barely closed behind her when I had the most insane contraction I have ever experienced. It was so intense that it broke my water. The nurse hurried back in to find that I was dilated to 10 cm and ready to push. Only one small dilemma, there was no doctor. The on call doctor was at home sleeping and they told me I would have to wait until she arrived to push.

Trying not to push a baby that is ready to deliver itself was the most painful and frustrating task. It was the most intense 30 minutes of my life. I was seriously ready to punch the doctor when she sauntered in looking sleepy. I started pushing while she was scrubbing her hands and all she had to do was walk over and catch the baby at 5:01 AM.

Miss Chloe was our biggest baby at 8 lbs. 1 oz., which I attribute to the fact that she ate too many treats off of the Christmas cookie tray during the week leading up to her birth.

Although adding a third child to our family was not something that we planned to do...EVER, it did not take long for Chloe to fit perfectly into our hearts. Fitting her into our lives, however, took a little time. First we had to get a minivan. Then I had to figure out how in the world to bundle 3 kids, get them in and out of car seats, and into the store without all of us freezing. I really thought I would never leave my house again and I would look at other 3 kid moms in awe. But soon enough it just felt like Chloe had always been here.

Chloe had a stressful beginning. She had colds that started at 3 days old and would not go away. She had horrible diaper rash for 2 months. She had eczema so bad that she looked burned. Then she got pink eye and passed it around. By March she had been to the doctor more times than I have been in my life. Although I was coming unglued, all of these little trials bonded me with my little girl. I realized that the baby I didn't want was the baby I couldn't be without.

Chloe has continued to charm us for the past year. Every day I am thankful that she is part of our family. I couldn't see a place for her in my visions for the future, and now I can't imagine how we ever felt whole without her.

These days she spends her days smiling that big, still toothless smile, climbing around the house, but still not walking, and blowing kisses to everyone (real kisses, not baby kisses). She gets a little anxious if I leave the room and I must admit that I love it!

I know I've said it before but the only thing this little child could do to be more perfect is...sleep through the night, or even just take a nap every day. Oh well, I am grateful for her asleep or awake.

Happy Birthday Chooch! I love you!!!!

Sidenote: Why we call Chloe Chooch. When Chloe was born my mom was sad because we named her Chloe Ann (Ann is Seth's mom). She felt left out. So, when Chloe was a few weeks old, my mom (who is terrified of air travel), rode 84 hours on the Choo-Choo train to come see her. In honor of this sacrifice, and because we didn't name Chloe after her, I nicknamed her Choo-Choo and it quickly became just Chooch.

California Christmas

On December 21st we left the -36 degree weather behind and set off for California where it was a full 100 degrees warmer. Of course all the "Californians" were freezing. I remember when 60 degrees was coat weather for me too but not anymore. Alyssa kept regretting that she left her swimsuit at home. We were in heaven.

The next two weeks were full of fun and craziness. We spent most of our time just sitting around the kitchen table, playing games and laughing way too loud, oh...and eating of course! But we did manage to squeeze in a few other activities, so here are some highlights.

On Christmas Eve we had our traditional party at my dad's house.

On Christmas morning we were at my mom's house. The kids got way too many presents and we ate our traditional donut breakfast and then sat around so bored for the rest of the day. Have you ever noticed how long Christmas day seems to last after the initial excitement?

After Christmas we went out to my sister Val's house. They just bought their first home so we went to stay with them and check out the new pad. They live in a cute little town and we had fun hanging out and pigging out.

On the morning of the 27th we left Val's place and went up to Newport Beach for my brother Michael's sealing. He baptized his wife a year ago and it was awesome to be there for their sealing. They have a baby coming any time now so we were excited to share in this start to their eternal family.

Of course the 28th was Miss Chloe's first birthday. She will get her own post about that, maybe even tonight if I am feeling ambitious.

The rest of the trip is a bit of a blur. Almost everyone got the flu. I was lucky enough to get a cold first and then add the flu on top of it. I could barely move on New Year's Eve. Seth was lucky enough to stay well until 4 AM yesterday morning so he had the privilege of puking through the two flights home, while I wrestled the 3 little monkeys.

Speaking of being sick, we spent much of our trip text messaging Seth's family because his little sis, Emily has been in the hospital almost constantly for over two weeks now. She got viral meningitis and there were lots of scary moments but she seems to be improving now. She is still in the hospital until this Wednesday so your continued prayers are definitely much appreciated.

Back to Cali now...We rounded out our trip with a visit to Disneyland on New Year's Day. Don't ever do that!!!! I have been in love with Disneyland my whole life and I was so frustrated that day that I vowed to NEVER go back again. We stood in line for over an hour just to buy tickets (for $70 a pop) and when we got inside all I saw was a sea of people. We only rode about 5 rides and Alex is not the "stand in line patiently" type so he was making everyone NUTS! Disneyland still had traces of magic but it is not quite the "happiest place on earth" anymore. :(

On January 2nd the craziest thing ever happened. The home of my childhood became an empty nest. My three youngest siblings moved out all on the same day. Kelly and Steven are off to Utah and Kristen moved to an apartment near Valerie's house. You would think this wouldn't bother me very much since I moved out 15+ years ago but it was very strange. It just feels so bizarre to think of that big, crazy home as just grandma and grandpa's place now. Seth and I figured this would be a tough day for my mom too so we had big plans to distract her with breakfast at a place we saw on Food Network and then in the evening we'd go out to Balboa Island and walk around and hit Crab Cooker for dinner. But unfortunately my mom got the flu and was stuck in bed all day! Instead we spent our last day of vacation packing, although we did take a break to go to lunch with my dad and Linda.

Okay, so that is a jumbled mess of a review, but it at least gets me closer to catching up on my blog.





























I was planning to do captions but it took so long to upload pics that I think I will skip it. As for Chloe's birthday post, I am pretty sure that will get bumped to tomorrow. I have to get back in the blogging mood...