No Nap Joe...

This is going to be a quick post...but thought we should share this hilarious moment.

We were so excited to celebrate Grady's 2nd Birthday that we skipped naps and headed straight to the Stephen's house...the kids were going strong (Avery usually doesn't nap-more on that another time; in a nutshell...so not good) and Owen was going strong and really had a great time with all of our friends.

When we finally made it home (short stop at Home Depot of course) we quickly made dinner for fear of losing one too soon (or pre-bath). At one point Ian and I started talking about how neither of our children ever fell asleep in their food.

Please, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Well...2010 came and went...

Well, it has been a LONG time since I updated this blog, and, well, since I am laying here trying not to to have barf-o-ramma, I thought I would throw up a few pictures. BTW-day time television sucks!

Well, we have not moved, the kids are both at the same school and well, Ian and I are both at the same jobs...really, are we the most boring people you know?

Avery turned 3 in May 2010 (and is seriously almost 4). The jumpie is the best investment ever! Ian has done the math numerous times...to buy a jumpie or not to buy a jumpie, that is the question? Well, really the quesion is where to store the darn thing. As it is we are exploding out of our house.
Family pictures are a must! We got them done in June 2010...Owen was so not into it and well, Avery was into it enough for the two of them.
We love camping with our friends the Raczka's during the summer. San Elijo and South Carlsbad are the two main destinations. In 2010 we went camping for the 4th of July...doesn't Owen look like he is having a great time!?During the summer, the pre-school has all sorts of different activities. One of the days is Crazy Hair Day...Owen had more pony tails in his hair than most of the girls! This is what happened when I took them out.Owen's birthday was August and well...he has turned into such a little man. Does this remind you of anyone???

We went to visit Auntie Jen, Uncle Matt, Cousin Roman, and Cousin Sofia in Washington D.C. (Arlington, VA) October 2010. The kids were great travelers and LOVED seeing their cousins. Ian and Matt seemed to really enjoy their Bourbon tastings (or was it whiskey...don't remember, either way it was pretty much disgusting). Jen and I got some much needed girl time. Bubbie's house is great and it was so fun for all of us to hang together. The weather was cold by so welcome. It made those really warm Halloween costumes from Old Navy worth it (so cheap and easy...yes, I admit it, I took the easy route). Owen was the best dragon (flaming dragon) ever and Avery was an adorable mariposa.

We went to the pumpkin patch when we were there...holy crap, the west coast patches basically suck! There were like 5 slides, and when I say slides, I mean, like 15 foot long ones. They were super fast and the kids LOVED them!! There were chickens and roosters there too. One of them was a bit aggressive. Apparently it wanted to go on the teeter-totter. Owen wasn't done and started yelling at it. Note to self, yelling at a rooster does not necessarily make the rooster want to run away.

Here is a family picture on the old fire truck that they had at the pumpkin patch.

Owen, Avery and Cousin Sofia were all discussing why the butterfly that was up until then, sitting so peacefully on a flower, won't fly away (the butterfly's wings were totally shredded so it could NOT fly away if it wanted to), and let's face it, it wanted to. Owen kept getting super close to it and yelling, "Mari-po-saaaa". It is so cute. Obviously, Avery was getting into the nitty-gritty of the situation...Sofia was following, I think?!

Finally, we went to Ramona in the eastern (well kind of north kind of east) part of San Diego County to actually cut down a Christmas Tree this year. We met our friends, the Buscho's, and proceeded to get lost in the hundreds of trees. Can I just tell you that I was so NOT impressed by this whole experience. Note, I did not say that we would not do it again, just said I was not impressed. It took us no time to agree on a tree, however, we felt compelled to keep looking just in case. Eventually we went back to find the perfect tree and neither of us could remember where it was. We picked this other one instead. It took Ian about 2 seconds to cut the darn thing down with a hand saw...really? That was it?

Avery kept asking if a squirel was going to jump out of it. Yes folks, my kids LOVE Christmas Vacation...what can we say? I DVR-ed it for Ian and I and they ended up watching it and LOVING IT! Really though, do you blame them? Anyway, it made the holiday season fun.

Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years all had a new twist this year; the kids were totally participating and really getting into it. Avery actually got into a fight with a girl in her class about who's Hanukkah it was. We had a great time. Some friends came over and helped us eat. We decided that the sweet potato latkes were really the best!

Christmas was equally as much fun. We always host Christmas dinner. The kids got so much crap that I couldn't help but start purging...oh, do I love to get rid of stuff!!

New Years was fun, we had some good friends over and played the Wii...some dance game that made us all look like idiots. It was lots of fun. It was a great way to ring in the New Year.

Happy 2011...a little belated! :-) I will try to get a few more posts up before Avery's birthday.
By the way...something of note, Owen likes to tell you he needs a new diaper by handing you the one he was wearing. That was super cool last weekend. I was trying to get Avery some juice and Owen walked into the kitchen and handed my a poop diaper. Seriously???? That meant that he had to pull it down his legs. What does that mean boys and girls? That means that Owen had crap all down his legs. So that was a good time, Ian came walking in the front door to me yelling at Owen not to move, with the tub running and Avery trying not to spill juice all over the floor...BTW, he has no interest in potty training. WTF???

March 2010 & Today

The month of March was action packed. There will actually be two more posts just for the month's events, this post will just include some general pictures.

Auntie Jen was in town from Virginia so we got to see her. We even made a trip up to the West-Coast-Cousin's house and had a slumber party. Look how cute they all are just sitting there watching, well, pretty much anything that was on.Owen and Molly are the closest in age amongst the Segal-Fallon-Diascro-Lowe cousins but it a close second between her and their Cousin Oliver. Either way, aren't they just so cute. Do we see our daddy's kids or what?Daddy picked the kids up from school one day when it was super hot out and got them ice cream. They make such a mess but aren't they so good? I think that Ian likes to get ice cream to help them eat it. On St. Patrick's Day, landed on a day when I had to go to work and Ian met us as I was running out of the house. He dressed the kids and I had to call him as I was on my way to work to remind him to put them in Green. I had totally forgot! Oops...when Ian went to drop them off they looked very blah in relation to the other kids. He called me on the way over to Target in a mad rush to get anything St. Patty's Day-ish. Here they are after school, again, with some sort of pop. Dad!We are so lucky! Ian's mom and Terry take the kids for slumber parties so that Ian and I get some down time. Especially now that I will be back to work full time, more on that later, being sure that Ian and I are actually home at the same time for more than a day at a time is going to be hit-or-miss. So getting this time together is invaluable. Here are the kids off to Far Mor and TT's house. They have their sleeping bags on their backs and practically ran out of the door!
We have great neighbors. One afternoon Ian was sitting outside and our neighbor Matt walked over and started drinking beers with him in the driveway, ok so kinda white trash but they were having fun, then I got home from getting a much needed mani/pedi and joined them. Inevitably, Avery woke up from her nap and she came out to hang, then our neighbor's wife, Amy, and daughter came over, then Owen woke up...it was a party in the driveway! They stayed for dinner and while dinner was cooking the kids played in the sandbox, and then under the sandbox. This is a picture of my daughter in a cute pink floral dress holding a slug or a worm, she was going back and forth! She loved them. She wanted to kiss them and bring them inside. I did not get a picture of it but Owen kept trying to eat them. Grosssss!Here is Avery at the dinner table wearing Matt's Raider hat. Ok, so he is not the best neighbor in the world, he is a Raider fan. This act almost put Ian into a permanent depression.

Finally, today, just because I don't want to forget, so I had to drop off and pick up the kids today, I had a shorter day, of which I will be making up tomorrow, urgh! I was already tired and feeling like I was coming down with something so I was a little crabby. I was trying to get the kids dressed for school and into the kitchen for breakfast. I had pinned down Avery and was almost done with her clothes. As I was sitting down to put her shoes and socks on I realized I had no clue where Owen was. Usually I close all of the doors in the hallway except for the kids room and then they can run free through the rest of the house. Well, Mr. Lowe had used the restroom last and had not re-closed the door. Avery and I finally figured out he was in the hall bathroom. So I go to open the door and low and behold, it was locked. How the hell did this kid do this??? Ian had had enough forethought to put the unlocker-thingies (no, it looks nothing like a key so don't even say that is what it is) on top of the door frame. I reach up and start sticking what looks like a metal toothpick with a loop at the end through the teeny-tiny hole on the door knob. It won't open. I am starting to panic a little because I have seen what he can do to their room and it is totally kid friendly. I call Ian for pointers and as I am telling him what is going on, "click" the door unlocks. I open the door to this lovely aroma of poo. Great, well he went to the right place. That being said, I actually got the door open and this little toe-headed boy is sitting on the floor in his red fleece footy pjs, reading a book amongst the toilet paper he decorated the entire floor with. I will give him this, he did not proceed to shove it down the toilet, so he had that working in his favor. Either way, it was so hard to be made at him because he looked up at me and said, "el-fa-lent", he was reading the "Everybody Farts [Toots] book" that totally has an elephant on it. That kid is so fricken cute! So, from that point forward, the morning went off without a hitch. I got the kids to school, even remembered to write down all of the kids names in Avery's class (birthday party this year is to include her classmates-s**t). I got to work and whatever, things as usual. But gosh darn it, how the hell did I lose the sheet of paper that I wrote all the names down on and well, my shopping list for Thursday. Crap, I emailed the school but they did not know where it was when I picked the kids up this afternoon. And I know, most of you are saying, just write it down again. Well, Ian is dropping her off and picking her up tomorrow, which means he will totally forget to get the list of names, which means I will have to wait for next week to get the names to write them on the invitations, etc...Anywho...so typical for me these days. So, I had a couple of meetings in the am and through lunch. I had an ENT appointment in the afternoon, where I spent over an hour and a half to have the doctor tell me I needed tubes again. Randi, Zach is in good company if I do say so myself. Needless to say, this will be my second round. Super so fun! I got back to work just in time to check my email, schedule a few more meetings...my life is meetings, and leave to go pick up the kids. I first go to get Owen and the teacher says to me, he did not cough at all...what?? The kid kept us up all night coughing and kicked my numerous times (I had to bring him into our bed because we did not want him to wake Avery). I digress for a moment, but why do kids migrate towards mom? Ian was in the bed and has been in the bed multiple times in the past where I bring one of the kids in for one reason or another and he will have no clue. That would be because whom ever it is has decided they need to not only sleep next to me but on my pillow and typically with a limb pressed into my middle. A couple of weeks ago Avery snuck in and I did not even notice I was so tired. I woke right up when I got smacked in the face though. That was a good time. Anyway, crap, now I totally forgot where I was going with this very long story...good day overall. Tired and time for bed. And yes, to all of you who are interested, Owen has been coughing for the last 2 hours.

February 2010

The kids and I took a short trip to Sea World one afternoon after nap time. The kids love to just run around and when it is a little chilly and well, you are going in the out door because it is so late, there is no one there. It is just great. The two of them actually stood there and posed for this great picture with the fire hydrant in front of the beautiful flowers!

My mother and I had taken the kids to the Quail Botanical Gardens in North County a couple of months back and not only did they love it but so did we. We finally had the chance to drag Ian up there. Here is a picture of the kids posing along one of the trails. Avery has taken to smiling really hard. She gets so excited so really, we have no normal pictures of her anymore.

Daddy and the kido's walking towards the Children's Garden, so cute!

Another big milestone this month, Owen turned 1 and a half and well, that meant he was starting school. We were so good about starting him slowly and not making him go full days for a while. He was such a champ and really loves it now. The two of them are in different classes and therefore play in different yards. They will stand at the fence and play with eachother instead of the other kids. Good or bad, we don't know but pretty fricken cute just the same! Here's Owen at his first day of school!

San Diego is expensive, both the housing market and well, living, but it is worth it when we get a beach day in the middle of February!

The sandbox once again. This time, Owen decided it was necessary to dawn the helmet, just in case Avery got crazy.

Last but not least, here is Franny bringing up the rear. This is one of her favorite spots. She sits here with her head resting on the cross bars of the dining room table waiting for the kids to drop ANYTHING. Tell me that is not the cutest face ever???

December & January

December was a busy month for us, as I am sure it is for most families. Our kids are lucky enough to celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. So we start off with the Christmas Tree one random Wednesday even, I believe that Avery had another case of the Barf-o-Rammas but Ian was determined. Avery made it and Ian got his tree. I really don't care to be perfectly honest. We don't have amazingly tall ceilings so really, it is all about where the hell we are going to put the damn thing. There is a reason why I was born a Jew...I hate messes and displacement. Damn Christmas, and for that matter, my husband is Clark W. Griswold Jr., I think our friend Chuck takes the cake for Sir. Anywho, got the tree and we got it up in the house. Moved everything around and Ian and my dad decided that we should get a train this year. Ian chose the Lionel Christmas Train. It blows smoke (lol-no pun intended), lights up and sings Jingle Bells. Ian loved it and honestly, so did the kids. Here is Owen being so helpful. He was playing with a singing dradle while sitting in the Christmas Tree Star box.Every year my mom comes over and we make Hanukkah dinner, including latkas and anything else we could come up with. This year my mother was bringing the brisket and Ian was trying to kill dinner...a young woman on a moped. The woman was ok and Ian's truck and our children weren't the wiser. Lots of excitement for one night though! Happy Hanukkah. After that ordeal we did not really have lots of fun pictures to capture the rather unusual evening. Although both kids loved their presents and Avery and Owen both love the princess dress up box!

Christmas was fun. We did Christmas Eve dinner at our house and the kids got so many presents. OMG-I was wondering why we would even bother giving them anything from Santa. But we did. My stomach was not feeling so great so I was unable to capture most if not all of the kids playing. Here is Owen riding his new bike in the living room; not sure which is more exciting, the bike or that it is in the house.

So after all of the festivities were over we shoved everything we could into the dishwasher and proceeded to put together a kitchen and to wrap all of the remaining presents. Oh, and put them out because of course Santa had not come yet. What a nightmare, we have a new found respect for parents at this time of year...f**king Santa, you can't call ahead and tell the kids you are dropping stuff off early on account of all the other parents you have to torment!?? Oh well, the kids had a blast and we got to go to two more houses on Christmas Day. This is our living room after Santa's visit.

January was a rather mellow month. Avery and Owen in this photo are enjoying the sand-crab their Auntie Leah got them. They really love that thing. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a happy and healthy new year...belated!

First Trip To Disneyland!

Ok, this will be my last post for tonight. I was supposed to run and that did not happen nor have I eaten yet. Ian will kill me when he finds out how late I am staying up to write this "stupid blog". Screw him, he is not home...

We went to Disneyland in late November right after they put up all the Christmas decor. Can I just say that it is pretty much amazing! I am going backwards but I have to follow that statement with a picture...the "Princess Castle".The first ride we went on was a sure thing, the Merry-Go-Round...the kids loved it! Starting off to a good start.

Then we were off to Dumbo's Ride. This is very similar to Elmo's Ride at Sea World. This too we knew would go over well...

Ok, so then we, ok maybe I, thought we should try Alice In Wonderland...I believe that Ian leaned back to me and said something the effect of "What the f**k were you thinking?" So maybe Avery was freaking out and sitting with him to boot. How was I supposed to know? We limited our indoor rides.

Avery loved Autopia. She got to drive! Owen and I watched. Owen was too short to go. Poor kid.

This picture should pretty much cover how Avery felt when she saw her first princess walking down the street...

Ian, the amazing daddy that he is, waited in line with Avery to meet the princesses. It took them 1.5 hours. Of course they were half way through when Avery announced that she had to pee. They had to get out of line and go pee and then wait again. Ok, so maybe I could have gotten in line in their place but we did not really think about that till after. Owen was napping so I missed out on a lot. Ok, not really, we hardly saw Disneyland. The best part is that we all actually had a good time. On that note, we have decided that we are going to have to go back...Thurs and Friday of this week we will be at California Adventure and Disneyland. It should be even more fun. Owen will actually get to participate. We are all excited! Stay tuned for more pictures.

Ok, I am going to bed. I will attempt to pick up where I left off tonight tomorrow night. Hope this quenches your thirst for now!

The Update Continues...November

Well, poor Franny, she has taken to understand that she is last in the Lowe Family pecking order. We still totally love her but well, as you can see, she gets tormented all the time! She is so good and often gets up with a "harrumph" to walk away from the tornado's of love she is so lucky enough to experience.

This picture was taken in our side yard. We have this amazing maple tree that I just LOVE! This was supposed to be our holiday card but well, I forgot to upload the pics from the camera so we got the "hole" instead. Oh well...don't mind Avery's red headband. She had to have it!

Every November is the Susan G Koman Breast Cancer 5K. We always walk with Melissa and her family in support of her mother's amazing triumph over breast cancer; Becky you rock! I look forward to it every year and well, it seems that the last couple of years the number in my party has grown. Here you are, fortunate enough to witness a potty emergency, thanks Melissa for snapping this one. We are going to use this in years to come, I can feel it! Anyway, this was towards the end of the walk and we were on the 163 North...when can you say you actually took a dump on the 163?! BTW, any parents in the potty world, this potty is amazing. It folds into itself and uses a disposable bag, like poop bags with a mini Chuck's Pad in it. It is the best thing ever!

Ian and I went to Lake Tahoe for Ronna's wedding without the kids. It was great. Devon and Dave were our traveling buddies and well...they are the best people to travel with ever! We love them a little...ok, that sounds a little scary but back off!

This is one of the trees in the parking lot of the In 'n Out on the way up the mountain. I kinda thought it was amazing!

As many of you know, I allowed Ronna and Heavy to get married on my birthday. I know, it was a difficult decision but I thought it was the right thing to do...just kidding, I was honored to share the date with such great people! What a great weekend...everyone had so much fun and Ronna and Heav had perfect weather for a perfect wedding!

My birthday breakfast with Ian, Devon and Dave...

The happy couple! Seriously, a good time was had by all, and look at them, Heavy is smiling and not even showing the finger! Congratulations guys!