Christmas cheese...

Airwolf made of Legos by Nigel!

Santa Brought Bakugan...

 New book from his teacher. If you take a mouise to the Movies...                        Zome Constructor kit.

Cute pictures of the baby

Nigel playing with the kitty

 A blurry smile...

 Sleeping looks like Grandpa- LOL

Too Cute!

 Watching Dad Cook.

Tagged for seven things...

7 things I can do...

Code HTML
connect with my kids
dance
research
identify animals
budget
make teeth (been awhile)

7 things I can't do...

sing
understand or fix cars
make pain vanish... kisses help...
make enough money (tisk~ I won't go into it)
draw as well as I the people who's drawings I admire
be with my kids enough
10 push ups...

7 things I always say...

"It's ok shhhhh...."
"be nice/gentle/SHARE!"
"take care"
"Caleb... Justin... Joshua..."
"check this out!"
"so cute"
"do you need a time out?"

7 things I always eat...

Cereal (a mix of two kinds)
Oatmeal (it lasts until lunch)
Milk
sugar of all kinds lately...
cheese!
bread
meat (mostly chicken or beef)

7 tags...

ummm... I don't know 7 bloggers :-P

Sonora Holiday Parade, Nigel got home just in time to take the boys. I stayed home with Joshua since I was sick and he was taking a nap. Nigel took some great pictures, given that the camera has a huge delay.


















Had to photoshop this one, I didn't have much time holding Joshua while Photoshopping... oh well you get the idea...











And Yes he lost his tooth the next day- both front teeth for Christmas!

Thanksgivng

Don't mind the construction but these are the only pictures we got. In attendance: Shawn, Misty, my family, Jeremy and Megan, April and Leonard, Trevor, Brittany and Elyse and of course Scott and Jackie.



The new kitchen is and was perfect!

Zoo trip

The third week in November Nigel needed at few parts to make his car more whole... Trevor didn't want to go so we packed all three kids in the car and Nigel dropped us off at the zoo. These are the only pictures I got (because the batteries in the camera died) The weather was very nice the kids named the giraffe and zebra and lemurs after the characters in Madagascar. They loved comparing their "wing" span to a chart of other birds. They also loved the play area with slide.

We spent the last hour with Caleb's old babysitter and her kids. Everyone played tag in the park until Nigel arrived.

November Around the house

The cute baby checking himself out in a mirror
(the underside of the round hanging thing)


Below Justin wants to be in the pictures, they love each other...















Silly poses with Nigel! My three sons... vegging out...

Fun with Spore Creature Creator!!!

Draco
Sphinx
Bird
Freed







Anubis
Buddah
Centuar









Caleb's "T-Rex"
Bleeah

List O' Mania

Since we have been married (1999) we have owned

1. Chevy Lumina
2. Chevy Impala
3. Nisan Extera
4. Honda Civic
5. Honda Integra
   

We have Lived

1. Modesto
2. Oakdale
3. Seattle
4. Sonora

We have traveled

1. Portland, Eugene and Lincoln City, Oregon
2. Sacramento, Redding, San Francisco, and Yosemite, California
3. Salt Lake City and St. George, Utah
4. Seattle, Bainbridge Island and Mt. St. Helens Washington
   
5. British Columbia, Canada
6. Carson City, Nevada
   
7. Los Vegas, Nevada
8. Paris, France
9. L.A. California (you have to admit it is a world apart from rural CA)
   
10. Minneapolis, Minnesota
11. New York

And we have done many different jobs...

1. Lot Porter/Car Washer
2. Dental Lab Tech
3. Truss Builder
4. UPS package handler and supervisor
5. Mom and Dad x1
   
6. Construction
7. Care Giver at Care Home
8. Dental Assistant
9. Mom and Dad x2
   
10. Assembly and Document Control in Engineering company
11. Consultant, Designer, Futurist
12. Web Page data entry
13. Mom and Dad x3!
    

Halloween

These are Caleb(right) & Justin's(left) Jack-o-lanterns! Sabrina and I cleaned them out! The boys drew the patterns and I helped cut Justin's out. Caleb cut his own out. They did a good job!
They had ideas for costumes but when it came down to it they chose to be a Ninja and a Power Ranger just like last year!

Scary, huh!
We had a fun time Trick or Treating in Soulsbyville with some friends. They had a party and all the with kids go out with them, while the others stay and answer the door. The kids were playing speed Trick or Treating- running as fast as they could from house to house. They both have full buckets of candy and beg for a piece after every meal (even Breakfast lol)

We got Josh in his costume a few days later (it was hot and the arms were too long) He looked cute for the pictures at least!

Family trip to Pismo

Mom & Dad reserved a couple of condos in Solvang for a week. Most of the family was able to be there for a few days at a time. We missed having Jeremy but Megan was able to come. We missed having Valerie, Ben and Tysen, as well.

Mom & Dad arrived on Wed. and got everything set up. Shawn and Misti got there on Thu. night. We arrived late Fri. night. Then April & Leonard showed up Sat evening.

We all went up to Pismo Sat. morning to ride the quads on the dunes. This is Shawn(black) and Dad(yellow). The weather was beautiful until we got to Pismo where the fog had not lifted. It was a little windy so everybody huddled behind the cars. I had never been there before and thought it was so cool that we could drive on the beach. I was driving Mom's Suburban and I was like a kid in a candy store. Every now and then I would stomp on the gas to get the wheels to spin. That is so awesome! Everyone in the car was yelling at me, telling me to stop, so I listened, and did it again anyways!
This was my first time riding the quads on the dunes. I was a bit cautious at first. I blasted up the dunes but let off at the top so as not to jump. Shawn was jumping because he is much more experienced, of course! We rode around for a while and I watched Shawn blast up a dune and jump so, of course, I got up the nerve to give it a shot! I dropped it into second and punched it up the dune. I let off a bit at the top and next thing I know I was in the air. You know when you are driving on a road with dips and there's that feeling you get when you go fast over one and it feels like your stomach goes up into your chest? That's what it felt like and it caught me a little off guard. Needless to say I landed in a wheelie position and fell off onto my butt! The quad continued to roll about 10ft still upright in the wheelie position almost like it was laughing at me. Shawn turned around and asked me what I was doing. I tried to muster up a little dignity, and told him I fell off! We had a chuckle and moved on.

Grandma holding Joshua and Justin with his trouble maker face were huddled behind the trucks to keep out of the wind. It was Mom's birthday and she was a good sport about sitting in the cold while we played. Dad and Shawn went out and about 10 minutes later there was about five or six emergency vehicles that came down the beach and went onto the dunes. At that point we were worried that Dad got hurt or something. Turns out, one of the Dune tour Hummers got to close the the edge of a dune and rolled down. Some of the people got hurt, but nothing serious. Shawn's quad was having issues with starting and it had died when they stopped to check on the hummer passengers. So we thought it was them the emergency vehicles were going after. Good thing it wasn't!
This place had really good clam chowder bread bowls. This was Monday in Pismo. The weather was clear but still windy.
Caleb and Justin love the beach. As soon as we got there they had their shoes off and were laying in the sand. We had a fun time running from the waves and I collected a lot of Sand Dollars. Sabrina had to tell me to stop looking for Sand Dollars and watch the boys in the water! I was excited, I never found Sand Dollars before! I know I live a sheltered life! Anyway! It was an awesome trip and hopefully we can do it again next year.

Oracle

On my YouTube channel I subscribe to a French collection of computer animated shorts. This one struck me with layers of meaning...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kwe2fzHXcI

"In a world about to collapse, the oracle's system brings a solution to parents. Mr. Arkel will watch a simulation of his child's character and the Oracle will give him the choice." I suppose it comes down to an abortion debate but it is also the nature nurture debate. I don't believe in fate or destiny per se so I was fascinated/disappointed by the emotional expressions on the characters face at the end. But watching it again it allowed me to project/impose/feel my own emotion in that moment. The resolve to have the baby despite the overwhelming challenge of course really hits home for me. (My third oops baby is almost 3 mo. old) If I had to name the feeling it was sadness, there was no motherly check to cheek touch from the man, and there was no glint of evil in the babies eyes. How could one kill or pass over an innocent baby? Which brings me to the God debate why does God allow people to do evil things? Or are people inherently good? Just until megalomania sets in at age 20 according to the clip ;-)

I liked the depiction of the way the child interacted with the world, the concept of being able to shape the physical world to our every whim could/will happen in the future if we survive that long... Your thoughts?

Wisdom tells me I am nothing.
Love tells me I am everything.

Between the two my life flows.


-Nisargadatta

Being deeply
loved
by someone
gives
you strength
while
loving someone
deeply
gives you
courage.