Christmas, 2008!

Christmas this year was really great! It was Cameron's first so we were extra excited this year.

Here are some highlights from the season...

-- We had a great time relaxing, being silly, resting, playing, making sugar cookies and decorating. The kids are in love with Christmas, and that makes it extra fun! Cameron had fun opening his first presents, and playing with all the tissue paper and wrappings (check out the pictures!)

-- We went to the Irvine Park Railroad Santa Train. This is a tradition that we do with Grandma every year, and Oma and Aunt Mary decided to join us this year too. You get to ride to the North Pole and have a personal visit with Santa. The kids hand deliver their letters to him, and he reads them aloud with them intently listening. Cameron didn't seem to be too bothered. Once he saw the other kids' happy faces, he wanted to join in. We have pictures of them visiting, reading the letter, and having fun. Right at the moment that we had the perfect picture of all three kids sitting on his lap (even smiling beautifully), the batteries in the camera died at that very moment. Seriously...right at that moment. So, needless to say, we missed that photo opportunity. But, we had a great time!

--Then on Sunday the 21st we had Christmas with my family at Oma's house. We had a yummy traditional German meal of German hot dogs (really referred to as weiners) and yummy rolls to put them on. Thanks to my mom for making dinner for everyone - we didn't bring a thing. We had fun opening all of the presents, but between my sister and I there are five little kids around now, so it was a bit crazy! My mom was probably glad to see us all go that night....

--On Christmas Eve we went to Grandpa and Grandma Mary's house in Anaheim during the day. It was nice for the kids to see their lights outside and their house all decorated for Christmas. We had another yummy Christmas dinner (thanks Mary for the ham) and opened more presents!!! It is great to have my sister Angela and her family around for the holidays now. They lived further away for lots of years and now that they have kids too, they all love to play together. Check out the pictures of Kylie and her little cousin Gabriela. She follows her around and it is so cute!

--Christmas Eve night we were in Irvine with Grandma. We had more yummy food and spent the evening with the family at Grandma's church. It was a nice Christmas Eve service and the kids did fairly well. We came back and opened MORE presents and the kids learned that they would be going to LegoLand on Monday (courtesy of Grandma)....stay tuned for a post about our fun that day.

--We woke up at our house on Christmas Day. I love the look on the kids faces as they race down the stairs on Christmas morning. I seriously remember feeling that excitement when I was young. But I also remember my Dad having to get the camera ready, light a fire, start the music, etc, etc, all while we were dying to see what Santa had brought us. We try and hurry with our kids, because I remember how that felt. It was a FABULOUS relaxing day, even though it was cold and wet outside! We opened all the new things, played, and hung out. The only time we left the house was to go look at Christmas lights right before bed! I can't imagine a better day.

We hope you had a fantastic Christmas surrounded by loved ones. We are so grateful for Jesus Christ and his sacrifices for us. We know that He is the reason we celebrate, and we love to share that with our little ones, even with all of the other fun going on around us during the season. Merry Christmas (and Happy New Year too!)

Christmas Performances

Both Kylie and Chad were in performances at school for the holidays this year. Chad sang (and rang bells, too) in a choir performance of holiday favorites at his preschool. Kylie performed in front of the entire school with the Promenade All Stars Group. She is SO talented that she landed a part in the play, as Mia Mouse, who helped save Christmas by making more toys after she accidentally pulled a wire loose and stopped the machines. They were both so cute!

David's Report

Okay, so Lauriann blogged a good majority of the day yesterday and I had the chance to sit and watch and help her with some of the pictures and a few ideas. I was checking our pictures and found these pics of the kids that really don't go with anything, but I thought showed off how much fun they really are. I hope Lauriann doesn't think I'm ruining her blog--if she does this post might disappear--but I thought I would add my two sense.




Our Cameron is so sweet! He is just hilarious--he's gone from army crawling to real crawling to standing up in just a short couple months and we're waiting for his first steps. He loves playing in the tupperware cabinet and with balls--his favorite toys--I'm hoping he's going to be a soccer player, but I guess it's too early to tell.



Chad is such a boy! He jumps and tumbles all over the couch, plays games, runs and jumps, gets dirty and drives us crazy when he's loud (which is almost always!) but he is so funny and has such a sweet spirit! He thinks he's a pretty good break dancer and loves 'rock' music! Yikes! He can also CHOW candy--has the biggest sweet tooth I have ever seen--but doesn't like to eat much of anything else. Funny...



It's hard to believe Kylie is almost 7 years old. Here she is with yet another school award for reading. Did we tell you she loves to read yet? She loves school and played soccer again this fall. She was fun to coach again this year and seems to excel at goalie. We'll see if she chooses to play again next year. She seems to be a dancer at heart though--loves the stage and performing! Don't think she'll be giving that up any time soon...when she isn't dancing she's following her baby brother around. She has such a kind and playful heart. She's growing up way too fast!

Hair Today - Gone Tomorrow!

So....since the day Kylie started to grow hair, she has never wanted it cut. We do get regular "trims" to keep her hair growing healthy...but never more than that. I asked Christi to cut it, and kind of prepared Kylie for the outcome. I knew we were going to "trim" more than normal, and we did. Check out the before and after shots. At first she got a little teary, but after about ten minutes she said, "Mom, what if my hair doesn't grow back?" I told her not to worry that it would, probably very quickly. She then said, "I don't think I want it to! I like it like this!" She then called everyone in the family to tell them of her new haircut! I think that she felt very grown up with her new do....it will probably stay like this for a while!

Feast Day at Preschool!

We learned something new about Chad around Thanksgiving...he LOVES pumpkin! He had a feast at his school and that's all he wanted--pumpkin pie and popcorn. He ate the apple cake his class made, too. At least he knows what's good!

Thanksgiving Break

It was so nice to have an entire week off at Thanksgiving. We had time to relax and hang out as a family after being really busy since David started his new job. We loved going on our first family bike ride to the park, now that everyone has a bike to ride and Cameron is big enough to ride in the seat attached to Daddy's bike! We cooked together to get ready for Thanksgiving....the kids helped us make cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and homemade rolls. We had a lot of fun. We enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family in San Clemente and then with David's sister and family in Orange. Looking forward to cooking more together next year!

Kylie Loses her First Tooth

Kylie lost her first tooth--she's been waiting about three years for this. She's lost two now and another is loose. The tooth fairy brought her $5 for the first tooth and we are sure she will only bring $1 for each additional tooth!

Kylie Learns to Ride a Bike!

GET READY!

GET SET!!

GO!!!







Kylie finally, at six years old, was brave enough to try to ride her bike without training wheels. Once the courage was there, she took off--on the very first try. We knew she could do it a long time ago...

Happy Halloween!!!!!

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch, church party, and then trick-or-treating with my sister's family in San Clemente. Cameron wasn't too fond of his first Halloween costume (at least not the hat), but we thought that he was pretty cute! At the end of the night - we had way too much candy! Thank you to Grandma (with a LITTLE help from Mommy) for making the cute costumes for Kylie and Chad! Thank you to Grandpa and Mary for being the only adults to dress up on Halloween. We thought that was pretty cool...but the kids were terrified of you!

First Grade Student of the Month

We have a brainiac on our hands! We were very proud to hear that Kylie was chosen to be the first student of the month for her class in September. She is such a great reader and really enjoys it! Since this award she was also chosen as the best writer in her class! She loves to learn and that is why she is so successful! By the way, that day was university day at her school, so of course she is wearing an Arizona State shirt just for her daddy!

Assistant Principal - WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS?

No seriously.....David is now an assistant principal for his district. He is working at his own elementary school and a middle school. We thought there would be no way for this to happen right now with the crazy budget cuts in California - but Heavenly Father has really kept His eye out for us. We needed this promotion right when it happened. We feel very blessed! We have been in a whirlwind since he was promoted, but David is loving every minute of it. He has already suspended kids, broken up fights, and sat in on an expulsion hearing. The process of getting hired was ridiculous (like five separate interviews with district management and the Board of Education), but he did it and we are so proud! Yes...I had to add the silly modeling pose! Love it!!!!

Chad's Birthday Pics

We had a great time over Labor Day Weekend celebrating Chad's fourth birthday. On Saturday he had a spiderman party with friends. He decided that all that he wanted was swimming, games, and a pinata - so that's what we did! Then on Monday we went to the beach with a bunch of family and friends. We had tons of fun and it was a great way to end the summer (yes, I am just now posting about the end of summer)! Chad was very excited to get his first real bike, and couldn't wait to get outside to ride it! Check out the pictures!

Pee Wee Soccer - Chad Style

Chad had the opportunity to play soccer again with Corona Parks and Recreation. He missed the AYSO deadline by a couple of weeks, so he will join Kylie next year playing for AYSO. He loved it this year. It seemed like he was really figuring out how to play soccer and he was much more aggressive. He scored a couple of goals this season, and was very excited when he received his certificate at the end of the five weeks. He is so much fun to watch! Every time he passed by us on the field, he would stop, smile, and wave! :) Any time he fell down, he would jump back up and start running again. We had lots of fun this season!