Three Hatchlings

Emily

2010-08-23T09:20:00.001-07:00

Emily has changed a lot this summer. She only wore solid color t-shirts last year--no print--but now look at her. She had a lot of fun shopping and figuring out her new style.

Sarah

2010-08-23T09:16:00.000-07:00

Sarah was very excited to be back with her friends and have more people to socialize with! She is still young enought that it was okay for me to take a picture of her at school....it didn't embarrass her.

Christion

2010-08-23T09:14:00.001-07:00

Christion was too cool to have me take a picture of him at school, so I had to get a solo shot of him at home.

Happy first day of school!!!!!!

2010-08-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

I am thrilled that today is the first day of school. Emily started 8th grade, Chrisiton started 5th grade, and Sarah started 1st grade.

My BOY!!!!!!!!

2010-06-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

Christion received many awards this year. He did very well academically all four quarters, volunteered to be a student valet, and had 100% attendance. Great job, Christion!!!!!!!!!

Incredible weekend

2010-05-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

Getting away with my husband is my favorite thing in the world! Going on a date is nice, but there just isn't enough time to strip away the worries and have fun. Bryce and I went to LA on Friday and didn't return until Sunday night. That was just the right amount of time to remember how much fun we have together and forget about stress. We dined at Spago (Wolfgang Puck's restaurant), went to the Magic Castle, shopped in the garment district, shopped in Beverly Hills, went to the Getty Museum, and had a ball. I love my hubby!

2010-05-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

Cute kids

2010-05-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

I was happy to find the kids getting along well one evening. Christion was so kind to play with Sarah and her new Princess Ariel ball and Emily was peacefully reading in her room. Days like this give me hope.

40 isn't so bad!

2010-05-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

I've been dreading turning 40, but found that it wasn't all that bad. :)

Disneyland!

2010-05-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

Sarah was invited by a friend to attend the "Happiest Place on Earth"--of course her mom just had to come along, too :). So, Sarah and I ditched school and spent a fun filled day at Disneyland with friends Jericha and her daughter, "Ju-Ju". The park was not packed and we had little to no wait on most rides. It turns out that my little girl is quite daring. She loves the fast roller coasters! She was thrilled with Space Mountain and the Materhorn. When she got off each ride, she would quickly say, "Can we go again?" The last time Sarah went she was 3 and she doesn't remember anything from that trip; so this was a fun adventure to see Disneyland for the first time, AGAIN!

Tea Party

2010-04-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

Bryce and I went to a Tea Party rally on April 15th. Interestingly, what we found was a cross section of America. There were older people, teenagers, young parents with children, men with pony tails, men in suits. People of all different races, religions (including people that were not religious), and walks of life attended the rally. As we said the Pledge of Allegance I had to smile at the fact that Tea Party participants are portrayed as the crazy fringe of America. In fact, I'm sure that someone looking for a wild time, thought we were boring. We listened to patriotic music, listened to speeches from junior high aged students, radio hosts, soldiers, religious leaders, and enjoyed a commeraderie of people that truly feel like this is a wonderful country and we are thankful to be here. It gave me hope to see that there are people that feel it was important enough to gather and express their freedom of speech. In my opinion, that's one of the best things about being American. God Bless America!

Lets Make A Deal

2010-03-31T10:31:00.000-07:00

Bryce and I were invited to attend "Let's Make A Deal" with our friends. Bryce was picked to make a deal with Wayne Brady himself. We can't tell what happened until it airs, but we can say that we had a lot of fun. That is a cool show to attend--we highly recommend it to anyone!

I love spring!

2010-03-04T10:09:00.001-08:00

I love this time of year. Blue sky, birds chirping, and trees exploding with blossoms. Here is a picture of a tree in our front yard completely covered with tiny pink flowers. Sarah loves it so much she counts pink trees whenever we drive around town. Happy Spring!

Cooking

2010-03-01T09:07:00.000-08:00

One benefit of not working this year is that we are spending a lot more time together. All of us enjoy cooking. Sarah and I made goodies Saturday for an activity at church.

Now he's 10

2010-03-01T09:01:00.000-08:00

Christion turned 10 last week. He had a birthday party with 12 other ten year olds.....what was I thinking? They had a pinewood derby party. I couldn't have done it without Bryce and our friends Robert and Amy who brought the track and ran the race. A good time was had by all.

Valentine's weekend

2010-02-19T14:06:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Valentine's weekend. Emily and her friend Paige decorated Valentine's cakes to share with their families. The girls did a fabulous job! Since Valentine's was on Sunday, we decided to have a family candle light dinner and ended up inviting friends, too.

What?

2010-02-01T19:49:00.000-08:00

On what planet would this outfit actually match? I don't get it. I couldn't clash this much if I tried, and yet when I ask Sarah to go get dressed....this is the type of outfit she comes out in. I've tried to teach her about patterns and colors, but obviously it isn't working. This is why I lay out her clothes on school days!

Dancing!

2010-01-07T21:32:00.000-08:00

Tonight Bryce and I went to our dancing class, that's right, dancing class. For Christmas my husband signed us up for dancing lessons. I am so excited. Our first date (way back in '96) Bryce took me to dance lessons where we learned the two step (country was cool back then). We had so much fun together that I have always wanted to do it again. But with Bryce's night classes, babies, other expenses, etc. it was never the right time. Well, now it is and I am having a BLAST! Tonight we learned the waltz, the waltz while turning in a circle, and the waltz with a woman doing a turn. I was really impressed with my husband's dancing skills. So was the teacher--she came by and said that she could tell we were going to be her star pupils. I hope I can keep up with Bryce. I have to tell you though....ballroom dancing uses every single muscle in your body. Even my pinky is sore. The professionals make it look so easy--like all they do is float on the dance floor. I have new respect for the people on Dancing with the Stars.

Cooking from scratch

2010-01-03T17:51:00.001-08:00

One thing I have been enjoying as of late is cooking from scratch. Yesterday, I made a chocolate truffle bundt cake from scratch, Bryce and I both made pasta from scratch, and I topped it with homemade alfredo sauce. YUM! So much for losing weight in 2010.

Science projects

2010-01-02T11:37:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. Every year I swear that I am going to be involved less in next year's science project...but the next year comes along and I am in the thick of it again. I know I am not the only parent suckered into participating in the science project competition. Is it that I want my children to look good because they are a success or that I want to look good because my child is a success? Maybe it's a combination of both. Being a teacher (former) married to a teacher, grades are really important to me. Maybe it also has to do with my obsession with my children getting good grades. Whatever the reason, I was knee high in sugar, artificial and regular, helping my kids with their projects this morning. By the way, if I were you I would stay away from foods with artificial sugars--especially aspartame. Ew!

SNOW!

2009-12-29T18:31:00.001-08:00

SNOW!

2009-12-29T18:28:00.001-08:00

On the 26th our family went in search of snow. We had a freezin' good time. I just love when little ones get rosy cheeks in the snow--and big ones, too. Bryce also made a little "snow graffiti." (He loves me!)

New Christmas Jammies!

2009-12-24T21:58:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.......

Organic goodness

2009-12-14T09:54:00.000-08:00

The frost came and killed our bean plants. Fortunately, we were able to harvest the last of our beans. Don't they look great?!?! By the way, they are supposed to be purple, green, yellow, and some spotted ones. Bryce likes to get heirloom seeds of unusual plants. We all like the flavor of the purple ones best. YUM! Our pea plants are frost resistant and are still going strong.

Being cool with Santa

2009-12-14T08:19:00.000-08:00

Christion is at a funny age. He still wants to sit on Santa's lap, but needs to be "cool" while doing it! Emily, of course, brought a book. :)

Santa

2009-12-13T16:36:00.000-08:00

It's funny. Sarah has wanted to see Santa for weeks. She has been coming home with stories about other kids at school that went to see Santa--and she wanted to see him too. Then when it's time to see him, she is suddenly Miss Shy. Whatever!

Having fun

2009-12-07T08:53:00.000-08:00

Bryce and I wanted to have some fun....it turns out that our kids don't like roller coasters, but we do. So Bryce and I went to Magic Mountain by ourselves on Saturday and had an entire day by ourselves. No one whined at us, asked us to buy them anything, fought, or gave us attitude. We had each other to ourselves, by ourselves. It was a FUN day. Thanks to my friends that helped with the kids and were "on call" in case of emergency. Of course because we are getting old....we are now nursing the aches and pains that come with acting like a couple of kids. It was worth it though!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas, too

2009-11-30T10:46:00.000-08:00

I love the holidays. I love the cooking, the smells, the lights, and most of all the family time. Even though it is very hectic packing and traveling--it's a lot of fun. Thanksgiving was fabulous. I have to admit that the day after Thanksgiving I am ready for Christmas. Bring it on! We were so excited that when we got home from our trip to Fresno, we put up our Christmas tree. Considering that it is 10 feet tall--that is no simple task. This is a record for us. So even though our tree is fake, we have our pine scented candle burning, Harry Conick Jr. Christmas cd playing, and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Fahrenheit 451

2009-11-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

Interesting....I reread the novel Fahrenheit 451 recently and it was amazing. I taught this novel about eight years ago to a class of juniors and I felt is was extremely relevant to current society. The social commentary about technology was what I mostly focused on--the fact that people are continually "plugged in" to some type of technology. In just eight years our society has become even more reliant on cell phones, ipods, internet, etc. If we want entertainment it is literally at our fingertips. The "wall t.v.'s" in Bradbury's book in 1953, are our reality. The result of too much reliance on technology is that people are unable to communicate and care about each other. If people are continually plugged into technology, they aren't plugged in to each other. What I found even more remarkable this time around is the social and political commentary and how that is beginning to mirror today's world. In the novel, books are burned because it isn't good to have conflicting ideas. They don't want anyone to be offended, so anything that can be offensive is destroyed. The society "spoon feeds" ideas and wants the people entertained so they don't think for themselves. People are not encouraged to think for themselves--just stay plugged in and have fun....and the people don't see that the world is literally falling apart around them. I don't want to give too much away, but I would encourage anyone out there to pick up the book. Ray Bradbury had an amazing insight into what life could be like in the future. I would love to chat with him and see what he thinks about how things have turned out......

Happy 36th Birthday, Bryce!

2009-11-16T13:57:00.000-08:00

Food Storage

2009-11-12T08:12:00.000-08:00

One week ago I was given a challenge at church. I was asked to not go to the grocery store for one week and see if I could feed my family just out of what we already have. (then report on it) My husband and I thought this would be a great challenge since we collect food storage and try to be prepared "just in case." We also decided to take it a step further and not tell our kids and see if they noticed any difference this week. Well the good news is that the kids didn't even notice. We had good well balanced meals--I had to adapt some recipes because I was missing ingredients--but all in all it was a great experience. We keep our freezer loaded with meat and frozen vegetables and have a good sized pantry full of canned food. Some things we learned--(1) keep up on the garden. Our fall veggies aren't ready to harvest yet, so I learned that we need to put it in a little sooner. (2) Get chickens! Seriously, years ago my husband said he wanted a yard with chickens and I thought he was crazy. About a year ago I started warming up to the idea. This experience clinched it. I would like to get a house where we could have our own chickens and fresh eggs. (Our current home is zoned for chickens, but I wouldn't do that to our neighbors--we need more room.) (3) I need to be better at rotating my food. I did find some cans of food that had expired and was bummed to throw them away. I hate to waste.
The best part of this experience was that I took the money I saved from not buying groceries--and did some Christmas shopping! I think we might do this again before Christmas in order to help our budget.

Reforming perfectionist

2009-11-06T10:11:00.001-08:00

So I have had this blog for a month, but have been fretting over the fact that it isn't "just right." Today I finally realized that it is better to just do it--imperfections and all. So here it is--The Three Hatchlings. Pictures are currently in the wrong places--I'm not sure how to fix them yet--but when my children are not sick and my friend can come over and help me, I will get it done. If I wait until it's perfect--I will never post.

Does anyone else wonder about what to put in a blog? I see such amazing blogs that have political commentary, artistic information, blogs with a purpose, etc. Other women have such poignant things to say. That just further paralyzes me--I can't compete. I think that's why I haven't blogged until now. I was so afraid of not doing it right and not being good enough that I just didn't do anything. In an attempt to overcome my issues with perfectionism, I'm taking a step and letting people see me with all my imperfections.