don't sweat the small stuff

as i've said before, i don't like mondays because it means leaving the kids and going to work. today was not a typical monday though. i was actually ready to head out the door for work early, but then my car didn't start. luckily my dad is still on vacation so i borrowed one of his cars. then i had to move one of the carseats into his car in the 42 degree morning cold. so it took a while because my hands were freezing. at work, it seemed as if the rude people only call on mondays, so that was pleasant. after work, i picked up micah and we headed for the doctor's office to get his 2nd shot of the H1N1 vaccine. i thought he would scream, but after he watched the nurse give him the shot all he said was,"ouchie." so that wasn't so bad. when we got home, i tried starting my car again, no luck. it has to be the starter or alternator. so i used our other car to bring malia to CCD and do errands. there was an upside to my monday. the kids usually watch shows on nick jr at night. and just before 7pm it's 'move to the music' time. they normally play a song by laurie berkner and we all get up and dance together, call it our family dance. tonight was '5 days old', but our favorite is 'family'. and so i'm reminded not to sweat the small stuff. the car will get fixed eventually, but we won't be able to family dance forever.

the thunder dragons

it's been raining all week and supposedly there will be another storm next week. so far it hasn't been too bad when the kids are out going to and from school. m&m are so different sometimes. malia wants to splash in the puddles and micah wants to avoid them. even if you tell malia not to step in the puddles, she pretends she doesn't see them so that she'll step in them. when we are in the house, they could care less about how hard it rains or how loud the wind howls, they just go about making their mess that i call a hurricane.

but last night there was a thunderstorm and the flashes from the lightning were so bright at our house. micah and i watched out the window for the lightning. when he heard the thunder he said,"the dragons are coming." someone's been watching avatar: the last airbender too much. and i think the last episode had dragons in it. i'm glad malia was already sleeping, she gets scared of thunder. but micah wasn't scared. he even asked,"wearsit coming from?" so i explained that the lightning came from the clouds and that the thunder was the sound the lightning made. of course he didn't know what i was talking about and just said,"oh."

anyways, now everytime i hear thunder, i will think of dragons.

after xmas get together

every year we have an after christmas get together with our friends and our kids. and almost every year our group of kids increase in numbers, it's so heartwarming. the big challenge is to get the kids' group picture. we are exhausted afterwards from getting them to sit and kind of smile, and just from laughing at how silly they are. this was the best shot i got.

back to new children's museum

i think i figured out why it's called the new children's museum. maybe because they periodically change artists and displays. it was so different from when we last went. it was lia and daddy's last friday of vacation, and our membership expires soon, so ncm was a good choice.

the jumping tunnel was cool, especially since there was hardly anyone there. the kids had it all to themselves. and these felt houses would make a good to do project one day.

happy (kids') new year

this new year's eve i wanted to do something different and go to legoland. they ring in the new year at 6pm for the kids. i also had free sealife tickets that expired today, so it was perfect timing.

legoland had cute christmas decorations. it was a bit crowded so we didn't get to take pictures with all the other displays. the tree was really cool.

we were trying to get a good spot in front of the stage for the shows before the countdown, but micah didn't want to stay there and wait. so we went around miniland.

i couldn't resist taking this picture. he stopped to play with the sign, so i had to take it.

when it was finally time for the jumpitz, m&m and their cousins didn't want to stay for the whole thing so we left.

we managed to sneak in the slide, yummy barbecue, and apple fries before the countdown and fireworks.

everything was over by 6:30pm, the kids fell asleep in the car, and we were home by 8pm. it was great! i think we should do it next year. happy 2010!

christmas review

as always, we had a wonderful christmas. it came and went super fast though. above are a couple of pictures we took at jos' house a week before christmas courtesy of photography by roy.

on christmas eve morning, i greeted malia, "merry christmas eve, christmas is tomorrow." after a little gasp she said softly,"oh no, i don't know what list i'm on." i just started laughing. she's so funny. maybe i told her that her name was moving to the naughtly list one too many times.

we attended the 4pm kids mass on christmas eve at st rose. my kids missed the live children's nativity scene because they were too busy looking at the porcelain nativity scene in the children's (cry) room. (yes we were late so we were in there.) after that, the hubbies stayed to sing for the 6pm mass. so jos and i had all 4 kids in the car and headed for the sousa residence. we thought we were brilliant to come up with the idea.

well, we were wrong. it was cranky time and micah & joelle screamed for pretty much the entire 40 minute drive. joelle wanted jos and micah wanted me. we tried all kinds of things to distract them. but there was nothing else to do but laugh. poor malia was sitting in between the screaming kids, but managed to keep her cool up until 5 minutes before we got there. then she started complaining. micah decided to finally fall asleep right when i stopped the car. i told jos that we would not be riding all together again anytime soon.

it's always fun to watch the kids faces as they open christmas presents. micah got cars and malia got princess stuff.

both m&m woke up with a smile on christmas morning. then we all went downstairs together to see what santa brought. santa brought malia a belle dress up doll, just what she wanted. he also gave her a 'how to draw the princess and the frog book' since she likes to draw, and a warm jacket. "this wasn't on my list," she said as she pulled out the jacket. "santa knows you get cold easily," i said. santa brought micah a basketball hoop and some cars shoes. after putting on his shoes and making a few baskets, he grabbed belle and malia started making baskets. then it was on to opening more presents by the tree.

then we made brownies to bring to grandma's house. someone had a little too much fun mixing the frosting. i had to bring him upstairs so he would stop eating it.

wishing grandma letty a merry christmas. it made my heart happy to know that micah knows who grandma letty is now. he can pick her out in pictures already even though we've only shown him a few times.

malia was so excited to open her gift from grandma & grandpa. matching dresses, one for her and one for boo. she really wants to take that doll everywhere.

this drum set from ninong ray was such a fun present for micah and kept him busy during the charger game.

the christmas season isn't over just yet. we still have more presents to deliver. and we look forward to the christmas party we have in mid-january with some friends. but now i just have to figure out where i'm going to put all the new toys!

m&m on ice

we went to darius' ice skating birthday party yesterday at the kroc center in la mesa. malia was so excited to ice skate. i hadn't been ice skating in years, but i managed to do alright. for the first 3 rounds around the rink, malia wanted to hold on to the rail. then she became more brave and we were able to go around just holding hands. then we took a break and micah said to me several times,"i want to ice skate, pwees mama." how could i say no to those big brown eyes? so i got him some skates and brought him into the rink. he was okay at first when he just kept his feet still and i pushed him along. but when he moved his feet and realized how slippery it was, he wanted me to carry him. he went around the rink once and wanted out. then it was back to malia. she was really determined to skate and let go of me and did it all on her own! she was having so much fun she didn't care if she fell down. i hope to take her back there soon.

eastlake snow

this was the second time we went to the eastlake village walk "snow". it's really just tiny bubbles that look like snow falling, just like what they use at disneyland. we had dinner at pat & oscars then enjoyed the snow. the kids love it. well, malia enjoys it a little more than micah does. he's done after a couple of minutes, but malia would stay there all night if she could. today, micah just wanted to eat his breadstick. aww, i love it when they hold hands and aren't fighting.

chrismons

(i've been christmas shopping, so that's why this post is so late.)

about a week and a half ago, we attended the chrismons service at our church. a chrismon is an ornament that is a christian symbol. i signed up malia as one of the kids who would bring up a chrismon to the christmas tree. she had such a concerned look on her face as she was walking down the aisle trying to keep up with the other kids. but she enjoyed it. she brought up the fish symbol. it was the first time we went to this service, it was cute.

lowe's build and grow clinic

i've always wanted to take malia to a lowe's workshop. we finally got around to it because i saw it on a blog i read frequently. it caught my eye because malia had been talking about making a gingerbread house.

i thought it would be like any other class i've taken malia to. that my job would be just to watch or wait around while she does her thing with the class. but when they handed us the kit, a hammer and some goggles, i knew it was a project we would do together. (she's not wearing the goggles because they didn't fit on her face.)

it was fun! and she did a great job. her favorite part was putting on the stickers. we'll definitely go back for another project soon.