Late spring getaway.

Brayden took his first plane trip to visit his Grandpa Jacks and Grandma Ann. There house was full of fun things to do. They were in the middle of preparing for a craft show in their area. Lots of soon to be finished projects mostly consisting of glass and glass parts filled the house. You can imagine the result when you let a toddler loose in those conditions. He did great with no glass casualties. My nerves are still recovering. I felt like a broken record. "be careful" and "that is dangerous" and "don't touch" are words I need to eliminate from my vocabulary for a few days. We had lots of fun checking out the newly built garage full of all of their projects. I learned how handy a kiln could be in my life and now am shopping Craigslist for one. They melted wine and liquor bottles and made cutting boards, dishes and nightlights. They were still cooling off when we left so we do not have any photos of the end result to share. It was very fun to learn how to re purpose bottles for cool art. Brayden logged many hours riding/ climbing/ standing on top of/ running circles around the tractor. I think he would like one of these at the house as much as I would like a kiln similar to theirs at our house.
Playing in the last of the season snow up in Tahoe. His Ugg boots had little tread. Frolicking in the snow was a very brief event.

Feeding Grandpa's horses.

Posing in front of the Truckee River

Interfering with neighbor lady's skee ball game at Circus Circus. Circus Circus still seemed to be in original condition from my childhood. I did notice that the flying trapeze circus people seemed to be missing.

The all day candy fest

5:35 am. The Easter Bunny comes early to the Jacks. The Easter bunny tried to be very green this year. Bringing a few recycled toys and books while reusing Christmas wrap. Knowing that toys and candy are not lacking in our house he wanted to make sure we had plenty of everyday items such as vitamins, socks, Tylenol and a toothbrush. Since 4 back teeth are coming in there are lots more teeth to brush.

Our talented boy. Already unwrapping Hershey wrappers with perfection.

Bypassing the plastic hot dog for eggs with treats. Can't fool this one.

Silly bunnies in the kitchen. Since my mom did not assign people specific items everyone brought dessert. Still recovering from all the sugar.

More candy from Uncle Jason.

Hope everyone had a happy Easter. !!!!

Eggcelent Times

You would think it is spring break for me or something like that. On the contrary, more work ( thanks to the stimulus package) than I can handle. But that is an good thing. Crafting and baking like I have the time. I guess I need a distraction from this one single loan that has dominated my week. Normally I am not the kind of person that complains about work in a public forum, but there is a strong possibility that the offending loan will not get approved and I could have been spending the energy on loans that will actually generate income. But that is the lovely life of sales. It has me looking forward to Easter and all of the fun events and traditions leading up to it. Opening a surprise Easter package from Grandpa Jacks. Sand toys, birds and bubbles. Fun.
Discovering the Easter Bunny's stash in a undisclosed location.

Our 2009 Easter baskets. I am not that happy with the way they turned out. They are not as stiff of as polished as I would like. I am chocking it up to learning the ins and outs of applique. They hold eggs and treats so they will do the job for this year.

Dying Easter Eggs. Tony choosing to chat rather than color. I think these eggs will end up in a spinach salad for tomorrow.

Braving the crowd at the YMCA egg hunt. We got placed with the 3 year old group due to the overcrowding of the 2 year old group. We ended up with 3 eggs.

Community Camping

Loving riding bikes around the harbor.

Our clever idea for a bed for Brayden. A 2 man raft from Walmart. One night it worked great 2nd night was not so successful. It is great for storing dirty clothes.

Hanging out at camp.

Last weekend we had our first family camping trip to Doheny Beach for Tony's birthday. Brayden had lots of fun playing on the beach and riding bikes around Dana Point. He came down with a cold the last night we were there so we had had very little sleep our last night. So did our neighbors. It was freezing at night but sunny and warm during the day. We ate only one meal at camp. We had dinner with Tony's cousins at then hit happy hour and Wind and Sea the next night. That is my kind of camping. No dishes. After this trip we are ready to step up our camping trailer search. Even though we have no where to store it.

16 months already

Tony's birthday present- a baby bike seat. Just what he has always wanted. We plan on putting it to good use camping this weekend.

Celebrating 16 months with PB & J.

Enjoying his new handmade table from dad in his room. We are big fans of the Fischer Price little people in this house.

Spending St. Patricks day at Sea World.

The last coat of stain that is almost dry on Brayden's play table. A belated birthday gift for Brayden but well worth the wait. Tony used poplar wood so it can withstand lots of abuse. I think it will double as a coffee table as soon as he outgrows it. We have been collecting surf fins over the last couple of years from our trips to Hawaii, garage sales and Tony's own broken board heap. I think we finally have an idea to put them to use. In the meantime the are fun to dump out and scatter on the new almost dry table.

The critter magnet

We have a new ( well new to us anyway) kitchen that lives on our deck. Brayden loves to put anything he deems valuable in there. Telephones, snacks, drinks, toys, car keys. You get the picture. Lately the snacks and drinks have attracted some unwanted attention by the critters in the neighborhood. Opossums especially. So for now I am cleaning up two kitchens constantly.

Yesterday we had some fun down at Cardiff Reef before going out to breakfast.

Everything is a telephone these days. Even rocks.

And lastly- I always post well try to post my projects but have yet to post any of Tony's. He just finished a false beam ceiling for a client in Leucadia. It looks amazing.

Enjoy your Sunday!

February so far....

Bath time with Grandma
Smelling the flowers.... Yes this is the classic Brayden expression letting everyone know he is smelling something. Very dramatic and very funny considering he is actually sniffing out. Sort of like blowing his nose but not really.

A family breakfast favorite peanut butter toast.

First visit to the zoo with both Grandmas.

Celebrating Valentines Day with special treat discovered in his Valentines bag. Al Dente the puppet now also resides with us.

This month has been quite crazy actually. Thank goodness we had Tony's mom Wendy here to help us out. We are still getting settled into our new place and we are suddenly and gratefully overwhelmed with work. It has been refinance mania at my work. I have been working crazy and odd hours and Tony has been keeping very busy with his work. It was not all work and no play though. Over these past few weeks we have managed to take a trip to the zoo, several trips to the park and beach, Storey time at the Library, catching up with cousins, lots of fun dinners and lots and lots of viewings of Brayden's one and only DVD of choice "What's the name of that Song" a Sesame Street must have. Brayden had a blast having his Grandma here showering him with love and attention for two whole weeks. More pictures to follow soon.