Christmas Day 2008

**I had to put the pictures into collages because I had so many-- I do the collages in Picasa 3--totally easy- Picasa does it for you**

Christmas day was a busy but fun day. We started the morning out at about 8am with the kids bounding in to wake us from our deep much needed sleep. We immediately went down stairs, made a couple cups of coffee and then settled in for the opening of the presents. I want to warm all of you that the following pictures are untouched and full of fresh out of bed, no makeup, scroungy needing a shower pictures of me-- yuck!! Sadly, Kevin had the camera a lot of the time so I happen to be in quite a few pictures-- which is rare I must say. Anyway, proceed with caution!!

The boys were sooooo happy to get their Ducks jerseys (hockey) and their USC shirts. My dad is a big USC fan and has created two more fans in the boys. We are not huge team sports people (with the exception of hockey) so we let the boys get their sports fix with my dad. My dad has a plan that both the boys will go to USC-- which is fine but I told him the only way that is going to happen is if he --NOTICE I SAID HE-- starts saving his pennies now :)

The boys big gift was their air soft guns. They are so addicted to air soft and have been dreaming about their guns for a long time. They were soooo excited!!! Mia loved her Ariel doll and I loved my tool kit Kevin bought me. I simply asked for a little tool kit-- you know the pink ones for moms-- but Kevin took this project seriously and bought me crazy cool real tools. You can not believe all the cool tools I got-- I have no idea what half of them are for.

Mia also loved all of her new books. She enjoyed unwrapping them and loved looking at the pictures. She is a book freak!! Kevin opened his ornament from Ethan and Ethan opened his new snowboarding helmet-- see we are safety conscious!!

More Mia books. Owen got a new BMX bike (not sure if you heard or not but his totally cool BMX race bike that he got in July for his birthday was stolen in September. He was devastated so he got another - cheaper one- for Christmas) and the boys went outside to shoot their air soft guns.


After we finished opening gifts at our house we went to Kevin's brothers house to do Christmas morning with them and Kevin's parents. Greg made these awesome egg/ bacon/ bread things that were sooo yummy and we all just relaxed and had a good time.

As you can see, Greg and Lynsee got a play station Guitar band thing and Mia (and the rest of the kids) had a blast playing it. Lynsee is from Canada and her brother RJ was down for the holidays so he decided to help teach Mia the ropes on how to drum.

Greg and Lynsee got the boys Hockey sticks and a goalie stick so they went out front with Katie and Kylie to play a little street hockey in the rain. Mia got a tea set, an Asian baby doll from grandma and grandpa Bock and she had fun playing with her cousins.

That night we had our family and Kevin's family over for Christmas dinner. Mia enjoyed playing with her new tea set-- literally she played with it for a really long time-- Owen tried to play as well and Mia was not very happy about it!

Overall, Christmas day was a great time! The next day we woke up really early and I took the boys snowboarding-- which by the way I forgot to take my camera so no pictures- sorry!! It was a cold day but we had a lot of fun. While we were returning from lunch the ABC news team stopped me to interview me about the weather and the snow conditions. I forgot about the interview until we were driving home and my dad called and said he saw me on the news. I also found out a few other people saw me on the news as well-- too funny--- I had forgot about the interview all together!!

Christmas Eve 2008

Our Christmas festivities began Christmas Eve at our church for our Christmas eve service. It is always a beautiful and touching service as we get out minds set on the reason for Christmas-- Jesus!

On Christmas Eve we bring all the kids into the service to experience the music etc. The kids-- especially the little ones- impressed us with their behavior. Luckily my mom was able to entertain them for most of the service.

After the service we always go back to my parents house for our traditional soup dinner and presents. I made Corn Chowder and my brother made Split Pea with real ham hocks-- way too yummy!! We serve the soup in bread bowls and we have a great salad as well. The little girls had such a good time playing. I feel so blessed that my nieces and Mia play so well together. They are such good friends!!!

Mia playing with her baby doll by the tree. She was just having a ball and this was a day without a nap- she did awesome!!!

Grandpa Hammer and Suzie (the dog), Dad wiith Mia and Savannah, The girls in the music room playing the piano, Cass - Sarah (the olympic racer) and me, and grandma.

Owen playing the piano, the girls playing on the stairs. Grandpa was given a stick thing for picking things up. He loved it and was grabbing grandma and all the kids. There is one picture of him grabbing Mia-- she was a bit confused but it was cute!!

Grandpa and Grandma bought all the great grandchildren roller blades for Christmas. They loved them so much and immediately went outside and played on their blades for a while.


The had a blast skating around my parents street! It was a lot of fun!

More random pictures. Brad, Cass and I taking a self picture-- don't we look adorable!! Pictures of the girls in their new nightgowns and robes. The boys showing their new knives.

Mia playing with her doll.

Beautiful Haleyanna!!

We really had a wonderful Christmas Eve!! There were so many pictures that I had to do collages. I also have a ton of pictures from Christmas day so I will probably do collages as well. I will get those posted tomorrow or the next day. Sorry to not get everything posted right now but I cant believe that after the holiday we are still crazy busy. I have so much to get done so I am off to actually be productive. I pray you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

The Jacket

With the cold weather we have been having I bought Mia a warm jacket from Gap yesterday. I took advantage of the awesome sale items and got my $50 jacket for under $20--yipeeee!!! Anyway, I love the fur-- Mia not so much-- and the puffy silver-- again, Mia not so much. She doesn't seem to like the puffiness of the jacket but oh well-- we need a warm one for the snow. Here are a few cute pictures I took of her this morning.

I love when she looks down-- so pretty!!

Not too into the big puffy furry silver thing!!

Trying to get one without a disgusted look on her face.

Yippeeeee--- she's out of the straight jacket!!!

A visit to the boys classes!

Our school district always had an open policy that other siblings were allowed to come to the school with a parent who was working in a class. When Ethan was in Kinder and first I use to take Owen with me all the time to work-- sometimes 2 days a week. The school year after Mia came home the district created a new "no sibling" policy that essentially made me a totally uninvolved parent due to the new policy. Anyway, we can get away with bringing siblings when there are big parties so on Friday, at the boys Christmas parties, I came with Mia.

Our first stop was Ethan's 5th grade class. Mia immediately ran up to Ethan and wanted to sit with him. It was pajama day but we totally forgot so neither of my boys were dressed.

Mia loves her big brother!!

Carson is in Ethan's class so Chuck came to the party and brought Amber (Ethan's teacher) a Starbucks.

Amber is a good friend and an awesome teacher!!

The food the students brought in was awesome-- homemade tamales, enchiladas plus tons more. It was a "heritage" meal so you had to bring something in from the country you are from. We really are pitiful and the boys think they are Canadian (which they aren't-- Kev was born in Canada and lived there for 15 years but his parents are both US citizens so he is really the only Canadian in his family- by birth place- not by having the blood-- but the boys can think they are if they want :) so we made Pigs in a Blanket- you know a Canadian Favorite-- right????

Mia playing under the desks.


Then we ventured to Owen's class.

Owen loved having Mia there.

My cute boy!!

And the 3rd grade girls loved Mia!!

Mia was willing to give every one of the girls that asked a hug but only one!! She is so funny because she is not shy but kind of a brat to the girls. She acts like she is gracing the girls with her presence and will only pass out one hug each. If they tried again she would walk away from them. I'm not explaining it well but it was kind of funny in an annoying way!

Anyway, we had a fun time visiting the boys classes and they loved having their mom and sister hang with them!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!!

Here is Southern California we are weather challenged. We pull out our heavy parkas and boots when the temperature gets below 65 degrees so the recent cold storm we have had is TOTALLY unusual for us weather wimps. This past Monday we got hit with a COLD northern storm that dropped a ton of snow in our local mountains. We had a string of days that it didn't get much out of the 40's and the lows were in the low 30's-- which is freezing cold for us! After the initial dump on Monday and Tuesday we had a day of no rain and then on Wednesday the rain started back up again and the snow began to fall all the way down to 1500 feet. I had a work Christmas party Wednesday night and Kev had to take the kids to the boys soccer party but after the party he heard it was snowing a low as the exit right past ours on the 15 freeway and that the CHP had closed the freeway!! So what does Kevin do in a situation like that?? He calls Brian and the kids and they all take their Jeeps up to the exit past our house and 4x4 in the snow! They had a blast and Kevin said it was like a blizzard (and he is Canadian so he knows his snow:). He said it was more snow he had seen in our area in a long time. We were kind of disappointed that we didn't get any snow at our house but that rarely happens- maybe once every 3 years- but we are loving the views of the mountains COVERED in snow!

These are pictures of the mountains right above our house. We can be to this place in 25 minutes.

Isn't that crazy?? I have not seen snow like this in a long time-- wow!!

So, today is the boys last day of school and then they are out for 2 weeks-- yaaa!!!! We are going to Dumont over New Years but we plan to do a bit of snowboarding while they are off-- take advantage of this snow dump!

Last night we took some of our friends to PF Changs for dinner as our Christmas gift to them and then after we all went to a movie-- 4 Christmases-- totally funny! Tonight we have another Christmas party for the city Kevin works in. Tomorrow night we are having our Sunday School Class over to our house for pizza and dessert and then we are going to see the Christmas lights at a popular spot close to our house. So, our weekend is busy once again. I am getting close to getting my shopping done. I finished all my nieces and nephews and am most of the way done with my kids. I have a few more things to get but I am getting close. I still have not sent my Christmas cards but I will be doing that this weekend-- that is my goal!! I have been working a ton the last few weeks- much more than usual (lots of assessments in other districts) so I am really looking forward to the 2 weeks off.

Anyway, I will post pics of our weekend soon!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!!

Christmas Cookie Tradition!!

One of our favorite traditions is to make Christmas cookies with Grandma and Grandpa Bock (Kevin's parents). They bring all the items needed for the cookies and the kids roll the dough (eat a bit of dough), cut the cookies (eat a bit of dough), paint the cookies (eat a bit of dough) and finally put them in the oven to cook (and then eat a few cooked cookies). Needless to say all 3 of my children were hyped like crazy tonight-- just a bit of sugar cookie overload!!!

Owen was very into the whole process. He even took 2 of the mitten cookies and 2 of the stocking cookies and created a "pair" of each.

The bakers were all assembled in the kitchen with grandma at the helm!

Mia was also very into the process. She was cutting the shapes like crazy and then tasted a little piece of dough and from that point on kept eating the dough-- we had to take it away and she was a tad unhappy.



Who is that mitten girl??

Ethan and Grandma- so sweet!!

Ethan was very into the painting designs on his cookies. He really made some cool cookies and plans to give some of them away to his teacher.

Such a good big brother!!

Yes the adults did a few cookies as well. Kevin is displaying his creations and Don got to play as well-- I just took a bunch of pictures :)

We had a great time-- like we do each year. Thanks sooooooo much Grandma and Grandpa Bock for the wonderful cookie making time!!!!

The Busiest Weekend EVER~!!!~

This has been The Busiest Weekend EVER!!!! First off let me say how sorry I am for not posting for so long as well as not visiting my blog buddies but as mentioned-- this has been a crazy busy weekend. I knew it was going to be crazy but man, was it crazy.

We started out Wednesday night having a dress rehearsal for the boys Christmas production at out church until almost 10pm. Thursday night was the same thing-- rehearsal till around 1opm. Friday night I had to have the boys at the church by 6:30pm and Mia with my parents and then we were off to one of our friends Christmas parties. We finished the party at about 12:30am and then had to drive to my parents to pick up the kids-- we got home around 1am.

The next day the boys had a soccer game in the morning and then had to be at the church by 3pm. I took them and stayed for their first performance- which was phenomenal- and then had to go home, get dressed and be at Kevin's work Christmas party by 6pm. Kev took Mia over to his parents and then his parents went to the boys second performance at 7pm. Our Christmas party ended around 12:30am so we got back home around 12:45am or so.

Sunday morning we actually skipped church because we had to be back at the church by 3pm for the boys final performance. My parents, my brother and family, Kevin's parents, Chuck and the kids and Cass all came to this performance and then after we came back to our house for pizza and dessert. Everyone left around 9pm, we got the kids to bed and then Kevin and I sat down on the couch and took a very long and needed deep breath!! An hour or so later it started pouring rain and has been even into today-- everything is soaked!!

So that was our crazy weekend. Sadly, I did not take my camera with me to the parties and then forgot to take my nice camera with me to the boys performance, so I don't have hardly any pictures of the crazy weekend and the ones I have are horrible quality, but oh well, we were just barley surviving let alone documenting.

This week is a bit more relaxing but still full of parties and shopping. Hopefully I will get more opportunities to go online. Again, sorry for being missing in action but it has been crazy!!!

Owen was a wise man train keeper. He walked behind the main wise man and carried his train. They had to walk down the main isle and then weave through the orchestra area and then up to the top of the stage.



Walking down the isle



Getting ready to walk up the stairs to the top of the stage. Once they are on the stage the huge tail of the robe is laid out on the stairs and once the choir hits the last note Owen and the other kid fluff the robe high in the air and it then is laid completely out on the stairs and it has a massive star on it. I really cant do it justice nor did I get a picture of it all laid out but it is absolutely beautiful and just takes your breath away-- Owen did a great job!!!

Sadly, Ethan was a Sheppard and the way they walked in and went up to the Nativity was hard to capture from where I was sitting and with my little camera. I was able to get this one picture that I had to lighten just so you could see him. Ethan is the Sheppard right in front of the Angel who is standing not kneeling. He did so good in his part and really acted his part well. I was so proud of both the boys. This was a huge commitment on all our parts but the boys were committed and did such a good job-- I was very proud of both of them!!!

After the performance we went back to our house for pizza and dessert.

Not sure why when I turn my camera the long way that the flash always leaves a dark spot but it does and it drives me nuts. This would have been a cute picture of Mia but half the picture was dark. I lightened it a bit just to show her cute little face!

Mia and Hailey in their favorite place-- on top of the counter with the chocolate chip cookie ready to go into the oven. Hailey and Mia play soooo well together!!

The girls on the counter. HAiley is 4, Mia 2 and Savannah is 7 months younger than Mia.

So our crazy weekend is over. Deep breaths and now we get to get ready for the next week/ weekend. Lots going on but not as crazy as this past weekend. Hope you all are well and I will soon be to your blogs to catch up!

Impromptu Disney Visit!!

Urgent help needed!!! Please go to this blog and read the post. They are trying to figure out the best treatment plan for Hannah and have made some requests. Can you please take a look and see if you know anyone who works of the places listed. They really need our help. Please feel free to post a note on your blog. The more people we can get to read it the better!! Thanks guys and please continue to pray for dear Hannah- pray her bone marrow starts working again. Pray for Debbie and Jim and for strength. Pray for little Lily as she is living with friends during this whole ordeal. Pray for peace for this dear family.

I woke up on Monday morning and by 10am I had decided to pull the boys (and Kaitlyn and Kylie)out of school at noon and head to Disneyland. I was not sure if we would be able to get there before Christmas therefore I wanted to enjoy the decor with the kids so Monday was it! Luckily Cass only had to work half day so she was able to join us at the happiest place on earth!

A different view of the Christmas tree-- it is just so beautiful during the holidays and just being there puts you in a happy Christmas mood.

The nice Disneyland photographers will use your camera to take pictures.

Cass mentioned that I never take pictures looking down Main Street so I put the kids in the middle of the road and took a picture of Main Street-- so beautiful!! The castle is at the far end of main street.




Owen and I on Main Street-- doesn't Owen look thrilled to be posing for a picture with me!!

Love the tree!!

Owen on the Jungle Cruise

Ethan and Kylie on the Jungle Cruise

Mia and Kylie trying on cool Disney glasses

Look, they open up!!

Waiting for the big kids to get of Big Thunder- climbing on the benches.

And eating a snack

Such a pretty place!

We went to the candy shop on the way out to let each kid buy one candy item. Guess what Mia chose.

Choosing her sucker

Too many choices to make-- she settled on a smaller sucker similar to the one she is holding.