Monday, December 29, 2008

16th annual friends christmas party...

the saturday after christmas we celebrated our annual high school friends christmas party. we have been doing this party since we were all sophmore's in highschool. now we are all in our thirty's and we still all get together every year. i love these friends more then anyone could ever know. they all hold a very special place in my heart. thanks for the fun night and i look forward to another 16years with all of you.

happy birthday jesus!!!.....

a few years ago my middle son tanner had an awesome idea of making jesus a birthday cake since christmas is jesus' birthday. i LOVED the idea and was so proud of tanner for thinking of it. this has now become another loved christmas tradition in our family. i think it's also one of the best since it keeps us remembering what christmas day is really about. happy birthday jesus, we love you!!

christmas....

we had a fantastic christmas this year. it was super mellow and we had some good times with family. our tradition every year is a big breakfast at our house. on christmas eve my mom comes over and we prepare all the food so on christmas morning all i have to do is put everything in the oven. this year we had my parents, my sister and family, and seth's sister caitlin. it was a full house and so much fun. santa stopped by and brought the boys exactly what they wanted. they were super excited. isaiah said he woke up at 3:30 but he didn't get us up until 7:30 , thank goodness :)
santa's cookies and milk with some carrots for the reidneer.
tanner wanted to sleep on the couch so he could see santa. he slept there all night :)
the boys were so excited with their new toys !




christmas eve....

our christmas eve morning started off celebrating papa's (my dad) 59th bday. we all went out to breakfast and enjoyed time with papa.
for the past three years we have enjoyed our family tradition of going to yen ching on christmas eve. this year seth's sister caitlin joined us. after dinner we went to brea to go christmas light looking.



the christmas season..

so....it has been two weeks since my last post. first i have been super busy with christmas festivities and then on christmas day my computer died!! i was so sad :( i had no blog, no email, and no facebook. i felt so out of it. so what did i do?? i spent time with my family, read a book, and rented and watched three movies. i guess being without a computer wasn't all that bad :) .....anyways, so now i am going to update from our last two weeks.
first my great friend anita had her baby boy Seth Jacob on december 15th. that is also gina's bday so a group of us went to visit anita and baby seth and then we all went out to dinner for gina's bday.
isaiah had a christmas program at school. the third grader's all sang together for all the parents. i didn't get a pic of him performing cause i couldn't find him until his very last song.
the next day tan and zas each had christmas parties. tanner also had a performance. he ws so cute and animated.
the boys also got to wear their pajamas to school on the last day which they both were super excited about.
on the first day of vacation we put together a ginger bread train. the boys and i had fun putting it together.
here is the final product. :)
the saturday before christmas our great friends the leedoms had a wine tasting party. every couple had to bring their favorite bottle of red wine and then you would go around and rate which one you liked best. my friend dai who hosted made some amazing food. i am not much of a wine drinker so i enjoyed hanging out with friends and eating some great food.

so there is an update and our last few weeks. as you can see we have been very busy, but it has also been so much fun!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

i've been tagged.....

my friends vern and michelle both tagged me so i guess i better give in to the peer pressure :). i have to respond to what’s posted with one word that comes to mind. then i tag 4 people to do the same....
1. Where is your cell phone? counter
2. Your significant other? seth
3. Your hair? long
4. Your mother? babs
5. Your father? chris
6. Your favorite thing(s)? family
7. Your dream last night? weird
8. Your favorite drink? iced tea
9. Your dream/goal? mom
10. The room you’re in? kitchen
11. Your fear? death (not death itself but my kids, husband dying)
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? stable
13. Where were you last night? tannas'
14. What you’re not? sick
5. Muffins/donuts? donuts
16. One of your wish list items? shoes
17. Where you grew up? orange
18. The last thing you did? bills
19. What are you wearing? sweats
20. Your TV? flat
21. Your pet? nada
22. Your computer? toshiba
23. Your life? awesome
24. Your mood? lazy
25. Missing someone? yeah
26. Favorite pastime? running
27. Something you’re not wearing? underwear (sorry tmi!!)
28. Favorite Store? the rack
29. Your summer? fun!!!
30. Your favorite color? lots
31. When is the last time you laughed? today
32. Last time you cried? thursday
33. Who will re-post this? katie
34. Four places I go over and over? vp, trader joes, church, home
35. Four people who e-mail me? facebook, seth, dai, shannon
36. Four of my favorite foods? mexican, italian, salad, ice cream
37. Four places I would like to be right now? hawaii, new york, bahamas, europe
38. Four people I tag? katie, jenny, juliana, dawnielle

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

i heart my city...

this past weekend was the first weekend of december. on friday night we stayed home and watched "merry christmas drake and josh"..what better way to start the holiday's then with a good old 'drake and josh'. ha ha ha!!! kidding :) but it did make for some good family time watching a movie all together while eating popcorn and ice cream. on saturday isaiah had his final soccer game of the season. they lost but isaiah still had a great game. that night we walked down to the plaza and enjoyed a free trolley ride through old towne to look at christmas lights. it was so much fun. i love living in orange and love the history of it. the more people we talk to the more we find that most people that live here have 'orange pride'. we take pride in our city and our proud of it's nostalgia.

on sunday night we rode our bikes down to the plaza to enjoy the annual tree lighting. yet again i was truly proud of where i live. along with the tree lighting is also a full choir and a narrator giving the story of our lord's birth. they were telling the true story and everyone was okay with it. it was a God honoring night (as it should be) and i was proud to be part of it :) thanks orange, i heart you!

**disclaimer-i got the top pic from google images and it turned out horrible! it is supposed to be a pic of the choir and the lighted tree. it really it is a great pic too bad it turned out so small :(

student of the month.......


isaiah was chosen from his class as student of the month for december. we are so proud of him :)

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

thanksgiving in the desert.....

for thanksgiving this year we headed over to tucson arizona to visit with our family. my aunt, uncle and cousins live there. my sister and her family went and so did my mom and my dad. we had a house full of people and it was SO much fun.
the first day there we went to old tucson. it is commonly referred to as HOllYWOOD in the DESERT because it is where a ton of old western's have been filmed and my fave the three amigos :)
we had a blast checking out old movie sets, walking around, eating, and watching a ton of shows.
this is seth on the hog as he would say. every time the guys got even a little bit bored this where they would turn. they had so much fun riding this little motor bike up and down the block. the boys had fun riding with daddy.
on thursday we had an amazing thanksgiving lunch with my uncle's incredible mesquite turkey. my friend salley made this apron special for my aunt. she was so excited and even wore a color coordinated shirt. here she is displaying it proudly.
after our meal the boys all got a turn riding bocochullathe wonderfully tame horse. smoosh thought he was a real life cowboy.
the next day the girls went shopping and the boys went out to shoot guns. this has been an annual traditon that my boys look forward to every year.
another annual tradition is taking a walk to the nearby wash. we usually go after our thanksgiving dinner but it rained this year so we took our walk the next day. the boys like to pretend they are investigators hunting for clues since there are usually tires and even some old cars from when the was gets full from the rains.
one year they turned over a tire and found a baby rattler. the good mom that i am ran away terrified and left my three babies there with a killer baby rattle snake. this a HUGE joke in our family and the boys wanted to see me run like crazy again. Luckily they didn't find anything this year.
on friday night we went to a cowboy steak house for dinner with the whole family. there is ONE rule at the steak house that says NO TIES ALLOWED, and if you wear a tie they will cut it off. so i brought some ties from home for the boys to wear. smoosh was being a grump so he didn't wear his but isaiah an tan did. this old cowboy guys came over to the table and cut off both of their ties. tan cried even though he knew it was going to happen :) after they cut it off you can staple it to the wall and write your name on it.
after dinner we all went to the gunshow. it was a blast spending time with our family. thanksgiving in the desert was awesome!

Monday, December 01, 2008

smooshie...

smooshie- daddy, i wiped my own bottom today

seth- that's great! did you get it all clean?

smooshie- Yeah! do you want to see? (as he is pulling down his pants)

seth- NO! that's okay i believe you.

Monday, November 24, 2008

family pictures....

our great friend/neighbor/awesome photographer took some family pics of us this weekend. we love them. thanks michelle! (if you want to check out her work go to www.michellesullivanphotography.com)





Friday, November 21, 2008

i am thankful...

with thanksgiving less then a week away i have been thinking alot about all that i am thankful for. here is my list.....

1) God
2) my husband and boys
3) my amazing family
4) friends
5) that seth has a job!
6) for simplicity
7) for God's continuing provision
8) that my kids go to a great school
9) we are all healthy
10) we own our house and live on a great street

i know i could go on and on with all that i am thankful for but those are my top 10. i hope everyone enjoys a very blessed thanksgiving. happy turkey day ! :)

Monday, November 17, 2008

friends thanksgiving......

we had a very busy enjoyable weekend. on top of two soccer games, the boys all going to a sleep over in temecula, anita's shower, we also had a friends thanksgiving with some of our best friends. this has been an annual tradition for the past 7 years. the hodgman's hosted this year. it was fun hanging out with friends and all our kids. we are so thankful for all of you and for all of your friendships.