In our heart

Why is it that when I don't have time for blogging the most "blog worthy" stuff happens?

Last week my son and I heard the song that starts out with little kids singing happy birthday to Jesus on the radio. He got all excited that Christmas was Jesus' birthday and then he started singing the song "Happy Birthday to God" which I thought was adorable.

Later that same day he asked me "Mommy, where's God?" I was somewhat distracted at the time and replied with, "God is everywhere, he's always with us." That wasn't the answer he was looking for however because he asked me twice more. After starting to give the same answer for the third time I gave him my full attention, realizing I was almost missing a big opportunity here. I explained how God is in our hearts and we ask Jesus into our hearts. His resounding "okay" was enough for me to figure that he got whatever he needed out of this answer.

Then today we were talking about how even though Daddy is at work he is still part of our family. Just because he's not in the car with us, we are indeed still a family. My son joyfully exclaims from third row of the car "Daddy in my heart just like God!"

Yeah, he really is listening all the time!

Taking a break

from vacation pictures (I do have a few more to edit) to share some current stuff. I slept for 6 hours in a row last night! The scary thing is that I went to bed an hour and a half after my daughter fell asleep nursing at 9:30. She slept for 7.5 hours and I'm so not ready for that - I'm just now feeling like my supply has leveled out for the day. Think Dolly Parton but more on the scale of Angelina Jolie really (I could only wish.) Alas, I digress.

On Saturday we went to a local learning center that has environmental events once a month and this one was about "how to have a green Christmas." It was fun and free, we all made ornaments out of used items. I even made (a quite ugly) one out of little red and white legos. In theory I think it might be nice to have one ornament that it's okay to play with since I only glued some of them, the rest can be rearranged. We'll see how that works out.

I also was pointed to this website, Eartheasy.com. It has tons of great information, I've been reading off and on all day. They have some great information on how to have a green Christmas. Amongst tons of great ideas my favorite fact is, "Over a 30-day period, lighting 500 traditional holiday lights will cost you about $18.00 while the same number of LED lights costs only $0.19." Talk about savings.

We also made an oregami gift box which was fun. My son keeps asking me to make more out of magazine pages. Click on the link for directions. Just thought I'd share, hope all my 'puter friends are having a wonderful Christmas season!

One is never enough

There's no way one picture could actually sum up an entire 10 days of multi-generational family fun so we'll test out just how many I can put in one post ;o)

Let me back up for a minute, before our trip we took out some books about vacations and airplanes to prepare. My son was prepared for everything, check in, security, waiting at the gate it couldn't have gone more smoothly. Boarding and finding row 11 even buckling and unbuckling the seat belt was a breeze. Taxiing out to the runway, he knew take off was imminent. "We're taking off, we're taking off." Was gleefully heard at least 4 rows either direction.

We got above the clouds and I hear this little, "Mommy we going to land now?" Apparently no book can prepare you for the 2 hours 20 minutes of flying time in between those two great airplane trip events. I'm just grateful it was so short because he kept asking about every 10 minutes or so until we were about to land. On the return trip it was after we landed that he kept saying, "Mommy I want to take off again."

We arrived midday on a Sunday and spent the rest of that day visiting with my wonderful Aunt and Uncle who kindly let us turn their house upside down with kiddo stuff. The next day since we were still well rested we decided to go to the zoo which was a ton of fun. Our little girl slept the entire day away in her carrier and our big kiddo was off to the races, excitedly exploring snakes, elephants, koalas, pandas and polar bears to name a few. I was tired at the end of it all and he walked almost as much excepting one small piggy back ride from Daddy. Here's a couple pictures of the zoo day.

Our 3 year old thought the Gorillas were in a time out sitting with their backs to the glass viewing wall.

My Gram and my son during one of their many play times. It's awesome for me to see her playing with him since I have so many memories of her playing with us. And hello how many Great-grandparents actually get down on the floor to play with their great grand kids! She's so awesome and while I won't mention her age she'll be 81 years older than my son at the end of this month. She is another one of our many blessings!!!!

This one was taken the next day when we were at the beach I described yesterday. a rouge wave had just knocked him down as happens to us all when we turn our back on the ocean. Mom and Dad were both yelling RUN and he stood there looking at us blankly. It really wasn't that big but more of the surprise factor for him.

Making holiday rolls (a family tradition) with, from my son's right: Great-Gram, her sister Aunt Lucille and Aunt Mimi (her back to us).

Hangin' out with the guys.

Since it's getting late, I'll end with this cutie one for now.

If one picture could define our vacation

this one is it.

This little rocky outcrop is just up the road from where Adam and I were married. It was so nice to breath in the cool ocean air and reminisce. Looking out to the buoy from here (you can't see it in the picture) that we used to swim to and dive down seemed incredibly far. I'm not sure how we did that with all that gear on. It seemed odd to have kids in tow at all of our old favorite places and odd that we never noticed one of our favorite places to have calamari was a bar so we had to get our food to go and eat it at the beach (oh, the suffering!).

We walked down to the beach from here even though it was one of the coldest and windy days we were there and it was just so peaceful. There weren't many people and we almost had the little cove to ourselves. Afterwards we walked up the steps and over to the street carrying our shoes and I was brought back to my wedding day carrying my train and veil over one arm and my shoes in the other going back to the reception after taking pictures on the beach. Looking at the two wonderful blessings we've been given since our wedding day was completely wonderful and overwhelming. Stunning places God provided, wonderful companionship and two amazing children. We are indeed blessed beyond measure.

It's our fifth day back from our San Diego visit and we are getting reacquainted with freezing temperatures and caught up on stuff around here. Plus we enjoyed having my hubby's Mom here for a weekend visit and desperately trying to remember this feeling...

More pictures and stories to come. It was so nice to visit our old haunts, I've been in denial of just how much I missed the beach. It was weird again to see Christmas lights on palm trees and to have shorts on in November. But now I'm rambling when I should be folding laundry and starting dinner.