'The Star of the Show' or 'Ethan Love'

Although I didn't get too many pictures of most things, I did manage a few of Ethan and all of the love he was getting. He is absolutely adorable, soft and squeaky, cuddly and snuggly.

Kids on Thanksgiving Day

With all the busy-ness of Thanksgiving Day I forgot to take a lot of pictures. Here are a few of the ones that I did manage to take:



Jack and Jake. Or Zack and Jack. Or Jake and Zack. Oh, whatever... the 5 year olds! :)

The girls with Jessica making balloon art for them. Leah, Jessica, Courtney, Anna.

The battle Royale.

Just Hangin' Out

Zach was so adorable while he stood and watched the ball game in the backyard on Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Day Before and After

Here is a picture of Kenny pitching in the fiercely competitive game of backyard whiffle ball on Thanksgiving day:




Here's a picture of Kenny the day after his Thanksgiving Day pitching experience:

For the full story, and the picture of what happened in between, you'll have to visit their blog (Johnson family on my sidebar). I'll leave the full story telling to them...

Sally's Famous Cheese Ball

Not much (food-wise) reminds me of the holidays like Sally's Cheese ball. I made a couple today for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. I wanted to eat it all right away. I didn't and I couldn't have, but it sounded appealing at the time!

Anybody else's mouth watering (particularly my family)?

Hope Springs Eternal

Such a lofty title for the fact that some of the grass seed is actually turning into grass!

Sick and Cozy

Luke woke up with a little stomach flu on Saturday night. Derek brought him downstairs and they both crashed on the couch together watching TV.

World's BIggest Dinosaurs

For years we have driven the 10 east to Phoenix and seen these big dinosaurs by the side of the road but never considered stopping. This year we took a field trip there with a homeschool group to learn a little about dinosaurs and pan for precious jewels. The kids had a lot of fun, mostly panning for jewels and digging for dinosaur 'bones' in the sand pit. We also enjoyed our trek to the top of the T-Rex pictured below.


This is picture is from the parking lot on the freeway side. Behind the gate by the tail there is an entrance into the Dino.

After climbing a few flights of stairs including a steep spiral staircase at the end, we made it to the head/mouth of T-Rex. This is a picture of the kids getting eaten by a Dinosour.

You have a prettty good view from inside the teeth. The mesh is easier to look through in person.

They panned for a lot of different things. They found granite and some semi-precious stones. A couple in the group found some rubies and we found a couple of raw emeralds. Not nearly as sparkling as they are in the jewelry store!

A More Beautiful Sight

A week ago today the pictures that I took from our balcony were awesome, but in a more ominous way with the billowing clouds of smoke and the flames running up and down the hills. A week ago hundreds of homes were lost. Tonight the sunset from our porch was a beautiful glow of color in the sky. Orange like the flames, but much more pleasant to the eyes. It is much more beautiful in person, as it always is with things like this, but I thought I'd share some of the beauty that we enjoyed tonight.


The most colorful section.

I used to be amazed how the mountains and hills look so fake in the early morning or evening. They look like they were painted there with beautiful colors. This picture reminds me of all those setting and rising suns we've seen in over a decade in beautiful Southern California.

In person, the clouds were much more defined stripes across the sky.

Shoe Time

We got out Anna's shoes for winter and Luke fell in love with the orange flowered Converse All Stars. He had to have them on. I had bought them at a second hand store awhile ago, not sure if Anna would fit them this winter, but she does. And even if she doesn't wear them out, the flamboyant Leah and I'm guessing the darling Luke will finish them off!


See my big flowered feet?

Big stuff. Really big stuff. Probably double the size they need to be!

When he was done he had a hard time figuring out how to get them off. They tied all the way up his ankle and he had no idea why the normal 'kick them off' thing wasn't working.

More Dirt

Dirt is pretty boring to look at. And pretty messy to have en masse in piles in front of your house with the wind blowing it everywhere... including into the house. You can't really tell, but this is the final product of the front yard and hopefully the grass seeds laying in the carefully covered dirt and topsoil and fertilizer will grow in the next couple of weeks not only to encourage us for all the dirt we (mostly Derek) have moved around, but also to make the front of the house look more welcoming, cared for and less, well, dirty!

The Kids and Their New Cousin

When we went to the hospital to visit baby Ethan Kenny was able to get some pictures of the kids holding him. They all really loved it. Check out my sister's blog (on the side, the Johnson Family) for pictures of them holding him. I think they're all adorable!

Night Shots

As the sun set it showed red through the smoky clouds. The fire was still raging pretty strong at sunset. I didn't use my tripod so the pictures that I took a few minutes ago in the dark are fuzzy, but they are the western edges of some of the fires, located in the same general place as where the smoke billows were showing from our porch earlier in the day. They've extended the red flag warning (high fire danger, ususally due to low humidity and strong winds) until at least tomorrow night.

Earthquakes and Fires

We were welcomed back to California by a pretty strong earthquake this summer; no real damage done, just some scared kids. We are also getting treated to what seems now to be an annual very active fire season. The Santa Ana's are back (strong winds, warm weather) and humidity is very low. Gusts up to 60-70 miles per hour race through the canyons and passes here. Our porch furniture relocates to the south side of our back yard, the kids plastic two level play structure fell down and we no longer wonder why the tree in the backyard tilts so severely to the south!

The biggest fire burning tonight can be seen from our front porch. There are actually 2 or 3 fires off in that direction and in the pictures below you can see some of the smoke billows. I don't remember ever hearing of so many houses being lost. The wind is moving those hot embers so quickly that the fire crews were overwhelmed earlier today. The winds have laid down a little tonight and the crews are furiously working to put down lines and defenses, but for the most part the fire is totally uncontained so if the winds pick up again, there will be very little to stop it from taking more houses.

When my mom and sisters were out in September we stayed at a hotel in Yorba Linda right off the 91 freeway. A strip mall a few hundred feet away from that hotel was on fire earlier this afternoon, and was completely destroyed. I'm sure there is other damage in the area, which is less than 20 miles from us. The wind is blowing the fire and smoke away from us so we don't have any side effects of poor air quality, ash snow or even a smoky smell in the air, but a few miles away it is a totally different story.

The big plume in the middle of this picture is the Yorba Linda fire, the one to the right is the Brea fire.

He's Here!

Kenny and Kathy welcomed their first baby, a beautiful (and handsome) little boy. Ethan James Johnson arrived yesterday, November 12th around 8:30 p.m.. He's a big bundle of joy (normal for our family, though) weighing in at 8lb 11oz and a long 21 inches. He has some long thin hair in places and it varies in shade from darker to light. He is absolutely adorable. Kathy is tired and sore, but on the way to recovery!

We were able to spend a little time with him today. I didn't see him open his eyes, but he did a little with some others. Luke adored him. From the beginning he wanted to hold him and love on him. I helped him hold Ethan and everytime I asked if he was all done, he'd say, 'No, more!'.

Congratulations, Kenny and Kathy!

After

I know, it is just dirt. But we love 'just dirt'. It is sooo much better than 'old sod filled with weeds' and it is also one step closer to 'green grass'! This is what our yard looks like now, after all of Derek's hard work. Next weekend = grass seeding!