In Loving Memory of ...

It is with great sadness I am writing this post. My Uncle Tom passed away this morning. He has been sick for quite awhile and as much as I am so sad I am happy that he is no longer suffering. On Jesus' Birthday my Uncle will be celebrating right along side him, how amazing! My Uncle was a great brother to my mom. A wonderful son, always there to help when my Grandma needed it. A teriffic dad to 4 really great kids and a loving husband. Most of all, to me, an awsome uncle.

I Love you Uncle Tom, you will always hold a special place in my heart.

Candy House

The gingerbread house website that I posted a few days ago was so much fun that I decided to buy one of those kits and attempt to make one with Grace. Once I got the house put together I let Grace go to town putting all of the candy on. She kept calling it the "Candy House", it was so cute. Daddy even joined in the fun. Our final house was pretty pathetic, but special all the same. Here are some cute pics.

Oh Christmas Tree

We have had our Christmas tree up for 2 weeks now, but I am just getting around to putting the pictures here on my blog. We picked out our tree and brought it home and didn't realize how big it was until we actually got it in the house. It is biggest, most beautiful tree we have ever had. After 2 weeks it still smells so good! Grace was such a big helper when we were decorating. She got out the little step stool that I keep in the kitchen and she put ornaments on the tree like a pro. She was so good at finding an open space and hanging the ornament. All of the ornaments on the bottom of the tree she put on herself and I didn't even move any of them! There was one ornamant that I told her she could take on and off the tree as may times as she wants. For a little while it was in a different place everyday, until Penny (our dog) ate it. Grace must have left it on the floor by the tree, either that or it fell off. Oh well. I don't think Grace has even noticed. After the first couple of days she has lost interest in the tree anyway.

Another COOL website

Remember making paper snowflakes when you were little? I loved unfolding the paper to see what beautiful creation came from just a few cuts. Well, here is a cool website where you can create virtual snowflakes. Beware ... it's addicting!

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/

Virtual Ginger Bread House

I know I haven't posted in a little while. I have been very busy Christmas shopping, decorating and wrapping. I will post pictures of our Christmas tree soon.

Here is a fun little website to get you in the Christmas spirit. You can build your own virtual ginger bread house. Just click on the link below.

http://www.jennybharris.com/activities/home/sweethome.htm

HAVE FUN!

Thanksgiving

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone! Before you know it Christmas will be here.

This year Thanksgiving was at my house. I have never had Thanksgiving at my house in San Diego and it's been at least 5-6 years since I have had Thanksgiving at all. Needless to say I was VERY excited to host it. I went all out to make it a great Thanksgiving. My husband was scared ... I tend to plan, plan, plan and if something doesn't go as planned I tend to get upset or stressed. In my defense, I just want everybody to have a great time, that's all. After all was said and done ... I totally went with the flow and enjoyed the day. At the end of the night the food, the fancy placecards, the turkey trivia, the pumpkin bread favors, didn't matter at all. The kids totally made our Thanksgiving. Grace, Hailey and Trsitan were HILARIOUS! I think I will let the pictures tell the story ...

Here are the angels coloring their Thanksgiving pages that I printed out for them ... till Tristan colored on my tile floor. Thank God for washable crayons :)

The only way we could get the 3 of them to sit for a picture is to promise them pumpkin pie or as Grace says "numkin pie"

Here they are sitting at their table sort of patiently waiting for their pie. All they did until we brought their pie over was laugh and yell PUMPKIN PIE over and over. It was cracking us up. How do they know what pumpkin pie is?

The pie arrived and there was silence. This is what we saw ...

After pumpkin pie Kelly and Chris needed to head home so they got the kids in their PJ for the long drive. I took that opportunity to get Grace in her PJ's too. The kids played for a little while in Grace's room. We tried very hard to get another picture of the 3 of them laying on the bed, but it didn't work. Here is what I got ...

Tristan pretending to sleep and Grace doing her cheeseball smile ...

Hailey did NOT want to stay dressed ...

Kelly got Hailey redressed and she found a spot on the floor and undressed again ...

Here is Grace and Tristan sitting on the bed looking down on Hailey wondering what the heck she is doing ...

All this time in the bedroom we had the Baby Einstein Holiday music playing so Grace wanted to dance with Aunt Kelly. Here is a short video clip ... Tristan joins in by jumping on the bed. Watch will the end it is really funny! Don't mind Kelly and my mom talking in the background ... I am not even sure what they were talking about.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2169967475049577901

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

God Bless!

Fall Is Here

The weather is finally cooling down, or at least it's not in the 80's anymore and Thanksgiving is next week ... I am so excited about the holidays. I get to have Thanksgiving dinner at my house, which I am SOOOOO jazzed about, I think that Grace is going to be a ton of fun this year during the holidays, and we are going up to San Francisco for a couple of days right after Christmas. There is a lot to look forward to!

I made a few fall crafts to get me in the mood for the season. Here is a pumpkin topiary that I made. It looks so pretty sitting by my front door.

Here are some little Thanksgiving Blessing bags I made for the kids at daycare.

Disneyland

Today we decided to make use of our Disneyland annual passes that we purchased when we were up there in June. I thought it might be a good weekend to go because they just finished up their big Halloween thing that they do and the lighting of the Christmas decorations isn't until next weekend. We got up early and we were out of the house by 6:30 am! About halfway up to Disneyland we stopped for Starbucks and a lite breakfast and we were boarding the tram from the parking structure to the parks at about 8:10 am. Somewhere between home and Disneyland Grace lost the bow that we put in her hair so Tim wanted to find her a disney bow (he is such a great dad). After finding a cute bow we noticed that the line for Peter Pan was short, that NEVER happens! Peter Pan is one of those rides that the wait is always long no matter what. So we rode that then we rode Dumbo, Autopia, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Caribean, Hauted Mansion, and Winnie the Pooh. When we came out of Winnie the Pooh Grace spotted the photo area where Tigger was and she seemed interested. Last time we went to Disneyland she freaked out when the characters came near her. So we got in line to take pictures with Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger and Grace did great! Maybe Santa won't be so bad this year. By the time we were done getting pictures done it was almost 1:00 pm and we were all hungry and Grace was getting tired so we decided to leave the park and grab a bite to eat at Downtown Disney then we headed home. We were't even out of the parking lot when Grace was sound asleep. It was a really great day!

Wicked

Our Anniversary was this weekend. To celebrate we went up to Los Angeles to see the the musical Wicked. I cannot not say enough about this show. It is SPECTACULAR, AMAZING, TERRIFIC, AWSOME ... I'm sure you get the idea. Everybody MUST see this show. I saw it with some friends when it came to San Diego a little over a year ago and fell in love with it then. I went out and bought the soundtrack the next day and I have been playing it in the car ever since. Seeing it the second time it was even better then the first, I have fallen in love with it all over. I want to go see it again! Tim really enjoyed it. Not only did he let me listen to the sound track all the way home to San Diego the next day, but I even caught him singing along!

Trick Or Treat

Adopted Friends Playgroup

Pumkin Patch

This past week has been crazy here in San Diego. The fires did not threaten our home, thank God! There are so many people that were not as lucky as us. Please take a moment to pray for all of those who lost so much in the terrible fires. May God be with them as they try to rebuild their life.

Now that the fires have died down and the air is getting a little better we decided to venture out to the pumpkin patch. It was a fun afternoon. Grace fed a llama, picked out her own pumkin and rode down a very HUGE slide. I hope everyone has a very fun and safe Halloween this week!