The Rain Has Arrived

Rain, rain and more rain! That is what we have seen all day. I love the rain though. I'm just a little concerned by how much rain we are suppose to receive this week. They are predicting approximately 20 inches over the next 5 days. This is great but bad all at the same time. The city of Corona has required water rationing since summer 2009. On the good side, the rain will help that. On the bad side, the hills and mountains that burned can't handle this much rain. There are chances of major flooding and mudslides. We are fortunate that we do not live in a flood or mudslide area. For now I guess we will just wait and see how things go.

Loving our Weather

We have had some amazing weather for January. Due to some furlough days the kids did not have to go back to school until January 6th. We took full advantage of the beautiful weather and spent one day at the park. We took Ozzy with us. He does not always like going on walks but when he knows we are going to the park he gets a little more excited. I think he gets nervous because he is so small. He is full grown now and only weighs about 4lbs! Not much of a dog but he's perfect for us.

Ozzy looking all handsome

Mady is so in love with Ozzy. He's her little buddy.

We packed a lunch and Ozzy was hoping Brandon would turn his head so he could swipe his sandwich!

Mady being Mady!

This is what Ozzy loves to do...run!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

It's so hard to believe that it is already 2010. It seems like we just rang in 2009. Where did the time go? We spent our New Year's Eve with just the four of us. It's so hard to keep Mady up until midnight so we went to a later showing of the new Chipmunks movie. Then we came home and played a few of our new games; Guesstures and Sequence. Guesstures is probably one of our most favorite games to play. The kids got it for Christmas. We had so much fun playing it and laughed so hard. We all rang in the New Year and then promptly crashed.

New Years day we watched the parade and then headed out for a nice long hike. The weather was beautiful. It was in the low 70's which is a little high for this time of year. It was great though. I never get bored with our hikes. Scott and I went on another hike the next day in the mountains behind our house. Mady is not quite tall enough for this hike. There are several areas where you need long legs and lots of upper body strength. Scott and I are trying to prepare ourselves for our anniversary trip to Yosemite where we plan to hike Half Dome. Half Dome is approximately a 16 mile hike straight up the mountain. On average it takes about 10 hours to complete. We are so excited to do it but need to get some more strenuous hiking in first. Good thing we have 4 1/2 months to work on it.

This was at the top of our 2nd hike.

Making our way to the top.

This was New Year's Day.

This ecological reserve is one of my favorite places to hike.

We stopped under this huge tree to eat lunch.

Musicals and Trees

Last week Mady was in this Christmas musical at church. She sang in the choir and was one of the narrators. She did amazing! We had so much fun watching her.

Singing her great big heart out!

We also got our Chrsitmas tree last weekend. I love Christmas and love decorating our tree. We had the Christmas music playing while we dug out all of our ornaments. The kids love going through their stash of ornaments and remembering when they got them.

It's amazing how many ornaments we have collected!

Family Photos

We are so lucky to have an amazing friend who is a photographer. For the second year we have been fortunate to have her take our family photos. We had such an amazing time and laughed so much. Scott does not like having his picture taken and said he enjoyed it so much we could do it again anytime.

Here are some of my favorite shots she took. Let's just say she took so many pictures that she ran out of room on her memory card!

I love this one of the kids.

This makes Brandon look so grown up and handsome!

This is the perfect shot of Mady. She always has a smile on her face.

She captured so much happiness that day.

I am so proud of what Brandon is becoming!

This one is hanging in my dining room.

I can hardly believe I have been blessed with such a beautiful daughter!

This one shows how much fun we had.

Sea World - October 2009

I love Sea World. I love the fact that we have been able to go back so many times this year. I just happened to stumble across a special AAA was offering....buy a one day pass to Sea World and get in for the rest of 2009 for FREE! That is the type of deal I am always looking for.

We decided to go back in October as the entire park was decorated for Halloween. It was a gorgeous day in San Diego. The temperature was in the mid 70s (one of the perks of living in Southern California). This was probably one trip to Sea World where we all had so much fun and laughed so hard. I love that the kids are getting older and yet I'm sad. They are so much fun to be around and make me laugh every day!

Our first stop was the Atlantis ride where we all got very wet. Then we watched a few shows, looked at some amazing animals and ventured over to the jungle gym type structure. We decided this day that each person got to pick one thing they really wanted to do and everyone would go along and enjoy. Well....Brandon picked the jungle gym. Let's just say those things are not designed for grown people to climb through. I had bruises on my knees for days after from all the crawling we did. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time. I sure don't know how kids do it. I guess they just don't think about the pain!

We ended our day trick-or-treating through the park. They had stations set-up around parts of the park where kids could trick-or-treat. It was a really cute idea. They also had cupcake decorating. Mady was all over that. No surprise there since she wants to be a pastry chef when she gets older.

Note to anyone climbing in one of these things....

grown feet get stuck in the holes of the net very easily!

Scott and I laughed so hard while attempting to keep up with the kids in the jungle gym.

Here's what the kids looked like after the second time on the Rapids ride. Apparently the first time they didn't get wet enough. Let's just say on the ride home they had to strip down and wear blankets in the car because their clothes were so wet!

I just love my crazy family!

Pumpkin Carving

The kids love to carve pumpkins. I remember several years ago when they hated cleaning them out and Scott and I would have to do it for them. That's all changed. Mady loves pumpkin guts. We usually have to get her moving along because she'll just sit and squish the pumpkin goo between her fingers.

This year the kids went for simple designs. Sometimes they choose very difficult ones which do not always end up working for them. Brandon opted for a text message emoticon while Mady chose to do a text message saying; LOL (laughing out loud). I guess that's a sign of the times we are living in! It was most entertaining though and we all had some good laughs.

Brandon helping Mady get her top off.

I often wonder where the goofiness of Mady came from!

Everyone gutting and scooping their pumpkins.

"Got Guts"

The Chase pumpkin family!