Christmas Lights

Ty's Christmas Show

For all of you who missed it, here is Ty at his preschool's annual Christmas show. He actually sang this time! It was sooo cute.

Random Kid Pictures

Ollie

Pretty good Ollie for my "Skateboard Guy" who just turned 5!

Choir

My Marley is forever singing. She loves it. And even though I am her mother and yes, a little biased, I am not bias in saying that she has a good singing voice. A very good singing voice, I must admit, that she did NOT get from me. I can barely carry a tune. The only way I can sing, is if I am alone in the car with the song drowning out my voice - I am that bad. So, add this to the growing list of things she did not get from me and this is one of the ones I am happy about!

Now, even though she is a good singer, she does not like to perform in front of an audience. She does not like to be in the spotlight. This past Sunday however, she put all that aside and joined the Children's Mass at Church and sang her heart out in front of an audience! I am so proud!

Halloween & Tball

Halloween Festivities

Saturday was jam packed with family & Halloween festivities. Ty had a t-ball game & the children that were ready, were able to bat with either the tee or coach pitch. Ty of course coach pitched. He did great! He hit the ball every time he was up! This Saturday, I'll be sure to get some action shots with my new camera!

After lunch, we went with the Hoskinsons to the Great Park in Irvine. The city had a little carnival with games, a spooky tree house, pony rides & petting zoo. The kicker was that everything was free, including pumpkins! All kids under 12 got to pick and bring home a free pumpkin.... Can't beat that!

Our last event for the evening was a Halloween street party held by our neighbors. We carved pumpkins, ate, drank and watched Casper. It got a bit chilly, but it was a lot of fun.

This is sooo Pooker!

Our House

After a few weeks of my front and back yard being a mud pit, it is finally complete. We had our entire front & backyard hard scape & lawn ripped out. We replaced the crusty old brick with flagstone & stack stone. The result turned out really nice. We are really pleased.

My dad landscaped the front with new plants, flowers & ornamental grass and once they grow a bit, the yard will "pop"! I wish I had a before pic so you could see what a huge difference it made, but oh well.

The guys are also coming back in a week to add that wet look stuff to the walkway & drive which will make a big difference as well.

T-ball

Well, the time has finally come... Ty is old enough to play t-ball. He has been asking to be a "baseball guy" for as long as I can remember. Every Dodger or Angel game we went to, he would get upset because he wanted to play ball, not watch it. So, we signed him up for rec t-ball & we got ALL the gear. This is what unfolded:

Saturday was his first game. Nick dressed him just like the real players, socks tucked in and everything. We took proud "baseball guy" pictures. We talked about how fun it was going to be. We weren't even there 5 minutes & the only thing he could think about was playing on the playground across the way!!! WHAT? Come to find out, it was universal. All the kids wanted the playground vs t-ball. I feel much better. Nick tells me not to panic, he'll get more into the organized sport thingy as time progresses. He's 5. He has the attention span of a gnat, I guess I was expecting a miracle. I'll save the miracles for Little League, he starts that in the Spring!

Student of the Month

I'm starting to detect a trend here... This is, at least, the 2nd year in a row that Marley has won the Student of the Month award for Friendship! Woo hoo, go Marley!

Five!

Can't believe it, Ty is 5. Wow, they grow so fast. My parents came down from NoCal to join us for the celebrations along with helping me landscape our newly remodeled front yard. More on the yard later...

We celebrated Ty's Birthday at Pump It Up. I was this giant bouncy arena with 2 rooms filled with every kind of inflatable thing possible. They all had a blast. Of course his favorite moment of the day was when he got his brand new BMX bike! He was so excited! We will now be adding more to his collection of bruises and scrapes!

School is offically in full swing!

Well, it seems both my little munchkins are off to a great start this year! Marley is now in 2nd grade. Doesn't seem right, anyway... She has the teacher she was hoping for, Mrs. Stahr, who happened to be "Teacher of the Year" last year. One of her good friends is in her class, her neighbor is in her class & her CRUSH is in her class. What could be better for her, oh yeah, her best buddy now has recess at the same time, so they get to play all the time! Woohoo! I'm looking forward to "Back to School Night" so I can get the 411 and start volunteering in her class!

Here are some first day of school pics:

Back to Preschool

Tyler is offically back to school as of today. There was a tinge of sadness on my part, but he was so happy to go back & see his friends...

Things r looking up

Well! August has been quite the whirlwind & it only just began. Got new windows installed the first week of August & in the midst of that we had a slab leak! Crimony. Fortunately it was a small one, but seriously, is a slab leak ever small? We had to file a claim with our insurance company, which freaked us out... it sucks, you pay Homeowners Insurance all these years and when you have to use it, you freak out because you are afraid they will drop you. AAA assured us that wouldn't happen & we have been very happy with the service, although it is taking forever to put my house back together. I've still got holes in my walls & ceiling & my carpet is thrashed. On the bright side, our entertainment center is totalled so I'm going furniture shopping... Yippie! Anyway, I'm told the guys will be out this week to replace walls & baseboards, paint & clean the carpet.

On a happy note, the kids are going back to school in a few weeks. Man, it has been a long summer. They have been pretty busy, but they are never busy enough. Marley will start 2nd grade & I'm anxious to find out who her teacher will be. After Ms. Davis, it will be hard to compare. Ty is in Pre-K... He will be 5 in October & although he's makes the cut, he's not emotionally ready for Kindergarten. I'd rather he be a bit older than younger & it will help him with sports as well. I know so many kids that have been held back & I don't want him to be one of them.

Also, Marley learned to ride her bike w/o training wheels! I was thinking this day would never come. Once she got over the fear of falling, she was fine. Now she is like her brother & covered head to toe in scrapes & bruises! It is so amazing how they change. She went from last month, scared to death to ride her bike, to now, riding with 1 hand and going off ramps. Crazy.

Here's June!

Seriously, I don't know how some of those bloggers do it! How they find the time to blog a few times a month, I will never know. So, here is my half attempt at June:

The highlight of our June was Marley receiving the Mason Award at Rancho. Each teacher, from every class in each grade (K-6) picked one student that exemplified awesomeness! That's not exactly what the Principal said but it's close enough... It's kinda like "Student of the Year". So, my little Marley K, was, of course picked! Too boot, her Best Friend, Kylie Hoskinson was chosen for her Kindergarten class. So that was a pretty sweet way to end the school year.

Speaking of end of the school year, man was I sad. Yes, of course for the fact that I need to find ways to entertain my two busy children, but there is more... I absolutely LOVED Marley's 1st grade teacher, Ms. Davis. She is the worlds best teacher. She is so sweet, kind, caring and loving to each & every student. Marley LOVED Ms. Davis as well, in fact, I noticed she got a lot more hugs than I did... grrr! Just kidding! It is a real treat to find a teacher like Ms. Davis that is able to teach your kids so much and be so loving that the entire class adores her. I was one of the classroom helpers and it enabled me to get to know her on a personal level and man, she's great. She's so great that I was CRYING on the last day of school. I know all the teachers at Rancho are great, but I hated having to give up Ms. Davis. I begged her to watch out for Tyler and snag him when he was going into 1st grade. And I'll keep on it, because as you all know, I am good at pestering especially when it comes to the benefit of my children! :)

Let's see, end of June was my birthday, and that was nice. My parents came down for a bit and we had a great time. My dad of course was put to work. He replaced my plain & ugly interior garage door (w/ help from Roger) to a pretty 6 panel door. Nick of course didn't really notice! Men! Well I think it looks great and makes a world of difference especially since it matches all the other doors in my house.

I think that's about it, I'm sure we went to a few baseball games, but since that was 2 months ago I'm a little fuzzy.

RIP

Doodle Bell Schrunk

You are missed & we love you.

Sept 1997-June 2008

May Pictures

A little behind the times...

Here we go... From what I remember, April was a little dull, so we'll just skip it and move right on to May.

May was a big month in our family, Nick's Great Aunt Bea passed away. She was 95 & will be sorely missed. To celebrate Bea's life, Nick's family rented a 47 ft. Beneteau, sailed by our resident skipper, Jason Owens, Nick's cousin-in-law. We set sail from Long Beach in the POURING rain. The rain finally died down & once we were out far enough, we released the ashes in a flurry of flowers. As weird or morbid as it may sound, it was a really nice way to say goodbye. Afterward we met the rest of the family at McKenna's on the Bay restaurant. A nice relaxing family lunch, exactly what Bea wanted.

One word: Dolphins. Dolphins started back up again for Marley. For those of you not in the "know" Dolphins is a swim team at our community club that goes from May to the end of July. It's a lot of fun, a lot of work, and over in a flash. It seems, that Marley's best stroke is becoming the butterfly! We are very proud of her, especially since this year the team has a new coach & is much more competitive, which means a lot more work for Marley. To help give her more of an advantage for next season, we are thinking of putting her in year-round swim club. She seems to be all for it. Also another important tidbit about Marley: She had a class project to make an alien. Well, my daughter being the animal lover that she is, decided to make an alien dog! It was the cutest thing you ever saw. Marley & Nick made it and she named it WallE after the popular robot movie that is out this summer. I have to remember to post pictures, it is so darn cute!!!

As for Ty, aka Mr. Athletic, he learned how to ride his bike w/o training wheels!!!! It took him 2-3 tries and he was off & has been going ever since. Ty also has taken up tennis. Grandma Schrunk is placing all her tennis hopes on him, so she signed him up & takes him to tennis lessons once a week. He loves it & is doing really well. He is really excited to finally be in an organized sport like his Sissy. Only 3 more months until he is 5 and he can join Little League, which he is dying to do.

May has also been the month of baseball games for us. Nick's company has season tickets for the Dodgers & Angels we seemed to occupy those seats a lot. Much to Nick's disappointment, we frequent the Angels games a lot more than the Dodgers, but can you blame me? The Dodgers are an hour away and to avoid traffic we have to leave HOURS ahead of time, whereas the Angels are 20 min away! Besides, the Angels clientele are much more "family friendly" and well, the Dodgers are... scary. Sorry, Dodger fans, but from a prissy OC girls POV, it's true.

We have now concluded the month of May. I will hopefully post pics & enlighten you all on June very soon.

Puerto Vallarta

We finally made it back to Mexico! We had planned to go back to Cabo last year at about this time w/ my parents, but with Nick's busy schedule and my Lasik eye surgery, we couldn't get away. So this time with my mom's urging, we played it safe and made it a last minute getaway. As in last minute, I mean my mom booked this place two-weeks prior! We lucked out and she found a nice little resort in the heart of Puerto Vallarta, 10 min from the airport (airport proximity is key cuz in Cabo the airport is 1 hour away from the good resorts).

We had an ocean view room and wrist bands that made the food in drink "all inclusive" - a very big thing in PV. So, in a nutshell we could drink as much as we want with the flick of our wrist bands. Needless to say, we all bellied on up to the swim-up bar quite often. Chairs were a premium so my mom and I woke up at the crack of dawn to reserve the good spot and a cabana on the beach (which my dad guarded for most of the morning).

On the last day, the kids went swimming with the dolphins. It was so cool! Words cannot describe, you'll have to check out the pictures:



It was Mexico, so it wasn't without trouble... I was attacked by a band of sand fleas, Nick was sun burnt and Marley & Ty ate bad hot dogs. Over all we had a great time. Even though PV is one of the most popular destinations, I don't know if I'd go back, I'm a bit of a lily, I like more Americanized places in Mexico like Cabo. I think next we'll try Acapulco or Cancun... or we might play it safe and go to Hawaii! More pictures below:

Bullitt at the Beach

I forgot to post this in January... We took Bullitt our 15month Doberman Pinscher to Laguna Beach for the first time. Bully is a bit rowdy and we were a bit nervous on how he would take it, but he was such a good boy! He loved the beach & I was surprised dogs were allowed on the beach, but w/ a leash they were. He was fine with the other dogs and after this, we come to find out that our 96+ pound dog is not a fan of the little variety (aside from his brother). Regardless, the family had a great time and we will all be back.

From Trash to Treasure

For the past 6 years, we have had the most hideous fireplace in our family room. This thing was so ugly and white, I couldn't stand it. So, when my parents came down in December for Christmas, I wrangled my Dad into remodeling it. To start of, the fireplace was white brick from top to bottom. My dad covered the brick with drywall from the mantle up and painted it the same color as the rest of the walls. It looked amazing. I knew my dad was handy, but I believe this was the best "fix-it" job I had him do! Although the top part of the fireplace looked really good, the rest sucked. In January, we hired a mason to replace the ugly painted brick with stone veneers & flagstone. As you can see below, the fireplace now looks a phenomenal!

Universal Studios

My parents got free tickets to Universal Studios so... in January we went. Not too exciting. I remember it being much cooler when I was a kid, but then weren't most things? Anyway, we got to meet The Sponge in person, needless to say Ty was not impressed.