'Tis the season! So yesterday was a rainy, cold and soggy day. I know for those of you that are dealing with single digits you don't want to hear us whine! Well it has been down in the 40's and 30's at night here, which is super cold for us and we do not even have the clothes for that kind of weather. In and out of the rain, I finally got al my packages mailed out, they will be delivered before New Year's. Chris and I braved Costco to get most of the food we will need for our several dinners. We will be having my parents here for Christmas/4th night of Hankuah celebration. We are also having about 4 other families over for 7th night of Hanukah celebration. So many latkes, so little time!
Last night I was up late cooking delicious homemade pecan sandies. I got the recipe from Jason's teacher. They are the most wonderful cookies I have ever had. I made several batches last night and couldn't resist testing each one. Yum. I also made roasted pecan brittle last week and Chris has not been able to resist that. He took some to work and it was gone fast! This was my first time using pecans and the brittle tastes even better than peanut brittle. I used to make peanut brittle every year until Rachel was little and tested positive for peanut allergy. I gave up making brittle but started agin this season with pecans. The kids loved it as well.
Baby update. Chris and I have a new nephew! Richard Scott Szopa was born yesterday, 6lbs 7 ozs and 19 inches long. They texted us a picutre and I wish I knew how to get it on here. I will post one when they email us a few pictures. Of course that made me think of our little babies and when they were born. I found a video of Jason's 2nd birthday and will post it on here if I can. I miss them being little and wish we were closer to spend time with our new little nephew and his sweet parents.
I know everyone is doing their shopping, wrapping, cooking and shipping so I wish you all well with your busy holiday preparations! May your tape never run low, may the lines be only 2 people deep, may the butter not burn and may all of your purchases be on sale!!!
Love to you all,
April
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Here We Go Again!
OK, for those of you that have been wondering why I haven't posted in awhile it is a two part answer. One, it is the busy season and I haven't had that much time to dedicate to it and two, Lacy wanted more pictures posted on here and every time I had a chance to update it, I couldn't get the pictures to upload. Writing in the blog is easy, posting pictures is hard. I am still learning and will have to really study it to find an easier way. It takes me waaaay too long to upload a photo so I know there has to be an easier way.
This past week has been craaaaazzzyy! Rachel had a Holiday Choir performance on Monday night that lasted several hours. Rachel also had a class play about the internal organs system this week and she played the mouth. The play was adorable including the kid dressed as a raging hormone that would come screaming in and out. Also, for Rachel this week she had her class holiday party in which I made latkes for everyone and read a Chanukah story to the class and helped them with a craft. We also worked on and completed Rachel's major weather project this week and had it ready to turn in on Thursday! Wow, that was just one kid! Erik had his class Holiday performance this week and he got to dress up in a crazy hat and crazy socks and sang beautiful holiday songs. I also delivered to his class gelt and cookies for their treat. Jason Sang holiday songs too for his class performance this week and had a party after the performance. He looked adorable up there singing his heart out. Luckily the boys did not have big homework this week so they had lots of neighborhood kids over to play with while I was cleaning, cooking and helping Rachel. I made the teachers gifts of southern pecan brittle and coriander lemon curd cookies. Jason's teacher made me some cookies as a thank you gift that were the best pecan sandies that I had ever tasted! I asked her for the recipe and she is going to get it to me after the break. I can't wait to make them. Really, the best pecan cookies in the world!
After all the craziness of the past week including making, wrapping and shopping for gifts....I got completely exhausted. I spent the entire day in bed yesterday sleeping on and off and just resting. It was great! I so needed it to keep my immune system up during these celebratory times. I knew this would be the only chance I would have until January to really relax and take care of myself, so I did. Chris rested as well, but took a 2 hour break to go play football in the mud with friends of ours. He had a great time but came back, took a shower and got back in bed for a nap! He was worn out too. This is his crunch time at work and with all the holiday performances, he has been working early and late so he needed the rest. By the way, our gifts will not be there on Christmas but will be there by New Year's. What a great way to spend New Year's opening more gifts and celebrating!
Chris is expecting his first nephew tomorrow. Katie will be induced tomorrow in Texas. We wish we could be there as we are both so excited for them!! They are having a boy and in the ultrasounds he looks just like Jason.
I need to go get in the shower now, I have been putting it off for hours today. We are going caroling with our group of friends at 5:00 tonight and that should be very fun. Gratefully, no school for the next two weeks!
Hope everyone has a great couple of days before Christmas!!
XOXOX,
April
Monday, December 1, 2008
Return to Normal
OK, life is back to normal. Well, as normal as it usually is anyway. I am busy signing homework papers, writing down dates for holiday plays and reviewing papers brought home. The kids are working on their homework right now. Erik has a Lunar chart project where he charts the phases of the moon for 28 days. He needs to rewrite some of the dates because it looks too sloppy. Rachel is working on a weather forecast project where she had to pick 4 areas of the country to chart the forecast, actual, humidity and wind speed for a week. She chose Laguna Niguel, Houston, Tulsa and Caribou Maine. There are always projects for the kids to do during the end of the year when the holidays are here and I find that a bad time to be adding extra work.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know we did. My parents came over early Thursday morning so we could all have a wonderful holiday breakfast together. Then they played with their grandchildren while Chris and I started cooking, then they came in and cooked with the kids and brought delicious stuffing, gravy and pie!
After dinner, Erik opened his presents and boy was he excited when he saw he received the Mr. Wizard DVD's and a video camera. What a blessed boy! We all watched Mr. Wizard in amazement and tried a few of the experiments and cannot wait to try some more. This was the first time my parents and Chris had ever seen the show so they were as enthralled as Erik. What a pleasure to watch everyone learn together.
The next day we went to my ex brother in laws house for a visit and barbeque. Alex, Elisa, their daughter Alexis and my niece Valarie were all there. We had another wonderful time. It is so nice to be able to catch up with everyone after not seeing them for the past 2 years. Elisa made a bunch of delicious appetizers and Alex grilled carne asada and chicken for tacos. It was fabulous. Dad and Alex reminisced about going wild boar hunting and how much fun they had out there in the desert. We are all planning a day trip up to Alex's sister in Big Bear over the holiday break to go sledding and visiting. Seeing Valarie was so good for the kids. I luckily, had just seen her in Oklahoma, but the kids haven't seen her in years. They love their cousin Valarie!
On Saturday, graciously, my parents stayed and babysat for Chris and I so we could go out and do a little shopping. We had a party to go to that night so we needed to grocery shop and we still needed our holiday lights. Chris had promised Rachel for the last 2 years that he would hang holiday lights. We finally found some beautiful twinkling snowflakes that hang down. They look lovely. As I cooked the chili for our party, my parents helped Chris hang lights and they finished in record time. Oh what we can do with the help of our elfs!! Chris also built a large menorah for the front that has individual electric candles on it so the kids can light one up each night of Chanukkah.
After all the cooking and decorating, we went to our friends house where we were one of 4 couples that came together for chili night! The kids had all their best friends there. It was a wonderful night of good friends coming together, sharing holiday stories, family secrets and getting support for just being who you are. Chris and I feel so incredibly blessed to have all these wonderful people as our friends. We truly feel at ease when we are with them and feel like they are a part of our family. The holiday could not have ended on a better, sweeter note.
After resting yesterday, today it is a little hard to return to normal. But, alas, I must. The kids are now finished with their homework and Rachel needs to get on my computer to do her daily weather logs. I have to clean out the frig and contemplate going to the grocery store to stock back up. Oh, but take out seems to be calling my name tonight!
Love to you all,
April
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know we did. My parents came over early Thursday morning so we could all have a wonderful holiday breakfast together. Then they played with their grandchildren while Chris and I started cooking, then they came in and cooked with the kids and brought delicious stuffing, gravy and pie!
After dinner, Erik opened his presents and boy was he excited when he saw he received the Mr. Wizard DVD's and a video camera. What a blessed boy! We all watched Mr. Wizard in amazement and tried a few of the experiments and cannot wait to try some more. This was the first time my parents and Chris had ever seen the show so they were as enthralled as Erik. What a pleasure to watch everyone learn together.
The next day we went to my ex brother in laws house for a visit and barbeque. Alex, Elisa, their daughter Alexis and my niece Valarie were all there. We had another wonderful time. It is so nice to be able to catch up with everyone after not seeing them for the past 2 years. Elisa made a bunch of delicious appetizers and Alex grilled carne asada and chicken for tacos. It was fabulous. Dad and Alex reminisced about going wild boar hunting and how much fun they had out there in the desert. We are all planning a day trip up to Alex's sister in Big Bear over the holiday break to go sledding and visiting. Seeing Valarie was so good for the kids. I luckily, had just seen her in Oklahoma, but the kids haven't seen her in years. They love their cousin Valarie!
On Saturday, graciously, my parents stayed and babysat for Chris and I so we could go out and do a little shopping. We had a party to go to that night so we needed to grocery shop and we still needed our holiday lights. Chris had promised Rachel for the last 2 years that he would hang holiday lights. We finally found some beautiful twinkling snowflakes that hang down. They look lovely. As I cooked the chili for our party, my parents helped Chris hang lights and they finished in record time. Oh what we can do with the help of our elfs!! Chris also built a large menorah for the front that has individual electric candles on it so the kids can light one up each night of Chanukkah.
After all the cooking and decorating, we went to our friends house where we were one of 4 couples that came together for chili night! The kids had all their best friends there. It was a wonderful night of good friends coming together, sharing holiday stories, family secrets and getting support for just being who you are. Chris and I feel so incredibly blessed to have all these wonderful people as our friends. We truly feel at ease when we are with them and feel like they are a part of our family. The holiday could not have ended on a better, sweeter note.
After resting yesterday, today it is a little hard to return to normal. But, alas, I must. The kids are now finished with their homework and Rachel needs to get on my computer to do her daily weather logs. I have to clean out the frig and contemplate going to the grocery store to stock back up. Oh, but take out seems to be calling my name tonight!
Love to you all,
April
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
This is it.
Wow! This was easy! If I had known setting up a blog would be so easy, I would have done it a long time ago. While on a trip to Oklahoma for my birthday, my friend Lacy showed me her nephew's blog with baby video's. It was so cute that I told her when I got home I would set one up as a way to keep everyone in Oklahoma and Texas updated on the happenings in our lives. What a great way to share video's of the kid's school plays and pictures of birthday parties. We definitely want to stay more in touch with our families and friends and this is just a great way to do it.
Speaking of birthdays......on Thanksgiving day Erik will be turning 9! We are so excited to be celebrating his birthday on Thanksgiving. Generously, both sets of Grandparents bought him videos of Mr. Wizard's World. The science TV show on Nickelodeon from the 80's and 90's. Erik LOVES science and experiments so this is the perfect gift for him. Chris and I are getting him a video camera (kid friendly), which has been on his list for 2 years. We didn't think he was old enough before now so this is going to be very exciting for him. He loves to make movies with is friends and siblings. I have a feeling there will be a couple of posts with videos of science experiments!
The weather here has been changing on a daily basis from heat waves to cool downs. We are expecting a storm tonight and rain for the next 2 days. California really needs it, but it has been playing heck with our allergies! Chris and I both have been taking, claritin, muscinex, nose sprays and tylenol. UGH! I am read for the weather to stabilize so my nose can as well. It is fun to watch the news here when a storm is impending. Every channel has a "Storm Watch" segment that looks at the radar and they go into great lengths about what can happen with a storm, but it is usually only a half an inch. So funny though!
Off to the grocery store to do the Thanksgiving shopping! I know all of you are doing that as well.
Love to you all,
April
Speaking of birthdays......on Thanksgiving day Erik will be turning 9! We are so excited to be celebrating his birthday on Thanksgiving. Generously, both sets of Grandparents bought him videos of Mr. Wizard's World. The science TV show on Nickelodeon from the 80's and 90's. Erik LOVES science and experiments so this is the perfect gift for him. Chris and I are getting him a video camera (kid friendly), which has been on his list for 2 years. We didn't think he was old enough before now so this is going to be very exciting for him. He loves to make movies with is friends and siblings. I have a feeling there will be a couple of posts with videos of science experiments!
The weather here has been changing on a daily basis from heat waves to cool downs. We are expecting a storm tonight and rain for the next 2 days. California really needs it, but it has been playing heck with our allergies! Chris and I both have been taking, claritin, muscinex, nose sprays and tylenol. UGH! I am read for the weather to stabilize so my nose can as well. It is fun to watch the news here when a storm is impending. Every channel has a "Storm Watch" segment that looks at the radar and they go into great lengths about what can happen with a storm, but it is usually only a half an inch. So funny though!
Off to the grocery store to do the Thanksgiving shopping! I know all of you are doing that as well.
Love to you all,
April
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