Disneyland 2010

Had to do a slide show for this one....so many pictures! We had a great time despite one rainy day and LOTS of people. We were still able to do everything we wanted to do. It was only our second trip as a family (first one was in 2008; click HERE to see that). Peter's mom and brother joined us for it, as well as one night with my good friend Jen. Love spending time at my favorite place with my favorite people. Wish we could afford to make it an annual thing but we probably won't be back for another 2 or 3 years. Grateful for the opportunity to go that often. I take it for granted having grown up in So Cal and going several times a year. That's not really feasible for most families these days. Oh well.....I still love the Happiest Place on Earth! Enjoy the slideshow!

Christmas 2010

Tamale Dinner (Christmas Eve tradition)


The Night Before


Stockings


Dressed up!




Ham dinner


**More photos are on Facebook. Too many to upload here. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! May God continue to bless you in 2011!**

The REAL Christmas Story

Luke 2: 8-14

Christmas Baking

A tradition we began back in 2008 when I started teaching myself to bake. We bake a ton of stuff and bless our neighbors, plus some family and friends. We made a lot less this year since we don't have any family to give to (we're spending Christmas in AZ). But, we still made a lot to give to 6 of our neighbors and 2 other friends that live a little further away. Great way to spend the day!

This year we made:

• 4+ dozen M&M cookies
• 4+ dozen peanut butter cookies
• 3 dozen gingerbread mini muffins
• "some" fudge (one 13x9 pan worth)

Muffins!


M&M cookies




Peanut butter cookies




Fudge

(It didn't turn out great. The texture was more like undercooked brownie. :( But they tasted ok.)

Ready to bless the neighbors (or maybe curse with all this sugar and fat and calories! LOL)

Our Christmas Card!

Once again, we decided against sending a Christmas card to 100+ of our nearest and dearest family and friends (so, please, do not take offense when you don't receive one from us!). We ordered just 20 cards from shutterfly (I had a code for 10 free and we ordered 10 more) to give to our most immediate family members and a couple friends. Here's the card (click on it to see a larger version):



We used the other $60+ that we would have spent on cards/stamps and donated it to THIS organization. This is our fourth year contributing to them and each year we are able to give more because we find ways to cut back in our spending. It really just makes more sense to help build a well for clean water for a whole community rather than spend the money on clothes, toys, books, etc. that our kids do not need. They still have plenty of gifts to open on Christmas Day, as you will see when I write up that blog!

We do wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!! And we pray for God's continued blessings in the New Year!

She's 6!

Our little girl is 6 today! I joked with her that I am not going to let her get any older, but that she is in fact turning 4 this year and not 6. Alas, we both know that we cannot turn back the clock (figuratively, of course) and at 8:29pm tonight she officially turned 6 years old. She is an amazing little girl. She brings us so much joy. Her giggle is like a symphony and her smile can light up a room. She is such a blessing!

Last week, we began celebrating Alayna's birthday early with a girl date to see Tangled and have dinner at Red Robbin (she got a free meal and dessert).


Today, we brought cupcakes to share in her class.






And we picked up birthday freebies at 4 different places!
A dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast (shared with neighbors!)


Joe's Farm Grill


Joe's BBQ and Liberty Market


Presents!



Happy Birthday Miss Alayna. We love you!

Getting Ready For Christmas

Here are some photos of what we've been doing to get ready for Christmas.

Decorating the tree









Mr. Ez



Making ornaments (The trees are for their teachers.)







Advent traditions

Thanksgiving 2010

We had our Thanksgiving feast last night since Peter had to work a swing shift today (he works most holidays). In the past, we've had a Thanksgiving lunch on Thanksgiving before Peter had to leave for work. We wanted to do something different this year. So, we had our quaint meal (just turkey breast, whipped potatoes, green beans, rolls, and cranberry sauce, with apple pie and homemade whipped cream for desert) and then a family Wii night. This morning, we decided to go for a hike at Usery Pass here in the East Valley. It was a brisk morning, perfect for a hike. We spent the afternoon playing games (Sorry, Uno, and Yahtzee) and writing Christmas letters to our sponsor kids. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving as well!

Turkey-heads


Laynie


The Fam


Making the whipped cream


Our feast (no stuffing this year)


Thanksgiving Hike

Park Fun!

We love that the weather is FINALLY nice enough to play outside for extended periods of time. This morning, Peter took the kids to the park so I could get some much needed sleep. Here are a few pics.

She has mastered the monkey bars!


He decided to climb through the monkey bars






She would rather go up the slide, not down (usually, that's a no-no rule, but Peter lets them get away with it)

Family Photo Shoot

I am blessed to have several photographer friends here in the East Valley. It was tough to decide which one to go with for our family photos this year. In the end, we chose my friend Leah, whose amazing work speaks for itself (click HERE to view her work). Besides being a fantastic photographer, we chose her because she lives very close by, has an in-home studio (and I wanted to have some studio shots), and was able to work with Peter's schedule (we are not available for weekend shoots). I am beyond pleased with the results!

These are just a few of my favorites. More will be posted on FB!