The St. John's Know How to Party

What a great surprise to find a message on my phone from my Aunt Virginia inviting us over for a New Year's Day Celebration with the St. Johns. Oh My Gosh, so much crazy fun. We ate lots of yummy food. ALL the boys played some football and watched some. Jenna found a piece of vegetation, we think it was a mix between a cucumber and a watermelon. We all participated in one fun chaotic white elephant gift exchange extravaganza. What a bunch of great sports. Everyone knew how to make it so much fun, especially when the little one, Lauren, was NOT going to let go of her gift. Jani came prepared to help us all make the cutest little craft, a Christmas ball decoration made out of paper circles. Loved it! Rachel also got some art lessons from Jenna. I love hanging out with my cousins, their almost like the sisters I never had. Thank you ALL for such a great time. Happy New Year!

{I hijacked some of these pictures from my Aunt Virginia's facebook and Linda's blog, Thank You!)

New Year's Eve @ Disneyland

Okay, we did it. We when to the Happy Place on Earth on the most busiest day of the year. And it was worth it. It was also Aunt Rebecca's birthday, so it made it even more worth it. What a way to celebrate!

We went to It's A Small World first. Last year when we came to Disneyland, we picked a day that this ride wasn't working because they were taking down all the Christmas decor. So we were sure to ride it this time. BEAUTIFUL! You gotta love this ride. I like that it is not over in 10 seconds.

Here is Matthew loving Thunder Mountain with Lauren and I in the background. Poor thing. She has been a trooper hanging out with all the big kids and riding the big kid rides.
Lunch Time!

Lauren, Grandma and I snuck away from the crowd and visited the princesses and rode some rides she really enjoyed.

Aunt Rebecca and Ethan getting ready to enjoy Space Mountain. A ride that didn't do me any favors later on in the evening.

Train instead of walking. And Rebecca sporting her nice New Year's Eve hat. The countdown was approaching.

We were all jammed packed on a "dance floor" jammin to some music while waiting for the early countdown. Some of us didn't have as much fun as others. It was loud and crowded, but entertaining. Plus we really couldn't move anywhere else.
Before the real New Year Countdown, we decided to ride a few more rides and then we couldn't wait to see the spectacular firework show that was going to take place. Grandma was the most excited. Fireworks of anykind are her favorite. Well, we had some bad timing. The kids and Aunt Rebecca got stuck on the Buzz Light Year Ride. So Steve to Grandma to see the show, while I waited for the crew. They finally came running out and we got stuck in a herd of cattle that wasn't moving, that's what it felt like, and we were right behind a beautiful big tree. So.......we missed the whole show. Oh well, we WERE at Disneyland.

Getting ready to leave this Happy Place!

Can't remember what we were waiting for, but thank goodness for Daddy's that will carry exhausted children back to the car.

Here I am trying to recover from my second Space Mountain ride for the day after I ate a handful of Dewar's candy. Something about that mixture made me so sick. I was trying so hard not to loose it while I was there. I did good to make back to the car and ALMOST all the way home.
Disneyland on New Year's Eve was still worth it.

Happy New 2010!

Christmas '09

So this is my Christmas post. But I am a little bummed because I can't find any of the pictures I took. Plus all of the pictures I took of us leaving Texas. There are tears!

But here the pictures I have managed to get from others of our '09 Christmas.

We had been in an apartment in Bakersfield waiting for our house to be finished. So we went to G&G Spendlove's early and stayed a little later for our Christmas.

The Sunday before Christmas family photo. No one is allowed to get undressed until this picture is taken. Which is a good thing. How often do get a family picture with everyone looking so nice?

We have the infamous Christmas Turkey Dinner on Christmas Eve so the the ladies can relax on Christmas Day and all eat leftovers. It was delish.

We continue to take our turns when opening presents. It gets to start with the youngest then moves on up to the oldest. The only advantage of not having the whole family together is that we get to open our presents faster. These are all the pictures I have. :(

Here are some random pictures but they are pictures of our Christmas Stay.

Not sure what is happening here.

Lauren is checking out all of Grandma's special spoons. Grandpa was even explaining where a few came from. She found some favorites and sure loved admiring them.
If you are in California for Christmas, the tradition is to go Ventura Pier and watch the Sunset on Christmas Day. It is always so beautiful. A little cold but beautiful!

This was a picture that Ethan took with his new camera.

Aunt Sarah with the boys.

And that is all I have. I need more pictures to help me remember everything that happened. My memory was never good and it is only getting better;)

Merry Christmas! How grateful we are that we live in a country where we can celebrate the birth of our Savior. So that we can feel of his spirit as we remember him during the Christmas Season. How grateful I am for him.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Just Matthew

Science Experiment
Every once in a while this happens

Temple made out of magnetix

Tricky marble stacking

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Ronald Reagan Library

As part of our Christmas visit to G&G "S" we went to visit the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley. This time of year they have a beautiful Christmas tree tour of trees that are decorated to represent all the different countries. It was fun trying to figure out where each tree was from. I still can't find some of my pictures so these are the only two that I have. The whole library was wonderful even without the Christmas trees. It is set up in some beautiful hills and the history was great.

G&G next to one of their favorite trees.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Ethan's Christmas Concert

Cinco Ranch Junior High Christmas Concert with Ethan on the snare drums!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Goin' Back to Cali

I am writing this a little more than 2 years later. I haven't come to accept the fact that I lost the memory card that has all of our farewell pictures. Good-byes to our friends, to our home and our limo and airplane ride to our new home in Bakersfield California.

Weeks prior to our move we had been packing and gradually saying our goodbyes. I was blessed to be able to have lunch with some of my dearest friends that I have missed. Lori Adelman, Emily Jones, Ashley Savoie, Cathy Turner, Carolyn Pack, Amber Brunson, Elsa Berkoski and Jennifer Tuckett. (which I had pictures of)  {sigh} But like everywhere I have lived I have been blessed with good friends and neighbors that have touched my life for good and that I have learned so much from.

The kids were each able to have their going away parties, except for Matthew. Darn it, he lost that privilege by making some wrong choices.

Steve was able to say his good-byes at his surprise 40th birthday party.

And then we all said our good-byes to our home of 5 years, many wonderful memories here and the only home Lauren knows, as we watched the movers pack up all our belongings into a ginormous truck. The movers even gave the kids a ride in the cab of the truck before they took off. There are pictures of this too somewhere. {sad face} We were able to go out to dinner at Fuddruckers with our dear neighbors, the Tucketts, before they dropped us off at our hotel for our last night in Katy, Texas. There were tears shed, especially between Isabel and Rachel who have been best friends since they were about 3 years old, for about 5 years now. I had pictures of this too. {teary eyed}

Steve had a little surprise of his own up his sleeve as he arranged for a limousine to pick us up to take us to the airport. I had some great pictures of them rockin out on the slippery leather seats of this long black and white limo. The airplane flight was also fun. This was Lauren's first time to fly and the twins first time they remember and still no pictures.

Our home in Bakersfield wasn't finished yet so we stayed in a 2 bedroom apartment for almost a month. However, part of that time was Christmas vacation which we spent in Santa Paula, so transition wasn't too bad.

And that is all there is to our big move. One of the biggest moments in our lives and not a single picture to show it.  I should be used to this as I also lost the first 4 months of the twins that we had on video. (we recorded their first Easter over it) Ok, I am moving on now.

Matthew's Farewell

This is the only Farewell party I haven't posted yet, because I have no pictures. And there is a good reason. There was NO party.

It was tough getting ready to move and to leave all our friends and all that Matthew has ever known. I understand that. That is why I gave him a gazillion chances to have this farewell party. But I finally had to stand my ground and really take it away. Due to some wrong choices Matthew made, I had to. I was so sad. He had planned more for his party than any of the other kids. He spent a lot of time online looking for party ideas and printing activities out.

Here is the party plan he made:

to do list
1. pin the horse.
2. coloring page
3. Stavanger hunt
4. Lego animal contest
5. brake (snack)
6. gess that animal.
7. animal bingo.
8. make your own favorite animal and tell why its your favorite.
9. Matthew little card pass out.
10. if there's any presents than will do that

It could have been a great party. But a mother's gotta do, what a mother's gotta do. No matter how hard it hurts her.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Giving

Rachel decided she has outgrown all her Barbies and dress up clothes and wanted to give all to Lauren for Christmas. She found a big box, stuffed it full and wrapped it all by herself. However, since we were moving and spending Christmas at G&G Spendloves, she let Lauren open her present early. They were both excited, one about giving and the other about receiving.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Rachel's Farewell

Rachel is moving to California next week and is really not looking forward to it. She will miss her friends dearly. So she wants to have one last get together with ALL of them.


Please come in your pajamas, bring a pillow & blanket, a snack if you would like and an ORNAMENT wrapped for the gift exchange.


We are also collecting canned goods to donate to Katy Christian Ministries, if you would like to add to our collection, please bring something to donate. THANKS! Hope to see you there!!!

{This is what was on her invitation. And I really wanted to try and focus on the spirit of Christmas by the donations. We got a pretty nice box full of canned goods we collected from all the parties.}

The Girls: Isabelle, Rachel, Hannah, Nathie, Shea, Madison, Erin, Camilla, Lexy, Avery, Amanda, Alivia, Amber, Ashley.

This party was a lot of fun, but I am sooooo glad I don't have ALL girls. Along with all the high pitched screaming, they played hide-n-seek, nerf guns, ornament gift exchange, ate lots of sugar and watched .

This was the coveted ornament. Rachel ended up with it but, since we were packing and just didn't have ANY room and because she was being nice, Isabel went home with it.

Just a cute pose of the party girls.

I think we ended up with about 14 girls. I was trying to get all of them in this picture.

Coming down off their sugar high....or getting ready for sugar high #2.

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