Merry Christmas

We spent Christmas in Edmonds, Washington outside Seattle. The plane ride there was uneventful other than we were stuck in the very last row(the ones that don't recline) with a toddler. We went to dinner in down town on the water called,"Salty's" for Jamin's mother's birthday. It was delicious and the view was amazing. We shopped in the very first Nordstroms. They sold some exclusive Chanel perfume that I totally bought into but practiced self control. Zoë was denied any sort of routine most of the trip which is probably why she slept so poorly at night. We decorated cookies Christmas eve. Christmas morning it snowed. We only bought presents for the kids among the family this year with Jamin's family. I thought it worked out nicely. We had a list of things he wanted so we didn't waste money on something he wouldn't like. The day after Christmas we drove to Leavenworth, a Bavarian town that celebrates Christmas all year long. It is a really cute place. All the buildings have lights on them and there is a little hill for kids to sled down. It was a great time. The next day we went snowboarding at Stevens Pass. Let me just say the snow was amazing. It snowed the entire day which meant POWDER! Snowboarding was soooo fun. It is seriously one of my favorite things to do. Jamin and I were just figuring out how we can do it more often. We need someone to watch our child. The flight home the following day was ridiculous! Our flight was delayed almost 2 hours not because our plane was having tech. difficulty or it wasn't there. Our pilots were late. There was no one to fly the plane but they boarded us anyway(not very fun with a toddler as I'm sure some of you know) we had a layover in LA . We missed our connecting flight because of our delay so my dear sister Dana drove all the way to LAX to pick us up so we didn't have to sit around for another 3 hours for another flight. We still had to pick up our freight of luggage form Orange county but it was so good to be home. It was so good to sleep in my own bed again. I can still remember the days I could sleep anywhere. I miss that girl but not as much as I miss a good nights sleep.

Our first white Christmas

It snowed on Christmas day!! Our first white Christmas! Although I was ready to get on a play and fly home so I wouldn't have to sleep in the same room with my child the snowfall was a reward from the heavens to make me smile, and it did. Zoë only wanted to be outside with the falling snow. She cried when I finally picked her up to take her inside. She loved the snow! She face planted a few times in it on accident but nothing would deter her from enjoying the snow and it was very cold outside.

Sleepless in Seattle

This Christmas we went to Jamin's mom's house in Seattle. I like going to Seattle but sharing a room with Zoë is brutal. She never slept through the night the whole week we were there. She would continually wake up after sleeping for maybe an hour. I put her in bed with us and she'd roll around and then sit up and poke me in the nose and say,"nose". One night she wouldn't sleep at all and so I went downstairs and played guitar hero III for a few hours. Lack of sleep is my weakness. I am a bad person when I don't have enough sleep. Needless to say we still had fun even though no sleep was had.

A salute to dinner group

This past Tues. night Stephanie Jensen had "live" dinner group in honor of Christmas. The decor was beautiful and the food was delicious. Thank you Stephanie for the fun time. Sorry you totally got jipped on the white elephant gift exchange it doesn't seem right with all of the effort you put into the evening. That is to be cont... Anyway, I have a great appreciation for dinner group. Because of these girls and sometimes Adam(yummy last night by the way), my life is a little easier during the week. Thanks so much! I don't know why I don't have more pictures of that night...

Rollin with the Homies

Jimmy had told Jamin that he was taking some of his associates out on the boat. I wasn't sure I'd know a soul. Lucky for me we associate with many of the same people. The Jensens, the Beutlers, and the Halversons were among the known associates. It was a lot of fun. I always love the boat parade anyway but this year was especially fun. It was also warmer than seeing it from a dock.

Boat Parade

I don't know how we managed it but we were lucky enough to see the Newport Beach boat parade from Jimmy Kindred's amazing boat. I let Jamin watch Zoe most of the time so I could get in some socializing. Zoe loved the lights on the boats. She waved to all of them as if she were the queen of the whole affair. She would say, "hi" as they passed by. The rest of the time she was either trying to drive the boat or climb up and down the stairs.

Three peas in a pod

These three little rug rats don't play together too often but it is pretty fun to watch when they do. Chelsey was up from down south for the day so we got together. Zoë tries to take all of the toys from Lucas and climb the stairs constantly. Little Evan who is just crawling just follows them around and is like "mom who?" In fact, all of them are like that until somebody wants something.

Mattress Drama

I don't know if it is a sign of getting old, but Jamin and I have back problems. I've had them since I started working as a dental hygienist. What we are experiencing now is mattress distress. My cheapy mattress that I've had since before we were married was hard as a rock. I loved it! For whatever reason this summer my love turned to hate. It was unbelievably too hard. I would not be able to sleep through the night and by morning I'd have a headache. I was so troubled because I went on a 2 week cruise and never woke up once during the night. I also slept through the night at a Sheraton once. I know I sound like an infant but seriously how annoying is it to get a few times a night? The fact that on some other beds I didn't wake up proved that it wasn't me but perhaps something else...? Mattress? Tossing and turning spouse? Anyway, if anyone has ever gone mattress shopping you know what a joke it is. All of the mattresses are ridiculously over priced and unfortunately there really is no 1 perfect mattress. The process of finding what mattress is right for you is a long an painful process better accomplished without a toddler in tow. Our first replacement mattress we bought at Macy's. They had 2 years 0% fin. so we thought that was the place to go. We were in so much pain that we were willing to spend any amount to feel better. We bought a top of the line Simmons Beauty Rest. It has 800 coils and tons of latex(which is all the craze now supposedly longer lasting than memory foam). What we liked most about the Simmons is the fact that the motion transfer is absorbed by all of the coils. Unfortunately, the mattress with all of it's technology did not heal my headaches or help me stop waking up at night. Because it didn't make me feel better there was no justification in the price so luckily for us Macy's has a return policy, so back it went. Our next stop was at Leed's matterss. We found a mattress half the price of the first mattress. I picked out the softest mattress there and slept headache free for 60 nights. The down side to the mattress is my body impression was already engraved in the mattress. Worst than that, Jamin practically sunk into the mattress. He said it was like laying in a hamik(sp?). Leed's doesn't let you return your matterss but you can exchange it with a 20% restocking fee. So back again to pick out another matterss. 5 hours later we selected another Simmons but a lower level or tiered model half the price of the first matterss we picked out. Luckily for us Efrin, the store manager just did a straight trade without a restocking fee. Thank you Efrin! At long last we have found our perfect mattress! Zoë has been sick these last weeks and has been waking up in the night so I haven't truly experienced a good nights sleep yet, but it feels great and I'm not waking up on my own. Hooray!!!

Faulkner Sisters

This is a rare photo of my sisters. Dana makes us get together for a picture when we are all together. We all hem and haw when she makes us do it but appreciative after the fact.

Crazy in Bakersfield

Zoë loved being at her Grandma and Grandpa's house. There are so many animals for her to play with. Actually she just points at them. She doesn't like to sleep there, she just wants to get up and see the "dogga", a word she shouts with all of the excitement she can muster. She also has many cousins who fight over who gets to hold her. Which is a nice break for me.

Memory loss

I can't get the other pictures to upload at the moment. Instead, I am going to vent about my memory loss! Why can't I remember anything? I went to Target for 3 things. I left with more than 3 things but they didn't have 1 of the 3 things I went there for, a pastry sifter. Where am a supposed to find one of those if not Target? I managed to get shortening but forgot the deodorant. So I left Target with 1 thing I actually went there for and then some. Those who have infants/toddlers know how difficult just getting into the car can be so now I'm faced with the dilemma....do I make a special trip for just 1 thing? I don't really have it in me.

Thanksgiving at the Faulkners

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Bakersfield. I always enjoy it. I think the volume of bodies running around the house can be overwhelming for my husband but I am more used to it than he is.

Zoe & Lucas

Zoë has the most infectious laugh ever! I couldn't believe this little game of peek-a-boo lasted long enough for me to capture it on film. I think I know where Zoë got the high pitched scream from. Thanks Lucas. Hopefully Zoë will be able to teach you some really cool things too. J/K.

Growing up Zoe

Our little Zoë is into EVERYTHING! She is talking a lot. She also cracks herself up often. I think she is the funniest person she knows. She just started using a high pitched screech I must find a way to put a stop to. The child certainly has a strong opinion about things already. She thinks the phones name is "Hi". Her favorite word is "ball" and is completely beside her self if she sees a dog because she is so excited.

Goodbye View

We have been fortunate to have an amazing view of the park from our living room window for the last year and a half. As you can see, a new "master suite" is taking it's place. Luckily, I don't own this property but the loss of the view isn't the most annoying part of the situation. It is the constant banging of their hammers! I pray for rain often...I obviouly need help with this one because I'm not having much success. Thankfully, Zoë has been able to nap through it all.

Sea World

Jamin and Zoë with a killer whale. Zoë was pretty scared of them at first.



She didn't trust the glass to protect her. Eventually, she thought they were pretty cool.

Here is a rare moment when our little duckling actually had her duck hat on. She hated wearing the head part of her costume but she loved the feet. All I'm going to say is that Halloween is way more fun with a kid, even though she wont remember this one in particular. It was fun watching her hold her little princess pumking and see the other kids dressed up.

We were in Kauai for 11 days. Don't think we didn't take 500 photos. Here a just a few.

Kauai Vacation

I've never been to Kauai until this year. I've heard that it is a boring island and that there is not much to do. I don't know who I was talking to but they were wrong! We were there for 11 days and there is still so much we didn't do. We went with Jamin's sister, her husband,their son, and Jamin's mom. We stayed in Poipu which was perfect for little Zoë and also great for snorkeling and jumping off cliffs. Which I did, although it took me a good 5 minutes once I got up there. It was seriously 60 ft. There were some drunk guys heckling me on the shore to jump. What's a girl to do? Of courese, I wouldn't have been so free to do activities if Merry, Jamin's mom was not with us. She was a big help. My biggest anxiety with bringing Zoë on the trip was dealing with the time change. I stress out when I don't get enough sleep. I'm sure there's counseling for that but it is what it is. Luckily for my mental health she adjusted great. She's got a little internal time zone clock. All in all it was an amazing trip. We hiked the Napali coast and several water falls-Kipu falls, Wailua(sp?) falls, and the Kapakapsomethingerother falls. We went zip lining which disappointed Jamin because it wasn't scary enough. It was still beautiful and fun even though I wasn't fearing for my life. Polihale beach was a little treasure. 17 miles of hot(and I mean HOT) sand beaches that there is no commercial anything. Hopefully it stays that way. Land developers are going crazy on the south shore right now. I hope they stop. I don't want to go an vacation to look at another free way and strip mall.

2nd Annual River Trip

Although the crash video is still under construction here are a few of my favorite pict's form the the river trip. Thanks to the Lombardi's we get to spend a few days enjoying the river. My favorite is wakeboarding. This year we all tried the Air Chair. It was thoroughly entertaining simply because we all basically sucked at it. I could possilby be the reigning champion of Suck when it comes to the air chair. I never got up once! Whatever, I'm not frustrated or anything and I'm totally in for trying it again next year. Jamin was in last place for sucking at it. I guess you could say he was the Champion of the Air Chair competition. Again, not frustrated but excited that he won a totally different competition. Dawn and Brian were a neck and neck for second place. The boys both had some pretty narly crashes that I hope to add soon. This year the trip was made up of the Lombardi's, us, The Jensens, The Koch's, and even the Reiwerts flew in from Colorado. The babies made things a little or a lot less layed back but fun was still had. We're thinking-babysitter possibly for the next trip...

Fools in love

At least I think that's what it is. Jamin did it. He started the Duncan life. At least my Duncan life. Things would be a lot different if I hadn't said "yes".