Catching up - A Family Train Adventure

While Rudy and I were supposed to be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary away, the plan was for my family  to take the boys on a train adventure to San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. Even though Ru and I didn't end up going, we decided to opt for a morning to ourselves (for Rudy to sleep off the pain meds and I to get some much needed things done plus a lunch date. :) Kyle loved opening this present on Christmas Day and had much to anticipate for two whole days... :)

My parents and Mike and Allison got on the train up by their area and met us at our station. Kyle loved that they were coming on the train to get him. 

 Back on the train, they headed north to San Juan for lunch at Ruby's. We heard that our boys sat the whole time and ate their entire lunch! Wow.

Thanks, family, for a great adventure and memory for Kyle (and Gavin). Ru and I greatly appreciated the time. (Happy 10th, Ru!!)

Catching up - Snapshots of Christmas

I know it's well past Christmas, but I wanted to go back and include just a few pictures I took so we have at least some visual memory of this past season.

There are a few neighborhoods that go out-of-control Christmas light happy. The Brea one is a sight to behold. We hit up a few that were amazing but I didn't have my camera with me. The pics below are from a local one we visited. This particular house made it snow for us! Gavin kept exclaiming "Bubbles!!!" And yes, that's me at night in short sleeves...pathetic Christmas weather! I'm so glad that every other year my boys get to do what I did growing up...go someplace else that's cold and possibly has snow! Christmas carols make a lot more sense elsewhere. :)

 Both Gavin and Kyle were fascinated by all there was to look at.

 Back at home, Kyle wanted to be sure Santa knew we had moved and dictated our Santa sign for us.

Our Christmas morning was amazing thanks to the love and generosity of our IL family. Thank you!! Gavin loves balls and thoroughly enjoyed this present from Auntie Ray and Uncle Ben. A silly picture of Gav, but shows how happy he was about his present. ;)

 Kyle's favorite was this Panda Village building set from Santa. He's been saying recently that he wants to be a builder when he grows up. He enjoys building various villages for the Pandas.

Later Christmas morning we went to my parents' house where Auntie Michelle, Uncle Michael, and Auntie Allison were staying. I didn't get many pictures, but the boys had so much fun playing with their wonderful, new toys waiting for them there.

Kyle got to make and decorate cookies with Auntie Michelle.

 And he enjoyed reading books with Uncle Michael.

I'm sorry to my Oregon family for the lack of pictures from our Christmas together days later... however, for the sake of the blog record...we were all together minus one family who live overseas (I guess I didn't explain before we got there and so Kyle fully expected to see all his cousins. He came home and said with genuine sadness, "But mom, where were the others?") Kyle had a lot of fun playing with Chase and someone got the brilliant idea of calling up our beloved Miss Esther to come watch the boys so the adults could have time to catch up and talk. 

We've had a lot of fun family time. I'll blog more on that next.

I'm on a roll... :)

A Belated Merry Christmas!

How is it that Christmas has come and gone so fast? I don't know that we've come up for air yet, but I'm determined to get at least one post written before the New Year. I've fallen so behind on this family journal of ours. We are (mostly) all settled and enjoying our new home. Our Internet is up and running, Christmas presents abound, my family is here from Oregon and Illinois and ... drum roll ... for the first time in ten years, we own a washer and dryer. And, they're washing and drying our clothes as we speak. Do you hear a Hallelujah chorus playing in the background?! I do. We both do a double take every time we enter the garage. But that's the latest good news. In spite of our deep gratitude for our new dwelling things haven't been going so easily, as we now know to expect (if we're going to be realists).

There seems to be some sort of a pattern with our family in that anything joyous or highly anticipated just has to have some sort of a wrench thrown in to it, ya know, for some added flair. The most recent example I can think of is our experience bringing Gavin home from the hospital. Who brings home a baby the day bird mites on an outside patio begin looking for a new host in the house?! Somehow, with us, nothing can be as simple as it should. So, in true RuMin form, the week of the big move (something we were soo excited about) the boys brought home a nasty stomach flu. Both boys missed the toilet by a mile (if you know what I'm sayin'). Then, the highly anticipated day we got our keys, Rudy caught it and we had to cancel our special "first time in our new house" plans. It also meant that I began the move solo. Then, on the big moving day, that nasty bug got passed to me. I was down for the entire move, laying on the apartment floor throwing up every hour for a solid 24 hrs. It was a day that my parents, sister, Rudy and I are not likely to ever forget. 

Not long after we were in, Rudy injured himself pretty badly and has been completely out of commission for more than a week. So, during a busy, important week of his precious vacation time he's been trying to cope with intense pain and we've not been able to enjoy our time together or get anything done around the house. My parents and sister have been lifesavers more than once this week. We had all these fun Christmas plans and were excited to celebrate in our new home, but instead Ru spent the 25th in agony, and went to Urgent Care. We missed him on Christmas. And I missed him on our 10 year anniversary. We had made plans almost a year ago to get away for 24 hours but had to cancel our reservations. :( Today was the first day he started to notice some relief and we are all thrilled. 

So, that's a little of what's been going on here lately. On the bright side, the boys are loving the new house and really enjoy being able to run outside and play. It's a lot of fun watching our kids be kids. 

A few random shots of the boys on Christmas Eve:

Kyle pulling off the last link on our Christmas countdown chain.

It's been 80 degrees (as it usually is on Christmas) so this snowman was all the "cold" we got. Thanks, GG. 

Poor snowman didn't last long. :)

I'll try to get more pictures posted soon. 

We're Moving!

Yes, its just a few weeks before Christmas and we are boxing up our things and heading out of here. Crazy timing with the holidays but pretty cool that we'll be leaving exactly 10 years after we first moved in. Ten years!! That's a decade of living in our 2-bedroom, barely 700 sq ft, newlywed apartment. We've loved our little place for many reasons. The location has been the greatest thing, but we've also enjoyed fun neighbor friends for Kyle, the pool, and a great community/outdoorsy/beach vibe. Our rent has always been incredibly low and has only increased by $40 throughout our entire time here. Because it's been so affordable, we were able to manage when Rudy was in school and I was either laid off or working part-time. It has also meant that ever since Rudy's been working as a PT, we've been able to save. We knew that if we even considered moving just one apartment over, we'd increase our rent drastically. So, we stayed while building up our nest egg for the hope that we could one day buy a home. A crazy dream in Orange County.

In late September, we started really exploring our home-buying options by enrolling in a class and finding a lender/meeting Realtors. We pretty much had everything out on the table, including moving out-of-state. We prayed a lot for direction and after looking in surrounding areas for quite a while, we knew we'd need to keep saving. In the meantime, for multiple reasons, we realized it's best for our family to move on. Searching for an affordable rental home, however, was more depressing and time-consuming than we could have imagined. We spent countless hours over the last few months looking at properties online and driving the boys from house to house only to come up dry. It was so discouraging and exhausting. Kyle would say, "No, not another house!" Anything remotely affordable was either a scam, too far away from our jobs, or snatched up before we could even pick up the phone to inquire. It generally boiled down to a few things. We wanted to find a property that felt safe, clean (surprisingly difficult to find), and one that wouldn't practically triple our current rent (and therefore prohibit us from saving as much as we'd like). We were also looking to find something closer to our jobs. Were we asking too much?! :)

Sadly, we just couldn't find anything that fit the bill. Day after day, scam after scam, and lost house after lost house...we started to think we'd never find a place. Finally, we found some legitimate options. We were faced with a lot of decisions and ultimately we chose a house that was an improvement in just about every way but was also the most affordable. This one, although not much to look at from the outside, just felt right. I'd heard it said that after looking at dozens of homes you'd just "know" when you walked into the one meant for you. It's true! This place felt exactly that way. The area, neighborhood, and property (on the inside!) just felt like home. And the price was right! Hooray!

This past couple of weekends have been spent boxing up our belongings and getting the apartment ready for inspection. In our ten years here we've really made the place our home, so there were lots of walls to prime and nail holes to patch.

Ru's been amazing at tackling our proyectos. Thanks to him, we have a shot at getting our deposit back! ;)

Thanks to my family, we've had hours of uninterrupted time to work. :)

Kyle's been super excited to go to a house where he can run around and be a kid. He's helped in many ways. :)

Counting down the hours till we get our keys and start the process of moving and settling in. It's a TON of work but will be more than worth it! 

Thanksgiving Weekend

The weekend was beautiful!! Usually on Thanksgiving we are sweating in our sweaters in 90 degree heat. We wear them, the sweaters, just because we want to pretend it's fall. Well, this year I was not going to sweat. Instead, I wore a t-shirt and was pleasantly surprised to feel a little chilled by nightfall. It even rained on Friday!!! (Kyle has been waiting for months and months and months to use his Cars umbrella.) This was what the outside looked like on one of the only days we got to enjoy it. (More on that later!)

 We had a Pilgrims and Indians Thanksgiving dinner with hats courtesy of Kyle and Rudy's handiwork. :) Kyle had four feathers and Gavin had one.

We enjoyed a lazy day together. Well, that's after all the hard work my parents did!

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for a delicious feast!! 

At Grammie's

My mom amazes me. She is patient (oh, SO patient!), creative, and loves anything and everything related to learning. I'm so, so thankful the boys are able to be with her. It's truly one of the biggest blessings of my life. The boys' day is full of new, fun things that have them begging to come back again. Her energy, in spite of how little I know she sleeps, leaves me in awe. She's superhuman, I tell you.

Thanks to the photography of our Miss Esther, who by the way is also more than I could have ever asked for, we have pictures of some recent fun at Grammie's.

Shaving cream!!

No doubt Mimi is talking about the physical properties/characteristics of shaving cream, asking Kyle to describe it with as many adjectives as he can. Just wait till you can write, Kyle, and you'll be asked to write a journal entry on the experience. :)

Pure delight. I love Kyle's true, joy-filled smiles.

Thanks, mom, for E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G you do! And thanks, Miss Esther, for capturing these memories!

Kyle's Auto Shop

A few months ago, Rudy's work schedule changed to a 4/10 and therefore every Tuesday while I'm at work, Ru stays home with the boys. It's been a good experience for all involved. Today, though, Gavin wasn't feeling well and in order to avoid an entire day cooped up in our place with Kyle wanting to get out when Gav needed to lay low, Rudy asked if he could join me on the drive up to work and take the boys over to Grammie's house just to make the day more interesting. (Thanks, Mimi!) It was fun to have my boys drop me off at work and come pick me up later. While at Grammie's Rudy and Kyle washed our cars and played pretend mechanic. Kyle is big on pretending. 

Kyle filled out the work order and wrote up an estimate. This car was overheating and Kyle said, "It's the radiator."

Then he got busy fixin' her.

Another car rolled in and they both got to work. Business was picking up!

Kyle loved jacking up the car and changing the oil. They passed tools back and forth while talking shop.Kyle also got a lesson on jump starting a dead battery by connecting the jumper cables from the yellow car to the stroller. Red to red, black to black.

Then, they discovered that Kyle's license plate fit exactly onto the back of his little, yellow car and gave "her" the name "Corona." 

They drilled holes and screwed that plate in.

Adorable, no?!

Gaining Confidence

I realize that these pics might be a repeat for some of you, but I want these memorialized here on the blog, too. So, Kyle had a fun little session the other day. He's gaining a lot of confidence and getting more and more brave each time he goes out. This time, he went out farther and rode in some fast little waves. At first, when the full speed of the wave took over, he was a bit scared. But that fear quickly turned to glee the closer he got to the shore. He really wants to stand, but of course there's a process to this and riding in on his belly is just the thing to do at his age. One bad spill could scare him off completely and though he's becoming more and more water safe, those waves are much too powerful to mess with. So of course for now we stay close by his side.

He proudly waxes his board "just like Daddy."

 The boys do some stretching and have a little talk.

Then off he goes...

...and rides in his biggest waves yet. This is the only shot I got of him dropping in since I was busy keeping Gavin from charging into the water! (Gavin's fearlessness/love of water makes beach-going a lot of work these days!)

 Perhaps it's hard to see, but he's got a super huge smile on his face!

 Daddy love. :)

We're so proud of you, Kyle. Most of all, for doing something that takes a lot of bravery. 

Creativity/Kid Entertainment

Or, in other words, thank you Rudy. When it comes to kid-friendly entertainment and high creativity... Rudy is your go-to guy. Seriously!  Here's an older pic from a birthday party we went to. Rudy was the "magic carpet" guy for about an hour. He's amazing like that.

So, it comes as no surprise that there are lots of gadgets and gizmos around the house. We currently have 2 very large boxes filling up our living space. They are hotels. GG hotels to be exact. Made with key-card door entry sliders, t.v.'s, remotes, pillows and blankets, you name it. All we need in there is a GG. :)

A fun idea Ru stole from Kyle's preschool was this pumpkin pin-cushion. Kyle loves hammering golf tees into his pumpkin over and over and over!

Actually, it was the pumpkin that all of a sudden went missing from my October mantel ... but for all the entertainment it provided, the mantel happily did without!

Rudy also made Kyle this "telescope" with a little light inside to shine on the neighbor's walls or into the night sky. Fantastic use of a box or two.

The "men" set out to find a bit box or two and came back home with a set of boxes that filled the boys' backyard. Boxes are the coolest thing.

Yet another use of a box - Kyle's train.

And it wouldn't be a complete post without a shot of the boys carving a pumpkin. You know, just to get this in here before it's Christmas time. (I've been a very neglectful blogger lately. Sorry!!)

So, thanks Rudy, for being an awesome, creative dad who delights in anything and everything for "the boys." It's fun to raise kids with you.