Cute

(Btw, for anyone who gets bored of so many pictures of my kids, just remember, both sets of grandparents live overseas, so we are sharing lots of our daily life for their sakes.)

JOY

I know a lot of you only link to this blog, not my California Muse, so for those that have told me they like a little reminder, you can read about my current journey of joy HERE.

Happy Valentines Day 2010!

For Valentines Day I'm sharing with you Rebecca's sweet thank you card to her daddy. No one told her to do it, she surprised us completely. You might need to click on it to be able to enlarge it and read the words.

For Valentines Day I'm also showing you what my son wore to church today. It wasn't his fault. I let him sleep till the very last second because we had had a late night and so brought his clothes with me. Alas, when it was too late to turn around (because I was the organist responsible for the prelude music) we realized I had brought everything but the shirt. I thought it would look a little strange to have him in a vest and pants, so we left the pj's on. I was embarrassed enough that instead of our usual spot near the front we sat in the overflow (after all, it was ward conference today and the whole Stake Presidency was visiting), but I wasn't embarrassed enough to go home afterwards and get his church. He went to nursery in his jammies. When we got home and were taking his jammies off he said: "Mommy forgot my shirt, and my pants..." (which was only half true) and he laughed and laughed at how funny he thought that was. Glad that was his reaction.

Happy Valentines Day dear Friends and Family.
I love and appreciate your friendship, your comments, your emails, your phone calls, your kindness and love. I hope you had a wonderful day today.

Joseph's plans for the future

"When I grow up I want to be a garbage truck guy and a digger guy and a builder guy and a spaceship guy."

Daddy Daughter Date

Rebecca all ready for Daddy.
Joseph wanted to be in the picture, too.

Rebecca's school hosted a Daddy Daughter Dance. I'm not sure who was more excited-Rebecca or me. I couldn't wait for her to have this experience. She picked her hair-do off a hair-do website, I let her wear some blush and lip gloss and she was ready to go. Joseph could tell that something special was going on that didn't include him and it made him sad. So after they left I made sure he felt special, too. We had mommy-son time and took some crazy pictures, had a bubble bath and cuddled at bed time. When we were taking pictures Joseph would instruct me on what kinds of faces to make. Even though I'm alone with Joseph every day while Rebecca is at school it somehow still felt special to have an evening date with my little guy.

Rebecca loved the dance and had a great time getting her dad's full and undivided attention. The next day she wrote him a thank you card all of her own making. So sweet.

Grumpy

Surprised



Silly

Happy

Wedding time

A big event for us in January was the marriage of Warren's best friend from high school, Andy, to his bride, Lubna. It was held at a magnificent church on the San Diego campus, with a reception at a fancy hotel on Coronado island afterwards. The service was a beautiful Catholic service with all sorts of nice music (I was really impressed by the man who led us in song-fabulous voice). The kids were well behaved, even though it took energy to keep them quiet.

Rebecca had a blast dancing at the reception. She became fast friends with all the other little kids at the party. Joseph was too shy to dance on the dance floor, but would let loose outside on the patio. The reception even had a Bavarian dance troop perform, complete with Alpenhorn blowers. It was a good day and we wish Andy and Lubna the very best for their life together.

The kids at their first super fancy dining experience.

After the bridal bouquet was caught by a little 4 year old girl, Rebecca had no qualms asking the bride if there was a bouquet she could have. She received a bride's maid bouquet. Ahh, the innocence of youth.

Escape to the Happiest Place on Earth

What do you do when you need to escape reality for a few hours? You go to Disneyland! It's a good place to be if you want to forget that you are looking for a new job and have no idea what the future holds.

Joseph loved Pirates of the Carribean, the carousel, Casey Jr.'s train and the Tarzan tree house.

Rebecca loved meeting Jasmine and Aladdin (or Jasim as Joseph pronounces her name), Story Book canal, and the ride down Main Street on the old fashioned fire truck (we had never done that before!).

Mom loved seeing the faces of her kids while they were on the carousel. Pure joy. Mom also loved being there with dad, a rare treat.

Dad loved the lack of crowds and the short lines. Dad also loved how Joseph would do something and ask if we could do it again. For a three hour stint we did quite a lot! It was a great afternoon.