...And a Happy New Year

This year I didn't send out any Christmas cards, so hopefully friends and family have wandered over to this website as this entry will be my Christmas card to you.

Annalise says she doesn't believe in Santa Claus, which makes us sad, but at least she's willing to play along with Robyn. Robyn believes with all her heart and it is fun to see the excitement in her eyes. Annalise has been practicing drawing this winter break and above is her note to Santa Claus.

I got them to pause before the unwrapping frenzy began.

This is Robyn after unwrapping her gifts. It was cute to see her surrounded in wrapping and tissue paper as she dove through her gifts.

Christmas aftermath.


I would like to say it is all cleaned up but those who know me tidiness is not my forte. It will take me several days before the living room looks clean again.

We hope everyone has had a great holiday and enjoying your time off work. We'll see how Jeff does beeing at home, as he's a certified workaholic. He really shouldn't worry as there's ALWAYS something to do around the house...

We are doing fine and I think after several weeks we've finally kicked the sickness bug. Oops, I think I might have jinxed ourselves. :)

Happy 40th Jeff

We actually went out to dinner (without kids!) on his birthday. These are a couple pictures from our family party a couple days later. The first picture isn't quite in focus but I love how the candles look like a torch...

Robyn helped with the cake. Besides stirring the batter, she put the candles on the cake. We didn't have 40 on top but I think she put on all the candles we had in the house!

This is what's been happening in our neighborhood...

Annalise got her ears pierced! I've been telling her the last couple of years she could get it done -- all she had to do was tell me when. Well, in September she decided to go ahead , BUT she had to wait until the end of soccer season. She really pysched herself out before the piercing, but once it was done she decided it wasn't too bad. It helped that they did both ears at the same time! I don't think she could have stand having it done one at a time.

Annalise's old Belle dress. I was going to give it away but Annalise wouldn't let me. She's going to save it for her children. Hopefully we will be able to find it then as I know it's stuffed somewhere in her closet!

My newest nativity scene. I went to the store to buy the Little People Nativity set. I had been wanting that for years but once I saw this, I fell in love. Isn't it cute!

Teacher presents. In case you aren't sure, they are key chains. The bigger ones have a pocket where I'm going to put in a small gift card. The other is for Annalise's girl scout leader. Only a couple more to do. I hope they like them.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. The girls didn't fight (too much) and we didn't hit any traffic on our way down to Danville for dinner. (Too bad for the people heading to Sacramento -- it was backed up for miles.) The food was good and we enjoyed visiting with the family.

This Thanksgiving was the start of a new tradition -- Robyn as her dad's Thanksgiving Super Helper. She helped him make the annual pecan pie and strawberry jello salad. I think it tasted better this year -- made it was the touch of Robyn that did it.

We hope everyone else had a nice Thanksgiving as well!

Soccer Has Ended

This weekend will be our first weekend without any soccer games and we are just a little sad. When Annalise first started to play I never thought I would feel this way. Though with the weather growing colder I don't think the feeling will stick around for long.

It was a rough year. This year the girls moved up from U10 to U12 and as a result the girls were a lot bigger. Last year they dominated their division but this year, well, they didn't win a game. Even so they managed to have fun and they still tried their best. They were a good group of girls!

Even with the season being 0-7-3, we managed to have a great soccer party. For the past three years we have it at the local indoor soccer place. Everyone, parents & teammates, has fun playing for an hour. Last year even I went out there but not this year as I wasn't feeling well. Robyn took my place instead and had a blast!

Annalise got to spend one more day playing soccer. She and three other teammates were nominated to play in the all-star game. It was a nice ending to the season!

Halloween Weekend

Actually, the Halloween celebration started the week before with the school's Harvest Festival. It was a PTO fundraiser but it was the one time the kids get to wear their costumes at school (no costumes allowed on Halloween -- boo!).

Sssshhh, don't tell Annalise but her and Robyn's costumes kinda go together. Annalise is getting to the age where Robyn is really starting to bug her. Robyn realizes that and I think she often does it on purpose...

At the school's harvest festival Robyn won a cake at the cake walk. This is what she chose:

It's pretty cool looking, but it's a LOT of cupcakes. We've been passing them out to friends and we still have one left in the house.

In addition to the Harvest Festival we had lot of other things going on. Jeff & I went to a Halloween party on Friday -- we even dressed up but we have no pictures so you will just have to take our word for it. :)

Saturday was the ward's trunk or treat. The girls invited a couple of friends and had a good old time being hyped up on sugar. Besides getting candy, they participated in yet another cakewalk and got to go on a hayride. It's going to be hard to go back to school on Monday!

We've Got Orange Fever

Jeff and the girls are big fans of the SF Giants. I, on the other hand, really don't care much for baseball, or any other sport for that matter. I enjoy going to a live game, but please don't make me watch it on television.

Last Saturday I actually watched a little bit of baseball on tv. It was the ninth inning of the sixth game and I was in my bedroom reading. Jeff guilted me into going back to the family room to watch the end of the game. Even to me it was an exciting, nail biting end to the game. Jeff was pacing the floor until that final out. My only regret of the win -- now they are going to be bugging me to watch the world series with them.

Oh, the things we do for our family....

Phoebe Buffay The Barnyard Song

Yesterday Robyn came home from kindergarten telling us all about cows -- about how cows have four stomachs and no top teeth (who knows if any of it's true; I've never been that interested in cows). It was all really cute but as I looked over at Jeff he's turning red and laughing. I couldn't figure out why he was laughing until he said, "The cows in the meadow go moo." That's when I started to laugh.

That's seriously one of the funniest Phoebe songs from Friends!

My other favorite song is the Grandparents song. Too funny!

Fall Break Brings Grandparents

The girls had a week off from school so I invited my parents to come from Maryland to visit with us.

The first half of the week there was just Robyn at home. Annalise had the opportunity to go to Disneyland with her friend's family. We asked Grandma and she said it was okay for her to go.

Annalise brought back mouse ears for Robyn. Robyn was excited to see her but she was even more excited about getting the present!

So I dragged my parents around the Bay Area. One day we spent up in Sacramento and another day we headed up to Davis. The picture above was taken in Sonoma. We went and saw the Mission San Francisco Solano which was originally built in the 1820s. It was a beautiful day and we stopped off at the Sonoma Cheese Factory and bought some delicious fudge.

The last day they were here we headed off to San Francisco for a rather unusual tour.

We took a tour with Ride the Ducks. We toured San Francisco first by land and then by sea. We've been to SF before but it was fun to see it from the duck truck.


We drove started at Fisherman's Wharf, and then through North Beach, Chinatown, Union Square, South Beach, etc.

After driving through the city we drove into the bay. Here's how the city looks from the water.

San Francisco Giants Stadium

Robyn's favorite part of driving the "boat." The captain let the little kids each take a tour sitting on the captain's chair.

All of us (me taking the picture) after the tour. I'm not sure how long the duck whistles are going to last. They can be rather annoying!

And the Curtain Finally Closes

Someone should call Mother Nature because she seems a little off. Our weather this year has been really odd. Summer was cool (which we all loved) and now it appears our autumn is going to be scorching. This week the weather has been up in the high 90s and 100s.

We haven't been doing much, just getting back into the school routine. I thought I would show off a couple completed (finally) projects. The new fence was a long time coming. It was partially blown down last November, pulled completely down in May and finally finished in September. Now it wasn't our fault for the long delay as this was our neighbor's project but in any case we were able to enjoy the fruits of HIS labor. I did end up getting backyard envy. Our neighbor's backyard is absolutely beautiful. Ours is nice but it has no grass, just plants and concrete. Anyway, the fence is up and he did a good job.

I do like the look of new wood!

This was our project and it also took us the whole summer. In case you can't tell we repainted the deck. I started back in June, Jeff finished most of it before the 4th of July, and I finally finished the last bit (and it was just a little bit) this month. There's no reason why it shouldn't have been finished before except that we just weren't motivated to finish. I finally finished it when Jeff invited co-workers over for dinner. Nothing gets you motivated like trying to impress others!

After having a month freedom, Robyn finally came home with homework -- and I was sad becausethat means homework for me too. Well, I blew it. The first time we finished the homework and turned it on Friday. That's when I found out we only did half of the work. She practiced writing her name on the front and I didn't realize she had more to do on the back. Bad mommy! Oh well next time I'll remember to check the other side of the paper.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Last week we went to the circus. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus to be exact. I won tickets from a local radio station. I didn't have to call in but since I'm a member I can enter contests on their website (definitely the way to do it!).

We had a lot of fun. The last time Jeff & I were at a circus we were both just little ones. We enjoyed taking the girls to see their very first circus.

Before the circus started, Robyn told us she wanted to be an acrobat when she grows up. Now -- well, she's decided that it's just too hard.

The motorcycles in the cage were Jeff's favorite act. At the end of the act, there were seven motorcycles circling inside the metal ball!

Mesmerized by the circus -- especially Robyn! She was disappointed that the high wire act had rope to protect them from falling. I had to explain to her that the rope was there to keep them safe, not to help them do their act.

We had a lot of fun. Check out the circus when it's in town. It's a great show!

School Pictures

Instead of paying for school pictures, this year I had my friend Christine take their pictures. It's been awhile since Robyn has had her picture taken so I wanted to make sure I got a cute picture. Here are some that were taken:

Start of a new season

This is how my Saturdays will be spent for the next couple of months.

With two soccer camps under her belt, Annalise looked really good out on the field. Confidence is a wonderful motivator. Jeff was pleasantly surprised. He's once again an assistant coach and she wasn't showing off her new skills during practice.

This year the spectators (probably directed at us annoying parents) are sitting across the field from the teams. They are now playing on the bigger field so they seem so far away. It's a good thing I got the new camera because it has a great zoom lens!

I really should have signed Robyn up for soccer this year, but I dragged my feet and just didn't do it. So next year Robyn, I PROMISE I'll sign you up.

Afterwards the team had a BBQ at a teammate's house. They had a lot of fun. To see them play in the pool you would never guess they played a game earlier that day. I call this picture -- Swimming with sharks.