Mr. Christmas

This year is going to be so much fun. I love that the older the boys are getting, the more excited they are about the season. We took the boys to see one of Santa's helpers today. William talked his ear off. He wanted him to be sure that he knew he wanted "a little excavator." A little excavator is the only thing William has asked for. He has a large one but he wants "one the size of a matchbox car." Of-course when I went looking, I found a backhoe, a roller, a spreader, etc but an excavator is hard to find. And the kid knows his tractors so he will not accept anything else. So we are on a mission. Or Santa better be :) Harry just wants something blue, preferably a computer like William's. I was nervous about the picture because Harry did not want to sit on his lap but it turned out well.

The other night we went to Simi Valley Town Center to watch them do the tree lighting. Harry fell asleep and missed the whole show but William was super excited the entire time. I had to post this picture because I think the expression on the woman's face in front of us is just great :)

Ok the best part. We put up all of our decorations yesterday. The boys helped me inside the house while Scott worked on the outside. I haven't taken a picture of our tree inside because the tree is a little bare after the ornaments became flying objects last year and we have less than half. We took the boys for a long walk and to the park yesterday. When we arrived home, it was dusk and the lights were on. I wish I would have had my flip video camera in my pocket at the time because the moment was priceless and I can never explain how cute it actually was. I will give it a try though. The words of William:

"oh my gosh! Check it out. Our house is all lit up. Oh my gosh, look at the candy canes. Oh my gosh, check it out, we have reindeer in the front. Oh my gosh, check it out, we have presents by the reindeer. Oh my gosh Harry, look at our tree we put up in the window. You can see it from outside. Check it out! Oh my gosh mommy, look at our house. Check it out!" Then our neighbor comes outside to talk to us, "did you see our house? It has a lot of lights. The garage has lights on it too. Where are your lights? Check it out."

Oh it was so cute. He just went on and on and on. I don't know that I have seen him that excited before. He wakes up in the morning and walks to the living room to admire the tree and all the decorations. Both boys point out the pictures of them as babies during Christmas. They are so excited about Christmas. I don't know how we are going to handle 28 more days of explaining to Will he has to wait for that little excavator.

Tonight we met a few members of our church to put up the church Christmas tree. We had a nice dinner and sang carols afterwards. It was very nice.

It's been a good weekend. I love the family time together. We had nothing planned and it has been nice and relaxing.

Thanksgiving 2010

Flowers-the centerpiece. The food-everything you can name. I love how in my picture the one thing not homemade (cranberry sauce) is right up front.

Even Miss Belle's dinner dish.

I have a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful every day, not just this day. I am thankful for my loving husband, my two energetic boys, my hyper pup, a roof over my head, food on the table everyday, my freedom, the love and support I have from my friends and family, the list goes on and on and on. What are you thankful for?

Grandpa and Gramma Archer's visit

A week sure does go by fast. Grandpa and Gramma Archer were just out. I don't have pictures uploaded of some things. We took Harry to get his haircut. His bangs were down to his mouth. I loved that he sat still for the beautician but he pouted the whole time like we were cutting off his dignity. Gramma and I also got our hair done. I had a ton of hair cut off, bangs and went dark. I think it is good for winter.

On Saturday, we went to Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Sunday after church we went to the beach for a picnic lunch. This was a beach we hadn't been to before and it was breathtaking. I loved it and I'm sure we will go back soon.

Gramma taking pictures with Will.

Harry hugging Grandpa.

This was so cute. The boys would start off at different ends and run towards each other. When they met, they would embrace.

More views of the harbor.

Walking the boardwalk. That's the boys with Grandpa and Gramma.

Scott and me.

Grandpa and Gramma Archer.

I couldn't resist playing.

This was right before we drove them to the airport. Will was in preschool at the time.

Bye Gramma and Grandpa. Thank you for everything and we miss you already. See you in a few weeks.

Speaking of, The Archers (yes us) are coming to Missouri. It's been almost 3 years!!!! We are excited.

Nana's trip

Nana (Payne) came out to visit recently. I know I am not going to do this post justice because I had over 700 pictures to sort through. I haven't seen my mom since last December so it was really nice to have her here. The boys really enjoyed playing with her and I so appreciated everything she did for us. She did a ton of babysitting while I went to doctor's appointment after doctor's appointment. She even watched the boys over the weekend while Scott and I went to Palm Springs.



But it wasn't all work for her. I took her to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. This is the ship my mom came over to the United States in when she was a little girl. It was a great experience to share with her since it was the first time back since coming to America. We took a tour and I even got the hotel to show us one of the rooms. The best part is that we saw her name in the book of passengers! We couldn't get a picture of it because it had a copyright-boo hoo!

We took the boys to the zoo one day. Since I post so many zoo pictures I figured I would just post this one with the boys running after the train :)

It's getting dark so early now but we took the boys to the park a few times.

Do you think this kid needs a haircut? Seriously? We can't decide to let it grow or to cut it. Any suggestions?

We fed the ducks at the park another day. Look at them surrounding us!

We had a tea party!

We went to Knott's Berry Farm and The Chicken Dinner Restaurant.

Mom even got Harry to ride on something other than "the seat."

We did some other stuff too. I showed her where the Charles Manson caves are. They are right behind our house in the hills. The so called "cult family" still live in the house on the top of the hill-ewe. I also showed here where Rocketdyne is (also in the hills behind our house.
I'm trying to think what else. There was a lot. I am so thankful to have had my mom come visit. I know we are all going to miss her so much. This is the tough part about living in California :(

Palm Springs 2010

Scott took me to Palm Springs over the last weekend. After three months of working and only seeing each other on the weekends, one week of endless doctor's appointments and the same week of him being out of town for work, he decided we needed some quality time together. Welcome to Palm Springs, A.K.A. "Gay 70's." I had no idea. Palm Springs is known as being either for 70 year olds (old I guess) or Gay. Our bellman told us this when we checked in. I have nothing against either :) But I will say that I did get a kick out of the 4 male cowboys at the bar hitting on Scott. And even taking it a step further and dancing for him!!! I actually loved it and his face was so bright red. I wish I had my camera with me at the time.

This was the view from our balcony and where we enjoyed some relaxation. It was in the 90's there over the weekend but we came back to the high 90's at home this week.

My favorite part of the trip was taking the aerial tram to the top of the mountain.

Even after parking our car, it was a steep incline to walk to the tram. Check out these views.

We had lunch up there and it was very romantic :) I will say wearing a dress wasn't so smart because it was 32 degrees at the top of the mountain. They were really fast pictures.

We just relaxed most of the weekend and two days goes by super fast. I loved this last picture while leaving Palm Springs. I love the color of the train cars with all the windmills in the background.

Thank you Scott for a great weekend getaway. And a special thanks to Nana, our "my Hana" as Harry calls her, for watching the boys for us.

Halloween 2010

We carved pumpkins a few days ago. We cut a weird face and a scary house per the instructions of William and Harrison. BTW, my mom is in town visiting for a little bit. We are really happy to have her here.

ohhh, scary house.

And silly face.

Scott and I came home from Palm Springs yesterday (next post to follow) to find the boys rolling down the hill as monsters. Check out these costumes on them. They are two years old and they just had to wear them. You can tell by looking at Harry's legs and the costume comes to his knees :)

William wanted to be a pirate AGAIN this year.

Harry really wanted to be "Thunder." That is all he would talk about. I had NO IDEA how to make a thunder costume. So William talked him into being a pirate with him...thank goodness.

My two pirates.

Here is me and my mama.

And the whole family picture.