Sunny Days in January!!

We have had an absolutely GORGEOUS week of weather! We've spent every day enjoying the outdoors as much as possible. We went for a walk in the woods, took a couple of trips to the beach near our house, and went to the park with our play group. I love this warm winter weather! I think we're prepared for the coming gloomy months, with this nice little shot of Vitamin D!

Kaia, marveling at the majestic tall trees.

Our shadows (a source of much excitement for the girls!)

On the beach...in short sleeves and barefoot!

Farley makes a wake when he swims...the girls loved throwing the ball for him! (Although he got much more tired when daddy threw it!)

Kaia in her little pink baseball hat

Emma, in her cute little visor.

I hope you all have been enjoying this lovely Winter sun!!

Kaia Likes to Move It, Move It!!!

This song has been the hit of our daily Dance Parties lately!!

Christmas Joy and more...

Kaia's favorite gift? ChapStick from Santa. Click on the image to enlarge it and read the story :)
Em with her bouncy ball-making kit, a gift from her and Kaia to Daddy.

Enjoying the slide at the mall with big sister helping.

Doesn't Emma's face somehow look like an 80's movie box? I swear I've seen some 80's movie with a picture of a guy in shades making that face on the cover. Maybe it's just me, and in that case, nevermind. Cute kids, right?

Em giving Daddy his Christmas gift...a homemade sugar cookie pizza that she decorated herself!

Mama and Kaia on Christmas day.

"Why did Santa give me this?" "What's a Whoopee Cushion, Dada?"

Decorating cookies for Santa

Em and Bucket in their matching dresses from Great Grandma and Grandpa

Em in her new Christmas dress from Great Grandma Jean and Great Grandpa Bernie

Waiting for Auntie at the airport, with a handmade "Auntie" sign like a limo driver!

We had a couple of nice hailstorms...the girls were mesmerized by the ice balls falling from the sky!

Kaia got cold on an outing, and we'd just bought Lewis a t-shirt, so we put it on her. She did NOT want to take it off. She wore it all day!

We went on a field trip to the tortilla chip factory with Em's preschool...it was really fun! One of the things I love best about school is that parents are encouraged to be involved and I get to watch Emma have all of these wonderful experiences!

Kaia got to come, too, and was intrigued, and both girls loved the samples of chips!

Daddy popped over from work (it's next door!) and came on the tour.
Kaia loved standing on a pallet at the chip factory with the other kids...for some reason this was very exciting.

This is a shot Em took of us shopping in Old Town in December.

Lewis and I at my work's Christmas party

....so be good for goodness sake!

I love Christmas. It is such a beautiful, magical time, and seeing it through our girls' eyes is even more magical! Yesterday was Lewis and my first day off together in a really long time, and we went for a drive for the girls...and there was snow! Luckily I'd packed warm stuff in case we were lucky and found snow close by...and we did! Just 30 minutes from home!

Playing expert-level tetherball
Look, Emma takes after Mama!! Also an expert tetherballer. This little cow family totally enthralled me...they were all so cute!

This is what happened when I said "Smile!". I think Em was truly trying, but her face was frozen! Kaia was just having a blast! Snow boots would make the experience much more fun for the kids...but they both just had their rain boots, so we didn't last too long before everyone was cold.

I brought some cones and the fixings for "Snow cocoa" just in case we found snow...and the girls loved their cocoa-cones!! We waited to eat them until we were in the car, nice and warm, with the heater on!

My little puppy and kitty, sharing a laugh...(sometimes we draw kitty faces on the girls for fun, and Em wanted to be a puppy this time, and also she wanted me to write "puppy" on her forehead, just to be clear.) So I laughed, but I did it, and they thought it was perfect!

Isn't she beautiful? Emma and Santa are good buddies, so she's been wearing her Santa hat everywhere--even to bed!

Kaia and Santa? Not so close. Poor little thing was on his lap for half a second and was all worked up. She calmed down as soon as we picked her up...and she still says "Santa!" whenever she sees him...but she also holds on extra tight...

My lovely ladies in their Christmas dresses

My mini barista is so cute. Lewis brought home coffee from Dutch Bros, and I had finished almost all of mine, and went in the other room, and when I came back, Emma had made me a new "coffee" in the cup! She put tomato sauce, milk, water, and frosting in a cup, and then put a little blob of frosting on the straw (because Dutch Bros puts a little blob of whipped cream on the straw of the kids' hot chocolates) because "We were out of whipped cream, Mama, so I used this". I made lots of yummy noises as I "drank" my tomato-sauce-coffee, I promise.

The first hail of the season...it was so much fun for the girls! They made "hail balls" (it doesn't snow enough here for snowballs) and had a blast!

Such a beautiful, serene, classic Christmas picture...

Oh my God, the snails. Okay, so we bought a live Christmas tree last year in an attempt at conservation and home beautification. We kept it alive inside last year, and outside all of 2008, waiting for its second (and final) indoor Christmas before we plant it in the ground. We brought it in (when I say "we", I mean Lewis, and a dolly--thank you!), set it on a table, got out the tree skirt, and suddenly noticed the tree's planter was COVERED in hundreds of tiny, crawling snails that were more than happy to be inside. Emma, our own little animal rescuer, loves snails, so I gave her a container and she went to work "rescuing" the little snails to move them outside. Lewis, Kaia and I all helped, too, and when we were done, the planter was finally snail-free. Below is a sampling of some of the snails (who were relocated out into a field).

My sweet Bucket, dressed all nice and warm!

Another Reason I love Emma Grace

I love living with little kids. Absolutely adore it. Life was never so interesting as it is now, or as funny!
This morning, I woke up, brought the girls downstairs, and made breakfast. The girls were still at the table finishing their bagels and smoothies, and I started to wash the breakfast dishes. When I was all done, I noticed one more Dutch Bros cup (the girls get hot chocolate sometimes from there, and it comes in its own reusable cup), off by itself on the counter in the pantry. I went and grabbed it, and as I was walking toward the sink and talking to the kids, I absentmindedly popped the top off. I wasn't looking at the cup, because I was looking at the girls, and a frog jumped out!!! I screamed (I love frogs, but I was SO not expecting this!) and jumped up in the air, dropping the cup and losing the frog. The dog and both girls jumped up and ran over to me, and Emma said, a little wistfully, "Mama, that was your present! I made it for you yesterday!". Thank God she thought to put a leaf and some water in there for the frog, and there's a nice big air hole on the cup. We looked around and eventually Em found and caught the frog over by the refrigerator ("He doesn't want to leave, because he loves me!"). Once my heart slowed to a perfusing rhythm and I caught my breath, we all had a good laugh. I love my girls!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! Blessings & Laughter to all!

The uber-popular cheesy smile...it's a staple of our "natural" looking photos!!

Some San Francisco Treats

Lounging by the shore, watching the birds...she looks so grown up!!

My 2 gorgeous girls

We ventured to SF for a quick trip this week--Lewis had a seminar for work, and the girls and I came along for the ride!

Speaking of the drive down...Our VW had a little malfunction the night before we were scheduled to leave...so we had to drive the Suburban. We almost never drive it due to environmental and monetary concerns, but it sure came in handy for the bookshelf I bought at IKEA! Anyway, it's been hovering around 195,000 miles for a long time, and halfway to SF, it reached 200K!! We're a bunch of nerds, but we stopped and took a picture. I have never had a car with that many miles on it before, and it still runs so great!

Inside a sculpture of a giant safety pin.

We went to a lovely sculpture garden in Golden Gate Park. Let me start by saying that I love Lewis SO much and he is such a great husband and father, and I think he is so handsome! However, something about this giant green squished in head reminded Kaia (and me) of Daddy! I'm sure it's just the bald head...but we all had a good laugh!

Emma's new smile...eyes closed, big cheesy grin....a-la-Kaia

We went to the Academy of Sciences in SF with our family friend, Tuck. There was a huge aquarium, a "living roof" and a rainforest (which housed 600 butterflies!). Most people who know me have found out about my little aversion to flying insects...it was such a big deal for me to go in that rainforest. There were tons of butterflies, some the size of dinner plates. They were everywhere. Em loved it...Kaia was not into the crowds and missing her nap, but after she fell asleep in the Ergo, she seemed to feel a little better. I was just trying to make it through without anything landing on me! Then, I got in the elevator, and the guy said, "There might be some butterflies on some of your clothes, so please check before you leave!". I just tried to remain calm...but wow...I never thought I'd go inside a room with 600 butterflies. The Academy of Sciences was a really fun place, though...and we had a lot of fun.

Tuck and the girls on the Living Roof.

An albino alligator.

Golden Gate Bridge...it's us, I swear, but we should've stopped on the other side so the sun would be in front of us! A beautiful San Francisco sunrise (our girls get up plenty early to afford us views of the sunrise most days!). We stayed on the water right near SFO, and we watched planes take off and land...the girls were mesmerized.