Ice Skating

Yesterday Saturday 14th we had another all day packed filled of holiday fun.  First was our ward Kid Christmas party.  The kids loved being in PJ's and enjoying donuts for breakfast and doing crafts, decorating a cookie and talking to Santa.  It was lots of fun.  Then on to Lowe's for the kid build workshop where we made a wood Christmas train.  Then we came home and got ready to go out to Turlock for ice skating.  It was so much fun!!!! The kids were like pros! They just went out and with the help of buckets were able to skate around in a circle for almost 2 hours.  Spencer and I enjoyed skating too and at times they were so fast that we would lose them in the crowd skating around.  Last year when we took them Carter liked it but Aubrey was not a fan but this time they both loved it! Since we were both skating and didn't think it would be a good idea to take our camera on the ice we just got a few pictures off the ice.  Next time we will have to bring the video camera to capture these Olympic skaters. 

 The place we went skating at is the same place we go to get pumpkins.  They also had a Christmas tree farm that we walked around to smell the trees.

After skating we went to dinner and did some shopping it was a great day out!

Here are our cuties in the shirts I made.

Christmas Fun

Our Christmas spirit is in full swing around here! We made our gingerbread house a few weeks ago. 

I love my little Christmas crafters!!

On Thursday December 5th I hosted an ornament exchange party.  It was nice to have friends from all walks of my life here.  There were 15 ladies total.  It was a great group and we all enjoyed the treats everyone brought and the fun ornament exchange game. 

Saturday December 7th was Merceds annual Christmas parade.  We were going to be in the parade this year since our church was doing a float and were very excited about it but since I was asked to decorate and host a table at our ward Christmas party that night the timing did not work out so we just went to watch.  It was VERY cold!!! The weather forecast actually called for snow that day in Merced.  Sad we didn't get snow but mom and dad up in the mountains did, 10 inches!!

After the parade we rushed home to get ready, feed kids, get baby sitter and go to the church for our adult Christmas party.  My table turned out cute and the friends we had at the table were so much fun!  The had a Christmas music program that we really enjoyed.  After the dinner Spencer and I even had time to do a little Christmas shopping it was great date night!

Also that weekend my family came down.  My mom, Murun and I went on the annual SPCA Christmas house tour.  It was a lot of fun and nice getting to spend a ladies day out.  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures but it was a great time.

Last Thursday was Santa hat day at school.  Aubrey was very excited and this was the outfit we picked out.  Just like pj day at school when we first pulled up to the school and saw the "cool" 4th and 5th graders not wearing their Santa hats Aubrey started to get nervous and took her hat off.  I got the "mom you were wrong it's not Santa hat day I don't want to be the only one in a Santa hat."  Sure enough we walked into the cafeteria were all the kindergarten students met and 99.7% were in their Santa hats.  I love the kindergarten spirit and how excited they all get.  I think they are the cool kids!!

Here are a few of my wreath projects this year:  

Deck the Halls

Well I thought I would stay strong and not decorate the house until after Thanksgiving but I just couldn't resist these cute faces.......

 We were all too excited so the Sunday before Thanksgiving we did.  It was so nice having everything up and getting to enjoy it all during Thanksgiving break.  I'm happy we did it because now that we are in the crazy "Christmas life" that December brings I find no time to work on Christmas crafts so at least I had the time during Thanksgiving week and was able to make the house a perfect winter wonderland.  Christmas seems to get more fun every year.  The kids are very much into it.  We have fun finding the elf everyday and eating the chocolate in their advent calendars.  We have also tried to do a Christmas activity everyday too.  Makes for a crazy busy month but I love the family traditions that we are sticking with.  The kids and us too are in love with singing Christmas carols.  Carter's favorite is Jingle Bells and when Aubrey is coloring or working on crafts I hear her humming Christmas tunes.  When the Charlie Brown song comes on the radio Carter always pretends he is the stinky kid playing the chelllo.  Carter reminds us everyday that its almost Jesus' Birthday and that warms my heart. 

 Here is one of my latest crafts that I made for gifts.  I've also been more into wreaths this year and will take some pictures for the next post.

 I finally got the Burch tree I have wanted for so long and Spencer plated it for us that same weekend.  It will be fun to take the kids picture by it every year to see it grow with them.

Here are some cute pictures of Carter at work a couple weeks ago.  Tough day at the office!

 Ms. Stapp has us busy busy! I have been helping out every week and helping to plan the Christmas party for next week.  I have also been helping with take home projects and we even put Daddy to work to make a tree for the Christmas program.

 One of my favorite memories as a child is going to a movie in the theater around the holidays.  This year we were lucky that a great movie was playing, Frozen.  We had a wonderful day out as a family.

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week (month).  It feels like holidays are more like weeks or even a whole month around here.  For the whole month of November the kids and I have been working on their thankful tree.  It has been fun to hear about all the things they are grateful for.  The night before the last day of school Aubrey and I made pumpkin spice cookies for her teacher and for Carter's school potluck.  I love how she wanted to write Ms. Stapp a note to go along with the cookies.

 The preschool party was fun and so nice that I didn't have to plan it, ha!

 Michelle and Carter! They LOVE each other! They do everything they can to make sure they get to sit together at snack time.  Carter reminds me everyday that Michelle is his girlfriend!

I got to volunteer in Aubrey's class 2 times in the past 2 weeks.  The first time we made turkeys and the second we played a Thanksgiving day game.  I love feeling involved and getting to know her friends and teacher better.  It was fun picking her up and seeing her all dressed up.

This past week off of school has been fabulous!!!!!! I love having my little partner in crime home.  We spent most of the week staying in our PJ's until 11 or 12.  We played lots of Thanksgiving games, did lots of art projects and watched lots of holiday movies.  We also set up all our Christmas decorations, as you will see in a future post.  Nana came down one of the days so I could go into work.  We also went to the movie Home Alone at the old fashion theater down town on Wednesday.

Thanksgiving morning we woke up and did our annual tradition of watching the Macy's parade and eating cinnamon rolls.

 I was very excited that it was my families Thanksgiving Day turn this year!!! After the parade we packed up and headed for the mountains.  It was such a nice relaxing day with Nana, Papa, Titi, Gaga and the 4 of us.  Nana got the kids a cool DIY bouncing ball kit.  They enjoyed working on that with Papa and Gaga.

We took some family photos.

 The kids brought up their costumes and put on a show for us it was adorable.

 Dinner was amazing!! I loved every thing! The turkey was the best part! 

 Our family!

 Aubrey and the turkey leg!

 After our wonderful meal we vegged out on the couch for awhile and then enjoyed the wonderful home made pies by Titi.  After pie some of us decided to venture out to do some black Friday shopping.  We were not going for any specific deal but it made since to go out since Nana and Papa could baby sit and we could get a jump start on our Christmas shopping.  We stayed in Sonora that night.  The next morning we woke up and got ready for our travels to Stockton to celebrate with the Supinger side.  When we first got there we jumped right into eating and it was another amazing meal! We are so lucky to eat like Kings and Queens two days in a row.  Uncle Brian and Aunt Angie rented a huge jump house for the kids so that is where the kids spent most of the day.  All the ladies got to sneak away for a little shopping trip to downtown Lodi. 

 When we got back we celebrated 5 cousin birthdays and enjoyed dessert.

It was a fun couple of days for sure!! It was great driving home Friday night and thinking we still have a whole weekend ahead of us.  We took the kids to the movie Frozen today which was so much fun.  It's hard to believe that our Thanksgiving week is almost over and we are jumping right into Christmas celebrations and traditions! What an exciting time of year!!!! I'm so very thankful for my entire family on both sides.