Festival of Freeze

It is possible that I am being over dramatic about this whole freeze thing but seriously, we're cold. We didn't get enough of the chill today so tonight while Greg had to attend a church youth activity I took the kids to the Wild Animal Park with my parents. The crafts this year were fabulous. They even had the journey into Africa (or whatever it is called) running so we got to go annoy some animals with spotlights. I suppose it's interesting if you've never been but compared to the day time, you could see a whole lot of jack squat....and maybe a giraffe or two. Overall, it was a positive and cold experience which was topped off with multiple rounds of hot cocoa with whipped cream.

Freeze your Cheese Beach Day

Due to our unusual winter rainstorms to which we are unaccustomed we had to take advantage of the spectacularly beautiful day and headed to Torrey Pines Beach.....and it was COLD. Ok so our version of cold is relative but still, it was about 53 degrees. The kiddos had a blast. I am always amused at how you are able to clearly identify the "out of towners" because they are the only ones wearing shorts in this weather. I think they consider the locals "pansies" all dressed in our coats and hoods.

Invasion of Princesses and Superheros

Once again, Christmas came and went quickly and while I cringe at the thought of all this wrapping paper and packaging going into our landfills Jamison and Amy are relishing all of their special gifts. Amy will probably be dressed as a princess for the next year while Jamison has some serious coloring to do in his new spiderman coloring books. We were able to spend the morning at our house and soon after drove over to my parents' to enjoy the day in their new home. The kids had a blast.

And the most Amazing In-Laws award goes to....

Dix and Lynn Davis!!

Recently, this whole "nesting" thing has opened my eyes to the fact that our bedroom looked like a garage sale. Frustrated with the fact I didn't have my "own" room to escape to and find peace in doing so, I started my furniture hunt. Luckily, Lynn was sympathetic to my selfish plight so she and Dix picked up the furniture I found on craigslist...brought it to my house, took it apart, sanded it and started painting. I was able to finish up the painting so yes....I did do a little work:) Lynn then came up with the idea that I needed a headboard. I wasn't going to refute that so off they started on making me a headboard. Are you seeing how amazing it is?? They MADE that! and I just think that is so cool! Now I know the rest of you Davis people are thinking...."well, what about me?" but just take comfort in the fact that our rent is most likely more than you pay in your mortgage so benefitting from Dix and Lynn's services comes with the cost of living here....and boy is it worth it:) Thanks Dix and Lynn!

The Progressive Birthday

December 16th was Jamison's 5th birthday......yes, I have a 5 year-old.....weird. We celebrated with the Grandparents on Sunday with the assumption we would be unable to get together on Tuesday. Jamison has grown to have a very unique personality in which case caused me more stress then it should have this past week. The first "spiderman" cake was "not the right way" as I opted to go with the action figure stuck in the cake. Well....I was reprimanded right away for that but it made do for Sunday given it wasn't exactly his birthday yet. On Tuesday I contemplated how the heck I was going to make a Spiderman Cake with red frosting as this was the "right way" to do it. Making cakes has never been one of my talents....mostly because I hate the artificial coloring and the time it takes to do it only to have it eaten in two seconds. This time however, I aimed to please my ever so particular 5 year old. Thanks to my neighbor and her supply of cake decorating tools I was able to come up with this. I must say.....it's awesome!! Well...I was at least proud of myself. When Jamison got home from school it did indeed pass the scrutiny of one who is an expert in Spiderman cakes. I had invited the neighborhood kids over to sing and have cake but when the time came to sing, Jamison decided the circumstances just weren't right. We were "supposed" to be having cake at Chucke Cheese......and not our driveway. Thus, the kiddos were gathered outside excited to feed their sugar frenzy before dinner and the birthday boy would not come out. Mortified, I sent the kids away and explained that Jamison was a little upset....but thanks anyway. Of course this resulted in some "quiet time" complete with kicking and screaming (not so quiet.) Later on however, he awoke his happy cheerful self ready to dig in. So we planned party number 3 (we had a little shindig on Monday at Chucke Cheese as party #2) in a flash and had the Grandparents come over once again to celebrate (thank goodness for understanding grandparents.) So all in all this was the most difficult progressive birthday I have ever been involved with. Maybe we should become Mormon Jehovah's witnesses.....seriously.

Silver Buckle Nativity

Tonight was our annual Nativity put on by our fabulous neighbor Diane Kakihara. She is our street party planner and does an amazing job! Every year she plans, prints and hands out invitations to our wonderful Silver Buckle Way Nativity. She assigns the kids their roles and practically provides all costumes...provided we have color coordinated clothing. It is such a special event for the kids as they play their parts. This year Amy and Jamison truly embraced it as in years past, there were serious meltdowns before it even began. After we are through singing and acting out the Nativity scene we have our own version of a San Diego snow. The kids couldn't be happier....that is of course because their pockets are stuffed with candy canes and cupcakes.

It's time for Family pictures again!

Winter Wonderland

Oftentimes in the winter I am a little sad when I hear of the winter activities my family and friends participate in where they live because it actually IS winter where they live. Today it was 75 degrees.....so we headed to the indoor ice rink. Nevertheless, if it is man-made or natural, ice is ice and it hurts to fall on it wherever you are. The kids had an absolute blast. I was a little worried they'd give up 2 minutes after stepping on the ice but they hung in there. Jamison didn't want to leave!

Pick of the trees

Growing up, we always chose our tree barely a week before Christmas. It was the way it was. I never questioned why the heck we waited so long. The answer was always "fire hazard." This year I decided there was no sense in waiting so tonight we made record time as we drove to and from Home Depot and came home with a fantastic tree. I think we were back home within 35 minutes. Part of me thinks that maybe we didn't "savor" the tree picking moment.....I don't know. We just walked up saw a nice tree...picked it out and drove home. What happened to the whole unraveling the twine of 20 trees to find the perfect one? Maybe it was just our night.....like hitting all the green lights on your way to your destination. Nevertheless, the kids were quite proud of themselves for picking the "perfect" tree.

Quote of the Day

"It's a little crazy being your own hero."- Greg

I feel like every time I cook an extremely healthy meal it always backfires on me. After tonight's meal (vegetarian black bean soup) Greg and I were craving some "good stuff." So we started our baking frenzy. I wanted fresh bread with honey and butter however I was missing one of my bread pans so we had extra dough. Greg is always asking me to make cinnamon rolls so I told him he had free reign of the dough. He tackled it like a champ. The result: whole wheat flax seed cinnamon rolls with orange cream frosting. You'd think the whole wheat aspect would put a damper on things but it didn't. So Greg was his own hero tonight....and mine:) On a side note, he made white chocolate chip/butterscotch cookies on Sunday and those were pretty much irresistible. Seriously....I think I ate 15 in two days. Does that mean I have 3 sticks of butter just sitting in my stomach??