Christmas 2012

This was our year to host the family for Christmas day.  We had Bill's family spread over the early weeks before Christmas day.  We had one day with his mom and Brian where I made the organic chicken I'd gotten from our monthly delivery.  It was delicious!  The bummer part is that it was such a nice, relaxing evening I never even took out my camera.

Then we had Bill's dad and Lois, Shelley and Chuck and Barbara over for our prime rib dinner.  It was a little more well done than I would've liked, but pretty darned good.  Definitely will have to make it again before next Christmas.

 Lois & Willis

 Chuck & Barbara

Nikki, Ali, Stephen & Shelley

I got a break on Christmas Eve, when we were able to go to my parents house for a yummy pot roast dinner.  She even let me skip out on bringing food since I was doing breakfast and dinner the next day.

 Dad, Mom, Chad & Dawn

 Noah, Stephen & Parker

 Mylie & Nikki

 Bill & Me! (I finally made a photo)

Bill & Ali

Yep, breakfast was at 10:00.  We had my parents and Bill's mom and Brian.  The kids have come to expect their traditional foods that I've made every year since they were born.  We have an eggs souffle, fruit, monkey bread (now we're up to needing two of these!) and canadian bacon.  We had a few gifts to open and then everyone went home by noonish.

By 4:00 everyone was arriving for dinner.  I was cooking like crazy to get it all done and on the table by 6:00.  In the end, it all was served at 6:15, not bad if I don't say so.  I had a nice Shelton's turkey and two hams.  We had tons of appetizers, which is why I wanted to wait a bit before serving dinner.  There were lots of side dishes and desserts.  It was a busy night and I was exhausted when it was all over, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  There is nothing I love more than having family over to entertain.

All of the "littles"

Bill and Me

Mom & Dad

Nevaeh & Joanne    

Grandma & Mom

 Shannon & Dad

 

 Shanon, Stan & Chuck

That was our Christmas recap.  It is my absolute favorite time of the year.  Bill again went all out on the decorations.  He had several kids hired as helpers in putting everything up.  For take down, Bill did a lot of the work the day after Christmas.  Then Nikki had a soccer tournament so we were gone all day for several days.  He asked Stephen to take the rest of the lights and decorations down out front.  Stephen worked the ENTIRE day and got the job done, by  himself.  He has really stepped it up this year and made us proud.  Ali helped hold the ladder while Stephen was up the palm trees unwrapping the lights.  I was a little worried about him being up there, so I forced Ali to go help a bit.  It was good for them to work together for a common goal.  I love the holidays!!

Christmas Photos done!

I can't believe how late I am this year with our Christmas photos!  I usually have them addressed and ready to go sometime in November.  Then on December 1st, I drop them in the mail.  Nope not this year.  This year, the kids knew they wanted to wear black but we never had a minute where all of them were here and showered.  Finally last Sunday we were going with our friends to Lawry's for dinner.  Before we walked out the door, I herded the kids out front for some really quick photos.  These weren't the best or most original photos we've done, but hey they're done!  Now if they get here quickly, I might even get them out by Christmas day.  Here's a sampling:

They were being silly, with Stephen riding the pony.  But there were too many shadows.

Decided to try posing with the snowman instead.

I liked this one!

And the one on top was the last set of goofiness before we headed out for an amazing dinner.  There is so much hustle and bustle during the holidays.  It was nice to get a dinner out with just our whole family, along with our good friends.  It seems like with the kids getting older, we never get a chance to all sit down for dinner together.  It was a great day!

Life

Wow I just realized how long it's been since I've posted anything here.  It's one of those things that I don't really have time to do, but I know I should.  Just looking back at my past posts makes me so happy.  Even the photo at the top of the blog, wow!  I can't believe how much the kids have changed since then.  That was three years ago when we went on our first college tours.  Now Stephen has finished all of his applications and has already gotten acceptances from three!

Let me just take a moment here to gush about him.  I am so proud of the young man he has become.  He has worked so hard the past four years.  He went into high school a hockey player and has worked hard to become a great water polo player.  He now has the ability to decide if he wants to continue to play in college.  It took playing club year round, while also swimming tons of hours during swim season but he did it.  That's all we've always wanted for them, is to have options.  Of course we hope he'll continue to play throughout college, but that's his choice.  But if he hadn't put in the work all of those years, he wouldn't have that choice to make.

I don't see any chance where he wouldn't continue to play since he's seen the payoff physically and mentally, but who knows.

I really can't believe how quickly time is going by.  I know as soon as Stephen makes his college decision, it will be time to turn around and start working on it with Nikki.  And unfortunately her interests are completely different from his.  So our tours and decisions will really start from scratch.  The good news is that the process will be completely hers.  And hopefully with any luck, she will have lots of options that she will have afforded herself from her hard work as well.  I am looking forward to traveling that road with her.  But of course it makes me sad now that I know how quickly it's going to go.

Prom 2012

Hard to believe my baby boy just went to his Junior Prom! Time is flying by.  He looked so handsome and Sammie his girlfriend looked beautiful.  Stephen had a good time at Homecoming with Kelly.  They had gone as friends, but had a fun group.

So he had a great time at that dance too.  But this was his first big dance to go with someone he liked.  First Stephen went to Sammie's house.

They took a few photos, he gave her the corsage and then they drove to our house.  Here we took more photos!

 Then we all went down to Krista Baldwin's house where the same group that went to Homecoming was meeting.  We took some group shots, and then left when the limo arrived.  They went back to Krista's house after the dance and hung out for awhile.  Stephen took Sammie home and came home full of excitement.  They had a great time!  It was so fun to see all of the water polo and swim boys all dressed in suits and tuxes and those girls...well of course they looked fabulous!  I especially liked the crazy, high shoes they all had on.  I'm so glad he'll have these memories.

Family Crossfit

Yesterday was Uh-mazing!  I'd been trying to get Stephen and Nikki to try out Crossfit.  I knew they'd both love it.  And yesterday it worked out so they could both go.  Nikki went at 3:00 to the high school/college aged class.  She had two of her friends go with her so she didn't have to feel like a newbie.  It was a pretty big class but Andrew was awesome with them.  He was patient and made sure they had the moves down.  (He later said he used to be a high school teacher so his patience made more sense.)  They didn't use much weight, but they all got a great workout in.  Then at 4:00, Stephen and I did the adult class.  Chris, his club water polo coach was there to workout too so that was extra motivation for him.  We got in a great workout and I think Stephen realized how it's individual but still competitive.  We were all exhausted, but we're all ready to go back for more on Friday.  I would love for Bill to be able to go to!  He's worried about signing up and not having the time to go.  But for today, I'll take getting Stephen and Nikki to join me.

What I'm really hoping is that the kids can find something they enjoy to work other muscles than what they use for their sports.  Also with Stephen getting ready for college, it'd be great if he liked this and could continue throughout college.  At this point, it's fun for us to go and cheer each other on.

A day at the beach

Yesterday we were in Newport for water polo games. We'd planned to spend today relaxing at the beach. But the morning was freezing yesterday so we altered our plans a bit. I got up and went to the 8:00 crossfit class. Then came home & took Ali for a quick walk, showered, made lunches & took our time getting ready. About 11:30 we headed down to Bolsa Chica. It's really windy,but beautiful. Stephen had decided he'd rather take the day off and play video games after polo this morning. So it's just the girls and I but we're having a nice day. For some odd reason theres nothing better than sitting on the beach eating your lunch. Then we'll head home & watch the Kings game with the boys. I love summer!

Boring Daily Tasks

Wow I haven't blogged in awhile. I decided that since I haven't been good about blogging about the big stuff, I'd start to blog about the mundane. Yep my boring daily life. So here's a recap of yesterday: Woke up at 6:15. Got ready, made the kids smoothies & Ali lunch. 7:30- took Ali to school. Parked at the park next to the school to go on my run. 7:45- got a phone call from Ali that she'd forgotten her math book & could I bring it. 8:00- get home & the math book isn't there 8:15- get back down to the park & start my run. 10:15- finish 12 mile run & get back to my car exhausted. 12:30- have showered, stretched & had lunch. 1:00- run to Target for groceries. Go home & unload. Realize I forgot to go next door for Nikki's face cleanser while I was at Target. 2:00- run to Ulta to get said face cream 2:30- pick up Ali 3:00- go home get Ali started on homework. Read a chapter in Jane Eyre to keep up with Nikki's assignment. 3:20- Stephen gets home & eats his dinner so it has time to digest before club. 4:30- leave to pick up Nikki & the girls in her carpool. 5:30- make salmon tacos. 6:30- read more of Jane Eyre 7:45- watch Pretty Little Liars with the girls 9:00- get Ali to bed & get ready myself. 9:30- say hi to Stephen when he gets home. And goodnight to Nikki. 10:00- go to bed & be ready to do it again tomorrow. And that was a slow day 😃