"I Love You" in So Many Words

I always like making heart sugar cookies, but today was especially fun. Laurel suggested writing "I love you" in different languages and Ian happened to know how to say it in numerous languages, so he wrote them out and I put them on the cookies. We had a great time working on them and thought they turned out great.

From top to bottom, left to right they are: French, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, German, English, Spanish, Gaelic, and Japanese.

Saturday

After having to miss the first couple of the boys' basketball games, I was excited to make it to game three on Saturday. It was fun to watch them run around and have so much fun.

 The proud aunties watching the game.

Intense spectating

Cool action shot

And here's a little video of some of the game. Please excuse the background noise, it's kinda loud.

After the game, Dad, Mom, Michelle, and I went to Tahoe Joe's for lunch. I got a wildberry daiquiri, which was tasty, mostly tasted like a wildberry smoothie. Our food was good too.

Weekend Trip

For a long time, I have been trying to plan a trip up to visit some of my London flatmates who now live in Stockton. Our schedules just weren't working until finally this weekend we were all available. Saturday morning I braved the fog and headed north. Since I was going that way, I decided to go a little farther and visit my friend Conor in Davis.

 We had a nice lunch, then walked along a river by the school. It was really good to see him and catch up. It was also a gorgeous day for a walk.

 Then it was back down to Stockton to spend time with Darrin and Charity. This is Darrin with his scary van that we took to get dinner. We decided to go for Italian food because 2 years ago on that day that's what we were eating in London, it seemed fitting. Plus, Darrin had seen an Italian place he wanted to try. It was a cool place and we were there early so there wasn't anyone else there. The food was good, mmm, pasta.

After eating, we stopped at this theater turned church and coffee shop and Darrin got coffee. It was a neat place, good feel and smell.

Charity was volunteering at the Miss San Joaquin beauty pageant that night so she got me a ticket and I got to see my first beauty pageant. It was really interesting.

Of course, it started with the swimsuit portion.

 Then, we moved on to the talent part. This was my favorite because there was so much variety and all the ladies did a good job. There was tap dancing, singing, monologue, jazz dance, piano solos, ballet, flute solo, and more! My first favorite was the Tahitian dance performed by one of Charity's students; she was good. My other favorite was a flute solo by the lady who ended up winning, it was amazing. I think I sat there with my mouth hanging open for most of it.

These girls were not competing, but the theme for the night was South Pacific, so they came out and danced  a number of times and that was also a highlight for me.

 After an intermission, we had the evening wear and on-stage question portions. Then there was a good bye to Miss San Joaquin 2010, some stalling while the scores were tallied, then finally, the results. That was exciting, there was plenty of hugging and freaking out.

The show ran from 7-10:20pm, so by the time it was over, I was ready. Charity and I got a snack on the way back to the house, but pretty quickly after eating it we all went to bed.

Sunday morning, Darrin decided he was going to make Belgian waffles, so he did and it was wonderful. We had bacon, waffles, orange juice, and fresh fruit.

It was a new recipe and a new waffle iron and Darrin wasn't happy with the results. Particularly because the iron wasn't cooking the waffles evenly and they kept getting burned in spots. But, Charity and I didn't mind, it was a delicious breakfast.

After eating, Darrin started watching football, so Charity and I watched a movie in the other room. Then we all went on a short walk before I had to leave. The drive back went smoothly. Everyone was already there when I arrived. We celebrated Isaac's birthday by having fish tacos for dinner and German Chocolate cake for dessert, yum!!

Fudge

I got to use the candy molds Jonah and Michelle gave me for Christmas for the first time today.  Unfortunately, the fudge I was making did not do them justice; I was trying to make half batches, not a good idea with fudge I found. They got over cooked and ended up hard, but the taste is good and they soften up quickly when you eat them. "Melts in your mouth, not in your hand", to look on the bright side. The candy molds were great though, I'm looking forward to trying something else that hopefully will turn out better.

Roasting Marshmallows

Here's a video of us roasting marshmallows in the fireplace last night with the boys!

Cupcakes

One of the things I enjoy the most about being a baker is baking for the holidays. It gives me a reason to be festive and creative. My favorite holiday to bake for is Valentine's Day, there are so many possibilities and the colors are edible. I mean, a pink cupcake is pretty and looks delicious, but a green or blue cupcake just doesn't have the same effect. Of course, all the holidays are fun in their own ways and it's fun to have the changing inspirations. Today I got to make pink strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting and mini heart sugar cookies on top, too much fun.

Disneyland!

On Wednesday Jaime and I got an early start to a great day. We were on the road by 5am, heading to Disneyland! The Grapevine still had snow on the mountains, but the road was clear. 

We made great time and arrived at Disneyland around 9:15am. We met up with Jaime's friend, Ruth, and went into the park. To kick things off, we went on Space Mountain; then we headed over to the submarine ride.

 It had been redone and is now "Finding Nemo" themed.

Ruth and Jaime were very intent on watching their windows.

We went on a couple rides in Fantasyland before getting fish and chips for lunch.

After lunch it was time for one of my favorite rides: Pirates of the Caribbean!

Waiting in line for Indiana Jones.

About this time we decided it was time for an ice cream break, yum. 

Another favorite, Peter Pan.          

      

Next, we took advantage of our park hopper tickets and went over to California Adventure. We went on the swings and Soarin' Over California, walked through the Bug's Life section, and checked out the animation area where we got to talk to Crush (the turtle from "Finding Nemo") and see a zoetrope of Toy Story characters come to life.

By this time, it was almost 8pm when the parks closed, so we decided to get dinner in downtown Disney. There was a crepe stand that quickly caught our attention. We got a couple savory crepes and a dessert crepe to share. The dessert crepe was especially delicious, with strawberries, nutella, banana, chocolate sauce, and whipped cream.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Ruth and drive home. We made good time again and arrived home about 1:15am.

Christmas

It's a little late to be posting about Christmas, but I snagged these pictures from Heather's blog and wanted to put them up. The day started with a beautiful sunrise, followed by a Christmas morning service and waffle breakfast at church.

After a little break while the Nickells and Trevinos opened presents at their houses, everyone gathered at our house. We sang in front of the tree (a Chandler tradition) before opening presents. I was excited to get lots of baking stuff and a new sweater.

These are quilts I made for Heather and Michelle (and myself) with fabric from the flannel pjs Mom has made for us on one side and our childhood fabric box fabrics on the other.

This was actually the kids LEGO set, but we had fun building stuff too.

Delicious ham dinner with all the fixings. Heather made the ham this year and it was so good.

Trying out Jonah's new Settlers of Catan game.

Zoo Lights at the Chaffee Zoo

 

The Chandler/Nickell/Trevino family had an adventure last night, we went to the Chaffee Zoo to see the Zoo Lights. We stopped for dinner at Bravo Farms on the way to Fresno. We felt like we were on vacation with the unique atmosphere.

Then we continued on and arrived at the zoo.

First, we checked out the reptile house, this viper was huge!

A cute newt.

There were lights all over and it was pretty, they were also giving away hot chocolate and cookies at the treat station.

It started raining on us, but thankfully it didn't last long.

They had a touch pool with rays and sharks.

This tunnel was at the end of our walk through the zoo, it was cool!

 

We had a fun time and enjoyed the lights. We didn't see many animals besides the reptiles and rays, but it was still cool to be there and see all the lights.