I Left My (Valentine's Conversation) Heart in San Francisco!

For months we had been planning a Valentine's Day getaway with just the two of us. We had a sitter lined up and Jeff was busy making wonderful plans (like he always does). When Jeff had to schedule a last minute meeting and the kids woke up ill (our sitter didn't want to come if the kids were sick), I thought our Valentine's Day celebration was doomed. I was totally prepared to stay home and veg in front of the movie with the girls and Jeff when Pat saved the day! At the last minute she offered to come have a sleepover with the kiddos - needless to say - they were thrilled. Nana and the girls had fun eating mac n' cheese and watching movies while Jeff whisked me away to our magical getaway. He surprised me with dinner at McCormick and Culleto's - a nice seafood restaurant on the wharf in San Francisco. We had a lovely time eating calamari, chowder, scallops and lobster ravioli while overlooking the bay. After dinner, we dropped into the Ghirardelli store for a sample of our favorite chocolate - yummy! The next morning, we enjoyed a leisurely time on the wharf. We had hot chocolate at the Boudin Bread Factory (which is where we got the heart shaped sourdough loaf above) while we enjoyed the beautiful morning. On the way out of San Francisco, we stopped at Mitchell's Ice Cream - which has some of the greatest ice cream we've ever tasted. (We found out about them on the Food Network.) We drove slower than usual and stopped at the outlets on the way home. It was a great way for us to spend Valentine's Day!

Wicked Weather!

On Friday, February 13th, I awoke to Maya's excamation: "Mommy there's snow - and it even stuck to the road!". We are above the fog line, but just below the snow line. Literally, you could go about 2 exits up the freeway and have to put chains on during the winter. We are used to an occasional dusting - but we must have been dumped on for the snow to actually stick to the street! (Come to find out, we got about 6 inches of snow in a very short period of time.) Marisa and I didn't even bother to eat breakfast - we threw on our snow clothes and got the sleds and away we went. Maya was feeling really sick, so she was just content to watch us through the window. We went down the street on our sled, made snow angels and snowmen and had a good old fashioned snow ball fight. We even included Maya by throwing snowballs at the window she was looking through. Above, you will see pictures of Marisa sledding and of the "Snow Maya" and "Snow Marisa" that we made. We had a great time!

Adventures of Flat Maya

Here she is - ain't she a beauty? She's the world traveling Flat Maya - counterpart to her maker - Maya. Maya's kindergarten class read the book "Flat Stanley" and made these lovely dolls. Flat Maya will be sent to some of our friends and family to enjoy adventures in various parts of the world. After Flat Maya has some adventures at one place, those that received her will forward her on to another place. At the end of the school year, Flat Maya will hopefully be returned to Maya where she will live with us for the rest of her flat life.

Last Tuesday, the kindergarten class took a field trip to the post office to mail their flat dolls. We really had a great time walking through downtown Placerville and playing at the park afterward. Here is a picture of Maya mailing her Flat Maya at the post office.

Flat Maya came to our home first. While there, she ate pizza and rice krispy treats while watching "Garfield". She was part of our "Family Movie Night". We sure had fun with Flat Maya! If Flat Maya makes it to your house, we sure hope you enjoy her visit!

Exciting News!

I hope you're sitting down when you read this! Jeff and I have just found out that we are expecting our third little one sometime in October. Hopefully, we're not tempting fate by sharing this news so early, but we are so excited we just couldn't wait! Many of you may remember that after having 2 little ones so close together, I swore I'd never have kids again. My dad hit the nail on the head when we were chatting one day about Maya being in kindergarten and Marisa being in preschool -- he called me an empty nester! Now with the passage of time, I realize how much we miss having a little one around - diapers, lack of sleep and all. Somehow, our family just didn't feel complete, so we decided to see if the good Lord would send us another little one.

Maya is really excited about the news - she really wants a baby brother. On the other hand, Marisa cried big crocodile tears when talking about having a new baby brother or sister. We thought it was because she didn't want to be dethroned. Come to find out, that had nothing to do with it! She said that she was afraid that mommy would get a big belly and look like Jabba the Hut (further testament that our kids watch too much Star Wars)!

We are very excited to see what this new adventure holds for us!

Cousin Noah's 1st Birthday Party Weekend

We kicked off the weekend with our usual "Family Movie Night". We ate Dino-Bytes, french fries and caramel popcorn while watching the "Waterhorse". It was a great movie and we had lots of fun feeding our faces and snuggling with each other!

On Saturday, we headed down the hill to go to Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jordan's farm. We had a great time visiting with family and celebrating Noah's 1st birthday. They had a brand new litter of puppies that we really enjoyed playing with. One of the puppies is a long hair mini doxy - and I keep telling my mom that she should adopt him. He would be a mini "Squirty" dog (our old dog that we had while I was growing up). The kids also enjoyed playing Thomas and blowing into Garrett's toy horn. There was a lovely spread of yummy mexican food and lots of cake. It was a great time! After the party, Rachel and Jordan treated us to a Stockton Thunder game. The cousins had fun eating popcorn and cotton candy while we visited and watched the game. Thanks a million, Rachel and Jordan! I have tons of pictures - feel free to check them out through my Picasa web albums link.

On Sunday, Jeff left to go to a conference in Palm Springs - he had a great time watching the Superbowl with his colleagues. He says that it is 80 degrees and beautiful there!