once bowled a 199

...but not this night.

for family night last week, we went out with our friends the randalls to a bowling alley 

by their house for a good game with the kids.

 both jacks were fun watching as the would try to hold the ball, then have to let it roll.  

i really like getting our boys together.  they play well and can play hard together.  my jack asks about the randall's jack constantly after they play.  

it's fun to have chocolate and vanilla jack back living so-so close together again.

clara is my little bud.  she was being so funny with the air vent.  she would stick her face right in it and close her eyes.  mccall kept asking her if she wanted to take her turn, but she was preoccupied. 

i love this little girl.

jackson's boxers sticking out, his right sock tucking in his right pant, bowling with his left hand, bumpers... bowling can't get any sweeter.

jackers update yo

this jack update, i am grateful for this current daylight savings time.  i woke up way before he did on sunday and was able to get so much done.  PLUS, i didn't have to change my car's clock.  it's been since last daylight savings time that i changed it and i couldn't figure out how to take an hour back so everyday i've had to subtract an hour to know what time it was.  i feel like this is my catch up time as a mom.

we have been reading a book together called ballyhoo bay by judy sierra.  it's just a story about an artist that teaches painting and sculptures to old people and children on the beach.  the first time i started reading it, i read all the words without thinking it was bilingual.  the first sentence i read in spanish, jack just couldn't stop laughing.  it became contagious that i started laughing realizing my voice changed to cater to this spanish sentence.  every night he asks me to read "the funny book" and we read the entire book in english and spanish and laugh until it hurts.

we are digging kung fu.  kung fu panda, the karate kid with will smith's kid, pretending to kung fu pillows, sitting at sushi and he tells the server to kung fu, we kung fu each other.  totally normal.  he wants me to sign him up for it.  isn't tae kwon do the more usual? kung fu goes for the neck.  i wonder when this phase is over.

we play the blink game.  it's basically the stare game but our version which means we stare at each other, try not to blink but when we do, it's okay!  oh, and the rules change all the time.  we play over and over until one of us tap out.  his favorite time to play this is in the grocery store in canned food section.  

jack and his friend james having a playdate with their snails and house decor

the other morning (6:15am) he woke up as i was getting ready and said, "mom, i need a haircut." i told him i would.  he continued saying, "no like right now because isn't that what you do all day to everyone else?"

today he looked at me and said, "mom, why are you just so cute?"...  he is so my son.  i need to find a new word for him to parrot.  

whoever thought to be a parent you have to be able to draw?  jack asks me to draw him a shark or fish almost every night before bed.  he says they look like dolphins.

i'm so grateful for this little man.
he's the apple of my eye.

thanksgiving dinner table decor

november is one of my favorite months for many reasons.

one being it is a month to reflect on the many blessings you have and a chance to show your gratitude for them. also it's just that warm feeling all families get when we get together to catch up and get ready for christmas.

the thanksgiving dinner is special for me.  i like to cook, i like to get the family together, i like how everyone turn into slugs after gorging ourselves and go to the movies or watch football.  

when i've done the dinner by myself, i've prepped weeks before with the decor (dinner table place settings, cards, cloves candles, table cloth i sewed, anything i could make in the shape of a turkey) because my schedule is so unpredictable and i have this idea of what i want the table to look like when that day comes.  here are some free "thankful" tags to print if you are into that that a designer made.

(sidenote: i've only prepared thanksgiving twice by myself so i'm no martha stewart in anyway)

here are some pretty decor ideas i wanted to share to get ya'll pumped for thanksgiving:

i loved that melted wax turkey logo she made and branded on things.

for more ideas about this style, go here to see the rest of her pictures and recipes.

i get jackson this thanksgiving!  i'm really excited about it.  i even have four days off so i want to go to big bear or do something special with him.  oh, the possibilities.

sweet table

so this is a little more my style for thanksgiving because it's more clean, simple and neat.  maybe it's yours too?

inspiration by sweet table: chicago.

doctors visit

 jackson had to visit the pediatrician last week.  he looked forward to it the week previous.  the morning of we talked about what the doctor would do, how he was my doctor when i was a baby, how he was his doctor when he was a day old before we moved to san francisco and all that fun stuff that he now understands.  i slightly mentioned a shot or two to prep him.

the nurse took his vitals, measured him, did a hearing test, checked his eyes, weighed him, asked me loads of questions and then the needles came out.

that butterfly needle was no big deal to him.  they took enough blood to figure out his food allergies ... sensitive to milk and allergic to wheat is the result.

then flu shot time.  i pinned him down on the bed.  the nurse lodged it up one nostril and he managed to push it out with a question, "why did you do that to me?!" then she did it to the other with a struggle.

he began to scream the second he saw the needles on her tray.  i tried my best to distract him and keep his eyes on me but not sure how well that worked.  i have never heard him cry so hard as she put so many vaccinations in his little legs.  i carried him out of the office like a baby while he continued to cry and bury his face in my chest whilst rubbing his left thigh.  i felt so badly for him.  i have very faint memories of how much those four-year-old shots hurt.  we had big plans to go to sea world to see their halloween decorations that day but instead i rented his favorite movies while we stayed inside hanging out.

glad he isn't due for shots for another year.
i hate seeing him in pain.

"texas is big but san francisco is giant!" ...

- title was the subject header sent in a family email written to my texas resident rangers family from my SF 32-year-old-aunt trish. 
she has yet to receive a reply :)

this weekend was super fun.
the whole weekend was centered around watching the games.

thursday night started with watching the game with every other person on the plane headed to san francisco as the first game of the world series.  the pilot announced as we were flying over the stadium to look over as we were hovering, and then he flew over it again and again so we could have that once in a lifetime chance to experience it.  then my friend erin wrote about thursday night, as we listened to them win over the radio as we drove down to palo alto.
{this is the best shot i could get after trying to find my phone in my massive purse and trying to figure out how to turn it on}

the next day i was busy but got a break to go on one of the prettiest runs i've ever been on.  my cousin took me up to los altos to a trail i've never ran.  it goes through all these trees that reminded me of the east coast and then you are at this farm full of roaming goats, sheep and baby cows.  it was beautiful.

soon after, my friend nicole came over to get her hair done and celebrate. man is she is a beautiful person.  i recently met her a month or so ago and found out she is going through a divorce.  i did four different things to her hair which gave us a chance to catch up and have girl time.  we watched the giants get kicked by the rangers.  we dressed up and went out for a couple hours and then came home to fall asleep in our oversized giants shirts.

the next day, i took the train and BART to the city to watch the game with my friend from arizona who lives there now.  we are both irish so we were at an irish sports pub which made it much more fun than it could have been.  the giants won!  being in the city on halloween with all of the giants fans was the best.  honking orange and black cars, groups of people giving high fives... everywhere.

then.... the next day, i was a little bummed because my flight was leaving at 5ish from SFO, so right when the first pitch was happening.  the airport was an unusual empty but the bars and places where a flat screen were packed.  i found out our flight was delayed two and half hours.  that's a long time at night with a four-year-old who goes to sleep around seven thirty.

so we walked around the airport to get some of his energy out but sat down to see the full last five innings together over yogurt and granola next to dozens of other giants fans.... then watched as they took the world series.  everyone was hugging, jumping on each other.  if you weren't a baseball fan, you became one.  i loved it.  there was a surreal feeling at the airport that night.  everyone seemed united or happy or something of the sorts.

oh and one more thing, after the win, we had to wait a few more minutes to board. a cute tiny family had a 10-month baby that starred at jackson. so jack ran back and forth to him saying "hi cutie!" making the baby boy laugh, which in turn, made all the people sitting around us laugh and turn our heads to say, ahhhhh.... or you really should give him a sibling.  it was cute.  the parents thanked me for having jack entertain their son for five minutes.

i love airports. i love baseball. i love the giants.  i love san fran.  i love jack.  i love this post.  i love how cheesy this just got.

i am tired. goodnight.
i shouldn't type my thoughts this late at night.

fall

making spagetti squash {i make the oil-free version of this} at least once a week for the family.
- i started doing this when we lived in arizona and love it. i don't get bored with the recipe by adding different ingredients to the sauce.

concerts all over.
- some of my favorite artists are performing soon.

bonfires after a long day.
- something about unwinding in 75 degree weather is just great.  bbqing, s'mores, sunsets, and good company makes these perfect.

 runs.
- going on long runs in perfect weather with leaves all over the sidewalks and streets. so nice.

doing hair in the fall.

- i am standing alone on this one, i'm almost sure of it.  i just enjoy putting low lights into girl's hair.  it's change.  it adds warmth to their face.  i like it.

tricked and treated.

so now you have candy.

do something about it.

 make a few twix pies

skittles meringues

york peppermint brownies

 

Dulce De Leche and Snickers Terrine

halloween weekend

happy halloween weekend!

agenda for the weekend: we are both flying to san francisco today to spend the weekend there.  giants are playing the rangers in sf so i'm trying to get into one of those boats in the bay.  it's possible.  hair clients.  couch sitting with movies like hocus pocus, practical magic and any other harmless movies that won't give me nightmares.

jackson is spending it with his dad in san francisco as pinocchio.

last night we carved ONE white pumpkin.

just his name and put a candle in it.

then i made his costume for his preschool party...

every year he is a JACK of some sorts.  this year he is his favorite cereal...

his head goes where the A is.

should be entertaining to see him try to sit.  all the other kids in his class will probably be luke skywalker or woody... i'm turning him into a homemade cereal box.  trying to stay classy here.

okay enough of my jabber.  i'll try to be back sometime next week but this will keep you busy:

haven't carved your pumpkins yet? make them mod.  supppper cool.

i saw this shirt on a lady with a round belly at disneyland a few weeks ago. i couldn't stop staring.

who woulda thought a bat cake would look so creative and original?

a cute trick-or-treat bag for the kiddos.

emergency costume? here's a nose.

need a treat to bring to a party?  i'm making these.  linds has the best recipe for sugar cookies.  she makes them look too professional.  sometimes i question myself after i make her recipes... like shoot, i must have missed something, no, she is just really neat and perfect.

remember when your high school boyfriend brought you to a place like this at night to watch a extremely scary movie and you freaked out the whole time?  yeah, me neither... right...

wedding in october.  so simple and pretty!

this isn't in english, but you don't need words to understand these characters.

i'm not one for buying kitchen rags and aprons for the season but if you are, you can get a skeleton print.

anyone else watch dexter?  i could only stomach one episode. i'm such a woose.

stay safe.
------ happy halloween!

patches of pumpkins

the other night jackson and i went to a local pumpkin patch.

he was determined to get it done in five minutes.

and we did.
he is so efficient.

this year we chose white ones.  something different.

the patch owner gave us two extra little ones & a pumpkin carver for free because he thought jack was so polite and funny.

they are currently sitting on our porch, waiting to be cut into.
to be completely frank, i'm not a big pumpkin carver.
i'm hoping to get away with a sharpie and paint on these things :)

sandlot

listening to: jenny lewis

favorite song, "you are what you love, and not what loves you back."

yeah, so this was like a few months but ya know, whatever.
my family are big baseball fans.
each of us played on teams (i did until i realized you have to be tall and strong to play as a girl), we were blessed with strong arms, dad coached for years and we have been to many, many games.

my littlest brother blake has been an all star on many teams lately and was invited to start out the angels game and be the team's ball boy.  he had the opportunity to meet all the players, get a whole uniform, a ball signed and a bunch more.

angels vs. rangers.
angels won!
not a big fan of the rangers anyway.  i hope the giants knock their socks off in the world series.

here are more in the stands with us common folk.


congrats blake!  so glad you got to do something you've always wanted!
{most pictures by alan gibby and my pops}