4 years old

You would think at 4 years old Nolan would be able to dress himself.  Well, actually, he can dress himself.  It's just what he chooses to wear that is the problem. 

He is also going through a phase right now where every 10 minutes he is asking me to take his picture.   Which is great because I get to practice. :o)  And it also makes me really wish I could upgrade me lens.  Because I am tired of the one i have. lol 

Which I am happy to do because Avalon is already at the phase where there is nothing in this world that can get her to let me take a picture of her.

I still am not gettig the look I want. But I just can't figure out what I am doing wrong. lol. Oh well. I will just keep trying.

Cheerio!!

This Weekend I finnaly decided to see if Logan was ready for some Cheerios.

He did pretty good. He kept gagging because for some reason he couldn't seem to figure out he needed to swallow them once he gummed them into total mush.

Now at any given time he has to have a cheerio in his hand or he gets upset.  He likes being so independent already. lol. We are in trouble. haha

I love how babies use thier whole hands and still miss thier mouth half the time.

 But if that fails...............

Saturday Morning

This is how the kids and I spent Saturday morning. And by morning I mean 5am because my kids are mean like that.

Watching cartoons.

Lo Ry

As his Auntie Sissy calls him. :o)

I love this pictures. I don't know why. But I just do. :o)

Snow!!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we headed up to the cabin to visit the Parents. This was the first time the kids and I have been up there since they did their big remodel. Well, it was done last time. But this time there was carpet. And Drywall. And furniture. Lol. Well I have to say that they did an amazing job and the cabin looks fabulous. I just can’t believe it’s the same one. Lol. It looks so different. And definitely bigger. :o)

I was shocked we were practically the only people on the road the entire way there. Lol. It was a beautiful day! :o)

The kids were so excited. The second we got there they were jumping out of the truck and running to play in the snow.

Poor Logan. Doesn’t he look like Ralphie from “A Christmas Story”? lol. He couldn’t even sit up in this thing. He would just fall over. Then he couldn’t move so he would lay there until someone came and picked him up. Lol. It was sooo cute.

Everyone had a chance to go sledding. Until Avalon figured out she could steer the sled herself and decided she didn’t want to go down the little track that Dan and Bill mad. And she went right over the edge of the little hill (where I fell last summer and broke my camera) and stopped a few inches from going under Dan’s Truck. So, we decided no more sledding. Usually there is more snow and we build a little wall to stop them from going down into the street. But this time there wasn’t enough snow.

Overall it was a great day and we had a lot of fun. Hopefully the next time we go back up there, there will be a little bit more snow and the kids can really get out and play.  Logan LOVED the snow. He didn't cry when he touched it (or fell over in it). He didn't cry when it started falling off the trees and fell on his face. He would just smile and laugh. It was so cute. Of course though he was never outside for more then maybe 15 minutes. So that might be why he loved it. lol

Nolan and I tried to build a snowman. But the snow was more like ice and slush since it was starting to melt. So this was the best we got. lol

Thank you Gma and Papa for letting us crash your weekend and come up for the day! :o)

Faces

Nolan always makes this face at me when I ask to take his picture. It just cracks me up. And finally I actually got a picture of him making the face.

Holiday Toy Express

(Saturday - November 28, 2009)
For the last 13 years Metrolink has done the Holiday Toy Express Train. Although this is the first year that I ever heard of it. My friend Nichole told me about it. Or else I probably still wouldn’t have heard of it. Lol.
It is also sponsored by the fire department. So they were there collecting toys. Nolan had two brand new transformers he donated that were given to him by Grandma Kathy. I was very proud of Nolan because he walked up there and put both of them in there. But he made sure to let everyone know how mad he was. When the fire lady thanked Nolan for the toy he kinda just grunted at her. Thought a minute. Then told her “you’re welcome.” Then walked away. He really did not want to give up his toys. Lol. But he still did it all by himself. We didn’t have to make him do it. So, I was very proud of him. :o)

Avalon had a little bit of a hard time too. She wanted to make sure she had a girl toy to give to a girl. So of course she picked out a toy she wanted so she would know that the other little girl would want it. And she very reluctantly gave that up too to the fire department. But not as reluctantly as Nolan. Lol.

Afterwards we headed off to the platforms to find a place to watch the train. We had no idea what to expect or where to go. It was so packed and there were so many people. Dan found a spot over by the tower where the kids could sit up on top of these big box thingies to watch the train. Dan had made some hot chocolate for everyone too while we waited. While over there we met another couple that had gone to the station downtown and had waited for over an hour. And still couldn’t get close enough to see. So this was their second attempt that night. But this time they had got some pretty good spots. :o)

The train pulled up and one of the cars was made into a stage. They had a little play too but even the kids thought the play was kinda lame. Ha-ha! Then the reindeer sang and Frosty and Santa sang. And a whole bunch of beauty queens came out. Miss California, Miss Teen California, Miss Jr Teen California, Miss Norco, Miss Corona, Miss Riverside. And a few others but I can’t remember who they were.

My dad and my little brother Anthony and my little sister Rose met up with us too and hung out with us. Avalon and Nolan were excited to see them. :o) My poor dad went all the way to the end of the platform and set up his camera and tri pod. And was getting ready to take some really good shots. And then when the train left it went the opposite way that Dan and my dad thought it was gonna go. Lol. So he only got one picture. But it is a really nice picture. I love it!! :o) Next year he will be more prepared. :o) This picture is the one my dad got.

Then after the play, and since we were the last stop of the night, all the characters got off and came and greeted everyone. There was such a huge group around Santa that we didn’t even try. But we did find Frosty and some elves. Nolan was not into getting his picture taken. :o(

As we were leaving we saw Miss California United States and Miss Jr Teen California United States still there. They were staying to give out autographs and take pictures. And they didn’t care how long they stayed. By this time all the other people (including the train) had left. So, I thought it was nice. So we got a picture of Avalon with them. And they gave out autographed pictures to Avalon and Nolan also. Which Nolan thought was soooo cool. :o)

It was a really fun night and the kids had a blast. And we will definitely be going back next year. Only next year we will be more prepared. lol

Happy Thanksgiving

Yes I am a week late. But I am trying. lol. And I didn't want to bombard you all with like 5 post in just one day. Sometimes that can be super annoying. lol.  So, onto our thanksgiving......

This was the smallest Wagner Thanksgiving I have ever been to in the 9 years I have been coming. Lol. There were only 16 people this year. For most people that probably seems like a lot. But my mother-in-law usually hosts about 25 rowdy Wagner’s each Thanksgiving.

We had a ton of fun and eat a bunch of awesome food!!!

We sent Nolan in to wash his hands before dinner. He came back soaking wet. Lol

Patti made sure to put Angie and Dan to work peeling potatoes.

Avalon was in love with Patti’s big belt. She totally wants one now. I don’t know if they make those in kid’s sizes. Lol

We all went outside and played a few games of football:

Then Baseball:

And as is tradition we got a picture of Logan trying to eat a turkey leg. :o)

It was an awesome Thanksgiving. We had such a great time and we are blessed to have so many things to be thankful for this year. Especially this year when it was the most important to remind ourselves what we had to be thankful for and to be thankful we still could. :o)

Books

If it wasn’t for my Grandma Jay, I don’t know if I would have the same love for reading that I have now. I might have. My mom read books all the time when I was growing up. So, I definitely grew up around books. But I think my Grandma was the reason I LOVE reading books.

We would watch reading rainbow everyday during the summers we spent with them as kids. She would walk with us every afternoon to the library to check out new books. Every summer we participated in the reading program/contest at the library. Every time you read like 10 books you got a prize. And a stamp on this map. And whoever finished the map first won a big prize. It was so exiting every time we got that stamp. :o)

My Grandparents are the only people I know personally who had a library in their house. They took one of the small bedrooms and converted it. Every wall was lined ceiling to floor with books. Kids books, teenage books, adults books, fiction, non fiction, national geographic magazines, encyclopedias, Time magazines.

Every year for Christmas and our birthday’s my grandparents would buy us all a book. I remember when I was reading the Sweet Valley High books. And going with my grandma to old used bookstores and looking through all the books to find whatever book I was missing next in the series. I have so many memories of reading books with her.

When my grandma died, the only thing I asked for from my grandpa was her books. And my grandpa was more then happy to have someone to pass them along too that would love them as much as my grandma did.

Avalon has to turn in a book report Every Monday. And so we spend the weekend going through her hundreds of books to find which one she is gonna read this weekend. Avalon loves that she has books that no one else has. This weekend she picked out Billy Brown: The Baby Sitter. As she was reading through the book she told asked me “Who is Jimmie Coker?” I said that is my Uncle Jim. Why? Then she showed me how his name was in the book. Then she told me the book was as old as I was “Can you believe that mom?? This book is OLD!!!”

Look how cheap books used to be?

But, I thought about my grandma. And how my uncle probably got this book for his birthday one year. And it made me really miss her. I wish that my kids would have gotten the chance to know her. And have their own memories of her. :o( But at least I know that I am passing on her love of reading to them :o) So in that small way I feel like they are getting to know a little piece of her.

Logan's Baptisim

(Sunday - Novemeber 15, 2009)

Sunday we celebrated Logan's baptism. I am starting off with this gorgeous invitation that was made by my Uber talented cousin Sara. Seriously, if you need anything done you should call her!! And the super fabulous photo taken by Lulabelle Photography. Jessica has a natural talent with pictures of kids that makes her stand out. She is so amazing and has this way of capturing photos that gives me goosebumps. Again, you should send check her out if you need pictures taken. You will LOVE her!!!

Anyhow, Vicki and Mark are Logan’s Godparents. As usual we were so excited to have them come out and visit. :o) They made Logan’s baptism candle. And I forgot to take a picture of it. So I will have to do that and add it here later. :o) Sorry Vicki. :o) It is really super nice too. They did a great job.

I love our church. They are such wonderful people and such a great community. I can’t tell you how many people we knew that came up to us during communion to tell us congratulations and say how excited they were to be there on Logan’s big day.

Nolan and Ryan thought we were so cool because we finally got to sit in the front row. Lol. We are so lucky and so blessed that we have so many family members that came to celebrate with us. We had to double up in the pew because there wasn’t enough room. Lol. And even then the rest of our family had to sit in the back pews.

Logan slept through the whole thing. THE.WHOLE.THING. He never woke up. Even when Deacon Paul poured the cold water on his head, Logan made more of a groan like he was made and tried swatting away the water with his hand. But still never woke up. That poor kid must have been tired. Lol.

There was this lady in church that kept screaming “that’s my baby!!” at us. Lol. It was kinda freaking us all out a little. So during communion when she walked by us everyone kinda gave her a weird look in case she tried to snatch Logan. Ha-ha. Someone took this picture and I just thought it was hilarious because she was in it. :o)

Afterwards we went back to the house for lunch and cake. And we even let Logan have some of his cake. And he LOVED it. :o)

** And yes he is still alive and nothing bad happened to him and we know frosting is made with milk but he didn’t have any kind of bad reaction or get sick or anything. Thank you all for being so concerned. :o)

Haley’s 9th Birthday Party

(Saturday - November 14, 2009)

This year Vicki and Mark had Haley’s birthday at our house. The nice part about that is that everyone was able to make it this year. :o) I have like a billion photo’s I want to post. It’s so hard to just choose a few. Haha. So, I will just post the pictures and tell you about them. Lol.

Vicki made this super awesome cupcake tower cake. All the kids loved it. And the cupcakes were super yummy!

Vicki and Mark brought a lot of games for the kids to play. Honestly, I think the silly string fight was the biggest hit of them all. People were getting CRAZY! :o)

Even though Logan and Jaydon couldn’t play in the silly string fight they still had fun laughing at everyone.

Ryan though, was not having any of it. If any string got on him he got a little upset and threw it off. He was having fun just riding around in the tricycle. He hooked up the little red wagon to make a train. So Uncle Dan made some couplers out of wood and hooked up the other wagon too. Lol. Ryan was having a blast taking turns driving everyone around in his train.

Just look at the mayhem of my driveway. Haha. But it was sooooo fun and totally worth it.

They also had a piñata. Piñata’s are kinda hard. Because every kid wants to be the kid to break it. And my kids always get all upset and emotional when they either 1) don’t get a turn because it breaks before they got up there. Or 2) they aren’t the one who broke it. So, while they are super fun, my kids make it a headache sometimes. Well, mostly Avalon. Haha. Nolan is a go with the flow kind of kid.

But, overall they still had a blast. At Avalon and Nolan’s birthday party my dad got a shot of Owen breaking the piñata. And we all LOVED the picture. So, I tried getting the same shot. Which was hard to do with my lens. I should have switched to the kit lens. But didn’t think of it till later. I can’t wait to get a wider angle lens. My lens I have now is too restrictive. And I just don’t like my kit lens. Lol. Anyhow, I set my camera up on continues shot and when ever anyone hit the piñata I just held down the shutter and took like 15 shots. Lol. I went through 2 memory cards during the piñata. Lol. But I got the shot I wanted. Of course though the piñata swung way over to the side. So you can barley see it. But hey at least I got it right? Lol

Usually the kids are all super scared of Emma. Just because she is a bigger dog. But this time everyone was outside playing with her and having a blast. Emma was so excited. Lol. The next day she practically slept the whole day. It was nice seeing the other kids play with her and not be scared. Because she is a big teddy bear. Lol. She loves playing with Avalon and Nolan. Especially Nolan. He loves to run and Emma loves to chase. :o)

Afterwards we all played Scrabble Slam. That game is so fun. And even the kids were able to play too. And man those kids were coming up with some good words that we adults weren’t even thinking of. If you have school aged kids it’s a good game because it makes the kids think quick how to spell. And Avalon is learning about rhyming words right now at school. So that worked really well for her too. She was kicking butt.

Great Grandpa Jerry and Logan: :o)

Cousin's

Avalon and Haley and Nolan and Ryan are the bestest of friends and cousins. I love it!! :o) My sister’s and I are very close to each other. And I love that our kids are so close too. (and someday hopefully Nikol’s too. Lol) They look forward to each visit. It doesn’t matter if we are going to their house or they are coming to our house. It’s always the same.

Someone’s kids are always outside waiting. Even though Avalon and Nolan knew that they were still 30 minutes away. They still waited outside for them just in case they magically showed up early. But it’s the same thing when we head up to Vicki’s. 9 times out of 10 we know the second we turn the corner we will see Haley and Ryan outside waiting for us.

The second the car stops everyone goes crazy running up to each other.

Haley always picks up Avalon and swings her around as they hug. One day very soon Avalon is gonna be to big for Haley to do this. And I think we are all gonna be sad.

Ryan and Nolan always go running up to each other screaming each other’s names. Lol. But they are boys. They don’t hug. This time it was “Ryan?!?!? Want to see my bakugon?” But Ryan wasn’t interested. But Nolan went and got them anyways. Lol. Usually Nolan and Ryan are sharing cars and motorcycles and trains.

I hope they are always this excited to see each other and that they grow up staying as close as they are now. :o)

Show your Support

Help support St. Thomas School by eating at Ruby’s this week. :o) 20% of your bill will be donated to the school. This is not a 20% of coupon. You still have to pay regular price. But if you turn in this flyer when you pay for your meal, Ruby’s will donate 20% of the amount of your bill to St. Thomas. It’s only good at the one at the Tyler Mall.

Just print this flyer.

Thank you!!! :o)

Stranger Danger!!

I always kind of laugh when I hear that because isn't that line from a movie or something? lol. But, it’s not funny it is very serious. This whole month at Avalon's school they have been learning about Stranger Danger and what to do and what not to do.

When I was a kid I don’t know if there was a lot of kidnappings going on or what. But I can remember a huge emphasis on stranger danger. I remember watching a Winnie the Pooh special on it at my neighbor’s house. I remember learning that you don’t talk to strangers, you don’t take candy or money from strangers, e.t.c.

I think a lot of people think it just never will happen to them. So, I would like to share with you all the times it has happened to me. And to tell you that it is so important that all of you are sitting down with your kids and talking to them. No matter how old or young they are.

The first time I can remember was in 3rd grade walking with my best friend Tara to the library. And we were walking down third street and this guy pulled over in his car and was waving money at us. He said we were too young to be walking and he wanted to give us money for the bus. But the library was only a few blocks away. So we didn’t see why he was making such a big deal about it. We just said no thank you and kept walking. He kept driving next to us waving the money at us and telling us to take the money. We were getting totally freaked out. I am sure had one of us reached into the car to take the money he would have grabbed us. We quick took of running down the street and started zig zagging through the houses because we didn’t want him to know where we lived. I even remember us hiding behind some bushes, waiting for him to drive by, then making a mad dash into Tara house and telling her mom what had just happened. I think we were very lucky we both made it to her house that day.

For as long as I can remember my family had a password when being picked up. It seems like such a silly thing to do but twice it has saved us. I think Nikol was in Kindergarten or first grade. And someone showed up at her school claiming my mom had sent them to pick her up because my mom couldn’t get away from work. They knew everything about my mom. Where she worked. About me and Vicki. So, Nikol asked for the password. But, that was the one thing they didn’t know. So Nikol refused to leave the school. I don’t remember if the school then called my mom or we just all went home and Nikol told my mom about it later. But my mom had never sent anyone to the school to pick Nikol up. To this day we never found out who that person was. But luckily my mom had taught us not to go with someone who didn’t know our secret password.

Again in 7th grade I was waiting outside my middle school for my mom to pick me up. A lady in a car pulled up and said my mom had sent her to pick me up. I thought that was kinda weird but I didn’t think she was lying either. I started walking over to the car and then remembered to ask for the password. The lady got all mad and said my mom didn’t tell her about any password. I said forget it I would just walk home with one of my friends. She kept telling me how mad my mom was going to be at me. Oh well I thought. I was a little worried that my mom would be mad. But Oh well. Better safe then sorry. As my friend and I started walking down Brockton my mom drove by. We flagged her down. She was like “why are you leaving? I am not even that late”. We told her what had just happened. My mom was in shock. She had no idea who it was and had never sent anyone.

Even when I was attending Villa Park High School. My grandpa would come and pick me up everyday after school. One day thought he didn’t show up. I just waited and waited for him. Then this car drove in the parking lot in front of the school and was yelling my name out the window. “Tiffani? Tiffani?” all up and down the parking lot. OH.MY.GOSH. I was so embarrassed. But I didn’t recognize the car or the lady from where I was at. So I just sat there. When she left I went to the office and called my grandpa. For some reason or another he couldn’t get to the school to pick me up and had sent long time family friend Susan to pick me up. But I hadn’t seen her in a while. And I don’t think I had ever seen her car. Lol. So he told me to go back and wait for her. He got a hold of her and she came to the school to pick me up.

I had a coworker when I worked at Arco. Her daughter had been kidnapped, abused, and murdered. A man had come to her house where her daughter and a friend were playing in the front yard. He said he had lost his puppy and needed help finding it. Then he took her.

When Avalon and Nolan were at the Montessori School in Corona, their teacher told me the biggest misconception kids have are that strangers are scary looking and ugly. If they know you, look normal, or are even pretty then they are not strangers. Or bad people. I asked Avalon and Nolan to describe a stranger to me. They pretty much described monsters. Lol. Dan and I had to really sit down and talk to them and tell them that bad people look normal. Just like everyone else. And that strangers could even be people they see everyday. Like the mail man. The garbage man. Whoever. Those people are people we don’t know (even though we kinda do) enough to know for sure they would never take them or hurt them.

As I told Avalon the story of my coworker’s daughter and the man looking for his puppy Avalon couldn’t believe it. She asked if that really happened in real life or was I making it up. I told her no it happened in real life. The little girl never saw her family again. Her family never saw her again. And now the little girl is in heaven. So that even if someone comes up to our house she still needs to always make sure that mommy and daddy or someone she knows is there with her.

We also have taught the kids if for some reason we aren’t there or something happened to us which houses on the street they should go to and tell them they need help or they can’t find us or whatever.

It can happen to anyone. Anywhere. Weather you live in a good area, a bad area, an ok area. But we all need to remember to sit down every so often and remind our kids and make sure we have things like secret passwords to make sure our families are safe.

To Hollywood Haley

Happy Birthday Haley!! Hope you have a wonderful fun day today! I can't wait to see you tomorrow. :o)  We are all going shopping for your birthday present today. You are one of the hardest people to shop for I have ever met. Yet oddly the easiest too. I know I just have to buy you a fabulous outfit and you will love it. Because you are so into fashion right now. At the same time, I see something I think you will LOVE and then you dont. :o)  So wish us luck today.