BUSY...

ATTENDING HOLIDAY EVENTS:

(Getting ready to watch the play of "The Grinch" at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park)

(Playing on the rides before the play at the Balboa Festival of Lights)

(Heading to a Christmas party)

(Fun at Kenny's firm party)

(On our way to a neighborhood Christmas party)

(After another neighborhood Christmas party - LOVE my neighborhood!)

PREPARING GIFTS/TREATS FOR FRIENDS/NEIGHBORS:

ENJOYING CHRISTMAS LIGHTS:


VISITING SANTA:

(Dancing to Christmas music while waiting in line to see Santa)

(It's not a trip to the mall without a ride on the train)

HELPING AT ELLIE'S PRE-SCHOOL:

(Decorating Christmas cookies)

MAKING CHRISTMAS CARDS:

{Merry Christmas Everyone!}

Decking the halls...

Happy Birthday Car!

Happy Birthday to my cute sister Carly! She's 30 today. Welcome to the 30's Car! So far they haven't been too bad. Here's a fun mini trip down memory lane...

Now you know why my kids pose so much. The apple doesn't fall too far. While I may be the one posing however, at least my shorts aren't up to my chin. :)

I love this picture (think we're in a hotel room?) because we are reading Sweet Valley Twins. Remember those books? They were the BOMB and Car and I worshiped them! Yes, I'm the one with the pasty white legs. Carly and I look and act completely different. She is 21 months younger than me but has always been taller and tanner and older looking (thighs I would kill for!). The looking older thing always bugged me when we were little and people mistakenly thought I was the little sister. Now that we're BOTH in our 30's...payback time!!! :) Ok Car - you still have the tan skin. And the thighs.

Skiing Brian Head with mom

College Graduation (Car - I know you're going to complain about your left eye in this picture. Sorry. I couldn't get the "red eye" tool to work on that eye for some reason. Still wanted to use it because I like the picture. I'm laughing right now because I know how bugged you'll be. My blog - remember!) :)

Mean game of Poker

Christmas 1998

Car's Wedding

Soon after Claire (Car's baby) was born

Car with my girls (Addie left & Ellie right)

More of Car with Ellie

5 Things I love about Carly:

1) She is FUNNY. There is no better way to say it. Carly is just funny. Her sense of humor is hilarious and she can have anyone laughing in minutes. Everyone who knows her loves this about her. Car and I don't talk without breaking into laughter at some point. Doesn't matter what we're talking about. She and I have so many private jokes and know each other so well that we sometimes laugh just looking at each other.

2) Car knows fashion. She has always been on the cutting edge of style (even in Elementary) and while she used to NEVER let me borrow clothes (unless I swore I'd tell everyone in the halls at school that what I was wearing was a Carly original), she has loosened up a bit. ;) I now call her with any and every question about what to wear and how to wear it.

3) Speaking of calling Car with any and every question....another thing I love about my sister is that she knows how to handle me. I am extremely indecisive. It's something I hate about myself, but I can't change. I really struggle with making decisions (big and little) and Car is always there to rescue me! I constantly call her and drive her nuts asking if I should do this or that...buy this or that...then return this or that. She laughs, teases me, tells me I'm making her crazy...but in the end she helps make my decision for me, spends an hour assuring me I've made the right decision, and the next day when I call and tell her I've changed my mind - she understands. My mom and Kenny refuse to put up with this, but not Car. In the end she is always my 'go to' girl. I do have to say though that I payed her back for all of this by making a pretty important decision for her a few years ago: YES! You have to go on a date with Shawn Hazen. The rest is history. :)

4) Carly has been an AMAZING Aunt to my girls. She flew out to visit after both of my girls were born and has been a big part of their lives ever since. She loves them, plays with them, and always makes them feel special. Ellie adores Aunt Carly and gets so excited to see her. I love the way you love them Car.

5) Carly is just plain impressive. She is independent, career oriented, extremely intelligent, a great people person, beautiful, witty, and now she can add "amazing mom" to the list. She has always been there for me and I don't know what I would do without my sister. I was so excited when I found out my second baby was going to be another girl. Sisters. Just like me and Car.

Happy 30th Carly. Love you so much!

Rudolph

{Merry Christmas from Ellie & Addison}

Fun Mail

I'm not a fan of the mail. Who wants to deal with bills and coupons? Other than the occasional thank you note & my favorite magazines (Creating Keepsakes & Real Simple) I don't much care for the mail and it is Kenny's responsibility to get the mail each night, sort through it, and deal with whatever needs to be dealt with. Except in December of course. :) Is everyone else as excited as I am to be getting Christmas cards!? So fun to see pictures of all of your favorite families and plaster them all over the wall in a great big collage. We started sending Christmas cards out when we had Ellie and I have loved the process every year. I especially love making my cards (although I enjoy it more the years I start working on them BEFORE December as is the case this year!) The two years I didn't make my cards were the years I had a baby under one (no explanation needed). Since I plan to make my blog into a book each year (family scrapbook) I wanted to include pictures of our past Christmas cards. So to those of you who have received these cards, sorry if this is a bit redundant! (You can skip past this post.) If you haven't received a card from us and would like one, let me know and I'll add you to the list! Of course then you'll also have to send one of your cards to me. :)

Gotta go...Kenny and I are watching "Fred Clause" while I work on my cards. Isn't Vince Vaughn great? Love him. Love Christmas cards. Love this time of year. (Have I mentioned that yet?) :)

{2004}

{2005}

{2006}

{2007}

{this poem was fun to work on! Click to enlarge it if you care to read about my husbands obession with the Chargers}

Good Things

It's December!!! I have a to-do list a mile long right now (as I'm sure everyone does this month) but blogging just sounded more fun than most of my to-do list. Besides, EVERYTHING is a good thing this month. :)

I'm so happy my girls are feeling better! The week before Thanksgiving they both got the stomach flu. Addison had it the worst and was sleeping so much I was a little worried. You know something is wrong when your two year old just wants to lay around. Luckily they recovered just in time for turkey. Addison is up to her usual tricks and all is well again.

I came upstairs the other night to find Addie sitting in the dress-up drawer in her Minnie Mouse ensemble. The bedroom floor was covered in dresses as it usually is. She loves to change from one dress into another. Such a girl!

Ellie is my little Christmas angel. She is a total mini-me and LOVES everything about this time of year. We've had so much fun decking the halls together. When she was a baby I bought a little "baby's first Christmas" Santa hat for her. She gets so excited to pull it out every year with the Christmas stuff. Here are some pics of Ellie in her hat...

{Ellie - 11 months}

{Ellie - 2 & Addison - 7 months}

I called Ellie to come downstairs because it was time to leave for gymnastics Tuesday morning and this is what appeared in the kitchen ready to go. :) She wears the hat all the time! She even slept in it the other night.

Listening to Christmas music (especially the Chipmunks...I love the Chipmunks). I took the picture above yesterday. Addie was down for a nap so Ellie and I turned on the Christmas music and I cleaned and decorated while she colored Christmas pictures. Such a fun afternoon.

A nap with football on (isn't football the best thing to nap to?)

Conversations with my husband. Kenny is the king of sarcasm and it seems we rarely have serious conversations with each other. Typical conversation...

Kenny: "Erin you have got to watch your Verizon minutes...do you know how long you've talked on the phone this month!? 1700 minutes. That's about 30 hours you've wasted on the phone!"

Erin: "Sorry babe. I was talking to my boyfriend in Spain. He loves my voice and just can't seem to get enough of it."

Kenny: "He better be a Verizon user so I'm not paying for those minutes."

Staples. I love Staples. All kinds of school supplies and organizers. Such a fun store.

Just the last few days it has finally cooled off a little and we turned our heater on. YEA! Heaters smell like Christmas. I love the smell and sound of the heater. Hopefully San Diego will stay in the 60's for awhile and I can pull out my turtleneck and boots I've been dying to wear. It finally feels like Christmas in San Diego. Lights are on all the Palm Trees. :)

Speaking of lights...our outside lights are up and the yard screams Christmas! We put so many up this year (in addition to our big Frosty, Candy Canes, Rudolph, reindeer, and sleigh) that our house lights up our whole street! Kenny was such a good sport to help me - he doesn't share my enthusiasm for outdoor lights. Thanks again babe. The girls and I get so happy when it gets dark and we can check out our lights.

New Christmas tree this year! It doesn't look too much different than our old tree but there is a big difference in the amount of time we spent putting it up! Our old tree (which used to be my parents' tree) was such a pain! We had to put it together branch by branch and the thing was HUGE. The girls would get all excited to decorate the tree and then six hours later we'd finally have it assembled with lights. By then we were all so sick of it we weren't in the mood to decorate. Well not this year! First thing on my December to-do list was to buy a new tree and we found this one at Costco that I loved. Just the right size, branches are attached, lights already strung. So much easier to put together! Next year...time to buy new decorations? The snowman decorations I'm using are also old ones of my moms, but I don't know if I can part with them. They remind me of too many Christmases growing up. Good memories. :)

Family movie night! Watched Barbie's Christmas Carol all together in the play room. The girls loved having Kenny and me watch the whole thing with them. Of course half way through the movie they started playing with toys and it was Kenny and me who were glued to the tube. We're suckers for any feel good Christmas movie...even Barbie apparently. Can't wait to watch our favorite (aside from It's A Wonderful Life of course)...The Family Man. If you haven't seen it, it's a must see for December!

Speaking of good movies...went to Twilight last weekend with friends. It wasn't as good as the book (what movie ever is?), but I still loved it. I really liked Edward and Bella in it. Some of the Cullen family I wasn't as sold on (Rosalie and Jasper???), but overall they did a great job sticking to the story. Now I want to go re-read the books, but I can't let myself get sucked into that world again. It's a world where nothing else exists and my family suffers. Fun to see it on the big screen though!

My girls came down the stairs like this a few days ago. They told me they were off on a picnic with Rudolph and had to get away from all the bears and hot lava that was coming (once again). These nightgowns (courtesy of grandma) are their new outfit of choice when we're hanging at home.

Gilmore Girls re-runs. Man I miss that show.

LOVE Weiman Stainless Steel Wipes! Makes cleaning Stainless Steel appliances such a breeze. Great for all those little fingerprints. :)

Got my first Christmas present of the season! My cute friend Ann brought over a bucket of treats with the movie Elf. Her husband dressed up like Elf for Halloween and I felt so out of the loop because I hadn't seen the movie yet. She made sure to fix that. :) We watched the movie and loved the treats. Thanks Ann! Such a great gift - made for a fun December night with my husband.

(Ann and her husband and little boy for Halloween. How cute are they!?)

I love Ellie's pre-school! Before I sent Ellie to pre-school a couple of years ago I spent forever researching schools to find the best fit for her. I absolutely love the one I chose. It is such a fun, cozy environment with great teachers and amazing learning opportunities. I feel so good sending her there and can't wait for Addison to start next year. I took this picture in front of a house Ellie's pre-K group built when they were doing a unit on architecture. They are always working on something fun and have been doing a lot of neat holiday projects. Good times. Love Ellie's pre-school. Love my girls. Love this time of year. Lots of good things!