New Year's in San Diego!

We decided to spend New Years with friends in San Diego this year. We usually just stay home, but I'm so glad we didn't! New Year's Eve is my birthday and on that morning, everyone was being super secretive about something. And then they surprised me with a ticket to see Cavalia and I LOVED it!!! So me and my friend and her daughter went to see the show and enjoyed every minute. And then when we got home, the guys surprised me with decorations and cake and pizza! I never expect anything on my birthday. I really just enjoy time with family and friends, but it was really a nice surprise! Other than seeing the show, we played ping pong for HOURS. And hours. And....hours. And we played board games until 2 in the morning. Sooo much FUN!

 I think she's ready for the party!

 Our pizza for dinner

 Goofing around

 To a game well-played!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Christmas 2012

Christmas is always here before we know it and it seems like the year has just flown by! We got our tree in the first week of December, which is our tradition. We decorated it together and I think it was Emma's year to put the star on top. Mario put lights outside and a lit wreath on our house. We always get a live balsam wreath from Costco and put that on our front door. It was amazing! We love the Christmas season. It is absolutely one of our favorites. The kids and I usually make snow flakes and we make lots of hot cocoa and sit in front of the fire. It's just such a nice time to cherish family and be together. As Christmas got closer, Mario noticed he wasn't feeling so good. I didn't realize how bad he felt until....I got it. And then both kids got it too. It was probably one of the sickest times in my life! Mario was down for a few days and I didn't get off the couch or bed for SIX days. The kids were the same as me. So....that's how we spent Christmas - on the couch, doing the best we could to enjoy the day!

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving at our house and our good friends, the Irwins, came up to spend it with us. On Thanksgiving, we had the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc. And on the second day, we decided to change it up a bit. So we had lobster! We had so much fun cooking together and it ended up being so good! We went to an English pub over the holiday for lunch and got some fun photos in an English phone booth. We took them to see Griffith Observatory on the last day and that was a lot of fun. The views were spectacular from up there! All in all, we had an awesome holiday together.

Halloween and Pumpkin Patch

This year, Ben really wanted to be Darth Vader, so we went with it. We were going to do a Star Wars family theme but it ended up with Ben as Darth Vader and Emma as Queen Amidala. I decided to do a sugar skull face paint and Mario did a dracula thing. Both of ours were very thrown together last minute! We had the usual fun of carving  a few pumpkins and decorating.

Space Shuttle Endeavor

So this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to see the space shuttle Endeavor on its way to a new home. It traveled right by Hindry Avenue, which is the street we live on! I packed up the stroller and took the kids down the street to watch it go by. We waited for quite a while, but when it finally approached, it was amazing!

This was one of the only pictures I was able to get with us in it! It was crowded and kind of crazy!

Hollywood

Hollywood is such an interesting place. There is always so much to do and so much to see. This time, we went down and went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. They had some really interesting things, I must say. So, here are a few shots from our day.

A statue of the tallest man ever to live - pretty amazing!

Ben doing his best imitation of Marilyn Monroe!

 

Gracie, enjoying the ride

 

Ben's First Day of Kindergarten

Ben started Kindergarten this year! It amazes me that 5 years went by so quickly. He absolutely loves it and is doing very well. His teacher's name is Ms. Kuhn, which we thought was interesting. She seems to be a great teacher and keeps the kids busy with art projects and homework every day. They go to the library every Friday to check out new books and Ben really enjoys that part of the week. When he first started, we signed him up for hot lunches, which he later informed us that he didn't like very much. So I make his lunch every night for the next school day and he seems to like that much better. Kinda made me feel good! Emma is watching her brother go to school every day and keeps asking when she gets to go to school. She misses him so much when he is gone during the day.

All ready to go!

Such a big boy! He just waved and went into the classroom. No tears at all!