The 2008 Family Photos

We are lucky enough that John's brother Philip is a photographer. So this year I hit him up to take our family photos again. Last year was so crazy we never did it. However I am very pleased with the photos we have from this year.

As you can see Brandon's idea of cooperation was that of a three-year-old. This picture is going to be one of my favorites forever. I have one picture of myself as a small child with the same face. It's still my Dad's favorite. I will try to find it for a later post.
Poor Shelby just wanted to get the whole picture experience over with. Once again, here is Brandon and his major grumpy face.

Getting closer to a smile, Shelby's still doing great.

And finally the family photo, which we actually took first, because I expected the previous attitude.

Happy Holidays from the Wood Family. Please remember little ones do not have to smile for photos. I always get my best pictures when I don't make the kids smile.

Our Fortune

Happy Thanksgiving

from our family to yours.

We have so much to be thankful for and I really try not to forget how fortunate we really are. I have a wonderful husband who is a hard worker and also the most excellent daddy in the whole world. I have two beautiful children who are smart, healthy, and make me laugh on a daily basis. We have a huge extended family and parents who constantly go out of their way to help us in any way they can. We both have jobs, Shelby is doing excellent in school, and Brandon is adjusting to preschool. Thank You God for the fortune you have given us. We hope others can be as blessed as we are.

Brandon and his Uncle

Besides Grandpa Wood, one of Brandon's favorite people is my little brother Jonathan who is seven. Brandon always talks about Johnny and looks forward to seeing him and showing him what he believes is really cool stuff (like shovels and tractors). I love the minds of little ones. They get so excited about the simple stuff, adults should do that more.

Brandon and Johnny enjoying a lollypop.

Did you notice they both even have their feet in the air?

Dad's Birthday

Yesterday my Dad turned 58 and my Grandpa agreed to let me take him for a visit. At 86 it's hard to convince him to go anywhere. I didn't have a good picture of the two of them together so now I finally have one. I love you Grandpa and Dad!

The Cowboy and the Ballerina

Well, I guess it's about time I posted the pictures from Halloween. Brandon was once again an adorable cowboy. The mustache is always a giant hit, especially with older people. (Thanks to Mom for the great addition). John and I were happy to get our money's worth out of the cowboy get-up. Real leather vest and chaps, can we say spoiled.

Shelby was a beautiful ballerina. She was very excited to wear her costume to school and Brandon was excited we let him participate in her parade.

I received many compliments on Shelby's hair. I believe this beautiful up-do only took about eight minutes and no fighting. We even added glitter hair spray. How fancy!

She looked so pretty and was really excited to go trick or treating.

I believe this year we collected more candy than they sell in an entire grocery store. Shelby ran from house to house for an hour and a half. John was exhausted. I mosied along with the little cowboy who kept collecting candy until he literally begged me to carry him from house to house, at that point we were done.

Celine Dion

Last night was absolutely amazing. John and I went to see Celine Dion and she put on an amazing show. I have always wanted to see her and finally she came Sacramento for the first time. I didn't take my camera but here are a few pictures the Sacramento Bee published. If you ever get a chance to see her it is well worth it. Thanks to John's parents for watching our munchkins so we could have this great night.

I wish they had taken more photos. Celine actually changed five times durning the show and each outfit was stunning. We actaully got our seat changed half way through the show and were only about 10 feet away from her a few times. What a great night!

A New Hobby: I'll Let You Be the Judge of That

So, I have a little story to tell. This is Baby Teddy, who my wonderful friend Sara and her family gave to Shelby when she turned one. Lately, Baby Teddy and Shelby are inseperable and Shelby decided one day that he needed a girlfriend. He must miss her when she is at school.

Aren't they adorable? I think it's especially cute at 2 in the morning when Shelby rushes in my room and askes me to find Baby Teddy because he's fallen out of bed.

Anyway, on with the story.

I decided I would need to get Baby Teddy a girlfriend about the same size as him. I also thought it would be nice for her to have a dress. So I told John I would like to get a sewing machine. He said sure, I think he thought it would be a great opportunity to make fun me for making crazy looking garments.

The next day a garage sale sign was on the mailbox, and low and behold it had a sewing machine listed.

We went by the neighbors for a quick look and I left with machine, which came with a hydrolic cabinet.

Sure it's a little old (1989), but the previous owner took really good care of it. (I payed $200 for the machine and the cabinet). That's not a bad price to start a new hobby.

This is the dress I made for Baby Teddy's girlfriend. You should have seen the first one. HAHA

I found Baby Teddy a girlfriend on EBAY she cost $3.00 and is exactly the same. (Kind of like a mail order bride)

Well I guess it was all worth it.

Aren't they cute together?

I want to give a special Thanks to Anna for helping me thread the sewing machine. You got me off to a great start.

FYI: Some of my posts from Sept. 1st got out of order, I just didn't want you to miss anything.

Brandon Becomes Famous

Brandon had an exciting day with Grandpa last week when John's brother used him for one of his assignments. He is a photographer for the local newspaper and his assignment included taking a piture of an adorable little boy eating an ice cream cone. Shelby got to do the same thing several years ago and her photograph is actually posted at Marble Slab Creamery in Folsom. Hopefully Brandon is also able to enjoy his fame for years to come.


http://www.folsomtelegraph.com/detail/91842.html

Things You Rarely See.

Well last weekend was.......... interesting? I have a question mark because what happened was so strange I could not have imagined it. It was Saturday morning and Shelby was at a sleep over with Grandma Wood, John went on a hike with his brother, and Brandon and I were just hanging out. He asked me to go for a bike ride around the block and I agreed.



All of this sounds soooo normal.



During his ride he started going too fast down a short hill and he fell off. I quickly picked him up, brushed him off, and told him he was okay. It was at that exact moment that I heard a familiar MEOW. Huh, "Paws......Sampson....." I called looking for one of our two cats. Then I looked directly below me and onto the street where I was standing over a storm drain and out popped a little head from a second drain which runs under the street. Paws was in the drain and he was not coiming out. (Hard to describe, he wasn't really stuck, he just wasn't coming out anytime soon.)



Seriously, these things always happen when the men in our lives are away. So I called the Vet to see if they had any suggestions. Yep that right, "Call the Fire Department." "Is that a myth?" I asked. Nope.



So after Brandon and I tried hopelessly to coax the cat out; we drove to the local fire station. I felt so stupid asking for help, but they said they would come out after awhile. They ended up pulling two storm drains and using the hose to chase the cat to the exit. Poor kitty, he looked like a disaster when he popped out of the drain all wet and confused. I have no idea how long he had been in there and he was sure happy to go home.



This is a picture of Paws shortly after I got him home.

Another thing you rarely get to see is when your vehicle turns over 100000 miles. It's not that I'm happy about this, I just have something about even numbers. I think I have seen this three times in my life now.

Do you have anything you've seen that's rare?

What's Been Going On?

We'll it's been some time now since I have posted anything. Over the next couple of days I hope to catch you up on the ongoings of the Wood Family.

First and foremost our little girl is now a big Kindergartener. She loves school so much she wants to be there every minute and is sad when the weekend rolls around. I remember being the same way when I was young. Oh to be young, I just don't remember when the excitement wears off.

The week before school started we made our annual trip to Monterey. Thanks to Amanda for recommending this state park (Asilomar), we had a great time. We spent all of our time here and at Dennis the Menace Park. The kids had a blast, the parents were exhausted, and we all loved every minute of our time together.

We had swimming lessons for two weeks at the begining of July and both did awesome. Shelby really suprised us and was willing to do everything she was instructed. Brandon had to be convinced to participate on some days and did great on others. Hopefully next year we will have our own pool and they can have more than a couple weeks of lessons. Swimming has always been one of my favorite things.

More to come real soon. We have so much to catch up on.

Anyone can be a Photographer

Since the kids were born I have been very good about taking them to have their pictures taken. Lately, I just don't want to deal with the hassel of dressing them up getting them into car. driving 25 minutes and having them not cooperate, while I spend $100. It's nice to have so many grandparents, but it sure is expensive. This year I decided to try and take their pictures myself, and I think I was succesful. :)

Sometimes the kids cooperate. You just never know when that time is going to be, so always have your camera ready.

Since I got my digital camera I have been really bad about printing pictures, I just burn them all to CDs and never look at them again. I recently became brave and tried Shutterfly. You can load your pictures, buy them online, and even make photo books. I have been very pleased with the way all of my photos have turned out.

If you're like me give this website a try. I think you're gonna like it!

https://www.shutterfly.com/

I'm going to become addicted to making photo books.

Great for gifts, Christmas is right around the corner.

Catching my Breath: The Birthday Week is Over!

In Spite of all the smoke we still managed to have fun over the Birthday week.

Shelby turned 5 on July 1st. As everyone can she is is extremely spoliled. She informed me "Mom, since I'm turning 5, I'm going to need a bike and a scooter. " Guess who gave in . . . it really wasn't my fault, you only turn 5 once.

We finished the night by going to her favorite resturant, the Red Robin. I ordered thsi Cinderella cake at Raley's, what a hit. I really don't think my parents treated me this good when I was five.

What happened next: We had a giant family party on July 5th. That's all I'm going to say about this one.

Then Brandon turned 3 on July 6th, Yes he also got a bike. What was he going to do, while Shelby rode her bike and scooter? It only took him a day or so, now he's riding aroung like a pro.

As you can see we are CARS fans. Lightening McQueen and Tow Mater are some favorites of his. If you haven't sat down and watched this movie you really are missing out.

We had a pizza party and took him to see Wall-E. I spent most of the time taking the kids to the bathroom. Why would you make a childrens movie 2 hours? You're probably asking why I took a three-year-old to the movies? Well I thought we already established that, I'm crazy......

From the parts I saw it seemed to be a cute movie.

We had a wonderful week. Whew. Now I need a day off to relax.

Someone's Turning Five!

This is birthday party week around this place. Shelby is turning Five on Tuesday and is so excited. We had a small party yesterday and I made these ice cream cone cupcakes. I was so happy with the way they turned out. Parties are a lot of work, but I love doing it.

For those who want to give it a try.

Use a box cake mix, and make according to the directions.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full
Add the cone to the top, just pressing it slightly into the cake mix.
Bake 15-20 minutes.
Wait 30 minutes to frost.
(Next time I want to try to squeeze ice cream into the bottom of the cones) Yummy.

More to come throughtout the Birthday week.

A Fun Filled Weekend

Sometimes everything needs to be set aside and you just need to have a good time with friends. For once in our lifetime we didn't make a plan, we just enjoyed ourselves and spent time with people we don't get to see that often.

As Brandon will tell you, this sort of lifestyle is exhausting!

I finsihed the weekend by letting Shelby get her ears pierced, she is almost 5 years old you know. We also had her hair done, what excitement, I will not be able to top this weekend for a while.

Well this the first time I'm going to post a message on our blog. Thanks Anna for being the designer that you are and sharing this wonderful way to communicate and let people see into your life. I wish I had started this earlier, but I can always make excuses for why I don't have the time.

It would be nice if we could all be a princess like Shelby, but we are adults now and quickly find out that if you want a castle and fancy clothes you have to pay for them.



Brandon has the right idea. It's okay to be crabby as long as you're cute. I don't think I could get away with this for very long. Oh, to be young again.

I have to remember to have more fun. Life isn't all about work, in fact it's not about work at all. We need to enjoy every day and make sure we play.