New Year, New Blogging Goal

Okay, this is getting ridiculous!  I have been so horrible with this blogging thing.  I did have a big post all about our Lake Shasta trip back in August just about ready to go, but just never got around to it, but now it just seems pointless.  I have a goal for this year, though.  I don't typically make New Year's resolutions, but I am saying (or typing) right now that my goal is to blog at least once a month.  I mean, REALLY!  I should be able to handle blogging once a month.  I figure if I could at least blog about the highlights of the month, then I'd be doing good and if there's anything special I want to blog about, then that will just be a bonus.  As you may or may not notice, the blog does have a new look with it's winter theme.  That will obviously need to change as we move out of winter into spring, which really can't come fast enough right now.  Unfortunately, though, I think we still have at least another month to month and a half of winter weather  to suffer through.  But enough about that...  It has been a busy month with two birthdays.  I finally finished up with all the parties last weekend, and am relieved to be done with all that for another year. 

So Justin's birthday came first and as always, snuck up on me after the holidays.  I think I barely had the Christmas decorations taken down and put away by the time his birthday came around.  He turned 10 this year and had a bowling party.  I took a group of his best buds for bowling and arcade games.  Justin, unfortunately, was at the bottom of the bowling scoreboard (takes after his mom), but they all had a great time, and there was no mess for me to clean up at home, so it was a win-win for everyone.



Justin and his crazy friends

Hannah showing off her flexibility at 12

Unbelievably, Hannah turned 12 this year. Just one more year before we officially have a teenager in the house. Unofficially, I feel like we already have a teenager. Hannah is definitely as into fashion and makeup as any teenager I know. For such a fashionista, what better place to have her birthday party than at the mall. With the help of my friend, we took 6 girls to the mall for a scavenger hunt. For the most part, fun was had by all. There was some drama with mom tagging too closely behind and apparently trying to butt in too much, but for the most part, emotions remained in check.  Just a little taste of what I know we're in for over the next few years.  For now, though, she still usually remains our sweet little girl who isn't too embarassed by her parents unless we're actually trying to, which is something her father often strives for.

Hannah excited about her new Toms



Her brothers helping her with the 2 extra fingers she needs for her age



The mall crew--Hannah's besties.



Hannah leading her workers

 Hannah has also joined the Wy'East Dance Team and had practice throughout January.  They competed at a large competition with many local middle school and high school dance teams last weekend.  I was a little worried because they didn't even practice their entire dance all the way through until their last day of practice before the competition.  I was happily surprised, though, because I thought they did great.  






They break into the YMCA








Hannah was actually the little "star" of the piece playing the boss of a group of janitorial workers in their "Working Day & Night" number. Very proud of my little dancer. They continue to practice throughout Feb. and will have another competition at the end of the month.



Hannah leads the kick line



And the big finish--Ouch!

Okay, well there it is--my first blog post in almost 9 months.  Here's hoping , there'll be another one soon.

TTFN -- Ta Ta For Now

Happy Mother's Day

It is going to be an absolutely beautiful weekend to celebrate Mother's Day with my family this Sunday.  We've had quite a few nice weekends lately but have not had such an extended period of sunshine for a long time.  There is a lot going on on Saturday, but I am looking forward to a very restful and relaxing Mother's Day with all the guys (Dale, brother and BIL's) taking care of dinner. 

Today I got to enjoy Mother's Day a little early with Owen's kindergarten class putting on a little Mother's Day program for all the moms.  This came after the larger Riverview kindergarten/1st grade program that they put on last night in which we discovered that Owen most definitely should be in musical theater.  He always acts like a ham at home, but he was also quite the little ham up in front of all the people that filled the gym.  His teacher had to come tell me in the middle of the performance how she couldn't believe how much he was hamming it up and that he was thoroughly entertaining her.  He had told her that he was nervous and scared to do the program. 

His enthusiasm in his program today was no different.  The whole class did a great job of reciting some touching poems and cute songs to spoil all the kindy moms.  Here are a few videos of some of the songs and poems they did.

Enjoy and Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

One last quick Mother's Day wish from the kids
(click play even though it's black)


Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. 

TTFN--Ta Ta For Now

Spring, Where Art Thou?

Wow, I just reread my last post about our Disneyland trip, remembering all the fun we had there and cannot believe that was over 4 months ago already.  I promised to be back with a Christmas post and the past few years, haven't missed my blog Christmas letter and end of the year photo slideshow, but alas, that did not happen this year.  If you were anxiously awaiting that, I apologize.  Here is my attempt at getting caught up for the first 3 months of 2012.
In a couple weeks, it is already Spring Break, which blows my mind.  Really hoping some spring weather comes along with that spring break rather than the crazy wind, rain, snow, freezing temperatures, and some sun mixed in, that we have had lately.  Although, who am I kidding?  This is spring weather around here!

So along with January came the usual birthday craziness with Hannah and Justin's birthdays.  This year, it seemed to be especially chaotic for some reason.  I guess just because Justin's first attempt at a birthday party failed when he woke up sick that morning, and with trying to schedule around other things, it all got drug out for the entire month.  We managed to get through them though. 

For Justin's 9th birthday,we went to a trampoline place, and he had a ton of fun bouncing and flipping all over with his friends.  They barely wanted to take time out from jumping for the Despicable Me minion cupcakes that I had made.

Justin and his buds

Hannah had a little more lowkey party.  She just wanted to take some friends to a movie.  She didn't even want to have a sleepover, which surprised me.  She had some friends over for pizza and cake and ice cream, and then I took them all to see "I Bought a Zoo."  I had to sit "away" from them so as not to cramp their style.  At 11 now, she is definitely asserting more independence and wanting to do more things just with her friends sans parents.  Not sure I'm ready for the next few years to come.

In keeping with the movie theme, I made these adorable (if I do say so myself) cupcakes.  I found the idea for these, along with the minion cupcakes, on Pinterest, my new favorite, although time sucking, site. 

All in all, it was a good birthday month, although I am always glad when it was over.  Unfortunately, things did not calm down much in February.

Hannah and her peeps

February brought our annual trip to our friends' cabin in the snow up on Snoqualmie Pass--always a much anticipated event.  It was yet another year of fabulous snow sledding, game playing and cabin relaxing fun.  The kids get more and more daring every year and this year, Justin was rocking his cheap plastic snowboard.  I think we might have to find a way to get him up on a real one sometime soon. 

Here he is catching some air

And here he is landing upright and he continued down the hill in an upright state

Owen and Hannah and even the old people got in on the fun too.

Here's the whole gang on the sweet ride back to the cabin after an exhausting time of sledding.  Much to their dismay, we made them walk to the sled hill the next day--it really isn't far--and the walk there isn't bad, but it's the walk back that they weren't happy about--plus the fact that they didn't get to ride on the snowmobile.

- NEWFLASH -

Spring may have arrived!!

I started typing this blog post about a week ago when the weather was still very UN-springlike.  In fact, just yesterday, the day after the first day of spring, we woke up to quite a bit of snow on the ground and a 2-hour late start to school.  There was even enough snow to go out and make a little snowman and giant snowball and to go sledding before school, but the snow melted pretty quickly and it actually turned out to be a nice day.  Then today we woke up to bright sun and some warmth and actual springlike weather.  Let's hope that the trend continues.

Okay, back to summing up the past couple months.  After our cabin trip, I got away for almost a whole week to Las Vegas for a photography convention with Camera Art Photography.  I had never been to Vegas before, and I have to say it was quite an experience.  I don't think there is probably anywhere else on earth like the Vegas strip with all the replications of so many worldly landmarks all melded together in one place and all the lights--oh, the lights.  It's beautiful but also strange.  There were also many aspects I did not find appealing, but like I said, it was an experience.  We actually did not have a whole lot of time to sightsee with the convention taking up most of our time for over 4 days.  In the evenings, we were too tired and sore from walking those huge Vegas blocks to even consider going down the strip. 

We did take some time out before the convention got in full swing to rent a car and drive to Redrock Canyon--definitely a place I would like to go back to. Unfortunately we got there a bit late for good light, but it was still gorgeous.

The Bellagio fountain show

The convention was a great experience with so many wonderful speakers and presentations.  I learned a lot and came back really excited for this next wedding season and whatever else photography related comes my way.  We did end up having time toward the end of the convention to make our way down the strip.  We actually visited the "World Famous Gold and Silver Pawn Shop," home of the History Channel show "Pawn Starz."  Of course, the stars of the show are not there normally--only when something show worthy comes into the store and they need to film.  Of course, they had been filming earlier in the day, so we did just miss them.  My favorite part of the strip besides just looking at all the amazing buildings was the fountain show that goes off every few minutes in front of The Bellagio.  We watched it 3 or 4 times, and I love that it's different each time and all perfectly choreoraphed to whatever song they were using that time.

The other great thing about Vegas, of course, was the weather.  Given the nasty weather we had been having back home, it was nice to enjoy some sun.  Here you can see me enjoying a beautiful night in front of the Venetian--almost like I was in Venice.  Well, not really.  I've actually been to Venice, and it really doesn't compare, but they certainly do a good job at all these hotels of replicating the feel of all these far off places.  All in all, it was a great trip and great experience to go to the convention, but it was a long time away from Dale and the kids, and despite, the return to yucky weather, I was glad to get home. 

Well, I am going to leave my sum up of January and February at that since this post has gotten long.  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Grandma and Grandpa Lough tomorrow and spendig our spring break with them, so I will be back soon with more on that.

TTFN - Ta Ta For Now

One Month Later...

I can't believe that it's already been one month since we made our way down to California.  One month ago today, we were spending my birthday in Disneyland for our first day of three at the "Happiest Place on Earth." 

We actually drove down (well Dale drove and the rest of us rode).  Our first day of driving from here to Sacramento was not pleasant with rain and snow the entire way.  It snowed as we drove over the border into "sunny" CA.  I was worried that our time at Disneyland was going to be tainted with bad weather but, thankfully, that fear did not come to pass.  Despite a thunderstorm the night before our first day there, we had gorgeous weather all 3 days--blue skies and not too hot or too cold--actually we did even start to complain about it being too hot the third day.  It was also very uncrowded, making it even more pleasant.  We waited 15-20 minutes at the most for any ride.  Dale said that if that was uncrowded, he definitely did not want to be there when it was crowded.  The Christmas decorations were also mostly out making it even more beautiful and festive and Mickey and Minnie and friends were wandering all over the park rather than staying sequestered in their designated Toon Town.  I say that the only way it could've been any better was if they shut down every single ride just for us and lined up every character for us to see one by one.  We also had our fabulous friend, Annaliese, as our tour guide.  She actually used to be a tour guide at Disneyland and being a season pass holder and being there on a weekly basis, she definitely had a plan to make sure we saw it all, which I think we just about did. 

Of course, we had to start off with a photo at the Mickey flower head.  We then did a train ride around the park.  We did a few rides in tomorrowland including Buzz Lightyear, which Owen really liked and Space Mountain, which Justin really did NOT like.

Owen shooting aliens with dad on the Buzz Lightyear ride

I took Justin on Space Mt. and, as you can see, neither of us were thrilled.  Here I am trying to hold his head up from being jolted so much side to side.

We did a few more rides in Tomorrowland, like Star Tours, on which Owen was chosen as the Rebel Spy, which I guess is a high honor.  Owen wasn't so thrilled thinking Darth Vader was out to get him.  The kids also got "captured" by Storm Troopers.  Again, Owen wasn't thrilled with this.  I think at this point, he was wondering what was up with Disneyland, but he really did end up having fun. 


Me with Pluto on my birthday!

 At this point, we actually left Disneyland to spend the rest of the day at California Adventure. We didn't make it out of Disneyland, though, before seeing Pluto, Minnie, Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Chip n' Dale in the main square. We had to take some time for photos ops.


This is about the exact same place on Main Street that I had my photo taken with Minnie over 20 years ago.



We did head over to California Adventure and did some of the rides there and went to the Aladdin show.  We ended the evening doing the biggest ride in both parks.  Dale, Hannah, Gabby, Ian and I did California Screamin'.  I think that I have determined that my big roller coaster riding days are over.  My equilibrium (or lack thereof) just can't handle it.  I think I probably would've been okay actually if we didn't ride the Toy Story ride right after, which twisted and turned every which way.  That about did me in.  Everyone else had dinner, which I skipped, and then thankfully, it was pretty much time to head back to the Goves.  Although not before a trip through Downtown Disney to see the shops and specifically, the Lego Store, which the boys had been bugging all day to go to.

We headed back for another big day.  We stayed mostly in Disneyland this day and hit all of Adventureland, Fantasyland, Critter Country, and Frontierland.  Hannah wanted to do any and all of the roller coasters over and over.   We hit Autopia with the boys while the girls (including Evie) did Space Mountain again.  Owen wasn't sure about driving a car, but he loved it and wanted to go back again and drive himself.  We got the whole family to do Splash Mt., which again the boys weren't thrilled with, although I think Justin was finally warming up to the idea of these rides and while he was terrified while on it, he later said, he would do it again.  We also did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which I did get Justin to go with me on, which surpirsed me after his dislike of any other roller coaster.  He wasn't sure, but he liked it so much that he went right back on.  We did the Haunted Mansion, which is very cool during the holidays when it is all done up in a Nightmare Before Christmas (mixture of Halloween and Christmas) theme.  After that, we took the kids over to Tom Sawyer Island, which I had never done.  They loved to just run around and discover things.

A rare opportunity capturing all the Lough and Gove kids together

We spent a little more time in Disneyland and saw the parade before heading back to CA Adventure to watch World of Color, which was an awesome display of light, music and water.  I couldn't really capture the actual show in pictures very well--at least not with Owen on my shoulders--but here is the Mickey Wheel with California Screamin' all lit up in cool color.  We headed back to Casa Gove with a little more time for the kids to play together, which they were really wanting to do despite how fun Disneyland and California Adventure were.  We had one more day to spend in Disneyland to mainly see the last few things we'd missed and do anything that we wanted to over again.  We hit Toon Town and actually saw Mickey for a second time in his house.  We finally got a family photo with all of us in it since Owen wouldn't go near the characters before. 



Overview of CA Adventure from high on the Mickey Fun Wheel



We hit some favorite rides again for the kids such as Autopia, Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and were finally able to do Indiana Jones since it had been broken down every time we tried the two days prior.  Then we headed over to CA Adventure again to hit a last few rides over there like Soaring over CA, Jumpin' Jellyfish and the Mickey Fun Wheel.  Hannah thought she wanted to do CA Screamin' again but decided she didn't want to do it again in the dark.  She was also bummed that she never went on Tower of Terror, but that was pretty much the only big ride she didn't do.  I thought our final day would be much shorter, but we did end up making another long day of it.  We finished up with some shopping in Downtown Disney and Hannah got a characterture of herself done as a pirate.  It was actually sad for me to leave Disney for that last time.  I know we'll be back, but it was such a perfect trip.  I was sad to see it end. 

The kids with Shamu

We headed back to Casa Gove for one more night before leaving the next day to go to San Diego.  We stayed in a nice hotel right on Pacific Beach.  Unfortunately, it got so dark so early that we never even made it down to the beach.  The kids just wanted to swim in the pool, but we could see the ocean from the pool.  The second day there, we went to Sea World and saw all the sea creatures and all the great shows.  There were some rides there, but we didn't do many of them since most of them involved getting wet and, at this point, it was sunny but not warm enough to be soaking wet and, also, I think the kids were "ride'd" out.  They did love the Shamu, Blue Horizons dolphin, and Clyde and Seymore sea lion shows.  Another favorite was seeing all the dolphins swimming around in a big pool in the center of the park where you can touch them if they get close enough.  Justin actually managed to touch one.  Hannah and Owen were a little bummed that they didn't, but it was very cool to see them so up close.



Shamu



Justin took this photo

We spent one more night in San Diego before making the long trek home.  We managed to make it back to Sacramento where the kids got a nice pool to swim in one last time.  Unfortunately, Owen got some kind of stomach bug the last night in the hotel before our final long drive home, but he actually was fine in the car.  We were able to take the hotel ice bucket and have that in times of emergency.  I'm glad that happened at the end of the trip and not the beginning.  We made it home Sunday with a week full of lifelong memories to cherish.  It was a fabulous vacation but also good to be home, as it always seems to be, especially after busy vacations like that.  The kids weren't thrilled with having to get up Monday to go back to school (except for Owen who couldn't go since he was sick) but at least they had a lot to talk about and could "brag" to their friends about their trip.

Now, here we are a month later in the full swing of Christmas and a whole other kind of busy, but I hope that you all have peace and joy during this time as you remember what this time of year is all about.  I will be back later with more Christmas posts, but for now,  I think I've posted enough.

TTFN, Ta Ta For Now.

Yikes! It's November!!!

In my last post, I was lamenting that it was September already, and here we are now at November.  How can that be?  We will be listening to Christmas music and wrapping Christmas presents before we know it.  Wait, that means I need to get Christmas presents first.  Agghhhh!  We also have 6 family birthdays to fit in before then with the first being for my sister, Marcie, tonight.  It's a crazy month.  But before all that happens, we get a little break and the family is heading to sunny California (I'm actually not sure how sunny it is going to be) to visit Mickey and Shamu.  We are also going to be visiting our fabulous friends, the Goves, who moved back down there over a year ago and have been begging us to come down ever since.  Unfortunately, we will be driving down and back, but the time in the middle will hopefully be fun. 

Before I have tons of Disney pics to share, I wanted to make sure I got up my Halloween photos up, especially for my in-laws who have probably given up on my blog altogether and figured they would never get an update.

Although at the last minute, we did do our regular trip to the pumpkin patch where the kids each picked out a large and small pumpkin to decorate.

 



Justin's pumpkin.  You can't see it, but there is a knife sticking out of the side of it's head.



That night, we carved the pumpkins.  All the kids drew their own faces and went right to carving.  Hannah got extra fancy this year on her face.  Owen's was very cute, although mommy carved it and had to adjust the mouth since he drew just a single zig zaggy line.  He also always has to have the line between the nose and mouth, which he for some reason calls, "the soap."  Here are their jack-o-lanterns all lit up on Halloween.

Owen's pumpkin is on the left and Hannah's on the right.  Some creature was already nibbling on the mouth Hannah carved, so it wasn't quite as perfect as it originally was.

We got a little creative on Halloween costumes this year too. I actually didn't go out and buy a single thing for costumes except for a gold medal and red curly ribbon.  Those items were for Justin's costume.  He originally wanted to be Tony Hawk, the skateboarder, but I just couldn't figure out a way to make him stand out from any other skateboarder, other than the fact that Tony Hawk is now in his 40's and we'd have to draw wrinkles on Justin's face or something.  I decided that by getting a red wig and a gold medal, Justin could be Pro snowboarder and skateboarder and Olympic gold medal winner, Shaun White, or the "flying tomato."  Wigs were way to expensive, so I improvised with red curly ribbon taped to his helmet.  He actually skateboarded around the neighborhood while we went trick-or-treating. 

Owen decided that he wanted to be Pingu, which is a penguin from a not very well known clay animation cartoon that is in some swedish language or something--actually I don't know if it's a language or just sounds but it's kinda weird but oddly cute whatever it is. By borrowing a friend's penguin hat and adding some orange feet and bow tie to normal black and white clothes, we made him Pingu.





 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hannah decided to be a "Smarty Pants" which basically involved pinning Smarties candies to her pants and then dressing nerdy.  She was a very cute nerd, I must say.  She actually did not go trick-or-treating with the boys and I, but went out with a group of friends.  They were out for a couple hours and came home with quite a haul.  Kinda sad that my "little" girl is no longer trick-or-treating with us but she had a great time.

Back To School

How did it get to be September already?!?  I know that most of the U.S. has been suffering from irrepressible heat all summer long, but here in the Pacific NW, summer has finally taken off with a heat wave for the past week just as the kids had to head back to school.  They did go back last week before Labor Day but thankfully had the long holiday weekend to enjoy the summery weather.  Monday we actually went out on the river with our friends the Davisons and went out on their boat and the kids all did some tubing, even Owen, and Justin also went knee-boarding and did a fantastic job.  I'll post pics of that soon but for now, here are pics of the kids going back to school.


                    Hannah, unbelievably, is in 5th Grade!!! How did that happen, and as you can see, she is quite the little fashionista.  For days, she worked on putting together outfits and numbering them and putting little numbers on the hangers.  She did great on her first day and actually has the teacher that she started out with last year before she was moved to a different class.  She also has a lot of her good friends in class with her.  After the initial excitement of the first day of school, some of her usual anxiety started to pop up but she already seems to be settling into the new year and has even joined band and will be playing flute.  I know that she will have a great year as usual and really be a leader in her class and school.

Justin is in 3rd grade and also has the same teacher he had last year and he is also very concerned about his fashion style.  He definitely has his own ideas about what's cool.  He always make such a quick and fabulous transition into school.  He had such a breakout year last year with excelling in his schoolwork, and I expect him to do the same this year.  While I know he'd rather be home riding his bike or scooter all around the culdesac, he always comes home with great stories of fun things he did with his friends at school.  I look forward to seeing where the year takes him.

This is how Owen wanted to pose for his 1st day

Owen is joining his big sister and brother at Riverview this year and made the big jump to Kindergarten.  He only started for a 1/2 day last Friday and came out saying it was so much fun, but then on Tuesday, he had his first full day.  Even the Kindergarteners go all day, every day except for the 1/2 days that the whole school has on Wed.  He wasn't quite as thrilled with the all day thing.  After school on Tuesday, he came out, seeming very tired and not as excited.  He said it wasn't fun and he missed me.  Of course he had to tug on my heartstrings like that.  Today was his 2nd full day, and he was crying from the get go, and it didn't help that I lingered too long in the class when I dropped him off, giving him even more chance to get upset, but after picking him up, his teacher said he had a great day, and he was excited about what they did in P.E. and is already singing songs that they're learning in class.  I know it will take a couple weeks, but before I know it, he'll be a pro.  I really can't believe my baby is such a big boy.