O so thankful.

...for these people in my life.

As well as family and friends... like you.

Thanking the good Lord for His many, many blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jeff's birthday blueberry pie.

Jeff's birthday meal request: coconut curry chicken and blueberry pie for dessert.

It's official. I'm no pastry chef. The blueberry pie I made for Jeff on his birthday was horrible. He was such a good sport, though.

I will be making blueberry cobbler or a blueberry smoothie for him next year. Or maybe we'll go straight to a Marie Calendars to pick up the real thing.

On the Move.

Watch out.
Life as we know it is about to change.

Car close-ups

Sarah and "Tick Tock."

Josh and "Orange Crush."

Zac and "Red Hot."

Laketime with the Littles.

This has to be one of our favorite parks.  This sweet fountain that overlooks the lake turns on about once an hour, and the kids love to tiptoe through the water.

This dock lets you get up close and personal with the ducks.  The 3/4 mile trail around the lake makes for a great jogging track.  Zac brought his scooter and scooted along next to me as I pushed Rachel in the jogger stroller.

Science Museum, Again.

Orange County Science Museum.

Josh suspiciously snoozes on a bed of nails.

Bottle rockets blast off!

Sarah (in striped shirt) at the base of a mock space shuttle booster.

Dear Friends...

...all dressed alike because we were at the beach snappin' family Christmas photos of each other!

Happy Birthday to my Man

Jeff right at home with one of his favorite tools:  a drill press.

Jeff is 41 years young today.  I've never stopped being seriously in love with you!

10 years of marriage, and I can't imagine a better life partner.  I just wanted to say, you are the absolute best husband and father in the world!  Land's Sake! I am so very lucky to celebrate this day by your side.

Thank you for continuing to hold my hand all these days... months... years... you are my treasure and I thank the good Lord for you. 

Visalia Part 4 (Olives)

So about those olives.  Our family loves olives.  

On the way to school, we drive on "Olive Avenue" where I make a big deal with the kids (ours as well as the kids we carpool with) that you can't talk about anything else except olives while we're on that road.  And once we turn off Olive Avenue, you can't say anything else about olives.  Silly Mommy.  But it's great fun.

So one of my goals while we were in the Central Valley, where they grow everything from cotton to walnut trees, was to find a working olive orchard.  We scored big time as not only did we find rows and rows of olive trees, but the workers were harvesting as we drove by.  Jackpot!

And yes, everyone had to taste an olive right off the tree.  

If you've never done this, really, you should.  They're so fresh and delicious.

Bucket 'o olives.

Visalia Part 3

Mom always sets an amazing dinner table both in decoration and taste.

Grandpa Ed with 4 of his 10 great grandchildren.

Visalia Part 2 (Grandpa Ed)

Dad grills steaks while Grandpa and Rachel look on.  Josh plays with water guns at the pool.

My Grandpa is doing well... he turns 93 this December.

Playing mini golf at my Grandpa's Home.

Loading up the truck.

Visalia Part 1

During our time in Visalia, yes, we attended my 20th high school reunion, but the better part was getting to hang out with Grandmom and Grandad at their house!

Baseball in the front driveway.

Sarah playing with Scrabble letters.

Jeff and Dad enjoying some football. We don't have live TV in our home so it was a treat to watch some fun shows.

Grandmom, Sarah and Josh look at fun buttons to put on their Grand Prix race cars.

(I use Picasa to upload my photos to my blog and it only allows me to upload 4 at a time, so no, I'm not really trying to annoy you, it's just easier for me to post in groups of 4... thanks for bearing with me!)

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles.

She did!

Well, not really.  That's just the mnemonic we recently learned as we were studying our science unit on... any guesses?

Planets!

 We made our own "planets on a string."  

A page out of Josh's Kindergarten science journal.

And yes, I totally forgot that scientists recently 'changed their minds' and Pluto is no longer considered to be a planet.  So much to keep up with. We took a mattress and a load of blankets out to our driveway Friday night to do some star-gazing.  Reminded me of viewing meteor showers from the Huntington Lake Dam.  

Good stuff.

On the Wall

You've got something right there...

Braces

Our sweet Sarah...


has a beautiful smile and a mouth full of amazing teeth,


but not quite enough room to house them all...
so off we go to the orthodontist.

Tigger

Zac age 3.

Awana Grand Prix

Sarah's car: "Tick Tock"

Josh's car:  "Orange Crush"

Zac's car:  "Red Hot"

Election Results

In case we left you hanging, here's the election results.

Killin' Time

We had a few minutes to spare as we headed to Sarah's gymnastics class, so we stopped for a moment to stare at the ocean waves. I honestly still can't believe we live here.

20th High School Reunion

I recently attended the class of 1990 Mt. Whitney High School Reunion in Visalia, CA. It's great to see everyone, how many have changed and how many... haven't. I'm in the front row, 2nd from the left. Good times.