"The Green Dragon"

Castaic Ward Trunk-or-Treating

Our ward Halloween Party was this last Friday. We thought this year we would be different and instead of Jeremy signing up to make chili I signed up for the trunk decorating . I didn't think out my volentering all the way through though because after decorating our apartment I was pretty burned out. I procrastinated till the night before the party to figure out what I was going to do. Thankfully it all worked out and our trunk was nicely decorated in time...next year though you can count on Jeremy making chili. :)

This is our finished trunk, it is a bit hard to tell but the large front window was lit up. We also had small flashing lights near the pumpkin wall and great sound effects running through our car speakers of wind, organ music and all that good scary stuff!

Kristy with the Pumpkin Princess and Sleeping Beauty

We had a great turn out. Our ward is huge so it was a lot of fun.

Ashly and Jet (mini Chuck Liddell) Ricks

Sade & Nyah had so much fun.

Sade hanging out with Leila & Shane Wallace

Nyah's Lombardi Ranch Field Trip

On October 11th, Nyah's pre-school class went on a field trip to Lombardi Ranch. Kristy wasn't feeling well and I had some vacation time available, so I took the day off to be with my girls. The girls were extremely excited, when they woke up to find that I was home. For Nyah's field trip, all the parents were asked to come and the parents were allowed to bring any siblings, so Sade joined Nyah and I on our trip to the pumpkin patch.

We had a great time! It was fun for me to see Nyah interacting with the kids in her class. I've always been a little concerned because Nyah can be a shy little girl, but she really enjoys playing with the other kids and making friends.

We learned all about the animals on the ranch and the different types of vegetables that they grow there. I thought it was kind of funny that the tour guide kept pointing out what parts of the animals you can eat, but Nyah and the other kids seemed to enjoy it.

They had (emphasis on the past tense, I'll explain later on) all different types of activities to do. There were different things for the kids to explore and crawl around on/in, different photo opportunities, a tractor train ride through the corn field, and even a petting zoo. We had only paid for Nyah to go into the petting zoo with her class, but when she got scared and began crying Sade and I were able to join her (Lucky for us). There are times when Nyah feeds off of her littles sister's bravery and this was definitely one of those moments. When Sade and I went into the petting zoo, Sade didn't even flinch. She ran straight to the goats and started petting away. From that point on Nyah had a good time petting the different types of animals. When we got back home and Nyah told her mom about the trip, Nyah insisted that the only reason she cried in the petting zoo was because there were so many animals that she couldn't decide which one to pet first.

I think both of the girls most enjoyed the tractor train ride through the corn fields. Nyah went for a ride with the other kids in her class, and I felt bad for Sade, so I bought tickets so she and I could go for a ride as well. Sade kept pointing out every scarecrow that we went past.

Unfortunately, Lombardi's ranch is located back in Bouquet Canyon and was affected by the recent fires. Though there were rumors that the ranch had burned completely to the ground, I saw a news report last week showing that the ranch was indeed largely affected by the fires (including one of the Lombardi family members losing a home) but the ranch is still open for business. They lost a number of the large props, included the old fire truck (my personal favorite from my childhood). However, as they said on the news report, they still have plenty of beautiful pumpkins and are still open for business. They reported on the news that the Lombardi family will be holding a meeting after Thanksgiving to decide whether to open the patch again next year or shut down for good. I know that the majority of our community is hoping to be able to go back again next year.

I don't mean to overload anyone with pictures, but I took so many that I just have to share. Here are some pictures from Nyah's field trip:

Nyah and I getting ready to leave.

Nyah & Sade (Sade insisted on bring her purse with her. She's such a girl!)

Nyah on the train ride

Sade on the train ride. Going into the corn and sunflower fields.

We stayed and played after the field trip ended.


Even in the middle of a field trip Nyah can't resist posing for a picture.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Sade, even though she does still have a milk mustache left over from her breakfast. :)

At the end of the field trip all the kids got to pick a pumpkin.

Our Halloween Party

I know that this is a little late coming but here they are, some of the pictures from our annual Halloween party. This year we didn't go with an obvious "theme" like we have before. I just made a little forest with trees and a few other Halloweenish accents. The girls helped me out a lot by coloring many of the decorations, I loved the result. (I will post more detailed pic's of the decorations a little later). For now here are some fun pictures from the party...

This is the view walking in the front door.
This year we expanded! Amber & Keenan were kind enough to open up their apartment to the party as well. We are true next door neighbors so we had a two apartment party with a gated off hallway in between (to keep kids from falling down the stairs). This is the pumpkin painting craft that Amber did for the kids at her place.

It is tradition; this is the fourth year of our Halloween party and the party rules clearly state that a pinata must be present!
It is always a big hit (ha ha ha, Dad joke... my dad would be so proud!)

Waiting for a turn.

Sade stepping up to swing (doesn't she make the cutest pumpkin?!)

The kids :)

More fire info...

Throughout the day Kristy and I have been closely monitoring the Canyon Country and Castaic fires. Our little apartment sits right between both of them. Today we've seen the Castaic fire burn through Hasley Canyon and creep over the hills in our direction (even though the smoke plumes have been blowing the opposite way).

We got tired of sitting in our apartment and tried to go into town to run a few errands, but before we even got out of Castaic the air quality went from good to horrible, so we turned around and came back.

Here are some of the images that we've captured throughout the days:

This is the Castaic Fire burning in Hasley Canyon

Helicopter filling up a bucket at the Castaic Lagoon

Helicopter filling up at lake Castaic (taken from Lake Hughes Rd.)

Sunset over lake Castaic (Taken from Lake Hughes Rd.)

A hot spot from the Canyon Country fire moving toward Castaic (Taken from Lake Hughes Rd.). By my estimate this is about 15 -20 miles NE of our apartment. Kristy, Nyah, Sade and I watched a number of hot spots light up in this area in just 15 minutes. Considering that the Canyon Country fire moved from Agua Dulce to Canyon Country (20 miles) in one hour, this is the fire that I'm keeping a close eye on. If it burns over these hills and through these canyons then the strip of apartment complexes that we live in will be on the front line.


Two "Super Scoopers" filling up at lake Castaic for a drop on the Stevenson Ranch fire.

Stevenson Ranch fire from Lake Hughes Rd., above lake Castaic (about 6:00pm)


Panoramic picture of Canyon Country, Stevenson Ranch and Castaic fires at sunset (Double click on the image for a larger picture)

Southern California is burning!!!

We're surrounded by two major fires at the moment. I took Kristy and the girls up the old Ridge Route highway and did a little off-roading to get this panoramic. There is about a 180 degree rotation between the first and last picture. The plume of smoke to the left is the Agua Dulce fire. It's currently split into to fires; one headed toward Canyon Country and the other headed toward the Bouquet/Texas Canyon area. The plume of smoke to the right is the Castaic/Piru fire, which is currently burning away from us toward the small town of Piru. There are currently other fires going on in San Diego (2), and Malibu. As of this moment, they've all burned a large amount of acreage (Malibu/2000, Castaic/1500, Agua Dulce/500, Witch Creek/3000, Portrero/2500). The Malibu fire is currently receiving the most attention because it's the biggest threat to homes. Though this is definitely a moment to be concerned and praying for those who have been affected, and those who are threatened by the fires; I can't help but laugh at the fire reports that Nyah is giving us. She is continually going to her bedroom window and reporting to us on which way the wind is blowing the smoke.

Punkin Princess

I just wanted to point out that I added a column to the right for Sade's funny sayings. I have had Quotes from Nyah for some time now but I thought it was time to add some quotes from Sade (starting with tonight). We had been talking about our up coming annual Halloween party and what we were going to dress up as when Sade puts her hand to my chin and says, "Mom, Mom, look at me, listen, listen, listen, you is not a punkin princess, I am a punkin princess. You is a mommy!"
(Sade will be a pumpkin princess for Halloween, and apparently I will not)

What is Brittany Doing There Anyway?

Ok, this really is a message for Brittany, but I thought it was funny enough to post here; today I was driving home with the girls and Nyah was unusually quiet. After a while she says to me, "Mom, Brittany is out seeking a boyfriend isn't she?"

Apparently Nyah believes that collage is the place Brittany went to find a boyfriend not an education.

I told her that Brittany is going to school to learn but she is excited about dating. Nyah then added that Brit "better find a nice boy... kind of like Nathan."

(Just in case you were wondering Brit, Nyah is rooting for you, and if you can find someone to play "ninja" with her, she wouldn't mind that either!)

Birthday Girl!

Sade turned 2 on September 23rd! She is at such a fun age, her vocabulary is catching up with her personality and Jeremy and I have loved hearing all that she has to say. Sade speaks in long animated sentences telling us everything from how her dolls are feeling each day to how cute she thinks my hair looks :) I love it!

For Sade's birthday we celebrated with some friends the night before her birthday and on Sunday (the day of her birthday) we had some of our family over for another small celebration.

This was the first birthday that Sade really understood, and she had sooo much fun making cupcakes and helping plan the whole thing.

This picture was taken after church on Sade's birthday and I love how true it is to their personalities.
Just yesterday the two of them were coloring and Nyah looks at Sade and says "good job Sade, I like your picture!" and Sade turns to Nyah and says "Nyah your picture is so cute!" Nyah loves encouraging her sister but Sade is eager to keep pace with Nyah and give encouragement right back!

P.S. I had to add this picture too. I was taking a lot of pictures so Sade got out her viewmaster and wanted me to "smile for the camera" too!

Avatar short

Our family loves watching the Avatar together and recently they've been doing these funny little anime shorts after every episode. In case you've never heard of it before, The Avatar is a cartoon on Nickelodeon and different characters can control different elements (earth, wind, air & fire), but only the Avatar can control all four elements and it's the Avatar's responsibility to keep the peace between all the other nations....blah, blah, blah....I could go on for a while. I love the show. For Christmas last year, I asked my mom to get me Season 1 on DVD. Call me a geek if you like, but I've since gotten my dad and Kyle hooked on it too.

Ahhh....Autumn is in the air and noodles are up the nose

Kristy's not feeling too good today, so to help out I've been watching the kids and I even made Kristy some soup. Of course, once the kids saw that Kristy had soup they wanted some too. I made them Ramen noodles (one of their favorites), and Nyah finished hers right away. Sade, on the other hand, takes time to eat her food. Not because she has good manners, but because she likes to use her hands and play with it for a while. I expected that there would be noodles on the table and even on the floor, however, out of my peripheral I thought I saw Sade shoving food into her mouth with her hands. When I turned to correct her, I then realized that she wasn't shoving noodles into her mouth, but up her nose. I asked her to stop and then pulled a small noodle from her nostril. Once she was done, I asked her to wash her hands and when she came to show me how clean her hands were I noticed that we didn't get all the noodles out of her nose. Too far up there for me to grab, I asked her to blow her nose into a tissue. Sure enough, about a 1 1/2 inch long Ramen noodle came out. I just hope there's nothing else up there. We all laughed and I couldn't help but think of Sade's uncle Bubba shoving cotton, from his baby blanket, up his nose and needing to go to the doctor to have it removed (that's a whole other story).

I've heard people refer to things as "brain food", and though I wouldn't consider Ramen to fall under that category, shoving the food up your nose may take the term to a whole new level.