All in the Family

My Aunt Marcia and Uncle Mike live in Ft. Bragg, so we don't get much opportunity for seeing them. They came earlier this week in their motor home to stay for a few days and visit. This was the first time they met Holly, and she thought they were lots of fun!

While growing up, I always had the name YaYa for my Aunt Marcia. I have no idea how it began as that, but that is just always what it was. So, when the boys met them, we decided to keep up the tradition and my Uncle Mike is now YoYo.

We spent some time outside at Mimi's house while visiting with YaYa and YoYo and Holly showed off her new walking skills. She took her first steps just 1 week ago, but now really is getting the hang of it.

The boys have such a fun time playing outside in Mimi's yard.

Today we went to Whitney Park in Rocklin to meet with my family while they are in town. It was a beautiful sunny 70 degree day out and we made the most of it. It may be snowing and freezing everywhere else in the country right now, but they don't call it sunny California for nothing!

Carson and Holly love the swings! It is their favorite thing to do at the park!

At the park, we met with YaYa, YoYo and my cousin Eric with his family. We thought the park would be a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon all together. We had a great picnic that YoYo and YaYa brought and the kids wore themselves out playing. Tate and Brandon are both starting t-ball next month, so my cousin Eric pitched a few to each of the kids. This was Carson's turn at bat.

We tried to take a picture of all the kids, but its nearly impossible to get 5 kids ages 5 and under to all take a nice photo. Carson, Holly, Tate, Brandon, and Ellie had a really fun time playing and having a picnic. Brandon and Ellie belong to my cousin Eric and his wife Heather.

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year!!! Tate just loved these glasses and he loved all of the attention he got while wearing them as we ran our errands on New Years eve!!!

Our Christmas 2010

Our lovely decorated Christmas tree. Each year the kids get a few new ornaments of their very own. This year, the boys got superhero, Scooby Doo, and Mickey Mouse ornaments. Holly got a ballerina and Disney princess ornaments. I have always loved beautiful glass ornaments for our tree and I so enjoy the yearly tradition to add to the collection!

On Christmas eve, the Schlichting family came to our house for food, fun, and presents. We used our pool table for a gigantic buffet table since we had so many good things to eat!



Carson couldn't wait to start on the presents. Some of his favorites this year were, Toy Story tennis shoes, a "fur real" doggy, and a shark bath towel.

Tate opened (with Cheddar's help), new Lego's, "How to Train Your Dragon" cup and plate set, and Leap Frog learning numbers DVDs.

The boys love their Mimi!

After the Christmas eve party was over, the house was quiet, and kids asleep, Santa finally came to our house. In preparation, Tate put out milk and cookies for Santa, and oatmeal reindeer food on the front lawn. Santa brought Tate a castle with knights and horses, Carson received a Toy Story bicycle, and Holly got a ride-on pony and toy purse set.

Christmas morning, Tate was up first. We tried to procrastinate a bit so Carson could get a few more minutes of sleep, but Tate was too excited to wait any longer. We woke up Carson and Holly and all went downstairs together to see what Santa had brought. We all then opened presents from each other too. Holly was excited about her new princess cash register that her brothers picked out for her. I hope this toy doesn't promote a love of shopping and spending already!

Tate found lots of fun things in his stocking too!

Later in the day on Christmas Day, my dad and my grandparents stopped by our house for a brief hello and bring a few gifts. Then after their visit, we were on to our last event for the day. We went to Eric's parent's house for Christmas Dinner. The excitement of opening presents had not dwindled at all, even by the end of the day, so Tate happily distributed gifts to everyone.

Holly sat on RahRah's lap to open her "Little People" doll house.

I am wearing the sweater that Tate picked out for me for Christmas. Eric had taken both boys shopping so they could have the chance to each personally pick out a gift for me. Tate did a great job, I love this sweater! Carson's gift was so thoughtful too. He carefully chose for me a vanilla scented candle and a 6 pack of rainbow colored lighters to go with it. I am so lucky to have such great boys!

At the end of the evening, it was time to put on pjs and get comfy before heading home from RahRah and Papa's house. The boys had such a busy day, that they both ended up falling asleep during the 10 minute car ride home and were carried up to bed for the night.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!

Our visit with Santa went great!! Holly was less then thrilled, but the boys had fun. The rainy day must have kept other kids at home because there was no line at all to see Santa. So, the boys had plenty of time to talk with Santa and let him know their requests.

Christmas wish list

Tate has been practicing writing his numbers and letter at school, so what better way to do this then by writing his Christmas wish list. He had some interesting requests which I found amusing, so his list is shown up close in the photo below.

His list says:

Tate

I want is
1. Stinky (a garbage truck named "Stinky")

2. Transformer

3. Toy Dog

4. Baby Dragon

What he should be singing is " All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth". Tate was so happy and proud to have lost his second top front tooth....... and yes, I did have him sing this song for my video camera.

Oh Christmas tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we decided to take advantage of the sunny weather and head out to find our Christmas tree. All of the tree farms that we had been considering in Grassvalley and Foresthill were snowed in, so we decided to give the Davis family farm in Sloughhouse a try. This is the same farm that we go to each fall for our pumpkins, but this was our first visit there for a Christmas tree!

After careful tree selection, Carson supervised dad to make sure he knew how to cut it down.



Up close and personal with our new tree.

By that evening, the lights, ornaments, and star were all on our lovely Christmas tree. The boys helped by unwrapping each ornament from its tissue paper, and I would hang each ornament on the branches. We made a good team!

Thanksgiving Day 2010

As we do every year, we took our family Christmas card photo on Thanksgiving afternoon. Believe me when I say that it is not an easy trick to get all 5 of us sitting together, looking at the camera, and smiling at the same time!!!

My dad and grandparents came over in the early afternoon for a brief visit and some dessert!

My grandpa brought the boys each a '57 Corvette toy car. They loved their surprise treat and had fun racing them across the kitchen floor.


Then.....later in the afternoon, we hosted their second Thanksgiving event. Eric's brother Scott came over to help Eric deep fry the turkey. The boys were very interested in the whole idea of cooking the turkey with the pot out on the grass in our backyard.

The turkey turned out great! Our family enjoyed dinner with Eric's parents, Eric's brother Scott, and my mom. When asked what the boys were thankful for, Tate replied that he was thankful for his grandparents, and Carson said that he was thankful for Toy Story.