Happy New Year!

Tonight Matt did his amazing firework display just after we ate some yummy cheesecake and watched the ball drop. It was beautiful. 2013 has been a good year. I'm looking forward to a new start with new goals. I love this time of year.

Bracelets Galore!

It's a rubberband bracelet factory around here. Mary is now learning new more intricate designs on YouTube. She is learning to do a fishtail for her Grammie. I bet she'll love it.

Saying good-bye to nursery

It's my baby's...... sniff sniff.....last day...sniff, sniff....in nursery.

All four now....in and out of those same doors....for the last 6 years, taught by so many loving and caring individuals. Mary is graduating to senior primary next week. I just don't know how I feel about all of this....sniff, sniff.

The cousins are back!!

Hip hip hooray! The cousins are back (well, almost all of them....we're still missing our Rachel). One week away and we feel like someone cut off our right arm! These cousins/neighbors feel more like siblings to my kiddos.

They shared with each other what they got from Christmas. We showed them the hot tub that was delivered and almost working. There were lots of hugs, lots of smiles, lots of basketball and bracelet looming, and one tired little boy who fell asleep in this uncomfortable position. Things feel a little more normal around here.

When you chance to meet a frown...

What do you do when you've been excited and waiting all day for your hot tub to be delivered just to learn that it is postponed until tomorrow (hopefully)? Well, you head on over to McDonald's for a shake and the play zone. That will cheer anyone right up.

Sharing, A Learned Art

With all the new toys it's hard to figure out the whole sharing thing right away. The hardest ones to share this year are Mary's pin art toy (you know the one where you push your hand against the pins and look at the 3D shape it makes) and Cameron's hand held fan (also a simple stocking stuffer). We went to the gym this morning to run around, fly helicopters, play basketball, ride bikes, and drive remote control cars. We stayed there forever. Cameron was having a hard time sharing his new bike and remote control car, even if it wasn't being used, case in point...this picture of him riding his bike and noticing that Nicole was using his car. So he hopped off, parked his bike right next to me (protector of all toys) and started driving his car. Oh boy!

Merry Christmas!

What a glorious morning. The kids were all so happy and grateful for their presents it made my heart sing. The hot tub that's coming on Friday was a real surprise for them. We all went to Tiffany's for a brunch and day of hanging out and playing.

More importantly, I am feeling very grateful for this time of year and the Spirit of Christ that fills our hearts and homes.

Christmas Eve

A delicious dinner at Christine's home
Talents
Poems
The Nativity

A beautiful evening of tradition and love...

Sleepovers, play dates, and swimming

The kids are exhausted. It took them all of two seconds to fall asleep tonight. They went to bed late last night with the cousins sleeping over and continued to play hard when they went to Tiff's house until dinner. We ate, met a bunch of friends for some indoor swimming at super duper 8, came home and ate a second round of dinner. Then we prepped and headed to bed where cute little visions of fairy plums are undoubtedly dancing in their heads. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, Christmas Eve. Some good rest should prep them well. 

Sweet Siblings

It's almost time for Nicole to leave Sunbeams. She hasn't gone to her class alone much this year, if at all. If we're not with her she sits by Noah, who holds her hand and snuggles her in. On many occasions she has gone with him to his class. I tried to sneak a picture of them today. It's hard to see, but believe me, it's totally adorable.

My Girls

A bunch of friends and our daughters went to see the Nutcracker today. We went to lunch beforehand, which made it extra special. We had so much fun, even though "there was no talking at all" and they had no idea what the performance was about. I enjoyed the warm auditorium and the beautiful music so much, I may have dozed off a bit. This tradition is always such a treat for me and my girls.

Santa

Nikki asked if that was the "real" Santa at the ward Christmas party (Brother Crowe plays an amazing Santa--real beard and all). She said she could feel his skin. We don't really try and make Santa a big deal in our home. We usually just divert the kids from it all and focus on the Savior. But I have told my kids that Santa is make believe and that it's fun to pretend he's real. We do the same thing for the Easter bunny and tooth fairy. But it seems as though Nicole hasn't figured it out yet. My response, "Well, I don't know, what do you think?" I just couldn't break it to her.

Christmas Cards

I love getting Christmas cards. I hang them all up so I can look at them often throughout the month. Tonight we had the missionaries over for dinner. The new sister missionary was "getting to know the ward" by taking a peek at the cards. I know that technology and social media makes it so we don't necessarily need the updates from our friends and family much anymore, but I hope this tradition never dies.

Buffalo Kids

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner tonight. Aaron has been wanting to take us there for a while now. It was crowded, loud and there were like a hundred TVs, even in the bathrooms.  The kids were given ipads to play games on, which made it so fun and entertaining. I'm sure we'll be heading there again for a birthday or two. Fun place.

Meet Jinx

I went to the store today and couldn't resist buying the elf on the shelf. I kept wondering when I'd buy one. So, I read the book to the kids, we named him Jinx and I hid him for the first night. I have to say the kids weren't super interested in him at first. Maybe we are working on Christmas overload right now. Not sure. We'll see if he sparks more interest in the next few days.

What's that sound?

I heard a buzzing type of sound coming from the other room. I realized I hadn't seen Cameron for a short time so I began to investigate, following the sound. It led me to my bathroom where Cameron had pulled out and was trying all the toothbrushes. My electric toothbrush, the source of the sound banging against the wall, was hidden in the corner because he couldn't turn it off. I asked him why he put my toothbrush there and he said, "Because it was too loud mommy." So, I helped him turn it off. I asked him to put them away and went back to the kitchen to attend to the pot on the stove. I returned a couple minutes later. All of the toothbrushes were put away and mine was lodged in the back of the deep drawer on and still humming. Guess it was hard to turn off.

Christmas Wish List

While I was at some meetings today the kids wrote Noah's Christmas wish list. I told them when I returned that they would only get one small present this year because we had gone to Disneyland. I read a little of President Monson's Christmas devotional and thought having us make a list of things we could give to Christ this year might be an appropriate response to their list. They were very sweet.

Noah's List
1. Gak
2. Pexo (Which is a robot dogs they saw on tv--real name is called zommer dog, I have come to find out)
3. Nanobugs
4. Hex-bugs
5. Remote control helicopter
6. Crayon maker (some machine that combines broken up crayons?)
7. Snowglobe
8. Marker highlighter (apparently really cool)
9. Pool & hot tub with toys (my favorite)
10. Electronics (with a side note...important)
11. All the candy in the world

Gifts for Jesus:
1. Kindness
2. Loving
3. No biting
4. Listening the first time
5. Invite someone to church
6. Give thanks
7. Learn more about Jesus from the scriptures
8. No fighting
9. Word of Wisdom
10. House peaceful by keeping it clean
11. Give a good example
12. Follow the path
13. Give to hobos
14. Give toys you don't play with
15. Pay tithing

On the road again

I'm not sure how Nikki sleeps with hair all in her face. At night when she's asleep her face is so covered I have a hard time telling which direction she is facing. Last night I braided her hair I was worried she would suffocate.

Only six more hours and we should be home. Not one "are we there yet" so far.

Disneyland Day 3: Goodbye

I'm sad to see it all end. It's been one of the best vacations I've ever had, despite the three tickets I lost and had to get reprinted so we could hop over to the other park.

Today we hit everything we didn't get a chance to do already and then some. We rode the ladybugs about 50 more times today. It was the kids' favorite. We played hard, and the kids are pretty exhausted. 

We got home early enough to swim just a little bit more and play in the hot tub one final time. Then we packed for our trip home. I will miss the 75 degree weather most of all.

Disneyland Day 2: California Adventure

It was another jam packed day. I just think Disneyland is so clean and beautiful. The details in each area are incredible! It's beyond creative. I loved the cars and the bugs life zones. I couldn't get over all the details from the Popsicle park benches to the vintage gas station pumps. I left early with the little ones, as their exhaustion level hit their max and Nikki was starting to not feel well. We took the evening easy and the little ones got good rest. Aaron stayed with the big kids and they partied until closing.

And it's December?

This weather, well, it's perfection! You would never know that Christmas is just days away. We went to the beach today and played in the sun. Then when we returned home, left the kids with the teenagers, and went to the Cheesecake Factory with and some wonderful So Cal friends and Anna/Amadeo. It was yet another fantastic day.

Disneyland Day 1

We started the trip with some family pictures, wanted to get that out of the way. One of the best things we did was get the Disney photo pass. Every professional photographer will take your picture and give you a card. You pay 100 bucks and all your pictures with characters, on rides, etc. are consolidated together on a CD. It's the best thing ever. These pictures are from our phone, so there are better ones than these. We got a lot of comments on our Disney shirts. They were pretty cute. After our group shots we split up into age leveled groups. I stayed with the little people group, along with Grandma and Grandpa.

Disneyland was very busy. When we decided to go on the trip we looked up when the least busy times of the year and this was supposed to be one of those weeks, but it was very crowded and I imagine it is because of all the beautiful Christmas attractions and decor. The It's a Small World ride was entirely Holiday themed and the lights and trees everywhere were incredible. I loved the Christmas parade; Cameron was dancing the whole time. the fireworks and fake snow falling overhead were just magical. This really is the happiest place on earth.

The good news is school back home is still cancelled due to icy conditions, so they haven't missed a thing yet. Also, our neighbor got our pipes flowing again last night. I'm feeling very overwhelmed with gratitude.

Kids Under 10

Jared, Aaron, and I took the little kids on some fun outings while the big kids hit Hollywodd. We went to Chuck E. Cheese's, ice cream, and a big jump place called Sky Zone. The highlights were Cameron chasing after Chuck E. all around the place hugging him and holding his hand, the kids earning lots of tickets (from lots of money) for a 10 cent laffy taffy prize, dodge ball between the kids and dads, and all the slam dunks at the bouncy basketball court.

After our parties joined back together Aaron and I traveled to a nearby city for some Cafe Rio, and the best part of the evening was a visit from Anna and her family. Her boys are so darling. We're hoping they'll join us later this week at some of our activities.

We made it!

We pulled into the Rapunzel Tower, an amazing home rental just a half mile from Disneyland. The rooms are themed with Disney characters and decor. We quickly unloaded and threw together a delicious spaghetti dinner with the groceries we bought last night after our trip to Denny's . It was so nice spending no money today and visiting the Merced First ward this morning where Jared's old BYU buddy lives. Sarah had put together bagged lunches last night in the hotel, so we didn't have to stop and eat out. After our dinner we let the kids swim in the beautiful pool.

The only thing that made today not so perfect was that our pipes at home froze last night when our city's temperature dropped to 3 degrees!!! So crazy how cold it is there. Lucky for us we have a very kind and very talented neighbor who worked today to get it thawed. It still isn't working, but there's hope since he is there and the temperature shouldn't be as cold tomorrow.

It's been a wonderful start, can't wait for more.