So not fair!

Dear God,

Exactly what were you thinking when you made it super easy for men to loose weight and women have to fight for every ounce? I am no longer talking to you today since I learned Brad has lost 25 lbs since we bought our new house. How did I come by this info? I was excidedly sharing the fact that I'd lost 6 lbs in the same timeframe. Thanks for ruining my day!

Kathy

Weekly Forecast--Heaven!

This is the best time of the year here!!!  A great time to be painting and cleaning a new house, not too hot and not too cold, just right!

Valentines Day

So what are you getting for Valentines Day this year?  My honey is getting me this....

...and the house that goes with it!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!  If you want to see more of the house go back to THIS 6 MONTH OLD POST!! 

We got the keys yesterday and Brad is beginning the painting today, sorry for all you PINK lovers, it had to go!!!  We are so excited and greatful for Helen and Claude helping us get this house! 

Unfortunately it stinks bad from being vacant for almost a year and the indoor cats that lived there so we gotta go scrub the heck out of it today, tomorrow and Monday so not a lot of fun happening on this 4 day weekend!  But the results--totally worth it!!!

End of Christmas

We had lots of fun at Christmas as you can tell from my previous posts and here are the last pictures to wrap it up. 

Michael's family and my family went up to Pismo Beach to see our friend DeAnne and her family who I haven't seen in 17 years and this is the only decent picture I took, you can kinda see the view from their house--that's the ocean at the top of the picture and it was a delish dinner.

One day the big kids went to Magic Mountain and the little kids rode the train for 1 whole stop.  It was Lewis' favorite.

And then there was the pool where our children spent lots and lots of time.  We were in the ocean, hot tub or pool if we were at home.  It was fantastic.

Hot tub

John in the pool with the kids

 Dive in Lew

Twistin Mary

Cannonball Helen

John and Griffin played the "anything you can do, I can do better" game and I'm not sure who won....

Grif's turn

Beachin good time

Here we are in our private little cove area having a fantastic time.  Cold water didn't keep us out of the ocean and we spent lots of time in the tide pools and water.  It was a great cove with dolphins sighted daily. 

Malcolm, Leksi, Willow and Helen brave the cold water to surf and boogie board!

Grif

Kids on beach

Malcolm in canoe

Ced, Mary and Lew Golfin

Mary and Lew

"My bes friend Malcolm" and Lew

Malcolm and Helen

John, Brax, Amie and Lewis building sandcastles

Santa's Helpers

John and Anika both had their outfits all ready to be Santa's helpers.  The pictures say it all......

Rain Rain in the Rain we Play!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Christmas updates to give you the latest soggy update.  There has been just a tiny bit of rain here (4.02 inches since Monday)!

our backyard

side yard

 I took pictures of all the greenbelts filled with water then when the kids got home they put on some swim trunks and ran thru a few of the puddles.  I didn't let them go in ones with moving water, like the river behind our house which is usually a mile long greenbelt but is now a running river and I kept them out of the really deep ones but they ran thru the soccer field and a greenbelt with a play area so here are the pics to enjoy!

Bus Stop

 greenbelt behind our house aka moving river!

 Greenbelt waterfall

 

further down the greenbelt its a huge river!

 bike trail

mary is the first to brave the water

all having fun

 slippery!

and he's back at it! go grif

lew makes his move

lost a shoe

"my done, my go slide"

soccer anyone?

Christmas Day

So Christmas came and Santa found us in Santa Barbara.  The kids were pretty good and didn't get up until about 8 so we had them wait at the top of the stairs until all the adults were ready to take pictures and then we let them loose!  Everyone was so happy and lots of great stuff was found in their stockings! (Santa knew we were traveling and only brought us stocking gifts this year.) 

Uncle Bill Opens stocking--surrounded by all these non-coffee drinkers he finally gets some decent coffee!!

We helped out Santa with my parent's and Uncle Bill's stocking.  The best was my dad's stocking.

Here's the set up....Every year my dad goes around the house, gathers up things from your room or wherever, wraps it up and puts it under the tree.  That way he knows it's exactly what you want because it's something you already have and use.  For example:  1 year I got the clock that hung on my wall in my bedroom for 8 years, he knew I'd like it since I used it for 8 years already.  My mom has received wedding presents Michael and Sheri have kept stored in my parent's attic (hey--it's all fair game) and even a wind chime they bought 1 year in Hawaii and never hung up--it was still in it's box so it just got wrapped up!

So this year I went up to his bathroom after he went to sleep and gathered up all his toiletries and put them in his stocking, his pills, his deodorant, his shaver, everything!  So when he gets downstairs and sees his stocking he starts laughing so hard!  It turns out that he woke up in the night needing his heartburn medicine, so he went to go find it.  After looking all over his bathroom, my mom's bathroom (yes-there were his and her bathrooms in the master bedroom) and the master bedroom for about 30 min he decided that my sis-in-law Amie was right and the house was haunted. (Amie was convinced the house was haunted and by Christmas Day she had John and Aleksia on board too!)  He knew his stuff was in the bathroom when he got in bed and there is no other explanation!  Amie now had him convinced too!  So he finally goes to bed believing that Amie was right and he had lost all his medications.  He was so happy to find all his stuff and realize that the house wasn't haunted!  It was hilarious!!!!

Ferrel telling us about his night!