Happy Thanksgiving

We had a peaceful and pleasant Thanksgiving this year. Sahara, Maya and myself just got over the H1N1 virus. So the turnout for our Thanksgiving feast was a little light, due to cautious relatives wanting to keep their distance. In the end we had a day full of cooking, arts and crafts and quality family time. What more could you want, right?

Here's Sahara with her turkey hat on.

Here are some of the crafts Maya and Sahara made leading up to Thanksgiving.

We collected some Autumn leaves and sprinkled them with glitter and glue. The two turkeys in the middle was an art project Uncle Saba introduced to the girls. They used sharpie markers and colored a turkey on a plastic sheet. Then they taped it onto a piece of foil that was wrapped around cardboard. It turned out pretty cool. Thanks Uncle Saba !!!

Work in progress...

Maya showing off her turkey creation on Thanksgiving day.

Here's daddy and the girls decorating the gingerbread house with candy on Thanksgiving morning.

Here are a few turkeys the girls made.

Here's the grand finale...Maya and Sahara helped to make the sweet potato side dish and a sweet potato pie which had a home made crust.

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Tai Kwon Do

We have taken the girls temporarily out of preschool to give our pockets a break during the holiday and also give mommy a break from all the colds and flu's they have been bringing home lately. As I am writing this I am recovering from a terrible cold. Aside from this, we have a rat eating holes through my car. The latest damages include a hole through my leather seats and my GPS system not working. Despite setting a dozen traps in and around the car each night, we were still not able to stop the dirty rat. So today we had an exterminator visit us. I hope this is the last we will be seeing of the elusive rat.

Other news, Sahara and Maya have started Tai Kwon Do classes. Their teacher, Master Jun at Sky Martial Arts, is amazing with the kids. Maya has become a star student. Sahara on the other had has been playing more than focusing, but I'm sure that will improve with time.

Sahara waiting in line to do a new exercise.

Check out Sahara stretching.


Respect and discipline is a big deal there and at the end and beginning of each class, everyone bows to the teachers and parents. Another cool thing is that the kids are training to say, "YES SIR !" every time the teacher asks them to do something. It's so cute !!!

Look at my happy campers in their new uniforms.

Here's the class waiting for the teacher to give them instructions. Aside from the main teacher, their are 3 - 4 assistant teachers that are giving they students one-on-one attention.

Here's a little clip from their first class. So cute !!!!

Happy Halloween

I think it is safe to say that we milked Halloween for all it was worth. We went to two pumpkin patches, had a Halloween party at school, had a Halloween play date, went to the library for a spooky story telling night and went to the Wild Animal Park on Halloween day. In addition to this, the girls made a ton of Halloween crafts and had a great time passing out candy and trick or treating on Halloween night. Needless to say I am very happy that we are past this holiday.

Here are a few of the pumpkin creations the girls made.

Here are the spiders the girls made at the Wild Animal Park craft table.

We had a little pumpkin carving competition. Daddy Nader was on one team and all the girls were on another. Here's daddy Nader's creation. Not bad....not bad....

Here's the pumpkin Maya, Sahara and mommy made. Now you be the judge on who won.

My two little dears petting a rather large deer.

Sahara didn't want to leave this deer's side.

Here's Sahara sitting in an egg. She is reenacting the hatching of a baby dinosaur.

We rode the carousel five times that day. As you can see mommy is enjoying herself.

Here's a picture of Sahara being Sahara. I say "smile !" and she sticks out her tongue.

Look how big Maya looks.

We went to a Halloween play date at our friends house. Here's the craft table we set up.

Here's Sahara going nuts with the glitter. Did I mention that blue is her favorite color. Oh, I forgot to mention that Sahara no longer uses a binky. I know, totally amazing.

Here's the girls preschool class getting ready to perform their Halloween program. It was mayhem but totally cute. Can you spot Dragon Sahara and Dalmatian Maya.

Here's a closer look.

Here's a picture of mommy messing around with her little monsters.

We went to the Murrieta public library for their spooky story telling one fine evening. Our little Dragon and Dalmatian was paying close attention.

Now that Halloween is over our only struggle is the candy of course.

Greetings !!

It's been several months since my last blog update. There are a lot of new things to report:

1. We moved to Wildomar, CA.
2. I'm pregnant with a little boy who is due in Feb.
3. Maya & Sahara started preschool.
4. We got guinea pigs.

I think that covers the big news. We had a wonderful summer and are now in full swing preparing for Fall and Halloween.

We went to the Bates Nut Farm pumpkin patch. It felt like we went to a pumpkin carnival. They had booths for games, arts and crafts, bouncy houses, pony rides, petting zoo and a whole lot of pumpkins.

Family photo. Even Bella got to come.

Check out these pumpkins. They are bigger than the girls.

Here's Sahara posing near a scarecrow.



Maya grabbed my camera and took a picture of her guinea pig, Brownie. We need to post a picture of Sahara's guinea pig, Road Runner.


Here's Nader and his cousin Tina hanging out in Miami a few weeks ago.




Here's Nader roughing it.


Here are the girls touching a sea anemone at our favorite beach, Diamond Beach in Laguna Beach.

We dug a hole for each of the girls to play in. As you can see, Maya is on her way to China.

Maya has mastered the art of making sand balls. It's not as easy as it looks.


Horseback riding is one of the girls favorite things to do. Usually Sahara likes the fast horse and Maya likes the slow horse.

Here's a close up. These pictures were taken at Griffith Park in L.A.

Savage Beauties

I remember when the girls were 6 months old I said, I wish they could just stay this age because they couldn't get any cuter. When the girls were 1 1/2 years old I said the same thing. And I say it again now that they are 2 1/2. But somehow they manage to surprise me. So please indulge a doting mother while I share some pictures of my savage beauties.

They are so adorable when they are not fighting.

Can you see their little wings??? They got those for Christmas.


Daddy's smile is big enough for both of them.




Some things about Sahara:

1. Loves dirt

2. Loves horses and dogs

3. Loves her binky

4. Always asks if she can have ice cream

5. Likes to call everyone a silly dog

Some things about Maya:

1. Maya likes to set the table

2. Likes to cook

3. Likes to clean

4. Likes to do everything by herself

5. Is very good at riding a tricycle

Proud parents posing with our first kid, Bella.