We have established an annual pumpkin carving contest with the Mund’s and the Fry’s and this year we hosted it at our house. It was a pretty fun time with the kids and we had a long time friend of mine join us as well. The winner was chosen by Jeff and he chose James’ for first place and Alissa’s for second.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I hope everyone had a safe and happy time bringing in the New Year! We spent a low key night at home playing with some play doh! And we had a blast.
We had a fun evening and we were all in bed before midnight! (Nate and I must be getting old!!)
Here is to a New Year filled with great things!!
Sophia must have been on Santa’s good list because she woke up to some pretty awesome presents Christmas morning!! To see the smile on her face was absolutely priceless!
Its a little hard to see, but Soph got a dollhouse with rooms to go in it. She also got a Tag Reading book from Santa. Her favorite, was the Dollhouse!
Christmas this year was chaotic to say the least. Without going into too much details there was tension, confusion, frustration, sadness and anger all in one (not within Nate, Soph and I, but within the family). This was something so unreal and new to me. Christmas should be a holiday that’s filled with happiness, joy, laughter, love and celebrating Jesus’ birthday. To make sure Christmas lived up to everything it should be, I pulled our family together and made sure we celebrated!
Christmas Eve Nate’s family came over and we celebrated! We cooked a feast of food, and Santa even came to visit! Christmas Eve was a hit! Everyone enjoyed the food Nate cooked, family time was great, opening presents was overwhelming and chaotic (as it should be) and Santa’s visit was fun (and funny!). Here are some pictures that captured our evening.
Yes we did have a Holiday filled with love, laughter, joy and celebration of Jesus’ I made sure of it! It was evident by Sophia’s big smiles!
Sophia adores her cousin Sawyer, and they had the best time playing “princesses”.
Merry Christmas to All!! Hug and tell those around you, you love them! And make sure to celebrate the reason for this season!!
We celebrated Christmas with my family this year a little early, since my sister had to work. Tradition is to spend Christmas Day with my family and Christmas Eve with Nate’s family. For circumstances I will mention in a different post, this was changed this year. One being that my sister was working both Christmas Eve and Christmas day. So, Thursday we headed over to my parents for a delicious steak dinner and some good family time celebrating Christmas. I love this time of year for many reasons, one being spending quality time with your family. It makes my heart hurt so good watching Sophia play with her cousins, and interact with her grandparents.
We celebrated by eating a delicious meal cooked by my dad (steak sandwiches), open gifts and watched the kids play with their new toys while the adults spent time in conversation and laughter. Here are a few pictures of our evening.
We had an excellent evening filled with love, laughter and good times spent with family! The kids made out pretty good as well!
I LOVE decorating the house for Christmas! I LOVE Christmas lights, tree up early kind of love! We normally put our tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but due to our hectic schedule we were a little later then normal to put up our tree.
Let me tell you, Soph loves decorations like her mamma! She wanted to put up everything with me! It was so much fun having mommy/daughter bonding time with her as we put on Christmas bulbs and misc ornaments, put up the Nutcracker (which was her favorite), put up the reindeer and many more decorations.
We also had her cousins over to put together out first gingerbread house. They all had so much fun putting up every sort of candy on the house, it was a bit messy but so worth the memories.
I have to admit, its pretty good for our first Gingerbread house!
We decided again this year to go out to sunny San Diego and visit Gpa R and Carly for Thanksgiving. We think its important to spend time with family, especially during the Holidays but also to bring Sophia to see where Gpa R lives and enjoy time out there. We boarded a plane Nov 19th- me beyond nervous as Sophia is now 2 and cant sit on my lap, she needs her own seat. And if any of you know flying with a toddler can be especially difficult when it comes to a car seat. The airlines require only specific car seats that are compatible with airplanes and cars and we don’t have one and aren’t going to purchase one. So Sophia flew in a seat ALL by herself and she couldn’t have been more proud!
Given the circumstances, Soph did amazingly well on the plane! Once we landed we were greeted by Gpa R & Carly and we made our way to Gpa R house to settle in for the night, as it was way past Soph bed time. Plus we had fun festivities planned with Gpa R!
Going to California and spending time with Gpa R and Carly is always such a joy. Watching Sophia take in different environments, interacting with her Gpa and Carly makes our hearts swell with love. Soph always has such a good time experiencing new things, and I am so glad that she can acclimate to new places so well. We were fortunate enough to bring Soph to the Wild Animal Park and she had such a good time pointing out each animal, making sure to let us know each noise they make.
We also took many walks along the coast, pointing out the waves, surfers, birds and many other different scenic views. If anything this was our beautiful “go to” for Soph to burn off some energy!
Gpa R took us on “adventures” as well, through different parks and trails. Sophia got to run up and down hills, talking with Gpa- great memories!
We also had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner that was prepared by Gpa, Carly and Esteff and it was delicious! I don’t have any pictures to share from that, other then our girl wearing her Thanksgiving shirt- and let me tell you how true that shirt is! We couldn’t be more THANKFUL for her, she is such a blessing in our life.
We are so thankful to be have the opportunity to go on vacation, yet spend quality family time. Family is so important and I know I have said this a few times, but it is so important to show and share love with those around you! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!
A few misc pictures from our vacation.. Enjoy!
Oh I almost forgot, the night we got home Sophia was BEYOND tired and we tried to feed her dinner, only to turn around and find this…
She looks so precious and peaceful, we let her sleep! 🙂
It has been SOO long, and I do apologize for the lengthy absence. I have a lot to update! Holiday fun, Sophia learning, growing and making me laugh every single day! I will start where i left off!
Halloween this year was so fun! We went and picked out pumpkins, Sophia picking out her very own! Walking up and down the isles, finally picking one that was just right and her size!
Nate and I also picked out our pumpkins, making sure we had just the right one for our annual pumpkin carving contest the following night!
Fast Forward to Pumpkin Carving Contest of 2011!
This is a tradition that we have made for a few years, hold a pumpkin carving contest, have dinner and my nephew J gets to vote on who had the best pumpkin carved! (Last year I won!!) Sophia was so excited this year, as she was actually able to participate in carving, emptying of pumpkin guts (ish) and putting the candle in (unlit of course)! Without further ado.. away we carved!
**she was not to fond of the feeling of pumpkin guts, cant say i blame her!**
**Yes, my girl is a lefty :)!**
**Uncle L had already carved out the tops of all pumpkins, and unknowingly my sister carved out the other “top” therefore leaving this pumpkin, HILLARIOUS!**
Drum Roll please…… The winner is ME!! I make a mean pumpkin!
PS.. mine is the one all the way to the left, the most “normal” pumpkin carved.
All in all it was a great time had by all and we are looking forward to next years Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest!
In between playing at the beach, we also played on the playground. Sophia loved being able to swing in a “big girl” swing all by herself 🙂
As you can see the kids had a fabulous time and so did we!
