Chipmunk Invasion (2/52)

My kids are obsessed with six, squeaky and oh-so-adorable little rodents. Alvin and the Chipmunks have invaded our house (and our cd player and even our computers). It all started a couple of weeks ago when Jacob went with my mom to see the new movie. Since then we have gone to McDonald's numerous times (Brad even called five different McD's to track down an Alvin figure--Jacob's favorite), purchased the soundtrack, and tonight we actually "Munked" ourselves on munkyourself.com. Would you believe me if I told you that there is even and iPhone App? Yep, we've got that, too.

My favorite part of this whole chipmunk craze is our daily dance party. Those little guys can actually sing and I love the Chipette's take on "All the Single Ladies" (and Abby dancing with her arms raised when they tell all the single gals to "put your hands up").

So my picture for the second week of my 52 week project just had to be of Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

And if anyone happens to be at a McDonald's that has the super cute, chubby little Eleanore, she's the last one we need. Abby would be ever so grateful I'm sure.

A New Year (1/52)

I'm usually not one for New Year's Resolutions. But after some thought I decided that I should be. I'm all for setting goals for yourself, and to me, that's not much different than a resolution, right?

Well, one of my goal's for 2010 is to go back to taking more pictures of my own children. I just love taking pictures of other kiddos for my photography business, but let's face it--my kids are the reason I became interested in photography in the first place. Last year seems like such a blur and I wish I had more images of Jacob and Abby to look back on as I cherish the memories we created.

And with that goes more blogging. I really want to document our lives here. I want to write about the things we do each day and post images that go along with that. And I want to give up the need for each picture to be perfect. I want to be okay with snapshots of my kids and free myself of the idea that each picture has to be portrait worthy.

So to motivate me I've decided to do 52 weeks of blogs / pictures. At least one entry a week. That's my promise. And more importantly, my promise to my children. So someday they can look back at all of the recorded memories and smile.

And what a better way to start the new year than a lively game of Hungry, Hungry, Hippos? Don't you just love that game? Jacob and Abby sure did!

SNOW!

Brad and I spent the weekend in Colorado for the annual Maintenance Connection holiday party and I just loved seeing the fresh snow on the ground. Growing up in Sacramento, California my whole life we never, ever got snow. I remember one time when I was four years old that it did actually snow. It was magical but it never happened again. If I want to see snow or have my children experience it, we have to head up the hill to Tahoe.

Well, today we experienced a little magic in our own backyard. Brad woke me up this morning with, "There's snow on the ground!" I honestly didn't believe him. They said that it might snow, but I really, really doubted that it would actually happen. Well, it did. And even though it was just a light dusting, it was still beautiful.

Jacob couldn't believe it when he walked outside, either.Shortly after I took the previous picture, Jacob disappeared into the house. When he came out, he was wearing this.

Abby just couldn't wait to eat the snow (that's all that she did on our last trip to the mountains.)

We had such a great morning making teeny, tiny snowmen and throwing snowballs. Please ignore the fact that my daughter has mismatching, right handed mittens. Like I said, we live in Sacramento, we don't really even have a need for mittens, let alone have them handy and ready to go at a moments notice. I had to dig just to find these two. Hopefully we won't have to wait another 25 years or so to experience snow in Sacramento again!

Two reasons to be thankful...

Jacob and Abby,

Every day I am so grateful that I am your mommy. That I get to see your smiling faces first thing in the morning. That I get to hear your infectious laughter daily. That I get to experience all of your milestones right alongside you. That I get to receive your love.

Every day I am thankful, but especially this Thanksgiving as I take note of all of my blessings, I count you both at the top of my list.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

the saga continues

This post is long overdue, but with the countdown beginning to New Moon I realized that I just had to blog about my fun girls night. For my birthday I got my girls together for a yummy dinner at Fuzio (my favorite restaurant--thanks to my time at UC Davis) and a "slumber party" (if we are allowed to have those at our age) at the downtown Hyatt for a Twilight marathon.

This summer my girlfriends and I started reading the Twilight Saga and I must admit, it's become a bit of an obsession. I was dead set against it at first. Jaime and Danielle started reading the series and I was totally turned off. Who wants to read about vampires and werewolves? I mean, come on--all that is crazy. But then Sandy read them and convinced me to just give them a chance. So I picked up a copy of Twilight and honestly didn't really put it down until it was finished. Then came New Moon--same story. Then Eclipse (which I actually read on the drive to and from San Francisco--Brad says I can't claim that I have motion sickness anymore). Then Breaking Dawn. All in two and a half weeks time. And these are long books. By the time I was done I had convinced nearly every around me to pick up the books and read them (even my own mom.)

So when my birthday rolled around I knew exactly what needed to happen. A Twilight Girls Night. And we had sooo much fun. Jaime made a super yummy cake, we enjoyed some wine, and watched Twilight (again) together.

We've vowed to have another party after the 12:01 am showing of New Moon this November 20th.

Thanks ladies for a great and memorable birthday. Can't wait until our next all nighter!

Engaged

I have lots to blog from our wonderful weekend with our good friends, the Andersons, but I thought I should update everyone and let them know that Jacob is engaged. We picked up Bella and her family from the airport on Friday and before we had even gotten home Jacob asked Bella's dad if he could marry Bella. Reunited after 3 years and all it took was a twenty minute drive to rekindle their romance:) Of course I couldn't be happier!

In all seriousness, though, it was so great to see Jacob and Bella play together and really enjoy each other's company. I look forward to many visits in the future! And here's a picture of the two little lovebirds. (Oh, and try to ignore Jacob's fat lip...that's another blog post, complete with video coverage.)

All girl

It is no secret that Abby is all girl! She LOVES pink, anything with princesses, and has recently become quite fond of make-up. While she's still quite a few years off from that, I did recently purchase her some Ariel lip gloss to get all dolled up with.

Well, this morning as I was packing up for our day at the water park, Abigail comes in the room and says, "Mommy, look at my lips!" Oh my, sweetheart, how could I miss them!