New water heater!!

Ok, not something usually to be celebrated, but today, I'm excited because we got a new water heater!!  Well, not really excited about  the new one as much as I'm excited about what I did with this part of the old 

one!

 This is the nasty drip pan that we took off of the old water heater.  (At 8pm on a Saturday, not the best timing for this thing to go out!!)

At first I thought it would be awesome as a magnet board, I like magnets, but it's aluminum, so I decided to do plan B.  Chalkboard!!  I've never tried chalkboard paint and it looks fun, so here we go!!!

 First I removed the plastic threading that connected it to the water heater, it left a nice hole on one side, then onto intense, muscle powered cleaning, this thing was nasty, then the primer, just a few coats of the cheapo walmart kind.

THEN, onto three different stores before finally finding a can of chalkboard paint!!  Thank you Home Depot. It got two coats of Rustoleum Chalkboard paint then left for 24 hours to dry.

 Finished painting, it's enormous, seriously, I should have thought about the size first, where to put it??

 I found this pretty burlapish ribbon, and ran it through the ready made hole.

It doesn't hang flat against the wall, gotta fix that, AND after rubbing it all over with chalk, like the can said to, it wouldn't get back to black clean looking.  So, I like it, but not in love.  Yet.

I do love that the chalk sits nicely in the rim :)

OH, where to put it???

Linking up!

 

5 months

5 months old

not so small

learning how to grab

and roll

feet are new, toes are exciting

put it in my mouth please

20lbs

26 1/4 in long

I see mommy

I want mommy

VERY curious

still love to snuggle

Took 13 pictures, this kid is not going to sit still for long!!

Olympic training

Damen and Kaden training for their olympic debut of somersaulting!
Or they were really bored at 7am!

Beach

I just loved how these black and whites turned out at the beach!

The subjects were pretty cute too:)  

And yes, it's February, and we're enjoying the sun and the ocean!

4 months

Our "little" Mason Moose is getting so big!  

I'm behind on posting these, but the picture is accurate.  

At four months,

26 1/4in long and 18.5 lbs

On a side note, my back is killing me!

Mall Cookies

Where we grew up there was one mall, 45 minutes away.  It was AMAZING.  We loved going there, shopping is still a favorite pass time for my mom, me and my sisters.  We didn't really have a lot of money, most of our mall excursions involved my grandma visiting from California, or school shopping at Mervyns, but we had fun.  There used to be this cookie place in the mall, not a chain like Mrs. Fields, it was special.  They made this cookie that we ordered every time, sometimes we had to split it into thirds or fourths, depending on how many of us were there and how many cookies we could afford that day.  It was a chocolate cookie with a melted marshmallow on top and fudge icing.  It was chocolatey, gooey goodness, the size of a small plate and it was fantastic!!
Sadly the cookie place went out of business and we never saw the beloved cookie again. . .

UNTIL, my sister moved to Medford, OR and found at the mall there a tiny cookie shop that baked and sold those cookies, those exact, delicious, fantastic mall cookies!  When we were all there a few weeks ago we kept going to the mall to get some and they were out EVERY time.  Finally they gave us their card so we could call ahead, and call we did.  They baked us up a batch, which is only a dozen, and we drove over to pick them up.  We actually ended up purchasing 16 cookies!!  We raced back to the house, but Jodi couldn't wait, as soon as she was buckled in she opened the box and took a bite:

We passed it around the car and enjoyed that first one together, the rest of them didn't take long to be gobbled up either!!

February

Wow, for such a short month it sure has been busy!!  
We started off the month by driving to Oregon to be with my nephew on the day he was baptized.  He is the oldest grandchild and the first to be baptized.  It was a wonderful time for my family, even though my parents couldn't be there (still in China).  Four of my sisters and my Grandpa were there with all of the grandkids, my sister's new home was PACKED!

OH these boys!!  The fabulous five boy cousins are Nicholas, Zack, Damen, Robert and Kaden.  The two baby boys, Cooper and Mason, and baby girl Samantha aren't in the picture, we were keeping them safe!

Great Grandpa with Mason, SO sweet:)












We got home on Tuesday and on Thursday morning our sister Christi, who didn't go to Oregon because she was in Costa Rica, called to ask if I'd pick her up at the airport so she could visit for 30 hours.  I said yes and between Friday and Saturday we enjoyed every last second together! Eating at Claim Jumper for her birthday and giving ourselves a self tour of the Queen Mary in Long Beach.

We had one week of settling down before my sister Traci drove down with her son, Kaden and boyfriend Chris.  They stayed for a whole week and we had so much fun!!  Damen was out of school for the week.  We went to the movies, out to eat, shopping and to the beach.  She took Damen with them to the San Diego Zoo and just the three of them went to Disneyland for a day.                          Masons first time in the Ocean!

Damen, Mason and Kaden Cousins! 

Me and Traci w/Mason and crazy CHRIS!

It has been so much fun to travel and visit!  I love my family so much and love to spend time with them.  I'm also glad to be back to reality tomorrow!