Goodbye 2006! Hello 2007!

Out in the Country

Behind our home is state protected forest. It's beautiful with all the leaves. It's beautiful covered in snow (even though I dislike the snow). During the winter, without snow, it can be so beautiful with deer walking around. Lately, we've had a lot of deer visiting up close right behind our house. Jamie and I have been taking a ton of pictures in hopes of getting a few good shots to be able to frame and put up. Here's a few I took. I'm sure we will have more soon.

Christmas 2006

What a wonderful Christmas we had! The kids had a wonderful day and that meant so much to Jamie and I but the best gift to us was our families spending time with us and one another and having a great time. I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the day, especially when everyone was here but I was busy with cooking and talking and playing.

I think the best way to share our Christmas is through the pictures that we took. Enjoy!

I got some pictures in of what it looked like after Santa Claus came but before the kids were up.



Of course we had to get some nice pictures of the kids in front of the tree before opening their gifts. I thought Jasmine would explode from having to wait. She was up first, then Jenna, followed by Jacob, Jordan was next and then James.



Jordan's "big" gift was his PlayStation Portable (PSP). He wanted one so bad and through a little "fibbing", Jamie tricked him into thinking he was getting something totally different. Needless to say, he was totally surprised. He got a bunch of great games for it (Madden 2007, Sudoku, Tony Hawk to name a few), a couple of movies and a nice case. The graphics on it are unbelievable. It holds pictures, movies, videos and music as well. It's an amazing game system. Jamie and I kept wanting to play with it. I know what I'll be doing when he goes back to school on January 2nd.



Jasmine and James got VTech Nitro Notebooks. They can play games and it has a ton of learning utilities on it, including Social Studies and Spanish. There is even a part on it where they can just type and the keyboard is set up like a regular keyboard. Totally cool!



Jacob got a Diego *house*. It makes some cool sounds and has all the animals from his favorite episodes. He also got a Diego stuffed doll, the Diego rescue vehicle that goes with the house and some other Diego things.



Jasmine got a keyboard from her Daddy. It's really nice. It has a screen on it that teaches you songs and what keys to press. She wants to take lessons to play. Here's a little video we took when she opened it.

Jacob and James both got bikes and were super excited about them. James can't wait to learn WITHOUT training wheels. Santa knew this and got him a bike without them.



This is Jacob being "Diego" ~ he wore the utility belt all day long. He also got a Diego walkie talkie and field journal ~ if you have seen Diego, you know what these are. Now if he gets a rescue pack, he'll totally look like Diego!



Jasmine and James played with her dollhouse, which she already had. She just got a ton of the accessories to go with it. It's a really cute dollhouse with interactive pieces that make noise.




The kids got a lot of really nice things from Santa, from us, from our family and friends. It was a wonderful day filled with presents, family and food.

Gearing up for Christmas!

What a busy day we had! It started off with cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Jenna was eating them just like a proper lady. Some people would call it a Kodak moment. I like to call them "scrappable" moments. She is always doing silly things like this to crack us up. We never know what she's going to do next. She is definitely a wild one!



After breakfast, Jasmine wanted to make her famous pumpkin bread. We decided to put them in muffin tins to make it easier on everyone eating Christmas morning. She loves her cooking set that is sized to fit her.

After the pumpkin bread, Jasmine made sugar cookies complete with sprinkles.



The rest of the day was spent cooking and getting things ready. I made peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I made a few other dishes that you can make ahead of time for our Christmas dinner. Jamie got the smoker ready for the deer and tested out the deep fryer on some chicken wings that were awesome. I'm getting so excited! I love watching my children's faces light up Christmas morning. I love everyone being together. I'm hoping with all this food I'm cooking and serving that it will keep everyone here just a bit longer. More holiday entries coming soon!

What a crazy weekend!

First I want to give a little background on Jamie's grandmother that we went to visit. For those that don't know, Jamie's mom has MS and is in a vegetative state. This grandmother is Jamie's mom's step-mom. Jamie's "real" grandmother died when Jamie's mom was very young so this was the only mom she really knew and loved her as such. Jamie's mom was the only one to stay in touch with her once they became adults. Jamie's parents, Jamie and his sister would visit her every Sunday. Once Jamie's mom got sick with MS, they didn't visit as often and once she stopped walking and talking, the visits stopped. They did stay in touch over the phone. Jamie hadn't seen her in 15 years and has been wanting to visit.

So Saturday Jamie took off and we went to visit his grandmother! She only lives like 45 minutes to an hour away. She didn't know we were coming. She answered the door and said "Yes, can I help you?" Jamie said "I was coming to visit my grandmother." She got all big eyed and was like "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Get in this house right now!" She was crying and just hugging him. The kids and I had never met her, obviously and she was hugging us all like we had known each other for years. And I felt at home in her house. I've never know Jamie's mother while she was well so I felt like I was meeting a part of her, if that makes sense. Jamie tells me all the time I do things or say things that remind him exactly of his mom. The way he talks about her and the rest of the family, I really think we would have been great friends and I'm so sad I'll never get that. Anyway, we visited for about 5 hours. Jamie's uncle (who is only like 5 years older than him) came by. They showed me pictures of Jamie as a kid, of his mom when she was well, told me stories I had never heard (painful for Jamie to talk about and also some embarrassing ones he "swears" didn't happen). It was an awesome day. We came home and put the Christmas tree up.

Sunday I went shopping for the kiddos. We hadn't gotten one present to date and I got everything today. Jamie said he might pick up a few things for them. I think Jasmine needs one more "bigger" gift though. I can't wait to see their faces when they open their gifts. I did really good on what I got the kids. I didn't go overboard as Jamie tends to do and I do too. It's just too much stuff so I focused on getting them a couple of really great gifts that I knew they would play with. I hope I might the right choices.

I'm still without a dryer. I had to go to the laundromat again last night. It's nice doing all my loads of laundry at once but I really miss my dryer.

Pizza Time

I guess I'm in another scrapping kind of mood so watch out! I'll find any reason to scrap, er....preserve family memories! On to today's scrap.... Jenna loves pizza. She is loving life right now because Daddy is in a pizza mood. She sees the box and gets so excited! She runs to her high chair. She was chowing down on two slices and was singing. You can tell in the pictures where it appears she is whistling. If you ask her if she likes it, she shakes her head vigorously yes and gets this huge cheesy grin on her face.

Bath Time is FUN!

Jacob and Jenna always have a blast in the tub. I got some pictures the other night and did some digiscraps out of them.

NexStitch ROCKS!

I've been trying for months now to teach myself to crochet. I googled sites. I got every book from the library. I could get the first chain on there and then I was completely and totally lost. A friend suggested a site to me. Upon checking out the site, I found another site that had actual video tutorials. OK, great. I've found these before. A stitch or two and that's all they show you. Nope, not this one. This one shows you about 10 stitches. She walks you through it. Again, I had been trying for months and couldn't get it. I watched the first video once. I grabbed my crochet hook and yarn and sat and watched it again. I did it! I finally had it. So I watched another video and got it again! I totally love this site! NexStitch ~ check it out if you have been wanting to crochet but just couldn't get it! It's like having your grandmother sitting next to you teaching you.

Our Santa Visit

As always, my mom and I took the kids to see Santa at Fair Oaks mall. Just look at him ~ he is the epitome of what everyone thinks of when they think "Santa Claus". He is really nice too and very patient with the children, even when they are screaming. He really makes you wonder if he is the real Mr. Claus. Every year, the mall display is decked out in a movie theme. This year it is Happy Feet! Such a great movie, from what I've heard, and it makes a wonderful display.

We got there just as it was time for Santa to go feed his penguins, as we had planned to do. Santa's break lasts 45 minutes. The display yields a wonderful opportunity to get some beautiful shots of the kids. With Oma in tow, bathroom breaks are easy as well. There was probably about 8 or 10 families in front of us. When we got in line, we were perfectly positioned in front of the large quantities of poinsettias. We got quite a few great pictures of the kids together and individually. Mrs. Claus and an elf came through to give the children crayons, paper and other little goodies for standing in line so well.

Santa returned and the line moved up some. We then came upon some really cool Happy Feet displays. The kids were checking them out and I got more fun pictures.

After a few minutes, we got to go in the human snow globe. It's this beautifully decorated globe with "real" snow. The snow is made from rice for kids like Jenna and Jacob who like to eat it. It falls down on top of everyone and looks like real snow.

Finally, after about an hour from first stepping into line, we get to Santa. Jordan, James and Jasmine go up with no problems. Jenna is upset in Jordan's arms. He's usually in charge of holding her in pictures. He does so well. Jacob isn't so sure about this big guy but he goes up anyway. The kids are all talking to him, telling them what they want and we get a beautiful picture, even though Jenna is obviously upset in it.

The overall experience was great. The kids were great in line. Other parents and grandparents were commenting on how great they were and the usual "Are they all yours?" kind of questions were asked.

Afterwards, Oma took the kids to Build-A-Bear to get outfits for their Frosty the Snowmen Build-A-Bear that Oma got them last year when we visited Santa.