Rock, Paper, Lizards....UHHH?

Marina was trying to teach a new game to Morgan the other day. She went on to explain that you do "rock, paper, lizards" with your hands. "Rock crumbles paper, lizard steps on rock, and paper gives lizard a paper-cut." It was very interesting trying to play it with her. I think I prefer the older version: "Rock, paper, SCISSORS" but Marina's way is certainly more entertaining and imaginative.

Our version of SNOW

The local park had a Reading & Literacy Fair in which the city trucked in a huge pile of "snow". My kids have only seen snow twice so they were enthralled. The boys were in their flip-flops and Micaela in her t-shirt. The day was a brisk 70's with sunshine. Now THIS is the way to do SNOW!

that's NOT dandruff

snow angel

Maybe we should have worn snow suits...

snow queen

You throw like a girl!

Polar Express

John's school does a special event during the holidays- a Christmas train ride up in Filmore on the North Pole Express. There's a "Santa", cookies, hot cocoa, and Christmas songs. This is the 2nd year he's taken the kids and they love it.

What do you think Santa... naughty or nice?

HMMMM, that's a TOUGH ONE!

Painting Dowtown Newhall

Downtown Newhall hosted a paint-the-store-windows contest on Dec 5th. The kids in our complex got into the festivities by painting EVERYTHING about Christmas (Santa, snowman, tree, star, reindeer, and Baby Jesus...) on the window of the Cookbooks store. While they didn't win the contest, they had so much fun in the process. That's what it's about.

Turkey

Turkey is my all time favorite meat! Every year I look forward to thanksgiving meal so I can stuff myself with turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes.

(Micaela made the place cards.)

This year was the most relaxed Thanksgiving we've ever had. My darling husband got up at 6:30 to put the bird in the oven. I woke up sharply at 7:30 saying, "We GOTTA PUT The Turkey IN!" He was like, yah, already done, go back to sleep. He also made the mashed potatoes. I don't know his secret but John makes the BEST mashes in the wide western world. We hung out with our dear friends the Haags and it was so casual. We read the sale bills, ate pie, went for a walk, watched the kids ride bikes... it was my favorite Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Brunch

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving in two special ways. The day before Thanksgiving we got together with our dear friends the Gutmans to have brunch. The kids did crafts and played dress-up, of course.

What a spread!

They may not look it, but they ARE thankful.

Sneak Peek

Here's a peek at your photos my dear friend. I hope you like them.

Flamengista

My husband is so much fun. He is royally passionate about his Brazilian club soccer team the Flamengos. He has 3 or 4 of their shirts and he bought all the kids one as well. Whenever daddy's in a mood to wear his Flamengo shirt, all the kids have to pull theirs out as well.

California Novembers

Well, the onset of fall faked me out. I saw a few brownish/orange leaves fall off a tree branch one day; we had a week of brisk, windy weather and I had to actually put on a sweater; someone started a fire in their fireplace and the aroma enveloped the whole neighborhood; we had a block carnival with hot apple cider to boot... but alas, it is STILL Southern California and it was hotter than Dixey this week. I had to get the summer pool out for all the kids to cool off in. (For all of my friends freezing in knee-deep snow: don't feel too sorry for us, this is one of the reasons why we live here.)

Keep Your Hand on Your Gun

John is really big into these Spaghetti Westerns and the cheesy music that comes with them. He has an entire Ennio Moricone collection of all the spaghetti western music one could want. (I'm telling you, it would be a slow and torturous death for me, to have to listen to the whole album.) But, the girls have gotten into it. They love to do dancing and prancing to the Indian music and the low crooning of the cowboys. Since John sings only a few lines of these songs they only recognize a few lines. Well, the other day someone had sneaked the CD into our player and when I went to listen to some music, thinking it would be soothing Worship songs like Chris Tomlin or Selah I was greeted with the following:
dududuh-dudu-dududuh-dududuh - "Keep your hand on your gun." - dududh-dudu-dududuh-
"Don't you trust anyone...." and Marina was in the kitchen and she says, "Mom, is that dad singing that?"

Gerber Baby

My neighbor's kid is one of the cutest I've ever seen. He looks just like a Gerber Baby to me so whenever I get the chance to photograph him I love the results.

Lovin' my Lens

I finally purchased the Canon 50 mm f1.8 lens that I had been wanting for a year. I totally recommend it to anyone who enjoys taking pics. It's phenomenal!

Playing with exposure

I've been playing with exposure settings on my camera and while these aren't the best photos, I definitely think they're unique and I kind of like them.

My friends' photo session

I enjoyed immensely taking pictures of my gorgeous friend and her stunning children. Their personalities were so evident in each smile and movement.

Blood Juice

As most of you know John is a BIG tease. He especially likes to tease the kids. He makes up silly names for things like piddler-waps and booger-flaps. He also renames a lot of food items such as, milk = cow juice, water = cloud juice. So last night he poured himself some V8 juice (which comes in the same kind of bottle as apple juice), and the girls asked him what he was drinking. Naturally, he said, "It's blood juice." So Morgan goes (in his gravely but at the same time squeaky, barely understandable voice), "Gwoch, Dah, hoo put bluh in ouw appa joosh. Dat diguhting! I not goyng to dwink dah bluh..." he went on and on as only a 3 yr old can.

Zebra Face

The same day as Micaela's party, I think Marina may have been craving some attention 'cause she decided to take a permanent black Sharpie marker to her little brothers face, arms, and back. I scrubbed as much as I could and these pictures were the post-scrub look. (He still has two big black stripes going down his back that have not scrubbed off yet.) I just had to laugh to myself and call him Zebra face.