Visiting Santa Claus

The kids visited Santa Claus today after school and told him all their requests.  There wish list is as follows:
Kya ~ A Baby Doll
Seth ~ Chaps and Gloves for ropin' and ridin'
Elsie ~ The movie "Cowgirls and Angels" and she was very specific that she wants to own it, not rent it like mommy tends to do. LOL

Oh, how they grow!

We put our tree up today and when I put out the kids 1st Christmas pictures, they wanted me to take a picture.  It is amazing to see how much they have changed and grown.

Kya was 10 months old for her 1st Christmas and today she is 7 years old.  She has a lot more hair now, but I still think she pretty much looks the same.

Seth was 5 months old for his 1st Christmas and here is now 6 years old.  He was such a calm baby, but boy has he become quite the active young man.  All boy!!!

Elsie was our youngest Christmas baby, being only 6 weeks old.  Now at 5 years of age, she is full of spunk, charm and cuddles.

I think I will have to take similar picture when they turn 18 years!  I was saying to Wayne while we were decorating the tree that my favorite part is pulling out the ornaments the kids made at school/church and reliving the memories from each year.

Thanksgiving Day 2012

Thanksgiving seems to be a pretty difficult day for us these past few years and this one was no exception.  On Wednesday, I made the pies and rolls, so the only thing I planned on doing on the actual day was make potatoes and get the kids & myself ready.

Instead, our water heater had other plans for us.  The connector hose broke and we ended up with a partially flooded basement.  No bueno!  Luckily, Wayne was able to get it fixed, but then when he went to turn the water back on, the hose behind our toilet decided to leak and he couldn't figure out how to get it to stop.  Ugh!  We turned the water on long enough for me to make the potatoes and for all of us to get our showers.  Then we turned the water off, figuring we would deal with it when we got back home, and headed on down to the in-laws house where we had a great time.

We arrived just in time to eat and then did our traditional pictures, had desert and visited for a bit.

Cousins!  My kids love their cousin Erica and even though she is 13 years older than Kya, she is great with them and takes the time to play.

My in laws have a  gorgeous view from their back yard.  So we always take a picture outside.  It will is also fun to see how the kids change each year with the same back ground view.

Festival of Lights at Mission Inn

Last night my parents and us went over to see the Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn. I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures of any of us, but here are a few I got from a friend who was also there.

Charity & Justin's Wedding

My cousin got married yesterday!  She truly was one of the most beautiful brides ever.  She got married at the Mission Inn in Riverside, CA inside their chapel, which resembles a mini Westminster Abbey.

Walking down the isle to her soon to be husband.

While waiting for them to finish their pictures, we posed for a few pictures ourselves.  It is not everyday that we get to dress up!

My mom & dad in front of the fountain in the courtyard.

At the reception with Charity.

My mom with Charity.

When Charity and her husband danced their first dance, I couldn't help but think that my girls would be in total awe, because she looked like a living princess.  And would you believe this gorgeous girly girl is a California Highway Patrol Officer, played professional women's ice hockey and is a model???  Yup, she is all of that and more!!!  We wish you and Justin many years of happiness and a house full of babies.  Love ya!

1st Quarter Awards

Seth and Elsie had their awards ceremony last week.  We missed Seth receiving his first award, but were very thankful to have made it in time to see him get the second.  He said he was a little sad and scared when he didn't see us.  I felt so bad!  He received two awards, one for Perfect Attendance and the other for Student of the Month for August.

Elsie also received two awards.  One for Perfect Attendance and the other for Academic Excellence.   With her being in kindergarten, this was her first awards ceremony.  She was so fun to watch, because she was super excited to see us and kept waving instead of paying attention.  When it was her turn to get her award, she literally snatched it out of her teachers hand and ran up to the stage. oops!

Along with the awards, both kids also got coupons for a free hamburger at In-N-Out and a free meal at Denny's.

Halloween Costumes

Halloween was pretty low key this year, with it falling on a Wednesday.  I had a doctor appointment in the morning, followed by two parent teacher conferences.  Luckily, my mom came out to care for the kids.  Then we found out that Gymboree was having an amazing sale going on, so we went there and bought around $400 worth of clothes for only $50.  Can't beat that!  But, due to the sale, I wasn't able to make our annual pumpkin hot pockets and settled for McDonald's drive thru.  Oh well.

After dinner and getting the kids dressed, we took some pictures and then headed over to the local high school for their trunk or treat and visited with Daddy.  Then we drove to a friends neighborhood and hit up about 10 houses before coming home and going to bed.

Seth was a member of the SWAT team this year.

Elsie was a cheerleader for the second year.  This year I bought her a costume that are the same colors as our local high school.  This way she can wear it to all the games and cheer along side their cheerleaders.  She has already been video taped and put on the school's news.

Kya wanted to be a princess for the the third year.  This year she went as Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog.  My mom also put some make up on each of the girls.  lol