My JD Man

Boys and their Toys

Back in February Will took Liam for some father-son time to the World Ag Expo (formerly known as the Tulare Farm Show). This place is like mecca for these boys. It's the "Promised Land". They got to explore about 2.6 million square feet of tractor exhibit after tractor exhibit. Needless to say, Will ended up purchasing a nice wagon while they were there. Liam had a wonderful day, but was very disappointed that the keys were not in any of the tractors. During the beginning of the day he kept asking Will where the keys were. Will explained that he wouldn't be finding any keys in these tractors today because little boys like Liam might take off in them. This answer seemed to satisfy Liam and they proceeded through the rest of their day looking at the latest and greatest tractors and other farming equipment. At the end of the day they ended up at a Kubota exhibit. Will was talking to the Kubota guy, while Liam climbed in and out of the tractors. All of a sudden, Will heard, "Hey dad this one has the key in it!!!" Will said it was like one of those slow motion moments as he was yelling NOOOOOOOO running towards the tractor. Luckily he made it in time to stop his curious son from firing that baby up!!! Good times!

All About Aubree

After a little conversation with the Wild Woman aka Curlytop aka Miss Paige aka Aub (Will hates that one) aka Aubree, I decided that I would dedicate a post to her. Since she was born, Aubree has had the ability to make me laugh. I used to say she must sprinkle some kind of fairy dust on me that makes it hard to be mad at her. I know...this is not always a good thing because she has a bit of a wild streak (hence the nickname "Wild Woman". However, she is vivacious, independent, funny, smart, and is completely fearless. She is sugar with a LOT of spice! This morning Aubree says to me, "Mom you can watch the news now because I am going upstairs to play in my room." I said (dripping with sarcasm), "Well geez, thanks Aub, how nice of you to give me permission to watch something other than Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends." She laughed and said, "Your welcome". Then I said, "I think I am going to just put some music on." Aubree, "Yeah, turn it up so I can shake my booty and make you laugh!" I find the music channel and turn it up. Aubree jumps around and starts shaking her "money maker". I of course start busting out laughing because you just can't watch this wild woman dance without doing so. She stops when the song is over and says quite triumphantly, "See I told you I can make you laugh!" Oh, how she makes me laugh.

I know, I know

Alrighty then, it's been a while since I posted. Yes, it's the usual excuse...I'm super busy. However, I have been newly inspired (thanks to my good bud Amy) to keep all my blogs updated. I know, you are thinking what does she mean ALL her blogs, she barely keeps up with this one? Well, Amy and I (mostly Amy) have gone global in the bloggersphere (is that a word?). So, like I said I am motivated once again and inspired to keep the posts coming!! I have a ton of pics on the computer that are just screaming SLIDE SHOW. That's on my list of things to do tomorrow. What am I talking about? It's technically Sunday, I have a bad case of insomnia for some reason tonight. Anyway, I am off to try to catch some ZZZZ'S.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

The holiday season has been of course CRAZY!! However, my holiday decorating is done...thanks to the Holiday House Tour. Yes that's right, I being the crazy lady that I am agreed to have my house on the Holiday House Tour which was the weekend after my last week of school. So, I was a little busy this last week. However, everything is done and over, I completed my final assignment on Friday and by Saturday my house was clean and decked out for Christmas. The house looks great. We ended up with three trees. It's kind of a funny story. We have been going to this place called Wiley's tree farm where you cut your own tree. I have to admit they are not the prettiest trees (I prefer Nobles)however, the kids have a lot of fun when we go. Mr. Wiley is very nice, he gives the kids tractor rides, hot chocolate and best of all they get to cut down their own tree. This year I wanted a noble tree because it would be prettier. Well the kids weren't having any of that, they wanted to go to Wiley's. So, we made a compromise, I would get a Noble for downstairs and they would get their Wiley tree for upstairs. Then they thought it would be fun to make their tree a John Deere tree. However, when we got the tree home it was too bushy and it had ants (yikes). So, we put clear lights on it and put it out on Sydney's balcony. Problem solved right? Wrong..they still wanted to have their John Deere tree (we couldn't put ornaments on the tree outside because of the wind). A friend gave us her old fake tree and ta-da we had three trees and everyone was happy. The John Deere tree was a big hit on the tour. I'm sure this has started a new tradition of having a "kids" tree upstairs. Aubree already has plans for a pink princess tree.

Halloween Fun

We did the usual carving of the pumpkins. Of course Aubree thought she could do it all by herself. She did most of the work except for the carving. She drived right in and cleaned it, didn't get grossed out at all. It took me a while to come up with a costume idea for Liam, since his idea was to be a center pivot (don't ask)and get this...Aubree could be his booster (it's a farming thing). Finally, I thought since Aubree was going to be "Dorothy" he could be "Scarecrow". Sydney wasn't going to dress up...you know she is too cool for that now. However, a friend of ours had a good idea that she and her cousin Brooke could be beauty pagent queens. Brooke was "Miss Beverly Ct." and Sydney was "Miss Spreckels Rd." So, that was settled. We went trick-or-treating then ended the night at our friends house for a Halloween party.

A Lot of Catching Up to Do!

Well, on Friday the 12th I completed the CalStateTEACH program and now have my teaching credential. I am already enjoying my newfound free time. So, needless to say the story of my life for the past three months has been that I have had little time to do anything other than work, take care of family, and school. Even though it is December I am posting stories and pictures as far back as our trip to Borchard Farms to get pumpkins. Jennifer and I found this place when we first moved to King City and it began sort of a little tradition for us. Borchard Farms is just outside of Salinas and they have every kind of pumpkin, gord, and squash you can imagine. This of course includes the GIANT pumpkins. The kids love it and we always have a lot of fun. This year we went during the giant pumpkin weigh off. They had a haunted house, corn maze, and jump house. Lots of fun for all.