Sam's 3rd Birthday

We all got together at Nana D's to Celebrate Sam's 3rd birthday. He was so excited and learned to show 3 fingers and say "three" when asked how old he is. The girl's woke Sam up on the day of his party by telling him that it was his birthday and Sam immediately jumped out of bed. I have never seen that boy move so fast! He got his dinosaur egg oatmeal for breakfast and then off to Nana's. Sam had a really cool Cars Cake with a real toy Lightning McQueen on top. He loved that. He also was totally obsessed by the pretend Camera Grandma and Grandpa Jim gave him and kept taking pictures of everything, especially his cake and presents. Another cool present was the enormous container of potato head stuff from us. We were happy to find such a great collection of pieces. Sam loves his "tato head"!

After the party, Mom told Vinnie, Alie, Jon, and I that we had to go out and leave her with the kids. After much time contemplating what to do we went to Scandia for some minature golfing and then to Fuddrucker's for some yummy food. It was really fun!

Misc. News

We have found Sam's shoes! They were not at Grandma's(we visited the day they went missing) and they did not fall out of the car at one of our stops on the way home. We were all too tired after a day trip to remember exactly who took them off and where but apparently our little boy was not too tired to stick his shoes in the play kitchen! They were lost for a week. I even ordered a new pair from Kohls.com. Luckily, we can return those!

My back fence neighbor went a bit odd on us and put up this monstrosity. See the wolf heads and the wolf claws(just below). The dragons are the final bit. I would have been okay with just the dragons but the wolves are just plain odd in my opinion. Plus, the whole thing seems not well done. Notice the piece of wood he has nailed to the trim! It's not even cut straight.

My brother-in-law Peter is going on a mission to Hong Kong soon. He just got his call! Congrats Peter!

I wore this sweater and each of my 3 brothers did as well. That was after the neighbor boys wore it and passed it on to us. It's from Penny's and apparently very good quality!

My Son is a pirate. Here he is showing off his muscles and Christmas tree tattoo!

Bekah funny

So we were driving home from my inlaw's house when the following conversation took place between myself and my 6 year old daughter, Bekah.

Bekah: Can you marry your cousin?
Me: No sweetie. Jacob is very nice but you can't marry him.
Bekah:(upset and pouting) BUT HE IS THE ONLY GOOD ONE I KNOW!!!

Our Holidays!

So I guess the highlight of Christmas was our new DS! Jon surprised the family with this. The girls got mainly American Girl Stuff and Sam got mostly stuff from "Cars" the movie. Nana, Uncle Ross, Uncle Vinnie and his family all came to celebrate with us. We were so lucky they could come to our house because Jon was on call again! Thanks everyone! My nephew Italo was adorable.

Here is Baby Italo with his noise making hammer! Insert evil laugh here. Just Kidding. Actually, we searched high and low for this because our Sam loved his so much when he was younger.

Oh and I got my Ruffles and onion dip which is VERY important. There were lots of snacks. Especially See's candy. We actually had to make a 2nd trip to See's because we ate some of the first box! It was a fun day!

New Year's Eve we headed up to Granpa and Grandma Jim's house. We celebrated with Martenelli's just a wee bit early for the kids who ended up staying up past midnight anyone! They did have fun though and that is the most important thing, right? Sam didn't want the Martenelli's. He went with milk.

We headed home on New Year's Day sans Sarah who stayed with Jon's family(grandparents, Aunt, cousins). Sarah left the next day on a trip to Utah with them to see a cousin get baptized and a brand new baby get blessed at church. I think she had a lot of fun. She keeps talking about her cousin Taylar having her own puppy. I guess that left an impression.

Our Ride on the Polar Express

Thursday, Dec. 11th we went with our charter school on a field trip to the RR Museum and a ride on the Polar Express.

The morning started out very productive. Jon and I made it over to the DMV to renew our licenses, take our vision tests and pay our 28 bucks each. It went quickly and I was glad that Jon could come with me and that he didn't have to take time off for souch a dull errand. We got home before 9am and had two hours before we needed to be in Sac for the Polar Express but the kids wanted to leave right away so we killed some time at Sam's on the way.

The first part of the day was spent at the railroad museum. Sarah and Bekah spent their time looking for trains you could walk through. They were afraid of the train that feels like it is moving(the sleeper car). We got to see the really big Cab Forward which is one of my favorites and I also got to see the dining car with all that beautiful china!

Our next stop was Round Table for the buffet. It was pretty good but busy. The field trip we were on really increased the demand for plain cheese and pepporoni pizzas!

Finally, it was time to board the Polar Express. It was jam packed there. Our field trip coordinater had our tickets so we only had to wait in line to board. The trip was great. Our family took two of the bench seats that face each other and we had the sweetest lady seat us(on the North Pole side!).

We had our tickets punched and then it was time for the Hot Chocolate which was just the right temperature for little children. YAY! Next came the cookies and a reading of the Polar Express.

Sometime in here the hobo came through our car and asked if we believed in Santa. It was very cute and he had a lot of personality. In fact, everyone on the train was GREAT and really cared about the kids.

We arrived at the "North Pole" and I had to admit to Bekah that we were at a pretend North Pole. She is six now and guessed the real North Pole is nowhere near the Sacramento Zoo! Santa came onboard and gave everyone a bell from his sleigh just like in the story.

The hobo came throught again to ask Santa why his bell didn't work and demanded a present. Santa gave him a bag of coal! The kids loved that!

By that time we had made it back to the station and we headed back to the train museum to finish up our day playing with Thomas trains and catching a few last exhibits.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving at our house. Jon was on call so we had to stay home. Luckily my Mom, Vinnie and his family, and Ross were able to come up to our place. We had a delicious dinner all together and lots of snacky things. We even had potato chips and onion dip. I love that! Mom made her awesome corn and bean salsa and I love that too. After dinner we went on a walk and then back for some Safeway Fruit Tart which I highly recommend! I am so grateful for my wonderful family and friends.

Our Halloween

We are having a great Fall, lots of learning going on at our fabulous home school. This Halloween the kids carved a couple of pumpkins with their dad(while I worked from home). Here are their creations


For Halloween night, we went to our church for Trunk or Treat. The kids dressed up as Dorothy(Wizard of Oz), a snow princess, and a pirate. I was a pirate too because we ended up with an extra pirate hat. Some people said I was Capt. Hook because of my coat. My snow princess was afraid her hoop skirt would keep her out of the donut eating contest but in the end I proved to her that it would not and so she agreed to wear the costume. Thank Goodness! A good time was had by all and the kiddies didn't eat all that much candy(just a couple of pieces and a sugar cookie really).