Happy New Year!

 

The kids and I spent New Year's Eve gathered together with good friends!
The evening started off with a yummy feast.
After that the kids went upstairs to watch videos and play games.


The grown-ups played SCUM and Apples to Apples, and enjoyed a lot of good laughs!



When it was time to watch the ball drop, the cable went out, so we did our own count down. The kids made lots of noise! Tracy provided lots of popper with streamers which were everywhere! What fun!


Allison almost slept through it, but eventually the noise got to her. Here's how she looked in her first pictures for 2009:



It was a great time! Thanks to the Weymouths for hosting and all our friends for your love and friendship! Happy New Year Everyone!

Christmas Morning!

 

 

Christmas morning was torture for my kids this year!  Jason had to work Christmas Eve, and didn't get off duty until 8am on Christmas morning.  We got home late from Riverside the night before, so I hoped they would sleep in. Yeah, right! But they were given strict instructions to NOT wake anybody and STAY in their rooms if they did wake up before Dad got home.  I put some of their new gifts in their rooms, ones they had received from Grandparents & cousins the night before. They were allowed to play with those while waiting for Dad. I even put up a baby gate in the middle of the hallway so I'd hear them if they tried to sneak.  They all did really well! But I don't think they could have waited another minute! Good thing Dad got home when he did!

We had a wonderful Christmas day. It was relaxing and enjoyable. We didn't have to rush off to anyone's house. We had Jason's Grandma, Lola Zeitler, with us from Christmas Eve until the following Sunday. It was nice to spend time with her and have the kids get to bond with her for those few days also.  Over the next couple days we had Christmas celebrations with my Mom and with Jason's family. It was an extended Christmas in a way. I enjoyed spreading it out over the course of a few days, and feeling the spirit of Christmas a bit longer.

Christmas Eve

 

Christmas Eve with the Price Family!

Knott's Berry Farm

Our day of alternate learning experiences (a.k.a. ditching school!)

You HAVE to click on this group of pictures to enlarge it and appreciate the impact of Allison's facial expressions. Her first ride walking in the gates of Knotts! Thanks to big brother "B" for helping her through it!

Some of our other fun rides and activities.

The boys rode this ride about 4 times. It suited them all perfectly... not too tall, not too fast, not too scary!

On the Job...

 

That's Jason... just another day at the office... putting out a fire in someone's house.

Really? How cool is that? I love that he enjoys his job, especially since he has to spend a lot of time there. Thanks to our friend, Sebastian, who has a police scanner and follows the action with his camera.

 

Naughty or Nice?

 

If Santa really knew this little munchkin, she would definitely be on his "naughty" list! Good thing she is so dang adorable!

My Mischief Maker

 

When it's too quiet in the house, I know I need to go looking for Allison. On this particular day, I was washing the dinner dishes and I said to Jason, "I haven't heard Alli in a while. I wonder what she's up to?" I finished up my chore and decided I should find her. I went up the stairs to find her sitting on her bedroom floor, finger painting with a bottle of white-out that she hand dumped upside down. It was a nice, new, full bottle she found in her brother's bedroom. I grabbed her and threw her in the bath, and yelled for Jason to come work on cleaning up the floor. It wasn't until I got her in the bathroom that I realized that the white-out was completely DRY! It took Jason an hour to scrub it off her wood floor. I didn't get a picture of the floor because I spent the next 45 minutes scrubbing Alli's arms and legs in the bathtub. Even then, I only got it off her hands. We had to wait til the next day to work on her legs some more. It did not dissolve in water as I had hoped. I tried lots of soaps, cleaners, removers and nothing worked to get it off! We had to SCRUB! Poor baby. A month later it is still on her toe nails. This 'girl' sure keeps me on my toes!

Band!

 

Darren was very excited to start band this year in middle school. He is in 6th grade at Mesa Verde Middle School and chose band as his elective. He chose to play trumpet since that's what Jason played at that age, and still had his trumpet in our garage! (yay) Darren has really taken to it and is enjoying it very much. He had his first big performance at the school for a Winter Concert. He played in the beginning band and I was impressed at how much these kids have learned since September. Way to go, Darren! We are so proud of you! Keep up the good work!

Another bonus to the evening was that they took our admission fees at the door, and surprisingly handed us raffle tickets in exchange. At the end of the night, they did a drawing to see who would get half the pot. We won! The boys were so excited and are still debating on how to spend their winnings.... $276.50. Can you believe it? Merry Christmas!