A day in my life ...

COME ON OVER

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:36:00 +0000

I’m up and running. My archives are not and I still need to re-format and change links in just about every post seeing as I’m combining 3 blogs into 1. So there will be a lot of changes happening each day until I have waded my way through all of my blog posts to ensure they are up to scratch.

You will find 2 new posts up though. A finger puppet bat to make for Halloween and our trip to an organic farm earlier in the week.

Please update your subscriptions to ensure you are receiving my future posts and head on over for a visit, I’d love to see you all. Fingers crossed your subscriptions don’t go a little insane while I’m updating each of my posts into the new format.

www.tonyastaab.com

MOVING ON

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:49:00 +0000

Big news!

My blog is moving.

The new digs are a work in progress, but will hopefully be up and running early next week. In the meantime I won’t be updating this blog with new posts … well except a post letting you all know where I’ve moved to of course.

I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have followed along and subscribed to my blog. You have all brightened my day with your comments and even though I’ve been really lame at times responding to your questions, I’m hoping that my new streamlined site (which will incorporate all 3 of my blogs) will leave me more time to get to know all of you a little bit better.

So please stay tuned.

Love,

Tonya

BABY ELEPHANTS

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:06:00 +0000

The post where I bore you with a thousand (okay 9) photos of my ~~baby elephant~~ little ballerina. See that’s what happens when after 9 weeks of classes the teacher FINALLY allows the parents to watch. We go into a picture taking frenzy.

stretching

look at these moves

and curtsey

and looking back for mum’s approval

She’s got it! {applause, applause}

SAVED BY FLATULENCE

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:40:00 +0000

Yes that’s right. The post where I discuss farting. It was bound to happen.

It all started at the dinner table the other night. Yes these are the kinds of conversations that occur at our dinner table when eating with a husband, a teenage boy and 3 year olds who insist on discussing every bodily function at great length.

I’m not sure how this particular discussion began, but what I do remember is this:

Hubby: “There have been a large number of marriages saved by flatulence”

Me: {choking on my dinner}

Hubby: “I can’t be sure on the numbers, but they are there”

Me: {tweeting his ridiculous statement}

Hubby: {as the results of my poll are trickling in} “Right, I’ll prove it”

Me: {laughing hysterically and reading out responses like these}

(sorry, these are Facebook friends so I blotted out their identities)

Hubby: Responds in email. Yes he emailed me. Even though I was sitting in the same room. You are just dying to see his proof, right?!

MARRIAGE & FARTING

Actually, Tonya, according to research conducted by me moments ago, farts are the marital fabric of every successful nuptial union.

Spousal flatulence provides joy, relief and revelry to the relationship; granted, these attributes are most closely associated with the member providing the bonding experience vice the one receiving. Indeed, these findings can be verified through my own anecdotal observations.

If you still don’t believe me or trust my findings, then take a look at this extremely well documented report by a noted, anonymous scientician.

I burp and fart in front of my spouse so sue me
Source: fooqu.com

Oh yes: you must read the article.

Dear hubby,

the only farts that will save our marriage are mine, because they are hilariously funny. Yours are not.

Signed, wife.

WEEKLY WINNERS

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:18:00 +0000

hosted by Lotus

All photographs taken with a Canon Rebel XT

My sleeping baby

Pampered princess

Buzz buzz Mr. Bumblebee

Going for a wagon ride with daddy

The twins birthday with Grandma & Pa - more photos here

Play-doh fun. Making pea pods.

He shoots. He scores.

LITTLE MAN G’s BIRTHDAY PARTY

DEAR MARISOL AND FLYNN,

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:41:00 +0000

Just under 4 years ago I watched this on the screen as I lay on a bed at the infertility clinic.

This was the day of implantation. This was the day that we grew from a family of 3 to a family of 5.

Yesterday you turned 3 years old.

You are both so absolutely amazing and I love you with all my heart.

I have loved watching you grow from tiny babies

into the sweet and loving toddlers you are today.

**********************************

YOUR 3RD BIRTHDAY CELEBRATED

Celebrations for your birthday began a week ago when your Grandma and Pa (who you love so very much) visited from Australia.

To view more photographs from this day please click here

Celebrations continued with a party at school with your new friends. Party favors can be viewed here

Then yesterday on your big day you couldn’t have been happier. This was the first year that you really understood that it was YOUR birthday. You ripped into your presents, you asked for candles to blow out and you loved every moment of your special day.

Your big surprise of the day. NEW BIKES. You haven’t figured out the pedals yet, but you sure did have fun rolling down the little hills and having us push you back up.

Then the celebrations continued into the evening with dinner at Bubba Gump. You ate mac & cheese until your bellies were full and the staff sang happy birthday to you and gave you sundaes.

Here are some more photos that I was Whrrling from my phone throughout our dinner.

336 MAN CAVES

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:23:00 +0000

Isn’t every man’s dream to have a ‘man cave’. Well my husband has the best wife in the world. I found 336 man caves for him. I even offered to have food shipped to him every so often.

He didn’t find this terribly amusing.

Especially seeing as I was talking about Alcatraz.

We visited the former Penitentiary (lighthouse and fort) during the week. It’s truly an amazing experience. A couple of it’s most famous prisoners being Al Capone and Robert Stroud. It’s a little over a mile off the coast of San Francisco Bay and is accessible by Ferry. Flynn was fascinated with his first ever boat ride. He couldn’t have been happier.

Shower anyone?

There ain’t no way he’s getting over that wall.

Shelves that were once covered in books

Marisol thought daddy was being goofy

MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:17:00 +0000

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is by far the best aquarium I have been to. There was no way we could make it all the way around in the half day we had allocated, but what we did get to see we thoroughly enjoyed. They have a ton of interactive exhibits for the kids and we arrived just in time to view the Kelp feeding.

Spot the flat fish. Standing under a wave

CARMEL BY THE SEA

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:13:00 +0000

It was drizzly. It was cold. It’s such a beautiful town that it didn’t matter.

What is it about drains? My kids are fascinated with them. The lovely restaurant where we stopped for lunch.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see a lot of the town. The kids were getting a little cranky after lunch so I took them home. I live close enough though that I will be back. A lot. The galleries and stores are absolutely divine.

FESTA ITALIA

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:06:00 +0000

If you live in, or are visiting the Monterey area this weekend be sure to check out Festa Italia. It kicked off yesterday and runs until late Sunday afternoon.

We had a blast there last night. The music was fantastic, the Italian food delicious and it was a great crowd - albeit very crowded. However, we found our own little spot at the back where we had a great view of the band and the kids could dance the night away.

My souvenir wine glass … yet still drinking out of plastic. Now that’s classy.

Dancing with daddy

Can we hear an awwww

The girl loves to boogie

CANNERY ROW … AGAIN

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:13:00 +0000

Well, when you live close by, it would be a shame not to spend a decent amount of time there. Right?!

First stop: Dippin’ Dots. Yummo!

Then it was off to look at the ocean, walk around the boardwalk and have a look at a couple of galleries.

Before heading out for an early dinner at what has become one of our family favorites, The Fish Hopper

Where Marisol decided to copy her brother and stick crayons into her straw. She was quite pleased with herself.

And of course you can’t forget about dessert. This time we made our way to the Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop.

… AND THE WINNER IS

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:08:00 +0000

Family Adventure Guidebooks

Congratulations!

You will be receiving a $500 Walmart gift card.

Thank you to everyone who entered my Walmart Your Zone giveaway.

N.B. Somebody will ask, so before you do I realize there were 294 comments on the post, however I go through each comment and delete those that are spam and add in extra entries for those who didn’t post them separately, then of course there are comments that have been deleted by the authors. By the time I got through all of these the final number of valid entries was 286.

DENNIS THE MENACE

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:12:00 +0000

Our kids LOVE the Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey.

However mama doesn’t like it much at all when it’s stinking freaking hot and she has a near death experience (more likely from a heart attack) caused by this:

Yes that is a spider on my boob in case you were wondering. I look none to pleased about it either. Although I did snap a quick pic before freaking out and screaming.

I’m too exhausted to finish editing them tonight, so you will have to wait until tomorrow to see the rest of the photographs from our day out.

I will also be announcing the winner of the $500 Walmart gift card tomorrow too, so stay tuned.

OLD FISHMERMAN’S WHARF

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:38:00 +0000

Old Fisherman’s Wharf – Monterey, California.

Here crab crab crab …

She’s got her Pa

Stop Marisol! Wait for me!

Now that’s a happy spaghetti eater. Just look at the concentration.

Watching salt water taffy being made

Get your mouth around that

mmm, now what should I get … maybe that one.

A DAY WITH STEINBECK

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:11:00 +0000

The National Steinbeck Center is a wonderful look into the life of the amazing author John Steinbeck. There are 3 rooms where you can experience the literature and history, agriculture and art of John Steinbeck’s hometown. There are a number of hands-on exhibits which thoroughly entertained the little ones and seven themed theaters showcasing a variety of readings and movies.

I love John Steinbeck novels – we have a few gathering dust on our bookshelves. One in particular that I remember reading in school called Of Mice and Men (aff). Now that we have visited the Steinbeck Center I will be having Jay read it this year. I picked up another Steinbeck book to add to our collection today called Cannery Row (aff). I thought that very fitting seeing as we are living in that area now.

ELKHORN SLOUGH

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:31:00 +0000

The Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve is a great spot for a long walk and to see hundreds of native plants, animals and birds. It costs $2.50 for all people over 16 to walk the trails and there is a lovely Visitor’s Center where the kids had a great time finding out about the different plants, animals and birds we would see. There are over 2,500 acres of marsh and tidal flats and over 5 miles of trails. We did a 2.5 mile walk around the South Marsh Loop including heading west a little off the loop to the railroad tracks … a must have pit-stop for any little boy obsessed with trains. The kids did amazingly well on such a long walk. The last 1/4 mile or so they started to drag a little, but they made it all the way back to the car and then out for lunch before having a much needed nap.

A much needed potty stop for Marisol.

THE ‘IT'S ALL ABOUT ME’ DAY

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:10:00 +0000

I’ll drink to that!

And by drink, I mean juice.

And by juice, I mean one untainted with champagne.

Until the weekend that is!

If you are new here and visiting from the fabulous SITS (that would be Secret Is In the Sauce for those not in the know) site then let me give you a tour.

First and foremost, I’m an Aussie, but I live in California. I’m married to the military with thanks {sarcasm} to my darling hubby. We have 3 kids. Jay, the 13 year old (going on 21) whom we homeschool and the twinadoes Marisol and Flynn who are almost 3. Want to know even more about us, then here you go.

You’ll find that I take a lot of photographs. Like a whole LOT. They say a picture tells a thousand words and I think my pictures speak so much better than what I can write. Ooh, I even had a photo featured on Photo Bliss a few days ago. Woot.

In my spare time and when I’m not blogging here, you’ll find me crafting or offering up a few party planning tips. Today you’ll also find me guest blogging over here with my tips on homeschooling.

For those going to SITScation, I can’t wait to meet you and for those who aren’t I’ll be stopping by shortly to visit your blogs.

Thanks Heather and Tiffany for featuring me today.

Have a fabulous day.

Mwah.

P.S. While you are stopping by, swing down below to enter my $500 Walmart gift card giveaway.

WEEKLY WINNERS

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 03:49:00 +0000

hosted by Lotus

All photographs taken with a Canon Rebel XT and a Nikon Coolpix S60

THE BALLERINA

MY LITTLE MAN

A DAY WITH THE BIRDS

A HIKING WE WILL GO

Quarry Park and Veteran’s Memorial Trail

The eccentric lady we befriended on the trail

Let’s go this way … which was all good and well until he walked through a prickly bush Crawling up the mountain

and sliding back down the mountain

having a rest to look at the valley (as he informed us)

A BEACH DAY

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:58:00 +0000

What a fabulous day.

We started with the 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach. It was a beautiful drive around the mountains and then down to the coast. The golf courses are magnificent and the ~~mansions~~ houses in the area equally so. We walked along the boardwalk that runs between the ocean and one of those amazing golf courses and after our drive and numerous stops for photographs along the way we picked up the yummiest picnic lunch EVER at the local Market before heading out of the area in search of a playground. From memory it was $9.25 to enter the 17 mile drive. It’s worth every penny.

A proud moment. The little man was desperate to pee and had to do it outdoors like a man … with daddy’s help of course.

Golf anyone? Part of the golf course looks over The Restless Sea.

Bird rock

The Lone Cypress – next time we’ll take the little walkway out to get a closer look.

After leaving Pebble Beach we drove until we found Veterans Memorial Park where we enjoyed a lovely picnic and play at the playground.

We had promised the kids a trip to the beach (to play, not just sightsee) before we had left the house. Not to disappoint, despite my protests of wanting to head home, we ended up at Marina State Beach.

The surf was very angry today so we had to stay close to the kids every second, fearful of blinking at the wrong moment. The kids had a blast though, so it was well worth us stopping there for a play.

A little entertainment on the beach

THAT’S MY GIRL

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:30:00 +0000

…. and her attitude

~~If you wouldn’t mind, mummy who I love so much~~ Next time take me to ballet lessons right before they start and not a half hour earlier … and I don’t want to hear any of those lame excuses that it’s only 2 minutes from school and you don’t want to have to drive home just to have to turn back around again blah blah blah … JUST DO IT! This sitting around waiting thing is just not working for me. K.

Princess Marisol.

PHOTO BLISS

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:26:00 +0000

Do you remember my post from BlogHer about the awesome day I spent wandering around Chicago trying out LensBaby equipment?

Well ….

One of my photographs was featured on Photo Bliss today.

Yay!

WEEKLY WINNERS

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:13:00 +0000

hosted by Lotus

All photographs taken with a Canon Rebel XT'

THE INJURED

It was a rough day for this little man. First he fell and hit his head on a bookshelf. Then his sister jammed his hand in a door. Finally he tripped and hit his head on a table.

TOY TRAINS

LITTLE ARTISTS

Speechless.

THE GAME

The game begins.

Just a few seconds left on the clock …

Victory …

SUMMER

WELL TRAINED … or tired of waiting for the wife to do it?

your zone bedroom makeover

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:01:00 +0000

A little while ago I was approached to do a Your Zone makeover for Jay’s bedroom. Purely by coincidence, 2 days prior to being asked whether I would like to participate in this bedroom makeover, we had purchased Jay a new bed and mattress from Walmart.

To start the makeover process we checked out the Your Zone Design Your Room configurator, where we could play around with mixing and matching different items from the Your Zone collection into a bedroom. This gave Jay an idea of what he wanted to look for when it came time to shop.

As my regular readers would know, Jay is homeschooled and one of the challenges we faced last year was that he had too many distractions around him during his school days and his ‘work space’ wasn’t organized. He could never seem to find a pencil or pen and his books were all over the place.

When we moved house over summer vacation the first thing we did was remove his television, his Wii, Playstation and X-Box. As I said, he had too many distractions. The reason we hadn’t moved them previously is that we had nowhere to put them. We had one family/living room/office at our previous house that the twins used throughout the day, where our computer was set up and that hubby and I would try to chill out in once the little ones were in bed. Now we have both a living and family room, one of which we’ve converted into a playroom for all of the kids.

So before school started (yes he is homeschooling again this year) my goal was to ‘set him up for success’. I wanted his workspace to be organized and clear from clutter. I wanted him to have somewhere that he would feel comfortable spending a great deal of his day, but yet still be somewhere that he could just ‘hang out’ with friends, to read or chat on the phone. It’s hard to focus in a room that is full of disarray and video games.

With $500 to spend (with thanks to Walmart and Rockfish Interactive) Jay and I took off to purchase everything we would need before he left on vacation. 3 Walmart stores and a little site-to-store shipping (which is free by the way) later, we had everything we needed. Then with him ‘out of my hair’ {insert evil laugh} I set to work giving his bedroom a makeover.

A few of the items we purchased you won’t find on the Walmart site, instead it took some careful scouring of stores to find just what we needed and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found. Each store seemed to stock yet another piece of the puzzle that we needed to complete his bedroom makeover.

So here it is:

This video will be going up on the Walmart site along with the videos of the other bloggers participating in Your Zone makeovers, but we don’t have a date as yet.

To get a better visual of the before and after, here are a few photographs.

So tell me. Do you think he will like it? He is going to be viewing it the same way you all are until he returns from vacation next month.

So, how does Jay’s bedroom makeover benefit all of you, my readers.

Well…

Wait for it …

$500 GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY

That’s right, I am honored to be able to host a giveaway for a $500 Walmart gift card for one of my readers.

Mandatory entry:

Visit Your Zone and tell me which items you would choose to makeover a bedroom. Don’t forget to leave me with a way to contact you because if I can’t your comment will be deleted.

Extra entries: (leave a separate comment per entry, it makes it easier for me to tally at the end for drawing a winner via Random)

Become a follower of my blog with Google Friend Connect
Subscribe to my blog
Join my Facebook Blog Network
Follow me on Twitter and Tweet about this giveaway (leave your twitter name)
Blog about this giveaway (leave the blog link)

Entries are open to all residents of the United States and this giveaway ends on Wednesday September 9 and 10pm PST.

POTTY TRAINING WITH PULL-UPS – WEEK 6

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:00:00 +0000

FIVE.

Is the number of days we had to finish potty training Flynn once we found out that the twins were off the Preschool waitlist.

FIVE.

Is the number of days it took for him to have an accident free day.

Check it out:

And no, I’m not counting peeing in the toy truck outside as an accident. Why? Well, because when a certain little man walks outside, takes off his underwear, straddles the giant toy truck and deliberately pees into the back of it, that is no accident!

Those five days were rough though. There were accidents. There was frustration. There was also jumping up and down for joy. I was getting really worried that he wasn’t going to be ready to start Preschool. Thankfully though the teachers seem to be very understanding and have asked me to pack changes of clothes into his backpack, just in case.

I’m not silly enough to believe that we are done. I expect there to be a few more accidents, but, it sure does feel good to know that the day before the twins started Preschool, it was an ACCIDENT FREE day.

Even if it means a lot of this:

and this:

on the side of the road because they can’t hold on for longer than a couple of minutes.

Even if it means that a certain little man will only poop and pee if he has at least one foot free from clothing and shoes. I’m not kidding. I think this stems from him using the big toilet and sitting close to the edge right from the beginning of potty training. He would spray everywhere and get everyone and everything nearby him wet. So, he started taking off his pants to go on the toilet. This way he could scoot his little bottom all the way to the back of the toilet, giving him much better aim so the pee would actually land inside the bowl. I’ve since convinced him to keep one leg in his pants and shoe, but no luck getting that other leg back in yet. If I leave both legs in his pants he will just sit there and not do a thing. Funny how the mind works.

Congratulations to my big kids on graduating to underwear during the day. We’ll keep working on nighttime. In the meantime though, those trusty night*time Pull-Ups will remain.

In honor of our big kids being officially day trained, and I might add, accident free as of today, we threw them a Potty Party over the weekend. Check it out.

This will be the last you will hear from me on potty training. Don’t forget though, if you are beginning potty training or are in the process of training your little ones,visit the Pull-Ups Potty Project and become a fan of Pull-Ups on Facebook.

“As noted previously, I am being compensated by Pull-Ups for my role as spokesperson, however the opinions and feelings expressed here are my own.”

MONTEREY COUNTY FAIR

blogbytonya@gmail.com (* TONYA *) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:51:00 +0000

Last week was the Monterey County Fair. Friday was free entry for Military personnel. Off we went.

The above 2 photographs taken by the staff at the horse riding exhibit.

Fried artichokes – delicious. Even better though was the spinach, feta, artichoke and olive salad I tried. The meltdown that occurs when daddy takes brother on the swing first.

If you would like to see my post on the face painting process, please click here

For photographs from the craft exhibits, please click here