Jan 5

So, if you didn't know it, Jan 5 was my birthday. I had a pretty fun day. We spent the morning in Fresno because we had to take my sister in law and nieces to the airport. They were with us the week after we got back from Chicago. The cousins had a TON of fun together. They already miss each other.
Jason had a special dinner planned for my birthday. He kept it all a secret until it was time to be revealed-basically until we showed up at the restaurant. He had three friends of mine there (with their hubbies) and it was a fun surprise! We ate at a Japanese Tepanyaki restaurant (like Bennihanas) and it was sooo yummy. It was extra special to me because Jason had been planning it for weeks. He did a great job! Way to go husby!


Cayley and Elijah.
Alia and Avery.
Happy Birthday to me!!!
Here was my special cheesecake.

a variety of pictures

We went for a visit to Great Grandma's house. She had much joy in pushing Elijah around on her walker. Too cute!


Here's Alia holding her first puppy...this was a puppy of some friends.



Jason's parents had a set of Lincoln Logs. Alia enjoyed making the roofs on the houses we made...while Elijah enjoyed knocking the houses down. :)

Alia and daddy on the airplane to Chicago!


The kids...opening presents at Grandma & Grandpa B's house.


We went to the Winter Wonderland Train exhbit at the Bontanic Gardens. It was amazing to see all of the trains!


Jason and I took a date DAY! We did some shopping and ate at our favorite places: Dengeo's (an american/greek gyro fast food sit down place...we used to eat there all the time) and Twin Anchors (a YUMMY rib joint that is a local bar...we waited over an hour to be sat...it was worth it!)


While we were on our date day the sky let forth a TON of snow! This is the first snow man the kids got to make. Grandma & Grandpa took them outside to play in the snow, build a snowman, and get pulled around on a sled.

Shedd Aquarium

Jason's parents took us to Chicago's Shedd Aquarium. The kids had a blast looking at all of the animals. They really enjoyed the dolphin show. We had a fun day exploring.



The kids were fascinated with the fish, whales and dolphins they could see in the aquariums.



There was a lizard exhibit...I thought this would be a cute pictures.



Here's how tall Elijah ISN'T! :)

Dec 24

Before we left for Chicago we opened gifts at our house ont he 24th. We woke up and pretended it was Christmas morning. The kids were sooo excited about the things they got. Afterwards we went to McDonalds for breakfast and I left to go to work after that.



Here's Elijah and some of his goodies. His new chair and tray, his hot wheels carrier and his new workbench. :)



Alia LOVES her new My Little Pony things. She got this Pony Ice Cream Truck and she also got a Ponyville play set, too. She loves them!


Grammpa Jim sent Alia a new silver B of A piggy bank! Here she is proudly displaying it. She has started collecting coins to go inside.



Elijah got some Thomas the Train pull back trains. A hit in our house.

Merry Christmas!

This is probably the last post of the year. We are leaving on Christmas day to head to Long Beach, where we'll hop on a plane to Chicago for the last week of 2007. Since I work this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon...I probably won't have time to sit and post much.
Tomorrow morning we will be having our family Christmas. We'll pull out all of the generous gifts we received...and the fun Santa gifts for the kids. Jason and I will do that tonight so when they wake up they'll walk into the family room and see it all. I'm pretty excited...for them. I know they will be soo excited! After all of the opening, I'll head to work until 5:30pm. Then I'll come home and we'll have something simple for dinner.
So...in the next few days, ponder the meaning of Christmas for you. And remember, it's not about what gifts you do or don't get. It's about a little innocent baby that was birthed in a dirty, stinky manger. Merry Christmas to you and your family! And...Happy New year, too! :)

Traditions! Traditions!

Here are a few pictures of what may become yearly holiday traditions in our household.




Friday night we decided to go to a living nativity at a local church. The church my family went to growing up always did a living nativity and fun crafts, etc for the kids. It was so much fun for me...one of the things I remember fondly. So...I looked online and found one! I called our friends, the Reeds, and we decided upon a place to meet up and caravan there! We gobbled up our dinner, packed everyone in the car and away we went! While there were no crafts or things for the kids...it was fun for them anyways. They loved the animals (there was a donkey and a calf) and just stood there watching the kids dressed as Mary and Joseph. Alia's friend Jenna wanted to sit down right next to them! It was cute.
Afterwards we went to Panera to have a treat. Alia and Jenna ended up getting some energy out by jumping around and singing Jingle Bells. Too cute!





The classic Christmas tradition...the gingerbread house. I wish that it told you on the box that it was going to take HOURS! We got Alia all excited when we were opening the box, then realized you have to let the sides of the house sit for an hour and then the roof has to sit for 3 hours so the frosting can dry. Well..after a day of drying Alia had a good time decorating it. I think Jason got a million new grey hairs because of it. So next year I'll be helping Alia and Elijah with the gingerbread house :) It's a pretty cute house though. Good job helping daddy!

Preschool Christmas Party

On Dec 14th Alia's class had a Christmas program with songs, decorating cookies, and a book exchange. It was a ton of fun. I went and helped set up the tables for the cookie part of it and Alia just loved having me there helping. Because I was busy videoing the singing, I didn't get any pictures of the class singing, but here are a few from the cookie decorating...and gift exchange.




Here's Alia with her new books...Alia actually got 6 books, not just 1!! She was quite the winner :)




And...after decorating the cookie, there's always the eating of cookies. :)





Here's a picture of Alia and two other friends at the cookie table.



Here's Alia with one of her teachers, Mrs. Judy. Alia loves Mrs. Judy.

Santa's visit

A few weekends ago my MOMS Club had a holiday party/fundraiser and Santa made an arrival in his dark sunglasses on a big firetruck. Alia wouldn't have anything to do with him, really. And Elijah had no choice...we just stuck him on Santa's lap...and well...from the looks of it, you know how he felt about Santa. It was a fun party and we look forward to seeing Santa again next year! Ho Ho Ho

A little sad...

So tonight made the fourth night in a row that I was working...which means I haven't eaten dinner with my family or been around for bedtime for four nights in a row. I think it's taken it's toll on my little girl. She has been so clingy to me and wanting me with her all the time. Yesterday before church she followed me around saying "Mommy, come in my room and play with me." I did, of course...but when I got up to go to the restroom...she followed me THERE and asked me again to play with her. She's cried every time I leave to go to work...which makes it SO hard to leave. My heart breaks. A few nights ago after I put her to bed (before the 4 nights away) I found her outside in the hallway laying on a blanket, covered by another blanket, laying down with her fishie to go to sleep. I scooped her up and laid her in her bed.

Tonight I called home about 7:30pm to say goodnight to her. Jason had put her to bed early, so she was already asleep. BUT...she came out once to go to the potty..but Jason forgot to make sure she made it back to her bed. Well, when I called Jason walked back there and Alia wasn't in her bed! He looked around for a few seconds and found her fast asleep in OUR bed.

So...my mommy assumption is she misses me and wanted to be close to me tonight. I was gone so the closest thing was my bed. (of course...this also could just be what I WANT it to be...maybe there is no correlation)

Oh...how sad my heart is....the huge struggle of having to work goes deep within my soul.
Why, oh Lord...why. I will be where you want me to be. And I will trust you.

O Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree last week. It was quite the event to decorate it...definitely not one of the "happy family moments". :) It was memorable, though. We had fun...and although there aren't as many ornaments on our tree this year...there are even less on it at the end of the day thanks to little mister's hands. teehee. Alia put the red headed angel on the top of our tree. But Elijah wanted to be part of that too, as you can see from the picture. He climbed onto the stool and it holding onto Jason's legs for dear life. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

A Weekend To Remember

Howdy!
This past weekend Jason and I went off to Monterey to attend a marriage conference with two other couples from church. Family Life's Weekend To Remember was the name of it. We actually went to this conference about 6 months after we were married...but after 7 years...the content had a whole different meaning. It was good to be reminded of God's purposes for marriage and our role in that. We came back feeling refreshed and wanting to love each other better.
For those of you concerned about our kiddos...we had a great sitter stay with the kids all weekend! Way to go Chelsea! We were incredibly blessed to have her come. Enjoy the pictures :)

Dora, Diego and Swiper

Who doesn't know who these guys are??? They are some of Alia's favorite friends from the TV! :) This past Tuesday we went with some friends to the Tree Lighting at the Outlet Mall. Dora the Explorer, Diego, and Swiper were there and it was a ton of fun. The kids had a blast...and we enjoyed being with friends. I sort of felt like a little kid again. We waited in line to get our picture taken and got to see a local high school band play music...and Santa was there too! After our picture was taken we went to get yummy pretzels for a treat. It was a fun special family night.
Enjoy the slideshow!

Gobble Gobble

For Thanksgiving we all piled into our van for an exciting trip to the southern Oregon coast! We visited my parents at their place for a few days. The drive there wasn't too bad...we ended up staying the night in a hotel. But the drive back was a bit torturous...more for me than anyone else. :) We really enjoyed spending time with my parents and seeing all of the new improvements on their house there.




Before we left Alia and I made turkey sugar cookies. She got to decorate them and really had a lot of fun. They were yummy, too!




Here's my dad with the yummy turkey! Can you see the stuffing bulging out of it? YUM YUM! Jason helped out by mashing the potatoes...and my mom made the rest of the yummy food. Pumpkin pie...hmm...




Before we left we took a jont to the beach to look for rocks. We all bundled up and made the trek. The kids loved walking on the beach and picking up the rocks. Elijah especially enjoyed running AWAY from us. :)





This is a park of a tree that washed up onto the beach. It was really neat...so we snapped a picture.





Our little family walking along the beach. Cute, aren't we?

Extras

Here are some random pictures we've taken along the way.



There are our kids and Faye's kids awaiting Jason's arrival from work. Too cute!



Elijah playing peek a boo.


Alia and Jacob playing on the playground. They are so skilled!





Keilani and Elijah reading together in the kitchen.

Halloween

Here are some pictures from Halloween. Sorry they are so late! I've been real busy! Elijah was a bat and Alia was a Care Bear. Our friend, Faye, and her two kids were here Halloween week so there was a ton of fun going on in our house! We went to a Carnival at a local church then came back home to trick or treat. Poor Elijah was suffering from a real bad case of pink eye so he didn't go rick or treating. We had a good time. The bottom picture is of our pumpkin family outside our door.