B's at Rubble Mountain with Mia Marisa Photography

 Our AMAZING friend, neighbor, and photographer Mia Reed shot our fam in an abandoned lot on Signal Hill. These are some of my favorites! To see her faves as well as other moments in time that she captures check out her blog here!

 Hea Bug

 

JT

 

Mr and Mrs B

Counting our Blessings, one by one.

When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads
And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds
If you're worried and you can't sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep
And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings

Following the example of my wonderful friend Mrs. Frost, I am using this blog to count down... up? hmm... the many wonderful things that our family is grateful for as we approach Thanksgiving. We work hard to live a life that we want and savor most seconds of the day. Often getting caught up in the daily grind, I will enjoy the time I spend each day asking my family what things they are most appreciative of...

November 1, 2010
I'm thankful for my family. All of them of course but especially my little Booth Ohana. Me, Mr. B, JT and HeaBug. Through the grace and wonder of God and his wonderful plan, my ETRNLFMLY is what I am first and foremost thankful for in all of this entire existence. -Mrs. B.

November 2, 2010

You. You're the thing I'm most thankful for. -Mr. B

 November 3, 2010
I'm thankful that you let me go to chess masters, and that you cook us dinner every night, and that we get to play on Thanksgiving. Not you guys, the children. We get to jump on the trampoline and stuff and eat pie. -JT

November 4, 2010
My awesome, funny, crazy (like make me want to pull my hair out) daughter, Ms HeaBug. She definitely keeps us on our toes. She's busy and smart. She's got an infectious laugh. She tells us she loves us out of the blue (both Booth Kids do) and she can do the Robot... need I say more?! -Mrs B

November 5, 2010
My Auntie Nini. She's a good Aunt and she teaches me how to pick up stuff with my toes and on Lego Batman, she does a level for me sometimes. I'm kind of missing her since she is here in Las Vegas. She's not going to live here right? -JT (from the Molina wedding in Las Vegas, NV)

November 6, 2010
Work. Busy is good. -Mr B

November 7, 2010
My sisters. I know that I've written, posted, blogged, status updated, and any other form that I often use of saying stuff I want to say, about how much I LOVE my sisters. They make my crazy moments feel a little more normal. Never awkward silences because we all have too much to say and if for whatever reason we are being quiet it's because there are some things you just don't have to say out loud. They are my best friends and partners in crime. They will go see Twilight movies with me at 11:30 at night, they will talk me off a ledge and be talked of ledges by me. Besides my guy, these are my it people. I love them and am so appreciative of their love. -Mrs B

November 8, 2010
To elaborate on the Hub's thankful for on 11/6... I am thankful for Rock Steady. I'm thankful that God has blessed us with such success that allows us to work full time for ourselves. I'm thankful that I believed in this dream (along with all the others but REALLY glad this one took off!) and for all the people in our life that are still believing right along with us. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be of service to others and to share the success and growth that we enjoy with other families. I REALLY miss being a full time stay at home mom but I know how lucky we are and when you work for yourself, you can never complain about too much work! -Mrs. B

November 9, 2010
My Grandparents. They taught me a lot about hard work. -Mr B

November 10, 2010
School and my friends at school, and my teacher Mrs. S. I love Mrs. S. I am thankful that I got a math award and that I had a lot of blue slips and got picked by Mr. A to get a pencil. I clean up a lot of stuff to get those blue slips. -JT

November 11, 2010
Technology! I lost my iPhone in Las Vegas and literally felt lost! Through my phone I'm able to keep track of everywhere that we're supposed to be for who and what time. I hardly know any telephone numbers by heart and receive all my personal and work emails on my phone! Thanks to craigslist and my hubs, I'm back with my iPhone and in full swing. I cannot imagine daily life, home or work or play, without access to the internet or phones. I'm almost ashamed at how dependent I am! Well not really, just glad to recognize it. I can talk to loved ones in other countries through video chatting and email. I can stay in contact with friends and family via facebook! I am SO grateful for technology!! -Mrs B

November 12, 2010
Did I say you already? I'm thankful for my wife. Enough to use up all my thankfulness days. -Mr B (side note... man I love this guy)

November 13, 2010
As busy and time stretched as I feel on most days, I'm really thankful for all of the opportunities and experiences that we are able to offer our kids. Gymnastics, jiujitsu, piano, chess, baseball, Spanish, charter school, art, culture, food... People might think we're a little crazy sometimes but it's all worth it for these kiddos. We just love them so much and want them to experience LIFE! -Mrs B


November 14, 2010
Prayer. That direct line of communication between you and the Lord. It's amazing. -Mrs B

November 15, 2010
Music, occasional Xbox, pumpkin pie and my cowboy boots. -Breezer

November 16, 2010
Pictures. They really say a thousand words. I have 30,000 on my computer alone. I'm taken back to very specific moments and memories when I look at some of them. They'll tell the story of my life, those before me and those after me. I love my pictures. -Mrs B

November 17, 2010
Mothers. Motherhood. The challenge and the reward. It is the best thing I've ever done. It's the best thing I've ever seen my mom do. My mom is the best mom and it's through her example that I am confident I can be a great mom to my kids. -Mrs. B

November 18, 2010
Music. We like it. Our kids like it. Makes us feel good. -Mr. B

November 19, 2010
The comforts that we are able to enjoy. We work very hard to live a life that we want. We work REALLY hard and feel blessed by the Lord with the work that has come our way. We are grateful for the ability to work and we are grateful for all the things it enables us to do.

November 20, 2010
Talents. We have been blessed with many talents and enjoy sharing nurturing them and sharing them with others. We know that our lives are blessed when others share their talents with us.

November 21, 2010
Friends. Good Friends are the best and we love them.

November 22, 2010
The thoughtfulness of my husband. He loves and adores us and puts so much thought into things for our family. He knew how much it would mean to everyone to see my brother and his family so he (and Brina helping) flew the NY Kamaes out for Thanksgiving! He's SUCH a good man!!

November 23, 2010
The kids in our life. They are full of life, joy, mischief, ideas, imagination, kindness... They make us happy and we love spending time with them.

November 24, 2010
The Plan of Salvation.

November 25, 2010
Food, Helping Hands, Loving Family, Friends and Neighbors. Warm Homes, Good Company, Smiles and Songs, Surprises, Patience, Kindness of others, Prescription Sunglasses and iPhones. lol

We have a LOT to be grateful for.

All dressed up with places to go, our Frightfully Fun Halloween!

Halloween isn't typically one of the holidays we go all out for... In fact, when we drive by the houses that are crazy decorated by October first there's a definite mumble of, "crazy white people" haha. Well, this year, I had these little B's all costume ready by the time they had cleared out the school supplies at Target. Always attempting, never successful at Family Costuming, Hea Bug and JT were dressing up as Tinkerbell and Peter Pan. As long as JT get's some sort of weapon, he's satisfied... last year it was wolverine chopstick claws, the year before, Indiana's whip... Peter Pan has a dagger, he's happy.

This year we dove right in with the activities. The Disney Store at the Lakewood Center Mall hosted a pre Halloween costume party, kinda lame but the kiddos had a good time.

Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland was MUCH more fun! We only trick or treated at maybe 3 or 4 of the 10 stations set up throughout the park and seriously came home with about 10lbs of candy! We had a great time there, GK joined us so we took advantage of that, "We're with the scooter" front of line pass. So many great costumes to be seen though! The park and the fireworks were awesome and HeaBug rocked out to some dance favorites at Club Skellington in New Orleans Square.

We were supposed to venture off to San Pedro with our Schlarb Ohana but they all came down with some yucky sick bug so they weren't able to join us at Pt Fermin Lighthouse. For a $15 donation, we toured the "Haunted Lighthouse" (which freaked out the little man), painted a pumpkin, decorated treat bags (one for himself and one for his sister who had gone to a halloween party at Uncle Kene's ward), sipped a cup of cocoa and snagged a string cheese. It was ok, for people who don't normally do the "Halloweeny" stuff. The sunset from the bluff was outta sight though. The pre festivity play on the playground was pretty fun too.

JT had "Trunk or Treat" at school on Friday then HeaBug and I went to our church trunk or treat. I was glad we got some serious use out of our costumes this year! Both kiddos were feeling under the weather over the weekend so we decided to stick close to home and just pass out glow sticks, candy and healthy treats at our door. We didn't get too many trick or treaters but the ones who did come were very cute. JT had glow bracelets all over his arms and was standing at the end of the walkway waving and saying "Over Here! We have candy, come trick or treat!" Kinda sad when  you have to recruit trick or treaters huh?!

We had fun, stayed safe and spent a lot of time together, when it comes down to it, one can't really ask for more!

Pumpkins, Ponies and Photos, lots of 'em

We hooked up with our Booth Fam to take the kids to the "Punkin'Patch". Our Original plan was to make our way out to Tom's Farms in Corona but we got a really late start so we decided to check out the Pumpkin Factory in the Westminster Mall parking lot. We had a great time, all the kiddos really enjoyed running around, sliding down slides, riding on rides and acting like little kids.

 G Booth and Oochie got the kids pony rides which they all loves. JT swore his was the fastest... lol.

 Even Heabug got in on the action, she did not want her daddy to hold her in the car so like a good daddy he hopped in back. A-bean and JuJuB are always great sports with my kids. JuJuB and JT are seriously peas in a pod and Heabug just thinks A-Bean is the cat's meow.

 We had lady bugs, cuts and bruises, arm flames and rainbows. The lady doing face painting was really great and we were glad the prices were pretty reasonable. Each of the kid's were $3 which seems totally fair to me! In fact, aside from the astronomically unreasonable prices of the pumpkins, everything was pretty cost efficient. Near the end of the evening I bought a diet coke (only one large size) for $2.50 and they even offered refills for $.75! We were heading to dinner after anyway so we didn't load up on popcorn or cotton candy or nachos with... ugh my favorite, don't judge... liquid cheese!

 

The lilloB's had SUCH a blast driving (terribly) John Deere power wheels

 

 Any time with our family is a good time. We really enjoyed celebrating the kick off of fall, even if it was in a parking lot in OC. haha. hopefully we'll still make it out to Tom's Farms but we really had a blast here. (PS deciding that it was in actuality far too early to be carving a pumpkin, we only bought a cute little white one for Jack's teacher Mrs. S. We'll snag a couple for carving at Home Depot next week.)

Apples of my eye

 We spent the day in a mountain town called Oak Glen that is lush in apple orchards. Actually being from the city but Aloha to all walks of life at heart, we crave and enjoy exposing our kids to different environments. I love that they're comfortable in these situations and that we're creating memories as a family. Willowbrook Farm is where we like to come and take part in U-pick apple picking and U-press cider. It's a smaller farm nestled on the backside of the mountain and before all the hustle, bustle and hullabaloo of Los Rios Rancho and Oak Tree Villiage which are lots of fun too.
After sampling (and liking) their unique Stayman Apple, Farmer Rick takes you through to the orchard, which is situated around their home, and educates you on how to pick and apple off of 100 year old trees! The kids payed attention (even HeaBug) to the twist not pull technique, we chose which size bag we wanted to pick (the biggest one of course) and were off to spend as much time as we liked wandering through Willowbrook Farm.

We met Comet the horse and said hello to Blossom the pig (who was MUCH bigger than the last time we saw her two seasons ago). Even though it was a warm day, the cool shade gave us the best refuge. HeaBug and JT picked huge apples off the trees along the fence line and climbed rocks and chased a cat (well that was all the little miss). HeaBug has an obsession with taking off after babies and animals, facinated by things that are smaller than her... She was saying Hi to a baby (and I was apologizing to her mom which I generally do after HeaBug takes off after your child, again, sorry) when her mom told me I looked so familiar. She asked if I was LDS (because she saw ETRNLFAM written on my highschoolesque grown up chucks) and I told her I was. Turns out, we went to the same ward as teenagers. What a small world!
*a little back story on the small world of Willowbrook farm real quick... two years ago when we went to the same farm and Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner and their daughter Violet were there, under the trees relaxing in the quiet. ever since (because i'm a little crazy) I've been convinced that we could have been "friends", since we love us some BenGar haha.

Pictures from our trip to Willowbrook, two years apart. My lillo JT has grown! and HeaBug has now been born! Lol.

 
We pressed a gallon of our own cider and ate caramel apple slices. The caramel is handmade from a dairy farmer friend of Willowbrook. We bought blackberry jam (from their crop!) and apple butter. The kiddos sucked on fruit flavored honey sticks all afternoon and patiently rode the 1 1/2 hour ride home watching Yo Gabba Gabba and Princess and the Frog on the iPad.
As always it was wonderful time spent together as a family.

LA county faire!

WE LOVE the LA FAIR! This year, like years before we packed up the car... this time a little more creatively since we have the Mini now, and the kiddos and our tons and tons of bottles of water and headed up to Pomona to the LA fairgrounds. We got there a little early since we were braving the last Saturday of the fair and had a few hours of wandering the shopping halls and food aisles before it got crazy busy. We've been dealing with insane weather here in southern California so throughout the humid day we got a bit of rain, some lightening, 90 degree heat and even our share of blue skies! We were glad to get out of the heat and walk through a 17 degree freezer featuring ice sculptures of Los Angeles. It was very cool (pun definitely intended)!
Kiddos enjoyed the petting zoo and we got replacement food since a crazy goat snatched ours out of my hands! JT and Mr B zip lined (JT after a little coaxing) and looked so cool doing it. It was a nice warm up for our dream vackay of zip lining over Hawaii!

We grubbed down on kabobs, roasted corn, a cinnamon roll, cinnamon roasted pecans and almonds, frozen chocolate bananas, soft serve ice cream, giant hot dog, and tons of Muscle Beach Lemonade (only $2 refills!)
We're reminiscent every year of the time Mr B broke his ankle while working the Toyota exhibit when JT was just 9 months old! Toyota still has a large display there as a major sponsor but the Xgames trampoline is since absent.
JT got a wallet (which he's been asking for 2 of his dollars to go shopping for one) for only a dollar and we scored on some sillybandz (maybe they're knock offs but he was jazzed about it). Bought a giant safe finally after years and years of looking, cinnamon roasted pecans and almonds, and other things that we probably don't need but can't resist. Lol. Always a fun time together as a little Boothohana, we loveLOVEloved the faire! Come with us next year!

Alpha and Omega

Kindergarten is agreeing with JT. He's having a good time and making lots of friends. Quite the social... I want to say butterfly but that doesn't sound very boyish... hm. 

He has a little friend LaDy that waits with her grandma Mrs D everyday for us and we walk to the cars together. Out of habit, I tend to park in the same area and that's where LaDy's grandma parks too.

I guess there's a new movie out about some wolves called Alpha and Omega, we haven't been to see a movie in a while but I guess they play this during recess. He told me... "Um, they get married in the end you know Mom". JT was sitting at the table the other night after dinner and said, "Mom, LaDy is the Alpha to my Omega". Who knows if he even knows what he's talking about but it was cute nonetheless.

A Score of MariBug

happy happy birthday Mari Bug Dear...
happy days will come to YOU all year...
if I had a wish then it would be...
A happy happy birthday to you from the B's!

Our lovely niece Maribug turned 20 (WTH!!) last month and we celebrated by ordering and eating "family style" (fancy way of saying base price, choose two salads, two appetizers, four entrees and two desserts and they'll keep bringing them!) from Maggiano's at the South Coast Plaza. In general, I avoid OC Shopping centers but this food was far too good to miss.

Even HeaBug got down with some spinach artichoke dip... we were happy to get together, have a good time, laugh, talk, celebrate and leave with full tummies (i'm a mom, I say tummy, get over it). Because I can't get enough of food... here's our yummadocious menu:

Spinach and Artichoke al Forno, Bruschetta

Spinach Salad and Maggiano's chopped salad (think blue cheese, prosciutto, nuts)

Tomato Vodka Gnocchi, Fettuccine Alfredo, Chicken and Spinach Manicotti and Chicken Marsala

Creme Brulee and Toasted pound cake with banana and caramel sauce a la mode.

This description does not do it justice and I'm tempted to describe in detail since that's how they do it on Top Chef but I'll refrain.

Happy Birthday to a wonderful and beautiful niece. We love you and watching you grow to the woman you are today. We will love and stand by you you're whole life (cuz our ohana is that kind of awesome). Hau'oli La Hanau Kehau!