Memories made.

More than anything I wanted for Christmas was to be with my family. I wanted to be in my home, singing Christmas songs around the piano while my mom played the piano, making myself sick on fudge, reading my dad's creative poems to find my gift, and to be around the ones I love most in the world. I got to do all of those things and more and I feel like my cup has been filled and is running over!

Ge down on the floor playing with the kiddos!
Decorating sugar cookies with the aunties!
Cousins meeting for the first time!
A whole lotta Laughter, Love, & Craziness!
Silly boys!
Warming up in the hot tub!





The children's Christmas wishes came true too!

Drew got more train tracks. Ian got a new blankie, just like his old one he lost, made by our Christmas Angel Aunt Marilyn. He was so excited to find it stuffed down in the bottom of his stocking. It is the ONLY thing he asked for.


Owen received not only a Thomas the train set, but he also can now be Thomas!

Grandma made Mya a beautiful picture to hang in her room with all the information on it from when she was born. I treasure this too!

It was a wonderful Christmas spent making memories with family and remembering the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

A White Christmas

Kenny's Christmas wish was for a white Christmas, not only for him, but for our boys. He wanted them to be able to experience all the fun of SNOW!!! We couldn't have his Christmas wish come true if we were in California, so we packed up our bags and started in on a two week vacation to Colorado and Kansas! We decided to drive instead of fly so we could spend time with both families. I was very nervous to be in the car with our kids for four long 10-12 hr. days, but they all did marvelous. We only watched one movie each day and the rest of the time was spent playing new games like mile marker and the alphabet game. It was a trip Kenny, the kids, and I will always treasure.

Sledding down a hill on top of dad was a blast!
Finding a mule deer in the pasture was....interesting. The head traveled with us to KS for Uncle Ty!
Digging tunnels in the snow with cousins burnt lots of energy!
Snow, kinda bland, but still devoured by Drew!
Skating around on Ice with Grandad!

We had so much fun experiencing a white Christmas, but I sure was happy to return to sunny California.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

In between buying presents, wrapping, making yummy treats, decorating the house,and attending several parties, there is the task of sending out the Christmas letter. Since I have started blogging, I have put Kenny in charge of the letter. Of course this is one of the last things to be checked off our "to-do" list for the holidays. A picture needed to be included this year since we didn't have one last year due to running out of time. Luckily, thanks to a last minute request (BEG) to my ever so talented friend Darcy, we have some amazing pictures! Huge thanks to Darcy for squeezing us in between all your photo shoots this weekend.

*There are more photos of Mya, not because she is the most adorable, because she's not (hehe), but Darcy took them for her 3 month pics.

These big boys sure do love their little sister!

Our letter will be sent out soon!

HO, HO, HO

On Friday night we had our annual church Christmas party. The boys were excited because they knew Santa would be coming. I was a little nervous of how Owen would react to Santa, but to my surprise he LOVED him. He went right up to Santa, climbed in his lap, and said, "Thomas." After his turn he kept going in the "exit" door and walking up to Santa and just staring at him. He was mesmerized by his countenance, or maybe he was just trying to figure out why Santa sounded and kinda looked like one of our good friends Mason! Drew asked for more train tracks because I guess our huge tub of train stuff isn't enough. He said he wants a million pieces so he can make a ginormous train. Ian asked for his blankie, which has been missing now for three weeks! He has prayed for it and now has only one request for Christmas, his blue and white cloud blanket he's had since he was a baby. I'm really hoping his Christmas wish comes true, or we are going to have one really sad little boy on Christmas morning.

Owen just looking sooo cute!
Santa and the boys! After I got this picture someone asked me where Mya was and I am sad to say this, but I completely forgot about her! So I then felt guilty and woke Mya up so she too got her turn to meet Santa for her 1st Christmas.
Isn't she just so precious!

As we left the church that night we looked on the roof for Santa's reindeer, but it was too dark to see them. Maybe next time.

Let the Games Begin!

Drew running in the light blue shirt and Ian standing in the far back just watching!

Today marks the boys first day of playing a real basketball game! It wasn't as fast paced and it didn't come to them as naturally as soccer, but fun nonetheless. The team ages range from 5-7. Luckily we were able to sign Ian up even though he is still four, since he will be turning five during the season. However, maybe not such a good idea. We missed the one and only practice because we had a Christmas party, so as we arrived for our first game today I was a little nervous for Ian. He hasn't really ever played before and doesn't have the interest for the game like Drew does. I was hoping his height would make up for his skills, but much to my surprise Ian and Drew were the shortest kids on the team! Drew loves basketball and was running up and down the court, dribbling, shooting almost every time he was given the ball (we will work on that), and made two baskets. Ian....lets just say he needs ALOT of practice. The coach had to constantly tell him where to go, to watch the ball, to dribble the ball, to put his hands up....etc. The coach at one point told Ian as he demonstrated, "To dribble you have to bounce the ball up and down!" Every time Ian put his hands up in the air he did wiggle his little fingers, which coming from a mother who was a cheerleader, he did have great spirit fingers! They were both fun to watch and I look forward to seeing their progress over the season. Practices twice a week will surely help. I hope!

And the BEST Uncle award goes to......

Drum roll please, Uncle Gabi! Ian has become a little obsessive with sending letters in the mail to Catherine's new husband Gabi, to the point where Gabi feels like he has a stalker. Ian will color or scribble a picture for him, throw in some money (only pennies I think), write on the envelope his name, randomly place a stamp on the envelope, and beg to go to the mailbox. One day he sent out three letters to Gabi in one day! In almost every letter he sends he asks for Gabi to send him money and to write him back. Now I don't understand why he has chosen to harass Gabi because both Grandma and Ge have sent him letters and money, plus have more money than the newly married, struggling through law school guy, but for some reason his letters keep being sent to Uncle Gabi. Every night Ian runs to the mailbox in hope of getting a letter from Gabi. He has even called him and told him that he needs to send him one, but almost every night we have had to tell him that he didn't get any mail. His response, "Gabi is not a good mail sender!" So last night I opened the mailbox and what did I see? A letter addressed to Ian from Uncle Gabi. I handed it to Ian and he said, "Is this for me?" He quickly opened it with so much excitement and exclaimed, "This is so Awesome!" Gabi had made his day, week, month! Gabi sent Ian a Transformers coloring page, a coupon for pizza, a sweet note, and a check for $5.00! I told him he needed to call Gabi and tell him thank you and so he did, but when he called him he said, "You are a stinky Pete and can you send me $100 next time!?" Ian is such a character, but so is Gabi, really they are like on the same level, that is why I think Ian adores him so much. Thank you Gabi for being such a fun uncle and for making Ian so Happy!


So just as I pushed the publish post button Ian came up to me with $260.00 I had hidden, obviously not well, and said, "I need an envelope because I need to send Gabi some money!" He was very mad when I took it from him and told him to go find some coins. I'm going to have to start checking his envelopes before he seals them!

Season 1 Comes to an End :(

Drew and Ian's first soccer season has come to an end. I am a little sad about it because we have all had so much fun watching their excitement and improvement in their first team sport. They had a great season and loved being apart of a team. They were awarded trophies and a medal at the end of season pizza picnic. They loved having both sets of grandparents and aunties there to cheer them on at a few of the games.

So one season down, but ready to try our hand at another sport. Basketball season starts in a week and Kenny could not be more excited! He actually wanted me to sign them both up to play not only in our town, but the town next to ours so the boys could have double the practice and games. I vetoed the idea very quickly. I might have to have the "Don't live your dreams through your children" talk. So stay tuned for future posts on how our little basketball players are doing.