Christmas Time

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It started off with going on our annual trip to get our Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving. We drive up Bear Creek Rd off of 17 and head to Mackenzie Ranch. Since it's just after Thanksgiving the weather is usually great and we get to have a nice picnic. Well this year, not so much. The fog was super thick so we found our tree and had a short picnic by the car. Overall good fun, but the weather could have cooperated better.

Lilliana had her Christmas concert at school and she did a great job singing all the songs. Following the concert was a surprise visit from the big man himself. It was a wonderful evening.

Another school event was a field trip to a local Christmas tree farm. The kids got to learn how trees grow and how long it takes really takes to grow those HUGE trees. They also got a demonstration on tree flocking. The end of the trip included a ride on a small train. I think the kids had a lot of fun.

Haircut

So I finally gave in and took Mark to a friends house and got Mark's haircut. :( It was his first one, he's 28 months old! I guess neither Jim nor I have the hair growing gene. Well it was finally time to cut off that baby hair and give him a little boy cut. He did SO well. He sat nice and still for Sascha. I was so proud of my cute little man. He looks so cute with his new haircut.

Bike Riding

So Lilliana finally convinced us to take her training wheels off (she got the bike last year at christmas, and has been asking ever since).  Jim takes her over to the school across the street and starts to teach her how to ride on 2 wheels.  She was riding on her own in about 2 minutes.  I was shocked!  I guess when they are ready, they are ready.  Now all she wants to do from sun-up to sun-down is ride her bike.  I'm so proud of her for learning it so quickly, and being so brave those few times she did fall.  She would get-up and say, "I'm ok, I'm not hurt, " and then get right back on her bike.  

Happy Halloween!

It took some convincing to get Lilliana away from wanting to be a power ranger for halloween, but I did it. She and Mark were Tom and Jerry. Their costumes turned out really cute. We went to our church halloween party the week before and did trunk or treating. Mark and his friend Abby were so cute during the costume parade. After the trunk or treating Lilliana was ready to go door to door.

Halloween night the kids were geared up and ready to go out. It threatened to rain the whole time. We met up with some good friends and trick-or-treated together. All the kids had a really great time.

First Day of Preschool

Lilliana's first real day of preschool


She's in the "begindergarten" class. The classroom is really neat. It has a swing in the middle of the room, a playhouse with an upper level, huge play yard out back, and multiple class pets. It's really a neat program. I'm so glad Lilliana is able to go to this school. She is very excited to go to school each day. I think this will be good training for Lilliana when it's time for her to go to kindergarten next year.

The Incident

The day before Lilliana officially started school was quiet the busy one. She had a lemonade party at school to meet her teachers, the other kids, and get to know where things are in her classroom. It was a great introduction to her new school. Luckily there are a few kids at this school who were at her old preschool so it makes the transition a little bit easier.

Now onto the incident. Later that afternoon a friend asked me to come over to her house so that she could pick-up one of her kids from school. One of her other kids was arriving by bus any time and someone needed to be at home. So she asked me to be there. So my two and two other kids hung out at her house while we waited for the bus. The kids went out to the backyard to play. Not more than 3 minutes later Lilliana starts crying so I go outside to check it out. She's holding her head and just ask she starts to walk to me, blood starts to drip from her hands. She of course starts to freak out. I get her inside and grab a bunch of paper towels to help stop the bleeding. And wouldn't you know it right at that minute the bus arrives!! I'm starting to sweat bullets now! Ok I tell Lilliana to hold the towel to her head and I rush out to get Ryan. My son Mark follows me outside and starts to freak out when he sees me get on the bus (thinking I was leaving without him). Ryan is now also crying. Ok grab Ryan and bring Mark back inside. Back to Lilliana...she has a one inch gash in her forehead. This is gonna need stitches. Oh did I mention this happened with a metal golf club. Yes she was kneeling behind one of the kids when they wound up to swing the club. OUCH!! Anyways I had walked over to my friend's house so I grab my phone and call Jim. Luckily he was working from home so I told him to get in my car and drive it over here so I can take Lilliana to the emergency department. I get Lilliana loaded up and off we go. There is no one in the emergency department - YES! They take us right back and have a little look. Since it's on her face I request that a plastic surgeon stitch her up. Ok no problem we just have to wait a bit. The surgeon is seeing patients at her office and will be here in about an hour. Dr. Lynd arrives and we get Lilliana ready. They had to strap her in the papoose board so she wouldn't wiggle around. Lilliana didn't really appreciate that. Dr. Lynd was very fast though and she was done in less than 5 minutes. So my little baby now has 2 stitches under the skin and 8 on top.

Here's a picture of it from the next day:

Old friends

Last night some old college friends and I got together for dinner. It was so much fun to see everyone and their kids. It was neat to see mini Kat's, a mini Katie, and mini Liesel's. I couldn't have asked for a better evening. Thanks Kat for coming into town so we finally had an excuse to all get together :) Also thank you Eliason's for letting us invade your home.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARK

My sweet baby boy turns 2 tomorrow. He had his birthday party yesterday with our family. I can't believe it's been 2 years now. Everyday he gets a little bigger and a lot smarter. His vocabulary is growing too. It was so cute to hear him say "Thank you Grandpa" when grandpa gave him a balloon to play with. He's a little boy now, not a baby. Peter and Jonathan (the twins) made an appearance as well and both Mark and Lilliana just loved having them here. Mark just could not wait for them to wake up and kept pointing to their eyes, willing them to open.


Mark is our little chef, so for his birthday he got a small kitchen. He played with it all afternoon and all this morning before we left for church. He didn't even want to nurse this morning he wanted to go cook breakfast instead. Lilliana seems to really like all the play food as well. When we got home from church this afternoon this is what I saw...

I think the kitchen and food are a hit!

Dress Up

Whenever Lilliana's friend Sarah comes over they play dress-up. It's so fun to see the crazy outfits they come up with. Mark got in on it too (he is wearing a spider halloween basket...)

Gilroy Garlic Festival

In all the years that I have lived in the San Jose area, I have never gone to the garlic festival. So Friday afternoon Jim says let's go! OK sounds yummy. So we pack up the kids and head on over. Since we went on Friday it wasn't super busy and we didn't have to wait in any lines. They had all kinds of delicious food to taste. It was a good thing we came hungry - I wanted to try a bit of everything. We even tried the garlic ice cream. Now I must say it wasn't BAD - but it wasn't great either. Mark liked it though so he got to finish it :) They had a neat place for the kids (although in my opinion there could have been more room allotted to the kids area). Lilliana and Mark both got cute aprons and Lilliana and I build a small sail boat out of wood. Then Lilliana had lots of fun going on all the kiddie rides they had. Mark got to play in the bounce house. By then the kids were getting tired so we decided to call it a day. But before we left we got some ice cream cones - the kids both really enjoyed these...

Russian River Vacation

Our family went on vacation this summer to the Russian River up in the Sonoma area of California. We had a wonderful time. The kids an I stayed in a cabin at the Odd Fellows Recreation park in Guerneville. The place is made for families. There are all kinds of activities for the kids and also things for adults. We played at Piggy Park, swam in the river, dug in the sand on the beach, caught tiny fish, did crafts, played games, roasted marshmellows, listened to live banjos, went to a kids carnival, just had a great great time. It was truly a very fun vacation that we will talk about for a long time.

Sandbox

I got tired of the kids digging in the dirt so I decided to make them a sandbox. The first thing every morning Mark asks me to go outside and play in the sandbox. Saturday mornings are especially tough since I don't want the kids outside to early waking up our poor neighbors :) But once he's out there he is as happy as a clam. Gotta love good old fashioned digging.

Twins

My brother's wife, Gioia just gave birth to twin boys :) They are so sweet (well what newborn isn't). Both of my kids are very excited to have new cousins. They live close by too so we get to see them often. Lilliana loves to hold them and feed them. Mark is enamored by them, he is so cute holding the babies (only one at a time). I hope both of my kids are this much into babies if we decide to have more.

Brother and Sister

I am so lucky that my children like to play with one another. Lilliana will often include Mark in whatever she is playing. This time she made a spaceship and they were blasting off.

Summer

There's nothing like a nice cold popscicle on a hot summer day. From left to right: Lilliana, Carter, Trevor, Abby, Chase.

Dance Recital Practice

So the girls in Lilliana's dance class had a little mini performance for their dance recital. They all started to dance and then Lilliana decided that she didn't want to dance...I sure hope she doesn't decide to do that in the real performance. They are dancing to Splish Splash.

Japanese Tea Garden

After a little happy hollow visit we decided to check out the Japanese Tea Garden right next door. It's a good thing it was practically empty so we weren't bothering people who were looking for a little peace and relaxation! There was a huge pond full of ducks. The kids had lots of fun feeding the ducks, there were even a few ducklings. The kids all had a great time pretending to be power rangers...

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend we had a nice warm day. So we decided to take the boat out onto the lake. Surprisingly there were only 3-4 other boats on the water - which was really really nice. This year Lilliana decided that she wanted to go out on the raft so she and daddy went out for a little ride. She loved it. Whitney and her friend Shea spent most of the time out on the tube. Remind me not to tube with Whitney - poor Shea was the one who usually fell off!

Happy Hollow

A friend and I took our kids to happy hollow today. I love having nice warm weather, there are just so many more things to do with kids. What's great about this place is that it's geared toward a younger crowd so there are lots of things for toddlers and preschoolers to do and climb on! Happy Hollow is getting a face lift this summer and will be closing in July. Hopefully we can have a few more trips there before it closes.

Just Chillin

Mark and Grandpa Jack are just chillin in the glider.

Having Fun

Mark and Lilliana both get so much fun out of life. Mark and Lilliana were playing catch in the house the other day and having such a great time, it's hard not to smile :)

Beach

We had some really nice weather so we went to Santa Cruz for lunch and then for a walk along the beach. Mark surprisingly didn't mind the COLD water :) I think grandpa had fun with the kids. Good thing I had baby powder in my 72 hour kit. (In case you didn't know baby powder is GREAT at getting sand off).

Style

Mark certainly has his own sense of style. While I was getting Lilliana ready for dance class, he brought me Lilliana's nightgown to put on. Then during her dance class he was dancing along to the music.

My builder

Lilliana has had quite the imagination lately. She's been really into building boats, planes, and space ships. In this pic she made a space ship. I think all the kids are taking a flight to the moon. :)

General Conference

This weekend was our churches general conference. It's a whole weekend event starting on Saturday morning and ending on Sunday afternoon. It's broadcast all over the world in many languages. Since we have digital cable we get to watch it in the comfort of our own home. We invited some friends to watch with us on Saturday. We had a lite brunch in the morning during the session, and then took a break for lunch. With full bellies we watched the 2nd half that afternoon. Since the President of the Church passed away in Febuary the new President was sustained. It's an awesome experience to sustain a new prophet of God.

On Sunday we went to my mom's house and had delicious cinimon rolls and hot chocolate for breakfast. As we sat and watched Mark was entertained with some stickers (Grandma helped).




I think Mark and Grandpa Gary had a good time :)

Oakland Zoo

Tuesday was such a beautiful day that we decided to go to the Oakland Zoo. I guess lots of other mom's thought the same thing as it was pretty busy. Oh well we still had a good time. We went with a good friend of mine and her 2 kids, Carter and Chase. We also picked up another friends little boy, Trevor. It was fun but definately with just two moms and 5 kids we were outnumbered! Overall the kids were pretty good though. The two youngest Mark and Chase were pretty good about being in the stroller.

There were lots of animals to see and lots of things for young kids to do. Boy whoever set-up the layout of the zoo didn't think about moms pushing strollers - there were a lot of hills. It was a good workout though.

I think the kids favorite part was watching the crocodile being fed. The croc was in the water and there were acrylic walls so the kids could see into the water. The croc was right by the wall so the kids had a SUPER close up look at just how big those jaws were. ALL the kids loved it. I was suprised at how interested Mark was in the animals. He had a really good time with all the big kids.

Easter Egg Hunt

Boy Easter sure snuck up on me this year. I didn't even get out any of the Easter decorations. It was a busy weekend. On Saturday we went to the ward easter egg hunt and both kids had a great time at the park. After the egg hunt there were a few games for the kids and adults to play. Lilliana and her friend Chase did the 3 legged race. They did really well.

After the egg hunt my Dad and Doug were going to watch the kids while I went to a baby shower. The baby shower was cancelled because the mom was in the hospital having the baby. It turned out great for me because I was able to get some cooking done while the kids played with their grandpa's. I made jello easter eggs, and decided to retry making some "bunny" rolls. I had tried to make them the day before but my bunnies heads kept falling off. These new bunnies turned out really cute. Then I even had time to clean up the house before we headed off to my Mom's house for another easter egg hunt and dinner there.

We spent the afternoon and evening at my mom's house having an egg hunt with the cousins and aunts and uncles. This easter egg hunt was great because there were eggs with money in them. You can bet that even the adults participated in this egg hunt. Lilliana managed to come home with a bunch of change and 3 $1 bills. She also scored an electric guitar (for kids), and Mark "found" a big dump truck that he LOVES to play with.

It was a great way to spend the day before Easter. I am trying to teach my kids about the difference between Easter and the whole easter bunny thing. We tried not having a hunt on Sunday to keep the spirit of the day, but Lilliana was just so upset that the easter bunny was only going to come on Sat. So we did a short egg hunt in the morning before church. After church we had a delicious lunch at Jim's mom's house and we enjoyed everyone's company.

All in all it was a super busy weekend. It was great to be able to spend time together as a family.

Sliding

Who doesn’t love going down the slide. Mark is no exception. He’s learned to go down the slide and he loves it.