Brrrr!

Ok, I realize that in the grand scheme of things, its not really that cold, but YIKES!! It was 17 degrees this morning!!

17!!!

This ties an all time record low for Redding. Brrrr!

Visits to Santa

Yup, its that time of year again! I snuck out to the gym Monday afternoon, which left Tom home with the kids. They decided it was time to visit the big man...

While they were waiting in line, Tom asks the kids what they wanted to ask Santa for Christmas. Meagan immediately pipes up with, "I want 3 Princess Barbies!" (We're not sure what the significance of 3 barbies is all about, other than maybe its because she is 3...1 is too many if you ask me!) Anyway, so they make it up to the front of the line, chit chat with Santa, take their pictures and off they go. I get home and ask her how it went. She looks up, very seriously, and says,"Not good, Mama." Uh-oh....After asking what happened, she says quietly, "He didn't give me the Barbies..." and is on the verge of tears. My very literal 3 year old thought she was getting her Barbies right then and there!! After several unsuccessful attempts not to laugh, it took a lot of quick talking on our parts to explain that Santa only brings presents on Christmas Eve. I'm still not sure she's sold on it though. She's not quite as excited about the whole Santa thing anymore. I'm sure she'll come around eventually....

Its a .....

Tony has finally earned his Wii!

Tony has been bugging us to buy him a Wii: "All my friends have Wiis", "Mom, I really need a Wii", "They are so much fun to play...I'll even let you play with it too!"

We couldn't quite bring ourselves to just go out and buy it for him. And then I remembered a while back something about a "marble jar" on my friend's blog...for every good deed, the kids earned a marble and when the jar was full they got to go on a special outing. It got us thinking....maybe he could earn it.

So....we came up with the Noodle Jar. We have a large jar on our counter that is full of noodlies, as the kids call them. We emptied out the jar and put the noodles into a bag. Every time Tony did a chore he earned a noodle to put into the jar. When the jar was full, we'd get him the Wii. Well, he did it. It was lots of bags of garbage taken out, and setting the table, and emptying the dishwasher, but he finally earned all his noodlies. We picked it up on Sunday, and he has been in Wii heaven ever since. Oh, and in order to play his Wii during the week (on school nights- after homework is finished, of course!), he has to earn a noodle. Each noodle is 15 minutes of Wii time.
Its hard to tell who likes playing the Wii more, Tony or us. It is a lot of fun! I'm so proud of all his hard work.

PS- thanks Rachel for the great idea!

Just a little quilt...

Ok, so school has been kicking my butt and I haven't really had much time to do anything besides write lesson plans and watch teachers teach. I started this over the summer, thinking I could work on it here and there and finish it quickly. WRONG!!! It is now December. I mean, really....it only measures 20" x 20", it should not have taken this long! Oh well. I finally finished it over Thanksgiving, and I am already plotting my next project...I have three more weeks of the semester and then a nice month long break.

More Pictures

We just got these back. We took Bunny along with us this time. Bunny is Meagan's bestest friend in the whole world. She has slept with her every night of her existence. Bunny is well loved, and I shudder at the thought of anything happening to her...

Enjoy....

Pictures

Finally! Here are some pictures from the last couple of months.

Here's the BIG 3 Year old Birthday Girl!

Visiting friends in Fresno...


The slideshow from Denver...

I'm still here, sort of...

Wow, its been a while and there is lots to write about. Things have been crazy but good. Going back to school is kicking my butt, but I'm enjoying it so I its ok. I'm halfway through the first semester and have finally managed to relax a bit. The classes I am taking this semester have a lot of classroom observation hours required on top of the rest of my classwork, so hopefully next semester won't be so hectic. Meagan is finally adjusting to staying at the sitter's and that helps a lot. She goes a couple days a week so I can visit schools and get some homework finished up. She wasn't too sure about it in the beginning, but now she doesn't even wait for me to shut the door of the car before she's racing up to the front door. She cries when I come to pick her up- she's not done playing with her friends and doesn't want to go home, so I guess that's a pretty good sign. Tom has been a superstar picking up all the pieces I'm dropping left and right and I couldn't do this without him. It has been quite an adjustment for all of us to say the least.

We had a great trip to Denver last month. My parents went with us and we all had a great time exploring museums, the aquarium, rode a train, saw the Rocky Mountain National Park, and drank lots of good beer: my mom and I got Tom and Dad tickets to the Great American Beer Festival for their birthdays. They were in heaven- sampling as many of the over 2000 beers in a five hour session- what's not to like?? I went to the Saturday session, and have to admit it was a lot of fun.

Tony's soccer season is just about wrapped up, the last game is on Saturday. I think he has more fun running around chasing his friends than actually playing the game, but hey he's still having a great time. Tom and I will be happy to have our Saturdays back, thats for sure!

Meagan is turning 3 on Friday. I can't believe how big she is getting. She's very excited for Halloween this year and can finally say trick or treat, its very cute.

I'll try to get some pictures up here soon, but don't hold your breath...

Princess Meagan

I forgot to add this...Meagan has become quite the dress-up queen. She loves putting on a tea party and then dressing up in her finery. She strips off all her clothes and insists on wearing one of her dresses (not shown in the pic) and all her jewelry. How did I end up with such a girly-girl?? I'm going to have to see about getting her some dress-up clothes. Good thing her birthday is coming up!

I also need to take a video of her prancing around in her heels- funniest thing ever. She sticks her little booty out and shakes her hips...oh my!!

September outings

Even though school has started we have still managed a few more outings here and there. Of course, there are still trips to the park...

And chasing down the ice cream man is always fun...

Then there was a fun little picnic at a "secret" swimming hole on the upper Sacramento river. Tony's eye doctor was telling us about this place, and every time we've mentioned it to a "local" we always get the same response- "Oh yeah, I know where that is!" Big secret...Anyways, it starts at a turnout on I-5, then you drop down a little dirt road, cross over the railroad tracks and hike down a trail to this little swimming hole. Very fun place, we even got to see 3 trains while we were there. The kids loved it, and we will definitely head back when the weather gets hot (the water is freezing!!)

Next adventure: the Shasta Sunset dinner train. The McCloud Railroad has restored their Pullman dining cars and every night they take an excursion up to the base of Mt. Shasta and back. They serve a yummy 3 course meal and between courses you can wander the train or go out on the open air car to take in the view. Tom and I have wanted to go ever since we've moved here and finally decided that our 10 year anniversary was the perfect time to ride. Nana and Papa took the kids on an adventure of their own- a trip to Sac with a train ride of their own, a trip to the zoo and the railroad museum, and Tom and I took off for the dinner train. We all had a great time. Tom and I even made it up to Ashland and Jacksonville for the day, all by ourselves. Such a treat!

We are off to Denver on Wednesday for another grand adventure- the Great American Beer Festival, or as Tom and Papa have taken to calling it: BEERLAND. They talk about it with such reverence, you'd think we were going to Mecca....I'll keep you posted...

Back to School, part II

We now have 2 members of the March household in school. Today is my first day as a student at Simpson University, a small college here in Redding. Today begins the first of three semesters at the end of which I will have my teaching credential. I have two semesters of evening coursework and the last semester is student teaching at two different elementary schools here in town. I am very excited, slightly nervous (I thought I was through with school!!) and ready to take on a new challenge. Stay tuned for updates on this latest adventure...

That was fast...

September 4, 1999

So long, Summer!!

Whew, just when we're getting into the swing of summer....its OVER!! That's right, today is the first day of school! Yikes. So much has happened since the last post, I'm not sure where to start. We've been camping a few times, taken several day trips, had a couple of birthdays, visitors have dropped in, Tom has done some more centuries on his bike, Meagan took her first swim lessons, and Tony was in the Macy's Back to School fashion show.

I guess I'll start with the birthdays. Tony turn 6 on July 17th. His birthday went on for quite a while. He managed to rack up 3 parties this year- one over the 4th with all the family, another one the next weekend with his friend Noah, and then the actual day itself. Way to go, Tony! The week before the day of his birthday, Tony got to stay with his Nana and Papa at the lake. Unbeknownst to him, Mama used his absence to take apart his bedroom, purge outgrown toys, build him some cubicals and put it all back together for him just before he got home. It only took three days to put together. It was in shambles in less than an hour, but since then he has been working pretty hard on keeping it in shape.

Then it was my turn for a birthday. I took advantage of Aunty Carolyn's very generous offer to watch the kids and headed out with Tom, Mom & Dad, and Robin & Richard to see the new Harry Potter movie and take in some "panda food" (aka Chinese food- the kids won't touch the stuff, so we don't get to enjoy it all that often) A very enjoyable evening. I even got serenaded by my little ones. Here's a video sample for you:

We had a quick visit with Rachel and her kids as she passed thru town on her way home. It was quite the houseful with her 4 little ones and my 2 monkeys! We spent the evening up at Whiskeytown trying to cool off, and then they were off first thing the next morning, much to the disappointment of Tony & Meagan. They are still asking when we can see the Wilde bunch again...

If you haven't guessed, we like to head out of town to cool off as much as possible. Here are a couple of slideshows from little excursions here and there. The first is from a picnic on the Trinity River just outside of Weaverville. The last is from our camping trip with the Prices at Lake Siskiyou, near Mt. Shasta.

Almost done...I promise...

Last week was Macy's Back to School fashion show. Our dear friend Trish is a manager at Macys and gave Tony a call to see if he'd like to help out modeling some of the new fall fashions. Tony picked out his outfit and strutted his stuff (sort of). I think he caught a bit of stage fright as he started down the runway. He whizzed down and back so fast I couldn't catch a picture of him. After it was all over he relaxed a bit and decided to ham it up with his friends on the runway. Meagan can't wait for her turn. Only a couple more years kiddo!

So there you have it. The last 6 weeks or so in a nutshell. I am (perhaps foolishly?) hoping things will quiet down, but I know better. Soccer starts this Friday with opening ceremonies and the first game on Saturday. Meagan has (finally!!) decided to give potty training a try. Its cooling off a bit and Tom is thinking its time to start brewing again. I'll keep you posted....

Fourth of July fun

The party was at our house this year! We are lucky enough to be able to view the City of Redding's fireworks from our own backyard, so after a BBQ and pot luck, everyone (all 26 of us this year!) rolled out to the driveway to watch the big booms... We combined Tony's birthday with the festivities this year and all his cousins from the Bay Area came to join him. The next day we wandered over to Turtle Bay to check out the new Lego exhibit. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any pictures of the cool sculptures, but we have a few from the 'building room' they had set up next door. There are big bins with Legos of all types for you to build your own masterpiece. Very fun!!

All Done!!

It is finished!! The butterflies have made it to their new home! Meagan has been waiting very patiently for me to finish binding it- every morning she'd come into the office/sewing room and ask if it was done yet. This is my first time using rick rack and I love how it turned out.

The butterflies are all hand appliqued with machine embroidery down the middle and for the antenna.

Mile High Century

We have a centurian in the house!! Tom completed his first official 100 mile ride last weekend. He did a practice ride a couple weeks ago around the lake at my parent's house and last weekend was the big ride. The Mile High Century took him thru the Lake Almanor Basin, into Indian Valley and around the lake with a 3200' elevation gain. It took him just under 8 hours, including a lunch break. The road crew (that's the rest of us) camped and hung out at my parent's house while we waited for him to finish. Way to go Tom!!

The latest project...

Here's some pics of our latest woodworking project. Just in time for the 4th! Everyone had a hand in helping on this one. Meagan held pieces in place, Tony worked the drill, and Tom and I picked up the slack....

Wayne's Wedding, Disneyland and more.

We've been back a week now and I am just now getting to this, but here are some slide shows from our quick trip down south. My cousin got married in Laguna Beach, so we joined Nana & Papa on a fun filled adventure to the land of Orange County. We flew down on Friday and spent the day at Huntington Beach. We had lunch at Ruby's on the pier and the kids had a great time playing in the surf. My grandparents, their son and his family, and more cousins all came out to join us. Saturday was a fun day spent with more family in Mission Viejo with the wedding later that evening. The wedding was beautiful- candles and starlight, more good times!

Sunday it was onto Disneyland- a first for the kids. We all had a wonderful time- the kids still believed in the magic and the grown-ups were more than happy to play along. On Monday, one of my dear friends from high school came down to join us with her two little ones. It was a fun trip, with many memories. I can't wait for next time!