Thanksgiving 2008

Finally getting the Thanksgiving pictures up-- sorry there are so few. I left my camera in our RV while we went to the actual Thanksgiving celebration so I was only able to get pictures the next day.

Every Thanksgiving we head to the central valley of California to visit my dads side of the family. We love the tradition and we have a blast every year. It is usually a two day event-- Thursday we have Thanksgiving at my cousins and we are usually there from noon to about 9pm. Then on Friday we go up to my grandma's land in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada's and shoot guns and then end up at another one of my cousins homes for another huge meal. It is just always a great time but this year was hard because this was the first Thanksgiving we have spent in years without my grandma. My grandma passed away in March (at 92 years old) and now all her land and her home is all for sale so this is probably our last year to shoot on her land. Anyway, besides that, we had a wonderful time!!

Ethan shooting with dad, my mom shooting and Christian, Zac (my cousin Margie's son) and Ethan

Brad shooting, Christian shooting with Kevin, Austin (Cousin Margie's other son) and Owen

Every year we park our RV on Grandma's land but this year it was only an empty house-- no one lives there anymore but we still parked there. Anyway, when we got there late Wednesday night we went to plug into the power at her house and there was this adorable stray Queensland Healer dog staring at us. Lots of dogs are abandoned on my grandmas land for some reason and we were pretty sure he was abandoned. He was just the sweetest thing and all weekend was just loyal and well behaved. We knew if we left him there he would die of starvation or one of the local farmers would shoot him in the head (very common in that area to just kill the dogs instead of letting them starve or to try to get them to a pound-- they are in the country and no pounds around there). Brad and Amy have a farm in our area and were needing a farm dog and a herding dog like this dog-- Owen named him Lucky-- very fitting name-- would be perfect. They met Lucky and really liked him so we gave Lucky a ride back home in our RV and then Brad got him from us yesterday and I guess he is working out well. He really is a LUCKY dog!!

The other pictures are of Kevin, Mia, Cass and I in front of Grandma's house-- the house my grandfather built in the 60's. It was probably the last time we will be there before it is sold-- very sad.




We made Gingerbread houses the other night while we celebrated our Thanksgiving with Kevin's family. I cooked all day and it was a wonderful time of food, activities and wine-- great time!! This is Mia this morning before Church eating the frosting off the gingerbread house.

This was Mia the night of our Bock Thanksgiving looking at our village. She loves all the Christmas decorations. I have most of them up but still need to decorate the tree which we will do this week. We also still need to do our outside decorations. I just love this time of year and my increasing pant size is proof of that!!

Christmas Dresses for Sale

First off let me say how strange I feel doing this but I figure maybe I can make a little bit of money to feed my habit --haha!! Please don't be offended if you think it is inappropriate to be selling things on my blog-- I promise I wont make a habit of it-- just for special things like Christmas.

Also, don't forget to scroll down to see the Disneyland pictures from yesterday. Some pics are cute!!

I have 4 Strasberg Holiday dresses for sale. Strasberg is a high end Children’s Clothing store and their items are amazingly beautiful, very traditional and very expensive and well made. Strasburg has European sizing which is much bigger than US sizing. A 6 month in European sizing is aprox a 12- 18 month in US sizing (if not bigger).


This dress is 100% silk Christmas dress with a smocked top (all handmade) in a beautiful silk Christmas plaid. This dress is a high end treasure. It was worn once by my Mia for a family Christmas pictures and is absolutely perfect. It has an inside liner dress as well. I bought this dress for $124.00 (I know my Kevin had a heart attack as well :), it was worn once and I will sell it for $30 (plus shipping) but I am pretty firm on this price because it is such an amazingly beautiful, well made and unused dress.

SOLD

This dress is a fall plaid in a cotton fabric. It was worn once for Thanksgiving-- very beautiful plaid with a smocked neckline (all hand done). It is about a 12-18 month in size. I paid $65 for this- will sell for $20 (plus shipping). It looks adorable on little girls!!

SOLD

This next dress is a red and white holiday/ but also non holiday-- could be used for anything-- very versatile/ Strasberg dress. It has a red herringbone bodice and a crisp white Peter Pan collar and arm holes. It is beautiful and sooo well made. It has an inside liner dress as well. This dress was worn one time during the holidays to church by Mia. It is about a 12 to 18 months but is very long so easily could be worn by a 2 year old. It is perfect as all the dresses are. I paid $65 and will sell it for $20 (plus shipping).

SOLD

This dress is a green velvet dress with a peter pan collar with embroidered flowers on the collar. It has a Christmas plaid ribbon type sash around the middle. It is very beautiful and was worn only once on Christmas Eve by my Mia. It is about a size 12- 18 month but could easily be worn by a 2 year old-- they run really big. It has an inside liner dress as well. My mom paid $85 for this velvet dress- will sell it for $25 (plus shipping).

So there you have it. I have more I could sell but I will wait to see how these do. I have a paypal account so you can pay me that way if you are interested. If you are interested email me at kcbock@hotmail.com and the first on each dress will get that dress.

Thanks tons guys!!

Disneyland

New idea-- I just saw on another blog that she was selling her daughters nice Christmas dresses from last year. I have been thinking about doing this because I have some really beautiful high end dresses Mia literally wore once or twice and that I would love to make a bit of money so I can buy more. If you are interested, I may just do a post and show you guys what I have and if you are interested in buying any of them, I would be happy to sell them. Let me know what you think.

Disneyland was a lot of fun and much more relaxing than usual. The boys were at a birthday party for the day so it allowed me to only take Mia and it was really nice to be able to take Disney at a different pace. Cass was able to come as well so Lai, Cass and I spent a lot of time relaxing and talking.

The official entry picture

Mia and Ava on the tram (in upper corner) and Mia being our tour guide.

Driving Mr. Toads car, playing with Tyler, the Christmas Tree pic and riding the horse.

I think this is such a cute picture-- I love Mia's smile!!

There is a princess area that the princesses come out and tell stories and interact with the kids. The kids are able to decorate crowns and do arts and crafts. They have such a fun time!!

The overindulgence of Disneyland- The kids love the suckers!! Mia gives the thumbs up to the sucker!

Where are we going???

 

This little one and I get to spend the whole day together today with Laila and Ava at Disneyland!!! The boys are at an all day birthday party at Knotts Berry Farm so Lai and I decided to take the girls to Disney for the day to do all the little girl stuff. I cant wait because Disney is all decorated for Christmas so it should be a nice enjoyable relaxing time!!! I will post pictures tomorrow!! Have a great day!!

Dumont in November

I am finally getting our Dumont pictures up. Sorry for the delay but then again-- CRAZY WEEK!!! Last weekend we went to Dumont with some of our camping friends. We had a blast- as always- and we just spent most of our time just relaxing and hanging out. The kids went crazy playing in the sand like they normally do but all in all, it was a nice relaxing trip-- until we woke up Sunday morning to the flu-- and then you know the rest of that story!!

In the Rhino on our way to the big dunes (we have to drive across the desert to get there) and yes, Mia is seat belted!!! HAHA!!

This picture was cute but kind of blurry because I was taking them while we we bouncing across the desert so I turned it into sepia-- much better!!

Owen and Mia

I love the look on Mia's face-- to funny!!

Driving across the desert puts Mia to sleep almost every time-- very bouncy and rhythmic - so she almost always falls asleep-- she did again this time.

Some of our desert views

At vendor row

Vendor row hanging out by the Rhino

There is a group of riders at Dumont that call themselves Dumont Dune Riders and they run a website with a blog etc. They have activities throughout the riding season but one thing they have created is at the far north edge of the dunes a place called the North Pole (there is also a south pole). This is a place where the kids bring their letters for Santa and just a funny little place to ride to. It is pretty far out so it is a fun long ride over lots of cool dune. In all my time going to Dumont I had never been to the North Pole.

Mia and daddy walking to North Pole

Parking at the North Pole

The North Pole-- with Kevin's work motor cop partner Steve and his son

Ethan putting his letter in the tube at the North Pole

Mia playing in the sand-- cute foot!

Pretty little thing

We had a really great visit!!!

Oak Glen

First off let me say how sorry I am for my almost week long absence. The family was plagued by the flu and everyone was finally back to school and well only as of yesterday. Not only were we all sick (with the exception of Mia-- she was fussy but not sick- had a flu shot) but work exploded. It is conference time at the schools so we get a ton of parents requesting special ed testing so things have just been going crazy plus I have had a training today and then tomorrow and I don't even officially work Fridays. Yesterday I had 5 IEP meetings (each about 1 to 1.5 hours each) and literally did not have even enough time to eat. Anyway, we have been going crazy and when I get home at night I just look at the computer and refuse to even go on it. Instead I read the book Twighlight in 2 days of down time. That is how much time I spend on the computer-- when I don't go on, I was able to read a full 500 page + book in 2 days-- crazy! By the way, anyone wanting to read an amazingly awesome book, read Twighlight. It is phenomenal and i could not put it down. I cant wait to see the movie this weekend and then continue on and read the rest of the series. Anyway, sorry for my absence. I rarely have times that stress me out but the last week with the illness and all the work stuff just stressed me way too much and I needed to just stay away from the computer. So, sorry if anyone worried but we are fine and I am now back. I have been a really bad blog friend so please accept my apology for not visiting and commenting on your blogs. You know I love all my bloggy friends a ton and I will be over to visit soon-- SORRY!!!

So, here are some pictures of us at Oak Glen with Kevin's parents, my sister Cassie and my nieces. We went there on Veterans day and I am just now getting the pictures downloaded. It was a nice day and we all had a great time as a family.

This is such a great picture and Don and Mary plan to use it as a Christmas card this year-- just a great picture of all of them.

A different pose but I still like the first one best.

The Bock girls

Kaitlyn and Kylie-- i think their parents will be using this as their Christmas card.

The Bock kids

Daddy and Mia looking at the animals

Mia playing with the checker board in one of the old fashion shops.

Oh the concentration...

The whole group-- minus me of course.

We really had a great day!

I will post Dumont pictures tomorrow and again, sorry for my surprise absence.