More Christmas

Okay so after we rest and clean up from the morning we head over to the In-Laws.
And the fun begins, again!
Here's Grandpa watching the kids open presents.


Here is Mateo with his new glasses that match his shirt.


Here's Tina with her new Dora doll.


Here's Katie with her new bag I made her.

And John with his pillow and Marci with her scarf.

Here are the girls playing with new toys.

Wow, Christmas is so much work! By the end of the day I am so exhausted! But I love the time with family!

Christmas Morning

Okay let's see if I can get all caught up before the end of the year. So Christmas morning the kids were very quite and didn't come and wake us until 8am. I remember my brothers and me waking up at 4am!! Of course there were many more of us to strategies a plan!
Now Christmas Eve we spent making stockings for the kids because theirs are in storage. They turned out pretty cute for last minute stockings! Next year they'll have two, hope they don't think both are getting filled up!
Christina was so happy that morning. She was jumping up and down saying, "it's Christmas, Santa came"!
Before everyone arrived we let the kids go through their stocking.
Here's Tina just dumping everything out.

Here's Kenny finding out he got a CELL PHONE from Santa! He was very happy!

I don't think I got a pic of Mateo all by himself. This is cute though!

Here are the cousins playing with new toys.

It was a great morning! Then we made breakfast, got dressed and played with our new phones! I'll blog later about the evening over at the In-Laws.

A Little Bit Of Christmas

Let me start with Christmas Eve, we always spend it with the In-Laws. So here's a little of that.
We have a special Japanese dinner, kinda like fondue. We dip in raw meat and veggies and watch them cook quickly. It's so yummy!

(notice fish on the left and rice balls on the right)
Then the kids get to open up one gift each.

Jayden and Steve made an appearance.

And of course there's time with family and friends.


Always a great time!

My Baby Girl Is Getting So Big!

I've been so busy that I didn't have time to mention my little girl's Birthday.

Here she is in her Christmas/Birthday dress.

She is finally "4"! She has been waiting forever for this day. Everyday she wakes up and says how big she is. On her birthday she woke up and said, "Look Mom, I'm as big as you"!
We have been waiting for her birthday to take her to Build A Bear. She was so excited! So off we went after dinner.
Here she is stuffing her Hello Kitty.

Giving Hello Kitty a bath.

Picked out her clothes and dressed her.

Now to take her home!

Christina has been having so much fun with Hello Kitty, dressing and undressing her. What more could a girl ask for!

Good Friends and Pizookie!

The other night I got together with some friends to say goodbye to a friend, Kellie. She is moving this week and we will miss her and her family.
We went to this restaurant called BJ's. This was my first time there. Everyone has always told me about the great food and the amazing Pizookie. The girls are always saying how they must get away and have a Pizookie. So I finally have it and realize that it's a big cookie with ice cream.

It was good but I make cookies at home all the time. I just can't believe that this is what the girls are always raving about! So funny!
Besides the dessert, the company was great!

Gotta Try These Cookies!

I just found this recipe for Chocolate Mint Cookies and they were amazing! I've also seen this recipe made with Devil's Food cake mix.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 eggs 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
36 chocolate mint wafer candies (you can use Andes Mints or Mint Patties)

Directions
In a large pan over low heat, cook butter, sugar and water until butter is melted. Add chocolate chips and stir until partially melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into a large bowl and let stand 10 minutes to cool off slightly.
At high speed, beat in eggs, one at a time into chocolate mixture. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients, beating until blended. Chill dough about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes (no more, no less). While cookies are baking unwrap mints and divide each in half. When cookies are brought out of the oven, put 1/2 mint on top of each cookie. Let the mint sit for up to 5 minutes until melted, then spread the mint on top of the cookie. Eat and enjoy!

I know that your family will love these!

Christmas Card Sneak Peek

Well I did it! I wasn't sure if I was gonna get any cards out this year with all my projects I'm trying to get done but I thought I'd put some kinda effort into it. So I gathered the kids up, threw some pjs on them and we went to take some pictures. I had this vision of them in new pjs in front of a fireplace...well our fireplace is not very photogenic, the pjs are suppose to be Christmas Eve presents but what the heck! I pulled out the pjs and said here is one of your presents now lets go take some pics!
I explained to the kids my plan.
Me: "I want to take pictures in front of a nice, decked out(decorated) fireplace. So we are heading to the model homes near by!"
The kids looked at me crazy and asked "are we allowed to do that"?
Me: "we'll find out"!

When we got there the models weren't open yet. So we used the surrounding fence to start with our photo shoot. Here are some of those pics.




We finally got in to the homes after the agent wondered if she would get fired for letting us in to do photos. When we entered the homes I found that the newer homes have gas fireplaces that are in the wall. Not much of what I was hoping for and no Christmas decorations!
Well we were already here and the lighting was great so here is a pic from a model home.


Then we headed off to a nearby hotel that was so kind to let us do some photos in front of their burning fireplace. By this time I already knew that i had my photo. I was just hoping that I could still get my fireplace photo. Here is a photo from the hotel.


I think the kids had fun driving around town taking pictures...
adventure + photos = Christmas cards!

Match 2

Okay so I'm a little behind. Last Saturday Kenny had a wrestling match and we were all able to attend. On Saturdays they have tournaments that last all day. He leaves the house at 6am and doesn't return until after 6pm. We spent about 3-4 hours hanging out and watching the team wrestle.


Okay so let me tell you it was really hard watching Kenny get tossed around. I had to block out a lot of my feelings and remember this is a sport. I also realized how hard this sport is. It takes a lot of strength to hold your position and to hopefully pin your opponent. Now I know why they trained so hard! All that running and weight lifting. We have also noticed a huge difference in Kenny's body and muscles! That part I love. I mean baseball always kept him fit but wrestling is really giving him a nice, toned body.

Now Christina can only sit for so long. So we had to frequently take her outside to get her energy out. It was so funny because she would say, "wrestle me"! She saw the big boys doing it and she wanted some action also!

During Kenny's matches she would yell, "get off my brother" and "get up Kenny"! So cute!

Kenny will be at another tournament this Saturday. I am so proud of him for working so hard and sticking with a new sport. Especially since this is a tough one!

Winter Concert

Tonight was Mateo's Winter Concert. It's the first time we've been able to hear the band play. They did great! The Jazz Band was even better!

I love music! Even better, great music! So I am so happy that my boys are enjoying music. Plus, what a great talent to have, right? I just hope they keep it up longer than I did. Well seeing that I dropped out of band in 7th grade, they're ahead of me!

The funniest thing tonight, was watching Christina trying to be quiet. We kept telling her, "Shh, watch Mateo". Well we couldn't even see Mateo, so she says, "I can't see him"! So to entertain herself she was rubbing on her Dad's ear, running her fingers through his hair, rubbing his face (the stub). It was so hard not to laugh! I wish I could of taken a pic but that would of been disturbing to others.
I tell ya, the sweet connection between a daughter and father is adorable!

Great job tonight Mateo!

Back To Work

Okay so I've gone back to work and I'm not complaining! I'm trying something new.
No retail!
No customers!
No deadlines!
No regrets!

I have a friend that has MS (multiple sclerosis), Donna. One day we started talking about what if! No more what if...I've begun working/taking care of Donna. I have a 3-4 shifts a week. I arrive at her home and make sure she is comfortable, talk, cook dinner, talk, get her ready for bed and some more talking. Oh yeah, and some cleaning too.
We're having a great time! I'm just so glad that I can go to work and have it not feel like work!

Okay now the reason for this post. Now that I'm back at work the family has some adjusting to do.
Mom has dinner ready for them, they eat.
Kids, be on best behavior.
Dad's job to get everyone in bed.

Well this little one is still getting use to Dad's job.

I came home last night and found Tina in pajamas, a jacket, a belt and a dogging attached at the hip. Well she was half ready for bed. I'll just have to give them some time to adjust. Plus, I'm not complaining to seeing this cute face when I walk in the door! Would you?

Crafting With Granny

I just had to get a picture of this site. Can you believe the chaos?

We were just crafting away, making bows, stuffed animals and paper ornaments. I wish I could show you the end result but as I've mentioned before they're gifts! I'll have to post those right at Christmas time.

Here's Mateo enjoying a break from being creative.

He was having a blast making and sewing things.

I took some pictures of Granny and Charles before they left. I'm so glad they made it!