Christmas

We are officially on Christmas break and life is grand! I feel like a stay at home mom again and am loving life. We had a incredibly terrific and blessed Christmas. The boys were spoiled by Santa and our family. We have just been playing with all their new toys all day every day.

The boys left Santa oreos and milk and carrots for the reindeer.

Josh left this note for Santa. I wrote it, but this is exactly what he told me to write.

Santa always leaves just a few big gifts and the rest are from Mommy, Daddy and our out of town family.
This year Santa  left the Polar Express train, bike and a scooter.

Josh has been on a 2 wheeler for a while now. He got a bigger bike. Daddy put hand brakes on it for him this week.

stockings

Josh zoomed all over the court on his new bike. See the red blob in the background?
Jason ran laps around the court. Not sure why Santa got a scooter if he is happy just running...

Grammie and Grampy got the boys remote control  trucks which were a big hit.

Jason sat on the curb in his PJs forever just driving his remote control truck until the battery died.

Christmas is so much fun with kids. It like being a kid again yourself. I am looking forward to still having more time off from school. We have lots of fun stuff planned. More to come on all our fun Christmas break adventures....

Christmas Play

On the last day of school before Christmas break Josh's class preformed a play during Chapel. Josh was one of the three wise men. He did such a great job as he always does and it was quite adorable.

This boy always makes me so proud!  



Jason's Christmas Concert

I was looking forward to Jason's Christmas Concert since I had no clue what they were doing. I knew what Josh was doing for his since my students were in it with him. Jason's....I was clueless and he kept telling me they were just singing Scooby Doo songs.

Handsome boy excited for his concert.

This is when the crying started. It was hard to get any good pictures  because of the lighting.

For the first part he cried on stage. I thought I was going to have to go up there and get him. He was not happy. I think it was because he couldn't find us in the crowd. Then his class went off stage for a bit. I kept asking Mike if I should go check on him. I am so glad I didn't because when they came out for the last songs he saw me crazily waving my arms at him. He instantly smiled and went from standing there crying on stage to this...

He made us laugh so hard. I am glad he came out of his shell and wasn't traumatized from it. We still aren't done with boys' Christmas performances. Josh's class is doing a Christmas play this week. Love it!

And... 3 and half more school days until Christmas Break. Yahoooooo!

Josh's Christmas Concert

Thursday night was our school's Christmas Concert. The concert Josh was in was Kindergarten through 3rd grade, so he was with my class. We got to be together for the dress rehearsal and performance which was fun. The concert was at the California Theater in downtown San Jose, which is beautiful. It was pretty awesome!

Rehearsal earlier that day

Outside the theatre... the "LI" theatre. They need to get their lights fixed.

Backstage waiting to start

My view from backstage

It was such a nice evening. Josh did so good and was just adorbale. Jason's Christmas Concert is next week!

Santa

Every year Santa comes to Daddy's work. This year Josh made his list all by himself and gave it to Santa. It was so cute. Neither of the boys wanted to sit on Santa's lap. At least there were no tears this year.

Santa reading Josh's list

Josh enjoying the goody bag from Santa

Jason being his silly self

Christmas Dinner Dance Time

Every December we go to a big Christmas event put on by Mike's work. It is something we look forward to all year long. We always have an awesome time together and with our friends who go with us each year. One of the main reasons we look forward to it so much is because we stay the night at the hotel the event is at and get to sleep in the next morning. What parents don't love a morning where they can sleep in?! Sleeping in this morning was pretty awesome!

Each year is a different theme and this year was Mardi Gras. That explains the huge gorilla in the mural behind us in some if these pics.



Gotta take the self portrait in the hotel room on our way downstairs to the event.





The decor was pretty amazing! Totally felt like you were at Mardi Gras.



The only bummer part of the night was that it went by way too fast. We had so much fun and can't wait for next year!

Christmas Tree

We went to Battaglia Ranch this week to pick out our Christmas tree. It's always so fun to walk around the Christmas Tree farm and find the perfect tree. We brought home a beautiful 8 ft tree that is making our house smell amazing!

It was freezing cold

Jason totally did this on purpose

This one is such a ham

Snowman Josh

I love this time of year!


Thanksgiving

We truly have so much to be thankful for. The Lord has blessed our little family with so much. I am especially thankful this year to have Mike home for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, he doesn't have Christmas Eve or Christmas day off, but I'll take what I can get. And I was happy to have him with us this year.

Every year we stay in town for Thanksgiving and spend it with Mike's family. Mainly, because he works so we have to stay in town. We always have fun and enjoy the time with his family and his mom's awesome cooking. This year since Mike was off we decided to spend Thanksgiving in Santa Maria with my family. I don't even remember the last time I was at my grandparent's house for Thanksgiving. My parent's, brother and sis in law all stayed in Nevada but we got to see all my extended family on both my mom and dad's sides. It was great!

As soon as Josh found out we were going to Santa Maria he starting planning the football game he was going to play with his cousins. He spent $5 he had on a new football, called his cousin Mason to tell him all about his plan, practiced at home, slept with the football and held it on the whole drive there.

Mason and Josh

The "game" was pretty much Mason and Josh throwing the ball back and forth, but Josh loved every second of it.

Jason had lots of fun too. He ran around and played outside with his cousins. He also joined in the football fun.

We celebrated my cousin, Emily's 19th bday. She was home from Point Loma for Thanksgiving and it was so fun to see her.

Me, my sis, Aunt Patsy and cousin Emily all ventured out into the Black Friday craziness at about 9:00pm on Thursday night. We got some awesome deals, but the best part was watching all the lunatics go nuts over the sales and the complete chaos called Walmart. I didn't get to bed at about 3am, but the look on my boys' face on Christmas morning will make that adventure all worth it.

Friday was Thanksgiving with the Rodarte's, my dad's side of the fam. It's always fun with them!

cousins

Nana and her great grand kids

My silly boys making funny faces

Nana and her grand kids, minus my bro Luc

Mike made the most of have Thanksgiving off and spent time playing at the Pismo Dunes. He met some friends there and they had fun with their boy toys. He spent the last two weeks restoring his Honda Oddysey just for the trip.

 The boys love anything Daddy does, so the new game they have been playing since we got home is "the dunes." They get all their dirt bike toys, pile up blankets and pillows and drive their dirt bikes all over the dunes. They have seriously spent most of the weekend doing this. Too funny.

Now after 4 awesome days off, we are back to the grind tomorrow. I am so thankful for the family time we all had!

School Fun

Time for a post with some fun, cute pics of my boys.

A morning where we are actually not running late and the boys don't have to eat cold bagels in the car on the way to school.



Josh at Little Warriors. He does after school sports clinics that switches between baseball, soccer, football and basketball. It is a program the school puts on ran by the school's high school sports teams. They have a great clinic they put on for the kids and always end in a message about good sportsmanship, finding their strength in the Lord and prayer. This day was baseball and he was super excited to be there. Sometimes there are days where he is just too pooped after school. 

  

Jason's Back to School Night. It was neat to see what a typical day is like for him at preschool. Apparently, he loves when Pirate Pete(the puppet) comes to visit. He was the only kid who run up to be front and center.  

Josh had a cute, little Thanksgiving performance in his class followed by a Thanksgiving Feast. I got to sneak away from my class for a little while on Friday to join him. 



Thanksgiving break has started for Josh. He has a whole week off of school. Me??... Parent Teacher Conferences until Wednesday, then Jason and I start our break and I can't wait!