California...

 A couple weeks ago we planned a trip to go see Buck's Grandpa for one last time.  He was 91 and the doctors said at the end of his life.  Well, it ended up being a trip to his funeral because he passed away the morning before we left.  I'm glad we made it for his viewing anyway.
We planned a couple extra days to have some fun while we were down there and ended up spending both at the beach.  The weather was beautiful and this kids had so much fun.  Grace has been asking to go to the beach for a year and since we didn't make it this summer I was glad to make it on this trip.  Even though it was February, we lucked out with 80 degree days.  Perfect!
We stayed with my brother and his wife and little boy and that was half the fun too.  I think the kids were the more sad to leave Uncle Scott's house than anything else.

 Digging in the sand...

 Showing off [a tiny fraction] of the shells she collected.

 "Mom, take a picture of my sparkly feet."  I don't know if you can see it in the picture but the sand in Oceanside has little flecks of gold in it and Lucas thought it was cool.

 Sandy face.

Lucas digging nearby the spot where Grace wrote all our names in the sand.

 Buck and Grace braving the cold water.

Brrr!  I don't care if its August, you will probably never see me in the water in California.  Too cold!

 Getting ready to wreck our castle...

After the beach on Friday, we went down to Balboa Park to wander around and rode all the rides.

Riding the train with the panda bear.

Fun with Dad

I am not a huge fan of playing in the snow, but Buck is so good to go out with the kids.  I prefer to watch from inside where it's warm!

I am pretty sure that the concept of waxing as a means of hair removal was discovered in a medieval torture chamber. Yet, I continue to do it because it is way faster than sitting in front of the mirror plucking out half my eyebrows!

He says ta me, he says...

(This is Lucas again)
Today:
"Oh, Momma! You are the best cooker ever!"
"Thank you buddy."
"Can I have another cookie?"

The other day:
"Mom, are you doing your exercises?"
"No, bud. I'm just trying to get my pants on."

Christmas dance recital

Grace's Christmas dance recital was last night.  She has been so excited to dance in her rainbow costume.  She looked beautiful and was so awesome!

I won't bother you with the video of the first show because I was taping with Lucas on my lap and the video will make you motion sick.  I was closer to the stage for that one.  This one is hard to tell who she is since I was at the back of the auditorium.  She is the dancer on the far left of the back row. She looks like the 2nd from the left over all because there is a little girl on the front row further left on stage than her.

I snuck up close so I could make sure to be able to see Grace for the finale and had a great shot of her until another little girl sat forward and blocked most of her.  Her class is on the very front row.  If you can't see her head, you can see her box.  It is the dark green one with the red bow toward the middle of the class.

Ok. I decided to upload the first show too because we just watched the other and Grace couldn't see herself clearly. Edit: I just watched this and had forgotten that people kept walking in front during the first bit of the dance in addition to my shaky camera. Enjoy the tantrum at the end when I finally kicked Luke off my lap... If you can't find Grace at the very first, I think she was on the front row for a minute till she figured out her right spot.

Blue Lid of Sadness

Yesterday I dropped to lid to one of my favorite set of dishes while emptying the dishwasher.  I have never seen anything shatter like this.  The glass spread to every corner of my kitchen and out the kitchen down the hall.  Lucky I was wearing shoes because one of the flying shards cut the top of my foot when it broke.  I couldn't step anywhere without stepping on glass.  I would have had to do some pretty amazing acrobatics to get out of there without a piece in the bottom of my foot.  I carried Grace to safety and banished her and Lucas to my room until I told them otherwise.  If anything positive came of the accident, it was a good motivator to get my floors cleaned early on in the week.

"Gingerbread"

Every time we have passed a gingerbread house kit at the store this year, Grace has pulled it off the shelf and asked me to buy it.  I kept promising we would do them but that I wasn't going to buy a kit.  I did once.  The stuff in it was gross.  It was all for looks and none for taste.  What fun is that if you can't enjoy eating what you've created too?  So I decided to create our own version using graham crackers and candy that would actually taste good too.  The kids and I headed over to Walmart to stock up on the candy on Friday night so we would be ready to go Sunday when Buck was actually home to join us.  He was gone Tuesday-Saturday night last week!  Busy man!
Grace decided she wanted to make a house (she wanted it 2 stories tall too).

Lucas "made" a train.  But found the decorations much more interesting.  He was just sort of the project manager while Buck built it for him.

Grace's turned out just how she wanted it and she started going to town adding the decorations...

It was not structurally sound.  There were some tears.  I tried my best to rebuild it but it was too heavy.  Then she said she wanted a train like Lucas had and I did my best to give her one.

She didn't like that it wasn't skinny like his, etc. but after much convincing (and some threatening of never again...), she was content with what she had. Lots of lessons were learned for the next time we attempt something like this. Either way, the best part was eating the candy and making something fun!

December is already here!

I noticed today that November came and went without one blog entry.  Time goes so fast!  I decided to check what I had on the camera to see what has been going on because I already can't remember...
We had a huge snow storm.  I thought our telephone line might snap under the weight of the snow.  Actually, I couldn't believe that there was so much clinging to it.

My poor little apple tree was sagging.  This picture was after I had shaken off the snow.  It has since perked up again with some sunshine to help it.

Lucas has taken to asking for me to take his picture.  It will be some random thing he's doing and he'll say, "Mom, can you take a picture of me _________."  See below for more examples.

This one he wanted a picture of himself with his Woody and Buzz "pens" (as he calls them).  They are actually Pez dispensers.

Here he wanted just Woody and Buzz alone.

We saw Santa at our church last week.  This was waiting in line.  They were excited to say the least.

Grace asked for a reindeer...I had to clarify if it was the kind that would live in our backyard and she told me no, just a small one that would fit in her hand. Whew.  I think Santa can find something along those lines.

Lucas got pretty shy once on his knee but did have it together enough to ask for a candy cane.  Santa said he could get him that right away! (notice the basket on the floor...)

Zone D

We are switching from a man to man to zone defense at our house.  May 7 is the expected date of change.  As of right now, it looks to be a girl joining the team.

A conversation with Lucas...

As I'm washing dishes tonight...
L:  "Mom, where are the cookies?"
Me:  "I decided to make brownies instead.  They're still baking.  If you want some though, you have to eat your peas from dinner."
L:  "These peas are ridiculous.  You eat them."
Then he walked out of the kitchen.