The Happiest Place on Earth

We decided to take a super quick trip to California to visit our friend Cassie for her birthday. We took our good friend Skanchy along. We have so much fun with him and the boys adore him! We only went for two days, but we fit in as much as possible in that short time. We got there Thursday afternoon and spent some time on Hollywood Blvd., then went to the Santa Monica Pier for dinner at Bubba Gumps (delish!) and played in the sand and ocean a bit. We were up at the crack of dawn the next morning to drive to Anaheim so we could spend the day (literally, from open to close) at Disneyland. The next day we came home and recovered. It was such a short trip, but so much fun. I can't wait to do it again!! I took a million pictures, so I did a slide show. I tried to whittle them down a bit, but there are still a ton.

Anniversary Weekend

A few weeks ago, my grandparents celebrated their 50th Anniversary. This is definitely a memory I want to put on here to preserve. It was such a wonderful weekend! We had all sorts of family that we never get to see come into town for the big event. My Uncle Calvin and his family came all the way from New Jersey. I haven't seen my cousin AJ in 12 years, and I have never met his beautiful new wife. We had so much fun with all of them, it made me sad that they don't live closer. Unfortunately, my cousin Andrea couldn't make it. I guess we will just have to plan a trip back East! My Aunt Pam and her friend Pauline came in from Phoenix. They were only able to stay a couple of days, but we had a blast with them while they were here. It was such a great chance to catch up with everyone, and celebrate such a huge milestone in my grandparents life.

Just a select few pictures spanning 50 years. I made the poster in the back - I am so not crafty and scrapbooky.

My Grandparents with their three kids - Uncle Calvin, Aunt Pam and my cute mom.

My grandparents with their children and their significant others.

My grandparents with all of the grandkids and great grandkids. Sadly, Andrea and my little cousin Tyler are missing.

AJ (being adorably strange) with my Aunt Barb and Uncle Tom. (Barb is my Grandpa's sister). To the left of them is their daughter and son-in-law, Kim & John.
sidenote: Barb is 70, doesn't she look amazing?!? She and my grandpa went skiing together the next day. So awesome!

My grandparents with my mom's in-laws, Ron & Sherrill and their daughter Jane.

The cake!

To Blog Or Not To Blog

Sooooo, it's been quite awhile since I last posted. Again. I was thinking that since I cannot seem to be a good blogger, maybe I should not blog at all. We have been crazy-busy and I have taken plenty of pictures of everything, so I have plenty of blog-fodder, but I have failed to actually post anything. It may be because I am too busy stalking everyone else's blog to update my own, but I like to think it is just because I am so busy.

I started this blog for family and friends to virtually witness the cuteness of the Decaria Boys, but since I am so random at posting, I don't know it anyone even looks at it anymore. But no matter! Because as I looked back through old posts, I realized that this is such a great memory type thing for me. I can look through all of the pictures on my computer, but it is so great to look back and see the things that I wrote and how I felt at the time. So, even if no one looks at this anymore, I am going to keep at it. And hopefully not be so sporadic:)

A Dang Good Poem

I love this poem! Partly because it's how I feel about being a mom, and partly because it makes me feel a lot better about my house never being as clean as I would like it.

Some homes try to hide the fact

that children shelter there.

Ours boasts of it quite openly,

the signs are everywhere.

For smears are on the windows,

little smudges on the door;

I should apologize I guess,

for the toys strewn on the floor.

But I sat down with the children:

we played and laughed and read.

And if the doorbell doesn't shine,

their eyes will shine instead.

For when at times I'm forced to choose

the one job or the other,

I want to be a homemaker,

but FIRST I'll be a mother.

author unknown

A Pictureless Birthday Weekend

The boys are officially 6 and 3! I cannot believe how old they are getting! Ethan's birthday was this past Saturday and Xander's was Tuesday, so we spent the weekend celebrating. I took a ton of pictures, but when I went to download them, they had mysteriously disappeared. I guess that is what Xander accomplished when he hi-jacked my camera at the end of the birthday party:(

When we asked the boys what they wanted to do for their birthdays, all they requested was a trip Check E. Cheese, so that is what we did. Luckily, Ethan didn't have school Friday, so we were able to go that morning before it got too crazy. They had a blast and we came home with a bunch of junk they picked out with their tickets. Saturday we had a birthday lunch with our Decaria side of the family at TGIFriday's (Ethan's choice). It was nice to spend some time with our family and chow down! Then Sunday, we had a combined birthday party with my side of the family for the boys and my niece Emma. She turned 4 last Tuesday. My poor parents have all of their grandkids birthdays in one week! It was a lot of fun - cake, ice cream and presents. Good times. I hope that this next year passes a little more slowly - they are getting too big too fast!

It Happened to Me

I am a faithful reader of Parents magazine. It has the best articles and information in it - it's great. Every month there is a section that is called It Happened to Me, where a mom sent in something that happened to her child so that other parents can read it and hopefully prevent it from happening to theirs. One month it was a little girl that burned her hand on the outside of the oven door while her mom baked cookies, another month it was a toddler that grabbed knives out of the dishwasher and put them in baby brothers playpen so he wouldn't feel left out (luckily, no one got hurt). You get the idea. Well, I unfortunately now have one that I can send in: My Toddler Almost Strangled Himself with the Blind Cord. That's right, Xander managed to wrap the cord around his neck, and although I was sitting right there, it wasn't until he tried to cry that I looked over and saw that he was in trouble. I knew that he was playing with the blinds, he loves to open and close them, but even though I have read a million times how dangerous cords are, I let him. I honestly thought he was too old for that. I don't think that anymore.

He is completely fine. He had a nasty welt from ear-to-ear, but that was the worst of it. He didn't learn his lesson - he tried to play with the blinds again. We learned ours - the cords are now all tied up in knots. Maybe I'll try for the Mother of the Year Award again next year.

Denver

We tagged along on Devin's trip to Denver last week. It was a lot of fun, other than me getting a cold the second day we were there. The boys did the usual: jumped from bed to bed, watched cartoons they aren't allowed to watch at home, played with the plethora of toys we hauled with us, and swam. I mainly read and attempted to nap (until one of the boys would leap onto my back from the opposite bed). It was pretty relaxing - my kind of trip. I only took a few pictures. One is of Xander on the plane (he always sits with me and Ethan sits with Dev, so the plane pictures are usually of Xander), and two of the boys sleeping. For some reason, that was the only time I thought to pull out the camera.