yippeee!

i won another pair of disneyland tickets this morning - 97th caller!  :)  can't wait to see minnie again.

happiest place on earth

aaron and i met up with cam, jeni, and kaelin at disneyland this past weekend and we had a blast.  last time we saw kaelin she was 2 years old and now she's almost 5.  it didn't take kaelin long to warm up to us and she is such a cutie!  a very smart cutie too.

here are a list of rides that we went on in no partcicular order at Disneyland:

• matterhorn (5 times)
• space mountain
• big thunder mountain (3 times)
• star tours (me once and with my eyes closed because the ride makes me sick, aaron went on it twice)
• it's a small world (once was enough for aaron)
• peter pan (one of my favorite rides and not sure why the lines are always so long either)
• haunted mansion (it's neat because they changed the whole thing to christmas theme)
• canoe ride (kaelin loved paddling, they even had an oar for little kids)
• winnie the pooh (kaelin was afraid at first and didn't want to go on it, but afterwards she liked it and went on it a second time)
• indiana jones (3 times, we did the single rider (you are basically a seat filler) and each time we were on the ride together next to each other and this only took 15 minutes versus waiting in line for an hour)

here are a list of rides that we went on in no partcicular order at California Adventure:

• midway mania (LOVE this ride, too bad the line was long or else we would have gone on it 10 more times)
• ariel (new ride for us as it was being built last time - was not too impressed with it)
• tower of terror (think i almost peed in my pants on this ride)
• goofy's sky high (you think this ride is tame, NOT)

first thing you see when you walk in disneyland





big thunder mountain - this ride is so fun and this is the only ride that i put both my arms up







belle apple - nope, did not buy one as it was $15 for one!



yummie hunny



haunted mansion all decorated for christmas - insude and out





sleeping beauty castle - so pretty when all lit up



one of my favorite pictures of kaelin and aaron - right before going on midway mania



my heart was beating so fast and palms started to sweat when i was on this ride.  held on for dear life.



i guess cam wanted to be just like princess aurora



at grand california hotel lobby - group picture before we parted ways



warming our feet by the fireplace in the hotel lobby

aaron got flocked!

aaron got flocked by flamingos on his birthday!  we were both surprised this morning and the look on aaron's face was priceless - what the?!?!  so much fun! 

what we both saw this morning

they leave later tonight to flock someone else . . .

oui oui

tin got sent to paris for work and came back with yummie treats for us. 


in front of arc de triomphe

Y.U.M.M.I.E macaroons from pierre herme.  aaron inhaled it!



yummie pies

forgot to post earlier that thanhha made apple pies for thanksgiving.  crust is not from scratch, but aaron (pie expert) said that it tasted very flaky and good.  thanhha did some research and got the "best" crust from whole foods.  great job thanhha!

poor mr. dex

last friday dexter had minor surgery on his noneye, got his teeth cleaned, and got one of the incisors pulled as the roots were exposed.  turned out there was an abscess on his noneye and they had to drain it.  poor guy.  he was all groggy that night when we picked him up.  he is back to his old prancing self and only needs to wear the collar a couple more days.  :)

wearing the collar does not deter him begging for treats

holi-day out with thomas

we spent part of sunday afternoon hanging out with thomas and friends in santa cruz.  i found out that lianne is afraid of santa - she hid her face when he was walking around on the train.  it was fun, but it's one of those things where you experienced it once and that was enough ;)

all aboard!

picture to the left - lianne is hiding from santa.  lianne had fun on the carousel - an employee gave her a couple of rings so she can toss it in the clown's mouth.



bird watching



happy birthday dad & happy thanksgiving

dad's birthday was last friday, so we decided to celebrate it on thanksgiving while everyone was together.  we also hosted thanksgiving for the first time and turkey turned out great - we brined it and i think we will brine the turkey from now on.  very moist.  go to whole foods and buy the brine mix, a lot cheaper than buying all the individual ingredients. 

pierce and lianne helping grandpa blowing out his birthday candles

we gave pierce a cars train set (early birthday gift) - the expression when i first gave it to him was priceless

family ;)

5k turkey trot

there were about 22,000 registered runners this morning at the turkey trot.  weather was a little chilly, but glad that it didn't rain on us.  i decided not to run it this year and instead cheered aaron and his friends on.  aaron ran so fast that i missed him crossing the finish line! 

before the race

brian (1st place in his age group), mike (1st place in his age group), aaron (5th place in his age group) 

aaron is towards the front - don't blink because you'll miss him ;)

emma & dexter hanging out

rain rain go away

lately emma and dexter likes to climb on top of the pillows and lay on them

and apparently on top of the sofa cushions too!  sunbathing.



what a happy girl!  i read that when you take dogs to new places to walk, it's like a party for their noses :)

playing tug-of-war



101 caller

i've been trying to win 2-day park hopper tickets to disneyland from radio station 101.3 for weeks now and today at noon, i was caller 101!!!  the other day i was caller 100 and i was thinking NOOOOO!!!  let me tell you, persistence does pay off.  :)  if i could win, so can you. 

can't wait to see all the disney characters!

happy birthday sharon

last weekend we celebrated sharon's birthday in roseville.  we started the weekend with watching ryan and jeremy playing soccer.  we saw ryan scored an awesome goal right before the half and then we headed to jeremy's game where he was a goalie.  jeremy saved about 5 balls from going in the net.  great job boys!  we also found out that dexter does not like the sound of whistles.  poor baby.

playing soccer

dinner at johnny garlic's

baby brooke

brooke came into the world on 9/30/11 and i finally got to meet her today.  she is so adorable!  i love the new baby smell - just like puppy smell.  what to get as gifts?  i decided to make blankets for brooke and bridget (older sister).  jackie loves them and thinking of having me make some for her sister.  don't worry jackie, i will send you the bill!  :)

as you can see, dexter is helping :)

blankie is so comfortable that dexter is falling asleep

ta-da! this one is for bridget.  aaron asked if i was going to keep it because it has little cute cupcake faces :)

this one is for brooke - i love the animal prints

mama and brooke

so adorable!!!  and her knittted hat was so cute too. 

oops

this is what happens when the smoke alarm is going off in the house when you forget that the pan is on the stove with oil in it.  and to quickly get the pan out of the house and turn off the smoke alarm, you put the pan on the front step of the house.  in the meantime, dexter is hiding in the corner of the bathroom because he doesn't like the sound of the smoke alarm.  to aaron's credit, the spaghetti is yummie. :)

notice the dark round spot?

yep, the pan was on the doormat - oops!  :)