Reed's Truly Exhausted

We were shocked the other day when we found out Reed has not kicked his habit of falling asleep while eating his dinner. We put Ruckus in the background just for fun!

Ruckus's Birthday Party

Dan & I have been together over 20 years..... And we have had children for over 15 years... Not once has Dan planned a party for either me or the kids. But this year he decided to plan a party for Ruckus. He invited all of Ruckus's friends he plays with. Planned games and threw Ruckus a Dog Party... complete with goodie bags!

There was a slight moment of awkwardness when Dan began to sing "Happy Birthday" but we all joined in and by the end of the song it was just like any other party.
For those of you who know Ruckus well, you know he is a social drinker. We had set out little water bowls for the "guests" and Ruckus proceeded to drink the water out of all 5 dog bowls we had out.
He played tug-of-war with his cousin.

Sammy.( Can be bribed with anything.)

Max. (The winner of all games and contests)

Winston (lets just say Ruckus has a special place in his heart for Winston)

Santa Pics

Last night we went to Heritage Hill in Lake Forest....This spot is on our "christmas-activity-rotation" that we frequent every few years. It has historic homes, a school, church and pueblo. They decorate it for the holidays and have candle lit pathways to walk through.

Home for the Holidays

M

My favorite ornament from my small childhood.

Who wouldn't want these two to come visit and play a little Rook?

I let the girls play around with the camera and take pictures of the ornaments and the house... They did a pretty good job I think. Maybe we have some future photographers.

Mini-Me :)

Thanksgiving 2011

One of the best things about Thanksgiving is waking up at around 5am and smelling the turkey cooking in the oven. Then falling back asleep...then waking up around 8:30 have a breakfast of cinnamon rolls, strawberries and whip cream, hashbrown/sausage breakfast casserole and hot cocoa. Then we just lay around for a few hours and do absolutely nothing but watch the Macy's "commercial" parade. Then I start cooking around 12:00. This year we went up to Mark and Julie's house and spent the afternoon with the family. It was nice and uneventful.

The Getty Museum

Knowing that children rarely have any appreciation for fine art and also knowing that our children are especially loud.... we have put off taking the kids to the Getty. It is the finest art museum on the West Coast and houses Monet, Van Gogh... and billions of dollars worth of fine art. I found out that my good friend,Kirse from high school, was on a panel for an event being held there and couldn't resist the chance to go see her....since it had been over 14 years.
The event was completely booked and there was overflow of about 50 people. I didn't have a ticket, but really wanted to see her... so I "worked" my way into getting a ticket for a press seat. While I was in the event... Dan took the kids through the museum. They seemed to actually enjoy it and little Heidi complained because she had to leave each room too quickly. I'm telling you that girl has some sort of fashion/art/fine things gene in her.

Reed pondering.

A fabulous view of Los Angeles from the museum.

Two of my favorite things.

Todd & Lori Weekend

In life, there are some people you can re-connect with after years of being apart. You can literally pick up 20 years later as if a week had gone by. This is how our weekend with our friends Todd & Lori went. Todd came to visit from Seattle and Lori came to visit from SLC on the same weekend. We all morphed into 20 year olds again and had a great weekend. Here we are heading out for a night of fun. We went to the Irvine Spectrum for Dinner at a new BBQ place called Wood Ranch. (good) Then wandered around. Took a Ferris Wheel ride.

Bowling

Deep conversations at the Lake.

Dan sporting the latest greatest evening wear fashion trend "the baggie".

Oh... to revert back to the carefree days of sleeping in until noon after a wild night of playing naked crisco twister........ ;)