Christmas Week...

Monday through Wednesday the kids enjoyed being out of school, I enjoyed some Christmas baking, wrapping presents, and a break from a "schedule".


Wednesday night Dave and I stayed up late and finished our Christmas preparations. Presents were assembled, built, wrapped and stuffed. Which hopefully means we can turn in a little earlier than previous Christmas Eve's.


Thursday morning, Christmas Eve, we packed up the kiddos and made our way to Escondido to celebrate Christmas Eve with my parents. On the way we made a slight detour at Legoland. After all we had free tickets, that we just had to use before the end of the year. The kids had a great time playing, used up the remainder of their allowance on various Legos, and enjoyed a fun day.


Legoland 2009 Pictures


We then enjoyed delicious food, family, and unwrapping of presents at my parents.

Christmas Eve Pictures


Christmas morning found us at home cozy in pajamas and the kiddos opening their presents from Santa and the rest of their loot from Mom and Dad.  Natalie got a cute little kitchen (red, of course!), Caleb a new bike, and lots of train stuff, Joshua also received a bike, and walkie talkies, and Daniel enjoyed a handheld video recorder.

Christmas Day Pictures

We feasted on Christmas crepes, and eggs, and played with all the new toys.  That afternoon we all took naps (well Dave and I, and the little ones)  Afterwards we put our turkey in the oven, and started prepping for our early departure the next morning for Utah.

It was a wonderful Christmas, and a time to reflect on all of our many blessings, Faith, Family, and Christ.

Twas the Week Before Christmas...

So many things happened this week..It was busy, but fun!!

So from oldest to newest..

On Tuesday..
  Caleb had his Preschool Performance and Party.  It was simply adorable.  Six little preschoolers singing and making movements to favorite Christmas songs.  Dave and I agreed that this was our favorite..




Afterwards they had a gift exchange amongst the kids and a great party with fun treats afterwards.  So much fun!!

On Thursday..
  Josh had his first grade school performance, where they performed songs like Silent Night to Feliz Navidid.  He did a great job, here is my little singer after the performance...



  Tht afternoon we had a birthday party to celebrate Josh's 7th birthday.  He had over a few friends that enjoyed playing outside, making homemade pizza, presents, cupcakes and goodies.  It was his first birthday party with friends, an he had a blast.



Friday..
  We enjoyed an end to the crazy busy week of class parties, performances, getting teacher gifts in, presents in for gifts exchanges, cupcakes made for sidewalk sales, and goodies (non-sweet) ones for Josh's birthday.

  That evening we celebrated our low key family birthday with Josh's favorite place to eat out..In 'n Out, followed by a fun evening at Farell's Restaurant.  They just opened one near us, and it took Dave and I back to when we were kids.  We enjoyed the "Trough", some shakes, and Josh was sung to, while they beat on the big drum, and ran the siren.  So much fun!!



Saturday...
  We took a drive down to Escondido, so the kids could enjoy grandpa's Christmas Party at the Optomist Club.  They played while Dave and I left them in grandma and grandpa's care so we could celebrate our Anniversary.  We drove by familiar spots, our reception site, the San Diego Temple and I can't believe these past twelve years have just flown by.  Over 17 years ago we shared our first kiss.  12 years ago we were sealed in the temple, and now four kids later, I still love him more than ever!!
 

Don't let the bugs bite..

So tonight I put the boys to bed, and after prayers were said, and all philosophical random questions were answered, I started to close their door and say my final goodnight.  To which I heard

"Dream of bugs biting"

I said, you must mean "Don't let the bed bugs bite"
(which is what we always said as kids, and is quite gross when you think about it's true meaning.)

And they said in unison "No, dream of bugs, but don't let them pop your balloon"

"Balloon??", I said

"Your dream balloon (cloud), don't let them pop it when they bite"

I'm not sure where they come up with this stuff, but they were quite pleased with themselves, and I enjoyed a good laugh.

Goodnight my sweet boys, and dream of bugs biting!!

My little award winner..

On Monday, the elementary school held their first award assembly for the year.  I received a note from Josh's teacher that he would be receiving an award.  Thanks to my great friend Shauna, who watched the little ones, I was able to surprise Josh and be there for him.

His award was for creativity in class and arts.  Love those first grade awards!!

Ditto!!!

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Thanksgiving & Puppies

For Thanksgiving this year we were invited to the beautiful home of my brothers' in-laws.  We joined my parents, my brother and his little family, and all of their family for a wonderful day. 

The kids were super excited to be entertained by their newest additions, two little eight week old puppies...















I couldn't find any cute ones of Josh with the puppies, but had to get one of him in, since he looked so nice. Here he is playing with some of Autsin's old toys.

Pumpkin Muffins, pure Deliciousness!!

So for Thanksgiving I thought I'd share a favorite recipe (Pamela's), which are absolutely delish pumpkiny goodness.  


Pumpkin Muffins


Mix Together:
 4 eggs
 1 2/3 c sugar
 1 c oil
 1 15oz pumpkin


Whisk Together:
 2 c flour
 2 tsp cinnamon
 1 tsp ginger
 1 tsp clove
 1 tsp salt
 1 tsp baking soda
 2 tsp baking powder


Slowly add the dry ingrediends to the moist ingredients.


For cupcakes: Bake 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes
For pumpkin bars: Bake 350 degrees for 25 minutes in a jelly roll pan


Cream Cheese Frosting


3 oz cream cheese
1/2 c butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 c powdered sugar


The frosting makes them simply delicious, and I usually double the recipe for cupcakes, but keep it the same for the pumpkin bars.


Enjoy!!

I'm almost done..

Done with what you may ask..


Christmas shopping!!


I have exactly two gifts left to purchase, and then I'm done...with the shopping part.


I do need to finsih quite a few handmade gifts, but a huge load will be off my mind when the actual visitng of stores, or shopping online has finished.


My deadline..before Thanksgiving.


Which is roughly three days away!!


Wish me luck!!

What?

Natalie's new catch phraze is What?, What! What...


She is such a little imp, climbing and getting into everything, yet so cute and sweet.  Here are a few pics Dave snapped of her impish self in the backyard...

Notice how she is just too busy to actually look at the camera...What!


(The adorable outfit is from my friend Melissa's clothing line Knuckleheads (boys) and Hula Mula (girls)

The verdict is in..

Yesterday I had Caleb's Final Speech Review.  We went over test scores, talked about accomplishments and goals and put a plan into action.


Here are some of the details:

• He has excellent gross and fine motor skills, and in some cases was off the chart (super fast at putting puzzles together, even ones with tiny small pieces)
• His verbal, performance and full scale IQ's are right on target (He's a smart little guy)
  
• His social/emotional and adaptive behavior are also right where they should be.
• Then we get to speech and language..

1. He did excellent at interpreting spoken sentences of increasing length and complexity.
2. He didn't do so well at morphology and using appropriate pronouns.
3. He did significantly below average on articulation. (Which was really no surprise, and our main reason for getting the testing.)
4. He has difficulty with several sounds varying on where they are located in the word.  He drops certain sounds in both the initial (beginning), medial (middle) and final (ending) position of a word.
5. He also had difficulty with L, R, and S blends (such as bl, gl, sl, sp, dr, i.e....)
6. His biggest issues are both the S blends, and deletion of the final consanants (i.e. hou for house)

• They also tested him for hearing, vision, and if there are any physical reasons why he would be unable to make certain sounds.  He did great on all these tests, and for the exception of his missing front teeth (which would make s and f sounds more like sh) he is perfectly capable of hearing, and making the needed sounds.

So, Caleb will start Speech Therapy twice a week for 30 min.  Their first goals are:

• /s/ clusters
• Final Consonant Deletions 
• Medial Consonant Deletion
• Velar Fronting /k/ and /g/
  

If he needs more time they might add a day, and another one on one workshop (Language Builders).


We are excited to start work on this, and he is thriving in his preschool environment and he is doing fantastic socially.  Both speech therapists and teachers believe he will be prepared to start Kindergarten next fall.


So there ya have it, lots of words I know, but wanted to share all the nitty gritty details, just in case you wanted to know!!

Halloween

Check out my cuties..



Daniel (Luigi) and Josh (Mario) as the Mario Bros.



Caleb as Ironman



Natalie as a Charger Cheerleader


A few more Trunk 'r Treat Pics


Trick or Treating Halloween night








Oh, What fun we had!!

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we visited the cutest ever ranch, hidden in the tiny town of Yucaipa.  This ranch has been around since the 1800's, and is still a working apple grove that produces over 20 different kinds of apples.  I wanted something rustic, cute, and fun, and we found it!! 

We parked our car near the Colonial House, and then were taken via hayride to the front of the ranch.  We saw the large dining hall, and General Store, and made our way up the hill to the massive pumpkin patches.  The kids ran around forever in rows and rows of pumpkins, and Natalie took several spills (she had to keep up with the boys after all!).  We all picked out our perfect pumpkins and then Daddy wheeled them to the car.



  We did more explooring, and Natalie played with the goats.  She was so fearless and went right to feeding each and every one.



We then feasted on fresh roasted corn, and ribs for lunch, while we were seranaded by a cute folksy band in period costumes.  Afterwards we checked out the cider press, and a few other attractions before leaving with full bellies, and a ginormous 5 pound apple pie.

Fieldtrip

Caleb had his first preschool field trip yesterday.  It was to a local petting zoo donned with a Halloween festivities.   Natalie and I tagged along to get in on the fun.

The kids enjoyed..

 





feeding and petting bunny rabbits and guinea pigs.





riding on horses and ponies.





riding on goats, err.. playing with goats



picking out the perfect pumpkin

I'm Off!!

Tonight, my best friend and I board a plane bound for New York. Just two girls alone in the city without any kids, no plans, and no schedules to keep. I can't wait!!

Caleb Preschool Music - September

Play Dates

This week has found me in a whirlwind of playdates.  Daniel at his friends house, his friends at our house, the neighbor at our house, Caleb at a friends house, taking Josh's friend to the beach. 

But someone is always without a play date.  Unless you count mommy as her perpetual playmate, but I don't think that really counts. So this week we got together two sweet little girls, to see how they would do for hours without their mommys.  If they did well, this could mean we could help out in the boy's classrooms, run errands solo, the possibilities are endless.

Well, they did fantastic..so cute and sweet are these two little two year olds.

I received this picture as I was getting a pedicure yesterday (by myself!!)

So sweet!!

I came home Wednesday night after Enrichment to find this...



Thursday after work we picked up this...





Friday evening, Dave started in, and by Saturday morning we had this..




Just another craigslist find..

Every weekend should end this way..