I love this man..

I love this man because...

He always tells me I'm beautiful

He will go out and get treats if I ask no matter how much I have made him promise not to buy treats

He never complains if the house is messy, he will just help me clean up

He never questions the way I mother our children

He is an amazing father and our girls adore him

He is a very thoughtful husband

He will get up in the night with one of the girls and still get up with them in the morning so I can sleep a little extra, without complaint

He works hard and is a great provider

He is happy for me to stay home with the girls

He speaks a foreign language

He makes me feel safe

He never complains when I spend too much money

He eats whatever I cook and always says its delicious

He's very supportive of my trips to England and is accepting of my family even though they are a little different

He has a great sense of humor

He is handsome and sweet and kind

And when I asked him to build me a picnic table he did, and its brilliant.

Loving the rain

Lots been happening but too busy to blog. Kate started a little pre-school class at the Burbank Rec Center, just 1 1/2 hours twice a week, she's been twice and says its fun. Its nice to spend some one on one time with Sara, she loves the park so we play. It rained Friday and Saturday, as the dark clouds rolled in Kate got ready for the rain, boots, jacket and umbrella, and stood outside for about 1/2 hour before the 1st drops fell just waiting and asking every few minutes "is it going to rain? is it raining yet?" then when it finally did she ran around with her arms in the air shouting "Its raining, its raining" they love the rain, it must be the Brit in them, I love the rain too. Whilst it rained there was nothing better to do than fire up my oven and bake rosemary bread. Also a shout out to my fab friends who went out for Indian food with me to celebrate my birthday and for surprising me with a beautiful, shiny new canning pot, once I get 5 spare minutes I am going to go crazy on canning tomato jam and sweet hot peppers.

And sweet Sara, she is now 14 months and does some real cute stuff (along with the crazy wild stuff) she will sign please, thank-you, hot and fold her arms for prayer. She first did all of this stuff about a month ago and then refused to do it again but recently she has started again, this morning I sat with her and I prayed over our breakfast, after I finished she looked at me and folded her arms to pray, it was so cute. She is getting so big and I am slowly realising that my little baby is growing up so fast.

Farewell old friend...

Today is my birthday, the big 30, I'm not into big parties, I like quiet birthdays with Eric and the girls and how they make me feel special. Today they spoiled me and got me the new camera I have wanted for ages and so I bid farewell to my old trusty camera that I have loved for over 3 years, my 3 mega pixel has been replaced with an awesome new 8 mega pixel cannon powershot digital elph, its wonderful. Thank-you to all of my friends who called and wished me a happy birthday, it makes me feel special to know that you thought of me. I also have the sweetest in-laws, they gave me cash and I went to The Citadel today and bought a Le Creuset pot that I have been coveting for quite a while.

Here is my new camera in action capturing my two angels, I was really hoping that they would both nap today and at the same time but that wish was way to big, neither of them napped, poor Sara is just having a rotten time with her new teeth, one has broken through and another one is following closely behind. Kate loved having her picture taken with my new camera, she had just gotten out of the bath as she had thrown up at the outlets. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day and I can dream big again about the naps - see all of my 30 year old wisdom is already kicking in!!

Time flies...

Wow, how time flies. Today the girls were eating dinner and I looked at Sara, it seems that just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. A sweet and calm bundle and now here she is, generally she doesn't like to sit in her high chair anymore and wants to be just like her big sister, I cut her food into small pieces and she won't eat it, she likes it just like her sisters. I'm not sure if Sara realizes that Kate has 20 teeth and she only has 1 that is barely braking through but let me tell you, she's a little slower but can do almost the same job with her 1 tooth and gums that any other kids can with their mouthful of teeth.

I love having 2 girls, here is a snapshot of them in their matching dresses, before I had 2 girls I would have maybe called this tacky but I think they are adorable and I am amazed at how many times I buy them matching or co-ordinating things.

And I just couldn't help posting this one of Sara in her bath robe, its a hand me down from Kate and just as she looked adorable in it, so does Sara. And Kate in her jammies, she picks out her clothes and gets dressed all by herself, she takes care to make sure things are the right way round, tags in the back etc and recently has named some of her shirts 'running shirts' and pants 'running pants', I have no idea why but in the mornings she will be looking for her running shirt and pants and I'm not quite sure yet why one shirt is a running shirt and another isn't but she'll keep searching until she finds one. Oh! how I love these two girls.

Beach day

As we missed the beach last weekend we decided to take the girls today, we surprised ourselves at how long we lasted, we left our house at 9am and didn't leave the beach until 3pm. We had a great time splashing in the waves, which were huge by-the-way, and playing in the sand. We even saw 2 seals and a dolphin.

Heading home

The last few times I have returned from England I always say that I won't be going back for a few years but this year is the same as any other, I just booked a flight for Kate and I at the beginning of December for my annual pilgrimage. Why do I claim that it will be a few years between visits? probably money is my #1 reason, at $600 a ticket it gets pricey but this year Eric discovered his 46,000 american airline miles would expire at the end of the year, this left me with a dilemma, even though that is enough for 1 free ticket it would still be $600 for another, do we use the miles at an expense of $600 for an additional ticket? to save money should we let them expire? should we use them to travel somewhere else other than England? I'm not sure what it is but after almost a year of being away I do feel a yearning to return to my homeland, to feel the sharp cold of an English winters day, to see the familiar streets and stores, to enjoy simple things like authentic fish 'n' chips. What is it about a greasy, starchy, heart attack waiting to happen kinda food that is in the least bit appealing? I'm not sure they in their own right taste all that divine but growing up we would go to Blackpool, Fleetwood or Southport and when utterly chilled by the biting winds my parents would buy us fish and chips, we would eat them on the pier and they would warm us up from the inside. I have heard a thousand times what some people think about British food but for me maybe the taste is in the experiences and the memories that come back to me, I must also make a mention that English food is not all fish and chips though, there is lots of good food to be had in England. So on December 1st Kate and I will take to the skies, she is really excited, she woke up this morning and asked if we were going today, I can't wait to take her to do fun things and have some one on one time with her. Why are Eric and Sara staying home? Well for Eric's answer he must blog that himself, needless to say he would rather be at home, he is not really one for travelling and the prospect of taking our mile a minute 1 yr old on a 15 hr flight was not overly appealing. I hope its a win win situation, Eric gets a vacation at home, Sara gets some one on one time, I get to fulfil all of my English longings for another year at least and Kate gets to fly on an airplane, something she has longed to do for quite a while now, and to top it all off we will be here for Christmas, in our own house with our girls not having to rush off anywhere.

grand plans.....

Hope you all had a fun holiday weekend, we had all of these grand plans for a fun holiday weekend, included was the beach but... Sara got a fever, 103.8°!! Yikes!! We don't know why, is it that 1st tooth that is finally beaking through? It began Saturday and by Sunday night it was gone but we decided to lay low on Mon just in case. Thanks Amber and Brooke (who I called at 10pm and she still picked up the phone) for great advice. We just swam all weekend and last night took the girls for an ice-cream cone, no better way to cool off during these hot evenings.

Finally here are Sara's 1 yr pics, I've had them for a few weeks but not gotten round to posting them yet.