It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This is the first year that I have had my own place that I can decorate for Christmas. I've lived in apartments by myself before, but never really felt like it was home enough to decorate. This year I am really excited to put up things that I have been purchasing over the past few years!!! My Dad came over this morning and helped me get the tree up.

The tree looks a little funny here. I put the random loose ornaments on the tree so they wouldn't get lost.

I'm going to wait to put the rest of the ornaments on it when Thomas and Noelle can come over to help.

While Noelle took her nap, I decided to attempt to put the Christmas decorations up that my Dad brought over. I was so excited to have some of the ornaments and decorations that we had when I was a child. They brought back found memories. I hope that Thomas and Noelle enjoy them as much as I did. I want to start traditions with them that they will always remember doing with Auntie and Christmas. This is such a special time of year and I'm really lucky that I get to share it with them.

This calendar was such a hit when I was a kid. Troy, Kelly and I loved getting up in the morning and checking the calendar to see what the elf's brought during the night.

A few years ago I picked out a snowman theme for my Christmas decorations and have been picking things up slowly. A lot of things that I picked out are Red, White and Blue.

That worked out great because I figured out that it is difficult decorating for Christmas when your house is decorated like the 4th of July the rest of the year.

I put all of the things that can't get broken on the coffee table so I don't have to worry about the kids getting them. It's a little hodgepodge but Thomas and Noelle wont know it.

I bought the stockings last Christmas. I think they are totally cute!!

Just as Noelle was waking up, I was finishing putting all of the boxes away. I just couldn't wait so I decided to put the lights on the tree. I put up two of the stings and then the third one of course didn't work. So, I packed up Noelle and we headed back to Target to return the broken box and get a couple more boxes . It figured that they were out of the flickering ones, so I'm going to have flickering ones on the top and the plain ones on the bottom of the tree. I didn't care though. I was so excited to have a tree with lights on it that it didn't matter that they all didn't match (they are all multi color) and those of you that know me well know that having things that don't match perfectly makes me a little crazy. As soon as we got home I got Noelle settled eating her dinner so I could finish putting the lights on the tree. I'm sad to say that the tree of lights wasn't such a great hit with Noelle. When she was done eating I took her over to the tree and let her look at it. As soon as I put her down she started crying and ran away from it. Needless to say she didn't really like it. I think it will be a matter of time before she loves it as much as I do!!! At least I hope so.

I don't have a picture of the tree with the lights because I'm to tired to take one and download it. However, while I was sitting there admiring all of the decorations and the tree I got a little emotional. I feel so lucky that I have such a nice home. I'm so lucky to have such a great family that loves and supports me. I have a great job, great friends, food on the table and good health what more could I ask for.

I got some great pictures of Noelle yesterday when she was playing on her new Toy. I thought they were cute.

I have so much to be Thankful for...

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is over and we are on our way for Christmas.  This year has flown by. I woke up Thanksgiving morning remembering last years Thanksgiving feast.  Christina, Kelsey and I (mainly Christina) made dinner for an Army. We had 13 people for dinner and we had more dishes then we had people. We even made homemade cinnamon rolls from scratch twice because the first ones burned because we were having to much fun and weren't paying attention. It was such a blast.  Matt flew down from Idaho and spent the weekend and the day after we went to Big Tree's. I just can't believe how quickly this year has past and how much things have changed since then. 

This year we celebrated twice but it was much more low key and relaxing. Thanksgiving morning Thomas, Noelle and I went to my Dad's and spent time with him.  The kids love going out in Grandpa's backyard and playing so they went and played chase.  The  cold  weather (it was pretty foggy) didn't seem to bother them. 

I took Thomas to 7-11 for a Thanksgiving slurpee which he dripped all down his shirt so he had to wear grandpa's shirt while his was getting washed.

Thomas is such a good big brother.  Noelle was chasing him and she fell down so he went back to make sure she was OK.

 

Later in the afternoon I took the kids over to my Mom's for a perfectly prepared Thanksgiving dinner.  Kelly and Dave came to have dinner before leaving for work. We had all the traditional things and wonderful desserts!

My Aunt Paula and Scott came from Cotati and spent the day with my Mom. Aunt Paula helped with the wonderful dinner and desserts. It was great to spend time with them.  I haven't seen them in a long time.  It was great catching up. After dinner Ryan picked up Thomas to go back to his house.  I gave Noelle a bath and after that she passed out.

Mom offered to keep her overnight and I of course jumped on that so I went home and slept really really good (thanks to that lovely Thanksgiving dinner).  I'm not one of those ones who get up at 3:00am to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving so I slept in and enjoyed some time to myself before Mom dropped her off.  It was a great day!!!

An Early Thanksgiving

Yesterday we had a wonderful early Thanksgiving.  Kelly and Dave are working on Thanksgiving day and Thomas will be with his Dad so we decided to "pretend" that it was Thanksgiving.  We had a great family day.  Thomas and I made hot chocolate in the morning and as Thomas would say it was "fantastic".  We then met Kelly, Dave and Noelle at my Dad's house for a day of Thanksgiving activities.

Thomas, Noelle and I went on a walk to collect leaves for a little art project.  Since it was pretty foggy here the leaves were wet so we let them dry a little before we did our coloring.   

Then we had a nice lunch and a very short nap before making our Thanksgiving cookies.  Saturday morning I was finally able to find some Thanksgiving cookie cutters.  Thank You to Beyond Pots and Pans!!  We had a turkey, leave, acorn and apple.  Thomas did a good job at cutting the cookies out.

Then we waited for the cookies to cool and for Noelle to wake up from her nap.  Then the fun started.  I don't think I need to write much... the pictures will tell there own story.

Noelle was signing she wanted more in this picture. 

Thomas' first creation.

Then Thomas and I went and delivered some of the cookies to Grandma. We got home just in time to eat dinner.  Dad and Kelly made a fabulous meal!!!! I am very Thankful for my wonderful family.

Now I get to look forward to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with Mom and Aunt Paula and Scott.

A great weekend in San Diego

I had a great weekend in San Diego.

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Thanks Troy and Julie for a fantastic weekend. Happy Birthday Julie!!!!

The month of HALLOWEEN activities is over.

October was filled with Halloween activities. We did a lot of baking, decorating the house, watching Halloween videos, you name it we did (several times) we even carved pumpkins twice. As Thomas and Noelle get older it makes the holidays so much more fun. Last year Thomas was afraid the pumpkin "guts" and wouldn't go near the pumpkin until it was all cleaned up. This year he dug right in and had a great time taking the "guts" out himself. This is a huge improvement coming from the kid that doesn't like to be dirty. Overall, we had a great Halloween and we are all looking forward to a month of Thanksgiving. And this year, we all have a lot to be thankful for....

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Apple Hill 2008

Last weekend we were quite busy with Halloween activities. For years we have been going up to Apple Hill in October. I love to see the leaves changing colors and falling. The apples are fantastic and watching all the families with their children having so much fun makes the long drive well worth it. And, the apple crisp at Kids Inc. makes us come back every year!!!! Kelly and I decided to make it a whole weekend of Halloween activities because Thomas was going to be with Ryan on Halloween. So, we started the weekend making Halloween cupcakes. Thomas made is special friend, Sarah, her own personal cupcake for her birthday. It was very cute. Then that evening we watched a few Halloween videos. Then Saturday we went to Apple Hill. Thomas and I had a lot of fun getting lost in the corn maze. Noelle had her first pony ride. It took two tries to get her on the pony. The first time Kelly couldn't get Noelle to even sit on the pony so she let a few kids go before her. Then after seeing the other kids Noelle got right on and loved it. At the end of the ride Kelly could hardly get her off. We had a nice picnic at our normal stomping ground and watched the other kids fish. We went on a long hay ride per Thomas' request. He thought that was great. Then we went to another orchard and walked around to see the farm animals. They had lots of pigs, chickens, ducks, horses, and a donkey. Thomas really enjoyed the donkey until it sneezed on him. He did not find that funny at all!!! Then at the next apple orchard we saw a clown doing a show. It was VERY funny and the kids really enjoyed it. Until, the clown tried to use is dog as a cannon ball and well the trick didn't work so well. The clown picked a man from the audience to help. He had a huge net and was suppose to catch the "fake" dog in it, run to the clown so he could put the real dog in the net. Well the man didn't catch the "fake" dog and instead ran to the clown with the "fake" one still laying on the ground. It was a bust!! It was pretty funny though. Then on Sunday we went to Grandpa's house and carved pumpkins. It was a perfect weekend.

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