Christmas 2010

The 2010 tree was tall and skinny, our favorite kind.

The traditional run through the courtyard to the kitchen for Christmas breakfast. This keeps the kids from walking through the living room and seeing their presents before breakfast. Grandma has been up waiting for these chickens to wake up. Can you see her face in the background?

Julia trying to sneak a peak into the living room to spy the goods. Naughty.

Waiting for the big reveal.

Happily waiting...

Grandpa showed Liam that Santa ate one of the cookies and drank the milk!

Proudly showing off his Star Wars treasure.

Grandma pointing to Grandpa as she is about to open his present. She has an inkling as to what it may be.

The kids were very excited Santa brought them the Hospital Playmobile. That was a winner, Santa.

Reflections Winner

Olivia won first place in the Literature division for Reflections at school. She wrote a poem titled "Together We Can", which was the theme of this year's contest.

Together We Can…

Take care of our neighbors when they are alone,

Water gardens at an elderly person’s home.

Help our friends when they are hurt,

Tell a friend, “Hey I like your skirt!”

Not litter trash on the ground,

Pay attention to all the garbage around.

Rake up leaves that are all over swirled,

Together we can help clean up the world!

Taekwondo

Liam has started taekwondo and I can't get over how cute little boys look in their uniform. He's only had a few classes and he LOVES it.

Concerto

Julia played a concerto on Saturday with her piano teacher. Great job, Julia!!!

High Heels

Olivia almost fits into size 4 women's shoe (which is a kid's size 2) and loves going to the Rack to try them on and play dress up. It's hilarious.

1st Day of School

With carefully planned outfits, blown dry hair, a new backpack and one hand-me-down book bag, the girls were ready for their first day of school.

Traditional neighborhood walk to school.

Liam was off to preschool. He is growing up way too fast!

Baby Man

Connor had "Back-To-School-Night" at his new preschool last week. He went bonkers over all the fun stuff in his classroom. He starts Tuesday which is the day I will also officially be losing my marbles. Wish me luck.

Happy Birthday, Liam!

Liam turned 4! This is him with his buddies at his Pirate Party. More photos to come.

Adios Hermano

We broke the rules and met Connor at the airport to bid him farewell. He left for Mexico City and so far is doing great!

Somebody was looking REAL nervous, but to be expected. He was also flying alone without a companion.

Mom, this is Connor on the phone with you. See, he was smiling.

Emilie has a proud (2nd) mommy goodbye face here.

We love you, Connor! See you in dos anos!

A Summer of Farewells

Grandma and Grandpa are in Sierra Leone for a year and a half serving a mission. Here are some highlights of our last goodbye:

Working on getting that "cucumber laugh" out of mom.

Some sad granddaughters clutching on before their final goodbye for 18 months.

Making friends at 6 a.m.

Maxed out at baggage check!

Will Julia be as tall as Grandma in a year and a half?

Last hug over the barricade.

This was right before they stopped to search my dad's bag and found a pair of hair clippers. Hair clippers that my mom TOLD my dad were in there and he INSISTED that they weren't. It's always nice when the wife is right. I was also asked to put my camera away at this point by security.

Legoland

Ok, so this was one of the first pictures taken of the day, on the first ride of the day. This charming gentleman was getting ready to start the ride when he spotted me getting my camera out. He said pictures can be taken after the ride. Then he called me maam. Well, Mr. Ride Operator, my nephew was so incredibly animated before the ride even started that I had to get out my camera. I didn't tell him that, but instead, I snapped a picture of Mr. Ride Operator and then smugly put my camera on my lap. I blindly took pictures of baby Connor the whole ride which created the most adorable and memorable pictures of the whole day and the man in the picture above had no idea I was so stealth....

Connor clapping before the ride started.

Julia, with her knees smashed, loved the ride too.

Favorite picture of the day.

I was completely blown away by the miniature cities built by legos.

Vegas was my favorite, of course.

Time Square, in legos.

It was cold but the kids didn't care about going on rides and getting soaked.

The girls said this reminded them of grandpa and

they wanted their picture taken with it, I mean him.

Driving a car without a track was a dream come true for Liam.

This was way more advanced and modern than Autopia at Disneyland.

Those eyes.

Please notice how much hair Lauren has.

This is seriously no joke. Emilie is "bearing down" on the big roller coaster drop. This is real. Her daughter, on the other hand, has her hands in the air loving every minute. Oh, and she is 7.

I made Liam practice that he was four years old when the ride operators asked him. You had to be four to go on some of the rides and well, he's almost four. (Good mom or bad mom?) Being four got you on the same ride that Emilie was terrified on (see above). Liam loved the ride, but the big drop, seen in the picture here, made him a little nervous and his hair fly straight up. Notice how I'm protecting my son as if my arm is going to do anything if that thing flies of the track with us on it.

I was the fun Aunt who went on all the rides. Here I'm having fun spinning and getting sick.

Can't you tell?