Christmas Program 2010

I know that it is coming as a shock to everyone, who knows me and has read my past blogs, that I have blogged more than one time in the last month. Not to mention four times. A lot has been going on here lately. The trips, parties, events, and then today the kids had their annual Christmas Program at school. 

Jasmine looks all sparkly here because we used about half a bottle of glitter on her. She was so excited and the most animated that we have ever seen her at a performance. Normally she is shy and does not want to be seen on stage. She wants to hid in the group, but this year she was blowing kisses, waving and really performing. I was so proud of her. She was so cute.

 

This is her singing the song.

 

This is Benjamin. He was his normal animated self. He beats to his own drum and owns that fact.

 

Here is Benjamin singing and dancing to his song, reindeer hokey pokey. The whole thing was too cute. They are definitely getting older, taller, and wiser, but they are still cute as ever.

San Diego Trip

I know there are lots of Pictures in this blog, but they were so cute I could not decide which ones to keep or to get rid of. So I kept them all in this blog. We loved this trip.

We went to the Gaslamp District and Uncle Bassim bought us all mustaches. Jasmines was called the Weasel.

 

Benjamin was the Sheriff. It actually looked good on him.

 

This was at Sea World in front of Shamu's stadium. She was so excited.

 Here is Benjamin also in front of the Shamu Stadium. He had a million questions while we were there. Once he found out that the "original" Shamu was dead, he told everyone that he saw that this is a fake one. Cassy (his 2 year-old cousin) then was following up his comment with, "Shampoo was dead and we eat him."

 We were blessed to have not only Rougeh's family with us, some dear friends, but on top of both of those we had my brother and his family with us. Trevor is here with me. I love this little boy!

 On the way home we stopped by Kings Harbor. Captain Kidd's is our favorite sea food place of all times. They steam and crack the spider crabs for us. We ate two crabs and three dozen of their clams. It was such a great meal. The kids saw this whale outside the door to the restaurant and could not help playing a bit.

Jasmine just being stinking cute. I love her so much. Look at those freckles, teeth and beautiful blue eyes.

Daddy and kids in front of a clown mural. They are acting silly. We all had so much fun. Great relaxing trip.

They were on the rocks at the Pier. Rougeh wanted a picture with the kids. His instructions were lift your hand up. Jasmine and him were on the same page, but Benjamin missed the memo that lift your hands up meant in the air, not shrugging your shoulders. I think the picture was so cute though.

These are my boys. They are so much alike in personality, in looks and in the fact that they both LOVE to pose for a camera.

Christmas is in the air

 

Today we spent the day making Christmas foam kits. We made 8 in all. I should have taken pictures while we were making them, but forgot. The best I could do is show what it all looks like complete

This is just one picture of the whole thing. We began at 10:45 and finished at 4 pm. Long day of creativity.

Miniature Golf

We took the kids miniature golfing last week. It was the first time that they had gone and they loved it. We ended up doing two rounds because, they were having so much fun. Here is Benjamin Golfing.

 It was a warm day, but Jasmine had her snow jacket and sunglasses on most of the time. She takes after me. Always cold.

Even though they are getting older they still pose with each other. In this picture they are getting ready to go on an elevated obstacle course. The video is a short clip of them on the course. Benjamin was scared, Jasmine was fearless. They were both excited and they loved it.

Rougeh and the kids posing before we started golfing. So glad that he is done with school and has free time now. We love having family days.

Kids... Plus a bit more

We just finished our first Trimester of school with the kids. They all pulled 5's (this generations A's). I am so proud of them.

In Other News. Halloween came and went. I had not posted on them for Halloween So here it is.
The week before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch. Jasmine just had to wear her costume. She is a Princess Vampire.
Benjamin loves smiling for the camera.
They made SPOOKY tree houses. Love the posing.
This is me and the kids posing yet again. I love these little monkeys.

In completely different news. I just saw the movie, Julie/Julia. I already like cooking, but really I suck at it. I am taking a note from this movie. I picked up a cook book and I will be cooking at least one recipe from it a day. So yesterday I went shopping for supplies. My first recipe is caramelized apple pork loins. I hope it works out well. Rougeh is all for it. I keep asking him if he thinks this or that recipe sounds good, his response is "you never know unless you try it."

So tonight is the first night. I will let you know how it goes.

Knee operation

On August 31st, I had what I hope is my last Knee operation. I had a partial knee repair done. The first few days were very rough for me. I had quite a deal of pain. After the first week I started doing some weight bearing and making sure I did not loose range of motion. I felt myself getting stronger everyday. I still struggled to move around just the house, so going out and about was out of the question.
Yesterday is four weeks since the operation and I am so happy that I am really feeling good. My pain level stays at about a 1-2. Which is amazing considering the pain used to be 7-8 at all times. I can take the kids to and from school and to and from their various after school activities. I feel like I am getting to be a mom to them again. I used to not be able to do much because the pain was very limiting in my life.
My goal is to be able to take them Trick or Treating this year. I hope I make it!

As far as the kids, they have been in school for about a month and a Half. They just got their progress reports and are ROCKING in all subjects.

Rougeh, is doing great. He has been a HUGE help during this last month with my healing and being on constant bed rest. Love that guy!

Memories that were with me, but found again

So I know it has been a VERY long time since I have posted anything, I came across these two videos while I was cleaning the computer. They were too cute not to share. I hope you enjoy.

Rougeh Graduated!

Ok, So I know I am HORRIBLE at this blogging thing. The last one was what a year ago. Oh well. As many of you know Rougeh has been working on a Masters in Nursing with his focus Family Nurse Practitioner. As of Friday night he is finished with his schooling. We had the pleasure of attending his hooding ceremony. We were all so excited.
For those of you who do not know these are Rougeh's Parents. We could not have gotten Rougeh through school without the constant help and support of his parents. They could not be more proud of him.
Lastly, these are the girls that became dear friends. They all began their MSN together as strangers and ended as life long friends. He could not have done it without weekly study groups. Some were productive, some were just letting of steam and some were just plain fun!