We wish you a Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year!

~ Miles, Alexandra & Caden ~
~ Brittany & Tim ~

Secret Santa Gift

This what I made for Hayley for the Secret Santa craft. I made it an 8x10 and had it printed at Costco, then I framed it. (Some of you were asking what it looked like; Hayley I hope you don't mind if I share.)

Christmas Cookies!

We have great friends who brought us all kinds of Christmas goodies last week. April Preston brought us some sugar cookies with green frosting. I gave Alexandra one, and she thoroughly enjoyed it, as you can see. (Check out the green frosting on her nose.)

Happy Anniversary!

It has been NINE years!

Has it really been that long?? Tim and I got married 9 years ago today in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. I just want to say to Tim that I LOVE YOU!! (I already posted last month things about Tim that I was grateful for). Like I said before, It hasn't been easy all the time, but it has been worth it.

The first 2 pictures were taken the evening we got engaged. (August 15, 1998) We went to the San Francisco Giants game against the Florida Marlins. You proposed during the 5th inning. (You were so nervous/excited that you couldn't wait until the 7th inning stretch). I went to the bathroom and when I came back the box with the ring was sitting on my chair. You whispered in my ear and asked "Will you marry me?" I looked at the ring (and couldn't believe how big it was) and then I said yes! We then met up with your sister Kati and her boyfriend at the time and went to Planet Hollywood for dinner. While we visiting in California, your parents were in Utah, so your mom made arrangements so that I could stay with Erma McClintock. (Where we got the red carpet treatment). I pretty much met your entire family and extended family before I met your parents.

I love these pictures because it doesn't seem like that long ago that this all happened, but we look so YOUNG!! The day we got married was cold and windy!! We didn't get many pictures taken outside of the temple because of the wind. We were lucky to have so many family members and friends there to support us. (Even Grandma Doll was there.) I remember driving in the car with my mom and your dad on our way to the temple. I was pretty nervous, and kept asking myself if this was really happening? You seemed calm, but inside I think you were nervous too.

Funny things (and not so funny things) that happened on our wedding day:

*We had Boston Market cater our luncheon. They didn't bring enough mashed potatoes and we ran out! After few years later, you said that never even liked Boston Market food.

*We called to see what time the cake was going to be delivered to the church. They had wrote down the wrong date and it wasn't decorated. So our wedding cake arrived about halfway through the reception. (We had a fake cake sitting on the stand).

*After the luncheon, your parents took you back to the hotel where they were staying. And I went home with my parents. Didn't think anything of it until a few years later. Hmmm, that was weird.

*I couldn't find our plane tickets for our Honeymoon. I freaked out because I thought I had lost them. Turns out that you had them the whole time. (But I didn't know because you were at the hotel with your parents.)

It's hard trying to find the time to celebrate an Anniversary the week before Christmas, but we will figure out something this weekend!

Happy Anniversary sweetie!

Christmas Parties

Friday, Alexandra and I went to Tim's work Christmas Party. Tim's mom bought Alexandra a Christmas dress, so she could wear it to the party. She is so adorable! I did a little photo shoot in front of the tree before we left for the party. The party is always nice with a catered lunch at the country club in Clayton. They had jokes about Tim, a jazz band performed Christmas songs and Tim got his Christmas present (a visa gift card, which I was waiting to get!) We played a game where each table had to decorate a person sitting at the table like a Christmas tree with the supplied materials. Of course Tim got picked to be decorated.

Saturday afternoon, We went to the Oakland Inter Stake Center to watch Behold the Gift. A program of music and dancing that tells the story of Christ's life in Jerusalem and his visit to the Americas. We enjoy going because we know several people who perform in it. Afterwards we went to our Ward's Christmas party. With dinner and a program. We gave Alexandra a roll to eat for dinner. She devoured it. The primary kids sang 4 Christmas songs, but Miles refused to sing. So Caden represented our family. The program went long and most of the kids got restless and ended up running around the halls at the church waiting for Santa. Miles and Caden were the first to see Santa, so I didn't get any pictures. Alexandra was asleep so she didn't see him either. We may have to make our way over to the mall soon. If I don't post anything again for a while (because life if just so busy right now). I hope you all a great and safe Holiday season!

On the court

Miles had a cool experience last Wednesday. Tim got a phone call and was asked if Miles wanted to go on the court at the Warriors basketball game during the player introductions. Of course!! We didn't tell Miles where he was going all week. (We kept using it as a bribe so that he would be good.) So Wednesday night Tim took him to the game, and still he didn't know what was going on until he saw the tickets. Then he went to a special area and waited for awhile until he actually got to get out on the court. Then after waiting for about 45 minutes he got to walk onto the court. Then Andris Biedrins came out, gave Miles a high five and a warriors bags with school supplies in it (there was a puzzle, book, ruler, pencil, pencil bag with the warriors logo on them and he got a shirt). Miles was pretty excited. Tim ran down to take pictures, it was dark and a guy was yelling at Tim that he couldn't see and that he paid good money for his seats. Tim tried yelling back but didn't want to start anything and it was loud anyway. So the pictures didn't turn out great. (Miles is wearing the orange hat and blue sweatshirt)



This is during the "Star Spangled Banner" before the game started:

A little scare

Alexandra fell out of her crib last night. Poor little girl. Tim laid her down, turned around and was talking to Caden. She stood up and reached out for Tim, but he didn't see her and she fell.
We were worried about her this morning. She was breathing funny (but she also has a cold so we didn't know if that was the problem) and it looked like her neck was swollen. But she was crawling around. So I took her to the Minor Injury Clinic (after talking to an advice nurse.) She was fine! We just needed to make sure though. They were more worried about her runny nose than her falling 4 feet. Luckily babies are still pretty bendable and don't remember all the horrible things that happen to them when they are little! (Like shots, falling off the bed and being stepped on by older siblings).
The crib was still at the highest setting last night. So this morning the crib was lowered down after I got back from the Dr.

Bring in the Christmas shopping season at 4 a.m.

Thursday I went and bought a newspaper and looked at all the ads for "Black Friday." I was trying to decide what time to go and where. I couldn't make up my mind. I tried to go to sleep and after 45 minutes of tossing and turning, I decided to stay up and go shopping at 4 in the morning, when some of the stores open. So I bummed around the house and the Internet until 3:00 then hopped into the car. I first drove over to Mervyn's where they were giving out $10 gift cards to the first 250 people. There was 2 people in line, so I read in the car until 3:30. Then a few more people started to line up so I got out of the car and stood in line (in the cold, it was about 36 degrees) with the rest of the crazy shoppers. I was about the 15th person in line. I was amazed by the time 4:00 how many people were in line. I got my gift card. (The things I will do for free stuff/money). And went shopping and grabbed a couple things then got in line to check out. Not bad, took about 10 minutes. Then I walked across the parking lot to JcPenney for my free Mickey Mouse snow globe. Then I got back in the car and made my way over to Kohl's.
(Side note: I went on Wednesday and looked at everything I wanted at Kohl's. I found a few clothing items on the clearance racks for the boys. I hung them up on a bottom clearance rack hoping they would be there when I came back.)
So I went to Kohl's and channel 5 was there. (I'm not in it, but saw the lady there) here is the cheesy video link: http://cbs5.com/video/?id=28786@kpix.dayport.com
I picked up my items including the clothes in the clearance rack that were in the exact same place that I left them!! I got in line and had to wait about 30 to 45 minutes. By the time I paid the end of the line was backed up to where you pay. Crazy!! Then I went to Walmart. I got there at 5:45. I went to get one specific thing for Miles. They had only been open 45 minutes and it was already sold out! So I made my way to another Walmart hoping they would have it -- and they were sold out too! I did pick up a few other items and made my way home. I was home by 7:30 a.m. I was tired and ready for a nap. I went to bed at 8:30 a.m. and was up by 10:30 a.m. I was up the rest of the day. That's the first time I had pulled an all-nighter since college (I think?) It was a successful morning for the most part. And I had fun listening to the Christmas music on the radio. My sister-in-law, Suzi, went to the mall about 7:30 a.m. and said the lines were long and the traffic and parking was bad - so I am glad that I went early.
Today we put up our tree. The boys were so excited to do it. I pulled out the tree and unwrapped the ornaments. They decorated most of the tree by themselves. They did a pretty good job. There aren't that many ornaments on the same branch; as in years past. This year has gone by so fast. I can't believe that it is Christmas season already!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have a little tradition in our family that the baby will sit next to a pecan pie on Thanksgiving day. It started with me, so I am keeping the tradition going. And yes I made the pie. (and I think growing up we had ugly wallpaper at our house too!)

My crazy boys!

Look, I'm on the cover of a magazine!

What do you think of my new "do"? Yeah Right!! But this was fun to do! Here is the link: http://hairmakeover.instyle.com/makeover/

And in this corner we have Alexandra weighing in at ...

14 pounds 10 ounces!!

Yep! I took her to her Dr. Appointment on Wednesday and she is gaining weight! Nothing to worry about (even though I was never worried). She is still wearing her 3 to 6 months clothes. Even though she is 8 months now. She is such a petite little thing.

Here is a little comparison of Alexandra's weight and mine.

At birth:
6 lbs. 12 oz. - Me
8 lbs. 2 oz. - Alexandra

2 weeks:
8 lbs. 9 oz. - Me
8 lbs. 2 oz. - Alexandra

2 months:
10 lbs. 1 oz. - Me
10 lbs. 7 oz - Alexandra

4 months:
12 lbs. 4 oz - Me
12 lbs. 8 oz. - Alexandra

6 months:
13 lbs. 4 oz. - Me
13 lbs. 2 oz. - Alexandra

Video for my mom's 50th Birthday

My sister made this video for my mom's 50th Brithday this summer. I LOVE YOU MOM!! (If you watch it you will see a few of me growing up too!)

Hi, my name is Tim, I screwed up!

Yes, this is Brittany's husband Tim. I was the one how accidentally deleted the photos as previously mentioned below. I feel terrible. But I feel worse about how I treated her after I realized I messed up. I said some hurtful things and didn't take the blame like I should have. I feel even more worse after reading the nice things she said about me in the second post below.

So in an attempt to make amends, I've temporarily hijacked her blog to say all of the things I love and appreciate about Brittany.

First of all, she is the most loving and caring person I know. She never has a mean word to say about anyone or anything (except those in the JC Penny photo studio). She has an unconditional love for me and our children, even though we drive her to the brink of insanity.

Second, she is a hard worker. It takes a lot to run our household. Our boys are crazy, our baby is cute but demanding and me, well lets not go there. She does so much for us beyond the typical wife duties (cleaning, laundry, etc). She knows our needs, schedules, obligations and personalities. She's our resource for anything that is lost, forgotten or needs to be done. She does it all without need of recognition or praise. Except I think one of Caden's shoes is still lost.

Third, she tolerates our interests. I knew she had a mild interest in sports when I married her, but she has adapted to our obsession with sports and boy stuff in stride. Though she isn't quite a football fan yet, she is always willing to go to pretty much any ballgame, including watching old fat men play softball.

Lastly, she married me. She knew my shortcomings when we met, yet she saw past them and took a chance on me. Had she not, I might have been stuck with a toothless, overweight Giants fan.

It has been a bumpy ride for us, but the last almost nine years have been fantastic. I've learned and grown from her in so many ways. She makes me so happy. I usually don't realize it until she and the kids are out of town longer than two days.

So I'll wrap this up. I'm realizing that deleting the pictures wasn't such a bad thing, it gave me a chance to be humble and reflect upon how lucky I am to have Brittany and its not even our anniversary, Valentine's Day, her birthday or Mother's Day. She might beg to differ.

Help me please, or I might cry ...

Oh wait, I already did cry. Last night all of my pictures on my computer were erased from the hard drive. I didn't realize what happened until this morning. That means all my pictures since Alexandra was born until Halloween are gone! I feel sick to my stomach and feel like I am going to throw up any minute. My only saving grace is that I have uploaded many of the pictures to Costco and Shutterfly (but not all), and I still have the pictures that are on my blog that I can download again. I kept feeling like I need to back up all of the pictures, but I never did it. (If you have any pictures of my kids please e-mail me!!)

Random thoughts that I have been having & things that I am thankful for

There are a lot of other things that I should be doing right now, but the house is quiet and I am lazy.

So here are some random thoughts that I have been having over the past few weeks & things that I am thankful for in no particular order:

I am thankful for my husband. We are lucky that he has a good job with benefits. I am lucky that he works so close to home and that he can stay home for a few hours and help me out with the kids when I am not feeling up to it. He also loves our kids so much. He is a good dad and takes the time to do things with them and play with them. (Things that I probably should be doing). And sometimes he lets me sleep in!

I am thankful for my kids. They are so sweet and we are so lucky that they are healthy. But they also have their moments that drive me crazy!! Examples: Today Miles threw a huge 45 minute fit because Tim didn't take him to help clean the church. Caden doesn't listen and doesn't stop when I ask him to. He always says "Just one more time." Then on Monday he gave Alexandra a black eye by stepping on her because he was playing football in the house when I asked him to stop. Alexandra has had a rough week of teething and getting her head hit on things. Thursday night she just kept on crying and crying. It was so sad and frustrating at the same time.

Good things about my kids. Miles and I had a good 20 minute talk Tuesday night. He is really smart, has good friends, enjoys playing baseball. And he is funny! Caden is sweet. He will come up to you out of the blue and say "I want to give you a hug." He still likes you to cuddle by him when he is tired. He has that natural ability to play any sport he wants. He can hit a baseball hard and far and he can throw a perfect spiral with a football. He likes to play Yahtzee on the computer with you. And he loves his little sister so much! Alexandra has smiles for everyone. She scrunches up her little nose and it is so cute. She is laid back and easy going. She spits good raspberries. And she waves her arms up and down and kicks her legs every time she sees me. (Something she doesn't do for Tim.)

However ... Would I do anything that would hurt my kids? Would I do something so bad that my husband would divorce me? Put a restraining order on me so that I could only see my kids once a week for 2 hours?

I know Tim and I have had our ups and downs but I hope we could work things out if things got that bad. Tim and I have been married for 9 years next month (December 18th.) The time had flown by. It has been fun and it has been hard. But I love him and my family. I don't know what I would do if they were ever taken away from me. But sometimes it is nice to have a break for 2 to 3 days, Just to realize how much you do love them. My mom asked me once when Tim and I were engaged why did I pick him and the answer to that was because he could make me laugh and I knew that I could talk to him about anything and everything. And that is still true!!

I am thankful for my extended family. My parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and grandparents on both sides of my family. They support us and love us no matter what dumb mistakes we may make.

I am thankful for my wonderful friends who make me laugh and support me. You guys are the best! And I am so lucky to know all of you.

Why I love living in Northern California. The weather is perfect. We went to playgroup yesterday, in November and it was still 6o-something degrees. No snow! I thought I would miss it when I moved out here, but I really don't. I don't miss it being cold and having to shovel it. Plus, I am too out of shape to go skiing anyway! It would kill me knees. We have many professional sports our here to cheer for and go to their games. Including the A's, Giants, Raiders, 49ers, Warriors and more. We have the Oakland Temple. It is a beautiful temple. I love walking on the temple grounds and we are lucky to live only about 30 minutes away.

Halloween Festivites

Let me start by saying that Halloween Day is becoming one of my least favorite holidays! Don't get me wrong, the candy is great ... sneaking it out of your kids' bags. Last year we ended up at the emergency room with Caden needing stitches in his forehead. This year, it seemed to be a stressful day! The kids are crazy!

Last Saturday, we skipped our ward's "Fall Fest" with trunk-or-treating and went to San Jose to see High School Musical On Ice. It was good. The boys were tired, so I think Alexandra enjoyed it more that they did. She kept waving her hands back and forth during the first half, she was asleep for the 2nd half.Tuesday Caden had a Halloween party at preschool. I went and passed out candy to his class with Alexandra and Sophie in tow. He was a monster! If found the idea in the JoAnn's ad. So here is what he was supposed to look like ... and this is how it turned out. He freaked out when I put the green gel in his hair and he WOULD NOT let me put the green body paint any where near him.


Alexandra was our little "pretty, pretty princess" as Tinkerbell.

On Halloween, I took Caden and Alexandra into Tim's work along with Sophie and Kaysee. Alexandra needed a nap in the worst way, but we went anyway. They were actually pretty good there and everyone thought they were adorable. A little later we went out to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm for some cute pictures in their costumes. Miles was Superman this year. His school doesn't allow dressing up at school, or parades (education is more important than parties). So this was the only time he wore his costume.

Then we went to a party hosted by our friends, the Preston's. They had an exciting Halloween party at their house with soup, appetizers and scones. (We all helped out with the food). And ended with a pinata for the kids. Then we went Trick-or-Treating in their neighborhood. We were only out an hour but got a ton of candy. I think we will be hitting that neighborhood again next year.

But I can say that after the day was over everyone was so exhausted that it was the best night's sleep that I have gotten in a while.

Yummy food!

Alexandra loves food (even though she doesn't show it!) She is always very interested in what you are eating. She will watch you and lick her lips. Here are a few food encounters:

French Fry from In-N-Out:
Grilled Stuffed Burrito from Taco Bell:
And of course .. Diet Pepsi!!

My personality ... All in one

Take the Quiz here!

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of silliness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.


Your personality is as friendly and appealing as strawberry ice cream (especially the kind with chunky bits of real fruit). You've got a slightly sarcastic sense of humor, and you rarely stress out or take things too seriously. You are cute and sweet, but with a mischievous side. You are a bit of a troublemaker, but only because you're determined to avoid a plain vanilla life.

Quiet Book Layout

You will need 6x6 sheet protectors and 6x6 scrapbook paper. Ribbon to put around the temple, and ribbon to hold the pages together (or use a 6x6 album). A dime to put on the tithing page. Glue dots. Regular adhesive.

Here is what you need to order from http://www.ldscatalog.com/
Latter-day Prophets, 11″ x 17″ $1.00

New Era post card set 1
New Era post card set 4
New Era post card set 7 .50 cents each.

A 5x7 picture of a Temple of your choice: .75 cents

Also I have the write up of the prophets saved on my computer if you want them.

Livin' in fast forward ---->

I have been extremely busy and extremely tired the last 3 weeks or so.
Here is a quick rundown of what has been on my calendar:

October 1: I got a new job! I started watching our friend Sophie McKissick from 6:30 to 1:30 everyday! She is exactly a month younger than Alexandra. We usually hang out, go shopping once in awhile, take naps and change lots of diapers. Every time I go out with them everyone asks me if they are twins. They look nothing alike, but I think I am just going to start saying yes.

October 9: My mom flew in from Utah to hang out with us and help me our with Midnight Madness. She taught a dried flower arrangement class for me. While she was here we went to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm. We also ran a ton of errands while she was here. Don't know if that is much of a vacation for her, but I am glad she was here.
October 12: Midnight Madness!! The evening went good. No huge problems that I can think of. Here is a list of projects that we did: dried flower arrangements, small Christmas boxes (which took a lot longer to make than anyone expected), picture frames decorated with scrapbooking paper and other embellishments, a quiet book (that I designed), a welcome sign with vinyl lettering and and Family Home Evening board with vinyl lettering, glass etching and a free candy making class. (I think that is more to remind me what we did. I went to another wards Midnight madness last weekend and got some good ideas for next year.) I am sick of looking at the projects that have been sitting at my house for the last 2 months.
Did I mention that it POURED rain that day. My mom and I were taking all the supplies into the church and got drenched. Then I picked up Miles from school that afternoon. He didn't have a jacket and I didn't have my umbrella, so we were soaked when we got into the car. Plus Caden and Alexandra were not on their best/cooperative behavior that day. It was a long day.

October 16: My mom went home. The week she was here went by so fast. We ate out a lot because we were out doing stuff the whole time she was here. We had Costco Pizza twice and McDonald's twice. Plus we went to Digger's with the Rossi's. (My mom and Chris are good "buddies" so we try to get together once while she is out here.)

October 17-20: Our annual girls "scrapbooking" trip. We congregated at Jen's new/huge house in Brentwood. I was unable to spend the night on Wednesday or Thursday nights, but I spent as much time as I could in the evenings with my good friends. I know I missed out on some "juicy" conversations, but I still had fun hanging out and talking, and I did get a few small projects done. Cadi flew out from Arizona and Naomi came from Utah. Valorie couldn't make it from Idaho because her little boy is due in 3 weeks! April J. and Tara made every ones scrapbook pages from last year, that turned out great. Jen and I were picked to make the pages for this year.

So those were the major things that has happened the last few weeks not to mention the smaller things like Dr. appointments, baseball practices, meetings, stamp club, Tim's softball games, Halloween party at the Jacobs', I volunteered at the school Book Fair last night and daily tasks such as laundry, cooking dinner and clean up! Wow! I am tired just writing this!

Alexandra at 7 months

Here are some recent photots of Alexandra: She has the best facial expressions!

Right now she is still unsure of sitting up by herself. She has no butt to anchor her! She usually falls over within seconds.

Up on her hands and knees: Getting ready to crawl. Right now I call it the worm. She can get around by pulling herself forward.
Getting into scrapbooking!
Our cuddly little girl!

She loves her fingers!