Disneyland!

We went to Disneyland the week before Thanksgiving. It was a great experience. Jon had a connection and we were able to stay at the Disneyland Hotel for the first time ever which is a big deal to a Disneyland loving family like the McAllisters! We had a great view of Downtown Disney, the fireworks and could even see part of Fantasmic from our room.
Goofy greeted us as we checked into the hotel!
Goofy also cooked breakfast for us the next morning at his restaurant, Goofy's Kitchen. It was delicious. For those of you who don't know this is a character dining restaurant and the best one at Disneyland that we have tried(which means Minnie & Friends, Ariel's Grotto, and Goofy's Kitchen).

The girls are getting so big and they had Daddy take them on Screamin' about a million times! This is a picture of Sarah on Screamin'. Sam is 40" tall and got to ride so many rides. He went on Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Matterhorn, Splash Mountain, and even Tower of Terror. After each ride he would say, "I like it!". So cute!
We ate lots of fresh, yummy(free) tortillas!
And of course, everyone had fun pushing the elevator buttons! This was one of the kids favorite things!

So, all in all we had a great trip. Oh, an amusing story about one not so great part of our trip...We were eating lunch at the Horseshoe review and sometime after Sarah finished eating I noticed she was covering her ears. She did this for most of the performance. I figured she was annoyed that we weren't going on some ride. Then she walked over to look at the player piano with her sister, still covering her ears. This seemed really strange. To make a long story short, Sarah had taken out her Mickey Mouse earrings(which Jon had gotten for her as a baby) and thrown them on the ground. She hates earrings. We found one.

Thanksgiving

I wanted to post a few pictures of our Thanksgiving Day. We were very lucky to be able to have people from both Jon's family and my family attend our celebration. It was a lot of fun!
Poor Jacob, they do this to him every time! He looks pretty good as a blonde though!



It was cold, so I didn't go outside but it looks like the kids had fun!

We are having a...

GIRL!

For those of you counting that will make 3 girls and 1 boy in our little family! Jon says he will be fine once he completely loses his mind! Just kidding. Well...he did say that but Jon loves cute little girls. He can leave them for me to figure out. Sam kept insisting the baby was a boy after the ultrasound but now that Uncle Vinnie and Aunt Natalie have had their twins his new idea is that we are having boy/girl twins. He's been thinking about this!

We are at 23 weeks now so I should post some new pictures. I really should. Everything is going along fine. I did make Jon drive to Thrifty's yesterday to get me some vanilla icecream for milkshakes. It's the only thing I feel like when I get an upset tummy.

We are naming her Rachel.

No longer morning sick

And what a wonderful thing that is!!! I have been really sick with my 4th pregnancy. I never thought food would look, taste, or even sound wonderful again. For about 14 weeks I ate whatever thing I could tolerate which amounted to bagels, yogurt, and baked potatoes! It was interesting...or actually really boring. Luckily my kids helped out taking care of Sam and they didn't complain(too much) about eating lots and lots of sandwiches and cereal(which they could make themselves).

Now, here I am at 15 weeks and feeling pretty good. Just showing a bit.

In case you were interested in whether we are having a girl or a boy, I have great news. I picked up one of those drug store tests(Intelligender) and found out that we are either having a boy, or a girl, or a boy. Now, you too have been enlightened! ;)

It's been a fun and busy month and it's not over yet!

We have been very lucky to spend lots of time with family this month. We went with Jon's family(and Ross) to Discovery kingdom together and had a blast! Todd and Kristy and their family came from Utah and were able to go on the trip with us. Sarah(my brave girl) went on rollar coasters with Grandpa Jim and even Rebekah went on the Cobra a number of times. We saw the awesome sea lion show and fed the lorikeets too. It was really a wonderful day.
We got a new toy! Really, this has been so much fun for us and Jon was able to get a great price at the hobby store during their Summer sale.

We said "Goodbye" to baby Italo and family as they move far away to Florida. We will miss having them somewhat nearby.

We got together with Jon's family again and this time we went to Aunt Krissy's house which is a smaller version of Discovery Kingdom, I think. Here is a picture of the kid's swimming with her ducklings. So cute!

And finally, just because it's so cute....

Our homeschool!

So our blog is about homeschooling but I haven't talked about what we do much as a homeschooling family. I wanted to explain a little about our homeschool stuff here for anyone who might be interested.

One thing I have been asked lately is if the kids have Summer vacation and we certainly do. We LOVE Summer! It's so nice to get a break and get refreshed for the new year. We try to do some fun activities like camping and other day trips. We belong to a charter school and they set our school calendar. Our charter school is South Sutter and we LOVE IT! I'm currently at a board meeting for the school as I write this(it's a phone thing and we are waiting for a quorum).

We are kind of eclectic but favor a classical education. I am very interested in learning more about Thomas Jefferson Education. I like a whole books approach as well. I really believe that charecter is more important than book learning if I had to choose one over another. I am striving to incorporate handwork into our learning

Next year we have some exciting classes lined up including gymnastics, outdoor adventures(which is an all day once a week nature class), rock wall climbing class, and once a week park day. We ditched speech therapy for my 9 year old so we could do more of these things. I really felt it was in her best interest and the opportunity presented itself to pull her out of Sp. Ed. withou answering questions. Ask me if you want to know about this.

The kids are doing well. This Summer they are using their reading skills at the library reading program. It is so fun to watch this kids grow and learn. I do get a great satisfaction when they progress. Sometimes I take a little too hard when we have to put something aside(because they are not ready) and try again later. I am trying not to do that.

Our homeschool is always evolving but that is pretty much what we do. Hope everyone is having a great Summer!

10th Anniversary!!!

It's hard to believe that it has been 10 years! It's been a fun 10 years and I am lucky to have someone as sweet and wonderful as Jon. To celebrate, we dropped the munchkins off with Grandma and Grandpa and took a trip to the coast!

When we dropped the kids off there was not one tear and apparently they could not wait for us to leave, so off we went!

On Thursday we stayed at a very nice B&B, the Amber house. They totally pamper you here. This is a picture of our bedtime snack. In the morning we had fresh fruit followed by eggs benedict.

After swinging by our house and trading the minivan for Jon's "little car" as the kids refer to it we headed to Mendocino and checked into our much smaller and less luxurious room at the Mendocino hotel. I was majorly car sick after the Hwy 20 experience but we pressed onward and ordered room service. We are such troopers!

On Saturday, Jon had arranged for us to go kayaking in the ocean which was really, really fun! I was a little nervous about it being hard or scary but it wasn't. Plus, I had Jon to do most of the work.

The last night we spent at home and that was weird with the kiddos. We even got to watch an episode of "The Commish" which was fun. Apparently Jon had never seen "The Commish" before I introduced it to him via Netflix. Weird!

Sunday, we went and picked up some kids who didn't want to come home(too much fun with the cousins) and now we are home. It was a good trip!

I've caught the coupon bug

and have gotten some really great deals. It's a hobby that pays for itself and what stay at home mom can resist that?! Today my best deal was at Target. I got 2 squeeze bottles of mayo, 2 bottles of Kraft salad dressing and 2 boxes of Ritz crackers for $3.04. My 6 year old daughter Bekah loves to see me use coupons and see how much I save!

So...I tried

Some people may know that my dad is from Venezuela. My kids never got a chance to meet him because he passed away before Jon and I were married. I try to tell them about him. Sam's middle name is Italo(which is my father's first name). Anyway, today I made black beans, rice, and arepas for dinner which is all stuff I grew up with and loved. It turns out, my family is not such big fans. I don't know if I waited too long or maybe it's an aquired taste. I sure had a feast tonight though.

Our Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. The Sunday before Easter we were able to spend with my brother Vinnie and his family as well as my Mom and my youngest brother Ross. The kids loved the chance to have an Easter egg hunt with their baby cousin Italo.


We also had a big hummus tasting event. My always health conscious mom wanted to see if hummus was a good snack or not so we had to give it a fair chance. We tasted 6 varieties of hummus that day! I had to chuckle to myself later that day when Vinnie posted on facebook that he was eating hummus. There was a LOT of hummus. Oh...by the way we decided hummus is a pretty good snack!


Then, we actually had Easter! What can I say, the kids loved their baskets and we had a nice visit from Nana(my mom). Easter dinner was chicken cordon bleu, mashed potatoes, squash, and a nice green salad. Mom brought a vegan meatloaf which was okay but Mom and I agreed it tasted a lot like stuffing and wasn't the best vegan dish we have tried.

One thing I love about living in a small town

When something exciting happens, people usually come! Recently, Colusa had it's annual Western Days and children's fair. Bekah and I kept our tradition and went to the celebrity team penning held Friday night. The celebrities are local school teachers, teenagers, and other community members who really don't have a lot of experience penning cattle. It's always a fun show.

Saturday, I took Sam and Bekah to the children's fair. The highlights were the big inflatable slide sponsored by the Lions Club, a pony ride, the rice box(like a sand box), blowing bubbles, getting a free book, learning how to rope a pretend cow, and seeing a magician. Here they are with the hats they won when they roped the pretend cow. All of this was free of charge by the way. Now that really makes for a fun day!

What are your needs?

Copied from my sister in law Kristy
What you do is go to Google and type in "_____ (your name) needs", so for example I typed in "Vanessa needs"(couldn't find Venisa) and pushed enter. You post the first 5 things that show up. Here's what mine said:

1. Vanessa needs to watch this show.
2. Vanessa needs to get a LIFE.
3. Vanessa needs hugs.
4. Vanessa Needs To Step Up.
5. Vanessa needs our prayers .

he he and since I couldn't get enough using my name (well, sort of my name), I did Jon too.

1. Jon needs real women with real sound systems(cough, he can have a new sound system...)
2. Jon needs to stop sending drinks now.
3. Jon Needs Prayers. (for his soul? This Jon is not looking so good!)
4. Jon Needs to Touch his Roots.
5. Jon Needs Cash Quick.

Sarah got her haircut

Sarah has been asking me for a long time to get her hair cut. She has very fine hair that tangles easily. This morning she asked me for the millionth time and I finally agreed. We called and they had an opening and I jumped on it, before either one of us could chicken out. She is very happy with her new bob style haircut. Hopefully this will make life easier for me too!

Here you can see the length.

And here you can see how cute Sarah is!

Building our backyard playset

It took us a while to decide which playset to buy. Eventually we found this one on sale and with free shipping from BJ's wholesale, which is apparently like Costco on the East Coast.All the reviews were great but there were some comments about it being hard to put together. Obviously, it is not because here is a picture of 3 year old Sam doing just that!

Here we are holding up the posts so that Jon can make sure they are the appropriate distance apart(he didn't have a square and had to use a level) and then screw another crossboard on the top.

Of course, I do have a husband who has more than his fair share of cleverness. He made it look easy and even let patiently let the kids help. As a side note. I had to stand on a ladder and hold part of the 2nd story up while Jon drilled it in place. Most people probably know that just isn't my thing(heights, ladders) but it's all for the kids.

One last picture after Jon snuck out on Sunday and installed the swingset portion. You know, ox in the mire type stuff! We now have more of the playhouse on the 2nd floor part done. I'll post one last picture when we have a finished product!

I had a great opportunity to visit my brother and his family in Hawaii, just me and my mom. My sweet husband Jon insisted I take it while he spent a week of his vacation time watching our little ones while I vacationed in Hawaii. We had a great time! Here are just a few select pictures of all the things we did!

Here I am swimming in the pond where Kate finds the case. This is the botanical garden where we actually saw them filming Lost later that day. Jack, Locke, Sayid, and Kate all waved or sayed "hi" to us during the afternooon. We were in 7th heaven. Then we got an even better treat! Just Mom and I were standing on a path near the road in and out. Suddenly, a little white SUV stops and a girl jumps out and runs down the path to where we are standing...It's Kate(Evageline Lilly)! She noticed us standing around all afternoon and wanted to stop by. She asked our names, shook our hands, and even asked us if we were having a good time. She was the sweetest! Then she thanked us for coming and ran up the path again(in clogs), slipping in a bit of mud and had to grab onto her car to keep from falling down. We could tell she is good natured because of the way she laughed when she slipped. We were a little star struck that day!

Here is my brother Roland at Matsumoto's. The shaved ice was really good there!

This is Mom and I looking for rescue planes at the Lost crash site!My sister-in-law Joi and I at Byodo-In Buddist temple featured in lost.

It was the trip of a lifetime. I never thought I'd be able to do something so awesome with just my mom and I . Of course one of the best parts was to be able to see my newest nephew Liam while he was still only 7 weeks old. He is a joy to be around. Thanks so much Roland and Joi for having us and especially for being such great tour guides!

Sweet little Sam

My 3 year old son Sam loves his treats. He also loves sneaking into our bed in the middle of the night. We have a queen sized bed and he takes up a lot of room. Of course, only if you have had a kid sneak into your bed do you realize exactly how much room a small child takes up. Probably more than an adult I'd say. It's cute and sweet but it's been going on too long. So...my husband Jon came up with a deal. If Sam stays in bed he can have 3 mini marshmallows in the morning. Last night when Sam tried to sneak into our bed, I reminded him about the treat he would miss out on by sleeping in our bed. I guess he had his priorities in order because he left our room, got back in bed, and cried himself to sleep!

PS I'm hoping this combined with his staying in nursery yesterday and a few other things is a sign that he is getting over his "I'm a baby"and you need to baby me phase! That has been exhausting!

Happy Valentine's Day

So, I guess I am turning into a holiday blogger. I dunno...just busy. I do have a sweet husband who loves to spoil us on Valentine's Day. Not only did I get out on a date(dinner and a movie) but I got candy and flowers too. Well, all of us girls did...and of course Sam. He likes candy and flowers too! Oh, and I am spending next week in Hawaii visiting my brother so there will probably be a blog about that. That sounds pretty blogworthy to me!

Sam's 3rd Birthday

We all got together at Nana D's to Celebrate Sam's 3rd birthday. He was so excited and learned to show 3 fingers and say "three" when asked how old he is. The girl's woke Sam up on the day of his party by telling him that it was his birthday and Sam immediately jumped out of bed. I have never seen that boy move so fast! He got his dinosaur egg oatmeal for breakfast and then off to Nana's. Sam had a really cool Cars Cake with a real toy Lightning McQueen on top. He loved that. He also was totally obsessed by the pretend Camera Grandma and Grandpa Jim gave him and kept taking pictures of everything, especially his cake and presents. Another cool present was the enormous container of potato head stuff from us. We were happy to find such a great collection of pieces. Sam loves his "tato head"!

After the party, Mom told Vinnie, Alie, Jon, and I that we had to go out and leave her with the kids. After much time contemplating what to do we went to Scandia for some minature golfing and then to Fuddrucker's for some yummy food. It was really fun!

Misc. News

We have found Sam's shoes! They were not at Grandma's(we visited the day they went missing) and they did not fall out of the car at one of our stops on the way home. We were all too tired after a day trip to remember exactly who took them off and where but apparently our little boy was not too tired to stick his shoes in the play kitchen! They were lost for a week. I even ordered a new pair from Kohls.com. Luckily, we can return those!

My back fence neighbor went a bit odd on us and put up this monstrosity. See the wolf heads and the wolf claws(just below). The dragons are the final bit. I would have been okay with just the dragons but the wolves are just plain odd in my opinion. Plus, the whole thing seems not well done. Notice the piece of wood he has nailed to the trim! It's not even cut straight.

My brother-in-law Peter is going on a mission to Hong Kong soon. He just got his call! Congrats Peter!

I wore this sweater and each of my 3 brothers did as well. That was after the neighbor boys wore it and passed it on to us. It's from Penny's and apparently very good quality!

My Son is a pirate. Here he is showing off his muscles and Christmas tree tattoo!

Bekah funny

So we were driving home from my inlaw's house when the following conversation took place between myself and my 6 year old daughter, Bekah.

Bekah: Can you marry your cousin?
Me: No sweetie. Jacob is very nice but you can't marry him.
Bekah:(upset and pouting) BUT HE IS THE ONLY GOOD ONE I KNOW!!!

Our Holidays!

So I guess the highlight of Christmas was our new DS! Jon surprised the family with this. The girls got mainly American Girl Stuff and Sam got mostly stuff from "Cars" the movie. Nana, Uncle Ross, Uncle Vinnie and his family all came to celebrate with us. We were so lucky they could come to our house because Jon was on call again! Thanks everyone! My nephew Italo was adorable.

Here is Baby Italo with his noise making hammer! Insert evil laugh here. Just Kidding. Actually, we searched high and low for this because our Sam loved his so much when he was younger.

Oh and I got my Ruffles and onion dip which is VERY important. There were lots of snacks. Especially See's candy. We actually had to make a 2nd trip to See's because we ate some of the first box! It was a fun day!

New Year's Eve we headed up to Granpa and Grandma Jim's house. We celebrated with Martenelli's just a wee bit early for the kids who ended up staying up past midnight anyone! They did have fun though and that is the most important thing, right? Sam didn't want the Martenelli's. He went with milk.

We headed home on New Year's Day sans Sarah who stayed with Jon's family(grandparents, Aunt, cousins). Sarah left the next day on a trip to Utah with them to see a cousin get baptized and a brand new baby get blessed at church. I think she had a lot of fun. She keeps talking about her cousin Taylar having her own puppy. I guess that left an impression.