Hunter and his new friend

Hunter LOVES this panda. It moves, it seems to talk to him... he loves it soo much that he's decided pretending to feed it isn't enough.
So last night, he's sitting there in his pajama's talking to it and I turn and decide I have to take a picture.. he pops a pose with his new friend.. and the rest is adorable.


Sharing his cracker...


He felt so strongly about his panda eating this cracker that I had to wait for him to fall asleep to remove it. However this morning he was asking for a new cracker for the bear... guess I should have left it there and let him discover that the bear doesn't really eat the crackers.

Last Week

Last week we had incredible fun! We went to Sea World, played in the yard... it seems now in the face of this cold air and rain, perhaps we enjoyed the last of our warm beautiful days... or perhaps it's weather that got lost on it's way to some normally cold climate.


Hunter tried to prove he was as big as Jade and did his best to take her for a ride.


We went to Sea World, last week and had a blast! It was one of the most eventful and fun times I've had there in a long while. Cristie played some serious football with the dolphins and received the memory of a life time. The kids played and had some serious fun running all over the place and somehow we left not feeling ragged.

Jade and Rylann


Jade and Hunter, Rylann and Tristen being adorable.


Jade and Rylann with Abby.

Jade unknowingly standing with my nightmare... at least she enjoyed taking this picture.

I think it's over....

This season almost always manages to get the best of me! No matter what I do, I try to remain calm, cool, collective... yet there is always one more thing to get done. Some important objective I forget and somewhere along the way, I lose my mind!
This year, there seemed to be no exception, though I might add that I took a few down with me! haha

Thankfully, the crazy hectic atmosphere has passed and the fun of the wintery season is quickly approaching.


Before all the craziness began, our longtime friend Hou, came out for a visit. The kids ADORED him and we all had a fantastic time... albeit the visit was way too short!


Jade and Hou



Last good byes

Mimi with the kids, she stopped by to do a fitting of Jade's princess dress.


Jade and Hunter did their very first Halloween thing this year, if it were up to Phil, it would pry
be their last. Aundy was a Godsend, she made this AMAZING dress for Jade and though I think she lost her mind with me, it was well worth the smiles to me that Jade had the minute she got the dress on. We went to Skyline's carnival and the kids had a blast... unfortunately I totally forgot to take pictures.


At Nonnie and Papa's house


At Mimi's house ....Yoda, Princess Jade and Spiderman


Following that Friday was Ryder's birthday...or should I say " Spiderman's birthday", we had the best time. It was a great party... I only wished that I felt that relaxed at Jade's party.


Chase, Jade, Ryder and Emily.


Hunter going down the slide and his hair going POOF!



Aunt Brittany and Hunter



Drew Bob and Hunter

Aundy taking a pic of " the kids"


Jade and Hunter playing on the grass

Aundy and I made Jade's castle cake, Aundy did most of the work I've got to say. She did practically everything, I am soo thankful for her talent, help and insights. As well as her patience.. about an hour and a half in I had made 100 fondant flowers, to realize that they were too thick and I had to start over...talk about a major set back. All in all, it turned out fantastic and I was amazed at what we had in accomplished, without having to pull an all nighter!

Aundy working hard.

Working on all those flowers.


Jade had her princess party being my first real attempt at a party, I hope it went well. I can only remember the blur of pink that it was, the party horns and all that sugar! haha


Jade and Rylann at the birthday party.

Animal Crackers

Today Jade had a "casual" recital....she was thrilled, she LOVES the performance part of dancing. They performed at the community event at the park and though her practicing at home was flawless, watching her on stage I can't help but think it's adorable!
There were alot of people there today, so the recording was delegated to the tallest person in our family... Phil..as good as I was in deleting pictures for the space and making sure that we had fresh batteries, the video still managed to cut out before she was done.. full memory FTW... talk about an epic FAIL! Gah!!!
*Note to self - purchase a dedicated electronic device for filming ONLY!!!*
At least we have the most of it, there was perhaps another minute of performance left, but for those of you who missed it... enjoy!

The Pumpkin Patch

I'm so awful at keeping this blog up to date.. I can't believe it's already time to post new pumpkin patch pictures... if I were more consistent here it would probably seem overdue.

So here are a few pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch.



Hunter and Jade appeasing me with a picture,
though they are dying to get down and play.

Kids playing on the tractor.

In the petting zoo

Jade posing with the calf
(she felt the calf was cuter than the sheep and goats)


Hunter was hardly still long enough for me to get a great shot....
Though this picture isn't great
and I want to shoo the fly off his arm each time I see it,
I can't help but love that I got him hugging the calf's head...

Of course no visit to the pumpkin patch is complete
without one of these pictures

The Reservoir

Back in our BK (before kids) days, we used to fish, ALOT. At the beach, the bay, the reservoir near our house. We would fish early mornings on the weekends, dusk after work and even late at night on the docks. It was our quiet relaxing, our time together, yet apart.. the commonality that could also be competition. More than that, it was great fun.
But when pregnancy came, Phil worried about the hikes we were taking to fish, and so it was suspended, much to our displeasure. Since his injury, he still can't fish....but we decided, we'd take the hike down to the water at the reservoir we used to frequent. The kids LOVED it, Jade was fascinated by everything, Hunter wanted to explorer, I was dying to take pictures and poor Phil was left worrying about everything in between. Unfortunately, the pictures aren't the perfection I was hoping for. However, it certainly did capture all that was going on... Jade has a HUGE smile, Hunter is too interested in everything else to even think to say "cheese" and Phil is obviously worried about the edge of the rock I'm standing on to get this picture. If I had thought of it, I should have taken a picture of the precipice I was standing on, however I thought it best to move myself and relieve Phil of the concern he was having.



The close up... Hunter as you can see is trying to use the stick to hit a stone that is out of the frame.

We don't get out much...

There is no doubt about it, Hunter LOVES Yoda, I asked him to say, "Cheese" so I could take his picture, he leaned over, hugged Yoda and said "Cheese".



Having put in sod, we've had alot more fun out in the yard on those hot days... playing in the water means less mud and more fun....however Hunter thinks mud = more fun...

Jade after playing outside

Hunter after playing outside....
specifically saying, "cheese"

We didn't get out much, but when we did, we tried to make the most of it... Each time the visit to Sea World seemed identical to the last, Jade wants to see most everything, Hunter wants to "ooh" and "ahh" at the sharks and shout at "Shamu".



The kids watching the polar bear sleep..



Jade posing with the fish....
sure you can't see the fish,
but with a pose like that..
who is missing the fish?!

After the posing, she hug-attacked Hunter.
(doesn't he look thrilled?) hahaha


Leaving Sea World...
Jade is excited from a fun day,
while poor Phil is worn out from it.

Playing catch up

So, it's been quite awhile and I need to catch up.... the following are some of my favorite random photos from the time that has passed. So here in this late hour I'm going to feebly attempt to catch up on what's transpired.


Hunter and Jade with Dase and Jess before they left.


On a hot day, we ate our ice cream outside.... Jade licked the bowl clean...

......while Hunter could barely keep it off his face.


Nonnie and Jade at a baseball game.

Papa was there too....


Of course Phil and Hunter were there as well, however Hunter
was disappointed that we had run out of cracker jacks.


Hunter struck his best "dad" impression.

Pics from "the Con"

With "the Con"over a few pictures surfaced, thanks to my brother and Phil's fabulous camera phone. It was definitely the wrong time for our batteries to die on us.

Here on preview nite, Hunter is all smiles half way through the six hour wait.


Here Jess and Jade spend some time together before hunger sets in.

Jade and I perusing for people we want to see and booths we want to visit, while Hunter naps.

Jess as "Cortana" and Dase

"Cortana" and "Yoda"...

Statues from the new "Mummy" movie that I think are AMAZING.


Jade and Hunter posing for a picture.....

Jade thrilled to be posing with her "Blaster"


Jade playing with a lightsaber....showing me the kind she wanted to get daddy for his birthday. She couldn't be more thrilled....


Until she saw, Padame... "Slave Leia" and Mara Jade.... then she was overjoyed and talked about it all day....


Of course as we were leaving, she saw Obi Wan, Han Solo and a different Mara Jade and was SOOO excited to have her picture taken and pose with Mara Jade's blaster...for her it was the day dreams were made of..... I love that girl!