Pumpkin Patch!!

Today was the first of two trips to the pumpkin patch for us. It was Lauren's turn to go with her preschool class. I am always so amazed at the spectical that is the pumpkin patch in California. It's a simple city block corner, usually all concrete, jazzed up with some hay and tents and transformed into a pumpkin patch. While they are fun to visit, everything usually costs an arm and a leg. Fortunately attending with a field trip tends to keep costs down and kids happy. For a small fee, Lauren got to feed the crazy goats, jump in the jumper and take home a small pumpkin! She really wanted to ride a pony, but that was another $8. Seriously people!! Plus, due to bad weather earlier this week, there was about 200 3-4 year olds running around. Crazy! But we had a great time and Lauren loves her pumpkin!

Lauren's First Trip to the Dentist!

Last week, Lauren had her first visit to the dentist!! She is so brave, seriously, nothing really phases this kid. Of course, I think it helps that she gets to watch Emily do everything first. She did not shed a tear and was actually excited to have her teeth cleaned. In the end, a very successful trip...no cavities and the discovery that she has an extra permanent tooth in between her front two adult teeth. Apparently very common, but still a little weird to me. That will definately have to be taken care of in a couple of years!

Girl's Trip 2010!!!

So this year, we, the "Hall girls" planned ourselves a nice little weekend get-away. Thanks to the generosity of Michelle's parents, we had a beautiful condo in Huntington Beach, CA to stay in. We spent 3 full days and 4 late nights doing wonderfully fun stuff. We started our out with a full day of Disneyland magic. I wish I could tell you the weather was magic, but it was not. It was actually brutally hot but we managed and had a great time. Although I was exempt from most rides, almost all the girls braved the biggest and scariest rides and some of smallest and wimpiest!

Each night was spent talking to all hours of the night. It was so fun to get caught up with everyone.

The second night we had a yummy dinner at Ruby's on the Huntington Beach Pier.

On Saturday, we ventured out on the Balboa Ferry (a 4-minute ride) over to Balboa Island and shopped and walked the island!

We ended with a craft-fest on Saturday night.... Martha would be proud!!!
Sunday afternoon we finally got to the beach before heading the the airport.

Thanks girls for a great trip.....A special thanks to the dads that stayed home with the kids...you're the best (and my in-laws for coming down to help with my kids).

A great tradition for sure!!!!

Baby Update!

No, there will be no side profile shot included in this post! I wouldn't want to scare people. Actually, in reality, I am still feeling pretty good. Besides the fact that our hot summer has decided to come now, I think I will make it! My c-section is scheduled for Friday November 19th and we are all anxiously counting the days! The girls are crazy excited. I have put off getting out any baby stuff for a few more weeks just to keep them under control. Sometimes I think Lauren is more excited about all the "baby stuff" than about the actual baby! She loves all things baby...i.e blankets, bottles, pacifiers, clothes, shoes, etc. I'm sure she'll be a big help :) This month we are trying to fit in everything (doctor's appts, day trips, working at schools, etc) before the time comes when we get nothing done. We are super excited and of course will keep everyone update!

Soccer Season is Here Again!

Emily has started soccer again this fall. Once again, she loves it and is always super excited for game day and practice. Unfortunately, her mom hasn't been so good about taking pictures. Not really sure what's she's doing here but we'll definately have to get some better ones. One thing we've noticed this year is she is a natural born defender. Last year, she liked to try and go up and score and she'll still try this year, but as soon as the other team gets the ball, she turns into a defensive machine!!! She loves to steal the ball or block someone! It 's pretty fun to watch.

First Day of School!!

So this is only 5 weeks late, and I realize that there is a gaping hole between June and September but we've all got to start somewhere, and the first day of school seemed l is soike a good place. Emily started kindergarten this year and Lauren started pre-school. Both girls got to have a little celebration the night before their school started they chose the menu and got balloons. Emily chose spaghetti with meatballs (specifically homemade meatballs), corn on the cob, bread and fruit with chocolate cupcakes for dessert. Lauren was a bit easier with pizza and root beer floats. I think it's so funny because their choices represent their personalities in so many ways!!!! Both girls thoroughly enjoyed their individual celebrations, looks like a fun tradition.
Emily is is a kindergarten/1st grade combo class and is loving every minute of it. She just thinks she so big and cool!!! She is especially excited about homework (you know, the very advanced kind the do in kindergarten!

Emily's special dinner night!

First Day!! September 8, 2010

Lauren's Special Dinner Night!

Lauren's First Day! September 20th, 2010!

Girls Rule....

and boy drools!! Just kidding, Jason doesn't drool but his world is about to get a little pinker....because we are expecting little girl #3 in November!! We are so excited! The girls ademently wanted a girl, I was actually a little worried what would have happened if it was a boy!!! I was even a little nervous it might be a boy, what do you do with a boy? I don't even know. Anyway, we're super happy and more importantly it looks like the baby is very healthy. Jason keeps telling me this means I don't really need to buy anything, but have you seen all the cute girl clothes out there?

Free Fun!!!

Where we live, free is not a word you here too often. Even if something is advertised as free, there's usually a small catch but a couple of weekends ago, we found an advertisement for a street fair in Palos Verdes. It advertised a lot of things being free, including parking (unheard of). So we decided we'd give it a try. True to their word, most everything, besides food and the big rides were free. Parking was truly free and not 10 miles away and more importantly for our kids the pony rides and petting zoo were free. We had a blast!! The girls rode the ponies multiple times, due to a short line and we got tons of time in the petting zoo. We enjoyed the boothes, even got coupons for more free stuff!

Both girls loved riding the ponies, it helps that they were super small.

Emily feeding the goats, they were quite aggresive which made Lauren really nervous!!

I love this next series of pictures!!!

Happy to be close to the goats!!

Maybe a little to close!!!! WAY, WAY too close. Jason claims there was no actual contact but I'm have my doubts!!!
This was the cutest mini-garbage truck.. The girls thought it was so cool, we hope it's not a occupation consideration by them!

Spencer's Baptism!

This last weekend was my nephew Spencer's baptism. Somewhat last minute, we decided to drive up to be there for the weekend. Our girls love to be with cousins and we thought it was a great chance to see one of their cousins get baptized. We invited Deb and she brought Kaitlyn, which made the weekend perfect for Lauren. We pack into Deb's car and made the drive. The girls were great travelers and we had a great weekend. My parents were also in town, which made for a a very special Father's Day!! The baptism was wonderful, the weather was perfect and the company was even better.

I can't even begin to explain how funny these two are. Lauren and Kaitlyn were made from the same mold and the LOVE each other. It's so fun to watch them play and be mischevious together!!
Emily with Spencer, the man of the hour.

My parents with the grandchildren (and great-grandchild) that were there for the weekend!

Last Day of School!

The girls' last day of school was a couple of weeks ago. They don't do a graduation, but both classes had fun parties. It's pretty crazy to think that next year Emily will be in kindergarten, especially since here it is all day long! What will Lauren do without her? We have loved our little preschool and are excited that Lauren will still get to be there.

Emily and her two teachers!! She love, loves them!
Taking a swing at the pinata!

Lauren at the playdough table one last time (until next fall!)

Caught Up!

So I'm fully aware that I have been painfully vacant from my blog. Sorry, I wish I had a good excuse but I don't. Don't feel like you have to read it all, it's mostly for posterity. And again I will renew my vow to do better!!

Field Trips!

Both girls had field trips for their classes in the last couple of weeks. Lauren's class went to the South Coast Botanical Gardens. This place is amazing. It is 87 acres of gardens and wetlands. We, of course, did not see all of it but we've been before and it's really cool. They have all different kinds of gardens. The kids got to visit the Children's Garden, which is all based on nursery rhythms. Super cute and they get to touch quite a few of the plants. The highlight of the trip is always the duck pond, where they get to feed the ducks corn.

Emily's class went to the Redondo Beach Sea Life Lab. We had never been here before and it was pretty fun. It's quite small but the kids get to see a lot of sea life up close. They have several touch tanks and a wide variety of fish.

More Fun with Family!!

So sad to say that for some reason I'm super lame and have no pictures of this weekend but I still wanted to document it. For Memorial Day weekend, my parents came to San Diego for my niece Kathryn's high school graduation. First of all, congrats to Kat!!! We're so happy for her. She is on her way to huge success playing soccer for Dixie College!!! We didn't actually get to go to graduation but we can imagine what it was like!!! It was so fun to spend time with my parents. We haven't seen them since Christmas and we felt so spoiled to see both sets of grandparents in one month!! We enjoyed just lounging and relaxing at Deborah's (always a treat), great food, swimming, shopping and lots of jumping on the trampoline! We also went to a fun Farmer's Market with everyone and a super cool park at the top of the mountains with a view of EVERYTHING in Escondido!! We also got to meet Liz and Travis's new baby boy Brayden. He is so cute and such a super good baby!! Congrats to them! Thanks to everyone, especially Kat for graduating, for a super fun visit!

Fun with Family!!

We had a wonderful weekend with Jason's parents!! As usual, we ran them all over town to see fun sights and have great adventures!! We, of course, celebrated birthdays with them, we took them bowling (one of our new favorites), we went to San Diego and did Sea World, after Sea World we went over to Old Town and did the Mormon Battalion and dinner at Fandango's! Fortunately, there was Sunday after that day to allow us to rest and go to the park and play games. Emily took advantage of Grandpa who expertly started her on her way to two-wheeled bicycling. There was lots of books read, games played and great times had. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for a great weekend!!


Panning for gold and pumping water!
A little ride in the covered wagon!

Birthday Extravaganza!!!!

Because Jason and Emily's birthdays are the same day, it always feels like it's a birthday marathon. They are great sports and love to share the day which makes it much easier. This year was especially fun because Jason's parent flew into town on their birthday for a special birthday weekend. Their actual birthday was filled with a party at preschool and then the girls and I surprised Jason at work with cake and balloons, we picked up the grandparents, went to dinner and finally came home for some presents and cake. Both were spoiled sufficiently and had a great day!!! So glad they're both a part of our family!!!

Emily and Daddy and their loots!!

Big birthday for Emily-A big girl bike with no training wheels!!Finally, ice cream cake!!

One Lucky Mom!!

I am the luckiest mom. I have the two cutest girls ever!!! For Mother's Day I was treated like a queen. For one thing, since I have two kids in preschool I got to attend 2 Mother's Day teas!! So fun and they made me so many cute gifts. It was such a special treat. Lauren's class made everything fish themed, including the cute pot with flowers (you can't see the fish on the pot!). The teachers used the kids hand prints to make all the fish...really the cutest. Emily's class focused more on the performance. They very enthusiastically sang about 8 songs. It was so funny and cute! I keep thinking I should put Emily in a little performing group, she just loves that stuff. Both parties has great food and so many special things to take home..
On Mother's Day, I was treated to lunch in bed (we have 9 o'clock church-makes breakfast in bed really hard), a long wonderful nap, a yummy dinner and fun gifts, including a much needed hair dryer (Jason picked out all by himself-very impressive)!! It was a very special day for sure and I am a very lucky mom!

Shamu, Shamu!!

As promised, we did return to Sea World with the girls. It was so fun!!! The girls were so amazed with everything. It's so fun to see you kids discover like that. We are falling in love with Sea World....never really feels crowded, even if it is, great shows, really no lines and so many fun animals to see. Plus, it doesn't take a long, exhausting day to see everything. The Shamu show is always a highlight (although I miss seeing the trainers in the water...maybe someday) but we really, really like the sea lion and otter show. So funny!!! We will definitely be making return trips!! Come visit and go with us!

A Really Big Girl!!

This last winter I decided that come spring I would enroll Lauren in preschool. She was having the hardest time leaving Emily's class everyday and she seemed ready to try it on her own. So in April, she started 2-day a week preschool. She has loved it. She truly thinks she is all grown up. She has a cute little class, albeit a little chaotic at times. Toward the end of the session, she started to want to go to Emily's class instead of her's which presented a few problems but overall she has done awesome and will definitely be ready again when fall comes.

Build a Bear!

So I have to admit that I've never really subscribed to the whole Build a Bear thing. Just seems like highly priced stuffed animals, that never get played with except to be trapped into buying new clothes and accessories for. Kind of negative, I know. But we have a store in our mall and the girls have been begging for a very long time to do it. So at Christmas, Costco had a good deal on gift cards and I finally gave in and got each their own card. Well, it turned out that they had plenty to occupy themselves with at Christmas so we held onto the cards for a rainy day. With Easter approaching we decided that would be a fun item in their Easter baskets. They were crazy happy. So we took a night and made the trek to the Build a Bear store. I have to say it was pretty cute to see them pick out their animal, their amazement at the whole stuffing process and the thought and effort that went into the outfits. In the end, we came home with a cute bunny and monkey and two very happy girls. ( I will still say it might be a once in a lifetime thing though!!)

Easter 2010!

Although we definitely try not to make Easter baskets the focus of Easter, it's just so much fun it's hard to contain ourselves. This year the Easter bunny sent the girls on a fun scavenger hunt to find their baskets. They were so funny..running all over the house. Ultimately, they found them and discovered their wealth of candy and quarters (which they thought was better than anything. Love the simple things!!!)

And of course, what would Easter be without cute dresses. Thanks Grandma!!!

The train, fun and family!

This year for Spring Break I decided to take the girls to Sacramento to visit my sister. We went last year and had such a great time we decided to make it a tradition! This year though I wasn't too excited about driving the 8 hours by myself so we looked into different options and decided on Amtrak. I have only been on a train once and definitely never with kids but it turned out to be pretty fun. We had to take a bus from L.A. to Bakersfield and then took a train to Sacramento. We got one of the fun seats with the table in between and we colored, played games, watched movies and all kinds of fun things you can't do when you drive. Although it felt slow, the trip was actually the same amount of time as driving. And of course we were greeted by fun cousins at the end of the ride.


We had such a great week. The kids kept themselves entertained much of the time which was amazing. Whenever we go see cousins it makes me sad we don't always live by them....maybe someday. We went to great parks, went bowling, rode bikes, went to the Jelly Belly factory, dyed Easter eggs and had a great Easter egg hunt provided by cousin Maddie!! It was so sad to leave but we do always miss our daddy!

Lauren and Charles...just waiting...their bowling bowls took literally minutes to get down the lane!!

Mr. Jelly Belly Himself!Lauren's special creations!
Ready to hunt in the rain!