November

I had to look through pictures to see what November was all about. 

My parents left on the 3rd after a week with us.  It's nice to be able to leave the house alone and get errands done. I always forget out enjoyable it is to get in and out so quickly!

The first full week of November was a busy one. There was the presidential election of course on Tuesday.  I don't want to give away any spoilers, but my candidate did not lose. Shhh.

Andy as in Sacramento for a conference from Monday-Thursday.  The kids and I came down Wednesday night and stayed with him.  Andy and I had never stayed in hotel room with the kids before. I lied. We did. Twice! Once at Easter 2011 when they were almost 4 months old and June 2011 when they were almost 6 months old. But at that age, they weren't going to be at 7 yet so it was ok.

Not this time. After we had them in their pack'n'plays at 7 we were left to lie in bed, quietly, no TV, lights, nothing. How could we be so silly? While they slept, we lied there and texted each other. Romantic, no? Note to self, book a suite in the future, or be prepared to go to bed at 7 at night.

The next day we took them to the Sacramento Children's Museum. We had a BLAST! There is nothing like that in Chico.  I wish there was!

Andy likes to get inventive at breakfast.  This isnt' the first time he has made something out of the letters V and T.

This was the first year I was free on the day after Thanksgiving.  Unless you have been living under a rock. the "day after" is it's own holiday now. In the retail world, it's referred to as Black Friday. I won't bore you with the history of the name Black Friday. That's what Google and Wikipedia are for!
I haven't been off from the day after since 2002.  This year we got out of town, I spent $2.44 on the day after, I slept in, and enjoyed the day.

We went to Tehachapi down in Southernish Calfornia. I say "ish" because to me it's more mid-California.  Andy's aunt lives there and we had the best time.
We ate like royalty, explored the town, played at parks, ran her poor doggy ragged, and slept. It was great!

The last picture sums up Trenton.  He LOVED the doggie door.  Andy would get on the other side and when Trent would peek in Andy would grab his arm and tickle him We have a doggie/cat door from our laundry room to our garage, I may need to figure out how to open it and let Trent play.

We were sad to go.  The weather was perfect. The food oh so delicious, and it was nice to not have to get up and the crack of dawn, literally, and go to work. One year I had to be at work at 3 in the morning. Ugh. 

October-part 3

Halloween is our most favorite holiday. When we were choosing a month to get married, October was a no brainer.

We record Halloween movies like crazy and own tons. "Hocus Pocus' is my favorite.  I am not a big fan of scary or horror movies so any Disney-fied Halloween themed movie will do. 

This includes the "Halloweentown" series. I have no shame. I love em.

Each year on Halloween we pick a different movie from our collection to watch. 

This year: Sleep Hollow, with Johnny Depp.

It's not overly scary, it has the right amount of 'cover your eyes" moments (for me) and has funny moments.

This year we were extra lucky.  My parents came down for a week and came during Halloween!  We were super stoked.  They could see the kids all dressed up and as as well.

That's right. We also love to get dressed up.  

This is the kids last year.

The most important twins in movie history. Luke and Leia. 

They are 9 months old here.  Trent can't even hold himself up yet. And Verona is a little chunk.

This year, I planned our FAMILY costumes.  I made Trent's and had every intention of making Verona's, but my mom made it. But, I did buy all the material and the pattern so I sort of did right?

We were characters from Peter Pan.  I was going to be Mr. Smee, but wasn't sure how to do it, so I was a pirate lady. Not wench.

So I can't find the picture of the 4 of us all together not bundled up. But Andy was Captain Hook. He looked great. Trent was Peter Pan, I made him a green smock/shirt out of felt, a belt and a sword out of felt as well. Verona was Tinker Bell. She loved her costume. Although the wings were giant on her.  Andy and I rented our costumes and it was fun to do that.  

Here are some pics from the visit with my parents. Apparently my mom has all the pictures.

I don't have any with my mom. Bummer. But she was there. Promise. ; )

October-part 2

I don't have any pictures from our 7th wedding anniversary. Mainly because I was home with the kids during the day and Andy was working. But, Andy's mom had the week off from school so she drove up for the night so we could go out to dinner.

Chico is a smallish city. But we have tons of restaurants, and not just crap places. We have some of the best restaurants in the North State. Andy and I went to 5th Street Steak House. I have been to this place, counting on one hand. It's very nice, and very good food and the drinks are some of the best in town. 

Andy really surprised me this year. Since I am no longer working retail, I would be having my first Holiday season free for the first time since 2002. Yeh. I spent 9 years being Bah Humbug about the Holiday Season.  But 2012 was my year. I was hinting that I REALLY REALLY wanted to go to my parents' house for Christmas. We hadn't been there since 2006 and this was the best opportunity to go. He gave me some lame excuses about not having enough vacation time and we couldn't go, yada yada.

But at dinner that night, he gave me a card that had a flight itinerary in it. I was confused. I didn't look at the dates, but where the flights were to. It said PDX. Hmm, I thought, a weekend away, but Portland? We lived outside of Portland for 18 months and it wasn't my first choice for a "getaway". Then I looked at the dates: Dec-21 thru Dec 31.  Ummm, that's Christmas. So I asked if were going to Yakima for Christmas, and he said yes. I lost it right there. I started crying and was so excited. He pulled the biggest surprise on me and gave me the best anniversary gift ever!

So I, of course, let him choose the movie that night. "Looper". I spent more time trying to figure out if I liked Joseph Gordon Leavitt with or without the prosthetics he wore.

At least I have 8 months to figure out how to top him for our 8th anniversary.

October-part 1

I am going to see if this works. A friend from Jr High and HS posted this as a way to "catch up" on all that has been happening in her life.  She inspires me so I am going to try and do the same.

October is always my favorite month. The leaves are turning, it get's colder, well colder for here is 70's.  Our wedding anniversary and Halloween round it all out.

The 2nd weekend we were lucky enough to have Andy's mom come up for the weekend and watch the twins for us so that we may have a trip to San Francisco(Albany) to visit one of Andy's dearest friends, Tim, and his wife Sarah. 

Tim and Sarah always show us "country folk" how it's done in the "big city".  Even though Tim and Andy went to HS and were roommates for several years in college, were each other's Best Man in their weddings, Tim is still the "big city" guy to me. 

They have an amazing apartment in Albany. No one has ever heard of Albany though. It is according to Tim, only 1.8 square miles. It is right next to Berkley. Their view is top notch.

They took us to an AMAZING breakfast place, Brenda's French Soul Food. The atmosphere was great, the service was awesome, and the food. Oh sweet lord the food.  We did a "flight" of their beignet's and they tasted like pillow's full of fluffy yummy's.  We had chocolate: filled with Ghiardelli of course, Granny Smith Apple: sweetened with cinnamon honey butter, and the beignet I found to be the most delicoius, Crawfish:cayenne, scallions, and cheddar. The Crawfish was spciy, gooey, and not overly seafood-y. 

The Blue Angels were in town so we went down to Fisherman's Wharf to watch.  Even though the Blue Angel's come to Seattle every summer, I have never seen them. This was awesome, as all the fancy shmancy folks associated with the Blue Angel's were also watching from the wharf so we had some very loud, and close fly by's.

Since we took BART ( Bay Area Rapid Transit) into the city, and the Blue Angel's were going on, it was very crowded.  Sarah wanted to take picture of us "country folk" on the BART. I think the lady in the background was uber-excited to be on with us.

We had a great trip down there and can't wait to bring the kiddo's to terrorize Tim,Sarah and their crazy cats!

Snuggle Bunny

Snuggle bunny is just one of the 1,752 nicknamed the kiddo's have.  Right now, my snuggle bunny is Verona.  She shows affection like a cat licks its' self.  Lately, she has been giving kisses and "hugs" her hugs consist of leaning over or into something and saying "awwwww".  For example: at the  daycare at the gym, on the floor is a mosaic done in tile of water and sea stars.  She likes to lean down, kiss the star fish, then hover over it and give it a hug (awwwww).  Yeh. it's cute

But she also likes to give kisses to many things. If not physically kissing such object, she will saw "mwah'. The car seat, my hand, her crib, the table, Trent's foot, Andy's head, her toys, and everything else get's a big MWAH!  Trent on the other hand, rations out his MWAH's for only special occasions. We have to force a kiss out of him at bed time.  The boy and girl differences are amazing sometimes.

Verona also likes to snuggle when she get's in trouble.  I.E. Me; Verona, quit jumping on the couch.  Verona; Oh mama, mwah! Me: I'm a sucker and you know it.Verona: Yeh, yeh.

Trent was a snuggle bunny the first year. Then all of a sudden he was too good for our hugs and kisses. I like to remind him and Andy this is why I needed to have twins, so I could get at least one snuggle bunny.  And Verona happily obliges 80% of the time into my snuggles, while Trent, it's like trying to put a button up shirt on a wet cat. No go.

I am going to be better about blogging.  I like the idea of doing it once a month. That I can do. And perhaps adding a post here or there.