Men are from Mars

Here's a conversation I had with my honey last night.

Me: (8 months pregnant and leaving work around 5:00)
Hey honey, I just wanted to let you know I'm leaving work right now.

Him: (not pregnant and sitting at home)
Ok, What are we going to have for dinner?

Really?  I mean... Really?

Bangs

Sophia always refuses to allow any type of bow or pony tail in her hair.  She'll rip anything out after 15 mins.  So this summer, my mom insisted I cut her bangs that always hang in her face.  I really didn't want to give her bangs, but it's better than hair hanging all over her face so we went with it.

Since the original bangs were cut, I've only done one touch up trim and it was definitely time for another trim.

Here's how she looked after I trimmed her hair the last time.

Well, my mother-in-law, bless her heart, also noticed that it was time for a trim and rather then tell me I should do it, she went ahead and did it.

 I got home from work and asked Sophie if she had cut her own hair.

Here she is the next day.

I really didn't have a lot of options for fixing it.  If I cut it even with what was started on the right side of her face, she'd look like this.

So I just cut the long straggling pieces to mid forehead and let it be.

I'm thinking of enrolling my MIL in beauty school for her birthday.

Holiday Happenings

Cathy came over for a day of holiday baking.  We made Apple Crisp, apple bread braids, cookies, cake, and more cake.  I had to bring a dessert for a Ward Christmas party and ended up bringing 4 desserts.... it was a good thing too because there were only 10 desserts, so I provided almost half for the whole ward.  (The Spanish ward aren't huge bakers.... The other 6 items were store bought!)

 While we baked, the kids played outside in the "freezing" Las Vegas weather.

 Then last week I was off work so we took the kids to the Ethel M chocolate factory and cactus garden.  We got there right as they turned on the lights.

 And we rang in the new year by painting Sophia's bedroom.  I got it in my head that I wanted a "Tiffany Blue" for the room and once my mind is made up, it's made up.  I went and got the color and we went to town on New Year's Eve.  We finished up on New Years Day and I love it!

Happy New Years!  Here we go 2013!

He's 10!

Today AJ turns one decade!

He woke up to this outside his bedroom this morning.  (And Sophia doing her best "Mission Impossible" maneuvers.

 We celebrated last night with family, friends and a sixlet cake (which is way better than an M&M cake in case you were wondering)

 And on Saturday night, we took him and 2 friends to the Mini Grand Prix and they got unlimited go-cart rides and amusement park rides for an hour and a half.

 And Sophia insisted on riding too (She's the little monkey head next to my honey)

 I didn't notice the bunny ears until I just pulled this from my phone... Does that ever get old?

 AJ's in the second car from the right and his friend is next to him.  The girls on the left are totally cheating, but karma came back and the red-head spun out on her first curve and had to get the worker to turn her in the right direction. 

 And then there was Sophia... safe and warm on her favorite horsey ride.  At only 1 token a ride, it was worth the distraction.

 The icing on the cake for this birthday was when AJ said as we were packing up our stuff, "This was the best day of my life!" 

Well, of the first 10 years I guess.

(Note to self: cancel next Disneyland trip, go to mini-grand prix instead.)

Family Photos

For the past 2 years my lovely friend Rychelle has taken our family Christmas Card photo. 
Here's a reminder for you.

2010

2011

This year I ventured out to take the pictures myself.  Afterall, I'm an active pinner on pinterest and I've read several tutorials on how to take amazing family pictures, it's easy right?

So, armed with my tripod and my new lense and a vision of an awesome family picture with the mountains in the background and my family next to a lone Christmas tree, we set out to accomplish the best family picture ever.

Here are some of my favorites.

 If you look closely, we're a little fuzzy and the tree is the focal point... oops.  I'm blaming the random guy riding his bike past us and staring like he's never seen such beautiful people.  I think he messed with my tripod.

 How come pinterest didn't teach me how to get rid of shadows.... or not to take pictures with the sun to the side?)

 We're not all in focus on this one.  I should've closed the aperture a little more.  (See how I use big words like aperture now that I'm pinterest educated?)

 This one may actually be my favorite of all of them... who needs my honey in the shot anyway?

 Once again, the tree obviously is the focal point.  Totally the look AJ was going for.

Just a sampling.  I actually didn't choose any of these for my Christmas card, so you can be suprised.  (Assuming you're on my mailing list that is.  If you're not on my mailing list, so sorry.  Feel free to print of any of the above pictures and mail it to yourself! )

13 Days Ago

This little princess entered the world!

Magdeline Dobbins

Here she is with her favorite Grandma (Shhhh, don't tell Russell's mom!)

And just because she's cute, a bonus pic.

Congrats to Eliza, now if only you didn't live a country away.  Maggie texted me last night and said she feels deprived of spending quality time with her favorite aunt.  I have to say I agree with her.

 

In completely unrelated news (And only because I saw these pictures on my phone)

The kids went to a stellar birthday party.

They had ponies,

 Mickey and Minnie

A clown (who wasn't very funny, she's on the right)

 And the biggest bounce house known to man kids

I forgot to get pictures of the 3 different catering stands, one was tacos, one was hot dogs, and one was churros.  Basically if this family chooses to spend 3 house payments on their kids birthday party, I'm not going to complain and I'll just cancel our vacation next year.  Who needs the 3 hour drive to Disneyland when this party had almost the same attractions without the lines.

What we've been up to

ME - Sewing
I've been sewing  up a storm.  Most of my sewing projects I can't advertise here because they're going to be Christmas presents.  It's my goal to have a homemade Christmas this year and everyone gets something I've made.  I'm over half-way done!  This is a nightgown I made yesterday while Sophia was taking a nap.

 Cooking

Cathy and I got together for our annual Pomegranate jelly making a couple of weeks ago.  We did pretty good and even learned how to fix the jelly if it doesn't set.  In the past we've just let it stand as Pomegranate Syrup, but we were determined not to have 20+ jars of syrup.

And of course we had wonderful helpers who loved taking a whack at those pomegranates.

I saw these cookies on pinterest and had to make them for my Sunday School class.  They weren't quite the hit I expected, but people liked them.  I got a couple of good reactions!

Decorating

Next to Christmas, I have the most home decorations for Halloween.  I actually was kind of disappointed, because once I got my box of decorations out, I was sure I was missing some, but I can't find any more.  Regardless, this is how the homestead is looking.

The Front door.  Cathy and I made the Spooky sign from a Pinterest idea.  We actually made several different signs we'll change out depending on the season or holiday.

 

I've always been bummed by the front screen door because I can't ever hang a wreath or decoration on my door and have people actually see it.  I was happy when I found these glow in the dark spiders and spider web at the dollar store because I could attach them with safety pins and actually have the door decorated.

Cobwebs and spiders cover my decorative windows dividing the two living rooms.

My mantel, Sophia is pretty scared of those big black spiders. 

I have a few other decorations up that I didn't get pictures of, but you get the gist of it.

ALBER - repairing

My honey brought home this ugly burnt bed around 1 year ago and it has been stored in my backyard ever since.  I begged him to throw it away, but he was convinced he would be able to fix it up nice.  I wasn't so convinced, but nevertheless, it's sat in the yard forever.  He finally got around to fixing it up this past week.  I forgot to get a before picture, but this is during.

You can see the big burnt hole in the padding.  It used to be covered in leather and it was burnt in the wood above that hole and some of the top molding had been burnt and destroyed.  He had to re-shape the main decorative molding and fix the pad.

Here it is all finished as he was setting it up in our room.  It takes up a lot more space than the last bed we had, but it works.  He chose a color to match our night stands and armoire.

Here she is all made up.

 GARDENING

Technically, my honey hasn't been gardening really, we've just been collecting the fruits of our labor.  This was the very first cantaloupe I've ever grown.  And it was very sweet and juicy.  We have 4 more coming and 2 watermelons.  I really hope they do well!

 THE KIDS - excited for Halloween

We went with a superhero theme this year.  The activities started last weekend when we went to the haunted harvest at the Springs Preserve.  Sophia loves the mask and always wanted it on, which surprised me.  She calls it her "glasses".  The activities continue this week with several Trunk-or-treat events and a big candy overload.