Visits with Santa

Posted on February 22, 2017 by Mdfrisco

Last year Jacob was a bit hesitant with Santa. This year however, he was very excited to see him and tell him all about the “Stinky Truck” he wanted. Thanks to commercials on the kids channel, he learned about this robotic garbage truck that moves, talks and swallows matchbox cars and burps…The Stinky Truck. At first I kind of rolled my eyes at it and figured he would move on to something else when it came closer to Christmas. But he didn’t. We had three encounters with Santa and every single time he told him he wanted a Stinky Truck. I knew then I had to find one.

Our first visit with Santa was completely unplanned. I was returning something at the mall and when we were coming down the escalator we saw Santa. So we walked by and stopped for a minute to wave and let the boys get a good look at him. Jacob was so excited and dancing around. It was early, the mall had just opened and there was no line, so I decided to take the boys to go sit on his lap. At first Dylan was jumping and dancing along with Jacob just a mere few inches from Santa’s lap, after Jacob climbed up onto his knee, I started to lift Dylan up and he completely lost it. I froze for a few seconds trying to decide if I should save Dylan from the jolly man in the red suit or back away so they could snap a picture. Yep, I backed away for the picture…

I then quickly rescued Dylan and listened to Jacob chatting Santa’s ear off. Of course I ended up paying a ridiculous amount of money for this picture, but it is kind of priceless. And for the record, I did feel a little bad for Dylan, but he got over it real quick.

The following week, we went to the Bernardo Winery for their Holiday Nights. This time there was a long line for Santa, so Justin and I were taking turns standing in line, and walking around with the boys. One time when I was walking with them, we scored a bench next to where Santa was so the boys climbed up and danced to the music while watching all the kids have their turn with Santa. Jacob and I asked Dylan several times if he wanted to go see Santa and each time he shook his head, nooooo. When it came our turn, he was actually okay with it, so I put him on his lap and stepped back for the picture.

Our final encounter with Santa was at the Rancho Bernardo Inn for their December Nights. This time my parents were with us. Usually Santa is on their outside patio next to the fireplace, but it was raining so he was moved inside of one of the ballrooms. When it came our turn, Jacob hopped up and I started to put Dylan on his lap and he decided he was not going to like it again. So I put him on my lap and we did the family picture first,

then I slid him down to Santa’s lap for the boys picture.

And not only was Santa there but Elsa made an appearance too! So the boys had a nice little visit with her.

I wonder what next year will bring when we see Santa…

When we were not busy chatting up Santa Claus we were busy preparing food and baking in preparation for Christmas. And I often find myself wondering why we only make this stuff one time a year?

First up on the agenda was Gingerbread cookies! The boys were great helpers with this one. They couldn’t wait to get their hands on that dough (yes, they were clean!)

When working in the kitchen, Jake really likes to help, or I should say he likes to do it himself! Every step along the way he says “I can do it!” and takes over, and he really is pretty good at this.

They both had fun with the cookie cutters

Then the best part is decorating them

The hard part was convincing them that we couldn’t eat them all because we had to save them for Christmas!

The day before Christmas Eve, my mom and I started getting all the food prepared for Christmas Eve dinner and made Oma’s sweet rolls for Christmas morning as tradition calls for. It was a little bittersweet since Oma went home to Heaven just about 2 weeks before. This is definitely a tradition that will carry on.

And what fun is baking without a little bit of Champagne!

The food was wonderfully delicious! And it always amazes me how quickly it all disappears after you spent days making everything. Maybe that’s why we only do it one time a year. But to me the preparation part is just as fun as the celebration part so it is all well worth it!

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Star Wars Christmas

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Mdfrisco

The boys have really gotten into Star Wars. They have never seen the movies, still a little too young for them. But they have several Star Wars books filled with short stories that explore the world of Darth Vader, Storm troopers, The Death Star, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2 and C3PO. Those stories are among Jacob’s top picks before bedtime. And they love to play Storm troopers, where daddy and Jacob are Storm troopers with blasters made out of legos and they are looking for the rebels and chasing RD-D2 (played by Dylan) and blasting off in their rocket (the tee-pee). Such imagination with these boys!

A few days before Christmas some friends came over with early Christmas presents for the boys. They got a baseball tee, a drone, and some snugly blankets with Superheros and Star Wars characters on them.

But the favorite thing for both of them were the light sabers.

They immediately started playing Star Wars

Then Dylan finally let us correct the way he was holding his light saber and it was game on!

So Star Wars paraphernalia along with Superheros, Cars and Toy Story are quickly taking over our house. I am excited for the day (or I should say weekend) when the boys are older and we can have a Star Wars marathon. It has been years since I’ve seen the original movies and I’m not even caught up on all the new ones. In the meantime, we will keep reading the stories and perfecting our light saber skills.

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Choo Choo Train

Posted on February 3, 2017 by Mdfrisco

I know I’ve said this many times…I love this blog. It is my memory book, it is my place to do something with some of the thousands of pictures I take that tell the stories of our lives. Pictures have always been special to me and even more now that I have a family of my own. However, I am finding it harder and harder to make time to keep up with this blog. I’m not quitting, and will try to keep this up for as long as I can. And I am hoping that someday I can make some kind books out of this to give to my boys when they are older. Someday, in my spare time…and right now is one of those rare moments when I have a some time to myself. Because, I’m almost to scared to say it out loud in fear that the magical moment will end, but…BOTH of my boys are currently napping! Jake stopped napping a long time ago, but he woke up really early today and has a birthday party to go to later this afternoon. When we came home from school, I told him that if he wanted to go to the party he needed to lie down and just rest, after much debating and arguing I finally got him to lie down, and it worked, he was asleep in about 5 minutes! So I found myself wondering what to do, and instead of doing the usual picking up, cleaning the house or laundry, I decided to make another cup of coffee and sit down with my computer and tackle the Christmas photos. So lets see how far I can get before someone wakes up…

Last year, Papa J gave the boys a train to put around the Christmas tree. It is a very popular thing in our house. They kept asking and asking daddy to set it up, so one night, while I was giving them a bath, daddy set up the train. After they dried off and got their pajamas on, we played with the train for a while before going to bed.

At first they sat and watched it go around a few times while Dylan kept saying “Choo Choo” and doing the signs.

Then they started getting squirmy and had to get closer and follow it around the tree

And this is what happens when I try to get them both to look at the camera and smile.

It didn’t take long before Jake had to take control as the train conductor and make it go himself.

And Dylan was happy just chasing it around the tree.

A few days later, while Dylan was napping, Jacob was playing with his Legos. I suggested that he build a bridge over the train tracks or buildings that the trains can drive by. He thought it would be better to do with his BIG legos, so he got those out and got to work.

I just love his imagination and watching him play.

Then Dylan woke up…please excuse the post nap hairdo and the travel hairdryer (I was in the middle of unpacking from being out of town and he was “helping”)

I just can’t resist this smile.

Then Jake thought it would be fun to put the legos on my toes

And that tickles, so I was giggling and it made him laugh.

And this is an angel that Jake made for me at school from his footprint and hand prints. I love it and plan to display it during all the Christmases to come.

The “Choo Choo” train is such a fun part of our Christmas and it warms my heart to see how excited the boys get when playing with it. One of these years I want to take them on the Polar Express, they would LOVE it!

And wow! I actually got a whole post done and they are STILL sleeping…lets see how much more I can get done, there are plenty more Christmas pictures to tackle. Stay tuned!

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Shopping for the tree

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Mdfrisco

There is a Christmas Tree farm just a few miles away from our house. So last year we checked it out for the first time and we didn’t hesitate to go back again this year. Their trees are beautiful and they LAST. We almost felt bad getting rid of our tree last year since it was still healthy and alive after the first of the year instead of dying and littering our house with pine needles.

When we got there the boys had a great time running up and down the rows of trees.

It became a race

it didn’t take long for the boys to figure out how to ditch us by running in-between the trees.

You can’t really pick a bad tree there so it didn’t take us long to find our tree. After we paid for it and loaded it up, the boys were still having so much fun playing, so we stuck around for a bit.

Maybe someday I’ll get a picture with them where they are both looking at the camera.

Our house is decorated, Red the Elf has arrived and we now have our tree. All the Christmas fun has started. I’ll be back with lots more to share soon.

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Pumpkins and Superheros

Posted on November 26, 2016 by Mdfrisco

Halloween is such a fun holiday with the boys, I love that they get excited about dressing up in costumes, asking every day if it is time to go trick or treating and looking for decorations on houses when we drive around town. But I personally love Halloween because it is the kickoff to the holiday season with Thanksgiving and Christmas to follow. So when we started seeing pumpkins at every store and pumpkin patches we went to, Jake wanted to get one. We ended up with a small collection of a few pumpkins of various sizes that we used for decorations around the house. Then he kept talking about carving the pumpkins and we told him we had to wait until it was closer to Halloween. Finally, a few days before Halloween, we went to get some good sized pumpkins for carving. On Saturday morning that was our first order of business, a pumpkin carving party.

It seems I can never get the boys to smile at the same time for a picture…

The boys have a variety of costumes that they love to play with and Jake decided that he would be Spiderman for our pumpkin carving party, while Dylan was sporting a Superman shirt.

And Grandma was in town so she got to join in on the fun!

Neither one of the boys were too thrilled about the slimy insides (we will see how long that lasts)…so daddy and grandma did most of the hard work with cleaning them out, while they stuck with their spoons as “scoopers”.

And I guess the key to getting this guy to smile AND look at the camera at the same time is carving pumpkins as Spiderman…

Then mom joined in to get her hands dirty for a bit. And apparently the boys were really confused to see daddy behind the camera?

Then these two goofballs started their silly antics…

When it came time to carve them, we got one of the Halloween books that we had been reading with the boys that has various types of Jack O Lantern carvings so they could choose which ones they wanted.

Supervising daddy’s work.

My blue eyed boy!

We ended up with silly, sleepy and surprised. I call that a success!!

And we noticed that we carved 3 pumpkins this year, and Jake is 3 years old. Last year we carved 2 pumpkins, when he was 2 years old and the year before that it was 1 pumpkin when he was 1 year old. Total coincidence, not intentional at all. And I don’t think next year we will have 4, but with two boys, who knows…

With the pumpkins carved, costumes ready, we were officially ready for our Superhero Halloween! Batman and Robin to the rescue!

We started off the night at a neighbors house for a pre-party before hitting the streets to trick or treat.

BOO!

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Bates Nut Farm

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Mdfrisco

A few years ago when Jacob was a baby, I went with some girlfriends and their littles to Bates Nut Farm. In the fall they turn their farm into a pumpkin patch with pony rides, a petting zoo, tractor hay rides, a corn maze and other fun activities. At the time Jacob was a little too young to really “enjoy” it all and every year I kept saying I wanted to go back. This year I finally made it. Our schedule is busy as usual, and there is only one day during the week that we don’t have any kind of scheduled thing like school, swim lessons, etc…So that day usually is filled with a playdate or doctor’s appointments, or errands that need to be taken care of. About a month ago on that day, we had nothing planned. And it wasn’t until about 8:00 that morning when I was trying to figure out how we were going to spend the day that I decided we were going to go to Bates Nut Farm. I got the boys dressed, packed up some food, loaded up the car and grabbed my camera. It is about a 30 minute drive into the mountains from our house which made for a nice leisurely drive to drink my coffee while singing along with the with kids music playing in the car. I like to get to these places right when they open to avoid the crowds and the afternoon heat. And this day was perfect!

After saying HI to the farmers unloading all the pumpkins, they started searching for the perfect one.

Dylan thought they needed some re-arranging and started moving them from one side to the other

Then Jacob wanted to feed the goats, so all 3 of us each got a cup full of food and went to the petting zoo. Both boys loved it and laughed when the goats ate out of their hands.

Then the lady working there offered to take our picture, and we still had food on us. So the goats kept trying to climb into my lap along with Dylan to eat it up!

Then we hopped on the tractor hayride for a spin around the farm.

And Jacob talked during the entire ride, commenting on everything he saw

And Dylan thought it was pretty fun

Then we walked around the stores and bought a few treats. We went over to where all the animals were and looked at chickens, pigs, llamas, turkeys and more goats before heading home for lunch. I love those spontaneous adventures with my boys!

3 Year Old Preschool

Posted on October 29, 2016 by Mdfrisco

When we moved, we left Jacob at his old preschool because we didn’t want to change schools on top of a new baby, new neighborhood and a new house. So when it got close to the end of the last school year, I started researching the preschools in this area and learned that the school he was at had fantastic hours and a more of a year round program, meaning they didn’t close for Spring Break or summer, etc…we decided to keep him at his old preschool through the summer program and then start him at his new preschool closer to home in the fall. So before I share his first day of school pictures (which are now a few months old), here are the ones he had taken last spring at his old preschool. And he looked so darn cute in all of them, that I couldn’t just settle on one photo and ended up getting all three…

When it came time to start his new school, it didn’t really seem to faze him. The 3 year old class is a little more work than 2 year old preschool, and this is my kid who likes to have a job and something to do, so he jumped right into it. And the fact that one of his good buddies is in his class helped too I’m sure. I barely get a kiss good bye when I drop him off and he is always excited to run around with his buddy while the moms chat for a few minutes when I pick him up. So it is safe to say that he is enjoying it!

Here’s our little cheeseball ready for his first day of 3 year old preschool.

And the tractor backpack in his favorite color green from grandma and grandpa was the icing on the cake.

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Splash Park Fun

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Mdfrisco

After getting through all our vacation photos, it dawned on me that I didn’t pick up my camera again all summer long! I think because I’ve been so behind on pictures/posts I didn’t want to take any more pictures to put me back even more. Also, my hands are not as “free” with two little boys to juggle so my camera has taken a backseat. I started feeling a little bad about that, and wishing I had more pictures of all the fun things we did this summer. Yes, I have thousands of pictures that I’ve taken with my iPhone, and those are great and I am hoping to do a post of our summer highlights with those pictures. But the photographer in me, really prefers the quality photos that I can get with my camera. So one morning we had a “meet the teacher” day at Jake’s new preschool, and afterwards we went to a Splash Park with some friends to let the kids run around. At the last minute, I grabbed my camera hoping to catch some pictures of the final days of summer. And yes, I know it is mid-September and these pictures are now a month old…but better late than never has become my new matnra…

This is a great place for the kiddos to run and play and stay cool in the summer heat.

And while the big kids ran all over the place, this little guy kept busy at a fountain with an assortment of buckets and cups to fill and dump out.

Sometimes simple things like buckets, water, good friends and sunshine is all you need.

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Idaho or bust

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Mdfrisco

Now that it is August (how did that happen?) and summer is almost over, I figured I better wrap up the last of our vacation we took in May!

A couple of years ago some friends of ours moved to Idaho. So instead of going home after our fun with grandma and grandpa at “The BIG ranch up in Oregon”, we flew to Idaho for a few days to see them. Not only was it great for the adults to catch up, but their little girl is just a month older than Jake and it was fun seeing them reunite and play together.

On our first day we went to a brewery for lunch. The property was beautiful with lots of space for the kids to run and play. It was raining off and on, so inbetween the rain the kiddos burned energy chasing each other and Justin.

And jumping off the raised patio, over and over and over again.

The whole group!

Then they drove us around and showed us their town. We rented an Expedition so we could fit 4 adults and three kids in one car. Jake and Sammie had a great time giggling and being silly in the way backseat, and yes, Jake is picking his nose in this picture.

And it wouldn’t be a trip with the Haigis’ without a visit to a wine tasting room! I never knew Idaho had wine country. We went to their favorite place, Cinder. It was very kid friendly with toys to play with and chalk to draw on their concrete floors.

And this was the best attempt to get a picture of all 3 kiddos.

The next day after going out for lunch, we relaxed around their house and Jaime got into her teacher mode and came up with crafts and activities for the kiddos to do for the afternoon. First up was making slime.

Jake has inherited his daddy’s aversion to anything sticky or messy, so he wasn’t too sure about this at first.

But he quickly got over it and they had a great time molding, stretching and squishing slime.

While the older kiddos were playing inside, Dylan was taking advantage of having all the outside toys to himself.

And kept working on his walking skills

And their dog Bear joined him to play in the sunshine.

Then the big kids came outside for the next activity, dinosaur eggs. Armed with a wooden pick, they dug at the eggs until finding their dinosaur prize.

Success!

Rawwwwwar!!

We ended the night with a pizza date for dinner.

It was so good to see them and visit their new hometown. The boys did really good with all the traveling and we always have fun visiting other places, but it is also nice to come home to San Diego.

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Birds and the Bridge

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Mdfrisco

One afternoon my mom and I took the boys and one of my mom’s friends to the Cascades Raptor Center in Eugene. It’s a neat place that rescues injured/sick birds and nurses them back to better health. It is a small outdoor location that makes it perfect for little kids to run around and learn about different types of raptors.

They had many types of hawks and owls,

and my personal favorite was the Eagle.

Jake made a friend, and they chatted their way through the center.

It was a fun afternoon adventure!

That evening, back at the ranch, Jake was happy to be back doing chores with grandpa and daddy. And this year his favorite chore was picking up the horse poop. Over the last two years, he has always “helped” grandpa pick up after the horses, but he really was just sitting in the cart dancing away to the country music on the radio and talking to grandpa. This year, he actually wanted to do it “all by myself” which is a phrase we hear frequently these days…so consider yourself warned…if you are squeamish by the sight of horse poop, you can quickly scroll over this next batch of pictures to the second half of this post.

Jake looked forward to doing this every single day. And anytime he saw horse poop he had to stop what he was doing and announce that we needed to pick it up.

He did have his few trips and face plants into the piles,

But he took his job very seriously,

And he was mortified that I was taking pictures of him…

Really mom?? Are you really taking pictures right now?

Ugh! I can’t believe it!

Still taking pictures??!!

Whatever, I’m going back to work…

And this little guy, is still too young to be wielding his own pooper scooper…

But he was watching closely, and taking notes. I’m sure he will join them next year.

All this talk of picking up horse poop makes this an appropriate spot to share this adorable photo of Dylan taking a bath in grandma’s bathtub.

On our last day there, we had some more rain. We had a few errands to run and shopping to do in town and we even drove 30 minutes out of our way to go back to Brewers Union for fish and chips for lunch. And I love this picture of the boys/guys with the dark storm clouds in the background, cheering for the rain!

And one thing that we never did and had been talking about doing since our first day there was visiting the Lowell covered bridge. Other than walking through the bridge and reading about the history of it, there really isn’t much else to do, so the guys were not too excited about going. But those kind of places are what make people like me, who are interested in photography, drool. So the guys obliged and we headed over there. I wish we had easy access to a place like this in San Diego to do photography sessions.

As I said it had been raining off and on all day, of course right when we pulled up, the skies opened and it was POURING! But we were there (the only ones for that matter) and we weren’t going to let some rain stop us. So we ran…all the way to the safety of the covered bridge and we were soaked!

Once out of the downpour, we walked around and read about the history of the bridge, and looked out over the lake and watched the storm.

Then it stopped, and the sun came out!

Cheering for the sun!

And we were able to have a much more leisurely walk back to the car.

We always have so much fun visiting the “big ranch up in Oregon”! And I love that every year we do some of the same things as well as some new things. I am looking forward to all the fun things we can do in the coming years as the boys get older!

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The Frisco Project

Adventures in life, pregnancy, friendships, family & a little photography

Category Archives: Jacob

Visits with Santa

Star Wars Christmas

Choo Choo Train

Shopping for the tree

Pumpkins and Superheros

Bates Nut Farm

3 Year Old Preschool

Splash Park Fun

Idaho or bust

Birds and the Bridge