Getting ready for Christmas

 Decorating the tree

 Look! We have a stocking tree!

 And the stocking tree is about to get shot

 This is the view from our kitchen window. Sometimes we have the most amazing sunsets! I love it

We also have neighbors who go all out with the Christmas decor, it's not all lit up in the picture, they have much more. They enter the contest each year for best light but they just don't have a big enough front yard to do much more.

We took the kids to a nursing home down the street and they sang and handed out cards. I took more pictures but had the camera on the wrong setting so this is the only one that turned out. They loved hearing Michael play uke. That's Daniel next to Michael, they're best friends and have been since Kindergarten. Behind Aliyah is Fiona (Michael's age) and Hayden (Aliyah's age) that came with us. Then "Grandma Lisa" who is our kids adopted grandma (she's Danie's grandma) and the lady in the chair is 103 years old! Super sharp and with it to. The kids loved it and all the old people did too.

Tree Dreamin'

The kids are so excited for Christmas! Well who am I kidding... so am I! I was also excited when I heard hushed voices and saw little feet sticking out from under the tree. I remember doing this as a kid and I loved looking up into the tree with all the lights and ornaments. It felt like a little fort. The kids lay under there for quite a while, just checking everything out from that view. 

Look who showed up tonight! 

Just in time for Dec. 1st. This is Fizzle, our Christmas Elf.

He will be with us all day, watching the kids to make sure they're being good. Every night he returns to the North Pole to report to Santa and the following morning, the kids have to find him since he likes to hide. But if Fizzle gets touched, he looses his magic and cannot return to Santa. If he doesn't show up to report, Santa will know somebody was naughty...

Thanksgiving

We went to our friends house for Thanksgiving, it was a lot of fun! "Grandma Lisa" is so nice to Aliyah and lets her pick everything in her yard. Aliyah went out and found these flowers and neatly arranged them in a jar Lisa gave her. Then she came back in the house with bell peppers & I told her to put them on the counter for Lisa. But then I watched and Aliyah went to the table and arranged them around her flower arrangement she'd done. Pretty creative I thought!

Deep Sea Fishing

For work we had a goal in October and Nichole got to choose the incentive. She worked hard to reach the goal so we planned the fishing trip. Matt decided deep sea would be the way to go, having someone take us out, supply all the gear & filet the fish we caught. So here we go. We got to Avila as the sun was rising. This is definitely not something I see every day and it was beautiful. Nichole had dramamine for everyone which we all took... except for Matt & Ben (Nichole's husband).

Michael's cranky face is because he doesn't want me taking his picture.

It was a very cold morning.

Here comes our boat!

This guy looked up at us and saw the kids & asked if they were going. We said yes. He said the waters are pretty rough today. That should have been our first clue.

He's preparing our bait, gutting squid & using the skins.

The pelicans and seagulls were all over the place eating the squid guts he was tossing into the water.

And here we go!! 

And this is more like it. ;) Poor Aliyah and Michael couldn't quite hack it...

...and neither could Matt. This is the only way he could stop throwing up.
Oh and that banana... not such a good idea, it came up shortly after.

And here's Nichole & Ben fishing away, having a great old time and catching lots of fish.

WooHoo! Nichole caught the largest fish on the boat and won the jackpot.

To sum it up, Nichole & Ben caught 6 fish and had no sea sickness. I caught 1 fish, threw up once, kids each threw up & Matt held the record for most time spent leaning over the side of the boat.

So lessons learned IF we go deep sea fishing again:
1. Don't take kids
2. Do take dramamine
3. Make Matt take dramamine even if he refuses
4. But probably just don't go sea fishing again.

Michael on Ukulele

He's worked and saved money for the last 2 months to buy this. He now plays it almost every waking moment of the day. The good thing is he really loves it and is now making up his own songs. He said the only think he loves more than the Ukulele is his family, Heavenly Father & Jesus. Well I'm glad we made it in there although I think sometimes he'd rather play super loud, despite our kind requests not to.

Youtube Link: Michael On Ukulele

Halloween 2010

"Ballerina Witch Fairy"
How she came to be: We found the very cute Ballerina Witch costume but it wasn't quite right. Aliyah realized that her purple fairy wings would go perfectly with the ballerina witch, thus making her a Ballerina Witch Fairy. The more the better for Aliyah. I should have taken a picture of the back where you can see the wings better and she has a ballerina bun in her hair with a frilly hair band.

All week before Halloween Michael was sick and missed the whole week of school. This meant he missed all the school parties. He was very sad when he realized he wasn't going to be better in time. Well by Saturday he was feeling mostly better but we still didn't want him in a closed room with other kids so he couldn't go to the church party either. I went and took Aliyah, Matt took Michael to dinner (because who cares about contaminating a whole restaurant, haha). Aliyah loved the church carnival games and wanted to wait in the long lines for the fishing and bean bag games. I was feeling quite claustrophobic with so many people packed in the cultural hall. Matt brought Michael later and joined us for the trunk-or-treat where we handed out glow sticks to all the kids and our kids got too much candy.

On Halloween night we told the kids we wouldn't be going trick-or-treating since it was Sunday and we also wouldn't be handing candy out. They were totally ok with this! We were a little surprised at how well they handled it and very grateful. I made a pasta salad for dinner with the orange, green and red noodles and added apples, bacon, olives, cheese and peas. It turned out pretty good. We turned off all the lights so kids wouldn't come to our house and we ate dinner by the candle light of our pumpkins and candles. After dinner we decorated cupcakes, Matt had made oozing chocolate cupcakes earlier in the day, they were delicious! At the end of the night, the kids went to bed on time and without a major sugar high. Now that's my kind of Halloween! :)

Soccer Season 2010

Aliyah giving the other team her aggressive look.

Hi-5 Ladybugs!

Michael taking charge (in the striped shirt). 

Go Michael!

We're in full soccer swing at our house. Practice 3 times a week (between the 2) & 2 games every Saturday. Their games are on different fields and sometimes at the same time so we're all over the place. They love it though and it's really fun to watch them get into it. 

This is Aliyah's first year playing and she's a great little player at practice but gets a little intimidated during the game. She's a super busy runner and shuffler (with her feet) but if she's gets too close to the ball, she'd prefer someone else get it. Who can blame her though? All those girls kicking at you to get the ball, I'd steer clear too.

Michael has improved so much! I guess that's what happens when you play everyday at recess. He's one of the best players on the team and really seems to get the game. He's great on defense and goalie. One day he fell during the game and landed right on his elbow. He screamed so loud other teams were watching. He sat out the rest of the game until the last 2 minutes when another player got hurt. Later that day he told me he didn't really need to cry, he just wanted to so people would know that it really did hurt, but his body wasn't telling him to cry so he told his body to cry. LOL He cracks me up!

I guess I'm just a Beggar

We've been trying to teach Michael a money lesson. He wants a Ukulele so bad so he's earning money for one. The other day I started talking to him about tithing. His shoulders slumped and he said he didn't want to pay tithing. So I told him my tithing story.

Matt was on his mission and I had 2 cars. I had been trying to sell the old BMW for about 6 months and couldn't sell it. It came to a point where I really needed the money. I prayed to Heavenly Father that I would pay my tithing but I really needed his help financially or I wouldn't be able to pay my bills. So that Sunday I payed my tithing... and 2 days later I sold that BMW that had been sitting for so long.

So I ask Michael, "What did I do?" (Looking for the answer that I used faith). Michael said, "you begged!" LOL Well I guess in a way I was begging but I prefer to think of it as faith.

I'm on a winning streak!!

Yes I won something else! I've been having challenges with Michael's lunch so when I saw a Sara Lee Deli Meat contest wondering what your biggest lunchtime challenge is, I just had to enter. Well thanks to those who voted for me (I kept forgetting to vote for myself and only did it a couple times) I'm in the top 25! Well the 1st place winner gets a cook coming to their kitchen with 10 friends and will be given all kinds of cooking tips and hints. They haven't decided who the #1 is yet (keeping my fingers crossed) but the top 25 winners get a 1 yr supply of Sara Lee Deli Meats!! Woohoooo!!! This is my 3rd winning of the year, it's very exciting! If I was a gambler, I'd go to Vegas. But I'm not so I'll just keep entering free contests in hopes of winning Christmas presents for everyone. :)

Who will she be today?

Part of the highlight of my day is seeing what Aliyah will dress up as (or who). I need to take more pictures of her outfits, she gets very creative. She's a bride today, if you can't tell. Notice the 1 sock and the hand posed, just so. Her veil is made of only the fanciest material which was formally a wizards cape. The sock has a lace trim around it and not being able to find the other one does not matter. One is better than none. She's a delight!

I WON... a tea kettle?

Some of you may remember that I won an ipod touch earlier this year. I've loved it! Anyway I was surprised to win something again. On facebook I have California Strawberries as one of "my friends" and one morning they asked what people had for breakfast and if anyone mentioned the secret ingredient (which was not strawberries) they'd win a strawberry tea kettle. So normally I don't participate in things like that, just because I normally don't feel like it but it didn't take long to write "oatmeal & toast" so I did. And since the secret ingredient was oatmeal, I won! And shouldn't everyone living in Santa Maria have one of these?

After that win, and the ipod, I was tempted to go buy a ticket for the house they're giving away....