Happy New Year!

I took off work early and surprised Logan by showing up to his
school's Chinese New Year Lion dance celebration. He was very happy to
see me there and we both loved the show!

Cuddles

3 of our 4 animals are keeping me company on the bed tonight. :)

Callumism of the night

Why do I always have to wait for my iPad until we are up in the air?

Because those are the rules.

I don't like those rules.


*** Almost home... almost home! ;-)

All dressed up and ready to go.

Writing, and then delivering, my grandfather's eulogy was one of the
harder things I've done in life.

But, I'm glad I did it.

I'll catch up more with pictures and stories once we're back home and
settled in. Tonight, I hope to go to bed a bit earlier and catch some
sleep before a long day of traveling with the kiddos tomorrow.

Out on the ranch

Jon and the boys arrived last night and I'm beyond thrilled they're now with me.

We're staying out at my Uncle Jim's place since my grandmother's house
is pretty full. Figured the kids would enjoy a trip out to the ranch -
I think they like riding in the bumpy truck more than anything. ;-)

Missing my boys

Lately, Callum has taken to telling everyone (but mostly Jon and I) that "I love you Mama".

So of course, Logan has decided to add onto this special moment with a sassy "I love you more Mama".

~~~~~

Jon and the boys will be flying out to join us on Thursday. I really miss them all, and can't wait to see them. :)

Visiting family

And watching the Niners game.

Hey Billy-Bob, where should we store the kids' bikes?

When in the Southwest, pie is what's for breakfast!

I had a last minute trip out to New Mexico yesterday morning to spend
time with my Grandfather Clock, since he's just taken a turn for the
worse. (The news is not necessarily a surprise, he's 92 after all, but
it's still been a shock for us all, given how quickly he's
deteriorating).

Sadly, I don't think he'll make it past the week, but I'm glad I
decided to come when I did. And, it's been good to see other family
out here as well.

A serious match up

We're visiting the Cables today, since Jill's sister, Carrie, is in
town. Once Logan heard he had a new person he could challenge, he
insisted on bringing his chess set with us today. ;-)

I love my lunch bag today.

NYE kisses from my boys

Jon was holding out on sending me the best pic ever!! :)

Fun night!

Last minute and unplanned, but we decided to stay a bit later, put the
boys down and break out the poker chips for a bit last night.

First up, we got the boys cuddled next to each other watching a few
shows and to wind them down a bit before bedtime.

Once they were in bed, out came the chips! It's been YEARS since we've
played together, but still lots of fun!

Here's a pic of the final heads up hand between me and Jarrod (he had
the full house and I had the 4 of a kind) - if there's any way to go
out, this is the way to do it! My winnings will allow me an extra
latte or two this week. ;-)

Football weekend

We got together with the Jodoins today so Jon and Jarrod could get
their football fix in. The kids have been playing surprisingly well
together all day (usually Jenn and I are breaking up a few more
fights). ;-)

Here, "Teacher Connor" is instructing my boys (and Robert) on which
Skylander characters are which (since I have managed to keep them out
of our house for now - hehehe). Pretty darn cute!

Christmas and Tahoe

Even amidst all the chaos of house cleaning and pet peeing and feverish kids throwing up in stop and go traffic, we still managed to have a low-keyed lovely Christmas at home, and then a fun getaway long weekend up in the mountains.

The boys first woke up Christmas morning begging us to check out all their little stocking gifts from Santa.  We were dog tired so we finally agreed, but only if they'd bring the stockings into our room - which they happily did.  I soon started wondering what the hell I was thinking, as every gift opened (except for the candy, it seemed), made noise!  And with no off-switch!  And then the candy!  That produced hyper excited giddy boys - a whole different level of noise to contend with!  :)

So, we finally all got up and decided to unwrap presents from the tree.  ;-)

First, the boys divided up their gifts - Logan was staked out on the loveseat with his stash while Callum decided to pile up all of his gifts onto the trampoline.  The rest of the room was bare (and the other couch had cushions stacked up to dry) due to all the cleaning I had been doing!  But, that didn't stop us!

Callum's gift to Logan - notice the handwritten tag that Logan is pointing out

First I told them they needed to open their cards hidden within the tree....

A lovely note and some moolah to spend!

What a goofy kid

He was THRILLED.  This is the age.  ;-)

A little more mellow over here....

He looks half asleep!

Some of the boys' most favorite possessions are the Minion dolls that Zane's girlfriend, Norma, got them (we opened gifts with them on Christmas Eve)

Callum's big habit lately is to proclaim his love for us (mostly for Daddy) so I had to capture the moment ;-)

Logan decided he needed some lovin' too

Logan's gift to Callum was a black space Angry Bird - Callum L.O.V.E.D. it

Callum's gift to Logan (which he kept telling Logan about, he couldn't keep a secret to save his life!) was a green piggy (from Angry Birds, Logan asked Santa for one of these)

And guess what, Logan L.O.V.E.D. it!  

Ridiculously happy at scoring two Transformer Rescue Bot toys from his Abuelito and Abuelita Riedy :)

You'd never know he was sick and feverish, would you?!  ;-)

We couldn't trust the dogs untended, so they hung out with us (leashed) all morning, eating their favorite treat (bully sticks) and laying with their new toys that Santa brought them

After our fun day of presents and new toys and lounging around in pj's all day - we packed up the truck the next morning - TO THE BRIM (two growing boys, three dogs with their crates, clothes and snow gear - boots, big jackets, snacks for the trip, food for the dogs, cleaning supplies, you name it - it was in the truck!).... and headed off to our favorite mountain spot!

Since Jon and I both had some time off work and both boys' schools were closed, we thought it would be fun to get back up to Tahoe after so long.  Plus, Logan had been asking to go back to the snow and learn to snowboard...and Callum had announced it wasn't Christmas until it snowed (ha! welcome to living in California kid).  So at the last minute, a week or so before Christmas, I hunted down a cabin that would allow dogs and was actually free the week after Christmas, and booked it.

I blogged about our frustrating drive up to the mountains - it was definitely not fun.  More than once, Jon wanted to turn around and go back home and scrap it all.  But, I was determined to get us up to Tahoe and away from the house for a bit.  So, we did finally make it and hey! surprise surprise, we had a really good time up there, even with our rocky start.  So nice of a time, in fact, that the boys were really bummed when we had to pack up and go, and begged to stay longer.  :)

For whatever reason I always like "documenting" the places we've stayed - so here are the first few of our little townhome rental.  It was smaller than the places we normally stay at, but because it was just us without other family or friends, it was totally perfect!

Entryway with Tobey following me around ;-)

We, of course, spent most of our time in this main area

There's 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms off to the right, down a hallway...

Our backyard!  The property backs onto undeveloped forestry land, and through that is a short walk to the lake!

Sicky one :(

Day 1 - getting some exercise by walking to the lake - pretty sure this is the first "real" time Callum has been on snow! (the last time we came up, he wasn't quite a year old and wouldn't remember it anyway)

Logan was very excited to start a snowball fight

And show me he could walk like a penguin ;-)

Odin, in 7th heaven :)

Ready to smack someone!

Be afraid!  Be very very afraid!

Got Callum!

Logan wasn't thrilled that we didn't have enough snow to have a snowball fight at the lake

But look how gorgeous it was!

The boys were very interested in the frozen over lake and breaking as much ice as possible

I'm talking, no one's smiling....

And now Logan refuses to look at the camera.  Ugh!

Snowball fight!

Aiming back at Daddy...

When we were lounging in the cabin, we had a lot of movies or iPad games going....

Callum (and Mommy) battling a nasty cold.

Tobey seeked out the one area where sun was peeking through.  In fact, I raised the blinds so there'd be more coming through.  :)

Snow park time!!  I went down with both boys a couple of times

Jon is holding Callum so tight, you can't see his face, poor guy!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any with Jon and Logan because about then, Logan decided he was done with the sledding, and I decided to put my camera away.  We later found another area of deep snow where Callum just walked around falling face down into the snow and Logan could make snow angels and throw snowballs at me, which perked them both back up a bit.  Until, of course, Logan got a bloody nose, and then that was the end of that.  ;-)

We spent the rest of the day walking around town, down to the lake again, where we found a neat ice castle and a great playground that the boys enjoyed climbing on, before it was time to go home.

All things considered, I'm still super happy we made the trek up - it was so nice to get away from the house for a bit, especially after all the peeing and cleanup we were dealing with.  And fun to get outdoors everyday to walk or hike and just play and have fun together, and then come back to the cabin to snuggle and play games and have more fun.  :)

Until next time, Tahoe!!