Its been a couple of busy weeks around here. Ryan and I always tell ourselves that we wont let the season pass us by...by getting so involved in the parties, the outings, the shopping and so on. This year it happened again....the season passed us by. Where did the time go?
The Sunday prior to Christmas we spent with Ryan's oldest Brother and his family here in Yorba Linda. It was great to see the kids as Jake has been away this semester in Washington DC as a congressional page. They spoiled us and fed us a great meal. We are so very thankful that we have them close by!
This was the first year that we did not spend Christmas at home. We traveled to Arizona to visit with Ryan's side of the family. His parents and 3 out 4 of his older brothers and their families live there. We packed up our car, including Bozley (his first long car ride) and headed out Christmas Eve. We made great time considering we had to keep stopping for the little boy to pee. We stayed with Peter and his family and had a great time. It was a blessing to be there on Christmas morning to watch the faces of the kids (albeit they arent so small anymore) as they opened their gifts. What makes staying at Peter's house so fun is that his older brother (Ryan's too) lives just over the fence. That's right they bought houses that are right next to each other. So when we were done at Peter's we just walked around the block to Paul's house. Later that evening we went over to spend time with mom, dad and Steve (yet another older brother...did I mention that Ryan is the youngest of 5 boys). Bozley finally got to meet his grandparents and they instantly fell in love with him.
One highlight of our timeout there was being able to take the two youngest kids to the movies...we went and saw " Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel" I actually enjoyed the movie...mainly because it was clean and family friendly. Also because I got to spend some time with Hunter and Jessica. Time well spent. Later that night we took mom, dad and Steve out to dinner at one of our favorite places ( Macayo's ) It was great and we had a good time. It wasnt until later that evening that things took a turn a for the worse. I came down with the stomach flu...fever, chills, aches, vomiting.....you name it I had it! It hit me so hard and so fast and to this day I am still recovering. I do not recommend getting the stomach flu the night before you are to make a 6 hour drive home (it was not fun)
Other than the flu, we had a great time with family!
Michelle's yummy goodness!
The Tracy Specials
Shelly's Peanut Butter Overloads
Anna's Pretzel Things
The assortment deand the Peppermint Candy Tarts I made
Even Pippin got into the Tacky Christmas Sweater Action
Anna...no sweater, but tacky tie!
My homemade beauty..out of a tree skirt and other stuff
Shelly was the big winner...she found all of this in a thrift store for under $3.00
Tracy's Homemade sweater
Shelly and her winning combination!!!
The rooster...official bird and alarm clock of Kauai
Ki'lauea Lighthouse
The Beautiful Napali coast....we took a 65 foot Catamaran out to see it! AMAZING
Hanalei Valley
Off the Napali coast
Sunset on the Napali Coast
More sunset on the Napali Coast
Lunch in Poipu
Spouting Horn
fun times
Ryan enjoying our view from our lanai
At Ke'e beach.....we went looking for Sea Turtles....but no sea turtles
This was our first year having Thanksgiving at our house. For the past few years we are in Arizona visiting With Ryan's family. This year however, we spent Thanksgiving at home. Craig, Sonia and the kids came over as they stayed home as well. We had a great time and the food was so yummy! We had a Turkey, mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and parm cheese, smashed sweet potatoes, Sonia's AMAZING creamed corn, my moms stuffing recipe, rolls and all the other fun stuff that go along with Thanksgiving dinner!
There are days when he drives me nuts....but at the end of the day his sweet kisses make up or it! And how could you be mad at a face like that???
Halloween 09 was a fun one! We hosted the party in our backyard and had a great time! The Smurfs (Randy and Tracy) came for a visit along with a Twister Board (Rachel). We also had an Olive Oil (Michele) The Snuggie Family (Ryan, Angie and Bozley...who later turned into the USC fans) EG and Anna came as Red Shirts and brought Pippin the Cow. April came as a flower and Avalee was the most precious Butterfly you have ever seen! Todd...the DJ was " As seen on TV man"..Eric came as a Referee ( we didnt need and officiating though)....there were several others! It was a fun night! We also had a lot of trick or treaters...enough to empty the bowl of candy!!!!
Megan is now in High School and is taking german....she had the honor of hosting a german exchange student for 3 weeks. In Germany, Annika does not celebrate Halloween....it is not a German tradition like it is here in the states. She had her first experience with carving pumpkins .....it was fun to watch!
While this little creature gives us good things like Honey and pollinates our plants so we have veggies, fruit and flowers...they are a menace in our home! Bozley being the curious little guy that he is like to pick things up in his mouth...he has a strange love of worms, crickets, rocks, twigs and bees. There is a tree somewhere in our neighborhood that has a hive and it seems that the bees come to our patio to die a peaceful death. Everytime we go out , there are number of dead or dying bees on our patio. I do my best to get them all taken care before Bozley can get ahold of them.... much to our dismay he has gotten ahold of a few of them and has been stung about 3 times (you think he would learn) The first sting (October 13) was on his paw and it wasnt so bad...we removed the stinger and he went on his merry way....no harm no foul. The second (October 19) time however was not so uneventful. He picked the bee up in his mouth and it stung him in the gums. We could not find the stinger and didnt know it was still there...he became very weak and threw up. I called the emergency vet to find out what to do (I only called the E-Vet because our dog had to do this after hours...thus costing us more) TheE-Vet said to bring him he was going into shock. Our little boy is allergic to bees it seems and needed to get a shot of epinephrine to calm his little heart down, he also got a 50mg shot of Benadryl (thats enough to knock me out for 2 days) and a shot of steroids....oh he also had to have an IV of fluids! Not a fun night...waking up every hour to check on him. He got better over the next couple of days and was his normal puppy self. The third sting happened yesterday October 27, he again was in the backyard. I had killed all the bees but must have left a trace of one and he licked it up ...getting stung on his tongue (we do not have the brightest dog in the bunch) I rushed him to his vet...they took a look at him, removed the stinger, gave him two more shots and sent him on his way!
Its that time of year again!! Time to start thinking about your annual family portraits!!! Send me an email or call to for more information and to book!
