Treasure hunt

The Saturday after Christmas, we took the kids on a nature walk through the Santa Rosa Plateau to collect acorns. When we get our new house, we want to plant and grow some new oak trees (although, only the grandchildren might be able to really enjoy them if we are still there : )

Here is a picture of us searching for acorns under one of the parent trees. This is a Mesa Oak.We didn't get to hike very far as it took some time to search around under specific trees for specific acorns, especially since, many of the acorns have already been harvested by birds and squirrels for the winter.

We brought a little picnic to have under the beautiful oak trees. The girls had a lot of fun on their hunt for small treasures (acorns, acorn cups, galls, etc.).

They love collecting things no matter where we go...seeds, twigs, flowers, rocks, shells...it doesn't matter.

If you ever noticed, there is a strange pile of various objects by our door. That is where the girls deposit their treasures. At first, it was only a few things every so often, but they are starting to collect a lot more stuff at a time. At the new house, we are going to have to find them each a place out of the way that they can deposit their treasures.

...that is, not at our front door!

Here is one last picture of the girls in front of a really neat old grandmother oak. It was really big. I'm not sure if I got a shot of the whole tree or not. This is just part of the trunk with the girls standing next to it. It's a coast live oak.

We had to turn back before the sun went down though because it gets really cold. In fact, as we were walking through the trails, some of the pools of water that collected in the depressions were still frozen!

Christmas Day

This is a picture of the girls' other cousins. We went to visit my side of the family on the evening of Christmas Day. We had a nice quiet evening together at my sister's house which was nice (although my Dad did not show up). The kids had fun except they had to wait an awefully long time to open the rest of their gifts, but I think they all got enough already that it did not matter so much.

Christmas Eve

Since we went to the in-laws over the weekend, we got to relax a little and stay home with the girls for Christmas Eve. Our best friend Marian from college came over for dinner and spent the night. She got us a rib roast. Christian made some awesome fresh bread and we made a ton of braised carrots. We ate way too much and stayed up too late talking so we were all pretty tired on Christmas morning.

We did more presents in the morning with the girls and Marian and had a nice waffle breakfast before Marian had to take off for another Christmas party.

It's nice being able to linger a little at home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. In the past we've gone to the in-laws for Christmas Eve. We usually get back late in the evening. We grab some sleep and wake up Christmas morning and have our kids open their presents. They usually don't have any time to enjoy their presents before we throw them back in the car and take off for my family's house for Christmas day. It is usually quite stressful and exhausting. I like it this way so much better.

Caldwell Christmas

We did Christmas with Christian's family this past weekend. We drove down to San Diego for the weekend. Christmas with the Caldwell side of the family was extra special this year since Christian's mom was out here from Hawaii. She doesn't make it out every year so she also spoiled all the grandchildren rotten. The kids got a few things that they really needed, which was really good...and a whole lot of things they didn't! The girls love playing with their cousins.


Above is a picture of the girls and their cousins next to the Christmas tree before the mayhem began. That was the best I could do with all the kids together and with so much going on. The picture on the right would have been my favorite...had it not been blurry. Oh well.

After the kids settled down for the night, the adults got to play some games together.

All in all, it was a pretty nice weekend except we didn't get much sleep, but the kids got to play with their cousins a little longer and we got to visit with Christian's mom a little longer. We were getting ready to leave in the afternoon though so that the girls might be able to catch a nap on the way home when Christian's brother in law accidentally backed into our truck...sigh (we won't get into that!)

House shopping

We've been shopping for a house of our own for nearly a year now (we have been renting this one for nearly 11 years). It has been a physically and emotionally draining experience (not to mention the drain to our time). We've lost on offers where we have offered less than the winning bid. We've lost offers where we bid exactly the same as the winning bid. And we've even lost to people who bid less than what we offered!

To say that it has been a frustrating and disheartening experience is putting it VERY mildly.

But today, we finally have an announcement to make. After 14 offers, we finally got two that was accepted this past week. However, in trying to decide between the two, we went back to look at one of the houses that was empty (during the rain earlier this week) and found that the roof was leaking.

We were pretty much leaning towards the other house anyway, but that pretty much cinched up our decision. And after some um, adventures with the escrow company earlier this week, we finally opened escrow today. We plan to close before mid January. The house pictured above is the picture that was posted on the listing. It is a 4 bedroom and 2 bath house so that is pretty nice. Two for the kids and two for us to use. The family room, kitchen and dining area are not very big though but it will do. And the yard isn't as large as we would like but it is in a very quiet neighborhood so that is a plus. Also, it is close to Christian's work.

Yes, so...here is the kicker. It is not in the Arlington area...nor is it in the Mt. Rubidoux area. It is actually located in the University Heights area...much to my dismay. But I guess we all need to face our demons some time!

Princess and the Pea

Yes, there is no doubt about it, Emily is a true princess of the highest order and she proves it to us almost daily. No, not with a dried pea that she can feel through a stack of mattresses but close. Every day when she has to get ready for school or church or just to go outside, she has hysterical fits as she puts on her shoes because her sock might bunch up a little near her toe or her sleeve doesn't sit perfectly on her arm or an elastic fits a little too tightly for her comfort around her body somewhere...anywhere...anyway, you get the idea. There are dozens of things to set my little princess off into bouts of whining and gnashing of teeth. To get out the door is sometimes truly a chore and a misery. I won't even get started on what it's like to brush her hair! And she might be perfectly fine as her crocodile tears dry up in the car on our way to school or wherever and she is smiling and talking away as if she has not a concern in the world. But mean while, mom's nerves are shot and has not a drop of patience left to spare as she drops off her little princess and has fantasies of kicking her little princess butt out of the car on to the curb and screeching out of the parking lot for dear life, not looking back.

Who is this little princess and where did she come from? If she did not look so much like us and I did not give birth to her, I would swear there must of been some mix up at the hospital!!!

ps. Emily, if you are older and reading this one day, know that I love you with all my heart but I'm just saying that sometimes you really suck. Please stop sucking. --love and kisses, mom

FHE - Tree Decorating

On Monday, we decided to put up and decorate the tree. Yeah, no fresh trees for us...no smells of forests and Christmas. We can't stomach the exorbitant prices of fresh trees. We've tried buying the potted kinds so that we can keep it for a while until it outgrows the house and then can be planted outdoors but most so called Christmas trees in pots aren't even fir trees...they are pine (they even have rosemary trimmed into a Christmas tree shape). We tried buying them from nurseries but they say that they don't grow here and while that may be true of some fir trees, it's not true of white fir trees and we have found them dotted all around the city including within a mile of the nursery). Believe it or not, we have even ordered seeds and tried to germinate them ourselves but to no avail.

So we unpacked and fluffed up the fake tree. The girls were bursting with excitement regardless. It was difficult to take pictures of the girls and hand out ornaments at the same time. They were so excited that they would have trampled them all to the ground if you didn't try to control them. Christian was helping them find places to put them up on the tree as well as helping with those hard to reach places.

We finally managed to get the tree up and decorated. It is one of Emily's favorite parts of Christmas (next to getting presents, of course).

We are going to try to dress the girls up this weekend to take their annual Christmas photo in front of the tree. That part isn't usually that fun, trying to get both girls to pose in front of the camera at the same time is harder than you think. They get impatient after just a couple of shots so we usually have to bribe them to sit at some point with treats or something.

Here are the girls after the tree was finished. Just a few minutes to enjoy, then off to bed...