Sanders Family News

First snow of the year

2012-01-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, I LOVE the snow, especially the first snow of the season. Everything is so pretty in white. It snowed a little yesterday but a TON today. Lavinia and I were sick and skipped churchbut it ended up being canceled anyway after Sacrament. Later on though I got us all dressed really well and we headed out. We went sledding, and then came back home to build a fort and then made an enormous snow ball. It was a fun day. Food tasted so good after the work out outside. It's supposed to snow more in the next few days as well. And good thing we have tomorrow off. What a blessing! I love three day weekends.

I want to go skiing so badly but that is just so pricey. I also want my kids to take lessons to ski but maybe I will when they are a little bit older. I learned from my parents. I never took lessons so I am not a pro and my style isn't amazing or anything but I LOVE it nonetheless. I can't imagine life without mountains and snow.

Friday Snow- Little snowman

The next day-Future snowman-Look at the size!

Going sledding

Yum!

Fort Building

The end result

A new year

2012-01-10T20:28:00.000-08:00

I am tired at looking at the Merry Christmas post so I guess it's time for another one. I have been in great spirits lately. I guess I love getting caught up with life. I love a new year starting out with hope and possible change and more hope. I am realizing more and more that not procrastinating is key to my happiness. And that's a bad habit of mine that is hard to break. I always blame it on tiredness. So to be less tired I am trying to get to bed at an earlier time. Maybe the simplest of things (simple not necessarily always easy to do) will be the ones to give me success.

I keep thinking I need to post the Christmas pictures but I just feel no desire to do it. We'll see if I get to it.

For now I have been taking it easy in the evenings, I have been playing more with the family and just in general my attitude on life is much better. I have been reading a new blog (a photography blog of all things) of this lady who so positive and genuine and that has been giving me more optimism. Without bragging or lecturing (the things that annoy me the most in some blogs) this lady is so inspiring and kind. I might even take her photography classes some day. They are all online. http://blog.brookesnow.com/

And speaking of photography I realize I never showed you the photos that our sweet photographer took. I LOVE them. I am printing them and framing them. They make me happy. Here's Lindsay's blog as well.

So Happy New Year to everyone. I hope it will bring you all lots of joy, health and happiness.

Merry Christmas! 2011

2011-12-23T22:59:00.000-08:00

Before time goes away from me I wanted to wish all our friends and family a very, Merry Christmas.

We have done lots these last few weeks. Even though I try to keep things simple it's easier said than done. We have had relatives here since last Saturday, we have gone on a Twin Peaks tour and that was a lot of fun. Good food was eaten and the little cousins were so happy to be together.

Our family made cookies twice so far, made paper snowflakes, sang carols, Karaoke with extended family, watched Christmas movies, and just enjoyed each other, sipping cocoa next to our beautiful tree. This year we went and cut our own at a farm and I just loved it. I hope to do it again next year.

I managed to get all the presents, order and mail our Christmas cards, went to D's school and had a presentation on Romania (that was fun). It sure is nice to get a break from work. Days are flying by and I hope after Christmas we get to relax a little. I actually want to be lazy on New Year's unlike any other years. I am all for partying on that day but I just feel exhausted and I am totally fine watching TV that day. We'll see what happens though.

Well, pictures will be coming later on.

I do hope you are having a magical, Christ centered time with your families.

St. Nick's

2011-12-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

On December 6th St. Nick (Mos Nicolae) came by our house and brought the kids and us a few treats with the once much anticipated bananas and oranges. When I was little oranges were a hot item and bananas even more so. I remember waiting in never ending lines for those things when I was about seven or so. Because we imported them we only got them around Christmas time. Not that waiting in line was a foreign concept at all. That's what we did for any type of food, from bread, milk, not to mention anorexic chicken and any kind of meat. That was back then though, much has thankfully changed.

Anyway, the kids had a blast in the morning. I decided that I am going to replace stockings at Christmas for St. Nicks. It's about the same thing and I have no mantle to hold my stockings. I just don't want to pay twice for things. Growing up we never had stockings so I guess if I start now my kids won't know the difference.

Here are a few blurry pictures. :)

My dad put his stick in his own shoes. Funny but he was most definitely not naughty.

Birthdays and Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-28T00:06:00.000-08:00

Seems like so much has happened since I've written.

I had a birthday and two days later Lavinia had a birthday. She's now 3 and proud of it!

We took the kids to Disney on Ice, Toy Story 3 on her b-day weekend and both kids just loved the show. I did too. I'd never been and now I might go every year I liked it so much.

I was spoiled like always, friends and family called, FB wishes galore and my sweet husband took me out to dinner to a nice fish grill place that was amazing. It was good to go out together for a little bit. On top of my family pics gift Shane got an external flash. I was excited to use it inside the house where I seem to have such problems with our dark house, dark Seattle days, etc. Wow, there is a lot to learn on it and even though I prefer natural light this gift surely comes in handy. Unfortunately the flash stopped working so now I need to return it. It was very expensive thankfully. Ugh!

We had a little party (or what I thought would be little) for Lavinia. I always feel like I run around like crazy and stress. I invited mostly invite family and the only kids that did come were Lavi's cousins and one good friend of Dacian. We wanted to mostly have fun decorating a cake and so we did. Mom made the cake. I made the frosting and decorated it.

It was a little funny how big it turned out but mom kept making layers because Barbies are so tall. It was delicious like always though. (it looks more like Marie Antoinette or Barbie just has a lot of junk in her trunk for once)

Thanksgiving was the next big thing. We ended up with a pretty quiet but wonderful day. The in laws were supposed to come and other family members but things didn't work out for them. (I convinced my mother in law who came in town the next day to go out shopping with me. She lives close to the outlet malls and I wanted to buy some Christmas gifts. We has such a fun time. She loves to shop and that makes it more fun for me. The outlet malls had great sales but they mostly had clothes, shoes, perfume, etc. Not one toy store. So we headed to Walmart, Target and Toys R us after making our trip always 12 hours. Crazy, I tell ya and I'm not done yet. I am very thankful for Shane for giving me the day off. Shopping kids free is such a treat! )

We ate delicious food and Shane told the kids about the first Thanksgiving and then we each took a turn talking about what we are thankful for. Finally the turkey was the way a turkey should be and I made my new favorite recipe for green beans. I found the recipe online for Bucca di Beppo lemon green beans.

I love my family so very much and am grateful for so much. I just hope I learn to show it more.

We made a fun Thankful tree and decorated Tom the Turkey for crafts. Dacian is an avid crafter and always wants to make more crafts. I can't keep up with all the stuff he does around the house. Cutting, taping, gluing, coloring, writing, making anything and everything. I love it because we stopped buying so many toys and so he gets creative and makes his own paper stuff. I need to take pictures of the stuff he makes. It's so cute! Shields, swords, cars, rockets, all the boy stuff.

Lavinia likes it too but she tends to just draw on whatever, furniture included. Not so cool with us.
She also likes to cook with me and mix stuff for me.

I know I don't do as much stuff as I want to do but I hope however little it is that I do do will be fun and worthwhile for them.

I have been doing great with limiting internet lately and so much can get accomplished that way. I am not near where I want to be still but getting better. I feel more positive too. Good things!

What else? We've been sick and things aren't super bad but not improving or getting better all the way and a new sickness begins. Dacian had to go to Urgent Care right before Thanksgiving with an ear infection. Now he feels much better.

We also are super grateful to cousin Kim for getting us free tickets to the dress rehearsal show for Cinderella this past Friday. It was fantastic. Just Dacian and mom and I went (4 and up) It was super duper amazing, and D liked the fireworks they had the best. If you can, do go and see this show.

On another note of course now we're thinking about our next holiday.

Dacian already made his list for Santa. He's so funny. He told me that because he's turning 6 next year Santa will bring him six things. Then he says: "6+6=12" Okay, good adding boy, is what I'm thinking. Then he told me that he gets 12 presents, 6 from Santa and 6 from us. Ha! Ha! This boy knows how to get what he wants.
We warned him that these are suggestions for Santa and not a guarantee and that also he needs to keep up his room and of course that Santa is always watching.

I'll take a pic of his list. It's so funny!

I think these are my latest news. Hope all my friends are doing great!

Helping me wash the green beans.

My little "butterfly" Pil Pal Ah Wich Ya-her Indian name

Peek A Boo. The box ended up being a "refrigerator"

Playing in the rain

Birthday princess with cousins

The girls didn't want to have anything to do with boys. I think Dacian was a little sad.

Here comes the cake

I can't wait to decorate our next cake. I had a blast doing something new.

Look at our adorable niece. Her expression is so cute!

She hasn't stopped wearing this outfit from cousins, Lily and Zeke. Thank you so much guys!

Full of hugs and thanks.

Her BFF, Taylor brought her a beloved Dora. Thank you so much!

We played a little game of Minute to Win it.

Tom the Turkey-We put lots of fabric on it. :)

My best friend from Romania sent my kids these adorable folk costumes for the kids plus many other things. So adorable!

I have a thing for hats and I couldn't not buy this one when I saw it!

I made these shirts last year. I forget the internet link, sorry. Easy and so cute.

Weird and random thoughts-The internet

2011-11-09T23:18:00.000-08:00

I have been limiting my computer time. I am starting to LOVE it! I once read about people feeling depressed while reading others' blogs or just spending too much time on the computer! I guess that's me. The less I read or the less time I spend of FB, blogs, checking email the better I feel. It's like I just live my life, a little less comparing, a lot more time spend with the kids/husband, a lot less pressure. It's not easy to do though as I know I am addicted. There's sure some fun things to read on the internet.

Also I always hear about people comparing their bad days to people's best days. And of course everyone highlights the best in life (me included) and since I have kind of a poor self esteem then I always end up feeling bad, a not so amazing mother, a not so good wife, friend, worker etc. I just start focusing on what I do wrong, what I lack, and so on and until I get depressed. I think if I spend less time reading how to be a good mother for example which I think I already know the theory to that one then maybe I will become better, be more patient, etc.
Maybe it's just me and I'm going nuts. I am so tired as I'm writing this with a huge headache so maybe I'm going to delete this post tomorrow altogether. But I think I need to try to break this addiction. That's not to say I won't hop on and read my friend's blogs, look at pics, etc but I will do it less often. I will do it after I make dinner, spent time with the family, finished dishes, homework with D, etc.

I sometimes think that I hop on the internet to unwind, like watching a movie but it's different. It's amazing how much thinking starts to happen in my brain after reading articles, ideas, etc. It's like it's crowding my brain and I can't be present anymore. Does that even make sense? It's like sensory overload. And it's almost like having ADD, jump from site to site, tab to tab, checking FB again and again for new news only to be disappointed that no one wrote anything. It's like my custom breaking news that I check.

I do like writing on the blog, my little creative outlet. (not that I'm all that creative or that I get to write all that often but you get the idea). We are the editors, we write, we edit, we are in charge.

I will be back sometime though and report with how I'm doing. Wish me luck! Bad habits are tough to break and good ones hard to make. :)

The Family Picture Adventure

2011-11-05T22:44:00.000-07:00

Today was a fun day and relaxing too which isn't the normal it seems for most Saturdays.

We had our family photos taken. This is something I requested for a gift for my birthday. Shane doesn't like to get his photo taken so I have to use an excuse like my b-day to get him to do it. He was sweet and complied.
I can't wait to see the pictures.

I can't believe how much I worked to get the right outfits. It started with last Saturday when we went to the outlet mall to get our outfits. Well, it got really cold and the outfits we had bought were for indoors photos so I started stressing realizing my girl would never put up with being cold, wearing just a shirt and skirt. So I started to panic that we didn't have anything cool to wear. I think I have been going a little crazy over this.
You should see my living room.

You should've seen me laying out all the outfits, pairing, changing, getting excited, or not so excited at times.
I think I went shopping three more times. Suffice it to say Io have a lot of stuff to take back, stuff'that I changed my mind about. I managed to use our coats that we already had to match and only had to buy two things.

We met at a park nearby. I was excited to see how photographers do it, what they say to you, etc. It was a fun experience and I really liked our gal. She's the daughter of a cool teacher at my school. I would be so nervous being in her shoes. I wonder if they get butterflies doing what they do. I mean you are meeting strangers and going to stick a lens in their faces and have to manage to get photos that are as if you weren't really there, that capture the moments. Fun stuff!

Lavinia got a stomach ache right before leaving and was GRUMPY! My luck! She is pretty shy with strangers nowadays and it took her a while to warm up. The photographer had the fun idea to let her push a button on the camera and that did it for her. After that she warmed up some. I think we may have gotten a few smiles.
We did a mini photo shoot that was only 30 minutes. Perfect amount for our kids.
Dacian did great and was anticipating today's event for quite a while. He was his chatty self.

After we were done we rented a movie and had the best time at home. Lavinia slept a lot so I hope she'll be getting better soon. We've had the stomach flu around here and I am hoping to be done with sickness. Enough is enough.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings.

Can't wait to show you all our pictures whenever I get them. I'm so curious and excited.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

I am all tired but also I went shopping tonight a little and now I am all awake. So why not update the blog a little. Shane was wonderful and stayed behind and took care of the kids and even put them both to bed. Gotta love that.
Now the house is super quiet and lovely and dirty. Oh, well, Halloween is to blame. But Halloween is super fun so I'll let this one slide.

My son got to dress up three times. Once for his school party, once for Trunk or Treat at church and once for the actually Halloween night. It was fun.

Saturday, our Canadian grandparents were in town and we went clothes shopping together. We are having family pics taken this Saturday so I needed to put together some things. Right before shopping we ate with them a delicious pumpkin soup served right out of a cooked pumpkin. Charlotte always know how to decorate so well. It is always fun when they come visit and it was a treat to shop together. I am glad Scott and kids could also join and I thank Scott for watching my kids quite a few times while I went on to try things with Shane. After shopping we rushed to go put our costumes on so we could head to our church's Trunk or Treat. Our ward had a fun chilly cook off and then a costume parade and then outside to the candy stuff.

Sunday night my family came over and we finally carved our pumpkins. We also had some yummy fondue and a few fun treats. It was fun but again I was so tired by the end of the evening.

We borrow our costumes from Mike and Noel. Thank you so much!

I was a queen and little Rapunzel

Deviled egg spiders

Hard at work

How I went to work on Halloween.

I love my little lion. I was lucky to take an early and a little longer lunch to go to Dacian's party at school. Dad and Lavi got to come too.

Busy jungle animals doing the activities.

D kept hugging his sister. He kept talking about her to his friends.

And hwere is the office staff all dressed up. Fall-me, Winter-Principal, Spring-Registrar, Winter-Counselor

All the costumed people at my work. Don't you love our costumes?

And finally Trick or Treat night with our next door neighbor. She's cool!

We finished the night by trick or treating at maie and taie.

Curriculum Night impressions

2011-09-21T23:30:00.000-07:00

Wow! I don't know if it's Dacian's school or what but do they really do poetry in Kindergarten (as in writing it themselves by the end of the grade)? Good grief!
I was impressed by how well organized the teacher was and the school as a whole. The area in which we live is a pretty affluent one so much so that apparently in years past kids were taken to school on horses. There are lots of people with land and horses near where we live which is pretty weird for how big and crowded the city is. I like it though; at times we have to stop at crosswalk for a horsie to go by.
Anyway, the presentation was great. I felt like it was a little over the top to impress us parents more than anything else.
The school I work at is so different and yet they are in the same district. I have to say I like where I work better. It feels like more down to earth but of course I am biased since I work there. I love the people I work with.
It will take some adjustment to love another school but I will try my best to change my attitude and involve myself in what I can for the love of my child.

Outside the classroom there was an adorable picture Dacian drew. All kids actually did such a cute job. They were asked to draw something from the room that they saw and he chose the EGOL (that's what he spelled it like-eagle) I took a pic of it with my phone but haven't downloaded it yet. It was CUTE!

The teacher was very sweet and well organized and seemed to be more comfortable. Yay! Dacian loves her. He comes home so happy every day. So what more can I ask for?
We will have parent-student-teacher conferences soon to set goals and we will meet again in January to talk about how he's doing.
It's interesting how even though I work for a school I am still a newbie parent with a first time child in school.
I really wish I could go into different teacher's rooms to see their teaching style, etc. That would be fun. I will plan to volunteer a bit through the year on some of my personal days. Can't wait!

Let's see, what else is new? Oh yeah, I am sick! Ugh! I started feeling it on Sunday late and then woke up really sick on Monday morning so I stayed home that day. Then I went to work Tuesday but only stayed the first half of day. Today I stayed home again. I went to the pharmacy after talking to the dr. who prescribed me some albuterol and codeine for my cough. After last year when I got sick a lot, I feel like something has changed with me. Can someone develop asthma this late in life? I feel like I have a very tight chest and that I get the same type of cough and symptoms I got last year.
Anyway, not fun. I really hope I can sleep tonight.
Lavinia got sick too but she's fighting it better than I. D got sick two days into Kindergarten.

On another note. My little girl is growing up. She calls herself big all the time now and asks if she can too go to school.
Even since that day when she decided she'd go potty she went every time after that. This is a miracle to me. She is even dry every morning. So to celebrate her biggness today we changed her crib to the toddler bed option. She was over the moon. I am big, I am big, she would sing.
I was able to squeeze next to her in the little bed and read her bedtime story as opposed to standing up and reading it to her. She was so excited. Then I told her because she is big like her brother she needed to sleep now. That was it. I walked out of there and withing minutes she was off in dreamland. I sneaked in to give both kids some kisses. I just LOVE being a mom, even sick and with no energy like I've been this week.
Also I was able to pick up Dacian from the bus and put him on in the morning. This will be so rare that it was such a sweet treat for me.

Well, off to bed I go. It's late but because I've been sleeping on and off today I am still not that sleepy. Maybe the codeine will kick in soon to help with that.

An amazing thing just happened

2011-09-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

10.

11.

I read some article about how to get your kids to smile great for pictures. As I am learning more about photography and as my goal is to become good at taking pics of my kids I try to go out and practice portrait style pics. When I look at good photographers I realize how I may never reach that potential BUT I am better than I used to be, and with practice I may become even better. A fault of mine I think is to put myself down, and to NEVER give myself any credit. I have to fight with myself to think otherwise. I am just wired that way and maybe that's also why I am not a happy go lucky type of girl.
Anyway, I feel silly just posting pics of my kids for no reason. But boy oh boy is there a reason to show off my girl today. How do you like my long introduction?

Out of the blue she went potty today. Earlier for my dad and today while eating dinner with the missionaries, we heard the sound of water running. I didn't realize what that was until I looked in her direction and noticed her on the potty. I had her in regular panties and we have discussed about going potty and not wetting the princesses on her panties. She would give me the right answer and saying she would go in the toilet but kept on wetting her pants. I have been told the best method is to go all out and just put her in panties and let her have accidents until one day she'll just get it. But you see this kid is stubborn and didn't want her panties and as soon as they were wet for the few times she let me put them on she begged for her diaper.
She also didn't want to sit on her potty, with as much cajoling and promises of many wonderful gifts. NOTHING for months. Sure, I wasn't consistent with me being back at work and with us being gone all summer and with my parents driving here and there a lot every day and they weren't going to take her without a diaper all over creation and in their nice car.

So the fact that she's getting it, the fact that she did this on her own is a HUGE accomplishment. I couldn't be happier. I am so giddy. And I was so exhausted. So tired from work but this brought much needed happiness.

One of my promises to her was getting her a Rapunzel toy. She loves that movie. So off to Toys R Us I go for her beloved toy. She asked me twice after she went today for "Punzel". She remembered and I am more than glad to go get it for her. A promise is a promise.
Ta! Ta!

P.S Let me know which pics are your favs if you could please. I didn't edit them in any way so I guess just comment on the composition, etc. I could lighten them a little but now I don't feel like it. Also I know I need to work on my focus. Thanks!

First day of Kindergarten

2011-09-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

The much awaited day came. Dacian went to kindergarten today. They are doing a staggered start so he is going Wed/Fri. Wed is an early release day so in half day kindi that is almost 2 hours. Crazy!

Dad and I took him to the bus with Lavinia in tow. The bus came on time. He was so excited to see the bus coming. He didn't even look at me from the window. Pleased to sit next to a very cute girl. We were the first stop. Then dad and I went home, cleaned a little and then went to school to meet him there. He was already in line looking all adorable. When he saw Lavi he gave her the biggest hug and started to swing her around. She's his little doll and because she's so light it's easy for him to do tricks with her. Everyone was endeared seeing them. It made me happy. His teacher was there in front looking very excited.
We were all allowed to go in the classroom for a little bit. We dropped off the school supplies they are all sharing, paid the $10 fee and then saw the kids get down on the little rug in front of class. The teacher had them all put on their name tags and then did a little game on the smart board. Dacian having experience with them from preschool raised his hand first and went and dragged his favorite jungle animal to the right box. It was so fun. We have those boards in every classroom in our district and they are pretty cool. I just hope they really do make them that much smarter 'cause we sure paid a lot for them. Haha.

After we left the classroom Lavinia started crying. Poor girl, she wanted to stay in school and she was so sad leaving her brother behind. She said she didn't want to go home alone. What's a little sister to do? Thankfully she wasn't without him for a long time.

I was so glad I got to be there for his first day. My boss and my co worker in the office were so nice to let me go. It meant a lot to me.
Everyone asked me if I cried when i got back. Well, I didn't. Since he went to preschool for two years I kind of knew the drill and maybe because I work in a school it's all too familiar. But when I left and with L being so sad I got a little emotional too. The free carefree days are gone. I did my best to keep them carefree I think. But I know the harder part of life starts now. Sure, it will be easy for quite a few more years to come but it will get harder and harder. That is life though and I have to just let go little by little. I have a feeling I will have a hard time with that.

On another note I meant to blog about Dacian's little talk in Primary. This boy is really so outgoing, it's like he's not really mine. I was all nervous for him and I can't believe how happy and excited he was to be able to go in front of everyone and speak. He read his whole talk very well and showed the picture of the missionaries upside down. He was confused why kids were laughing.
When we came home he asked me to write him another speech.
Later that day we were invited to dinner by Shane's mom and step dad and Dacian wanted to perform and read his talk to them. He ate up all the attention. It was like playtime to him. I am going to film him read his talk and post it here. It's too cute.

Well, that's it for tonight. I've had some grueling days at work. I am exhausted but happy. So many of my ideas went by the wayside. I wanted to do this fancy dinner for start of school. Well, that didn't quite happen how I imagined it. Shane, saved the day and grilled and we had a nice meal outside. Dacian was excited and we told him it was special because he started Kindergarten the next day. I need to get my act together and be more organized. Ugh, that's so hard for me. I get overwhelmed quite easily and give up quite quickly as well.

Going to the bus, showing off his Lego batman backpack.

So big!

New haircut as of yesterday. Finally!

Bye!

Love grandpa. He's just the best.

Here comes the bus

It looks like he's getting off the bus but he's actually getting on. I asked him to turn around for pics and he started coming back to me.

Now that's more like it.

Sniff!

Lavi brought her toy box with her.

Here's his teacher.

And here's the smartboard.

Under the weather

2011-09-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

Ugh! I am not feeling well today. It's a beautiful day outside. I wanted to go on a hike, I wanted to clean, I wanted to play with the kids, I wanted to get groceries and make yummy food. Instead I am sitting on the couch waiting for the medicine to kick in. It's not working and I took it twice already. I need to sleep yet I can't. I haven't slept well this week (stress related from work) and I am grumpy. I am barking orders for the kids to clean the mess they've made of my living room. It's going nowhere. They keep asking unrelated questions, and just come up with anything and everything under the sun to stall the cleaning I make them do.
Anyway here's to a better day tomorrow. Dacian is speaking in Primary tomorrow. His first time. I am already nervous about it. Kind of silly but I guess as a mom now I am adding being nervous for my kids as if it weren't enough that I am nervous for things that pertain to just myself.

Crazy

2011-09-01T22:19:00.000-07:00

This is how life has been over the past week. It's all about I my job. I work as the office manager of an elementary school. This year we started construction of a new building (done in 2013 sometime) and we got a new principal, a new secretary, new teachers, adding new classes left and right.The building is looking pretty terrible right now. Boxes everywhere, bulldozers everywhere outside (there is a good fence where kids can't go to), anyway you get the idea, CRAZY.
Today we posted our class lists and of course more madness. We have been getting lots of help and even though it was crazy it also seemed to come together in the end.
We did get our internet, phone and toilets working finally. Meetings are out of the way, now we are all looking forward with anticipation to the first day of school.
And while all this is going on I have my own son, my first kid starting school. He couldn't be more excited. We got his supplies, backpack and new clothes a few weeks ago which made it seem like an eternity until school started. It just takes so long here to start school. We get out so late, end of June so we start late.
My new principal was so nice and insisted I go be there for my son's kindergarten orientation today while definitely I was needed at my own school. Our new secretary was a trooper and braved the craziness with so much patience. She did great and learned so many new things in such a short time.
So today I met D's teacher. I am a little disappointed I have to say. She's a new teacher so maybe she is just too green but we got to her classroom and she was just sitting there, no connecting with parents, or students. I had to go up to her and take Dacian to go say hi to her. It makes me sad for not taking Dacian to my school where I know how cool our teachers are. I saw them get down to the kids' level today and talking to the kids and parents A LOT.
I just hope this first impression is a passing one and that she'll be a good teacher after all. It will be interesting. Dacian is doing just half day this year.
I saw a familiar face there, a friend for an other ward I attended a little while back. She's cool and I like all her kids so my son hopefully befriends her son.
So that's it for tonight.
I am too excited to even go to sleep. It's like adrenalin hasn't worn off from today's events. I feel like I didn't accomplish anything, and hopefully I didn't look grumpy.

So school's starting soon and hopefully I also get to go to my son's first day of Kindergarten as well.

Dacian going to his kindi orientation

Dacian and his friends plus sister

Endlessly entertained... or not

2011-08-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

‎"You are here on earth for a divine purpose. It is not to be endlessly entertained or to be constantly in full pursuit of pleasure. You are here to be tried, to prove yourself so that you can receive the additional blessings God has for you"
(Richard G. Scott)

When you put it this way I might even stop complaining and comparing myself to others. Sure, I can strive to be better but if I am not endlessly entertained I will be OK. Everyone has trials and if not now they will come surely later.

I totally am working on enjoying my life the way it is, and even though it could totally improve in many ways it can also get worse, much, much worse. I hope to pass the tests that come my way and learn to be a better person through it all.

Camping, a funeral and Walla Walla, again

2011-08-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

I really can't seem to stay put. I love to travel. I wanted to go do something fun with dad this summer and I know how much he loves camping. Also the first mission president that served in Romania lost his wife to brain cancer and we knew that her funeral was going to happen Saturday (we left Thursday) and it was relatively close to us here in our state. I loved this couple, the Morreys. They were so wonderful to everyone in Romanian and really set the good work for missionary work over there.

So we camped for two nights and then hurried over to Richland, WA to the funeral and then on to Walla Walla to stay overnight with Mike and Noel. Only overnight turned into two nights because we had too much fun. The kids got along great and delighted in swimming in their pool all day long.

Camping was great. We first stopped over near a lake and as soon as we got out of the car got swarmed with mosquitoes. OMG! They were horrible so we left in search of another place that was recommended to us near a river this time.
Turns out the place we went to didn't have mosquitoes but little annoying flies but that wasn't so bad. We found a spot next to the little river with a little beach next to our camp and this place was completely FREE. Sure no showers, just an outhouse and no running water. The mosquito place was $20 a night. I am so glad we went on.
We ate amazing food, hiked the beautiful mountains nearby, had a big fire and star gazed at night. It was so relaxing. We are definitely going back there. The place is called Teanaway.

It was fun taking photos with my dad's point and shoot camera. It's a good one.

The good moments of these two. Don't worry, there is probably more bickering going on in real life than kisses but they do love each other.

The fire wood was super dry and we got a nice fire going. It was warm even at night. Mom loved that.

Dad, the engineer likes to construct things. He put his knife to work and did this cool little mill. My kids were mesmerized and so were the slew of other kids in the campground. It just kept going and going. Growing up my parents hiked a ton with us and my dad always did something fun like this. He would carve little planes, and other fun things for us. What a fun childhood I had. I love my parents.

The water was really shallow so I wasn't scared it would take my kids away so it was nice to let them play there without being too scared.

There were lots of families there with lots of kids and the people next to us were very friendly and invited my kids over to paint rocks. What a fun activity and nice not to worry too much about the mess.

A little waterfall. The hike from here was a pretty long one so we just went up as much as we could before the kids started whining. We didn't bring much food with us so it was a good thing we took it easy and then went to make our yummy food. Oh, and we saw mountain goats. They were far up but we could still see them fairly well. Apparently they are aggressive so I am glad they were far from us.

I think I found my blue bell flowers. Dacian now keeps saying: Here's mommy where he sees flowers or here's daddy when he sees a hawk soaring above.

Eating mici, the Romanian caseless sausages. We had a feast.

The Palmers at the funeral. They were another couple who we love. They also served in Romania and we were so surprised to see them there. They have lived in the same ward with he Morreys for a long, long time.

Elder Leavitt was the only missionary who could make it to the funeral. He lives fairly close to us. It was fun to hang out together.

Here we all are. President Morrey is right next to my dad. He looked so thin and frail. A sweet, sweet man. He was so happy we were there and was so kind to us.

Walla Walla Shakespeare Festival. We saw MacBeth one night. Pretty cool! Do you like how Shakespeare's collar spells Walla Walla?

Noel I think loved having my parents there. We had so am much fun together. She was brave enough even to take my mom driving. I was in the back seating having heart attack after heart attack. She is a driver's ed instructor with a break on her side so she was very much at ease. Not me. I am so glad she took my mom though to give my mom some courage and excitement for wanting to learn how to drive. The reason she is not driving yet I feel is because of me or my dad. We are too scared to go out with her. I can't imagine one day having to do this with my kids. I don't have the guts but I am glad I have a sister in law I can ship them too. :)

Picture taken from the car. It was getting so green and pretty the closer we got to Seattle. It was also getting foggier, darker, rainier and colder. :)

Oregon Coast-Yachats-Part 3

2011-08-02T11:09:00.000-07:00

Told you this was a dream vacation. I feel so happy and so blessed. I only wished I learned to be this happy when fall comes around too. I love fall but I HATE rain since we get so much of it in this area. I never hated rain until I came here. I am convinced it's the rain and the cloudy days that make me depressed. I am also convinced I am getting medical help this time around. Also I am thinking on buying one of those lights.

But back to the dream...

After I got back from DC on Wednesday night (July 20th) I thought I had a day to do laundry and pack some more. Well... Wrong. Shane surprised me with a hotel in Portaland and we left early on Thursday. We packed real quick and left and got there in plenty time for swimming at the hotel and just relaxing and having dinner.

This made our trip the next day to the coast a lot shorter. This way we were able to stop along the way a little and see the beautiful ocean.

Our destination was Yachats in Central Oregon Coast. It was cheaper to vacation there. Shane's brother Mike and his family came too. They were celebrating their 15th anniversary and it so happened that the house we rented was next door to their hotel they stayed at so many years ago.

Our house was nice, full of the most unmatching knick knacks I have even seen but it had everything we needed for cooking anything we wanted, and it had tons of beds, futons that even more families could have stayed there.

So aside from the family reunion this was really Shane's vacation too. It was fun to have all of us there and Mike and Noel.

We explored lots of tide pools, lots of beaches, sand dunes, ate at Mo's, danced and did Karaoke and just plain had a lot of fun. It was relaxing. Just what I needed after a big tour of DC. The kids were happy playing on the beach and being chased by waves. The water was frigid so I wished a little we were in SoCal but oh well, one can't have it all.

We flew kites and jumped and got a thousand pictures and even saw a whale on our last day there.

How I wish we stayed longer than 3 nights.

After Oregon we had a family reunion/memorial for my step father in law's dad and went to Vancouver BC. That was also a lot of fun. We saw fireworks there for some contest, They had different countries show their talents on different nights and we got lucky and saw China's fireworks. Probably the best I have even seen. also Vancouver, BC is just a beautiful city. This time I left my camera behind. I had had enough and I have no point and shoot. I work backwards I tell you.

Also we want to go camping. My dad hasn't had any fun this summer. He babysat my kids when mom and I were in DC and Shane at work, took care of my dog and it's only fair to take him somewhere so we are planning a camping trip soon. Shane has to work so I guess I will have them all to myself.

With all these trips none of my initial summer plans happened but I can't really say I regret it. No major cleaning has been done, no garage sale, no major dejunking. I always think I get to be a stay at home mom during the summer and experience what most moms get to do all year long but instead it's just a vacation, a little longer than it is for most and for that I am so grateful and the reason why I love my job and don't see changing it any time soon.

And an amazing thing that can't be forgotten. My Lavinia is binkie free. Yeah, about time. She was so obsessed with that thing. She lost it in Canada while going on the dune buggy and that was the last I had. It was a tought adjustment. Actually she lost it right before the camping trip which might explain why she was so whinny there. Either way, I am happy she's fine now and her teeth are even going back in like the dentist said they would. Phew, I am glad that's done. Now to potty training. It's such a pain. I thought I had the summer to do it but with being gone that was obviously not on my list. I hope to report with success in a few weeks.

So that's it folks! I am happy! I love summer! Now I have to take my son school shopping. I have a little kindergartener here soon. Can't believe it but he's so READY!

Isn't the coast so beautiful? I love the ocean wherever it is though.

Noel took this picture and I love it.

Mike, Noel, Alexis

His kite is strong enough to pull him up in the air. Haha!

Ariel is her middle name so she loved being a little mermaid.

The octopus

Shane, the funny man

My beautiful niece, Alexis

Alexis and I went on a walk and took pictures of each other. She took this one.

She made me one too many cakes.

M, N, A, L foot prints and more haha

Our family. Look at how small my girl is. She is lighter than the youngest Sanders grandchild and Zeke is a year and a half younger than her.

Mike, Noel, Alexis, Logan

Dacian

Look at those waves- they were so big and strong

Run for your life

Dacian and Alexis were best buds and spent a lot of time together building castles

This was a very warm little river that was dumping into the ocean so the kids loved being there.

One of the tidepools

Holding a star fish. There were hundreds there.

Spouting horn-the water would go under the rock and go up a little tunnel and spout water up like a geizer. It was really tall and pretty cool.

We found some coins in the sand.

Me jumping at sunset

Happy Anniversary Mike and Noel

Alexis and I

We went to a cool science center in Newport. The octopus was one of their bigger attractions.

The house we stayed at had a nice sun room

Noel is the ghost of the lighthouse we visited. The haunted lighthouse.

Not our castle but just pretending it's hours

Family picture

And here's the whale. You could see if when I zoom in but I don't know how to save it all zoomed in so just trust me. See the water jet going up?

I know this is a lot of pictures but this is nothing really compared to how many I took.

NYC/DC trip- Part 2

2011-07-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

On the 8th we got back from Walla Walla and after two days I went to NYC. My cousin was getting married and I really wanted to go and see her and her new husband and my aunt and uncle and my brother and his family who were driving from Kentucky. I hadn't even met my nephew. It was so great to hang out with them. The kids were so cute and so social. It seemed like they already knew me. My mom came with me and of course I loved every minute with her. Too bad the other family members couldn't come but it would've been too expensive for all of us to fly. Actually I needed a break from the kids so maybe I take that back.

The open house took place Friday night in a hotel in Manhattan on the 18th floor. You could see my favorite building on one side Chrysler and on the other side Empire State. They had nice appetizers and music going but at 11pm we had to leave. After that some people went dancing but we decided we wanted to go somewhere we could talk and the loud music wouldn't have helped.

Our good friends who hosted us again and my uncle in the middle. There wasn't a happier person in the room. It filled my heart wish so much happiness to see him. So proud of his daughter.

So we went to Junior's right in Times Square. Big dissapointment on the food front but their cheesecake is to die for so that made up for it. That is what they are known for though.

The next day we all got together again in Central Park for more family time. My brother, SIL and neice we all went boating on the lake. That was so fun. There were so many people out that we kept bumping into other boats and others into us. It was hilarious! The weather was super hot and super humid and it was nice to be out on a little lake.

Central Park is so huge, our feet were hurting by the end of that trip but it was beautiful. I love my uncle and it was fun to spend time with him again. He was living in Paris when I went there in 2000 and was the best guide.

Merayla with Statue of Liberty in the background

Our next destination was Washington DC. We took the Bolt, a very comfortable bus and four hours later we were there. We checked in to our hotel and then slept for a few hours. We kept staying up past 2 am chatting every night and it all caught up to us.

Later in the evening we took a night tour of the city on the double decker. After the tour was done we went over to see the Capitol. It was so warm and lovely out and we were pretty awake having napped. It was so beautiful.

The following pictures were taken on our second day there. We walked close to 13 hours that day. The mall is quite big and getting from place to place and museum to museum takes a while. We bought Tourmobile tickets, this bus that stops at all major things in DC. The thing was that we were in the museums so long that when we wanted to ride the day was almost over and they were closing at 4:30pm. Good thing the ticket to this shuttle was good for two days. We made use of it better the second day when we mostly did the memorials which didn't require as much time as the museums did. Arlington tour was also included so that was nice. The buses came every 15-20 minutes and they had a live tour guide so in the end I guess I would recommend this tour only because if you have a limited time there to walk from monument to monument it's just way too far.

We wrote our congressman for tickets to the White House. We didn't get them but we did get a special tour with a guide of the Capitol. What a building! It's impressive both inside and out. I loved being there. It just felt so special and it was just beautiful. We also were able to go see the Senate and House of Representatives but they were both on break so we didn't see them live in action. We waited a little but I was done sitting around. The security guy told us: "Welcome to the zoo!"

Inside the Capitol. I couldn't get enough of this place. Bottom right-Brigham Young

The Air and Space Museum was very interesting and I am sure my kids would've love it too. I guess it's the most popular of the Smithsonians.

Library of Congress-OK they are ALL beautiful. I wish we could've stayed longer here

Archives building-bottom left, Supreme Court-bottom right (we didn't make it to these ones). Top middle building-Native American Museum-the newest on the Mall, also didn't make it inside.

After all the museums and the capitol we did Monday during the day we stopped at the best BBQ place. It had an amazing brisket and it probably tasted so good since we hadn't eaten since breakfast. From there we went to Washington Memorial, World War II memorial and finally ended with Lincoln Memorial, on the most impressive ones in my opinion. It was nice because it finally cooled off some even though it was midnight when we were doing all that.
What fun to go to all these places with mom uninhibited from little ones. They would've been a mess. Maybe I liked not being mom way too much that week.

WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, White House, Washington Monument by night

On Tuesday, July 19th we got up early to go get tickets to see how the money is made. It was a fun tour even though to get to it took a while since they kept sending us from building to building. Buy tickets here, wait elsewhere, etc. Annoying! The tour was cool. We got the tickets for 11:30am so in the meantime we hurried over to Washington Memorial to see if they had tickets available. We heard it's hard to get them but we were lucky and were there early enough and were able to get tickets. I am just in awe of this building. It's the tallest building in DC and needs to be so forever. That is the law! After both tours we headed back into the Museum of Natural History and the American Heritage one. I loved the Minerals, Neanderthals and the collection of dresses worn by the presidents' wives at Inaugural balls and such. There is so much stuff to see in all museum, weeks wouldn't be enough to see it all. So with all the walking we did I still didn't see some important stuff like the Jefferson Memorial, Archives building and the Supreme Court. Hopefully there is a next time to go finish my tour. I'd love to take the kids there when they are tenish or so.
I felt very patriotic being there. Amazed at all the founding fathers did. Amazed at how it all started. There was just as much turmoil and fighting between the parties as we have now or worse.

Museum of Natural History, Hope Diamons and other cool minerals and geodes, etc. I loved this part of the museum and all the amazing jewelry pieces.

These next pictures are from Tuesday. We went to Arlington Cemetery after our tours in the am and then after we got back we went to more museums, the Korean War memorial and the Vietnam War memorial. It humbles me to see all those names inscripted on the walls. These men and women enrolled in the army, navy, airforce, etc. have my utmost gratitude. Their courage and love for their country is something beautiful to me. I love them for it and for their sacrifice.

Franklin Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Arlington Cemetery

Tomb of the Unknown-Arlington

Change of guard at Arlington

Arlington Cemetery

Vietnam War Memorial

Our last day, Wednesday July 20th we went to the Pentagon Memorial which was impressive and ended the day with Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum to see all presidents and other celebrities. I was unsure if it would be worth the money but it as actually really fun.

This was the Pentagon Memorial. Our hotel was close to it and we decided to go see this too. It was amazing.

The had one of these little wings for each person who died there with the person's name inscripted on them. The ones that are facing the building are for those who died in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and the ones facing away from the building are from the ones who died in the building. The youngest was a three year old and is at the front of the memorial and then each row after that has the year of birth of the deceased. Most of them were older and you could see that by the many wings in back.

Rosa Parks

Ronald Reagan

Another dream vacation- Part 1- Naming Ceremony and Camping

2011-07-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Wow! Where should I begin? I have so much to write about and so many pictures that I took that it is just plain overwhelming. Plus I am bad and I start getting into the picture edits and post while my kids are still awake and I know how annoying that is to them.

Anyway, I have been gone from July 1st through the 26th with 3 days at home here and there.

First trip was Canada on the Indian Reservation. This was my first reunion ever just to give you an idea how often these happen. We were glad to be there together as a family for a happy even and not a funeral which was the event that seemed to get us together.

We got Indian names given to the adults by their Grandma Allen and to our children by their grandma Charlotte.

It was such a neat experience to participate in this. The weekend was very well planned, and I didn't have any stress like I had anticipated. I am sure those who prepared for the reunion and who live them can say otherwise but I am very thankful for their work. We had a big dinner, karaoke, dance, and family pictures. We also stayed up really late playing games and enjoying our time together.

Here are our names:

Shane-Red Hawk with acute senses-Weel Wilt pia

Maddy-Blue Bell-(flower) Quik a ips

Dacian-Fox-Whyluc

Lavinia-Social Butterfly-Pill pal ah which chi ah

To say Lavinia was excited about being called a butterfly is an understatement. Everytime she sees one she says" "Here I am, mommy! I am a butterfly." and then she says her name in the native tongue.

We all came up under this tent thingy and were presented a frame with a picture of what our name is and then were told why the name was chosen for us and of course some nice things about us. I thought everyone got a really cool name and they were well thought out.

I will take a picture of our frames soon. Again I am not too pleased with the pictures. It was so hot and always so bright and I just am not that good a photographer to take good pics in any lighting.

Inside that place covered by the blankets they were doing a sweat lodge.

Cool Zeke with D's glasses

Beatiful Ashley (SIL) and Alexis (niece) in their regalias.

Aren't those costumes neat?

My handsome, intelligent FOX. :)

Can't help myself. I got him to smile pretty.

Getting his name, stick and frame from his grandma.

My little butterfly.

Shane's great grandma made all of those beautiful dresses. I love how the sisters have all different colored flowers.

Everyone left on July 4th and my sister in law Ashley stayed in Canada with me and the kids for a few more days. We took advantage of the hot sun and went to the beach lots and had a great time.

Then we went to Walla Walla where Shane's brother lives and went camping for two nights. We love camping out there. Again, lots of fun except for my two very annoying kids at that time. They just were so whinny at that point. My kids don't do very well on trips especially if they are longer than just a few days.

Anyway, I am sure it will get easier and better as they are older.

Just because...

2011-06-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

I miss my Dacian little. He really is huge now and I just miss that little boy so much sometimes. I need to look at pictures from time to time to remind myself that he was once that little. Don't you tend to forget their sweet faces once you get used to how they look now?

I love this picture of his grandpa with him. I miss him so much and I am so sad Dacian doesn't get to know him.

First food. I can't believe that round chubby face.

Uncle Chris. I love this picture.

Fun hat!

First Halloween!

Daddy's little buddy

First day at home. Medea, his first sister. :)

Then came Tommy all the way over form Romania to act as his pillow. This dog is golden seriously. He put up with a lot and loves my kids. And he doesn't shed. Gotta love that for an indoor dog. Hypoallergenic. Score!

The day I became an American!

Testing out the toy at Walmart

My little Santa.

Blessing day. How cute is this boy?

Love him with all my heart.

So this was random. I would love it if my friends started posting pics of their kids. I am sure not all of us were blogging necessarily when they were little so I didn't get to see pictures of your cute kids. Anyway, just an idea.

Fun weekend!

2011-05-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Time for a new post.
I've been feeling so blah lately that blogging just wasn't in the least bit appealing. Life is going on as usual and the sun of course doesn't show its face as much as I would want it to. I get depressed easily in the winter thought this winter has been the worst by far in terms of these yucky feelings.
Does anyone out there go through that as well? This year has been worse. I start getting anxious and can't relax and I am driving my family mad. I feel horrible, worthless and also there is guilt related to so many things that I think I may explode some days. I wonder what in the world is so wrong with me since there is nothing that bad in my life to make me feel this way. Why can't I really enjoy life and my beautiful family? And back to guilty I feel and on and on I go that I was debating going to get medicated. I still might if I don't feel better by this summer.
But today was a good day and the whole weekend was good for that matter. So I will bask in the good things.
My spirits are up after going on a hike. A simple and free thing (except the gas to get there but the hike was close by) did wonders for me. Maybe I need to get off my butt and go out even in the rain.

Saturday I got to babysit my sweet nephew and niece and I had a lot of fun seeing my kids so happy as well. They got along so well. Dacian plays really well with Lily and Lavinia tried to tag along the whole time.
Zeke just wanted Lavi's attention but she got a little testy at times thinking he's there to get her toys. Silly girl.

Dacian was reading to Lily. It was so cute. They stayed on that couch for 30 minutes.

While Zeke was gone with Scott, Lily and Lavi had a whole picnic outside. Lavinia talks about Lily daily and always "calls" her on her cell. It's so cute. She adores her big girl cousin.

And I caught her in the act of hugging Lily. So adorable.

Dacian made menus for all of us. We all had "bacen", eggs, bread and carrots.

Zeke poking Lavi. :) So funny.

Today on Memorial day my parents and the four of us went on a hike. We went to Cold Creek Park that is a huge forest full of many short and longer, easy and moderate hikes that are only 15 minutes away from our house. The forest was alive, the paths were well kept. We saw squirrels, Dacian brought home some snails and the trip was super fun. We barbecued at the beginning of the hike because we were hungry. My awesome parents brought some yummy chicken and steak wrapped in bacon plus roasted mushrooms and little bell peppers. Delish!
The kids had so much fun running around. We had the backpack for Lavi and Dacian walked the whole time without a single complaint. We even got son later on in the day for a nice treat.
At the end of the hike close to the parking lot there was a log going over the river that was really low and I made it OK going over the river but not coming back. I was trying to hand over Lavi to Shane when I slipped and fell and got wet from my belly down. I was laughing along with everyone else.

Driving back we saw a cool house all the way up a big hill and Taylor our friend who came with us said that is a golf course and that the view up there is stunning. We went up there and I especially enjoyed the beautifully trimmed grass that was oh so soft on my bare feet.
The views were just spectacular. You could see Seattle, Puget Sound and Bellevue to Kirkland all at once. I think that might be the place to be on 4th of July and see everyone's fireworks.

Making Lavinia a flower crown

Voila! She loved it!

View form the back. I made it a little big but I think it looks cute hanging longer in the back.

How lovely are forests? I have to give some credit to the rain for this. Haha!

Look at those little ferns growing right up on that tree!

Cool tree!

This picture of me holding L was right before falling in the water. I could've just gotten my shoes wet but I pretty much slipped and fell flat on my belly. Such a Maddy thing to do.

My dad's camera is cool and does an easy peasy panoramic. All pics are taken with is point and shoot.

Imagine having your wedding reception here. Awesome!

This was the kids favorite place. Lavinia wanted to strip naked. I think she thinks sand means beach.

All in all I think being outdoors with my family is one of my favorite things in the world.

School will be out in a few more weeks and I can't wait until the end of June so I can get some time off from work.

Hristos a inviat! He is risen!

2011-04-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

OK, I have a ton of things to say but really I am too tired right now. We had a wonderful day today with Shane, the kids and my parents going to an Easter egg hunt. We took the Mt. Rainier Railway steam train about 1.5 hours away from where we live. It was an unbelievably gorgeous and warm day today.

Anyway, I mostly wrote because I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter. I have been reading with Dacian about Jesus' last days and have been pretty emotional the whole week. What pain He went through for US, what love he has for us, it's just incredible.

I am so grateful for all Jesus did for me and for all of us.

Much love to all my friends,

Maddy

It worked!

2011-04-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks Holly. I tested your method and now I can add pictures again and not have to change my blog or pay for it. Yay! And a picture of a cake my mom made. Seriously delish. She really makes the best tasting cakes with everything from scratch.

Darn

2011-04-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

So I just found out that I am out of space for putting pictures on my blog. Now what? It's $5 a year for 10 GB and I used about 1 GB in the three to four years I've had this blog. I don't really feel like starting a new blog.
Are there other websites that offer unlimited space for pics?
It's probably that I put pics here at full resolution lately and that took up too much space.
So darn.Maybe it's a sign I need to take a break from blogging and maybe do other things like reading books more and playing with my kids more. Except I blog when they are asleep and it's my way to just put some of my thoughts on 'paper'.

Today was a fun day. I went to my friend's baby shower. I won one of the games and got some awesome chocolate for it. I had a good time there and can't wait to hold the new baby. I need a baby fix.
After that we took the kids out to the park since today was nice and they say tomorrow it will be yucky and rainy again. It was cold but nice out. Lavinia made three little friends at the park and they really hit it off so much so that a few minutes later these four little girls were all holding hands and starting singing "ring around the roses" and then proceeded to take off form the park all the while holding hands. I so wish I took a picture of this. They were so adorable.

Pirate Party and lots of fun

2011-04-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

I wrote this post the same day of the party but didn't get around to adding pics until now. I have been really enjoying looking at the pictures and this way living the party a bit because we all know that during the party moms are anything but enjoying themselves having to run all over the place and being pulled in every direction. Still I think the party was a success.

Oh my, wasn't this one cool and awesome party? I am EXHAUSTED though. I stressed and worked and planned for a while and with the party today and the clean up I am just plain pooped. But my boy is so worth it. It was also fun doing a themed party and coming up with ideas to make it fun and unique.
We rented my mom and dad's cabana where they live in order to have more space.

For a decoration I wanted to make a boat out of cardboard. I went to a few stores last week and grabbed a bunch of big flattened out boxes and then went right to work. Mom and I started the boat, made the windows and dad came after his nap to help us finish it. It took him a while because he's a perfectionist but it looks beautiful. I had fun painting it. It was a combined effort and I was imagining it would be a great photo op place on top of it being a cool decoration. But the pictures haven't turned out quite like I was imagining. Too dark, or too light and when do five year olds really pose nicely as a group? But who cares, I still have a few cute ones and the memory of this party will stay with me forever and hopefully with Dacian too.

We had Shark's Blood (fruit punch), Fruit Swords (kebabs), little boats made out of peppers and cottage cheese inside with a cheddar cheese piece on a skewer as a sail and Octopuses (hot dogs cut up in fours and microwaved so the legs curled up).
In our rush we didn't really take any pictures of the food.
Of course cake at the end; a pirate ship. (I forgot my black olives which were going to be cannon balls.)
Mom and I made the cake last night but it was starting to fall apart and mom of course came to the rescue and fixed it and it looked beautiful.

For games we did: pop the cannon aka sit on the balloon till it pops, throw the ball through the window of the boat, musical chairs with cool pirate music going on, and lastly a treasure hunt. (Again I forgot to play pin the eye patch on the skeleton) I gave the kids each a bag to put all their prizes and the treasure finds in there and they took these home as a favor gift.
I really had fun with the treasure hunt we did. I made the clues at the last minute. I loved seeing Dacian and the other kids so excited going from clue to clue.
We ended with opening the presents and then cake.

After that it was free play which the kids seem to enjoy the most. I was gifted these Playhut houses that fold up small for storage from a friend from work and I am glad I brought them here. They're too big for our house but here they were great. I am planning to take them camping this summer.

Present from maie and taie. See the pirates on his bath robe? He's so excited about that. And of course my parents couldn't help themselves and got Lavi a robe as well. She wore it for two days straight.

We got Dacian a Bumblebee Transformer guy-He was over the moon. I love how Lavinia is so curious and is looking so cute there next to Dacian.

Craft table where kids were coloring parrots while waiting for everyone to arrive. My wish was for the kids to color the parrot and for me to tape it to their shirts. (idea from family fun.com and parrot template from there too) Well, most kids didn't really care to color and Dacian who did like it put so much glue on this thing to add colorful feathers that the parrot was a mess by the end and wouldn't stand up straight on his shirt.

Of course, I also was hoping that the kids would wear their pirate hats (for boys) and pink bandanas (for girls) plus their eye patches. For the most part I got my wish but by the end when I wanted to do the photo op with all the kids at the boat the kids were done with that. They are all still so little and it's to be expected. Adults (ahem..., me) always have different expectations for kids. But now I know to do the photos first thing. If only I could clone myself, one for taking pictures, one for welcoming everyone and tell them what to do, etc. :)

Table decorations
See that parrot? He was supposed to stand up straight. Hahah

Grandpa the master boat maker

Mom, cake master and room decorator and cute piratess

From behind the boat

Friends at the party

Pop the cannon. This game was hilarious. I loved how determined the kids were to get those balloons popped.

Playing musical chairs and other games

Going outside to look for one of the clues for our treasure hunt

Dacian finds the box.

The kids had a lot of fun with the treasure hunt. They put all their loot and doubloons in red paper bags I gave them.

Zeke, Dacian's youngest cousin really loved the treasure box.

Gifts came next

With best friend Jared and his brother Zach. The other pics are blurry but I tried to take one with each little guest.

Then cake, should have done cake first but oh well...

Mom said she could barely move and light the candles the kids were so excited and were all crowding next to her. How fun!

After cake and presents we opened up our fun tents and let the kids play. This was a huge hit and free play is always good too and thankfully we had plenty of space.

Best friends, D and Jared

Taie and grandson

We moved the boat outside to get some decent pictures. The rain held out for us. Yipee!

After the kids left I hurried out for some pictures outside of the dark cabana.

Pirate with daddy

I love his outfit. Mom made the shirt and pants and bought the cute colorful socks. We made the sword out of newspaper and that was yet another craft all kids were going to do but we ran out of time.

Dacian is 5!

2011-04-01T23:55:00.000-07:00

Today. My big boy (sniff, sniff) woke us up proclaiming to the world that he is 5. "Mom, dad, I am 5!" This boy has been waiting so long to be five. I think he has a lot of friends at preschool who are older than him so he just couldn't wait for this day. He was happy all day long and saying over and over that he's now five. So adorable. He's so innocent still and sweet. I love and adore this boy.
He's such a good boy and a sweetie and handsome and of course the best. He's my child, right?
We have had a very fun though very wet spring break. Shane had a few days off starting with Wednesday and he got a hotel downtown Seattle using his awesome Priceline skills and got us a beautiful hotel room for a very cheap price smack dab near Pike Market. We never get to really enjoy Seattle since we live so close and basically don't always do and see all that probably tourists see. We rarely find a spot for parking longer than 2 hours so we took our time for once and had a lot of fun downtown. We found a very delicious Sushi place and had a great meal with the kids. At Pike Market where the employees "fly" the fish from one person to the other across the counter we saw the coach of our Seattle Seahawks and he was so nice to even take a picture with Shane and the kids. I will add pictures soon.
We also found a gum wall. So very gross but kind of fun to photograph. We ended the day with playing games at Gameworks. Dacian was in pure heaven there and luckily Lavinia slept in the stroller the whole time and I could play a lot too. I am not a super huge fan of video games but I liked playing this pirate game and a few other ones.

Thurday we checked out early but left our luggage at the hotel and went and had a very yummy breakfast at a place that was recommended to us by the bell boy. It was great and also very cheap. I like cheap. Eggs benedict are my friends. I was good and stayed away from the potatoes though. I have been doing well eating like a diabetic lately and hope with this new diet and hopefully more exercise I can lose some weight.
After breakfast we hurried and took the bus to the Seattle Pacific Science Center where we met with Scott, Lily and Zeke and saw the Star Wars exhibit and then just pretty much stayed the day at the science center. Dacian was obsessed with the Shadow room and Lavi with the water. Of course D loved all the Star Wars stuff.
We had a fun few days and I hope Dacian will remember that this adventure was a lot for him. We called it his birthday adventure.

Today we opened presents and he was busy all day playing with everything he got. I was busy shopping and planning for his birthday party tomorrow. We are doing a bigger party for his five years party. I decided I will do a bigger party for most major milestones. I was thinking 10 would be the next bigger party but maybe 8 when he gets baptized. I know I'll probably still have a little party with a few friends but nothing this detailed.
We have been working and organizing and planning this for a while now.
Arrrrg!

Can't wait for tomorrow and to post some of the pictures.
I am exhausted after today though. We rented the cabana where my parents live and stayed late to decorate and finish everything tonight, worked on the cake and tomorrow we are doing the final touches.
I just hope we get his friends to come since I totally forgot it's Conference tomorrow.

And now it's time for bed now. Big, busy day tomorrow.

Us at the Star Wars Exhibit

Playing with water

Pike Place Market-Posing with the famous pig. I have no idea why the concerned face for Lavinia.

Catching the fish

Opa! Coach Pete Caroll in back looking right at us.

Here's Pete with Shane and the kids. He was just so sweet to want to take the picture. There were all these people there trying to get him to sign autographs and get pictures with him and he seemed to be nice to all of them. He's a cool coach.

Eating yummy gyros and shawormas at Sabra. I love my boys. They just make me happy.

And a shot with mommy and son. Too bad the picture is yellow. Dacian ate his gyro and then wanted my food as well. Hungry boy.

At the gum wall. People stick their chewed gum all over the place.

Gum wall

Birthday boy

Dacian walked right on the pig prints the whole time.

Spring

2011-03-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

I think spring is here to stay. I hope I didn't jinx it. Today Shane got me a new lens. He got it used for a good price. I decided I am OK keeping my Olympus and really I realize it's not a bad camera at all. I just needed a better lens than the kit one. So I played a little with aperture today and here are some of my shots. It's amazing to me how much more light a wide aperture can bring and with my older lens I just didn't have that option. I guess now I know the difference. I will keep practicing this summer and I am excited for the rain and dark days to go away and for me to get some fun shots of my kids. Hopefully.

My dog, Tom Tom. I think this is one of the best pics of him, mostly because I can really see his hair and nose and not like before where all you could see was just this black spot. He really needs a haircut but I love him anyway.

Aren't these flowers so pretty? We have them all over our neighborhood.

Peach Tree blossom.

The wind started picking up and it was hard to get a real clear shot. I like it anyway though.

Which ones are your favorites, if any?

Thank you sweet Shane for my new unbirthday gift. I love you!

NYC-Part 6-End of trip

2011-03-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was our last full day in NY. We were hoping to make it a short and easy day, having seen most of what we had planned by then.
We met our friend Dan who lives there with his family. It was fun to meet his cute, adorable daughter and just hang out at FAO Schwartz and later on we also had lunch together. He served his mission in Romania and he also went to BYU.

I loved this little nursery at FAO

Lego stuff. I got pictures of the Lego Star Wars because this is Dacian's favorite game on the Wii right now.

And check out the price of the Barbie foosball table. I wonder which celebrities bought that. :)

And here's the famous piano that was in the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks and I am sure in other movies as well.

Quickly after we hurried to the MET.

How beautiful is this painting? It was one of my favorites.

Oana, my cousin gave us free tickets and we were excited to go see a little bit of the museum. We got there rather late around 2pm and everyone probably can figure that is a HUGE museum and a day or a week may not be enough. We went to the Impressionist gallery and saw Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Matisse, Rodin, Degas and many others.

The knights, swords and the Chinese and Japanese collections were also pretty cool. We also liked all the Samurai stuff.

I loved the museum and stayed there until close at 5pm.

We wanted to go home at this point but alas, the procrastinators we are we hadn't gotten anyone any presents in our rush from here to there so we had to go after that. And another fault of mine or ours is the inability to decide on something to buy quickly. We went to Times Square to see if the ambulant vendors were still out there with the cheaper t-shirts, etc but we only found one and all the stuff he had was for adults. So we went into the Times Square Toys R Us which really is no ordinary toy store. They have a lot of characters build out of legos and just their selection of everything is amazing. The Barbies were awesome. I wanted to get Lavi the Statue of Liberty Barbie but it was way too expensive and Lavi is not yet playing Barbies.
As much as I hurried we didn't make it home too early so our last day with our good friends was rather short. Of course they waited for us with another great dinner and bought what we heard was an amazing cheesecake from Junior's. It was pretty much as good as everyone said it would be and more. So fluffy, I think it was made with ricotta instead of the usual cream cheese. It was very rich so I couldn't even finish a whole piece. I fully recommend Junior's cheesecake or just the restaurant which is in Times Square if you ever are in NYC.
Again, we want to thank our friends for how much they spoiled us, their hospitality and love, and for how well our kids were taken care of by my parents. When I got home (Shane went on to DC and Boston-lucky him) the kids didn't want my parents to leave. It was so sweet. It was apparent they did many fun things and were happy and to be honest I didn't have a doubt.

NYC-Part 5

2011-03-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

Two more days and I have NY trip covered. Seriously, we did and saw so much that I feel like I have to do it justice by a post a day. But it's sure tedious and I don't know if I can do this for all our future trips. But I shouldn't complain, the more trips the better, right?

Monday we took off earlier than usual and went to Fort Hamilton. Well, being a holiday they were closed. We took the subway all they way over to Brooklyn and then walked a mile to this place only to find it closed. Also it had just snowed all night so it was rather cold but I love snow so I was happy to see everything all white.

We wanted to go back to Trinity Church near Wall Street and go to the grave and see Hamilton's grave.
Shane, my sweet historian, took advantage of our trip to see things that he's been dreaming about for quite a while. Hamilton is one of his favorite presidents. But alas because of snow we couldn't go in the cemetery so we just took pictures from the outside.

Grave at Trinity

So next headed to Flaurence Tavern, a place where President Washington stopped to eat and celebrate right before his inauguration at St. Paul's Catherdral. This Tavern was the happening place at the time and the building is the original one. The downstairs is a restaurant where we ate lunch and the walls were covered in the original wood. We had a delicious lunch that was quite affordable for how fancy the place looked inside. Upstairs there was a museum with a model of the old tavern and artifacts from that era, lots of paintings, old flags, and even the original wall paper on the walls which was amazing. I don't remember all the facts and the famous company name which made the wallpaper but they used to sell it with some pretty scenery, waterfalls and then painters would come add paint over it. In this one room there were different scenes from battle with George Washington on them. We were lucky to only pay a buck since it was President's day and it was on discount from $10. We didn't even think it would be that cool, and the museum was way bigger than it looked from the outside.

From there we walked to Sea Port, where they have these old ships that you can tour and go inside but because of the Holiday it was closed. You win some, you lose some.

In front of this place we also saw about twenty heavily armed cops with vests on just hanging out. I think they had dangerous men in their van or something. I was a little worried but all was fine. Actually, I was amazed how many cops actually are everywhere. It made me feel safe to see a couple at every subway station.

From Seaport we went to Times Square again and then to Grand Central Station. That place is big and beautiful and full of life. Always busy. It reminded me of our train stations and how much we were there for any and every trip we took. Right outside the station you can see Chrysler Building. This is my favorite building in NY. Next we went to the New York Library but it was too late so that was closed as well.

Chrysler Building

New York Public Library

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Inside St. Patrick's

Madonna with Christ

By this time we were pretty tired and were looking forward to sitting down at the Opera which wasn't very far. I was worried I would be too tired and didn't want to fall asleep but I was very much awake and enjoyed the opera immensely. Placido was amazing, and so sweet at the end. He seemed so nice, just caring towards all the people he sang with, encouraging the audience to keep clapping for them. It was a joy to be able to go there.
I wanted and decided we'd go see Wicked but the prices were too huge for good tickets and the bad or OK seats were all sold out. I just couldn't justify $170 per person. So, one day we may see it but this trip we were OK with the opera for an exchange.
Phew! One more day and NY will be covered.

Love my girl

2011-03-17T23:23:00.000-07:00

I adore this little girl. I have fun taking photos of her. Her eyes always sparkle. She is the apple of my eyes. She is at maybe my favorite age except for the occasional tantrum (I think we are having less but now that I said that I just jinxed it.) And except maybe that she's not potty trained yet. OK, maybe that is a lot of excepts. But she is talking and saying funny, silly things, she's loving, she super cuddly, she's a great little dancer, she sings all day long, and she would take several baths every day if we let her.

The other day when we went out to walk to the dog she was skipping saying: "Happy, happy, happy" in the cutest voice ever. She loves Dacian and seriously tries so hard to be just like him. She copies everything he does. I caught her hugging him the other day. So sweet. Dacian was so happy and got my attention to see how sweet his sister was. Of course there are plenty of altercations but I love to see the friendship that is developing and the fact that they really love one another. When she was born I felt like it would take forever until they would be able to play together and now that time has come and I can't be happier.

She also sure has a mind of her own. She's stubborn and so far doesn't like it at church. She keeps saying all throughout the day that "we no go to church today". She's so attached to us she doesn't like being left there. Funny how Dacian couldn't wait to get rid of us and didn't want to come home at the end of nursery time. She did fine for a while and now she doesn't like it in there again. She acts shy around strangers but trust me this kid is not shy. She just needs a little time to warm up to someone, kind of like me. In fast I think she is a lot like me personality wise. I do hope she'll grow up with a lot less confidence issues than I had. Anyway, I love that she is mine. She can turn my bad mood to a happy one in seconds and in fact I've been in great moods lately and I can say a lot of that is because of her, because she makes me laugh and because I take the time to drop everything I am doing and just play with her.

Don't worry, I love my son too so he'll get a post soon too. Here he is being a sloth, so he says. :)

NYC-Part 4

2011-03-13T23:47:00.000-07:00

I couldn't wait for this day. Two reasons: our friends spoiled us some more with tickets to the Symphony at Carnegie Hall and the fact that we were going to see my cousin, Oana who lives there now.

The symphony was very good, we had good seats and I liked that the end song was an African song with lots of drums being used. Thank you again for this nice treat, plus I can brag about having gone to Carnegie now. :)

We left in the morning just the two of us. We decided to see more of uptown Manhattan this day. We took the Subway straight to Central Park. It was a nice, sunny day but boy was it cold. We went to 5th ave, Trump towner, saw all the fun and famous shops, saw the place where they broadcast and film for the Today show, the beautiful St. Patrick's cathedral and then it was time to meet our friends to go to the symphony.

Our meeting with my cousin was after the show. We decided to meet at the opera. We walked through Central Park really wishing it were summer instead and I could see that pretty park with all the fresh, vibrant green. Looking at all my pictures I wish I had some more color in them.

Meeting Oana was great. It was so fun to see her again. We walked around a bit, we went inside the opera to see what was playing and our friends, the amazing people that they are got us tickets to the opera for the next day. We were super excited because Placido Domingo was in it and how cool is that to go see him in person? The name of the opera was Ifgenie en Tauride. Another cool place we saw after we left the opera right across the street was the LDS temple.

After seeing the temple we were all hungry and decided to go to "Eataly," this place that our friend heard was great. It was indeed the coolest store EVER. Wow, the meats, cheeses, chocolates, everything looked so fresh and delicious. They were even making their own fresh pastas there. The only sad thing is this being such a popular place the waiting time for our seats at the restaurant was about 1.5 hours. It probably didn't help that it was a weekend, and a long one at that.(President's day was the next day) So we took off in search of a good pizzeria. We were told all pizzas are good in NY. Shane did a search on Yelp on his phone and not far from where we were we found Waldo's Pizza. We were a little worried when we first got there because we were the only ones but soon after more people showed up. The pizza was very fresh and great. It had a super thin crust and I got everyone to go along for a white sauce one. I am not so fond of the red sauce.

Now on to the pictures...

Statue dedicated to General William Tecumseh Sherman by the people of NYC. This statue was what we first saw as we entered Central Park. Right next to it were parked lots of carriages with horses ready to take you on a fun, expensive ride.

5th ave shops, Trump Tower and Cathedral

Carnegie hall was in renovation so this is my best picture

In Central Park

The Met-New York Opera with cousin Oana, and our friends

LDS Temple

NYC-Part 3

2011-03-09T20:40:00.000-08:00

Well, our third day was so much fun. We headed to Walt Whitman's birth place and house which is now a museum in Long Island. The house was adorable, all build by hand by his dad. There were lots of families living in this house. I loved seeing this cute and quite adorable house. The dad had built huge windows and I loved all the light that was in this tiny house. Apparently houses had small windows back then.
From there we went another 40 minutes to Vanderbilt mansion. This guy was so rich, had several buildings all super spread out, so much land all overlooking a body of water but I forget the name. He had a passion for hunting and all things nature and life. I felt like the whole mansion was a natural history museum. The architecture was made in the Spanish style. Very pretty. It was super cold out so it was nice that we were mostly inside.

Once back in the city we went to see the Stock Exchange Building, Trinity Church and then dinner in Little Italy.

Walt Whitman

His birth place/house

From inside the house

Gogu took this picture of me and I love it.

Vanderbilt Mansion

Vedeti pupaza?

New York Stock Exchange Building

Trinity Church

George Washington Statue

This is how I looked most of my trip. Funny! Courtesy of Gogu

Wall Street and Financial District and Trinity Church

This is taken later in Little Italy after a whole frustrating ride over there where we couldn't find parking. We also stayed in line quite a while to get our seats and then some more to get our food, but let me tell you, this was the best Italian food bar none. Gina said it was comparable with what she had in Italy or Spain. Yum! Excuse the blurry pic but I have the hardest time taking pictures in low light. Hmmm...

Aren't our friends so cute and sweet. It was so fun to hang out with them. Miss them already.

Are you bored of my adventures yet? I have 3 more days still to come. Oh well, it's for us mostly so I don't forget all the details of this wonderful trip.

NYC-Part 2

2011-03-08T22:52:00.000-08:00

I suppose I should continue about my NY trip.
Our second day there, Friday, was the busiest of all the days I think. We left the house around 11am after another yummy breakfast and took the metro straight to Brooklyn Bridge. This day was also our warmest. I think it was about 65F and I had to take my jacket off. I loved walking on the bridge to Brooklyn and then we went down on a pier and had some very delicious ice cream.
After that we walked back on the bridge back to NY and then we decided this would be the day to go see the Statue of Liberty. I am glad we did since the winter did indeed show her ugly teeth a day or two later.
We arrived too late to go see Ellis Island though but that's OK, it was still beautiful. We stayed there until they closed and had to kick us out. I loved being there again and seeing the statue is always pretty impressive.
Back in lower Manhattan we saw the Merryl Lynch Bull and then the World Trade Center and from there we took the subway to Canal St in Chinatown. It was fun to see all the shops with all the cheap knock offs but it was pretty filthy. We were starving so we stopped to get some dumplings which were very good but the second dish we ordered was very mediocre. A street further and we were in Little Italy. Being Friday night and being so warm people were mostly eating out. We passed by this lady who had ordered a half a lobster and that dish looked divine. I was then sorry I ate Chinese food. So we decided that we had to come back here another day with our friends. Little Italy was really fun; the streets were very narrow with cars parked so close together on both sides of the street. The place was smelling divine since most of Little Italy was restaurant next to restaurant, all highly rated. I loved that the people working there mostly were Italian, spoke Italian or English with a fun accent. I love NY for its diversity. It makes a person like me feel pretty much at home.
From there we went to Times Square and took in all the lively place had to offer. We stopped on the steps that were looking right at the ball that drops on New Year's. After we rested a bit we went up to see the city at night from the Empire State Building. Now I can pretty much say this was the most beautiful night sight I've ever seen. I think it totally is worth the money. I was worried that maybe we should have gone in the daylight but seeing that view I knew we made the right decision. The lights were flickering and would go as far as one could see. Right now Empire State is the tallest building in NY and it was fun to be so high up and see around 360 degrees. It got pretty windy up there though and they blocked off part of it.
Anyway, totally recommend going up at night. Also when we went at 12 am there were no lines and I hear they are always long.
By this point we were so tired and my feet were blistered and were just killing me. But being there was so exciting that I had us go to one more place, Rockefeller Center. At 1am there were still people skating. This place is like Vegas and never really sleeps. So after 13 hours of walking we finally went home. Exhausted but happy. See you in Part 3.

Brooklyn Bridge

Down at the pier on Brooklyn where we had the best ice cream

Statue of Liberty

Emigrants statue right by the ferry to Ellis Island.

The new building to replace the Twin Towers at WTC. It's maybe a third way up.

Little Italy. Jamon. Hmmm!

Times Square at midnight

Morgan Freeman-Wax Museum

Theater District in Times Square

View from top of Empire Building and Chrysler Building, my favorite

I think that busy road is 5th avenue.

Rockefeller Center 1am

More views from top of Empire

Rockefeller building

The latest

2011-03-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

Dacian said the prayer at church today. It was his first time in Primary in the main room. He is such a sweet kid. And I almost burst out laughing when he said "and help us pay for our houses". He says that a lot at home as a result of me saying we have to keep up our house and we have to pay for it and we can't always buy what we want since we have responsibilities. Probably all the people think we can't keep up with our mortgage or something. I told his teacher that I was amused and that we really don't have any problems. She said probably it's because he prays for it. :) He also got a CTR ring today so it's another way I can threaten him for good behavior.

Before I post more about our NY trip I just want to mention my experience at the mall and just our weekend.

We went out to eat on Friday after work to the yummiest Italian restaurant, Maggiano's. They have an amazing deal on food and also they give you a whole dish of choice to take home. It's cheap and it's so good so we treat ourselves to this place once in a while. The eggplant parmigiana and the lasagna are the best of what we've tried so far. Anyway, since the place is right next to the mall we took the kids to the play area to let out some steam. Remember most of winter we are inside the house getting really bad cabin fever.
The kids are so excited when we go there because it means they can run wild, climb and even make friends.
Well, not this time. Not a few minutes go by that I see this kid who was about Dacian's height that he comes and shows Dacian some karate moves. I didn't think much of it at first but then the kid puts Dacian in a choke hold and starts pounding on him. Of course I ran over there to stop this kid. I think Dacian was shocked and just stood there and did't really react, not even try to get out of the situation. I grabbed the kid by the hand to take him to a parent but no parent was in sight. The kid then said to me: "Shut up, stupid" and ran away from me. A mom was sitting next to me and thought her son did something bad to Dacian and brought her son to apologize to Dacian. I told her he didn't do anything to my son and then I saw the mean kid show up and I told her this is who should apologize and asked the boy to apologize for his behavior and hitting other kids as well as my son. He then looked at me with the most evil eye ever and again said: "You stupid trash". I went to look for a parent and I couldn't find anyone. I later saw the mom coming out of the restroom with this brand new newborn. I almost went to say a few words to her but I stopped because I had a feeling she probably talks like that at home and that she would become mean and possibly create a scene herself. My husband was furious and I at that point decided it's best to go. All who know Shane know he's a little hot tempered and very protective of his family and I just didn't want any worse problems so we left. I was disgusted and just appalled at the behavior of this kid. Dacian started crying and seemed more concerned that this boy said a bad word than the hitting. I know he was shocked too.
We don't go often to the mall and sometimes I just roll my eyes at all the rich parents who seem to come parade their kids' clothes more than anything else. I can only imagine the terror this kid will be in school. I feel bad for that baby sister being born in such an awful family or at least having such an awful sibling.
So maybe this is the perfect excuse to not have to go there anymore. Live and learn I guess.

Yesterday we had true fun though. We first said we'd go to the zoo with the kids but then decided going into the mountains would be more fun. We also went with our friend, Taylor which made it even more fun.
Only 45 minutes away form us there is a a ski resort and snow galore. There is also sledding park. There was plenty of snow, it was rather warm and it was beautiful. We sledded for 3-4 hours, we ate junk food at the back of our truck and my favorite, Nutella on wheat bread and then sledded some more, ate more snacks and then went to Taylor's house. We had a nice meal of fish and shrimp and sweet potato baked fries and veggies I guess trying to compensate for the junk earlier in the day. We then watched some movies and the kids fell asleep. I was pretty tired too but enjoyed watching a movie with the boys. I laughed so hard and I am so glad for Taylor's friendship to us. He's really such a sweet guy who is becoming the best of friend to us and the kids. They just adore him. He plays with them and he's like their big brother. It's nice when others love your kids, isn't it?
And now I am hoping this baby girl goes to bed and I can get a nap because I have a raging headache.

New York-Part 1

2011-02-27T19:06:00.000-08:00

I am overwhelmed with all the pictures I took and organizing, deleting the bad ones and editing some or making collages has been a chore that I've put off long enough.
So I will just jump in and start and even though I don't know how many parts I'll make this post so please hang in there with me. I want to cover my whole trip and since it was a long one it may take me a few days to share it all.
I could just post some pics and say how lovely it all was but that wouldn't be justice to all the many things we did and the fun we had. (of course you may do just that and look at the pics and skip my blabbering :)
First and most of all we want to send our hugs and love to our good friends Gogu and Gina for indeed being the perfect hosts, for how much they spoiled us and for all the yummy food and making their house a nice place for us to stay. They waited for us at the airport and drove us home to an excellent breakfast. Also thank you to my dear, dear parents who are just the most wonderful people on earth. I cannot even begin to say how much they've really done for us always. Thank you for taking care of our kiddies. They had a blast with you.

We flew at night and only got about 3 hours of sleep on our first flight which was 4.5 hours anyway. The second flight was just too short so with not much sleep we were pretty tired on Thursday. But I chose a night flight so I don't waste a day on the plane and I didn't want to waste a day sleeping. Our first stop was Saint John The Divine Church in Harlem (N. Manhattan). Being our first place I took way too many pictures and stayed here way too long. But I loved it. I was trying hard to get a good picture of the majestic stained glass window and my friends found me on the floor trying to steady my camera since it was too dark to take a good shot by hand. Then Gogu lent me his mini tripod and that helped a lot and also that I have one of those remotes wasn't too bad either.

I am pleased with the picture. I am always in awe with the craftsmanship of all these old churches, the work that went into them, the details. Just amazing.

On our way out we heard the ugliest sounds. Turns out peacocks are not lovely singers.

This is what was in the church's garden. How amazing and pretty is that? This totally topped the cake. :)
Next we headed to Columbia University, Grant's Mausoleum and then Riverside Church.

Hamilton's statue on the Columbia University campus.

Grant's Mausoleum

Riverside Church

View of Riverside from Grant's Mausoleum. We went all the way up in that tower.

Detail from outside of Riverside. The inside pics didn't turn out so well.

Of course we couldn't end the day but with thinking of food. We stopped by the coolest store, Zabar's. Lovely stuff. They had so so many kinds of foods and those guys were just sweet to want to get their picture taken.

We also got famous bagels and on the way home our friends took us right through Times Square and on to Queens we went.
Well, see you in part 2. This was Day 1 for us. We did so much every day, walking up to 13 hours at a time. It's fun to write about it and just relive it all.

Excited

2011-02-12T23:15:00.000-08:00

I can't stand the wait until we leave for NY. My parents were so sweet and nice to watch our kids for us and will stay at our house while we are gone. We have a few more days until we go to one of my favorite cities. I can't wait to see our good friends and also just being there walking around in this huge city, seeing lots and lots of people on foot. Coming from a pretty big city myself (Bucharest-the capital of Romania) I was used to living in a small apartment, we never owned a car, we walked two miles to the market to get our fresh fruit and veggies and lots and lots of people were on foot since most people in Romania lived in the same boat as we did.
So even though I live in a big city now Seattle is so very different from NYC. Sure if we lived in downtown Seattle we would get the feel of NYC but you get outside of Seattle a bit and it all changes. (I do like where we live and actually I wouldn't want to live downtown but I do wish that we had better transportation here.) If buses would come every 10 min or so and if they would take you where you want to go before you exchange another 4 buses then I wouldn't even need a car.
Anyway, I have already begun daydreaming of what I would do when I get there, all the fun shops, seeing all the different people, and all the yummy bakeries and meat shops. So many of them that it's overwhelming.
You see big apple is the first place I set my foot down when I came to the US. I was just fresh out of high school and on my way to school in UT I stopped in NY for 10 days to see our good family friends who moved to NY years earlier. They were so sweet and were the perfect hosts and guides to their new beautiful city.
Well, this will be my third time in NY and Shane's first. I have wanted to go back for a long time now and of course I can't wait to show Shane all the fun places. And best of all will be that we are going without the kids. Wait! Did I just admit to that? Actually it took me about a month to stop feeling guilty about this one but we've never left them alone before and I know they are in good hands. Also I know that if they came they wouldn't remember the trip and well we just couldn't do as much running around. Lavi would need her naps, they would get cold, hungry, and whiny. Eventually I hope that we do get to go back here once the kids are older. And so I am just left with excitement for now and I pray that we have safe travels and lots of fun and that we return to our preciouses who would have had lots of fun with grandma and grandpa.
Also I can't wait to take lots of pictures. And I know this is not the best time to visit NY and probably it will be cold but I am excited to get away with hubby and cold or not it's a beautiful city and I am sure we'll both have lots of fun. Ta ta for now. :)

Go, Dog. Go!

2011-02-04T21:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday night I took Dacian to this play. It was so fun to go with him. Since Dacian can read that book cover to cover and since he really loves it I couldn't wait to take him to a professional theater that was playing this story. His first play was a school play that was cute but being in the school gym and him being a kid he couldn't see much or hear all that well since the seating was all on one level and even in my lap he couldn't see because of the person in front of us.
This was my first time of course at Seattle's Children's Theater and I was impressed that the seating was so close to the stage. Of course the set was great, costumes and good actors made for a great play. They even had a live accordion player. He was a hoot! The play stayed really close to the book which of course is smart with a preschool audience.
Now I caught the bug, I want to go see Cinderella at the ballet and Barber of Seville at the Opera. Too bad they are all so expensive. Even this one was pricey except I had a coupon for buy one get one off and being on a Thursday the show was even cheaper so it wasn't too bad. (No fiasco trip this time. Yay, us)
I carpooled with a friend and her cute son who is also D's age. They had a lot of fun running around and getting dinner before the show.
I loved seeing Dacian's face and his eyes as big as saucers when the play started. I pretty much think his mouth was open too but I think that has more to do with the fact he probably has another sinus infection and can't breathe real well. He was cute!
The actors were so funny and they were interacting with the kids throughout the show. At one point while the dogs were playing baseball the big beach baseball came all over in the audience and the kids got to touch the ball and throw it back to the actors.

Otherwise not much is new with us. The weather is sucky of course, rainy but thankfully not too cold. Work has been pretty hectic lately and I come home so tired I don't have much energy for anything so not much is new on my blog. Oh, I did do something fun though. I went to King's speech with mom and I just loved that movie. I want to see it again.

TGIF! I think I'm gonna hit the sack even though it's not even 9:30pm.

Picasso

2011-01-17T23:29:00.000-08:00

Seattle Art Museum had an amazing Picasso exhibit since October. I heard about it maybe in November, then Christmas came and all that jazz and I was thinking I had missed it. Then I heard on the news that there were only a few days left until Picasso was leaving town, today being the last day to be exact. :)

I checked out the SAM website and I found out all online tickets were sold out except that they had reserved some tickets for walk-ins. The problem was that also on the blog I found out that there could be a four hour line for a show time that was another few hours later. At this point I decided Picasso was not worth staying in line that long especially since I was still sick.

When all my hope was lost I checked out the blog one more time around 5pm and it said there was no line left and they still had tickets for the evening and night hours.

I called mom, took a bus into the city and went to get our tickets really hoping the blog was right and that there were still tickets left. When we got there the only tickets left were for no other time other than... drum roll... 11pm. (They had the exhibit open until midnight the last few days) The guy told us that he thinks that's too short a time to really enjoy Picasso but alas I decided to get the tickets anyway.

Sadly the buses only were running until 11pm so we had to go back home and get my car.

We took the bus home and around 8pm we decided to go back to Seattle in hopes of finding a parking spot. (I live about 20 minutes away) Well, as you can imagine with the exhibit being sold out there were NO free parking spots on side roads and we decided to just park in a close by parking garage. We then went into the museum and saw their other exhibits which were pretty cool including a lot of Native American stuff and African masks, photography and glass and porcelain items.

Picasso was just amazing. I downloaded an MP3 audio tour on my cell and that really made the experience even better having someone explain more about each important piece, etc. Indeed we had to rush to see all the major paintings and sculptures.

What an interesting and genial person. I really, really liked seeing his work up close and personal.

Midnight we pretty much got kicked out of there.

Now on to the parking garage to go home.

Well... We got there and to our dismay the parking garage was CLOSED. Right at midnight. Seriously? What the what? How could I have missed that? We were standing outside in the cold and the wind starts to pick up with a fury. I think I lost my hat twice. Shane was in bed and so were the kids so he couldn't come. Dad had never driven in the city and we were at this point thinking taking a taxi might be the best idea since that would be cheaper than an accident that could very well happen. I mean things were already going badly I didn't want to chance it. Plus there are homeless and drunks out at that hour, we were a little scared and just wanted out of there.

Boy did I pay for my poor planning or shall we say lack of any planning? Being spontaneous is fun and all but certainly NOT today.

Here's the run down:

Bus ticket to and back-$2 ( In retrospect we should have stayed the first time we got the tickets and just hung out in Seattle, then see the exhibit, then taxi home)

Gas money to get to city-who knows?

Parking spot-$9 (or what it should have been had we left before they closed-bill this morning-$32)

Cab-$25

Ticket to see Picasso-Priceless Apparently ($23) Sigh...

I did enjoy my adventure downtown especially since I went with mom. It's so fun to have her close by and thanks to Shane who stayed home with the kids so I could go have this fun and expensive adventure. I still can't say I regret seeing Picasso, but it's a little tough to swallow that I paid through the nose compared to anyone else. I am sure of it. Do you think Picasso is laughing right about now? Geez!

Well, live and learn.

Hopefully.

Yours truly,

Maddy Baddy

More Christmas and New Year's! The last on the topic, promise!

2011-01-07T23:22:00.000-08:00

Don't want to get too behind with my promised Christmas post.
Christmas morning was just perfect and much like I'd imagined it to be. Isn't that great! So many times things happen so very different than what I play them out in my head. It was so fun to watch the kids be so excited. Dacian got his beloved and much wanted garbage truck and Lavi, you can see she got a doll house and she loves it. Shane got me a nice digital photo frame and it also plays videos and I like it because it's big like a mini TV. Shane got a Windows phone so this year we were totally spoiled.

Later on we had guests at 1pm. Dacian had had a play date with a friend from preschool and I totally connected with the mom of this little boy. She's from Bulgaria so it was like talking to a Romanian in a way. So much in common with all the Eastern Europeans. Anyway while at their house I felt prompted to invite them over for Christmas. They said they were just going to be alone for Christmas so I thought that it'd be more fun to have friends over and I am so glad they accepted the invitation. It was so fun to make new friends.
While I was cooking in the kitchen Eva said that she was a chef in Bulgaria and I just about fell off my chair. Gulp. I didn't make anything too fancy as a matter of fact the ham wasn't that good and the double baked potatoes were just OK (didn't have time to cook the bacon like I had planned), nothing spectacular. Mostly because I ran out of time of doing them right. You see with all the presents the kids got our morning lasted a little long. I still hadn't put the ham in the oven and then I realized it was going to take longer than I had thought (it was a cooked ham) and here I was making rolls and baked potatoes. Of course the ham was to be cooked slowly while the rolls were supposed to cook at a higher temp. Needless to say I was a little stressed and then I felt all weird offering not super good food to a chef. But what she told me is that she was so beyond happy to have someone else cook for a change and she of course said she liked our food. At least the desert was excellent. Thanks to mom who came early to help me make it.

Also her husband is a super duper good photographer who had a gallery of his own, published work in Bulgaria and was invited here because of his photography. So I am way excited to have someone show me more about photography. One of these days we will go back to their house.

Dacian and Nicola with one of the many presents he received. Our friends totally came with too much stuff for us. So, so nice and thoughtful of them. Also so very Eastern European. I love it! Can you tell I miss home?

After they left we rested a bit and watched more Christmas movies. The next day we had Charlotte and Michael (in laws), Kim-cousin and Scott and Candice with their kids-brother and SIL. We had fondue and appetizers and had a lot of fun as a family. I will take advantage of any gathering to have fondue. Yum! Too bad I don't have any pictures except for a few of the kids. They decorated gingerbread men.

New Years was also a hoot. We were invited to our friends' house like last year and rang in the new year with lots of dancing and kinect games. The have a great big room perfect for dancing and games and a projector and a big wall to project the stuff on to.
I brought my Salata de Boeuf (Romanian potato salad that I shaped in the form of a snow man-see below) and another cake just like the one for Christmas. It was a busy holiday season and I am glad it ended but I will also miss it.

Oh, almost forgot to mention about our special day when we took Charlotte out for a pedicure. My sister in law Candice and I took her out one day while the boys were watching the kids and we really got pampered. I have never up to this point had a manicure or pedicure. I opted for a manicure since no one would see my party toes for a while. I still look at my nails and can't believe they are mine. What a nice treat. They lasted quite a while and it wasn't too expensive and they even massaged my hands/arms. I will be going back now that I know what I've been missing out on.
Also that day earlier we went with the kids to the 321 Bounce and Chuck E Cheese's (of Chuck E Jesus as Dacian calls it) and had a blast there too. All in all a great holiday season.

We wish you all a Happy New Year. May you have the best year yet and may all your wishes come true.

Christmas eve and day

2010-12-30T23:27:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. I really loved the energy and excitement we had there and of course the food. It was a very relaxed and special evening. We were tracking Santa the whole evening on the internet and close to 9pm we left so Santa could make an appearance at our house. My parents spoiled us as usual and we thank them dearly for the presents and all they do for us continually. Love them to pieces.

I love that we captured Dacian's sweet smiles and pure joy. My dad played Santa (just look at the presents he's holding) I also really love the vest my mom knitted for Dacian. He was delighted to wear it and I was so excited that my son has such a cute thing to wear. My mom put a lot of time into making that. Thanks mommy.

Miss Lavi got the cutest dress in the universe and also a Madeline doll. What a fun evening. I am so glad we opened my parents' presents to us that night and that way the kids paid full attention to those presents and didn't get drowned in too much stuff all at once.

We hurried home after we ate and opened presents at my mom and dad's house and put the kids to bed. We had a hard time putting Dacian to bed who of course was too excited to sleep. Finally since Santa can only come while kids are sleeping he decided it was time to go to bed. Phew!

Then the wrapping and the putting together of the bike and the mini kitchen began. I was so tired and still had so much to do. Plus the next morning we invited a family for lunch at 1pm. The little kitchen was a pain to put together if you can believe that and that was a present from my parents but we hid the box at our house. I love how little it is and how I can put it next to my kitchen and the kids can play while I cook. I think it will be used a lot and even though small it will serve its purpose well. :)

Picture below is taken right after Santa came. It was a fun night wrapping and putting stuff together with Shane, listening to Christmas music, talking and just having fun just the two of us. I love having Christmas at my house, and I love just us in the morning. I am fine with guests later on but there is nothing like waking up in your own home and spending the special moments of Christmas morning all to ourselves. I had the best of both worlds this Christmas. Thankfully I have a job that allows me time off during the Holidays otherwise I don't know how I would manage everything.

Well this post is getting too long and it's a little late but I will be back with more pictures and more ramblings soon. I feel blessed and I have peace in my heart and I wish you all the best in the new year to come. May all your wishes come true.

Love, Maddy

Merry Christmas! 2010

2010-12-23T22:49:00.000-08:00

Well, of course another month flew by.
I am not very happy that I can't convince my husband to get a haircut so thus far no family picture. I am going to take one of the kids but that's a challenge since Lavinia objects to anything that has to do with pictures. If I remember right Dacian did this too when he was TWO.
Anyway, here's a few photos I took recently.
Love my house at Christmas especially since we finally bought our tree.
Anyway, we wish you all a Merry Christmas, may Santa bring you lots of goodies and may you remember the special reason for the Holiday.
Love you all.

I have been having a little fun with my camera yesterday and here are some I like. I love how different things look with all the options a DSLR has. If only I can really learn to master it now. Long way to go but it's a fun hobby to have and learn more about. No edits, that would probably help my pics some but I am too lazy right now. :)

I finally realized how to have all those pretty out of focus lights.

I wanted to show you all my sweet nativity. My sweet friend Holly gifted this to me a few years back and I just love it. She made the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddles in a crib with hay and Mary and Joseph. I have the other figures from a different small nativity. No big one to show you but this totally does it for me. Thank you again Holly. I think they are adorable.

And here's my little model who was sweet enough to let me take lots of photos of him and I still haven't gotten a decent one. It's kind of blurry but I liked his sweet face in this one the best.

I love Santa! ... and some thoughts

2010-12-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

I have heard from many friends that they are so against Santa because they say he takes away from having a Christlike Christmas. I never felt that was the case and just thinking about banishing Santa so my kids can only think of Christ made me sad. Why not have both? Sure, everything is so commercial now but I think the fun of it comes from trying to make the holiday special and non commercial; thinking up ways to avoid falling in the I WANT this and that and instead of thinking of the importance of what this holiday actually celebrates. I most definitely don't want to spoil my kids rotten and will do all in my power to live and have a Christmas with meaning. I hope to teach them about being giving and sweet and most importantly celebrating Jesus's birth, the most important gift God gave us all.
Santa is a not a bad thing. Maybe there are people that don't believe in anything and just do Santa because that's better than doing nothing but having both didn't ever hurt anyone. (in my humble opinion of course)
Recently as I was thinking about this a friend wrote this post.
I think it's worth a read and she beautifully wrote what I too think. I am going to use her letter when it's time later on for my own kids.
I want to hear my kids' thoughts on this magical person, I want to see their excitement, I want them to live the magic. I know that in a year or two my kids will talk about staying up to catch Santa and I can't wait to hear their conversations on the subject. If you think about it kids don't believe in Santa that long anyway so why take it away from them? I think they will learn and understand more about Jesus when they are older.

Isn't this Santa so cute? He grows out his beard and plays Santa beautifully. He comes to our church for all the kids to see him and have their picture taken with him. I just love how Dacian was so serious about showing Santa what he wanted. I love that I captured both of them looking at the magazine. Cute!

And now shifting gears a little; a few thoughts on this special season. I am starting to stop stressing over the holidays. I always stress this time of year and I have in years past dreaded Christmas. Why? Because it became a chore, expensive, too rushed of a holiday. But as I pause to think about what we are celebrating little by little the stress dissipates and the joy comes back.
I wish we all take time to slow down and think about Christ, think about how he is the perfect example of a humble and loving person and how as son of God he was born in the most uncomfortable of places.
This season my heart turns to my best friend who lost her mom and aunt within a month of each other, who is going through a rough time and I hope that because of her belief in God she will feel comforted and most importantly feel loved. I sure do love her dearly.
Last Christmas we were not doing very well financially that I was wondering if I could afford even a nice meal for our family. Of course I didn't tell anyone about this and we did manage to have a nice, quiet evening with some good (bought well in advance thank Goodness) turkey and potatoes and more. I wasn't very happy I have to admit, mostly because I had lost perspective of what was important here; I was being jealous of what others might have had, or what great food they must've had etc. (food is one thing that makes me happy in life and I don't know how to change that since I seriously need to lose weight) Silly but that's how I felt and now I feel bad that I wasn't happier because truly life wasn't that bad. I was ungrateful but hopefully that was a lesson learned. Surely other people with less knew how to be happier, they had a much better perspective than mine was.
But seriously what I went through is nothing in comparison to what others go through. I have so much more than I truly need. This year we are doing better financially and I hope I can make someone else happier a little. Thinking more about Christ I feel so much less concerned about me and more about others.
I read in a book recently how one family "adopted" another less fortunate one and involved their own kids in the shopping of presents. This helped the family focus on someone else, brought them joy to think of this family they were buying for. The kids in the family also learned a lot from this experience and the focus moved to this poor family, to loving them and thinking of others more than about their own wishes. This more unfortunate family truly was happy to receive ANYTHING. They were so grateful. The little girl in the family brought the man who gave her the fun gifts to her room to show him the tree she had in her room. She told him with delight in her voice to come look at her beautiful tree. Guess what it was? It was a string of green lights taped to the wall in the form of a tree. She was so happy and to her that was more than enough. So I sat there reading that and the waterworks came.
I want to raise kids who are grateful (a little hard to do it; seems the world revolves around them-pretty typical for their ages but I hope they don't remain like that), kind, giving, and loving. I cannot wait until they grow a little older so I can take them out shopping for others too.

(the "Santa" had a fun gathering at his house the day he lit up all the lights. It was so fun to go there and kind of have him all to ourselves since we arrived later after most people had left. This family is just so fun and amazing. We used to be in the same ward a few years back. Everything was decorated with pretty lights and he had cookies and hot drinks for everyone, they sang and the gave out some Christmas movies and had the missionaries there. Fun event for the neighbors too. I guess they do this every year. What a fun tradition!)

Well, it's pretty late so enough of my thoughts for now.
Much love,
Maddy

A post long overdue

2010-12-02T00:31:00.000-08:00

This year's celebrations for my birthday and Lavinia's birthday were quite big. Mostly because I decided it's time for a party at our house. This year I got the flu right on my b-day and I was super sick and miserable. Two days later on Lavi's birthday she had a fever as well. So I had a birthday celebration on Sunday and we did get better by then.

On the day of Lavi's birthday my parents came over to give her a present and also they brought the most delicious dish ever. See the picture that has a two on it? Guess what? It's Brussels sprout with chicken dish and the 2 is made out of sour cream. I was too sick to cook and I am glad they brought this over because it was heavenly. My mom got inspired from some other dish and made this kind of her own. I definitely will try to make this. Shane almost wanted to eat the whole thing himself. Anyway, kind of funny to stick a candle in a not so sweet desert like dish.

Also here I am taking all these pictures when I realize I only have one candle in instead of two. Silly mommy. Oh well...

After food came the presents. Miss Lav was so excited to open her presents. She got this pretty dress from my parents and was super happy to exchange her totally mismatched pajamas for this princess dress. It was hard to take it off to say the least when it was time for bed. We got her a baby doll and she has been pretty attached to this baby. She has a binkie that attaches to the baby's mouth with magnets. I also love that pretty much first thing she did with that doll was to put her on the potty. Why oh why can't she do the same? Summer come fast please, I cannot wait to get rid of diapers.

I guess this is the post of collages. I have too many I like or want to post so this is the easier way to go. We had a lovely party and was glad to have Scott, Candice and their family over and also Kim and her family. It was so much fun. We ate good food of course, mom made the butterfly cake which also was delicious and at the end we played some Minute to Win it games. I needed that. Last year being Lavinia's 1st birthday I mostly did something for her but this year I said I wanted to party and not really do a party with kids. I mean who needs a bunch of 2 year olds running around throwing tantrums every other minute? I mean my very own had a couple to embarrass me well. She was a little shocked I think at the number of people at our house.

So what other way to celebrate that with a family and friends? Thank you all for coming and for the lovely presents.

Here's another close up of the cake.

And here's the TWO year old. Enough said!

My good friend Cristina sent her this cute dress. Look at that delighted face! Thank you so much Cris. She's a much fashionable little girl.

And here we are playing our games. I can't wait to do more fun games like these. I liked it that even the kids got to play and had fun.

Phew! I was dreading posting this because I had so much to say, lots of pics, editing, etc.
Now I have just a few more from Thanksgiving and our recent snow and I am all caught up.

Lavi, our princess

2010-11-22T19:17:00.000-08:00

Ha! Lavinia is so funny. She now wants to wear a million outfits a day. She calls herself princess or ballerina and prefers pink. What happened to my girl who liked cars and trucks only and no dolls. Hmmm, apparently a girl will mostly be a girl no matter if she has a brother for a sibling or not. It's cute how serious she is about things and how much she is a typical 2 year old. She just wants the world to work for her. Right now I left her crying in her room after not giving in to changing her yet again. She has since stopped crying but keeps coming out saying: Bad baby, bad baby, and you guessed right, that baby is her mom in her opinion.
I had no idea clothes are that important this early on since with my son that was NEVER a problem. He never even cared what he wore, I didn't have to make him choose from two outfits let's say. Super easy going in that respect. I think I am in for trouble.
Otherwise what else is new? Hmmm, I am still sick. I got sick on my birthday (the yucky, most miserable flu that kept me in bed all day for two days) and now I just got back from the doctors and found out that I have bronchitis and was put on antibiotics. I can't wait until they kick in because I am in pain from all this coughing. I feel terrible having to come to work to infect everyone but there were no subs available today. Plus it snowed and it's always a big deal in Seattle when that happens, schools may be late or closed all together and our fear was they might close the school day at noon or later and I wouldn't be there to help my co worker through it all. Now we are all thinking they might have to close the schools tomorrow since it's really quite dumping out and it's sticking and it's supposed to snow all night long. The problem in Seattle is that we are not super equipped for bad weather (since it's a once a year event most years) and the city is so super hilly and then you have these icy roads with drivers sliding all over the place. Anyway, I love the snow as long as I am home to play in it (or skiing in the mountains) and not have to drive and worry if I might get hit any second by another driver.
So here's to hoping I stay home tomorrow and mostly, mostly just to start getting better. These kids are super wearing me out and they have all this energy that of course only drains mine and I don't have much left in me.
Also with it being cold they are not so excited to go out for a long time and instead have cabin fever. Feel free to give me some ideas on fun things to do that are free. We have played all the games that we have or so I think. Sorry, this is the sick person in me who almost just wants her kids to disappear for a few days so I can get better. I only have so much patience you know. Hats down to all stay at home moms who have to fill out the days with their little kids ALL THE TIME! Not that I don't wish I could be in the same boat most times. :)
Well, that's it for now. More later. I am too lazy and sick to post pictures so I have to postpone for another time.

Geekiness

2010-11-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

I love sci fi shows. Recently Shane and I finished the Battlestar galactica series and I loved it. It was addicting, I couldn't wait to watch all the seasons and since we have Netflix we had them all pretty fast. Well, for my birthday, actually the weekend before my birthday Shane took me and the kids to this new exhibit they had at the EMP (Experience Music Project right next to the Space Needle) They had all these life size models, Charlton Heston, Planet of the Apes stuff, ET, Star Wars, Star Trek, Terminator, Dune, and other stuff. All pretty awesome. I know it's geeky but I love it nonetheless.

More posts to come with pictures of our other celebrations for mommy and daughter's birthdays.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-07T21:56:00.000-08:00

This Halloween started out in the office. We like to dress up at work and this year we were Mr. Anderson's angels. Mr. Anderson (our principal)was Charlie and blurted things out from his office. I will post pictures as soon as I get it off the card from work.
Saturday night it was our church's Trunk or Treat. There were so many children there, it was super crazy but fun as well. I am so excited the kids' costumes turned out super cute and that we had enough time to actually finish sewing them. Thank you to my great mom who is a great seamstress who just made out the paterns and taught me how to sew better. We made the cape, apron, skirt, vest and Lavinia's hair and then Dacian's whole wolf suit. We ran out of time for my bonnet so we ended up putting a pillow case on my head. I look nothing like an old lady but you get the gist. Shane is missing an ax but otherwise I think he looked the part pretty well.

And here are my parents. Dad sewed his costume last year. I love it!

As soon as I put make up on his he said his nose was super itchy and so we have a nice smeared make up now. Oh well, he still looked pretty cute.

Lavinia. Sweet. Super. Red. Riding. Hood.

Just a funny wolf really excited to catch and eat Little Red.

How sweet is this wolf? He was playing the part so well into deceiving Little Red.

And a silly wolf picture. He was super silly that day and I have lots of pictures with his funny faces but I will stick to this one.

Here are our pumpkins at night.

Later in the evening we went out to trick or treat of our neighbors.

Aren't they so adorable?

Fall and the latest

2010-10-21T23:35:00.000-07:00

Mostly because I am tired of looking at the last post I decided it's time for a new post and some pictures. I took Dacian out for a fall photo session while Lavinia was napping. It was so gorgeous out, warm and the light was beautiful. I so wish I had friends to visit me so I could show you the beauty of this state. I sometimes feel so friendless. Actually I am pretty friendless. Why is it so hard to make friends? I tend to think it's because we've made life so busy for ourselves there's no time for just hanging out, there's always so much on our to do list. And friendships fall lower on the list. Then I think maybe there's something wrong with me, that I'm just too boring so maybe that's it. I guess I like not to think about that too much. I tend to get depressed quite easily. I have had great days lately however so I have been quite positive.

I finished my parenting classes (yay! Loved them but being gone all day until 9pm was a lot harder than I had thought). We have gone to the fair, gone to the pumkin patch and are almost done sewing the Halloween costumes for the kids. Can't wait to show you the costumes when they are done. If only my kids will pose pretty for me. Lately I've had a heck of a time with one little girl who could care less about mommy trying to capture her cuteness on camera.

Today it was Shane's birthday and even though he got a very nice (pricey gift) and thought about just keeping it in the family I decided that 35 is a pretty special birthday and he deserved to be with family and friends. So totally last minute I invited fiends and family to Red robin. I love that place. I also got his a cake at Hoffman's (remember the cake he got me last year? Same place) that was so delicious and brought it with us to Red Robin. They brought it out for us and sang and embarrassed Shane a little. It was a fun night.

The kids were super hyper and that was before desert. I am sure glad they are a kid friendly place. My son has the energy of a whole crowd. It must be that he's a boy.

Anyway, we love you daddy, hope it was a great day. (Sadly I had no memory cards in the camera. I do have to say I have a hard time taking good pictures inside without a good flash or a tripod so I probably would've ended up with a bunch of blurry pictures anyway.

This is the view I get in the morning when I leave our neighborhood to go to work. I can't get enough of it. I am sure glad I went to take the photo because just today I saw so many of the leaves fallen out already. Fall comes very quickly around these parts but I can't complain, we've had a beautiful one. I really don't want it to end.

Totally SOOC. Love the colors.

I like this one of my son. Finally I like that he's ditching his cheesy smile. He's so cute, isn't he?

Just around the corner from us. I loved how that light was just perfect falling on those trees giving them that wonderful golden light.

Anyone else love fall as much as I do?I know at least one person who is 100% agreeing with me right now. :)

Love and Logic

2010-10-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

I got back from my third parenting class. I am fascinated by the new techniques I have learned. They make so much sense yet boy it's not so easy to dive in and actually do it. Maybe it's because I've been doing my own, kind of taking it by the day parenting for too long. I get mad too easily and I realized how little patience I have and how much more I have to learn to calm down so that I am good parent. We were told to take it easy with implementing what we learn and not to do it all at once. I realized that I have to have a plan of attack and rehearse what I would be saying should he/she misbehave. It helps getting a few answers ready. It helps to think about different situations that happen often and have an answer ready. It also keeps you cool and collected, enough to be in charge and not be drunk on emotion.
The other day Dacian hit my back more as a joke but it hurt. And we don't tolerate hitting so this is how it went:
"That's so sad Dacian, you hurt mommy. I was going to take you to Safeway to get a little toy with your quarter but now we don't get to do that. That's just so sad!"
First empathy, then consequence is what they teach in the first lesson. No matter how long he cried I just kept repeading. How sad... that's just so sad...
Well, I kind of took my time on this one and just implemented. It was a success. A success for me for being able to stick to my guns and for being on the ball, a success because Dacian (hopefully) learned not to do that again even as a joke. I told him that we can go to Safeway the next day but that I would ask grandma about his behavior. Apparently he was a little angel the next day and remembered to tell me he was a good boy so he could get his prize.
Was that easy? Yes and no. Yes because that was so simple; no because when we are mad or annoyed empathy doesn't come naturally. So if I rehearse and do this over and over, the "that's so sad" expression will take on a new meaning.
But the more I listen to the instructor and read the materials provided I realize how much I need to change about the way I parent. I get a little overwhelmed but I am excited to have new tools on how do it better.
I will come back to this subject with more examples as I start having more success. Maybe parenting comes easy for most people, maybe everyone's children are little angels, all I know is I have work ahead of me.
But I wouldn't change it for the world. I love my kids and I am so happy I get to be their mommy. I get to love them, play with them, and create memories as a family.
OK, now I really need to go to bed. Night, night.

So excited

2010-09-22T22:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to my first parenting class ever. A very smart and wonderful lady is offering this class for cheap for parents and staff and I think others who may be interested at my school for 5 weeks in the evening. She is teaching from the Love and Logic curriculum.
I am so exited to be able to learn techniques on how to be a better parent and guess what the first lesson was? How to stop the whining and arguing. Aren't I lucky for that to be my first lesson. I have been wanting help on this for waaaaaaay too long.
I am so exited to give this a try. Tonight was a great night with Dacian though so I have nothing to report. I really thought I could practice right away though. :) I am sure I will tomorrow. I wish Shane and my parents could also attend just so we can all be on the same page. Wouldn't that be wonderful. I don't think I am going to get my wish though. :(
I will report back with results, good ones I hope.
Ta ta!

Too Tired

2010-09-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

It seems like every time school starts back up (meaning I go back to work) I am too tired to blog. I have so much to catch up on but I just don't feel like putting in the time to add photos and write up stories. I may do a whole post later on this topic, blogs and what not. To be honest when I get in blogging funk I contemplate just not blogging anymore. I guess that is why I should just write even a little bit or else it's too hard to start back up.

Dacian started his new preschool which he loves. His bus comes way early so he's been rather grumpy lately adjusting to his new schedule. He can finally go to bed earlier. Summer throws our schedule off with the longer days of which we take full advantage by going to the park, swimming late, etc. I think soon he should get used to this schedule. I think I need to start up the bed routine even earlier as before preschool he loved reading books with me and saying his prayer and now he just says he is sooooo tired and just wants to sleep.

Lavinia gets cuter everyday. She is able to say lots and lots of words and little sentences now but does not speak Romanian as much as Dacian did at that age. She now hears Dacian speak English all day long and imitates what he says. I noticed how Dacian is more and more comfortable with English and I have to make him speak Romanian. I tell him if he wants to go to Romania with me he has to speak it or else no one there will be able to talk to him. It seems to do the trick for now. I completely understand though why it's hard. I will stick to my guns though. I can't imagine throwing away a good thing like that. :)
It's always been so important for me that he can speak my language. Sure, it helped having my parents take care of him day in and day out since that's all they spoke with him. But since preschool and tv time and computer time and church and all his friends who speak English it's a little hard to make it appealing to continue to speak another language.

But away from my tangent and back to Lavinia. She's so fun and so cuddly. She just allows me to love her and she's so sweet giving us kisses and hugs. She's a naughty girl too at times. She loves to play with cars and trains but also loves to look pretty and always twirls and twirls as we put on her Sunday dress and shows off any hair pretties or jewelry she's got. So I guess she is girly but also a little bit of a tom boy. She's a climber and super fast. She likes to go outside with us and go pick blackberries and hold Tommy's leash. She is also an awesome whiner but I think most of it comes from wanting to express herself and not really being able to. I am so much more calm with her and I know what stages she's at and that they will all pass too. Oh, almost forgot, she's super afraid of bugs (not sure why, maybe she got stung once since she calls all bugs bees and when she sees one she screams and comes to cling to my legs.
She does NOT like nursery. She could care less if we walked the halls or go to RS at church. Again, don't know why she hates it so much there. I tend to think the older kids pushed her or something since most kids there are 3 and older. She is one of the two little ones in there.
Anyway, I hope this stage too shall pass and I will again be able to go our meetings without her.
All in all having kids is the best thing ever. I have been enjoying them, really treasuring their littleness, enjoying the funny things Dacian says, his sweet love for us and also my little Lavi who adores her brother.
I could go on and on about my kids and all the fun things we've been doing but I have to go put Dacian to bed and this post is getting lengthy. How did this happen? I thought I couldn't come up with anything.
Also I might just fall asleep putting Dacian to bed. I am that TIRED.

Egg plant spread (Salata de Vinete)

2010-08-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

I had a craving for this eggplant salad spread for a while now so with four little eggplants I bought at Costco it was time to get to work. I roast the eggplant right on top of the fire but you can broil them on a cookie sheet as well. ( keep turning every 5 minutes or so until it's all charred)

I turn it until it all looks like this:

It's very easy to peel the burned up stuff. Keep all the yellow goodness with seeds and all and lay it on a cutting board to drain of the juices a little.

After it's drained chop it all and put in the prettiest melamine bowl that your husband may have given you for Mother's day :) OK, totally optional but I had to show you all how pretty my bowls are and to praise them and tell you how much I like them. I can even use them as a double boiler (putting the bowl on top of a pan with water in it)

Now pour about a cup and 1/4 of vegetable oil in there and a half of white onion chopped finely plus salt to taste. At the end add a little mayo as that will lighten up the color a bit but you can leave that out and it will still be good.

Voila! The end result is so good. You can eat it with tomatoes on a slice of French bread. I even add feta on top. Very Mediterranean dish and VERY good. I loved the smell of my house while they were roasting however Shane will disagree wholeheartedly. Anyway, we all know how smells bring us back to a certain place sometimes and that was Romania for me. I miss it a lot and since I haven't been there for 6 years and since my parents just went there this summer I was a little homesick.

Enjoy!

P.S Hubby almost ate the whole thing at once. I will have to buy more eggplants for next time. It's a yummy appetizer.

Blue Angels

2010-08-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we saw angels. The rain stopped just in time for the show and started back as soon as the show was over. As a tradition Seafair weekend we go to see the Blue Angles. We hear their loud engines starting with Thursday, their practice day and then Dacian can't stop talking about them and about when the day comes to go see them. This Saturday we went earlier than usual to hopefully get a good spot on the bridge (I-90 that goes right over Lake Washington connecting Seattle to the East Side.) We totally came unprepared, no umbrellas, no rain coat, just sweaters since it was chillier and overcast when we left home. Well as soon as we got to the bridge it starting pouring. At this point I am thinking well are they even going to fly? What a waist of time I'm thinking and found myself grumbling and cursing this area of the world for all its d*** rain. Seriously I will never get used to it. Even summers are not that hot and you still get plenty of rainy weekends. But better get back to my story before I plop a few more curse words on my blog. Ha!

Fortunately the rain gods listened to our prayers and stopped the rain for the show only. Fine by me. I guess the Angels flew lower that day since it was so overcast. It was super awesome of course. I wish it lasted longer. I really, really wished to be in their cabins along with the pilots. The adrenalin, the feelings you must get when flying those things, probably nothing else like it.

We had a very pleased 4 year old that day and to be honest so were we.

Big Four Ice Caves

2010-08-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago we went to this place. I had hiked here before with my parents when Dacian was little and for some reason Shane couldn't come. I loved it so much that I had to show Shane as well. We also invited Kim, Shane's cousin to come with us. The hike was very easy and beautiful and we went on such a hot day that when we got close to these caves it was pure bliss to have the cool breeze coming from the caves blow on us. It was hard to leave that place and want to hike back in that heat actually.

Well, not days go by after we return from our trip only to hear on the news that a little 10 year old girl got killed there from the ice collapsing on her. There were signs everywhere saying not to go in the caves but apparently the girl wasn't inside but near the caves. Well, we too were near it and of course most people were too. Actually Shane said that a big chunk almost fell on his head but he took a step and the thing fell right by his feet. I am sure he wouldn't have been killed from that but he would've been hurt. Something prompted him to move seconds before this chunk of ice fell on him. So now as I would recommend this hike to anyone I also have to warn them to be extra careful. I guess you can't mess around with nature and also when one's time is to go there is nothing anyone can do about it. I pray for this little girl's family. The mother was also hurt but ended up with minor injuries. Anyway, now go on and enjoy my pictures. : )

View of the caves from our trail.

Well, of course the snow/ice will melt away and pieces of this cave keep on falling away.

So I guess I could've totally been killed where I was standing. I was not inside the cave even though the picture makes it look like I was. Promise to tell the truth.

Family shot. I like it.

And I love this one my son.

Kim, our fun cousin.

The Lake

2010-08-05T23:51:00.000-07:00

I love sunsets (or around that time of day) and I love that I live so close to the lake. Today was joy to my soul to go cool off in this lake around dusk and play with the kids and capture some of the magic of this evening on camera. I prefer this time of day for one I can find parking and secondly there are not so many people there and it's cooler and the water feels warmer. It' relaxing. Can you tell I am soaking up all my summer?

Science experiment!

2010-08-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

For fun this summer we are doing science experiments, most especially when one little girl is taking a nap. This one was so easy and fun. Dacian did it over and over again. Try it, I think your kids will love it.

Oh no!

2010-08-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

So here I am making dinner when I look over at Lavinia and what do I see? A BLACK eye. She had just woken up when I asked Dacian to go get her. " What was I thinking?" is exactly what I was saying in my head. Did he drop her? Why did I let him take her from her bed? He does it all the time, how could this be? It's REALLY black but no screaming.

Then I see my sweet son proceed to give her a silver eye as well. Well, if you haven't guessed it it was my makeup. She was sitting there so silently loving being prettied up by none other than her BROTHER. Whew! Just makeup!

Here's a close-up shot. Pardon the messy face but this is what Lavinia sports most of the day.

Our summer vacation

2010-07-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been slacking off for no good reason really other than I've been enjoying my summer. But I don't want to fall too far behind in my little blog.
We spent 3 days in Walla Walla with Shane's brother and his family and like always we had a blast. They have a little boy Dacian's age so my son was so excited to be there. We went to a water park, played on their slip and slide right in their front yard and went to a show of Footloose where their daughter played in. It was so much fun and I enjoyed being in an outdoor theater on a hot summer evening. Thankfully there were no mosquitoes.

From there we went to McCall, ID where Shane found a really cool, affordable cabin in the mountains of this resort which is I guess out of business now. It was just the right thing for us to do. We only stayed three nights though. We explored the area which is perfect for those who have boats but we had fun of many of their sandy beaches just swimming around. It was a relaxing vacation for once. We decided that with little kids we needed to gear our vacation more for a spot that is family oriented and not go on a big tour like last summer. Who wouldn't have fun in a pretty place, with lots of little hikes, swimming, great food and my favorite almost, the jacuzzi. I was so excited to go in it really late when the kids were sleeping. There were not many people there and so not too many lights on and that way we were able to see that perfectly painted starry sky. I loved it! We saw lots of shooting stars and the Milky Way.

View of Payette Lake from downtown McCall.

Dacian and Lavinia on a nearby beach. The water was really warm much to our pleasure.

We called this car Mater. This place was fantastic and I think next time we come here we want to stay here.

There's a hot spring right there that is remote more or less and they have cabins for cheap that I guess are pretty nice ( no electricity though) and also the whole place is also a ghost town. Pretty amazing.

There are these really old shacks dating from the 1800s and of course no one still lives in them. There is also another ghost gold mining town nearby that we didn't get to see but next time I am sure we'll head down there as well.

On the way back we stopped in these fields of wheat. Dacian made that pose and I was so confused as to why he was sitting like that: "Mom, I'm a scarecrow, can't you see?" Oh, silly me, but of course. I immediately got my camera out and took a picture.

This was an quite interesting Bed and Breakfast. I saw it out the window when we were driving and just had to stop. You don't see this type of stuff every day. There was another little house/workshop in the vicinity where this old man was carving dogs of all breeds out of wood. They were really cute and the man was so nice and kind. I love it when I meet sweet people who are open and friendly to strangers.

So I guess this more or less sums up our little vacation. We had other fun and will still have fun for the next three weeks of vacations that I have left. Look out for more posts to follow.
I hope you all had a great summer as well.

Another graduate or two or three...

2010-07-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I have a few new graduates in my life. Numero UNO: DAD
My amazing dad went to school for a year to get a certification as an auto mechanic technician since without knowing English really well it would be hard to find a job in his real profession, Engineering. He did amazingly well (even got a scholarship his second term for really good grades) and in the process he learned English better, he pushed himself, was patient and diligently stayed up in the wee hours of the night studying, looking up words in the dictionary all at the ripe age of 62. Simply amazing. I am so, so proud of him. Now we are praying hard that he finds a job where he could put to the test all the new things he learned. He's a super handy guy and very strong and healthy. I love him with all my heart and wish him the best.
Here he is and here is my aunt who was here helping me with the kids while dad went to school. So grateful for her and my family.

Of course we had to celebrate Romanian style. We had a BBQ and end with delicious cakes made by my mom. We celebrated dad's graduation, Doina's birthday and her farewell and father's day. It was such a fun day!

Michael, Shane's step dad was able to join us and a cute couple who are our neighbors and who are expecting their first child.

Our next grad is Scott, my brother in law. We are so proud of him as well. He got his MBA at Western University. I can't believe 2 years flew by. Now he is a proud daddy of two kids. Imagine that, little kids and having to study for two years. Also pretty amazing. To celebrate they had their own BBQ with yummy food and desert at a park (they were so lucky to have a nice, warm day). We love visiting them and the beautiful place that is Bellingham. Later on we went on a nice walk and let the kids play.
Here he is with new baby Zeke.

I was able so snap a few pictures of new cute baby Zeke and Dacian. My son was so in love with him and was curious about him and wanted to hold him a lot and even share with him some lollipop. Of course we made sure he had none. :)

And last but not least my own brother is graduating in a month from BYU with his masters in Spanish and has been accepted to go to University of Kentucky for his PhD. He also had another baby while studying there. Chris, send me some pics so I can add one of you and your cute babies.

I am inspired by all their examples and hard work and hope some day soon I too can go finish my degree. Love you all.

Preschool Graduation

2010-06-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

Mr. Daci, the Little Roo Preschool Graduate. I can't say enough about this great preschool. We all loved his teacher and also all the high school students who helped in there. It was so fun to participate in their end of the year party and graduation. I even bumped into two girls I used to have in our daycare back when I was a daycare teacher. I couldn't believe it. Just like that these girls were all grown up. Just like that my boy is growing up so fast.

I was all tough when preschool started and didn't really get that emotional when I dropped him off for the first time but now at the end of this first preschool year I was kind of a mess. I loved seeing my son so happy. I loved seeing these young students caring for my little son. They came to me to compliment me on what a good boy he is and what fun outfits he wears at school. Mind you my parents dress him since they are the ones taking him to school. So the compliments go to my parents too. :)

Dacian changed a lot this year. He now speaks English really well and has the tendency to use mostly English even though he can speak Romanian just fine. He is very interested in learning and I could see how much being at school has helped. He counts things all the time, he can read simple sentences and he likes to spell and sound things out. I can only hope he keeps this up.

By the way this school when I enrolled him in it we were told is not stressing academics but try to take it easy on the kids and prepare them for Kindergarten, teach them manners, etc. I had heard from our church members great things about it. I am glad we made it in since they have a long waiting list for it. Sadly this next year will be the last ever for this program due to no new funding from state.

With all this in mind the decision to switch him next year to a different preschool was very hard. Because I work for the district I get to place my son in our preschool if I want for free. Now Little Roos is not expensive at all but when you talk $900 a year I think I prefer free. I know our district has great teachers there too and also a good program. I know that Dacian will adjust just fine. I'm the one who seems to not be ready for change for him. I second guess myself and wonder if by being cheap I am taking him away from his friends and this wonderful teacher. I still have him enrolled in the old place so I guess it's not final. What should I do?

Decisions, decisions....

Sweet Lavi thought this was all fun too. She danced when they played a slide show and clapped a lot. She also made friends with some students who liked to give her plenty of attention. Who wouldn't? She is so cute and so little.

The good and the bad

2010-06-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

On the day we made cookies Dacian was also doing his own cooking. He grabbed a real pan and put it on his little stove. Lavinia is enamored with her brother. Look how cute she is gazing at her brother. Man, I love my kids!

And since I don't want to forget and this paper will probably get lost at some point I wanted to post what I found on my fridge a while back. I came from work and I found this posted on the fridge. That's what he does with stuff he is proud of. I have to admit I was pretty proud of him too. It seems like something finally clicked and now he can read short words and sound them out and write them. Of course there are still lots of mistakes but it's a start. I didn't tell him to do this though or ever sat down to really spell the words so therefore I'm pretty surprised.

That was the good. The bad is that my daughter thinks my couches are for writing. That same day this is what I found. I was so mad. Fortunately it came off pretty easily. Except for writing on my walls once Dacian never did stuff like this. Now they have a fun easel I bought at IKEA and I hope they will use this instead of items in my house.

And to fully entertain my audience here's what I also found on my fridge as well a while back. Boys... It's so funny the Leap Frog thingy spells the word and then says: Congratulations! Good job. It's funny to hear that after the word BUT(T).