This is NOT normal!

Nathan has some funky stomach thing going on. He hasn't been eating much, and check out this GIANT belly!!

So.. I was wrong.. I'm not ancient....

My birthday was fabulous.

We went to Rainforest Cafe with the kids, played poker with some friends. I shopped and bought some fabulous things.

This is Amanda's first ride on the carousel at South Coast Plaza. Nathan insisted I ride too, and sit on the dragon bench.

I'm totally having hair envy. I see all these cute baby girls with long locks and bows. I'm determined to slip a bow in her fuzz by next week.

So.. 30 really is the new 20. I'm a total believer now. I will have to say this week, I was at a doctor's appointment and the doctor said, "Well, the reality is your 30...."And I interrupted with.. Uh.. I'm BARELY 30. Anyway.. those words stung a bit.

So.. it's here.

Ok... deep breath...I can do this..

The big
3-0.

Midnight came while driving back from LA. I put on Black Eyed Peas "Let's Get It Started" because well.. it gets me kind of pumped up when I'm starting out a long run, so why not use it to get pumped up for a long decade.

I couldn't help but be a bit nostalgic on my drive home tonight. I have grown up A LOT in the last ten years. Ross.. has been there for all of it. He has made me want to be a better person, and encouraged me to follow my dreams. He has also given me space when I needed to try things out on my own.... even if it means trying.. and failing at things. Remember.. when I was 23? and thought I was oh so wise... Remember how I was oh sooo foolish?

Ok.. I'm ready..
This decade:
I'm going to be fit & fabulous.
I'm going to be a great mom.
I'm going to be a marvelous wife.
I'm going to figure out life/work balance.
I'm going to be a better friend.
I'm going to kiss someone underneath the Eiffel Tower. (Ross.. you game for that?)
I'm going to own a bed with a headboard that is not propped up on cinderblocks.
I'm going to be wiser than I was at 20.

Ok... deep breath... Let's get this party started.

5 days.. and then I'll be Ancient!

In less than 5 days I'll be 30. Each morning I wake up and look in the mirror and say.... "Really... do I look 30?"

Anyway.. Blogger refused to post these pics yesterday, but I logged in and found them uploaded. So here we are at Prehistoric Pets. It's an amazing pet store specializing in reptiles. They have a giant turtle pond, with Catfish bigger than Amanda. Ross was holding Nathan up to look at a Green Iguana, and it JUMPED at the window, startling everyone! It was hilarious to watch. The turtles cracked me up, and this little guy next to Nathan kept trying to make a break for it, while he thought everyone was distracted with getting worms from Nathan.
http://www.prehistoricpets.com
This is an old pic, but it caught my eye the other day. Here's Ross... but where are the kids. I swear Thomas the Train ropes in the dads more than the kids.
Ross was home for over 3 weeks on hiatus. We were all really bummed when he left for work last week. Here are the kids watching him leave.
Nathan is a freaking genius. No surprise to us. While Ross was home, we all read the newspaper every morning during breakfast. I can't tell you how much it warms my heart to see him reading my favorite publication "The Wall Street Journal"
And on a Final Note... A message to Al Gore:
Look, I've been called a granola girl many times. We eat mostly organic foods, we recycle, I bring my own cloth bags to the store instead of using grocery bags, I'm eagerly waiting for the Honda Pilot Hybrid. But Al, it hasn't hit 60 during the last 3 weeks, and at night it's been in the 30's. This is Southern California. I'm just having a really hard time buying into global warming when my fleecey organic cotton pullover just isn't cutting it for warmth.
P.S. Al, check out how cute my kid looks in her winter gear. Hat compliments of Linda (thank you!) and don't you love the cute Pom Pom on top!

Just a thought...

I stumbled across this postcard that I saved from http://www.postsecret.com

I love that website and have laughed, cried, and sympathized with the senders of the anonymous postcards.

This postcard was a great reminder to let my friends know I love them and they make my life much better. So, thank you for being my friend!

I feel like a Million BUCKS!!

I, Wendy-who-never-has-done-anything-remotely-athletic, completed a half MARATHON TODAY!!! 13.1 miles ran by my little legs!! Not only that I exceeded my goal of completing in under 3 hours. And honestly... I was not very optimistic of completing under 3 hours. But I did it! I don't have my finish line shot yet, so for now... this is what I look like after running 13.1 miles.
My legs ache a bit, but other than that, I feel GREAT! This was such a confidence booster. I am ready to tackle my thirties now.

Some random pictures...

I've been challenged to post a photo a day to my blog by a friend. Sounds fun... and I'm determined to update more often.

More pics of fun ways to cover Amanda's head. Her hair is starting to grow back, and she is doing great! No more treatment!!

Here is Ross and I all dressed up for his company's holiday gathering. It was at Dolce on Melrose in Hollywood. I always enjoy hearing his colleagues talk about working with Ross.

Amanda was not feeling so great on the day this picture was taken. She crawled around the house whining, didn't want to be held, couldn't keep anything down, and just crawled around for a half hour. Finally, she stopped, and this was where I found her!

And here is Amanda with Santa Claus at our Church's Christmas Party. What you don't know from seeing this pic is that I'm in the Foyer holding Nathan on my lap who split his head open... in an unfortunate "just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time" type accident. We are trying decide whether or not to take Nathan to the hospital, and Ross went to grab Amanda who was with our friends and our gear. Ross felt bad that Amanda would have to miss her chance to have her pic with Santa... so he threw Amanda on his lap, snapped the pic, and away we went.

What was I thinking!!?!!!

Tommorrow

is the Big Run!! 13.1 miles. A half marathon.

On Tuesday, I went for my last long run. Add at least 1.75 miles to the pedometer, because I dropped it and it reset itself. So.. I figured almost 11 miles. I stopped because I ran out of time to run, not because I couldn't go any farther. My legs ached that night, and the knees hurt for part of the morning, but other than that, I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life!

This was all part of my plan to feel better about turning the Big 3-0 in a couple weeks. I wanted to be fit and fabulous for my 30's. So... I signed up for the half marathon as a goal, and started officially training last August. I've never been athletic... ever... but this is a new start. Now, I have my eyes set on a Triathlon in December. But training for a tri with two little ones, might be super tough. We will have to see.

This makes me laugh...

This makes me laugh every time I see it....

"Put your hands up and empty the register!!! This is a hold... oh crap"

Note to self: Don't put moisturizer on hands just before robbing a convenient store.

Christmas Tree

This is our Christmas tree forest.... decorated a la Nathan.

Heidi Swapp, who is a marketing scrapbook genius, because she sells "scrapbook sandpaper" for $4.99. Which is just a stack of 2x2 sheets of sandpaper in cute packaging. Anyway... Heidi Swapp has this pic of her Christmas Tree forest.

Anyway.. I have my own version of a forest, where all the garland is weighing down a spindly tinsel tree.... a tiny baby tree is currently being dragged around by crawling Amanda.... And on the big tree... All the ornaments are clustered together by groups. (Farm Animals together, snowmen together, Santas together) And.... all the ornaments are on the bottom half. However, I LOVE IT! I'm fully embracing my bottom heavy decorated tree. This is such a magical age with the kids at Christmas.
At the end of "decorating" the tree Nathan took all the ornaments off and wanted to decorate it again later. So far he's redecorated every day.

Girls Weekend.... Again!

Wahoo!!! I attended a surprise girl's weekend for my friend Laura. (pictured l to r: Linda, Laura, Cinnamon, Jai, and moi)

My friends Laura & Cinnamon are probably my oldest friends. (Yes, Cinnamon is her real name, no that's not her profession) Cinnamon & Laura have known me for over 11 years. They met me when I was really young and ridiculously dumb. Much like Ross, they must have seen something buried beneath the layers of immaturity, because they've stuck it out with me. I truly can not imagine "growing up" without them. They have influenced and impacted me for the better. I know what Laura wished for on her birthday... to spend eternity with me in some commune in the mountains. And Laura.. if your willing to move the commune to the beach... I'm there!



I came home to find the house decorated with Christmas Lights!!!

I have the best husband!!! For mulitiple reasons, but one being that I have always wanted to have Christmas lights on my house!! And this year he did it and surprised me. It's fun that this is a first for me & the kids.

I snapped this cute pic of Nathan, Sandy, and Amanda enjoying the lights on the front porch. Nathan likes to go out every night to watch the "Christmas Tree Lights on our house".

There's an upside...

I think I'm an optimistic person. Half cup full kind of gal. So.. this no hair thing is a fabulous excuse to buy fun hats.

















Happy Thanksgiving! Here is Nathan's turkey he made for Aunt Deb's table. She proudly displayed it on the center of her table. Aunt Deb is one of those people that just makes you feel welcome and loved as soon as you step in her home.


Thanksgiving began at 6am with a Sheriff pounding on our door. Apparently our window was shot out with a pellet gun by some pranksters. They did several cars in a couple neighborhoods. While cleaning up the glass in my PJ's, I found myself getting cranky and having an uncanny urge to buy a cane to shake at these crazy youngsters.

It is done....

I postponed for a week.. and then cried the whole morning leading up to it. But it was time.


For today, a pink mohawk and blue hair for Nathan. The rest of the hair will come off another day.

Walking! Yeah Baby!

After much anticipation, Amanda took her first steps November 7th!

















She's still timid, but getting braver all the time. Today she took a bunch of steps on her own.

Eve of Halloween!

One more fun pic from the weekend of the grandkids. Amanda spent most of the weekend playing on these stairs.



Today was Nathan's Halloween Party. I went to volunteer, and loved watching him interact with his class. He has his own personality and his teacher is WONDERFUL with him. He has some sweet and fun friends.



With the schedules all wonky from Daylight Savings, and being on vacation all weekend... I decided to indulge the late naps, and we went to see a late movie. Amanda was blown away by the big screen. We ate dinner in front of the big screen, and it was a fun night. A big change of pace from our normal evenings. It was a great reminder that I need to take advantage of our fairly flexible schedule. It won't always be like this.

Beach Beach Beach!!

Here's our Beautiful Butterfly! We went to a little Halloween Party with the kids.





Nathan loved being a giraffe, but had a camera shy moment!

We spent the weekend with my family celebrating these guys 45th Anniversary in Newport.

Lots of time at the Beach, the kids were EXHAUSTED at the end of the day. Nathan misses his "friends" (cousins). He keeps asking if we could go back to the beach and stay there for "lots of tommorrows."

Look at this sweet family. This is my brother and his family. It's wild to see my brother as a dad, but he's a great father.

Girls Weekend Rocks!!

I love these girls! We've been friends since the dawn of time... or possibly just the last 7 years. they know me better than I know myself and I adore each one of them for very different reasons. Here we are happy and exhausted during the last few minutes of our girls weekend. Three years ago Brooke moved away (I bring this up only because I miss her terribly, and still can't believe she moved!) Brooke brought her brand new baby, Elaina. She's a Beauty! And we were joined by Steph's sister Annette and her new baby Lincoln. These kids are adorable.
Annette is a fun addition to girls weekend and is hysterical. She wanted us to take this pic.
I swear I just want to buy some commune somewhere and all live together all the time. I think it would such a blast.

I'm a mom...

I had a moment where I became giddy at the thought that I have butterfly wings hanging up in my laundry room.

I accidentally brushed up against the wings of Amanda's Halloween costume and I couldn't help but giggle..
I'm a girl mom...
I have butterfly wings in my laundry room hanging up to dry...
I have a drawer full of hairbows and ribbons (that don't quite fit on her hairless head yet)
I do an entire load of wash that is all pink every single week. (Ok.. well Ross does the laundry, but still there is an entire load of pink clothes)

When did this happen???

Last week was full of social activities leading up to the first day of Preschool for Nathan. He went to preschool last year, but this is "Big Time" preschool. This is a big preschool, more preschool than daycare.

He was excited to go to the "Purple Door" School again. (He is in the Purple Room!) I was actually excited to get back to work and meeting with my clients. We got there, and he ran into his class and started playing with the animals. I went to say goodbye, and he said "This is Elise" (pointing to his new friend sitting next to him) He hands her a Giraffe and says "Bye Bye Mommy"

I stand up to walk outside, and suddenly I feel something coming over me. I get outside the door and a sob comes out! I was completely startled by it, so it comes out as some awful noise. The pastor of the school rushes over to give me a hug... I'm mortified because I wasn't prepared for the tears. I am excited for him to go to school, this is a good thing for him... But...But...But... We had so much fun this summer, and now he's just so... so... BIG.

And this girl... is cracking us up. She is keeps getting into the summersault position. She also tears around the house using a walker. No sign of trying to walk on her own. She loves the walker.