Sunny San Diego

I had a rough fall. I am sure there were many contributing factors, but mostly it was just me. I think hormones may have played a part, and the whiney 1-year old (who was probably teething most of that time). Whatever it was, I decided I needed a break. A vacation from being Mommy. So that is what i wanted for Christmas, and thanks to my parents and Joe I got it. So a couple of weeks ago I went to San Diego with just my sister. Some fun girl time. It was very nice. We had a great time. We went to Coronado Island, on a whale watching trip, we saw the temple (but unfortunately it was closed for repairs), went to Old Town, and to Balboa Park. We kept no real time schedule (except when trying to catch the ferry or trolley), got up when we wanted (which was earlier that I had hoped, but somehow my body thought it was time to wake up!), went to bed when we wanted, ate when we wanted. It was refreshing and rejuvinating, and really hard to come home to snow! It was in the 60s and 70s while we were there. Only needed a jacket after the sun went down. But when we got to Denver, it was snowing!
Here are some pictures:

Balboa Park has some really cool architecture. It was originally built back in 1915 as a temporary celebration area, but people liked it so much, they kept it. They had to do some work though since the original facades were basically paper mache. Crazy, huh?


The palm tree canyon at Balboa Park. Over 450 types of palms. Wasn't quite warm enough that day to make me feel like I was back in Hawaii though.


One of the monument dedicated to "The Greatest Generation." It was over 30ft tall. Kind of cool.


The Mormon Batallion museum in Old Town was fun. And different that it was when I went over 12 years ago. (Jen and Jer you will have to go check it out sometime!) It was interactive and fun!

The San Diego Temple (of course)

In the Fiesta del Reyes marketplace in Old Town. Fun shopping and music. Great food at the Old Town Mexican Cafe!

Cool ship, the Star of India, down at the harbor.

The sunset on the beach at the Hotel del Coronado.

A grey whale tale.

I made yogurt

That's right. I made yogurt in my crockpot. How cool is that? And it is easy and cheap. You just need half a gallon of whole milk and a half cup of plain yogurt. I found the link on my friend's blog (thanks Bekah). http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogurt-in-your-crockpot.html

I have been meaning to try it for a while, but finally did it last week. And then I did it again Saturday. I did strain it. I bought some coffee filters and lined my colanders (i used 2 so there wasn't so much in one and drained better.) Now I have Greek-style yogurt. I made some blueberry sauce with fresh blueberries to mix in it. Joe made some vanilla syrup with real vanilla beans. Yummy! It is really good, and I love not having any of that high-fructose corn syrup in my yogurt. You could make lots of flavors. The possibilities are plentiful. So if you are home all day, I definitely recommend trying it.

I'm freezing

How is I let the whole month of February go by with no posts? What a slacker I am. I have thought about posting many times, but never sat down to do it.

Just thought I would share a weather update for today. It was 40 some degrees warmer today than yesterday, and still not above freezing. That's right, yesterday as I took Eli to school at 7:30am, it was -17 degrees. And the high was -2. Yes, you read that right, NEGATIVE 2. I am glad it was in the 20s today, and then this afternoon it started to snow. I just hope it continues to warm up because negative temperatures are not nice. I don't like the cold. I am blaming it for my sluggishness and grumpiness. (Also because I was in San Diego last week and returned home on Monday to cold and snow. Ugh! It did not make me excited to come home. More about that trip later.)

Only at Build-a-bear

can you get a horse dressed like Darth Vader that sings a happy birthday song!

That is what Simon created. Its name is Horsie and he loves it!

Here are Alice and Eli's with Simons. And yes, Eli picked a tutu dress for his bear. What can I say, that is what he wanted to dress the bear in! The kids had a great time doing this. Thanks Aunt Kara for the gift cards!

Christmas Fun!

How is it I didn't do any posting in December? Oh right, the holidays! But really I didn't know it had been a whole month. Well, here is my last chance to post for 2010. We have been having lots of fun with all our family for the holidays. We got to see all the family from my side this year (mom, dad, Aunt Jeanne, Uncle Chris, Evan and Britney, and even Josh, Erin and Andrew. Yeah!) We had a lovely time all together celebrating. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. It is so nice to spend the holidays surrounded by family. I love that my kids get to spend time with grandparents and aunties and uncles and of course cousins. We did some fun things, including a nice trip to the temple while my mom and dad and aunt watched the kids at Chuck E Cheese. After Christmas, we took the kids to Build-a-Bear to spend the gift cards they got. We also played ping pong in Joe's classroom. That was fun.

Here are some pictures from all our Christmas day splendor:

Simon got a bunch of costumes for Christmas because he loves to dress up. He had to try them all on. Here is just one.

Before Christmas break, Eli got his reward for doing well selling fundraiser items. He got to ride in the Hummer limo to lunch. Here is a picture:

They drove them to the Pizza Hut for lunch. He said it was pretty cool. Yeah for Eli!

Out of the mouth of babes

Things I want to remember my kids said:

The last couple of weeks we had a stomach virus go through our house, yuck. Well a couple of nights after Simon had been sick, Joe found him at the bottom of the stairs at 6 in the morning. He was asleep! Joe asked him why he was sleeping there, he said "I wanted mommy." Later at dinner we were explaining to him that he could wake up Eli if he needed help. Then I said, "Maybe he tried to wake up Eli and he couldn't since he is such a good sleeper."
Simon - "I need a horn."
Me - "A horn? What kind of horn"
Simon - "To play"
Me (I wasn't quite following) - "Why?"
Simon - "To wake up Eli!"
I busted up. It was so funny and cute.

On Saturday, I took Simon to Walmart with me. I told him he could pick out a present for Alice for Christmas. So he told me what he wanted to get for Christmas
Simon - "I am going to get a Walking Iron Man" (which he has said for several weeks)
Me - "What else do you want for Christmas?"
Simon - "Maybe a tennis racket"
Don't have any clue where that one came from!

During singing time in Primary the other week, the kids were supposed to draw a slip of paper and then tell something they were thankful for based on the subject on the paper. I was sitting by Eli when someone drew a paper that said, "Say something you are grateful for that you can hear." Eli whispered to me "Prayers". It gave me tingles. What a sweetheart!

One of my favorite things is that Cayde, my sister's 2-year old, calls me "Mudder". His mom is "Mommy" but I am Mudder. Not Auntie. I think it is so cute.

IN the mouth of babes, in Alice's case....molars. Making her not the most pleasant these days. I hope this doesn't last long. Hope she is over it before Christmas. And hope she figures out walking. She has taken 4 steps by herself, but mostly when we try to get her to do it, she just sits down and crawls instead. Oh well, when she is ready. I just think she would be happier walking. That is probably just wishful thinking on my part. At least she sleeps pretty well at night.

I am thankful for my kids and all their personality. I am endeavoring to enjoy them everyday and remember that I am grateful for them.

Nurse-maid Elbow

Yesterday, Alice had a dislocated elbow (well technically sub-located because it wasn't all the way out). I don't really know how it happened. She started crying just before I put her in the car to take kids to school. And kept crying when we got home. I laid her down in my bed and finally noticed that she refused to use her left arm. No bruises, no swelling. I couldn't think of anytime she fell down or anything, so I was kind of perplexed. I called the doctor who said I needed to bring her in so they could determine what might be wrong. So we took her, and fortunately, it was just a sublocation. No x-rays, no splints, slings or casts. And now she is fine. The doctor showed me how to fix it in case it happens again, which he says it will. Funny thing, I dislocated my elbow when I was little too. (I was 3, so not so little, but maybe this kind of thing runs in the family?) I am glad she is ok, and now we are trying to be careful not to pull on her arms, or let her brothers pull on her, which may have caused it in the first place. Who knows?

Thanksgiving is almost upon us, then Christmas will be here. Life will be crazy from now til January I am sure!