San Diego

We are here in sunny SD visiting my inlaws. On our way down, my youngest sis called to say that they were visiting her inlaws also. So the Chase family came to visit. Andrea and I went to a SB store called "Scrapbook Your Life". I had never been there before and it is only 10 min. away. How did I miss that? No idea. It is 5,000 square feet and looked like it will be a great place to visit when they get all of their CHA stock in. But they had a great selection of Technique Tuesday stamps that I love. I will be back on our next visit!! Then we took all 11 of us to one of my favorite restaurants - Fellipe's. They love kids there and bring them pizza dough balls to play with. It was a fun day. My sis's family went back to her sister-in-laws house and today we are going shopping for kids jackets. Grandma Zsa-Zsa has decided that the boys need denium jackets and who am I to say "NO"?

Another New Years Resolution

To be a better blogger. I need to take the time to type my own as well as read those of people I know.
I think "The Cold" has finally left our house. It stayed for about 5 weeks and was very unwelcome. Randy and I both took sick days for the boys and none for ourselves. I miss the time when a sick day meant I could stay in bed all day. One of the days was just for Christian and he was very excited that it would be just the 2 of us, even though he was sick. Poor kid has gotten the short end of the stick since The Twingles were born. I am going o keep the twins at day care on Friday for the holiday and just spend the day with him. But it will have to be at home since Randy's car is going in for brake work and he will have the van. So no outings for us. But we find something fun to do.

ABC Tag

Here's my try Liz.
ABC Tag.

A - Available or taken: Very taken
B - Best friend: My loving hubby!!
C - Cake or pie: I will always take cake first. YUM!!
D - Drink of choice: Water with lots of ice
E - Essential item you use everyday: my new smartphone, how did I live without it?
F - Favorite color: Has always been blue - any shade will do but I love dark blues.
G - Gummy bears or worms: Can't stand either.
H - Hometown: Born in San Luis Obispo, but spent ages 12-22 in Fresno, where my family is.
I - Indulgence: shopping, shopping and more shopping!!
J - January or February: I like them both - My wedding ann. is in Jan. but our first date ann. in Feb. 14. But Liz is right - more days off in Feb!!!
K - Kids & names: Christian, Sebastian and Alexander - Yes, they all have 9 letter names..
L - Life is incomplete without? My noisy messy family
M - Marriage date: Jan. 14, 1995
N - Number of siblings: 2 younger sisters
O - Oranges or apples: oranges - very cold if possible
P - Phobias or fears: something happening to any of my family members
Q - Fave quote: "This is true love - you think this happens every day?"
R - Reason to smile: All of my blessings
S - Season: I love Winter for the warm clothes, but Summer for the no school!
T - Tag 3 or 4 people: Andrea, Tracy & Eugenia
U - Unknown fact about me: I can't think of one.
V- Vegetable you don't like: The ones that taste icky - cauliflower. YUCK!!
W - Worst habit: disorganization. I am working on it though!!
X - Xrays: My knees - about 6 years ago.
Y - Your fave food: Pasta, pasta, pasta!!
Z - Zodiac sign: Pisces

That was fun!!

Family

Recent events have made me think more about family. While at my uncle's service I was watching my extended family. I thought about how close I was to the ones that I saw a lot when I was growing up and how little I know of the lives of those that I only see at funerals and weddings. Since my mom is the baby and 10 years younger than her next youngest sister, my cousins were mostly pre-teen and teenagers when we were born. So we went on their dates with the ones that lived nearby and were treated like younger siblings. Growing up, I aways knew that I would be able to sit down with any of them and catch up in an instant. Their children went on my dates and were in my wedding. Even now, though I only see them for holidays and when we visit my family, I know that they will be there and already know everything I have done since the last time I saw them (this is because of the amount of time our moms talk). I realized what a great comfort it was and is to have this relationship with them.
Where I am going with this is - I wonder what kind of relationship my children will have with their cousins when they are adults. Since Randy is an only child, they only have my sisters' 5 kids. And with us living here and the rest of them in Fresno and Selma, they only see eatch other once a month at the most (usually every other month). But they seem to fall into that love/dislike cousin relationship so easily. I feel in my heart that they will always have a special realtionship because my sisters and I make sure that we all spend time together. And I plan to do everything in my power to help them nuture these relationships and to realize how important they are.

Thanks

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the kind emails and posts. We did have another death in out family on Christmas Eve. Randy's uncle passed away. He was supposed to fly to Washington for the funeral, but his mother came down with a cold and worried she wouldn't travel well. So needless to say, Dec. was not a good month for us. But we are doing better.

Looking at Liz's blog made me realize how long it has been since I last posted. Life has been just one big ball of stress. We had an illness in my extended family that was very heart wrenching. But now my uncle is at peace and I am grateful for that. I am just sitting here waiting for Randy to get home so that we can head north for tomorrow's funeral. I am bummed to be missing the rosery tonight, but at least we will be there for the service. More after I get back. Need to finish loading the van.

My Elf Name

Christmas Elf Name My Christmas Elf Name is Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com

Xander cleaning his feet

He is sucking the sand off his feet. Sebastian decided it looked fun, so he tried it. By the time we got home they both had sand mustaches.



Don't you wish you were this limber? Click on picture for the video.

November - Late Afternoon - So. Cal

Today after the boys' nap we decided to go walk on the beach. We brought water and towels to rinse off our feet. But we didn't think they would get so wet and sandy, so there went our plans to go to Target afterwards. That was fine, they had so much fun!! Don't you just love So. Cal. weather? These were taken around 4:30 and it was so beautiful! Not chilly at all.

Alexander











Sebastian

Christian

Halloween

I tried to post these pictures on Tuesday night, but my computer froze and I was too tired to continue. We had a busy day, Randy and I rushed to Tutor Time so that we could see all 3 boys in their costume parade. They looked so cute. Then we sat with the twins while they had their party. What an experience it is to party with 16 two year olds high on sugar.
Here is Sebastian with his cupcake and Xander with his juice.
The boys loved Trick or Treating so much they were upset when we arrived back home.

Standing in the highchair

The twins hate to wait in their chairs for everyone else to finish eating. So Randy was taking Alexander out and wiping him down when Sebastian decided that he would stand on the tray. I missed the actual slide to this position, but I heard it and we felt a picture was worth the wait. I don't think Seabass thought so. I wonder if he will stand on the tray again. Who am I kidding, he will.

The Pumpkin Patch

The twins have been driving me crazy with all of their "pupin" talk. If they see one, they have to yell the word over and over until I say it back to them. This can make the quick trip from daycare seem so long. So today we finally made it to the pumpkin patch. They had fun, but for some reason they were very camera shy. We did have to talk them into the hayride, but I think they enjoyed it once it was started. And they chose 2 pumpkins each, a sugar baby and a miniture decorative one. They even took their naps cuddling them in their arms. I so wanted to sneak in and take a pic, but I wanted them to sleep more so. Here is another pic of just my guys.

You can see how happy the boys are to see the camera.

Christian and Randy went to the MiraMar Airshow on the 13th and seemed to have a lot of fun. Here he is with his new toys. They ended up leaving before the Blue Angels were on, but we were able to see them from Zsa-Zsa & Pops house.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I forgot to mention that I made the muffins that Margie Romney-Aslett mentions in her blog. They are sooooo good. I halved the recipe and still made 2 1/2 dozen. YUMMY!!

Jury Duty

I had jury duty today. After some suggestions from Randy and Liz, I took the laptop and some movies. Itstarted out great, I was able to get an internet connection way before anyone else. I think it was because Randy had been there in April and the computer must have remembered the pass code. So I was able to check email and web pages, but then their internet system crashed at 11:15 and never came back on. I did watch 3 1/2 movies though- Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Flightplan, Grosse Pointe Blank and Signs.
No one was called for any cases and they didn't let us go until 4:30 - Bummer, no shopping for me, had to go get the kiddos.
Tomorrow we are off to San Diego so that Randy and Christian can go to the MiraMar Airshow. Hopefully it doesn't rain so much that the Blue Angels are grounded, they are the main reason the guys want to go.
Bye!

Fencer Boy!!

I want to share my favorite pic of Christian's new hobby/sport. He loves it so much. And it is a great thing for he and Randy to do together. They are having so much fun and they both won medals at the mini tournament they had a few weeks ago. So proud of my guys!!

Pedicures are wonderful!!

I went to have my fill tonight and decided that I needed a pedicure. Sorry, Liz. I couldn't wait. I love the feel of my feet right now, though I was a little embarrassed that I had not shaved my legs in a couple of days, oh well. I should take a picture of my pretty toes. I was bummed that I did not make it home before the twins' bedtime, but I will see them bright and early in the morn.

The Big Fresno Fair

We drove up to Fresno early Friday morning so that we could all go to the fair with my side of the family. Everyone was there except Tisha and Troy. We did go and see what Tisha had entered and we were amazed at her great trailer.

Very impressive.

The four middle kids had a lot of fun together. They panned for gold...

And rode on many rides together.

Then it was back to the Chase house for Mom's famous tacos. Tracy and Rich even stopped by. Later that night we sat in the Chase's new entertainment room to watch the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica. My sisters and I went to a few scrapbook stores befor we went home on Sat. afternoon. It was a great 2 days! The twins did a wonderful job at the fair, they even walked most of the day and did not melt down until it was time to go home.

Blog Title

You are probably wondering about the name of my blog. If you know our children well, you will understand why we call all 3 of them "Monkey". And there always seems to be some form of insanity going on here. So that is the reason - insane, right?!

SOOOO Stupid

Do you ever have those "stupid" moments, there is no other way to describe it.
Yesterday I paid the boys' day care bill when I went to pick them up and threw my wallet into Christian's backpack so that I could carry the twins to the van. This morning I get to work and remember that I have to mail a check off and realize that I don't have my checkbook. I forgot to get it out of his backpack. I franticly call Tutor Time and find out that the bus has already taken C to school. luckily they are able to call the driver to get it out of his bag before they reached school.
Then on the way home, my gas light goes on and I forgot that I had no wallet until I got to the pump. So I had to pray very hard that I would make it to TT to get my wallet before I ran out of gas. Thankfully I did and no harm was done.