HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ANGIE & ROGER!!

A few more snow day pics

This cat kept trying to hang himself by jumping out the gate with a leash around its neck. I guess the donkey thought he'd help.

Apparently, the cat took a liking to the turtle. He stopped trying to jump out the fence and stayed cuddled up in that corner next to the turtle the rest of the day.

I love this picture because of Jessa holding her daddy's hand.

This was the view from the front parking lot of the credit union. The area where Kevin works really is beautiful.

Snow day

Every year the credit union where Kevin works has a Snow Day where they bring in 40 tons of snow. They also have a petting zoo and pictures with Santa. Radio Disney is also there to do fun games and give-aways for all the kids. We were able to go a little bit early and see how they make the snow, which was really fun to watch. We also got to watch them set up the petting zoo and put all the animals in there. In the end, we walked away with some free Hannah Montana magnets(a treat for Hannah) and four tickets to see the new movie Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler, not to mention memories of a fun-filled day.

They made the snow by feeding these huge blocks of ice into this ice shaver machine thingy...

...and wha-la, you have snow.

These miniature pigs(I don't know the real name for them) were so cute. I wanted to bring one home with us.







The girls were learning a fun dance with the Radio Disney people.

Annual Christmas light night

Every year since we moved to CA, we've gone with our friends, Bryan, Cori, and their girls, to look at Christmas lights. We always go to the same neighborhood and are amazed year after year at how pretty everything looks. The residents there really go all out. This is the first year I've taken pictures of this outing and as you can see, I need to do some homework on what setting to use on my camera to make night time pictures turn out clear. Sorry they're all so blurry. If anyone has some advice for me, I'd love to hear it. Anyway, it was a fun time as always, especially listening to the kids "ooh and ahhh" at everything.

Hmmm...

At school today, Hannah gave Nathan an orange feather, which you'll see in the pictures. Apparently it brought out the Indian in him(he is 1/4 Indian, by the way). The next thing I knew, he came running down the stairs with his Indian yell and this "get-up". I have to say I thought he was pretty clever to use the non-Indian resources available to him. Well, of course Hannah couldn't be left out. I think she was going for karate.....diva? Not quite sure, but they had fun "battling" each other.

Women's Christmas Dessert

Every December our church has a women's dessert and ornament exchange, and this was our first year to have it in our new sanctuary, so it was extra special. This year I had the opportunity to host a table with my friend, Cori. Our theme was "Chocolate", which is quite evident from the pictures. There were 20 other tables, all with different themes, decorations, and place settings. It was fun to see the other tables and to socialize with all the other women there. Of course, eating all the chocolate at our table wasn't half bad either. In case you're wondering, here is a list of all the chocolate stuff we had: chocolate dipped pretzels, chocolate dipped marshmallows, chocolate dipped strawberries, chocolate fudge, chocolate dipped peanut butter Ritz crackers, chocolate fantasy cake, and four different flavors of hot chocolate. Needless to say, we had more than enough to feed an army, and we ended up giving some away at the end just so we wouldn't have to bring it all home.

Sick, sick, sick

I feel like my family has been under the weather for the past couple months. Honestly, other than a couple weeks, we have been. We are now passing on the cold/flu to each other. It started with Jessa, then Hannah, and now Nathan has it. I'm starting to feel a little tired and achy, so it's early to bed for me tonight. I'm praying that "it" completely leaves our home before my parents come next Wednesday.

My beautiful/handsome babies

I thought these pictures were too cute not to share.

We have completion

In my last post, I talked about our half naked tree. Well, we finally got it finished last night and started a new tradition in the process. We did the usual thing with letting the kids put all the ornaments on the tree. But this time we ended it with a finished tree/family picture and then on to some Christmas cookies and apple cider. It was a fun evening with too many cookies and staying up too late, but it makes for a great memory.

Christmas fever

It's official...our family has Christmas fever. The Christian radio station we listen to always starts playing Christmas music 24/7 starting the day after Thanksgiving. A lot of people get tired of it, but I never do. Anyway, we started the process of putting up the tree and the outdoor lights. Kevin actually got the lights outside done, but our poor tree remains half naked. We decided to go with colored lights this year instead of the white that we usually do. However, we ended up one string short. So our tree must wait until tomorrow to be fully lit and adorned.

Jessa and her daddy decided to make a Christmas scene to share with all of our neighbors.

Nathan funny

Nathan: "I wish my friend could come live with us."
Kevin: "Why is that?"
Nathan: "Because both of his parents smoke around him all the time, and it makes it hard for him to breath because he has algebra."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Okay, so I'm 5 days late in posting this, but I really did call my dad on his birthday. So it's not all bad. Thanks, dad, for being such a loving dad to me and grandpa to my kids. You're definitely one of a kind, and I think we'll keep you. :)

My baby's growing up

So today I finally got my act together and did some preschool activities with Jessa. She'll be 4 in February, so it's time we get started. I did preschool at home with Hannah when we first moved here because preschool prices are RIDICULOUS! It ended up being a great experience for both of us, so I'm excited to do it again this time around with Jessa. Anyway, today was our first day, and it went great! We've already been working a little on different letters and their sounds, so I guess we have a little bit of a head start. She had so much fun and was so excited when I told her we were going to do preschool. And to her credit, she understands way more than I thought...I was really impressed. It's so much fun watching them learn...they really are little sponges.

She was so proud of herself.

She's been working on her name for a while, but I had to get a picture of this.

J&J Playdough Creations...coming soon to a store near you

My kids favorite kind of playdough is homemade playdough. So every few months we make some new colors. This time Jessa got to pick the colors, so she was extra excited to play with it when it was finished. And truth be told...I kind of like playing with playdough too. :) We had a lot of fun making all sorts of creations.


One of her favorite things to do with playdough is bury toys in it.

The next Napoleon Dynamite

I'm so proud. :)