Visit with the Family

Even though we've been super busy with the move, when we heard that Obee's sister was going to be in San Jose for the weekend and the whole family was having a big get together, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them! We had a great visit with everyone. I cannot believe how long it's been since we last saw everyone! The kids had fun seeing their family that they do not get to see often enough and everyone thought Jordyn was pretty funny. I wish we lived closer to more of Obee's family! Above is a picture of everyone that was able to come (except me of course).

This is our family, Obee's brother's family, and his sister and her boyfriend....

Jordyn was set on eating HIS food instead of her own! Luckily he was very patient with her and I think he had as much fun feeding her as she eating his food!

Hayden was SUCH a good boy the whole time. We were so proud of him. Here he is coloring...

And last, a picture of my kids with their cousins. The last time we saw them was Hayden's 1st birthday! I couldn't believe how grown up they are now! Ellie thought her big cousin Diane was the best thing ever.

Our Pinkalicious Party!

Well, with beginning work the same week as Ellie's birthday I didn't have any time to shop and prepare for the party at all. I went on a crazy 5 hour shopping spree for all of our party supplies on the night before her party, and I think I was even impressed with how pretty everything turned out! We hung about 60 pink colored Christmas ornament bulbs from the ceiling with pink ribbon and when Ellie came downstairs on Sunday morning before the party her jaw dropped and her eyes got SO big! She loved all the pinkalicious princess decorations.

The Decor.... While we were decorating, Ellie had a blast rubbing balloons on her head and making her hair go wild!

When everyone arrived, we went outside and made sure everyone had pink hair - even Jordyn wanted her hair done!After that, the girls all came in and Hayden, Haley and Lupita painted their nails....(PINK of course)Then everyone ate their PINK lunch that was served in pink heart shaped muffin tins while cousin Haley read them PINKALICIOUS...

After 4 or 5 attempts, Ellie finally got her candles all blown out....Jordyn enjoyed herself too :)I love this picture of Ellie and Bridgitt!

And here's a photo of the whole gang of princesses (and a couple of prince's too)

Happy 4th Birthday Elliebelle!

I just wanted to get on here to say Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl! (Well, she's sweet MOST of the time!) Today I took the day off of work just to spend it with her on her birthday and do special "birthday" stuff with her and Jordyn and their Gramma. The day started out well, and she was very surprised to see all of her birthday decorations upstairs when she woke up this morning. She was very tired and moody all day though and we had a very challenging day between her and Hayden. I suppose everyone is still trying to adjust to me working here. After a little bit of rest, the five of us headed out to John's Incredible Pizza for dinner and fun and we did her family celebration there. The kids had a blast there as always and the food there is not too bad either. We were very disappointed that the place would not let my dad and Haley in the door when they showed up, unless they purchased a meal, even though they had just dropped by to say Happy Birthday. Oh well. :( All in all, I think she had a pretty good day. Now we just need to get ready for her "Pinkalicious" party on Sunday with her friends!

I can't post any pictures (which is also why I haven't written anything about Christmas yet) because the charger to my laptop is broken and I can't load pictures onto a dead battery laptop! Hopefully we'll have a new charger in the next few weeks! Thank you to everyone who called today to wish Ellie a Happy Birthday! She loved every phone call and card that was sent to her, and was smiling from ear to ear when she was on the phone!

Ellie's 1st Dance Performance

This morning Ellie had her 1st performance for her ballet class. The dance studio puts on a little Christmas show for the families. I think she did great for only being in ballet a month! Most of all I was so proud of her that she sat with her group (away from us) and performed without any problems at all! She loves ballet and I'm so glad that we decided to put her in it! She looked so sweet up there with her group and she did MOST of the moves (except when she was rearranging the stars on the ground or posing for the camera...haha!)

I spent Thursday making her a red tutu to wear for her Christmas show and I think it looks really cute on her. It didn't turn out exactly how I had wanted it to (it's a little wild), but she loves it and I guess that's what really matters. She told me she feels like a "ballalet princess" in it!

Be sure and make sure you scroll down to the bottom and pause the Christmas music on my music player before you watch the video so you can hear it....

Gingerbread Houses!

I got some kits the other day for the kids to make gingerbread houses. Hayden had a minimum day at school on Monday, so we thought it would be a good day to make them, while Jordyn was napping. It was quite an endeavor to keep them together and they only lasted about a day before they fell apart (and I got tired of the kids eating the candy off of them at every opportunity they could find). Hayden was determined that he was going to give his to Santa on Christmas Eve, but it had "disapeared" (into the garbage...shhh!) and he doesn't seem too worried about it yet, thank goodness! They had a great time putting them together and Ellie especially, was very into the decorating part of it! They worked on them for a couple of hours and had a blast doing them together. I had fun taking pictures and watching them get along so well.

Working hard on their houses...Mmmm...these look yummy! (They actually both did this at the same time without being prompted! haha.)Ellie surprised Hayden with a smooch on the cheek and he gave her one back...

All Finished...

First Cub Scout Pack Meeting

Hayden had his first cubscout pack meeting (with all the cubscout troops) tonight. It was interesting to say the least. He seemed to enjoy it, but there were a lot of "announcements" that the boys had to sit through before they ever got to do their activities. After the announcements, they all made tree ornaments and decorated gingerbread cookies.

After the pack meeting, we went to the street here that goes all out every year to see the fancy Christmas lights. The kids love that street because almost every house has wood cutouts of disney themed movies. Jordyn was absolutely mezmorized by the pretty lights!

Old Friends/New Friends

I heard on Sunday that my good friend Tiffany from Iowa was in town visiting her in laws (who just happen to live in Sacramento) this week and was so excited! We haven't seen each other since my friend Katie (who married Tiffany's brother) got married in Iowa when I was still pregnant with Ellie. Gosh, I cannot believe it's actually been THAT long! Tiffany and I met when she moved out here when her son Noah was a baby. My friend Katie told me that her husband's sister was living out here and she really thought we would make great friends. Well, she was right and we hit it off right away. I was really sad when her and her husband Jeremy moved back to Iowa because she also had a son, Noah, who is only 4 months older than Hayden. The boys always got along great and still talk about each other to this day.

Hayden was in school on Wed., so Tiff just came out with her daughter Emily (who is 4 months older than Ellie) to hang out for the day. It was so nice to see them both and catch up on everything while the girls played. They made cupcakes and played really good together all day - until around 2pm when Ellie was tired and turned into a little monster for awhile. She always picks just the right moments for such things, I swear! Oh well, it was still a great visit and I hope to see them again soon!

The girls rolling around on the floor and catchin' some rays by the window...

Our New Friend

Meet Little Miss Butterfly, our newest friend! We were busy yesterday afternoon putting up some of our outdoor Christmas decorations when Hayden found her in the flower bed. She was crawling all over the kids for about a 1/2 hour until I finally made them "free her" and let her return to her butterfly family! Sorry about all the pictures, but I just had so much fun photographing this moment we had!