Fixing a tire...

Crap! I dunno how this all happens with this particular car, but I hit another pot hole and ripped a three inch hole in the sidewall of my tire.

Jack is always so curious but he isn't satisifed watching....he wants to 'help'. Even if it goes slower I figure he wants to learn so we both changed my tire and he did quite well unscrewing all the lug nuts.

Santa...

A few months ago we went to Toys R Us and it was the first time Jack said, "I want that!!" We used to go all the time and he would never ask for anything. He was happy just looking and we would spoil him and buy him something small.

This time, he saw a "Hand Trash Truck", a trash truck with a arm that picks up trash cans and he really wanted the toy. We were actually at Toys R Us to get a gift for someone else. Jack ended up crying and throwing a tantrum when we said, "No."

We thought that would be the end of that but everytime we went to Toys R Us, Jack would look for the "Hand Trash Truck". He just never forgot about it. He even saw a picture of it in a catalog and would always ask us for it.

Well, Santa brought it to Jack on Christmas day and now we play trash man every single day!

Jack with all his new Christmas trucks (not including the 30+ trucks he already has at home...in addition to all the trucks he has at Grandpa and Grandma's)!!!

Christmas!!

This year we opened up our Christmas presents a week early. Since we host a family breakfast at our house and then go to Aya's family for dinner it doesn't leave us a lot of time for Jack to open up all his presents!

This was the first year that Jack really got into Christmas. Jack wanted to leave cookies and carrots out for Santa and Rudolph. Jack was able to open most of his presents this year and now he knows the difference between clothes and toys. While he likes clothes, he is a typical kid and gravitates to the toys first!

Here are just a few pics of Jack's presents. Jack with his very first computer. Good thing because he was using my computer and deleting all my icons!


GeoTrax sets:
I dunno why this boy likes Scooby Doo so much right now. I always thought it was a little scary but he loves Scooby and Shaggy right now.

Jack was so excited to get a big Fire Engine!

The Hugh Hefner robe and a portable Leapster. I am actually amazed at how fast Jack learned how to use the Leapster computer and hand held. I hardly explained anything to him but he can use it quite well.

Jack laying in a pile of wrapping paper from all his presents!

Mr. December....

Jack working on his homerun swing!

Jack and Magic...

Talk about timing...I took this picture of Jack while Magic Johnson was being interviewed on tv. They both have goofball smiles!

This should be a weekly series...

Was I the only one to catch the Victoria's Secret show on a few weeks ago?? If you made this into a weekly half hour series I bet it would do better than half the shows out there. I know I would be watching!




The first six models are my favorite!

Belated Birthday...

My never ending birthday celebration finally came to end when Jenny took me out for my belated birthday dinner to Upstairs2.

Sorry, I am not like Jenny taking pictures of my food but we had a great wine tasting dinner, with blue marlin, shrimp, lamb, cheese & fig and then an apple tart for dessert.

More Birthday...

We completed our OC trifeca by going to Costa Mesa Sunday night to celebrate my brother inlaws belated birthday at Pinot Provence.

Kevin's 30th...

Saturday, we headed back to the OC to celebrate my cousin's Kevin's 30th birthday:



Melissa, Scott and Kevin are all cousins on my mom's side that I grew up with...or I should say my sister as they are closer in age than I am.

Man, 30...where did all the years go?? Happy Birthday!

Disneyland...

This was our weekend in the O.C. Friday, Aya took off from work and we finally relented to the Disneyland propaganda and took Jack to Disneyland for the first time.

We weren't sure how he would like it or how long we would stay. The park opened at 8:00 am and we got there around 8:30. Jack had such a good time. He loved all the fast rides, like the Rocket ride, Buzz Lightyear, Teacups, Pirates of the Carribean, Roller Coaster in Toon Town and Autotopia. We also went on Small World, Pooh's Adventure, Big Train, Little Train and saw a ton of Disney Characters.

Needless to say we were there until 8:30 pm. We stayed to watch the Main Street parade and Jack loved it and was dancing around. We were also right by a 'snow' machine and it started to 'snow' and Jack was just in 7th heaven!

It just started to get too cold so we didn't stay for the fireworks or Fantasmic but maybe another time. Enjoy the video from our day:

Toenail...

So in late July I banged my toe and I am pretty sure I broke my toe. My foot was black and blue for over a week and I had no feel in the toe and that side of my foot. My toe nail turned black and stayed that way for a while.

My sister said it would take time for the nail to grow out. Fast forward to December...3 months later and my nail is still black.

Well this time I accidently kicked Jack's stool and banged the same pinky toe. ARGH. I was thinking that is my bad toe and I looked down and my toe is white. I was thinking how and when did it heal?

I looked a little closer and then realize it is white because it is my skin. Naturally I had to hunt down my black toe nail...and yup....the toe nail was pryed off. I am going to give Jenny my toe nail for Christmas!

Cupcakes...

Saturday Aya and Jack made some cupcakes. Aya wants Jack to participate in the kitchen and help out a little bit around the house:



Jack loves his cake, cookies, pie and M&M's.



Jenny stopped by Saturday night and naturally the two goofballs are looking their best.

Happy Hour...

It has been a while since we have had a group Happy Hour but to celebrate the end of my contract and belated birthday we got together at the Parlor for Happy Hour. After happy hour we headed out to our usual Taco Truck for some after drinking goodness!

This was Jeff's first time out with my usual HH group. I would guess Jeff had a good time. The best part was Jeff only 'rented' his taco's as he boozed it up and got sick that night!

It's okay, I have to admit I was hung over for about 7 hours the next day...good thing I didn't have to work.

I was not going to post this picture but since stick-your-nose where it does not belong Jenny posted something for Ron, I am going to post this picture of spooky Jenny...nice smile.

Ron's Baby Shower...

The family went to Ron's baby shower this weekend were we had to endure various "co-ed" baby shower games. I was strictly informed that there would be food and no games. In addition, I was also called out by the host for saying that "baby showers were for girls only".

Oh yeah, and I was caught cheating in one the games. So not cool. The final game was to anticipate what Ron and Laura's baby will look like. Here is our verdict:

Congratulations to Ron and Laura.....congratulations that is for making me miss an entire day of football when it is fantasy football playoffs. I also like the fact how I got SMOKED in the Ron's league when I am his baby shower where I had zero access to a computer to check the outcome or make pickups. Grrr. =)

--
Rebuttal to Jenny's post on her website:

1. Notice teammate Jeff is not doing anything.

2. Ron's best buddy Lance who is partially cut off is also doing nothing.

3. Jenny is not in the picture...because she was over 1 hour late.

4. Jack is cutting.

5. I am setting the good example by cutting and participating even though I did not want to play any games but for Ron's baby shower I am doing my duty!

Shoot, how GREAT of a friend am I?? The greatest!

Disappointing...

Okay, it has been a busy few weeks as I have been trying to wrap up everything at my contract assignment. I am now off the rest of 2008 and January 2009. I am slightly behind on this but here are a few disappointments the past month:

Aya and I went to see James Bond Quantum of Solace. So disappointing. The action was okay, the story was confusing...well not that there was a lot to the story but I couldn't remember characters from the past movie so that made it confusing. I really thought this would be a good movie but it was not.

However, it wasn't as bad as Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Aya and I watched the movie on DVD and it was so bad. SOOOOO BBBB----AAAA-----DDDDDD. I can't even tell you. I am all for frontal and rear nudity....but not when it is a guy! I can't believe they did that 2-3 times. Horrible.

For my birthday I got two video games from Aya that I wanted, Fable 2 and Call of Duty 5 War of the Worlds.

So this isn't that I didn't like the gifts, I did like the gifts and I requested both games. I was just disappointed that the games were not better.

Fable2 was pretty darn easy and short. I think I could have finished the game in 8 hours for the main missions. I did the entire game in just over 22 hours.

Call of Duty 5 was not good at all. Decent for a WWII game but I think I was done with the solo player campaign in 6 hours. Multi play is okay but I guess I am just tired of the genre of WWII games. Call of Duty 4 with modern weapons was just out-standing!

So everyone out there...save some money...and do not watch the movies I mentioned and the games are a good buy used but not full price.