One of my favorite pictures

Reading with Aunt Bec.

Daddy and Tio Joey's Big Day

In about 12 hours, the day we have been waiting for will be here.  Tomorrow morning, Tio Joey will go into surgery so that the doctors can remove one of his kidneys.  That kidney will then be transplanted into Daddy.  It's a big, huge day for them tomorrow.

We've been very anxious, trying to catch up with lots of things, recording Daddy singing lullabies for Gracie and Lukie (apparently, I don't sing well enough), and trying to just enjoy one another.  The road to recovery is going to be long and difficult for Daddy and we wanted to make sure to get as much in as we possibly could.

But tonight, in preparation for the big surgery, we celebrate Tio Joey.  He has gone through so much to make tomorrow possible.  He's changed his diet, lost 35 pounds (weight we did not think he had to lose), and spent hours traveling to see doctors for test after test.  He never hesitated when Daddy asked if he would be tested;  none of the tios hesitated.  They all volunteered to give Daddy a kidney.  That amount of love cannot be quantified here or anywhere.  They are simply amazing.

So tonight, we want to say "thank you" to Tio Joey for giving our Daddy a second chance at a good life with us.  We love you, Tio Joey!

Tio Freddy, Daddy, a fierce Lukie, and Tio Joey celebrating Daddy's 40th Birthday

Happy Third Birthday, Gracie and Luke!

Sunday morning, September 5, I heard some stirring in Gracie and Luke's room. So, I got up, snuck over to their door, and opened it.

"Happy Birthday, Gracie and Lukie!" I said, turning on the light.

"Yay," shouted Gracie, jumping up and down on her bed. "I'm three! I can ride the roller coaster!"

"Yay! Yay! Yay!" came from Lukie's side.

Thus began our day long birthday party.

The day was totally fun and full of excitement. We took Gracie, Lukie and all of their cousins to Adventure City (not by ourselves, we aren't that insane!).

Despite the crazy number of people there, we rode all of the rides (some more than once).

Lukie driving a fire truck.

Gracie and Bianca driving a rescue wagon. Love that smile, Gracie!

Emmie taking Uncle Mike for a spin. She was such a crazy driver.

My three year old cutie!

Emmie and Nathan on the planes.

Hailey and Auntie Ten Ten volunteered to take Gracie and Lukie on the roller coaster. They were so excited! It was all they could talk about.

Lukie and Auntie Ten Ten waiting for the ride to start.

Gracie and Hailey rode the last car. I think the reality of the roller coaster was starting to set in for Gracie.

Gracie holding onto Hailey for dear life as the roller coaster took its first turning descent.

The verdict: "Mommy, I don't like that roller coaster. It was scary."

We tried to get them to go back on, but I think roller coasters are out for the foreseeable future. At least we got pictures!

We finished our trip to Adventure City with the mini cupcakes that Gracie, Lukie and I made the day before. As requested, they were cupcakes with sprinkles inside and out. Everybody loved them and there weren't any left! We also opened presents and Gracie and Lukie were totally excited to see Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Dora and Diego Beanie Babies, cool new drawing boards, a dinosaur, a unicorn, and money!! Gracie informed me that she would like to use her money to buy a jeep. "One I can ride on, Mommy!"

We all headed over to Portillo's in Buena Park for Italian Beef Sandwiches (Daddy was very happy) and finally headed home. Gracie and Lukie had an amazing day and they were so thankful for their cousins, aunts, uncle and Nana who came to celebrate with them.

Now, they want a party so that everyone can come play Candy Land!

Heaven on Earth if you are almost 3 AND if you are the Mommy of said 3 year olds

I have a few weeks off before I have to go back to work and it has been important to me to break up our routine and go out and about.  We went to Sea World on Monday to use our Buy A Day Get a Year Free passes.  We did all the things we did not get to do the last time we went and we had a lot of fun.  Gracie and Luke love the dolphins, seal lions, penguins, and the Sesame Street Place Play area.  They love Sea World, but let's face it.  Other than the Sesame Streat Place, it's mostly walking, sitting, and looking.

We had plans on Thursday to ride the train with Nana, but she decided it would be too much for her after her long vacation to take 6 grandchildren on a train.  No worries!  I had another suggestion:  Adventure City!  I did not know that Adventure City existed until last year, but when I researched it, I was completely excited.  It is a small theme park geared toward little kids under 48 inches.  It has 10 rides, a petting zoo, a Thomas the Tank Engine area, and a rock climbing wall.  Best of all, it is only $13.95 per person and free parking.  When I suggested it to Nana, she agreed it would be a great place to go.

We met Nana at Adventure City in the morning and played all day.  It was busy in the morning because of all the day camp kids, but when they left, it was like having Disneyland all to ourselves!  I think Brandon, Nate, Gracie and Luke rode the Rescue Cars about 6 or 7 times.  Every time I put their seat belts on I would remind them not to drive crazy.  They loved that and would pretend to spin the steering wheel really fast.  They rode in a different rescue vehicle each time.  Brandon loved the fire engine the most.

We flew on the air planes, rode the train around the park, rode the hand crank trains, and ran around in the "rain room."  We rode in air balloons (that scared Gracie to death).  Sadly, we discovered that Gracie and Lukie could not ride the roller coaster until they are 3 years old. 

We took a few breaks, taking advantage of super reasonable food prices.  Everyone's favorite food was popcorn, but we also had Dino Chicken Nuggets, salads, and ICEEs.

Nathan ran from ride to ride chatting up a storm with me.

Lukie hid his ICEE from everyone so that they would not try to drink it.

Can you see the Blue Raspberry?

Bianca asked if we could buy more popcorn.

Gracie looked ready to take a nap after lunch.

We had a tremendous day and can't wait to go back again!

The closest to perfect

Of the 232 pictures on our DVD from Valli, Gracie and Lukie are only looking at the camera in about 7. Of those, they are looking at the camera at the same time in only 2. This one is my absolute favorite. I think it captures them perfectly!

You can tell Lukie is just about ready to jump out of Daddy's arms. Gracie is determined NOT to smile.

Sigh. It will be a battle forever, I know.

Nana's Christmas-Birthday-Mother's Day Present

Every Christmas, I struggle to figure out what to buy Nana. She is already a great shopper and has pretty much everything she will ever need. Nothing ever seems quite right when I see it in the store and I'm always at a loss for what to pick.

This Christmas, I decided to do something I knew she really wanted. I contacted Valli at Visions Photography and asked her if I could set up a photo shoot with Nana and the entire family, all fourteen of us. Valli was totally excited because she photographed Aunt Bec's wedding and took Gracie and Lukie's 2 month pictures. She couldn't wait to see everyone again.

On Aunt Bec's birthday, we all met Valli at a park for our pictures. It was a beautiful day; the colors of the trees, grass and sky were especially brilliant that day. Despite a serious lack of cooperation from the smallest members of our family, we do have a few pictures to share. I won't share all of them, because what is the fun in that?

Here are a few of my favorites:

All fourteen of the Cook-Uribe-Arteaga-Uribe Family

Nana and all of her grandchildren

There are something like 232 pictures on the DVD Valli gave me so I'll be back to share a few of Gracie and Luke soon. What I think is so amazing is how different all of the kids look. You can't even tell they are related! (especially the twins!)

Nana's Birthday at Fortune Inn

Nana's birthday is March 10, but it falls in the middle of the week this year. Normally, we would meet her for her birthday and go where ever she wanted to go for dinner. She's been wanting to go to Fortune Inn in Glendale for more than 2 years. She keeps mentioning it and we never seem to go. That is, until tonight!

We met Nana and Gracie and Lukie's cousins Hailey, Bianca and Brandon for a dinner at Fortune Inn. All the same waiters are there! It's amazing, considering they have been there for the past 10 years I have eaten there.

We ordered Hong Kong Chow Mein, Smoke Flavored Beef (OMG!), Mongolian Chicken, Broccoli Chicken, and something else that Daddy wanted, but I forgot the name of. All 8 of us had a ton of food and we were very happy.


Gracie and Lukie especially enjoyed the Hong Kong Chow Mein.

Nana had chocolate raspberry gelato for her birthday cake and we ordered a mango coconut to share.  We passed them around, each taking a bite until they were all gone.

Gracie and Luke were starting to get antsy (we'd been there for over 2 hours at that point), so the head waiter bribed them with lollipops.  You'd think someone gave them a huge slice of chocolate cake!

My favorite picture!

In the end, we had a great time, but Lukie was ready to go.  It's a good thing I have fast reflexes!

We had enough food leftover for lunch the next day!

Happy Birthday, Nana!  We hope you had fun!

A Visit to the Zoo with Cousins

Just a quick moment to share a fun picture from our trip on December 18th to the LA Zoo.

We took Mariah (Tio Joey's daughter) to the Zoo and met Auntie Ten Ten and her crew there.  We saw reindeer and the line-yons (lions) and so much more!

Here's a quick picture taken as we entered the park:

Can you tell that Gracie was not happy to be in the stroller?

The Metrolink Holiday Toy Train

Every year, Metrolink sponsors a Holiday Toy Train (it really should be a Christmas train since Santa is involved). They pair up with the local firefighters and collect toys from the people who stop by to see the show. This year, the firefighters were called away to take care of an emergency, so we did not get to give them they toys we brought. However, we plan to stop by our fire station so that the toys can be given out to people who need them.

We've been going since before Gracie and Luke were born. In the beginning, it was just Cousin Hailey! Last year, I took Gracie and Luke and they were interested, but not as much as I suspected they would be this year. Boy, was I right! They loved the lights and kept pointing at all of the characters dancing around. Gracie even sang along with some of the songs.

Aunt Bec, Gracie and Bianca sat on the cold ground to watch the show.

Bianca (a.k.a. The Picture Ham!) and Gracie from above.

Lukie was very interested in drinking his entire chocolate milk.

Why is Bianca in so many pictures?
Don't you love the chocolate milk moustache?

Nate and Brandon waited patiently for the train.

Gracie looking at Baby Emmie sleeping in her wagon, decorated with lights.

Gracie and Lukie looking for the train.

A spontaneous smile!

Baby Emmie (believe it or not, she's wearing an outfit Gracie wore last winter!) and Aunt Bec

Lukie loved the lights.

The reindeer (a.k.a. "horsies!") on the Holiday Toy Train.

Cookie Day 2009

When I was little, Cookie Day was actually more like "Cookie Weekend" with Auntley. We'd spend days with her at Grandma's house, making cookies, fudge, brownies, breads and making ourselves sick in the process. I have an image in my head of one particular Christmas when we made SO many cookies that Grandma's entire dining room table was covered end to end with sugar cookies, chocolate cookies with chocolate frosting, snowball cookies, chocolate chip cookies, Auntley's favorite thumb print cookies, and refrigerator fudge. There were more cookies than anyone could ever could have eaten and it is one of the few memories I will never lose.

Aunt Bec, Auntie Ten Ten, and I have tried to recapture some of the magic of cookie day. I don't know if there are too many adults involved, if the kids are all to little, or what, but it hasn't quite developed into an event that can match our amazing memories of Cookie Days Past. However, I can say, that we have fun anyway! Cookie Day is evolving into the memory we will make of it.

This year, we met at Aunt Bec's house to bake our cookies. We went through more than 3 lbs of butter, two bags of flour, one bag of powdered sugar, one full bag of granulated sugar, a dozen and a half eggs, and 4 bags of chocolate chips (semisweet, white, and peanutbutter/chocolate combo). This year will be dubbed as the St. Paul's Cookie Day. Nana found a cookbook from St. Paul's Parish (where Auntley was the principal of the Elementary and Middle Schools for 20 years) hiding in her house. We opened it up and found a treasure trove of recipes, including the original recipe for Snowball Cookies! Yay!

Some of the recipes worked better than others. For example, the Snowball Cookie recipe rocked! The lemon bar recipe was a major fail. The lemony part never made the nice solid gooeyness that is a required part of lemon bars. We were very disappointed.

Nana suggested that we create a Cook Girl Cookie Day Cookbook and store all of our favorite cookie recipes in there so that we preserve them for all time. I'm thinking maybe we could make one and take pictures of our cookies, along with some pictures of ourselves making the cookies and I can create photobooks for each of us. Wouldn't that be cool?

We had a great time! Many thanks to Auntie Ten Ten (from whose Facebook page I have stolen these pictures because I failed to take a single picture).

Here I am cutting the lemon bars that never solidified!
They stayed a liquidy mess. Aunt Bec had to throw them out.
She told me the other day that she has been craving them ever since
the Great Lemon Bar Debacle.

Here's Aunt Bec with me in her kitchen.
Her oven is crazy and kept trying to burn the cookies.
For Christmas, I am going to call the Gas Company so that they can fix the temperature!

Auntie Ten Ten helping Nathan and Gracie "paint" their cookies.

Lukie creating a "Lukie Special" as Auntie Ten Ten called them. They consisted of frosting, white chocolate chips, saliva from licked fingers, saliva from licking the spoon, and sprinkles.

Gracie enjoying a cookie she "painted."

Nana with all of the Girly Grandchildren.
See the terror on Emmie's face? She was not excited about the picture.
Notice how there are no more bows in Gracie's hair. They did not last long!

Left to right: Emmie, Hailey, Nana, Gracie, and Bianca.

Nana with the Boy Grandchildren.

Left to right: Brandon, Lukie (OMG! Look at that crazy hair!),
Nana, and Nathan.

Tiny note for posterity: Cookie Day was Sunday, December 6. Yes, it took me more than a week to post these pictures.