December

Since it's almost Feb, it's time I posted about December activities and Christmas. Right on time for my behind-a-month post.
Caden had his first school program. Granted it was a preschool program, but I was beaming like the proud parent that I am. He was so cute! The whole class sat up on bleachers and sang their songs and recited their memorized lines that the preacher is brainwashing them with. It was great!

Caden's friends, Chaz (behind Caden) and Alex (next to Caden) make this picture great. I love their faces.

Our Santa picture for 2008. Soleil is screaming and hiding in my shoulder. Caden looks bored. We'll try again next year.

Christmas morning with her new shoes. At 2, this girl is all shoes. Hopefully we'll end up in the same size when she's older cause I have my eye on those Sleeping Beauty shoes.

Caden in his new Batman costume with his new scooter and sunglasses. Santa certainly set him up for lookin' good in 2009!

The Botanical Gardens - very pretty at night.

The Gardens even have free marshmallow roasting. That was Soleil's favorite part.

My family came down for the week between Christmas and New Years. We had lots of fun with them. We did Disneyland, and for the first time, Cali Adventure. Meaning for the first time, we stayed in a hotel up there and did 2 days of parks. It was a lot of fun! Having lots of aunts, uncles, and grandparents to help with the kids, or hold them while I go on a ride made it even more fun! Thanks for coming! We love you!

My mom and Caden in Cali Adventure. Mr Potato Head actually spoke to Caden!

My bro Dusty watching the parade with Soleil. To be 2 and carried around everywhere again. Ahh...

Because my feet are killing me!

The gang at Cali Adventure minus Scott and Soleil.

Target

I love Target. For those of us that are high-class, we call it Tar-ja'. I find some reason to go to Tar-ja' at least once a week. Out of mascara? Off to Tar-ja'. Soleil blasted through the last box of diapers? I shall dash to Tar-ja'! In need of a cheap popcorn fix? Tar-ja', here I come! So I was at Target (I have tired of typing Tar-ja'. too much work, so it's back to Target) a couple of days ago. Soleil and I were weaving our way round the store, her sitting in the bottom of the cart eating the cheap popcorn while somehow pulling everything within arm's reach off the shelves, when a stranger asked me where the laundry detergent is. Now, I am a friendly person, and I know Target well, so I explained where the detergent was located and sent the stranger on their happy way. A few minutes later, another customer asked me where the garden hoses were. Having just perused Target's gardening section myself, again I explained the general location to the stranger, and off she went. For the third time in about 10 minutes, another person asked me the location of a product. I couldn't figure it out! Maybe I am spending too much time in Target...Do I really look like I know the entire store that well? I'm sure Scott would not be happy to hear that!
Until it hit me. I was wearing a red shirt and khakis, the uniform of Target employees. I grabbed Soleil out of the cart and ran home to change.

Child-less shopping

Lately I have neglected my blog, just barely journaling our activities but not much else. So right now I'm going to put my Christmas post on hold for a little day-in-the-life-of-Sunshine story.
Disclaimer* If you are male or under 18, read at your own risk.
Wednesday mornings both kids are in school for a blessed 3 hours. I save up non-kid-friendly errands for Wednesdays and go crazy for those 3 hours. It's a good time. I was in Nordie's yesterday with a gift card burning a hole in my pocket and found myself in the "sleepwear" department. A good non-kid-friendly errand, buying bras, plus who wants to try on bras with a kid screaming at you trying to escape the dressing room while you are half nekkid? It was time for a new one. Now I've had a "fitting" before that consisted of the tape measure going over the shirt, but before I knew it, Carrie* (whose name has been changed to protect the innocent), had me down to my bra and undergarment. For you Mo's reading, you know what undergarment I'm talking about. Unfortunately I had on a well-loved undergarment, complete with yucky pits and a bit of leftover lint that wouldn't come out despite my repeated washings. I was in a hurry when I got dressed in the semi-darkness yesterday morning, so I didn't even realize what a yucky (though clean!) undergarment I had chosen until I was under the harsh lights of Nordie's. Now if I lived in Utah, the sales girl probably wouldn't have thought twice about the yucky undergarment, but I'm in Cali, so Carrie did a double take before she composed herself. "Ha, ha", you are thinking to yourself. "Good story, Sunshine." No wait...it gets better. After nursing both my babies, my girls aren't what they used to be. A fact of life I'm sure will naturally rectify itself once I'm done having kids, but in the meantime I just have to deal with the droopiness. (seriously, if you are a male reading this, please stop!) Last year to fill out the Jewish wedding dress (if you are new to my blog, go back to March of '08 for the Jewish wedding dress) I had to get a pair of falsies. I don't ever wear them - they are uncomfortable and sweaty (there's a nice pix for you!), but for some reason, yesterday I stuck them in the bra. It helped the cute shirt hang better....anyways, I find myself in this dressing room with Carrie already wondering about the nasty undergarment when I have to pull these puppies out of my bra so she can get a correct measurement. I turned away from her to plop them into my purse as discreetly as I can, but at this point I'm sure Carrie is really wishing she would have ignored me on the sales floor. After she took my measurement (I'm still the same pre-baby size, how did that happen??) she ran off to find some bras for me to try on. I took this time to take off the yucky undergarment and stuff that into my purse with the falsies, thinking Carrie probably didn't want to look at my lovely yellow armpits any more. I sure didn't. Quick thinking on my part, because she ended up putting every bra on me!! I've never had a fitting like this, where she stood behind me, I put the bra on, and she fastened and adjusted each bra. Thankfully her hands were warm. Must be an employment requirement. But thanks to Carrie, I rediscovered the joys of the push-up! Why, oh why did I abandon you, push-up? You bring me confidence and happiness! To help make Carrie feel better after the weird, yucky undergarment and pair of falsies, and to replenish my push-up-less wardrobe, I bought 4 bras. The girls are back where nature intended, and now I'm off to get new undergarments. Apparently they have a shorter life than bras.