Thanksgiving 2007

We had a lovely Thanksgiving up in Newport Beach (about an hour away). Rob's sister Amy and her boyfriend Scott live there and hosted us. Jane and Joseph (Rob's sister, brother in law) as well as some work friends of Scott's also attended. It was so fun to see baby Madeline again. We had a 27 lb turkey, a huge ham and 5 pies...plus all the fixin's. There was soooo much food. We slept over and spent 16 hours at Disney the next day. Amy and Scott were oh so kind to drop everything and take the kids at 7pm on Friday for us. Rob and I had a date night from 7-12am at Disney. It was awesome to be able to ride the big rides and just spend time together (even though I was exhausted from having spent the day with the kids at Disney). We ended up staying over again at Scott's (just 20 minutes from the park) and going back on Saturday morning. Here are some pictures of our weekend. We hope you all had a great 4 day weekend. What did you all do?

Finished quilting projects

I got into quilting right before I left Cleveland and found a nice group of quilters here. I'm taking a class at the community college on Monday nights which has been very enlightening. Of course, I'm the youngest person in the class by 25 years, but it's still fun. Here are the most recent projects I've finished. The first one is a super soft blanket for Noah. It's made out of felt and has the most to-die-for soft red fabric on the back. He's been watching me make this and insisting on being wrapped up in it during the various stages of development. I'm thrilled that he's so excited about it. The black/creme/red quilt I made for my parents 40th wedding anniversay (Dec 2nd). It's more of a lap quilt, but is pretty big. It's called a Paul Newman quilt with the idea that there are some star fabrics while the rest are supporting actors. The black and cream strips with the little boy on it is the star fabric. There is a woman in our ward who does the actual quilting part...I'm not that good yet! I'm really enjoying my new hobby.

no blogging

I know that I haven't posted in awhile. Too many other priorities...will post more soon! I have a lot going on so I have a lot to blog about.

Disneyland has won our business

We are so excited about the Disneyland annual passes we purchased yesterday. We've been fighting it for the last 5 months. We kept saying it was too expensive, we wouldn't really use them, it's too far away (just over 1 hour), it would get old, etc. However, yesterday we took the pludge and decided to just do it. For those of you not familiar with Disneyland's annual passes, there are several levels you can get. There is a pass that just gets you in weekdays (no holidays or weekends or busy periods). That would never work for us because Rob doesn't get any time off. We ended up getting the big kahuna...The Premium Pass. We can get in 365 days a year. I think we just might go on Christmas.

So, we left our house around 11am and didn't get home until 11:30pm! We had sooooo much fun. This is going to be a great family thing to do down here. The kids were happy and sparkeled the whole time. They did all fall asleep around 8:30, but I really insisted we stay until the fireworks started at 9:30. Then after the fireworks those Disney folks actually made it snow in California! It was really bubbles, but the way the lighting was it appeared as if it was snowing in the streets of Disney. Pure magic. Amy and Scott (Rob's sister and ahem...what do we call you, fiancee?) have passes too and they joined us. It was so fun to be with them and boy does it make parenting easier when it's 4 adults to 3 children. We are going again with them on Friday and we are sooo looking forward to it.

If any of you are visiting So Cal and want to hit Disney, just give us a ring. If you have season passes and want to go, even better. We'd love to go with y'all!

Whining advice

Okay all you moms that read my blog...I need some advice. How do you deal with whining? It drives me nuts and Ben is the biggest whiner ever. I know that he does it because he must be getting a reaction out of me, but how do I stop it (or at least lessen it significantly?) He is just loud and passionate by nature, but it's driving me nutty. Any advice, PLEASE???

Knott's Berry Farm

Knott's Berry Farm is free to the military until Thanksgiving so we decided to take them up on their generosity and visit the amusement park. We had a blast! It's about 1 1/2 hours away and way cooler than Legoland. I wish we would have bought our season passes here instead of there. There were awesome thrill rides for the kiddos...even Isabella could go on everything (albeit barely). She loved the excitement. We had such a fun day...thanks Knott's Berry Farm!

Bathtime/Halloween video

Here's a little glimpse into our pre Halloween festivities and what a night in our bathtub looks like. They are nuts, but we love 'em!

Not for the faint of heart

Hmmmm....you're probably saying to yourself, "Self, why is Melissa's kitchen floor so disgusting?" It has been weeks since I've swept and I didn't even sweep this pile. Rob did.

This picture (not for the faint of heart) is why my floor, and the rest of my house for that matter, looks the way it does. I have been writhing in pain, not wanting to bore you all with details in a blog since Oct 1st. That's the day I went to the podiatrist to get my plantar warts treated. Some of you may know that while I was in Cleveland I went to a dermatologist every two weeks for a year to get them frozen off. They didn't budge. Not a single change in them. Frustrated I figured I was destined to have them for the rest of my natural born life. Then a friend here said that a podiatrist could treat them in ways that a regular MD can't. So, off to the base hospital I went. Every week this guy puts stuff on it to burn it off. Essentially the meds make me get giant blisters. Just as I am starting not to limp I go back and have him put this potion on my feet again. Yes, feet...both of them. I've been using a cane and taking as little Vicodin as possible. Anyway, Rob took this picture of me a few days ago. They are starting to fall out, but there are a couple of real troopers in there that just keep hanging on. I've actually been really depressed for the last little while and I've realized that has, in large part, to do with my feet killing me. Tomorrow I go for what I hope is my last session with the dreaded foot doctor. I hope he has good news. I feel like I've made good progress.

Now, because it is the day before my next appointment I am feeling better than usual. I'm can still feel my feet with every step, but I'm not wincing. So, I decided to clean my bathrooms and dust. This is quite a feat for me. So when I caught Isabella doing this tonight before bath time, I didn't freak out as much as I would have because I knew the toilet was sparkling clean.

Evolution of Dance

I know that a lot of you have already seen this before, but for those of you who haven't it's pretty dang funny. It's 6 minutes long so watch it when you have a few minutes.

Anti-Climatic

Well, Rob met with the dreaded Detailer today and they couldn't come up with a spot that both parties agreed on. He offered us seebees in Gulfort, MS, Camp LeJune, NC, remote crappy places in CA (like 29 Palms), a ship out of Sesebo, Japan and finally a ship out of Norfolk, VA. He told us that Okinawa and ships out of CA were taken, but that there MAY still be a spot out of Okinawa. He said he needed to go back and crunch some numbers and talk to the CO of Okinawa. He said he wouldn't know if Okinawa is availiable until Thanksgiving. Augh! More waiting. The scary thing is that he goes to the GPR's in Bethesda next week and they may take some of our fallbacks and we could be stuck in 29 Palms. NO! We still need to hash out places that we could go between Rob and I. Maybe I'm willing to be stuck in Japan while he's deployed so that we can have that overseas experience. I'd rather be in the states if he's deployed on a ship, but we still need to chat about it. Hopefully he'll call us soon and need someone else in Okinawa. So, that it. Pretty anti-climatic, but at least we are done stressing about today's meeting.

Halloween 2007

We had a magical Halloween. The kids were so excited and it was awesome to see how happy they were. They were in love with their costumes and the idea of trick or treating. For 2 months before the big day Ben walked around saying, "I'm Ben, I'm 2, I'm gonna be Peter Pan for Halloween." Following that Disney theme, Noah was Captain Hook and Isabella was Tiger Lily (the captured Indian princess from Peter Pan). I was proud that Noah's costume was only $8 from Once Upon a Child, Ben's was $5 on eBay, and Isabella's was an Old Navy after Halloween 2006 clearance for $5. It was our cheapest Halloween and that is no small feat for this woman. They went from house to house for about 45 minutes before Noah was insisting on heading home to eat. Ben was walking around like deer in headlights thinking everything was real. Issy and Rob went to a few houses with us, but stayed back to hand out candy (he insists on being the house that hands out full size candy bars). After checking their loot Issy went to bed and the boys helped hand out candy until 8pm when trick or treating offically ended by statue of the military police. All in all, one of the best Halloweens ever. I love having kids on Halloween.