Thanksgiving and so on...

Well, we had our Thanksgiving here in CA. I had the windows open and not because I burned something... I cheated a bit and got a turkey and the fixins from Ralph's (a.k.a. Krogers). I fixed a 7-layer salad, Petra's stuffing, and two attempts at her chocolate pie. I don't own a double boiler so I improvised and lets just say that it was like hot chocolate and not a pie filling. Oh well, I know what to ask Santa for for Christmas! Petra said she would make one while we're home for Christmas so I can observe.








Jason ended up sick as a dog that night. He thinks he picked up a virus a few days before. I was afraid it was food poisoning. The only thing we didn't both have is gravy. I hate gravy... Thank GOD Maddie and I didn't get it. That's the sickest I've ever seen him. He was improving by the weekend, but now he's in KY and hadn't gotten enough sleep.







Here are a few silly pictures of the Madster in the tub. She's so funny with all her words and facial expressions. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and we can't wait to come home in a few more weeks. 18 more days, I think!

Maddie's 1st real shoes and Mama's birthday

For my birthday we went to a fancy-schmancy mall in Irvine, CA on Saturday 11/3. http://www.southcoastplaza.com/ We didn't have any idea what it would be like but one of Jason's coworkers told him that that's the mall to go to in the area. I've never seen a Tiffany's store or Badgely Mishka, etc... They are already decorated for Christmas and have the biggest Christmas trees I've ever seen! We'll have to go back when Santa is there and get some pictures.

The intent was to go to Stride Rite and get Moo her first shoes. The weird thing is that the malls here close at 8:00p.m. on Saturdays!!! How dumb is that???? Of course, we walked in the store at 8:00 and got ushered out rather quickly. Stupid California!!!! So what made us late was that we ate at the "Rainforest Cafe" http://www.rainforestcafe.com/ (Hey Holly, there's a Maya tiger on here) and also rode Maddie's first carousel. The cafe was absolutely unbelievable. It was all decorated as a rain forest (duh), but it had animatronic gorillas, elephants, alligator, snake, butterflies, and actual rain. It was rather dark in there but every few minutes a thunderstorm would come up and it would lightening and thunder. Pretty wild. Maddie didn't seem to mind it. When I was that age, I would have been terrified. They had people walking around making balloon animals. In the pictures on the carousel, you can see Mad's frog on a limb.

Since we missed Stride Rite, we went to the local Del Amo mall Sunday (my actual b-day). We allowed plenty of time to get Moo's shoes and also mommy got to shop for some jeans as well. I had to take some pictures to scrapbook (some day).

She kept playing with a little puzzle they had at the store. It was just the perfect height. You can see her new little brown shoes.

We ended up eating at Red Lobster and went home for cake. It was a very nice birthday, even if it was my 6th anniversary of my 29th birthday!

Happy Halloween!!!

Here's our motorcycle mama this year. Her cousins gave Maddie this outfit at Christmas last year and it now fits and it's perfect timing. She wondered what in the world I was doing when I slicked her hair down with gel. We went to a few houses but not many people were home or participating. They leave candy in bowls on their front porch with a note to help yourself. Strange! That's not any fun!!! Anyway, Motorcycle Maddie was pretty interested but I couldn't get her to say "trick or treat." Maybe next year!

And if you want to see the cutest costumes and trick-or-treaters you've ever seen, check out Sara's blog for today. http://myfavoritesheep.blogspot.com/