The Time Has Come

Today it was time to take down the Christmas lights.  Waaaaah.  It's always such a let-down for me, all the effort that goes into Christmas and after that one day, NUTHIN'.  Sigh...

Wanted to post some pictures from Christmas, trying to get back in the habit.

Kennedy Space Center with cranky Willie

Izzy's First Grade Christmas Program

Mr. Boy in his new bed

Mr. Boy also loves his new jacket, he wears it and doesn't chew it! Woohoo!

Pretty Sassy, so grown up

Chocoholic-ism runs in the family

Sassy's cart is FAST--18 MPH

Cruisin' down the sidewalk

Katy's is a Dune Buggy, does well off road...

Izzy's is a Drifter Kart and does 360 degree turns on a dime

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake ala Cook's Illustrated, delish, highly recommend it.

Need to figure out how to get the sides smooth when you take it out?  But if you only knew how good those little crumblies were... oh Momma.

Shy Izzy

Sulky Willie (usual position these days)

Partners in Crime--Fudgsicle stealing.

You've got a friend in me...Somebody poisoned the waterhole!  Amazingly, when Woody's hat is off, he says "Whoa, there goes my hat" or something else like that, and when you put it back on, he says several things like, "Oh, now hey, THAT's better!"  or "Aw, shucks, you found my hat! Thanks!"  It's quite amusing.

Drinking Cranberry juice

:(  Getting so big :(

Jumping Bean

All smiles

Growing up, finally a natural smile!  She's a tough one for that!

Happy that our ottoman is not a hard rock anymore.

Chillin' in her room

Having fun (Willie trying to lick Katy!)

Oh yeah Momma, you just THINK I am going to do what you ask.  This is the look I think I gave my sisters many times.  Minus the eye flutter.

Mittens!  How fun.  Too bad he looks so devastated.  He really did like them.  Really!

Trying out Gemini 7 (two weeks without being able to stretch your legs full out! Those two seats are it, nothing more to it!  Yikes!

Shawn read every plaque.  Me, well, my attention span apparently also ain't what it used to be.

Cool.

Thumbs up for space exploration! And cranky boys who pretend there is no camera anywhere around. Grr...

After a great show-- Izzy asked me several times is "she was real."  She was Vulcan, and very cool.  We had a great time at the show. 

Awesome ball that is pure stone and is moved by a small amount of water (displacement theory)

Strangely, one of my favorite pics of the day.  I love it in black and white but Shawn HAS to have color.

Yaya takes the ball for a spin

Izzy looks for constellations

Going into the shuttle

Willie's new shuttle, much adored

Daddy being silly with Izzy

Waiting for the bus shuttle to the launch pad

Aw, Izzy wanted a shuttle too.  Darn those gift shops, they know how to get ya.

Thankfully no line here!  We love going places where no one else is!

Shawn asked for a family photo, then after three or four minutes said, "All right, enough pictures." Ticked me off pretty good, so I took off for the bus with the girls and left his sorry butt in the dust.  Sarah called his cell phone and said, "You better run through the gift shop to get out, Daddy, Momma is LEAVIN'!"  And I was!  What a doofus, really!

Willie's shuttle takes flight

I like this one, too.  He sure loves his Daddy.

My Pooh Bear.

Stephenson girls

Cutie Pie

We got to meet a real astronaut, Sam Gemar, who went on three missions.  The girls asked him questions which he answered beautifully.  

Sarah:  "Were you scared when you went into space?"

Sam:  It was scariest the night before when you had time to think about it.  Launch time you were just too busy to think/"

Katy: "When did you know you wanted to be an astronaut?"

Sam:  About 7 years old (izzy's age!)

Izzy:  "Does your Mom and Dad go with you?"

Sam:  No, but I sure wish they could have seen it!

Izzy: (for Willie who would not speak) "When are you going to Mars?"

Sam:  I'm going to have to have one of you do that for me!

He was very kind, autographed a picture for us, and Willie's shuttle as well.  It really made Sarah MOST interested in space.  We will be going to view the final launch Feb 3, as she insists on us going!  Who knows, maybe she will be in space some day.  We also saw a memorial to Challenger, and the whole story was fascinating to her.  She came home and looked it all up on the internet.  Totally cool how it piqued her interest in one short day!

This one makes me laugh every time.  Katy is rarely joyous, at least where you can get it on camera!

Sunset at the Space Center

All Willie talked about the whole time was PuttPutt Golfin'.  Literally said PuttPutt Golfin'.  We finally went on the last night, which turned out to be perfect.  Quite cool, but not cold.  HE LOVED IT.  He had such a blast, using his club like a net, trying to swoosh it into each hole.  He couldn't get enough.  18 holes and he cried when we were done. Every time he got it in, (twenty to thirty shots laters, most of it swiping, or just picking the darn thing up and setting it right next to the hole :)  Heehee) he would raise his arms over his head and go "HOLE!"

Leaving the park, still cranky boy.

Putt putting wasn't fun for Katy until she CHILLED and then she did great and had a fine time!

HOLE!

The pool at the hotel was heated but not very warm.  They switched from hot tub to pool every three or four minutes.  Still, they couldn't get enough.  Just loved it!

Izzy got the only Hole-in-One of the night!

Swimmin' on the last day

Trying to see through the glare of the overcast day

Could NOT get this picture to work out, this was the best of several

Okay.  There you have it.  Enough bloggage to hold you for a bit.  A long bit.

New Camera!

A new day...ahhhhh..  (a la Celine Dion, of course)
Here are a couple of first shots with my handy dandy Nikon D7000.  It could make Bozo the Clown a good photographer.  Which is probably why I rather like these couple of pics.  Bozo and I are much closer than you know.  Point and Shoots just don't help me out much!

Your welcome.

Spee-tacular Spiderman!

Willie loves to sing the Spiderman theme song from one of his cartoon movies. "Spee-tack-uh-ler, Spee-tack-uh-ler Fiderman!" If we sing it wrong, he corrects us by singing it again! It's great, and we are frequently wrong just to hear him sing it one more time!

Love the muscle chest!

He's so buff for a 3 year old!

Checking out what's in his pumpkin...

Wouldn't smile when we started but he sure is smiling now!

Happy Halloween!

Candy Time!

Katy was a "Glamour Witch" which was a mercifully easy costume to wear, and she looked cute! I wouldn't let any of them wear fancy shoes, due the tremendous amount of walking they would be doing. Only my little fashionista Izzy chose to forgo her comfy sneakers for shiny patent leather shoes... she rode in the stroller most of the way. Heehee...

Sweet-a-holic Numero Uno!

Sweet little bumblebee...

Looking for sweets... no chance of rotting out the front teeth!

Doggie Get-up

Sarah and Aiden had a joint costume this year, despite my reservations about taking the dog trick-or-treating. He was amazingly good, never barked at any of the crazy creatures he saw, or the wild noises coming from the haunted house. He had a great time and a great sleep that night, we tuckered him out!

Could not believe that he actually allowed us to put this on him and NEVER CHEWED at it at all! He was so patient!

My little ketchup.

Out on the Boat

Okay, well he wasn't out on the boat. But he is so darn cute these days. Gotta love crazy Aiden.

Speaking of cute, have you seen Mr. Handsome lately? (That was for you, Scotty.) Well, he is, as usual, Mr. Handsome. He has also become Joe Cool, as you can tell from the Fisher-Price sunglasses.

And William is not the only cutie around here. Katy and Izzy had a blast swimming around while Daddy finished his work underwater. Check out Izzy's front teeth. No, don't, they aren't there! Good thing Christmas is a-comin', OH, all I want for Chrithmuth is my two front teeth...

Aww, just the guys. William thinks being in the water with his dad is heaven on earth. A very wet, salty heaven.

Food Show 2010

Shawn and I went to Sacramento for our annual Food Show participation. It was not as much fun as last year (we were new then) but it was busier. We hope it was worthwhile sales-wise, but it is always good experience.

Southern Cross Sea Farms' president, chief shmoozer at the cocktail party, and booth assistant, Shawn Stephenson.

Our cute little clams, flown across the country, picked up at the cargo area, and placed on a bed of kale and parsley. Lemon cutting courtesy of me, and my many years at Shrimp Landing. I always knew that little trick would come in handy. Shawn said no, it would take hours. 1 lemon, 1 borrowed paring knife, and 2 minutes later, VOILA! (Or wah-la, you people know who you are.)

The host company always puts on a fabulous display...
or they just want to make ours look like crap.
That's okay, we had our booth down in five minutes flat, and were off to a fabulous dinner. So there.

Cool fish, some I don't even recognize.

Fame or Fortune

I advertised one of my listings (a house that Shawn and I once fixed up and sold) on the front page of the Real Estate Book, which is in all the little boxes around Citrus and Levy County. I thought it looked cute. And it has worked, I've had six calls from it already and it's only been out a week or less. This weekend is our Seafood Festival so I am planning to be at the office, helping Sarah with retail at Southern Cross, and plugging real estate for all I'm worth!

Maybe it'll bring me fame. Or fortune. Or at least mild entertainment for a short period of time.

YUM.

I made something awesome. Well, I made it but I didn't come up with the recipe. The recipe is from Suzanne Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques, which I picked up a signed copy of at Tavern in LA. Dinner there was wonderful, but I am even happier with some of the recipes I have made at home from the cookbook. In part because at the restaurant, SHE gets all the praise. At home, I reign supreme. At least in Shawn's eyes. He almost fell out of his chair when I put dinner on the table. He said we should take a picture, so we did.

Melon with Prosciutto, Figs, Arugula, and Mint Cream.

Fee-nomenal.

Served with Pan-Roasted Rib-eye Steaks with Marchand de Vin (red wine, shallot, and butter sauce)

Shawn said it was life-changing good. Something so simple, yet A-mazing.

I know you're jealous, I am too, because we ate it all and we don't have any left. If you want the recipe, let me know and I will send it. But beware, you might be expected to cook like this again.
Which won't be hard to do if you have that handy cookbook around. $23 on Amazon could get you a lifetime of kudos.
Now, all this blogging (it's like exercise, once you stop it is hard to start up again) is making me hungry.
What do we have to eat?

Aww, What A Cutie!

William's Easter get-up.  He has growling for ALL of the other pictures we took.  It's tough being a dinosaur!

Izzy up at bat!  She happened to hit a double right here, got to second base and turned around, giving me a big thumbs up!  Who knew that little body could hit that hard?!