Merry Christmas 
and 
Happy New Years
 
Here's a few pictures of the boys:

 Remember this cute picture of the boys?

It's been about 10 months, and look how much they've changed (they're growing so fast):

The last few weeks, we've been busy getting ready for Christmas and fighting off colds. Our house is definitely looking forward to Santa coming. We had Christmas with my family last weekend, and the boys had a blast. Elio is getting to the age where he kinda gets Christmas, and he loves opening presents. We just enjoy seeing them have so much fun!

The year is coming to an end and I'd say we've had a great year; Nico was born, we worked a lot on the house, we did a little bit of traveling, and so much more. It went by so fast though. We are looking forward to what next year brings us; a new cousin (Yay!!! Congrats Mike and Raquel), a trip to Disney World, hopefully a new deck, and who knows what else. I have a feeling it's going to be a great year!

Busy Bees

With Christmas approaching, there' have been a lot of fun activities around town.

On Saturday we started by going to see Santa at one of our local sandwich shops (we've been doing it since Elio was born). Elio sat on Santa's lap and told him want he wanted: a train car. Nico cried. Poor Nico, he was scared of Santa.

Then we went to the bizarre at the Presbyterian Church. Santa was hanging out there while we had some lunch. There weren't a ton of kids there, and we were sitting about 5 feet away from Santa. Elio was in heaven. He was chattin it up with him. He told him about his train car, sat on his lap several times. It was really cute, he was memorized by him. 

We went home tooks some naps, then that night we went downtown to the Guest House to see Santa again. Such lucky kids huh? Santa three times in one day! Oh, then to top it off, we went out to Chinese food and watched the lighted truck parade. I'd say it was a pretty fun day.

We also went to the Festival of Lights at the Botanical Gardens. It  was the first time the Botanical gardens has put on this event. If you've been to the botanical gardens you know how beautiful it is. Well it's amazing at night covered in lights. The kids had lots of fun. I think this might end up being a new family tradition for us.

Here's a few fun pictures from our adventures:

We went to cut down our Christmas tree this weekend.

 Elio had so much fun searching for the perfect tree.

 Kyle decided to bring his own saw this year.

 Elio helped put up the decorations and Nico helped take them down. Notice there aren't very many decorations on the bottom!

We are getting in the Christmas spirit around here, the house is decorated (inside) and we start the super cool advent calender I made tomorrow. 
Happy Holidays!

Oh Nico

I left Nico in the kitchen for a few seconds, I walked back to see this:

I guess he figured out how to climb up on the table.

How cute is this?

 Elio was in the kitchen playing with the fruit on the table, while I was in the dinning room talking to my dad on the phone. 

Elio comes out of the kitchen holding a bowl and it has a peeled and broken up tangerine in it. 

I knew I didn't peel it, but I didn't think he would know how. I went in the kitchen and there laid a pile of peels on the table.

I know it may not seem like a big deal to most people, but Kyle and I were impressed that he figured it out on his own.

It's a reminder that they watch everything we do,

these cuties are constantly amazing us!

Marisa and I took the boys in for their checkups last week.  Nico had his 9 month and Elio had his 2 1/2 year.

Nico:

He weighed in at 22 lbs 3 oz an was in the 75% for weight. For his length he is 31 inches. When the doctor was looking at the percentile he said "he's off the charts". He was also very impressed that he was walking already. Way to go Nico!

Elio

He weighed in at 31lbs and was in the 75 percentile for weight. He is 37 1/2 inches long and in the 90% for height. He thought Elio was doing good with his speech and said he was looking good too.

 I always enjoy going in for their checkups and seeing how much they've grown.

Nico sure is changing everyday, and it seems like there have been some big changes lately. He's walking more and more. He's starting to clap, and wave goodbye to people. He fed me one of his snacks today, I'm pretty sure he says Momma, and I swear he gave me a kiss the other day.

 The boys have been really in to taking bubble baths lately. Elio loves the bubbles, he gets them out of the cupboard and pours it in the tub. We've been going through bubble bath rather quickly lately.

 Oh, and I gave them haircuts! Nico's hair has been a challenge for me. When he was born it was all dark. Then he lost it on the middle back and sides of his head, which was fine...until it grew back blond. Then it just looked like he had a messed up haircut. I tried to give him a little fohawk but it still didn't look quite right. So out came the clippers. I took it pretty short, and the back looks much better. I couldn't believe how much it made him look more like Kyle. So cute! Well after Nico got his haircut, then Elio wanted his like that too. So there you go.

Halloween

The boys had so much fun trick or treating.

We met up with Nonna, Nonno, Leena, The Girlies, and some of the Moms from the MOMS Club.

 The boys sure love their Auntie Kellen, we had a great weekend with her.

We've been stuck in the house for the last couple of days. Uggghhhh, it's a love/hate relationship with the rain. Luckily Auntie Kellen is coming to visit today! It should be a fun weekend with auntie and maybe even a little trick or treating and of course lot's of candy !

Swim Lessons

We took the boys to swim lessons last night. It was Nico's first time and Elio's second. They both had such a good time, they love the water. Plus we are doing the class with some of our good friends, which makes it even more fun.

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Home Sweet Home

We bought our house at auction in September two years ago then officially closed escrow two years ago this month.  It took three or so months for us to get it ready to move in. It feels so good to have such a wonderful home. Even though it's been a lot of work (we've had a lot of surprises), it's been well worth it.  It's been fun to make our house our own, and be able to pick almost everything out ourselves. We love not having a ton of neighbors, we have a beautiful view of the redwoods, we are out of the fog line, and it's going to be a great place for the kids to run around when they are older. Not to mention it's a great spot for our little farm and garden.

Here's some of the things we've done to our house / property:

Tented for termites

Took off popcorn ceilings

Got the trailer off the property

New oven

New stove

Took out old landscaping

New carpet

New laminate Floors

New paint

Textured inside of house

Put in a fireplace

New light fixtures

Tiled first bath

New bathroom mirrors

New toilets

New windows

New trim and baseboards

...and all that was before we moved in! Here's what we've done since moving in:

Burned down modular  (YAY!)

New kitchen faucet

Built a fence

Built a chicken coop

New exterior paint

Took off old gutters and put up new fascia

Sandbox for the boys

Fixed sliding doors in kitchen

More interior paint

Planted some plants

Tiled the master bath

New vanity in our bath

Changed out some light switches

New furnace 

 Wow, looking back, we've really gotten a lot accomplished in the last 2 years and we did all this with Elio being an infant, then toddler, and then having Nico. Luckily we've had a supportive family and have had a lot of help.

We have a few more things on our to do list:

Install the wood stove in the garage

New deck

New roof

New driveway

Build a garden

Make a goat pen

Landscape

Kitchen Remodel 

Ahhh...we had a successful yard sale this weekend. 

We're glad most of our junk is gone and made a little moolah in the process.

Here's a cute pic of the boys from bath time the other day

I walked out the front door the other day and saw Elio working on his bike with a wrench, from the top of the ladder, I had to take a picture. He's such a little boy!

By the way, I'm pretty sure he know more tools names than I do.

Cute little Nico is getting into everything, crawling all over the place, and now is taking about 2 or 3 steps at a time. 

Nico just took two steps all by himself, we are so proud!

Hey, not bad for only being 8 1/2 months!

RIP Lucy

Last night was a sad night, we had our first fatality. Every morning we let the chickens out and put them away every night. Usually they hang out in the yard all day. If we get busy and put them to bed after dark, they put themselves to bed, and we just close the gate. Well last night was one of those nights were we got busy putting the kids to bed and cleaning things up, before we knew it, it was dark out. Kyle and I were in the living room and we heard a lot of squawking outside. Kyle ran out with his flashlight, told me to get the gun, then I hobbled out after him. There were feathers everywhere. White feather, Lucy feathers. Millie was the only chicken in the coop, Lucy and Coco were missing. The trail of feathers went through a fence and into the woods, Lucy was gone. Coco was still missing, we grabbed Millie and brought her up to the house, so she could sleep peacefully in the garage. Right before we were going into the garage, Coco showed up. Oh, we were relieved! Both girls slept in the garage last night.

When we looked around this morning it turned out, we were really close to losing two of the girls last night. There were quite a few of Coco's feathers spread all over an area of the yard. I don't know how she got away, but she did. I'm thankful she escaped. Poor Lucy, we feel so horrible, it was such a bad accident that we could have prevented. 

I'm pretty sure yesterday was one of the worst days we've had in a while. Between my accident, the neighbor kid came over, fell off the swing and got a bloody nose and Lucy, it was a bit rough.

Since I'm stuck on the couch, probably the rest of the day, I thought I would blog about my kind of embarrassing accident I had this morning. 

I thought I was being a nice mom/wife this morning because it was Kyle's morning to sleep in and the boys were getting restless and loud. So I thought we would go for a ride and see the ocean. We drove out to Todds Point and around town a little bit and then came home. I got Elio out of the car and put him on the ground, then I got Nico out. I was holding Nico and we were going to go back in the house. I was walking down the steps by my car, and I think what happened was I kinda rolled my ankle. I was trying to avoid breaking my ankle and some how I fell. I fell while holding Nico, which was the worst part of the whole thing. I tried to catch myself and fall gracefully while trying to protect Nico. Well none of that happened, it just all happened to quickly. Nico fell out of my arms and bumped his head on the cement and this is what happened to me (it looks way worse in person and is super swollen):

 Luckily Nico just ended up with a little bump on his head, and is alright. It was so scary for me though. I had to lay on the ground crying with Nico crying and Elio crying, not know if I broke my leg or if I could walk, and if Nico was ok. I had to yell for Kyle who was still sleeping in the house. I yelled about 5 times for him and he didn't hear me. Fortunately our neighbor Steve heard me yelling and came over to help. He grabbed Nico and went in and woke up Kyle, then helped me in the house. It was such a horrible feeling laying there feeling helpless and not knowing if Nico was ok. Well Kyle got me all cleaned up and now I'm just sitting on the couch catching up on some of my tv shows, because it hurts to get up and walk. 

I'm thankful we didn't get hurt more than we did, for a great neighbor and a wonderful husband who's taking care of  me and the kids today. 

UPDATE:

No, that isn't my knee, that's a swollen lump on my leg. It was almost the size of my knee though. 
I'm happy to report that when I woke up this morning, the majority of the swelling was down, and I can walk much better.

I have my first sponsor for my blog Olivia Renn. Basically she's paying me in fabric for having her ad on my blog. She's also doing a fabric giveaway at the end of October, plus I'm going to do a giveaway of something I make with the fabric. I'm super excited, so go over and check it out, and be sure to check back so you don't miss the giveaways!

ahhh, better already!

The house is painted, we still have some work to do, but it looks so much better!

When we first bought the house it had really skinny brown trim. When we replaced the windows we put up new trim and left it primed. This is what it looked like after the new windows.

Primed

After

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I decided to paint the inside of the house. It always sounds like such a great idea, until you get one wall done and realize how much you have left. Having two kids running around and painting was quite the project. I still have some work to do, but for the most part it's done.

 It's kinda a burnt pumpkin coralish color. This was the color I had wanted for my kitchen when we first were working on the house, but I tried out a bunch of colors and couldn't find the right one. I finally came across this color and loved it!

 The entry/ dinning room is a mustard color. 

I'm so happy I finally found some colors that we like. It makes it feel more like home.

The last week I was busy painting the living room / entry / dinning room. But what colors did I choose??? 

Hmmm...I'll post some pictures soon...

We have officially started the process of painting the house. This weekend we went right to work. We decided to skip sleeping in this weekend, (usually we trade off days, so we can both catch up on sleep) so we could get right to work. 

Day One: Cleaning up around the house and pressure washing.

Day Two: Spackling and sanding. 

Let me tell you, it was LOADS of fun. Ya right, but it will all be worth in the end. Hopefully we will be able to start painting next weekend, as long as the weather holds out for us.

Last week we had the best weather I think we've had all summer, which means we did a lot of fun stuff; picking huckleberries, picking blackberries, lot's of park days, coastal cleanup at Glass Beach, craft fair, water fights, logging show, hanging out with friends, and of course the Labor Day Parade. 

Other BIG NEWS, our chickens laid their first egg last week. 

So far they've laid 4 eggs.

Here's our first little egg

It's so tiny, I put the lens cap next to it so you could see how small it is

Cooking it for Elio for breakfast

Not much there, but Kyle and I had a little taste and Elio ate it all up.

The MOMS Club won 1st place (in our category) for the Labor Day Parade. That means we win a big fat check for $300.00! That's going to help the MOMS Club get through the year.

Here's our float:

The theme was Into the Redwood with Paul and Babe. We thought it would be fun to play off it a little and do a camping theme. The boys had to dress up as if they were going camping or something you might see while camping.

So what might you see or hear while camping?

 An Owl of course!

 

 What might you see or eat while camping?

 

A Hamburger! Ok, I know it's kind of a stretch, but I saw the costume and couldn't resist. Plus I could hear people saying how cute he was as we walked by in the parade, so I'm pretty sure it was a hit.

Happy 30th Birthday Kyle