happy christmas!!

well, it seems like the Christmas season is coming to an an end... people are taking down their decorations and now the focus is on the new year ahead. so... i thought: its a good time to reflect on my Christmas season, which, by the way, was a wonderful one : )

we all went out and looked at lights one night. there's a really rad house in livermore. i like the lights on their trees:

and, of course, deacon Dave's:

i did A LOT of baking this holiday season. i mean, i LOVE to bake stuff all the time, but around Christmas time... well, i basically go nuts. he he he. with the help of the kids and my ma, altogether we made sugar cookies, pecan tassies, russian tea cakes, spritz cookies, angel candy, sponge candy, and fudge. good god! mom had a couple of parties for bunco and bridge so a lot of the goodies got wiped out then. and i shared a lot of my edible creations with friends. the sponge candy was a big hit with kurt and brandi.. brandi's mom even asked for the recipe and made a batch for her family x-mas party. woot! hopefully everyone got to sample something that i made this year : )

some classic x-mas cookies

this is my "angel" candy. i guess it has a lot of different names... sponge candy, honeycomb. anyways, its one of my favorite's (and la's too!)

every year on Christmas eve one of my neighbors lines our entire street with luminaries. they've been doing it for at least 5 years or so. they set out the luminaries at around 7 pm. they line both sides of our entire street and set them a few feet apart. light them at around 9pm. and they stay lit until around midnight. its really awesome and i look forward to it every year! here's a picture (a craptastic picture) but it gives you an idea of how the luminaries are set up.

here's clay when he opened his x mas present from his grandparents in alaska. he got a new PSP. its a star wars one. its white and has darth vader on the back. its pretty rad. clay was so stoked! he literally fell to the floor when he opened the box!
Christmas morning. clay had woken up around 3 am. i told him, "no way, dude. its too early." so he went back to bed and got up around 7. so the whole fam woke up and opened presents. as usual, my parents went a little overboard with the gifts for the kids. but the kids were so thankful for everything they got and that made me so happy!
chloe got a mini build a bear machine. we made the bears, then named them and played with them. she was so proud that she actually made some stuffed animals!
all in all, it was a fabulous Christmas season... spent with family and friends and filled with lots of love : )

hey june, clay says "thanks for the polliwogs!!"

clayton was super stoked to get some polliwogs

we spent a lot of time tonight just sitting and watching the polliwogs swim around. it was so cool! clay would point out the little strands of poo coming out of their butts.... i, on the other hand, showed clay that you can see their little hearts beating through their see-thru bodies... clay thought that was WAY cool. thanks again, juniper... you're awesome!

girls looooove bowling!!

the girlies went bowling! we had gone out ice skating the night before, so chloe was kind of a bear. but other that that, i think we all had a pretty fun time : )

a picture is worth a thousand words...

chloe drew this picture last night. she draws pictures all the time... mostly of dogs and cats and mommy, ofcourse. but this time she drew a picture of her daddy. she asked me if daddy could come over and see the picture she had drawn for him. well, her daddy moved back to finland (again) a month ago. i tried to explain to chloe that her daddy lives in finland right now and its a long long ways away and that you have to take a really long airplane ride to get there..... but chloe just looked at me with her big blue eyes and said, "well, can he just come over to my house for a little while so i can show him my picture? Then he can go back to finish?" (finish is what chloe calls finland)
as soon as chloe said that it took all the strength inside me to not start crying. but i had to be strong... for my baby girl. i told her that we can take a picture of her drawing and send it to her daddy over the computer. still unable to grasp the fact that her daddy is gone, chloe asked me again if daddy could come see her picture... i grabbed my camera and told her to hold up her drawing and i'd take her picture. i took it. then showed it to her.... (she LOVES seeing pictures right after i take them)... then we emailed the picture to her dad. i gave her a big, long hug and told her i loved her.... then we watched pete's dragon together.

feliz navidad!

i got the pleasure of going to school with chloe today. it was a "funday" at gingerbread preschool and we got to make gingerbread houses!

the kids had a little performance for all the parents:

... what do ya think... is chloe a natural drummer or what? ha ha ha

here she is with her buddy

circle time
time for some frosting!!
chloe and kaylie
her masterpiece


this picture is hell of funny to me. my daughter looks hell of psyched! ha ha

a rainy day? lets go bowling!

chloe and i went bowling yesterday. she cracked me up the entire time. she definitely has her own technique. ha ha ha. we shared some nachos with extra cheese and had a rad time together. see what i mean?
she had lots of fun with the air blower thing...
our stylish bowling shoes... im wearing the ones that i, um, "borrowed" from granada bowl..

a buildup of blogs

so... ive been hoarding my blogs and keeping them all to myself. he he he

now its time to share : )
they're in no particular order, sorry.

bless you, child...

today while i was being a kick-ass yard duty, a little boy, who is in second grade, approached me in the lunch area and asked me, " Are you a teenager?"

"No," i replied. "Why would you think that?"

"Cause, " he said. "You look like a teenager."

Smiling profusely because of the enormous compliment this kid had just given me, i said to this little boy," Would you believe me if i told you that i have a son who goes to this school and is in fourth grade?"

The little boy's jaw dropped open for a second but then he said to me," No way. my mom looks way older than you and im only in second grade."

i couldnt help but laugh out loud.

" Whats your name, son?" i asked him.

"Miles," he replied.

"Miles, " i said to him. "You just made my day."

: ) he he

mi familia

lori took some pics of the sewall clan over thanksgiving. she did an awesome job! here's some of my favorite's:

we're a good-looking bunch, arent we?

my mom and pop. been married for 29 years. my mom kept cracking up when lori was trying to take pictures... i havent seen her laugh that much in a while. it was rad.


my little bro. he's going off to Thailand in january. he's the best uncle in the whole world. im gonna miss him. a lot.


this is one of my favorite pics cause it was a real moment. clay was actually holding chloe in his arms and cuddling with her....

rake 'em

fun with leaves...

chloe being a squirrel

yes, my child is laying in the gutter. ha ha ha
toss em up!!!

lots of laughter and lots of love

thanksgiving weekend turned out to be one of the best ones ever! spent some quality time with the fam and some friends. la and i surprised pammy and daniel and threw them a little birthday dinner. la made some bomb-ass tacos... woot! we all just sat around and drank and played cards and laughed. it was rad. around 11 we cruised on over to steve's to see how their century club thing was going... well, they had just finished up when we got there, so naturally, wrestling ensued and good times were had : )

got some family portraits done yesterday. i dont know what was going on with my mom but i havent seen her laugh so hard in a while.... i mean, it wasnt just my mom- we were all having a good time cause it just runs in our blood to be hilariously funny... but, yeah. it was awesome. and i have to give mucho credit to our photographer for putting up with the mass hysteria of taking pictures of the sewall family... ha ha ha. no, seriously.. shes the best: http://lorihunekephotography.blogspot.com/
woot! i cant wait to see the pictures : )

and today is my little brother's 21st birthday. he had his first drink last night at midnight... and by first, i really do mean first!! his first drink of choice was a 7 & 7... followed by a beer. way to go bro!! but what i want to know is... when we gonna road trip it to vegas and play some cards?!?!? love you bro... happy birthday!!! : )

tee hee

the cute, single dad that has a daughter in chloe's preschool told me that i "looked beautiful" yesterday.... hmm.. maybe i should ask him if he wants to play sometime? i mean, maybe i should ask him if our daughters want to play sometime. he he he...

tis the season...

so i feel like the holiday season has officially started. the leaves are finally staring to fall, the air has a new crisp feeling to it, a little bit of rain, and good times with family and friends. on thursday evening me and the kids went over to anna & karen's house for a fabulous dinner. the huneke clan was there too... woot! we made pizzas from trader joe's.... well, la made most of em cause she is a master pizza maker... the kids all played together and it was such a good time for all of us.
as most of you probably know, anna had to have one of her kidneys removed because of a tumor that was growing rapidly and had a chance of being cancerous.... luckily, it turned out that it was not cancerous, which was happy news for everyone. i cant imagine going through something like that and i really admire anna for being so strong and positive throughout this whole thing. her and karen are married now and they both are so happy. i love you guys!
... cheers to the newlyweds and cheers to "fred" being gone!! : )

on friday night i went bowling with kurt, brandi, and cro. well, brandi didnt bowl cause she's about to pop a baby out any day now... but we all had hell of fun. i bowled like shit. i mean, i broke a hundred and got a few strikes, but, lets face it: the guys kicked my ass! he he he.
BUT i did manage to score some badical bowling shoes. yeah, i stole em.... i feel kinda bad about it. but whatevs...


clay had his last soccer game of the season and possibly forever. he's decided that soccer just isnt his thing and he wants to play football and baseball instead. i'm totally cool with that cause i'm not a big fan of being a "soccer mom".. he he he. me and the kids went to his team party and had some pizza and ice cream. it was hell of wierd. the coach didnt get them trophies. what the hell? i mean, isnt that what the kids look forward to? i felt like asking him," um, dude... where's the frickin trophies at?" but i didnt cause no body else seemed to care. so soccer season is done for me now. um... cheers to that! ha ha ha


last night i had an unexpected visitor knock at my door... it was PAMMY!!! yay!! she came up for the 3 day weekend. we got to hang out and talk about all the stuff thats been happening lately.it was rad. i love shooting the shit with pammy... definitely one of my favorite past times : ) love you pammy!!

went for a little nature walk with chloe yesterday...

clay dressed his little sister. she even has his underwear on. ha ha ha.

... so things are good. and i feel the spirit of the season. and i love it!

more silly photos...

this dude forgot something

naked spiderman?

thats gonna hurt

nice parking job

did they not know the tree was gonna fall on the car if they chopped it down?
McBurnt
Asian police. hard at work
no thanks... i'd rather hold it

this is what sad look like
this is what sorry looks like
well... opposites do attract
umm...
a little loud? nah

hope that made ya crack a smile : )