A visit from uncle Sean

The precise Art of the "Animal Tamer"

Sean came to visit for a month in March....It was so fun to have him around!! Kandace surprised us all and came out to visit us the last week that Sean was out here. Sean has created this game that my children love called Animal tamer. This game has forever endeared Uncle Sean to Jack and Charly. I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures, so I had to included them all so that you can get a feel for the "Art of the Animal Tamer" (this totally beats a day at disneyland in my kid's book!)

Before we get to the animal taming....I included this picture of Sean and Kandace and Violet.

I remember this dinner, we were celebrating Jim's birthday. We had a lot of fun that night with Sean and Kandance....Jim and I talked afterward about how much we enjoyed being around them that night....there was and has always been a nice eb and flow with them... so easy.

And now the the animal taming:

I love this picture because all three kids are under attack. Jim & Violet, Adam & Jack, Sean & Charly!


Walking on uncle Seans "abs of steel" (yeah right ;))

Tick tock

The animals fight back!

Getting trapped

Victory for Uncle Sean!

Jim's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Jim!

I am writing this months later so my memory is foggy...We celebrated Jim's 37th birthday this year! Wow he is old ;) Truely I must say that Jim is my best friend. For Christmas I bought Jim a mini plan of season tickets to the SDSU basketball games. The last game happened to be on his birthday.....not to mention they won the game and became Co-champions with BYU in their division. That was a really exciting game that neither of us will ever forget! (Pictures below).

Kids made Jim's cupcakes

Proud of their work and begging to eat them.

The traditional birthday donut.

What could this be?

Not to old for a nerf gun.

After the game we rushed the court....we felt like college students again!

Singing the fight song

Proof that we are actually on the court!

Look how close we are!

I believe this is DJ Gay (point guard)

That was some of the most exciting two hours. It being the last game of the best team SDSU has ever seen and mostly seniors. I will never forget the stadium rocking when all the students jumped up and down and chanted "I believe that we will win, I believe that we will win......."

I think Jim had a great birthday...just the way he would have wanted it!

Stuff Jack likes to do

Play mobil vs. Lego guys

In a match of Wizard Chess

We have recently set up all of Jack's toys down in the garage for his own playroom (to keep Violet away from all the small pieces). He can spend hours down there just pretending...so I thought i would take a picture of what he likes to do. This time he decided to play wizard chess (from Harry Potter) and set up all the playmobil guys and lego guys. Another time I walk down there and he had all his pirate lego guys set up very deliberately...mind you the pirate guys with their scruffy beards and patches of their eyes, swords and scruffy beards....a ruthless looking bunch. I asked Jack "What are you pretending?" He said, "Mom, these are the 12 Apostles."

Hahahaaa!

He is also big into playing basketball in the garage right now. I move the car and he sets up the hoop. He has been inspired by all the SDSU basketball games we have been going to!

I love you mr. Jack.......you make me smile.

A house full of kids

Lunch with friends!

On Tuesday we had our playgroup at our house for lunch. Nothing I love more than the sound of kids running around my house having a blast. We had some playing downstairs in the garage on the bouncy house and playroom, some in the office (another playroom), and some upstairs. All were running around having a great time. There were probably about 12 kids (my house is small), but all were just having a great time with each other and their were no complaints! It was really nice for the moms, we just got to hang out and chat! I love having a house full of people.....it makes me happy. Happy day.

The Whaley House

The Whaley House

So my kids have been begging me to take them to the Whaley House. The Whaley House is an old historic house in Old Town San Diego that is said to be one of the most haunted houses in the US. No...not spiders and cobwebs and goblins and ghouls....but a lot of paranormal activity. Charly has a love for spooky things and was so excited when she found out we were going to the Whaley house today. I thought the kids might be disappointed because there really isn't much to see there, but since the museum is half off this month....we decided to go. It was also something fun to do with grandpa. Well, at first the kids seemed kind of disappointed because they thought that they would just be seeing ghosts flying around inside or something but then I took some pictures and you can see the "paranormal" things that showed up on my camera. The kids were so excited about this....Charly also claims to have seen a ghost floating inside the kitchen.

In front of the Whaley house with Grandpa

Notice the "orb" in the picture by the chair. We did not see this with our naked eye.

Here is a close up of the "orb"


This weird streak ended up in the photo....ghost perhaps?

A close up of the ghost in the nursery.

The nursery

We spent some more time walking around Old Town and we let the kids dip their own candles.

This is Charly dipping her dolphin candle. Jack had an owl candle. That was fun for them.

So do I believe in ghosts you ask? YES! I am not sure what we are actually seeing here, but I definitely think there is some kind of paranormal activity going on in that house. I can't answer why or how or even what.......I am not sure what those orbs actually are that we are seeing, since ghosts in my mind would look like humans.....but there is something to all this and so many questions I want to ask when I die and go to the information desk. Hmmmm....so many thoughts are coming to my mind....tell me what you think? Of course Jim's family was quick to tell me I had dust on my camera....interesting how I have never had that problem before even on the same day and only in the Whaley house......

Nonetheless.....we had a great time with grandpa.....we sure love him a lot and were so glad that he could come down and spend the day with us! We are so lucky!

Willy Wonka

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory!

On Friday I got to go with Jack's class to see the play Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Last year I read that book with my kids and we loved it. We laughed so hard through the whole book.....so I jumped on the chance to go see the play. It was a delightful little play done by a kids professional outfit. I was really impressed with how good some of the actors were and the stage setting. I am especially grateful to my dad who cam down from OC to help take care of the girls for me so that I could go.

This was my group of 5 students: Shelby, Emma, Ava, Jack & John
John is Jack's best little buddy this year

Two peas in a pod

I thought this picture was cute.

So glad to spend the day with Jack and his classmates.....it is always fun to see the dynamics of his class.

Candy Candy Cotton Candy!!

Cotton Candy!!

So this morning I woke up and it was one of those days where we had nothing on the docket.....just to have fun with Charly today and be home and not have to go anywhere. So I asked her what she wanted to do and she said "we haven't had cotton candy in a long time, let's make cotton candy." My first reaction was "yeah right" since I think cotton candy is disgusting and that is the last thing my daughter needs....and then I thought.....why not? Lets try something out of the box and I was sure I could find a recipe for homemade cotton candy online. Sure enough I did and this is how it turned out:

Ok, so maybe nothing like cotton candy...but it was really fun to make.....and each little strand was as sharp as a glass shard....but still yummy to eat (well sort of if you like cotton candy).
Not so fluffy like the cloud stuff you buy at the fair.

But we had fun. And Charly was sneaking bits of it all day. I had fun with you boo.

Family Day!

A Family Day!

Jim surprisingly got the day off (monday presidents day) So we decided to try out the New Children's Muesum in downtown San Diego. We had a coupon for 50% off, so we decided to go there since it is expensive and we hadn't heard that many great things about it. So we went and here are some pictures. Jim and I do agree that it is not that great of a place.....although we were only there two hours and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves for that amount of time, but no more time was needed than that. It just felt like the museum was trying to be "modern" and "urban" although the articecture was cool, there was a lot of wasted space and not the most interesting things to do. We went to a children's museum in San Fransisco and we spent all day there and didn't want to leave. Anyways, we enjoyed ourselves being together and then we went over to Coronado and ate at Little Piggy's restaurant. It was such a beautiful day and the view was amazing!

The kids had fun making "Spirit Masks"

Riding fun little push cars. They were actually a lot harder than they look.

They had a room with all kinds of weird pillows....jack seemed to like this one.

Rock Wall!!

Jim was creative and came up with this building....looks like DNA

Jack and I built this one together.

Even sweet Violet found something to do at the museum....Although there was a lot of destroying going on and not a lot of building ;)

Molly's Visit

Molly's Visit

This is a picture of Violet and Kyjsa (10 months & 4 months). They were so cute together.

At one point Molly and I heard both of the girls laughing and we looked over and saw Violet over by Kysja in her bouncy seat and she was rocking her up and down and they were both laughing at each other. It was so priceless. I told Violet "give Kysja bonks" and Violet bent down and bonked Kysja on the head with her head.....it was so cute.

It's really fun to have a friend visit from out of town. Molly is from Minnesota and her husband Geoff came and they brought there baby Kysja. They have two other children, but they left them at home. Jack had friday off, so my parents took the kids to Disneyland and kept them for the rest of the weekend. Which was really nice so I could hang out with my friend who was on vacation from two little children. Although Jack and Charly loved Kysja (they are both love babies). Anyways, we had fun and of course the weather forcast was for pouring rain the entire time they were out here, but luckily it wasn't as bad as perdicted and we were able to find ample sunshine time to warrent the needs of two people looking to get out of the snow!

My camera situation still sucks right now, so pictures aren't as good or plentiful as they should be. Anyways, I took them to the Quail Botanical Gardens (one of my favorite places in San Diego) and Moonlight beach (also one of my favs.) Then we got In & Out and it started to rain so we went back to my house and hung out. Then we went to the Mormon Battalion.

The next day it was kind of cold and rainy....we Geoff was at his convention...Molly and I were hanging out at my house and we got this bug and decided to totally rearrange the furniture. So here are some pics.....I wish I had before and after....but I am amazed how completely different it looks but we didn't spend a dime!!!

We moved out the china cabinet and created a lot of space in that corner.

We moved the chair where the TV used to be and the TV over to the other side of the wall.
So much more space!!

Anyways, it was so fun having Molly here. Her and Geoff are people I hold in high reguard. It was like having a breath of fresh air. I love when you can spend time with someone and see the world for a few days from a different perspective.
Molly and I met in college at Utah State. We lived in the dorms together and then we traveled to Russia and taught English together in Moscow. Then we backpacked through Europe. We have so much history that we will never not be friends.

Things I love about Mollly and Geoff.

1. So down to earth. Salt of the Earth kind of people
2. I can't say it enough.....I am so impressed with they way they handle money.....they act how I would hope I would act if I had a lot of money. No need to buy flashy things or impress people with their money....they live within their means and they have extra to share.
3. Such a good couple together...very yin yang. It's always a pleasure to know that your good friend married well and is happy in their marriage.
4. Molly has a lot of qualities I don't have and I have learned by watching her. She is very unihibited in the way that she can talk to anyone.....I have watched this over the years and have tried to emulate this.
5. Funny....I enjoy the way she says things.....she has a way with words that always makes me laugh!

Little miss Violet

Who is this Violet Melcher anyways?

Violet is our almost 10 month old baby. Here are somethings about her....although she will change dramatically in the next little bit....this is who she is today. She makes us smile everyday

and we all just fall in love with her over and over. Even Jack and Charly fuss over here. They always want to play with her and hold her.

1. Striking... someone told me the other day that Violet was so beautiful....and then they said she is "striking" I just have to write that down because if someone ever said that about me I would want to know! So Violet if you are reading this....then that is for you!!!

2. Infectious....no one can help but smile when they see you! Even when you wake us up way too early in the morning and we stumble over to your crib and you are smiling at us.....that makes us melt. We can't be mad at you!

3. Loud... Currently no volume control. When you babble it is so funny and SO LOUD!! We can here you through the whole house.

4. Mellow....really just the chillest baby I know. I get comments from people all the time about how laid back she is. At a reacent family get together I think everyone came up to me and told me how mellow Violet is.

5. A pooper....sorry for the reality, but at least 4 times a day Violet!!!

6. Stander....I can't get you to go to sleep because you stand up in your crib now, but don't know how to get back down. It is so funny to go back in your room after I put you down for a nap and see you standing there....so silly and priceless. Now I have to rub your back to get you to go to sleep. I think someone is a little spoiled.

7. Not picky.....you have been eating anything I give you! I am glad. Much easier than your brother was as a baby!

8. Giggler....I need to record you giggling at this age....so cute.

A romantic weekend

I have to say that raising a family it REALLY hard sometimes. It is just non-stop. I really think that three kids have totally pushed me over my limits. There is just so little time to do what you really want and unfortunately spending time with your spouse gets less and less. Jim and I at the end of the day we are totally exhausted and we just look at each other and say "I miss you" Sometimes I just want him all to myself. Jim is really busy with his job, boy scouts, looking for a new job, his Russian business, Russian translations, and helping me out.....like i said nonstop.

This weekend was a rarity, we had 2 dates both Friday and Saturday night! Thanks to the uncles...we even got free babysitting! So Saturday night we went out to dinner at this restaurant down by the beach. I had lobster ravioli and Jim had steak....the kind of steak that is the consistency of butter....yummm!!! Then we picked up some warm beverages from Starbucks and headed to the marina in Coronado for a gondola ride! It was so romantic. It felt like we were in Italy. They gave us dessert on the gondola and there was Italian music playing. We rode throw the canals at Coronado Cays. It was just really peaceful on the water and to look out and see all the city lights. Toward the end of the ride our gondola guide asked if he could sing us a song......we didn't really know what to expect but we thought....ok sure...so he busted out in this beautiful Italian song...his voice was SO good! Really rich and deep. I told him "I wasn't expecting that!"

Saturday night we got to go to the SDSU game. Jim and I LOVE sporting events....and basketball has such an excitement to it. We had such a great time. And State won of course..actually by a landslide. While I was there I guzzled down a huge diet coke because I haven't been feeling well (and coke always makes me feel better when I am sick) so of course I wasn't tired when we got home.....so we got to watch a movie together. I know it sounds weird but that is a novelty to watch a movie together!

The more I am married to Jim, the more I love him. I don't think that I realized how lucky I was when I married him.....I mean I know I loved him then...but I had no idea. It is uncanny how when we our out in public and say something happens and we can both give each other a knowing look and know exactly what the other is thinking. Or one of us will say exactly what the other was thinking....does that make sense? Anyhooo....I hope to all my future posterity for whom I write this blog for....I hope that you all marry well....for that is essential to your happiness!

Happy Birthday Charly

Rainbow Glitter Party!!

4 years Old

My sweet Charly is now 4 years old. I can't believe it! I think we celebrated her birthday all week long. I absolutely love putting on kids birthday parties. For Charly's this year we did a rainbow glitter theme which was really fun and easy to have a lot of ideas. Funny thing was last year she invited all boys to the party and this year there were only girls. Most of the party took place in the garage and we put up the bouncy house so the kids could jump. That is instant fun and cheap. A little disclaimer: hosting a party and trying to take video and photographs (with a really LAME camera did not produce great photos).

The traditional breakfast doughnut

Weeks before her birthday, Charly had been begging me to have breakfast in bed. She was so excited when she woke up on her birthday....we had also decorated her room while she was asleep with baloons and streamers.

A music box that she got from Jack and we let her open it that morning.

Her birthday Party....really one of the funnest kid one's we have done.

Emma, Charly, Chloe, Ava, Skyla, Sydney, Azure, Brooklyn, (Kendra not in this picture)

Charly and Azure

We started out by everyone making Rainbow necklaces.

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of all the games we played, but this is the Rainbow walk (similar to a cake walk). We also had the kids fish in the shower for the cute girly sand buckets and then we did a scavenger hunt.

Rainbow cupcakes!!

Ok, so I didn't get a good photo and they were all gone when thought to take a photo of them inside. But here it is nonetheless you can have a taste of what these psychodelic rainbow cup cakes looked like from the inside.

Singing Happy Birthday!

A Pinata!! Of course! At first we had the girls hit it with a baseball bat...That was so funny. Very different from boys. They would just tap the pinata. Then they all pulled the string.

It was so fun to watch Charly have fun with all her friends. I am so glad that I had this party and it turned out the way it did. I loved having kids just roaming through our house playing and being loud and jumping in the bouncy house. I really love kids and the making magic for them. It was a rather simple party....but that's all it needed to be.

I don't have any pictures right now.....but on her Birthday night we went to Corvette Diner for her birthday dinner to celebrate with Nana and Dan & Heather came as well. What a great place to celebrate a birthday. They came and put staws in her hair and made a sort of fancy updo. Then they sang "happy birthday" to her. She also ordered a hot dog....so a bunch of waitresses came by and all sang a hot dog song to her. It was so much fun. I'd have to say this birthday was a smash!!!