Family Feast!

We had our second annual holiday family feast at our house last weekend. The weather was quite dreary but at least it didn't rain the whole day like it did in the days to follow. I always look forward to getting together with my extended family during the holidays. This year was no exception, it really put me in the holiday mood! We had a ton of food, as usual, and we had a ton of fun! I always love when all of the kids get together since it doesn't happen as often as I would like. They are growing up so fast! The kids got a ton of presents and they each got to open one before leaving. It was so cute watching them line up!

My parents with Owen and Justin enjoying the food:

Auntie Carbs and Uncle Ryan:

My brother, Mike and sister-in-law, Emily with their daughter, Maddy:

Auntie Carbs with Gavin:

Auntie May with Kohen (and lots of drool on her shoulder courtesy of the babies):

Auntie Bettina with Brendan:

Making wreath ornaments:

Uncle Rome passed out with Kohen:

It's present time:

They were getting impatient except for cute little Mason on the right:

Owen was so excited to play with his play-doh:

Lola enjoying time with her apo (that's grandson in tagalog):

Thank you Mike and Em for the yummy cookie bouquet:

Holiday Performances

Last week was the final week of school for both Owen and Savanna. With that comes their holiday shows. We were very excited to see what they had been practicing so hard at school for!


First up came Owen's performance. He sang five songs complete with costume accessories to go with each song! It was so cute to watch him and the rest of his class do their very first ever performance! How handsome is he?

I was able to upload a few videos, hopefully you can see them! I think they did so great for being only 3 years old! In this video, they sang "Jingle Bells":

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In this picture, they were getting ready to sing "Rudolph" and everyone wore a light-up red nose but Owen didn't want to wear his because he was telling me it hurt his nose. That's why he's pointing to his nose:

In this picture and video, they sang a song called "Jolly Old Man":

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When they finished, a special someone in a red suit made an appearance! At first Owen didn't want to sit on Santa's lap. He was a pretty tall guy so I don't blame Owen for being a little scared. But then he saw all of his friends going up to him and getting a little present! So Owen made his way up there and Savanna got to sit on his lap too! When Santa asked Owen what he wanted for Christmas, Owen answered, "A present." How cute is that!

Owen with his teachers (They are awesome!):

Now onto Savanna's performance. Her class sang two songs along with another first grade class. The songs they sang were "I'm Getting Nothing for Christmas" and "All I Want for Christmas Are My Two Front Teeth." They did a great job!



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Savanna with her teacher:

'Tis The Season!

Is it really Christmas Eve already? I don't know about you, but this holiday sure crept up quickly on me this year! I feel like it took me a little while to get into the holiday mood, too. Did that happen to any of you this year? Anyways, we usually put up our tree and lights the weekend of Thanksgiving. But this year, since we went to the desert on Thanksgiving weekend, the decorating got delayed and we didn't finish all of our decorating until the second week of December! Wow, that's late for us. I managed to snap a few pictures of the kids helping decorate the tree.

Owen loved putting all the ornaments in one spot. I remember when Savanna did that when she was Owen's age:

Savanna loved helping decorate the tree:

I purchased some new ornaments this year. Everyone has their own personalized Santa! Of course, Savanna's had an "h" on the end of her name, but I managed to get if off with the help of a little acetone. I also got some for Justin and me that say "Mom" and "Dad" but I didn't get a picture of those. They light up in different colors when turned on. Super cute!

Stay tuned to see what Santa brings the kids! :)

Our First Trip to the Desert!

AHHH! I can't believe it's December 1st already!! Where is the time going?!

Over the Thanksgiving break, we took our first of many trips to the desert. Where is the desert you ask? Well technically it's called the Imperial Sand Dunes and it's near the Arizona border. It's a really amazing area with miles and miles of sand dunes. Big hills, little hills, and lots of sand, everywhere. A lot of people go there over the Thanksgiving weekend, and we were one of them! The kids were very excited to get out there and ride their new quads that we had just purchased the week prior. Owen is still too small to ride his quad but he will grow into it and someone will have to ride with him for now.

We left on Thanksgiving Day. I cooked a turkey breast and some sides for lunch and then we packed up the toy hauler and headed out! It took us almost 5 hours to get there only because we had to stop quite a few times to either get gas or feed Gavin. But the kids did really well and didn't complain too much. We arrived late at night and the kids and I went to bed after the heater warmed up the toy hauler. Justin decided to take a night ride with the other guys. He said it was cold out. It was!

The next day, Savanna practiced riding her quad in a circle around our camp. She went slowly at first and then increased her speed little by little. We were very proud of how well she did!

Owen's quad wasn't working right so he was Justin's little helper in figuring out what was wrong with it:

That night both kids were super tired from being outside all day and they slept really well:

Gavin and I slept on the top queen bed:

The next day, our good friend Cynthia offered to take the kids and I out for a ride in their Polaris Razor. I really enjoyed riding in it:

This is Brad (Cynthia's husband) and their two kids:

The dunes go on for miles:

Every night we would enjoy sitting by the fire and having s'mores, of course:

It got pretty windy at times, you can see the sand on my camera lens in this shot:

We've decided that we definitely want to get a bigger toy hauler in the future. It's pretty tight with all of us in there. From where I'm standing there is a small kitchen behind me and a bathroom to the right:

But Gavin liked being snug as a bug! :)

Veteran's Day Parade

For Veteran's Day, Savanna marched in the city parade along with her Daisy Troop. The Daisy's are a division of The Girl Scouts and they are right below the Brownies. So for any of you who love Girl Scout cookies, Savanna will be selling them at the beginning of next year and would love your support. :) Owen, Gavin and I had a lot of fun watching the parade. Owen loved waving hi to everyone that passed by and he really loved seeing the big military vehicles drive by. I was honored to be surrounded by current and former military men and women. Savanna and her troop marched saying "We love our Vets!" It was a great parade.

At the end of the parade path was a large park filled with flags that honored past veterans. It was called The Field of Honor.

It was so beautiful:

Camping at Vail Lake

We took our toy hauler out for the first time to go camping a few weeks ago. We purchased our toy hauler a few months ago and we were excited to finally go somewhere and be able to enjoy it. It was just an overnight trip to a local lake near us. We thought we would be able to walk to the lake, but it was actually two miles down the road from us. Oh well, at least we had a great view of it from our site. The kids were super excited to make s'mores. Gavin did really well and slept a lot. We went on a few hikes around the resort, but once the sun went down it got pretty chilly out so we stuck inside or stayed near the fire.

Our view of the lake:

The boys fell asleep on the way there:

Building the campfire:

It's s'mores time: